No Exit: An Evening With Joop The Monkey

Painting by Andy Parrish

There's a running gag on the official Lost podcast, wherein the producers joke that if the show ever got cancelled, the final episode would be one hour of a monkey smoking a pipe in front of a fireplace, explaining all the show's secrets that they never got a chance to explain. Well, last Friday's "No Exit" was Battlestar Galactica's evening with Joop the Monkey (artist's conception pictured).

On the one hand, we have Ellen Tigh's resurrection and subsequent incarceration at the hands of John/Brother Cavil. We get to see their point of view over the course of the last 18 months, get plenty of insight into what makes Cavil tick and what how the optimistic Boomer we saw in Downloaded grew into the cynic we saw subsequently. It gave us a nice peek into the psychology of the Cylons and their politics. Brother Cavil is the classic totalitarian, who, in the name of freeing his people from tyranny, becomes a tyrant himself. He speaks of freeing the Centurions from slavery at the hands of the humans, but has turned them into mindless automatons. He speaks of justice for the other human Cylons, but has selectively erased their memories as a form of social control. He has his own personal creators at his disposal, and decides to kill them to teach them a lesson. He likely started the attacks on the colonies, and had to work hard to make sure the Final Five survived long enough to understand his hatred for humans, only being thwarted when one of them killed another. 

He is Oedipus in more than just the sense that he's slept with his "mother," he is also Oedipus in the sense that he is simultaneously the leader of his people, and the illness of his society. He is Caine (Bible, not superior Pegasus three-parter) in that out of jealousy for his god's love for his brother, kills his brother. One niggling point about Cavil: when he erased all the memories about the Final Five, why didn't he tell the other Cylons that there were 7 models? Surely telling them there were 12 would lead to some uncomfortable questions. 

On the other hand, there's the story on Galactica, which is just exposition for its own sake. Yes, this is definitely information that we needed to hear, but I wish it had been presented more gracefully. The introduction of "Dr. Hodgman" didn't help matters. According to the writers and Ron Moore, this was intended to be comic relief, and I can definitely see that, but it's very difficult to gauge the intended tone when it's just Hodgman being Hodgman. His dry humor and all-round expertise on all matters doesn't translate well to the Galactica universe. 

Speaking of Galactica, it turns out the Colonial military likely hired some shady contractors when building their fleet. The revelation that Adama's ship of falling apart, that it's "in her bones" closely mirrors Roslin's slow death by cancer. Galactica and Laura are the two women in Adama's life, and he takes the news pretty hard, downing pills and booze to numb the pain. Still though, what else is new? Scenes of Adama on the Anna Nicole Smith diet (and I don't mean Trimspa) are becoming so commonplace that the serious nature of this news is dulled to the point of cliché. Apparently, his model ship was still in the shop, and not available to break yet again. 

Now that our evening with Joop is done, let's get back to moving the story along, shall we?

BSG & Transhumanism

While watching last week's episode of BSG (warning, small spoilers ahead) I commented that the Transhumanists must have been masturbating over one of Cavil's lines... well sure enough: It was fascinating to see human enhancement issues addressed so directly while learning more about John Cavil’s character and ambitions in this episode of Battlestar Galactica. In spite of his misguided clinging to petty jealousy and revenge, I found a lot to sympathize with in John Cavil’s character. He wanted both to overcome the belief in a single God he derived from early Cylon models, and reach beyond his limited human emotions and senses. He powerfully expressed the desire to more fully experience the universe in all its beauty and perceive supernovas via novel sensations:

“I don’t want to be human! I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-rays, and I want to smell dark matter. Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can’t even express these things properly because I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language. But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me. I’m a machine and I could know much more, I could experience so much more, but I’m trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way.”

The article is here. I'm not super interested in transhumanism but if you're interested in the future, you have to sit through a lot of talk about transhumanism to get to anything interesting about AI/AGI. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all saw Gattaca, you know what else we saw? Monty Python, Get on with it!) Nominally I am a transhumanist but I care so very little about their issues compared to the more pressing and immediate issue of what will become of us and our economy when we become an Automated Nation.

Sometimes you gotta roll a hard six...

"If BSG Were An '80s Sitcom"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La1R0xxoLk0

Felix and Tom's Bogus Journey

Well, that was certainly an eventful nine hours. 

At once, we see the failure of idealism, in the form of Gaeta, and the failure of the outright cynicism of Zarek's autocracy. Sure, had Gaeta followed Zarek's entreaty to execute all of their opposition outright, their bloody revolution would probably have lasted a whole lot longer: they would be in command of the only ship in the fleet with guns (once they separated themselves from the Cylons), and they were already in control of the tyllium ship, without which any dissenters would be left behind to die a horrible death. 

But even so, Zarek's fleet would have brought the people of the fleet to a whole new level of despair, worse than their current status quo, if that's at all possible. Eventually, his troops aboard Galactica would grow to resent their new overlord, and take him out. But this new fleet would be without help from the Cylons, and would have executed the best and the brightest among them.

As it stands, it was Gaeta's idealism that caused their revolution to collapse. He insisted that everything be done "right." But without a real system of justice, after ordering the execution of the rightful head of government, who is Gaeta to appeal to what is "right." 

Romo Lampkin, in a much more worthy return after last year's Sine Qua Non, was able to cut right through Gaeta's kangaroo court. He points out the utter nonsense of trying to have a real court-martial among an illegitimate command, and knows full well that Gaeta would be better off saving time and executing Adama early on. In a wonderful nod to Season Three's  The Son Also Rises, Lampkin steals a pen from Gaeta (like the pen he stole from Baltar, and the numerous other little objects he was compelled to steal) and uses it to take out his guard. He also gave us another Earth cultural reference to throw on the pile when he called his guards Wynken and Blynken.

Also, very appropriate that in the episode where we get a proper use of Lampkin, we get the return of Captain Kelly. Just to jog your memory, Kelly has been around since the miniseries. In Season Three, he was put in the brig after killing two of Baltar's previous attorneys and attempting to kill Romo Lampkin (killing several bystanders in the process). It was Romo's kleptomania that eventually brought him down. How ironic that now, he can't bring himself to kill a Cylon, chief Tyrol, and works to bring down Gaeta's mutiny and restore Adama to power. Seems he's been doing some thinking in his long tenure in the brig. 

Roslin, aboard the Cylon base ship, shows that her leadership skills and powers of persuasion, transcend the human race. Make no mistakes, the rebel Cylons will never again underestimate her will.

Finally, the penultimate scene, between Baltar and Gaeta, provides a needed sense of closure for Gaeta, although the scene is presented in a very strange way. First, it's set in Gaeta's quarters, not in the brig. You would think that as the ringleader of a mutiny, Gaeta would be sequestered in Galactica's dankest cell. At first, I thought this scene, and Gaeta's resolution, was taking place in his mind (Gaeta spends the scene sitting in his chair in his quarters, and then we cut to him sitting in a chair in the launch tube, awaiting his execution), but the official statements about the scene would tend to indicate otherwise, with no mention of the scene being imaginary, but with a mention that they intended to misdirect the audience:

The scene is kind of wicked, too. We’re supposed to believe that Gaeta’s been spared. It takes place in Gaeta’s quarters (Ron’s idea). And Gaeta speaks of himself in the present tense, how he wants people to know who he is, or something to that effect. 

Just a few quick notes to wrap up:

- According to Michael Angeli (in the same interview cited above), there was enough excised material to fill a whole other episode. Hopefully, that footage will make its way onto the DVD.

- Also from Angeli, the Six who sleeps with Baltar is named "Lida." Might this be a reference to "Leda," the Queen of Sparta who, according to myth, was impregnated by Zeus, who came to her in the form of a swan? Something to consider, since she's just slept with Baltar.

- Speaking of Baltar, interesting to see him finally come out and let us know where he stands with his whole "turn," and whether or not it's genuine. 

"Everyone likes Gaeta, so let's let him off the hook."

Well.

After the relative quiet of last week's episode, Galactica has returned to full force, and the fleet is experiencing the repurcussions of Roslin's running a secret government, and then all-but-abdicating and leaving the disaffected and power-hungry in charge. I've been in a bit of a debate with someone on a message board who's saying that he's rooting for Gaeta, as Gaeta's the only one who's out for individual freedom. Well, I don't want to appear to be attacking a straw man, because I think this position is extreme to the point of being indefensible, but there is some validity to Gaeta's "side."

Foremost, it shouldn't be up to Admiral Adama to force the other ships in the fleet to accept Cylon tech. Of course, he took the position of leaving behind ships that supported Roslin back in Season Two, and it led to some pretty shitty results, so it's perfectly understandable that he wants to keep the band together.

But let's assume that they do allow ship captains to decide on a case by case basis if they want the upgrade. What's going to happen to the ships that refuse the upgrade? Is the rest of the fleet going to abandon them? What about any people on those ships who don't want to be left behind?

But putting all that aside, Gaeta and Zarek are simply thugs. They've taken these ideas, and run with them to a sickening extreme.

First, the treaty with the Cylon Rebels was made by the then Acting President, Lee Adama (who was nearly arrested and assassinated by Zarek and Gaeta's men because they didn't like what he'd done). It's not up to Zarek to simply toss that aside and say "we're still at war with these people because Earth was a shitty place."

Second, Gaeta's mutiny aboard Galactica has been fraught with injustices. In the first few minutes of the show, Zarek brained Laird, one of the most trod-upon characters in the series, with a wrench. Gaeta's mutiny seems to be comprised of the rape gang from Pegasus and some severely damaged individuals, like Liam. (There's the exception, of course, of Racetrack, who seems to have fallen in with the wrong crowd. Racetrack, if you're reading this, come home and I'll forgive you!)

Still, great to see Kara getting to do what she does best: being unstable and unpredictable. It sure beats her just being morose.

Also great to see Baltar back in the plot, up to his old tricks, and acknowledging his relationship with Gaeta, and the secret they share from the New Caprica occupation.

A couple predictions for next week: Hot Dog was one of the pilots that Gaeta gave the order to shoot Roslin's Raptor. I'm guessing that he'll be the one to save their necks, since he's been bonding with Tyrol lately over "their" son. Also, I think the writers are going to tear a page from Saving Private Ryan, and have Adama and Tigh's POW come back to bite them heinously in the ass.

Finally... Does it worry anyone else that Tigh is exactly the type of person to throw himself on a grenade to save his best friend?

"So I Guess A Pity Frak Is Out Of The Question."

"There is a Languor of the Life
More imminent than Pain —'
Tis Pain's Successor —
When the Soul
Has suffered all it can"
- Emily Dickenson

This is what happens when the Ship of State is left without anyone manning it. Roslin has retreated into hiding and is waiting out her remaining days in the fleet. Because of this lack of leadership within the civilian fleet, Tom Zarek has managed to swoop in turn the situation to his advantage in a political power grab. Zarek has some excellent points about the captains of ships having some say over any equipment retrofits, and about having any Cylons come aboard, and it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the people in the fleet and in the Quorum haven't been watching the show; they've been cooped up in tin cans for 3 of the last four years, and the only hope that the government held out for them turned out to be a sick joke.

Of course, it didn't help that all along, Roslin made many of her decisions classified, so that for the most part nobody has any idea why the fleet should be siding with the rebel Cylons, or why they can (mostly) trust them. It's this secrecy that makes it all-too-easy for a propagandist like Zarek, conveniently holding the post of Vice President, to swoop in and start a revolution, for that's what we saw begin this week.

On the what's-Baltar-espousing-this-week front, he hasn't quite made the leap back to Atheism, but seems to be settling into the God-is-a-shithead camp. All well and good, but I'd like to see Baltar become more involved in the story than he's been since his trial back at the end of season 3. He's literally been relegated to the bowels of the ship, and they should put him to better use as one of the more interesting characters on the show. Still I'm certain he's got bigger things ahead of him in this last run of episodes. But as it stands now, Roslin could have let him bleed to death during the attack on the Resurrection Hub and we wouldn't have lost any of the story in the last few episodes.

One minor continuity quibble: Callie would have gotten pregnant during Baltar's presidency (she was still pregnant at the end of season 2, one year after Baltar was sworn in), and Baltar threw his hat into the ring to be elected on a freedom of choice platform. Now, Cottle says that Callie came to him for an abortion and that abortions are illegal, so either the story doesn't add up, or we can add "Politician who goes back on campaign promises" to his list of sins. All in all, I think it's more of a retconning issue than it is evidence of a bigger conspiracy, and Ron Moore's comments on it seem to support that.

Um, This Is Amazing

This is what viewers of the Space Channel in Canada saw when they tuned in to last week's episode of Battlestar. This contains a major spoiler for the episode, so don't watch it unless blah blah blah. But it is the single greatest commercial break you'll ever see.

"Sometimes I get a great notion To jump into the river an' drown"

The following post contains spoilers for Friday's episode of Battlestar Galactica. If you haven't seen it already, you probably won't care about what is to follow.

After spending literally years since we got our first glimpse of Earth back in March of 2007, and the big reveal of last summer, there has been a lot of speculation as to what the fleet would discover following their arrival. As always, Moore and Eick have given us a taste, but each answer they provide only leads to more questions.

First, there's the timeline of the thirteenth colony's arrival at Earth. The show tells us that it happened 3, 600 years before the show's present. The nuked remains of the Earth show that life on Earth was ended roughly 2,000 years prior to the fleet's arrival, meaning that the Earth's Cylon inhabitants were only around for 1,600 years. Did the Cylons show up, wipe out the indigenous human population, and repopulate the planet? Did they find a planet already bereft of life? One possibility that stretches the bounds of plausibility is that we are the descendents of those Cylons, and that the nuclear apocalypse is imminent. But surely, Moore isn't a young Earth creationist. So we're left to wonder.

Also, it's noteworthy that the Galactica's landing crew ended up in the exact spot on the planet where the Fleet Four died on Earth. There are two possibilities that I can think of: one is that it's a complete coincidence, and the other is that the Earth was populated entirely with many copies of those four models, and that the Fleet Four hold the memories of every dead copy of their model from Earth. This would seem likelier, as we know that one copy can hold the memories of more than one previous copy, such as Athena having Boomer's memories, and last year's 8 having Athena's.

And then there's the reveal of the final Cylon: Ellen Tigh. Will we be seeing another copy of Ellen at some point? Or are the Final Five the sole remaining copies of their model? Perhaps Earth is 2,000 light years away from the colonies, and it took that long for the Final Five's resurrection signals to get there.

And what was Starbuck's role in all this? The Earth she described seeing wasn't a blasted wasteland, but held "blue skies." Could her arrival at Earth have lead to it's destruction, with her getting caught up in the nuclear war that led to the charred corpse in her Viper?Tough to speculate on these, but it's important to ask the right questions.There's still much to be explored about Earth, but sadly that will have to be saved for a later date, as the fleet has moved on. All told, it's a bit Planet of the Apes, except instead of Humans and Apes it's Humans and Cylons.

Getting away from the heavy mythology parts, there are several large issues facing the fleet moving forward. First and foremost is that of leadership. With Roslin content to crawl into a hole and let herself die and Adama unwilling to stop the lotting and open fistfights on the decks of his own ship, it's fallen upon Lee to give a rousing speech to the fleet, which could be summed up by Samuel Beckett's "The Unnamable:" in short, "I can't go on. I must go on. I'll go on."

The second major obstacle is morale: Now that there is no Promised Land, where will the fleet draw inspiration from? Is it enough to keep on searching for a new home to recolonize human civilization, or will more members of the fleet succumb to despair? And even if they do manage to find another habitable planet, what would stop them from just making it New Caprica all over again?