A Community Celebrating the Lives and Times of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace

(Hey look at this! An actual text/meta-type post! Don't faint!)

So I was having a discussion on Twitter yesterday with a guy named Travis Yanan about a new TV pilot being shot for a potential ABC series for the upcoming season, Shawn Ryan's The Last Resort. Some of you who follow my LJ have heard me talk about this one recently and how much I liked it because it really reminded me very much of the BSG mini. The premise, in a nutshell, of the show is that a US submarine gets fired upon and gets orders to nuke Pakistan in retaliation, thereby starting a world war. The admiral resists the order, which comes in a non-protocol way, and eventually the sub's crew discovers that the shots came from their own government, from another US sub, and they take dramatic measures as a last resort, eventually declaring war on their own country. 

I'm getting to the Starbuck relevance! Promise. 

Anyway, like I said, I really liked the script a lot and it reminded me of BSG in many ways, although it didn't have quite as much character development or charisma/sex appeal as BSG mini did. There are a lot of strong, capable characters (including several ladies) but for the most part they're all towing the military line. That latter bit was why Travis didn't enjoy the script so much. He didn't connect to any of the characters and he commented that they were all very "by-the-book and soldierly. Made me appreciate how important a Starbuck is." 

And I love when anyone's appreciating Starbuck.

But I also thought that was a really great point. All of the characters on BSG are pretty flawed in one way or another, but Starbuck's willingness to buck authority is a major catalyst on the show, especially in season one. Her actions really change things for our BSG peeps in dramatic ways. There'd be no Apollo, no arrow, no Kobol/path to Earth, no Helo/Sharon, no Resistance if she hadn't followed her instincts to go against orders on various occasions.  At the same time, I tend to think Starbuck can be very obedient to the officers she respects, it often coincides with her great sense of fealty/loyalty (in a duty-related way.)

I don't really have a question related to this, just thought it was a really interesting point to bring up, that a dramatic narrative needs a Starbuck often, to challenge it and to keep things interesting and dynamic. I've never seen the original show, so I'm not sure if Dirk Benedict's iteration of the character worked in that same way (or if he was just more of a drinker/womanizer than actual challenger to authority) but I'm really glad that Kara filled that role of catalyst.