Whew…really long podcast, but worth every minute. I’m not a huge fan of Captain’s Hand, despite the flashy space battles (upside-down landings are frakking awesome!), but it sure gives us a lot to talk about.
I have to disagree that Adama was plotting his move from the get go. I just didn’t get that feeling from him. I think he was disgruntled that there were stowaways coming onto his ship regularly, and he didn’t know about it. Remember that Adama believes strongly in civil rights because of his father (I know it’s intimated that they had a difficult relationship, but in Litmus I think we still got the impression that this was a high value of his). When he and Roslin discussed the idea of banning abortion, it was with a kind of resignation on his part and certainly shock on hers. Both seemed very grave in that scene, and I think they both knew what they were getting into.
True, Adama could have handled the stowaway more wisely and less gruffly, and could Roslin have handled her decision to ban abortion more carefully. If I may step out-of-universe for a moment, I think the press conference announcement was written simply for dramatic effect and expediency. It certainly would have been more appropriate for Roslin to bring a proposal before the Quorum, but this would have eaten up story and screen time, as well as budget. Putting the pressure on Roslin to make the decision on her own was the dramatically stronger choice, but as I think all the Three pointed out, it was sloppy politics. Having Roslin and Adama act as quickly and extremely as they did made for a powerful story, but perhaps not great leadership. Maybe their real problem is that they’re both drama queens? 
In the same vein, while Roslin and Adama represented an extreme reaction to the problem, I felt Sarah Porter was just as extremely portrayed. The whole “it is an abomination to the gods” and “she is her parents’ property” bits were way over the top and just as unnecessary to get the point across as Roslin’s quick executive decision. More dramatic, maybe, but as Audra pointed out, having the girl simply be under her parents’ authority as a minor and therefore not legally able to make this choice would have been just as effective. And most religious folk who are pro-life–okay, Christians–are such not because there’s a specific verse in the Bible that says abortion is an abomination, but because they glean a general principle from it that life is important. Like Nickname Boomer, I’m pro-life, but I’m not sure exactly when the soul pops into being. It’s all kind of a mystery, and I suppose I err on the side of caution.
You have to give BSG props for jumping into an issue like this and coming to such a dramatic conclusion with it, but it’s the extremes that Sarah, Roslin, and Adama go to that made the episode feel weakly written to me. But I guess sensible people don’t make good drama. They do, however, make a great podcast.
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In other news…
Alpaca Herder said:
As the eight scenes plus what will air the week of Thanksgiving are being released on DVD as a coherent whole I just regard this as bizarre planning on Sci-Fi’s part that winds up annoying people rather than stoking interest.
Ditto. I’ll certainly watch all the flashbacks as soon as they’re posted to scifi.com (“immediately” after Flash Gordon), but they’re stale drops of water in a long, long desert.
