This year's mid-season Galactica cliffhanger is very similar to last year's. Sure, last year it was internal Colonial strife with Pegasus and this year it's the Cylons, but other than that, it's pretty much the same sort of standoff.
It may not be fresh or innovative but I can tell you one thing--it worked. I'm already counting down days until Galactica returns on Jan 21 (two days after my b'day...so happy b'day to me!).
At least this time around, the mid-season cliffhanger didn't feel disjointed. Last year's suffered from being too long to run in an hour slot but too short to pad out to an hour and a half. This year's felt like the pacing was better with a lot of big revelations hitting the fan. Sharon knows Hera is alive, Baltar breaks up with Six (yeah, that's not going to end well) and both sides discover a clue on the quest to find Earth. Oh yeah and the star close to the planet they're orbiting--about to go nova. For a minute, I thought that would be part of the cliffhanger as well, between Adama wanting to nuke the planet, suddenly the star would go nova. I have a feeling this was thrown in as a way to end this standoff between the humans and Cylons without having them all sit around the planet for the next six years, staring each other down.
Relationships seem to be changing on the show--and I'm not just talking Lee and Kara. If there was a weak link to the storyline, it was the soap opera nature of this plotline. Lee is all guilty because he's cheating on his wife and is ready to leave her for Starbuck. Meanwhile, Anders knows Starbuck is cheating and somehow doesn't seem to care. He knew what he was signing up for when they got married. If the show takes the easy way out of this and kills off Anders I'm going to be upset. Meanwhile, Dee just gives everyone the evil eye.
And who'd've figured that Kara would get shot down and Lee and Anders would have a conflict over rescuing her? This plotline needs to do something unexpected and shake things up.
Oh the consequences to the decisions.
Which is really what this one is all about. Roslin faces the fall-out of hiding Hera, Baltar faces the consequences of the side he's chosen and everyone is in conflict. It's just a normal day on Galactica. And we haven't even covered the Cylons, who are all conflicted. The love triangle with Baltar, D'Ana and Six reaches a breaking point (seriously, how lucky is Baltar--betray humanity and you get a three-way with Six and Xena...what the frak?!?) and Baltar choses D'ana..for now. The thing with Baltar is he changes loyalties more often then most of us change socks so don't expect this switch to last long. And in case you haven't heard, there is a big death coming in the back nine of the season. I'm calling it right now as D'Ana. (I bet it ties into this temple of five somehow)
I did love Baltar's return to Galactica and his realization he'll never be accepted back. It's intereting how Baltar desparately wants the acceptance and respect of women he perceives as powerful--Six, D'Ana, and Laura. Roslin's walking out on him, dismissing him was far more hurtful to his pride and ego than a slap in the face. And you could see it on Baltar's face. Add to it the look of fear and terror he got when Cavill offered him as part of the deal should Galactica leave. I know it won't happen but James Callis deserves an Emmy nod for that scene alone.
As does Edward James Olmos, who proves once again this his Adama is the baddest sci-fi commander since Kirk and a man you don't want to frak with.
So, while it was, in some ways, a repeat of last year's mid-season cliffhanger, I found myself not really that upset about it. Plotlines are moving forward and if the follow-up proves to be half as good as "Resurrection Ship" was to "Pegaus" last year, we're in for treat come January.
Labels: battlestar galactica, tv shows
posted by Michael Hickerson at 12/21/2006 01:24:00 PM |
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