An Aussie Askew: Finals and Finales

Tuesday, September 27, 2005 | 1:51 am

A weekend of all sorts of bits and pieces and comings and goings has just passed, and it was quite the Friday night for the couch inclined.

My lovely wife arrived home late Friday night from her final week in Salt Lake, and our AM was then punctuated by the (mid) season finale of Battlestar Galactica, and the late night live viewing of the Aussie Rules Grand Final!

[BSG]

BSG first. (worried about spoilers? Skip to the footy!) An intruiging episode in what has been a slower season so far, with very little Cylon activity except for all the models in captivity. Can't quite get a grasp of the imitation-human models and their "architecture" yet. #6, whom my wife is hopelessly in lust with, can shield Baltar from nuclear blasts and flying glass (as per pilot), but can still be beaten up by average humans, as can Boomer. Anyone have insights?

The finale had a slow start, more "internal squabbling" than "get us to Earth" plotline, but slowly built towards a good ending, with the Chief and Helo in a precarious position. I do feel that one of them will have to pay the price. Should be The Chief (manslaughter), but my gut says it could be Helo, to clear the way for 'Daddy Baltar' perhaps? Frankly, the Admiral's concerns are pretty solid when you review what the crew of BSG have been getting up to the last few months. Then again, this is a mid-season finale, so it may be light on the death.

The wife and I both remarked on how crappy the music was for this "Pegasus" episode. We love the season 1 soundtrack, but there was all sorts of inappropriate instruments crowbarred into this episode. Lets hope thats not a sign of the future. And here's some nice BSG images

Even more of a suspense filled cliff-hanger though was the final game of the Aussie Rules season. Both the Aussie Rules and the Rugby League seasons culminate in "Grand Finals" (superbowls) one week apart at this time of year, a time referred to by Aussie comedy commentators Roy & H.G. as "the festival of the boot."

Aussie Rules, for the US inclined amongst us, is that long kicking game played only in Australia, with the four posts at each end and the crazy umpires and their double-finger-pointing 'goal' motions. Somehow, most Americans recognize that action when you do it. This season's Grand Final pitted the ferociusly named "Sydney Swans" against their most-distant rivals, Perth's "West Coast Eagles". A close game was expected, but Sydney with it all to play for as they have not won the Premiership since 1933, a dry-spell to rival the Red Sox.

[Leo Barry Grab] After a barnstorming start and then a miserable 3rd Quarter, Sydney went from 20 points up to 10 points down and looking shell-shocked. They grafted their way back with a bunch of "behinds" (any kick through the outside pair of sticks, worth 1 point) and finally potted a "goal" (a kick through the middle pair of sticks, worth 6 points) to have a 4-point lead as the clock ticked the last minutes. West Coast threatened and Sydney did their best to kill the ball and run the clock down. With all nails bitten, West Coast sent one last long kick into the Sydney goal area. All hearts were in throats as a bunch of players contested the "mark" (to catch a kicked ball on the full, which permits you an uncontested kick from where you catch it), only for Leo Barry (see picture) to appear out of the pack and take the most important defensive mark he will ever grab. Siren sounded straight after, celebrations began immediately.

Almost more gruelling than actually playing sport.

5 Comments:

At 29/9/05 12:29 am, Anonymous said...: Some of my BSG thoughts

1) #6 died while shielding baltar in the mini-series. baltar was injured but not killed in the blast.

2) humanoid cylons are stronger, have greater endurance and faster than real humans, but it would appear that they choose to not exercise the capability unless it suits their plan.

this can be seen in leoben's actions in the miniseries and the first season ep where one of his copies is interogated by starbuck.
also in "33" sharon is not as tired as her shipmates, while sharon on caprica can run on while helo needed to rest.
also #6 beating up starbuck on caprica when starbuck was getting the arrow.

3) however humanoid cylons are still as fragile as real humans. bullets kill them, tehy bleed, they can be beaten up / damaged. #6 on pegasus is in this state because it suits the cylons plans for baltar

4) my big question is just how extensive the cylon plan is. the opening sequence always reminds the viewer of this and implies to me that everything that has happened so far is part of a larger cylon plan. i.e galactica has been allowed to get to where it is now, pegasus was manoeuvred into meeting up with galactica.

other questions
a) is the cylon god a real entity. in the minisereies and in season 1 there are references to the creator which imply that he/she could be real rather than philosophical. (ie. emperor or supreme leader as per original series)

b) why the move to organic cylons. all cylon spaceships thus far have organic components while the machine cylons are just upgrades from the original series man in chrome suits.

c) why do humanoid cylons on basestars run around nekkid. while on caprica they are clothed?

d) are humanoid cylons resistant to the radiation that kills humans. they are running around on a highly radioactive caprica with no apparent ill effects. while the remaining humans have made a point of getting supplies of anti radiationd drugs.

e) if the humans have so little regard to the cylons and consider the organic cylons only as machines with no human rights, why go to the hassle of rape and torture. is having sex with humanoid cylons no different to having sex with a blow up doll. just like in "do androds dream of electric sheep" (bladerunner for those who do not know) would you not be somewhat put off having sex with a flesh machine?

f) nitpicking: how does humanoid sharon manage to send signals down an optical fibre? why does she have to cut open her hand and shove the cable up inside her arm?

If you have not already done so, then listeneing to the podcasts provides some additional insights into the direction they are taking this new series.

how are you getting the aussie finals on US tv?dx
At 1/10/05 5:21 pm, Anonymous said...: Gotta agree with you about the music. It seems to me that this was the first episode that didn't feature the "Six Theme" when we see #6 pop up. And what was with the western string plucking when Baltar first entered the cell on Pegasus?

My big beef with the storyline right now is whether or not the Cylons have a shared link. Clearly, they do when Sharon whispers "..and you wondered why" to Adama on Kobol. A question that he asked of a dead Sharon on Galactica. However, at every other instance there doesn't seem to be the link.

Still, a great episode although I think I see what's going to happen at the beginning of the next season. My guess is that Rosalyn, as President, is also Commander in Chief. Promotion for Adama, demotion for Cain. Problem solved. I do think that they'll go the way of the 70's series by stranding a bunch of Vipers and pilots from Pegasus on Galactica. You can only lose so many Vipers.
At 3/10/05 1:50 am, Anonymous said...: Sunday Oct 2.

Did you get the rugby league scores?? ...if not west tigers won easily...!!!
At 3/10/05 11:42 am, Aussie-Askew said...: Agree with marauder that the whole "sticking a fiber up your arm" thing was dumb, and definitely made you wonder how hard would it be to make a "cylon detector"! if they have cable jacks inside that can communicate with optical fibres. An x-ray shoudl be sufficient to find that.

Never noticed the "wondered why" comment on Kobol. Nice catch. Hmmm...

As for the Rugby, it was telecast here on Fox Sports at 4:30am Sunday morning, and I fell asleep somewhere during the commentary introductions, and woke up late for soccer. Not the same as last year where I had to sit through a nailbiting Bulldogs win! Good for Wests though. Shows South Sydney there is hope yet... ;)
At 13/10/05 11:33 pm, Anonymous said...: Back to the AFL...

This year's Grand Final was one of the most edge-of-your-seat GF's I've seen in recent memory. Not that there wasn't a shortage of close games this season. Closest non-draw GF ever, and of course, my home team (WCE) got their well deserved GF berth (albeit a loss as well).

Another WCE got a Brownlow this year, Captain Ben Cousins - a Mommy's Boy by all accounts, but a great leader. In fact we almost got a trifecta in the Brownlow top 5, a very rare occurance - WCE R/V Daniel Kerr came a close second to Cousins but power wingman (and 2004 Brownlow medalist) Chris Judd just missed out of the top 5 by a few votes, even though he was ineligible for the medal because of a charge of striking earlier in the season. He got the Norm Smith though, only the forth (or thereabouts) Norm Smith medalist from a losing GF side.

And of course, most of the WCE team are relatively young (only "veteran" is half-back Drew Banfield), so even though we lost to a solid team like Sydney we're certainly emerging as the league's new power team to beat over the coming years - continuing the non-Victorian dominance recently established by the Brisbane Lions and Port Power.

Anyhow, even though the Eagles lost by 4 points, you have to remember that they won by 4 points when the teams played a couple of weeks before at a Prelim at Subiaco. OK, so it was the House of Pain (and homefield advantage for West Coast), but it just seems ironic that now we're square...

...I must say though that the fact that Barry Hall got to play was a f*cking joke. But without him, Sydney would have almost certainly lost (by that I mean that he was at least a 2 goal advantage for Sydney IMO), and the AFL would have lost big $$$ in promotion of the game in Rugby-dominated NSW if the Swans didn't return home victors.

But kudos had to go to retiring Swan Jason Ball, whose last GF was actually with the Eagles at their last GF victory in 1994.

Anyhow, I've rambled on enough. I just better make sure my Eagles 2006 Season Membership has been processed - I want to make sure I have a chance to get a seat at their GF appearance this year! :)

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