Battlestar Galactica creator, Ron Moore (all bow) spoke on his BSG Blog earlier this week about two important things.
First, Ron Moore (all bow) talks about the – without spoilers – the upcoming Cylon Point-of-View episode! That’s very exciting news for BSG fans! Why? Because we’ve been trying to figure out what the Cylons are up to and we really want to know their side of the story. Cylon motivation has been very confusing given the limited and seemingly contradictory information we’ve been given by the writers to date. In the mini-series the Cylons seemed hell bent on obliterating the human race down to every last man, woman and child. As season one unfolded, Number Six revealed to Baltar that he will be the guardian of a Human/Cylon baby! Their baby! WTF!? Then in season two we see the Cylons trying to breed Human/Cylon hybrid babies (do they get good gas mileage?) in episode 205, The Farm. So what happened to the Cylon goal of genocide? It appears that it never was their true goal. As the audience, we just assumed it based on the nuking of the Twelve Colonies. So, finally, in episode 218 we will see things from the Cylon PoV. Here’s what Ron Moore (all bow) has to say.
I've seen some speculation out there that we dropped the Cylon POV episode from the lineup this season, but I'm happy to report that it's untrue. The episode, "Downloaded" will be broadcast as number 18 and I just watched it last night. It's a good show and a very different spin on our story thus far, in that we're telling the A-story entirely through the eyes of the Cylons for the first time. This was something that I'd been wanting to do for a long time but it took a while to come to fruition. The confusion probably came from the fact that we had initially planned to do a clip show as ep 18, but then dropped those plans once we made the decision to split "Resurrection Ship" into two parts, thereby giving us an extra episode and obviating the need for the clip show (which was being planning for budgetary reasons).
Second, Ron Moore (all bow) addresses something that has troubled fans since the arrival of the Battlestar Pegasus and Admiral Cain. That was the relationship between President/Commander in Chief Roslin and the Admiral. Here’s what Ron Moore (all bow) has to say.
Some confusion out there about why Roslin didn't simply promote Adama over Cain at the start of all the trouble or try to relieve the wacky admiral herself. My reasoning was that Cain would never accept it, especially since her acquiesence to Laura's authority as president was shaky at best. Laura should be smart enough to know that Cain wasn't the kind of person who could be taken down by a legalism and so she shouldn't give an order that she knows will be disobeyed, thereby undercutting her own position as president. There used to be a line to that effect in the script, but it got cut over the course of the rewrites.
Now on to tonight’s episode 213, Epiphanies. My comments will be brief and spoiler free, however, they are not speculation free. President Roslin’s condition is deteriorating at an alarming rate. We’ve been watching her get progressively worse during the Pegasus story arc. I originally thought that a way to put her cancer in remission (or even a cure) would be found in the wreckage of the Cylon Resurrection Ship, maybe in one of the many Cylon bodies floating in space. I was wrong on that one. Well a miracle has to be close and I sense it’s coming tonight. And what’s more, I sense it will come from a Cylon. Tune in tonight at 10:00 PM (EST) on the SciFi Channel and watch it unfold.
If I'm not boosting my memory, or purchasing real estate tapes, or brushing my teeth with DD-7, I'll be there!
Posted by: mm on January 20, 2006 12:17 PMI have been saying this at the end of every episode of BSG, so you all know what's coming and that means you can all say it with me. IT'S GOTTEN WORSE! How bad? If you haven't seen tonight's episode, Epiphanies, then read no farther. Spoilers ahead
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I was right about a Cylon provided treatment - well cure, actually, for President laura Roslin.
BLAH! MIRACLE CURE FOR ROSLIN! Stinks to high heaven of Star Trek plot saving devices. Come on guys. I mean, I love her character. She's awesome and the dynamic she brings to the civilian/military relationship is great. I don't want her to die, but did you have to save her like this? WITH A DAMNED MIRACLE CURE! Couldn't you have just put her fracking cancer in remission? Made it a recovery, but one that had some feel of realism to it? FRACK!
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There's a terrorist "let's have peace with the Cylons" movement in the fleet. They sabatage Vipers, they blow stuff up and they kill people. That's how bad they want "peace" with the Cylons. The group's real leader - not the mousey guy in the coal grey suit - is the Cylon Gina (the Six model, but the group doesn't know she's a Cylon) that was the driven bat shit insane by being ganged raped and beaten repeatedly on board Pegasus. She couldn't possibly have an axe to grind with humans now could she? Well, if that isn't bad enough - and that is pretty fracking bad - Baltar sends her a gift. A nukular warhead type gift! Now the terrorist have a nuke. Joy.
It's oh so worse.
So say we all.
Well, the "Miracle Cure" follows the modus of the majority of the writing. The BSG crew like to be topical without being *overtly* topical. So, we get a lot of analogues to our current world - substitute "Cylon Hybrid Baby Bloodcells" with "stem cells," and you get the idea. But yeah, it did feel slightly cheap. At least they could leave some question as to whether or not the cure would be permanent... I agree - remission, a longer recovery, some small doubt that the treatment was truly effective or not - keep that tension dial cranked to "11"... you know.
I don't know about slightly cheap, it felt more like Bargain Bin of Used 8-Tracks cheap. Worse, the analogies to present-day politics loaded this episode down like a backpack full of lead. My tension meter is now stuck at a big fat zero just like it always was when I watched ST-TNG, because when the going gets tough the tough experience a miracle that saves their booty. Deus Ex Machina is the oldest plot device in the world. I was surprised to see it in BsG, and it could be (God forbid) the Jump-the-Shark moment I never thought we'd see.
Gah, better luck next week.
Posted by: Dr. Worm on January 23, 2006 09:17 AMThis epsidoe really jumped-the-shark for me with BSG.
So, help me to understand...Billions of humans are wiped out by the Cylons yet there is a movement by humans to make peace??? They have a terrorist arm now that sabotages the fleet?!?! Lets not even talk about Roslin and the miracle cure. Baltar still had that nuke sitting there, I mean, donty you think they would have removed the fireing trigger from it before they gave that to him?? I will give you 2 gueses where that nuke will end up! I still love the show but I find myslef wondering if Wesly Crusher was one of the Viper pilots and I missed it.