DPP: Pilots Minus the Miniseries

[winegums.livejournal.com]

(this post is totally borrowed from this comment at the BBC)
When we think of pilots and the moments that turned us into shippers, for many of us it goes back to this:


pilots getting uncomfortable because their UST might set the hangar deck on fire

if not earlier in the story, basically because that scene above is totally evidence of their existing (and mutual!) feelings for each other.

But what if the miniseries didn't exist? 33 was the pilot to the BSG series in its own right, and even though it gave us the amazing gift that is pilots bickering and gigglefits and inappropriate personal space invasions (not to mention the moment towards the end where Kara pulls the trigger despite her own misgivings so that Lee doesn't have to be alone with 1300 deaths on his conscience) and all the UST we so love, pilots in that episode alone are still friends with UST and not quite the people in love with a complicated road ahead - hello, dead baby brother/boyfriend - that we know them to be from the miniseries.



scruffy!Lee, RAWR! and lol at Cally in the background totally thinking "get a room already, you two!"

So I guess the question is, what would our shipping experience have been like if we had no miniseries, and no miniseries pilots to go on? The fact that Lee and Kara's feelings are a two-way street isn't quite so evident in early S1 as it is in the second half of the miniseries, despite the abundance of UST - how would that have changed the way you view pilots?

Comments

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Another great topic!

Honestly, if there was no miniseries? I might think that Kara totally has feelings for this guy and Lee just doesn't know what to do with her. Probably because she is more flirty and playful, and he's so straight-laced. Although his fear/joy in the AoC/YGHA arc might give me pause. I think that's when my shipper flag would really raise and I'd be like...wow Lee is pulling the CAP and almost punching out Tigh! This is not just because she was his brother's fiance. Plus the eye-frakking in AoC is so powerful. It's angry, but there's more than just angry tension there, since they are so cavalier with personal space.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Early S1 gives us no history on Lee and Kara, not the way the miniseries does so maybe we'd have seen them differently. But I'm so with you on the AoC eyefrakking, it just gives it away so plainly that these two really were friends before.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I might have liked Lee and Kara even better without knowing their feelings were more or less mutual. Something about the unsure footing of what the other might be feeling seems really intriguing.


I'm going on the theory that their back story is the same, but that it will be revealed as the show progresses. Although Zak, et al. is just hinted about in the mini and not really explain until later.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I actually fell for them even harder after figuring out that their feelings were mutual and almost certainly predated Zak's death. Something about that struck me as a really unorthodox approach compared to most shipping setups in tv, which usually involve people bickering/UST after they meet for the first time in an episode. I'm glad they didn't do that with pilots here.

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

I actually started with 33! I wasn't sure I could make the three hour commitment of the miniseries so I can give you exactly how the evolution of my ship went: I loved Kara and Lee's screen time together from minute one. Definitely the most intriguing part for me. But all around me when I was watching were Gaius/Six shippers and Adama/Roslin shippers... which I didn't particularly ship... and so I don't think I even realized just how much I shipped Kara and Lee... because they were Kara and Lee. They went together. I couldn't see them as separate. I loved their playfulness, their ups and downs... and then Lay Down Your Burdens happened... and I yelled at the screen... whoops. Guess I really shipped Kara and Lee.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

.. and then Lay Down Your Burdens happened... and I yelled at the screen...

Oh, you're not alone in that! Pilots being mad at each other is one thing, but pilots aren't even friends anymore? Heartbreaking didn't even begin to cover what that did to me.

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

I also started with 33! I KNEW there was something there just from that smackmouth scene, which I actually detested for a long long time. Mostly, though, it became clear in AoC when Lee was in her face about failing the nuggets. Holy frak worth of WOW they've got something RAWR!

[lyras.livejournal.com]

That's pretty similar to me! I watched the whole of season one before going back to watch the miniseries, and was a confirmed shipper pretty early on.

A bit OT but...

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I couldn't help noticing how the arrow in the first pic pointing at Lee and the word inside it are so absolutely perfect for what's about to happen at the end, i.e. this:



It's just the perfectly framed shot. Guess I didn't notice it before because I was too distracted sighing over pilots and their nervous UST-packed not-kissing :)

Re: A bit OT but...

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

HA! I love that!!! I noticed the rescue bit on the BBC rewatch but I did not even THINK to put it together. Genius. : )

Re: A bit OT but...

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice it either till I went screencap hunting!

The word in the arrow is only clear in the cap in which they're not looking at each other, which isn't the cap we normally use for that scene.

Re: A bit OT but...

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

It's pretty awesome. And kind of hilarious.

Re: A bit OT but...

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I've always liked the arrow pointing from Kara to Lee. What a sign? But I'd never thought about that fact that it says rescue. hee.

So for those who saw 33 first...

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

I'm curious-- what did you think after you got around to watching the mini? We're you surprised? Did you have a different idea about their history than what was shown?

Re: So for those who saw 33 first...

[jeeshee.livejournal.com]

I had worked all of it out after watching seasons 1-3, but I was still surprised by their more childlike interactions and the obviousness of their feelings, compared to later on.

Re: So for those who saw 33 first...

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

It does feel like they dialed the feelings way back after the mini.

[jeeshee.livejournal.com]

I didn't watch the mini until after s1-3. My real shipper moment of enlightenment was Colonial Day - before that I thought they were just very close friends, with Lee concerned for her in YCGHA because of her relationship with Zack.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I can see how that might happen - they really played down the obviousness of it after the miniseries and Colonial Day was the first time they really bring it up again.

PS: I LOVE your icon, Spirited Away is just the most gorgeous film ever.

[justascrewup2.livejournal.com]

I don't know... I liked Kara from the start, but Lee took me a little bit to warm up to. Seeing how Kara interacted with him helped. So if there was no mini, that wouldn't have changed. I probably world have taken longer to become a shipper though, since for a while you just think they're good friends. Maybe AoC, but definitely by Coloniel Day.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's funny how much the miniseries does to help pilots along, and how S1 plays that down. Though AoC would have been my breaking point too.