Scar (Battlestar Galactica)
"Scar" | |
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Cylon Raider, nicknamed Scar | |
Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 15 |
Directed by | Michael Nankin |
Written by | David Weddle Bradley Thompson |
Original air date | February 3, 2006 |
Guest appearances | |
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"Scar" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on February 3, 2006.
In the episode, Viper pilots
Executive producer
Critical reception to "Scar" was mostly positive. The episode appeared on several retrospective "best of" lists.
Plot
Drunk in the pilots'
Starbuck is troubled by memories of Anders, whom she promised to rescue from Caprica; Admiral William Adama and President Laura Roslin have refused to order a rescue mission. After the rookie's death, she drunkenly comes on to Apollo but rejects him during foreplay. They fight over her feelings for Anders. She leaves and continues drinking while watching archival gun camera footage of Scar.
Later, Starbuck is
As Starbuck and Kat patrol in their Vipers, Kat pursues a Raider she believes to be Scar. As Starbuck checks behind them, the real Scar appears and damages Starbuck's Viper. Starbuck plays chicken with Scar, to Kat's horror. Remembering her promise to Anders, Starbuck swerves at the last moment. She lures Scar into Kat's line of fire, and Kat shoots him down. Back in the mess, Starbuck yields her stein to Kat and toasts a succession of pilots who have perished since the war began. She claimed previously that she could not remember their names.
Later, while practicing boxing with Helo, she admits that, before she met Anders, she would have not thought twice about dying in the process of killing Scar, while Helo tells her that letting Kat take the shot was the right decision. She tells Helo that she can't get over the hope that Anders might still be alive, despite the unlikelihood. Helo suggests that before meeting Anders, Starbuck had something to die for, but now she has something to live for.
Characterization
Moore notes that, despite Starbuck's reputation as a superior fighter pilot, "Scar" demonstrates a number of her character flaws and poor choices. He cites her obsessive competition with Kat, her drinking, and her ill conceived attempt to sleep with Apollo. Writers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson based Starbuck's portrayal in "Scar" in part on their fathers, whom Weddle described as "war veterans who were very conflicted and self-destructive".[1] Jacob Clifton of Television Without Pity sees the episode in part as a deconstruction of the myth of Starbuck as a perfect pilot, a myth embraced by the characters, particularly Kat, and the audience alike.[2] Kieran Tranter echoes this analysis, noting that her competence as a pilot was unquestioned in the series before "Scar".[3]
Thompson contrasts Starbuck's attitude toward the new pilots with Kat's. Where Starbuck has become jaded by seeing so many rookies killed in battle, Kat reaches out to them with advice and genuine concern. Moore contrasts Apollo's calm in "Scar" with Starbuck and Kat's mutual animosity and suggests that this amounts to a reversal of
Clifton sees Starbuck's anguish over leaving Anders as a manifestation of a recurring tension in the series between the impulses to "'Stay and fight' or 'Run and rebuild'"
Clifton reflects on what Scar represents to Starbuck and Kat. Overall, he writes, "the real truth is not that nailing Scar is a competition for them; the real truth is that Scar has become each other, and everything that takes things away from them."
Kat and some other pilots try to remember the name of a fallen comrade's girlfriend who died in the attack on the Colonies, but Starbuck considers it pointless. Clifton suggests Kat identifies with the dead woman more than Starbuck because Kat was a civilian until she signed up as a pilot during the series. He also notes a similarity between the names that are guessed (Kathy, Katherine, Kassie, Karen), Kat's call sign, and Starbuck's first name, Kara.[2]
Production
Moore wanted an episode focused on Viper pilots like the first-season episode "
Moore restricted the writers to one dogfight in this episode. To increase the dramatic tension, Weddle and Thompson began the episode at the start of Starbuck and Kat's patrol and told the bulk of the story in flashbacks; inserted more opportunities for Starbuck and Kat to clash on Galactica; and wrote another dogfight to be narrated over radio.[1]
The writers went over the script in detail with Moore in a July 2005 writers' meeting that was recorded and published by podcast.[6][7] One key plot point they discussed at length was a motive for Galactica staying in one place while Scar shoots down its fighters one at a time. Slate summarized the ensuing discussion:[8]
One writer suggests that they're fixing the engines (a true standby of science fiction, one that served Star Trek for decades). Another writer proposes that ...Vipers are vulnerable because they're flying attenuated, long-distance patrols. Moore eventually decides that the fleet must have manufacturing facilities, but needs raw material, some magic metal for building Vipers found only where the ship is stuck. 'Then it can influence the conversations in the ready room,' Moore says, 'because of the psychological toll on the pilots. Now their machines are more valuable than they are.'
A scene of auctioning off a recently killed rookie pilot's belongings was written and filmed, but it was cut from the episode. Moore felt it was too jarring a scene to include in the episode. He compared the practice of new pilots taking dead pilots' bunks to a scene from Full Metal Jacket.[1]
The chair in which the pilots spin to get dizzy before their accuracy test was based on a similar device Moore saw at Edwards Air Force Base; the test there was to point one's finger accurately rather than to fire a weapon. Thompson based Scar's technique of flying at Starbuck with the sun behind him obscure her vision on a technique described in World War II pilot Pappy Boyington's autobiography, Baa Baa Black Sheep. A diagram shown on a whiteboard in the ready room during Starbuck's briefing was taken from a textbook on fighter tactics.[1]
The visual effects in "Scar" were particularly difficult and time-consuming to produce. The last visual effects shots were finished in the week before the episode aired.[1]
In a rare break from the series's cinéma vérité style, director Michael Nankin slows down time as Starbuck remembers Anders in the moments before she swerves from Scar. The episode closes with Stanley Myers's classical guitar piece "Cavatina", the theme from the 1978 film The Deer Hunter.[1]
Reception
Critical reaction to "Scar" was mostly positive. Rose Wojnar of
Right before the series finale, as part of a retrospective look at the series, Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger included "Scar" on his list of favorite episodes, calling it a "great self-contained show, and one of the best showcases Katee Sackhoff ever got, as we spend an entire hour just living with the Viper pilots and getting a better sense of the emotional toll of war without end for the toughest warrior of them all."[14] Michael Hickerson of Slice of SciFi ranked it as the series's fifth best episode.[15] John Kubicek also ranked it fifth best, calling the scene in which Starbuck toasts the dead pilots "pure magic, and easily my favorite single scene in the history of the show."[16] Kelly Woo of TV Squad ranked "Scar" as the series's eighth best episode.[17] Eric Goldman of IGN ranked Starbuck's showdown with Scar at #19 on his list of the series's top "storylines and moments", calling it a "visually strong battle sequence".[18]
Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Moore, Ron; Weddle, David; and Thompson, Bradley (3 Feb 2006). "Battlestar Galactica episode 215 commentary" (Podcast). Retrieved 22 Sep 2011.
{{cite podcast}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h Clifton, Jacob (8 Feb 2006). "Meet the Fokker Dreidecker". Television Without Pity. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.
- S2CID 142863781.
- ^ Clifton; emphasis his.
- ^ In "The Farm".
- ^ Ronald D. Moore (July 19, 2005). "Writers' Meeting, part 1". Syfy (Podcast). Battlestar Galactica. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- ^ Ronald D. Moore (July 19, 2005). "Writers' Meeting, part 2". Syfy (Podcast). Battlestar Galactica. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- ^ Rogers, Adam (29 Nov 2006). "Captain's Log: Want to understand Battlestar Galactica? Eavesdrop on its writers". Slate. Retrieved 6 Sep 2010.
- ^ a b Wojnar, Rose (4 Feb 2006). "Battlestar Galactica, Feb. 4". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.
- TV Squad. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.
- ^ Clifton, Jacob (15 Feb 2006). "Hi, Billy..." Television Without Pity. Retrieved 8 Nov 2011.
- ^ Los Angeles Newspaper Group. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Brew, Simon (24 Sep 2009). "Battlestar Galactica season 2 episode 15 review: Scar". Den of Geek. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.
- ^ Alan Sepinwall (March 20, 2009). "Battlestar Galactica: My favorite episodes". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- ^ Hickerson, Michael (23 Mar 2009). "Top ten episodes of 'Battlestar Galactica'". Slice of SciFi. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.
- ^ Kubicek, John (12 Mar 2009). "Best 25 Battlestar Galactica episodes". BuddyTV. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.
- ^ Woo, Kelly (20 Mar 2009), Best 'Battlestar Galactica' Episodes, TV Squad, retrieved 7 Nov 2011
- ^ Goldman, Eric (26 Mar 2009). "Battlestar Galactica: 20 Best Storylines and Moments". IGN. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.
External links
- "Scar" at the Battlestar Wiki
- "Scar" at Syfy (Podcast commentary)
- "Scar" at IMDb