This episode opens like the old Galacticas used to, with Vipers vs. Cylons and all.
I like that they are watching This Island Earth. I wonder if there's any significance to that choice of film.
This episode contains a thwarted skyjacking, and features a line I almost included in my "favorite lines" section. Dillon says, "Huh. I wonder what someone would do with an aircraft once they seized it." This is one of those lines that reads completely differently after 9/11/01.
I am so glad they moved the action to New York and out of Los Angeles for this episode. The change of scenery helps some of the drudgery of this show. Though it does make Troy and Dillon seem even more like Mulder and Scully.
Okay, why does nobody know that that skyjacker in a dress was a man? Did they all know, but think it impolite to say anything? Are there usually cross-dressing homosexual couples with babies flying L.A. to NY? To me, that "disguise" immediately signals something is up; why did none of the airport personnel at least look into it?
This episode features Cylons newly designed to look human. First of all, that's a great idea. There's no way (besides Halloween of course) that a Cylon Centurian can go walking about Earth. It will also confuse the Galacticans. But that's the one thing that I was ready to praise Ron Moore's reboot BSG for! From what little I saw of it, I thought, "Well, having humanoid Cylons is an interesting twist." Now I find it was undue praise, since Galactica 1980 did it first! Score one more for Larson!
I love William Daniels, and seeing him spend the whole episode in clown makeup is terribly funny. Also, what sort of clown has a moustache?
The floor show that Troy and Dillon stumble into obviously had music added later. The "Good Ship Lollipop" sequence seems to have been made for that song, but no one seems to be singing it. Is it prerecorded? It certainly seems like the "shirley temple" girl is supposed to be singing it, but you can clearly see she isn't. Aside from that, I'd like to know why Hanna-Barbera characters like Scooby-Doo and Hong Kong Phooey are dancing to "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" which is a Disney song.
I love Wolfman Jack's presence in this episode. It's great to see him here and he is a pretty good actor. My favorite bit is when he's waxing philosophical about Marconi and the invention of radio. It's a great juxtaposition; "Hey man, that Marconi dude got the vibes, you dig?" that kind of thing.
In this episode we learn that Cylons can be done in by microwaves. Gotta say, this lessons their threat a tremendous amount. If a Cylon's chasing you, just run into the kitchen and turn on your microwave!
The whole kitchen goes up in flames. People sort of evacuate. But there's no sprinkler system, no smoke alarm, no fire alarm, and no one seems to call the fire department. At some point, they do happen to show up though. Why do fire alarms never go off on TV except when pulled by delinquents?
The guy who played Colonel Briggs famously guest starred in "The Neutral Zone" episode of TNG. He was probably the only good thing in it.
I wonder what becomes of the Cylons in the garbage. They are just left there. Do they get compacted? Do they live to fight another day? I bet had the series gone on we would have seen them again. Kinda reminds me of how Billy Miles the supersoldier met his end in a garbage truck on The X-Files only to rise again.
Favorite line: "Happy Halloween, little people."
Lessons of the week: Never pick up hitchhikers on Halloween, even if they have really cool costumes, microwaves defeat evil space robots, Wolfman Jack is the coolest
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