Battlestar Galactica

Valley of Darkness was another perfect and vividly entertaining and character driven episode of Battlestar Galactica. I really enjoyed watching this episode because it had lots of action yet moments of peace as well. There were lots of great moments through out the episode adding to the depth of the characters. How scary it was to be having a good time only for a Cylon to crash the party and start killing every one. There was a lot of urgency and fear along with hope and courage. I look forward to watching the next episode!!!!!!!!!

There was always going to be the inevitable decline from last week's amazing episode, but it's only a slight dip. The cylons have boarded the fleet and are causing bloody, bloody havoc. They leave a stream of dead bodies wherever they go; this episode does well to hit home that they're not simply canon fodder. These machines are badass. And speaking of blood, there's so bloody much of it here. Everyone is covered in the red stuff.

Dee and Billy enjoy a cute sub-plot that sees their cold relationship thaw out quite a bit. I have a feeling something horrible will happen to one of them, or both. Billy's close encounter with death here was thankfully cut short by Laura, who dives in to save him from being riddled with bullets. Isn't the opposite supposed to happen? Oh, Billy!

I really enjoyed Starbuck and Helo just chilling out back in Caprica. Starbuck has a sweet pad, in an artsy-fartsy kind of way. Someone really needs to tend to her wounds before they get infected. Doesn't Helo have a medi-kit or something on him? That piece of music that that Starbuck plays is beautiful, by the way.

And on Kobol things aren't looking so bright. At least the guys are breathing fresh air again and are in the open, unlike their colleagues in space, trapped with cylons. Gaius' dream was a little weird. Did Six plant that dream in his subconscious? Bill Adama drowns their new baby in a rather shocking sequence, but I'm not too sure what it all means. Will he be the end of the new cylon race?

Not bad at all!

A great episode, but I hope to NEVER hear that damn annoying piano sonata EVER again. I honestly believe the Sound Effects and Sound Tracking is the only part of this show that is at times less than great. They could do SO much better. Last note to reach 100 words: I'm getting a little tired of Gaius' conversations with Number Six(except for seeing Number Six in her sexy outfits). I know it MUST be vital to the storyline. However, after 1 whole season of her dipping in and out and him fumbling over himself, I've grown a bit weary and find myself just checking out Six's body and then wanting to move on. 1 more note: it would be cool if Starbuck and Helo meet the cylons again and another Sharon ends up taking Starbuck's Hummer. "That B**ch took my ride AGAIN!!" lol

Baltar's dream was beautifully executed and the high point of the episode for me. Having the rest of the Raptor crews standing around and not reacting as Adama drowns a child was a brilliant choice and added to the already haunting scene. Once again McCreary came through with an incredible piece of music to tie it all together. The other scenes on Kobol were also good. While I had a feeling the med kit wouldn't make a difference, the bitter irony of Tarn dieing so they could retrieve it was still hard to swallow. The silent moment after Socinus' death was played well on all the characters faces.



I also enjoyed the scene in Starbuck's place. She's done some dramatic stuff before but I think the scene in Kobol's Last Gleaming Pt. 2 that I mentioned and this one really helped to prove that she has the chops to pull off some serious emotional moments. The shots of her on the couch combined with her lines and delivery made for a very powerful scene.



Starbuck: "You know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. I'm fighting because I don't know how to do anything else."



The scenes on board Galactica provided some action to contrast with the dramatic story lines. Just the thought of a Cylon raiding party making it aboard is pretty upsetting and what I assume are the newest model of Centurions definitely pose a threat.



Now that I've been watching for awhile, I have to say that love that they don't mind having their younger, more attractive cast members(you know, the lookers) constantly sporting, bruises, scrapes, cuts, gunshot wounds to the face, etc. Given their line of work anything else wouldn't be realistic. And so giving up some of the sex appeal to benefit the story is something I respect. They even got to the always lovely Dee in this episode.



Some excellent dramatic moments and good action sequences.

***This review details –» this is a "I" perspective, based in what I like and recognize to be good or interesting, this is not a "god" where the guy thinks what he thinks is the true or the "you" perspective where I know what you will like and what you don´t.***



After the last episode ending, things would be more interesting for this episode and maybe some characters would die and a invasion is something that is interesting to see.



Others storylines was the same Gaius with his dreaming, Starbuck and Helo dialogues. This is why the conflict phase was only attractive because of the situation on Galactica. The climax was very good, but the ending still missing something special. So this situation in Galactica provided tension, some suspense and the necessary amount of action. Chief Storyline provided some drama that didn´t touch me at all.



Presentation Phase - » (9/10), the beginning was very interesting,

Conflict Phase - » (8/10) a rare problem, other plots aren´t interesting,

Climax Phase - » (8/10) in the Galatica was interesting,

Ending - » (7/10) nice closure,



Details/Progress (To point A to B) -» (7/10) don´t expect many progress,

Time and Scene Management - » (7/10) some plots are stretching,

Plot Details/Holes- » (8/10) the situation on Galactica was exaggerated for only a couple of Cylons, then suddenly they win very fast,



Drama -» (7/10) chief provided that,

Action -» (8/10) very good,

Suspense/Tension - » (8/10) very good tension,



Better than the premiere, but still lacking the ability of creating great conflicts.

My goodness but those Cylon Centurions don't pull their punches; I'm rather surprised that anyone was left alive on Galactica after that handful of death machines found their way into those dimly-lit corridors. Remind me never to call one a toaster to its face. Yikes.



So, this is one of those episodes where the layout of the ship is required to be a complete mystery, regardless of how many charts and schemata are laid out. If the Cylons were heading "straight" for their target, why were there piles of bodies in their path? Was the crew of Galactica committing mass, ritualistic suicide upon receipt of the admittedly disheartening news that they had been boarded by death incarnate? I'd hoped that they would at least make some show of resistance, if only for appearances. And why does a ship with no computer networks have a room from which the entire vessel can be vented into space? Wouldn't that be the sort of thing you would anticipate, especially if, as Col. Tigh hinted, it's happened before? How these fools have managed to survive thus far is a mystery.



The show takes a little time out, along with Starbuck and Helo, to show us a glimpse of the fascinating woman that lies under that tough facade. She likes to paint, she listens to piano sonatas, and she drives a hummer. A bit of a mixed bag, but there's always the possibility that her other car is a Beetle. I have to note here that Katee Sackhoff has somehow succeeded in creating one of the most believable characters on television. Sure, she flies a spaceship and is surrounded by killer robots disguised as humans, but she's real; I've never met a female fighter pilot, but I can only imagine that they would be a lot like her. Also, the way she slid into that old paint-soaked coat and sank into the sofa was a thing of beauty. I almost felt her aches and pains as she slipped into her happy, or at least less sad, place. God bless ye, Starbuck. And how many times does Tigh have to save the ship before someone treats him as something other than an embarrassment? Give the old dog a little bit of respect.

So, continuing last episode, the ship what ram into Battlestar, containing Cylons, is still there and those cylons aboard and they are heading for some serious and critical points killing everyone on their way..



So, it is episode full of chases, running around and shooting. But it was not all. We had that great storyline with president and her assistance who should never wear a gun and other's trying to get them to safety. And those sequences from Adama's and Tigh's past and those stories of how they came back to fleet and how much Adama matters for Tigh and that he never wanted to command.. it was great char development.

Action action and more action define this episode. There are a lot of suspenseful moments added as well. The dialogue between the actors is great. While this can be a stand alone episode, it can also be considered the fourth part grouped with the previous three. The ground team on Kobal has excellent dynamics. I really like how the whole crew is running around without Commander Adama. They seem a little bit lost in how to handle the situation they are in. Tigh is a good second in command but doesn't seem to know how to handle the full burdens of leadership. Another great episode.

Space Battles! Yeah! Something we see in this episode, this makes galactica a really watchable show. things go bad when a cylon troop transport crashes into galatica. cylon soldiers kills loads of people aboard galactica, it's an ugly sight, it's scary. the cylons are a nasty bunch of robots bent on destruction. they are determined to wipe out the humans. it's up for the galactica crew to stop the onslaught. the characters scramble to their battlestations and do whatever they can to stop this chaos from happening. it's an action packed episode, with loads of space battle visual effects, it's spectacular.

We are used to the Viper pilots being heros yet here we see them running for their lives just like any common person - but unlike the common person, they are willing to take a stand. It was interesting to see military people - people whom we would think are used to combat - act like any shell shocked person when their lives are turned upside down when put into the thick of things.



And, on the flip side, it was interesting seeing Starbuck being relatively 'at ease' and seeing interesting tidbits of her background prior to her joining the fleet.



All in all, an exciting episode

I love this epsiode, it has some of that much loved toaster killing action. There is one thing that always puzzles me though

SPOILER











Is that Lee, Kat and Jammer live but then all the marines with them die, that i think was a little strange, but thats just me, I still loved the episode. I also really liked the last little scene at the end between Lee and Tigh where Tigh says Lee isn't fit to were the uniform and Lee says that neither is he. I so don't like Tigh he is just an anoying drunk but that is again only my opinion. It was a great episode and it is a great series.

Cylons board the ship intent on destroying Galactica , while there's a party marooned on Kobol, and Starbuck's still on Caprica.



If one small group of Cylons has provoked so much damage, let's hope no more succeed in boarding!



Good to see that Tigh can be an effective officer... but he needs a crisis to work properly. In normal time situations, he's not much use. I'm sure he's going to blunder along till Adama wakes up from his situation.

Adama's life is still on the line, who knows if he will pull through. He still is in pitiful condition at this point, and Col. Tigh is doing is best to keep things together aboard what seems to be a doomed space ship.



Continuing from S2E1 (Scattered) there was a nasty battle as the crew made a jump back to the prior position to try their best at calculating where the other ships might have jumped to.



During all that, somehow those dirty Cylons had boarded the ship, and are attempting to take them out once and for all.



Whats great about all this, is that its one of those seat of your pants episodes, where people say, " Hey , stop biting your nails ! " or you scream out to someone in the room talking or making noise " Hey you shut your pie hole !"



Another great episode, for real, with non of that stupid sugar coated, tv-land, flotsam most shows on the air today try to pass off.

This is clearly my favourite episode of the new BG so far. And I'm not hiding it.



The episode took three main storylines, all set in a very different surroundings. There was the intense and dark storyline aboard the galactica where Cylons were boarding the vessel and trying to vent every human being out. Lot of action and suspense there and none of the sometimes annoying politics or paranoia.



Fast cut to lush, Green forest with life flowing all around. Birds singing and people getting shot at. The scenes were very well acted and I just loved every bit of it. The "talk to me you motherfrack/ger" part was just brilliant...and so human.



Then there was the eerie, deserted city basking in the yellow sunlight. Very nice contrast to the claustrophobic scenes from galactica and the natural surroundings of kobol. So it's no wonder that they saved the best part of the episode here. The music (Philip Glass - Metamorphosis (Five)) was just mind blowingly good, and totally not Battlestar Galactica at all. That's why it was so good. It gave us a little break from all the tension.

Really good episode. Caprica with Helo and starbuck was interestinmg and having Starbuck added into that arc really breathed some new life into it.



The cylons on Galctica was a good idea as well. Did'nt quite understand though why only exoplosive rounds can only kill them while we\'ve seen Helo kill several before with normal bullets. Reminds me of a video game where in order to lengthan the mission you have to go and find the magic "sword".



Good episode over all though the three story arc (caprica, galactica and kobal) are becoming a bit much. Perhaps they should devote more time to one than another.like focas more on caprica than kobal.





Although its the secound episode in the series, not much has happend. Its all taken place immediatly after the events of last season. I hope next episode the time has moved on a bit. Evan if its only a week.

Despite its easily perceivable repel-boarders-at-all-costs storyline, the actual final defense against the Centurions follows a densely choreographed plot with almost every character involved fighting their own private devils. Consider the characters:



- Gaeta, by whose wrong coordinate update BSG FTLed to the wrong place, and by whose firewall idea the Cylon virus was introducable in the first place, in consequence leading to numerous deaths among the crew.



- Tigh, who feels unfit for command, yet has to assume it in the worst of times, with almost nothing to command with power and comm down in CIC.



- Apollo, who stands between the Centurions and the Aft Damage Control with his fire party, as last defender before utter destruction - with only two bullets, yet having to succeed.



- LT, who is completely out of his depth and knows that his people *know* this, his previous decisions having been wrong or bad.



- Chief Tyrol, whose mercy killing of Socinus goes against all his beliefs, yet is ordered by LT, who evades this particular hard call once again.



- Baltar, who sees Adama drown his baby right in front of himself and fails to do anything against it. Even if it\'s only in his dream, the fact lingers that two of the biggest taboos man knows have been broken here - murdering a child and not doing anything against it.



This carefully choreographed mixture of guilt, fear, suspense and utter shock left me awed and, in the end, speechless. Even enriched by the added piano theme, the episode left me to ponder the question if the relief the characters feel after defeating the Centurion boarders really qualifies as relief after all.

What is not to like about this series? It takes a modern approach to sci fi and makes everything as real as possible. The writing helps us to get inside the relationships of the characters. The show even has enough guts to put its main character into a coma for more than one episode. The show is a rip roaring ride and this episdoe was no exception.

The silons on battlestar, 4 of them dead and no footage.LOL Talk about cost cutting. The Caprica scenes were so boring in this episode. Just filling time. They could have done so much better with this episode. Hopefully the next episode picks up. There were a few good point to this episode but overall I'd say they flopped on this one.

This is another fine episode of a great series. There wasn't a whole lot of visually of the Cylon boarding party, but the shooting, screaming, and foot step sound of them walking around, made you feel like the Cylons were everywhere. I can't wait to the next episode of BattleStar Galactica.

Very intersting episode, still don't get the issue with tha baby... but I hope the plot is getting somewhere with that! Lee adama seems to have many issues, and the people on the two planets seem to be at wits ends... since they all seem to be in dangerous situations! I hope starbuck gets back to the fleet... and actually.. how she re finds the fleet will be interesting...

The people on Kobol.. still don't get that plot line...



:-)

This week continues the slow but steady exploration of all the craziness from the first season finale, and I couldn’t be happier. There’s no shortage of body count or red-shirts, and the stakes continue to rise as none of the adversaries, human or otherwise, seem ready to let threats from the outside get in the way of a grudge.



It would have been so easy for Tigh and Lee to bury the hatchet and let the whole business over the president be bygones. At least, I would have expected that from some other series. The writers didn’t disappoint me, because instead of taking the easy way out, they were only civil to one another while their goals were temporarily aligned. They didn’t discuss it outright or go into detail about it after the fact. They worked together when convenient, and then naturally acted like it never happened.



Speaking of the boarding party, I’m glad that there wasn’t some major lag between the end of the previous episode and the continuation of hostilities. I’m also very happy that the Cylon virus didn’t simply disappear. Consequences are everything on this show, and everything that happens in this episode is a consequence of poor command decisions in the premiere. It’s hard to think about that as the stakes get higher with every passing moment; quite literally, they brought the siege upon themselves.



The real question is whether or not the virus is going to continue to be a problem in the future. Wouldn’t it be fun to see Adama asking Tigh, in that low but deadly voice, why there’s a Cylon virus running around a bunch of systems that were never supposed to be connected? Like the previous episode, this is an ongoing commentary into the weaknesses of Tigh, and it’s not pretty. The man may be holding a grudge in realistic fashion, but it still doesn’t make it a good choice!



Events on Kobol seem more and more like a way to put the screws to Baltar and whatever allegiance he may retain to humanity. Those visions once again seem metaphorical, though it’s hard to tell with this series. Specific or otherwise, Baltar doesn’t just believe that a hybrid is necessary, but that humanity (embodied by the most threatening of humans) is the enemy of that necessary future. Step by step, Baltar is being conditioned into the perfect weapon against humanity.



I have the sinking feeling that the writers are slowly but surely wiping out the survivors on Kobol so that at some point before the remaining few are rescued, one of the better known characters will die. They’re simply running out of red-shirts down there! Six’s warning is just vague enough to make it possible that everyone but Baltar will die, but then again, it’s impossible to know if she’s saying all of that as part of the conditioning.



One thing that I didn’t quite get, from a story perspective, were the scenes on Caprica. They seemed out of place, though it was probably necessary to explain how Starbuck and Helo manage to get around in the following episodes. Was there a point to those scenes, though, beyond that plot element? It was some minor insight into Starbuck’s character, but at the moment, it doesn’t seem all that important in relation to the rest of the episode.



On the other hand, though, those scenes did give me a chance to breathe between the scenes on Galactica and Kobol, so I suppose they served that purpose. Overall, this was another fine installment. I really love how all these plot threads continue to move forward, bit by bit, and the writers don’t feel the need to bash the audience over the head with explicit meaning. The story is what it is, and the audience is invited along for the ride.

From beginning to end, this episode was just great. During parts of the episode, the lighting and mood reminded me of the recent PC game "Doom 3." Helo and Starbuck's sequence was really well done, giving us a lot of background about the Starbuck character, not to mention the great background music. This series continues to impress me with writing and direction. 9.5/10

I like this show a lot. This particular episode was outstanding. So many really good stories going on.



There are two stories going on the Planet Kobol. There is the Baltar and #6 story. The two of them going through the ruins of Kobol and discussing the history. The planet was believed to be a paradise but they now get a glimpse of the barbarism that happened on the planet centuries ago. It made me think about our history.



Then there is the other story on the Planet Kobol with Chief Tyrell, the experienced person taking orders from the LT (officer in charge) who is not as seasoned as the Chief. Both men doing what they believe is right for the group who are stranded on the planet.



We then have the Caprica story with Starbuck and Helo. They went to Starbuck’s old apartment on the planet and we found out more about her and her family. They listened to some classical music in the apartment as they rested. Very dark but I liked it.



Then we have the Galactica story. Col. Tigh doing what he believes is right fighting the Cylon boarding party working with Apollo who is doing what he believes in. Both men working together even though they don’t like each other.



I also like the friendship between the President and her prison guard. So many great stories in this show.



I honestly believe this is the best well written show on TV right now.

The ships had just gotten back to Galactica when a Cylon raiding party came in from that new ship that crashed into the Galactica's left fighter bay.



They killed so many soilders. They where trying to kill all the people on the Galactica then take over the ships weapons to destroy all the ships in the fleet.



But Apallo and a small team of soldiers took them out before they could do it.



While this was happening on Kola The chief Teral had gotten back witht he med kit but it was to late for his junor member he was to far gone and suffering to much to be saved. She they did what they had too, they gave him a overdose of durgs and killed him.



While on The homeworld Starbuck & Helo went to Starbucks apartment to take a break and rest up before going to look for a ship. We see that Starbuck is a abstract painter and lives like a slob and never payed her bills.



It was a good episode.