Yeah, Lee and Cylons are always an interesting combination. They do bring out a scary side of him, because he sees them as machines and nothing more. His disgust for Sharon in "Home" is really our first hint at his attitude, which seems to be a fairly uncompromising 'they aren't people and we shouldn't be suckered into treating them like people' stance. He was about to shoot her in the head at two different points in "Home" (this from Lee 'Everyone Deserves a Fair Trial' Adama), and in "Home Part Two" he held people off at gunpoint to give his Dad a chance to throttle her. So I'm not sure that his stance in "A Measure of Salvation" was really out of character (though genocide is a bigger decision than personal vengeance), but it was definitely extremely disturbing.
The commentary on that episode is interesting, because Ron Moore mentions that there was a whole storyline they had planned for Lee in the first half of third season which they dropped, and "A Measure of Salvation" was really the only remnant of it. The storyline was that he and Dee were going to enter the Marines together (that's how they planned for him to lose the weight) and sort of go through a boot camp which would have the psychological effect of hardening Lee and making him a more committed and uncompromising soldier. So "A Measure of Salvation" was meant to indicate a new immersion into the military frame of mind and a new ruthlessness on his part. But they dropped the storyline, and later they obviously took Lee in other directions which fit in better with his established character, which does make his ruthlessness in that one episode look a bit bizarrely extreme for him.
I'm personally delighted that they dropped that storyline. That is in no way where I wanted Lee to go as a character. And I loved the very different voice they gave him, a voice that was true to himself and his "moral center" role, in the Season 3 finale. So hurrah for the cutting room floor, on that one.
no subject
The commentary on that episode is interesting, because Ron Moore mentions that there was a whole storyline they had planned for Lee in the first half of third season which they dropped, and "A Measure of Salvation" was really the only remnant of it. The storyline was that he and Dee were going to enter the Marines together (that's how they planned for him to lose the weight) and sort of go through a boot camp which would have the psychological effect of hardening Lee and making him a more committed and uncompromising soldier. So "A Measure of Salvation" was meant to indicate a new immersion into the military frame of mind and a new ruthlessness on his part. But they dropped the storyline, and later they obviously took Lee in other directions which fit in better with his established character, which does make his ruthlessness in that one episode look a bit bizarrely extreme for him.
I'm personally delighted that they dropped that storyline. That is in no way where I wanted Lee to go as a character. And I loved the very different voice they gave him, a voice that was true to himself and his "moral center" role, in the Season 3 finale. So hurrah for the cutting room floor, on that one.