We all agree that miniseries hair is the worst, right? Kara’s looks as if she cut it herself with a weedwhacker, and most everyone else’s is not much better. They all seem much younger, though. Especially Chief and Cally. I just want to smush them together and hope that maybe, somehow, it will turn out better for both of them this time. Well, no, that’s a lie; I kind of want to hug everyone and hope it’ll turn out better for them.
It’s also sad to rewatch the miniseries and realize this is really the pinnacle of Doral, model number Five. He has a few good moments later in the series, but I think it’s kind of a pity that of all the Cylons, he gets the least development of all, turning into Cavil’s toady and having very little apparent will of his own. However, I notice he still has his obsession with teal jackets which tickles me, mostly because of the joke in The Plan, when he seems to seriously think no one will recognize him because he changed the color of his jacket. Poor Doral.
Two other mini characters I wish had more presence later are the Captain Kelly and the Captain of Colonial One. We know what happens to Kelly, but he disappears for long stretches and must have had some sort of breakdown during New Caprica since he was passed over as XO on Galactica during New Caprica and then went abruptly insane trying to blow up Baltar. And the Captain of Colonial One impresses me with his reasonableness, cool head, and willingness to listen to Roslin. I kind of ‘ship him and Roslin, now, having watched this, and I would’ve liked to see him again.
One thing that strikes me now is how much of a Big Deal the jump to Ragnar is. In the series itself, hyperjumps are pretty ordinary; they have the occasional propensity to go wrong (Racetrack), but generally they are treated as usual business. But here in the miniseries there is actual applause in CIC when they complete the jump. It’s so cute.
On Ragnar, it’s interesting to try to pinpoint exactly when Bill starts getting suspicious that Leoben is a Cylon. I think he’s generally suspicious when Leoben has no obvious ship that brought him there (he claims it’s on the other side of the station, but I think Bill doesn’t believe he’s alone). That suspicion gets a bit allayed when he hears Leo’s a supposed arms dealer — but then he purports not to know about the war, which has to be fishy for an arms dealer not to have word outside, even if they’re on the edge of the system and out of easy contact. Then Leo’s sick, and it’s weird, since apparently this area is fine for humans. But then Leo has to go and blow it talking about the attacks being retribution, which I’m pretty sure is when Bill twigged to it completely, especially when we add in the experiments he saw in Razor as a young man. But it does make me wonder how ANY Leoben worked undercover in the Colonies without blowing his cover in under ten minutes.
There are many times in the miniseries (and I’m sure there’ll be many more) when off-hand references to Cylons will be funny, especially at Tigh and Tyrol’s expense, but so far my favorite has to be when Bill is going on about how Earth is going to be their new home and “the cylons will never find them.” THAT IS THE BEST OF ALL IRONIC MOMENTS. Count the ways that statement turns out to be so entirely wrong: (a) it’s a Cylon world, so even if none of the rest of it happened the people there would still be at least descended from Cylons, though more human, when the Fleet got there, (b) the Cylons came from there, (c) the present-day Cylons know where it is (or at least Cavil certainly does even if everyone else has forgotten), and (d) your ship is riddled with spies, Bill, even not counting the Five, so the Cylons are definitely along for the ride.
Brief Thoughts:
- I love this long tracking shot at the beginning, especially the part going through the CIC. It may be our best look at the set the whole show — they certainly wanted to get their money’s worth out of showing it off.
- Neither of those boys in the picture the deck gang give to Adama look like they’d grow up to be Jamie Bamber. Sorry, props department.
- The first scene with Lee and Bill is even more uncomfortable than I remembered. I still want to smack Lee, though. I have very little patience with his Daddy Issues. He’s a fine commander and he works well with Laura, but the surly behavior he exhibits at Chief put him at odds with me from the start.
- Saul burning a photo of someone who vaguely looks like Ellen, but it is not Kate Vernon.
- The part with Baltar accusing Doral I still find very iffy though. Did Gaius really just get lucky? He was looking for a scapegoat, not really an actual Cylon. Did he do real tests and find out or was that a lie? Did Head-Six help him?
- Finally, that last reveal with the Eight. Even knowing it’s coming, I still love it to little bitty pieces. Fabulous ending to see that yes, Doral really is a Cylon, but surprise! So is Boomer. I’m a bit sad that we never hear ‘by your command” again, but still. AWESOME.
Next Thursday, join me as I look at one of the most perfect hours of television ever: “33” plus “Water” and “Bastille Day.”
Photo Credit: NBCU
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Clacked by Liz Tamura
on Jun 15, 2012 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
We all agree that miniseries hair is the worst, right? Kara’s looks as if she cut it herself with a weedwhacker, and most everyone else’s is not much better. They all seem much younger, though. Especially Chief and Cally. I just want to smush them together and hope that maybe, somehow, it will turn out better for both of them this time. Well, no, that’s a lie; I kind of want to hug everyone and hope it’ll turn out better for them.
