Valley of Darkness (202)

[Easter Lily]

Thank you Ronald... Wow...
Wonder who the boy becoming a man is?
Zak, maybe?

[Scoobing]

The music playing in Starbuck's apartment was "Metamorphosis One" by Phillip Glass. Remember that when producers and directors use a piece of music already composed there is a reason for their choice. Could the title be significant?

Metamorphosis = changing

So are we seeing a 'changing' in the characters, Starbuck adapting to the prospect of life on Caprica for a while, and adapting to Helo's new loyalties. Baltar changing with his own agenda to protect his 'baby'. I'm sure there are other examples of changing in the characters in this ep.

Wherever already composed music is used, I always try and find the name or context of it. 99% of the time it has some relevance to what is going on.

[Sci-Fi]

From TV Guide:

"Valley of Darkness"

Now here's a situation I can identify with: the Cylon virus knocking out the main and auxiliary power on board, not unlike the many times that I blew a fuse with my AC while living in New York. Not that we had any auxiliary anything, you understand. We just had flashlights and basement fuse boxes that hung from their own wires. Enough about me, though. Yet another testament to how well done this show is the way they manage to make CGI Cylon warriors terrifying. You see exactly what it's like to run into one in a dark hallway, and it ain't pretty. And I didn't realize how freakin' big they were. Down on Caprica, Starbuck's laying into Helo. "Your girlfriend's from a lovely family," she says of Cylon Boomer. "Good people. Great values." Oh, c'mon. She's gonna give the guy crap when she already knows he's been on the run for months, one of only two humans (as far as he knew) on the entire planet? Well, yeah — apparently she is. Meanwhile, Baltar can't figure out why Adama, in a dream, would want to drown Baltar and Number Six's baby. Just a guess here, Doc, but I'm thinking it has something to do with your kid serving the purposes of the guys who nearly wiped out all of human civilization. Crazy talk, I know.

But who figured Starbuck for a painter, and not a bad one at that? Nice scene where she listens to the recording of her father playing classical piano, too. "Everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had," she says. "I'm fighting 'cause I don't know how to do anything else." Like I said, nice; just as the scene on Kobol, where Chief Tyrol has to deliver the fatal shot to the dying Socinus to make his death quick is painful to see. Great job cranking up the tension, too, when the last Cylon Centurions go for the aft damage-control room as the underarmed Apollo and his guys try to stop them. "We did it! We got 'em all! They don't look so big now, do they?" one guy screams after they get lucky and destroy the robots. "They were big enough," Apollo says. Good point — all the dead people around him would likely agree. Once again, great episode. Maybe we can wait a little longer for Adama to wake up. It's been pretty interesting with him out of the picture like this (not that it wasn't good when he was up and about, mind you; I'm just saying — especially since it seems to keep Tigh away from that pain-in-the-ass wife of his). — MP

[Vorlon-1]

The Galactica. Big problems but they have the upper hand slightly, and are dealing with the boarding. The most intense, dark hallways, limited ammo and big scary robots leaving bodies on the floor everywhere.

Kobol. In trouble yes but not in any imminent danger. The planet is not cylon occupied but there are ground troops there. Still Very intense.

Caprica. Only two people on a planet that is occupied by the Cylons. Just killed one and the other stole thier only ride outta ther (more on that later).Yet the least intense scenes. Music playing and smoking a cigar getting to know one another again. Just being human.

3 different settings each more dire then the next yet so different in the moment. Truly amazing. Good film, amazing television.

[Liebestraume]

Ok, I give. About the poem on Kara's wall ...

Most of it is pretty obvious, but what does "Method sly" mean? How does it work with the rest of the poem?

Thanks to bad_ronald for the transciption.

[keshou]

It would have been so easy for Tigh and Lee to bury the hatchet and let the whole business over the president be bygones. At least, I would have expected that from some other series. The writers didn’t disappoint me, because instead of taking the easy way out, they were only civil to one another while their goals were temporarily aligned.

*nods* That was one of my very favorite scenes in an episode full of good scenes. The standoff at the end between Tigh and Lee. I love that they don't gloss over the events of the day and make everything "all right again". There's no trite writing on this show.

Consequences are everything on this show, and everything that happens in this episode is a consequence of poor command decisions in the premiere. It’s hard to think about that as the stakes get higher with every passing moment; quite literally, they brought the siege upon themselves.

You can trace the bad decisions all the way back to Kobol I & II. From Adama to Roslin to Starbuck on down. I do wonder how long these three separate story arcs will play out. I love watching all of them.

Events on Kobol seem more and more like a way to put the screws to Baltar and whatever allegiance he may retain to humanity. Those visions once again seem metaphorical, though it’s hard to tell with this series. Specific or otherwise, Baltar doesn’t just believe that a hybrid is necessary, but that humanity (embodied by the most threatening of humans) is the enemy of that necessary future. Step by step, Baltar is being conditioned into the perfect weapon against humanity.

Excellent, excellent points. I love the image of Baltar as the perfect weapon against humanity. It really didn't take Six much to get him to buy into the whole "hand of god" thing. But then they've known how easy he is to manipulate all along. Still - I wonder if there's another shoe to drop. I keep thinking there's something else we're going to find out about him that makes him important to the Cylons.

One thing that I didn’t quite get, from a story perspective, were the scenes on Caprica. They seemed out of place, though it was probably necessary to explain how Starbuck and Helo manage to get around in the following episodes. Was there a point to those scenes, though, beyond that plot element? It was some minor insight into Starbuck’s character, but at the moment, it doesn’t seem all that important in relation to the rest of the episode.

I think I recall hearing (in the podcast?) that this was extra footage they couldn't fit into the first episode so they put it in this one. I didn't find it that out of place. In fact the juxtaposition of seeing Starbuck and Helo relaxing in the "eye of the storm" was a nice counterbalance to the "storm" taking place on Galactica. And to the human tragedy taking place on Kobol as Tyrol lost his friend.

I loved reading your analysis. In fact I've loved reading EVERYONE's analysis on this episode. It's nice to have a small BSG oasis here on Gateworld to discuss the show. Because I'm sure not eager to join another fandom. Fandom is nuts, you know.

[keshou]

Ok, I give. About the poem on Kara's wall ...
Most of it is pretty obvious, but what does "Method sly" mean? How does it work with the rest of the poem?
Thanks to bad_ronald for the transciption.

I wonder if all the letters are right- that must have been hard to see.

Could it perhaps be "methodically"? Or "........lay" ? The rest of the poem is pretty straight forward so it's hard to believe they'd throw in "Method sly" just to confuse us.

And thanks bad_ronald. That's interesting. I like all the small touches they throw in on this show.

[Liebestraume]

It is indeed hard to make out. The part after "with every delicious" is relatively legible, because there is a close-up of Kara that shows the lower part of poem. But the begining part was hard to see.

I'm thinking perhaps it opens with Melancholy instead of Method(??)ly -- somehow it just fits the mood.

[bad_ronald]

Yes, it was extremely difficult to make out the upper portion; that is why I made sure to note (as best I could read it). It does look like two distinct words, but I agree that "methodically" is the best fit (I only saw one 'l' though). I don't think that it could be "melancholy", but I could be wrong...

Starbuck's Poem (revised)

Methodically
Smoking my
cigarette
with every breath
I breathe
out the day
with every delicious
sip
I drink away the night
stroking my hair to
the beat of his heart
watching a
Boy turn
into a
Man

Keshou, Liebestraume, and Easter Lily, it was no problem at all to post it .

[Liebestraume]

bad_ronald, you are right. It's Methosomething. I found a screenshot here.

[bad_ronald]

Thanks for the screenshot, Liebestraume. I also noticed that there should be an "I" before "breathe", and that there is a difficult to see word that precedes "the day". It ends in a 't' and could be "out"... though "with every breath I breathe out the day" is somewhat odd. The letter before the 't' could also be a 'c' (depending on whether it's the right side of a 'u' or not ). I'll make it "out" for now.

Well, from now on, I'll just update post #39 .

[voigtstr]

The music playing in Starbuck's apartment was "Metamorphosis One" by Phillip Glass. Remember that when producers and directors use a piece of music already composed there is a reason for their choice. Could the title be significant?

Metamorphosis = changing

So are we seeing a 'changing' in the characters, Starbuck adapting to the prospect of life on Caprica for a while, and adapting to Helo's new loyalties. Baltar changing with his own agenda to protect his 'baby'. I'm sure there are other examples of changing in the characters in this ep.

Wherever already composed music is used, I always try and find the name or context of it. 99% of the time it has some relevance to what is going on.

I'm haunted by the music from StarBuck's apartment.

If you want to listen to it again free head to http://www.philipglass.com/html/page...s-engine.html#
once the java loads drag the top slider to metamorphosis 1 and enjoy..
(one thing though.. the show's musician is a better pianist than the composer Philip Glass)

This is actually a very cool java applet. You can listen to practically all of Phillip Glass' catalog through this interface. (I had no idea he did the music for the Truman Show)

[cyke]

I would say that this is my favorite episode of BSG. I watched all of season 2.0 and the premiere and this one take the cake for being the best, not to say the others were bad by any means. But as far as action, suspense, drama, etc this was it. No light hearted moment here, i felt the pressure, the need, and suspense all through out the episode. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and how much do you love Lee after this episode. This guy has been arrested, father's shot, but he's calm and focused on the ship and destoys the cylons. This episode had everything which every had already mentioned so i wont say it.. but wow amazing.

[Matt G]

OK...another slow mover but a good one.

1. Cylon invasion = cool!

2. Didn't like the euthanasia scene, but then again I don't like euthanasia.

3. Balter's well and trult getting his head screwed.

4. Lee vs Tigh - 'the old man' has clearly told Lee all about his background.

[JamesM]

Maybe I was having an off day watching this, but I didn't think it was the best episode... I expected more from the Clyons for some reason.