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Unlike last weeks episode, this review was pretty simple to write. I was very happy with the screengrabs, and in retorspect should have done a few more. I’m also very proud of the post episode discussion (Dissecting the Episode) at the end of the review. The implications of a far superior Cylon FTL drive cannot be understated.
For your reading pleasure:
Nice review as always Headge!
And whadda setup episode for this week. 😈
And the transcript
Again, excellent review!
oooo, uh question? From these Cylon devices, we know now the Cylons wanted to save Galactica, why else put them on there. Was it because they had no access to the the other battlestars, was it because Boomer was there and they wanted to give her a chance to carry out her mission, but Six pointed Baltar to it in the mini and they removed it. Why save the Battlestar? To kill Adama? No, the plan is not fully fleshed out yet, be it the Boomer baby which I think was something the Cylons (or writers) kinda did after they got a pace to that story. Was it to give the Colonials a chance to find Kobol and to have them do all the leg work. I mean, if the Cylons knew about the arrow why didn’t they retrieve it for themselves on Caprica, unless a human can be the one to retrieve it. If it is to make the Colonials work, nice spin from robot’s doing it to humans doing the work.
Who planted it? The same one who told Adama there was 12 models. Boomer, no. There might be a hidden Cylon on this ship; I didn’t want to believe it, but now. Hmmmm. This baby was not the only plan, nor the Kobol find. They want something. They want Earth.
may be the reasoning is that they could put Cylons and Cylon hybrids in power and then get a better reception on Earth. Otherwise they do it themselves.
Or…..or the Cylons have been to Earth and found them much more receptive than Colonials but somehow Cylons stood out. I mean show up on our doorstep, in a space ship, if Earth has the technlogy they’ll blow them out of the sky as we are wont to do of anything we don’t understand 🙄 So, the Cylons lost their way ’cause the early toasters went boom on Earth, and learning from that and taking the Galactica which is an older ship which may be what humans can relate to more than the modern ships, they bring a treat, a gift for Earth. A sky filled with ships and more human-like inhabitants for more acceptance.
The systematically reduce the numbers so Earthlings will not be overwhelmed and they put Cylon supporters in power.
The fight for Kobol will not be only with Cylons. Adama will want to try to settle on Kobol, Roslin will push for Earth. Roslin will get Cylon help via drug or not because it fits their plan, which means get rid if Adama and in the chaos and Tigh in command (with Ellen at his side) they may get Roslin back in power but with Tigh at least he’s neutralized. Plan B if Baltar does not toe the line, Zarek.
Will Zarek settle for Kobol or go for Earth? Wherever he can be in charge, that boy loves power and loves to wield it. if the Cylon’s offer him something good, he might back their agenda.Thought just food for thought to chomp on with your jellybeans 😉
Here is my review for Kobols Last Gleaming Part I
“Kobols Last Gleaming; Part I”
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We begin with a four part montage intercut teaser;
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-Lee and Bill Adama box each other; hitting each other smartly, and asking each other stupidly, “Are you all right?”-Kara Thrace appears in the throws of passion with some schmuck.
-On Caprica, Karlo Agathon runs along, still flashback befuddled; until he is intercepted by Caprica Sharon.
Battlestar Boomer sits with her gun, contemplating a programming loop,-should she or shouldn’t she eat it?
Right away, it is obvious : there is no joy in Colonialville. This will be a grim episode.
Bill knocks Lee on his ass. Lee gets up and Bill(father talking to son), tells him that the reason that Lee was on the floor looking up is “you didn’t let go.” Lee, misunderstanding his father thinks it is praise. It is no surprise to see Lee’s hurt at the correction, when the old battlestar commander explains, senior officer to junior, where Lee’s mistake lies.
Kara cries out “Lee” and surprise(not) we see the same hurt on Gaius Baltar’s face. Six, the Heifer appears, and the same look appears on her face.(Get used to it, folks. It is the episode’s overriding theme.).
After confronting each other, with loaded guns, Caprica MARK IV TOASTER and Helo exchange a painful interlude of recriminations. Sharon holsters hers and urges Helo to shoot her. He does.
Battlestar Sharon chickens out: for the moment…..
BETRAYAL
The theme continues into act one.
Enter Laura Roslin in the old MRI machine. If we didn’t know before, we do now. She has six months to live. This is something that she finally admits to Elosha, the priestess. Elosha, who up to this point has been more or less a secularized protestant type of clergyperson, now has to confront the “facts” of her religion. But we get a little ahead of ourselves.
Battlestar Boomer is called away from her decision loop, to pilot a Raptor reconnaissance mission. If you have been keeping score, our little Raptor pilot has found the Ragtag Fleet’s water, fuel, fought and won a major countermeasures/counter countermeasures battle with the Cylons at the Battle of the Tylium Asteroid fuel processor plant, and has a well deserved reputation as one of the Colonial’s best warriors(^1). Too bad she is a Cylon.
Battlestar Boomer flies her mission with her new favorite DRADIS(^2) operator, Crashdown, into a patented Lieutenant Gaeta in-jump. Lo and behold, amidst a panicky orbital insertion, Crashdown and Battlestar Valleri exchange speculationsa as to the planet they find. Little Sharon knows, “Its more important than Earth.”
Like many things our little Raptor pilot gets right, she gets it “wrong”.
On the “Starbuck”(^3) front, things aren’t so sweet, either. She walks into a cardgame of triad(^4) where the two bantam roosters, Lee and Gaius,(Zach/Gaius(^5) to those who have previously read these reviews.) butt heads competitively. Baltar, who is a card counter, as well as a genius, tells Lee, “You can’t compete with me.” and lowers the boom on Kara by telling her “thats Miser Vice President to you.” The yessir from Kara is suspiciously like the one she will give later to Lee.
Things from here, go downhill fast.
We jump into act two.
Return again to Laura Roslin, who by now has made her religious conversion,(Thanks to her Kamala leaf extract hallucinations.) She pours over some photos from the planet Battlestar Sharon surveyed. With her are Elosha and Billy Keikaya. The Kamala is working overtime. Laura sees the Capital of the “gods” that used to be on Kobol in the photo.
Elosha pulls out the Caprican “bible” and we get an illustration match between Laura’s hallucination and the “Opera House temple” that was on Kobol. At this moment out of left field comes an arrow hallucination.
Later, Billy confronts President Roslin and calls her on the carpet concerning a harebrained scheme involving this “Arrow of Apollo”(^6 ) and the captured Cylon Raider. In effect Billy questions whether Roslin has taken leave of her senses, arguing that Roslin threatens to betray
everything thar he and she tried to accomplish.Back to Baltar we go.
Things for Mister Vice President have been rather routine for him. He goes looking for Kara(Who knows why? Apparently Battlestar Sharon isn’t the only one trying to punch a ticket into the hereafter.) and finds the little Raptor pilot “cleaning her gun”. In a Zachary Smith move that ranks right down there with over the top self-interest, Gaius “suggests” that the poor little Cylon follow her heart’s inclination.
Six, the Heifer, for the second time appears and comments this time to Baltar as she earlier on Caprica to Darlow, that the Boomer MARK IV TOASTER is weak-but she will carry out her programming as she is a Cylon. Baltar ignores her and tries his gambit anyway.
BANG.
Baltar walking away doesn’t flinch, but a surprised and shocked Heifer does .
Caprica Boomer interlude;Poor Caprica TOASTER MARK IV huddles in the rain. A vengeful Agathon has no sympathy for the shivering “toaster”. He rails at her. He won’t acknowledge her suffering, emotionally or physically. In some ways he acts as monstrously as any Centurion he has previously shot. When the wounded Sharon tries to explain that she is more than he imagines or believes, she gets a pistol shot past her eyes for her pleading. Betrayal is on three levels, here, folks. Caprica Sharon betrays her Cylon programming by her love for “Helo”. She betrays the Cylon plan by refusing to labrat her love. Karlo betrays his humanity by acting without mercy-either in killing the “toaster” or showing her compassion.
Yet more Baltar:
The next time we see old Zachary/Gaius, he meets with Laura Roslin and Billy Keikaya for a government in-brief to bring him up to speed as Vice President, if Roslin dies. The Heifer appears to announce to Gaius that her needs to get off the “Galactica” as it is no longer safe.
Gaius goes into a rebellious puppet routine. He rants that he doesn’t work for whom? Both Laura and the Heifer have the same look.(Yes that look again.).
Later in the executive bathroom of Colonial One, the Heifer slams Baltar, headfirst, into a mirror and warns him again to get off the Galactica .(That at least answers the chip question. She is inside Baltar’s head.).
The Second Go-Around at Kobo going into act three
William Adama dispatches a three Raptor(^7) survey group to determine if the planet is suitable for settlement. His best Raptor pilot isn’t going. She shot her cheek out while “cleaning her gun.”
In the planning for the survey expedition: involving Adama , the elder, Roslin, and their respective entourages, Gaius weasels his way onto the expedition. For the third time the Heifer warns him to get off Galactica. Gaius listens at last and acts to save himself-even though he may not understand the why of it.
Meanwhile Battlestar Boomer is visited by Chief Tyrol. She and he, exchange final pleasantries. Foursquare Tyrol doesn’t believe her “clean her gun” story and offers to get Sharon help, but betrayed Sharon “dismisses” him. There is that salute again!
As for the Raptor group, they in-jump next to a Cylon base star and a horde of Raiders. One Raptor dies in a collision, one under orders, out-jumps and guess which one is headed for a planet “crashdown”?(pun intended).
Gaius rides it in, getting in everybody’s way as Crashdown tries to clear the pilot out of the seat and make planetary entry before the canopy fails.
The returning Raptor brings the news of betrayal to the battlestar.
Gee, one wonders who told the Cylons where Kobol was?
On the Lee, Kara front:
The two of them confront each other in the starboard hanger bay. Kara is loading what looks like 12.7 mm machine gun ammunition into the Cylon Raider. She and Lee fight over the Baltar fling.
This is Lee’s second boxing lesson and once again he fails to learn. He gets hit far harder than the counter-punch he threw at Kara.
Later as William and Lee Adama discuss plans for rescuing their shotdown Raptor on Kobol, Colonel Tigh mentions that Kara worked up a plan of rescue(what else would you expect from the Colonial’s best tactician? After the evidence from The Hand of God would you expect less?). Lee, feeling betrayed, goes off to confront Kara, yet again! This time it is his professional pride that is hurt. He dresses her down about the chain of command, tries to humiliate her with “cadet” discipline and generally makes himself look like the small man he actually is. Once more the Baltar incident comes up and we see(all too obviously) the real reason for Lee’s sense of betrayal.
Somehow, in all of this, the captured Cylon Raider has to play a role in the overriding theme.
It will.
For you see, Laura Roslin’s plan involves the Raider and by extension, Kara Thrace.
Laura, at least, has the honor to try and negotiate with William Adama for the use of the Raider. She lays out her reasons and her logic.
The “Husker”(^8) thinks she is crazy. He politely, with reasonable speech, tells her so.
She, in spite of William’s polite warning, plans to impose her will, anyway. Remembering Kara from “Flesh and Bone”. Laura plans to prey on Kara’s religiousness to get her, that is Laura’s, way.
Poor Billy is made the errand boy to get Thrace despite his remonstrations to Laura about the political consequences of such an act.
Seeing the ruthlessness of the President, did anyone doubt that Laura would use Kara’s loyalty and belief in honor to betray “Starbuck” into doing Roslin’s will?
So Kara asks William Adama “How long until we reach Earth?”
He lies.
Comes the weapons test with the Raider, and the scrambled communication to William Adama, “I believed you!”
Kara out-jumps leaving “Apollo” with his Viper and his jaw hanging.
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Good things.
The writing. Enough said.
The acting. Everyone, except James Callis, rose to the challenge-especially the Heifer. Tricia Helfer had little dialogue to screw up, but she has plainly been on a hyperbolic course developing her role over the last three episodes. She still mangles lines, but she no longer looks or acts like a stiff mannequin. There was genuine jealousy and anger emoted; and I believed, it when she portrayed herself as hurt and betrayed by Baltar’s romp with Kara.
The CGI was very good-especially the Raptor/Raider furball.
No obvious Ron Moore cliches or ripoffs for once.(OOPS see the footnotes. D.)
The music is getting better-especially the classical music mixed to the opening teaser.
Bad things.
The camera work needs to compromise a little. I know that Ron Moore that Ron Moore likes the closeup and the free camera style, but if an episode screamed out for tripod mid group shots, this one was it. This was especially true of the chaos in the falling Raptor heading in to crash on Kobol. The chaos of bodies tumbling around in the Raptor needed steady camera work not to lose the eye.watching it.
James Callis, still clowns the part of Baltar. That rant he gave in the scene with Mary McDonnell and Tricia Helfer when he whines about not working for the both of them was pure “Richard the Third” villain scenery chewing and was AWFUL. It was an embarassment to the otherwise superb work put out by everyone-including and especially the Heifer.
Curiosities
If the Colonials left Kobol two thousand years ago and Kobol is within two hundred lightyears of Caprica, how soon after their exodus did they make planetfall?
Did I miss something or did Elosha mention a war among the “gods” that preceded the Colonial’s original Exodus?
Did anybody notice the “bombed” nature of the ruins on Kobol?
Though I never covered it in the body of this review, the importance of those Cylon transponders that Lieutenant Gaeta has finally analyzed forms the basis of Kara’s Kamikaze plan to use the Raider to smuggle a bomb aboard the Cylon base star orbiting Kobol. Did anybody notice that Kara had her plan ready before Gaeta explained the identification friend or foe feature to William Adama?
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^1. Its not hard to really cheer for both Boomers. Still, you wonder how much of Battlestar Sharon’s heroics are her own or what the Cylons let her accomplish?^2. DRADIS: Direction, RAnge and DIStance; what the Colonials use for radar.
^3. “STARBUCK” With Kara I am having a hard time resisting the nickname “STARDOE”. Up to the moment EVERYBODY has picked on poor little Kara. Laura Roslin’s bullying on top of the Lee Adama/Gaius Baltar chivying just sent my sympathy meter pegging into the red zone with regards to her. In the past we have seen William Adama turn to her to do ALL of the hard lifting and the dirty work. In this series, the only one who is more dumped on is Boomer(Battlestar Sharon or Caprica Valleri; either one.)
^4. Ron Moore screwed up. He confused the card game of Pyramid with the sports game of Triad. So in the new series when they play the sport of Triad it will be Pyramid.
^5. For those of you who missed it previously, James Callis is acting very much in the vein of the comedic villain Zachary Smith as portrayed by Jonathan Harris of “Lost in Space” fame.
^6. The “Arrow of Apollo”. Where did this come from? Now we get an artifact that once put into an archaeological dig points the way to Earth?(So I was wrong! Ron Moore did have his weekly cliche ripoff. Can one say “Raiders of the Lost Ark”?)
^7. Along with a Viper shortage, the Colonials are soon to suffer a Raptor shortage. Not counting the eighteen so Viper pilots killed to this point and the ten Vipers lost due to all causes, we can now add two Raptors with their pilots from the Galactica flight wing.
^8. “Husker” was apparently William Adama’s callsign when he flew against the Cylons in the first war.
Postscript:
SPOILERS for Kobold’s Last Gleaming Part II
For those of you who hypthesized the the Galactica would be spared by the Cylon transponder that was originally installed in her during the mini-series?
It isn’t so.
For proof I refer you to the Battle of Ragnar Station. The transponder offered no defense there.
The identification friend or foe feature of the transponder allows Cylons to recognize each other at short range. That is all.
As you will discover, it takes a countermeasures platform(a Raptor) and a CYLON to make it work at long range.
damocles wrote:Here is my review for Kobols Last Gleaming Part I
And I’ve added it to the site.
damocles cool review can be found here:
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