GWC Re-Watch Frak Party: Bastille Day
It’s weekfour of our planned off-season re-watch of the entire “re-imagined” BSG canon, and it’s time to move on to the season one episode “Bastille Day.” So why not join us here for the GWC online frak party? There’s room for everyone, though you’ll have to bring your own snacks…
Feel free to jump in at any point with your comments on this week’s episode as the re-watch is by definition spoiler free. We’ll be in and out, but we’ll definitely take a look at your comments before we start next week’s podcast.
See you here all week!
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
I love early-series Baltar. =D
Your joke about the Son of God deal with Baltar made me think of something funny. What if it’s around 0 A.D. on Earth? Maybe in BSG world, Jesus dies, Baltar somehow makes it to Earth, and in typical Baltar style, plays it religion-leader cool and gets labeled Jesus. He wouldn’t fight it. LOL.
The Ascension was just Baltar getting beamed up for his next trial – impersonating a deity.
(By the way, I’m Christian, so no offense intended.)
Anyway, back to Bastille Day. I’m amazed by how different Zarek is here. It’s hard to imagine how this guy gets to be President one day.
Bastille Day: When BSG turned away from the Shark jump and reclaimed it’s soul.
I saw it a few days ago (forgive me, I had to peak thru the wrappings early) and one scene stood out. Cheese and craaaaaaaapppppp. Starbuck is briefing the squadron and Boxey is standing arrogantly next to her. Then as he leaves, he mutters some impertient comment. I like to think that as he rounded from sight, RDM and Ecyk each grabbed a ear and said, ” Your coming with us, young master Boxey. There’s an opening on the Tyillium ship” and that was that. I believe there was an unfortunate accident. These things happen. Sic Semper Boxius.
With his disappearance, the old BSG ghost was excercised and banished. I think I remember in the commentary some mention of this. If Boxey had been kept around, paling around as a viper groupie, holding Starbucks stogie for her, it would be totally non believable. With him gone, I could believe again.
So say we all, Dainin! So say we all.
I cringed when I saw Boxey again during my re-watching. I’m glad he just fizzled out too, and that they didn’t waste precious S1 air time on some forced minor story arch supposed to conjure up tears for the li’l urchin.
Yet Boxey could still be RDM’s trump to prevent an early cancel. Imagine a tense stand-off scene at the Network office: “You cancel this show early, and I swear, that little flotsam-jetsam kid gets resurrected as the 5th reveal!” The powers-that-be would know that’d make the show jump the shark so fast, Starbuck would get sucked into the new maelstrom whipped up by their quickly departing audience and sponsors. This time there’d be no one left to see her return (The “tree in the forest” haiku is a big ruler in Hollywood).
I was struck also by how different it feels. I went back and watched it with the commentary and RDM talks about how they were feeling their way and seeing what type stories actually worked.
The show defintiely feels not as mature as it is now. More uncertain of where it was going. Of course that is obvious now that they have had 3 seasons to ‘season’ it. It’s kind of looking at a picture of myself in college (think early ’70’s) as compared to now.
FYI apparently it was Cholera that did Boxey in ;P
I always thought boxy just going away was awsome. You guys might get a kick out of one of the cards I made for my battlestar galactica board game.
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/wackottl/BattleStar%20Galactica/BSGCardbeta1.jpg
LOL Wacko. Very droll.
Yes, kids ruin a show and I’m so glad they did away with Boxey. Imagine if he were still around now. “Col Tigh, why did you kill your wife?” “Lee, why did you try to exterminate the Cylon race?” “Commander Adama, why did you let a man responsible for the genocide of the human race to get off when you knew he was guilty?” They think the show is dark now, well luckily they cut the scene where Roslin tosses little Boxey out the air lock. lol
Yah, remember how annoying that little smartypants girl was on STNG? The one who tailed Data everywhere. Something Wildman?
SS
SS: That was Naomi Wildman on ST:Voyager trailing Seven Of Nine around everywhere, and I have to admit that I kinda liked her character — at least in the Trek universe. I agree with you that that kind of character would be totally out of place in BSG.
She’s all grown up now:
http://www.scarlettpomers.com/enter.html
Chuck
Totally off topic, soooo sorry!! I blame it on new episode withdrawal.
But I figure someone will know the answer to my question!
Can anyone identify what scene this picture is from? Go to Sky One’s BSG page and watch the pictures go across the screen near top. You will see a shot of Doral, Six and Athena holding Hera. I don’t remember this…it can’t be from Season 4 if they don’t start filming till May.
here is the URL
http://www.skyone.co.uk/programme/pgeProgramme.aspx?pid=3
Interesting, Brian. Is that the Opera house in the BG?
I can’t seem to find that image in the Galleries, but there are a couple others that I don’t recall, including one of a Doral in the full cuffs-and-collar.
Okay this is pathetic….
I find myself like a junkie sweating and shaking. I know where my stash is (seasons 1, 2, and 2.5) but I am trying to resist the urge to consume them all at once. Withdrawal is a terrible thing.
So I try to subsitute with the last new Lost and past eppy’s of Rome, Carnivale, Band of Brothers…. Gods save me I may even sucumb to the Matrix and Alien series. If I slip to Star Wars then just lock me away.
Having to stretch out a WEEK! (er sorry) is painful. Don’t mind the toe tapping or twitches or occasional snarls….
Perhpas just a taste, I know I can stop anytime I want. Yeah that’s the ticket, just one extra, amybe a commentary 🙂
I’m liking One Eyed Tigh SO much better than the old one! One Eyed is not afraid of anything.
In response to BSG withdrawal/addiction – just puting this out there for the world – I think my symptoms would be greatly eased by a spread of Jamie Bammer to mirror the spread Six just did in Playboy. Playgirl, are you listening? And, for Audra, let’s also throw in a side-panel of Helo flexxing…..
I don’t think that’s the opera house. It looks like a church.
Hybrid Master- The reason he’s no longer afraid is that all the fear left in him was in that eye. Out goes the eye, out goes the fear! He just doesn’t frakkin’ care anymore!
And speaking of Jamie Bamber, we had to do a visual arguement project in my ENC 1102 class and the girl sitting next to me actually had the one of him from some magazine (People?) a few months back. It was a redo of the infamous towel scene and all these mirrors. I got a kick out of it and I’m sure she had no idea who he was. lol
Life here began out there… well, maybe there’s no conclusive proof of that yet, but this is still pretty cool and, I would think, of interest to “Galacticans” and other sf fans:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HABITABLE_PLANET?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
As for the matter at hand —
(1) Wow, Boxey is in the whole series for like ten minutes and there is *so* much antipathy toward him? Cut the kid some slack! It’s a pretty good performance, what little there is of it. Especially his “Where’s your mother?” exchange with Tigh. That is a classic moment. 🙂
(2) As far as “Bastille Day” goes, what really struck me this time around is James Callis’ performance when he is “improvising” how he will use a nuclear warhead to detect Cylons — after Head Six tells him, “The rest is up to you.” Callis plays it so wonderfully — you’re not sure whether he is just relieved to come up with some plausible technobabble to fool Adama, or whether he is really having an insight into how it might actually work. It seems like maybe one of the last moments (if memory serves) in which Baltar might really have done the right thing and (intentionally!) helped the fleet.
I love this episode.
on love from anybody, that hurts
MikeP is my homie
Mike- That is so cool! I happened to see it earlier on the Drudge Report and one of the links there mentioned how some of our strongest military radio signals could/ can make it to that planet. There was a drawing of what they thought it looked like and it was a huge sunset (all the time, they think it only gets sunlight on one side) and another huge planet is visible during the day (similar to how we see the moon during the day, only this was much bigger). Incredible stuff.
ah….Matrix and Aliens…
This one is too , one of my fave’s. Boxy could very well show up again ( 3 more years under his belt) and try for Viper pilot…( waiting for slagg fest…). Yeah, the character could have been very annoying ( thank the gawdz there were no Mushies!)but the one epi where he just walked around checking things out and asking some questions was kinda revealing, like “Final Cut”. Another viewpoint of the fleet.
Oh, and by the by. I’m soo glad that I dont remember Scarlett Pomers in ST-Voyager, cause I’d feel the right dirty old man if’n I did. SMOKIN!
I thought the kid at the tylliam plant was going to be boxey, that would have been neat. I expect to see him again, hanging out with bulldog on some ship some place.
Well this is off topic, but I just found out that the show which was going to tie me over until BSG’s return has been cancelled after just 9 days. So long “Drive”. We hardly ye.
I just happened to listen to the original series main title theme and gods, would I love if they used it for the fourth season, like for the intro for the episode when they find Earth (if they find Earth, that it is). I guess that would get a lot of people’s blood hot and cooking, because it’s just such a great, rousing fanfare. I know I loved hearing it in the miniseries and Final Cut.
I agree with Goldschmied, that arrangement of Stu Phillips’ theme in “Final Cut” is simply fantastic, and a similar thought occurred to me, that it might make a good moment in the finale, if not in fact the last thing we hear.
I also wondered (not seriously — although, with BSG, who knows?) if — assuming the series is set in our past (big assumption) — the final episode might not “flash foward” to our 20th century, in which a television producer named Glen Larson creates a TV show about a rag-tag fleet of humans looking for the lost tribe on Earth… And the “punch line” would be that we, audience of the re-imagined series, know the “true story” that the original series represents, after millennia of “oral tradition,” half-remembered truths, overlays of mythic archetypes, etc…
I don’t seriously think the show will end this way, but… it was an interesting few moments of speculation.
Okay, total fan boy status has hit. Just rec’d, in one nice Amazon marked box, the CD’s for the mini-series and Season 1 & 2. ALSO the Official Companions for seasons 1 &2. Queing them up at work now. TTFN (ta ta for now)
13th Cylon: Dang, they canceled Drive that fast??? Man, Tim Minnear can’t get a break!!!
I loved this episode. And I did groan when I saw Boxey. The one thing I did notice was the fact that even though Tigh and Starbuck were at each others’ throats, they did seem to respect each other. I guess if Tigh has it in for you, it’s because he likes you.
And I loved the ending. “He’s your son.” “He’s your adviser.”
Classic.
So, uh… when’s the Act of Contrition re-watch????
I think one cannot appreciate the extent to which the show has an impact on our lives before one did not get to hear this following statement from his girlfriend while watching Desperate Housewives – “Have you ever wondered if maybe Orson is a Cylon?”
Hi. My name is Ferris, and I watch BSG. It’s been a month since my last new episode, and it’ll be another nine till the next one. But I’m getting by on re-watch podcasts. One week at a time. One week at a time…
The re-watch is my first time through season one, and I’ve only been listening since #33 or so, so please pardon if this is well-covered material. But here’s four topics for discussion.
1) Re: Cylons
– What happens when a half-Cylon reboots (assuming we’re not all Cylons)? Would Hera wake up in a goo bath as a Sharon-Boomer model, purged of all Helo traits?
– This is the kind of idea that shows explore late in the run, once they’re running out of plot ideas, but… At some point, there must have been toaster models with some personality, right? Are they still around? What happened to them?
– Who really did program the currently series of Cylons? Are we certain that all human programming has been purged? A few callers and posters have alluded to related issues…
– DO they really have a plan? Are they all sticking to the plan?
2) Re: Is Baltar evil?
– The “Is Baltar evil?” discussion makes me think of the exchange between Dabney Coleman and Danny Glover at the end of The Royal Tennebaums, in which the two discuss whether Coleman is a bastard or a sonofabitch. Maybe we could make more progress by focusing the discussion on exactly what kind of prick Baltar is.
– Is he evil, or just a self-serving mofo? I can’t recall, offhand, any incidents of him going out of his way to hurt other people who didn’t pose a threat to his existence. But I guess that series of extraordinary acts of self-preservation do qualify as evil. Season 2 was my entry point to the show, so I forget exactly what happened on the planet, but I think it wasn’t nice.
– But if we can resist judging him — I can’t — then maybe the show will ultimately feature his redemption. Though it’s kind of obvious, does anyone else think he’ll ultimately do something to save the day, even if it’s inadvertant?
– ps. As someone who’s experiencing season one for the first time, I know better, and I was warned, but the hosts’ revelation that Starbuck and Baltar, um, connect later — that was a major spoiler.
3) With all the talk of the cyclical nature of time/the events in BSG, is anyone else having trouble resisting framing their theories in a Matrix paradigm? I’d like to think it’ll ultimately be something substantially different.
4) Finally, the overlap of current-day news and my escalating BSG fixation always make me think of this: Does anyone else remember this Saturday Night Live skit from maybe 1988? If I recall correctly, it was a C-Span broadcast of three Democratic presidential candidates speaking at a Star Trek convention. Each one tries to establish their sci-fi cred, saying stuff like “I am the Star Trek candidate” and “My oponent may claim to watch Star Trek, but the book I wrote with DeForrest Kelly speaks for itself” and “If elected, I would like to see networks commit to more sci-fi/fantasy programming.”
Everyone, great job, thanks for your thoughful contributions!
– dxf
A quick not about the Season 3 Finale. You know RDM has made a smash-hit with that finale when Television Without Pity goes ga-ga over it. I admit, I only read the last few pages, but the author of the review went all artistic in his review.
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/content/a12936/index-13.html
Yeah, TWOP was a staple of my weekly reading when BSG was on. Oddly, Jacob only rated it a C, despite the tone of the article. The readers gave it an A-, which I think is the greatest disparity between the reader and reviewer grades that I’ve seen there.
Oh, and better to link to the first page:
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/content/a12936/
Hey, where is podcast 41? I’m jonesin’ bigtime here trying to get homework done and listening to the podcast is my reward for a day of hard work. Craaaaappppp!!!
Timbuck, I hear your pain. Ive been checking about every 5 minutes.
Timbuck: Sorry for the delay. We accidentally dropped two S-bombs in this one, and I lost my paper where I wrote down where they were. So I got to re-listen to the whole ‘cast to make sure I caught ’em.
My bad. Sometimes it’s the little things that get you.
Hope you enjoy the ‘cast.
Pike, Browncoat Bryan: I’ve been reading Jacob’s synops since the beginning of season 3 (I think – maybe caught it during the last bit of s2). When he gets on a roll, man… it’s nothing short of awesome. Anyway, you know, I agree with you all – given what he actually wrote and the rating he posted, it seems like a huge disparity. It would seem that he thoroughly enjoyed the ep, even articulated the emotions I felt as we rushed towards the cliff hanger ending. It felt more like an A rating review imo. Maybe there was a glitch. Maybe he was so put off by that one court room reaction scene…
fovorite “bastille day” moment:
a sauced Tigh has met with Cheif and the Gang about the “ice rock” that may save everyone’s lives. listen to his back and forth banter…. LOVE THAT TIGH!
Tigh: “….throw in a coupleah lemons an we’ll make lemonade…” *drunk chuckle*
Bastille Day is one of my all-time favorite episodes. I love all of the Cally moments in this one! I’m so glad that RDM et al decided to spare her and ax Boxey instead of the other way around.
Best moment, Cally saying, “That’s not all I would have bit off!”