BSG 2x02 - Valley of Darkness

[television]

I really enjoyed this episode. Galactica spends so much time running away that the cylons have never had a chance to board the ship, and it was really exciting to see the Galactica crew dealing with the enemy in such close quarters, for a change.

Maybe it was an unfortunate side effect of editing, but there's one place where I think the writing could have been sharpened up. Here are some excerpts from the dialogue from this episode. All of these lines occur within a period of about two minutes:

KELLEY

It's Apollo. He's on deck 12 at aft frame 8-6, between the cylons and Aft Damage Control.

[...]

TIGH

Take your men and proceed without delay to Aft Damage Control.

[...]

ROSLIN

All right, Corporal Venner [...] find us another way to sickbay.

VENNER

Okay, we have to head toward Aft Damage Control.

ROSLIN

Aft Damage Control.

LEE

Aft Damage Control.

TIGH

That's what they're after. [...] You get to Aft Damage Control [...] Get there before the cylons or we lose the ship. Is that clear?

LEE

Aft Damage Control. [...] Apollo out.

So, like, is this what a jackhammer in the ear feels like?

If you're sharp, you'll remember that Socinus, the engineer who dies, was the one who lied and claimed negligence during the inquest into the bombing on Galactica. He did this in order to protect the Chief, and was stripped of rank and thrown in the brig because of it. A lost plot point that was filmed but unfortunately not included in the final cut, was that Tyrol had just gotten Socinus out of the brig before being assigned to the expedition to Kobol.

I really like the speech Lee gives to Tigh at the end: "This isn't my ship... and it sure as hell isn't yours. It's his. And when he wakes up, he'll decide what to do with the both of us." Even though Tigh doesn't respond, you can see that he knows Lee is right. It's a rare moment of understanding, if not agreement, between the two of them.