Monday, May 26, 2008

Battlestar Galactica: Who Shot JR?

I finally got to see Last weeks' BSG episode "Guess What's Coming To Dinner" for a second time. I watched it the first airing on the SciFi Channel, but missed the re-airing at midnight. So I had to wait till this weekend to watch it online. While there is allot going on as usual on this show, the only storyline people are really talking about who is the final cylon model. The theories abound, there's even Vegas betting as to who is the final cylon. I don't think we've seen anything of this magnitude since the infamous "Who Shot JR?" scenario from "Dallas". (OK, if you count "American Idol", but that's just America's obsession with embarrassing themselves, not a story that challenges the mind).

How they got the leg severing scenes past the sensors is beyond me. That scene where Gaeta is getting his leg cut off, and the sound effects of the saw and the sounds of his pain, I think are exclusively reserved for the "R" rating to be shown only in a movie theater. To say the least, it was hard to watch.

We also see more of the opera House mystery played out, but what does it mean? And why would Athena Kill the Six? Tory is busted for sleeping with Baltar, but it turns out Laura has taken to believing what Baltar is peddling. Tigh openly opposes the plan to find and unbox the D'Anna cylon model, because D'Anna can identify the final five models, including him.

We get a sample of (Alessandro Juliani) Gaeta's singing abilities as he works through the pain of having his leg cut off. Alessandro Juliani, according to IMDB, Graduated from McGill University with a B.M. (Bachelor of Music?) in vocal/opera performance. Some other blogs have implicated that his singing holds some message related to the immediate story. It's vague and cryptic if it is.

Here's a thought, what if Tyrol, Tigh, Tory, and Sam are NOT cylons? What if they have wrongly assumed they are cylons based on their shared experience? We've seen no conclusive evidence. But we do know the power of suggestion, they could have convinced themselves they are cylons. We know that because they THINK they are cylons they are beginning to ask strange and question their own life and experiences. Why do I question this? Well, a shared experience is what Laura, the Six, Athena, and Baltar are having. But were are pretty sure that Baltar and Laura are not cylons. Why? If for no other reason than it would make for a very weak and lame ending to this saga.

That fact is no one knows who the final (five) cylons are, except maybe the producers, if they've written that part yet. The whole story of BSG has been flipped on it's ear. For 3 years they've been running from the cylons, just trying to survive, and as a general rule looking for Earth.

Now the players on the home and visitors teams are changing sides at an alarming rate. We're supposed to be rooting for the humans, right? But each week I find myself rooting for the cylons and Baltar. I can identify with them more easily. Maybe it's because the cylons believe in one true God and that God has a master plan. The Colonials on the other hand believe in a group of 12 gods, which are something of a mix of the Greek gods and what we know as the 12 zodiac signs.

But it's more than that. The cylons have principles, but the Colonials, not so much. I mean, this is not the crew of the Starship Enterprise. The Colonials are a group of survivors, and they have, when it suits them, broken every covenant of their beliefs to survive. If I was a cylon I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, cause I know they're unpredictable, and they're NOT trustworthy; the whole bunch of them, especially our key characters. While some are curious, many Colonials do not believe in any god, let alone the 12 gods. They honestly believe the whole world was created out of a void, everything is completely random and has no higher purpose. Sound like our modern society to you?

It's no wonder the cylons rebelled. The Colonials have no moral compass, kind've like a modern day America where crime is rampant, and greed is the overriding emotion in everything. The need to have and achieve; flaunt what you have, and lust after what you don't. Honesty and integrity are rare. From what I've read about the upcoming "Caprica" series, it will answer the questions about why they hated their makers. Imagine our world as we know it (sociologically), then throw in hundreds of years of technological advances. One particular storyline I read was about how a father programmed one of the "toasters" to be in the image of his rebellious daughter, who by the way, was part of a movement that believe in one true God.

If you're a fan of science fiction then you know about the Star Trek Universe. As technology advanced, so did the human ability to deal with it. Poverty, disease, and crime all were overcome. Now imagine all those technological advances WITHOUT the human growth, without the sociological changes to deal with it. That's what life was like on the 12 colonies prior to the cylon attacks.

To be honest, I didn't watch much of the first season, and I missed the miniseries. While I wasn't a fan of the original series, when I saw the previews of the miniseries, I was not impressed, and actually disheartened with how they were twisting it up. I surmised it would be like countless other series and movie remakes that flopped or just changed things too much like "Planet of the Apes, Dukes of Hazard, Miami Vice (later), Spiderman, Batman, and even the latest Star Trek movies.

Four years later it's has grown to one of the most talked about show on television. The story's intensity and depth will be hard to duplicate in other television series or movies.

The shows ending will need to be equally dramatic, and memorable. For example, one of "The Planet Of The Apes" Movies ends with a nuclear blast killing everything. There was the second Newhart series (1982-1990) that ended with him waking up in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette, his onscreen wife from the original Bob Newhart show (1972-1977). My favorite though was from "Dallas" when the season premier opens with Bobby in the shower and Pam finding him in a surprise like she'd seen a ghost. And maybe she did, cause he was killed at the end of season 8. But as the story goes all of "Dallas" season 9 was a figment of Pam Ewing's imagination. Try to top that. Picture this, the entire BSG universe is being played out in a holographic cube sitting on Glen A. Larson's desk, the creator of the original series.


Regards
John Crawford

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Monday, May 12, 2008

Battlestar Galactica: "Faith" Reviewed


The tempo has slowed considerably since the season premier. While that's to be expected after a cliffhanger and the need to tie up some loose ends, it also makes the weekly task of finding something worthy to talk about that much harder. After all, my job as a critic is to critique the story, not tell it.

This weeks episode had a special guest star, Nana Visitor (aka Major/Colonel Kira of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). I'm not even sure they listed her in the opening credits. Another frequent guest they do not list credit is Keegan Connor Tracy; she starred in "Jake 2.0" that ran on UPN 2003-2004.

Nana Visitor plays a fellow cancer patient, named Emily, whom President Laura Roslin shares some spiritual moments. The conversations dance around the idea "gods" vs the "God", and you can hear Baltar's speeches in the background.

From last weeks episode, we knew something was gonna happen on the command deck of the Demetrius, and it did. Mr. Gaeta was shot in the leg by Sam during a mutiny attempt. In the scuffle, Kara concedes the stakes are too high for the entire crew to be at risk. So she decides to take the Cylon bayship with Leoben (and a few crew members) to see the hybrid, while the Demetrius jumps back to the fleet.

The bayship jumps to the (almost) destroyed Cylon fleet, Kara can hear the music. Is she a Cylon? They get aboard the other Cylon ship with the Hybrid. One of the six's kills a human woman that killed her on New Caprica. Then another six her the six that killed the human. No Resurrection ship - no download, the cylon is dead. Also, Athena has a not so happy reunion with the other surviving Eights. The Eights say Athena is the one that showed them to ignore their programming and be something else. Athena responds by telling them they need to pick a side and stick with it, not to change when things get tough.

The scenes on the Cylon ship is where the story lines builds on their journey to Earth. First Sam tempts fate by nearly touching the water, he really wants to, but did not. His Cylon side is trying to emerge. With the Hybrid spouting nonsense, as we have seen many times before, one of the Eight's (that's a Sharon/Boomer/Athena model) tries to unplug her. A cylon soldier goes on the offensive. Before it can be gunned down, one of the Eight's is killed. Just before she dies, Sam goes to her. Since we haven't seen any connection between Sam and Boomer or Athena, I think the others may find it suspicious.

Kara leans over the Hybrid and pleads for information. The Hybrid says, among other things:
The children of the one reborn shall find their own country.
The dying leader will know the truth of the opera house.
The missing three will give you the five who have come from the home of the thirteenth.
You will be the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end.

Riddles, I tell you, riddles. But I'm sure it all means something in the context of the journey to Earth. So who is the "one reborn"? We know who the dying leader is, and we have some insight into the opera house, the place where she kept seeing Athena's child. But what truth? Who are the missing three? We know four of the five, but the hybrid is implying the final five came from the home of the thirteenth (Earth)? The statement "You will be the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end." is the most puzzling. We probably will not know what that means until the last minute of the final series episode.

The producers have made it clear they do not want to leave the door open for a BSG movie. While we are all expecting a happy ending to a long and sad journey, it could all end with finding Earth, and the Cylons finally kill everyone left, including the inhabitants of Earth. Or not. We may find Earth to be ALL Cylons, kinda like the Earth of all Borg from Star Trek: First Contact.

On the other hand, we don't know when or what kind of Earth they will find. Maybe they will find an advanced Earth, something futuristic from now. Maybe something prehistoric. God (the one true God) knows that it won't be our 2008 Earth, overrun with crime, war, famine, disease, and the need to satisfy our own selves. They can't possibly have the Colonials make such a horrific journey just to find a 2008 Earth as we know it. (Note to the producers: That would be very disappointing). There are thousands of possibilities to tie into realities we know, TV shows and movies, and so many other options that have never been dramatized.

At the end of the episode, Laura goes to the Admiral quarters, says she needs to speak to him. She shares about her shared dream with Emily, and of her conversations with Emily. Laura's beginning to crack, she's beginning to see her spiritual beliefs are not so true, and their maybe something to what Baltar is peddling. Finally, she believes there is an Earth, and they will find it. The Admiral smiles with a small laugh under his breathe, saying he used that line as a carrot in front of the fleet, but he never believed Earth existed. Now it's their singular mission to find it.

Regards
John Crawford

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Sunday, May 4, 2008

Premonition - A Movie Review


OK, I'm partial to anything with Sandra Bullock in it. But I was with my daughter at Suncoast, and "Premonition" was on sale for $10, so I bought it. I liked it, and it kept me in suspense till the end. While most who watched this movie would just call it a suspense/thriller, I look at it as science fiction. "Premonition" is about time travel, but the person involved doesn't know where they are supposed to be.

Premonition focuses on a married woman named Linda, played by Sandra Bullock. She is a mother of 2 daughters. She is your average housewife and mother that drives the kids to school in an SUV. One Wednesday afternoon, she is visited by the local Sheriff who informs her that her husband was killed in a car accident. She picks up her daughters from school, then later at home she informs them of their fathers untimely death. Linda's mother is also there to help with the girls, and after they are asleep, her mother settles in on the couch in the den. Linda falls asleep in the other room holding a pictures of her and her husband.

The next morning she awakes to find her husband with her. She shakes it off as a bad dream, but is confused by the fact it is Tuesday. There's also an empty Lithium prescription bottle. She researches the doctors name only to find the page with the listing has been torn from the phone book. (Who uses the phone book these days, right?).

Each morning she wakes up it's a different day of the week, but the days are not in order. Linda is beginning to put some of the pieces together, she takes some crayons and a large piece of drawing paper, then draws out a calendar with all the facts and key players. She folds it up and lays it under the table cloth of the dining room table. It's interesting how that calendar is still there in different parts of the story.

Throughout the movie the facts are changing. If you've seen enough of these type of movies, you will undoubtedly think it's an elaborate conspiracy. But to what end? She's meeting people that know her, but she has no clue who they are. She's missing days from her memory, such as how her daughters face got cut up. The mysterious woman watching from afar at her husband funeral. Then there is her friend, Annie, played by Nia Long.

Linda has her doubts about her husbands death, which feed on the conspiracy theory. There's the closed casket funeral, she didn't understand why. She found out when the they pulled the casket out of the hearse and it fell to the ground, and her husband's head came out. She doesn't know it at the time, but she is missing days of her life, she hasn't lived them yet so she does not have the memories. Such as how her daughter 's face was cut up. We later find out she ran through a glass door. But when Linda cannot explain it, her mother and friend call the authorities.

One fact that is off during the movie is that she is told that her husband was killed on a Tuesday afternoon. The sheriff comes by on Wednesday afternoon, and says it happened yesterday. But, Linda has a voicemail from her husband on Wednesday morning. Her husband also visited the insurance company on Wednesday morning to raise their benefits. But in later "premonitions" he dies on Wednesday. So I was sure it was some type of conspiracy.

In the end, Linda discovered her husband was planning to have an affair, but he backed out at the last minute (hence the mysterious woman at the funeral). In her attempt to reach him before he does something he will regret, she actually causes his death, just the way it was told to her and how she was having it projected to her. The alternative was that he would have lived but cheated with another woman, and who knows beyond that. Linda certainly had it figured out, she even asked her mom if there's a difference between letting him die or killing him. Of course, this is after he was killed and her mom is confused by the question. But Linda knew.

I like this movie for two reasons. First and foremost it's a good story, it will keep you guessing until the end. Also, it's a departure for Sandra Bullock to play a mother and housewife, and I think she does a great job.


Regards
John Crawford

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Battlestar Galactica - Review of "The Road Less Traveled"


From the opening scene with Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace and Captain Karl "Helo" Agathon, it is clear that life on the Demetrius is tense. Kara has a hunch to try an already scanned part of space, Helo is skeptical. She decides to fly with the CAP to search it, and finds a crippled cylon bayship with the cylon Leoben on board.

The once cylon hating Kara is now focused on finding Earth, and if taking up with the cylons can make that happen, so be it. Leoben offers a truce between humans and cylons; Kara bring him aboard to her quarters. When Sam returns from his mission, he is quickly informed that Kara and Leoben are together in her quarters. Sam busts in to find Kara and Leoben painting, but he is holder her a bit more intimately than Sam can tolerate, so he bashes leoben. Helo rushes in and order the Marine guards to contain the cylon, and take him to the brig. It's hard to keep track of who's in charge on that ship, the two captains seem to be locked in a power struggle. Kara is determined to find Earth; Helo believes she is dead wrong and just wants to get back to the fleet. You factor in the other junior officers like Lt. Gaeta, there's definitely trouble brewing.

Meanwhile back on Galactica, Galen and Tory converse on how Cally died. Galen's not buying the suicide story, and vows to get to the truth. (And we know that Tory killed Cally).

Galen also confronts Colonel Tigh about his frequent visits to the Six. They revisit their conversation they had when they discovered they were cylons, that they are still the people they were born as, and will be that person until the day they die.

Galen and Baltar have a rather public fight. Galen is conducting maintenance outside one of Baltar's meetings. He peaks his head in, as he goes to leave he is called out by Baltar. Baltar offers an olive branch by asking Galen to take his hand, to reflect and somehow make Cally's death easier to deal with. Galen attacks Baltar,
but is quickly subdued by his guards.

There is an increase in the number of references to the "gods" and the God. Galen's fight with Baltar is preceded with the accusation that God doesn't exist. Galen is an outspoken non-believer, although he comes from a religious family (from the episode "The Eye Of Jupiter").

After the conversation with Tigh, and the fight with Baltar, Galen realizes he's changing. His life, the person he was and had been his entire life is changing, and fading away. Baltar makes a bold move by going to Galen's quarters and confronting him. He is honest and straight forward. Galen, who did not say a word the whole time, reaches out his hand as Baltar turns to leave his quarters. Is it possible that Baltar suspects he is a cylon?

Back on the Demetrius, a crew member is killed while investigating the bayship. Probably a self destruct mechanism set off before Leoben left the ship. Kara goes to the brig and beats on Leoben, swearing he set them up. Leoben manages to convince Kara that it was not and that she needs to concentrate on finding Earth.

Kara returns to the CIC to give a condolence speech about the fallen crew member. She admits it's her fault. She says there is nothing that will make it easier to deal with, nothing to grab onto to make the pain go away. She renounces any faith she has or had, and proclaims that in this war deaths have no meaning, they're all accidents. Then she proceeds to tell the crew they are not rejoining the fleet, but continuing to look for Earth. The crew is divided to say the least. She goes back to her quarters.

When she returns from her quarters, Helo informs her the FTL drive is "spooled" and ready to jump. But Helo prods Kara to reconsider her actions one more time, but she actively ignores him. When Helo is ordered to commence jump, he refuses. Kara tries to relive him of his post, but the crew has drawn sides and preparing to stage a mutiny. Kara is relieved instead.

From next week's previews it looks like a fight breaks out in the CIC. My guess is Leoben is loose on the ship and waiting to come to her aid. The other scenario I see is Helo taking over the ship, but something else happens, maybe another cylon ship appears. Something will keep them from jumping back to the fleet. Maybe the fleet will jump to them. The preview also indicates President Roslin having to decide on whether to form an alliance with the cylons.We won't know until next week...


Regards
John Crawford

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