"Battlestar Galactica" Scorecard: Mutiny On The Bounty

It's nice to be reminded that while Saul and Tyrol are competing for who can go crazier, they're just wading in the kiddie pool while Starbuck is jumping off the Olympic high rise diving board straight down into 12 feet of the craziest crazy around.

We've finally gotten a chance to see what's been doing on the Demetrius, and it's more or less exactly what you'd expect; Starbuck is using feng shui to find her way to earth and it's making the crew just the tiniest bit antsy. None of this is helped by the arrival of Leoben, who is now somehow Starbuck's best pal. Even knowing that creators Eick and Moore have said that the show is, ultimately, about getting to Earth, and knowing that the craziest people on "BSG" tend to be the ones who are correct, it's still hard to believe that Kara isn't just on the most foolish of fool's errands.

Back aboard Galactica, Baltar sure seems to be getting comfortable with his role as messiah. Unsurprisingly he's gone from disbelief at the idea that people might worship him to spewing vaguely Christian-ish sounding religious dogma in a few short weeks. It probably has something to do with the fact that his worshipers are mostly hot chicks and secret Cylons (sometimes both). Apparently the Cylons are just wired to be monotheistic, since Tory seems half-way to buying his schtick and even Tyrol is starting to weaken under the schmaltzy assault of bland goodwill and hope. Oh Tyrol, couldn't you go back to hallucinating and screaming at people in bars?

• Cylon Freakouts: 1.5 (Tyrol gets his freak on, with a nice bit of "Full Metal Jacket" action; Leoben only kind of freaks out, because he's too much of a control freak to commit.)
• Human Freakouts: 1 (Okay, it's just Starbuck, but seriously it's tempting to give her two points just for such a magnificently committed wacky.)
• Dead Bodies: 1 (Just one death this week! I think we have to put that in the win column, right?)
• Rumblings of Mutiny: 4 (Or so, basically every time Sharon was on screen. Man, has anyone else noticed the strange glee she seems to get from stabbing people in the back?)
• Actual Mutinies: 1 (One is all you need. At least Starbuck had the grace to not even look surprised.)
• Information About What's Happening With The Cylon War: 0 (Seriously! It's not too much to ask, guys. Tell us what's going on with the Sixes at least!)

Eight point five isn't a bad score, though more than half were racked up by Sharon and Sgt. Not Interesting Enough To Remember His Name, who seem more or less ready to string Starbuck up. Hey, it's not like they don't have a point, but where's the military discipline, people? Adama would be so disappointed. Actually, he probably is going to be pretty grumpy, assuming the Demetrius actually heads back to Galactica and there isn't a burning bush that shows up just in time to prove Starbuck right about everything. Knowing "Battlestar Galactica" though, I'm betting on the burning bush.

This episode was, I hate to say it, sort of unremarkable. Some stuff happened, all the characters are still interesting and I'm still engaged in their story, but it lacked the pulse-pounding tension of "BSG" at its best. It wasn't in any sense a bad episode, just a bit run of the mill. When looking back over the season, I'm never going to say, "The Road Less Traveled, that was a totally awesome episode." Average for "Battlestar Galactica" is better than great for most shows, but I'm still hoping things heat up next week.

Comments

[doc]

hey this is doc from the itunes podcast: Heroes of Science Fiction and Fantasy, no shore leave? Maybe the constant space travel with no shore leave is starting to take hold. Baltar scenes do not push the story along but i did like the scene where Chief offers his hand to him. I think knowing the story will end next season, we have no patience for any kind of side story. If there was no timeline i think fans would give a wider berth. website www.heroesofsciencefictionandfantasy.com voicemail 1-206-333-1297