Season 2, Episode 14: "Black Market"

Fenster

It looks like another episode centered on the civillian fleet.

Peace

This one got an ok from me.

I felt that after a few cracking episodes of the last couple of weeks that this one was a little flat but thats fair enough, you can't keep a pace like that up indefinately.

I also got the feeling that they were jiggling a lot of stuff into the episode to get geared up for the finish. Baltars vice presidency is one example. I would imagine that his hunger for power will increase after his chat with el presidente. Zarek turning up in the Promethius at the end (probable new head of the black market).

Pegasus needs a new commander so i suppose it'll be Tigh. Not a great situation to put him in seeing as his wife is in cahoots with Zarek and she wants him to be commander of the fleet.

Johnny Storm

Very good Lee Adama episode

Line of the year (oe maybe the whole series) Lee to Tigh: "That doesn't make us right colonel... just a whole lot of people wrong"

PS Tigh needs to hit the gym, pronto.

Goodshape

Fairly melodramatic and the story was ****e, but a nice look at the wider picture at the same time. I think overall it was better than last weeks.

Lemming

An "ok" from me as well. As Peace already said, it'd be hard to keep the pace up after the last few episodes, so it's understandably just "ok" rather than amazing. But episodse 13 & 14 have felt very much like primers for further story arcs rather than stories in themselves.

User45701

i enjoyed this episode i cant think of a episode of bsg that i didnt like and i cant tbhink of one its a very good series that dosent have too many fillers all episodes contain something import to the overall stroy arc

this episode was good but i do think that Zarek ws in controll all along that he is playing everyone and pulling all the strings

Dunners

To be honest I was expecting this to be a pretty crap episode and little more than a filler after the cracking last few episodes. Boy was I wrong!

This was a good solid episode. I thought it was told very well and all the sub-plots have been advanced nicely, they could have easily brushed over the President's revelations from the last episode and while I still don't think it's clear that she fully remembers/recognises who Gaius was with on Caprica there's definately more tension there which should be cracking, might even lead to an attempted coup by Gaius?

Great episode, only down point: disappointed Fisk died especially so early in the episode, thought his character could have been good from the Pegasus episodes.

P.S.
How do you do the funky spoiler stuff? is there a specific tag? Cheers.

Johnny Storm

Dunners wrote:

Great episode, only down point disappointed Fisk died especially so early in the episode, thought his character could have been good from the Pegasus episodes.

Yeah, they killed him off a bit too quick didn't they? Also, they way they portrayed him as a "pig" in this ep (and, horror, not kissing El Prez's ass enough) was quite jarring seeing as he was practically the hero of the Pegasus just last week.

Does anyone think that they should NOT have had that several month break? It seems to have killed off quite a bit of momentum.

Tazzle

should check out Ronald D. Moore's podcast on the episode, he was pretty pissed off with this episode too, feels it doesn't fit with what he's been trying to do with BSG. So mistakes have been learnt from, and next week will hopefully be back to some proper BSG.

Vokes

Thought it was excellent myself. Some fantastic acting from Jamie Bamber, imo. Im glad the writers haven't finished with the fleet's logistics problem after dealing with fuel in Hand of God and water in errr....Water. The fleet it seems is also running short on meds and cigars. There's also a roaring brothel trade and there's others, still, that have other more horrific needs (children). I guess the writers felt they needed that as it wouldve normally been out of character for Lee to shoot someone in the head. (Was Black Market Head Guy in Predator the movie btw )

The episode also raises other questions for future eps...

Why didn't Roslin confront Baltar about seeing him with Six on Caprica? Particularly since she wanted him to resign. What's she saving this nugget of information for?

Why haven't the fleet yet noticed there's a nuke missing? I really hope there's a good explanation for this.

What happened to Lee's girlfriend on Caprica? Is she still alive? Maybe she's a Cylon?

And who will be the new commander of the Pegasus? We should have a poll on this. /votes Starbuck

monkeyfudge

I wasn't expecting much from this episode either, but I found to be a good solid enjoyable episode.

They really seem to be going down the Lost road now though... that's two weeks in a row with flashbacks to a characters life before the attack, that reveals a little bit more about the character and has some bearing on their current situation. I'm not complaining though, as they pull it off very well which is something Lost seems to be failing to do this season.

I'm glad that they are yet again going over some themes that the original series touched on but never actually developed that much. Cassiopeia in the old series was a 'socialator', but they never really went anywhere with that.

It did annoy me slightly that Apollo was leaving vital evidence with every person he interviewed.

Tazzle

SofaKing wrote:

Why haven't the fleet yet noticed there's a nuke missing? I really hope there's a good explanation for this.

The nuke was balthar's for experimenting with in making the cylon detector. As for the new pegasus commander, it has to be a new actor, probably whoever they decide was pegasus' new CO to replace fisk.

monkeyfudge

They'd want to do something about the captains quarters on the Pegasus.

Anyone seems to be able to wander in to murder the commanding officer.

CuLT

monkeyfudge wrote:

They'd want to do something about the captains quarters on the Pegasus.

Anyone seems to be able to wander in to murder the commanding officer.

that's a feature. :v:

Fenster

CuLT wrote:

that's a feature. :v:

I lol'd.

I wasn't too impressed with the episode myself. On one hand, you do have a big fleet out there that deserves attention - things are sure to be in short supply out there. This topic and the fleet does get dealt with more much later in the season, but I can't say more without getting shot. (PM me for spoilerage ).

But I digress! The whole episode seemed to be Lee alternately being melancholic or playing tough guy, which really wore thin after about five minutes. Still, the scenes with Baltar were fantastic, as always. You did get the impression that things are starting to break down in the fleet, though.

On the whole, it gets a great big "meh"

klash

I can't stand Lee, hes the biggest whingebag character in any show ever. (Maybe not as bad as Crusher on TNG) but very close.

Theres ALWAYS something wrong with him and hes such a little pounce, why in gods name did he join the military ? In fact if someone went through a military training and came out the other end like him then they seriously need to look at how they recruit.

I hate him just slightly less then the President and shes the mother of all annoyances. The only thing she has going for her is she at least has shown a pair of balls in past episodes (Kill Kane to Adama).

Johnny Storm

Actually that's part of why I liked this ep (the other reason was my lowered expectations). I was getting particularly annoyed with him after he said he didn't want to be rescued when the Blackbird broke up. I thought in this ep Lee did demonstrate some balls.

Nuttzz

it was a nice idea but poorly done, not found of these "ending first" eps and then a flash back to 48 hours eariler...

madrab

wasnt expecting much from this episode, but i really enjoyed it as a character episode (take note stargate!!!)

loved seeing the underside of the fleet, really makes it seem more realistic (like b5's "down below")

once again baltar is the man, & tighe is really growing on me

Haruspex

Like most posters before me, this episode left me lukewarm. I liked the premise of the black market itself and a deeper exploration of the civilian fleet but it just didn't seem to have that special BSG grittiness to it for some reason. It was as if the constituent parts didn't gel together easily.

There were some good aspects: the scene between Tigh and Apollo; the rising animosity between Roslin and Baltar; and the reappearance of Tom Zarek.

I know from listening to the podcast for this episode that RDM didn't like the final product at all. At least he's willing to own up when he gets it wrong and this can only bode well for the future. It's hard to maintain consistent high quality across a 20 episode season as opposed to 13 last season but that should really be no excuse as he sees it.

My overall grade: In need of improvement, must try harder next time.

Roll on "Scar"...

Stark

A very boring episode I thought. We should make the polls public again so I can see what idiots keep voting "Amazing" week in week out regardless of the episode.

DeVore

I thought it was a good episode (though I havent voted). It rose above OK for the scene where he executes the head of the underground. I've always wanted to see someone shoot the smug baddie who just sits there saying "you wont kill me, you're not like *bang*". If anyone was going to do it, BSG would!

Contrary to other opinions here I have a feeling these episodes are needed and also not too bad in themselves! I liked this and I really liked Skar.

Oh, if you haven't already worked it out, I'm a total BSG nut. I've even started collecting it on UMD for the PSP.

DeV.

User45701

DeVore wrote:

I thought it was a good episode (though I havent voted). It rose above OK for the scene where he executes the head of the underground. I've always wanted to see someone shoot the smug baddie who just sits there saying "you wont kill me, you're not like *bang*". If anyone was going to do it, BSG would!

Contrary to other opinions here I have a feeling these episodes are needed and also not too bad in themselves! I liked this and I really liked Skar.

DeV.

I actually hunted out this old topic to say more less that.
I remember when it aired allot of people didn't like it, I am re watching it now and I have to say it is a good episode and i just felt like posting here and advising those who thought it was only ok to give it another shot.

Overheal

I have it on Dvd so Ive watched through once or twice. I liked it, because it was a deviation from the norm

MisterAnarchy

I thought this was a very good episode.
RDM didnt like it himself but I think it is a fine episode.