Have you been jonesing for new Battlestar Galactica as fiendishly as I have? Have you been counting the days until the Season 4.5 premiere? (I would be if I could do that kind of math…remember, I’m an entertainment journalist.) Well the good folks at Scifi.com are offering up an appetizer before the main course: Face of the Enemy, a series of 10 webisodes running twice a week from now until Jan. 16. And judging by the first two—in which we find morpha junkie Felix Gaeta trapped in a raptor with two pilots, a construction dude, and two Boomers—they’re what you want Galactica to be: taut, tense, and dirty.
But there is revelation I didn’t quite see coming. SPOILER AHEAD after the jump.
Gaeta is gay? Huh. I’m not entirely sure it was necessary to drop that bit of information. Aside from Apollo, Starbuck, and Baltar, everyone on that show feels kind of asexual—each character is defined, by and large, by the crisis on the horizon and how they deal with it—and revealing Felix’s homosexuality doesn’t seem to add anything to the story at hand. But it does shed new light on his relationship with Baltar: It’s easy to be drawn to a man with Gaius’ charisma, and Felix followed him around like a puppy. They were like an interstellar Smithers and Mr. Burns…at least until President Baltar all but sentenced humanity to Cylon extinction while wallowing in cheap pills and easy women. That sort of behavior will squash a crush, tout de suite.
Ah, but I digress. You should go watch. They’re really good. Short, but good.
More Battlestar Galactica:
Battlestar Galactica prequel coming in 2010
Tricia Helfer cast for role in Chuck
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only one thing… only one chapter have seen today. The next ones will be on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I totally heart Gaeta
New BSG! God, even the webisodes are like water in the middle of the empty desert of bad TV.
Aw, c’mon Marc. For the past four years we’ve had PLENTY of steamy heterosexual action, occasionally puctuated with glowing spinal columns. But when Gaeta shares a brief kiss with a fellow crewman, you have to get all snarky about it.
Well I for one find it a refreshing development. Gay men, especially those of the “bear” persuasion, are voracious consumers of science fiction, so it’s nice to be given a nod once in a blue moon.
Um, Mark…
The Gaeta/Hoshi relationship has been confirmed on the web (and in print) for weeks. Why was it a revelation to you? Aren’t you a reporter? Oy.
Ever since Gaeta lost his leg and went all singing-in-the-sick-ward, I have fell in love with his character all over again. I feel like BSG has a tremendous cast, from the littler players like Gaeta to the brilliance that is EJO and Mary McDonell. I’m hoping that once BSG is over, Caprica and Dollhouse will fufill my larger-than-life-and-sci-fi tv drama quotas.
Hey, Chuck…I’m not getting snarky, and I’ve no problem with Gaeta being gay. I’m just wondering aloud if doing it in such a manner objectifies it…especially on a show where sexuality is usually so intertwined with the drama. When Razor showed that Adm. Cain was in love with a No. 6, that betrayal underscored why Cain was so brutal to everyone she encountered, none more than that “Gina” model herself. Sexuality is a powerful weapon in a dramatist’s arsenal and, as such, it should be deployed with care.
I think given the current climate that our country is facing with prop 8 and intolerance that its great for shows set in the future to at least have gay characters and acknowledge that this is a group of people that exist today and are relevant to telling human stories; even those, and maybe even especially those, set in fictional futures.
If anyone is questioning why they made Gaeta gay, listening to the commentary by Jane Espenson makes it more clear. Great webisode, looking forward to the rest.
Marc: Why do you assume it hasn’t been deployed with care? I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of Hoshi in these webisodes, and this relationship could provide motivation for some of the drama. I say we wait and see. In any case, I think Gaeta of all people desrves to have something good happen in his life.
See, I think you’re off base on your sexuality commentary for two reasons. 1. Sex and its relationship drama have been hugely present for many characters (Baltar/Six, Baltar/Starbuck, Starbuck/…everyone, Helo/Boomer, Boomer/Chief, Chief/Cally, Apollo/Dee, Gina/Cain, Bill/Laura (probably), Saul/Ellen, Ellen/Cavil…) and sex and babymaking is a pretty prevalent part of the entire conflict, so your suggestion that it’s only been a limited part of the show is a little odd, and, 2. I think it is a good thing when shows put these really small things in: this guy kisses other guys. Which isn’t relevant to the rest of his ability to do his job, and look, you didn’t even know by his pink shirt or his froofy drinks. It’s possibly also true of your neighbor and that guy who bags your groceries. You can’t tell by looking. Perfectly normal good people are gay all the time. I don’t WANT every gay character on TV to be About Being Gay, like I don’t want every Latino to be The Latino.
I think that Gatea’s homosexuality does not add much to this episode….but on the whole, isn’t the main differance between Cylon and Humans that humans can procreate? Wasn’t Roslyn’s first thought, that the fleet had to make a lot more babies?
So as a homosexual male in the fleet…is he more cylon or human?
Ah BSG….I missed you so much.
I’m frankly shocked that anyone is even phased that Gaeta is gay.
Wow. A gay character, what a shocker. This is so cliche. I hope this isn’t a sign that the writers of Battlestar are running out of ideas. That being said, I like the idea of being stranded with 2 Boomers. What shall we do to pass the time?
LOL! @ “They were like an interstellar Smithers and Mr. Burns.” Come to think of it, that’s a great way to characterize their early relationship. And once Baltar became President on New Caprica and Felix started to work against him, that’s just like how Smithers turned against Burns when Burns wanted to block out the sun. Mr. Burns had “…crossed that line between everyday villainy and cartoonish super-villainy.” LOL!
I don’t buy the lie that homosexual relationships are normal in any way shape or form. I think it’s a bit like “The Emperor’s New Clothes” in that no one is willing to admit the obvious. It’s not healthy or normal. There is a reason why many people find the sight of 2 men kissing repulsive…. because it IS repulsive. Talk all you want, but something, somewhere went wrong for a guy who finds other men sexually attractive. They need our love and compassion, but real compassion doesn’t encourage unhealthy behavior. You wouldn’t encourage an alcoholic by giving him a bottle of whiskey. You wouldn’t tell a kleptomaniac that stealing was okay for him because he was genetically disposed to it. The compassionate thing to do is to love the person, but not encourage the immoral behavior.
What commentary by Jane Espenson??? You point the way, and I’ll be thrilled to watch it!!
Ah, Battlestars tried and true “Shocking-violence!!!some-time-earlier…” plot device.
Brittany,
Follow the link, the webisode with the commentary is the “enhanced” one.
http://www.scifi.com/rewind/?sid=870861
You thought he wasn’t?
“Aside from Apollo, Starbuck, and Baltar…everyone on that show feels kind of asexual…”
Have we been watching the same show?
We’ve known Gaeta was gay since season 3 (at the latest). Gaeta didn’t stab Baltar in the neck because he’s an idealist; it was an act of passion. Go back through the series–back to season one–and watch the subtext. Gaeta also didn’t stand by Baltar’s side on New Caprica “just because.”
Gaeta only ever wanted to work on a Battlestar. It would have to be a pretty big decision for him to leave his job, as he did on New Caprica. He did it because of the way he felt about Baltar. Partially the same reason he tried to kill him (the other part we don’t know).
Mark Johnson, you need to get out of the house. Not everyone is as homophobic as you are.
And I agree with the others who think there’s nothing gimmicky about a character being gay. Would anyone have freaked out or considered it ‘excessive’ if they’d introduced Gaeta’s girlfriend? No. It seems some of the commenters here have issues that they need to resolve with themselves, as most inhabitants of western civilization know gay people in their everyday lives and don’t view them as “gimmicks” and don’t see the inclusion of non-stereotyped characters as anything other than a realistic detail.
I heard the Gaeta-is-gay thing YEARS ago. I was starting to wonder if the producers were ever going to make good, and I am glad that they finally did. He deserves a little happiness after getting his leg blown off.
I may not understand the ‘gay’ lifestyle, but as long as nobody is forcing its acceptance upon me I could care less which way Gaeta swings.
Whether the portrayal of the sexuality of Six or the sexual lifestyle choice of Gaeta, what is important is the near perfection of the drama as offered us in the show.
This show posesses what normal TV can only dream of – a cast that wanted to offer the audiance great performances, producers who didn’t want to produce drivel AND writers who gave us a brilliant intelligent re-imagining of the story.
I look forward to the day when a kiss between two men won’t even be a topic for discussion. Was it a big deal when Lee and Dualla got married? It certainly wasn’t as big a deal as when Kirk kissed Uhura nearly 40 years ago. We’ve moved on as a culture.
I think it was perfectly reasonable to show the kiss, because it explains Hoshi’s motivation not only for stealing the Morpha for Gaeta, but also for his actions in the coming episodes, which (according to Espensen’s commentary) are focused on going out to search for Gaeta.
I think Mark Johnson is AMAZING! Anyone who has all aspects of human nature figured out in neat paragraph form are top notch in my book.
I truly applaude you Mark. Its so nice to know that there are still people out there who are completely unapologetic in their arrogance
Thank you good sir!
“Everyone on that show feels kind of asexual” except Commander Adama and the president, Tigh and his wife, Starbuck and Apollo, Baltar and #6, Tyrol and Cally, Helo and #8, Dualla and Billy/Apollo… In fact, everybody has been paired up at one time or the other except Gaeta, the priestess and Doc Cottle. It’s just that the hetero pairings are invisible to you because you’re used to them. So basically you’re saying that gay people should remain invisible and sexless.
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