lyssie: (Dayna Soolin)
lyssie ([personal profile] lyssie) wrote2006-08-26 05:11 pm
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the thing about Trial...

Well, the thing about Trial is, see, that it seems quite a shit episode until you rip apart the politics and realize it's rather brilliant. It makes me wonder if the Federation would get the same deal from the Cylons.

Anyway. There is a quite lovely eye-fuckage scene between Avon and Cally in the teleport area. And then Blake and Cally do a slightly happier, less intense version of it a little later.

And then there's Travis. Just totally knowing what's happening, totally playing Thania (I'm sure she did find out that majors die easily--perhaps Trooper Parr did it himself).

Servalan. Even with Travis pointing a gun at her, she doesn't look at all worried. As though she never had a doubt she'd still live (cross this with her reaction to being held at gunpoint by Jenna. Because Jenna would kill her--Jenna would kill Travis, but as Blake says it would be a mercy killing). Servalan, whom Grayza is a pale, sex-crazed imitation of.

Blake is apparently from the south, wants to marry his cousin and all...

Oh, right. Trial.

It's been a while since I bothered watching the Blake bits, as, well, I'd seen them a lot, and Blake being Angst-boy was quite boring. But it makes an interesting counterpoint to Travis' trial, AND the Liberator discussion of morality.

God, Cally looks awful in that beige thing. Can we have that lovely crushed-cranberry-thing back? It was a bit too fussy and ornate, but at least she didn't look like she'd fade into a wall.

Servalan, for the record, does not fade into a wall in pure white. And she's surrounded by pure white on a high scale.

BERCOL AND RONTANE. I'm saddened that they are now dead.

[identity profile] redstarrobot.livejournal.com 2006-08-26 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Trial seems shit, until you realize that it's not about Blake and company at all, it's about the Federation; Travis isn't the filler, Blake is. The politics and social commentary are amazing, between all combinations of Thania, Parr, Travis, and Servalan.

I'm sure Bercol and Rontane survived. I mean, like rats, they must desert sinking ships and so on.

Sadly, I missed the eye-fuckage. Now I desire OT3.

Servalan and Travis are marvelous in it. They're using each other, and both too wise to what's going on to be anything but jaded, while both Thania and Parr have illusions about the rules they're playing under (Thania perhaps even more than Parr, although Parr clearly has the greater sense of ethics). And Servalan knows she's in no danger from him; she knows she's creating a tool, not an enemy. And, yes, she never fades into white, despite living in a completely monochrome world of pure white. Often imitated, never equaled.