Sat, 18 Nov 2006 15:22:00
Battlestar Galactica - Hero - Upon further reflection plus an open letter to the show
Something is bothering me about last night’s episode. I think the writers are playing soap opera time dilation games. Think back - Adama was commanding Galactica, which was being decommissioned the day of the Cylon nuke attack. Adama was retiring. At that time, Adama was portrayed as having been in command of Galactica by choice due to her lack of network technology. It was also implied that he’d been there for some time.
Now flash forward to Boomer’s shooting of Adama. Remember, it was only weeks after the attack on the 12 Colonies. What was the one thing everyone kept saying? That Sharon had served on the ship with all of them for the last two years and how could she betray the Old Man after all that time together, etc. Again, directly implying that Adama was in command of Galactica and of Boomer for at least two years prior to the nuke attack.
How does that reconcile with the timeline we were given last night? If Bill Adama was so against networked, modern Battlestars, what the hell was he doing commanding one just a year before we know he was in command of Galactica? The lesson about technology would have been one he learned over 37 years earlier during the first Cylon War. Think about it. Cylons weren’t heard from for 40 years. Adama was commanding the Valkyrie 3 years before the nuke attack. So the last time anyone fought a Cylon was 37 years earlier. Are we meant to think that sometime between losing command of the Valkyrie and taking command of Galactica, Bill’s preference for non-networked Battlestars became common knowledge? Are we meant to think he didn’t develop the preference until then? That makes no sense, but neither does seeing Bill Adama in the CIC of a modern, networked battlestar.
Was he made to switch over to the old ship as punishment? If so, that’s no punishment at all since it was already established in many, many episodes that Adama preferred a non-networked, old-school technology ship so as to be unhackable to the Cylons.
As near as I can tell, no matter how you look at it, we have some sloppy writing here. Again. Dammit, I expect better from this show! Let’s have some asses wiggling, I want some perfection! /morrisday
And now, the open letter to the show:
Dear Battlestar Galactica production team,
We realize it must be maddening to work so hard on a show and the morning after it airs, wake up to find hundreds of people online finding dozens of little flaws in your baby, questioning your skill and generally second-guessing everything you do.
We nitpick your show because you set the bar so high. We nitpick because we love. We nitpick because you are better than the average continuing dramatic series, and we nitpick because we know for a fact, based on past performance, that you are capable of reaching the standards that you have taught us to expect.
We also nitpick because of shows like The X-Files, which were once glorious and fell prey to their own ponderous weight and the egos of their creators. It would be a crime against television history to let the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica become a mere shell of what it once was. As fans, we urge you to be diligent and nitpick as hard as we do, and for the same reasons, because you know what you have can be great.
It’s all in the details. The big things will generally take care of themselves as they must to service the main story. Keep a close eye on the details.
Love and financial support,
The Fans.
Posted by JimK at 03:22 PM on November 18, 2006
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Categories: Television, Battlestar Galactica
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Comments:
#2 Posted by iuqiddis 
on 11/18 at 06:56 PM -
I agree with you that the writers screwed up the timeline as to when or how long has Adama been commanding Galactica. Maybe they can fix their own mistakes later on.
Regarding the Valkyrie, I don’t think having a better ship and a non-networked ship are mutually exclusive. After all, Pegasus was non-networked all this time. And it was still technologically more advanced than Galactica. I think that the biggest drawback of having a non-networked battlestar is that things just take more time to do. So I can see Adama in a newer ship, it’ll just be non-networked.
#3 Posted by Harley W Daugherty on 11/18 at 07:44 PM -
well, the writers can go back and make a statement that this was just a temporary command, H e got teh V after teh CO had a Accident or something< like getting sucked down the spacetolet>, that would allow Adamma to have command of this ship.
Afterwards he was transferred to teh Galactica, and someone more deserving got the Valkyrie.
#4 Posted by Digger on 11/19 at 12:52 AM -
Solution: He was commander of the Valkyrie for just that one secret mission. Problem solved…
Now let’s move on to the issue of the lack of Sharon in some leather outfits…
#5 Posted by Christian on 11/19 at 12:51 PM -
This for me was the single weakest episodes of the entire run. Why was this ep here? To make Adama doubt hisself? To show that Baltar is the single luckiest traitoress bastard ever to walk?
Along with all the problems that we have all pointed out with this episode, it just didn’t work at all. Some nice moments, but overeall was flat and pointless. As the Comic Collectore would say “Worse Episode, Ever”
#6 Posted by mgnmfrc1 on 11/21 at 02:39 PM -
long with all the problems that we have all pointed out with this episode, it just didn’t work at all. Some nice moments, but overall was flat and pointless. As the Comic Collector would say “Worse Episode, Ever”
Possibly, but could this have been a set up episode? A bridge to introduce issues or facts to tie in later, and the over all effect is somewhat disjointed like the middle episiode or a trilogy?
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#1 Posted by Buzzion
on 11/18 at 05:29 PM -
Is it possible that the Valkyrie, was a newer battlestar, but also was non-networked as well?