GALACTICA

From a plot perspective this was the only episode this entire season that I liked.

Then it hit my why the plot was good. Because the plot was adapted from the classic Battlestar Galatica episode "The Lost Planet of the Gods." "The Lost Planet of the Gods" was a two part episode in which the fleet discovers an unnavigable void. But they go through it anyway and at the other side they discover a planet, and on the planet are the ruins of the original human civilization. It's the planet Kobol (an anagram of Kolob, the planet where God came from according to the Mormon religion).

The Cylons follow the fleet through the unnavigable void, and then Baltar flies down to the planet to meet with Adama in order to propose a deal. Baltar proposes that Adama will pretend to surrender to him, and Baltar will lead him to the Cylon homeworld which is undefended. Adama doesn't believe Baltar and rejects the offer, but back on board the Cylon Baseship, Lucifer (Baltar's second in command) has his doubts too about Baltar's true motives.

On the planet Kobol the humans discover a temple, but as Adama is reading the ancient writings which tell of the path towards Earth, the Cylons attack and the temple is destroyed.

"The Eye of Jupiter" seems to parallel the original storyline pretty well, except that in the new series, all the humans are despicable and not really worthy of being saved from the Cylons. Lee, who used to be the good guy, is now cheating on his wife, Dualla, with Kara who is also married and cheating on her husband. Meanwhile, back on Galactica, Helo is complaining to Adama about how he and Athena were lied to about the baby. I think that Helo should just be thankful that he hasn't yet been executed for treason.

The fanboys who often leave comments here will say that Lee's behavior makes him more real. Hey, there are real people who don't cheat on their wives, and if anyone would be the type who would be into that sort of behavior, it would have been the Lee from the first two seasons.

I couldn't even figure out what was going on in this episode until I read the official synopsis. So that was supposed to be a "star cluster"? And why couldn't they just travel around it?

The original Battlestar Galactica was criticized for not making any scientific sense, and the new series is now drifting into that territory (assuming it didn't drift there from the very beginning with the idea of Cylons who are so much like humans that not even advanced medical science can't tell them apart). Considering the vast distances of space that the fleet routinely travels, I don't see how a "star cluster" could be so vast that they couldn't just travel around it, yet so dense with stars that jumping into the middle of it means death from radiation after only a few minutes.

This reminded me very much of two similarly themed episodes from the original series. In "Lost Planet of the Gods," Starbuck and Apollo discovered an unnavigable possibly endless void, but they figured out how to get through it and found the planet Kobol in thd middle. And in the episode "Gun on Ice Planet Zero," the fleet had to fly past a planet with a huge gun on it. Why couldn't they just fly out of range of the gun? Or wait until the gun was on the far side of the planet? While normally I like it when they pay homage to the old series, in this case they're paying homage to the very worst plot points of the original series.

What's the deal with the piano music everytime we're in the Cylon base ship? The Cylons are supposed the be the enemy, so they should be playing ominous enemy music and not dreamy piano music. The piano music is supposed to be telling us that the Cylons aren't really any worse than the humans.(Yes, the annoying fanboi commenters will say that I just don't appreciate the "subtleties." But I don't see any subtleties here, just a sledgehammer.)

Whan Starbuck tells Kat that she "lied her way into the company of good people," I couldn't believe that Starbuck could say that with a straight face. Starbuck, who likes to beat people up, especially her lovers, and who wanted to execute Gaeta in a secret Star Chamber tribunal, considers herself "good people"? But somehow, I don't think the writers actually saw the irony.

In conclusion, another lousy season three episode.

Boxing is considered a barbaric sport by some, and there is a growing sentiment in the West that the sport ought to be banned. Thus it's appropriate that Ron Moore and his left wing writers prominantly feature boxing matches in this week's episdoe. Ron Moore wants to drive home the point that humanity is not deserving of being saved. (And the humanity of BSG correlates with the United States, so the fact that we have boxing in the U.S. means we don't have the moral right to invade foreign countries such as Iraq.)

Sorry it took so long to get up my review of this episode. The show is getting so bad that I no longer even desire to watch it. Kara's (Starbuck's) actions regarding Anders and Lee Adama make absolutely no sense to me.

Would the leader of any military organization get into a boxing ring with an enlisted man? Come on. This is utter nonsense. Imagine Colin Powell getting into a boxing ring with some Seargeant that pissed him off. IT WOULDN'T HAPPEN.