Snapshot Chronicles

Susan Getgood's personal blog

SciFi Sunday: Battlestar Galactica (duh!)

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This post has spoilers for the first episode of Battlestar Galactica, He That Believeth in Me. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, and want to remain spoiler free, go read last week’s SciFi Sunday review of the Stargate SG-1 film The Ark of Truth and enter my SG-1 action figure giveaway.

Or go watch the ep on SciFi Rewind, then come back when you’re done.

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A pretty good start to the season. As with most Battlestar episodes, there are three storylines. This year, it looks like they are going to play out as:

  • The Adama arc: Storyline generally involving Adama, Roslin, Lee and Kara. Often includes Helo & Athena, and I suspect will include the Six/Sixes on Galactica
  • The Baltar arc: Baltar’s storyline, including “Head Six”
  • The Cylon arc: The seven, the four, the one

Let’s start with the A-storyline, the first he that believeth, Lee believing in Kara. My little shipper heart was warmed by the welcome Lee gave Kara (and the welcome she did not give Sam) as well as Lee’s immediate acceptance of her. Mary McDonnell’s performance was excellent, but I think the character is in the wrong this time. Think about it — she can have visions under the influence of drugs and send Kara on the mission to Caprica, but now she is completely closed to the possibility that Kara is right. Odds are, Lee is absolutely right — what they were meant to find in the nebula was Kara.

The two best scenes in this storyline were Adama and his children. When Kara asks him to believe her, it is heartbreaking that he can’t. That the counsel he seeks is Lee’s is heartwarming, especially given how estranged they had been over Baltar’s trial. Lee rewatching Kara’s “death” also evokes the episode Scar, another important episode in the Lee/Kara storyline. I loved how Lee makes it clear that it makes absolutely no difference to him what Kara is or isn’t. He has her back, literally and figuratively, and that’s all that matters.

Of all the characters in this episode, clearly the character of Lee has had the most visible character growth, although I expect that Kara has changed tremendously as well; we just don’t know the extent of it. Adama and Roslin, though, seem to be repeating old patterns. All this has happened before and will again….

Now to the B-storyline. Don’t need to draw us a map on this one. We get it. Baltar is a Christ-like figure, at least in that his followers believeth in him even though we know he doesn’t believe in much other than saving his own skin. I love watching James Callis perform, even though the character is mostly despicable. It will be interesting to see if/how Baltar is or is not redeemed. That said, I thought some of these scenes dragged a bit.

Finally, the Cylons. This episode focused on our friends the final, or frakked, four, and their determination to believe in themselves, as the individuals they’ve always thought themselves to be. Michael Hogan (Tigh) owns the screen when he is on it, so I for one am glad he is one of the four as that means he’ll get plenty of screentime. I thought it was particularly effective the way they had the four in various scenes discussing the possibility that Kara might be a cylon. Everything said, by them and others, in those scenes refers more to them than to her, and you can clearly tell that they know that. And what happens when Kara discovers that Sam is a Cylon…

Grade: A-/B+

Preview for next week:

Warms this fangirl’s heart, although I hope they resolve Starbuck’s headache soon. Katee Sackhoff is an excellent actor, but watching her scream “we’re going the wrong way” over and over is going to get old, fast.

[tags] Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 [/tags]

Sing, sing a song

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I got back from BlogHer Business last night, and have finally caught up on my sleep. Now if I can just get rid of this chronic sore throat.

I’ll post the serious reports from the conference over on Marketing Roadmaps, including the promised summaries of the two sessions I was in, the HP Photo Books case study and the Improve this Pitch panel with Liz Gumbinner, Mir Kamin and Maria Niles. Look for those posts sometime mid-week. If you’d like a preview, I was interviewed by the Screengrab team from Weber Shandwick toward the end of the day Friday.

Friday night, Liz organized a karaoke get together in the East Village. About 25 of us — local NY parent bloggers, moms who’d been at Johnson’s Camp Baby in New Jersey and some of us from BlogHer — all crowded into private room, courtesy of Cool Mom Picks, and proceeded to make our eardrums bleed with such classics as Like A Virgin, Bohemian Rhapsody, Summer Nights and a bunch of others that I can’t remember. I have some Flip video, but it is really dark. If we can find some editing software and lighten up the images, I’ll post some of it here.

It was a great time, and really nice of Liz and her CMP partner Kristen Chase to cover the room. It was way more fun having the privacy to just all sing together and act a bit foolish, versus standing up and performing the “normal” karaoke way.

[tags] BlogHer, BlogHer Business, Susan Getgood, Cool Mom Picks [/tags]

SciFi Sunday: Stargate SG-1, “Ark of Truth” review

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Okay, let’s get this out of the way right away. I liked Ark of Truth. It wasn’t great art. It wasn’t even great science fiction.

But it was good science fiction, a reasonable way to spend a couple hours and my son enjoyed it.

What was good about it?

Ben Browder and Claudia Black performing together, always a plus. Chemistry? Uhm, yeah. Even when mebbe there isn’t supposed to be…. I started watching Stargate SG-1 when Browder joined the cast and stayed with it for him and Black. Before that, I just couldn’t get into the show. Perhaps because it started at a time when I did not have cable, and so I just wasn’t in the habit. But mostly I think because I could not get invested in the characters. I didn’t dislike them per se, and the performances were fine, but O’Neill, Carter, Teal’c and Jackson as characters. Mostly left me cold.

Especially, and still, Jackson. Don’t shoot me – enter my action figure giveaway instead and tell me why I should care about this character. Because I don’t dislike the character and I appreciate Michael Shanks as an actor. I just find I cannot care about the character of Daniel Jackson. But many of you do. Tell me, tell me.

More goodness. The performances of Currie Graham as IOA bad guy Merrick and Tim Guinee as Ori warrior and former Vala spouse Tomin. There is a scene with Tomin and Teal’c that I think sums up both characters in the Stargate arc, and that says a lot, given that Teal’c was part of it from the beginning. Kudos to the writers and the actors.

More chemistry. Ben Browder has great chemistry with Amanda Tapping (Carter) here too. Something we did not see on Stargate Atlantis with Carter and any of the characters on that show, including Sheppard, played by Joe Flanigan, a character and actor I really like. Fault of the actors? No. I think it is a combination of the fact that Browder could have chemistry with a broomstick, and that Sheppard/Joe Flanigan had such great chemistry with the axed Weir character played by Torri Higginson that nothing else quite measures up. Are you listening, PTB?

Walter. Played by Gary Jones. What else can I say….

About half way through the film, the film splits into two main stories. Daniel, Vala, Tomin and Teal’c continue the search for the Ark of Truth, and Carter and Mitchell deal with a Replicator threat. I think this was a good choice. This allows all the characters their “moment in the sun.”

Some additional observations:

  • The wormhole F/X when the Odyssey goes through the Super Gate, especially at the beginning, are awesome.
  • I had never seen the Replicator storyline on SG-1, only the humaniform Asuran storyline on SGA, so I found the little mechanical Replicators quite unnerving
  • The score when Teal’c is hiking through the mountains was very majestic.
  • There’s one scene, late in the film, where Vala is brought into a room and daughter/Ori/Ascended Being Adria joins her. My dog Reva growled. Not sure whether it was the music or something in the scene that disturbed her, but she was pissed.
  • Weirdness: The jumpsuits the people wear on Odyssey (and Daedalus for that matter) are just weird. Aren’t pants and shirts more convenient. You know…..

The DVD extras are okay. I don’t tend to buy DVDs for the extras, but I know many do. If you are looking for a lot on that score, you’ll probably be disappointed. The main extras are a commentary, the usual “filming of,” and a Stargate panel from last year’s Comic Con. Chris Judge (Teal’c) is particularly amusing on the Comic Con panel.

Bottom line: if you are a Stargate fan, you’ll enjoy it. If you aren’t, but you’d like to dip your toe into the franchise, it sounds like this summer’s Continuum might be the better bet.

 

 

Purchasing links:

DVD: Stargate – The Ark of Truth

Download: Stargate: The Ark of Truth

 

The giveaway:

Long story short, I have some extra SG-1 action figures. Mitchell, Vala and the Ori Prior. I’m going to give away one of each at the end of April and the remaining three when the second film, Continuum, is released this summer.

mitchell_small.jpgvala_small.jpgprior_small.jpg

How to enter: As I admitted above, I had a hard time getting into the SG-1 characters until Ben Browder and Claudia Black joined the cast. Especially Daniel Jackson. I don’t dislike the character, and the actor Michael Shanks does a fine job. I just find that I don’t really care what happens to the character, and I need that to remember to tune in week after week.

So, in the comments on this post, tell me why I should like Daniel. Are there specific episodes to watch that you think would “bring me over?” Or if you happen to have the same problem I do, share. Why do you have a hard time connecting with the character of Daniel Jackson? Is he really that much of a cold fish?

To enter the April giveaway:

  • Leave a comment on my SciFi Sunday: Ark of Truth review. Tell me why I should give Daniel a chance. Or not.
  • I’d be thrilled if you shared this giveaway with friends or readers of your own blog if you wish, but it is NOT a requirement to enter.
  • I will give away one figure for every 10 comments on the blog. In other words, I will give away ONLY the Mitchell figure if I get 10 or less comments. 20 or less comments, Mitchell and Vala. Anything over 21 comments, I’ll give away all three figures in the first giveaway in April. Same rules will apply for the later giveaway.

Entries will close on Wednesday April 30, 2008 at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Winners will be selected using a random number generator and announced on Snapshot Chronicles on May 1. Using the relevant number limits as above, the first comment selected will get the Mitchell figure, the second, the Vala figure and the third, the Prior figure.

Giveaway open to adult residents, 18 years or older, of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. Void where prohibited.

Questions? Email sgetgood@getgood.com

COMMENTS ON THIS POST ARE NOW CLOSED 

[tags] Stargate SG-1, Ark of Truth, science fiction, giveaway, action figures, Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge [/tags]