well, frell me dead
Dec. 8th, 2004 03:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
somedaybitchor in this case, frack me dead, i guess. there's a discussion taking place at FMD about Battlestar Galactica, the new series. the biggest bitch is, of course, still based on the fact that Starbuck is now a woman. courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
boofadil, i have seen eps 1.1 thru 1.5 so far.
someone spouted off with the inevitable Starbuck is too "butch" so they should just make her character gay bullshit. followed up with "she's too cocky and arrogant" which was backed by the ever sound logic, "well i know a few lesbians and they aren't like that". /paraphrased
i hate that. HATE. IT. a) it's a crap sweeping generalization and insulting to all parties involved. b) if the character's gay, terrific, but don't make some baseless assumption based on your personal perception that because a woman looks a certain way or acts a certain way to you, that person is automatically gay. that drives me batty. and c) the character has been established as hetero. Starbuck's a soldier. get the fuck over it already. go write slash.
my more polite reply at FMD runs to what i believe the real "problem" with Starbuck's character is:
having just watched 1.1, i like Sakoff's portrayal. i think part of the problem, aside from TOS fans being torqued at the gender change, is that there is inbred gender bias. Benedict's Starbuck is a charming rogue pushing at the envelope of authority. Sackoff's is no different, except that the character is now female. that behavior is considered charming in men and obnoxious in women. it's not Sackoff's portrayal, it's the viewers' preconceptions. ymmv.
now having seen episodes 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5, my perceptions of Sackoff's portrayal haven't changed. the show is still getting its footing but it doesn't suck. there is much that's good about it. Baltar is a top notch creepy character, as is Trisha Helfer's human cylon portrayal - all the more skin-crawly because the cylons seemed to have developed their own fully functioning society and religious beliefs. creep factor = high.
Starbuck and Apollo's relationship is also quite good, clearly grounded in a long time friendship. the two work well together. there is strong affection between them but also deep, deep professional respect. besides, Starbuck's a pain in the ass. how can i not like her? /rhetorical
i'm also liking the interactions between Apollo and Adama, especially the exchange in the scene in 1.5 when they call off the search for Starbuck. beautifully acted. the two have issues, tension, history, and the working it out part is evolved in tiny steps, one forward, a few back, a couple forward, some more back.
speaking of 1.5, it's part two of a two story arc started in 1.4, and a remake of a story arc from TOS. now why couldn't they have done this good a job adapting the mini-series? it's actually an amalgam of about 3 different eps from TOS all rolled into one, all involving Starbuck, *and* with the cheese factor removed. see? it wasn't that hard you guys, was it?
Boomer bugs, not because the character has been made female but because the actress does nothing for me. for you Alias fans, i think Melissa George could act it better. /snark. i like the storyline for Boomer, or should i say Boomer{s}, but i'd prefer it in the hands of a different actress.
the XO's buggin' less and they seem to be letting EJO finally loosen up and portray Adama less stiffly. distant, as a career guy with his own kids in the service, but not unreachable.
i can't tell if i like the President yet. i'm a fan of the actress but i can't quite get a handle on the character. maybe that's not a bad thing.
i'm also very curious to see where they take the subplot involving Helo. interesting storytelling choice to leave a character stranded at home, on a now cylon-occupied colonial planet, when the rest of the fleet has fled.
happily, the series doesn't seem to be suffering from the melodrama that i saw in the mini-series.
now if someone could just put a muzzle on Ron Moore i'd be content. kinda tough to take the "reinventing the genre" bullshit seriously on a show that blatantly gets its camera style from Firefly.
what's not to like? Skiffy could put more money into the special effects and stop using Bourne Supremacy Shaky Cam[tm] to cover it up.
what else not to like? the basic premise. i care for the characters because i'm ignoring the "we-built-a-slave-race-to-fight-our-wars-for-us-and-then-they-revolted-and-kicked-our -asses" back story. now, having not watched all 4 hours of the mini, being that it was in more dire need of an editor than just about any mini in history, i'm not sure if the colonies created the cylons several generations back and these current guys are the children paying for their ancestors' sins. if that's the case, i can stomach the premise a bit easier. depends on where they go with it, but it's intrigued me enough to keep watching. although let me tell you much i'm enjoying the watching of downloaded eps from the UK. truthfully, if the rest of the eps i see hold quality, i'll rewatch it when it airs in first run on Skiffy. fucking Skiffy.
BSG airs in the US in January.
boofadil, i have seen eps 1.1 thru 1.5 so far.someone spouted off with the inevitable Starbuck is too "butch" so they should just make her character gay bullshit. followed up with "she's too cocky and arrogant" which was backed by the ever sound logic, "well i know a few lesbians and they aren't like that". /paraphrased
i hate that. HATE. IT. a) it's a crap sweeping generalization and insulting to all parties involved. b) if the character's gay, terrific, but don't make some baseless assumption based on your personal perception that because a woman looks a certain way or acts a certain way to you, that person is automatically gay. that drives me batty. and c) the character has been established as hetero. Starbuck's a soldier. get the fuck over it already. go write slash.
my more polite reply at FMD runs to what i believe the real "problem" with Starbuck's character is:
having just watched 1.1, i like Sakoff's portrayal. i think part of the problem, aside from TOS fans being torqued at the gender change, is that there is inbred gender bias. Benedict's Starbuck is a charming rogue pushing at the envelope of authority. Sackoff's is no different, except that the character is now female. that behavior is considered charming in men and obnoxious in women. it's not Sackoff's portrayal, it's the viewers' preconceptions. ymmv.
now having seen episodes 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5, my perceptions of Sackoff's portrayal haven't changed. the show is still getting its footing but it doesn't suck. there is much that's good about it. Baltar is a top notch creepy character, as is Trisha Helfer's human cylon portrayal - all the more skin-crawly because the cylons seemed to have developed their own fully functioning society and religious beliefs. creep factor = high.
Starbuck and Apollo's relationship is also quite good, clearly grounded in a long time friendship. the two work well together. there is strong affection between them but also deep, deep professional respect. besides, Starbuck's a pain in the ass. how can i not like her? /rhetorical
i'm also liking the interactions between Apollo and Adama, especially the exchange in the scene in 1.5 when they call off the search for Starbuck. beautifully acted. the two have issues, tension, history, and the working it out part is evolved in tiny steps, one forward, a few back, a couple forward, some more back.
speaking of 1.5, it's part two of a two story arc started in 1.4, and a remake of a story arc from TOS. now why couldn't they have done this good a job adapting the mini-series? it's actually an amalgam of about 3 different eps from TOS all rolled into one, all involving Starbuck, *and* with the cheese factor removed. see? it wasn't that hard you guys, was it?
Boomer bugs, not because the character has been made female but because the actress does nothing for me. for you Alias fans, i think Melissa George could act it better. /snark. i like the storyline for Boomer, or should i say Boomer{s}, but i'd prefer it in the hands of a different actress.
the XO's buggin' less and they seem to be letting EJO finally loosen up and portray Adama less stiffly. distant, as a career guy with his own kids in the service, but not unreachable.
i can't tell if i like the President yet. i'm a fan of the actress but i can't quite get a handle on the character. maybe that's not a bad thing.
i'm also very curious to see where they take the subplot involving Helo. interesting storytelling choice to leave a character stranded at home, on a now cylon-occupied colonial planet, when the rest of the fleet has fled.
happily, the series doesn't seem to be suffering from the melodrama that i saw in the mini-series.
now if someone could just put a muzzle on Ron Moore i'd be content. kinda tough to take the "reinventing the genre" bullshit seriously on a show that blatantly gets its camera style from Firefly.
what's not to like? Skiffy could put more money into the special effects and stop using Bourne Supremacy Shaky Cam[tm] to cover it up.
what else not to like? the basic premise. i care for the characters because i'm ignoring the "we-built-a-slave-race-to-fight-our-wars-for-us-and-then-they-revolted-and-kicked-our -asses" back story. now, having not watched all 4 hours of the mini, being that it was in more dire need of an editor than just about any mini in history, i'm not sure if the colonies created the cylons several generations back and these current guys are the children paying for their ancestors' sins. if that's the case, i can stomach the premise a bit easier. depends on where they go with it, but it's intrigued me enough to keep watching. although let me tell you much i'm enjoying the watching of downloaded eps from the UK. truthfully, if the rest of the eps i see hold quality, i'll rewatch it when it airs in first run on Skiffy. fucking Skiffy.
BSG airs in the US in January.
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 03:40 am (UTC)This would have made a fascinating discussion in my college "Sex in Western Culture" course (required or all undergrads), as well as the lit "Women in Film" class. I must bring this up with CoinToss and discuss!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 07:12 am (UTC)i wonder if it has something to do with the viewer's sense of ownership of the material?
no subject
Date: 2004-12-10 09:19 pm (UTC)Projection vs. perception...hmmm. The way I see it (and mind you, this is completely my personal take on the issue, and so is biased) is that the most skilled filmmakers, through direction, editing and all the atmospheric means at their disposal, can play the emotions of the viewers. They can manipulate a viewer's perception in order to encourage or suppress their own projections. Or, they can do the reverse. A really great filmmaker (and for that matter, author) can do this and not even make the viewer realize what was going on. There are a handful; John Sayles is the only name that comes to mind.
In this case, I wonder, if changing the sex of the character was a calculated, intelligent move, or just an attempt to distance the project from it's original form.