BSG - Acts of Contrition

[TheStarWarsTrek]

Weird choice for a first topic seeing as how I've only seen chuck's reviews, not the show, but I didn't see anything made for it yet and wanted to discuss one thing in particular.

Specifically, the accident. I know, Galactica was being turned into a museum, and everyone's been pretty busy. But still, a missile is knocked to the floor, and that causes it to launch? I'm no military or history buff, but I'd think there are more safety precautions.

. . . However, right after I typed all that stuff up, I looked online for a recap and it's apparently not a missile, but a "communication drone", so maybe that makes it a bit better?

[Madner Kami]

In real military terms? No, shit like this isn't stored "launch ready" and going off at the first poke. Think of the pin in hand grenades that you need to pull first, in order to unlock the mechanic that lits the fuse. At the very least, similar mechanics are used in practically every ordnance for obvious reasons and simply dropping to the floor, due to a faulty racket, wouldn't activate this stuff that easily.

Personally, I'd argue that Galactica gets away with this not just because it was supposed to be a museum, but the crew and personell are not exactly top notch, especially when it comes to the mechanical staff, which was bolstered by civilian personell in the first place (I vaguely remember them mentioning that), so it's not hard to imagine that someone somewhere screwed up because he didn't know any better and simply nothing had happened yet by chance. As pointed out earlier, just because the rack failed and dropped the rocket or drone to the floor, that wouldn't lead to an activation.

[Independent George]

On the other hand, you have things like the USS Forrestal fire happening in real life, too. Or, heck, the USS John S. McCain colliding with an oil tanker a couple years ago. Random stuff happens, sometimes to disastrous effect.

[FlynnTaggart]

While the quality of writing and plot development for Neo-BSG was highly mixed watching this review I remember atleast for me one of the real draws for the show, the high quality acting. That Kara/Adama scene still hits me hard.

That Joy Seeking rocket (from the makers of the anti-cute mine) falling and going off doesn't shock me. Everyone on the ship doesn't seem all that high quality (if I remember correctly Galactica was where all the screw-ups tended to end up) and probably don't have the best quality equipment. So a bunch of old museum pieces serviced by drunks and losers who were probably not born when that equipment was standard issue is going to lead to some heavy screw-ups. The rocket probably had a safety mechanism to prevent a "negligent discharge" back when it was made 30 or so years ago but has probably failed over time or just broken by shoddy maintenance work (if it was some sort of drone it might be reusable thus helping to explain why its in bad enough shape to just launch from falling).

[Mickey_Rat15]

The impression given was that the crew prior to the Cylon attack on the Colonies had a case of senioritis. They were all going to be reassigned soon, s they did not care. That does not really sync with how insistant Adama is on manual landings in the miniseries. However, you might think they would have had that knocked out of by the events at Ragnar and "33". Perhaps they are still getting over fatigue from that and having despair hit them and are not doing their jobs properly.

I have reading a book on the Battle of Midway that describes how the IJN armed their planes. The bombs were not even assembled until the last possible moment before they were loaded.

There is that moment where Lee realizes he stepped on that emotional landmine with bad pronoun assumptions and bugs out.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Ah, that Adama stare.

As far as the accident, exactly how it happened is a minor, unimportant detail. The point is that the same people who were celebrating someone actually managing to do decent work were killed because collectively they still weren't competent enough to avoid sloppy mistakes and, ultimately, tragic accidents. Which makes the task of training even less qualified people pretty daunting, particularly for someone like Starbuck. She's eaten up with guilt about Zack, and he probably looked like Max Immelmann compared to the clowns she's being ordered to train now.

One thing I always liked about BSG compared to any of the Trek shows is that the tertiary and peripheral characters actually stick around and have their own small moments of characterization and growth. Flat Top, the pilot killed in the opening, had been seen before, and each of the trainees Starbuck mentors here will continue to appear in the background- occasionally being thrust into the limelight for one reason or another.

I will always defend the show's last couple of seasons too, but the first two seasons are just classic, on a level that not much sci-fi, or tv period, could hope for. The acting, the characterizations, the tension arising from the situation, everything was working on all cylinders at this point.

[Independent George]

I tend to think of early/late BSG as separate shows - the first two were excellent science fiction, the last two were excellent fantastic space opera. If only they hadn't declared "And they have a plan" from the beginning... it would still be two irritatingly different shows, but I'd have felt less cheated by the sudden delve into overt mysticism to write them out of a corner.

The ending still blows, though. I'm still angry about it all these years later.

[Admiral X]

Honestly the accident was just a plot device to force what should have been an already existing issue. The fact is they took losses in every battle, and while the Cylons can keep coming back with more, Galactica only had so many pilots and their numbers dwindled with every battle. So they needed more. I'm not entirely sure what to think about them putting the extra drama on there with Kara's issues with Zach making her just want to reject all the pilot candidates.

[Nobody700]

I remember hearing that the beginning scene was made because the producers wanted something happy and the creator of the show killed them all in retaliation.

Honestly... that doesn't sound good. It sounds childish. The actual deaths of it did have an impact and I will admit the actual story is good (if a little dumb with some stuff, like how Starbuck is still the one coaching them after she was the one who kicked them out. I know they have a lack of experience flight pilots after but you’d think Adama would get someone else to teach them to prevent her just washing them out for a different reason or even more likely, have someone see if they DO deserve to be washed out) the actual story is there because the creator of the show had a hissy fit. Yeah, I hate having producers tell a person what to do for a show, but when your reaction is ‘have people smile’ and then proceed to go ‘I’LL KILL THEM ALL AND MAKE THE EPISODE ABOUT A WOMAN BEING UNABLE TO GET OVER HER DEAD FIANCÉ!’ I’m not impressed by the storytelling, i’m In pain from the edge.

I tried watching the show and I just found it boring and bleak. Still, this isn’t the worst Sci-Fi show ever. Hell, it’s still better then some Debris has reviewed in fact.

[RobbyB1982]

but I'd have felt less cheated by the sudden delve into overt mysticism to write them out of a corner.

People complain about the mysticism, but from nearly the very start Baltar is told an explicit mystical fact that turns out to be true at the end. (Trying to be vague to avoid spoilers.) Sure, the audience takes it as just a line of misleading dialogue, but it holds up through the rest of the series without contradicting itself.

But even putting that aside, because you can say that line was just intended as a misdirect, from the start you also have the President being VERY religious, including making many many major command decisions based on faith and prophecies, and doing things that, had it not turned out to actually be mythically correct, would have doomed the human race and absolutely warranted removing her from office. (Particularly at the end of the first season.) But, as it turns out, her maguffins and maps and magical relics really do exist and they really are explicitly what she thought, so...

I think its a lot like LOST, another series peple famously don't like the ending to even though its perfectly fine. Where the show from the start has "religion and magic is a chunk of the answer" as part of the final outcome, but people wanted and expected a science fiction fact-like resolution instead, so the mix of sci-fi and religion really puts them off.