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.

Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1

This is an absolutely critical episode because the fleet's goal moves from simple survival to having a specific destination. Faith and reason collide in this episode, reflecting both Roslin's and Baltar's changing "world view." (In German this is called weltenshaaung and in Russian it is mirovozrenie. I don't think there is an English equivalent.) This episode also moves really fast, but without feeling as though any plot thread is cheated to get thing done by the end of 43 minutes. I appreciate this after "Colonial Day," which moved a little too slowly (IMHO).

I am always struck by the cinematic quality of the filming and editing, especially at the beginning of the episode. With the exception of "Act of Contrition," "You Can't Go Home Again," and, of course, "33," most of the episodes in Season 1 are high-quality self-contained television episodes, with relatively straightforward plot lines. ("Colonial Day," "Tigh Me Up Tigh Me Down," and even "Litmus" are good examples.)

I think this quality is obvious in the opening 5 minutes, which signal immediately that this episode is different. The action switches back and forth between multiple scenes, a technique use in many of the best episodes (like "33," for example, and later in "Occupation"). Each scene tells a different story, but also shares high dramatic points with the other scenes, bringing them together thematically. Moreover, there is very little dialogue so that the viewer has to infer each character's psychological state (what they are doing, of course, is not exactly a secret).

In the first scene Adama and Lee are boxing. Lee is younger and faster, but Adama has experience and the patience. Moreover, Adama is clearly enjoying himself, so when Lee punches him in the stomach and asks, "Are you okay?" Adama just smiles.

Meanwhile, in Baltar's quarters .... If you watched the dance at the end of "Colonial Day" carefully, you will have noticed Baltar and Starbuck dancing together while Lee wanders around looking lost. Starback and Baltar always generated some heat, so now, fueled by alcohol, they are making love. When they start to climax Starbuck cries out "Lee!" putting the kibosh on the process. At exactly this moment Adama punches Lee, and Lee's face is pushed in the direction of the camera. What's his expression - shock? This anticipates Lee's expression during the card game when he watches Baltar and Starbuck and puts two and two together. IMHO Adama's remark to Lee - "You don't lose control" - is a metaphor for Lee's relationship with Starbuck. This explains why Starbuck is in bed with Baltar while Lee still hasn't figured out how to ask her to the senior prom. This character trait turns the Starbuck/Lee so-called romance into one of the most infuriating relationships in the history of television.

Interspersed between the Lee-Starbuck snippets, Boomer is in her quarters with a gun in her mouth, and Helo, on Caprica, discovers Athena. Athena puts her gun away and says, "Just do it." Helo shoots, misses, and wounds Athena instead of killing her. Is this deliberate or by accident? As Boomer tries to muster the courage to pull the trigger, her name is called over the PA, as if calling her back to life. When the sequences end both Boomer and Athena are still alive. The call to Boomer keeps her alive and functioning long enough to fulfill her destiny which, I think, is not just to shoot Adama, but also to find Kobol.

Baltar interrupts Boomer during her second suicide attempt and is probably responsible for taking her to the next (ultimately successful) step of pulling the trigger. This is one of those moments when Baltar really rises about himself. Six, who is a stand-in for the viewer, is deeply moved by his behavior and for once doesn't have anything to say. Baltar's compassion and concern for Boomer are especially touching given that he is gently steering her towards suicide. Boomer is completely isolated and fearful, and this is the only scene where she actually connects with someone who understands her state of mind. I am very ambivalent about Boomer in Season 1, and this is one of those moments when she is especially sympathetic because she is trying to do the right thing even though it means death. Boomer's destiny is fixed, and her efforts to control it are futile but nevertheless courageous.

The discovery of Kobol takes Roslin further down the road that she believes has been prepared for her. Unlike Boomer, Roslin embraces her destiny. When she describes what she sees on the surveillance photos to Elosha and Billy, she's looking at them and talking to them, but doesn't glance down to watch the gestures her hands make. My impression is that Roslin is also talking to herself. This experience is the final act that changes Roslin's understanding toward the prophecies. Elosha's (and Roslin's) interpretation of the experience (which is qualitatively different from the other visions), guides them to the next step, which is quite specific and concrete. I think that Roslin is now happy about her place in the story - the cancer that is killing her is also part of her role as a savior.

Roslin's new belief system does not change her underlying behavior, which is straightforward and business-like (pretty ironic, actually). This gives her credibility when she speaks to Starbuck. Based on Roslin's advice Starbuck does ask Adama about their journey to earth, and figures out for herself that Roslin is telling the truth and Adama is lying.

Meanwhile, back on Caprica ... The conversation between Helo and Athena, "You're not Sharon" / "I am Sharon," continues the exploration of the distinctions between Boomer, Sharon, and all the other Sharons. This is an ongoing debate throughout the series, and I have talked about this in previous posts. When does Athena's distinct personality emerge, and how does this affect Helo's love for her? Is he in love with both women? In later seasons it's clear that Helo's love is specifically directed to Athena and not (to paraphrase Roslin in Season 4) the whole line. The question of the 8's identity is extremely complex and interesting, and Gaeta also gets sucked into it in "The Face of the Enemy" webisodes.

By the end of this episode there are several story lines (Kobol, Roslin/Adama conflict, Starbuck's defection, and what will Boomer next). IMHO it is easy to keep them separate which says a lot about the exposition, and yet art has not been compromised along the way. That's a pretty big accomplishment. The tension for most of Season 2.0 is devoted to resolving these conflicting stories.

Some other thoughts

Reason Number 11 why Lee is a jerk

Actually this is Reason Number 12 if you count the the suggestion that wearing a pinstriped suit counts as Reason Number 11.

Anyways, regardless of your numbering convention, here is the next reason:

He is not smart enough to make a pass at Starbuck himself, and he gets pissed off when someone else does. He is just incredibly out of line, on both a personal level and as her commanding officer, when he basically calls her a slut in front of the whole deck crew. Me? I would have reported him for sexual harassment. Instead, Starbuck apologizes later in the episode. Why is she apologizing?

BTW, I don't completely hate Lee. I just hate it when he opens his mouth. Jamie Bamber has a great physical presence, and when he is moving around and not talking, Lee comes across as a more complex person (I feel the same way about the boxing in "The Dance" in Season 3). I also thought the card game was pretty good, Lee figures out what happened between Baltar and Starbuck based on eye contact and things unsaid, and his facial expression tells exactly when he puts two and two together.

Other Stuff

• James Callis does a great drunk. Is this based on personal experience (haha, no offense)? His sentences are coherent and they sound like Baltar, but they are slurred. He sounds exactly like a drunk trying to sound sober. He drops is guard, though, and his emotional twists and turns are there for everyone to see. The transition from arrogant to despairing is just perfect.
• How does Boomer know the planet is Kobol? How does Leoben know that the fleet will find Kobol? Just throwing it out there. I don't care because it adds to the sense that there are unseen forces at work, and I just go with the flow.
• When I first heard the phrase "Lords of Kobol," I had a good laugh. I don't think I have ever seen the word written in the course of the show, but close-captioning always spells Kobol with a "K," making it a homonym for Cobol (Common Business-Oriented Language). It is the first coding language to use English-like statements, making it accessible to ordinary mortals like me. My employer (and this is not unusual) is still maintaining a few COBOL programs developed before the dawn of humans. The history of COBOL is awfully interesting. Grace Hopper, a woman working for the US Navy, wrote the first COBOL compiler, which is the same as saying she wrote the software for the Cylons. In an interesting little aside she won the first "man of the year" award from the Data Processing Management Association.

All Those Cool Buildings in Vancouver

Not too long ago I read an obituary of a Canadian architect named Arthur Erickson. I knew that one of the locations in Battlestar Galactica (the riverwalk in Caprica City) was actually the campus of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. In fact, I am pretty sure that campus was used in some other Sci Fi shows. In any event, I learned that Erickson was the architect.

I am a big architecture fan anyway, so I did a little research, and it turns out that the really cool office where Roslin's doctor tells he she has cancer (you know, the office with the triangle - pyramidish sort of entrance and the slanted glass wall) was also designed by Erickson. It is called "Waterfall House" and is located, not surprisingly, in Vancouver. It has also been used in one of the Viagra commercials, I am not entirely clear why since a pyramid doesn't strike me as an obvious phallic symbol.

I also think but I am not sure that Baltar's house (you know, the fabulous house with overlooking water) is "Graham House" in West Vancouver. I am not really sure because I couldn't find that many photographs on the net, but based on a sketch that I found in a book ("Arthur Erickson - Critical Works" page 21) I would say that this is a reasonable guess.

The building that looks really interesting, IMHO, is the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology. If I ever got to Vancouver I will definitely check it out. The building is quite spectacular.

The Hand of God

This episode is absolutely critical - from this point on Galactica is as much about finding earth as it is about simple survival. This also marks the point where both Roslin's and Baltar's intellectual and emotional lives undergo a drastic transformation.

For Baltar this experience starts in "33," and "Six Degrees of Separation" expands on the theme. Both of these episodes, however, are restricted to dealing with threats to Baltar. In this episode Baltar's seemingly random choice of target ends up saving the fleet. This has an enormous effect on his world outlook, since he makes an irrevocable decision to move away from his rationalist, materialist mindset to a faith-based understanding of reality. The final scene, where Baltar stands in his robe looking up at the sky (and we are looking down at him) is typical of Baltar's ego and his sense of grandiosity (it's also pretty funny), but it has a core of truth since it appears that divine intervention DID guide his hand to the right target.

I find the fact that Six is the source of religious instruction fascinating. She seems unlikely since she is essentially a seduction machine, very jealous and capable of violence. (In "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I" she says, "I can rip it [Baltar's heart] out whenever I want to.") There's nothing warm and fuzzy about her, but she still mouths pieties like, "God doesn't take sides. Give yourself over to his love." and ".... surrender your ego, remain humble." 

Roslin's evolution starts in "Flesh and Bone," when she has dreams that predict the future. Now, however, she is having visions (or hallucinations, depending on your point of view) that require explanation. Roslin's use of chamallah as an "alternative" treatment for cancer soon becomes the vehicle for her understanding of the Colonials' founding story and her place in that story. 

The episode opens with Roslin's press conference about the latest crisis. She starts out in usual presidential form, but as the vision of the snakes becomes more disturbing she becomes incoherent and distracted. The snakes are a particularly creepy symbol (at least to this writer).

Like Baltar, Roslin's personal experience convinces her that she is playing a role given to her by the gods. Like Baltar, she is a rationalist and is even ignorant of her society's religious belief system, making her "conversion" seem a logical and legitimate change in her sense of self. Mary O'Donnell's expression depicts with stunning verisimilitude Roslin's version of falling down on the road to Damascus. Unlike Baltar, this transformation doesn't seem (much) to inflate her ego. It does however give her a sense of purpose that offers more than just safety, but also hope.

The end of the episode offers a nice touch when Six's interpretation of events matches Elosha's. 

The rest of the episode is a ripping good yarn. The special effects are great and it is a lot of fun watching the battle scenes, especially as Lee & co. destroy the refinery. There are also some nice twists as Lee takes on qualities of Starbuck and Starbuck is forced to step back and assume a role inimical to her personality. This is a rite of passage for Starbuck (as Adama says, "Welcome to the big league.")

Of course we are forced to sit through the usual Lee histrionics when he bitches and moans that everybody likes Starbuck more than they like him, and his daddy has to sit by his side and stroke his ego and prove that he loves Lee more than he loves Starbuck, blah blah blah. In fact, the only Lee moment I liked was at the end, when he looks at his father while he is smoking a cigar. Not surprisingly, Lee doesn't say anything, which is probably why the little scene is a success.

What I really liked

• Elosha, whose personality conveys a magisterial authority. Her deep voice and cynical reaction towards Roslin's initial description of her experiences, as well as her embrace of Roslin's role in bringing the prophecies to fruition lend credence to this important new story line. After Elosha dies, she is replaced briefly by the priest who delivers the oath of office. The guy looks like a typical mainstream Protestant minister, who matches our (or at least mine) experience of traditional religion. By season 4, however, the representative of religion is this wishy-washy new age type that I personally cannot take seriously.
• When Tigh says, "It'll cost us." His tone of voice, which is slightly hoarse, and his serious and even pained facial expression convey the image of a leader embracing a necessary evil (the death of his men) to achieve a larger purpose (the safety of the fleet). I suppose that this is the whole point of war, even though the only "just wars" I can think of are the American Civil War and World War II.
• The depiction of an active, free press during a press conference that resembles U.S. presidential press conferences. Despite the extraordinary circumstances, the structure of colonial society survives, including a legitimate government following rules established before the Cylon attack, and journalists playing their role as conveyers of information as well as devil's advocate. 
• Adama's and Roslin's glasses reflecting the green light from the light board. I also noticed that once the mission completes Adama briefly takes off his glasses, his equivalent of letting his guard down.

One thing I thought was really really stupid

Everyone standing around the light table (which I guess served as a map) while models of ships are pushed around to indicate how the battle is progressing. Come on, CNN can do better than that, why can't Galactica? I realize that this is one of Galactica's deliberate anacronisms and I assume that the intent was to allude to those old RAF / Battle of Britain movies where everyone stands around stiff-upper-lipped, but I thought it was stupid for the following reasons:

• Space is 3-dimensional but the model was 2-dimensional
  
• I couldn't figure out why they weren't in the CIC in the first place
• Gaeta's function seemed to be restricted to repeating everything Adama or Starbuck said. I kept wondering why they couldn't just speak to Dualla directly and eliminate the middleman. It kind of reminded me of the movie "Galaxy Quest," where Lt. Tawny Madison's job was repeating other people's commands to the computer, and then repeating what the computer says to everyone else.

Tigh me up, Tigh me down

This episode is very funny, and I enjoy it a lot. There are many hilarious scenes and the actors' comic timing is superb. My only quibble is whether this makes sense given that it takes place just a few weeks after the Colonies are destroyed and billions of people are murdered, but I don't find it hard to get past that (it is, after all, fiction and not fact) and relax and enjoy the ride.

This episode is obviously meant to provide some comic relief, and it is the only episode I can think of that is primarily humorous. A lot of episodes have a serious premise with funny moments that are usually provided by Gaius Baltar (even "33" manages this). But I can't think of any other episode that has this many laughs. (According to Ron Moore's podcast, "Taking a Break From All Your Worries" in Season 3 was meant to provide comic relief, but by the time they were done it was pretty grim.)

This episode is based on misunderstandings, which is the foundation of a lot of farces ("Twelfth Night" and "The Importance of Being Ernest" are just two examples). In fact, this episode achieves the impossible - it manages to make Baltar look reasonable in comparison to everyone else. ("Ladies and gentlemen, please. We're in a laboratory. There are hazardous chemical compounds everywhere. That's a thermo-nuclear bomb, for frack's sakes.")

One of the first scenes, when Six commiserates with Baltar and offers him a sexual interlude sets the very silly tone for the rest of the episode. Italian opera starts playing, Baltar spins around in his chair, tosses the clipboard, and the camera gradually lowers until we are looking underneath the table and watching the characters' legs. It tells us everything we need to know about what is going on without actually showing it. The episode ends at this same location, with Baltar at the head of a table crowded with blood samples, spinning dreamily in his chair and being caressed by Six.

In this episode Tigh is reunited with his wife, Ellen. I like Kate Vernon a lot, like Mary O'Donnell she is another really attractive over-40 woman. She is very beautiful and radiates sex from the moment she steps onto Galactica. Kate Vernon has a very expressive mouth, and as Ellen steps of the raptor, she uses her mouth to convey vulnerability. This is the only time in the episode where she evokes our sympathy. It's quickly apparent that Ellen's drinking is not characterized by moderation, nor are her relationships with men. In Freudian terms she is all id and no superego. In Adama's terms "... she's nothing but trouble."

We've already seen Tigh's alcoholic behaviors. In "Water" he draws lines on the bottle to mark how much he will drink. In the briefing scene at the beginning of "Bastille Day" the deck crew smirks when they realize he's drunk. In this episode, before he sees Ellen, he tosses a bottle of liquor in the garbage. His relationship with his awful wife is also a form of addiction. In spite of promises to "start over," they quickly fall into the patterns that always characterized their marriage (and Tigh's resolution to stop drinking is quickly tossed aside). One thing that Ellen gets absolutely right, though, is that Adama is "... one of those faces on a totem pole."  I did get a good chuckle out of that. (I wonder if Edward James Olmos made his face grimmer than usual to make this line more accurate.)

In spite of all the laughs, the underlying mood in the fleet is suspicion. During her conversation with Billy, Roslin is wide-eyed with terror and acts paranoid. IMHO she also, for the first time in the series, looks sick, as if her emotional state of mind is affecting her health.

Athena/Boomer

This episode ends with the critical conversation between Doral and Six, which I have already discussed in my post Why Battlestar Galactica. I have watched this episode several times since that post, and I am struck by the fact that it is Doral who says "I can't help wondering what it would be like to feel that intensely. Even in his (i.e. Helo's) anguish he seemed so alive." There is a lot of curiosity and yearning on his face that is very un-Doral-like. This scene is the first to give a glimpse of Cylon interior life. With the exception of Baltar's Six, the Cylons, for the most part, have been cold, psychologically remote, and self-sufficient.

"Flesh and Bone" is the turning point in Athena's relationship to Helo. In that episode she discusses Helo with Six and Doral dispassionately, but she doesn't actually answer Six when Six asks her if she can kill Helo. Athena's loyalties are now unconditionally transferred to Helo and (later) the fleet.

Before she changes sides, Athena had behaved like Boomer, who is insecure and needy. I assume this was a deliberate decision on the part of the Cylons, and done to deceive Helo. At the end of "Flesh and Bone" Athena asks Helo, "Do you trust me?" Until now Helo has been the leader and made the decisions, now Athena is asking Helo to let her share that role. This line signals the point where Athena's true personality asserts itself. She is forceful, decisive, and confident. These changes in personality don't seem to affect Helo's love. Although Athena and Boomer are psychologically completely different, at some level they must share qualities that make them both attractive to Helo. I am also sure that Helo loves the new Boomer (i.e., Athena) even more because of her determination to save him.

IMHO, Boomer's hesitancy and fearfulness are a manifestation of her subconscious knowledge that she is not who she believes she is. Which leads to an interesting question - is Boomer culpable for her actions in later episodes, or is she destined to behave as she does. As I have already pointed out, Galactica repeatedly returns to the question of free will. This is another example of Galactica's relevance to difficult issues in our own society. In the American legal system there is an ongoing debate about whether individuals with serious mental illness can be held accountable when they commit violent crimes. (For a discussion, see  this fascinating article on the subject.)

Some things I noticed

Call me crazy, but if I hadn't seen my husband in weeks and thought he was dead, my first action wouldn't be to uncork a bottle and toss down shots. I would throw him on the floor and ravish him (which is pretty much what Ellen does in "Deadlock" in Season 4.5). Starbuck and Anders also seem to prefer the bottle to bed ("Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2"). After pining for each other for months they suck up huge amounts of alcohol before climbing into the sack. IMHO this is a really bad idea since performance is usually not improved by alcohol consumption, and the happy couple probably won't remember the sex anyway.

Starbuck & Baltar - I've already discussed the scene with Baltar & Six, but there is a also a tiny little moment when Starbuck interrupts them that adds to the fun. Starbuck ever so slightly closes her eyes and shakes her head. It is so subtle and funny, and characteristic of the "early" Starbuck. Katee Sackhoff is great at producing these minute facial expressions that convey Starbuck's thoughts in seconds. In "Flight of the Phoenix," Racetrack calls Athena a Cylon whore while Starbuck is walking away from the card table. Starbuck stops, and there's a short pause and you can see Starbuck silently asking herself, "Should I or shouldn't I?" The she gives a little smile, turns around, and decks Racetrack.

I know I've said it before, but ...

One of Galactica's attractions is its epic scope. A few episodes may be self-contained stories (IMHO they are not the best episodes either). Star Trek Voyager theoretically had a similar premise (return home), but the episodes were typically self-contained, with only occasional references to the ultimate goal.

And finally, an extremely fun piece of trivia

Kate Vernon's dad is John Vernon. In case that name doesn't mean anything to you, then maybe the name Dean Vernon Wormer rings a bell. And if that doesn't trigger any synapses in your brain, then maybe Farber College does. And if you still don't know what I am talking about, it is time for you to netflix "Animal House" (one of the five funniest movies ever made). If you don't like "Animal House," then you are beyond redemption and there is really nothing more I can do to help you.

Gaius Baltar

Even though Baltar plays a significant role in the Miniseries, I postponed discussing him until "33." Part of the problem is that I just wanted to move past the miniseries and I think "33" is a reasonable place to start a discussion on Baltar, since he more or less comes into his own in this episode. I also kept getting stuck writing about him because I was caught up on the sleeze / coward factor, and so I was running out of things to say.

Although a large part of Baltar's character is defined by deceit and rampant egotism, focus on this makes him pretty one-dimensional. Baltar is actually a pretty complicated guy, and his belief system changes radically over the course of the series.

So let's focus on the nasty bits first, because that is where the fun lies.

In the Miniseries Baltar immediately comes across as untrustworthy when he flirts with the news anchor interviewing him. (To quote from My Fair Lady, "Oozing charm from ev'ry pore, he oiled his way across the floor.") Baltar is a womanizer (I realize some male readers of this blog might not consider that a bad thing). A large part of his womanizing is characterized by "do anything, say anything." (I suppose, actually, that is a defining feature of womanizing.) This explains, of course, why he inadvertently participates in the death of billions by giving away the defense mainframe codes to some babe so that she would sleep with him.

He is, however, capable of great charm, which is not always obvious in the series, but certainly explains his success with women. His flirtation with Starbuck over a card game ("Water") is fun to watch, and he is one of the few people who actually beats her at cards. There is a strong air of sexual frisson throughout, and she is very provocative when she blows cigar smoke in his face. Of course Starbuck is a strong personality and can pretty much give as good as she gets from Baltar, which I assume increases their mutual attraction.

As we all know, Baltar's personality is dominated by self-interest. (At the end of the Miniseries he says, "I am not on anyone's side.") He is cowardly and he lies constantly, although he is caught often enough to make me wonder why he continues to do it. I wonder if he is modeled on Zachary Taylor from "Lost in Space," but I haven't seen the original Battlestar Galactica, so I have no idea how closely he resembles the original Baltar. Two or three times each season, though, he shows great compassion or says something that demonstrates genuine concern for others. (For example, his conversation with Boomer during "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1.") It is something of a surprise when this happens, but it saves Baltar from being a complete caricature.

In the Miniseries, as Baltar escapes Caprica, the Six that only he sees makes her first appearance. (BTW, for the purposes of this blog I will simply refer to her as "Six," since all the other Sixes have names. This Six is called "Sarah" by Baltar, but only once ("Home, Part 2"), and I didn't even catch that until something like the 400th viewing of the episode in question.

Six is very beautiful, very sexy, walks like a model, and usually wears amazing dresses. With her white-blond hair she is radiant in contrast to Galactica's grubby surroundings. This is beautifully shown in "33" when she is setting next to Baltar on Colonial One, looking at the couple opposite. Baltar is rumpled, sweaty and a total mess. She is serene, beautiful, and relaxed, as if this was an ordinary flight.

The Baltar-Six interactions also create a lot of comic relief as Baltar often carries on two simultaneous conversations and then has to try to integrate seemingly odd behavior and statements into the "real" conversation. (As Roslin says in "33," "He's a strange one.")

The billion-dollar question, of course, is who, or what, is this manifestation? Baltar himself doesn't know, although he sometimes seems to believe that she is "an expression of my subconscious mind working itself out in a waking state." (Miniseries) Season 3 also implies a psychological origin, since there are references to Baltar taking meds ("Collaborators" and "Torn"). The settings for Baltar's conversations with Six also veer back and forth between Baltar's physical location and other, more pleasant, virtual locations that exist, presumably, in Baltar's imagination.

Galactica, in general, is wildly inconsistent about Six. It doesn't make sense for her to be an illusion cooked up by Baltar's psyche because she knows a lot more about Cylon strategy than Baltar can possibly know. She is clearly tied to actual events, and often seems to control the outcome (Miniseries and "33" to name but a few examples), but later in the series it is clear that the "real" Cylons aren't aware of her either. She also has moments when she is unseen but physically present. For example, in "Epiphanies" she pulls up Baltar's tie, and in "Escape Velocity" she literally props him up.

A large part of the tension in "33" hinges on whether there is a Cylon agent in the fleet who is responsible for the repeated attacks. Six alerts Baltar to this possibility. Baltar's life also hangs in the balance since a witness to this involvement in the Cylon attack is on the same ship as the Cylon agent. Whether this threat to Baltar is removed is dependent on his response to Six's questions about his relationship with god (sort of like having a Jehovah's Witness on your doorstep). When Baltar finally states that he accepts the Cylon god, Roslin decides to shoot down the ship, eliminating the Cylon agent, and also killing the only person who could tie Baltar to the Cylon attack.

This sequence of events raises some pretty tough questions. First, there is a strong sense that everyone is playing out roles that have been predetermined ("all this has happened before and all this will happen again"). Does this mean that Roslin's agonizing over her decision is pointless because she is meant to order Galactica to shoot down a civilian ship? If Baltar had not made his admission, would Roslin have made a different decision?

This scene plays itself out again in "Six Degrees of Separation" - Baltar repents and 2 seconds later the incriminating evidence is shown to be false and his accuser disappears.

Foxhole prayers are notoriously unreliable, is the Cylon god really so naive as to take them seriously? They are a recurring theme in Galactica, and they do seem to lead Baltar to a stronger commitment to the Cylon belief-system, but assertions of faith made under duress seem pretty untrustworthy to me.

Baltar also keeps making lucky guesses, which again, seem tied to his relationship with Six's god. He fingers Doral as a Cylon in the miniseries based only on speculation about how Doral is perceived by the rest of the crew. He is correct, although he doesn't find out until later. This happens again in "The Hand of God" when he randomly chooses a site on a surveillance photo as the correct target for blowing up the Cylon's trilium refinery. Both events raise questions about free will. What guides Baltar to make random choices that turn out to be critical to the survival of the fleet, given his ambivalence about his place in the human-Cylon war?

Despite the fact that Baltar is on a non-stop emotional rollercoaster, his world-outlook at the beginning of the saga is based on the scientific method. There is no place for constructs such as faith, or belief in an intangible higher power. As the series progresses, Baltar's intellectual foundation crumbles and is rebuilt with a fundamentally anti-intellectual outlook based on conversion to the Cylon god. It's hard to pinpoint a defining moment where he crosses the line. I think finding Hera on New Caprica is a significant point, as well as his experience in the Temple of Jupiter. By season 4.0 he has actually managed to convert some humans, and is worshipped by them as god's mouthpiece. His sermons are mixed with beautiful imagery ("Faith") and completely self-serving statements ("God loves us as we are because we are perfect."). This understanding of god's will also absolves him of any responsibility for the nuclear holocaust on the twelve colonies ("Hub").

As of this writing, the second episode of Season 4.5, Baltar is disillusioned and angry at his god. In "The Disquiet that Follows My Soul" he is preaching while drunk, and sits back drinking and smoking, while ignoring a fistfight. To my mind, Baltar's behavior is reverting back to his old persona from before he became a religious prophet.

James Callis is just a terrific actor. Baltar is such a mess of contradictions, but Callis manages to make him coherent. In spite of the many facets of Baltar's personality, Callis creates a sense of consistency about his character. In each manifestation Baltar is completely recognizable as Baltar (I'm not sure if that makes sense).

My prediction about Baltar's fate, btw, is that he is going to die before the end of season 4.5. It's kind of weird to think about that becaue he is a lot like Rasputin - people keep trying to kill him, and he always manages to survive. 

Seven Years of Autism and the Death of Felix Gaeta

End of January - beginning of February is an unhappy anniversary for our family, as it is the date(s) that both our sons were diagnosed with autism. One of my sons was diagnosed sometime in the last week of January 2002, and the other was diagnosed the first week in February 2002. Once the first one was diagnosed we knew the second one would get the same diagnosis since they are identical twins. They were two years, 3 months old at the time. I remember the first words out of my mouth when we were informed of the first diagnosis were "Will they outgrow it?" Duh.

I don't know why this year is different, but it feels particularly devastating. I am not someone who is prone to crying but I have been on the verge of tears all month. Some of it is the cumulative stress of fighting with various government bureaucracies for rights my kids are entitled to, but were not forthcoming (including a 4-year legal battle with one school district that has left us with a huge debt burden that we probably will never pay off). And some of it is the panic of knowing what was required for them to make progress, and not being able to get it for them. (I am referring to Applied Behavior Analysis - ABA. For more information on ABA go to The Association for Science in Autism Treatment or Autism New Jersey

For the last two years my sons have had everything we feel they need to make progress towards some form of independence. You would think I would be happy, but I seem to be in a glass half-full mood these days. No matter how I look at it, we have a difficult and exhausting life. Our sons are very tall for their age, and very active. They have almost no spoken language, although it's obvious they understand more than they can say (passive language). We have worked diligently to improve their safety skills, so some of our fears are somewhat abated (they haven't disappeared from us in quite some time, nor have they run into the middle of traffic). They are capable of great destruction (not from maliciousness) so someone must be with them at all times, and they have few play skills (we are the only people I know who have to teach their kids how to watch tv).  They head bang (although it is coming under control) and can have wicked tantrums.

My sons' teachers are dedicated, resourceful, and relentless optimists.  They work very hard and everything my sons have learned I attribute to them. When one of my sons said "Hi Mommy," for the first time, several of them burst into tears. I am not the burst into tears type, but I was deeply touched. In the back of my mind, though, I thought, "It's about fucking time."

Having done this for seven years you would think that we would be used to this or at least a little less inclined to fall apart. Our sons have made more progress in the last two years than they did in the prior 5 years. Nevertheless, over time, we have lowered our expectations, and it is painful to accept that they will never live independently and we will have to work very hard to make sure that they have enough skills to live in a group home and have some kind of occupation during the day. When someone asked me what they are studying in school, I said, "getting dressed."

Please don't get me wrong, I love my children. While this post probably sounds like "ME ME ME!" they are the ones who are shortchanged. Their experience of life is confined by autism, and their future is extremely limited. They will never be capable of meaningful conversation, they will never read and write, and they will never live independently. They are the ones who are missing out from a full appreciation of life and its possibilities.

There is a lot of acceptance involved in all this, and sometimes it is easier to deal with than other times. I can do everything I can to help my children succeed, but I don't get to choose when that happens or how fast it happens. All I know is that I want it all and I want it right now, and knowing that's not going to happen is a bitter pill to swallow.

So what does this have to do with Felix Gaeta? Well, I just saw episode 4 in season 4.5 this evening and I went into it 100% certain that Felix would get offed, and of course he did, and the events leading up to it were almost painful to watch. The whole sequence of events fills me with profound sadness. And in fact I was in tears watching the scene with Baltar and the execution at the end. It was just so well-written and well-played, it felt completely faithful to the characters.

In fact, I have been anxious and even depressed since the beginning of this season because I knew BAD THINGS were going to happen to Felix. As anyone who has read my post on Felix, I feel very attached to this character. When he lost his leg after being shot by Anders, I was especially disturbed, to a large degree because he was now disabled, and disability (whether physical or developmental) just sucks in every way possible. 

And I KNOW it is just a television show and Felix is NOT a real person.

It's obvious to me that I am projecting onto Felix my own anxieties about my children. In psychoanalytic terms, this is called transference. Basically it is just easier to worry about a fictional character than it is to worry about your own children. One is imaginary and his pain is not real (although it is portrayed with great verisimilitude). Our pain is very real, and it just ebbs and flows over time. 

The scene between Baltar and Felix was utterly heartbreaking. I was hoping that by 4.5 Felix would find some happiness, and again, I was treating that as a metaphor (illogical and unreliable) for our life. Instead Felix is in constant pain from his leg, and in psychological pain because of his distrust of the cylons. In the webisodes, he is taunted by the Eight for clinging to "Hope," and left with a great burden of guilt, even though his actions were well-intended and he was lied to about the outcome. By the time he gets off the raptor his hope is gone.

Well, I know something about guilt, too, parents can never do enough for their kids (at least it feels that way) and that is doubly so for parents of children with autism. I love my children but I do feel a lot of resentment at how their disability has changed our life for the worst.

At his execution Felix looks almost serene, and when he says "It stopped" I assumed he was referring to the pain in his leg and probably psychological pain as well. So it gave me some hope that he would find peace in death. 

The metaphor of death as the end of psychological pain resonates very strongly in our house. My husband and I take turns getting REALLY depressed, and it is usually accompanied by one of us saying, "I wish I was dead." That doesn't mean that we want to commit suicide, or that we want to BE dead. It means we just wish we didn't feel that way, that we could shut off our feelings. Unfortunately, WE are not machines and there is no off/on switch.

R.E.M. has a great song, "Everybody Hurts." These are my favorite lines:

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,

When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on.

Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.

Webisode 3

Things are certainly getting creepier onboard the raptor. The really interesting part at this point is what kind of relationship Gaeta had with lavendar 8 (who is probably not, but not definitively not) Boomer - another seemingly reasonable guess bites the dust. Black 8 is dead, so I guess we are not going to get any kind of good Sharon / bad Sharon dichotomy. Oh well.

So what exactly did Gaeta do back on New Caprica? Did he give names over to the Cylons? Did he, as Baltar said at the end of Season 3, try to play both sides against eachother? Who is this Sharon and what distinguishes her from all the other Sharons?

I am inclined to dismiss what Baltar said out of hand because, during his meeting with Gaeta in his cell, it is obvious from his expression that he has just figured out that Gaeta was passing along information to the resistance. Anything he says after that is done solely to gain a tactical advantage, and therefore not trustworthy per se.

The webisodes have already told us twice that increased CO2 can wreak havoc with the brain, including paranoia, memories, etc. My "something's not right" alarm went off because in this "memory" that is set on New Caprica Gaeta has white hairs at the temples, but on New Caprica his hair was completely black. So - is there something wrong with this memory?

I am, of course, a big Gaeta fan. So if Gaeta did something morally ambivalent he didn't do it to protect himself, or for any kind of personal advantage. On the other hand, this is the first we are hearing of this - and it appears to be a secret Gaeta has kept - so is he ashamed? In addition, a list of names SEEMS to be handed over - is one of these names seeking revenge (for what?) and responsible for what has happened on the raptor?

Another paranoia point - the grip that is missing from the pliers - Gaeta (and everyone else) seems to think they were intentionally taken off (am I understanding this correctly?). I have, however, replayed the section where the pliers are taken out of the tool case, and I cannot find a good view where I can see that the pliers had the grips on in the first place. So is this paranoia and it was really an accident? Or, was it deliberate and not an accident.

I might add that in the realm of pure logic Galactica tends to fall down on a regular basis. Things happen all the time that can't really be explained. You just have to accept it and go with the flow because it contributes to plot and character development. 

More to come - unfortunately next Webisode is not for another 5 days. 

33

I saw this episode before I saw the miniseries (Netflix screw up - in fact it was actually more tha a year before I saw the miniseries, after I finally decided to buy Season One myself). I'm bringing this up because I thought I had missed something the first time I saw this episode - that "33" started immediately from where the miniseries left off.

After I saw the miniseries I realized this was a deliberate choice. Viewers are dropped into the middle of a desperate situation and then learn how the main characters behave under extreme stress.

It says a lot about the writing, editing, and directing that you can figure out quickly what is happening. "33" opens with a series of scenes that quickly cut back and forth between Gaius Baltar's thoughts, vipers shooting out the tubes flown by pilots who are obviously having trouble concentrating, the CIC where Tigh is slapping a soldier on the back to keep him awake, and the deck where everyone is watching the clock. This series of scenes take about 2 to 3 minutes. When the Cylons do arrive we see multiple clocks, digital and analog, showing that time is up (This sequence actually reminds me a little of the pendulum clock in "High Noon.").

In other words, I didn't know much less than anyone who had seen the miniseries knew.

"33" is, without question, the best episode of Season 1, precisely because of this tension and the way the characters' reactions reveal their nature.

OK, to quote Callie, "Why 33?" My first instinct (which reveals my advanced age) is that it is referencing LPs that play at 33-1/3 RPM. Beyond that 33 is divisible by only 2 numbers, 3 and 11 (1 and 33 don't count). 3 and 11 are very cool prime numbers and I am not a geek for thinking this. I remember hearing George Burns say in an interview that 7 is a very funny number. So there.

My only quibble with the episode is that it is simply not possible for the crew to go 5 days running without sleep - they must have had some down time or else they would be incapable of functioning. As Baltar said, "there are limits...." Trust me, I know what I am talking about. When our twin sons were infants they did not sleep at the same time, and I went for about 3 months getting 3-4 hours of sleep at night but only about 45 minutes at one time, which meant that I got little or no REM sleep. Going without sleep is pure torture (although not, apparently, if you are working for the Bush administration interrogating suspected terrorists).

There are two scenes that stand out in my mind. Tigh falling asleep sitting on a sofa in the middle of a conversation with Adama is probably my favorite, but there is also, as usual, a lot of background detail. I especially like one scene in the CIC, while Adama is talking to Tigh, you can see right behind Adama a guy wearing a headset, slumped over fast asleep.

This episode has one of my all-time favorite scenes - Starbuck refusing to take stims. Lee tries to wheedle her into obeying and she bursts out with this speech telling Lee in no uncertain terms how she thinks he should be handling her insubordination. They stand glaring at each other for a short pause that goes just a millisecond longer than is comfortable, ratcheting up the tension a little bit, before they burst out laughing. This dialogue reveals a lot about Kara. The scene also gets a little more texture when Kara glares at the Chief, who has witnessed the exchange, and says "What" and he just rolls his eyes and walks away. The whole exchange is pitch perfect. 

I watched this episode again after Season 4.0 ended, and I was struck by the tentative nature of Roslin's and Adama's relationship in the beginning. At this point they are strangers who have been thrown together by circumstance and now share the burden of protecting what is left of the human race. In this episode they are on separate ships and all their conversations are by radio. In the middle of a discussion about the tactical situation (bad) there's a surprisingly intimate moment. After a pause in the conversation Roslin tentatively asks, "Are you there?" and Adama says, "Yeah."

Galactica has a special resonance in the post-9/11 world. Even in the midst of this exhausting crisis people are trying to find loved ones, and Roslin is trying to get an accurate count of the number of survivors. When Dualla tries to hand over photos of her family to track them down, she is instructed to post them on a wall. As she walks down the long corridor to post the photos she (and by extension we) is overwhelmed by the number of pictures posted, the makeshift memorials, and the messages to the dead. The photos include pictures of babies and children, as well as adults, and convey the remorseless nature of the losses. The camera holds still as she walks further down the corridor, until she is a small figure turning around in confusion, stunned by the magnitude of the catastrophe as expressed in the pictures of lost family members. These types of memorials and photo montages sprang up all over New York within hours of the collapse of the World Trade Center, and became synonymous with the event. Galactic is deliberately recreating these to provide a symbol we can recognize and use to provide a context for the apocolyptic events the characters have survived.

Galactica returns to this corridor periodically so that the viewer never forgets why the ship is wandering in space with no place to go home to. In the last episode of Season 4, when they do find earth, the scene cuts to Starbuck in that same corridor, looking at the photo of a lost pilot, and behind her is a woman standing in a different part of the corridor, crying while she presumably looks at pictures of lost loved ones.

Felix Gaeta

Right now (the end of Season 4) my third favorite character is Felix Gaeta. I think he is just someone I would like to have on my side. He doesn't have a big mouth (unlike some Viper pilots I could name), he's smart, he doesn't let his ego get in the way of his decisions, he has good judgment, and he is courageous.

Gaeta starts out as a minor character in the miniseries and Season 1 (according to Ron Moore's podcast Gaeta doesn't even have a first name until D'Anna appears interviewing everyone for the Fleet News Service in "Final Cut"). But he plays an increasingly important role as the series progresses, and I think this is because Gaeta's personality is so different from the Viper pilots, and he and Dualla both give some variety to the cast of characters. (I don't think it hurts that Alessandro Juliani, who plays Gaeta, is a very good actor.)

Gaeta grows up in the course of the series. Although he is an adult, when the series starts he has some childlike qualities that are very sweet. (He looks totally goofy when he is dancing during the celebration of Baltar's election as vice president during "Colonial Day.") He is hardworking and very smart, loyal, and trusting (which gets him into trouble later on). When he makes a mistake he is much harder on himself than any of his superiors would be ("Scattered" and miniseries). He has a lot of responsibility in the CIC (and included in a lot of the decision-making) even though he looks about fifteen. (IMHO he wouldn't get served in a bar without first showing ID.) 

Based on Seasons 1 and 2, several things are clear about Gaeta: He worked very hard to get where he is. His life experience is pretty limited and maybe even kind of sheltered. Like everyone else, his aspirations for the future are destroyed by the Cylons. He is doing on Galactica what most of us did in college (or, if you were precocious, high school) - smoking, drinking, and getting a tattoo ("Final Cut"). BTW, I have a tattoo in approximately the same place as Gaeta and he lies, it DOES hurt.

I would guess that Gaeta is either the only child of older parents or the son of alcoholics, but I'm not sure I know how I arrived at that conclusion. Many characters have backgrounds outlined for us, but Gaeta is not in this group.

Gaeta and Baltar

OK, so who waltzes into the life of this trusting soul? Gaius Baltar, the genius who is also the embodiment of duplicity, narcissism, and about a hundred other bad qualities. Gaeta makes his first (and maybe only) big mistake when he equates Baltar's extraordinary intellect with moral stature. Another way of looking at this is that Gaeta hero-worships Baltar for his achievements and then projects onto Baltar his own ethical values. In "Six Degrees of Separation," after he clears Baltar of the accusation that he colluded in the Cylon attack, Gaeta hugs Baltar and says "I knew you weren't that kind of man." The problem, of course, is that Baltar IS that kind of man.

There has been some discussion on the internet about whether the Gaeta-Baltar relationship has a homoerotic element. Well, duh. However, I think that most of the discussion is putting the chicken before the egg. James Callis is a nice-looking guy, but not incredibly handsome, and Baltar has terrible haircuts. So looks are not the basis of this attraction. I think that Gaeta is gay, so it makes sense that his admiration for Baltar has a sexual undercurrent.

IMHO, as soon as Gaeta starts to see Baltar for what he is (in the last epdisode of season 2.5, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2"), the sexual attraction disappears along with his illusions. At the end of this episode Gaeta looks disgusted with Baltar, his sleazy lifestyle, and his indifference to the responsibilities of political office. As soon as the Cylons arrive Gaeta immediately starts working against both the occupiers and Baltar (and apparently even colludes in an unsuccessful assassination attempt in "Occupation).

During the occupation on New Caprica, Gaeta makes a hard decision to stay in Baltar's administration so that he can pass information to the resistance. He manages to keep his role as the source of the material a secret to protect everyone involved, and has also managed to set it up so that he doesn't know who exactly is receiving the material (the logistics of how he managed this, actually, are a complete mystery to me). He is absolutely vilified for his seeming collaboration with the Cylons, and his frustration is evident after the conversation with Tyrol about Callie's detention, but he sticks to his plan and his actions are critical to the escape from New Caprica. This is a lonely role (the resistance fighters at least have the comfort of camaraderie), and a dangerous one, and Gaeta looks frightened when he leaves a message that Baltar won't be at the NCP graduation (one of the few times he leaves a message in daylight).

I think Gaeta feels complicit in Baltar's puppet administration under the Cylons. In "Exodus, Part 2" he threatens to shoot Baltar, and he reveals his disgust with himself for being blind to Baltar's true personality. I think it is also evidenced by his almost apologetic remark after he is wrongly accused of collaborating and comes close to being thrown out an airlock ("I did everything I could. I don't know what more I could have done."). I also think this is his motivation for waking in the middle of the night and trying to see Baltar ("Taking a Break From All Your Worries."). Roslin is right, Gaeta wants to kill Baltar and finish what he started during the exodus from New Caprica.

After the "Collaborators" episode, Gaeta starts to exhibit cynicism and anger. In addition to feeling betrayed by Baltar, I think he feels let down by his crewmates. Nobody believes him when he tells them his true role. His statements are dismissed out of hand, as if no one gave any consideration to what they know about him from all the years that he served with them. When Tigh returns to the CIC, Gaeta turns his back while everyone else is clapping. He is freer about expressing his own opinions ("The Road Less Travelled"). He becomes sarcastic (when he says "Right" his intonation is dripping with irony). The occupation serves as a painful rite of passage to adulthood.

I know that there has been a lot of discussion about Gaeta's sexual orientation. (In one of the Season 3 videoblogs Alessandro Juliani is pretty funny when he talks about Gaeta's virginity. His remarks are filled with double entendres that make pretty clear his opinion on the subject.) But I want to point out that by the end of Season 4, Gaeta is disabled and thereby joins an even smaller minority. After my experience getting services for my kids I can tell you that parents of disabled children are treated like shit, and the only group treated worse are disabled people themselves. To quote Anne Lamott ("Traveling Mercies," beginning of the chapter "Barn Raising") Gaeta is now a citizen of the Land of the Fucked. 

Whither Gaeta?

I really hope he gets laid in Season 4.5, since he could obviously use some sex, romance, and dare I say, love. Plus his disability makes it harder for him to do everything (I bet that battlestars are not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities act, or its Canadian equivalent), so it would be about time for the poor guy to have something good happen to him.

I am placing bets on Hoshi, based on the bear hug he and Gaeta exchange after the fleet finds Earth, but I am willing to be surprised. It would be just ghastly if it was Baltar. I think it would be kind of fun if Gaeta had a one-night stand with Dualla and she gets knocked up while Gaeta figures out which side of the street he walks on, and settles on men. That would meet the overwhelming necessity to increase the population while still respecting Gaeta's underlying sexual orientation. But it sounds too much like a very bad Madonna film that name of which has gone down in infamy. On the other hand Ang Lee did a very good movie ("The Wedding Banquet") on this same subject.

I also think that it would be hilarious if Gaeta walks into the Mess after his night of joy and everyone gets up and applauds and slaps his back and ruffles his hair like he is the Bar Mitzvah boy (everybody knows that there are no secrets on a battlestar).

But I digress.

I originally though that having a gay character would open the door to analogies with the US military and "don't ask don't tell," but I suspect that angle will not be pursued given that Admiral Caine was same-sex oriented.

When Gaeta lost his leg, my husband asked, "what the hell is this all about?" He then made the intelligent observation (which has been known to happen) that this is going to be a vehicle for Baltar's redemption. Somehow Baltar is going to help Gaeta (maybe save his life?), which will also provide some kind of closure for Gaeta.

In any event, I wish happiness for Gaeta, he certainly deserves it.