I had a conversation (well, in text, that is) with a friend about Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff). I had read and knew from The Big Bang Theory (yeah, I know…) that she was a big deal. But I got my chance to see it personally when I watched the first part of the miniseries (a cool gal allowed me to borrow her first season blu set) Thursday night. Cigar in mouth, at a card game, talking shit (about divorce) to her superior, Col Tighe (Michael Hogan), in order to rattle him, she’s ballsy and has a mouth on her. That mouth is backed up by her toughness as Tighe turns over the table when she wins a hand, punching him in the face as a result, resulting in her being sent to the brig for insubordination. The BG’s main commanding officer, Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos), speaks to Tighe about letting her off easier, hoping he’ll just agree to release her after some “cooling off time” in the brig. She’s doing pushups when Adama’s estranged son, Apollo (callname that sticks for Lee (Jamie Bamber)) visits her. The two talk about his lost brother, who died as a pilot serving their father. Starbuck loved the deceased brother while Apollo (who is a bit of a dick) eventually confronts his father, accusing his old man of killing him because, according to Apollo, he had no reason behind any cockpit in space. So there is plenty of tension there, obviously! Adama’s BG decommission speech (it was supposed to be “retired” as a relic) does condemn his fellow humanoids for creating the cylons and continuing to misbehave, even attacking himself (while Apollo is in space, in the cockpit of his Viper).



Briefly on Secretary of Education Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), as I imagine I’ll mention her a lot more in future posts. Through a twist of fate she couldn’t possibly have anticipated considering she was like 42 or 43 in line to the President (reinforcing the impact of the cylon massacre), attending the decommission ceremony of Battlestar Galactica and returning to Caprica on a Colonial vessel midway when she learns of the cylon attack, Laura must now take lead of what is left of those survivors. Butting heads/philosophies with Adama on the BG and afterward, their views on technology and what steps are most important in the aftermath of the cylon attacks, Laura believes the recovery of those needing assistance should come before a mission to secure arsenal from an armory station in order to have any chance against future cylon attacks. Not networking the BG kept Adama’s “space museum” from suffering a similar fate as all other ships and facilities (and technology used by the “12 colonies of Kabol”), an argument made with Laura earlier in the miniseries Part 1 that serves to remind us that while she felt he should have, not doing so was a net positive in the Commander’s favor. When the BG is attacked, even as casualties result from structural damage (and a lack of time that resulted in Colonel Tighe having to make a tough decision so that the ship would not endure internal fuel catastrophe), at least this ship is still conditionally able to withstand certain attack and return the favor.

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