Galacticawatch 10: Season 4, Episode 20

After five and a half years it's a bit odd to be saying goodbye to Battlestar Galactica. I remember there being much scepticism over the news that the series was being 'reimagined', although the creators and actors had excellent form, but somehow it worked out better than anyone could have expected. Two seasons of almost non-stop excellence followed, and if the two subsequent seasons have been patchy, at least the show still occasionally pulled out the stops and produced some of the finest SF episodes on television in recent memory.

This episode doesn't air in some territories until later this week so beware MAJOR SPOILERS.

The final episode picks up where we left off the previous week. Adama has decided that the dying Galactica should launch a full-scale assault on the Colony to recover Hera and coincidentally destroy Cavil and his faction of Cylons forever and prevent them from pursuing the remnants of humanity across the Galaxy any more, but this (somewhat more convincing) fact is curiously still left unmentioned. With the giganormous Colony (which by my estimates is wider than the Death Star) massively outgunning the battlestar, the crew plug in the Hybridised Anders into the ship's systems, with the notion that Anders can jam the Colony's systems and prevent them from firing on the ship (similar to how he forced the Cylons to retreat from the Battle of the Ionian Nebula in the Season 4 premiere). Meanwhile, boarding teams will storm the Colony from two different directions in an attempt to rescue Hera.

The first 60-odd minutes of the finale is reasonably exciting. The CGI isn't quite up to the show's best (probably still the assault on the resurrection ship back in Season 2) and its chaotic insanity lacks the dramatic clarity of say the Battle of New Caprica, but it's still pretty jaw-dropping stuff that goes on for quite some time. Galactica ramming the Colony, Lee's boarding party (consisting of dozens of rebel Centurions as well!) storming the fortress and some intense corridor firefights result in some pretty satisfying fireworks, but at the same time there are some nice character moments. Roslin thanking Cottle for treating her for the past five years was a nice touch, and Cottle's gruff demeanour fracturing only slightly strengthened his character. Those reviewers demanding a Cottle, MD spinoff have my support, that's for sure. Six and Baltar reconcile in the heat of battle and Baltar convincingly manages to win the respect of the crew that he has been denied for so long. Meanwhile, there's a curious irony to Roslin spending some of her dying hours tending the wounded in Galactica's sickbay.

One of Battlestar's under-appreciated aspects is taking minor, secondary characters and turning them into more interesting figures, and even in the chaos of the finale it still manages to do that with Ishay (Cottle's nurse, played by Jamie Bamber's real-life wife), Cottle, Lt. Hoshi, Hot Dog and the Raptor team of Racetrack 'n' Skulls all getting some nice moments. However, the absence of other secondary characters of previous importance like Captain Kelly, Figurski, Connor and most notably Seelix is a shame. Ronald D. Moore also seems to acknowledge that the Cylon Simon was very under-developed over the course of the series and gives him more dialogue in this episode than almost all of his other appearances put together (which seem to mostly consist of Star Wars references, but nice effort anyway, I guess). It's unfortunate that Leoben and Doral, who had major roles in the premiere mini-series, don't get much of a send-off here, and the absence of a resolution to the Leoben/Starbuck relationship is a major missed opportunity, especially as a brief Leoben flashback provides a key revelation at an important moment.

The battle ramps up with the fanboy-pleasing sight of some hefty Centurion-on-Centurion violence and the return of the old First Cylon War-era Cylons to the mix as well. Boomer's story gets some decent closure and the rescue is a success. Back on Galactica we also get an explanation - sort of - for the Opera House visions that some characters have been having since the end of Season 1, whilst the significance of the Final Five is finally made clear when an opportunity for a lasting peace breaks out. RDM realises he's in danger of turning this into the Deep Space Nine finale and cleverly pulls out the story point of Tory murdering Cally seventeen episodes back to frak up the negotiations at a key moment. At this point some problems start to creep in.

Cavil chooses to commit suicide, which seems logical: he doesn't want to be killed by humans, he doesn't want to be captured by them and interrogated, and he loathes his own existence as a humanoid being. With the recovery of resurrection technology now completely impossible, he gives up and blows his own head off. The problem is that we are not really given any sense of this, just a simple "FRAK!" - BOOM! That unexpected abruptness is on the one hand right for the show and the character, but given Cavil's revelation as the series' 'main villain' just five episodes ago, it does feel a bit of a letdown he didn't have a bigger exit.

A few seconds later Racetrack's heavily-damaged Raptor manages to randomly launch its nukes and knock the Colony out of orbit. This is a bit of a cheesy plot device, but much could have been done to reduce its corniness: the earlier shot of Skulls arming the nukes could also have shown a timer being programmed for the missile launch. Also, they could have shown the Raptor locking on with its missiles and not having to be directly facing the Colony when it fired (the missiles would have turned round and homed in on the target regardless). They also seem to forget that last week a fully-powered and undamaged Raptor was sucked towards the black hole within minutes of its arrival, whilst this critically-damaged Raptor somehow maintained a relative distance for a much longer period of time. Like most minor, petty annoyances in television, it's one of those things that could have been fixed if any more than about three minutes' thought had been assigned to it.

Anyway, the Colony starts getting sucked down the black hole and Kara inputs coordinates into the jump computer, using the numbers she'd previously assigned to the notes of the song her dad taught her when younger. Galactica jumps just before the Colony is destroyed (although the actual destruction happens off-screen, confusing some viewers who'd assumed that the Colony, presumably still with lots of hostile Centurions and humanoid Cylons on board, survived). Coming out the other side, Galactica finally suffers her systematic hull failure. The ship's load-bearing members snap and it becomes a barely-inhabitable, barely-powered hulk in space. Luckily, Kara's coordinates have borne the ship into orbit around a strangely familiar blue-green planet. The rest of the Fleet is gathered and the decision is taken to settle on the planet, where primitive tribal humans are already found to exist. The Centurions are given the rebel basestar and they set out to explore the universe by themselves.

The rest of the episode is what has not to much split the fanbase as shattered it. The Colonials agree to settle on the new planet. Adama suggests they name it 'Earth', since for four years they pursued the dream of Earth only to find it a shattered, nuked-out wasteland. This planet is the real home they have been hoping for all along. Roslin dies peacefully in a Raptor whilst looking over hordes of flamingoes (a sentence I never expected to be typing) and Adama decides to build that cabin they talked about long ago, over a joint on New Caprica. That stuff is all fine and is a good endpoint for the characters. Similarly, Athena, Helo and Hera settling down as a family is great as well, providing closure for Athena and Helo's long exile on irradiated Caprica at the start of the series. Six and Baltar are reconciled and Baltar goes back to his farming roots, which is a nice callback to the humble origins he scornfully rejected later on. Tyrol becoming tired of life and people and going off settle in Scotland is a little bit weirder, but given that he has been repeatedly shafted over the course of the series, it is almost understandable. Ellen and Saul end up together again as well, which is as it should be.

Elsewhere, issues start to creep in. The initial plan is to settle on the planet and build a city, as they planned but didn't quite pull off on New Caprica. Possibly due to that (someone could have mentioned that failure as a reason they didn't do the same this time around), but Lee's idea is for the people to scatter into smaller groups and settle all around the planet instead. He also spouts some rather dubious stuff about the need to spiritually cleanse themselves by getting rid of their ships and technology (although Adama gets to keep a Raptor, obviously). Erm, what? The ships are stripped of supplies, so they obviously aren't going totally back to basics (I'm assuming they took as much medicine, food and books as they could carry) but it's still a very bizarre decision to take. Then Anders pilots the Galactica, along with some of the other ships in the Fleet (but not all of them; there are about 60-70 surviving ships in the Fleet and only about a dozen are destroyed at the end), into the Sun. Galactica was dying anyway, so fair enough, but throughout the episode we saw definite signs of improvement in Anders' condition, at different points responding directly to things being said by Tyrol and Starbuck, so the sudden requirement for him to die comes out of nowhere. Again, a single line from Cottle about his condition being irreversible would have solved this problem.

Anyway, that brings us to the fate of Starbuck, and the revelation of the 'head-people', two things we were specifically promised would be explained. Ronald D. Moore shot himself in the foot here, first by promising those things would be explained when they are not. If he'd said, "No," to both questions that would be fair enough (annoying, but at least no promises would have been made and then broken). He also made a huge mistake by ruling out Daniel - the seventh Cylon of the original models - as being Starbuck's father. The finale doesn't address that or mention Daniel at all. If RDM hadn't ruled out that possibility, a lot of the people now moaning over the finale would have concluded that was the explanation, which was extremely heavily alluded to (apparently mistakenly) by Someone to Watch Over Me and No Exit, and been a lot more satisfied. That then makes Starbuck just vanishing into thin air somewhat more palatable. Basically, Starbuck turns out to be Gandalf the White, sent back to finish her work after a premature death, and then called back home when her task is completed. That's a great mythic idea and could have been really well-handled, if the writers had thought it through a lot better. The prophecy of the First Hybrid in Razor doesn't entirely track with the resolution of Starbuck's story, and no explanation is given for Starbuck having three Vipers (one which exploded in the atmosphere of a gas giant, after which it would have been crushed by pressure; a second one that was semi-intact but crash-landed on the 13th Tribe's Earth; and the new one she flew back to Galactica). I'm still unclear if Starbuck flew to Real Earth or the 13th Tribe's Earth at the end of Season 3 either: the pictures she took showed Real Earth, but her transponder was found on 13th Tribe Earth. It's very confusing, especially when you start throwing in the constellations from the Tomb of Athena on Kobol and comparing them to the constellations at Real Earth but then Gaeta said the constellations matched at 13th Tribe Earth as well.

It is these elements that ultimately leave a hollow taste in the mouth. The creative team didn't have a plan, and deliberately introduced complex, mythological ideas and concepts that needed some forethought to be developed satisfyingly without any idea of how to resolve them. Instead, the writers and producers didn't bother and the clues they seeded along the way turned out to be random, or mistakes that needed retconning, or fake-outs.

The final scene of the series takes place 150,000 years after the Colonials settle on the real Earth, and show Head-Baltar and Head-Six in New York City. The remains of the oldest 'common ancestor' for modern humanity have been found in Tanzania, and dialogue between the two reveals that this was Hera. This at least was a reasonable resolution, since Hera's importance to the show and to the survival of humanity and Cylons alike has been a key plot point since her conception in Season 1. Without her, it is possible that all three strains of life (Cylon, human and the primitive Earthlings) would have died out altogether. The two 'head' characters discuss how God's plan has worked out ("You know it doesn't like being called that!") and then walk off along Times Square whilst the Jimi Hendrix version of 'All Along the Watchtower' kicks in over TV footage of new developments in robotics technology.

On one level this is kind of appropriate, although we didn't need a full minute of shots of various crazy Japanese robots, which is a bit like using a piledriver to crack a nut. We get it. Creating robots and AI and treating it badly is not a good idea. However, the failure to get any kind of closure or conclusion for the head characters is frustrating as well. They were, it turns out, literally 'angels' sent by 'God' to save the day, as was (in a different form) Starbuck. Well. Okay. Right. Was God one of the Lords of Kobol? A hyper-advanced quantum AI built into the fabric of the Universe? An ultra-futuristic posthuman with cognitative powers not bound by mere temporal physics? A Pah-Wraith? Dirk Benedict (don't laugh, this was seriously considered at one point)? I suppose the idea is that it's left up to the audience and any explanation the writers could come up with would be derided no matter what it was, but to my mind just saying, "God did it," is just as much of a cop-out as "God is a computer,". On one level I like the idea of the answer being what you want it to be. On the other, that seems lame: isn't this stuff what the writers get paid to think of? I'm going back and forth between the two poles at the moment.

Judging the flaws in the BSG finale, it is easy to come to the conclusion it was a totally poor end to the story. It wasn't. The Fleet found a final home, Hera's importance in the grand scheme of things was confirmed, the hostile Cylons were defeated and destroyed once and for all, Roslin met her long ago-promised destiny and a tangible link between our world and the show's was established. The actors were on top form, the thematic bookends to Boomer, Starbuck and Roslin's stories provided by the flashbacks was strong and the action story was pretty impressive. The forward-moving story of the series ended in a somewhat decent place, and emotionally the finale hit most of the right buttons. But the lack of answers given for elements we were explicitly promised answers for, and the sense of the writers simply not being able to come up with pay-offs equal to the mysteries they had created and simply walking away from those elements of the story with nothing resolved feels a bit cheap.

BSG was (mostly) a very good series that won 'proper' SF a level of respect and mainstream acclaim the genre hasn't seen before, and hopefully future SF series will build on that foundation. There is also a warning here about trying to create a serialised story with no pre-planning and biting off more than you can chew, which I hope future SF TV shows will also heed.

Daybreak, Part 2 (****, yes, despite the problems) was a flawed ending to a flawed show that nevertheless was frequently entertaining and thought-provoking, and showed a new and different approach to science fiction storytelling on television. It wasn't the best SF finale ever (Deep Space Nine's, Babylon 5's and even the nihilistic Blake's 7's were all much better conceived and executed), but it wasn't the total car-crashing-into-a-flaming-gas-station disaster I've seen it described as elsewhere.

And the question for next year is, can Lost deliver a finale that is both emotionally satisfying and also closes all the mysteries and answers all the questions? Guess we'll find out in about fourteen months.

Forthcoming: A new BSG TV movie, The Plan, will air later this year, possibly in November. This will answer a number of lingering questions from the series, although probably none of the big mysteries from the finale. Those still wondering who Shelly Godfrey was (the Six that infiltrated the Fleet and caused big problems for Baltar in a Season 1 episode), how Ellen got off Picon during the Cylon attack or how Caprica Six and Boomer convinced the other Cylons to 'give peace a chance' at the end of Season 2 will get their questions answered, however.

Caprica, the BSG prequel series, begins airing in early 2010, but the pilot movie will be available on DVD in the USA next month. No UK release date has been set so far.

Galacticawatch 9: Season 4, Episodes 16-19

The clock is ticking. The punishment that the already-50-years-old Galactica has sustained over the last four years has caught up with her and the ship is suffering minor hull breaches, fractures in the load-bearing beams and is starting down the slope that will lead to total structural failure. Meanwhile, the revelation of the Final Five's past has meant that they now have a greater understanding of the Cycle of Time and what it means, but not what that means for their own future.


Deadlock sees Ellen Tigh and Boomer return to Galactica. Naturally Ellen's return is an excellent opportunity for the remaining members of the Final Five to get the answers they couldn't get from Anders the prior week before he passed out. Except they don't, for reasons never adequately explained. Also, remember how Tigh killed Ellen in Exodus Part II? You do? Excellent! The writers, however, do not, and that fact isn't even addressed. Also remember how Caprica-Six turned out to be pregnant? Apparently the writers did that because it was 'interesting' rather than because they had any idea on how to resolve it, so this episode arbitrarily kills off the unborn baby. In a subplot that redefines the meaning of the word 'random', Baltar convinces Adama to give heavy weaponry to his harem and employ them as an auxiliary security force.

Deadlock is pretty much a total disaster of an episode. It's not just inconsistent with the previous episode, it renders it totally nonsensical. At the end of No Exit Tory is muttering about not getting a chance to ask Anders about his song which switched them on ('All Along the Watchtower'), whilst Tyrol was bemused to hear about the 'head-beings' that the Final Five had apparently seen whilst on Earth. Do either of them ask Ellen about these matters instead? No. Not even remotely. The episode instead descends into mawkish soap opera relationship shenanigans which really don't work at all. Michael Hogan deserves some kind of award for heroic acting in the face of an incoherent and nonsensical script (despite everything, he totally sells the loss of his child at the end of the episode and his performance is 100% responsible for the extra star this episode gets below).

Someone to Watch Over Me is a far superior and more interesting episode, which considering it consists largely of Starbuck re-learning how to play the piano may sound insane. However, it's written by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, responsible for many of the series' high points, and for my money the only writers to really 'get' Starbuck. This episode is a thematic sequel to the earlier Maelstrom, but those hoping for an explanation of how Starbuck came back from the dead are in for a disappointment (and the answer this episode is apparently leaning towards giving turns out to be an unintended red herring). Instead, Starbuck spends the episode developing a curious bond with a new piano player in the bar, even going as far as confessing her discovery of her own corpse on Earth. As Starbuck struggles to remember a melody from childhood it falls to the somewhat-neglected Hera, the child of Athena and Helo, to provide the missing piece and, sure enough, the song turns out to be hugely significant, finally providing a major clue as to what Hera's much-discussed role in events is. Of course, the crew only realise this just as Boomer is freed from prison (after playing Tyrol like a chump), kidnapping Hera and gets off the ship. Whoops. This is a pretty strong episode sold by a great performance by Sackhoff with an exciting climax that recalls the strongest moments of the series to date.

Islanded in a Stream of Stars is a quieter episode, mainly dealing with the emotional fall-out from Hera's abduction and the Fleet's abortive attempts to locate the Colony, Cavil's base of operations. On a plot level, the episode is somewhat static, but instead we are really shown how Galactica is dying and in its death throes it is tearing Adama's heart out along with it. This is well-played (although it gives us another 'Adama breakdown' scene, which is getting a bit old) and the final scene with Adama and Tigh is excellent. Elsewhere, Baltar learns Starbuck's secret and shares it with the entire Fleet, but Starbuck finds the response and the support surprisingly positive. Anders is hooked up to the Cylon datastream to try to reboot his mind, but instead it turns him into a Hybrid, which is a surprising turn of events. Overall, the episode is reasonably watchable but there is a distinct sense here that money is being saved for the big finale.

That finale kicks off with the first part of Daybreak. As a stand-alone episode, it is odd and doesn't really work, but as the first third of a longer story it is more effective. Unexpectedly, we are taken back (complete with some absolutely stunning CGI cityscapes) to Caprica two or three years before the Cylon attack and get to meet Roslin just before she lost most of her family in a car crash, and the first meeting of Lee and Kara and also Baltar and Caprica-Six. There's some great character moments here, such as meeting Baltar's father and seeing more of his background, but the timing feels a little bit odd. A season or two back this material would have been fascinating, but coming at the end of the series it feels a bit out of place.

In the present, the crew are preparing to abandon Galactica but Adama is dissatisfied at the way the ship is going to be left to die alone in space. When he learns that photos of the fallen are being left in the hallway of remembrance because the people who put them up are themselves now dead, he snaps and decides that going after Hera, and in the process giving Cavil a bloody nose and sending Galactica out in a blaze of glory is the way to go. Somewhat bizarrely he doesn't really sell the (considerable) military benefits of the operation to his crew, instead asking them to just come along because Hera's a nice kid. Unsurprisingly he doesn't get a huge number of volunteers. Hey Adama, you suck at PR. Never go into politics. Anyway, he does just about manage to scrape together the barely viable number of crewmen needed by pardoning a bunch of the former mutineers and the mission is on! Thanks to Anders' new Hybridness they track the Colony to the accretion disk of a black hole and learn there is no other way in or out of the local system except just dropping right on top of the Colony and opening fire. So plans are formulated, gruff and stoic looks are exchanged and the 'to be continued caption' drops inevitable into place.

Wowsers. I'll be discussing the (massively) controversial final episode in its own review in a day or two, so stay tuned for that.

416: Deadlock (**)
417: Someone to Watch Over Me (****½)
418: Islanded in a Stream of Stars (***½)
419: Daybreak, Part 1 (***½)

Forthcoming: The Plan (late 2009), Caprica (April 2009 on DVD, early 2010 on TV).

Galacticawatch 8: Season 4, Eps 11-15

"All of this has happened before and will happen again. And again. And again."
- The First Hybrid, Razor

This catechism is repeated throughout the first three and a half seasons of Battlestar Galactica and is integral to the mythology of the show, yet until this latest batch of episodes we had no idea what it really meant. As the final run of episodes in the series opens, it becomes abundantly clear that the Cycle of Time, first referenced by Leoben in Season 1, is the real key to understanding what it is that the series wants to say, and it is not coincidental that the most decisive change in the attitudes of the two sides came in the Season 4 mid-year cliffhanger, when attitudes were changed and, as two characters said, "All of this has happened before but it doesn't have to happen again."


In the first half of Season 4, the Cylons suffered an irrevocable split down their middle over the issue of their treatment of the mechanical Cylons and the search for the Final Five humanoid models, with the Sixes, Twos and Eights splitting away from the Ones, Fours and Fives (plus Boomer). The rebels were subsequently weakened in battle and forced to seek refuge on a single baseship which made it to the Colonial Fleet. In return for intelligence on the Final Five and assistance in destroying the Cylon Resurrection Hub and retrieving the last remaining Three (who knew the identities of the Final Five), D'Anna, the Fleet granted them temporary succor. After much angst, betrayal and a tense stand-off, the two sides united and were rewarded with what both sides have been seeking for the past four years: the location of Earth.

Unfortunately, Earth turned out to be a blasted atomic wasteland. Episode 411, Sometimes a Great Notion, essentially deals with the fall-out from this discovery. The planet was devastated in a nuclear holocaust more than two thousand years ago. Millions of people were killed. Digging on the beach, Dee finds some children's toys and seems to suffer a mini-breakdown. Back on Galactica Roslin, suffering from shock that her dreams and much-beloved prophecies turned out to be a bunch of crap, withdraws from public view. Despondency grips the Fleet. Suicides take place. Archaeological teams dispatched to the planet uncover even more horrifying evidence: the 13th Tribe weren't humans at all, but an earlier race of humanoid Cylons. The Four suffer flashbacks, Tyrol to his own death (blasted into atoms by a nuclear fireball) and Anders to the song he wrote for the woman he loved. Eventually, faced with the ruin of everything he has fought for these last four years, Adama is forced to step up to the plate (perhaps responding to Lee, who's bouncing back in the face of adversity in this episode is impressive, even whilst contemplating all the friends he's lost in battle for the dream of Earth) and promises the Fleet he can find them a new home. But, on the surface of Earth, Starbuck makes a discovery that rocks her universe and Tigh's own flashback is one with horrifying and stunning implications.

This is a remarkable piece of television, one of the darkest episodes of anything I've seen in a long, long time. It's not every day on television you see a series regular blow their brains out over the wall with absolutely no forewarning whatsoever. The identity of the Final Cylon is indeed revealed, in a manner the audience probably wasn't expecting, but it's among the lesser revelations in this episode. Tragic, dark but still compulsively watchable.

The next three episodes - A Disquiet Follows My Soul, The Oath and Blood on the Scales - form a trilogy. The Fleet has left the environs of Earth and the question, "What now?" is on everyone's lips. In particular, with Earth now discovered and the purpose of the alliance achieved, the value of their new Cylon allies is increasingly being questioned. The Cylons offer to upgrade the jump drives of all the ships in the Fleet, tripling their range, but when Adama and Lee push this decision through over the objections of the ship captains, the result is a full-blown insurrection. Characters take sides, shots are fired and a lot of people die, including some regular and recurring characters who have been around since Season 1. This is an action-packed storyline, with explosions, gun battles and political drama which hearkens back to the early days of the show (particularly Season 2's Valley of Darkness, when Cylons boarded the Galactica and a running battle was fought with them throughout the ship). There are some really hard questions about right and wrong, law and order, political processes versus military ones and so on being asked underneath the action and the show gives some surprisingly pat answers (mainly by making the 'bad guys' do some really bad things, rather than backing up their own sense of justification). Still, after the most depressing story arc the show has ever done, having an action storyline does brighten things up again.

Note: Minor spoilers for UK/Irish viewers, as the following episode does not air until next week on Sky One.

Episode 415, No Exit, is another radical change of style. In episode 411 we learned that the Final Five Cylons had originated on Earth two thousand years ago, but not how they got to the Colonies, where they were for that time and why just the five of them, out of all the teeming millions of Cylons on Earth, survived. No Exit gives the answers. Anyone familiar with Babylon 5 will recall the Season 2 episode In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum, where the main story arc was broken down for the characters, a lot of backstory was revealed and the stakes laid out. No Exit does the same kind of thing, if in a rather clunkier fashion. It's probably no surprise that the Final Cylon is not dead, or that they have been a prisoner of Brother Cavil all this time. Cavil locks horns with them in a ferocious intellectual debate over the course of months, which may sound tedious but the two actors involved do some absolutely brilliant work here. Dean Stockwell has always been cool, superior and condescending as Cavill, always supremely confident whether it's facing off against Adama and Roslin or trying to bring D'Anna to heel. But he meets his match here as his creator rips his justifications apart and shows him how, for all that he wants to be a machine, he is as polluted by feelings and irrationalities as any human. It's fascinating stuff.

At the same time on Galactica, Anders, suffering from a wound sustained in the mutiny, begins suffering extensive flashbacks to his old life, and manages to spill the beans on a lot of subjects about the Final Five, who they were before and how they came to live amongst the Colonials. There's some great dancing around in the writing here as disparate elements going right back to the mini-series are woven into a story that, whilst not exactly cohesive, doesn't embarrass itself too much. The writers even find time to address some classic fanwankery from the Sci-Fi Channel message boards (such as why isn't there a model #7 Cylon). Whilst it's all fantastic food for thought and you'll understand the central conflict of the entire series much better by the end, it's not the most elegant piece of exposition you'll ever see (and doesn't compare too favourably with Lost's altogether more dramatic and exciting method of exposition they've been filling in for the duration of Season 5 so far), but the philosophical and ideological clash between Cavil and the Final Cylon makes for fascinating viewing.

411: Sometimes a Great Notion (*****)
412: A Disquiet Follows My Soul (***)
413: The Oath (*****)
414: Blood on the Scales (****)
415: No Exit (****½)

Forthcoming: Deadlock (20/02/09), Someone to Watch Over Me (27/02/09), Islanded in a Stream of Stars (06/03/09), Daybreak Part 1 (13/03/09), Daybreak Part 2 and Part 3 (20/03/09), The Plan (summer 2009)

Battlestar Galactica: Season 2

Season 2 of the new Battlestar Galactica begins immediately following the events of the Season 1 cliffhanger. A Raptor has crashed on Kobol and the survivors are being menaced by Cylons. On Galactica, Commander Adama has been shot by a Cylon sleeper agent and lies at death's door, leaving the flaky, alcoholic Colonel Tigh in command. President Roslin has been deposed by a military coup and is confined in Galactica's brig. Meanwhile, Starbuck has, against orders, taken a captured Cylon Raider back to Caprica to find a mythical artefact. And that's just for starters...

Whilst Season 1 of BSG consisted of a long story arc made up of entwined threads that culminated in the season finale, the second season consists of shorter arcs which are much more heavily serialised across a smaller number of episodes. The first seven episodes of Season 2 are based around resolving the Season 1 cliffhanger and form an exciting, tense storyline which tests the characters to their limits. Colonel Tigh is put on the spot and found wanting, whilst both Apollo and Starbuck find their loyalties repeatedly tested and Baltar's acceptance of his destiny against the instincts of his more practical and scientific side results in an intriguing struggle. Once the aftermath of Season 1 is dealt with, we are barely given a pause for breath as the three-part Pegasus arc kicks off. There is a school of thought that Pegasus itself is the best episode of the entire series, perhaps challenged only by Season 1's 33 and Season 3's Exodus, Part 2, and it's hard to argue with that. As a bonus the DVD edition is the extended 56-minute cut, with far more character development and background information than we've seen previously.

Following the conclusion of the Pegasus arc in Resurrection Ship, Part 2, the show ill-advisedly takes some time out to do some stand-alone episodes. Roslin's reprieve from her cancer in Epiphanies is well-acted, but tremendously contrived, whilst Black Market is something of a mess, and is producer Ronald D. Moore's least-favourite episode (although frankly it's far better than Hero or the truly irredeemable The Woman King from Season 3). Black Market is a throwback to early Season 1 which dealt with the social, political and pragmatic challenges facing the fleet, but this late in the day with far more interesting stuff going on it feels like a waste of time, and the flashback sequences are unfocused and rather dull. Scar is better, as Kat and Starbuck compete to see who can take down an ace Cylon Raider, but again the flashback sequence makes the episode more confused than it needs to be. Sacrifice is notable for the highest-profile killing of a regular character to date, but is rather predictable.

Season 2 returns to form with The Captain's Hand, a no-nonsense action story which gives Apollo something to do after a prolonged brush with depression and we get to see what the Pegasus is really capable of when cut loose, resulting in some very nice CGI, although the continuously-doomed nature of the Pegasus COs is becoming a bit of a riff on Murphy Brown's secretaries. Downloaded is a pivotal episode, giving us the Cylon point-of-view for once whilst the fate of Sharon's hybrid baby is debated and nuked-out Caprica is revisited. The two-part season finale, Lay Down Your Burdens, is the series at its best, mixing politics (Baltar's run for the presidency receives a shot in the arm after the discovery of a habitable planet protected from the Cylons' sensors by a nebula), action (Starbuck's long-gestating plan to return to Caprica to rescue the resistance members is finally carried out) and genuine surprises (the last of the 'significant seven' Cylons is revealed) before we get to the final 15 minutes: a totally unexpected year-long jump forwards in time that ends on the biggest cliffhanger to an SF TV show since Picard got Borgified.

After debating about the final score for the season, in the end I opted to give Season 2 maximum marks. Yeah, there's four fair-to-middling episodes, but nothing that's actually unwatchable, and the overwhelming quality found elsewhere more than makes up for it.

Battlestar Galactica: Season 2 (*****) is Battlestar Galactica at its finest, and is available on DVD in the UK. In the USA the season was released in two volumes as Season 2.0 and Season 2.5.

201: Scattered (*****)
202: Valley of Darkness (*****)
203: Fragged (*****)
204: Resistance (****)
205: The Farm (***½)
206: Home, Part 1 (****)
207: Home, Part 2 (*****)
208: Final Cut (****)
209: Flight of the Phoenix (****)
210: Pegasus (*****)
211: Resurrection Ship, Part 1 (****½)
212: Resurrection Ship, Part 2 (*****)
213: Epiphanies (***)
214: Black Market (**½)
215: Scar (***)
216: Sacrifice (**½)
217: The Captain's Hand (****)
218: Downloaded (****½)
219: Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1 (*****)
220: Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2 (*****)

Wertzone Classics: Battlestar Galactica: Season 1

Season 1 of the new BSG picks up where the mini-series left off: the Twelve Colonies have been destroyed in a surprise nuclear attack launched by their former creations, the Cylons. A ragtag fleet of about 80-90 ships has assembled under the protection and leadership of the last surviving battlestar, the Galactica, and have fled into deep space. Commander Adama and President Roslin have promised to guide the people to the long-lost thirteenth colony, Earth. However, contrary to public belief, they have no idea where it is. As the search for Earth unfolds, the crew of Galactica are also relying on Dr. Gaius Baltar's project to build a device to smoke out the Cylon infiltrators among the fleet. There is a great deal of dramatic tension to be mined by the fact that, as a result of the mini-series, the audience knows who one of the Cylon infiltrators is, but neither the crew nor the character know.

An ongoing subplot takes us back to Caprica, now devastated by nuclear explosions and radioactive fall-out, where Lt. Karl Agathon, callsign 'Helo', is trying to find a way off the planet after being stranded there in the mini-series. However, the Cylons have their own plans for Helo...

Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica is its most concise: 13 episodes compared to Season 2-4's 20 apiece. It's also its most consistent in quality, with no longeurs or unwatchably bad episodes. The pace of events is relentless, with the constant Cylon pursuit of the fleet and their hounding of Helo's attempts to flee from Caprica driving the narrative forwards. The emphasis here is less on the mystical elements that come to dominate the later seasons and more on the cold, hard realities of survival: finding or growing the vast amounts of supplies that 50,000 people need to survive on, finding water and fuel, and putting in place an administrative structure to govern the people more effectively. The clash between the military and political perspectives (espoused by Adama and Roslin) provides an underlying thematic structure to the season culminating in the events of the startling finale. Numerous subplots are established and expanded upon with confidence and verve.

For the individual episodes, the award-winning 33 is an astonishing piece of work. The ticking clock element and the constant Cylon attacks on the fleet turning the crew into strung-out wrecks is handled superbly. Water deals with the supply problem effectively whilst increasing the paranoia quotient. Bastille Day introduces the recurring character of Tom Zarek (excellently portrayed by the original series' Richard Hatch) and a number of political subplots that culminate at the end of Season 2. Act of Contrition and You Can't Go Home Again mix together the problem of recruiting new soldiers and pilots from a very limited pool of recruits with a more dynamic storyline involving Starbuck crashed on an inhospitable planet. Litmus addresses the some of the apparent plot-holes of earlier episodes by having someone investigate the security lapses on board the ship. Six Degrees of Separation puts Baltar on the spot when he is accused of treason, with James Callis delivering a stand-out performance. Flesh and Bone is another excellent piece of work, with Starbuck having to torture a Cylon prisoner for information but ends up having her own soul stripped bare. Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down is the first season's only misfire, an attempt at a 'comedy episode' that doesn't work too well, although it does introduce the magnificent, Lady MacBeth-esque character of Ellen Tigh. The Hand of God is a simple balls-to-the-wall action show, with Galactica and her Viper squadrons having to launch a massive assault on a Cylon base. The CGI is astonishingly good and the tactical nuances of the planned attack are portrayed well. Colonial Day is another political episode, showing how the fleet's new administration is going to work. The assassin subplot is muddled and confused, and the resolution to the episode hints at a subplot that is never again addressed. Nevertheless, it's entertaining enough. Events culminate in the two-part Kobol's Last Gleaming, which mixes together the storylines from the entire season and delivers a succession of plot revelations and intriguing ideas culminating in a shocking cliffhanger twist ending that leaves the viewer eager to watch Season 2 immediately.

Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 (*****) is an excellent piece of work, establishing the characters and storylines superbly. It is available on DVD in the UK and packaged with the mini-series in the USA.

101: 33 (*****)
102: Water (****)
103: Bastille Day (****)
104: Act of Contrition (****)
105: You Can't Go Home Again (****)
106: Litmus (***)
107: Six Degrees of Separation (****)
108: Flesh and Bone (*****)
109: Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down (**½)
110: The Hand of God (****)
111: Colonial Day (***½)
112: Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1 (****½)
113: Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2 (*****)

Galacticawatch 7: Season 4, Ep 10

The first half of Battlestar Galactica's fourth season came to an end with an explosive, revelation-packed episode that seemed to finally shake the show out of its somewhat plodding pace and deliver the kind of quality we haven't seen since the Exodus two-parter at the start of Season 3. Before it aired the producers had bigged it up, claiming that the end was more jaw-dropping than the occupation of New Caprica. They weren't wrong about that. But before we get to that point there's another 40 minutes of drama to get through.


The resurrected D'Anna Biers (Lucy Lawless clearly having a thoroughly great time) wants the four Cylons who are in the fleet and plans to hold Roslin and the Viper pilots from the Hub mission hostage until they are handed over. "Where's the Fifth?" Roslin enquires, about half a second after the entire audience has asked the same question, but D'Anna dodges it. Tory quickly finds a way of jumping ship and revealing herself as a member of the Five, but Tyrol, Tigh and Anders are much more reluctant to come forward. Starbuck starts planning a rescue op, but the chances of success before either the hostages are killed or the basestar fires on the civilian ships in the fleet seems limited. With the stakes growing by the minute, Colonel Tigh finally 'fesses up to Adama: he is a Cylon, activated by a signal in the Ionian Nebula.

This is the first masterclass scene in the episode. Michael Hogan and Edward Olmos give their all in this scene. Adama looks first confused, then suspicious and then finally enraged. Tigh, on the other hand, is first ashamed for keeping this secret for so long and then finally seems almost joyous to be relieved of his burden and able to give Adama a weapon to use against D'Anna. Whilst that may be true, this is one shock too far for Adama, who finally experiences a kind of mini-breakdown. Jamie Bamber, who has always been effective but rarely outstanding as Lee, finally comes into his own here. The scene of the son trying to comfort his crying, broken father is a powerful one and the two actors sell it completely (even going into method when Adama drools over his son's hand and Bamber just keeps going). Adama has been the bedrock of this show, the unmovable object which anchors everything down, and to see him finally cracking after 65-odd episodes of disciplined stoicism is a shock. With Adama out of commission and Tigh revealed to be a potential enemy agent, Lee has to step up to the plate and does so decisively, slugging Tigh, putting D'Anna firmly in her place and making the hard calls. Whilst the route that Lee took to becoming President may be highly questionable, once he's in that place you finally see where his arc has been heading since the mini-series, and it's a relief to see that it works and that the character and actor can handle it.

Elsewhere, all of the four have heard a signal drawing them to Starbuck's Viper. Anders, Tyrol and Starbuck's investigation is curtailed by Tigh giving up his fellow Cylons. Now we're in a classic BSG stand-off (D'Anna loves these: she was at the heart of the one that caused the Season 3 mid-season cliffhanger as well), with the Cylons threatening to airlock the hostages if Tigh, Tyrol and Anders aren't handed over and Lee threatening to do the same to the three Cylons if the hostages aren't released. Even Baltar's entreaties to D'Anna (whom he's been quite intimate with in the past) don't seem to have much impact. Obviously something else has to resolve the stand-off and that is accomplished by Starbuck, after futilely fiddling around with the DRADIS and black box recordings and other electronic gizmos on her Viper, comes up with the idea of switching the radio on. Sure enough, she picks up a Colonial transponder system leading to a star system a few light-years away: Earth.

The convenient neatness of this plot twist will probably infuriate those who have felt that BSG has moved away from the hard-edged realism of the first season and a half or so and become dependent on mystical hand-waving to resolve its plot threads. Refreshingly, this is actually challenged in the episode itself with Lee and Starbuck finally concluding that a 'higher power' is orchestrating events for their own purposes, rather than stuff happening for the sheer hell of it. Irritatingly, this isn't followed up on in the episode itself, but it still gives our heroes a way out of the impasse and no doubt paves the way for plotlines to come (the 'higher power', I suspect, will be the same force behind Head-Six and Head-Baltar, who have been notable for their absence from the last few episodes). The hostages are released, a broken Adama is healed somewhat by Roslin's return, the Penultimate Four are given an amnesty, Lee earns Roslin's respect and the humans and Cylons agree to go to Earth together.


The final act opens with a soaring blast of choral music. Composer Bear McCreary was asked to do something special for this episode and complied with a stunning piece called 'Diaspora Oratorio' (more on how he created it here). The fleet has moved towards the signal and is now a single jump away. Roslin gives the order, the fleet jumps and there is a moment of tension whilst the navigation crew work out where they are. The reports come in: the fleet has arrived intact in orbit above a blue-white planet. The constellations match the patterns recorded in the Temple of Athena on Kobol (in Season 2's Home, Part 2) exactly. Admiral Adama delivers the speech he's wanted to since accepting the reality of Earth's existence at the start of Season 2:

"Crew of Galactica. People of the fleet. This is Admiral Adama. Three years ago I promised to lead you to a new home. We've endured a difficult journey. We've all lost, we've all suffered, and the truth is, I questioned whether this day would ever come. But today our journey is at an end. We have arrived, at Earth."

There are mass celebrations. The CIC degenerates into cheering and shouting. There are shots of people celebrating throughout the fleet, even on the refinery ship. But against the happiness and celebrating there are moments of discord: Starbuck looking at the wall of the fallen showing those who haven't made it (particularly Kat); Tyrol playing with his motherless son; Tigh staring blankly into his bottle. But overall the feeling is one of relief and happiness. McCreary's score builds to a finale and we fade out over a shot of Earth. Damn, are they going to leave us there for seven months? But no, there's still another two minutes on the clock.

A detachment of Raptors, Cargo Lifters and Cylon Heavy Raiders drops through the atmosphere. Cut to a shot of Adama's hand sifting through the soil, whilst a giger counter clicks alarmingly. He looks pretty pissed off. A slow, deliberate pan takes in Roslin (who can only stare vacantly and say, "Earth,"), an utterly horrified D'Anna, the grim-faced Agathons, a blank-faced Anders (who brushes off Tory when she reaches to him for comfort), a devastated Lee, a despondent Baltar, a totally shocked Tigh (who similarly doesn't react when Six tries to comfort him), a strangely laughing Tyrol, a despondent Dualla, a grieving Leoben and, finally, Starbuck, who looks like she's regretting having led her friends to this place. The camera keeps going, taking in a twisted dome-like building before moving across what appears to be a large island, covered in the ruins of shattered skyscrapers before finally ending on the remnants of a broken, huge bridge. Fade to black.

This shot may go down in history as the most powerful thing the show has ever done. Building up the viewer's hopes and expectations over what Earth is through the partying and celebrating in the fleet, and then delivering a kick to the balls of monumental proportions by showing what appears to the ruins of a nuclear war. It's a deliciously dark image and one that leaves the audience's jaws on the floor and desperate to know what happens next. What does the fleet do now? Is the entire planet uninhabitable or are there remote areas free of radiation where the colonists may settle? Are Cavil and the other Cylons still on our heroes' trail? Who is the Final Cylon? Who or what has manipulated the humans and Cylons into coming to Earth if it's just a burned-out wasteland, and for what purpose? Where is the signal that Starbuck's Viper picking up coming from? And if this is a future Earth, where are its communications satellites? Could some people have escaped whatever happened before the end and fled somewhere else in space? It's going to be a long, cruel wait before we get the answers. During that time expect every frame of that final shot to be scrutinised in-depth (is that New York? Or Sydney? Tokyo? Vancouver? Or some future city not even dreamed of as yet?) and every interview and utterence from the producers to be raked over for clues.

410: Revelations (*****)

Forthcoming: Sometimes a Great Notion, The Disquiet That Follows My Soul, The Oath, Blood on the Scales, No Exit, Someone to Watch Over Me.

The second half of Season 4 will start airing in the 'first quarter' of 2009, with January mooted as a possible date. Between now and then there will be ten webisodes directed by Jamie Bamber and James Callis that link the two halves of the season. It also appears likely that there will be an additional TV movie which will be filmed in the summer and screened around November time, but this hasn't been formally commissioned yet. The first half of Season 4 will be released on DVD in the USA in December, but at the moment it looks like the Region 2 release won't be until next year, so the season can be released in one go.

Galacticawatch 6: Season 4, Eps 6-9

Hang on, aren't there ten episodes in the first half of BSG Season 4, you may be asking? Correct, there are. But episode ten is pretty monumental - actually the biggest episode of the series to date - so much so that I'll be discussing it by itself (a first on the blog for a standard 45-minute episode of television) later on in the week, after it airs in the UK and Ireland on Tuesday.

Anyway, the first five episodes left off with Starbuck facing a mutiny against her command on the Demetrius after she decided to trust the Cylon Leoben and have him take them to his basestar. Faith opens with a stand-off as Helo, Starbuck's XO and best friend, joins the mutiny. However, Anders steps up and supports Starbuck, but takes a step too far by shooting Gaeta in the leg. As the crew rally to save their comrade, Starbuck realises her actions have been irrational and decides to take a skeleton crew of volunteers (consisting of Athena, Anders and Barolay, a former member of both Anders' and the New Caprica reistance movements) on a single Raptor to investigate. As Starbuck tries to forge a peace with the stricken basestar, Laura Roslin faces her own mortality with the help of another cancer patient, Emily Kowalski.

Faith is an effective episode that begins to batter down the lines drawn in the sand between the Cylons and humans. Whilst misunderstandings continue (two Cylons and a human die before the two sides seem to be able to start trusting one another), the episode effectively builds to the point where you can believe that some sort of mutual accomodation may be possible, even if Starbuck's sudden acceptance of Leoben as some kind of guide to her visions after what he did to her on New Caprica is a bit much to swallow. Katee Sackhoff does sterling work this episode, especially her reaction to what the Cylon Hybrid tells her about her future and that the Final Five know the way to Earth (which also gives the show a much-needed sense of direction for the first time since New Caprica). There are also effective moments depicting Anders' reaction to being on a Cylon baseship for the first time, such as him comforting the dying Eight and wondering what would happen if he stuck his hand in a Cylon control node. However, the acting meat of the episode is back on Galactica as producer Ronald D. Moore calls in one of his Deep Space Nine cohorts, Nana Visitor, to depict the dying Emily. Whilst it's an expected storyline - the first step in softening the hardass that Roslin has become and making her question her own views of religion and what Baltar and his cult are preaching to the fleet - both Visitor and McDonnell pull it off.

Guess What's Coming to Dinner? opens with the now-compliant Cylon basestar jumping right into the middle of the fleet, triggering a major crisis. Luckily, a tardy Demetrius shows up just in time to stop the Galactica fragging the basestar. We then have some nice revelatory moments where the Cylon rebel leader, Natalie, explains that Cylon resurrection technology is based around a single, huge mobile space station, the Hub. If the Hub is destroyed then the Resurrection Ships stop working and Cylon resurrection becomes impossible. She is offering the Colonials the opportunity for a joint mission to rescue D'Anna Biers, retrieve the identities of the Final Five from her, destroy the Hub and then proceed to Earth as partners. Obviously the Colonials are skeptical but the temptation of destroying the Hub and ending the Cylons' biggest advantage over the humans is too much for Roslin and Adama to ignore.

This is a solid episode, although it seems rather convenient that the Resurrection Hub, which was never mentioned until a few episodes ago, is such a massive Achilles' heel for the Cylons. Presumably the Hub took so long and so many resources to build it cannot easily be duplicated or replaced, but it still seems awfully convenient that such a weakness exists. Ignoring that plot convenience, there is much of interest in this episode with the Cylons and Colonials having to plan a joint attack mission and the Cylons debating about whether to betray the Colonials or not. Athena's reaction to what happens to Hera at the end of the episode is a little hard to swallow, however, considering that Natalie isn't even the same Six who picks Hera up in her vision of the Opera House on Kobol, and that there is no evidence that either the Six or Baltar in that vision actually wants to harm her. As a result the episode feels a little under-developed, and the methods used to ensure that Baltar and Roslin are on the basestar at the end of the episode are somewhat contrived. Nevertheless, a solid instalment that advances the plot. The CGI for the showdown between Galactica and the basestar is also, as ever, spectacular.

At this point the narrative splits in half. Sine Qua Non follows events on Galactica and in the fleet whilst The Hub switches to events on the basestar. Sine Qua Non is, frankly, the most bizarre episode of BSG in its history. The events that happen in the episode are not surprising, but the speed with which they occur and the reasoning behind it is. First off, we learn that Lee has apparently been in regular contact with Romo Lamkin (a welcome reappearance by Mark Shepherd) since the Season 3 finale but there has been no evidence for this. Secondly, the decision to replace Roslin as president seems premature. This episode makes it ambiguous how long she's been gone for, but the next reveals that both episodes cover a period of some two days only. As a result the political events in the fleet that lead to Lee becoming President seem ludicrous. If Roslin had gone missing for a week, perhaps this would be conceivable, but as it stands it's possibly the single most contrived plot development in the history of the series. Lee being President is logical, even predictable given his character development since the mini-series, but it happening so fast is not believable. Then we have Romo losing it, having cat hallucinations and threatening Lee at gunpoint, which is all extremely silly.

Elsewhere, Adama becomes consumed by the need to search for Roslin and endangers the fleet's security to do so. Sound familiar? It's a re-run of the Season 1 episode You Can't Go Home Again, where Starbuck crashed on a desolate moon and Lee and Adama endangered the fleet by staying to look for her long after any hope for her survival had passed. The parallel between the two events is even drawn in this episode by Adama admitting to losing his focus far more readily. The problem is that the situations are totally different: Starbuck was just one pilot, whilst Roslin is the President of the Twelve Colonies. Also, 50% of Galactica's Viper wing and pilots are also missing. Once they confirm that the Hub has been destroyed as well, it's also possible that the missing baseship also contains D'Anna and the information that will lead to the discovery of Earth. Employing all means to search for the ship makes perfect sense, and the sequence of events that leads to Adama stepping down in favour of Tigh - whom he has just berated for getting the captive Six pregnant! - and staying behind in a Raptor on the off-chance the basestar shows up again is utterly implausible. That said, seeing Adama get into a flight suit again and take on his callsign of 'Husker' is quite cool. But overall Sine Qua Non is a badly-conceived episode that takes us back to the dark days of mid-to-late Season 3 when things were happening that didn't make any kind of sense.

The Hub switches over to the basestar and thankfully things are much more interesting here. The Hybrid is unhappy with Natalie's death and decides to attack the Hub by herself ("We don't need no stinking battlestar!", or something). Whilst Baltar and Roslin try (and fail) to get some sense out of the Hybrid - who is in danger of just becoming a convenient plot device at this point - the Cylon and Colonial pilots have to learn to get along, which isn't as easy as it seems. There also very amusing subplots where Helo meets an Eight who has downloaded his wife's memories and knows some very intimate things about him, which freaks him out a bit, and Baltar tries to find out if the robotic Centurions believe in the Cylon god. However, the latter part of the episode belongs first to Mary McDonnell as she finds out about Baltar's involvement in the destruction of the Colonies and debates leaving him to die when he is wounded in the battle, and then Lucy Lawless as D'Anna returns from the dead, kills Cavil and then confounds Roslin's desire to know about the Final Five. There are some more nice CGI sequences in the battle, ending with the double-nuking of the Hub in slow motion, which is almost beautiful to watch, with Bear McCreary's score doing some excellent work over the top.

The episode ends with Roslin finally admitting her feelings to Adama, and Adama giving the best comeback to that phrase since Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.

These four episodes provide plenty of build-up to what is BSG's biggest, and possibly best, cliffhanger episode to date. Check back for a review of that later in the week.

406: Faith (****)
407: Guess What's Coming to Dinner? (***½)
408: Sine Qua Non (**)
409: The Hub (****)

Forthcoming: Episode 410, Revelations, aired in the USA last Friday and will be shown in the UK on Sky One on Tuesday evening.

Galacticawatch 5: Season 4, Eps 1-5

We left Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica on a whole slew of cliffhangers. Gaius Baltar has unexpectedly been found not guilty of being a traitor and a collaborator, but his life is in danger from many of the people oppressed during the occupation of New Caprica. Some sympathisers have whisked him off to safety, but who are they? What is their agenda?


Meanwhile, the Galactica and its attendant refugee ships have finally reached the Ionian Nebula after a grueling trek of some thirteen thousand light-years from the Temple of the Five, but instead of finding a clearly-marked signpost on the way to Earth the entire fleet momentarily loses power. When it is restored, a Cylon taskforce is bearing down on them. Unable to jump due to the power outage, the fleet is forced to prepare for a grim battle against the odds.

Colonel Saul Tigh, pilot-in-training Sam Anders, Chief Tyrol and President Roslin's aide Tory Foster have suddenly discovered that they are Cylons, four of the 'Final Five' who are held in near-mythical awe by the other Cylon models (who don't know anything about them and are programmed not to think about them, which is why Three's obsession with them last season was seen as such a crime). They themselves don't know what this means, nor have they suddenly gained any new memories or knowledge. They just know now what they are, but not what they must do.

Finally, as the battle kicks off, Lee Adama is rather shocked to find himself flying alongside Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace, who was last seen being incinerated in a fireball far above a gas giant planet hundreds of light-years away. And a Kara Thrace who was claiming to have been to Earth.

Say what you like about the troubled third season, it sure as hell went out with a bang. And we come back in on one. The season opener, He That Believath In Me, immediately picks up the story where we left off. Starbuck's return has floored everyone, but Roslin is convinced it's a Cylon trap. There is no time to dwell on that as the Cylons launch their assault, and for the first time we see killer dogfights in and around the civilian vessels of the fleet (something that actually was more commonplace in the original series). Things look bad for our heroes, who are grossly outnumbered and unable to protect the six or seven dozen civilian ships in the fleet (the viewer winces as a tighly-packed refugee liner is blown to pieces by indirect friendly fire), until one of the Cylon Raiders scans one of the Vipers...and suddenly the Cylons call off the entire attack and jump out. Our heroes are left stunned, especially the pilot who was scanned: Anders.

It's an amazingly strong opening sequence featuring - and this is no hyperbole - the finest CGI ever assembled for the small screen. Some of the CGI last season was ropey to say the least, but the stuff in this episode blows it away. But, as always with BSG, the stunning visuals take a back seat to the drama. The rest of the episode focuses on Starbuck's predicament. Is she who she says she is? Is she a Cylon, resurrected and now back to lure the crew into an ambush? There are no easy answers here and viewers may feel frustrated as Starbuck responds to some very logical questions with just vague assurances that she knows the way to Earth. However, things perk up a lot more as Baltar discovers that his rescuers are part of a cult of monotheists who have been outcast from the rest of the fleet. His belief in the One Cylon God attracts their attention and he soon finds himself in the position of being their de facto leader. Given that apparently 80% of the cult consists of attractive, young, generous, sharing women aged between 19 and 25, Baltar obviously sees the advantages in his new situation. Although the viewer's suspension of disbelief may feel somewhat tested. Anyway, a great opening episode that really raises the stakes for the season ahead.

The second episode, Six of One, opens with Starbuck holding Roslin at gunpoint and, reasonably, asking why it is that Roslin's visions get treated with respect when Starbuck's are dismissed out of hand. Roslin agrees that life is unfair and tries to shoot Starbuck in the face. Adama thinks they may have misjudged Starbuck and gives her a ship (albeit a rubbish one) and some crew to go search for Earth. Whilst watching the episode, this feels like a credible plot progression, but when summarised it does appear to be lacking in the logic department. Once again, some rather obvious BSG plot holes are paved over by incandescently good acting from the cast, particularly Edward James Olmos on top form as Adama. Elsewhere, James Callis does some absolutely hilarious work when 'Head Baltar' (previously only seen with Caprica-Six) appears to him and encourages him to seduce Tory (who herself has been asked by Tigh and Tyrol to 'feel out' Baltar to see what he knows about the Final Five), which he does with aplomb. Then it's time to catch up with the Cylons, who are divided over the revelation that the Final Five are among the human fleet. Cavill, Doral, Simon and, shockingly, Boomer are all for lobotomizing the Raiders and forcing them to resume the attack against Galactica, whilst the Sixes (led by a new individual named Natalie), Leoben and the rest of the Eights are dead against it. The debate ends in a shockingly violent conclusion that has severe repurcussions for the rest of the series.

Given the magnitude of the revelation of the Final Five, it's a bit odd that the reactions of the Four to their predicament has taken a back seat to the Starbuck plotline. The Ties That Bind refocuses attention on this story, as Cally becomes suspicious over Tyrol's absences to meet with Tory and Tigh, who are all struggling with their revelation (Anders is on the Demetrius with Starbuck and co). This is a busy episode that also takes in Lee's burgeoning political career as the new spokesman for Caprica in the Quorum, the Demetrius mission and also the Cylon situation, which is now devolving into full-scale civil war between the opposed sides. It's also a seriously negative episode, delving into Cally Tyrol's slide into depression, with the brutal ending proving that at least one of the Four has embraced their Cylon nature a little too readily. Incredible stuff with haunting music.

Escape Velocity starts off with a funeral and ends with the birth of a new religious movement. Baltar's group is attacked by a fanatical group known as the Sons of Ares, leading to a massive debate in the fleet about religious freedom. Unfortunately, both the Sons' use of violence and Roslin's unsubtle attempts to use the attack to force through draconian new anti-assembly laws end up bolstering Baltar's position and popularity, especially when he is rifle-beaten by an overzealous marine in front of dozens of witnesses. Elsewhere, Caprica Six and Tigh find an unusual bond building between them. This is rather odd, offbeat episode. Baltar's increasing religious popularity seems to be developing quite quickly, but with only sixteen episodes to wrap up the whole season that may be unavoidable. The Six/Tigh stuff is downright bizarre, and hopefully a result of some unconscious Final Five stuff because otherwise it is seriously messed up and disturbing. To some degree, a quieter episode than others of late but without something more forceful driving it, the cracks in BSG's storytelling are more apparent than ever.

The Road Less Travelled refocuses attention on the Demetrius mission as it stumbles across a crippled Cylon Raider containing a Leoben, who wastes no time in getting into Starbuck's (and Anders') head. As the Demetrius crew contemplate mutiny, Starbuck finally realises how divisive her actions have been, but still can't seem to find a way of turning them around. Back on Galactica, Baltar attempts to reach out to Tyrol. This is a more dramatically satisfying episode, anchored by Tehomah Penikett's excellent performance as Helo. Helo has been badly served by the writers since early Season 2, with no real consistency as to where he is used or how, being bounced around from Raptor pilot to Galactica temp XO with no rhyme or reason. And the less said about his signature episode from last season, The Woman King, the better. Here he finally gets some good dialogue and development as his position as Starbuck's best friend and 'rock' finally comes under the strain. Very good stuff, and it bodes well for his forthcoming major new role in Joss Whedon's new project, Dollhouse. Back on Galactica things are less dynamic, but Callis and Douglas turn in solid performances during some very angry, intense exchanges that lead to an intriguing ending.

So, BSG Season 4 has opened very promisingly. The search for Earth is back on and now a higher priority than ever. Very subtle clues throughout the episodes (most notably the appearance of the constellation of Orion in several background shots) show that the search is indeed approaching its end, whilst the civil war amongst the Cylons was an inevitable new development which sets things up for huge confrontations down the line. In terms of dialogue, the show has found its feet again, with logical, obvious questions being asked and the actors all working at the top of their game. However, some plot developments still feel forced or illogical, and the choice of at least one of the Final Five, Tigh, still feels like a retcon too far.

401: He That Believath in Me ****
402: Six of One ***
403: The Tighs That Bind ***½
404: Escape Velocity ***½
405: The Road Less Travelled ***½

Forthcoming: Faith (09/05/08), Guess What's Coming to Dinner (16/05/08), Sine Qua Non (23/05/08), The Hub (30/05/08), Revelations (06/06/08)

Galacticawatch 4: Season 3, Eps 17-20

Like many, I have found this season of Battlestar Galactica to be pretty disappointing. After a strong start that gave us some of the best episodes in the entire series, things seemed to deflate a lot. The writers didn't really seem to know where to go next with the story, putting Baltar on the basestar and then not really using him much, whilst the Galactica crew seemed to lurch from one bland crisis-of-the-week episode to the next. Now the season has concluded with four episodes which have been more interesting, whilst still not constituting a true return to form.

Maelstrom was heavily pre-hyped as the most shocking episode ever in the show's history. Mostly a character piece, it focused on Starbuck and her background, who's been startlingly under-used in Season 3. Her oft-mentioned destiny plays a key role in the episode, and some interesting minor details that first turned up way back at the start of Season 2 were used to further her storyline in an intriguing manner. Unlike most of the rest of the episodes this year, Maelstrom was pretty well-written, with no ham-fisted editing to wreck the pace of the episode. The ending had been spoiled months in advance, but even so it was pretty startling stuff, even if there was something very suspicious about it. Nevertheless, some strong acting and superlative CGI rounded off a worthwhile episode.

The Son Also Rises examines the aftermath of the startling episode before it and addresses the development of the fleet's nascent legal system in the face of Baltar's forthcoming trial. For an episode many feared would degenerate into BSG Law, it actually turned out to be quite good. Pretty much the entire episode lives or dies on Mark Shepard's performance as the lawyer Lampkin, and he delivers an outstanding portrayal with some exceptional dialogue of the kind this show used to deliver weekly, but has tailed off in the latest season.

The two-part episode Crossroads is a somewhat unusual season finale. Whilst the trial of Baltar delivers some good acting and some strong dialogue, it hardly seems the stuff of the major dramatic paradigm shifts that BSG excels in its season and mid-season cliffhangers. However, what at first seems to be a minor subplot about Colonel Tigh cracking up due to stress and guilt over his wife's death suddenly turns out to be of critical importance to the series. The final twenty minutes of the second part are pretty dramatic, jaw-dropping stuff which I'm pretty certain will leave half the audience convinced BSG has lost the plot for good, and the other half confirmed in their belief that this is the best show on television. Whilst I found the finale to be excellent, both of the big revelations at the end seem to be filled with plot holes of varying degrees, and it will be interesting to see how these are resolved. I'm also uncertain about the last show of the finale, which uses some slightly dodgy CGI and over-the-top music in a manner more befitting The Matrix than the show's normal realistic approach. However, the finale still achieves its goals of raising questions the audience will be desperate to learn the answers to, although we'll have a long wait for Season 4 to find out.

317: Maelstrom ****
318: The Son Also Rises ****
319: Crossroads, Part 1 ****
320: Crossroads, Part 2 ****

Forthcoming: a Battlestar Galactica TV movie based around the story of the Pegasus will air in the autumn of 2007. Season 4 will debut in January 2008. Season 3 continues on Sky One in the UK for the next several weeks and will be released on DVD in August 2007.

Galacticawatch 3

Following a month's break over Christmas, BSG returned for the rest of its third season. Following in the footsteps of the rest of the season, this latest batch of episode has continued BSG's insistence on being extremely and frustratingly variable in tone and quality.

Rapture picked things up from the mini-cliffhanger, with the Colonials ready to nuke the Temple of the Five to stop the Cylons from finding their way to Earth ahead of them. This cliffhanger is resolved in a fairly logical although surprisingly subdued manner (I was expecting Galactica to just nuke three of the Cylon basestars with no warning). Down on the planet there's fighting between the Cylons and Colonial ground troops and Dee mounts a rescue attempt to recover the wounded Starbuck, whilst Athena boards the Cylon basestar to get her daughter back. There is some very good stuff in this episode (Six breaking Boomer's neck after she goes a bit nuts; Tyrol decking Baltar) but in the main it struggles to make much sense. The explanation for the Eye of Jupiter at the end of the episode feels unconvincing and the supernova sequence, although visually spectacular, doesn't work scientifically. However, the episode is saved by Three's death scene, which is very well acted by Lucy Lawless and Dean Stockwell.

Taking a Break From Your Worries is a much better episode, a real return to form as Adama and Roslin pull out all the stops to get Baltar to confess his crimes, only for Baltar's impressive ability to pin the blame for his mistakes and weaknesses on others to become absolutely awe-inspiring as he twists and lies his way past Adama's best efforts to expose him. James Callis, always one of the show's best actors, is absolutely outstanding in this episode.

The Woman, King, is a much weaker episode, tieing with Hero as weakest episode of the season to date. A lot of characters behave very oddly in this episode, displaying racist sides to them that we've never seen before, and after everything Helo has done to save the fleet in the past it seems highly unlikely that no-one would listen to his concerns. However, even worse is the fact that Helo turned out to be right. Actually having him fall apart and start fantasising about menaces where there are none would have been far more interesting. A very disappointing episode.

A Day in the Life sees Adama confronting memories of his wife whilst Cally and Tyrol's lives are put in danger. This episode is better, with some strong CGI in the rescue sequences and a nice look at Cally and Tyrol's home life. Given how their story was emphasised in the Season 2 finale, it was strange that their relationship hadn't been explored again since the start of the season (although a couple of scenes in Unfinished Business did refer to it).

Dirty Hands is more of an old-school, Season 1-feeling episode showing how life in the fleet actually works. The episode is a bit of a downer, actually, showing that post-New Caprica the fleet is an absolutely appalling state, even compared to what it was before, with people working 12+ hour days, seven days a week, with no breaks or any hope of time off. Its examination of the class structure in the fleet, of the dangers of an inherited caste system unintentionally developing, and of how this can be exploited by an opportunistic politician (or in this case a political prisoner trying to win support and gloss over his past crimes) is surprisingly sophisticated. However, the episode is sunk somewhat by very inconstant characterisation of Roslin (who turns 180 degrees through this episode with no explanation) and through Adama's unusual attitude (do we really believe he'd murder Cally?). The idea from the first season that both characters would at least try to obey the law has long since disappeared by this point, leaving little doubt that the fleet is now under the control of a dictatorship (Roslin, it should be remembered, has never been elected by a public vote), benevolent and well-meaning though it may be. I hope this fact is remembered by the writers as they map out Baltar's trial.

Next week: allegedly the most shocking episode of the entire series to date!
312: Rapture ***
313: Taking a Break From Your Worries ****
314: The Woman, King **
315: A Day in the Life ***
316: Dirty Hands ***

Forthcoming: Maelstrom (04/03/07), The Son Also Rises (11/03/07), Crossroads Part 1 (18/03/07), Crossroads Part 2 (25/03/07).