Sorry. I know I said see me Saturday, but Saturday got busy. My review of the latest BSG episode is not a good one. I don't know if I disliked Battlestar Fightclub more or less than Battlestar Sapranos (the ep w/ Bill Duke). That's the short of it.

when the episode was over, Geren & I just looked at each other in bewilderment. My supposition is that one of the writers had the concept of containing an episode within a limited time period and using flashbacks to tell the story. interesting concept, but not what we expected.

BSG regularly makes very effective use of flashbacks to set the scene or tone of an episode. However, this past show's flash backs, as well as the current plot line, were far too convoluted. If you missed Adama's one key statement at the beginning of the show, then nothing made any sense whatsoever.

With that key statement in mind, then every flashback scene set the stage for each fight scene.

The most confusing part was the Starbuck/Apollo flashback series that lasted through the whole episode, and didn't make any sense until the final fight between them.

The question now becomes what will happen to their marriages?

Dee now knows her marriage is a sham. That she was second choice. She has to feel just terrible inside. For Starbuck to call he "sloppy seconds" was just fracking nasty. For Apollo to use Dee like that is fracking wrong. Starbuck and Apollo share something else in common, they are the a-holes of the yaren. I am even going to go as far as to use the "c" word for Starbuck. She uses Apollo, she uses Anders to get at Apollo. Starbuck is a fracking alcholic be-otch of a mess. Sge a Tigh might be better suited for each other. I also didn't enjoy the whole boxing theme. Not even as a metaphore for messed up relationships. I despise boxing. It's not a sport. It's brutality plain and simple. Those who participate in it and those who enjoy watching it need psychological counseling. My personal views of boxing have led me to lose some resepct for Lauren Roslin and Admiral Adama. As leaders of what is left of humanity, they should not allow this sort of activity, nor revel in it. Friday's episode is one I will never watch again (that and the black market one with Bill Duke).

I kinda think Adama's statement at the end of the "official" matches, before Starbuck and Apollo go at it, may supposed to be an end to the whole boxing thing -- the business about letting the crew, and family, fall apart, and never letting that happen again.

I'm not a boxing fan either -- never have been -- although I do recognize it as a sport. It's just barely a step below football, for me.

I found it highly irresponsible of the officers of Galactica to allow it and even more so for Admiral Adama to not only allow it, but to participate and for President Roslin to cheer it on.

Skilled and experienced personell are rare and therefore extremely valuable to the survival of the Colonials. To be injured and killed by a relentless enemy is bad enough. To be injured (I'll leave out the killed part, although it could happen) by a comrade in a "stess releiving" boxing match is high risk and negligent. I don't see it as building espirt-de-corps or relieving stress.

I am going to avoid the comparisons of boxing to X, Y, Z sport. I think it takes the discussion off course.

So say we all.

The flashbacks will continue in the future.

Shit, I think I just ripped a hole in space-time with that sentence.

I made the point to someone that it may be the style of the show, but it's getting a bit over used. Going back to a gap in time from the last episode of the last season, to tell a story 8 episodes into this season, is weak. Between what went on in Friday's show and the Webisodes, it could have filled in several REAL shows between the discovery and settlement of New Caprica. Then we would have already *known* why certain people insisted on beating the piss out of one another. Instead, they whisked it all away with 'One Year Later.'

Granted, it would have made the whole New Caprica/occupation drag on too long. At least they got us back into space with a jump and a bang.

Character development should be with where they are in the here and now. We've had 2 seasons with which to fill in their back stories. Enough already.

I figure I'll get over it. I've gotten used to Baltar and the Sixes (NEW BAND NAME!) and their half-nekkid, torrid sessions on a private beach. And Family Guy's annoying way of breaking right in the middle of something to do a "At least that wasn't as bad as the time I did X" segments.

The show may have not jumped the shark with that episode in the grand scheme, but it might have with me.

Only good thing is it became a MST3K episode for us.

I too am tired of the flashback segments. Five minutes ago, an hour ago, three hours and forty-six minutes ago, fourteen and a half months ago! I know a few folks who were tired of at the beginning of season two. Now I am tired of it. Tell me the story as it happens, PLEASE!

At least they haven't gone to a planet on which lives a Cylon who thinks it's a cowboy. Although, that might be a flashback. ;-)

The flashbacks, in their 'usual' usage don't bother me. But, I'll definitely say that the way this past episode was put together was a more than a bit confusing, at first. It was only after thinking on it for some time that it made sense, and that's bad writing.

The episode smacks of 'filler', and I'm wondering if key characters were given off for holiday or something, leaving but a few to shoot the actual episode with on a short schedule -- all of the new footage could easily have been shot in one, maybe two days.

I dunno, I have kind of a different take on the whole episode. I know, I know, but hear me out first.

I spent a little more than 20 years in the military, and I have to say that this ep was one of the most powerful and moving I've seen yet. Interesting thing is, I work with a bunch of Galactica freaks who are pretty much all ex-military types, and we all felt the same.

I saw the episode as a story about what happens to people who are confronted daily by a situation which is, by its very nature, unreasonable and cruel - how they cope with it. I could draw parallels in my own life to each vignette presented in the ep and, indeed, to the boxing matches used as a way to relieve frustration. One job I had in paricular made liberal use of what we called "good-natured roughhousing" as a morale-building training tool. I'm here to tell you, it worked. Beefs were forgotten before they turned into grudges, and guys who just finished beating holy hell out of each other were the best of friends.

I know, it doesn't make any sense. Then again, neither does jumping out of a perfectly good helicopter to face down the Soviet Army. Neither does strapping an antique Viper to your butt and charging off into the great unknown.

I liked the idea that the flashbacks only became clear in context at the end - it illustrated the point that, without all the information, one can't make a good judgment about what's going on.

I've always felt that the glory of the show was the painting of these folks as real people with real flaws and not the kind of two-dimensional cardboard cutouts that the original series had. Sure, Starbuck's and Apollo's marriages are now goofed up. But let's face facts - were they NOT goofed up to begin with? Apollo was a substitute for Billy (who I like to refer to as "John Mayer") just as much as Dee was a substitute for Starbuck. Football guy made Starbuck feel clean again after her ordeal on Caprica, but their relationship was superficial. I see this story line as an exploration of what happens when we deny our true natures and try to live like something we're not. The true Apollo and Starbuck are the two that we saw, briefly, on the beach and at the end of the boxing match.

I dunno - maybe it's a crock, or maybe I'm a sucker for military themes that mirror my personal experience, but I thought the ep was pretty darn good.

So says at least me! ;)