Sorry, I didn’t know it meant so much to you. I would have just glossed
this meaningless little comment over without a second thought. In fact, I
actually forgot about it for days before I re-read this story.

Kinda like asking ‘Why Does the United States have all those big aircraft carriers’

That is a very bad analogy. The EARTH does not have a global government with a military and aircraft carriers. A county does, to protect itself from other countries.

Now if you were to say that the UN should have an aircraft carrier, that would be analogous as I see it.

Within the US, each State does not have a military to protect itself from other states, although some should :) (always gotta keep an eye on Rhode Island)

Anyway, I understand the points others have made, and I can agree with most of them. It still seems odd that they should have 120 battlestars on the “off-chance” that the cylons return. I wonder what the tax base is to support them. I HIGHLY doubt that the economy is the “utopian” Trek one where things are done for the good of the people without need for monetary gain. (Ferengi excluded)

BTW, I wonder if there will be lawsuits for tax refunds since the military really didn’t do it’s job. Oh wait, these aren’t “entitled” humans.

Enough for now.

Dave

Has anyone else noticed that she and Tigh seem to constantly be trying to get past their animosity to one another? They’ve had two scenes so far where they’ve tried to make up, but failed. Wouldn’t it just be easier to hate each other and leave it at that?

Personally, I think there’s some other connection between them compelling them to try and act nice to each other.

Very perceptive. Neither Thrace or Tighe are the kind of people who you’d think would give a damn about what most people think of them (although I think Kara’s a closet softie), yet they have attempted contact at least twice. It might just be the “we work together, so we may as well get along” mentality, but the animosity between them seems to be deep anough to be unbreachable.

Tighe almost seems like another father figure to Kara.

How incredible these writers and actors are that we can find and appreciate nuance like this. Perhaps this will be a season two backstory? :)

Peace,

-Joe G.

I find this character totally unbelievable. Maybe it’s just the bad acting, but c’mon, a skinny little blond tough guy? Maybe if they left out the obvious references to the original Starbuck. I find it painful to watch when she’s trying to “act” like a tough guy.

Other than that, I like the series so far.

Starbuck of the late 70s was a pretty boy wisecracking side kick. don’t remember him ever being a tough guy, just always there to stand next to apollo with some sort of sarcastic comment.

Starbuck of 2005 appears to be a gifted pilot, an instructor, and has some personal issues including killing her boyfriend because she passed him after he busted his checkride. To combat this she postures a bit with ‘all the boys’ but breaks down when left alone to think about it

Compared to Battlestar Galactica of 1978 – 1979 had less character development in the 40 some episodes than this one has had in 3…

Sure there’s plenty of character development, that’s good. The Character IS believable, I mispoke on that one. I’m just saying as an actress she doesn’t have the chops to pull off the “tough girl”. The “in viper” pilot scenes in Act of Contrition were painfully bad. My wife walked in just for those scenes and said “whoa that’s some bad acting” and left. I don’t buy the “Training” scenes in AoC, I don’t buy the card table scenes, lose the cigar for cripes sake, it doesn’t look natural. Someone like Claudia Black could pull this part off, this girl can’t. So therefor the “character” seems unbelivable to me, due to the bad acting, and maybe some of the writing. Sorry about referring to AoC but thats the last ep I saw, still fresh in the ol’ memory.

Likewise. The old Starbuck was one-dimensional. What intrigues me about Kara Thrace is how complex she appears to be (obviously, we’re only three eps and a pilot into the show), skilled and flawed and, yeah, very like any number of women I’ve known.

One of the reasons I picked her briefing as a highlight is that the scene did two things, one which we haven’t yet seen much of on this show, and the other which we don’t see much of in SF tv.

1. It was fun. Galactica has been suspenseful and dramatic, but it hasn’t served up much humour (I’m just not getting into the funny bits involving Presidential Aide Doofus. Maybe that’s just me), and this scene made me laugh. It was refreshing to have that contrast with the show’s dark tone.

2. A group of young guys/space pilot-types acting like a group of young guys.

This Starbuck is one of my favorite characters on the show. I love the fact that in the miniseries she delivered the same line as the original Starbuck, at a card game, and gave it more nuance than Dirk Benedict could ever manage: “so how’s the wife?” This character is very human, in some ways she’s tough, in some ways she’s not, in someways she’s strong, and in some ways she’s weak. The guilt she express to the commander felt real to me. She’s far from one dimensional. I feel for her, and with her.

Oh, and does she have t’its? I haven’t really seen her in a cat suit yet, or with makeup to make her look like anything other than another warrior. I haven’t seen her in a gown a la Cinderella, or rubbing decontamination gel all over another officer. I pray we never see Kara all dolled up, or sexed up.

There was some sex in this episode, but even that was real. There were no suggestive curves under the sheets, or perfect postcoital makeup, or a scene that would look great on a pinup poster. In fact, neither of the people involved in the scene(s) looked like models. :)

The writers also do a great job with the character of the president. The show’s producers have a great actress in the role, but I lost my mom to breast cancer several years ago. The character’s responses are very, very real. Her words, the look(s) on her face during the meeting with the doctor, were very touching to me.

I think this show has some of the more consistently real female characters I’ve seen on television.

-Joe G.

Great comments.

Has anyone else noticed that she and Tigh seem to constantly be trying to get past their animosity to one another? They’ve had two scenes so far where they’ve tried to make up, but failed. Wouldn’t it just be easier to hate each other and leave it at that?

Personally, I think there’s some other connection between them compelling them to try and act nice to each other.

The saltwater bit did bother me, because this is technology that WE ALREADY HAVE.

Having the technology isn’t the same as having the equipment facilities, and resources.

Likewise. The old Starbuck was one-dimensional. What intrigues me about Kara Thrace is how complex she appears to be (obviously, we’re only three eps and a pilot into the show), skilled and flawed and, yeah, very like any number of women I’ve known.

One of the reasons I picked her briefing as a highlight is that the scene did two things, one which we haven’t yet seen much of on this show, and the other which we don’t see much of in SF tv.

1. It was fun. Galactica has been suspenseful and dramatic, but it hasn’t served up much humour (I’m just not getting into the funny bits involving Presidential Aide Doofus. Maybe that’s just me), and this scene made me laugh. It was refreshing to have that contrast with the show’s dark tone.

2. A group of young guys/space pilot-types acting like a group of young guys.

This Starbuck is one of my favorite characters on the show. I love the fact that in the miniseries she delivered the same line as the original Starbuck, at a card game, and gave it more nuance than Dirk Benedict could ever manage: “so how’s the wife?” This character is very human, in some ways she’s tough, in some ways she’s not, in someways she’s strong, and in some ways she’s weak. The guilt she express to the commander felt real to me. She’s far from one dimensional. I feel for her, and with her.

Oh, and does she have t’its? I haven’t really seen her in a cat suit yet, or with makeup to make her look like anything other than another warrior. I haven’t seen her in a gown a la Cinderella, or rubbing decontamination gel all over another officer. I pray we never see Kara all dolled up, or sexed up.

There was some sex in this episode, but even that was real. There were no suggestive curves under the sheets, or perfect postcoital makeup, or a scene that would look great on a pinup poster. In fact, neither of the people involved in the scene(s) looked like models. :)

The writers also do a great job with the character of the president. The show’s producers have a great actress in the role, but I lost my mom to breast cancer several years ago. The character’s responses are very, very real. Her words, the look(s) on her face during the meeting with the doctor, were very touching to me.

I think this show has some of the more consistently real female characters I’ve seen on television.

-Joe G.

Where in the US
the military is explicitly under the control of the political leadership . . .

Just want to expand on something here, not taking issue with anything you said in particular. I don’t know, exactly, what your (or anyone else on this board’s) military history might be, but I do know several ex-military types who all took their oaths extremely seriously. While the military is ostensibly under the purvue of the civil authority, as you said, members of the US military swear an oath to defend the Constitution, and to obey legal orders. Not any orders. Not orders made on a whim that run contrary to the Constitution and military law. I called one friend of mine, an ex-Air Force Master Sargeant, after this episode, and he stated, “Some NCO must have taught him right.” Apollo was upholding the Colonial Constitution first and foremost, whatever else his superior officers or the President told him.

In other words, it didn’t matter what the civilian authority, or even the military authority told Apollo to do, he was upholding the law above all else. Makes him a good and honorable soldier in my book.

I must have scrolled past your comment several times before I actually read it. That is a very good point. Now that I think about it, most if not all of my friends, both past and present service would agree.

(are they really all in the same star-system? Why even bother with FTL travel? Save it for another thread I guess.)

So, lets say you’re going to Jupiter, do you want to get there in an hour (near lightspeed) or do you want to get there NOW?

I vote for now.