Collaboration Is Bad

They’re all back on Galactica with the remnants of the fleet in tow, fleeing the cylons and struggling to survive. So, have the producers reset the clock on Battlestar Galactica? Far from it. The backlash from the occupation of New Caprica has begun in the episode “Collaborators”, during which President Tom Zareck appointed a vigilante group known as The Circle to act as judge, jury and executioner of the humans who had worked with the Cylons during the months on the planet.

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Tags: Aaron-Douglas, Apollo, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Collaborators, Cylon, Roslin, SkyOne, Starbuck, Tigh, Tyrol, Zareck

Come In Number Six

The second part of “Exodus” (the fourth installment of series 3 in the new Battlestar Galactica) saw the end of the occupation of New Caprica… the clue was in the title I guess, and there was plenty more intrigue as the last remnants of humanity continued to battle against their oppressors.� The Baltar storyline is wonderfully underplayed (by Jamie Callis) as his initial self-absorbed personality has been manipulated and coerced by the cylons to the extent that he was seen here

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Tags: Adama, Babylon-5, Baltar, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Exodus, Jamie-Callis, Saul-Tigh, Sci Fi, SkyOne

Guess Who’s Back?

After the announcement that Battlestar Galactica was to be remade (or “reimagined” as the marketing folk would have it) and news started to leak out about the production, for example news that Starbuck was being cast as a woman, all hell broke lose amongst fandom to the point where these people were “openly dissapproving” to the stars of the show when they made public appearances.� Indeed, there are people still who do not watch the new Battlestar Galactica because they

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Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Cylon, Katee-Sackhoff, Occupation, Precipice, SkyOne, Starbuck

Civvy Street

The conclusion to the second series of Battlestar Gallactica has seemingly (and once again) reset the programme’s premise as the fleet have found themsleves a habitable planet that seems suitable to colonise. Of course, nothing is ever that simple, and the issue of whether or not to stay on New Caprica becomes the key policy in the election between candidates, Baltar and Roslin. Roslin’s near death experience from earlier in the series had unlocked some memories of her presidential rival’s liason with Cylon number six. Realising the threat of having a Cylon sympathiser in the big chair, she tries to steal the election. This two-part finale, “Lay Your Burdens Down”, once again moved the character development and relationships between crew members to new levels, with the final 20 minutes of the episode being set a year later, with the colonists struggling with their new lives. Overall, BSG has proved that modern TV science fiction can be thought provoking, grown up and thoroughly dramatic on a par with any contemporary drama and I look forward to more of the same from Ron Moore and the team in season two. So say we all.

Tags: Baltar, Battlestar Galactica, BSG, Cylons, Lay-Your-Burdens-Down, New-Caprica, Number-Six, Ron-Moore, Roslin, SkyOne

Number Six pulls all the strings

My regular reader will know that Doctor Who is the finest science-fiction programme on the air at the moment, and in normal times this would be a statement that I could make with barely a moment’s hesitation. However, these are not normal times and there is hesitation because not just one, but two other shows are also battling for this most esteemed of crowns. Firstly, there is Lost series 2, which has just started in the UK but I shall leave that for another time. This post is here because Battlestar Galactica has been rattling along on Sky One with barely a mention from me for weeks on end and I intend amend that right now. Once the early season arc had essentially resolved itself and all the players were back in their positions aboard Galactica, I was expecting the season to settle into a rythm of stand-alone episodes that would trot out the tried and tested staple diet of American sci-fi drama series. I was wrong.

Out of the blue, a second Battlestar emerged from debris of the Cylon attack on the colonies. The Pegasus, under the command of the Admiral Cain, joined the fleet and disrupted the status quo once again. Firstly, military order dictated that the Admiral took control of the fleet over and above Adama, and secondly, their methods of survival differed hugely from the unsteady alliance that had been formed between the president and ragtag ships of the fleet. Just when you think you know where you stand, this series turns itself on its head. There are so many storylines interweaving their way through the series that it is difficult to try and summarise the action. Each character is going through their own personal voyage of discovery that reflects the struggle and uncertainty in which the ship, Galactica finds itself.
This is where the show succeeds, it is all about the people and their struggle against oppression, depression, aggression, and most other ~essions you can think of. It doesn’t have the laughs and lightness of touch of Doctor Who, and it doesn’t have the puzzling what-happens-next, what-happened-then mysteries of Lost. What it does have is a gritty, human story of survival against the odds and a strong narrative set against a back-drop of political intrigue, which just happens to feature some of the greatest ever space battles and sci-fi elements seen on our screens… well… ever.

Tags: Adama, Battlestar Galactica, Cylons, SkyOne, The-Pegasus

Chin Up

Okay, it’s about time we talked about Resistance, the fourth episode of the latest series of Battlestar Galactica. Again, this show just keeps on delivering and hats off to Ron Moore for creating a space opera juggernaut the like of which we haven’t seen before (Cast your vote: Ron Moore, or JM Stracksynski, or Russell T Davies). If that wasn’t enough, you just need to head off to the website to get deleted scenes and an audio commentary for your iPod. By the way, similar things are afoot for Doctor Who’s next series, which starts (almost certainly) on April 15th.

This time we hear the first whisperings of civil war as Apollo breaks President Roslin out of pokey much to the distress of his father who’s back on duty and on the edge of a breakdown. Tyrol and Sharon are re-united in the brig, with Tyrol now being under suspicion of being an undercover toaster (not as wierd as it sounds). Back on Caprica, Starbuck and Helo have linked up with the local resistance. The episode ends with the assassination of Sharon in very clear homage to the Ruby/Oswald incident all those years ago.