About frackin' time

With not a lot of fanfare, the SciFi Channel aired the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica tonight. They were, as Ulysses Everett McGill used to say, in a tight spot.

Watching the crew of Galactica attempt to extricate themselves from bad hyperspace jumps, double-crosses, space battles, and human-looking aliens reminded me a bit of the book Everything Bad is Good For You. This isn't a standard three-act plot like on Lost in Space.

Viewers of the show are supposed to remember at least six plot threads on three separate locations, and tie them together from week to week.

• Helo's on Caprica with Boomer, who is pregnant with his child. They are running from Cylons.
• Starbuck and Lee are all over the universe.
• Tigh's got an alcoholic wife¹ who he thought was dead and is now... back.
• Adama and Rosilyn are butting heads politically. (There's also the political fights, including a convicted murderer as political rival.)
• On the ship, Sharon's dealing with the knowledge that she isn't who she thinks she is.
• Baltar's well... crazy as a shithouse rat.

And so on, and so on, and so on. You have two solar systems, 48,000 people trapped in a space fleet, and countless Cylons, many of whom are hot. (At least the female models. The male models that we've seen so far have not been as hunky. Come on, guys, how about a little beefcake for the ladies? Other than Jamie Bamber's massive guns.)


Kevin and I agree—not enough Starbuck in this episode but the season is young. I really do hope they find a way to put in the crazy-ass Dirk Benedict plotline I read about a while back, where Baltar would come up to a shadowed figure, and out pops Dirk, saying, "Hi, I'm God!"

There may no place to go from there, actually. You'd have to turn off the TV, since you couldn't top that. Unless it was a monkey fighting a bear with sharks and pirates battling a mockingbird which was also on cold fire.

¹ - This plot thread inspired the following exchange:

BeaucoupK: Now ask yourself.
BeaucoupK: "What would tigh do?"
DougBot: He'd drink a lot with his skank wife.
DougBot: Then he'd punch Lee and/or Starbuck.
DougBot: Then he'd make the right decision even through he doesn't want to and his personal demons make it difficult.
BeaucoupK: That bitch, I want her BRAINS ON THE WALLS.

See, now that is some good writing and acting.