Battlestar Galactica: The Captain’s Hand

Apollo is assigned to work with the new Pegasus Commander, and Roslin must face an issue which puts her principles against the survival of the human race.

Cast

James Callis as Dr. Gaius Baltar
Edward James Olmos as Commander Adama
Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
Jamie Bamber as Lee “Apollo” Adama
Michael Hogan as Col. Tigh
Tricia Helfer as Number 6
Grace Park as Sharon “Boomer” Valerii
Tahmoh Penikett as Helo
Aaron Douglas as CPO Galen Tyrol
Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek

Synopsis

Apollo is assigned to work alongside the new commander of the Pegasus, who is showing signs of instability. On Galactica, the arrival of a stowaway pregnant woman seeking an abortion forces Roslin to balance her ideals against the survival of the human race.

High Points

  • The ending of the episode was absolutely perfect. I’m at the edge of my seat wondering what the effects of this episode’s events are going to be, and the ending just reinforces that.
  • I’m glad the Quorum still have a part to play. They’ve been ignored far too much lately, and civilian life still goes on.

Low Point

It’s set a month after the previous episode. I’m not sure I like these increasingly large gaps between episodes; it feels like we’re missing out on things. We probably aren’t, but it loses some of the immediacy which we’ve had with the more tightly-packed episodes in the past.

The Scores

This episode is not hugely original, although as we’ve come to expect the tales told are given a treatment which rarely feels like we’ve seen it all before. Five out of six — more for the Pegasus storyline than the Roslin one.

The effects team treated us to some real visual feasts this week. I am, however, disappointed that they have succumbed to the temptation to make the DRADIS screens suffer interference that appears as static in an analogue video signal. Surely the system is interpreted by a computer, and thus bad data won’t result in bits and pieces of picture bouncing around the screen amidst a flurry of white noise. Unless this is some dubious visual indication of signal quality, of course. Five out of six.

There are two stories in this episode, and both are excellent. Neither feels cut down or wedged in alongside its counterpart; in fact, the balance between the two is just right. Six out of six.

Emotional response is strong this week as well, although not consistently enough for full marks. I can’t elaborate without spoiling the entire plot, so I won’t. Five out of six.

The acting was superb. McDonnell has always shown a strong talent when it comes to portraying Roslin having to make a difficult decision. Bamber shows similar ability this week, and Sackhoff treats us to a wonderful portrayal of everything which is the essence of Starbuck. I also felt that the new Pegasus commander was superbly cast. Six out of six.

The production can’t really be faulted, although I’m still dubious about the design of the Pegasus CIC. It seems unwise to have glass which can break during a battle in your ship’s command centre. Sure it’s nice on something like Cloud Nine, but Pegasus is a warship and as such shouldn’t scatter broken glass all over the place even when hit with a nuclear warhead. Five out of six.

For an overall score this week, I give this episode five out of six. It’s been a while since an episode was this tightly put together and gave us so much plot and character advancement. My only real criticism to add is that Dee was ignored throughout the latter part of the episode where her reactions should have been made known to us.

And that gives The Captain’s Hand a grand total of thirty-seven out of forty-two.

44 replies on “Battlestar Galactica: The Captain’s Hand”

  1. problems starting to appear
    "hey guys, lets go on a training exercise 20ft away from a pulsar that scrambles dradas" Come on ppl, lets not take a situation of where the end results can be seen a million miles away. i knew they were going to get lost, its like an episode of star trek enterprise but with better acting.
    <p>
    good point on the "low points" you do not advance a story line a month ahead with-out a filler episode (filler episode is an episode that doesn’t advance the story but gives us some background on a character, or some nifty trinket or technology that makes us say "ahhhhhh")
    <p>
    STOP PROMOTING PEOPLE, Apollo from captain to lieutenant to captain to temporary major to commander of "the beast" in 1 year. peg crew must be pissed, they have lost 3 commanders and now "daddy’s boy" is taking over, this is good for new story material -Pegasus vs. the Apollo’s-!
    <p>
    Admiral Apollo needs to stop promoting people; he’s not very good at finding the right people. He promoted a guy to captain when Apollo went AWOL with the prez and he couldn’t even coordinate re-fueling missions without fracking it up. He then promotes an engineer to COMMAND. That’s like making Starbuck ships counselor (thou it would be interesting, and funny)

    • Re: problems starting to appear
      The point about promotions is probably a good one, and it did feel rather strange to have Apollo promoted so quickly. (You’ve already spoiled that part so I won’t bother with the tags. :P)

      However, we have to remember that the military has been suffering quite a bit of losses, and therefore it is quite natural for people to move up in ranks. Admiral Cain, Commander Fisk, Commander Gardner (sp?) – if officers are dropping like flies, they have to be replaced. We haven’t been shown too many Captains, Colonels or Majors, so I figure there can’t be *that* many of them to go around and promote.

      This is why the engineer was in command – he may have been the highest-ranking Pegasus officer left! We have no idea how the system works, but it’s entirely possible that the chief engineer’s official rank be Major or such, and it’s quite possible all officers of at least the Captain rank have been trained to lead a CIC if need be. Although I absolutely loved the way Apollo looked so utterly lost and out of place on the CIC. "I… have the con…")

      Also, I think Admiral Adama thinks the Pegasus crew will accept the new commander appointed by him because Apollo managed to get them out of the bind they ended up in thanks to Gardner’s brashness. Of course it’s also possible they’ll let the mistake he made slide because of what he did and go back to sulking.

      What really intrigues me is how Mrs Tigh is going to take this. Hubby has been Colonel and XO for the whole time and still no ship for him. :)

      • Re: problems starting to appear

        What really intrigues me is how Mrs Tigh is going to take this.
        Hubby has been Colonel and XO for the whole time and still no ship for him.
        :)

        Well, we saw how well Tigh handled command of Galactica. Forget it. He’s a
        good XO but not suited for, and I don’t think he desires, command. (But
        yeah, the Mrs. has other ideas…)

        The only other possible ranking officer we’ve seen on Pegasus is the former
        CAG, and Admiral Cain booted him out of that position to replace him with
        Starbuck. Apollo was apparently the third highest ranking officer on
        Galactica, and the best available choice for commanding Pegasus. Poor guy.

    • Re: problems starting to appear

      <snip>STOP PROMOTING PEOPLE, Apollo from captain to lieutenant to captain to temporary major to commander of "the beast" in 1 year. peg crew must be pissed, they have lost 3 commanders and now "daddy’s boy" is taking over, this is good for new story material -Pegasus vs. the Apollo’s-!
      <snip>

      However, Apollo also just got them out of a tight situation while their commander ran down to micromanage the repairs. That’s got to give him some credibility with the Peg crew.

      • Re: problems starting to appear

        However, Apollo also just got them out of a tight situation while their commander ran down to micromanage the repairs. That’s got to give him some credibility with the Peg crew.

        I’m sure the Pegasus crew has no trouble with Apollo after the events of the episode. I would only note that Commander Garner did the right thing by going down to conduct repairs himself. First off, he was clearly the one person who could get the job done (Pegasus has suffered losses too – part of the reason they conscripted people like the aeronautical engineer). Second, I thought the subtext was that he realized he wasn’t the right man to command the ship and turned it over to Apollo in the most graceful way possible under the circumstances.

        On promotions: I’m surprised there haven’t been more promotions. If we carry earth-western rank structure over to the Colonials, we would find that Apollo was actually UNDER-ranked for his job – on an aircraft carrier in the US military, for example, the CAG would be a naval captain (equivalent to colonel), equal in rank to the overall commander of the carrier.

        With the losses they’ve suffered, and probably partially due to the fact that Galactica was being decommissioned, there are way too few higher ranking officers on board for the number of people required to keep the boat running.

        • Re: problems starting to appear
          I will admit that Garner seemed to be the only one with a clue on the repairs, but I felt more like he panicked in the face of having to be in charge in that situation, so he wanted to find something that only he could do.

          Which is why BSG is great. Both are equally possible interpretations. :)

          • Re: problems starting to appear

            I will admit that Garner seemed to be the only one with a clue on the repairs, but I felt more like he panicked in the face of having to be in charge in that situation, so he wanted to find something that only he could do.

            I thought of it as his way of paying for the mistake he had made by following the distress signal against direct orders to the contrary and endangering the Pegasu. Back at the Fleet, a very messy court martial would have been waiting for him.

    • Re: problems starting to appear

      good point on the "low points" you do not advance a story line a month ahead with-out a filler episode (filler episode is an episode that doesn’t advance the story but gives us some background on a character, or some nifty trinket or technology that makes us say "ahhhhhh")

      In all honesty, I don’t think a month advance was out of place here, thats how long they were going to be mining the asteroid where they splashed scar. Unless of course we want 3 more episodes of vipers killing cylons while avoiding big rocks.

    • Re: problems starting to appear

      "hey guys, lets go on a training exercise 20ft away from a pulsar that scrambles dradas"

      Actually, it does make sense to do that sort of thing in DRADIS-blind area, if for no other reason than to escape detection by the Cylons.

  2. Analog vs. Digital
    Don’t assume that digital processing would be used in DRADIS. Digital processing is problematic in this world, since Cylon ubervirii seem to be able to take on just about anything smarter than an alarm clock. At the very least, you’d want to have analog backups in case the digital systems failed.

    I can easily see the first thing happening is Adama ordering that the analog backups be used as a matter of course – one less vulnerability to worry about.

    That does raise one question I’ve had: how have they immunized all the newer model vipers that they have flying?

    • Re: Analog vs. Digital

      That does raise one question I’ve had: how have they immunized all the newer model vipers that they have flying?

      Actually, since the Pegasus was in for a refit, etc, I think it’s likely their Vipers never got the "upgrade" that made the Mark VIIs vulnerable in the first place.

    • Re: Analog vs. Digital

      Don’t assume that digital processing would be used in DRADIS. Digital processing is problematic in this world, since Cylon ubervirii seem to be able to take on just about anything smarter than an alarm clock. At the very least, you’d want to have analog backups in case the digital systems failed.

      There’s also the fact the analog is sometimes just plain better. After all, if DRADIS works in any way like RADAR, the signals bouncing around would be analog and there would be information to be gained from that analog nature. For example, let’s say a RADAR pulse goes out and bounces off a ship; in a digital sense you learn whether there’s a contact or not but you’ll need analog data (like Doppler shift) to give you things like range information.

      In fact, if you’re in an area where such signals are being distorted, a human monitoring the analog data can potentially spot information that a computer interpreting/filtering the data could miss.

      • Re: Analog vs. Digital

        Don’t assume that digital processing would be used in DRADIS. Digital processing is problematic in this world, since Cylon ubervirii seem to be able to take on just about anything smarter than an alarm clock. At the very least, you’d want to have analog backups in case the digital systems failed.

        There’s also the fact the analog is sometimes just plain better. After all, if DRADIS works in any way like RADAR, the signals bouncing around would be analog and there would be information to be gained from that analog nature. For example, let’s say a RADAR pulse goes out and bounces off a ship; in a digital sense you learn whether there’s a contact or not but you’ll need analog data (like Doppler shift) to give you things like range information.

        In fact, if you’re in an area where such signals are being distorted, a human monitoring the analog data can potentially spot information that a computer interpreting/filtering the data could miss.

        As far as the "snow" on the screens, that is also very plausable. My study is right next to a electrical trunk line. Whenever somebody turns on the washer or the dryer, my CRT monitor starts making like a hula dancer, even when I’m running on battery backup. And that is just electromagnetic noise.

        • Re: Analog vs. Digital

          As far as the "snow" on the screens, that is also very plausable. My study is right next to a electrical trunk line. Whenever somebody turns on the washer or the dryer, my CRT monitor starts making like a hula dancer, even when I’m running on battery backup. And that is just electromagnetic noise.

          Something to consider: a battlestar is supposed to be hardened against nuclear weapons. Nukes have been a Cylon favorite since the first war. When you take in to account that with our current technology we can protect our own military systems against EMP from a nuke, it *is* rather odd that DRADIS would have such snow and distortion.

          To put it another way, if the fleet are close enough to a pulsar to have that kind of effect on nuclear-hardened electronics, the *people* should be short-circuiting too.

          On the other hand, spacecraft avatars blinking in and out don’t have nearly the visual impact that the whole DRADIS console going hooey does. I give it a thumbs down for science, but a thumbs up for a quick and easy visual shortcut to demonstrate heavy duty sensor interference. :)

          -Joe

          • Re: Analog vs. Digital

            To put it another way, if the fleet are close enough to a pulsar to have that kind of effect on nuclear-hardened electronics, the *people* should be short-circuiting too.

            But DRADIS includes some sort of receiver. It’s supposed to pick up signals. The "hardening" for something like that would be overload protection and shielding of internal circuitry, but you can’t harden the antenna against interference.

            Put another way, if you’re looking out trying to see a lit match as a signal and I shine a searchlight in your eyes, sunglasses don’t help.

            • Re: Analog vs. Digital

              But DRADIS includes some sort of receiver. It’s supposed to pick up signals. The "hardening" for something like that would be overload protection and shielding of internal circuitry, but you can’t harden the antenna against interference.

              Put another way, if you’re looking out trying to see a lit match as a signal and I shine a searchlight in your eyes, sunglasses don’t help.

              Heh. :P The ship signals were also fading in and out. It might be a combination of the two. :)

              -Joe

  3. The Beast
    It does have a beastly face, that ship. And it devours its commanders. Watch out, Apollo! : )

    And you gotta love the moment with Starbuck at the end.

    Although, I do wonder how the Pegasus crew will take this, they have issues with fleet loyalty VS ship loyalty, they might make it hard for a commander from another ship. This should be interresting to watch.

  4. Baltaaaaaaaaaaaar!
    Baltar was just perfect at the end. Sometimes his genius shines through and you just really want to reach into the TV and PUNCH him… (:

    • Re: Baltaaaaaaaaaaaar!

      Baltar was just perfect at the end. Sometimes his genius shines through and you just really want to reach into the TV and PUNCH him… (:

      I really have no doubt that Baltar will win the presidency . That will be very hard for me to deal with. It also brings the problem of what will citizen Roslyn do? Rosyln is such a great character and great leader, but without the presidency, she really doesn’t fit in on the show. So either Baltar will win and immediately betray everyone, and run away to the Cylons, leaving Roslyn to reassume the post of President, or Roslyn is more or less out of the show. I can’t see Roslyn being out, so I have to stick with Baltar will screw everyone over big time and run off to the cylons. That fits in with the original series too. They might even try to kidnap the baby.

      As to Apollo being in charge of the Pegasus, I firmly believe that its the target of the nuke in the final episode this year, but that being said, Apollo then can’t be on it when it goes, so now I’m not sure what will happen.

      • Re: Baltaaaaaaaaaaaar!

        Baltar was just perfect at the end. Sometimes his genius shines through and you just really want to reach into the TV and PUNCH him… (:

        I really have no doubt that Baltar will win the presidency .

        Don’t forget, Roslyn did flashback and remember he was making out with six…that could be quite the bombshell to drop.

        of course in reaction he could go find six, and the nuke he gave her, and then boom as they escape with the child.

  5. Nice.
    It was interesting to see the big guns fire and blast the one basestar, but I wished they’d zoom out so you could see where they are coming from. Things were going fast and furious but I swore they said ‘bow guns’ and then it looked like they were shooting from the front of the ship.

    Please note, I was born and raised in Kansas. Water and boats are foreign to me. Bow may very well mean front, I don’t know that for sure, I thougth bow meant the back.

    Going from Major to Commander in a day had to be head spinning. Since I’m not sure how they are mapping their rankings, it looks more Air Force. I’m guessing Colonel is equivalent to a commander because it best maps to Captain->Major->Commander/Colonel. But then they go goofy and jump to Admiral instead of General so who knows.

    Otherwise if it’s Navy at least based on some webistes I looked up going from Captain to Commander is a downgrade

    • Re: Nice.

      It was interesting to see the big guns fire and blast the one basestar, but I wished they’d zoom out so you could see where they are coming from. Things were going fast and furious but I swore they said ‘bow guns’ and then it looked like they were shooting from the front of the ship.

      Google "Battlestar wiki" and search for "ranks" that will give you a pretty good explaination of new BSG ranks, in comparison to real world Army and Navy ranks.

      And you were right about the big guns. They are mounted in the lower portion of the foward hull. If you want to anthropomoprhize it a bit, they are in the "mouth" of the ship’s vaguely aligator shaped head.

      Actually the Battlestar wiki article on the new Pegasus has a good pic of the Peg firing her forward guns

      • Re: Nice.

        It was interesting to see the big guns fire and blast the one basestar, but I wished they’d zoom out so you could see where they are coming from. Things were going fast and furious but I swore they said ‘bow guns’ and then it looked like they were shooting from the front of the ship.

        Google "Battlestar wiki" and search for "ranks" that will give you a pretty good explaination of new BSG ranks, in comparison to real world Army and Navy ranks.

        And you were right about the big guns. They are mounted in the lower portion of the foward hull. If you want to anthropomoprhize it a bit, they are in the "mouth" of the ship’s vaguely aligator shaped head.

        Actually the Battlestar wiki article on the new Pegasus has a good pic of the Peg firing her forward guns

        Sorry about the lack of preserved spoiler blackout….

    • Re: Nice.

      Please note, I was born and raised in Kansas. Water and boats are foreign to me. Bow may very well mean front, I don’t know that for sure, I thougth bow meant the back.

      Actually, bow does mean front. Stern means back.

      • Re: Nice.

        Please note, I was born and raised in Kansas. Water and boats are foreign to me. Bow may very well mean front, I don’t know that for sure, I thougth bow meant the back.

        Actually, bow does mean front. Stern means back.

        On this note I really liked the "submarine" feel of the battle. With commands to the helm, and the firing solution, and of course the bow guns.

    • Re: Nice.

      Please note, I was born and raised in Kansas. Water and boats are foreign to me. Bow may very well mean front, I don’t know that for sure, I thougth bow meant the back.

      So you can look up USN ratings but not "ships bow"? What, Google/Yahoo/MSN/etc. work only intermittently in Kansas?

  6. I was wondering…
    For several episodes I’ve been wondering when they’d put Apollo in charge of the pegasus as the pegasus themselves didn’t seem to have too many high ranking replacements for the endless line of assassinations – it was a good moment. Of course it seems a little strange that Apollo be promoted so quickly through the ranks, but with so few high-ranking officials left on either ship, I guess you gotta expect it. I also think that, despite recent inter-ship anamosity the fact that Apollo saved their asses when they were about to be blown the frack out of that this sub-thread may balance out but I expect it to be touched upon again.

    As for the other story, I’m just waiting for the president to say "So, baltus, why were you banging a cylon?" :-)

    All told I was quite pleased.

    Damien

    • Re: I was wondering…

      As for the other story, I’m just waiting for the president to say "So, baltus, why were you banging a cylon?" :-)

      I can see that this will be used during the election campaining coming up, it’ll come down to the wire and it’ll come out that he was the reason the cylons infratrated the colonies’ computer systems.

  7. Is it just me……
    Or is it possible that anyone else out there is beginning to think that the FUCKING SPOILERS TAG IS BEING WAY TOO OVERUSED !

    • Re: Is it just me……

      Or is it possible that anyone else out there is beginning to think that the FUCKING SPOILERS TAG IS BEING WAY TOO OVERUSED !

      I totally agree. Basically when I bring up this page, I just hit ctrl-A to select the whole page, and that displays all the spoilered stuff. But really, I don’t see why everything needs to be spoilered – why not just wait until you watch the episode before coming here? I’m sure someone has a reason, though =).

    • Re: Is it just me……

      Or is it possible that anyone else out there is beginning to think that the FUCKING SPOILERS TAG IS BEING WAY TOO OVERUSED !

      Considering these BSG reviews are hitting the site after the weekend, I’d say you’re right. If discussion was occurring within the first 24 hours, I’d prefer a lot of spoiler tagging to give TiVo folks like me a chance to opt out of spoilers (then again, I don’t read discussions before I watch the show and wouldn’t gripe about spoilage regardless), but at this point it’s hard to imagine anybody browsing B42 and waiting this long to watch the best scifi show on TV. :)

      • Re: Is it just me……

        Or is it possible that anyone else out there is beginning to think that the FUCKING SPOILERS TAG IS BEING WAY TOO OVERUSED !

        I have to agree as well, since these are simply discussions and posted after the show airs, there is not as much need for spoiler tags. Now, if someone were to get something out of the pod cast that was coming up next week, that would be worthy of the spoiler tag. Let’s lay off the spoiler tag usage.

        • Re: Is it just me……

          Or is it possible that anyone else out there is beginning to think that the FUCKING SPOILERS TAG IS BEING WAY TOO OVERUSED !

          I have to agree as well, since these are simply discussions and posted after the show airs, there is not as much need for spoiler tags. Now, if someone were to get something out of the pod cast that was coming up next week, that would be worthy of the spoiler tag. Let’s lay off the spoiler tag usage.

          Before I completely swear off the spoiler tag for Galactica stories, I was under the impression that the UK and Canada are not caught up with the US for episodes. Is this true, or have they caught up and it was just the 1st half of season 2 that was behind for them?

          • Re: Is it just me……

            Before I completely swear off the spoiler tag for Galactica stories, I was under the impression that the UK and Canada are not caught up with the US for episodes.

            I believe that the internet is the great equalizer. Episodes of BG are usually available the day after they are broadcast. But again, there is no need to get involved with a discussion if you haven’t seen the episode!

            • Re: Is it just me……
              OK, so it’s not just me then <g>.

              Oh, and by the way … the BSG podcast already said that he Pegasus gets nuked in the season finale…neener neener neener….

              I hate spoiler tags.

    • Re: Is it just me……

      Or is it possible that anyone else out there is beginning to think that the FUCKING SPOILERS TAG IS BEING WAY TOO OVERUSED !

      Totally. Here’s a hint: if you don’t want to be spoiled for a particular episode DON’T READ THE DISCUSSION OF THAT EPISODE!!!

      It’s just silly to have a substantial portion of a discussion blacked out.

  8. I enjoyed this episode quite a bit.
    I’ve wanted to see an all out no-holds-barred confrontation between a battlestar and a base star. The effects were astonishing. When you reflect that the current space battles we take for granted on BSG were multi-million dollar productions for Lucasfilm with the original Star Wars trilogy, and they still didn’t look as good, it’s amazing that Sci Fi can afford a show like BSG.

    Then again Zoic Studios seem to be the place to turn to for bleeding edge graphics at a fair price. They seem to be the ILM of TV. Firefly and Serenity certainly did well by them.

    As for the writing, the acting, this week was right up there with the rest of the best. Although it certainly has its faults, BSG’s faults are miniscule compared to those of 95% of the rest of the wasteland that is modern television programming. What an amazing show this continues to be. :)

    -Joe

    • Re: Whilst googling Zoic …

      Lookit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/zoic.html GREAT pictures here. :)

      Except that they need to be about six times larger so I can use them as wallpapers.

      (Also, this isn’t quite as good but this has been my wallpaper for a while, and it still amuses me. Needs more Valerii though.)

      • Re: Whilst googling Zoic …

        this has been my wallpaper for a while,

        Put Starbuck in place of #6 and … oh my.

        Damien

      • Re: Whilst googling Zoic …

        Except that they need to be about six times larger so I can use them as wallpapers.

        Click on the images. :) I resized them in Paintshop Pro 9, and they look fine. I resized them to 1280 width, which makes ’em 720 pixels high, then I resized the canvas to 1280 by 1024, with the original image centered vertically and a black background. Makes a nice letterboxed widescreen image. I used the images of Caprica being nuked, and the Cylon. The Cylon looks fantastic on my 1280 x 1024 19" LCD. :)

        My God Six just exudes sex appeal. Tricia Helfer looks absolutely incredible, and she is blessed with the best wardrobe. As a figment of Baltar’s imagination, except for the "real" six now onboard Cloud 9, Tricia Helfer gets to wear the sexiest damned dresses. She wears her dresses so well *they* could be characters.

        -Joe

        • Re: Whilst googling Zoic …

          Tricia Helfer gets to wear the sexiest damned dresses. She wears her dresses so well *they* could be characters.

          Well the Cylons have living ships, who knows where they might stick a cylon brain…

        • Re: Whilst googling Zoic …

          My God Six just exudes sex appeal. Tricia Helfer looks absolutely incredible, and she is blessed with the best wardrobe.

          It’s funny, but I don’t find her as Six-in-Baltar’s-head attractive. When we’ve seen her in other personas, though (like when she tells Baltar she’s a hallucination (and damn it, it’s "a hallucination", not "an hallucination"!)) or as the "real" Six now in hiding, I find her absolutely lovely. (I think a lot of it is the hair color and style – maybe Six’s so-blonde-it’s-creepy white wavy hair is a wig?)

          • Re: Whilst googling Zoic …

            It’s funny, but I don’t find her as Six-in-Baltar’s-head attractive. When we’ve seen her in other personas, though (like when she tells Baltar she’s a hallucination (and damn it, it’s "a hallucination", not "an hallucination"!)) or as the "real" Six now in hiding, I find her absolutely lovely. (I think a lot of it is the hair color and style – maybe Six’s so-blonde-it’s-creepy white wavy hair is a wig?)

            She’s just a beautiful woman, and she makes wire framed glasses look good. Although I also think Grace Park is lovely. Katee Sackoff is cute, and pretty, but the way they make her up she misses the beautiful mark (she could have beauty, but makeup and wardrobe give her dark circles so often, and make her look haggard.)

            My preference of the three is actually Starbuck, just because she looks real, and approachable. They had to work real hard to make Katee Sackoff look awkward, but when they put her in that blue dress on the first ep on Cloud 9, where the first quorum was held, she looked like a fish out of water. That’s an excellent combination of wardrobe, makeup, and acting.

            I guess it is kinda creepy, in her blond wig to me Tricia Helfer looks like a valuable rare statue, or a pretty venemous snake — look, but HANDS OFF. Still, in that blue dress, or that red dress, you hafta admit she’s a sexual Disneyland beckoning for all the rides to be ridden. :)

            -Joe

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