BSG: The Captain’s Hand

This week’s episode covered three issues -- the ongoing lack of trust between the two battlestars, the upcoming presidential election and, from out of nowhere, the issue of abortion.

Some Raptors belonging to the Pegasus go missing during a training mission and, predictably, those on the Pegasus want pursue at all costs, while those on the Galactica want to show more restraint.

Laura gets a new secretary to replace Billy and work on her campaign. The new woman seems very media-savvy and briefs Laura on how she’s doing in the polls.

A pregnant stowaway arrives on the Galactica looking for asylum and an abortion. Her parents and the Gemonese government are not happy.


Things I Liked

• The nicknames for the two battlestars are amusing. Galactica is “The Bucket.” Pegasus is “The Beast.”


• I like when they examine the reality of the survival of the human race. They haven’t done it in a long time, but bringing up the need to start ensuring that there is a future generation is a start. Another logical move will be to show what’s happening to the hordes of unsupervised children that must surely be present among the survivors. We saw in Black Market that children are being sold as sex slaves. There will be children that band together for protection as a reaction to this.


• Doc Cottle turns out to be pro-choice, which surprised me. He always seemed very old school, especially when he described Baltar’s radical treatment of Laura as “dammed unnatural.” It is Cottle who tells the woman to ask for asylum and evidently he’s been doing abortions on the down low for whoever wants them, no questions asked.


• Zarek decides not to run against Laura. Instead, he backs Baltar and pegs him as someone who’ll remember his friends. Not true, of course, but still a shrewd move.


• Laura finds herself having to make abortion illegal, both to keep the fleet’s population up and to appease the Gemonese zealots. Yet she still lets the Gemonese girl have her abortion, which pisses off the girl’s family and Sarah, the Gemonese councilor.


• After telling Laura how the human race will be extinct if people don’t start breeding, Baltar backstabs her at a press conference, says she’s taking away their rights, and announces his candidacy. Bastard. ;)

Things I Didn’t Like

• The episode starts with Lee and Dualla in bed in the officers’ rack. Ick. Well, at least we didn’t have to see that with Billy.


• Yeah, it’s realistic that with so few people left alive people will move up the ranks quickly, but too many people got promoted this season. Adama made admiral, Lee went from captain to major to commander in three weeks, Starbuck went from lieutenant to captain to CAG in the same time period. It robs the value from these promotions.


• The leaders of the Pegasus are getting killed so fast it’s ridiculous. With the death of Garner that’s three this season. Of course, now that Apollo is in charge, the deaths will stop.


• Kara gets thrown in the brig again for mouthing off at a superior officer. Later, she gets an angry lecture from Lee. We’ve been down this road before. Ho hum.


• The Pegasus falls for a really obvious trap, jumps to where the missing raptors are supposed to be, and gets the shit bombed out of it by three basestars. Duh.


• Garner, an engine room kinda guy, abdicates the bridge to Lee during the attack, goes below to fix some stuff, then runs out of oxygen and dies. We’ve seen this in countless submarine movies.