In a surprising twist, Battlestar Galactica gave us an episode that was juuuust about one hundred percent flashback free! And no DeeLee or Anders! With just a smattering of Starbuck to remind us that she doesn’t die for a couple weeks the episode revolves around Chief Tyrol uniting the workers of the fleet and rallying them into a strike. You’d think with such a promising premise there would be no way the Captain had wiggle room to complain but like xmas ham on easter morning, this episode stunk and scared all the children away.

I don’t have a problem with character-centric storylines, per se. It’s when these storylines are the entirety of an episode without any forward movement of the actual plot that I speak up. Take the Helo and Sharon storyline from season one for example. The two of them are slowly, madly falling in love with one another despite the inherent differences of ideology and physiology, to only name two. It was done over several episodes and mixed with ass kicking amounts of shooting, running, screaming and without sole attention being paid to it. The writers just let it happen and didn’t sit and devote an entire episode to it chock full of flashbacks and dramatic pauses. Instead we got to sit around and watch the Galactica getting beat the fuck up, Starbuck struggle with her inner demons and Baltar slowly go insane. And we watched Helo and Sharon fall in love and get all preggers.

I have a sinking feeling that this season would treat that storyline differently. The feel of the show has changed and not for the better. Instead of weaving storylines together into an enticing mesh the writers are separating the plot into ala carte entrees with other storylines serving as appetizers, perhaps to be made into entrees of their own but not at this meal. Good television just doesn’t work this way. I’m not intrigued when they haven’t dealt with Colonel Tigh in almost a month. His ab sense has been noticeable and isn’t causing me to craft alibis for him in my mind, wondering what wacky hijinks he’s been up to. Instead I picture him sitting in his quarters, drinking and wondering when he’ll be called to appear on camera next and why he killed his wife on New Caprica when all it would get him was co-billing in what was essentially an Adama-centric episode near the start of the season. The same can be said for Starbuck being Starbuck. We’ve seen Starbuck-Anders all over the place but what about the brash, rebellious pilot of last season? Did faux motherhood take the edge off? I’d be interested to know, the writers are going to address that next week it appears but why has it taken this long and what did we gain from leaving her character development on hold?

And let’s address Baltar, he’s been an afterthought since the end of last season. He serves to pull plot out of others, he’s a crutch and nothing more. Maybe in the coming weeks as the season grinds to a close we’ll get somewhere with him but in the meanwhile I’ve almost forgotten this is the same Baltar that forged Sharon’s Cylon test results and smuggled a nuclear warhead onto Cloud Nine. Or even the Baltar and fiddled while New Caprica burned. He’s just been Baltar that Walks With Cylons or Baltar, Threesome Toy with optional talking head. He could have stayed with the Cylons and at least had more robot nookie but the show deemed that to be Not Boring Enough so we get Baltar, Inmate and pseudo political entity (with optional talking head).

Caprica Six? Almost did something with her last week, huh. Oh well, could’ve followed up on that but we’ll just not bother. Hey! More Tyrol time for everyone! He’s so blue collar, so hard working. Gosh it was awesome to see him organize a strike for the mining workers only to cave like Mammoth when Admiral Adama threatens to put Cally against a bulkhead and shoot her for treason. A real activist would’ve dared him to do it and then ripped out his own eyes, tossed ‘em at Adama and set himself on fire. But Tyrol just makes some silly faces and calls the strike off. Way to go, Chief. Show ‘em what you’re made of – gelatin.

So we’re down to the last few episodes. I’ll go ahead and spoil things for you because this season has treated us fans with disdain and annoyance, more of a bother than anything. Starbuck supposedly dies but really makes a break for Earth after realizing she’s known the location all along (see the whole Eye of Jupiter painted on her wall back on Caprica for evidence). Dee turns out to be a Cylon, big surprise there. Not sure of what else but I’m sure it will lead to some sort of climactic cliffhanger of a season finale with webisodes to tide us over until the inevitably disappointing season four begins. Battlestar Galactica? More like Boringstar Galactica.

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