The Farm (Battlestar Galactica)
"The Farm" | |
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Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 5 |
Directed by | Rod Hardy |
Written by | Carla Robinson |
Original air date | August 12, 2005 |
Guest appearances | |
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"The Farm" is the fifth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on August 12, 2005. It is the first episode of the series in which the plot is set on Caprica.[2]
In the episode,
According to executive producer Ronald D. Moore, the production process for "The Farm" was one of the most contentious of the second season.[2]
Starbuck's portrayal in "The Farm" has attracted academic study. Critical reaction was mixed.
Plot
Caprica
Starbuck wakes up with
Cylons ambush the resistance as they make plans to capture a Cylon Heavy Raider. Starbuck is shot and loses consciousness. She wakes in a hospital, where a doctor named
Meanwhile, Anders, very much alive, leads a search party.
Starbuck is kept heavily sedated. She is suspicious after an unplanned emergency surgery following a pelvic examination, and her suspicions are confirmed when Simon calls her "Starbuck", a name she never revealed to him. Starbuck fakes sedation and sneaks out of her room, where she sees Simon talking to a
Boomer explains that the Cylons have had no success reproducing on their own and are trying to reproduce with humans. Appalled, Starbuck volunteers to stay and help liberate these so-called "Farms". Anders reminds her of her mission, and she reiterates her promise to return with rescue, giving him her dog tags. He promises to liberate as many of the "Farms" as possible. She departs in the stolen Heavy Raider with Boomer and Helo to return to the human fleet.
The human fleet
Commander Adama returns to command and orders a ship-by-ship search for Roslin and
Chief
Deleted scenes
In a deleted scene, Apollo explains his refusal to denounce his father by telling Roslin that he was disappointed that she did not back him up when he mutinied to protect her in "Kobol's Last Gleaming".[3] In his view, he has defied his father enough, and the struggle now belongs to Roslin. In another deleted scene, he promises to stick with Roslin regardless of the consequences of their imminent departure from the fleet.[4]
Characterization
In his podcast commentary on "The Farm", Moore discusses his views of what the episode's events reveal about several of the characters.
- Following Adama's brush with death, he returns to command with his "emotions... closer to the surface."CIC and his angry reaction to Roslin's message.[2] Roslin notices the change and Adama acknowledges it in a scene deleted from "Home, Part 2".[5]
- When Adama asks Tyrol questions about his feelings for Boomer, he is also asking them of himself, internally. His conflict over her comes to a head when he views her body.[2] Executive producer David Eick said in a later podcast that actor Edward James Olmos (Adama) told him following shooting the morgue scene that he expected Adama would try to kill Boomer if he ever saw her again.[6]
- Starbuck's relationship with Anders is consistent with her character: she "sleeps [with] who she feels like sleeping with and makes no apologies for it."[2] However, her emotional reaction to Simon telling her of Anders's death proves that she does have genuine feelings for him.[2]
- At the start of the episode, Anders wants Starbuck to stay, but Starbuck remains focused on her mission. By the end, Starbuck's fury over her violation has changed her mind, but Anders reminds her that she has to leave.[2]
- Roslin chooses to "play the religion card" and is surprised at the effects: people of faith in the fleet start treating her differently, with reverence. Moore says she will later come to regret her choice.[2]
Amanda Keith of
Analysis
"I am not a commodity. I am a Viper pilot."
Starbuck[9]
Scholars have considered how "The Farm" approaches reproduction sociologically. Ingvil Hellstrand argues that the episode "raises issues of reproduction as a gendered imperative, where fertile women have a moral obligation or duty to reproduce."
Scholars have also identified real-world contemporary issues around reproduction discussed in "The Farm". In Jowett's view the Cylon "desperation to reproduce" reflects contemporary human anxieties.
Jowett notes that the "image of women hooked up to machines for reproduction" can be found in other works of science fiction, citing the television series
Patrick B. Sharp examines "The Farm"'s presentation of Starbuck as a female soldier. In particular, he contrasts Starbuck, who seeks to be an excellent soldier and uses violence to accomplish her objectives, with female soldiers in other works of fiction, such as
Keith argues that the episode inspires a measure of sympathy for the Cylons. In her view, their inability to reproduce is lamentable by itself, but it is made sadder by the fact that it precludes them from following their God's commandments.[7]
Moore notes a reversal of
Production
"The Farm" was controversial among the production team, some of whom feared that the episode was too dark and would drive away female viewers. This was considered especially important because of female viewers' historical reluctance to embrace science fiction. According to Moore, among the episodes of the second season, only "Valley of Darkness" may have had as contentious a production process. The decision to suggest that Simon had given Starbuck a pelvic exam was particularly controversial.[2]
The outline of the episode remained largely the same from its conception. The largest change was for Starbuck to be unsure at first whether she is in a Cylon facility. According to Moore, the writers never believed they could fool the audience entirely into thinking Simon was human; rather, they sought to introduce ambiguity and then resolve it.[2]
The first scene with Roslin and Apollo shows them hiding in cold storage aboard a civilian ship. Moore originally conceived for them to hide in a meat locker among "the last brisquets, burgers, filets, and pot roasts left in the universe" as a reminder of the magnitude of humanity's loss.[2] When every meat locker art director Doug McLean scouted in Vancouver, where Battlestar Galactica was filmed,[16] proved too small or too cold to film in, production designer Richard Hudolin built the cold storage room on a set with a window that would suggest a meat locker in the next room.[2]
The scene in which the resistance encounters Sharon was written as a night scene but was filmed during the day for production reasons. Also, a scene showing the bloody aftermath of Caprica-Sharon's capture of the Heavy Raider was cut due to time constraints. The shots of the resistance boarding the Heavy Raider were all done with a green screen and a corresponding green ramp.[2]
When Starbuck is shot, a wound on her eyebrow switches from the right to the left side of her face in an apparent mistake. In fact, the shot in which the switch occurs is a mirror image, as evidenced from the position of the steering wheel in the truck behind her. According to Moore, this was not a mistake but a deliberate editing choice to reflect the psychological trauma Starbuck undergoes.[2]
Starbuck leaves one of her
Reception
Critical reaction to "The Farm" was mixed. Jason Davis of Mania gave the episode an A+, praising the writing's "elegance and economy" and writing that Sackhoff "never ceases to astonish with the naturalness of her performance."[17] Simon Brew of Den of Geek also commended Sackhoff's acting and added that "The Farm" "was as good an episode as I've seen thus far of Battlestar Galactica."[18] Writing retrospectively several months after the episode aired, Jacob Clifton of Television Without Pity also praised Sackhoff's acting and compared the episode as a whole favorably to the episodes "Litmus", "Final Cut", and "Scar"; he gave the last of these an A−.[19] Tankersley gave "The Farm" a B− and wrote of the pelvic exam, "Gack. This scene's kind of short on things I feel comfortable making jokes about, honestly."[8] Keith called actor Rick Worthy (Simon) "criminally underused" and wrote, "First time through, I didn't think of a lot of this episode, but in hindsight, it packs a lot of character moments into what is essentially an action episode."[7]
Connections to other series elements
- The Cylons' inability to reproduce biologically, revealed in "The Farm", is the reason for their cultivation of the relationship between Helo and Caprica-Boomer in the first season.[2]
- In "The Farm", Caprica-Boomer reiterates the contention Flesh and Bone" that Starbuck has a special destiny.[20]
- Eick used Olmos's prediction of Adama's reaction to seeing Boomer again to help craft Adama's encounter with Caprica-Boomer in "Home, Part 2".[6]
- Starbuck returns to Caprica and rescues Anders and the resistance, as promised, in the second-season finale, "Lay Down Your Burdens".[21]
Notes and references
- ^ (special guest star)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Moore, Ron (12 Aug 2005). "Battlestar Galactica episode 205 commentary" (Podcast). Retrieved 21 Jul 2011.
- ^ "Kobol's Last Gleaming". Battlestar Galactica. Season 1. Episode 13. 25 Mar 2005. Sci Fi.
- ^ Battlestar Galactica DVD, season 2.0, disc 2, "The Farm" deleted scenes.
- ^ Battlestar Galactica DVD, season 2.0, disc 2, "Home, Part 2" deleted scenes.
- ^ a b Moore, Ron; Eick, David (26 Aug 2005). "Battlestar Galactica episode 206 commentary" (Podcast). Retrieved 22 Jul 2011.
{{cite podcast}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Los Angeles Newspaper Group. Archived from the originalon 24 October 2012. Retrieved 11 Aug 2011.
- ^ a b Tankersley, Susan (Strega) (17 Aug 2005). "The parent trap". Television Without Pity. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 21 Jul 2011.
- ^ "The Farm", 21:00.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hellstrand, Ingvil (2011). "The shape of things to come? Politics of reproduction in the contemporary science fiction series Battlestar Galactica". NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research. Vol. 19, no. 1. pp. 6–24.
- ^ a b c d Jowett, Lorna (2010). "Frak me: reproduction, gender, sexuality". In Kaveney, Roy; Stoy, Jennifer (eds.). Battlestar Galactica: Investigating Flesh, Spirit, and Steel. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 59–79.
- ^ George, Susan A. (2008). "Fraking machines: desire, gender, and the (post) human condition in Battlestar Galactica". In Telotte, J. P. (ed.). The Essential Science Fiction Reader. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 159–76.
- JSTOR 10.1525/lal.2007.19.1.45.
- ^ "Rapture". Battlestar Galactica. Season 3. Episode 12. 21 Jan 2007. Sci Fi.
- ^ a b Sharp, Patrick B. (2010). "Starbuck as 'American Amazon': Captivity narrative and the colonial imagination in Battlestar Galactica" (PDF). Science Fiction Film and Television. Vol. 3, no. 1. pp. 57–78.
- ^ Anderson, Mark (20 Nov 2007). "Battlestar fans get a glimpse of 'real' Caprica". Wired. Retrieved 21 Jul 2011.
- ^ Davis, Jason (14 Aug 2005). "Battlestar Galactica - The Farm". Mania. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 21 Jul 2011.
- ^ Brew, Simon (8 Sep 2009). "Battlestar Galactica season 2 episode 5 review: The Farm". Den of Geek. Retrieved 21 Jul 2011.
- ^ Clifton, Jacob (8 Feb 2006). "Meet the Fokker Dreidecker". Television Without Pity. Retrieved 7 Nov 2011.
- Flesh and Bone". Battlestar Galactica. Season 1. Episode 8. 25 Feb 2005. Sci Fi.
- ^ "Lay Down Your Burdens". Battlestar Galactica. Season 2. Episode 19–20. March 3–10, 2006. Sci Fi.
External links
- "The Farm" at the Battlestar Wiki
- "The Farm" at Syfy
- "The Farm" at IMDb