So I'm finally watching nuBSG

Second time around ...

The Kobol arc. So damn good.

Adama and Roslin: The first time, their power struggle didn't make sense to me. The second time, I get it. He thinks she's lost it. He still doesn't actually believe in Earth, and from his point of view, her delusions have led her to compromise his ability to keep what's left of the human race alive. Not only that, she's done it in a way that jeopardizes his ability to rescue several of his people, and used his surrogate daughter in the process.

Tigh and Crashdown: It didn't occur to me until the second viewing how parallel their stories are in this arc. Two competent, well-meaning people who get thrown into a situation they aren't prepared for ... and completely fail to rise to the occasion. As people sometimes do.

Tyrol: Really gets his chance to shine, especially in "Fragged." The speech he gives Baltar, where we know he voiced the same misgivings to Crashdown in private, but backs him up in front of the others because it's his job. Telling Seelix to let him be the one to give Socinus the lethal dose of morpha, because Socinus is his man and it's his responsibility (even more poignant when you see the deleted scene where Tyrol gets Socinus out of the brig where he's been doing time for lying to cover up for Tyrol and Boomer).

Cally: Her "I just joined to pay for dental school" is a reminder, at just the right time, of how unprepared most of the characters are for what they're doing. It helps set up both Crashdown's failure as a leader and Cally's own BSOD moment at the end. Her going Jack Ruby on Boomer is a powerful moment too. This arc is where her feelings for Tyrol start to be a little more noticeable.

Baltar: Kinda fun to see him have an action moment. (He may be the best example of how much better the reimagined series is at characterization than the original. Unlike the original, who was just a straight-up power-hungry black-hat villain, this Baltar is a person with a more-or-less normal sense of human morality, who just happens to also be a raging narcissist.)

Baltar, Tyrol and the lie: After my first watchthrough, I thought Tyrol was the one who originally decided to lie about what happened to Crashdown, probably more out of respect for Crashdown's memory than anything else. Realizing that it was actually Baltar changes the moment a little bit. Of course Baltar's main motive is to save his own neck, but it then become ambiguous whether Tyrol is just going along because he doesn't want anyone to know how badly Crashdown imploded, or whether he's developing a little bit of fondness for Baltar because he saved Cally.

Helo: We've really never seen him interact with anyone other than Boomer and Caprica Sharon, so seeing him play off of Starbuck and realizing that they have a prior friendship is fun.

Dualla: We start to get a feeling of her importance on the ship. She blends into the background much of the time, but you get the feeling that she, more than anyone else, knows where all the bodies are buried ...

Also:

Adama and Tigh remind me a lot of this on-screen pair.

I'm at the point in "The Farm" where Roslin hides out on the prison ship and the prisoners (I'm guessing mostly Sagittarons?) kneel before her and Elosha tells her to give them her blessing. It would be interesting to really dig into a compare-and-contrast between Roslin and Sisko, and how they deal with religious roles being assigned to them that they never wanted.

Roslin seems to accept it a little more easily. Maybe it's because even if she wasn't a believer, it still is the religion of her native culture whereas Sisko felt like a complete impostor, or maybe it's because Sisko was never faced with a "take on this role or your entire species may cease to exist" situation.

I wonder why Ronald D. Moore pronounces Starbuck's given name "KAH-ruh" when everybody on screen says "KARE-uh" ...

This scene honestly feels a little forced to me.

I understand why they wrote it. Somebody needed to give Adama the final push toward changing his mind, simply because deliberations entirely within his own mind wouldn't work on TV. It couldn't be Tigh because Tigh is too loyal (and anyway, his instinct was even more hardline than Adama's). And we did get plenty of hints throughout the arc that Dualla has good relationships that reach every corner of Galactica.

But there's never really been an indication that she's somebody Adama would use as a sounding board. It sort of feels like the writers went "Okay, we need somebody to nudge him along ... but all his usual confidants are off the ship, except for Tigh and that doesn't make any sense ... shit, better have Dee do it."

See, I liked it just because it came completely out of left field. Bill didn't have many confidantes left at this point, he knew he'd crossed way too many lines and needed that push that probably only could have come from Dee. Great scene too, btw. You can tell how absolutely intimidated she is by him but she overcomes that and just lays it on the line anyway.

Kandyse McClure is gorgeous. Very underrated beauty.

What has she been in lately?

One of my favorite lines from the Kobol arc is in the deleted scenes.

Starbuck, catching up to Adama and Lee in the middle of a heartfelt talk: "Is this the self-help group for dysfunctional families and insubordinate officers?" (off their looks.) "Oh, so we're not to the point where we're laughing about it yet?"

based on Deadlock (vg), Colonial Fleet was pretty much a UN peace keeping style organization, while the colonies themselves were essentially autonomous states.

gods, yeah... and just keeps getting hotter.

Looks like mostly guest shots, but keeping busy.

I found the ColonialFleets.com forums. They haven't been pruned since the remake was announced.

The fanboy meltdowns are great reading.

I'd completely forgotten that place existed. They were pretty ridiculous at the time but re-reading it now it's just pathetic.

BSG Season 4 Episode 11.

I'm also watching the original series, and I just got to the episode where Starbuck crashlands on a planet and discovers an army of children.

Where the oldest girl develops a crush on him.

And her name is Miri.

Looks like Star Wars isn't the only franchise whose creators had grounds for a lawsuit ...

I started a rewatch of this over the weekend. I attempted it several years ago, but moved on to something else after seeing the miniseries again.

I watched it all first-run and then used to buy the DVDs as they were released, but upgraded to Blu-ray several years ago and this rewatch is reminding me of how shitty a transfer I must've got. Some of the low-light scenes look terrible. Really grainy. Plus the interface is terrible.

This go-around I'm also listening to the commentaries again for the first time in years.

I didn't care for the way the show ended, but the first couple of seasons are some damn good television. "33" is one of my favorite episodes of any show, regardless of genre.

I just found the Battlestar Galacticast podcast, but I don't think I can tackle it until I get through The West Wing Weekly...

BTW if you're interested I came across a link to the series bible that Moore wrote for the production:

http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Battlestar_Galactica/Battlestar_Galactica_Series_Bible.pdf

Update: the crappy transfer/graininess really only applies to the miniseries. I haven't noticed it much, if at all, in either S1 or S2 (I started S3 last night) which makes sense since the miniseries was shot on film but the rest was all digital.

First rewatch and I'm up to "Scar," and god, I love Kat.

Starbuck is a great character, but she's also full of shit sometimes, and when she goes full asshole, she needs somebody to throw it back in her face. And, sure, Lee is willing to do that. But when it's her old friend, who outranks her and is the commander's son, it just doesn't have much punch. Kat got plucked out of nowhere and she's Starbuck's subordinate, and she's still completely unafraid to get in Starbuck's face when she needs to.

There’s one man who outranks Lee that can call out Starbuck’s bullshit,“what do you hear?”

I didn't mind the idea of Kat, but I didn't care for the actress who played her. Too whiny/shrill.

I watched "The Passage" last night.

On Cozi?

Blu-ray.

I really did not like the Kara Thrace version of Starbuck. Then I saw Katie Sackhoff in other things where she failed to piss me off, and I began to suspect Ron Moore was just off camera with a cattle prod, going "More dumb! More obnoxious! MOAR!!"

I half agree. Starbuck was still endearing at times. I feel like it really depended on who was writing the episode.

I really liked nuBSG when it was on.

The longer it's been since it ended, the less I like it. It hasn't aged well with me. Sure, I still like looking up YouTube clips of the Battle of Caprica and stuff like that, but the series as a whole? Stupid premise, stupid plot, badly planned, badly executed.

Well, yes ... but it's not outranking Lee that's relevant; it's BEING outranked by Starbuck and still being willing to call her out.

I hadn't seen "Unfinished Business" in many years and had forgotten about the best part of it (and some of the best scenes in the whole series). Adama and Roslin getting high.

Watched "The Ties That Bind" last night and knowing about Nicki Clyne's involvement in that freaky NXIVM cult made Cally's death even more satisfying this go-around.

She was even more annoying than Billy.

Gaeta’s death hit me pretty hard the first time around.