I actually think the flashback device was overused in 2.5: First, “Resurrection Ship II” then “Black Market” and “Scar” in consecutive weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I loved “Scar”–kept it on the DVR until the DVDs came out. “RSII” as well, but I remember thinking on watching it the first time that the writers had gotten a bit lazy.
True. In RDM’s podcast, he explained that “Black Market” was originally conceived without flashbacks, except for those of Lee back on Caprica with his girlfriend. But when the episode was finished and didn’t seem to be working, they re-edited it to start with the scene of Lee with the gun to the bad guy’s head to add some tension up front. I don’t think it really worked, but there you go.
Rewatching this ep, the first thing is just how visually striking that space scene is with Kat and Starbuck flying around in their raptors (and then periodically revisited throughout the ep), props to the visual effects crew, that series of fx scenes looked expensive!
The fight between booze junkie vs stim junkie for top gun status amongst the pilots was so much fun to watch, especially when Kat socks Starbuck in their closed “tactical session” and then as Lee walks in, Kat gets all mousy and scared after what she just did, striking a superior officer, worried she’d get turned in.
The shot of Starbuck in cockpit while thinking about Anders and playing chicken with Scar, the visuals you see coming into the cockpit remind me of the trippy space travel scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey, just with Kara’s stone blank stare vs the excited wonderment in the pilot’s eyes in the Kubrick film.
Starbuck naming the 15 pilots lost at the end, with all the remaining pilots, both Adamas and Tigh was intense.
There wasn’t much else in this stand alone ep that was really profound… except that it lays the groundwork for Kat becoming CAG in later eps.
Agree with you on the look of the sfx, great stuff.
But I have one single problem with them and that are how the smoke trails look. Throughout the series they behave too much like as if they were released in an atmosphere. They should expand in a different way when they are released in vacuum.
My guess is that too much physics taken in to the modeling would eat up too much time and money for the production.
Possibly, but it’s equally likely that they talked to an physicist who told them that the contrails would behave like that. In Water and You Can’t Go Home Again they used physics that were counter-intuitive to the layman (water vaporizing and sealing a breech with a suit, respectively.)
I am a physicist with vacuum background. But my specialty is not in how larger amounts of gases behave when they are expanded though. 
But i rather stop now, nitpicking about smaller details unless it’s about cut corners should be avoided. Just nurturing my dream to work as science advisor for a show like BSG.
A PhD in Dyson I suppose? Or is your background simply empty?
…I am sorry, I know you have never heard those two jokes before. 
I remember a while back reading an interview with Katee Sackhoff where she stated that her least favorite episode was Scar because she didn’t like how Kat just up and suddenly became this hot shot pilot on a level comparable to Starbuck. I remember really being shocked because I loved Scar, it is, for me, the BEST Starbuck episode. I mean Kat was there, and I have no love for Kat, by the way… but it was a total Starbuck-centric episode. And, as Chuck said, you really learn more about Starbuck’s character in this episode.
I mean I’ve always liked Starbuck, but this episode gave her character gave her more dimension. I was tearing up when she starts listing the names of the deceased and just shocks the room with that glimpse of her true self, not the whole badass facade she always wears. That scene and Lee’s speech at the trial, are just truly fraking moving… the performances, the writing, everything. Those two scenes make me well up at their sheer beauty.
Granted. I’ve only really ever cried once because of this show. And that was for Tigh… when he had to kill Ellen. Poor Tigh.
I thought of that scene too !! Isn’t it funny/wonderful/scary how the human mind can pick out a four second visual like that and instantly flash to a similar image that’s been stored unused for 20 years somewhere in it’s depths !
And yet, I cannot remember what I had for supper yesterday.
Hey, please pardon the lateness, I’m now (only) a week or so behind. Chuck, nice “Hot Dog: The Movie” reference: “… not on zis side, und not on zis side, but in ze middle!” Arguably the ultimate 80s sex comedy, right up there with Hardbodies and Bachelor Party (if you choose to include it in the genre).
And I can’t think up a clever way to reference the Clerks cartoon’s Last Starfighter bit, so I’ll simply acknowledge it.
And Audra, don’t sweat all the haters. When you deal in volume, you’re bound to make a couple mistakes. I don’t know anybody who bats 1.000.
D’oh, and this is what I intended to say when I checked in.
Re: Gazoo, Does anyone have any parallels/connections between the Great Gazoo and Head Six? Is Head Six merely Head Six, or is she a Gazoo?
And as long as we’re on the topic, what does the apparent existence of a Head Baltar maybe mean in reference to Head Six?
pps. BSG = addictive. GWC = addictive like crack. GWC Forum = addictive like space crack.
I am SO confused.
I am re-watching season 2.5 with a friend.
Is the imprisoned Sharon Boomer or is it Athena? I don’t recall which was killed earlier.
So confiused! gah! help!
That one would be Athena. Cally shot Boomer a few episodes before Kara, Helo, and Athena found Roslin and Lee’s rebel fleet at Kobol near the end of 2.0.
Hope that helps!