The third season of Battlestar Galactica kicks off with a bang. Several of them.
Cast
James Callis as Dr. Gaius Baltar
Edward James Olmos as Admiral Adama
Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
Jamie Bamber as Lee “Apollo” Adama
Michael Hogan as Col. Tigh
Tricia Helfer as Number 6
Grace Park as Sharon “Boomer” Valerii
Tahmoh Penikett as Helo
Aaron Douglas as CPO Galen Tyrol
Dean Stockwell as Brother Cavell
Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
Luciana Carro as Louanne “Kat” Katraine
Kandyse McClure as Anastasia “Dee” Dualla
Callum Keith Rennie as Leoben Conoy
Nicki Clyne as Cally Henderson
Christian Tessier as Tucker “Duck” Clellan
Michael Trucco as Samuel T. Anders
Alessandro Juliani as Felix Gaeta
Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
Synopsis
Four months after the arrival of the Cylons on New Caprica, the anti-Cylon insurgency adopts new and more dangerous tactics. On Galactica and Pegasus, Adama and Apollo clash over the appropriate course of action when the Admiral initiates a risky plan to liberate the human colony. Collaborationist President Gaius Baltar has to make an impossible choice as his conscience starts to bite.
High Points
- All the Starbuck/Leoben scenes
- Adama’s conversation with Boomer
- Gaeta and Tyrol’s meeting
- Jammer’s actions near the end
Low Point
Right now I can’t think of one. Sure there are parts of these two episodes which aren’t high points, but none of them strike me as particularly low.
The Scores
There are a lot of parallels — a lot of parallels — with the current world situation, although viewed from the opposite side to that which most viewers will be familiar with. It also brings to mind various other stories of life under enemy occupation. That said, it doesn’t feel like a rehash of old ground. Perhaps these stories can always be told. Four out of six for originality.
As one would hope for a season opener, the effects were on top form. My misgivings about the robotic cylons at the end of last season have eased; they looked much better this time. Six out of six.
It’s difficult to judge the overall story from two episodes’ worth of what is a very closely-tied arc, but nothing which came in these two episodes disappointed. Six out of six.
Fortunately during the season break it appears that nobody lost any acting ability. What a terrible shame about Edward James Olmos and that moustache though. Six out of six.
Production was excellent. New Caprica looks exactly as it should — a not-quite-good-enough settlement suffering after four months of enemy occupation and insurgent activity. The Battlestars look undermanned, underpowered and undermaintained. Six out of six.
These two episodes will leave your heart beating faster. After the last two seasons I care about what happens to these characters, and past experience combined with events in these episodes show us that we can never rule out what’s going to happen to anybody. In addition, the actors, writers and directors are superb at generating tension and cutting away at just the right (or wrong) moment. Six out of six for emotional response.
Overall, six out of six. While the direction shift at the end of season two may have been a bit of a shock and came very quickly, this proves that at its heart, it’s still the show we know and love. We can easily sit down and get lost in the action and the drama going on, but underneath it there’s a deeper plot which has already got me impatient to see the next episode.
In total, that leaves Occupation and Precipice with a grand total of forty out of forty-two.
Fat Apolo
I liked Fat Apolo. I thought that was funny. However, as a minor nit, that effect was not that good. Also there was one point where the metallic cylons oooked a bit off.
But I don’t care. Excellent episodes.
I don’t know how, but Baltar manages to make himself even more despicable. And you just want to like him. They seem to liek to take him to where he’s on the verge of redeeming himself and then pushing him even further down. I have to put Baltar’s signing of the death warrants in as a high point even though I hated every second of it!
Anyone else thing that at the end the human police force finally decided to shoot the cylons?
Great start
The show’s relevance to current real-world concerns bests anything the original Trek tried and nearly anything else on television, yet it doesn’t seem pedantic. They’re developing a particular story, the details of which provide food for thought. I get no sense of allegory, thankfully, but it’s also no accident that this appears on television right now.
Whatever the value of suicide bombers, I didn’t consider the killing of the police a terrorist act; they were a military target. Tigh’s plan to send a bomb to the marketplace, however, would be.
We know from the previews that Roslin, at least, survives, so that’s a good theory.
As for low points, they’ve been covered: Apollo’s fat make-up and Adama’s moustache. What is that thing on Olmos’s upper lip, a tribute to the show’s 70s origins?
Re: Great start
He’s used that exact look in other parts. One that comes to mind was an episode of The West Wing where he played a supreme court nominee. I have no idea why he does it. I think he used it in Blade Runner, too.
Missed a High point
The review missed a BIG HIGH POINT.
Tigh – "We are demons cheif. We are evil men in the gardens of paradise. Sent by the forces of death to spread devestation and destruction wherever we go."
Re: Missed a High point
Hell yeah. I loved that bit.
Tigh is the guy that I’ve loved to hate for so long, and having this guy that never had a moral foothold be the one with the easiest grasp on the world of gray and black the humans have to live in now… just perfect. I hope he goes down into the depths, raging against his white whale, pounding his fists against a Cylon or Baltar as they pull him under. His last bit of breath used to spit pure hate as he claws for their throat.
Re: Great start
I rather thought it was a visual statement of how their own personal discipline had slipped as they had got "soft". What’s the bet that as the Adama’s each realise that they need to toughen up again will see Apollo working out and Bill taking a shave?
Re: Great start
Yeah, I’d put it on par with Arrested Development. Well, almost.
I totally disagree. Frankly they should’ve approached it the same way Duck did – GET ON THE INSIDE, and take over slowly-but-surely. Also I think they should’ve tried to recruit the Human Police rather than blow them up. NObosy sees your side because you attacked them. Nobody. And I really don’t know that that needs to be spoilered…
AAaah! That’s a REAL spoiler (;
Re: Great start
I didn’t say I thought it was the best or even the right approach. In some ways it was really ill-conceived. I think your method would work better. I only said that one move didn’t strike me as an act of terrorism, while another did.
Re: Great start
I dunno. I just don’t see it that way. They’re still attacking their own people and it still feels like terrorism to me. There’s no mention on how many humans are there for the same exact reason as Duck, or for other ‘valid’ reasons.
Tigh is a bit too extreme. And by ‘a bit’ I mean ‘a lot’.
Re: Great start
Absolutely. I like the way they’re portraying Tigh. He’s gone over an edge, but his doing suits the character at this time. Galactica is like Charlie Jade in the willingness to depict the darker sides of humanity, not because it’s "cool," or "edgy," but because it makes sense in context.
Re: Fat Apolo
"Fat Apollo" should definitely be the name of a band.
Re: Fat Apolo
I don’t like "Fat Apollo," per se. But on the other hand, we aren’t really supposed to.
Think back to when Apollo was at his best… In my mind, it was when he was being pulled and pushed in all different directions.
He was constantly compared to his father, and though that often made him seem sullen, he railed against that with fire. His loyalty to Rosalyn put him in conflict with his loyalties as an officer and a son, but part of him enjoyed thumbing his nose at dear old dad, but this dichotomy tore at him. Then there was Starbuck… Having her around, particularly as a subordinante means Apollo has to get a little crazy. There are two wasy to deal with Starbuck; ride her ass until she toes the line, look how well that worked for Tigh, or option B, just try to keep her from doing too much damage to the furniture because its a lot better to have her on the inside, pissing out than on the outside, pissing in. But to do that you need to be sharp, keep her respect, and maybe just a little bit nuts.
Fat Apollo doesn’t have any of these pressures right now… But it will be nice to see him find his fire again.
Re: Fat Apolo
Nah, that’d be "Phat Apollo".
too bad I already have TWO names for my Future Band! By the way, anyone wanna be in a band?
Re: Fat Apolo
Oddly enough, one of my cow-orkers was in a band called "Fat Elvis" back in the day…
Re: Fat Apolo
I for one put Baltar in the "full villan" category in the middle of season 1. I felt Baltar’s spiking of the cylon detectory when the humans needed it most was his ultimate betryal. It was good to see him have reservations about the death warrants, but you knew he would cave. I know they writers want you to feel for Baltar, but I just can’t.
Another high point in the show for me was the conversation between Roslyn and Zarek. That was good.
While a lot of people have noted a similarity to current events, there ARE differences. I like the statement that Roslyn had about the bombings, where the marketplace is off limits. THAT is the difference between insurgents and terrorists. Insurgents never should blow up the people they are trying to free and if they do they really aren’t trying to free anyone.
I think there are a lot of parallels to vichy France under the Nazis. The police uniforms had nazi touches and the night raid also had nazi undertones. All in all theres a lot of history for them to draw on for the situation the humans are in.
As for the cylons, I have to ask why the heck they are there ? Here is a place to see similarities to current events. Do the cylons really want to help? If so they’re doing that completely wrong. If they want to enslave humanity then they’re going at it about right, but thats not what Boomer and Six said they wanted to do. Another question is that the cylons have the technology and resources to build a rather nice place for the humans to live but haven’t done it , why? Are they having trouble being truly helpful because they were originally slaves of the humans? Can they not think things through enough to be helpful? Are they too controlling by nature? It is interesting and thought provoking stuff.
Also I have a lowpoint for these remarkable episodes, but it didn’t hit me until today….
Starbuck’s "daughter" is too old. There is eiher a continuity problem or there is a real explaination, we will see. By the way I figure it, Boomer was already pregnant when Starbuck went back to Caprica. Therefore Boomer’s child would be older than Starbucks. But as we have seen Boomers would be about a year and a half old tops, and Starbucks looks to be at least two years old. I hope they explain why. Either the child of Starbucks is a ruse, or its aging at a faster rate than Boomers. We’ll have to wait and see, but if they don’t resolve the issue, it certainly is a continuity problem.
Re: Fat Apolo
I completely agree. That’s exactly how I felt at the time, I believe I made a comment on that on this site! However, that all said, he STILL manages to be more and more despicable, which is fairly incredible.
I’d almost hate to be James Callis… he does such a good job at being someone you just HAVE to hate. I’d almost be afraid to meet him in real life!
I’m not sure they even know. I think we’re looking at a full-on Cylon Civil War in the future, though.
They’re somehow mixing biological humans with artificial cylons and creating a hybrid. We know this because of Boomer’s baby. After that, is it so hard to believe they can accelerate a baby’s growth-rate?
Re: Fat Apolo
I met him at the Canadian National Sci-Fi Con in Toronto last month. He seems like a great guy.
Re: Fat Apolo
I suspect what we’re seeing is another Cylon model. It may even have some of Starbuck’s DNA in it, but it’s a "skin job" in the same way that Six and Leoben are "skin jobs".
Another possibility: the hybrid Sharon baby was carried to term in a Cylon mother: it ages according to human norms. Because the hybrid Kara baby was carried in a human mother, it may have a different aging rate.
Just a few possibilities.
I also noted that the child appearing, then suffering a calamitous accident were very, very foruitous to Leoben’s "plan", and I remember Caprica Six scratching her face when Boomer broke her picture frame. I also remember Sharon volunteering to be badly beaten by a Six on Caprica to gain Helo’s sympathy. We know that Cylons use injury to forward their plans. :)
One way or another, that kid is older for a reason. :)
-Joe
Re: Fat Apolo
Yes! I was going to comment on that too. Not only was it good timing, it happened OFF SCREEN. We don’t know what happened.
Re: Fat Apolo
Either that, or that other oft-used cliff hanger get-out device of the noise being created by the other two groups who just happen to be in the same area.
Re: Fat Apolo
Yeah, one of those.
Re: Fat Apolo
I was ascribing more Machiavellian overtones to it. Given that we know Roslyn, at least, survives, it seems to me that having Cally escape to tell the humans the others were shot and then bringing them all *back* would have the human community immediately suspecting they were Cylon ‘replacements’ – and given that Roslyn, etc. were among the group, you’d divide the occupied community from their ‘leaders.’ To spell it out: the Cylons allow Cally to escape (or don’t know she did, either works) and then pretend to shoot everybody (or shoot some of them). When you return the others to the community, instant suspicion.
Of course, I’m a paranoid bastard.
Re: Fat Apolo
Only if you’re wrong… otherwise you’re just right.
Re: Fat Apolo
I got the feeling they may be looking towards writing Apollo out of the show, even if they escape it would probably be safest for the Pegasus fleet to stay separate so they don’t have all their eggs in one basket and they don’t need to set up a risky rendevous
Note that for the first time we’ve seen Baltar strongly considering a course of action that was for the benefit of humanity and strongly against him own self-interest. I have a feeling the writers are going to try moving towards redeeming him.
Re: Fat Apolo
I suspect they’ll work on redeeming his character to the viewer, while at the same time the surviving humans will increasingly villify him.
Does anyone else see the blending of human and Cylon cultures and races now occuring: Cylons fighting for and with humans, humans fighting for and with Cylons, now human and Cylon hybrids emerging (the humans have one, Sharon’s baby, and the Cylons have one, Casey.) The emotional and moral lines blurred the last two seasons, now the physical lines are becoming unfocused. :)
Wouldn’t it be odd seeing a human / Cylon alliance battling a Cylon / human alliance? I could see humans manning a base star, and Cylons controlling a battlestar.
It’s all up for grabs. :)
I think I can see a pattern in the Cylon models too. It seems to me that Leoben and Sharon may both be the intuitive/emotional models (and somehow because of that, capable of reproduction?), Loran and Six the "grunts", and D’Anna and Cavell the planners/plotters. I am not sure where the black doctor fits in, but it’s probable there may be models with unique functions.
It’s just some speculation. Wouldn’t it be great to have a peek into the Cylon "bible" all of the actors who play the Cylons now supposedly possess (according to one of the Sci Fi Grace Park interviews)?
-Joe"
P.S. A bit of trivia from tv.com:
During the scene where Baltar looks at the hundreds of vials and talks to Six about how hopeless it is, the music playing in the background is "Battlestar Operatica" which was written for the episode by Bear McCreary rather than using Mozart.
The lyrics are in Italian and mean the following:
Woe upon your Cylon heart
There’s a toaster in your head
And it wears high heels
Number 6 calls to you
The Cylon Detector beckons
Your girlfriend is a toaster
Woe upon your Cylon heart
Alas, disgrace! Alas, sadness and
misery!
The toaster has a pretty red dress
Red like its glowing spine
Number Six whispers
By Your Command
My take
GOD, THE GODS, wow, heavy handed there, my only SERIOUS gripe about the episodes. If they were so concerned about leading the humans to GOD then why do they feel the need to kill so many of them. I can understand where killing off the followers of a false faith can be used in the series to justify the cylon actions, but if conversion is the goal someone needs to be left standing to convert!
Having seen seven of the ten web-based episodes I feel well informed, but did the three I miss show anything about Starbucks story line? That seemed to come out of nowhere.
Speaking of my girl first, after she wacked the first skinjob and sat to eat her dinner… that was the most distrubing thing I have seen on BSG so far to date. Starbuck is being so dehumanized by the events going on here. The blood on her hand, and she wipes her mouth after one bite, yet she does nothing more to clean her hands. At first I did not understand why she did not try to make an escape, but later we see the fact her living space is indeed a cell. They must have resurection facilites on planet, or at least in orbit (although we did not see another resurection ship.)Leoben was back so quickly that the blood on the first corpse was still bring red and had not browned or congealed. I thought resurection was painful and traumatic. Leoben is either a saint or insane.
Second isn’t her "child" a little too old? "One Year Later" right? Four months between seasons. Say a full year for each of the past seasons (and that’s being generous.) That kid is way too old. Do cylon half-breeds age faster than normal humans? And surely, that injury on the stairs… Leoben and that kid are working Kara. Waking up when she did you know she was just waiting for that prayer.
Speaking of kids now that Caprica Boomer is on the loose and on the planet with her child… if she catches word of what was done she is sure to be seriously upset. THAT will surely test her loyalty to Adama and the ex-president.
Speaking of Boomers – Galatica Boomer re-incarnated is sure to turn against the cylons. She did not know she was a cylon. She of all the skinjobs is most likely to identify with the humans and rise up against the treatment they are receiving. Not tagged spoiler as this is only my speculation.
Stockwells cylon is the number one bad guy in my book now. he seems to be ready to just exterminate the whole lot of humans and let God/The Gods sort it out.
I truely loved the humor between Hatch (the criminal turned vice-pres) and the ex-president.
They are saving money on FX. This season I suspect BSG will win alot of FX awards based later episodes. By saving the $ now and using it all later they can really make for a big bang. The explosions, flames, and smoke all looked somewhat poorly done by todays standards.
Agreed. Thirty three and the Admiral Cain episodes ("you will draw your side arm and shoot Admiral Cain in the head." "You will liquidate Adama and his command.") used to be what I thought were the best episodes. They are now pushed down the list by these two episodes.
By current state law where I reside one can not use duress as an excuse to comitt a crime. Baltar is so guilty of so many crimes. But, I see future episodes where he is in Gaetas shoes. Working against the toasters in every litte way possible but despised by humanity.
Had not thought of that. The large scale uprising will come quickly then. Only an episode or two away if that is the case. But, how were the police armed? We have seen early in season 1(?) that the sidearms the colonials use are not effective against the toasters, with the exception of the super-mini underbarrel grenade launcher. Do the cylons trust the NCP so much to issue weapons effecive against their own front line troops?
Tigh is a real "demon". A marine would be proud to count him amongst the devil dogs. Prosecue the enemy. Period. His actions would make any insurgent proud.
His plans to attack "the marketplace" would make any mass murder proud. A marine would be ashamed to serve with this man. An attack on a purely civilian target with no clear military goal is unconsensionable.
While on the subject of Tigh. His wife. She went back to the skinjob, even if she didn’t give him "the swirl." Why the hell didn’t she talk to her husband. Plant false information, lead the cylons into an ambush. Perhaps just change the planned time and make sure Galaticas marines would have time to lay in their own ambush without having to fabricate an entire plan to use as disinformation. Tigh could have used his wife as a potent weapon against the cylons.
Re: My take
It all depends how it plays out. If Boomer finds her kid accidentally, there will be trouble. If Adama or Rosalyn pull a mi aculpa she might not get too mad, after all she has her baby back.
I don’t know about duress here in NY, but can you really blame him on this one? The man, who by the way has never demonstrated an overabundance of testicular fortitude, had a pistol touching his head! How When the threat to your life is that imediate, how many people can honestly assert that they would have turned to that Cylon and told him to just pull the trigger? I don’t think I could. I’d hate myself after but I don’t think I’m brave enough to call that bluff.
[/quote]
I have to rewatch the tape, but compared to that centurion who opened fire on the Marines, the report sounded rather different as Cally was running. Granted terrain, distance and all sorts of other factors can make a difference, but it sounded too irregular. I would concur with the above quote. It sounded more like a lot of pistol fire than group of machine guns.
Re: My take
The humans are being de-humanized, the Cylons are being humanized. Interestingly enough (to me), Baltar seems to be becoming more humane. I go back to Six-in-Baltar’s head saying "sometimes we have to do things we despise to live to fight another day." Emphasis on the word fight. I don’t believe her choice of words was accidental. :)
Gaius Baltar, über-rebel, may happen yet.
-Joe
Re: My take
Well there are around 50000 humans. If you consider it completely logically it makes sense to simply kill everyone that doesn’t cooperate and intimidate everyone else into raising the next generation as true converts. I think some of the cylons are hoping to eventually partner with the humans on somewhat equal terms while the rest are hoping for a nice obedient and second class human race.
As well it’s hard to be give someone freedoms when every chance they get they use those freedoms to attack you.
Yeah, I definitely think the child is helping Leoben to play Kara though I think she may in fact be a Kara’s real daughter. If the cylon children have enhanced durability/pain resistance perhaps that wasn’t a bad injury for a hulon (human cyclon hybrid:) and she was just following daddy’s instructions.
Interesting that even Stockwell seems to have his vices, it’s too early to tell if his relationship with Tigh’s wife, can be turned against him since he was doing most of the manipulating there but there’s no telling how much he really enjoyed it.
Agreed, I see Tigh replacing Baltar as the main human villan but from the other end of the spectrum. We all remember what happened last time Tigh took command but now the circumstances are way more extreme
Simple, Helen’s priorities are very different from Tigh’s. Tigh it seems would be more than happy to die for the resistance if it hurt the cylons badly enough. Helen on the other hand is clearly willing to work with the cylons to keep Tigh safe. Helen know that if she told Tigh about the ambush he would just try to ambush the cylons back and would end up dead.
On the subject of the suicide bombers wouldn’t it be funny if one of them was actually a cylon and were resurrected just afterwards? Talk about an embarassing situation!
Agreed
I was just discussing the real world paralells in BSG and SG1 with a friend a few weeks ago. Certain plot aspects in both shows are eerily similiar to current world events.
Yeah, there were a few times it just didn’t look right. I guess Jamie Bamber just doesn’t strike me as the "fat" type.
Agreed. Maybe not all of them, but enough to make things happen.
Maybe "Adam’s Moustache" could be the opening act?
Re: Agreed
You mean "The Adamastache"?
Season premiere
Man, it was a long wait but was it worth it! Great season starter. I still feel this is the best show on television right now (and probably the last few years easy).
Brother Cavil
You know, I didn’t expect him to be so hardcore. And I am not just talking about him and Ellen Tigh.
His dialogue was priceless, especially, his using the quote gesture everytime he talked about god. He is quickly becoming my favorite Cylon agent, after 6, of course.
Anyone have any guesses on the time that has elapsed between the end of the Resistance webisodes and the season premier?
Flawless …
Absolutely flawless. As I recall after the shocking ending of last season we were all in here wondering how in the frack the writers would pull this off. Now we have our answer:
brilliantly.
Gods this show deserves an Emmy. It deserves *several*. C’mon damnit, SOMEONE IN THE NOMINATION COMMITTEE NOTICE BSG!!!
-Joe
P.S. I just *loved* Starbuck eating her steak so primly, with Leoben’s blood on her hand! :)
Re: Flawless …
A good reminder of how lethal she is. That was Hannibal Lector material!
twelve models?
We were told early on that there were twelve cylon humanoid models, but we’ve still only seen about six or seven. Who are the others?
Awesome episode, sure rips you up one side and down the other.
Damien
Re: twelve models?
My gut continues to tell me that Casey (Starbucks "daughter") is nothing more than a skin job designed for social experimentation with the humans. Her "accident" was all part of a scenario to see what it would take to break Starbuck. And I have a feeling the Cylons will now have an operative in plain site on board Galactica after the rescue.