The Woman King (314)

[dec55]

It was a lovely episode. The story itself, and the culture of the Saggitarons were not the main points, they were simply a background against which to elaborate upon the characters and provide a little insight and reminder of the situation in the fleet. Fictional settings need texture to make them believable, and this accomplished that. Of course, as Ron said in the podcast, if they were somehow able to introduce an extremely interesting culture unlike anything we'd seen before and tie the doctor's motivations into that, the episode would be elevated to "incredible". I imagine Ron could do so were it not for schedule and air time restrictions.

As it is, I got a lot of valuable insight into Helo's situation, various character dynamics, the characters themselves, and several other situations on Galactica. The relatively simple plot made all that possible, and pulled it off quite well. You're not really supposed to be on the edge of your seat wondering where the story will go, you should be on that edge in anticipation of seeing interesting character interactions. After all, if you watch this show regularly (and I'm sure you all do) you should be invested in these people. They are what makes this kind of episode good.

I apologize, but I have to laugh at those who complain, "ZOgm! NAWT ENUG SPAEC BATTELZ!" Sorry, you guys are watching the wrong show.

Sharon took Hera to the civilian doctor because of Cottle's involvement in the faked death of her child. That sort of thing tends to leave a bad taste in one's mouth. Not sure why Dee went there. I guess that, not knowing of any prejudice against the Saggitarons, they allocated what limited supply they had to the area they figured would need it the most. It seems reasonable enough to me.

I did not find Tigh, Cottle, and Adama even slightly out of character. Helo was making vastly unsupported and extreme claims against a man they all knew and trusted. What reason would they have not to react the way they did? You don't string up one of the last few doctors left in the universe because a heavily disgraced man (I love chu, Helo! ) with a lot to prove makes wildly harsh accusations with no support. When Helo finally gathered substantial evidence and gave it to Dr.Cottle, he investigated in private and discovered the truth. Helo merely discovered inconsistancies earlier than the others because he was immersed in the situation and environment.

So, to reiterate - lovely episode. Given that our "civilian episode" last year was Black Market, I especially do not see any reason to complain here.

This eppy rocked.......I am gonna watch it again!!!!!

I totally agree that this insight into Colonial culture only make this show much more interesting
and multidimensional......Even when fleeing the Cylon tyrrany....Human imperfections as well as
nobility still struggle......amongst humans themselves.....

[Skydiver]

another bit that was odd, and i think it goes to characters being out of character, last year roslyn was making a law that abortions were illegal and if anyone conceived they HAD to have the child, that the survival of the 'human' race depended upon it. They had to start getting more births than deaths.

then comes teh year on the planet and we know that hundreds/thousands die under the cylons

so i woudl expect her to be most concerned about a plague that was killing people by the boat load. Lose too many and you lose the genetic viability to have a healthy society.

so why did roslyn not care about the sagittarans dying? is she that bigoted? or did ron moore and the guys just forget about this whole 'repopulate the human race' aspect?

or has that aspect been set aside since they are low on supplies and repopulating the human race has to wait until after they're on a planet?

[metabog]

Missed the episode but just from reading the synopsis the plot sounded a bit cheesy.

[ShadowMaat]

Dunno about cheesy, but some people certainly found it dull. Cheesy would have meant a heavier focus on the Queasy Quadrangle.

[WGAnubis]

I dont think it could have possibly have been hundreds of thousands because that board that she keeps the number of humans on never reached the 150,000 mark. Its likely that hundreds if not a thousand or so died.

I think its also possible that the whole must give birth if you conceve thing might have scared some people away from having sex all togeather as well. From what it looks like, thus far there are only 2 doctors in the entire fleet, so chances are if someone tried to abort, Roslin would know.

[ShadowMaat]

Hey, if Dr. Death is a civvie doctor, how do Tigh, Adama and the rest know him so well to trust him implicitly over one of their own?

[STLbullet]

Hmm....it seems my post was made so early that it got overlooked. (sorry to repost this if you read it, but ever since I thought of it, its been on my mind)

Does anyone else think that Baltar's situation is ironically similar Sadaam Hussein? I mean its no secret that the New Caprica arc was a parallel for the war on terror...and now there's this whole new trial? I wonder if they'll shave Baltar to make him look like he used to or if he'll still have his beard....much like how Sadaam had a beard.

[Luso]

I stopped watching Galactica and I only come here to know if my favourite series is getting on the right track. It seems that it is not.
And it wont be in the near future.

Too much intellectualizing and too emotional drama pretending to give a sense of "realism", of "humanity". No. There seems to be a commercial "script writing architecture" trying to capture the female audience to sci-fi. Nothing more.
If they wanted to be real, the "issues" would be a lot more simpler than this, a lot more violent, and "genocide talking" would not even be considered. This is silly and realism is not reached because the script is not credible since the writer seems to have never confronted a real enemy or been given enough reasons to know hate. If the script-writer does not know hate, he cannot write a script about war.
That Talk about Helo...
Hell, if realism was to be sought, you shure would watch genocide. And if not, you would see Helo facing a firing squad. But no: you have to make all values "relative". That makes me wonder: is the script-writer french?? A Derrida fan, perhaps?
While other sci-fi are shallow, with the emotional aspects forgotten, Gallactica, while trying to innovate (and it did in the first seasons), it went overboard and screwed it up by being too damn emotional.
I don´t know but the way Gallactica´s script is going on I do not believe that the wrongs can be straightened up, no wthat the "credibility Rubicon" has been crossed with silly - and shallow - mysticism.
I hate to see my favourite (only?) sci-fi movie/series being destroyed by stupid feminine script-writing!
I grew up with the old Galactica, you know...

[Vienna]

Hey, if Dr. Death is a civvie doctor, how do Tigh, Adama and the rest know him so well to trust him implicitly over one of their own?

A good observation Maat.

On that note, why does Dualla have a intense dislike for Doc Cottle?

[Oreo]

another bit that was odd, and i think it goes to characters being out of character, last year roslyn was making a law that abortions were illegal and if anyone conceived they HAD to have the child, that the survival of the 'human' race depended upon it. They had to start getting more births than deaths.

then comes teh year on the planet and we know that hundreds OR thousands die under the cylons

so i woudl expect her to be most concerned about a plague that was killing people by the boat load. Lose too many and you lose the genetic viability to have a healthy society.

so why did roslyn not care about the sagittarans dying? is she that bigoted? or did ron moore and the guys just forget about this whole 'repopulate the human race' aspect?

or has that aspect been set aside since they are low on supplies and repopulating the human race has to wait until after they're on a planet?

Taht's another good point, I think they just overlooked a lot this week to make a bad episode. Good try with the storyline, but in the end just a bad result.

[Agent_Dark]

Yes, but he killed them before they were in range of the resurrection ship, so they didn't carry the virus back to the cylons; that was the whole issue.

Was there an extended scene online, or was that it? Because it seemed a little abrupt. Adama says, "Do you really want to have this conversation now?" and Helo says he does... then apparently salutes and leaves? Not much of a conversation.

Nah, there was an extended scene basically Adama asks Helo if he really want's to have this conversation, and then tells him that if he does he'd have to arrest Helo, throw him in the brig, charge him with treason and convene a court martial. Helo obviously then has to say that 'no, he doesn't want to have the conversation', is dismissed, salutes and walks away.

[lethalfang]

This episode is quite different from other episodes of this Season, that this episode has a clear right-and-wrong/black-and-white side.

[BubblingOverWithIdeas]

This episode is quite different from other episodes of this Season, that this episode has a clear right-and-wrong/black-and-white side.

Those do happen, you know. But I don't see this episode as very black and white at all.

[trakal]

A good observation Maat.

On that note, why does Dualla have a intense dislike for Doc Cottle?

During the Bar scene, you hear Dee say the following about Cottle,

"Near-sighted *******, might as well be using a spike instead of a needle".

She mustn't like Cottle's bed manner and I can't blame her giving that he smokes around patients.

[kharn the betrayer]

iv been wondering this for a little while...

how could Hera get sick when she has that magicle cylon baby blood that can cure cancer?

maybe its just me but I find it odd her blood can cure cancer and that cylon sickness yet it cant cure what ever the sagitarans had