BSG

[xela]

Ok, I got the first DVD of BSG from netflix last week, and got sucked into the story enough that I'm now in the middle of the second. For the most part I'm finding it to be well above the space opera level I remember the original as being. The characters are fairly real, the writing is solid, and the overall story arc is interesting. There are minor irritants: some writer should be bitch-slapped for the exploding missile on the hanger deck in episode 4. (We can make weapons safe against exploding on being dropped in the 20th century, but come the 25th we've forgotten how? And figured out how to make impact accidentally light off a rocket motor to boot? Give me a break. You want to kill a bunch of pilots off with a hanger deck accident, fine. There are lots of believable accidents to choose from.)

But there's one big irritant: Baltar. Every single moment of screen time he gets totally blows my suspension of disbelief. We're apparently supposed to accept that he gets away with acting as weird as he does because people put it off to him being a neurotic genius. I know plenty of neurotic geniuses, and this guy would have people edging away from him and not wanting to talk about anything important or sensitive in front of him at a neurotic genius convention. Talking to someone who isn't there, in public, will get you talked about in the most benign of times and places. On a spaceship in the middle of a war it's going to get you put away. In a padded room if you're lucky, out an airlock if you're not.

So a question for those of you who love this show: Is there some way of viewing the universe of the show that lets you find him plausible? I haven't seen the pilot miniseries or whatever it was that came before "33"; maybe something in that made it clear that the stuff we see him doing is ... I don't know, fuzzed out somehow in the minds of those who see him, so it seems less weird to them than it is? Or it's all in his head, including how twitchy he appears on camera, and his behaviour as seen through the eyes of those around them is far more normal? Or have you just learned to accept that in the BSG world this guy who comes off like a spastic basset hound is allowed access to sensitive information and the highest levels of the command authority?

Comments

[zkzkz.livejournal.com]

I think your take on how extreme situations alter how people behave is backwards. On a normal day perhaps people would be unwilling to let him within 10ft. But in the midst of a war when you're stressed about dangers both hidden and obvious you justify doing things you would normally not be willing to do.

They think he's weird, I wish we could dump him out an airlock, it would make me feel so much more comfortable, but we can't. Without him we would be completely screwed. No way to detect ceylons, no way to build a planetary defense grid, completely defenseless.

[alierak.livejournal.com]

Agreed. With under 50k people left, he is *the* neurotic genius.

[pwaa.livejournal.com]

Personally, I saw the pilot of the new BSG and found it so utterly depressing that I didn't want to watch any more. It seemed to me that the whole series was going to be about watching the human race slowly fade to extinction. Give me happy, rosy Star Trek any day. I miss you, Gene Roddenberry!

[kareila]

As far as I can tell, Baltar is allowed to get away with ANYTHING (talking to imaginary Cylons is just the tip of the iceberg) because he's the only eminent scientist who survived the holocaust and the only hope the Fleet feels it has of detecting Cylons in their midst. The ONLY thing they won't look the other way for is hard evidence of treason. That said, he annoys the heck out of me too.

[aerynne.livejournal.com]

You ought to have watched the miniseries; it was really good. I would agree with previous comments that he is the *only* neurotic genius they have and they need him--thus are willing to overlook a bit of crazy, especially since, well, everyone's a bit crazy after what happened, just possibly showing it differently. In fact, they may be unintentionally telling themselves what they want to hear about him. And most of the time, he is very together. We just see more of the not-together time. People can be excused for muttering under their breaths.

[canthelpyou.livejournal.com]

I've had a theory for a long time that writers can only write characters as smart as they are. So if you have a writer of average intelligence who wants to write a super-genius, in order to show that the character is a super-genius, the writer can do only two things.

First, the writer has to make every other character act stupider than average, so when Genius acts like a normal person he appears brilliant.

Second, the writer can give the Genius stereotypical characteristics of big brains -- horn-rimmed glasses, lab coats, inability to think about mundane things like bathing regularly, using pretentiously long words or jargon, etc.

I do love this show, but I've been listening to the creator's podcasts, and he's just not all that bright, children. So there are many embarrassing moments in the episodes where the writers have to make some of the characters act dumb in order to move the plot along. It is not a perfect show. It is, however, one of the better shows currently on television, and they are willing to take risks with the characters and the direction of the show. I consider the flaws to be irritating but not enough to cancel out the many good parts.