Monday, September 14, 2009

Torn

Before I get into the episode proper, there's some unfinished business from yesterday. I wondered about the origins of Kara's tattoo. I realized last night that she and Anders have matching tattoos. Did they do this when they got married? Anyway, that explains it.

Now, why do the Cylons want to go to Earth, exactly? Either they want a world to live on in peace (shades of New Caprica?) or they want to wipe out the rest of humanity (...shades of New Caprica?). I can't see it ending well. If Baltar were smart, he wouldn't help them. How long have they wanted Earth? Is this a new goal? I'm still waiting for signs of that master plan we've been promised at the front of every episode.

This episode reiterates the idea that fantasy Six is "an angel of God". I think it dumb, but that seems to be what they are going with. I suppose that would make her the connection to the angel beings on the original show. They also could not be seen by other people outside their ship. Though where do the fantasy locations fit in? Are they indeed projections like the Cylons use? I sincerely hope Baltar is not a Cylon. That would be ridiculous. The whole point of the character is that he's a human traitor. To make him a Cylon is to whitewash that. That does beg the question of the fantasies though. Are they part of the angel Six's work? When Caprica was seeing Baltar, was he an angel too, or was she just crazy?

We gain a lot of insight into the interiors of the base stars here. My lingering question, though, was why it didn't look anything like the one we saw Boomer and Racetrack land on in "Kobol's Last Gleaming". There, we saw organic walls like on the Raider, reminiscent of Alien. But the base star we see here is all lit walls and corridors. There is still the connection of it being alive. I like the pulsing red on the walls, analagous to the red eye. Thankfully, when Baltar landed on the other ship, we saw the organic walls. Maybe that's just how the hanger area looks. 

The introduction of the "hybrids" really annoys me. Firstly, hybrids of what? But second, the whole concept of a being floating in a white pool hooked into a computer and spouting prophecy is completely ripped off from Minority Report. There is a lot of further comparison to the Borg. Take the following dialogue:
BALTAR: She controls the base ship?
SIX: She is the base ship.
Almost this very same exchange was used of the Borg Queen in the Ron Moore-scripted Star Trek: First Contact

The Borg comparison gets stickier when we learn of the man-made disease infecting them. This is essentially the plot of the episode "I, Borg", wherein Geordi developed a program to infect the Borg that would spread to the entire collective and destroy them. I recall comparing other episodes to "I, Borg" as well. I don't completely understand how the Cylons are connected to things. Maybe if it's an airborn virus or something that would explain it. I don't understand how downloading in the resurrection ship will infect them all, though. That would imply that the ship itself would become infected, and that that infection would spread when they downloaded. I guess I answered my own question. But sometimes I don't understand the nuances of the Cylon humanoids in relation to the rest of the Cylons. 

We learned in this episode that the Cylons obtained some Colonial raptors during the war. This seems a terribly convenient development. If they've always had Colonial ships, why have they never used them? They could sneak in surreptitiously and infiltrate the fleet again! Or use them as traps. They seem a useful tool that have been wasted. And it's too bad they set it on autopilot, otherwise Baltar could just jump to Galactica and tell them all about the disease.

Does the disease infect the organic material, or does it infect the cybernetic material?

The confusion over what to call Sharon just got that much more complicated because she got a new call sign. And it's Athena! So now this version of the show finally has an Athena. I've actually been thinking about this for some time. When they chose to make Starbuck female, they also ultimately gave her a relationship with Adama. He even says she was like a daughter to him. So I realized that Kara Thrace is not Starbuck. She was a composite of the original Starbuck and the original Athena. This odd mix may be why I was so hesitant to like her -- strike that, I still don't like her. But a curious thing happened. She came back from New Caprica emotionally scarred and Adama said he no longer considers her is daughter. The Athena side of her is dead. The show has replaced it with a new Athena, Sharon Agathon. She is the Athena not only in name, for it is Sharon who is now in the good graces of Adama. It's an interesting dynamic. Now let's hope this Athena gets more screen time than Larson's did.

Who are the "final five" and why aren't they spoken of? I'd really like to know what became of the 7 Cylons in the fleet. Did they join their Cylon brothers during the New Caprica occupation, or have they been assimilated back into the fleet to carry out their nefarious purposes? It seems like a real waste of a reveal for Baltar to get Sharon to tell him there are 8 Cylons in the fleet, and then we only meet one of them.

The lingering question now becomes whether Athena will be infected. My gut says no. But we'll see. As usual this one is "to be continued".

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