The Hand of God For the second time this season, the subject of dwindling supplies comes up. Previously, we heard about the desparate search for water. This time around, the search is just as desparate as the crew attempts to find fuel to power the faster than light drives and keep one-step ahead of the Cylons. The good news is--they find an asteroid teaming with enough fuel to power the fleet for years. The bad news--the Cylons are guarding it. Adama decides that instead of looking elsewhere and possibly running out of fuel, that the best course of action is an attack on the Cylon base.
It's a relatively simple premise for the show--either we get the fuel and defeat the Cylons here or the fleet is all doomed. There's no middle area there. The Galactica can get away, but if they are forced to do so, they're pretty much left dead in the water. And yet, it worked very well. For the past nine episodes, we've been getting to know all the various personalities in the show, so that when they're all called on to work together in the crisis here, you can see how the team dynamics all work. I like that Lee and Tigh are pretty much by the book thinkers and that we have to go with Starbuck for an more unconventional approach to open the back door for the Cylons. Then, to see Lee go and "pull a Starbuck" (my phrase, not used in the show) once the backdoor is open was nicely done. It's nice to see and feel a sense of urgency and almost desparation to these actions. Why else would Lee fly through the base's structure that way to get to the fuel tanks? Also, there was a lot of tension from the fact that even if Lee pulls off this fancy flying, it might not be the right target since Baltar just made up an answer to cover his own allegances with the Cylons.
Which brings up some interesting questions for me. I'm not 100% sure about this, but does the Six in Baltar's subconsious have any way of reporting back what is happening on Galactica to the Cylons--aka the Harvey clone of Scorpius from
Farscape. If that's true, then that brings the "need to know" nature of the attacks and the real plan into a bit better foucs. Interesting to see who Adama trusts and who he doesn't--which includes not trusting Baltar and Roslin. It's a curious moment for me and not one that I remember how it was addressed from the mini-series.
I also liked Baltar's "logical" conclusion that he is an instrument of god, since he was able to help the crew and keep his cover. In a series that is just full of fascintating, complex characters, Baltar becomes more and more intriguing each week. I wonder how much longer he can keep his fooling the crew--or if he is. I have a feeling while Baltar thinks he's getting away with fooling Adama and company that his behavoir is becoming too out there to ignore much longer. Especially in light of the accusations of being a traitor a few weeks ago. Again, I point out the scene where Roslin tells Baltar that his being a traitor just "feels right."
And while I loved the space battles--easily some of the most fluid and easy to follow since the hey-dey of Babylon Five--it was the character moments that excelled. Adama's pushing Starbuck to show her she's not ready to be out there flying again, Baltar's interaction with Six and his conclusions, Adama and Lee and even Hilo and Boomer. The nine episdoes and the mini-series felt like a set-up for this and we got one heck of a payoff here.
Another week, another outstanding episode. I can't believe we only have three new episodes left for this season.
A bit of an odd note--was it just me or did the theme music change a bit? I know that we get snippets of the episode in the opening credits, but it seemed like this week, the overall theme music was slightly tweaked. It's almost as if they wanted it to reflect the mood of the episode. Anyone else notice that?
posted by Michael Hickerson at 3/14/2005 11:00:00 AM |
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