bsg catch up post
BSG CATCH UP POST.
I know that I am way behind. (sometimes real life can be impossible), but I thought I might post some belated thoughts re UBEX.
"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other." -
Jack Handey.
I have do not an aggressive bone in my body. Not normally. When threatened, I run. I avoid conflict like the plague - assertiveness is definitely a work in progress for me. I don't even know how I got started boxing, really. I think I went along with a girlfriend to a fitness class and didn't realise till I got there that it was a boxercise program at a "real deal" a boxing gym - I really should read my texts more closely before hitting reply - I was pretty freaked out, I mean I have never been into boxing as a sport, but because I avoid conflict, I had to stay didn't I? And that was it. I don't know if I can explain it, but I just loved it. I loved watching the real boxers train - their ..control, their grace and strength, how light they were on their feet - I loved the adrenaline rush, and the feeling like I had genuinely worked out every muscle I could name (and some). I never picked up on any aggression,but rather an air of discipline and control.
I am by nature retiring, introverted, I like to watch, take it all in and reflect before speaking my thoughts outloud. And that is what kept me out of the ring (proper contact sparring) in my first year of boxing. I did everything else though worked the bags, the skipping ropes, the pads, the endless crunches and pushups. Then suddenly we all had to take turns in the ring with one of the "real" guys to help him practise and, well, I got hit. I never stood a chance. Even when he stood still I couldn’t hit him. He leaned, he blocked, he swayed, and he hit me hard enough to remind me to think, to move faster but never hard enough to do any harm. I was hooked - got a taste of the beauty and pleasure of boxing. I hurt my back a couple of years ago and stopped. A comment from becisvolatile a few months back got me interested again. I didn't realise how much I had missed it.
I still don’t really know why I like boxing so much, but after watching UBEX today, boxing reminds me of the way I feel about Unfinished business - as it was first aired - violent and brutal at times, yes, but also a heady rush, filled with moments of beauty and pleasure as well as pain.
"A lyrically orchestral love poem"
Apparently this was what RDM was looking for with Unfinished business. And that is pretty much how I see the aired version - a love poem dedicated to Lee and Kara, an elegiac lament to their starcrossed lovers. But if this version is the love poem, then as much as I ultimately prefer it in it's grace,it's rhythm, it's simplicity, then the extended version is the back story, the novelised version that informs our knowledge of these characters and their motivations as we move into season 4. UBEX enhances the aired episode giving us a greater depth of insight into who these chracters might be and why they behave in the way that they do. I now can't imagine one without the other.
Key moments for me included:
The extended version of Kara and Sam having sex at the beginning of the episode.
While my shippery heart wants to see Kara with no one but Lee, intellectually, I appreciated this scene and Kara's flashback (although perhaps clumsy - I can see why they cut it out) to having sex with Lee, because it really highlighted the differences in her relationships with these two men and highlighted her sense of confusion. The two scenes were such a stark contrast. The sex with Sam at the start seems so much more about working off some steam - it's very athletic- more 'scratching an itch' say, and says very little about love or tenderness, though I don't doubt for a minute that Kara has affection for Sam.
I also found it so interesting that Lee and kara respond psychologically to stress in such different ways. Kara in spite of her marriage difficulties is quite happy to have a booty call. Lee when offered by Dee, a(albeit in an obvious passive aggressive overture) similar way to work off his frustrations is clearly not interested. Not for a moment.
The extra dialogue between Lee and Kara at the ringside.
Unpleasant as it may have been to hear and witness, any extra interaction between these two is just gold, no matter how vitriolic and petty. Jamie and Katee's chemistry just burns hot and pure even here, particularly here. They are both so clearly angry with each other (we still don't know why and it is mesmerising) and blaming out, blaming the other for their own choices that have resulted in their current mutual distress. It almost didn't matter to me what they were saying to each other. Just look at their body language? They are right in each other's faces as usual, to the point where when Lee turns to face Kara and he just stares at her mouth with such heat and intensity, that I gasped, unsure as to whether he was going to hit her or kiss her. It was sooo good to see Lee let fly and totally lose it. He was delightful to watch....and so hot.
The extra dialogue between Lee and Dee ringside.
Lee quite clearly has affection for Dee (as Kara has for Sam), but it is even more obvious to the viewer and to Dee herself in this extended play by play, that Lee clearly doesn't love Dee with all of his heart and he never did, (despite of what he may later tell her in TAB when he tries to rationalise all of his guilt, his shabby behaviour as a husband.) he is totally focused on Kara, his eyes rarely leave her for a moment. He hears his wife's words, but only superficially. Dee's clumsy story about her childhood was so interesting - not the story, but Lee's response to it - The only time he reacts is after Kara drops her clanger about their night on New Caprica, but he still doesn't react in a Dee positive way. He remains throughout, totally enthralled by Kara. He cannot deny her as much as he might try.
The conversation between Kara and Athena.
I loved this. I loved that Kara was talking so openly here. I loved the open acknowledgemet of the UST (or so we think) between Lee and Kara and that Athena is aware of the heat between them too. I loved the reference to Zak, and that this UST dates back that far. This gives us so much more to speculate upon. It also lets us just that little more into Kara's psyche. She likes to keep things simple, under control, she doesn't want to be owned. Does this imply that she thought she could keep things like this, simple, more under her control, with Zak and Sam? Clearly from the start of the episode she doesn't respond well when Sam demonstrates posessiveness - wants more than to be a booty call. Now, with Lee, comes the implication that there has always been something between them, but that he keps making the same mistake. This just blows my mind. It totally fleshes out Kara's jibe to Lee that his father knows when to make a move - unlike his son. And Lee? well for me, Lee is possessive of Kara, conscious or not, with every fibre of his being. He is inescapably drawn to her. He wants everything, and it scares the hell out of both of them
Extended Lee and Kara love scene.
In addition to the extende house in the woods dialogue which I adored, I loved the extra moments that we got in this scene. It is totally different to any other sex scenes that we have seen Kara in before. It is not rough or boisterous, it is not about asserting control or dominance. Instead it is one filled with a palpable mutual love and tenderness, and accented by previously unseen moments of emotional openness and honesty between these characters. Such a quiet scene, but so much more affecting because of it. I loved that we heard their reactions (sighs and moans) during their love making in this version. I loved that following their shouted exclamations of love, that there was that brief moment of honesty between them. That moment where Kara asks Lee if he is sure that she is what he wants, breaks my heart all over again. She is so frightened, so vulnerable. I love that Lee was finally brave enough to make his feelings for Kara clear. He loves her - "I love you Kara Thrace". He wants them to end things with Dee and Sam. He tries to explain his fear -because of Zak and more- and because of his fear of needing someone as much as he needs her. It just saddens me beyond words that at this moment in time, kara is not as brave as Lee in spite of her "I love you too" or perhaps because of it. She is totally not ready for this. Not on the same page at all, and so perhaps from Kara's point of view, this is where Lee makes his mistake again. So Kara does what she knows best, she runs, she drinks with Tigh (I am not as enamoureded by this scene as others seem to be. Tigh just verbalised Kara's instinctive response and affirmed a decision that she had already made from the moment she left Lee), and she marries Sam the safe and easy. And Lee wakes up naked and alone, with the familiar taste of abandonement in his mouth.
Lee Dee proposal scene.
Unlike a lot of other people, I actually think that they should have kept it in. It is extremely informative, if unpleasant to watch, for both characters. It didn't play out at all like I had imagined it would (kind of in a TAB kind of way). I think I can understand and accept Dee's motivations - as flawed and self serving as they appear to me given that she openly acknowledges her awareness of Lee's feelings for Kara. I don't necessarily respect them. Likewise, I can understand Lee's even if I don't like them. I know that I am frequently seen as a Lee apologist, but I vehemently believe in this situation, that his motivations are far more sympathetic that Dee's. He was clearly in no state to be making decisions of that magnitude. He has just bared his heart and soul, his need, to the woman that he loves and woken to find that she has abandoned him to marry Sam. His father doesn't know him, doesn't see his grief. Lee is totally traumatised. His reaction is so visceral, so acute, he is so shocked and consumed by his own misery that he fails to see the apology, the sorrow in Kara's eyes when he confronts her. And so, Lee does what he knows best. He lashes out, and in combining his rage, his feelings of absolute rejection and abandonment, his fear of being alone, he proposes to Dee in the most dreadful kneejerk way. Kudos to Jamie Bamber. He still has that dazed, visceral look about him, that look as though he may vomit at any moment. He actually, to me, initially looked appalled when Dee said yes, as though he could not believe it, and this expression then melded into a curious blend of, horror at what he had now committed them both to, self disgust, and, relief that he would not have to face Kara's absense from his life alone. His Appollonian mask will be restored firmly in place. Is it any wonder that he subsequently lost his sense of a meaningful existenceand fell into a state of total apathy and depression? My heart bleeds for him.
The final hug scene in the ring.
I still love this scene in any way shape or form. I love their final exhausted collapse entwined together onto the mat. Oblivious to all others like they are in their own world, their "I missed you's" so intensely personal. HoweverI still prefer the aired version which included the beautiful, romantic montage of Lee and Kara's romance thus far, and which chose to end with a tight focus on their faces at the moment they renewed their connection. This effectivly shut out everybody and everything else, focused entirely upon them, their love story. As it should. It's not over.
And so the dance continues. I can't wait to see what season 4 will bring.
I know that I am way behind. (sometimes real life can be impossible), but I thought I might post some belated thoughts re UBEX.
"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other." -
Jack Handey.
I have do not an aggressive bone in my body. Not normally. When threatened, I run. I avoid conflict like the plague - assertiveness is definitely a work in progress for me. I don't even know how I got started boxing, really. I think I went along with a girlfriend to a fitness class and didn't realise till I got there that it was a boxercise program at a "real deal" a boxing gym - I really should read my texts more closely before hitting reply - I was pretty freaked out, I mean I have never been into boxing as a sport, but because I avoid conflict, I had to stay didn't I? And that was it. I don't know if I can explain it, but I just loved it. I loved watching the real boxers train - their ..control, their grace and strength, how light they were on their feet - I loved the adrenaline rush, and the feeling like I had genuinely worked out every muscle I could name (and some). I never picked up on any aggression,but rather an air of discipline and control.
I am by nature retiring, introverted, I like to watch, take it all in and reflect before speaking my thoughts outloud. And that is what kept me out of the ring (proper contact sparring) in my first year of boxing. I did everything else though worked the bags, the skipping ropes, the pads, the endless crunches and pushups. Then suddenly we all had to take turns in the ring with one of the "real" guys to help him practise and, well, I got hit. I never stood a chance. Even when he stood still I couldn’t hit him. He leaned, he blocked, he swayed, and he hit me hard enough to remind me to think, to move faster but never hard enough to do any harm. I was hooked - got a taste of the beauty and pleasure of boxing. I hurt my back a couple of years ago and stopped. A comment from becisvolatile a few months back got me interested again. I didn't realise how much I had missed it.
I still don’t really know why I like boxing so much, but after watching UBEX today, boxing reminds me of the way I feel about Unfinished business - as it was first aired - violent and brutal at times, yes, but also a heady rush, filled with moments of beauty and pleasure as well as pain.
"A lyrically orchestral love poem"
Apparently this was what RDM was looking for with Unfinished business. And that is pretty much how I see the aired version - a love poem dedicated to Lee and Kara, an elegiac lament to their starcrossed lovers. But if this version is the love poem, then as much as I ultimately prefer it in it's grace,it's rhythm, it's simplicity, then the extended version is the back story, the novelised version that informs our knowledge of these characters and their motivations as we move into season 4. UBEX enhances the aired episode giving us a greater depth of insight into who these chracters might be and why they behave in the way that they do. I now can't imagine one without the other.
Key moments for me included:
The extended version of Kara and Sam having sex at the beginning of the episode.
While my shippery heart wants to see Kara with no one but Lee, intellectually, I appreciated this scene and Kara's flashback (although perhaps clumsy - I can see why they cut it out) to having sex with Lee, because it really highlighted the differences in her relationships with these two men and highlighted her sense of confusion. The two scenes were such a stark contrast. The sex with Sam at the start seems so much more about working off some steam - it's very athletic- more 'scratching an itch' say, and says very little about love or tenderness, though I don't doubt for a minute that Kara has affection for Sam.
I also found it so interesting that Lee and kara respond psychologically to stress in such different ways. Kara in spite of her marriage difficulties is quite happy to have a booty call. Lee when offered by Dee, a(albeit in an obvious passive aggressive overture) similar way to work off his frustrations is clearly not interested. Not for a moment.
The extra dialogue between Lee and Kara at the ringside.
Unpleasant as it may have been to hear and witness, any extra interaction between these two is just gold, no matter how vitriolic and petty. Jamie and Katee's chemistry just burns hot and pure even here, particularly here. They are both so clearly angry with each other (we still don't know why and it is mesmerising) and blaming out, blaming the other for their own choices that have resulted in their current mutual distress. It almost didn't matter to me what they were saying to each other. Just look at their body language? They are right in each other's faces as usual, to the point where when Lee turns to face Kara and he just stares at her mouth with such heat and intensity, that I gasped, unsure as to whether he was going to hit her or kiss her. It was sooo good to see Lee let fly and totally lose it. He was delightful to watch....and so hot.
The extra dialogue between Lee and Dee ringside.
Lee quite clearly has affection for Dee (as Kara has for Sam), but it is even more obvious to the viewer and to Dee herself in this extended play by play, that Lee clearly doesn't love Dee with all of his heart and he never did, (despite of what he may later tell her in TAB when he tries to rationalise all of his guilt, his shabby behaviour as a husband.) he is totally focused on Kara, his eyes rarely leave her for a moment. He hears his wife's words, but only superficially. Dee's clumsy story about her childhood was so interesting - not the story, but Lee's response to it - The only time he reacts is after Kara drops her clanger about their night on New Caprica, but he still doesn't react in a Dee positive way. He remains throughout, totally enthralled by Kara. He cannot deny her as much as he might try.
The conversation between Kara and Athena.
I loved this. I loved that Kara was talking so openly here. I loved the open acknowledgemet of the UST (or so we think) between Lee and Kara and that Athena is aware of the heat between them too. I loved the reference to Zak, and that this UST dates back that far. This gives us so much more to speculate upon. It also lets us just that little more into Kara's psyche. She likes to keep things simple, under control, she doesn't want to be owned. Does this imply that she thought she could keep things like this, simple, more under her control, with Zak and Sam? Clearly from the start of the episode she doesn't respond well when Sam demonstrates posessiveness - wants more than to be a booty call. Now, with Lee, comes the implication that there has always been something between them, but that he keps making the same mistake. This just blows my mind. It totally fleshes out Kara's jibe to Lee that his father knows when to make a move - unlike his son. And Lee? well for me, Lee is possessive of Kara, conscious or not, with every fibre of his being. He is inescapably drawn to her. He wants everything, and it scares the hell out of both of them
Extended Lee and Kara love scene.
In addition to the extende house in the woods dialogue which I adored, I loved the extra moments that we got in this scene. It is totally different to any other sex scenes that we have seen Kara in before. It is not rough or boisterous, it is not about asserting control or dominance. Instead it is one filled with a palpable mutual love and tenderness, and accented by previously unseen moments of emotional openness and honesty between these characters. Such a quiet scene, but so much more affecting because of it. I loved that we heard their reactions (sighs and moans) during their love making in this version. I loved that following their shouted exclamations of love, that there was that brief moment of honesty between them. That moment where Kara asks Lee if he is sure that she is what he wants, breaks my heart all over again. She is so frightened, so vulnerable. I love that Lee was finally brave enough to make his feelings for Kara clear. He loves her - "I love you Kara Thrace". He wants them to end things with Dee and Sam. He tries to explain his fear -because of Zak and more- and because of his fear of needing someone as much as he needs her. It just saddens me beyond words that at this moment in time, kara is not as brave as Lee in spite of her "I love you too" or perhaps because of it. She is totally not ready for this. Not on the same page at all, and so perhaps from Kara's point of view, this is where Lee makes his mistake again. So Kara does what she knows best, she runs, she drinks with Tigh (I am not as enamoureded by this scene as others seem to be. Tigh just verbalised Kara's instinctive response and affirmed a decision that she had already made from the moment she left Lee), and she marries Sam the safe and easy. And Lee wakes up naked and alone, with the familiar taste of abandonement in his mouth.
Lee Dee proposal scene.
Unlike a lot of other people, I actually think that they should have kept it in. It is extremely informative, if unpleasant to watch, for both characters. It didn't play out at all like I had imagined it would (kind of in a TAB kind of way). I think I can understand and accept Dee's motivations - as flawed and self serving as they appear to me given that she openly acknowledges her awareness of Lee's feelings for Kara. I don't necessarily respect them. Likewise, I can understand Lee's even if I don't like them. I know that I am frequently seen as a Lee apologist, but I vehemently believe in this situation, that his motivations are far more sympathetic that Dee's. He was clearly in no state to be making decisions of that magnitude. He has just bared his heart and soul, his need, to the woman that he loves and woken to find that she has abandoned him to marry Sam. His father doesn't know him, doesn't see his grief. Lee is totally traumatised. His reaction is so visceral, so acute, he is so shocked and consumed by his own misery that he fails to see the apology, the sorrow in Kara's eyes when he confronts her. And so, Lee does what he knows best. He lashes out, and in combining his rage, his feelings of absolute rejection and abandonment, his fear of being alone, he proposes to Dee in the most dreadful kneejerk way. Kudos to Jamie Bamber. He still has that dazed, visceral look about him, that look as though he may vomit at any moment. He actually, to me, initially looked appalled when Dee said yes, as though he could not believe it, and this expression then melded into a curious blend of, horror at what he had now committed them both to, self disgust, and, relief that he would not have to face Kara's absense from his life alone. His Appollonian mask will be restored firmly in place. Is it any wonder that he subsequently lost his sense of a meaningful existenceand fell into a state of total apathy and depression? My heart bleeds for him.
The final hug scene in the ring.
I still love this scene in any way shape or form. I love their final exhausted collapse entwined together onto the mat. Oblivious to all others like they are in their own world, their "I missed you's" so intensely personal. HoweverI still prefer the aired version which included the beautiful, romantic montage of Lee and Kara's romance thus far, and which chose to end with a tight focus on their faces at the moment they renewed their connection. This effectivly shut out everybody and everything else, focused entirely upon them, their love story. As it should. It's not over.
And so the dance continues. I can't wait to see what season 4 will bring.