Tyrol gets to be a union chief again. Do we care?
Cast
James Callis as Dr. Gaius Baltar
Edward James Olmos as Admiral Adama
Mary McDonnell as 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 “Athena” Agathon/Boomer
Tahmoh Penikett as Helo
Aaron Douglas as Galen Tyrol
Kandyse McClure as Anastasia “Dee” Dualla
Alessandro Juliani as Felix Gaeta
Synopsis
A developing class divide in the fleet is inflamed as a book written by Gaius Baltar begins to circulate. After a Raptor is destroyed by contaminated fuel, Tyrol has to resolve a workers’ dispute on the fleet’s refinery ship.
High Points
- Tyrol to Starbuck: ‘Be nice.’ As if she was ever nice to new pilots.
Low Points
- I’m hankering for some primary arc plot.
- I never believed Adama would go through with his threat.
The Scores
Originality: Class divides, labour disputes. It feels familiar, and it’s really a continuation of some of the themes from New Caprica. There’s nothing astoundingly new here. Three out of six.
Effects: Not much in the way of effects, but I was extremely impressed by some of the virtual camera work in the space scenes. A shame they chickened out of showing the collision with Colonial One. Five out of six.
Story: The story was good and solid, but frankly it’s getting boring. We’ve had several episodes of housekeeping without much in the way of primary arc, and it’s a bit dull now. I know it’s important, but at the moment they’re just drifting through space and bickering. It’s realistic bickering, but it doesn’t live up to what we’re used to. At least there was a happy ending. Three out of six.
Acting: Nobody did anything particularly out of sorts, but nobody really had the chance to survive, other than the second in command from the refinery ship, who did a superb job of being insane. Also, if James Callis really did that accent, then I’m impressed, but I wasn’t sure if it was actually him or not. Five out of six, because even normal acting from these people is excellent.
Production: There’s nothing special here. Nothing really wrong with it, but I thought the shots of Tyrol just before he starts the strike were rather drawn out. You figure out quite quickly what he’s going to do, and he doesn’t look like he’s considering it, he looks like he’s waiting for a cue. Four out of six.
Emotional response: I remain fairly unmoved by this episode, largely because of the dullness of the story which I mentioned earlier. It’s not something I particularly care about because the threat never really seemed real. Three out of six.
Overall: A mediocre episode which changes some of the political landscape of the fleet, but completely fails to engage the interest of the viewer in the way which we have become accustomed to. Four out of six.
That leaves a grand total of a rather disappointing twenty-seven out of forty-two. This one’s not going to be popular to rewatch on DVD.
Biding my time
My expectations for the next battle with the cylons just keep going up with each episode. The money they’re saving on each of these filler shows had better be going somewhere.
I agree that I was certain Adama wouldn’t go through with it, but in Tyrol’s place I wouldn’t have wanted to take the chance either.
So is Baltar’s accent supposed to be the closest he could come to Caprican from his Aerelon roots, or is he mimicking the accent of another colony which we haven’t heard about yet?
Re: Biding my time
Yes, because the Adamas are Caprican, and it seems Starbuck and Roslin are too, and they don’t sound much like Baltar.
I sure hope the season enders are good, because we’re coming to the end now and you’re right, they’ve saved a bunch of money the last few weeks, although I doubt the set for the refinery ship was all that cheap.
I’m liking these episodes.
They’re unlike most other genre shows. Of course, we do need to return to the "primary arc" at some point.
I wonder about Baltar as the author of the Book. It immediately renders it suspect– or at least, it renders the author’s motives suspect. It might have made more sense to have someone else be the writer.
Of course, then we couldn’t involve Baltar and further complicate his personality.
Re: I’m liking these episodes.
I enjoyed this episode myself. Personally I find some of the battles in the fleet almost as gripping as the battles we’ve seen with the Cylons.
-Joe
Re: I’m liking these episodes.
There’s still probably a substantial proportion of people in the fleet who support Baltar, afterall it’s obvious that no matter who the president was on New Caprica that the cylons would do what they wanted, if anything some people might credit him for convincing the cylons to not wipe them out completely. Also with the trial comming up it’s obvious Baltar is going to try and do everything he can to shore up public support, taking advantage of the class divide and making himself a hero of the common man would fit perfectly with that.
Re: I’m liking these episodes.
I don’t think it was about complicating his personality/character – to us, the outside observes, it’s pretty clear that the book is self-serving tripe. Even if the facts of the book are accurate, since we’ve seen him be all but completely incapable of doing anything unselfish, Baltar’s character remains fundamentally unchanged.
No, I think the writers are laying the groundwork for him staying alive no matter the outcome of his trial. Zarek gave the warning early that putting Baltar on trial would be a mess, and the book provides the basis for that outcome. If a significant portion of the population believes Baltar to be any kind of hero at all, then he’s that much more unlikely to receive the death penalty (or, at least, it would be unlikely to be carried out for fear of revolt). Laura is going to end up wishing she’d had Baltar shoved out of an airlock once they concluded his interrogation.
Re: Biding my time
I was certain Adama *would* go through with his threat. I was certain Chief would blink.
Adama’s beef was not with Tyrol as union leader needing to talk with the head of the Colonial Government. This was a military matter: Adama’s beef was with a compromise to the battle-readiness of his ship, and I recall him supporting Tighe’s decision in the series pilot when Tighe extinguished a fire by blowing the air out of a section of the Galactica, simultaneously killing a hundred personnel.
Yes, I believe he would kill ten Callis to save his ship. We saw as soon as battle-readiness was restored, his *military* requirements were met, and he clearly stepped aside so a civilian matter could be settled.
I believe with what we have come to learn over the previous episodes that Adama would sacrifice *anyone* to preserve his battlestar. Now that the Pegasus is gone Galactica is all there is. I was surprised the reviewer didn’t comment — I noticed in this episode that we got new shots of the outside of Galactica. She looks really, really bad — really beat up.
The writers have mentioned in the past few episodes that Galactica needs many months in dry dock. They are stressing the fact that the fleet is starting to run down. How long will it be before some ships are no longer able to jump to ftl? The fleet’s getting desperate.
Adama can’t risk Galactica for one person, even a person who means something to him.
-Joe
Re: Biding my time
During this episode they were already at that state due to lack of fuel. Mechanical failure can’t be far behind.
I must admit I didn’t notice the new external shots of Galactica, I only picked up on the great new footage of Colonial One. I’ll have to go back and check.
Your views on Adama’s position make a lot of sense and I’m kicking myself for not seeing that last night, but I just didn’t get it while I was watching.
Re: Biding my time
Kudos to you for getting the review up so timely!!! :) Awesome job. I popped onto the site to check out the previous week’s comments, and here was this review all posted and pretty!
Thank you, I enjoy these reviews and the discussion they provoke!
-Joe G.
Re: Biding my time
He kills Calli, he loses his ship. I wanted to see the Chief call him on this, something like:
"Sir, if you murder Calli, you’ll have to kill me next, because otherwise I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to bring you down. You kill both of us, you’re going to have riots, literal class warfare on this ship and in the fleet. You don’t have the know-how to run the refinery without the workers, or to keep the Vipers and Raptors flying without the deckhands, and you don’t have the marines to force them to cooperate.
"I belive that you’re too smart to turn insubordination into capital mutiny and kill us. And if you’re not too smart for that, well, then we’re doomed anyway, so you might as well shoot.
"If you want this ship and this fleet to survive, you and the president and I need to talk."
I want to see *somebody* out-tough or out-bluff Adama.
Re: Biding my time
Again, he spaced a hundred personnel in the pilot. He kept his ship. He is Adama the Conqueror, the man everyone lifted up on their shoulders when Galactica and Pegasus helped rescue the humans on New Caprica. He could shoot one mutineer, or a dozen. He is Adama, besides which his crew and the military in general have experienced a truly murderous admiral: Admiral Cain.
I think the military would have listened to him.
On the other hand, the civillians, especially those who have read Baltar’s book …
Baltar and that Three went through with landing on the algae planet, even though Adama threatened to nuke the whole area. :)
-Joe
Re: Biding my time
You beat me to it, but just wanted to post my agreement. I was 100% certain that he would do it if he felt it was necessary to save the remainder of the human race. He would put his son up on the wall and pulled the trigger himself it it comes down to that. Admiral Adama seems to be made of the coldest and toughest of metal when necessary, he will do it. What ever it is, as long as he feels it protects the fleet and his people. Hes no monster though and it would eat him alive inside, but he will do it.
I really liked this episode, one of my favorites. I really got the feeling that Tyrol felt trapped between his loyalty and duty to Adama and the President, and his empathy with the plight of the people on that refinery ship. I really felt for the poor people on that ship, the long tough slave-like labor with no end in sight. Imagine working like that constantly with no clear end, possibly for the rest of your life, however long that might be. I feel thats what Tyrol saw and what subsequently moved him to defy authority. It was a battle between duty and your humanity, do you follow orders and do inhuman things you feel deeply are wrong, or do you buck authority and try to help.
There are so many good things about this episode. It was a spectacular episode for me.
Re: Biding my time
This is the first episode for some time that I’ve actually enjoyed. Yes, maybe it was more bickering.. but at least it wasn’t just bickering between the main characters. I’m so glad we finally got off Galactica for a while and caught a glimpse of what’s happening in the rest of the fleet, it happens far to rarely for my liking.
Re: Biding my time
Not only that, this is the kind of show that gets forgotten in other SF tv series. Now, I’m waiting for an episode that deals with a shortage of non-vital supplies (for example, Roslin lipstick finally runs out… WHERE did she get a two-year supply of it, and now where will she get more?).
Re: Biding my time
Don’t know about Baltar and Aerelon, but James Callis was doing a pretty good Yorkshire accent – that’s where he went to university, so I’m willing to believe it was really him.
I had a different take
I too was certain Adama *would* go through with his threat. And a bit disappointed in his character for making such a threat. I was also disappointed with the President for arresting a civilian for treason. It was obvious that his concerns were valid. She should have just replaced him if needed.
Also, the President was the Secretary of Education wasn’t she? It would seem that she would have been all over any hint of class separation. Again, I was disappointed in her character and decisions, perhaps she has been hanging around Adama too long.
Lastly, I really don’t think Baltar is guilty of anything (as far as New Caprica and post events are concerned). I don’t think he had a choice in anything he did (i.e. gun to head, torture, threats to citizens, etc). And I think he is actually still the President unless his term has expired and new elections were held. I really don’t see why Roslyn has such an axe to grind with him.
My low point would have been the kid getting caught in the machinery. We all saw it coming and it didn’t have to happen that way (some twist or surprise could have occurred). If I was the Chief, I would have shut down the machine as well, but done so for repairs and then went to the President. By the time I got to the President the machinery would have been disassembled for repair.
Re: I had a different take
Or, maybe, the class separations in the colonies really were significant and hard to overcome, and she was as much a willing (or at least "under-critical") part of that system as everyone else in the "ruling class." If that’s true, then the transition away from that would be both difficult and necessary for the survivors – given a smaller pool of humans to choose from, and given the inevitable individual differences in capabilities, even within families, there’s actually less room for inherited status and class "lock-in" in the long run.
Re: I had a different take
One thing that annoyed me a little: This is the refinery ship for the Stuff That Makes the Fleet Go. The workers talk like Stuck Conveyer Belt is a problem they’ve encountered before.
Wouldn’t they have some procedure or makeshift tool for this situation? The best they can come up with is, "have some little guy stick his arm in?"
Re: I had a different take
I believe he had no other choice. Sacrifice one person, or lose Galactica and the fleet.
This bothered me too. I saw this as an "arrest this man for sedition because I say so". Yuck. Laura can be petty.
Well, there *is* all that stuff leading up to New Caprica, which contributed to his assuming the presidency, and Roslyn remembers him lying directly to her about his association with Caprica Six. Plus he *did* conspire with Tom Zarek, who has also been a thorn in Laura’s side. Laura Roslyn is human, and apparently not incapable of resentment. :)
Yup. This would make sense.
"Madame President, Admiral Adama, we’re not on strike, per se, but there is no restarting the tillium line because it is currently disassembled and being repaired before the whole refinery ship goes kaboom, taking not only our fuel supply and refining capabilities, but every nearby ship with it."
Then again, if they had done this from the very start this episode would have been very different.
"Oh, and while we are stopped there are some things we need to discuss. We don’t feel any better about the fleet not having fuel than you do, so in order to guarantee our future survival, not to mention our fuel supply, we are going to have to make some changes in how our ship is crewed. No human-made machine can run indefinitely without maintenance, and our refinery wasn’t made by and is not crewed by Cylons."
Good comments, pdavis. :)
-Joe G.
Re: I had a different take
That’s essentially the argument they made when the raptor blew up. The response was to suck it up. The workers tried a tactic almost identical to the broken conveyor belt tactic you mentioned with the seals and got absolutely no bargaining power from it. Adama and Rosyln simply weren’t going to respond to anything less than a strike, and the Chief wasn’t going to make up any problems for a strike is disguise.
As for the kid, that had to happen the way it did. First it was telegraphed so much so the audience could see this was an inevitable outcome of the priorities Tyrol and Adama had set. We had to realize the costs weren’t just mechanical but there were real human costs. Also it was necessary to make Tyrol come to his senses. He started out in the same "suck it up" mode as did Adama, he was of the opinion that the welfare of the machines were more important than the people. The Kid hurting his arm made Tyrol fully realize what he started to see last episode with Cally, that his priorities were backwards and they couldn’t sacrifice everything in the pursuit of efficiency.
Re: I had a different take
I completely disagree. As far as I’m concerned Baltar committed a heinous crime against his people when he signed the death warrant. I know he had a gun to his head, but a true leader would have taken the bullet before signing the death warrant, at least I believe that Roslyn would have, or Adama for that matter (He actaully did put his life on the line to save his people).
For that I think Baltar is guilty. He did nothing to help his people and nothing to fight the cylons (even behind the scenes).
As for Roslyn, she sure has a reason to hold a grudge. Look at it this way. Baltar had the chance to execute her and gave the order to do so, she’s had the chance to execute him, but is letting him go to trial instead.
I feel that in this episode, Roslyn and Adama roles were contrived to fit the plot. They played it a little too hard line for their characters, and then they came through in the end. I think they really would have been more understanding all along, not just at the end, but thats not as dramatic.
Oh, and Adama was sooo bluffing about Calli, he just new the Chief would cave, and he was right.
Re: I had a different take
I think Baltar’s main character flaw is that he’s basically a coward (although with what he’s had to go through recently he’s a lot braver than he used to be). From a practical point of view the only difference signing the warrant made was that Baltar didn’t die – the Cylons were gonna kill everyone on the list either way. To Baltar it was simply a case of his life being more important to him than his reputation.
Meh, she had it in for Baltar way before that. She’s only going through with the trial for political reasons, otherwise she’d space him at the drop of a hat :)
I think he’d have done it
I think Adama would have done it. He’s a badass. So is Laura. I watched this ep with my brother who’d never seen BSG before (either of them) and he was pretty impressed despite not knowing who the hell anyone was.
The really weird thing is that this was actually a pretty feel-good episode…
Threat? What Threat?
I am amused by all of this talk about whether Adama "would" or "would not" go thru with his "threat". IMHO, brilliant and incredibly realistic acting by Olmos there – that was EXACTLY what I think a military commander would / should do in that military situation. Callie was at the head of the cold dead meat line until Tyrol told her she wasn’t.
Adama showed he’s a nice guy after getting the military situation under control HIS way by giving Tyrol a Raptor to wear on his way to see the Prez instead of making the Chief suck vaccuum – nice contrast with last week, where Adama saved Tyrol when the latter DIDN’T have a spacesuit.
Re: Threat? What Threat?
Agreed 100%. I’d still knock a pip or two off of Chief’s uniform when he gets back home.
-Joe
Re: Threat? What Threat?
Nah, I think he did that well enough in the cell. I think the Chief will fly right from now on.
Did anyone else …
… at the end of this episode think that Baltar’s book had done Roslyn’s administration a back-handed favor? By bringing class to the forefront of public discussion, Baltar’s words exposed a dirty secret in the fleet, and in the society of the colonies in general, which the President and the Chief can now take credit for addressing (assuming their solution is effective, which seems likely.)
-Joe
P.S. This episode gets better and better the more I think about it. I loved the flirtation at the beginning of the episode between Madame Prez and the Admiral.
Re: Did anyone else …
Not really.
Adama’s only real concern was the integrity of the fuel supply and labour force, the extra workforce they brought in for the fuel ship would have fixed the fuel problem and allowed them to keep sustaining themselves. The new arragement would likely decrease the overall productivity of the fleet and probably isn’t something he’s very happy with.
As for Rosyln, she (or at least her people), are going to have to start doing some unpleasant jobs. Not to mention the unset to the status-quo and the fact that Baltar just gained some political power by not only having the class strugle he mentioned acknowledged at the highest level, but partially aleviated which he can take some credit for.
If Adama and Roslyn weren’t aware of the problems before the episode they were certainly aware of it before the strike. But they still didn’t want to make the compromises necessary to fix it, the strike was required to force them into it.
For me that makes the episode much better than if everyone was perfectly happy with the solution found and the strike was just a means to make them realize it.
Re: Did anyone else …
Here’s what’s interesting to me:
Galen told Cally that they caved, when they didn’t.
As far as anybody among the workers but Galen knows, the Colonial government, military as well as civilian, caved. They don’t know that he had to agree to stop the strike before they would talk turkey, which is a very different power dynamic. This is exactly the opposite of what Adama and Roslin (why, oh why, do people insist upon misspelling her name?) wanted.
There will be pressure for more strikes, and much more stubborn ones, in the future – especially if Galen’s not running the union.
Re: Did anyone else …
I don’t think that is necessarily true. We saw Galen tell Cally what he needed to tell her to step down immediately because he knew the stakes and couldn’t risk her objecting of her own accord. I don’t think that necessarily implies that the truth (or some version of it) wasn’t conveyed later.
I would expect Galen would have made it clear that as military they weren’t entitled to strike, even if he didn’t mention the death threats. Adama would have made it clear too.
No.
Zzzzzz.
Re: No.
I don’t get it. I guess this means you were bored to sleep by the episode? If so, I guess some folk just aren’t equipped to think beyond the level of "I am hungry, must eat."
Re: No.
Tekzel,
Please don’t feed the Trolls.