The Official Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Live Thread (Est/Cst)

10/06/06 | Kevin Davis

[KevinDavis]

Well this is the live thread for Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica.. Basically for people who lives in the Eastern and Central times zones. There will be another thread for the Western Time Zone...

So say we all..

[misterrob]

I thought I did as well but I wasn't sure....

[muawiyah]

Gad ~ I had some people who LOST to the Brits in Quebec and fled South to Terre Haute and Vincinnes. They waited until the time was right (George Rogers Clark came along) and restarted the fight ~ and this time they WON.

All of their country, Southern New France, was liberated and became one of the world's new powerhouses called the MidWest.

Anybody can be an insurgent ~ good guys and bad guys.

[muawiyah]

Good? Baltar shows some serious signs of major mental deterioration ~ guy looked crazy as heck last night ~ tremendous job on the bottom end of the bipolar cycle.

Next week he's on the top end.

[KevinDavis]

I think it is hard for us to understand is that in American history we have never been under foreign occupation (with the exception of the Revolutionary War)..

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

Yet again, he gets undone by his scheming wife. Also too, he handles the reins with heavy hands. When the Cylons attacked the twelve colonies, he would have gone back. When Adama was shot, he declared martial law, taking down the civil government. He certainly has the guts to make the tough calls, but he'll bite off his own nose despite his face at times, meaning his command lacks balance.

There is a lot to be said for those matters. Not all of it was Tigh's doing. You'll notice that in this season, Tigh isn't drinking to the extent that he was in the first two seasons. Notice that when he's not drinking (reference the episode '33'), he's a damned effective officer. Noticed how he kept his head, and calmned down Chief Tyrol in last evening's episode?

If you noticed in the Mini series, Adama was also hell bent on going back into the fight, and didn't change his mind until he was watching Dee and Billy interact in the CIC. Tigh didn't have the benefit of Roslyn 'splainin' the situation to him. The chaos of the civilian government was a $#!t sandwich that Adama left him before he got shot. Adama had already pretty much taken down the civilian government.

All that said, you're correct in that Tigh is the kind of guy that you want to keep in a cage until the time comes to let him out of the cage, and let him do what he does best...kick ass, and take names. We've had people like Tigh in our military, and they did need to be tightly controlled. It was probaby in the best interest of America (for example) that Patton died shortly after the war ended.

[trashcanbred]

..have never been under foreign occupation (with the exception of the Revolutionary War)..

What about the War of 1812?

[muawiyah]

Unless, of course, you were French-American, then you know the sting of defeat and the oppression of the vile conqueror with his jackbooted thugs.

Or, maybe you were an American Indian ~

Or both.

Or a Confederate.

[BenLurkin]

Ah...

... can you repeat that -- only this time sound like Patrick McNee?

;^)

[MarkL]

By Your Command...

Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to say that to me?

Mark

[rmlew]

Not sci-fi, but James Callis (Baltar on BSG) plays Haman in One Night With the King, loosely based on the Book of Esther.

Is it just me or does Callis enjoy giving a human face to people with blood on their hands?

[FierceDraka]

"When this is all over, guys like Gaeta are gonna get strung up. And it'll be guys like us tying the knots - makin' 'em tight!" - Chief Tyrol

I like how this season's going already. The rescue from the toasters' execution squad was killer! TOTALLY Red Dawn. The fact that they gave the Dean Stockwell toaster a gut shot and left him there to suffer for hours before his death/resurrection made me smile.

Little Callie getting rescued by none other than her hubby kicked ass.

It will be interesting to see how the whole Laura Roslin / Tom Zarek thing goes, seeing as they were both betrayed by Gaius Baltar and sentenced to death by the toasters.

[FierceDraka]

My prediction.....Lee dies with Pegasus taking out two base stars....He sends a pregnant Duella out in a raptor to Galactica......

Man, just yesterday I saw the original Pegasus episodes from the old 70's BSG. Commander Cain (played by Lloyd Bridges) took Pegasus against 2 base stars and vanished. I guess he and Pegasus would have reappeared had the old BSG not been cancelled.

But I don't think they'll kill off Lee Adama. The scenes with Admiral Adama and Lee have been some of the most powerful parts of the series, IMHO.

[BenLurkin]

Good choice!

[GoLightly]

There is a lot to be said for those matters. Not all of it was Tigh's doing.

By saying his command lacks balance, it's a matter of flexibility. Of course, some of it wasn't Tigh's doing. All leaders take what is given to them & do with it what they will.

You'll notice that in this season, Tigh isn't drinking to the extent that he was in the first two seasons. Notice that when he's not drinking (reference the episode '33'), he's a damned effective officer. Noticed how he kept his head, and calmned down Chief Tyrol in last evening's episode?

Good points. That wife of his... he'd begun to break with the bottle, but she came back & dragged him back down into it. She's in his head & he knows it & he knows it's not a good thing.

If you noticed in the Mini series, Adama was also hell bent on going back into the fight, and didn't change his mind until he was watching Dee and Billy interact in the CIC. Tigh didn't have the benefit of Roslyn 'splainin' the situation to him. The chaos of the civilian government was a $#!t sandwich that Adama left him before he got shot. Adama had already pretty much taken down the civilian government.

Of course Adama wanted to go back & kick some Cylon butt. Even if Tigh had gotten the benefit of Roslyn's splainin, she was "just a school teacher". Tigh wouldn't listened to Roslyn. Taking down the government is one thing, locking up the President is another. It's an escalation.

All that said, you're correct in that Tigh is the kind of guy that you want to keep in a cage until the time comes to let him out of the cage, and let him do what he does best...kick ass, and take names. We've had people like Tigh in our military, and they did need to be tightly controlled. It was probaby in the best interest of America (for example) that Patton died shortly after the war ended.

I agree. I think Tigh would too, cuz I don't think he'd be comfortable with leadership in a time of peace.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

Of course Adama wanted to go back & kick some Cylon butt. Even if Tigh had gotten the benefit of Roslyn's splainin, she was "just a school teacher". Tigh wouldn't listened to Roslyn. Taking down the government is one thing, locking up the President is another. It's an escalation.

At the time that Tigh was dealing with Roslyn, he had about 50 things going at one time. It wasn't until things had settled down, and people had some time to think that Adama and Roslyn had their little discussion.

If you recall correctly, it was Adama, and not Tigh who threw Roslyn in the brig. Tigh was merely tasked to carry out the order. In retrospect, i'd have to say that Tigh's decision to impose martial law was probably a good one. He didn't need the hassle of the civillian government at the time. Things were pretty chaotic. Admittedly, taking his wife's advice about sending in the Marines was not a good one. His original plan to sit down with the various ship's Captains and explaining the situation was probably a much better alternative.

[burzum]

IMDB shows that he is scheduled to appear in at least 3 more future episodes (the same number of episodes indexed for any major character). I don't think they are killing him off or hiding him for a while. They certainly might be separated from Galactica though. We shall see.

[af_vet_rr]

This current BSG has changed the music over opening titles.

Do you know what the artist, or name of the CD or where I can find the original music?

It sounded very similar but was more mysterious and haunting.

The Mini-series, Season 1, and Season 2 have all had their own soundtracks that you can buy (Amazon, etc.).

You might find this interesting: BearMcCreary.com - the composer of BSG.

Go into the online demo, click on video demo, and then on the BSG Promo 1 "Prelude to War" - you will NOT be disappointed - one of the best one and a half minute music videos you will ever see. You can also find it at YouTube, but it's the same thing at the composer's site listed above.

If you go in and read his blog, the September 13, 2006 entry (under previous entries), he talks about writing for BSG:

I get asked pretty frequently about the use (or lack thereof) of "themes" in Battlestar Galactica. The word "theme" was something that the producers wanted to avoid as they re-launched Galactica, I think because they felt that strong, orchestral fanfare had been done to death in science fiction. Beyond that conceptual premise, the reality is that orchestral bombast in the score would ruin the carefully constructed sense of realism in the writing and production.

However, a musical theme is more malleable and subtle than many people realize. Star Wars and Star Trek have defined "theme" for more than a generation. In reality, many of those "themes" are full-fledged songs, with a unique A-section, B-secton and coda. A theme can be much simpler and more minimal, consisting of the smallest amount of musical information necessary to form identity. This is the model I've based Battlestar on. Think Close Encounters instead of Star Wars.

One of the interesting things about working on a television series (as opposed to a stand-alone film) is that you never know when or how characters are going to develop. I will sometimes introduce a theme for a character and then find out that character dies in the next episode! As a result, I've ended up with close to 60 themes, or signature musical elements, in the 35 shows I've scored thus far. While some of them ended up being unique to their specific episode, many have woven themselves into the sonic tapestry of the show.

Watch the video I linked to above - a lot of us don't pay attention to the music until we see something like that video.

[af_vet_rr]

FWIW, Ronald Moore the producer has stated that the occupation was modeled after the Nazi occupation of France in WWII.

This is heavily backed up in the next two episodes (that it's modeled on France and the Nazi occupation). I'm not going to say anything else, because it would be a huge spoiler, but I think it will finally come into focus that WWII was the model.

Moore set it in contemporary times just so people would perhaps understand it better (American history education being what it is :-/).

On a vaguely related note, the Cylons were the first to use suicide bombers, not once, but twice - I forgot the one that tried to blow up Adama.

[BenLurkin]

Grat post. Thank you.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

This is heavily backed up in the next two episodes (that it's modeled on France and the Nazi occupation). I'm not going to say anything else, because it would be a huge spoiler, but I think it will finally come into focus that WWII was the model.

Exactly. People are accusing Moore of modeling the occupation on the present Iraqi conflict merely because the episodes thus far look like the present media coverage of Iraq. (i.e. The sequence filmed using the night vision equipment when the New Caprica Police were rounding up 'insurgents').

They're not thinking. What do they suppose that the Nazi Occupation of France would have looked like if reported with present day technology? i'd bet real money that it probably would have looked a hell of a lot like the Iraqi conflict.