more BSG impressions

[wombat1138]

So at this point, we've rented our way all the way through the first season of the new BSG and a few eps of the second season. I've been listening more than watching, due to multitasking the media consumption with modular origami. A few thoughts, doubtless well-duplicated in the horse-shaped crater that's been beaten into the ground since these eps first aired--

1.) When Starbuck landed on Caprica, why didn't she either have a bewildered moment of "Boomer, WTF are you doing here?" or also immediately conclude that Helo might be a Cylon copy as well?

2.) Ellen Tigh is a very poorly realized character. Her autocratic advice to her husband wasn't completely unrealistic-- iirc from Robert Massie, toward the end of the Romanovs' reign, Alexandra pushed Nicholas to clamp down rather than allowing more participation from the Duma-- but so far she isn't much more than a caricature of Lady Macbeth as dissolute sexpot. For that matter, the female characters generally seem to be falling into the easy categories of brittle blondes and earnest dark ladies.

3.) Jamie Bamber has a damn good American accent.

That is all for now.

Comments

[qadgop.livejournal.com]

she *immediately* concludes that Sharon (but not Helo) is a Cylon.

She's seen more than one Sharon, but she's still only seen one Helo?

Bleh. Brain cell fall out backside of head.

You and your brain cell. If you haven't figured out by now not only that you're smarter than most of us mere humans, but that you're the primary (if slow-acting) inspiration for my own writing, you're right: it probably does need a slight cleaning.

(Yes, I contain multitudes.)

I didn't get the impression that Cain was the only female officer on Pegasus; I assumed she's a hardass because, dammit, she's a hardass (and trying to keep the majority of her crew alive).

Unless you're referring to what she allows to be done to Gina (and someone else, if you haven't seen the episode yet). Well, she expresses her reasons for that, and they're pretty deep-seated (and seemingly unrelated to gender per se, though one could certainly argue for unconscious stuff).

It's true that Cylons' access to their other iterations' memories seems to fluctuate a lot; that could be Moore being cagey and mysterious, or it could be the writers not being sure. I don't know if you've learned about Resurrection ships yet, but the presence or absence of one when a Cylon dies probably has a lot to do with how much the "network" gets from said Cylon. Note, however, that Leoben (the model they first meet on Ragnar Station) is established as consistently trying to mess with people's minds. Which is to say, he lies a lot.

I think you've answered your own first question about Sharons 1 and 2, willfulness-wise. Cylons seem to be partially shaped by their experiences. Sharon #1 spends years believing she's human, then gets more and more frequently blindsided by things that don't make sense, unless. When the Cylon programming she isn't aware of kicks in, it's pretty clearly subconscious--the "real" Cylon that's been buried by her sleeper-agent cover personality. Sharon #2 doesn't need a subconscious, because she goes in (at first) as a willing agent of the Cylons. It's just that her model seems to tend towards empathy; from the Cylon perspective, it's weak.