So Say We All
4×01/2: He That Believeth In Me and Six of One
I have been tending to focus on things Who-related of late (although I never mentioned Torchwood during its recently concluded second series at all) but the remit of this blog is pretty much anything I see on telly and one import that is just as much a fixture of my weekly viewing is Battlestar Galactica. The relaunch of BSG happened at about the same time as Doctor Who and both have just begun their fourth series since coming back. However, while I am sure there are people who have written in-depth as a “compare and contrast” between the two, it is clear to me that these programmes exist at opposite ends of the sci-fi spectrum. Although, if you know of any good comparissons between the two, please post a link in the comments.
Thankfully, here in the UK these fourth (and final) series’ episodes get to air very shortly after their US premiere, so, credit where it’s due to SkyOne who have purchased these rights. Of course, it’s not as much fun as when the UK used to show the episodes before the States got them but we get Doctor Who, so all’s fair in love and Cylon wars. BSG is coming to an end at the conclusion of this series and the story will, we are promised, be all tied up after Earth is found, the 12th Cylon is revealed and all the other plot points reach their natural conclusion. So much was expected of the (Razor excluded) first episodes, shown as a double header last week.
The unremmiting bleakness is back in full flow as we have come to expect with only the briefest glimpses of levity when Baltar turns up to give us some comic relief. I have no clue as to where his plot is heading now that he has shacked up with some strange cult and started bleating on about the one, true god but I’m guessing this heresy is going to land him in more mire. Katee Sackhoff’s character has returned from the dead, which led to the inevitable finger pointing and Cylon accusations that we would have expected and, after some thoroughly OTT bad behaviour, she’s now flown off to find Earth. Did you know that there were people who wanted Starbuck to be played by a feller… ridiculous, eh? Most fascinating of all though are the Cylon “skin jobs”: both the reactions of the four Galactica crew members who have discovered their true identities and the political infighting that seems to have broken out among the seven we already knew about. Complex, compelling, challenging and rewarding. It is astonishing how few people seem to watch the show if the Nielson ratings reported on Wikipedia are to be believed….
Tags: Baltar, Battlestar Galactica, BSG, Cylon, He That Believeth in Me, Series Four, Six of One, Skin Job, Sky-One, StarbuckTotal viewership for “Six of One” dropped 16 percent from the season premiere, falling to 1.8 million viewers from 2.1 million the week before. In the critical 18-to-49-year-old demographic, viewership fell by even more—19 percent—to just 900,000 viewers (a 3 percent share of all households).
