Monday, September 7, 2009

Resurrection Ship parts 1 & 2

After watching the two-part resolution to "Pegasus", I must say I'm a little disappointed. It wasn't bad, but it definitely felt like some things were padded out, and I came to dislike Cain even more. "Pegasus" had to be truncated and these had to be stretched. I wish they had written and shot both together. Maybe then when they cut the three episodes we would have had more of "Pegasus" and less of the filler.

Dying Roslin is insane. She used to be this woman in charge who knew what she was doing, but now she's advocating assassination?? I have to believe that the cancer has gone to her brain. If it hadn't, why would they have put that little bit in the re-cap? So she's not thinking straight. I'm glad Adama finally pointed out that she's more bloodthirsty.

The entire episode plays out more and more that it's Adama versus Cain, until both want to kill the other one. Why is murder the best solution? The dialogue went on and on, "It's you or it's her!" That's not BSG. That's Harry Potter. I was waiting for some priestess to arrive and say that their wands contained the same bit of phoenix tail.

I remarked on "Living Legend" that it reminded me of "Equinox" from Voyager. Well, this one reminds me even more so. In that episode, there was debate over whether Federation rules like the Prime Directive still applied. Cain also seems ready to abolish the Acts of Colonization (though she clings to military regulation to justify her actions). 

I wasn't sure I liked Cain in the last episode, but I really started to dislike her now. The trail of blood just seemed unjustifiable to me. And then her little speech to Starbuck which is basically an excuse ("I killed them so others wouldn't die!"). An attempt to bring some humanity back to her? Don't buy it. She's just mean. The Lloyd Bridges Cain hated Cylons, but I don't think he would have spat on the prisoner. Though now I'm thinking about the name Cain again. In the other post I wondered whether it calls back the son of Adam, brother of Abel who committed the first murder. If it does, then this Cain more than lives up to that name!

I didn't think of it before, but the Cylon prisoner completes the nod to Patrick McGoohan; Number Six is now a prisoner.

I wonder what Six thinks about Baltar's declaration of love to the other Six.

Why are they using the decoy plan again? Just put some ships over here, and while the Cylons attack them, we'll take out their base ships. You tried that before and it didn't work. Why would that work now?? ...And why DOES it work now? Shouldn't the Cylons be expecting that at this point? Granted the stealth ship must help some. Maybe it's the presence of two battlestars that makes it work. 

I don't like the way part 2 opens, with Apollo out in space. Then we get the "48 hours earlier" thing that I've seen on plenty of other shows. I don't think the device works on BSG, and I generally don't like it anyway. Maybe I'm just sick of it after seeing X-Files do it three or four times. And the whole Apollo bit seems like it was added to pad out the running time. The story of a guy in a suit stuck floating in space with his oxygen leaking has been done. I saw it on Voyager a week ago.

I suppose it's decent justice for the Cylon (though vengeance does not necessarily equal justice), but I don't like how this Cain goes out. The old Cain went out in a blaze of glory. He wanted one last run, and sacrificed his self and his ship to take out a whole base star. In the end, his fate was left ambiguous. Did he die? Was he still out there? Here, Cain is a jerk, then gets shot in the face. I wanted to learn to like this Cain, and instead it only got worse. 

The Cylon said suicide was a sin. Does the Cylon God also say "vengeance is mine"?

Now we sort of get to the way the other episode ended, with the two crews joining forces. But this time there are two ships too. I guess maybe they needed to justify the expense of building those Pegasus sets! Adama has been made Admiral? Well, okay. Does the President usually have that authority, or is it just because there's no one else to do it? I like how he thanks Billy too.

The themes of death and resurrection are all over the show. Apollo almost dies, and is brought back, even as the Cylons are unable to resurrect themselves. Adama and Cain get reprieves on their death (then Cain dies later). Tyrol and Helo are freed from execution. The interesting thing is that now Apollo is in the same position as Prisoner-Six (I'm sure she has a name, but we haven't heard it yet). He too wants to die. He doesn't want to go on living. I'm not sure why, but he doesn't want it. Similarly, she didn't want resurrection. 

Does the destruction of the resurrection ship mean they'll just build and send another one? It might take awhile, but I don't think they'll just give up. Not when there's a baby involved. That raises another question: if the baby dies, will they be able to resurrect it?

I hope things pick up again. "Pegasus" had potential, but watching "Resurrection Ship" felt like a chore again at times. 

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