So it’s come down to the final nine before Galactica is no more. My name is Tallgent and I have been a fan for sometime now. It is the only one of my DVDs for television shows that I have all the DVDs for save for Firefly. But that comes as one collection so I hardly think that can be used in comparison.
If you have one person to thank for bringing me back to Galactica it’s Richard Hatch. While I was in LA visiting some friends there happened to be a screening of the original TV movie pilot from the original series. Dragging along my less than enthused cohort I soaked up the same memories of Viper and Raider dogfights, Starbuck charm, and Lorne Greene’s commanding presence as Adama that I remembered as a kid. Then Captain Apollo himself along with Glen A. Larson appeared after the screening to answer questions and promised us loyal fans to do whatever it took to bring the true Galactica back. Yes, I knew that the traitorous Star Trek scribe Ron Moore had hijacked Larson’s creation to make a more modern update. No lasers. And the most unforgivable part (keep in mind, I was a fan) the Cylons were made into horny, luscious love bots. And Starbuck was a woman??!! The integrity of my show was in jeopardy! As a fan I did my part. I stayed the frak away.
Then a funny thing happened. The loyal Mr. Hatch didn’t stay away from the abomination. He joined it. What made him change his mind and turn his back on the original show he loved?
I found out when I rented it. This wasn’t a remake. It was a shattering improvement. It was a Galactica that showed real flawed human beings. A commander thrust into a situation he thought he had left behind long ago, a second who was in irascible drunk, and Starbuck was not only a woman but she was a hot as fuck woman. And this woman could outdraw and outdrink the living daylights out of Benedickt. And those love bot Cylons? Doing the same as any robot posing as human. Trying to discover if it really is one or the other…or maybe both.
No. Not your kids’ Galactica. Last week answered that pretty definitively.
After last week’s hour long of death and despair, Disquiet opens up with beginnings. Adama begins his day after binging, Tigh and Six see the beginnings of the new life growing in Six’s belly.
Life’s funny that way. You see the end of the world, the end of faith, of dreams. You invest so much into something and it comes for naught. And still the sun rises and another day begins. Life doesn’t slow down.
Like so much of life, some bits were absolutely surreal. Particularly the scene with Tyrol, Tigh, Helo, Gaeta, Lee, and Adama. So often we know where we stand on these things. They may not always agree but they respect each other and each other’s opinions. Now Tyrol is almost like a stranger and I loved how confused even he still is about where he fits. Advocating for Cylon citizenry. A stranger in his own ship.
So thank goodness for a bit of familiarity. Thanks to the steady and sturdy performance of Michael Hogan, I don’t see Tigh the Cylon or even Tigh the human. I see Saul Tigh, XO of the Battlestar Galactica. And it just fills me with awesome to see Adama not miss a beat with his old friend. Granted, he had to get over the shock. But after he did it’s like things never changed. Events around them certainly did, but Tigh remained the old man’s constant.
Tyrol and Baltar meanwhile are constantly getting thrown with nothing but curveballs. As if Earth wasn’t enough of a cosmic joke now he gets hit in the face with “he-ain’t-your-kid” pie and then the ex-chief proceeds to take out his frustration on Chef Hot Dog. But then a funny thing happens that will hopefully bode well for the future of the survivors of Caprica.
We go from the absurd cosmic joke to the cruelty of a voice crying out and no one listening. Baltar’s faith, his purpose, his redemption perhaps has just sunk like a brown submarine. It was such a great tragicomic touch to just have Baltar smoking away while Tyrol and Hot Dog have their no-holds barred brawl. There is no sanctity in his closed domicile anymore, no divine spark in his followers. If two boneheads want to smash each other up, frakkin’ be my guest!
The funny thing about anger, though, is how it can start out as impotent and undirected rage and it how it can suddenly gain focus and momentum. Disquiet allows for these seeds of mutiny to slowly sprout and grow. There is nothing more dangerous than to feed on madness and methodically build dissension out of it. Zarek knows this as well as anyone, but as per usual in Galactica’s murky morality, really, can you blame him? Their faith in Roslin has borne radiated fruit and the way she has closed herself off to the fleet has only inspired derision to not only her presidency but to Adama’s command.
Then there is Gaeta whose been silently suffering this whole time. Talk about impotent and powerless, you can get all kinds of Freudian in the symbolism big-time. But ironically it’s because of his image being portrayed as helpless that he may prove to be the most dangerous. He baited Starbuck into revealing her lack of compassion and cruelty and, most importantly her blind loyalty to Adama and the alliance with the Cylons. There’s your demonstration of what’s wrong with Galactica, people. Who wants to sign the petition?
And in an episode teeming with absurdities and “the languor of the soul” it is only fair that the two parental figures of the fleet, Adama and Roslin are each caught up in their own issues to ignore the larger one that is taking root. Adama underestimates Zarek by thinking he can threaten and bully him into him reneging his rebellion. In fact, he treats the mutiny on the Tyllium ship not as a crisis to be taken seriously, but as one more of life’s little nagging annoyances that you just have to deal with and forget about once it is over.
Kind of like how he’s perhaps trying to view the failure of Earth.
Then there is Laura. She gets back at life by embracing hers. Admirable and I love her for it. But Galactica is about things that are bigger than us and whereas before where Laura fought tooth and nail for Bill to get this. But now both of them are living in the present. Holding on to what they can before the future swipes it from them. Laura got her first taste of it when she was diagnosed with cancer. Bill got his when his well-earned distinguished retirement got violently taken away from him by the Cylon attack. That’s all they’ve encountered this whole long journey. Earth was just the capper.
So instead we get a perfectly human, though no less selfish, reaction. Live for today. Forget about tomorrow. The very definition of hedonism, and if the post coitus glow from geriatric orgasms as their opiate isn’t enough of a hint very fulfilling and pleasurable for them both. And about frakkin’ time!
So we leave this unusual and blackly humorous character study with characters struggling to get back into routine like poor discombobulated Lee Adama still dealing with Dualla‘s demise, others dealing with life’s rich and unpredictable pageant, other members of the crew are trying to ignore the impending crisis that will blossom forth from the underestimated annoyance. Life does that, too, whether you want it to or not. It wakes you up to the unforgiving reality that awaits you tomorrow just when you’ve gotten through today.
TallGent
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