Battlestar Galactica: Season 1-03: Bastille Day : by ernestborg9

Another good episode, if a little unwound in places, and a little contrived towards the end.

Certainly, this is Lee Adama's episode through and through, and the kid is finding his feet: he stands by those principles he signed-up to in joining the military, he faces off against his father and risks earning Roslin's scorn, and he handles himself with Zarek admirably well.

For those anticipating any John McClane-like dealing with the hostage situation on the Astral Queen: you're in for a disappointment. This is purely an Adama / Zarek affair. The dialogue between the two only very slightly veers towards heavy-handedness (Lee trying to convince Zarek he understands him, prior to the goal break) - but for the majority of the episode is spot on the line and excellently handled by both Bamber and Hatch.

Indeed, alongside Jamie Bamber, this is very much Richard Hatch's episode. He turns in a fine performance as Zarek and one can instantly understand why he has been invited back. It would be interesting to put Hatch's Zarek face-to-face against Olmos' Adama; both hold a tremendous amount of power when on-screen.

But it is Bamber from the core cast who must take the honours here. Apollo not only grows dimensionally as a character as the episode progresses, he also matures as a man finally and truly stepping out of his father's long shadow.

Indeed, it is interesting how the imagery abounds in this episode: how the old cliché that "one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist" is subtlety reviewed against the more traditional lines of argument, as the byplay between Zarek and Lee Adama is played out behind the deliberate verbalising of the cliché through Duella and Billy; how the need for children to "escape" the confines of there parents is voiced by the Cylons, but given form in Lee Adama's ability to stand aside from his father, as an officer and a man of moral standing in his own right.

Dynamics are strong elsewhere in the episode as well - most obviously between Baltar and, respectively, Six and Adama.

The former dynamic again takes a new twist as this is the first time we see her "angry" with Baltar and able to go beyond gentle manipulation of his thoughts and move into outright domination of his conscious thinking.

Again, nothing in the episode either confirms or denies her as being a product of his imagination or some echo of her implanted in his mind; rather, her actions remain deeply ambiguous.

On the one hand, she may well want him to "develop" the Cylon detector in the knowledge it will be flawed, and thus any Cylon agents will remain undetected: something she could not guarantee if the device was developed by someone else on the Galactica. But this idea presupposes "she" is an individual entity of some form in his head.

Thus, it is equally fair to say that as a product of his own psychosis, she might want Baltar to "develop" the detector for the same reason - it will be flawed, and thus reduce the risk of him giving himself away out of fear he may have an implant or something in him a genuine detector might find.

Again, her prodding him to request a nuke could suggest a nefarious plan is being hatched on her part; but on the other, his final reaction and chain of thought, when she leaves him to figure out the rest for himself could equally be explained as his own tortured mind finding the means to build a genuine Cylon detector.

All I can say with certainty at this point is that were I a member of the Galactica's crew, I would not particularly welcome being stood in front of a lump of plutonium for any length of time!

Whatever the truth behind "Six" as we see her with Baltar, it is clear the writers have more than one way in which they can move before they opt to reveal the truth to us. Certainly, full marks go to Helfer and Callas for continuing what has been in many ways the most fascinating set of interactions in the series to date.

Full marks too, to Callas for the way he can evoke both frustration and pity in equal measure at more-or-less the same time. In his confrontation with Adama, Baltar manages to come across as simultaneously weak, intelligent, child-like and borne of wisdom beyond his years. Genius personified? Perhaps - but that is precisely what Baltar is supposed to be; albeit flawed, and Callas combines all of it so powerfully on screen.

As with previous episode, "Bastille Day" continues to touch on pieces from the mini and earlier episodes. Despite all that is packed into this one, we still find three minutes in which the Boomer / detonator plot is moved forward, and we get the confirmation that the Boomer / Tyrol relationship is well-known throughout the ship. At the same time, Tigh's alcoholism is touched upon; although as he only has 5 fingers of booze left, he's not going to be going on any great bender - but it'll be interesting to see what happens when his morning crutch is permanently removed. And the Thrace / Tigh conflict renews itself - this time with more subtlety than in the mini series.

We also gain insight into the Cylons - and of Six - through the scenes on Caprica, and it would appear that Six incarnate shares much of the same feelings towards humanity as the "Six" in Baltar's head. Is this a tacit confirmation that Baltar's "Six" is more than just his own mind playing tricks? Possibly, but I'm not putting money on it at this point.

Gripes? Sure.

The resolution to the hostage situation on the Astral Queen, using Cally and a prisoner came across as contrived, and something that has been done often enough one way or another in the past to be considered trite. One feels the writers took an easy exit route with this one.

And a potential gripe: Guys, what the hell were you thinking of in showing Helo and Valerii in a city like that? We've been lead to believe that the 12 colonies have had the blue pants blown out of them, and yet here we see a completely pristine city. Not a scratch. Not a single broken window. No debris. The whole place could have been built yesterday, it looked so new. Not a single sign of fires, of any explosions (or impact of shockwaves thereof) or anything save half-a-dozen rats (which looked like white mice, as the image was somewhat over-exposed)...

... And then there is Helo, walking in CYLON-OCCUPIED CAPRICA (as the caption immediately before informs us) and bellowing for help at the top of his voice!!

It’s almost like he’s yelling, "Yo! ANYONE THERE?! NO, DON'T MEAN YOU, MR. CYLON, OR YOU, OR YOU, OR YOU. I MEAN ANYONE HUMAN?" Get the picture?

Now please note I said "potential gripe". This entire scene: Helo bellowing despite the risk of Cylons, the undamaged, pristine city, the over-exposed nature of the film, even the angle from which Doral and Six observe Helo and Valerii - all of it seems to be set-up deliberately; that nothing is actually what it seems. So, either we have a boo-boo of epic proportions - or there is something very subtle going on here.

My personal thoughts at this time is that, while we are indeed on Cylon-occupied Caprica when seeing Karl C. Agathon – we might actually be INSIDE HIS HEAD; that he has in fact been captured by the Cylons, and everything we're witnessing with him is an illusion as the Cylons probe his mind - and Six and Doral are overseeing the "interrogation", which has a Cylon Valerii hooked-up with Helo to help guide him.

To what purpose? I haven't the foggiest. I'm not even convinced I'm right; but I'm going to stick with this theory until something better turns up. Or doesn't.

Things we learn in this episode:

- The Astral Queen is actually a prison ship

- She is in fact carrying 1500 prisoners, and not 500 as her Captain reported in the mini (with math like that, is he related to Billy?)

- "Bastille Day" follows-on from "Water" but occurs some 4 days later

- Starbuck is a crack shot with a rifle

- The Colonials are going to be facing a fuel shortage at some point

- Raptors are designed for marine assault and include an extendable docking skirt in their underside that can be pressurised (and possibly used in rescue operations?)

- Galactica has a small contingent of marines onboard - perhaps around the 15 mark

- Galactica has five "remaining" nuclear warheads. Would be interesting to know their delivery mechanism

- The “Lords or Kobol” are the gods of Greek mythology.

Rating: 4 out of 5. (If this keeps up, I many have to raise the bar on the scores!)

      back to episodes