The Lords Of Coble

Do you ever have those dreams where you are at your workplace, but all of the other employees are people who were in your high school class? Or you're at the doctor, but the actual doctor is really one of those guys from the Hughes & Coleman commercials?

If you share these types of experiences with me, then you have a pretty good idea of what tonight's premiere of Battlestar Galactica was like. I knew all the characters (except Jammer), but they were in strange situations behaving strangely. And I'm not so sure I liked it all that much. There's Kara, in her new environs and her snappy extensions looking less figher-pilot, more geisha. There's Lee, still in space but fat and sloppy. The only character behaving remotely like I expected was Ellen Tigh. And I hate Ellen Tigh.

BSG until this point has done a very good job of telling a strong narrative while maintaining the episode-to-episode quality. I'm trusting them to keep up with their track record as far as the narrative goes, but I'm nervous after tonight's double bill. I presume that these two hours are laying groundwork for the more action-driven episodes later in the season. Or at least that's my most fervant hope. Because I can't take much more of these shouts-out to plotlines better done on Babylon 5.

Nightwatch? Check. We have the New Caprica Police. Hard character compromised by the loss of an eye? Check. We have Saul Tigh. If Zathras shows up, I'm done.

Worse than the shouts-out are the underlying currents of sermonising. Did you ever have one of those television-watching experiences where you felt as though someone was always walking in the background holding up a big sign reading This Is A Metaphor, followed immediately by someone else with a sign reading This Is An Allegory? Because that was the other part of tonight's BSG that left my FTL drive in disrepair. I get that the whole show is supposed to be a commentary on the Iraq war. Heretofore they've been able to pull off the commentary with a minimum of anvils. But starting tonight I felt that these were all-too-obvious displays of the writers' desires to comment on the world situation. Baltar's conversation with Roslin in detention was a particular example of this. All the talk of insurgents, suspension of habeas corpus and torture made me feel less like I was watching one of my favourite TV shows and more like I'd downloaded a chat transcript from AlterNet.

So now to the part where I say that I'm a die-hard fan and will keep watching no matter what. If I don't, certain parties will have my head. Yes, I will keep watching. I just hope that while I do watch they sometime decide to again entertain me.

UPDATE. Frak. It just occured to me right now. The Cylons are Zathras. Bugger.