"Oh to be Caprican, the seat of politics, culture, art, science, learning..."
SO SAY WE ALL: Chief Tyrol navigates a labor dispute on the fuel refinery ship.
REVIEW: A very interesting episode that exposes the fleet's population naturally migrating towards a caste system. It's all in Baltar's book, smuggled out of prison, and he's absolutely right even if his agenda is entirely self-serving. That, more than anything, blinds the higher-ups to the problem, though haven't we JUST had this kind of conflict in the Helo/Sagittaron episode? Can Adama and Roslin keep being on the wrong side of an argument for long before we stop seeing them as heroes? In this case, Chief Tyrol takes the baton of righteous social justice and runs with it, which makes perfect sense. On New Caprica, he was union leader and using Marxist rhetoric to get the workers organized. Now that the overlords are human, not Cylon, and that he is once more a military man, it takes time for him to see the light. He does what he's told, and he's angry with the would-be strikers he himself partly inspired.
Not that we can't see Adama and Roslin's position. The fleet is on the run, and only the fact that it's been months since the last Cylon attack allows the respite needed for the fleet's workers to think about their situation and rebel. The refinery ship has a lot of negotiating power, or so it believes, because, shades of Dune, "the gas must flow!" and the reserves are getting dry. More than that, impurities in the fuel is causing accidents, which is a bit draconian. It does allow the episode to start with a bang, as a Raptor malfunctions and crashes into Colonial-One, right at the president's office. Unfortunately, we come back from opening credits with no pay-off, everyone's fine, just have to move to more cramped quarters during repairs. Lame. But that's where the higher-ups are coming from. The strike could put the fleet at risk if they can't jump out of there, and the workers are (ambiguously perhaps, but still) causing sabotage that could have cost human lives. (Given BSG's track record, it's surprising it didn't.) So yes, Roslin doesn't really want to negotiate, and Adama threatens to have Cally and other MILITARY dissenters executed for mutiny, but they're doing what they have to. To their credit, they don't go beyond that. Adama gives Tyrol what he asks for once he's ended the military strike (which just can't happen), and Roslin mints him the fleet's union leader, recognizing the social problem the situation has caused. Ultimately, it's about pushing against the reality Baltar has described as a done deal and taking away his political power.
And that's the really interesting thing in all this. Because the situation is desperate, people have just been doing the work they were already trained to do, and teaching their kids to take over because those kids live there. Poor colonies have bred blue-collar workers, and rich colonies desk jockeys. And with no real cross-pollination, and no time to really enact such safely (a kid with little experience gets transferred and maimed to put the point across), it's going to stay that way. Capricans on top, poor colonies doing the grunt work. I'm less convinced about the way this translates to the Galactica crew, even if I accept a pilot is more privileged than an engineer. Seelix can't become a nugget because she's from a poor colony? I don't know about that. It doesn't help that they give her an excuse like she can't be spared below decks though her duties include laundry. In the end, they rectify the mistake and now she can probably look forward to a short life getting her ass blown up in a dogfight. Similarly, is there truth to the idea that Dualla only became an officer because she married a Caprican? I don't think so, but it's optics, isn't it? That it's PERCEIVED that way speaks to the divide between rich and poop colonies as things stand.
ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE AND IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN: This situation is not at all like modern class struggle on Earth. Not at all. [Cough]
CAPRICANADA: The tylium refinery is really Roger's Sugar Mill in Vancouver, so I guess the ships in the fleet run on refined sugar.
HUMAN DEATH TOLL: We went from 41,398, to 41,400, so two more births. No one is killed in this episode despite several opportunities.
VERSIONS: Deleted scenes show Cally whispering unionizing nothings in Tyrol's ear at night, and discussing how the pool of candidates for the refinery ship all being from poor colonies (a point Tyrol later makes to the President). As scripted, Baltar would have been stripped naked during the search.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - I especially affect episodes that show what it would be like to live on a ragtag fleet of ships, and this is one of the better takes, exploring the far-reaching social consequences on the dregs of humanity.
REVIEW: A very interesting episode that exposes the fleet's population naturally migrating towards a caste system. It's all in Baltar's book, smuggled out of prison, and he's absolutely right even if his agenda is entirely self-serving. That, more than anything, blinds the higher-ups to the problem, though haven't we JUST had this kind of conflict in the Helo/Sagittaron episode? Can Adama and Roslin keep being on the wrong side of an argument for long before we stop seeing them as heroes? In this case, Chief Tyrol takes the baton of righteous social justice and runs with it, which makes perfect sense. On New Caprica, he was union leader and using Marxist rhetoric to get the workers organized. Now that the overlords are human, not Cylon, and that he is once more a military man, it takes time for him to see the light. He does what he's told, and he's angry with the would-be strikers he himself partly inspired.
Not that we can't see Adama and Roslin's position. The fleet is on the run, and only the fact that it's been months since the last Cylon attack allows the respite needed for the fleet's workers to think about their situation and rebel. The refinery ship has a lot of negotiating power, or so it believes, because, shades of Dune, "the gas must flow!" and the reserves are getting dry. More than that, impurities in the fuel is causing accidents, which is a bit draconian. It does allow the episode to start with a bang, as a Raptor malfunctions and crashes into Colonial-One, right at the president's office. Unfortunately, we come back from opening credits with no pay-off, everyone's fine, just have to move to more cramped quarters during repairs. Lame. But that's where the higher-ups are coming from. The strike could put the fleet at risk if they can't jump out of there, and the workers are (ambiguously perhaps, but still) causing sabotage that could have cost human lives. (Given BSG's track record, it's surprising it didn't.) So yes, Roslin doesn't really want to negotiate, and Adama threatens to have Cally and other MILITARY dissenters executed for mutiny, but they're doing what they have to. To their credit, they don't go beyond that. Adama gives Tyrol what he asks for once he's ended the military strike (which just can't happen), and Roslin mints him the fleet's union leader, recognizing the social problem the situation has caused. Ultimately, it's about pushing against the reality Baltar has described as a done deal and taking away his political power.
And that's the really interesting thing in all this. Because the situation is desperate, people have just been doing the work they were already trained to do, and teaching their kids to take over because those kids live there. Poor colonies have bred blue-collar workers, and rich colonies desk jockeys. And with no real cross-pollination, and no time to really enact such safely (a kid with little experience gets transferred and maimed to put the point across), it's going to stay that way. Capricans on top, poor colonies doing the grunt work. I'm less convinced about the way this translates to the Galactica crew, even if I accept a pilot is more privileged than an engineer. Seelix can't become a nugget because she's from a poor colony? I don't know about that. It doesn't help that they give her an excuse like she can't be spared below decks though her duties include laundry. In the end, they rectify the mistake and now she can probably look forward to a short life getting her ass blown up in a dogfight. Similarly, is there truth to the idea that Dualla only became an officer because she married a Caprican? I don't think so, but it's optics, isn't it? That it's PERCEIVED that way speaks to the divide between rich and poop colonies as things stand.
ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE AND IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN: This situation is not at all like modern class struggle on Earth. Not at all. [Cough]
CAPRICANADA: The tylium refinery is really Roger's Sugar Mill in Vancouver, so I guess the ships in the fleet run on refined sugar.
HUMAN DEATH TOLL: We went from 41,398, to 41,400, so two more births. No one is killed in this episode despite several opportunities.
VERSIONS: Deleted scenes show Cally whispering unionizing nothings in Tyrol's ear at night, and discussing how the pool of candidates for the refinery ship all being from poor colonies (a point Tyrol later makes to the President). As scripted, Baltar would have been stripped naked during the search.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - I especially affect episodes that show what it would be like to live on a ragtag fleet of ships, and this is one of the better takes, exploring the far-reaching social consequences on the dregs of humanity.
Comments
(I think the crash at the beginning does pay off, mind. A serious thing happens and the only result is that Rosalin has to move to a slightly different office. Whereas when things go wrong for the blue collar guys they lose an arm or die.)