Episode Report Card Strega: C+ | 16 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Maybe If Robert Culp Had Narrated...
By Strega | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2005.01.28
A forklift trundles onto the flight deck. We spend enough time looking at it to start getting the feeling that things aren't going to stay this jolly for long. The pilots chant, "Three little Cylons in the air/ Watch their metal burn and flare." Festive!
Starbuck continues, "So he skids to a stop on the flight deck, and the LSO hears over the flight deck this big, loud, long obnoxious --" and then she blows a raspberry. Huh. That didn't seem worth the build-up. Apollo seems amused., though.
The forklift starts to lower the ammo. The pilots chant, "Two little Cylons jump in a cave/ Come on A-Cars, make their grave."
Starbuck tells Apollo that the LSO was pissed off, but Adama figured he could do anything because it was his thousandth landing. Oh, maybe the funny part of the story is still coming. I hope so.
One of the straps holding the ammo breaks. The pilots keep spinning Flat-Top in circles. "Five little Cylons in the grass/ Watch that raptor light their ass." How'd they get back to five? I think they're doing this out of order. We get a Flat-Top POV shot of the deck whirling around. The second strap on the ammo snaps, and a rocket or some damn thing falls onto the deck, lights up, and takes off.
Rocket POV shot as it zooms across the flight deck toward Flat-Top and the pilots. Flat-Top gets time for an "Oh shit!" reaction. I very nearly do a spit-take.
Adama, Starbuck, and Apollo stop upon hearing the explosion nearby, and then run toward the flight deck as the fire crews are called. Now we're never going to know what happened between Adama and the LSO. Rats.
Credits. The Sci-Fi channel would like you to know that Alien vs. Predator is now on DVD, if you can't find enough fanfic on the internet.
Starbuck's Viper plummets.
It's some time after the accident, and someone's explaining that the straps broke due to metal fatigue. She points out that the ship's full of old equipment, and also clarifies that the rocket-thingy was a "million cubit drone." Okay, so "clarifies" was the wrong word for that. She expositions that thirteen pilots are dead, and seven are in sickbay. We see the nasty singed section of the deck as she adds that it would have been much worse if it had been a missile instead of a "com drone." Aha! Thank you, exposition-lady. Tyrol broods over the fact that he's never had someone die on his flight deck before. This episode has guilt for everybody, doesn't it? That's cool. I'm a fan of guilt. Not so much of flashbacks, but so it goes.