BSG S1

[wisdomeagle]

Okay. So I am done mainlining S1.

I seem (amazingly) to have not predictable in my responses. Well. Obviously, y'all are correct, I have a thing about older men and women that is approximately the size of a small planet, but. No one informed me of the awesome that is Sharon Valerii. No one. NO ONE. I love her so much I think I might explode.

[in addition to S1 BSG, this post contains minorish spoilers for Farscape.]

Miniseries:

OMG I WATCHED THE WHOLE THING. Finally. I have serious issues with watching things that are longer than 43 minutes. Like my brain starts to fry and combust and I start clicking around the internet and need to take a break for lunch. I'm forever complaining to Gvambat that movies are simultaneously too short (only an hour and a half of character development! It's like you hardly know them!) and way too long (the plots drag SO BAD). And going in -- even though often the first episode is longish -- it's really hard for me to convince myself to stay put, even if the plot is intense enough to deserve three hours and even if they did establish lots of crunchy character moments. So. Characters.

+Laura Roslin. Yeah, she's really pretty. And thrust into a broken world and suddenly in a position of power and dying of cancer and stumbling into her authority? Yeah, I approve of these things. But so far I've not clicked into her to the extent that I expected I would -- which is partially because I had insanely high expectations. And I'm totally reserving judgment until both she and M.McDonnell settle into their respective roles. She does have that awesome mixture of authority and quivering vulnerability that makes me into a wibbling schoolgirl, it's just that right now, the balance doesn't seem quite right, like the authority is still a mask she's wearing. Like I said, we're settling in. And I totally squealed when she was sworn in.

+Bill Adama surprised me by being really right-off-the-bat cool. Yes, I have huge daddy issues; yes, I have a thing about older people of both sexes (there is a reason I'm corunning forty_or_better! So I was expecting to like Adama. But wow he is really hot. Much hotter than still photographs can convey. And the right-about-to-retire-not-entirely-reluctantly when suddenly WORLD ENDS and he's thrust into a position where he's the symbolic father of the entire surviving human race and he lies to them tells them a comforting bedtime story and he loves all his pilots and his whole crew respects him so much and he's totally paranoid and living in the past about Cylons which of course turns out to be an absolutely appropriate attitude and probably saves the human race? Yeah. Do me, Adama.

+Lee Adama looks a bit like John Crichton in the uniform. Also, he had daddy issues (no, really) the size of the known universe. He's really, really cute with Roslin. And that is all I have to say about him so far.

+Kara Thrace ("Starbuck") is very hot. I had a fairly good idea of what her character was (emotionally closed-off, smoked cigars, swore a lot, had a lot of sex, used to be a guy in the original BSG), but nothing conveyed to me how sunny and charismatic she is. And how much she loves to fly. In college my good friend Z was the biggest pilot fan I've ever met, from Geordi through Beka and Aeryn and including Jack and Sam. While I don't quite share that same obsession, I'm still a little in love with the idea of pilots. And Starbuck is a damn good pilot, and that is absofrellinglutely awesome.

+Lee/Kara. Well, okay. We're reserving judgment till they do a little more than exchange meaningful glances.

+Sharon//Boomer. Aw. Yes-even-with-the-secretly-Cylon-AWWW. And though I didn't catch his name, I like her boyfriend too.

+Gaius Baltar I really like. At first I thought he made Six, which was like, "Oh, you incredible fucking genius idiot, you made a Cylon sex toy." But while he's still a genius idiot, he just accidentally slept with one and shared top secret military secrets with her. Like an idiot genius. And he's amoral and ruthless and a survivor and has a shiny accent and is kind of so smart and doesn't exactly realize how he's getting away with fucking treason. And he has Harvey Six in his brain. I am kind of in awe.

+Six is so hot, I will have her babies any day. And evil a Cylon and religious and sexy and kind of in love with Gaius. They are so OTP, I very much approve.

+I think I kind of like Tigh, though I can't cite reasons why. I liked his scenes in the ending montage very much.

+Elyosha is very awesome and I can see why celievamp requested her in forty_or_better. Mostly because religious workers of any and all stripes are under-represented in skiff -- and I was totally promised that I'd love BSG for the theological spec. So far, I really approve.

+Earth is a myth. Adama claims to know the way there but is probably lying (Roslin thinks he is, and he basically acknowledges her, though I don't know why the former President would have let his secretary of education know if he had top secret information about Earth... but anyhow). I don't know, I don't feel like there's any way to pull of "and Earth is secretly our LAST GREAT HOPE" without sounding a bit silly. It's much redeemed by "and it's a myth," BUT STILL. Again, we're reserving judgment.

+Cylons are cool. (I'm uncertain as to whether I should say frelling, frakking, or fucking cool, so I'm leaving it with "very cool" for the moment). 'Specially Boomer. And Six.

+Um, did I mention that Bill Adama is the HOTTEST PERSON ALIVE?

1x01 "33"

In which no one has had any sleep for a very long time, tempers blaze, and a difficult sacrifice has to be made. I think what I didn't properly grok about Roslin, going in, was how very much a numbers game her presidency is at the moment. I mean, literally, with the white board, and every decision she makes, she's thinking pragmatically, in terms of utility. And it's few enough that every one matters, and many enough that it's not quite personal, and she's holding back because... well, because otherwise she will actually be sobbing every other moment.

So exhaustion tells.

I like the way Starbuck plays with the narratives of the military, how she's brash and hotheaded and loves to fly and loves to shoot, how she gets pissy at Lee for refusing to take the kind of control he ought to, for refusing to take her to task, how she laughs a second later because it's not quite real that Lee's her CAG, how the moment's revisited at the end of the episode when Lee issues the command to destroy the Olympic Carrierknows that she must do as he says, bravado notwithstanding.

Helo's on Caprica, captured by Cylons.

Does Sharon (on board BSG) know she's a Cylon?

And thank God, it's episodic pacing again. And they can still do a lot of worldbuilding, establish and advance important plot and character arcs, have space battles (though less cool than the miniseries' -- because lack of awesome budget. Sigh. BUT STILL.)

And Gaius and Six continue to be SO SCREWED UP. It's kind of awesome.

And. Um. Are there really people who say sf/f is lame but BSG is different? And are they slow or something? Because BSG is certainly neat, dark and character-driven and braintwisty and asking interesting questions about humanity, classic questions about AI, and lots of end-of-the-world type questions about survival, but those're the things that make it good skiffy, not things that make it !skiffy.

Oh. And Lee/Kara is het. Really cool het, friendshippy and sweet and We Do Not Talk About This Thing even though it is blindingly obvious to everyone around us, but het.

1x02 "Water"

Sharon Valerii does not know she's a Cylon. Which is awesome with awesomesauce. I really like Sharon (and not just because she's hot like hotcakes), and I really liked the teaser to this episode.

And oh man. I really liked this episode. I really, really, really like Sharon and the Chief (is that is name, really?), and the way that there's this undercurrent of suspicion that hasn't yet cracked the surface -- the repeated insistence that if it's made public that Cylons have human forms, people will accuse their neighbors for no reason, and the shiveriest beginnings of that -- and that at the same time people are clinging together, trusting where they can -- and that Sharon and the Chief are afraid of the hierarchy, know that they're in jeopardy. Situations like that -- where a character knows ze's compromised but refuses to turn hirself in -- can frustrate me, but in this case I really approve. I love Sharon in all her twisted-up something's-wrong can't-confess-it awesomeness. I like Caprica!Sharon, too and Sharon/Helo, although it's a little slim for a seasonal B-plot.

And the universe and its fascination with Roslin/Lee really isn't out of nowhere, huh?

I like the feeling that I'm getting that nothing's really filler, that these episodes at the beginning of the season are gritty and necessary, that the plots and problems are just beginning to unfold. I love the refugee storyline, the can't-go-home-again madness, and am a little saddened that it's not a strong emotion for most of the characters we're following, who are more concerned (and rightly) with keeping themselves and their people alive.

Gaius/Starbuck is random and out of nowhere. Starbuck continues to be fun. Why didn't anyone tell me that Starbuck would be fun? I really think she's a character who doesn't translate well to paper, whose laughing physicality and glittering joy may be just surface but are important surface. She does love to fly, to gamble, to drink, and she's not Starbuck if she doesn't enjoy those things.

I think I may have overestimated the size of Lee's daddy issues, which, while large, are not exactly epic, which is good -- I like the general feeling I'm getting from the show that it's epic without trying too hard. The plot is an epic plot, robots return from distant space to avenge themselves on their oppressors, and humanity goes on the run, but the characters are intimate characters. Gaius and Sharon tied up in their personal guilts and fears, Six, in love with Gaius, Starbuck with her sensual pleasures and Lee with his own personal ball of emo manpain. I think even Roslin and Adama are tied to their personal stories, fears, desires, though they're trying to transcend them for the sake of the epic plot.

1x03 "Bastille Day"

I think I really love the changing opening credits.

Why is the Astral Queen shaped like Enterprise?

Apollo and Roslin together make me smile like a wee girl. There's a lot of sweetness in this show, more than I was expecting -- I'm also -- okay, you're right, Alixtii, Callie is kinda cute, it's true, and Callie+Chief is a very sweet friendship. I wasn't particularly interested in Tom Zarak, though I am interested in the Adama-Adama-Roslin dynamic and in Sharon and in Tigh+Starbuck.

Oh, Starbuck, you're so screwed up. You befriend small people, you smoke in the Ready Room, you drink water from a hipflask and you seem to be trying to seduce Tigh. I just really like you.

Roslin tells Lee about her cancer. It has to stay a secret. Hi, Roslin, are you channeling President Bartlet, perchance? I like the tight web that she's woven around her private self, and the way she's sucked Lee into that web, the way that his friendship -- because it is bordering on friendship -- with Roslin is a thing that's not his father's and not the military's but his own, and I like that in typical Trekboy fashion he stands by freedom and democracy and ideals, and that he was a bit of a commie in college, and that Roslin has his vote. That he's so earnest and honest, and that there are so many people around him who are neither.

Meanwhile, on Caprica, Caprica!Sharon is really good, and Cylons are a bit twisted. (Humans are their parents, but parents have to die for children to come into their own.) (Oh, and the Six/Replicarter idea that I've seen floated, I am 100% in favor of. There is so much fic that I'll be able to read I'll have to avoid for potential spoilers probably exists only in my head, anyhow. (Like after I saw Grey's and went searching for the mountains of femslash I felt sure existed? And... there were like three fics.)

And meanwhile, on BSG, Gaius Baltar is going to get a nuclear warhead. Because that's a good idea. And he's so pretty and crazy with the Cylon in his head.

1x04 "Act of Contrition"

I seem to have already embarked upon a discussion of how there is absolutely no shippy tension whatsoever between Bill Adama and Kara Thrace, so let's get that out there first -- like hell there's no shippy tension between them. Because we live in a universe where "I love you like a daughter," more means, "I really should love you like a daughter, but yeah, not so much." So. Also, they're both really hot.

And I really like the dynamic as stated in canon, too. The love, the guilt, the grief, the blame, "get out of this cabin while you still can." I'm really going to refrain from commenting further on the grounds that there is an ebil ebil TBC that is wreaking havoc with my goal of going to bed before midnight, but I am really rooting for them. Being Adama and Kara.

Kara and the nuggets. Awesome. ("Nuggets." Awesome. The dialogue is haphazardly good -- not quite quotable -- but the idiom is amazing. Go, show.)

There was a funeral at the beginning of this episode (well, two, spliced together), and I have to say that so far, I'm not terribly impressed with the worldbuilding, religion-wise. There's Kobol, which is the place they came from, and there were thirteen tribes, twelve of which became the twelve colonies and one of which went to Utah Earth. There are Gods, who are (possibly) also the Lords of Kobol, and there's an afterlife of some kind.

It all feels kind of generic.

The Cylons, on the other hand, seem to be monotheistic and Six thinks that God is love.

There is also one religion for the entire civilization, but then they also seem to have had a completely monolithic political system and culture. (Maybe this becomes more impressive later.)

I am still thinking of life in terms of Hogwarts houses, so. Kara Thrace kind of defines Gryffindor, with the blazing passion, the emotionally driven everything, the way she says things most easily with suicide missions. Cool.

1x05 "You Can't Go Home Again"

I like this from the title alone!

Kara's prayer ("Lords? This is Kara Thrace.") is possibly the most wonderful thing ever. And does help me, a little, with grokking their theology. Not in the sense that They're personal, that there's at least folk belief that They intervene, answer personal prayers, etc., but that a person like Kara seems to believe in Them. And I do get the sense that she does, in the same way that she believes in the military and the colonies. Atheism does exist (Baltar) but it's not widespread, and the assumption of a woman like Kara is not that the Gods are against her or don't exist or don't care about her, but that yeah, They're basically on her side. And her prayer is friendly, almost familiar, and although she's near death she's not angry or bitter. So yeah. Maybe less about the theology and more about the religious life of your average person, but still intriguing. Now, on to the important things:

Wow. Adama Sr. NOT SANE ABOUT KARA. <3

Power, pitch, yah, and roll.

COULD THEY BE MORE OTP?

NO ABSOLUTELY NOT.

So. At the end of the day I didn't go into this unbiased (what with being comment-pounced in the middle of the previous episode with "DO YOU SEE THE OTP?") but that's not to say that I wouldn't have fallen hard on my own. So. Yes, Bill Adama/Kara Thrace hits one or two kinks right on the goddamn fucking nose. Like they did it on purpose or something. Let us try to articulate these kinks:

1) FFKOAH.

2. No, wait, that's not really very articulate. I'm getting tired. HE KISSED HER FOREHEAD. She is like family. (If it were you? We'd never leave. Or there is no horrible wrong Adamacest NOR is Lee impressively convinced that his father loves him less than surrogate daughter and dead brother. Nor is Roslin ruthless and brutal and continually doing utilitarian calculus in her brain every single second.

I was talking about the reasons why Adama/Kara is MADE OF WIN.

Well, okay, so it's kind of familial, and I like that, and it's a lot protective, and I love that, and it has a lot to do with Zak, and at the same time it has a lot less to do with Zak than Adama realized until right this second, really. I discover that I really like this idea -- people bond over a common loss or common love -- and think for the longest time that that's what they have in common, until something challenges that assumption and they realize the bond between them is really much stronger than the initial commonality. I have the strongest feeling like this is archetypal, but I can't think of another example (except perhaps one from my meatspace existence.)

So I love that flare of anger in "Act of Contrition", and the fact that it's just a flare, the brief rebirth of something that's long ago been settled. Kara is family and it no longer matters how she got to be that way.

Not that there's not crossover, but. On Colonial One, Roslin and Gaius are obsessed with their own survival. They're obsessed with keeping their secrets (cancer, Six). Roslin has the civilization at stake, and only the civilization, and can't think of anything else (and isn't thinking that a civilization without its values intact hasn't really survived -- and though she's thinking babies, she isn't thinking longterm. She's thinking she's dying). And on BSG, Boomer's found she's the same. She has a secret. She can't tell it. She's with the rest of the military (below), but she's not with them anymore because she has something to hide.

And on BSG, they don't have secrets. They have complex outer lives, the card game, flying (which is everything), the hierarchy, the Adama family, friendships. This is the world Boomer is a part of, Sharon and her (it's an open secret, everyone knows) lover, the world where no one gets left behind, and it's the world that she's not a part of anymore, because actually? She's a Cylon.

And the Cylon ships are aliiiive. Like Moya, only I expect this is not actually a happy thing but more on the lines of creepy and cannibalistic.

On the other hand? Kara is the most awesome pilot ever and Kara/flight is the ultimate OTP.

1x06 "Litmus"

Very importantly, I finally caught Chief Tyrol's last name.

Somehow, this episode didn't really click for me, even though I like Boomer, Tyrol, Boomer/Tyrol, etc. I thought the witch-hunt-gone-awry was a bit ridiculous -- of course it was heading there. In fact, the entire episode felt like one big "and I'm surprised now?" Which is a pity, because if it had been multi-episode-arc'd a little, then fear and suspicion and so forth would be cool -- although generally, and this reminds me a bit of Charmed and a bit of West Wing -- it's quite hard to do this well. When your characters, the main characters, the darlings, have done or are doing something illegal, or at the very least highly questionable. When they have made mistakes or lied repeatedly or covered up vital information, and especially when they've done that for personal reasons -- then it's very hard to write the character who is the antagonist in this situation. Because they have their heart and mind in the right place, because they are right, and the darlings are wrong, or were wrong, and... it's just a very hard story to tell right. So you get in this episode the crazy raving master of arms, and Adama being all calm and sane and reasonable and delivering a speech stating the Themes of the Show, and he thinks that "I'm a soft touch" is a reasonable explanation for okay what?

Merrrr, I feel slightly annoyed, as if I'm not quite sure what the show would like me to feel. I will gladly accept that Starbuck is More Important Than The Universe and that Adama's not an evil person for believing that, but I just. I don't. *flails* I'm just left a mess of confusion about "who knows what now?" and damn, I love Chief Tyrol BUT he's got to turn Sharon in.

I like Sharon a lot (and now all of a sudden all those "Caprica!Six/Boomer" requests from femslash07 make sense! Because nothing says "I heart you" like beating someone to a bloody pulp.) <-- two truths and a lie.

So the Cylons have decided to send all the female-bodied Cylons into the field as super-powered seductresses because?

Crazy Master of Arms: I will conduct a witchhunt an independent tribunal!
Adama: Okay!
Roslin: You are AN IDIOT. If you do that, you will have a witchhunt!
Adama: I'm cool with that.
Roslin: Okay, witchhunt it is. (When she briefed the press? I totally was like, what you need, Madam President, is a Press Secretary.)
Crazy Master of Arms: *conducts witchhunt*
Adama: OMG! Stop that at once!
Roslin: I really can't believe how deficient you are.

In conclusion, this episode was disappointing because we didn't learn anything. Things happened: 1) The Cylons-look-human is now public knowledge bit and 2) Sharon and the Chief broke up, but while those things advance the plot, they don't really change what we know. Nothing intensified, nothing was revealed, it doesn't really feel like anything changed. Anyhow. On to the next episode!

1x07 "Six Degrees of Separation"

Cylons are toasters with great-looking legs. (I'm still trying to figure out whence "getyourtoaster" and think I might've found it? That, of course, is the most important thing about this episode.)

This Six calls her/itself Shelly Godfrey.

Tell me Gaeta/Baltar isn't just a tad OTP. (Seriously, what's it with Gaeta? It's like, every ship needs a loyal lieutenant whose job it is to be loyal. And stick around. And do high-level but boring jobs so that the principles are free to have UST with each other. Hi, I love skiffy.)

... "No more Mr. Nice Gaius." <3<3<3<3 Oh, Gaius Baltar you are kind of my favorite (of the people who are the featured characters in this episode. Not including Six. Or Sharon.)

Gaius, to an absent brain!Six: I thought we had something. Something special.
Self: Stockholm Syndrome?

Chief: Your new boyfriend's a bit of a jerk, sir.
Starbuck: It's a girl.
Chief: Well, as long as you don't mind her goo on your face, she's all yours.

<3<3<3<3

As one might guess from the large number of during-episode notes I felt I needed to take, I had large quantities of enjoyment for this episode. This gorgeous combination of hotness and funniness and silliness and Gaius-being-a-selfish-bastard and just generally incredibly enjoyable... At this point? I think Sharon is my favorite character, but I enjoy Gaius so much that it's kind of hard to tell. There's so much twisty complicated religion-sex-love-planning-plans-within-plans GOOEY WONDERFULNESS that I can't really talk coherently about it. Except that when people are in love with people only they can see, who possibly live only in their heads but who are nonetheless real and calling most of the shots, and when they aren't entirely sure they're EVEN SANE but still batshit in love? THAT IS WIN. (Have I mentioned I love le_skiff?)

SHARON. Please. More. Thank you. Awesome! I'm in love with the slow unfolding of her plot, love that she doesn't know, love that look of manic glee when she sees the Cylon ship/pet (also known as Starbuck's new girlfriend. <3<3<3<3), love that even though it's entirely obvious to her and to the person who knows her best she's still denying it because it can't be true. "I'm not, I'm not." Awesome intercut scenes with Caprica!Sharon/Helo and Galactica!Sharon denying her Cylonness. AWESOME. And of course I am not reading this as a metaphor AT ALL because that would be uncharacteristic and oh, Sharon, oh, Cylons, oh, oh, SHARON.

Roslin says the only thing they can trust is their instincts.

Adama suspects that Six is a Cylon because she comes on to him funny. WHAT.

I loved this episode so much. TV should always be like this, folks.

(Oh. And, um, I don't really care much about Helo. I like that Helo/Sharon happened [in the happened in Helo's brain sense] because co-workers become lovers is awesome, but I love Sharon/Tyrol THIS MUCH MORE and I am mostly entirely uninterested in Helo.)

1x08 "Flesh and Bone"

Kara has teraphim in her locker.

True or not, the idea of Adama being a Cylon is a wonderful idea to be in Roslin's brain. Distrust and fear and dissolved relationships and other crunchy things like that.

Sharon is more awesome than ANYTHING. No, seriously, ANYTHING. Both Caprica!Sharon and Galactica!Sharon. MORE AWESOME THAN YOU.

That's all I've got. It's bedtime. (Awesome episode. I'm just too tired for coherence.)

1x09 "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down"

HA. I for the WIN. I had absolutely no recognition of Dualla until this episode, where she's being shippy with Billy, and then INSTANT recognition. She is Annie from Dark Angel. HA> And I was right. The guest star spottage is strong with me. (And yeah, it took me eight friggin' episodes, and it's weird how situation my recognition is BUT. Still. This is totally the MOST IMPORTANT revelation of the episode. (And, dude, she's so much prettier now that I know she's ANNIE.)

Nothing can come between Adama and Tigh's friendship. Not even Ellen. NOT THAT THEY ARE SLASHY OR ANYTHING. :D

"If only they knew that everyone passes these tests." "It's easier this way. No muss, no fuss." Oh, Baltar, I HEART YOU. I really do have this wonderfully sick enjoyment of Baltar; he's so completely self-absorbed it's actually quite a lot of fun to watch.

I don't enjoy Ellen. I mean, not yet, but guys, certain kinds of behaviors are just really hard for me to watch, and alcoholism is one of them, and... Ellen is really hard to watch. I'm kind of with Bill on this one; I do not like what she does to Saul Tigh. I like what she does to him as a character, but I don't like what she does as a person, so. Shrug.

Roslin is made of shiny winfulness. I love how smooth she is, how much she polishes, and the weird friendship between her and Adama Sr. They are definitely of the type where the truest sign of their friendship is that they'd each instantly kill the other if s/he were a threat.

Six/Baltar is really wonderful. (I like the teary look in Caprica!Six's eyes at the end of this episode when she's thinking about love.) But guys, Sharon is my favorite. Every fucking thing about Sharon is my favorite.

Laura/Ellen could be quite interesting, not quite in an OTP way, but there are definitely flickers of chemistry.

And that's all I've got.

1x10 "The Hand of God"

I do not like snakes. YUCK.

Dee. She has TEARS IN HER EYES. I am in love. DEE. DEE!

HUGGINGHUGGINGTHEREWASHUGGINGDIDYOUSEE?

I really like celebrations. The bigger and more terrible the danger, the more awesome the celebration, which I love. I love Starbuck flipping out and hugging Roslin, and I love Roslin turning it back on her and hugging her sincerely. I love also that Adama Sr. didn't smile till he saw his son again. I love that little smile on Lee's face, the adorable Lee+Kara moment, and most especially Bill sympathizing with Kara about what it's like to be left behind, to call the shots and pray. And prayer. I love the importance of prayer.

I'm getting to that point in the season where detailed reactiony posts to each episode? Obviously aren't happening. This doesn't mean I'm not still enjoying it!

And Bill pushing Kara and keeping her back and... just... that whole scene in the gym? That was also made of win.

1x11 "Colonial Day"

Alex Zahara. The *original* sci-fi guest star of doom.

If there are human clones, maybe they're capable of complex emotions, maybe even love -- paraphrased Sharon. OH SHARON why are you so MY FAVORITE?

"I never thought you'd fit in with the bare-knuckled back-stabbing politicians. I guess I was wrong."

SharonSharonSharonSharonSharon.

Roslin.

SharonSharonSharonSharonSHARON.

Roslin.

Starbuck.

SHARON.

Etc.

Lee and Kara holding Valance in a poorly lit cell and threatening to throw him out of the airlock was hardcore, okay. HARDCORE. As is just about everything that Roslin does. My love for Gaius can only grow as he suddenly gets himself elected vice-president ("You'd missed the limelight, hadn't you?") and has a girlfriend who can kill him with his brain. And almost falls asleep at the first meeting until Six kicks him into action.

Helo finds out that Sharon is a Cylon. I don't understand why flashbacks are so heavily used during this arc. Barely anything happens and the things that do happen are reshown like thirteen times. I would guess it was a problem with getting one of the actors to commit to a heavy shooting cycle, but first season is a little early for that to be a problem.

Anyhow, I don't care about Helo. Whatever. SHARON YOU ARE SO AWESOME. "Maybe they were misled by their conditioning."

Roslin is totally hardcore. There is not a bendy bone in her body.

Is it just me, or was Kara dancing with Cally a bit? Aww. For aww.

1x12 "Kobol's Last Gleaming" (part 1)

..... and we're here! Last day before I go back to school! Last episode of the season! Eee!

"I thought we were just sparring."
"That's why you don't win."

Yay, an awesome teaser. Lee and Adama sparring (see above), Kara accidentally calls Lee's name while having sex with Gaius, Sharon (SHARON I LOVE YOU) with a gun in her mouth, Helo staring the women he thought he loved and holding a gun to her head... yeah, I can tell there will be kickass. (Though lots of bits from the credits look suspiciously like bits of the end of S2 Farscape.

"or is it a pirate ship you're running?"

... Kara's girlfriend got a sex change. Gvambat has a thing about transsexual cats (Um. That sounded more normal in my head) but transsexual spaceships are something special.

"cos I'm a screw-up, Lee, try to keep that in mind."


............BOOMER!!!!!

Not dead. Not even a little bit. Except on the inside. BOOMER!!

"Where'd she go?"
"Home."

Some moments, you do all your growing up, and this is Kara's. Oh. Kara. Oh. OH. And Roslin is so easily and cruelly and wonderfully manipulative.

The language and plotting really clicked together in this episode, and the focus on Boomer and her arc and on Starbuck and hers are making me happygirl; I also think I like Lee/Kara and should specify that it's the in-canon kind of liking; I don't feel OTP about it exactly, but when they throw those punches. Geez. And the scene with the "I gave you an order" and "I'm really sorry, sir." They're all ten kinds of screwed up.

I lovehatelove the way Kara's allegiances shift, from the more-than-father whom she trusted and loved, who's the way she was raised, who's everything she knows, to Laura Roslin, who's nothing like warm, who knows exactly how to play all her cards, who is crazy mysticism in the strangest body for it, who's... there's something about the Gods, who aren't the teraphim in Kara's locker, familiar, the way she was raised, but a larger, more epic religion, the cycle of time that's less concerned than Kara believed with the daily chores of living, and more concerned with Kara's larger role...

I love the complicated interplay of Adama's and Roslin's values, which can't easily be reduced to single words but which drive all the subordinate characters as they try to claim their place in the network of power and relation.

Mmmmyay.

"I *am* Sharon, and that's one of the things you need to understand." <3<3<3<3<3<3

"part 2"

"If she can turn Starbuck against us, she can do anything." <3

.... SHOW.STUPIDFRACKINGSHOW with the GODDAMN CLIFFS AND DEAD CHARACTERS. I need to get to bed pretty much now, and don't really have time to digest in writing the VERY LARGE number of things that happened in this episode with -- Caprica!Sharon is pregnant with Helo's baby, there is apparently a wee baby!Gaius/Six who is going to grow up to have the MOST ISSUES OF ANYONE, Gaius/Six is the most fracked up awesome pairing ever, Lee has the second most issues of anyone ever (and. and. and. his love for Roslin is so pure. His love for his father is kind of terrifying and gorgeous.

Boooooommmmerrrrrrrr. "We love you, Sharon. We always will." For creepy.

SHAAARRON. "I'm not a Cylon." I am made of 10x♥ for her.

++++++

So after S1, characters I loved:
+Sharon, as you might have noticed. On a scale of 1♥ to 10♥; she is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

+Bill Adama. Definitely at the very tippy top of the list.
+Starbuck. Whose awesome apparently really can't be textually conveyed.
+Roslin. I am less instantaneously enraptured with her than I was expecting. But she's still pretty awesome.
+Lee. He has lots of issues. And a funky relationship with Starbuck.

I also am really fond of Dee (once I discovered that she's actually Annie), like Callie though not as much as Alixtii does, am very fond of the Chief and think Helo is kind of useless.

I love Gaius Baltar and Six and their OTP so much, but they can't really be compared with less villainous characters in terms of favoriteness. I have different standards.

BOOOOOOOMERRRRRR.



Please don't spoil me past the end of S1. Thanks!

Comments

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Hee, I loved reading this. Your reactions to everything in S1 is practically everything I felt while watching it too. Every episode, every storyline, every character, every single hard decision made that led them to where they are now...it's just a wonderfully put-together show. Which is why I love it so much.

And yes, Sharon is love. ♥ Cylons are awesome, Six is sex (hee), Papa Adama and Roslin are made of total WIN. Oh, I can't WAIT for you to start season 2! :D

[wisdomeagle]

Oh, I can't WAIT for you to start season 2! :D

Me neeeeither!

it's just a wonderfully put-together show.

It really is.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Awww, you make me miss season 1.

I particularly like your assessment of Starbuck because I think it's really true -- Katee has an energy that isn't easy to convey in text; and, you know, as with the Buffyverse in a lot of ways, fic/fanon tends to be darker than the show is. I mean, there is a helluva lot of dark here, but there are also shiny moments, little rays of happiness, that tend to be overlooked as we remember it, and so on rewatching those catch us by surprise.

It's hard for me to talk character impressions because things changed for me so much over the course of this show -- though I'm pretty sure I considered season 1 to be the Kara and Roslin show, for all the reasons you mentioned. Well -- Kara and Roslin with special guest Tom Zarek. I'm not even sure I knew I had an underhanded politician kink until I saw "Colonial Day," and look at me now (umm, well, that's what I'm like in Marvel fandom).

[wisdomeagle]

fic/fanon tends to be darker than the show is.

Definitely true. (I kind of forget, for instance, that I really enjoy Spike in canon. Because I spose much like Katee, Marsters has charisma that cannot be textually conveyed.)

[carla-scribbles.livejournal.com]

<333333333333333333

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

What she said.

Also, YAY for company aboard the Bill/Kara crack express. Because really, he is not at all with the sane regarding Kara.

And really, everyone should heart Laura Roslin's shamelessly manipulative self. Because if you think she's politically ruthless NOW? You ain't seen nothing yet.

[wisdomeagle]

Yay!

But. But. SO NOT SANE. <3