Last night was the premiere of Battlestar Galactica's Razor TV movie, which shed more light on the plight of the Pegasus and Admiral Cain before they meet up with Galactica as well as shedding some light on the history of the Cylons, the first Cylon War, and giving a bit of a teaser for the upcoming season as well (which is now scheduled for frigging March). I'll be posting my spoiler-rific review and other thoughts behind the cut, so as not to inadvertently blow it for anyone that hasn't seen it yet.
Note: I accidentally forgot to post this, so it's a bit later than I expected. Oops!
Note: I accidentally forgot to post this, so it's a bit later than I expected. Oops!
Well, overall, I thought the movie was good, and it definitely whet my appetite for more BSG; unfortunately, it also blew a lot of chances it had to make the characters involved a lot deeper and more interesting. This was particularly disappointing for me because I think Admiral Cain did not really get a fair shake in the few episodes of the series she was in during season two. I admit that I like Michelle Forbes as an actress, and that colors my perception somewhat, but I also have considerable empathy for characters that have been hardened by their circumstances and sacrificed they own humanity for the sake of the greater good.
Unfortunately, what happened last night is that they had Cain go from a hard-nosed CO to complete bugfuck insane in the space of about five minutes. It was really such a waste, and it could have been done so much better, and in a way that advanced the story and made her less of a crazy, mustache-twirlingly evil villain. Part of the reason for this movie, I thought, was to humanize her, and show that what happened to her could have happened to the Galactica if things had been slightly different (indeed, Adama's exchange with Apollo at the end of the movie seemed to indicate that that was the case). However, as far as I can tell, the movie really failed to do that. She made a horrible tactical error (after being warned about it by her XO, who she shoots for his mild insubordination), and then tried to fix it by metaphorically raping civilians to keep the Pegasus afloat and literally raping her former lover in order to get revenge for her betrayal. It was hard for me to swallow that someone who was supposedly to be so coldly rational and an excellent commander (one doesn't make flag rank as young as she seems to have without being exceptional in some way, at least) would just completely flip out with no middle ground.
Speaking of her former lover, I didn't really care about the fact that Cain was a lesbian (if that distinction exists in the BSG universe), but the weird "It's been revealed: Admiral Cain and Gina Navarre were lovers! Brought to you by Quiznos!" stuff that was thrown in there was annoying as all get out. Yes, I know it's been revealed, you morons. How do I know? Because I am watching the fucking movie, that's how! No idea what the point of that crap was. On the whole lesbian issue, I suspect the GLAAD ad after the movie was to offset the fact that the lesbian couple in the movie was composed of a robot bent on destroying humanity....and a Cylon. (Yes, I know you saw that coming.) Now, I'm not one of those people that thinks there needs to be a homosexual, or a transsexual, or an Asian, or a black guy in every movie and TV show out there, but you know, it would be nice to see that when there is a lesbian in a movie or a TV show, she isn't the person that makes everyone go "oh, she's strong and authoritative. She must be a dyke." Making her not a crazy fascist monster would be nice too.
If I had been writing this movie, I would have made sure to show Cain's tactical genius, but I think I would have had Gina push her to be more and more brash, until she got overconfident, precipitating the disaster that they jumped to right away. I would have had the XO try to actually mutiny (and not just try to suggest that they cut their losses). I would have Cain pillage the civilian fleet to repair the Pegasus, and maybe execute people who were trying to monkeywrench the process -- but gunning down families and stuff like that is a little over the top. For a show that made sure that it avoided the "Adama GOOD! Civilian government BAD!" trap of the original series, it seems really bizarre that Ron Moore turned Cain into a crazy fascist at the drop of a hat like that. He missed out on an opportunity to tell us lots of things about Cain and the Pegasus, and about how the presence of Roslin changed what happened on the Galactica, by making it seem like Cain was damned from very beginning. Maybe they felt rushed for time -- but if that's the case, I think it would have been better for Razor to be a two part miniseries, like the original kickstart of the new BSG, than to put out something that really just seemed to fall far short of what it could have been.
That said, there was a lot of really great parts -- the initial attack on the shipyard, the space battles, the parts where Cain was not crazy with a capital C, and the interaction between Apollo and Adama. I thought the actress playing Apollo's XO did a good job with her part, and the scene where she orders a close in defensive barrage to save Pegasus when Starbuck is coming in for a landing was good -- if only because she treated Starbuck as if she was any other pilot and put the safety of the ship first. I'm a little starved for good SF TV, so a little taste of BSG now was good to have. Still, it doesn't come close to the original miniseries or the best episodes of the series so far; it didn't have enough character study to be a good inwardly-focused piece, and the action parts weren't knock-your-socks-off awesome like Galactica plummeting through the atmosphere in "Exodus."
Unfortunately, what happened last night is that they had Cain go from a hard-nosed CO to complete bugfuck insane in the space of about five minutes. It was really such a waste, and it could have been done so much better, and in a way that advanced the story and made her less of a crazy, mustache-twirlingly evil villain. Part of the reason for this movie, I thought, was to humanize her, and show that what happened to her could have happened to the Galactica if things had been slightly different (indeed, Adama's exchange with Apollo at the end of the movie seemed to indicate that that was the case). However, as far as I can tell, the movie really failed to do that. She made a horrible tactical error (after being warned about it by her XO, who she shoots for his mild insubordination), and then tried to fix it by metaphorically raping civilians to keep the Pegasus afloat and literally raping her former lover in order to get revenge for her betrayal. It was hard for me to swallow that someone who was supposedly to be so coldly rational and an excellent commander (one doesn't make flag rank as young as she seems to have without being exceptional in some way, at least) would just completely flip out with no middle ground.
Speaking of her former lover, I didn't really care about the fact that Cain was a lesbian (if that distinction exists in the BSG universe), but the weird "It's been revealed: Admiral Cain and Gina Navarre were lovers! Brought to you by Quiznos!" stuff that was thrown in there was annoying as all get out. Yes, I know it's been revealed, you morons. How do I know? Because I am watching the fucking movie, that's how! No idea what the point of that crap was. On the whole lesbian issue, I suspect the GLAAD ad after the movie was to offset the fact that the lesbian couple in the movie was composed of a robot bent on destroying humanity....and a Cylon. (Yes, I know you saw that coming.) Now, I'm not one of those people that thinks there needs to be a homosexual, or a transsexual, or an Asian, or a black guy in every movie and TV show out there, but you know, it would be nice to see that when there is a lesbian in a movie or a TV show, she isn't the person that makes everyone go "oh, she's strong and authoritative. She must be a dyke." Making her not a crazy fascist monster would be nice too.
If I had been writing this movie, I would have made sure to show Cain's tactical genius, but I think I would have had Gina push her to be more and more brash, until she got overconfident, precipitating the disaster that they jumped to right away. I would have had the XO try to actually mutiny (and not just try to suggest that they cut their losses). I would have Cain pillage the civilian fleet to repair the Pegasus, and maybe execute people who were trying to monkeywrench the process -- but gunning down families and stuff like that is a little over the top. For a show that made sure that it avoided the "Adama GOOD! Civilian government BAD!" trap of the original series, it seems really bizarre that Ron Moore turned Cain into a crazy fascist at the drop of a hat like that. He missed out on an opportunity to tell us lots of things about Cain and the Pegasus, and about how the presence of Roslin changed what happened on the Galactica, by making it seem like Cain was damned from very beginning. Maybe they felt rushed for time -- but if that's the case, I think it would have been better for Razor to be a two part miniseries, like the original kickstart of the new BSG, than to put out something that really just seemed to fall far short of what it could have been.
That said, there was a lot of really great parts -- the initial attack on the shipyard, the space battles, the parts where Cain was not crazy with a capital C, and the interaction between Apollo and Adama. I thought the actress playing Apollo's XO did a good job with her part, and the scene where she orders a close in defensive barrage to save Pegasus when Starbuck is coming in for a landing was good -- if only because she treated Starbuck as if she was any other pilot and put the safety of the ship first. I'm a little starved for good SF TV, so a little taste of BSG now was good to have. Still, it doesn't come close to the original miniseries or the best episodes of the series so far; it didn't have enough character study to be a good inwardly-focused piece, and the action parts weren't knock-your-socks-off awesome like Galactica plummeting through the atmosphere in "Exodus."
Leave a comment