GALACTICA

As always - a well done show. Even though we might not like the story line, it brings out a story that should be told, condenses it to an hour, and shows some of the "acting chops" the shows players have. Roslin and Baltar stand out.

As much as I hated watching it, and the uncomfortable feeling I got from it, it was a story that should be told. It is interesting that they bring up how a class system that existed among the colonies before the attacks (rich colonies vs. poor colonies) is emerging again once a lengthy period goes by between Cylon encounters. Roslin recognizes this as a threat, but also knows she cannot immediately solve the problem. She has to decide how to spin things to get the refinery workers going again.

That said - its now time to get back to some "shoot 'em up" fantasy and get on the path to finding Earth.
 

Baltar is somehow a folk hero of the unwashed masses. The man who signed death warrants of the peasants now claims to be a peasant.
Adama is shown to be a bastard of a human being for threatening to kill a man's wife. Nobody mentions the strangeness of an admiral that makes a cylon an officer, forgives treason from his own son and fellow officers, and allows a incompetent drunk to remain XO. Yet he finds nothing wrong with threatening one of his most loyal men at gunpoint all because the man wants not to have children working in factories?
Is there anybody in this show to root for anymore? Won't even get in to the episodes Karl Marxx dialog.
 

It was a good show. However pretty poor timing. Just last week, the Admiral was going out of his way to save Tyrol and Cally's lives. It didn't take too aweful much for Tyrol to turn on him.

I love BSG for so many reasons. However, sometimes they overplay the need to have people love each other one minute and hate the next. I also don't think the need was really there to put the chief at odd's with the Admiral.

I think this happened because they didn't want to air the Starbuck plot twist too quickly yet throw some "one-off" shows out there to build anticipation. They just milked that cow a little too long.

JT
 

Overall, I found the episode believable; some might not agree.

While watching it, I was speculating with some amusement over what I'd read here afterwards: in the past you've found left-wing propaganda in the thinnest of plot threads, and I could only imagine how you'd take this episode.

Comments on individual plot elements:

1) The obstructionist tactics of the workers. At first this was a little hard for me to take. How crazy do the workers have to be to risk screwing with the fleet's energy supply?

This is certainly Adama's perspective, and I think it is meant to be ours as well at the start. But the episode does a decent job of explaining the reasons for their discontent: old rivalries between the colonies (it's nice to finally hear about colonies other than Caprica, Gemenon, and Sagittaron), and the emerging class structure.

The issue is that almost all the people we see on a weekly basis (Roslin, the Galactica personnel, etc.), and we ourselves as viewers, are insiders. We see the decisions being weighed and made.

And as someone who has been an "insider" in reasonably-sized organizations in the past, I can attest that the "outsiders" (those who don't make the decisions but are subject to them) can often have some pretty crazy ideas about how things are. Sometimes they're way off, sometimes not. (That's not to say that part of me didn't want Adama to throw those smug-faced workers all in jail.)

2) Baltar's book. This was probably the hardest sell for me. Baltar is a survivor, and he knows his best hope now to avoid execution is to get the public on his side. He is certainly sneaky and smart enough to write a book "calling it like it is" about the fleet.

But why are people listening? Why should people buy a class argument coming from this pampered elitist who sold them all out to the Cylons?

This is the thing. Being the to put into words what a lot of people are thinking has resurrected many a political career. If you want an example suitable for a right-wing palate, look at Al Gore. Did he campaign much for CO2-reduction in his eight years in office? Not memorably, anyway. But because he positioned himself at the right moment and got in front of a mass movement, he suddenly now has credibility on the issue.

3) Baltar's Aerelon origins. Interesting business. Was that really James Callis speaking? What real-world accent was that? I'm not British, so I'm not good with British accents -- at times it sounded Cockney, other times West Country.

In the past I've been a bit annoyed about these suddenly-revealed backstories. (Kat's a criminal! Lee had a pregnant girlfriend!) But this makes sense: that Baltar the image-driven media whore actually had humble origins he did his best to suppress. I like it; it fits with the character.

4) Adama's threats. Yes, I can see Adama being pretty pissed about what Tyrol did. Throw him in jail, sure. But the whole exchange was way over the top.

Tyrol's one demand was to talk to Roslin? What kind of demand is that? He was doing that earlier in the episode. And Adama's reaction — call off the strike or I kill your wife — stretches the bonds of credibility. If he was bluffing, that was a stupid bluff. If he wasn't, he's an idiot to be willing to kill key personnel just on general principle, particularly given that in the end Tyrol got what he asked for. The whole thing seemed like a cheap way of forcing tension into a Cylon-free episode.

Finishing off, my main fears for the future are 1) that this "class" problem will just be solver now that the episode's over, which would be incredibly lame, and 2) that they will overplay the level of public sympathy for Baltar. Thinking Baltar was speaking truth to power about the fleet's class problem doesn't automatically mean forgiving his crimes on New Caprica.
 

see my comments here:http://www.millennialstar.org/index.php/2007/02/26/battlestar_galactica_and_the_cold_equati
 

The show is getting just silly. My thoughts are here.
 

Did anyone notice that after the boy was injured on the conveyor belt that as they panned over the workers the camera held on for a couple seconds to a man looking exactly like baltar with scruffier facial hair.
 

To those who say this was a brilliant episode I ask you. What is a bad episode? This episode was filler. And as filler it wasn't that bad. But put in context of an entire damn season of endless filler it becomes a symbol of the crap that galactica has become. Is this science fiction or is it As the Galactica turns? We are running now 4 episodes in a row of utter crap. Throw in the 2-4 eps after they escaped caprica of filler and what exactly is the point of this show?
I think it's time for galactica to go the british route of sci-fi (doctor who, torchwood, etc..) and have a 12-13 episode season. Preserve the franchise and pick the best 12-13 episodes per year. Because as it right now it's almost unwatchable.
 

The show is written by communists, no one considered a market based solution to the problem. Higher pay for less disirable jobs. That's how we get people to work in coal mines in the real world.

Wow... that's just such a beautifully clueless statement from this blog's propriator that I'm tempted to let it speak for itself, without comment.

But only just tempted, mind you. Some facts that should be pointed out:

- Moore and the rest of the show writers make easily six figures a year... probably significantly more in a lot of cases. They may be pro-union, but I'll wager they're not communists.

- "A market-based solution"? Pray tell, what kind of financial or other incentives could you offer somebody to make nonstop labor attractive? Where and when would they spend any money they got? Where does this money come from in the greater scheme of things? Hint: try reading some basic economics and you might realize the fleet as a whole is consuming capital, not producing it, and markets do not prosper under those conditions.

- Coal miners are currently (relatively) well paid, but historically that's been far from the case. In fact, the conditions most coal miners dealt with, as far as both working conditions and limited opportunities to do something else, pretty closely approximate what we saw in the ep. And those conditions were mostly improved only through the action of unions over several decades.
 

I found the Union notion quite unappealing.
Firstly, using children to show the desperate state of worker affairs was decieving, as most workers aren't kids.

Secondly, how come Baltar is suddenly a "i'm for the lower class" kind of man? Wow. Suddenly we discover he's from Airlon (A now discovered 'poor' colony), and that he's 'caprican' only because he abandoned his own people, the peasants. I would have suspected he wanted to be caprican, not Airlonish(???), so why does he stand for people he abandoned?
And on that point, where does he get the recources to write a book in a cell continually guarded, without being detected?

Thirdly, why does Tillium look like sand? ... Cheap *cough cough*

That being sad, the issue was relevant to the current world, in alot of ways. That is why i like these kind of shows!!! Ron, go back to escapism, or PLEASE move away from reflecting todays society, we already see the news, we don't need it shoved in out faces again!!!
 

While this episode was better, by a little, than last week's, it still is filler and junk. Here are some observations:

1. Tyrol gets what he wants (more workers) and then calls a strike after a kid who is there because of his requests gets hurt. That's more of a reason to crush any type of strike.

2. What the heck does the government do? In the mini Roslin was worried about the safety of prisoners. Now she can't even keep track of what jobs need done and how many people are assigned to them? Heaven knows the have enough paper for reports in this fleet from the space trees they find.

3. Whoever runs the brig is a sadist and incompetent. Baltar is able to sneak out an entire booklet. Meanwhile, a bleeding prisoner isn't attended to. Reference past episodes for more incompetence.

4. One week Adama ignores disobedience, the next is getting ready to shoot people. Moore has watched too much Voyager and has given Adama the Janeway syndrome.

5. Stability at this point is more important than being able to pick your job. Yes, most people are going to be locked into jobs. And you know what, it will probably have to be that way. This isn't some huge, open society on a planet where you can pick and choose what you want to do. If you read any sci-fi story about generational type travel, they almost always get into discussing why huge level of structure and an almost feudal type structure is needed.

Galactica is in a death spiral right now.
 

Baltar could have verbally dictated his propaganda to his lawyer. Maybe Maelstrom will redeem the last few episodes.
 

5. Stability at this point is more important than being able to pick your job. Yes, most people are going to be locked into jobs. And you know what, it will probably have to be that way. This isn't some huge, open society on a planet where you can pick and choose what you want to do. If you read any sci-fi story about generational type travel, they almost always get into discussing why huge level of structure and an almost feudal type structure is needed.

Ah, another great comment. We started out with the cheerfully clueless idea that the market will fix everything, and now we have a tacit endorsement of inherited serfdom. It's really quite amazing the rhetorical lengths some people will go to to avoid even vaguely condoning collective bargaining.

Look, the people of the fleet are seeing the inequities that existed between the various colonies magnified and locked-in. In an attempt to save something approaching the imperfect but functional democracy that used to exist, they're making a sustained effort to address those inequities, rather than letting people remain at whatever level they happen to be at. I personally think it's a good idea that might actually work out - maybe you don't. But complaining that it's ludicrous for Roslin and company to even try is just silly, given that preserving the democracy of the 12 colonies is apparently just as important to the people on the show as survival itself.

"It's not enough just to survive - one must be worthy of surviving." Think about that the next time you complain about a character's action on BSG, and see if your critique still holds water.
 

It's really quite amazing the rhetorical lengths some people will go to to avoid even vaguely condoning collective bargaining.

This has nothing to do with the general concept of collective bargaining. Collective bargaining isn't feasible in their situation. In real life people in essential services can't strike. This is the same situation except it truly is a situation of survival of the species. The days of picking your job are over. If you're good at flying but great at electronics, well have fun working on electronics even if you love flying.

You do recognize the absurdity of the storyline that Adama would (a) allow fuel reserves to fall to the point that they can only perform one or two more jumps and (b) that they have so few workers that they are working 18 hours/7 days a week? They corrected the problem is about 30 minutes of screen time and would have done it in about the same time in real life. Need people to move bucket from point A to point B, here you go. Any semi-competent manager could have fixed the problem.

If we don't have elections and collective bargaining, we don't deserve to survive? What sort of stupid thinking is that?

anon:
If that was the case, then Baltar wouldn't have had papers for Roslin to confiscate.
 

Terrahawk: Too right you are. My mistake. Well that begs the question where is he hiding his typewriter? I don't think I want to know. It is hard for me to picture him clicking away in front of the cameras/guards without someone putting a stop to it posthaste. In seemed it would be at least plausible to dictate to his lawyer under some sort of client/lawyer privilege. Baltar must be given kudos for being able to stir the pot so from the brig.
 

I think this was a good sociological idea to visit, but it's hurt by how late they decided to do it. This stuff should have come up before. The sci-fi and consistency of the show is usually dropped immediately at the need of allegory, so handwaving and retcons are gonna be the rule. However, while stipulating that the foundation of the show is creaky these days, I was still pretty interested in the ideas and points of view in this one, although the end was too neat.
 

"The show is written by communists, no one considered a market based solution to the problem. Higher pay for less disirable jobs. That's how we get people to work in coal mines in the real world."


I've read some idiocy on this blog but this takes the proverbial biscuit.

Actually in the vast majority of the 'real world' coal mining is a poorly paid job, the only reason it's relatively well paid in the U.S is because American coal companies are STATE SUBSIDISED in a number of ways and operate in a FIXED and PROTECTED market. If U.S coal companies had to compete in a fair global market without these artificial advantages and tarrifs they'd quickly vanish under the weight of cheaper imports.

So if by 'market solution' you mean fixing the market unfairly to your advantage at the expense of genuine free trade while hypocriticaly proselytising said free trade to others less able to protect their own markets then I guess you chose a perfect example...which, of course was not your attempted 'point' so it seems once again you were simply making an arse of yourself.

Anyhoo, a flawed episode in a number of respects but a worthy effort nonetheless .
 

This has nothing to do with the general concept of collective bargaining. Collective bargaining isn't feasible in their situation. In real life people in essential services can't strike. This is the same situation except it truly is a situation of survival of the species. The days of picking your job are over. If you're good at flying but great at electronics, well have fun working on electronics even if you love flying.

And yet, people in essential services do strike in the real world - ever heard of the "blue flu"? And that's when they're not staring down the barrel of eternal servitude in the name of the greater good.

You do recognize the absurdity of the storyline that Adama would (a) allow fuel reserves to fall to the point that they can only perform one or two more jumps and (b) that they have so few workers that they are working 18 hours/7 days a week?

On the contrary, it makes sense to me: the fuel reserves were pretty clearly depleted at least in part because the workers were trying to get their point across - as the refinery foreman said, nobody thought twice about them when the fuel was being produced without a problem. As to the 18 hour days, I'm willing to bet that, again, until the workers started to complain, nobody thought of adding additional people to the refinery ship to alleviate the hours.

They corrected the problem is about 30 minutes of screen time and would have done it in about the same time in real life. Need people to move bucket from point A to point B, here you go. Any semi-competent manager could have fixed the problem.

The reallocation of people probably didn't take all that long - the big ramifications started to happen once people realized this was their life from now on.

If we don't have elections and collective bargaining, we don't deserve to survive? What sort of stupid thinking is that?

Well, given that people have freely given their lives for just those things, I'd say it's not particularly stupid at all. But that's not even what the quote is saying - it's saying that it's not enough to take the easy road as far as survival is concerned, that the fleet needs to keep reaching for the higher principles at stake, even in the midst of the apocalypse.

Again, you don't have to agree, and many people don't - Art Spiegelman's Maus makes the point more than once that noble intentions and ideals are beside the point in the face of genocide - but it's not unreasonable for the BSG writers to make the point, or for the BSG characters to try and live up to it.
 

Kudos and Hazah! The show is indeed writen by a bunch of dirty pinko commie thugs! Still, I'm perplexed, what happened to the space battles and finding earth? The writers are trying really hard to get an Emmy, and have given their fans the colective finger. Unfortunatly, I'm sure the show has picked up plenty of hippies, liberals and conspiracy theory wack-jobs (we know them as "trekkies" in the sci-fi community) as fans, and will do fine without the rest of us.
 

Again, I think they should get back to telling a STORY THAT MAKES SENSE instead of constantly trying to make modern day analogies.
 

Awesome show yet again, workers of the fleet unite!

Great idea about raising the wages to make the miners work more, especially when everything is already rationed. Maybe they can be paid with an IOU!
 

The problem with the communist vs. market based argument is that it misses the central point - there is no financial system in this fleet. In order to have an economic system, you need a central bank or authority that issues money. That is why there is so much bartering. Baltar's allusion to an emerging aristocracy is precisely because the people doing the shitty work have no other choice. When money is worthless, then people use other means to assign value like bartering. Due to the devastation post-Cylon attack, their system is more akin to a fuedal medieval system. Therefore, communism and market based systems do not apply.