You know what I liked about last night’s “Battlestar Galactica?” Rather than making up some silly-named imaginary space disease to use as a plot device, the writers instead went to the trouble of looking up an actual, obscure disease. Lymphocytic encephalitis is a real disease caused by a virus carried by chronically infected house mice. It has almost no effect on people with normal immune systems, and something like 5% of the population carries the virus around with them all the time.
Of course, absolutely nothing about the show would have been different if the writers had just made up a disease solely for the purpose of telling their story, but there’s something admirable about the fact that they went to this kind of trouble. It shows … I dunno. A sort of unspoken respect for their own work, I guess.
Anyway, I thought it was neat.
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I just finished watching it, too. Good episode. Am I the only one that detected more than a hint of Richard Dawkins/”The God Delusion” with Baltar and company?
Christopher
Saturday, November 11th, 2006, 12:02 pm
The show is well-informed. Once again, they turn a well-worn sci-fi setup and expand into a smart, simple, and honest episode. And the morality play wasn’t cloying or self-serving.
Derek
Saturday, November 11th, 2006, 1:16 pm
I loved it where Dr. Cottle said it was one the probe for no other reason then someone sneezed and forgot to wash their hands.
No conspiracy, just a bit of carelessness.
Also, the way they saved Athena? It is true that fetal blood cells are shed back into the mother during birth (see RH incompatibility).
I love it when writers do their homework.
BTW, Jeff? I tried to trackback, but I got a 302 error.
Darleen
Saturday, November 11th, 2006, 2:12 pm
I fixed it, Dar. Sorry about that.
Jeff Harrell
Saturday, November 11th, 2006, 3:41 pm