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.

Miniseries - Roslin and Adama and the path to leadership

Roslin and Adama are on parallel paths that converge at the end of the miniseries. Both are minor players in their respective spheres and both are at critical turning points in their lives. Roslin has just learned that she has terminal breast cancer and Adama is on Galactica, preparing to retire and give up the command of a ship so obsolete that it is being turned into a museum.

Their first meeting on Galactica, before the attack, is not a success.

They are on different ships when they receive news of the Cylon attack, and they each take on responsibilities that expand rapidly as the news deteriorates and the existing leadership structures disappear.

On what is supposed to be his last night as commander, Adama is sitting in his quarters reading when he gets a call from the CIC which has just received word of the Cylon attack. He responds in a matter of fact voice, "I'll be right up," and sits for a moment without moving. From that point on, as the situation becomes more desperate he remains calm and even taciturn.

In Roslin's part of the story, she learns of the attack after breaking down in private as news of her prognosis finally comes home. She immediately goes to the cockpit to find out what is going on, and reaches out and holds the pilot's shaking hand while she reads the news transmittal. This single gesture immediately establishes her as the leader, ready to take command when others are  overwhelmed. In the midst of panic and uncertainty she sets a goal (to find everyone trapped in ships above the planets and lead them to safety) and gives instructions necessary realize it.

Both Roslin and Adama make painful decisions with terrible consequences.

Tigh, Adama's surrogate, makes the most painful decision on Galactica when he vents 85 deckhands into space in order to put out fires that threaten the ship. Afterward Adama makes it clear that he would make the same decision himself, and I never doubt that is the case.

I think this scene is also interesting because Tigh, thrust into the middle of the crisis and forced to quickly make a critical decision, hesitates for a few seconds and looks off at Adama, as if for guidance. Once he makes his decision Tigh is clear and resolute, he doesn't look back. This type of moment happens elsewhere in the series (in "Scattered" Tigh must make several decisions immediately after Adama is shot. Once again he takes several seconds to decide and proceeds only after recalling advice from Adama from an earlier time).

I also like these scenes because the perspective moves to a view of Galactica from space and you can actually see the fires and bodies thrown out into space. In other words, the human costs of this decision are immediately made tangible. This happens at other points in the miniseries when ships explode - it's not unusual to see the pilot's body thrown out of the cockpit. (Aside from all the people thrown out of airlocks, take a look at "Epiphanies." It wasn't until the second time I watched this epdisode that I saw bodies thrown into space.) I always contrast this with "Star Wars" where we see ships blow up, but no person in them seems to get hurt, so the special effects of the explosion give a vicarious thrill detached from pain and death.

In Roslin's subplot the human costs are even higher. Roslin's mission is to find as many survivors as possible, and she manages to put together a fleet of ships holding 60,000 people. Roslin visits one of these ships, a cruise ship filled with families with young children. She promises the captain that she will take care of them, and chats with a little girl. Soon after she makes the decision to abandon this and other ships containing 10,000 people to the Cylons because the ships cannot travel fast enough. Roslin decides to break her promise and in the process condemns the little girl (and thousands of others) to death in the interest of saving the other 50,000 survivors. She sits in the cabin of Colonial One listening to the transmissions of people screaming and begging for help as the Cylons appear, attack, and quickly destroy the ships left behind.

Roslin and Adama also learn almost simultaneously that they are the most senior people left alive after the attack.

Mary McDonnell's body language and posture are very effective at conveying Roslin's state of mind at this moment. When she is sitting talking to Lee about her position (43rd)  in succession, we see her from the side. She is sitting with both feet flat on the floor, wearing black pumps and a business skirt. Instead of wearing her suit jacket she has a blanket draped around her shoulders. Her appearance expresses total exhaustion. At this point she learns that all 42 people ahead of her are dead and she must now be sworn in as president. She sniffles quietly, puts on her suit jacket and calmly says, "We need a priest."

An aside about the swearing-in ceremony - it is deliberately reminiscent of Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One after President Kennedy's assassination. This is not the only reference to the Kennedy assassination (at least to my eyes). When Callie shoots Boomer ("Resistance") it is strikingly similar to the news clips of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Johnson, btw, did not need to be sworn in, the line of succession meant that he became president as soon as Kennedy died. Johnson arranged for the swearing-in ceremony as a symbolic gesture.

Immediately after Roslin becomes president, Adama learns that the rest of the fleet has been destroyed and he is the senior military officer left alive. This is the last of a series of disastrous military reports conveying news of the annihilation of the Colonial military forces at the hands of the Cylons. Olmos continues to underplay Adama's reactions. Dualla is holding back tears as she gives the last transmission to Adama. He reads it, conveys the news to the crew, announces that he is now in command of Colonial forces, and then carries on with little discernable change in manner. Adama's voice is not quite, but almost a monotone, and it works to great effect in this scene.

Adama and Roslin, formerly low on the totem pole, are now in charge.

Each pursues their own priorities until their ships converge at Ragnar Anchorage, where they meet again, and come into conflict over the next move. Adama, a military man, wants to stand and fight, and Roslin, as a civic leader, wants to secure the lives of the remaining citizens.

The meeting is fascinating. It is noteworthy for its banality in the middle of Armaggedon. Roslin sits at a desk on Galactica listening to a report from Billy on problems in the fleet. Adama steps in, Billy stands up to leave, and Roslin tells him to sit down and asks Adama to wait (a nice little power play). Adama sits down quietly, crosses his legs, folds his hands in his lap, and acts as if this is a normal business meeting. In his turn, he calls her "Ms. Roslin" and not "Madame President," (a small subversive action, although expressed civilly). Even the following conversation, although heated, is well within the norms of polite behavior. In fact, the entire scene is prosaic despite the enormous stakes and the passion behind each character's words.

Roslin's statements are powerful ("The war is over, we lost." And "If we are going to survive as a race we'd better start having babies."), and the audience is on her side. The tension is whether, when and how Adama's priority of continuing to fight the Cylons will switch to Roslin's goal of running with the survivors under Galactica's protection.

In the end, Roslin wins out when Adama looks across the CIC to see two young people flirting and echoes her line: "They'd better start having babies." In one of the great comebacks in television history Tigh asks, "Is that an order?"At that point, Roslin's and Adama's separate paths meet and they start to move forward with one goal in mind - to save the remaining population and find a new home.

Miniseries - Opening Scene

I realized that if I was going to do a single post for the entire miniseries it would be the equivalent of 10 pages long (single space). I am already in version 10 of my post and I am not even close to being complete. To make this all manageable, I am just going to put together a post for every "theme" I want to discuss. All the posts for the miniseries will be prefixed "Miniseries - " (duh). I mean, the miniseries is 3 hours long and covers a lot of territory so I feel that this is NOT going to be typical of future posts where I just review one episode. Also, not all episodes deserve the same consideration (Have I mentioned recently how much I hate "Sine Qua Non"?). 

OK, although I don't want this to be a recitation of events in chronological order, I do want to write first about the opening scene on the armistice station, because it sets the tone for everything that follows.

The first thing that struck me is that in the middle of this bleak, soulless room, empty except for a desk and a chair, the courier pulls out pictures of his wife and child and places them on the table. Both are smiling and look relaxed and happy. Both photos seem to be taken outdoors, in a natural setting. From the beginning the series creates an atmosphere of menace and immediately juxtaposes that menace with images of people who are unaware of pending disaster.

The courier, with nothing to do but wait until the time is up (because no one ever comes), falls asleep at his desk, literally showing that the military's guard is down. Suddenly the doors open and in step huge metal robots, each with a single red light moving back and forth across a slit where we would expect to see eyes, and capable of turning their "hands" into rapid-fire guns. They step aside to allow a beautiful blond, who is dwarfed by the metal soldiers, enter the room and walk straight to the desk.

She is wearing high-heeled boots, a tight red outfit with a high collar that is buttoned at the neck. She walks like a model, and looks like a Nazi picture of the perfect (albeit alluring) Aryan woman.

She asks the courier, "Are you alive?" He says, "Yes" and she bends down and starts kissing him passionately. There's an explosion, the ship docked to the station is destroyed, she says, "It has begun" and continues to kiss him. The courier's eyes widen in terror and the papers on the desk float to the floor. In space a gigantic ship comes to view looming over the station, and the station is destroyed.

We view everything between this scene and the Cylon attacks on the Twelve Colonies with the knowledge that a catastrophe is about to take place that will destroy these world(s) and their inhabitants.

The most disturbing intimation of disaster is the scene where Six meets a young mother and her newborn baby while walking in a marketplace. We know instantly the baby, the mother, and everyone else, for that matter, will soon be dead. As Six holds the baby and says, "Don't worry, you won't have to cry much longer" we know that she is talking about the baby's impending death in the coming Cylon attack, and not comforting the child as it may appear to the mother. Six murders the child by snapping its neck when the mother's attention is distracted. Perhaps it is an act of mercy, although Six appears conflicted when she hears the mother's screams as she walks away. Galactica doesn't gloss things over - the coming attack will kill everyone, including the most vulnerable and helpless victims.

One of the more subtle features of Galactica is placing people in the background to give texture to a scene. In this scene I always notice the young man with dreadlocks and a Hawaiian shirt smiling and ambling along in our direction, completely unaware that he will soon be dead. 

This foreknowledge also lends an air of irony to Laura Roslin's meeting with her doctor. The doctor tells her that she has cancer and leaves no doubt that the prognosis is death. Of course, in a few hours the doctor will die in the nuclear holocaust, and Roslin will be alive and leading the government. 

A good friend of mine told me that there are certain things you don't get to choose, and when and how you die is one of them. This is certainly the case for this doctor, who is so certain of Roslin's fate and so oblivious of his own.

Laura Roslin

I think the character of Laura Roslin is fantastic, and I think that Mary McDonnell, and Edward James Olmos for that matter, are far and away the most accomplished actors on the series. (Please don't interpret me incorrectly, because there are a LOT of really good actors in the series, but these two are in a class by themselves.)

The first thing that I like about Mary McDonnell is that she is a woman of a certain age (femme d'une certaine age), like Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Isabella Rossellini, Meryl Streep, and me. In other words, she looks her age (50-ish), but she looks fabulous, implying that there is still hope for me. Moreover, she doesn't seem to have strolled down the path of plastic surgery or Botox, so she looks authentic. There just  don't seem to be many leading female characters in film or TV that are older than 35 (except for Madonna, and I just don't feel that she is a typical example of women my age).

Mary McDonnell has had leading roles in a couple of outstanding John Sayles' films ("Matewan" and "Passion Fish"), and also in "Donnie Darko" (a very good, very engrossing, and very weird movie). She played the president's WIFE in "Independence Day" so it is especially gratifying to see her playing the president in Galactica. In fact, in "Independence Day," I was kind of surprised to learn that Will Smith's fiancee was an "exotic dancer" or pole dancer, or whatever. I just find it hard to believe that a nice woman with a cute kid and a middle class lifestyle works in the sex industry. Oh, and she's engaged to a hot shot air force pilot who thinks her chosen profession is a good way to save for the down payment on a house. As if. And nursing the president's stoic, dying wife? Hello, I think not. I guess I am not good at thinking outside the box.

On the other hand - a woman president who used to be secretary of education? Now that's thinking outside the box.

Mary McDonnell has given Roslin some subtle trademark gestures that indicate her internal thought processes. If she is seriously considering making a decision, she nods her head and thoughtfully says, "ok." If she is caught out in a lie or backed into a corner, she compresses her lips slightly and says nothing. (Take a look at "Precipice." When she is in detention and Baltar confronts her about the suicide bombings, challenging her to say she agrees with the tactic, she looks off to the side and is completely silent. A subsequent scene with Tigh and Anders makes it clear that she agrees wit Baltar, but she can't bear to give Baltar the satisfaction of being right.)

She is a serious, rational, and politically adept woman. When she comes to believe in her role in a religious prophecy, we take her seriously instead of thinking that she suffers from some messianic delusion. In fact, she doesn't even know that much about the scriptures, stories, and myths of her own religion. As she learns more, we learn more with her - an effective device for conveying information to the viewer without being obvious. (Robert Altman does the same thing in "Gosford Park," btw, with the character of Mary, the newest servant.)

Roslin is not afraid to make tough choices, as when she gives the go-ahead to abandon ships without FTL drives knowing they will be destroyed by the Cylons (miniseries), or for concurring with Adama in the Decision to shoot down the Olympic Carrier ("33"). She makes promises she has no intention of keeping (she throws Leoben out the airlock after promising that she wouldn't kill him if he gave her information - "Flesh and Bone"). She breaks the agreement with the Cylons and has D'Anna brought to her first ("The Hub). She lies to everyone about Sharon's baby, creating unnecessary heartache and potentially endangering the child and the fleet.

She is also dictatorial - after all, she started out as a school teacher. Were YOU ever in a classroom that was run like a democracy? She resists the demands by Apollo and Tom Zarek to hold elections (as Colonial Law would require), and, as she gets closer to death in season 4, she becomes increasingly impatient with anyone who doesn't agree with her decisions.

All of the facets make her a fascinating character, and one who is decidedly human. She is primarily positive (she is an outstanding leader, she is mostly honest, she is completely dedicated to preserving the human race), and yet she ha some negative characteristics, including a few that completely contradict her good points.

Unlike many of the characters, the president very seldom raises her voice, or has big, loud, emotional moments involving being noisily indignant (unlike a certain CAG I could name). She is consistently true to character, which makes her even more convincing. In the course of the entire series she only raises her voice twice. The first is when she yells at corporal Venner to let her out of the cell after the Cylons have boarded ("Valley of Darkness"). The second is when she races through Galactica screaming at Baltar ("Taking a Break from all your Worries") and threatening to throw him out  an airlock. This second example was all an act, designed to get Baltar to get information out of Baltar, so I am not sure that it counts.

Roslin is never maudlin, which is also true to character. After Billy dies (btw, not to digress, but what genius decided not to give this character an adult name? For God's sake he is the president's chief of staff. They might as well name him Jimmy Olsen.), she is sitting by the body, and she reaches out and straightens his hair, and then makes a small whimpering sound ("Sacrifice"). I think she that she makes the scene more powerful by deliberately choosing to underplay it.

Roslin is probably going to die soon (at least I hope so. Not because I want her to die, but because any other outcome would be cheating). This is the second time she has been down this road, and both times she is very courageous but also very frightened. Discussions about mortality and death are intrinsic to the nature of life on Galactica because the enemy can't die (at least not until the end of Season 4). Roslin's impending death adds depth to this theme because we viewers are so invested in the character by the end of Season 4. Natalie gives a very moving talk on this subject ("Guess What's Coming to Dinner"). While she is speaking to the quorum about mortality giving life meaning, the camera switches to Roslin in her wig, looking haggard and ill. She has led the fleet to Earth, but I don't think she is going to be there long. The journey, however, has imbued her life with meaning, and she will live on as a great leader in her people's history.