I'm surprised how many here didn't like the episode, I loved it, it's probably my favorite this season. But I also liked last weeks episode so maybe it's my strange tastes.

Ron Moore wishing us a Happy New Year perhaps, "Soon-to-be 2007".

I thought it was a very weak episode.

Besides all the other stuff mentioned, another stupid thing about this episode is that Kat "saved" the other ship. HOW??? I mean, in the FTL jumping as set up in the show, each ship is basically on its own, jumping from "point A" to "point B" to "point C". All Kat could do is jump her own ship - there's really nothing she could have done to help any other ship. And that the episode fudged this and skipped showing "what she did" shows that the writers never figured a way out of this obvious scriptwriting dead-end.

(And given that they're been through a number of times before, even the jump coordinates were already known by all ships by that time, so saying that she passed those along as the explanation for "what she did" doesn't work either.)

That was all explained at the outset. The Civie ships took much harder hits from the radiation than military, and all of the radioactive interference would screw up their navigational computers which couldn't plot the jump. You're right that under normal circumstances, they could just mirror the course the ships before them took, but they ALSO said that as soon as the ships jumped into the cluster, they would start to radically drift, also from being blasted by the radiation (This is why the raptors had a hard time spotting their 'sheep' even seconds after jumping in). This drifting would alter their position, thus affecting the jump computations, and they'd need to re-plot, which again, they couldn't do because of the radioactive interference. The raptors' computers, it was explained, were designed to be shielded from nuclear explosions, so they could still navigate and account for drifting when plotting the new jump and relaying the coordinates to the civies (why their ship-to-ship wireless was unaffected by radiation is anyone's guess).

Now I'm not saying their explanation was flawless or that it wasn't convoluted, I'm just telling you that all of your concerns were adressed in the episode. Personally, I don't like to analyze it too much (all evidence to the contrary) because I'll go with the metaphor. It's a ship passing through a storm. It's a vehicle through which Kat could have a self-sacrificing heroic act. I dislike the technobabble and the heavy sci-fi elements, so if they say they have to go through and that they need the raptors to guide the civies, I say ok, and wait to be thrilled/depressed/moved/etc.


Doc

Thanks Doc, I know I heard everything explained in the ep, so I couldn't figure out why so many folks were having trouble with this ep. I've enjoyed the past several eps that everyone else has bagged on, even the boxing one.

My only problem is that I never really cared for the character of Kat in the first place, so it didn't hit me as hard as it might have, but I still enjoyed it.

Well, it was better than last week's episode anyway.

So...what was it Baltar figured out there at the end? I didn't quite follow his revelation...

That felt like the original series pilot where the vipers had to guide the fleet through a mindfield, only with better FX.

The Nova Madagon:
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/5899/novaem9.jpg http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4553/nova2nx0.jpg

I assumed it was a tribute. They've borrowed/recycled lots of different plot elements from the original series throughout the run (although not much lately).

I liked the episode... not their strongest one, but nothing to complain about. I actually felt a bit of emotion when Adama made Kat CAG. And that's saying something, since the character meant little to me.

No worries. I, too, am in the minority I guess, because I liked this episode, and I LOVED Unfinished Business.

Kat always did annoy me... I found her far more annoying than any of the other Nuggets or Pegasus transfers. In fact I even came to really like Hot Dog and Racetrack, for example. But the more Kat kept showing up, the more she grew on me. She had that Starbuck affect on me where she pissed me off, but I couldn't hate her, and by the time season three rolled around and she was the CAG, helping to plan the rescue op, I was a fan. And I'm sad to see her go.


Doc

From the writer of "Doublemeat Palace" comes the obligatory "Force some nonsensical backstory on a minor character in hopes of creating drama when we predictably kill him/her off" episode.

They've pretty much ruined Starbuck's character. She has no consistency and is just a drone servant to each episode's plot. :(

Nothing about this Oracle thing washes. The religious mysticism-obsessed Cylons just dismiss her rambling, but Baltar spends 5 seconds with her and starts connecting the dots while helpless Xena stares in awe. Oh wait, they played the piano and used a bunch of slow fades, so it makes sense now.

I liked the jumping plot. While convoluted and a tad silly, I wish they'd focus on more stories of that nature.

das

Damn. That's harsh.

As an aside, I'm now wondering when a cabal of three nerdy losers is going to start plotting Starbuck's downfall. ;)

Ugh, couldn't stand this episode. What a let down after a what I thought was a great episode last week.

The entire plot taking place on Galactica was a mess. None of it made any sense. Does the fleet not have the ability to just jump TO the algae planet without jumping into the radiation first? I care so little about Kat or what happens to her, it just made things worse. The only redeeming quality of the episode is that she's finally dead. And what was with all the praise for brining that ship back? Weren't ALL the pilots doing that over and over again? Didn't Kat already lose one civilian ship on one of her previous runs? What was so heroic about just doing what everyone else was doing except almost screwing it up?

I agree Starbuck's character has been ruined.

Oh, btw, Baltar has again found himself to be the luckiest of the surviving humans.

:lol:

A lot of sites were making a big deal about this episode because she wrote it but I went on IMDB and looked at what episodes of Buffy she wrote and outside of "Conversations with Dead People" it seemed like they were all filler episodes that weren't very good.

People may think I'm crazy about this, but I believe Gaeta and Adam Busch (more Adam than the character of Warren) were separated at birth. At least one of you won't be able to stop thinking about that now that I've posted it. :)

das

I missed the Friday night airing, but when I watched it via Comcast's "In Demand" service it wasn't muted out.


I think it was a rather weak episode, and it's not surprising considering who wrote it.

During their planning session they said that Galactica couldn't jump through the radiation. Makes you wonder just how huge that radiation belt was, because I thought that their FTL's could take them a pretty long distance.

She wrote a lot of the Jonathan-centric episodes, which, while often filler, were a good time. She also wrote "Triangle" from S5, which was, IMO, a fairly key episode in terms of character development.

Man, you guys are some jaded, critical bastards, aren't ya?

You've been a member for almost 4 years and you're just figuring this out now?;)

You. Suck.


:p

Actually, she didn't write "Conversatons with Dead People."

She only wrote the "Dawn" portion of the episode. Drew Goddard wrote the Andrew part, Marti Noxon wrote the Willow part, and Joss hisself wrote the Buffy part. It's only credited to Drew and Jane because Joss and Marti declined credits because they were producers.

Actually, looking through her Buffy credits, her episodes usually involve some kind of lame McGuffinish twist (Earshot, Band Candy, Doublemeat Palace) so this episode, with the convulted problem, seems her style.

I was watching the episode with the subtitles on and the scene on the cyclon ship where Baltar was talking with the "Oricle," he was interpreting the meaing of her gibberish and was mentioning the husband of Hera. I thought of 'Zeus,' the subtitles said 'Zeus' but the name said out loud was Jupiter - three times even.

Anyone else catch that? Hera is the Greek Goddess, so her husband is Zeus. In Roman mythology, the husband of Hera/Juno is Jupiter. Why switch between the two mythologies?? The subtitles didn't. Did they change that at the last minute to 'broaden' the interpretation to both mythologies?

They've been mixing and matching since the beginning from what I've seen. I did notice that on the CC (also Starbuck's censored line was there too). I'm currently reading The Iliad too, so that jumped out at me, but I still made the connection.

Heh. Anyone want to see the Galactica characters drawn as Simpsons cartoons?

http://community.livejournal.com/pantsketch/99256.html

ha, it was meant to be more of a smirking, rhetorical observation... but tone never seems to carry through on message boards... hence my lack of posts, and the fact that I mostly just lurk. A sarcastic reply can start a flame war, and then I avoid the internet for months on end.


Doc

I didn't give a shit about Kat, so I could not begin to care that she died.

This episode, like the last one, was kind of lame. I'm starting to get bored, which is not a good thing. It looks like they're getting back on track, though, with the search for Earth.