Battlestar Galactica: The Farm

[dangermousie]

Verdict: Least favorite of the season so far.



Things I liked:

Tyrol and his confusion over whether he loved a machine.

Adama weeping over Boomer. Because he really is the paterfamilias of BSG and he does love them and he must hurt. I loved that he was able to feel compassion and sorrow for Boomer even though she was a toaster who shot him.

Roslin, figuring a way out and yet being uncomfortable as a Prophet at the same time. This woman continues to rock.

Lee's expression when he finds out Adama is back in charge (I love how Zarek keeps referring to him as Zeus. I like Zarek). All that potent cocktail of emotion: love, relief and something else. And his trying to do the denoucing of Adama speech and not being able to.

Caprica Boomer is back! And she has cool information. And she never went away but was tracking Kara and Helo. And she stole a major ship and talked about love and is now going back to Galactica even though she knows what kind of treatment she will get. And the way Helo reacts to her, when he first sees her. He doesn't hesitate to say "she is with us." Awww. I am beginning to think that it's Helo/Boomer that is my OTP for this show.

Things that made this episode dumb:

OK, Adama? Backing up your second in command? Good Move. Not trying to cut any sort of a deal with Roslin? Not so good. But that's a minor quibble. The major quibble is the damn Caprica storyline that just reached its nadir.

Where shall I start? OK, first off, the "Resistance" is the worst group ever. I have no idea how they lasted at all (though doc's knowledge of Anders would indicate Cylons are keeping tabs). Boomer is a Cylon and yet they accept her into the fold on a word of a guy they met two days ago? Humanity is doomed.

Twu Wuv blossoms between Anders and Kara in the space of a day or two because...they play sports games well? Anders has a six-pack? Kara is on crack? I have no idea. But what really bugged me is that I was clearly supposed to care about them together, to get a bit misty over Kara giving him her dog tags and promising to come back. Why on earth? It's a character I've met briefly in the last ep and who appears briefly in this one. Whatever. (Btw, my husband who does not go into any online BSG stuff noticed he looks a bit like Lee *snerk*).

Also, why don't the resistance fighters get out on that huge Cylon transport Boomer boosted. They can come back with Galactica at their leisure and blast all the farms away.

Boomer joins the long list of people telling Kara she is special (also, interestingly enough, Cylons need love to reproduce. Huge handicap IMO). Apparently the writers share this opinion. Poor Buck was abused as a child. I feel sorry for her and all, but please, please, can someone else have the childhood trauma and outside-of-work character developement? I love Starbuck, I really do, but I don't want this to turn into Kara Sue show.

All of this pales in comparison to the stupid harvesting storyline. All right, were the writers on vacations and had their interns come up with this? I will even overlook the weird catatonic women thing (surely it would be more efficient to harvest eggs and breed the kids in testubes. Also is it Cylon sperm, or what?)

However, they don't seem to guard very much, do they. Starbuck stages the Great Escape and pulls all the plugs and kills the doc and no one notices? There are no guards, no patrols? A grocery store's till is better guarded than the super-duper high priority hospital.

I hope the next one is better.

Comments

[kiaforrest.livejournal.com]

Boomer joins the long list of people telling Kara she is special (also, interestingly enough, Cylons need love to reproduce. Huge handicap IMO).

All the Cylons tell Kara she has a Destiny - as a human I'd be suspicious.

Boomer is a Cylon and yet they accept her into the fold on a word of a guy they met two days ago? Humanity is doomed.

ROFLOL = gotta believe that! Poof, just got there & poof. No wonder they didn't get in the big ole Cylon ship and Flee - probably figured it was a Cylon trap... ::giggle::

Kara Sue - Like Adama Sue: hop off that surgery table soldier: march on, The Show Must Go On.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Poof, just got there & poof. No wonder they didn't get in the big ole Cylon ship and Flee - probably figured it was a Cylon trap... ::giggle::


Exactly. Seriously, what on earth are these resistance people thinking? Guuuuh.

[garnettrees.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much with you on the likes/dislikes scale. I was just happy to see Caprica!Boomer again after whta happened to Galatica!Boomer. I also like Kali, minor character that she is, and how Tyrol is trying to hold things together.

Tyrol and his confusion over whether he loved a machine.
It really got me that Adama was the first one to bring that up. Everyone else has been repeating "she's a toaster, she's a toaster", trying to shield themselves from the betrayal, but Adama came right out and showed Tyrol that he wasn't the only one still thinking of Boomer as human. Considering Boomer's last words... ouch.

Adama weeping over Boomer.
I loved that. His actor pulled it off beautifully.

Also is it Cylon sperm, or what?
A concept to which my reaction is "Ew!" ^_~
However, as to the catatonic women-- I'm not entirely sure the Cyclons are all about efficiency. They have whole "God" thing going, and they do seem to have a thing for emotional torture. Also, I think the point was to be independent of equipment-- to be able, at one point, to reproduce as naturally as human beings. So, after making a half-human/half-cyclon, the goal would be to breed that one with a full Cylon, and see if the seed would take. I think. ^^ Maybe I'm giving too much credit.

[Boomer] is now going back to Galactica even though she knows what kind of treatment she will get.
I really, really want to see Tyrol's reaction to Boomer&Helo. Really, I do.

I am beginning to think that it's Helo/Boomer that is my OTP for this show.
I'm more of a Boomer/Tyrol kinda gal. Actually, any Boomer is good. Really. ^^
-Meredith

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Well, Boomer/Tyrol is pretty much over. Though I can't wait to see th Chief's face when he sees Sharon. Sharon madly in love with Helo, besides.

[raffaella.livejournal.com]

Poor Buck was abused as a child.

I think that it's not so much new information as confirmation of what Leoben implied in Flesh and Bone, when he said: "You were born to a mother who believed that suffering was good for the soul, so you suffered. Your life is a litany of injuries, some inflicted on you....". That spelled physical abuse to me.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

True. But I was content for it to be left in leoben-speak. It's just I wish hey'd spend this time on some other character, for once. Oh well...

[raffaella.livejournal.com]

I wish hey'd spend this time on some other character, for once

We saw her for one minute in the first ep, she had great short scenes in the second, but that ep was mostly focused on Galactica and Kobol, and she was absent from the third.

So the first three episodes of the season were mostly about Lee, the president, Tigh and Tyrol, and, to a lesser extent, Billy and Dualla. We had lots of character development (Lee) and/or further backstory for them (Tigh in particular). It made sense to me that at least one ep would be more focused on Kara, who is one of the main characters, when secondary characters like Tyrol and Tigh were so prominent in eps 1 and 2. In these 5 eps, this was the only one where her storyline was the A story. But of course, we all perceive things differently. I like her, so I enjoy watching her a lot, though her quasi absence from the first episodes made perfect sense.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh I like her. I just wish that if they did a focus-on-Starbuck ep it didn't involve a badly plotted (IMO of course) "robots want our babies" ep. Because it just didn't make sense (nuke and then harvest? Why?)

[raffaella.livejournal.com]

I know! I didn't like this storyline in advance, first because I'm squeamish and the ovaries thing makes me go "gah", and yes, you make a good point about the nukes. But much as I wish they hadn't gone there, the cylons have been obsessed with reproduction from the beginning of the series, and the importance of the Helo-Boomer baby programme showed that there was a problem with baby-making. Still, there are scenes I won't rewatch. *squirms in her seat*.

[lage-nom-ai.livejournal.com]

I would be totally happy to watch a whole ep about Kara. I just wish that what we got here wasn't some mutant offspring of MarySue and the Scully's ovaries plot from X Files... It just all seems kind of half-assed right now. Like, I could almost buy the idea that you need "love" to reproduce--if it were hinted at that the Cylons were either a)wrong in this line of thought or b)that the female models had a programming problem that was causing them to abort or whatever, but love would let 'em carry to term. But right now, it's just confusing and lame in a way that seems poorly thought out rather than intricately plotted. And Issues and Emotional Pain are distracting from all of that.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, the whole "love is all you need" is making no sense right now. Oh well...

[cyclotron.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure Kara and Anders had at least a friendship before the invasion.

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

The first time they met was on Caprica in "Resistance."

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes. Kara doesn't even recognize who Anders is and Helo has to tell her.

[cyclotron.livejournal.com]

There are no guards, no patrols?

They pretty much control the entire planet.ANd all the other females were strapped to the tables. I think a better analogy might be having a guard in your own home, doing patrols. When you have a sense of security, patrols and guards arent really necessary.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But at least a guard outside Kara's room? And still, some guards? They know there is some (however pathetic) resistance out there. They seem to have plenty of resources.

[the-outsider.livejournal.com]

The human female baby harvesting thing comes from the "Dune" novels by frank Herbert...there have been a few similarities here and there of BSG getting ideas from "Dune" actually. This was a fairly blatant one.

[sentraaquila.livejournal.com]

Actually, baby harvesting is a commonly used science fiction plot device, so I wouldn't quite necessarily say they were copying Dune.

Otherwise, you could say they were borrowing said idea from Alias when they harvested Sydney's eggs in Season 3.

Science fiction has many commonly used themes that are circulated and recycled in nearly every show of that genre.

[the-outsider.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's true, but what I meant was that I think "Dune" originated it. The "axlotl tanks" were originated in the "Dune" books, the first of which was written 40 years ago and it's the highest selling sci fi series in history. I can't think of any sci fi from before that which used that plot device. BSG probably has just joined the long, long list of sci fi shows/movies/books that has recycled that idea.

[sexysadie11.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with sentraaquila. My favorite sci fi book of all time, Brave New World, discusses egg harvesting and it was written in 1932.

So Dune did not create or orginate the idea of egg harvesting, though it might have had a slight influence in the BSG world.

[the-outsider.livejournal.com]

Brave New World did use egg harvesting but the women weren't turned into lifeless braindead breeding machines though, strapped to a bed, kept (sort of) alive by life support systems and continuously kept pregnant, presumably until they run out of eggs or die. This episode of BSG was more like "Dune" because the women were being used as nothing more than biological "tanks" to create life in. Sort of like a living test tube. In the "Dune" books, they killed off the women's brains (the parts controlling thought, not the parts controlling motor functions) though, leaving them pretty much brain dead, while BSG left them still mentally aware...which of course makes it even worse. "Dune" was also a bit more brutal because the people doing it (the Tleilaxu) were human males who'd turned all their women into breeding tanks, which is obviously a lot more evil than mindless, (sort of) sexless machines like the Cylons doing it.

I think I tend to look for "Dune" similarities in BSG because "Dune" also had a "machines rise up and kill off nearly all of the humans" plot, which of course has also been recycled a lot, most notably in "The Terminator" of course.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

All of this pales in comparison to the stupid harvesting storyline. There are no words for how much I hated this storyline. How stupid are you to nuke a planet and then look for fertile women? Wouldn't you get the fertile women first and then nuke the planet? Starbuck escaping I bought seeing as they did catch her outside before La Resistance turned up - and she was wobbling around the place. If I were her I wouldn't trust the 'you are special' line either. Especially not after Leoben played her so well before.

I'm just glad that Starbuck is heading home now because I am so interested in seeing how an outsider views the whole mess that has happened with the fleet.

Zarek really worked as a character with me in a way he never has before. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I actually like Zarek *hides*

Not in a "bring home for dinner" sense, but as a character.

And the whole "nuke the planet look for fertiles" is the stupidest plan ever. A 5 year old could come up with a better one. I am amazed Cylons haven't self destructed if their plans are that bad and short term.

I also wouldn't trust the "special" line. Cylon "special" isn't so good.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I also wouldn't trust the "special" line.

I bet they say that to all the girls...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

ROFL!

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

Agree with pretty much everything. Please can I have my reunited!pilotsex now?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes please!

[windbeliever.livejournal.com]

Twu Wuv blossoms between Anders and Kara in the space of a day or two because...they play sports games well? Anders has a six-pack? Kara is on crack? I have no idea.

His six-pack is enough for me to get down on one knee and pop the question.

But, I think it was more than a day or two. I can't remember what scene it was in, but either Adama or Tigh said that he was awake for like a week. So, they did have a little bit more time together. Though, you're right. After a week-long boink fest, they're ready to proclaim undying devotion for the other.

But, again...six-pack! and I've only seen him for an hour.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL. Oh, a six pack might be an excellent reason for a one night stand, but undying love? Unlikely unless you really are crazed with lust :)

[windbeliever.livejournal.com]

I'm not crazed with lust. I'm drunk with lust. ;-P

Don't you know six-packs do that to you? ^_^

[asta77.livejournal.com]

I actually struggled getting through this episode again this morning before writing up my thoughts. The whole 'farm' thing was frought with problems. And like the paranoia fueled inquisition in 'Litmus' it had a been there, done better elsewhere feel to it. Now my concern is that Kara's special ovaries are destined for Apollo's arrow. There was somethng so heavy handed and ill conceived (no pun intended) about it all.

However, it did help to bring Sharon back into the fold. I really love the new questions she raised. In some respects, she still is very much the cylon, cooly explaining to Kara that if women will just agree to be breeders it won't be so bad and how procreation is part of God's plan. Yet, in seemingly finding a solution to their reproduction problems, throwing love into the mix, the cylons didn't account for a serious side effect. Sharon does love Helo, so much so that she's willing to kill her own people to protect him and provided information to assist the remnants of humanity.

Her actions, as well as Adama's, raise interesting questions as to what it is to be human. Adama, rightfully so, can't fathom caring about, trusting, and now mournng a mere machine. So, does humanity transend biology and, if so, could humans and cylons come together in peace?

I'm glad we finally got a definitive answer on whether or nor Laura was buying into her own press. Thankfully, she's not. She's desperate to lead her people to safety and is willing to do whatever she has to to that end. Unfortunately, until confronted by her worshippers I don't think she envisioned the full gravity of what she was doing. "It isn't who I am." I took that as having a double meaning - she's not a prophet, but I think she's also seeing herself becoming a type of person she never wanted to be.

As for Lee, I think beyond relief and happiness at his father's return those nagging thoughts of disappointing his father and being judged reentered his head. Just when I thought he was beyond that. :(

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Sharon's coming back was my favorite part of the episode. Because yes, she might love Helo and be on the human side, but she is still that elusive other.

As to peace? I think the whole "they annihilated all humans" would be a pretty big stumbling block. How could one trust them after that?

[nandamai]

However, they don't seem to guard very much, do they. Starbuck stages the Great Escape and pulls all the plugs and kills the doc and no one notices? There are no guards, no patrols? A grocery store's till is better guarded than the super-duper high priority hospital.

I think the ease of Kara's escape must have been intentional. After all, the Cylons know (from dead!Six) that she has the arrow; the only possible place she could go with that is Kobol. They've read the scriptures, too. And I think that Kobol is where the Cylons want to corral all the humans, for reasons I haven't figured out yet.

The only thing I can do about the farm plot just now is roll my eyes.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I hope the ease of escape was intentional. Because otherwise, Cylons have toast for brains.

As to the farms...sigh. *roll eyes*

[phylogenetics.livejournal.com]

I love your 'Farm' critique. You've summed up everything I had to say about this episode so well that I'm not sure I should bother with it on my own LJ!

It seems, judging from the reactions of most people, this episode ranks with "Litmus" as one of the 'lesser' BSG episodes. I wonder if part of the reason is b/c this is the first time the Caprica storyline is the main storyline. I wonder if Moore knows how unpopular (by general concensus) the Caprica storyline is with his internet fans?

But what really bugged me is that I was clearly supposed to care about them together, to get a bit misty over Kara giving him her dog tags and promising to come back. Why on earth? It's a character I've met briefly in the last ep and who appears briefly in this one. Whatever.

Yeah, this is one of the few scenes in the entire series where I truly felt was cringe worthy and contrived. It felt like the usual writers were on vacation so the hired a bunch of "Voyager" writers to do the job (sorry Voyager fans, but I always felt most of the series showed contrived storylines written by lazy writers).

(Btw, my husband who does not go into any online BSG stuff noticed he looks a bit like Lee *snerk*).
You lucky duck. *pout*

When I first heard of the 'egg' storyline, I thought it was a joke. One of the early spoiler freaks who saw this questioned it as well, "So, we nuke a world, THEN take the fertile women and do reproduction experiment with them?!"

No wonder the cylons can't reproduce, they don't seem to get the most basic things about reproduction like....don't rain down nuclear bombs at fertile women if you want them to carry your babies.

I know it's pretty likely that Moore doesn't have the cylon plan down, but I always figured he was a good enough writer to put enough forethought into his 'cylon plan' story arc so it doesn't get out of hand and explode in his face when he tries to go for a resolution.

Unfortunately, this may be his first major fumble. I doubt he thought about the human/hybrid thing until just recently, which resulted in this nonsensical explantion that "we want to reproduce and seem to need human help with that so we nuked y'all".

feel sorry for her and all, but please, please, can someone else have the childhood trauma and outside-of-work character developement?
As for Kara Sue (LOL, that's what I'm calling it now too!), I completely understand where you are coming from. That above quote is *the* reason I am getting annoyed at her.

It seems like anytime we get some real angsty, nonwork related conflicts that shows real character development, it goes to Kara Thrace! The writers must have a real love affair with that character.

Frankly, I'm getting bored that all this is dumped on *her* lap. Yes, we know she paints, she loves her dad and listens to his music, she was abused as a child, she likes to have sex with men to cover up her own insecurities (and the men go for her, of course), she's a great shot (sure better than those marines they got!), she's a great pilot (no question), she was going to go pro before her knee forced her to become a highly trained figher pilot (yes, don't we all have that as our backup plan?), but wait! she's still good enough to play against a pro, she's had a tragic romantic past and she's deeply religious. And now she's in WUUUUUUV.

Does any other character get such personal aspects of them shown? Hm...what does Lee do in his spare time? What do we know about Tyrol? (we finally find out what his parents did and his first name!). Tigh got some development, mainly that his OTP is really Adama. But aside from drinking, what else does Tigh do? And....Roslin....she have family before? Does she like to paint also? Even some persoal stuff about Balter would be nice....what degrees does he hold?

I just find the writers are skating on thin ice with their Kara obsession. Here's hoping that the next episode we see of the crew handling more personal matters, some other character gets some personalized attention.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I just find the writers are skating on thin ice with their Kara obsession.

I agree. I think we know more about Kara than we do about the rest of them put together. We literally know nothing about Roslin, which is rather ridiculous. I liked Kara a lot in S1 initially, but the more the show progresses, the more she begins to irk me.

Re: babies. Seriously. I guess they could have hoped to find enough among survivors or unarmed ships hey captured to get enough breeders, but it sounds like a really iffy plan. I guess their brains are made of inferior metal.

[stagelight311.livejournal.com]

You! You are in my head! How did you get there?

I love Starbuck, I really do, but I don't want this to turn into Kara Sue show.

I am very, very with you there. I've been willing to accept pretty much everything else they've done with Kara, but after this episode...I think I've had a bit too much. As has been pointed out by others, by gifting her with talent after talent and burdening her with heartache after heartache, they're dangerously unbalancing the cast. Couldn't someone else have been abused? Couldn't someone else have been a fantabulous pyramid player? Whenever the writers want to bring some new issue or ability into play, they use Starbuck to do it, and it's getting annoying.

...they don't seem to guard very much, do they.

Dude, I am so glad to know that I'm not the only one who was bothered by that. It's been argued that the cylons probably didn't see the need to have a heavy guard, and while that makes a little bit of sense, I still can't accept that they wouldn't have any. Seems like too much of an oversight on the part of the cylons and too much of a convenience for Starbuck.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Word, word, word! :)