Most favorite BSG ep so far!

[thistlechaser]

I wanted to stop in the middle of the ep and post, but I wasn't sure if things would change and besides if I stopped then I'd have had to stop watching!

Unfinished Business, the boxing/flashback ep. I wouldn't have thought I'd like it, since there was zero plot progress. "Nothing happened" sort of... except somehow a lot did. All the flashbacks to New Caprica... I hadn't had any idea that things were happy there in the beginning. I had pretty much thought it went from grubbing in the dirt to unhappy unions about to go on strike to the cylons coming back and attacking.

And the darned relationships. Idiot, idiot Starbuck. I'm torn between being annoyed at her because she's so emotionally stupid to feeling bad for her because she's somehow become so damaged.

I'm pretty sure I read that Starbuck was male in the original series, which is really interesting to know. When I first started watching BSG, I had made a post elsewhere asking what the slash pairings were (I was seeing none, but I thought maybe it was because I was so early on in the series). Someone mentioned that Starbuck was so masculine that her/any guy was basically slash. At the time I hadn't understood how correct that was.

(Also, I wonder how the original series was? Has anyone watched it? Is it worth checking out?)

I'm feeling worse and worse for Dee, too. She seems so unhappy now. (Duh, with her husband all UST with some other girl...) I'm probably just projecting my own feelings, but I wonder if the writers are making this punishment for her not picking Billy over Lee.

Back in one of my first posts about BSG, I had called the series "satisfyingly dark". It's still that, only now in a different way. All these relationships feel so doomed (except Bill and Laura, eeee!).

I haven't yet stopped making progress in the series to rewatch an ep, but I think this one might be the first one. I really, really want to keep going and find out more, but I loved this one so much... (I wish I had been following the series from the beginning so I could linger over eps for a whole week. Rewatching them, talking about them with others...)

Edit: I fail at avoiding the wiki. I had to look up the planet name to make sure I was spelling it right, and found this out about the ep:
Writer Michael Taylor received a nomination for the 2007 Nebula Award in the script category for this episode.

An extended version of this episode with 25 minutes of extra footage was included on the Region 1 DVD release Battlestar Galactica - Season Three.

Doesn't surprise me that the script was nomination for an award! And that seals it, I have to order these DVDs now now now. I bet there are other eps that have extended versions! To Amazon I go~!

Comments

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

Yep, Starbuck was male in the original series. Also, the guy who plays Tom Zarek in the current series played Apollo in the original series. That's about all I know regarding the original, since I haven't seen it, although it's supposedly rather cheesy late 70's sci-fi. The older Cylon models from the first Cylon war are a tribute to the Cylons from the original series.

Poor Dee. Like I said, things really go downhill for her once Billy died. I felt like the whole plot with her and Apollo was very, very forced. I'd say he and Starbuck should just hook up and get it over with, except that she's so messed up. Things get slightly better for her, but then they get a lot worse.

Adama and Roslin are so cute together. Not something I would have thought of in the beginning of the second season when he threw her in prison. ;p But they've changed over time and now they work really well.

And yeah, the extended version of this episode is quite enjoyable.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I felt like the whole plot with her and Apollo was very, very forced. I'd say he and Starbuck should just hook up and get it over with, except that she's so messed up.

Agreed on both parts of that. Dee feels like her character changed... though I suppose it really could have, with all the stuff they've had to go through...

[kelen.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind the bad 70's hair, poor special effects, it being HORRIBLY sexist, rather basic plots with little characterization.. then it's worth watching. ;)

This said I grew up on BSG, and have incredibly fond memories as a child of breathlessly waiting every week to see it. It's not even two whole seasons long, and breaks down about halfway through the second into kind of WTF. (Least as I remember, and with my memory.. I could be remembering wrong.)

The new series is so superior in every way that I believe you may be sorely disappointed in the original. I've rewatched some of the old ones only to go.. 'I enjoyed this?'. ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh god, hee! I was thinking/hoping it'd be the same storyline with different actors and worse effects.

I might have to check out an ep or two just to see how bad it was! :P

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

The original series is campy and fun. It's better than its contemporaries - Buck Rodgers, Space 1999? Definitely cashing in on the Star Wars phenomena in a big way. It actually starts off pretty good, with (familiarly) the destruction of the colonies by the cylons (who looked exclusively like big shiny robot men), but the series loses focus quickly and they end up having wild-west adventures on all sorts of inhabited planets. It's still fun, but it's only vaguely the same genre as new BSG. :) It's like the original Star Trek with less thinking and more action.

And then they made the mistake of getting to earth, where there's an active war going on between, who cares, it got real stupid real quick.

And then there's a followup series, Galactica 1980. It involves mostly a group of kids, from Galactica, that have come to earth in secret. They can jump really high for some reason (like 80 foot jumps.) They have adventures. It's tremendously awful. It makes grown men cry.

All of this is available on DVD, and Netflix has 'em. But don't expect award-winning quality, other than special effects which were good for the late 70s.

Oh! And the actor playing Tom Zarek? (Hiss) He plays Apollo in the original, so there's that!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

And then there's a followup series, Galactica 1980. It involves mostly a group of kids, from Galactica, that have come to earth in secret. They can jump really high for some reason (like 80 foot jumps.) They have adventures. It's tremendously awful. It makes grown men cry.

....*dies* Oh wow, that sounds so painfully bad! :D :D

[tersa.livejournal.com]

What Kelen said. Again. The original BSG has very little resemblence to the current incarnation, outside of rudimentary structure. I don't recall much about it, except that my memory of it was pretty typical of 70's scifi.

Except Dirk Benedict, the actor for the original Starbuck (who went on to play Face in "The A-Team") was smokin' hot. To add to what kamalloy said, Zarek (Richard Hatch) played the original Apollo (who I don't think was actually Adama's son in the original version, just like a son), and had been trying for years, on his own, to get it revived on TV. I believe he was initially angry that someone else (Moore) had gotten the rights to the modern day version, but eventually was sold on the concept and joined in as Zarek. At the beginning, I'd hoped Benedict might come in in a cameo as Starbuck's father, but I've since heard a rumor he's ticked off at the new show, so probably not. *sad*

And now that I've posted that bit of fluff...I think I'm going to go watch the most recent ep online, since I didn't get to see it Friday. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah drat. Oh well! Maybe I'll download an ep or two just to see how different it was. :D

[machinegirl.livejournal.com]

I loved the scenes with Adama and Roslin hanging out and smoking pot. Because you know that's what it was. I love those two so hard.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*snickers* Heh!

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Boomer was a black man, and the original Starbuck was played by Dirk Benedict as Tersa stated -- if you ever watched the A Team he was Face. :) Mister Zarek was the original Apollo and has been trying for a revival of the series since it went off the air...also as stated by Tersa. :)

Several of the season one eps were homages to the original series btw. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, huh! Thanks for the info. I think once I'm done I'll check out an ep or two of the old one. :)