An Aside About Galactica Sex

I bet this post gets more hits than all the rest combined. I was writing this post on the train into NYC, and the guy next to me was definitely reading it.

All inappropriate comments will be deleted immediately.

IMHO the Baltar/Starbuck sex scene from "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1" is the best in the series. (Baltar/Six from the miniseries is a close second.) It helps that James Callis and Katee Sackhoff have a lot of on-screen chemistry. The main reason this is so good, though, is that this is the only one I have come across where the man is on top, which means their bodies are intertwined in a way that appears more intimate than when the woman is on top (I am speaking as a 3rd party watching the action). The way the comera moves from Starbucks feet to her knees, which are wrapped around Baltar's body (sort of), and then her hands moving on Baltar's back, to her face makes the scene explicit without showing them naked. Which just goes to show that the brain is the most important erogenous zone.

In general, it seems to me that if the actors on Galactica are filmed naked (as I suspect may occasionally be the case. It's obvious that sometimes the women are topless), you don't actually see any important body parts. I am quite sure that this is part of the rules when broadcasting on television. This means that sexual activity is conveyed by body position, facial expression, and vocal sounds, which are, frankly, pretty effective.

One other thing that I noticed about Galactica is that it's probably the only time I have seen on screen women put on their underpants after having sex. The camera focuses on the feet stepping into a pair of underpants and sliding up without showing anything above the knees. This prosaic act conveys a lot without showing much. I also like it because in a lot of movies when I am watching lovemaking scenes I find myself wondering, "this is very sexy but HOW did they do it? When did the underpants come off?"

For example, "Atonement" has this great sex scene (the only one in the film) set in a library where both the characters are fully clothed. You can pretty easily figure out that the man is adjusting his pants in preparation for the big moment, but what about the woman? She's still wearing her dress, but they show her feet and trust me, there are no nether garments down around her ankles. Is she not wearing any? That strikes me as a very un-English thing to do. I assume that filmmakers consider this small but critical detail to be a passion-killer.

For Battlestar Galactica, though, it is precisely these details that add to the sexuality of the characters and their actions.

Over time I have often wondered, "How do actors do this? How / why do they appear naked (or almost naked) and engaging in very intimate activities in front of an audience?" I finally concluded that actors are so emotionally naked on stage or screen, that being physically naked is not that big a leap.