December 2, 2006
GWC Podcast #18
“Unfinished Business” was everything we’d hoped it would be and more. Highlights: Finally understanding what’s come between Starbuck and Lee during the occupation, confirming the (fogotten by the losers) results of last week’s quarter bets, discussing the crew’s pent up aggression, and a shout out to RDM and crew for trying the roundtable format in this week’s podcasts.
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
Ahhh…. the RDM podcast. I was like a crack addict trying to get the one for Hero and I ended up getting both tonight.
Unfortunately, I missed the online frak party (even though I was one of the folks who begged for it).
Okay, who in here thinks that there’s gonna be a serious rumble between Dee and Starbuck? Or do you think that Dee is gonna kick Lee’s ass after the fight? OR…. do you think that Dee will try to fatten Lee up again just to make sure Starbuck doesn’t try to take her man? (I’m partial to option 3)
BTW… it was good to see Kate Vernon again. Also, have you all noticed that Baltar has been in EVERY single episode of BSG this season?
I’ve started dreaming of the glorious tech I can buy with those two shiny quarters I won. I honestly wasn’t sure that the Chief could pull it off, especially after that first sucker-punch.
I don’t see Dee openly fighting Kara over Apollo. She’s going to guilt-trip Lee from one end of Galactica to the other, though.
I wonder about the starvation angle. Where the heck did they get their food before? Maybe Cloud 9, which would help explain after, oh, 2.5 seasons of running, all of a sudden they have food problems? Anyway, I am sure they’ll explain it. But it struck me as a bit incongruous.
Can we all agree that Roslin has the best lines?
Martha,
The clip I saw mentioned something along the lines that the food they had been processing was contaminated and that it had also been stored with the good food that had been processed prior to the contamination effectively ruining it all. Makes me wonder what the exact nature of all this is but it might be better if they just keep it vague.
Yep, Roslin has the best lines and Bill Adama has the best speeches.
Great podcast guys, funny as always!
further proof that even adama suspects that athena is a double agent … why bother with giving the “we’re here to fight, and I’ll never be caught with my pants down again ever” speech for the benefit of the Chief? Come on, he and the cheif had no problems! I heard your comments on the podcast … the Cheif is like anyone else on the galactia, they all love adama … and no one has mentinoed that Lee was Zach’s brother … I’m not sure Starbuck was too far off feeling extreme guilt, and resentment towards Lee when they pretty much fracked all over Zach’s memory. Doesn’t anyone remember the folded picture in Starbuck’s Locker? The picture with her Zach and Lee, and she had lee’s picture folded over? I think there is more backstory then we know about … AND I think we do know that this same thing happened before … when she said you’re so brave to try and frack another man’s woman … am i right about her saying “TRY.” he didn’t try and frack ander’s woman, he did frack her … I think this is about Zach.
I think that Adama and Roslin have about the best relationship EVER … they are obviously in love, and so much in love they don’t let themselves get in the way of their duties … but what more … they truely like each other. I dig them.
Here’s something I just found:
While listening to Podcast 18, I was looking at IMDb reviewing the actors and actresses who play on BSG. Did you all know that Hot Dog is played by Bodie Olmos, the son of Admiral “Edward James Olmos” Adama? Interesting…
-Rich
Daaaaaaaamn….
Unifinished Business was amazing. Like, seriously that episode was so filled with juicy character development, plus hardcore boxing. Just… wow.
Adama *finally* admitting he’s too lax and friendly with his crew? About time!
But, on semi-serious note. The matches between Adama and Chief, and Helo and Lee had me so psyched into a “Rocky”-type mood, that I thought the Rocky theme was going to start playing…
There were a couple things that caught my eye about the episode…
1. In the first fight between Helo and Apollo, there was that scene where Cottle was so into the fight, he was mimicking the fight with his hands. Classic!
2. Now, I don’t want to sound overly cynical, but Chuck’s right: What the frak were Adama and Roslin smoking?
3. Hot Dog got punked! He went down faster than Geraldo’s ratings after the vault.
4. I really didn’t want to bring this up, but how people think Dualla deserves what she got by Lee cheating and more-or-less walking on her? I’d like to take this opportunity to say the following… Take that, Dee! *Dances the happy dance of Billy’s retribution*
And that’s my two cubits…
P.S. Another great podcast.
On the point of Adama’s speech… To me, it was clearly him re-establishing his command. He saw the Chief letting his crewman defy his order to finish his work. The key part of his speech was that you can’t be a leader and be their friend. It was about Adama realizing that by being soft and letting the Chief leave the Galactica, he had set the example for the Chief to be soft when dealing with his men. Which can breed insubordination. A situation that could lead to disaster in war… and did back on New Caprica.
Hi all, I’m new around here and just found your podcast last week. It’s such a refreshing change from all the whining and nitpicking on a certain other podcast. I also like that you have a woman’s point of view, something that’s sorely lacking elsewhere.
Anyway, I am surprised that no one has mentioned what I picked up on, which is forgiveness. I think Lee is forgiving Kara for her frakked up behavior, and she is maybe forgiving him for something we don’t know about, or maybe even forgiving herself for her frakked up behavior.
And something that I thought of while listening to the previous podcast is that Athena has taken Kara’s place as Adama’s daughter-surrogate, and Kara has taken Tigh as her new father-surrogate. A really interesting shift, and I wonder how the events of “Unfinished Business” will affect that, if Adama is realizing that maybe he can’t trust Athena.
Anyway, I’m going to go back and download the rest of your episodes, and hopefully won’t discover that this has all already been discussed!
I think that kara has a big brother relationship with Saul, and a next door neighbor relationship with the cheif, and a chick who lived in your dorm, but didn’t like relatinoship with Cat, and babysitter relationship with Hot-dog, and a cheating on your boyfriend with his brother relationship with Lee.
Eric-Michael -you rock! I was wondering what Kara meant by “try to frak” when Lee actually DID frak her, and I think you hit the nail on the head (pardon the pun) by thinking there is more back story going on here with Zack. I’ll bet Lee has been in love with Kara all along, even when she was engaged to Zack. Whoa. Very heavy. I love it.
Also, I loved the reference to Dionysius (spelling?) in the podcast. Did anyone notice how sexual and bacchanalian all the New Caprica flashbacks were? Like Audra mentioned, there was sunlight for once, and there was also a hyper-sexual, hyper-sensual feeling about it all also. Very cool…no wait…very HOT. 😉 This was definitely one of the most amazing episodes ever…and not just on BSG but on TV period.
And, perhaps most importantly, thank the gods for shirtless Lee and scantily clad Anders and Helo. Please gods, more! (LOL)
YES! I was mentioned by name! I feel pretty crappy today (cold/ “crud”) and had to go to work but that was totally awesome. And my thing about a cardboard Cylon was mentioned which is also awesome. So this is what Pike feels like after every episode! That put me on Cloud Nine… pre- Gina firework. And I had been hoping that one day we would get an episode where you have a gruffy voice say “Previously on Galactica Watercooler”, so that was another little fufilled dream.
And I believe I heard that this next episode food thing is a result of some contaminated food mixed in with safe food, which essentially makes it all contaminated.
And it was nice to actually see Roslin for more that 3 minutes. Sometimes when an episode is over I wonder “Why exactly is she 2nd billed again?”
Just listened to the ‘cast, another great one. Just one thing: NO FEELING SORRY FOR DEE! None! Until she takes a bullet in the gut protecting Apollo (or better, Starbuck) she can get all the hurt anyone can dream up and I’ll cheer it on.
And I have to wonder if the baby-bomb isn’t going to be the season (or midseason) cliffhanger.
There definately is a semi-incestuous aspect to Starbuck and Apollo, but more because of Zak than Adama.
Oh yeah, frak anyone who griefs you about not listening to RDM before you ‘cast. You guys are now at the top of my BSG podcast rotation precisely b/c of that. It’s fun hearing your take and THEN listening to RDM to see if he anticipated any criticisms (which he suprisingly often does.)
13th Cylon–LMAO! (Early on I was going to change my name to ‘Somebody’, so I’d get some props when they said “Somebody posted this on the blog…”)
This is my first post so to start I want to say that I love the podcast!
I was thinking that maybe the Chief/Adama fight had a little more to it than just an example to the rest of the crew. Chief is a great leader, he proved that on New Caprica, but he lets himself get in the way of his natural abilities. I think Adama was literally trying to beat some sense into him. Maybe a very painful way of grooming Chief as a future leader of Galactica, by giving him a confidence boost.
Starbach, love the name!
Starbach, yeah, it’s precisely b/c Tyrol IS a natural leader that Adama had to make a point of it. If T had said “Fix the gimble” it’d have been done. But he didn’t. T got soft, b/c they all got soft. The old man is tryiing to get them back to fighting trim.
This whole starvation plot line has me a bit worried; I may be a pessimist but I am seeing some things that are causing me concern. (I am still sick with my bronchitis so maybe it is the meds talking here.)
This seems to be a sort of revisit to “Water†from the first season, which leads me to wonder if they are starting to run out of fresh ideas. I mean food problems now, after two years; what did Lee eat it all??? Were they trying to find a new dramatic idea for an episode, this all on the heels of the all too neat Virus episodes and “Heroâ€. What is next, a fire in space episode?
I just hope I am wrong and that BSG pulls out another great show where they have so many times in the past. The starvation idea is a good one, but it should have been an issue that was longer stretched out. The issue of food and water was talked about early in the life of the show, so one would think that they were watching the food stores.
And what happened to all those steaks that were in the cooler back in the second seasons. I thought that the freezer was not on Cloud Nine so it should not have been destroyed with the ship. Is that all the food Lee ate when he was a Commander?
I think an easy explaination for the food shortage would be that they had grown increasingly reliant on New Caprica for food production. Plus they left a lot of stuff behind in the dash to get off planet in Exodus II.
The contamination angle makes it sound like this is one of those plots (like Hero) that has been floating around since season two.
Oh my, I too (like Pike) listen to the GWC before I listen to the RDM BSG podcast. OMG! lol… alright, enough of that. Also the Somebody thing reminds me of a thing I once heard a guy talk about how Somebody Else is the greatest person out there because Somebody Else will always do the work nobody else wants to do, etc.
I think the only shortage Lee is responsible for would be the bon bon and noodle shortage. “It’s a tough job commanding a battlestar.” Oh, look a there Lee, the 1IedXO is coming to haunt you for bashing him on the CIC.
Huh. Someone over at Wired thinks that this is the beginning of the end for BSG. Top Ten Style:
10. Show co-creators Ron Moore and David Eick are both developing multiple other projects. Moore is working on BSG prequel show Caprica, and Eick is working on both Bionic Woman and Them.
9. Crucial subplots, such as the fate of Sharon and Helo’s hybrid baby, are left dangling for more than three episodes.
8. Rather than developing characters via personal transformation, character development is charted via hair length, presence/absence of beards, and weight gain/loss.
7. The only way the writers imagine they can showcase Edward James Olmos’ considerable acting talents is via long-winded speeches.
6. Cylon threesomes.
5. Too much intimacy with the mysterious Cylon enemy in their SM dungeon ship makes them seem campy rather than scary.
4. Entire episodes are clumsily devoted to single-word social issues like “torture” and “genocide.”
3. Eick promises next season will bring more flashback-heavy episodes that focus on romantic entanglements and/or childhood trauma.
2. A retcon turns Adama into the cause of the Cylons’ attack on the twelve colonies, thus making him both improbably important and too much of a bastard.
1. Boxing is used as a thin excuse for an episode that could have been written (better) by shippers.
Article: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2006/12/is_battlestar_g.html
Wow, thats a bit harsh I think. I’ll admit that some of this seasons episodes are not as good as others but all in all it isn’t bad. It IS season three after all, ya have to do something to shake things up a bit.
They said the Beatles had peaked with every ablum they ever released but there was still always great music to be had from the Fab Four.
Though I suppose time will tell.
BSG is wildly popular, so of course it’s trendy for blogger wannabes to punk it and try to sound above it all. Meh to them. If they were decent writers they’d be getting paid for doing BSG episodes, not throwing rocks from their lowly gutters.
I give Admiral Adama the coveted Clueless Award. There he is, making snugglebunnies with Laura Roslin. She says they should enjoy this, giving him an opening he could have flown the Galactica through, and he lies there stargazing and totally missing it. “I am,” my sorry butt. Dude can’t hold his herb. Then he witnesses his son all but puking as the news of Kara’s marriage kicks him in the figurative guts, and he acts like he can’t see it? I thought my teen-aged son lived in clueless land, but he’s got to bow to the master.
Kara is so terrified of how Lee gets in past her defenses. She’s got the I’m-such-a-bitch outer ring, he gets in past that, so she’s got to go into active mode, and he still won’t get out of her head. He just stands there, all stiff and prideful and looking at her, and he. Won’t. Frakking. Go. Away. She’s going after him like white corpuscles on a splinter, and it’s not doing any good, and the painful dance is back and only going to get worse. Being loved by Kara Thrace is probably the second most dangerous place to be in the BSG-verse, only barely beaten out by being glared at by Bill Adama.
Spinny: Actually, I had questioned that in my OCD-blogging, but:
“Dude can’t hold his herb. Then he witnesses his son all but puking as the news of Kara’s marriage kicks him in the figurative guts, and he acts like he can’t see it?”
really explains it all. THAT’S why he didn’t get it. He was still high!
Sean, yeah, just posted that article as a FWIW. I agree with a couple points. I think that I posted that I was already tired of the speechifying… But a lot of the others don’t make sense to me. Dangling plot points have a three episode life span??? WTF?
Back to Spinny: Bingo. It’s a testament to the series that it’s now uber-cool to tear them down. Good luck, mother-frakers.
Did anyone else hope to see Lee stalking off and stealing a hot dog from a small child (a la Dwight Goodman at the end of Dodgeball) after being informed of Kara’s marraige?
NY Spinny – LOL! I actually wondered the same thing about Adama, not noticing Lee’s obvious reaction of stunned horror when he found out about Kara’s wedding. I was wondering if Adama was off in la-la land somewhere. As for the scene with Roslin, you made me laugh with that, but I think the writers might be just frakin’ with us, trying to keep us guessing the exact nature of Adama and Roslin’s relationship. Good stuff!
>Pike: Dangling plot points have a three episode life span??? WTF?
I’m with Pike on this one. To the folks at Wired: it’s called a serial!
Oh, forgot to say- I’m really into the comments about Kara and Lee’s past. I think the evidence that’s been brought up here to support something else going on between them from a long time ago is really intriguing.
Thanks for all the great comments!
Hello!
I am trying to catch up on you past podcasts, love your podcast!!!
This episode I could only download 11:36 minutes!
Where is the rest?
Greetings from Mexico!!