DPP: Pegasus/Resurrections Ship

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Sorry I wasn't around yesterday--RL prevented me from getting online, so I'm adjusting my DPP schedule slightly and playing comment catch-up. (And now it's Saturday in my time zone--whoops)  But now I'm bring you the combined arc of PEGASUS and RESURRECTION SHIP 1&2.  I actually have an appropriate icon for this one, which is very exciting for me.

Kara: I could use some backup.  I'll understand if you can't.
Lee: You know better than that.
Kara: Yeah, I guess so.
Lee: People have to have this, Kara.  Trust.  Your word and my word.  We don't have this, then we really are no different than the Cylons.
Kara: Thank you.

I love seeing our favorite pilots removed from their familiar environment.  On the Pegasus, they have no one to turn to but each other.  This delightful scene illustrates that to perfection.  There are so many nice touches, but my favorite might be the incredulous look Kara gives Lee when Stinger pulls her from the mission. Observe: 

This time through, I noticed two things that I had forgotten.  First, the cute little punch on the arm Kara gives Lee when Stinger puts him on Raptor duty (and what does it say about our ship that punches are cute?).  Second, the angry face she makes just before standing up when they're dismissed.  Love it.  Also: why did Lee bring a surveillance package to the briefing?  The only possible reason I can think of is that he KNEW Stinger's plan would suck and he KNEW Kara would tell him so.  And then that she would be pulled from the mission.  Lee may be smart, but I'm not sure he's that smart...

Anyhoo...fast forward to one of my favorite pilot scenes of them all: 

There are so many things to love here.  First and foremost, it demonstrates one of my favorite things about their relationship: they have each other's backs.  Always.  "You know better than that," Lee says when Kara gives him an out.  They both know that he won't leave her alone in her hour of need.  Second, for all that Kara is typically the more reticent one when it comes to displays of emotion, she is the one who initiates the hug.  She steps into her arms and he doesn't hesitate to give her the comfort she needs.   That's my third favorite thing about this scene--the way Lee wraps her up and pulls her closer.  Gets to me every time.

Of course, fate is not kind to our pilots, and Lee isn't able to be there for her.

Even though it breaks my heart, I love this scene too.  I love that she tries to be there for him.  I love the physical ease between them in this whole arc, and the way she's sitting on his bunk in this scene.  She says exactly the wrong thing to him--that she didn't need him anyway--but she's trying.  Breaks. My. Frakking. Heart.

What do you think happened immediately after Lee's confession?

I have never written fic about this period, though I have long been meaning to--and I swear that someday I will finish (and post) that plotfic--but thankfully, many talented people have.  

+Roll Over To Me by rawles .  This fic will break your heart.
+The Reasons by daphnaea and the remix, A Sunny Day In Tartarus by mercurial_wit .  These might break your heart too, but they'll also put it back together again.

More recs to be found here and here.

Tell me true: would you have watched Battlestar Pegasus?

Comments

[lizziec]

What do you think happened immediately after Lee's confession?

I'm not sure, but I like to think that Kara would have tried to help him in her own frakked up way. What I adore about this is the fact that it's Kara Lee confesses to. At this point in the story he and Dee have something going on, though I'm not sure either of them knows exactly what, but it's Kara he tells all this to. I think it says a lot for their relationship that it's her he chooses at this moment of complete vulnerability. I don't particularly like Dee eavesdropping outside during it either because I think it takes away something from the scene, from Dee as a character (I never really saw her as an eavesdropper like that, but then I never really saw her behaviour towards Billy and Lee in Sacrifice as particularly in character either) and from Lee and Dee's relationship as a whole.

would you have watched Battlestar Pegasus?

I think so, but it would have been a very different show to Galactica. I wouldn't give up BSG, but I would quite like to have seen BSP running along side it ;) We see glimpses of the way that Cain ran her ship in Pegasus/Resurrection Ship I&II and again in Razor, but I think there was enough there for a series. The choices that Cain/Pegasus makes are so different to the ones that Adama/Roslin/Galactica make, but at the same time so similar that you can see how it could have gone wrong for the Galactica. What struck me really strongly when I first watched the Pegasus arc was how easily things could have gone the other way for Galactica (a different Commander, or no Roslin for example).

On the same sort of subject, during S3 (which I watched in a very compressed time period) I kept wondering why they kept Galactica and sacrificed the Pegasus in the rescue of New Caprica. I know that I felt more affection for Galactica, and that the name of the show was Galactica, but surely the best tactical choice would have been to keep the Pegasus with all it's awesome resources and use Galactica for ramming speed?

...And I'm derailing away from pilots again! Sorry! :)

(Incidentally, I'm loving these DPPs - I'm discovering lots of fic I didn't know existed :D)

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

FYI, if you click on the "fic rec" tag for this comm you will find a whole bunch of older DPP posts that have collected a lot of stories together under a lot of different topics :)

[lizziec]

...and with this comment my entire weekend just disappeared in to a fic black hole :D Thanks! :)

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Ha. My work here is done.

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Just a quick comment, but I'd love to recommend my favorite vid for these episodes: it's amitybaby's haunting Mad World (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kPBNg0ZCjQ).

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

God I feel like maybe that's an extended scene in the Pegasus briefing? I don't remember the punch or the little bit about liking hack! Or her expression right before they get up and go! And I feel like I've seen it so many times I should remember it....but....huh. Maybe it's just been a while.

Ah well. I love this arc too. I kind of wish we'd gotten more buddy same-rank pilots on Pegasus. And even more with Kara as the CAG, Lee as the lieutenant. Verrruh interesting possibilities! ;)

I wonder what happened after his confession too. Maybe Kara was just paralyzed by it. In the two fics I've written dealing with this scene, she tried to sex him out of it (which spectacularly failed kinda) and she tried to shock him out of it (which worked a bit better). ;)

[mserrada.livejournal.com]

The bits you aren't remembering were in the extended/deleted section. I suppose they have to trim excess time somewhere, but those bits were golden so glad they saved them for add-ons.

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm pretty sure "I like hack" was in the aired version. Could be wrong though.

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

they have each other's backs.  Always.

You know, the things that always hit me most about this episode are things the show never really dwells on. Like in this scene: Kara's asking him to join her on a suicide mission. What did Adama think all of Cain's marines would do when Kara shot Cain? He knew that he probably wouldn't see either of his kids again. I wish they'd acknowledged it more.

The other thing I find fascinating is how he's basically asking Kara to kill her mother. This is a military woman, who Kara herself compares to Socrata in Razor, who is giving Kara her approval and her support. Now Kara would do anything for Adama, but again, there was so much going on that never got explored!

[anastashial.livejournal.com]

I always also had the question about why Lee had the surveillance package and it just finally dawned on me. They were going on a surveillance mission. Every one of the viper pilots would have been issued a surveillance package. Duh! No one knew that Lee wouldn't be flying a viper. That was another zing to humiliate him that Stinger dropped during the briefing.

Since Kara was pulled she would have had to give her her gear to her replacement, but nobody seems to have thought about collecting Lee's so he handed it over.

Mystery solved?

BTW worse thing about dealing with issued "hand-held" gear was inventory. One year we received an inventory from Washington complete with the serial numbers of each film magazine for our gear. Problem was none of the squadrons held onto their own mags. They were turned in to the wing photo center for processing, reloading, and reissue. There was no tracking to guarantee you got the ones your squadron had back each time, so they just went to whoever needed them next. When you left for deployment you just took the ones you had at that point.

So when this inventory showed up for everyone we literally had to track them all over the world to ascertain that none of them were missing. Great fun.

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

You are brilliant! That pre-issued equipment thing makes so much sense.

[anastashial.livejournal.com]

Funny how the obvious evades us sometimes.

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

It makes sense, I'll give you that. Even if I don't really remember seeing any of the other pilots carrying similar bags when they left the room.

However, for purely personal reasons, I'll stick with my original theory that he was being stealthy himsefl from the beginning and had already planned some kind of "mutinous" action for either himself or Kara when he went to the briefing. *shrugs*

[anastashial.livejournal.com]

I had a similar issue with Home PII. When they were all there climbing up to the ridge I didn't notice them carrying enough equipment or packs to account for all of the ponchos and tarps they had available when it started raining.

I can see Lee doing what you suggest too. I think by that point he'd had enough to make that kind of a move.

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

However, for purely personal reasons, I'll stick with my original theory that he was being stealthy himsefl from the beginning and had already planned some kind of "mutinous" action for either himself or Kara when he went to the briefing. *shrugs*
i like this theory and i'll go with you here.

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I really love when someone who is such a straight arrow like Lee pulls something completely unexpected. It makes his character so much richer. I love him no matter what but... these moments are just too great to pass.

[mserrada.livejournal.com]

I wish the arc for Cain had gone on longer. It would have been so interesting to see how the Lee & Kara-as-CAG dynamic worked out.

I also really wanted to see the Kara/Cain dynamic evolve further. Especially since in my personal-canon Kara was having some mother-issues regarding Cain. With what the series later develops, it just had a lot of potential for conflict of loyalties for Kara if she'd stayed under Cain's wing for a longer time and her hero-worship grew.

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I'm 100% with you about this arc. For precisely all the reasons you mentioned. The "trust" dialogue is just perfect and their silent interaction in the briefing room is priceless. I also love that there's no hard feelings between them after Lee's demotion. He doesn't have a problem with working with her as a subordinate. It is natural because they do complement each other as much as they challenge each other and rank never had anything to do with that anyway.

The only thing that really bugs me has nothing to do with them, but with Adama and the fact he had in fact sentenced both his "children" to certain death and didn't seem to hesitate for a minute about it.

I think after Lee's confession, they would both feel very self-conscious around eacher, really walking on eggshells because there was an emotional openness there that was not usual to them so I imagine they would both feel really unconfortable and at a loss as how to deal with it.

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

I really like their dynamic in this arc. The ready-room and basically all the scenes involving Stinger just make me laugh. it's like the cool kids against the 'strange, sort of geeky and vengeful' kid.
i missed the punch until now to so thanks for pointing that out.

after rewatching that scene now i got the feeling that maybe Lee wanted to propose the same thing as Kara - to use the Black Bird but he didn't got the chance during the briefing because of the way that Stinger acted so he just went for plan B.

[acsgrlie.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I wish they had stayed on Pegasus longer. I loved this arc precisely because it showed how much they were there for one another (or wanted to be there for one another).