The Humble Origin of Dr. Gaius Baltar & Other Galactica Ramblings

Tweet

Brief essay and rambling commentary on recent events. Contains Spoilers On last night's episode of Battlestar Galactica (Dirty Hands, 3x15, aired on Sci-fi 2/25-06,) Dr. Gaius Baltar finally revealed his humble beginnings as a poor farm boy from Aerelon. With his book, "My Triumphs, My Mistakes," which was written during his time in Galactica's brig, Baltar inspires tension in the working class with his commentary on the oppression of the military aristocracy. While I believe Baltar was trying to stir up trouble so that when time comes for his trial he may inspire sympathy in his fellow man, I also think he was trying to cause enough trouble to draw attention away from his upcoming trial. While Gaius is in my top three as far as favorite characters go, I was with Chief Tyrol at first, disbelieving Baltar's story until the emotion of turning his back on everything he was shone through. In that moment, I truly understood everything Gaius Baltar ever did, and I could sympathize. So many of us have tried so desperately to shed our humble roots, pretended to be something we were not until we came to believe we had never been that horrible thing... that we were always the lie. Every selfish thing Baltar has every done, every lie he ever told has been to maintain the greatest lie of all--the lie he tells himself every time he looks into the mirror. My husband says I'm crazy, sympathizing with Baltar and the Cylons, but much of my Cylon sympathy movement was spawned during the building of Leoben and Starbuck's innerconnectedness. The philosophy Leoben spun like gossamer beauty into words made sense to many of my own personal spiritual beliefs, and I began to view the cylons the way they were trying to present themselves. Yes, the wiped out 98% of the human race, but Caprica Six and Sharon Eight both appealed to me in that they wanted to create peace. It reminded me of the spiritual wars we fight right here in the real world. Someone always more righteous and justified than another. Both ways right, neither believing they could be wrong, and certainly never any compromise, save for the few. I see Six and Eight in that middle ground, willing to compromise and come to peace. On that note, the previews for next week promise that Leoben will return, that he is coming for Starbuck and the mystery of her destiny is about to unfold. I still don't think she's a cylon, and while she isn't my favorite character most days, I do definitely find fascination in her story. I look forward to the unraveling of her secrets and more of the twisted skein of her intertwined destiny with Leoben. Now for this week's Cylon speculation. I've gone back and forth between Tyrol and Gaeta repeatedly. The only thing that redeems Gaeta is the yellow bowl secret exchange on New Caprica. I also discovered that the secret Gaius was going to taunt him with had something to do with his native origin, but there was a huge mistake in the script. The last few episodes were meant to focus on intercolonial racial tensions, and that was the big secret between Gaeta and Gaius, but for some reason it wasn't resolved properly, and instead we got a chunk of episodes with a common thread, but seemingly no tie to anything of major importance. Looking forward, as always, to next Sunday's episode.