Romo, Oh Romo

Arguably spoilers ahead for Battlestar Galactica.

Pretty good episode of Battlestar Galactica this week. My main objection is they brought back Romo Lampkin. He is the most useless recurring character on the show. He generally stops the plot dead, and about all he offers is shallow philosophizing in place of real arguments that he, as a lawyer, should be making. But the producers seem to confuse his drivel for depth.

On the positive side, the show had good action and is moving forward in the proper direction, dealing with internal problems (human versus human) before it gets to the bigger issue (humans versus Cylons, I would guess). I note this because another sf serial, Babylon 5--on a much grander scale--got this backwards.

PS In Entertainment Weekly's review of the episode, there's a paragraph about Zarek killing all the members of the Quorum. Since everyone knows the quorum is both faceless and feckless, the action is more a sign of Zarek's ruthlessness than a strong emotional moment. But I was taken aback by the vehemence in the political reference of the final line:

So Zarek decides to do it himself. First up, wipe out the Quorum. (And, by the way, was anyone else a little surprised to discover that Colonial One could fit inside Galactica's hangar? Didn't it seem like this would've happened at least once before? The F/X shot sure was all kinds of awesome, though.) I could feign disgust and outrage at the brutality of Zarek's decision to gun down practically the entire civilian government in one stroke, but the best that group could muster in the face of an all out coup is to mutter peas-and-carrots-peas-and-carrots-style to each other until one of them meekly stood up and passive-aggressively called Zarek, ''Mr. Vice President.'' Oh. Snap. BSG has never really had much patience for the bureaucratic process, and in the face of our own government's well-documented foot-dragging of late, I had to forgive myself for thinking ''good riddance'' before the full weight of what Zarek had done had sunk in.

So now trying to slow down any legislation, no matter how far-reaching or expensive, is unconscionable foot dragging, after years of it being our duty to fight against the President's wishes.