"Fragged" Reactions

New episode poll at right. What'd you think of Helo et al.'s absence in the episode?

No new Helo pics as there were no new Helo scenes, sadly. But you can hop over to Northern Lights to see some Tahmoh images if you're in withdrawal.

Convince me I'm wrong? I wasn't thrilled with "Fragged."

My reaction:

I love the series, but this is the first ep where I actually glanced at the clock.
My chief complaint is that the first half of the episode seemed to retread alot of ground we've covered before or even repeated itself (I guess for dramatic effect?).

It just seemed very slow and didn't seem to accomplish much (possibly in part due to the frenetic pace of the past two eps). They set up the confrontations for later in the episode, sure, but I felt they could have sped it up a bit, esp. as the last half seemed rushed. And it's not like I only like action on the show; I watch it for the characters not the battles, but I just felt we didn't gain much in terms of characterization:

Tigh drinks. Well, yes. He drinks some more. He gives bad orders under the influence of alcohol. Ellen Tigh schemes and is a bitch. The chief stands up to Crashdown. Six and Baltar have increasingly strange exchanges about humanity. Crash is a bad commander.

GOOD:
- Tigh revealing the prez's religious mission and inciting religious conflict. Heh. Now he has a political conflict and a religious one.

- The prez. recovering enough to give her statement.

- The backstory on Geminon.

- Baltar standing up to Six.

- The raptor blowing away the cylons.

BAD:
- retreading and repeating characterizations and storylines (as discussed above) to an excessive extent, esp. in light of the extensive use of "previously on Galactica." I often felt like they were beating a dead horse.

- I wasn't thrilled they made the prez go through withdrawal from the chamalla. I know it makes sense, but it just seemed too T'Pol Enterprise Season 2. The way the strong women on the show have been treated of late (and future spoilers) make me rather nervous. Starbuck and Boomer have been beaten to a bloody pulp and now the prez is going through withdrawal?

- Tigh's sudden declaration of martial law at the end of the ep, when he'd protested he wouldn't and seemed to realize what a mess he'd made. Did he just decide he'd already de facto declared martial law by not yielding to anyone's demands? Other than making his day less annoying, what does he really gain by doing this? I mean I guess it just fits in with his character, but I wish they'd transitioned that a bit more.

- Where's Boomer? Doesn't it seem odd no one has checked on her since the cylon attack?

- Helo/Starbuck? I know they can only devote so much time to each storyline and I wouldn't have minded ignoring them except that I felt so little happened in the first part of the ep they might as well have checked in with H/S.

In the final analysis, I probably wasn't thrilled with the ep as it foregrounded my least favorite characters and storylines: Kobol and Tigh in command. So maybe it was inevitable.

What was good about the ep that I'm overlooking? Or can you cast some of these elements in a different light?

I want to like the ep, but I was disappointed.