Chrome-atic Scales

It's been a year and a half since I wrote about Syfy's aborted Battlestar Galactica spinoff, Blood and Chrome. Overall, it didn't quite impress me, though some elements of it certainly did. One that I mentioned was the score by composer Bear McCreary. A soundtrack album was subsequently released, and has been in my collection for some time now. I recently realized that I never took a moment to sing its praises here.

Blood and Chrome was trying to be a more action-oriented, kick-ass version of Battlestar Galactica. Appropriately, McCreary scored it with a more action-oriented, kick-ass version of his Galactica sound palette. Even casual fans of the revival series, people who don't usually notice film and television music, will know the general sound of Battlestar Galactica: emphatic strings, sprays of Eastern flutes, unusual vocals, and above all, driving percussion led by taiko drums.

For Blood and Chrome, McCreary served up the "rock" version of those ideas. The score uses growling synth bass, lots of electric guitar (far more than was used for the "Pegasus" episodes of Galactica), and odd sounds that evoke one of those weird electrical sparking devices in a cliché mad scientist's lab. And all of these new sounds are presented with prominent distortion. Two tracks in particular really showcase this new approach, "A Cylon Spy" and the long "The Last Battle of the Osiris." Another track, "Ski Lodge Battle," supplements the traditional taiko percussion of Galactica with a thumping four-on-the-floor rock beat.

While throwing these new sounds into the mix, McCreary also plays with small changes to the old sounds. In some tracks, tremolo strings replace the forceful manner in which he usually employs them. Other tracks really amplify the use of those Eastern influences. And he's still strategically using human vocals, and the specific vocalists he's worked with before. But the end credits track, "Apocalypse: Blood and Chrome," is a departure in that (as far as I know) it's the only time English lyrics appear in the Galactica universe. (Well, original English lyrics. "All Along the Watchtower," you can sit back down.)

There are also a few select moments for longtime fans of Bear McCreary's Battlestar Galactica music. The track "Coker's Interlude" is a sedate piano solo that conjures memories of Starbuck's piano noodlings late in the final season of Galactica, as well as Daniel Graystone's musical hobby in the spin-off, Caprica. And then there's the track "The Galactica," which introduces the ship itself. Not only does it reincorporate the melody Stu Phillips created for the original television series, it briefly uses the same rhythms that introduced the Galactica in the revival's debut mini-series. (All weaving in the new rock vibe too. A truly deft composition.)

Blood and Chrome may not have been much of a pilot, but song for song, the music is some of the most consistently engaging material Bear McCreary ever composed for the franchise. I give the album an A-. I know I have a small handful of soundtrack enthusiasts like me following the blog; if you missed this one, you should go back and pick it up.

As the Chrome Flies

This week, Syfy aired the 2-hour Battlestar Galactica movie Blood and Chrome. Conceived of as the pilot for a new prequel series set between Caprica and Battlestar Galactica, the film follows a young William Adama in his adventures as a brash young pilot on his first assignment.

Syfy actually passed on taking this pilot to a full series order. After a brief flirtation with the idea of starting up a direct-to-internet series, this pilot was broken up into 10 installments and serialized online before its broadcast this week as a one-off movie. It sounds like an undignified end for what must have been a poor effort... until you consider the many horrible decisions the network has made in recent years, at least from the perspective of a true science fiction fan. Perhaps failing to pick up Blood and Chrome was only one of the latest?

Or perhaps not. I felt that Blood and Chrome, neither great nor terrible, represented more than anything else an overreaction to the reception of the series Caprica. The great mistake of Caprica may actually have been billing it too much as a Battlestar Galactica prequel. The idea for that series was actually an unrelated pitch from an outside writer, fused together with producer Ron Moore's ideas on a prequel to create a new series. I found the results uneven, though compelling at times. But it certainly wasn't a show that could satisfy the masses. Most Galactica fans, it seems, were engaged by the action rather than the dramatic personal stakes of the characters. But the Caprica spin-off was nothing but the drama.

Blood and Chrome, by contrast, is almost nothing but action. The first third of it, in fact, bobs from one action sequence to the next at a breakneck pace apparently designed to keep you from asking "wait, why are we getting into another fight?" There are some character beats here and there, but they do feel tacked on like an afterthought. As for the plot, it manages to somehow be incoherent and simplistic in equal measure.

But the thing is, damn but the action is exhilarating. Perhaps no series was ordered because the network doubted such thrilling visuals could be delivered on a weekly basis. When it comes to space battles, Blood and Chrome seems to one-up all the best action ever depicted on Battlestar Galactica. It's wild, exciting stuff. And that's only part of the visual feast. Blood and Chrome's sets are almost entirely rendered in CG. It's hardly the first production to do this; Syfy's regular series Sanctuary, for example, has made extensive use of digital sets. But Blood and Chrome seems to one-up past competitors in this area too. It's not that all the environments are 100% credible; no, there are still scenes here and there with slightly off lighting and weight, where the actors don't quite feel anchored in the virtual space. But the bustling environments of the fighter bay, Galactica's CIC (rendered from scans of the original set, before it was dismantled), and more... they still manage to impress.

The two core actors, Luke Pasqualino and Ben Cotton, do a decent job. Pasqualino plays the young Adama, and both he and the director are wise to avoid any attempt at impersonating Edward James Olmos. Plus, throughout the rest of the cast, you'll recognize faces from both Galactica and Caprica; everyone is playing a new role here, but the production clearly went to actors who had worked well in the past. No one quite pops, but I chalk that up more to the frenetic, character-light nature of the script than the quality of the performers.

Would I have continued to sample more Blood and Chrome, had it gone to series? Probably. Am I disappointed it didn't actually get the chance? Probably not. I imagine the flaws could have been improved over time, but I also don't get the impression that this series would have even tried to introduce the elements that made Battlestar Galactica most compelling -- the harsh examination of how people really would behave in a hopeless situation. Blood and Chrome seemed only to want to blow things up good. Though that, at least, it did fairly well. I'd call it a B-. It's real lasting legacy for me will likely be the pulse-pounding musical score by Bear McCreary. It's good to get another dose of his fantastic work on the Galactica franchise, and La-La Land Records has already announced plans to release a CD.

A Plan Falls Apart

Battlestar Galactica may be over, but strangely, that doesn't mean that there's no more Galactica left. No, I'm not talking about Caprica, the spin-off prequel series that starts airing in January. No, I'm referring to another Galactica "initiative" that's appearing first on DVD before it airs on television, the movie called The Plan.

Directed by Adama himself, Edward James Olmos, this two hour movie is billed as the story of Battlestar Galactica "through the eyes of the Cylons." Most of the principle cast doesn't even appear in the movie (well.... let me come back to this issue); instead, the actors who play the show's Cylon characters take center stage (well.... let me come back to this issue too).

I think it relatively spoiler free (assuming you've seen the show through at least season two) to say that the film predominately focuses on incarnations of the Dean Stockwell Cylon, "John," "Cavil," or simply One, if you prefer. But if you're hoping for insight on exactly why he's the cold-hearted bastard he is, you're going to be disappointed. Hell, if you're looking for any more knowledge about just what the nature of "The Plan" is (as in... the Cylons "have a plan"), you're also going to be disappointed. This movie doesn't really give us anything that wasn't covered already by the show.

And that's the real problem here. Honestly, the thing doesn't even really play like a movie. It comes across like two hours' worth of deleted scenes that were plucked off the cutting room floor from a dozen or so different episodes (spanning seasons one and two), and stitched together. There really isn't a plot to speak of. Instead, it's sort of a Galactica scavenger hunt for fans to try to place each individual scene in its proper continuity. (Oh, this is during "33." And this is during "The Farm." And so on.)

In fact, more than a little of the footage really is lifted from other episodes. And this is where I can touch on that issue of missing cast members. Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, and several others weren't actually brought in to film any new footage. But all of them appear -- you might even say rather extensively -- in The Plan, so much so that it got me wondering just how much of the 1:52 run time was actually new material. It seemed like at least 10 minutes' worth was lifted straight and uncut from actual episodes.

Seeing so many pieces stitched together this way, particularly under the umbrella "The Plan," actually makes the viewer more aware of the one real weakness of the series -- the fact that the writers didn't actually have a plan when they wrote the show. I'm all for leaving room for things to shift mid-stream, but watching Cylons hang out in secret in the fleet for over half a year and accomplishing nothing really makes you question their competence. Seeing Adama read that note again from the end of the mini-series: "There are only 12 Cylon models" makes you remember, "hey, we never did find out who actually wrote that, did we?" And who the hell would have that actually knew that??!

If The Plan was destined to be so short and fragmented on plot, then you'd at least hope that it makes up for it in character. It takes a few steps in this regard, but doesn't quite get the job done. There is a sub-plot that attempt to flesh out one version of Cavil (while demonizing another version of him), and another sub-plot that tries to round out the Simon Cylon. But Sharon and Six are little more than window-dressing, and D'Anna? Well, out of 12 Cylons, she's the ONE to not actually show up. Lucy Lawless was unavailable or too expensive, I guess. She's awkwardly present in a two second long bit of found footage, and otherwise is MIA.

I don't suppose I should have expected too much from The Plan, but I was hoping it would feel like more than the afterthought it most assuredly seems to have been. It's not a completely lost cause, because Dean Stockwell takes center stage and gives a fine performance. (Several performances, really.) But beyond that, only the ultimate Galactica completist should watch it. For the rest, this would probably only detract from the memory of the series proper.

I'm sorry to have to say that.

The New Adventures on Old Caprica

Battlestar Galactica has barely been off the air for a month, but the time has come already to sample the next chapter, spin-off series Caprica. Though it isn't set to debut on television until 2010, the 90-minute pilot episode was released on DVD today. And I wasted no time picking it up and giving it a look.

I'll say right off, this premiere did not leave me thrilled in the way the Battlestar Galactica mini-series did. That original mini-series immediately struck me as one of the best things I'd seen on television in a long time, and it was a long one-year wait for a full season to begin. Caprica can't manage to clear a bar set so high.

That said, it is quite good. Set 58 years "before the fall," Caprica is a very different show in terms of subject matter. It's not about the military, nor about space travel. It's the story of a brilliant computer scientist who, in the wake of a horrible personal tragedy, is driven to a major breakthrough in his field. But to realize his new vision, he must enlist the help of another man who suffered a similar loss, a lawyer with ties to corrupt and criminal elements.

The story and setting has a lot to say about morality, terrorism, and racism. All dark subject matter, as you'd expect from a show in any way associated with the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. While this premiere didn't pack quite the emotional punch of its predecessor, it did have many strongly dramatic elements, and all the pieces for something great seemed to be there. And it certainly promises to raise a lot of intellectual questions even if when it falls short of Galactica's emotional heights.

The acting is strong, particularly Eric Stoltz's obsessed cyberneticist, and Paula Malcomson as his wife. Visual effects are used perhaps more sparingly than in Battlestar Galactica, but when they appear they are equally impressive. Bear McCreary is back with another outstanding score that actually manages to very briefly reference one of his major Galactica motifs in an appropriate moment. And sets, camera work, and so forth... all fantastic.

I've read that a full season of 20 episodes (two of them being this movie, minus some nudity and particularly graphic violence reserved just for the DVD version) has been committed to, so we will get to chance to see if Caprica can expand on the promise of this beginning. I certainly plan to be there.

Daybreak, Part 2

Close the cover. This story is done.

Tonight was the final episode of Battlestar Galactica. (Upcoming movie not included. Spin-off series Caprica included less.) And it was a good ending. I have to say that it was not the "best" episode of Battlestar Galactica. Other episodes featured better moments of tension, better spectacular space battles, better moments of character drama. By most any measure, I think you could find some other episode of the series to rank above this one.

But... the whole was greater than the sum of the parts here, I think. And more importantly, it was the right ending. So even if other episodes impact me more strongly, I was nevertheless satisfied by this one.

Indeed, the "before the fall" flashbacks did turn out to be more relevant upon seeing them in the full three-hour context rather than the one-hour sampling from last week. Particularly potent was Adama coming that close to retiring before his role in the grand adventure could take place, and Starbuck confiding her fear of not being remembered (as "on point" a moment as there could possibly be).

Some fun bits, if not momentous ones, included the brief presidency of Romo Lampkin, Roslin breaking into tears as she thanked the Doctor, and "can we not tell her the plan?"

So then... the Big Stuff. It turns out that Earth was not Earth. Not our Earth, anyway. The people who used to joke online that the end would have Baltar appearing in our past and becoming Jesus were kinda-sorta warm. Really, it was all there in the Adama monologue from the opening credits of the original series -- the notion that "life here began out there," and that stellar travelers were the ancestors of our ancient cultures. That basically had to be the end of the series. And so while the mid-season point of "finding Earth" turned out to be a bait-and-switch, I forgive it. I think it was wise to put that mislead earlier in the season so as to bring doubt that the ending would be anything other than what it was.

So Head Six and Head Baltar turn out not to be psychological hallucinations, but actual angels. (I suppose in that one early season four episode where Baltar saw Head Baltar rather than Head Six, it was actually the other angel appearing to him for a change.) It's a bit hard to buy these angels stalking Baltar and Caprica for four years and trumping up their destinies which turn out only to be being there to pick up Hera. Still, if it lacks anything in strength of plot, it makes up for it in thematic and visual strength. The portrayal of all the events of the opera house vision coming to pass made from some cool-looking moments.

Then there was the conclusion of Starbuck's story. She was apparently an agent of God or the gods, sent back from beyond death to get them all to Earth. (Now that had the narrative potence that the Baltar/Six business lacked a bit, in my opinion.) And being on borrowed time, she simply vanished once her task was done. Cool stuff. The only flaw there -- and a small one, I think -- is that I don't think it quite meshed with the "hybrid's prophecy" we heard back in Razor. "She is the herald of the apocalypse. The harbinger of death. They must not follow her." No, as it turned out, they actually must follow her. By why quibble over the random babblings of a hybrid?

Then there was the death of Roslin, another mythic event for the show. I don't think anyone was surprised that she at last succumbed to her cancer in the final episode, but it was still powerful to see that moment, and Adama's reaction to it.

Yet for all the great moments Mary McDonnell delivered in this finale, I was strangely most moved by a brief, almost thrown-away moment between Baltar and Caprica Six. When Baltar broke down telling her that he knew something about farming, it was a powerfully resonant moment for the character, knowing how much he despised his "common" background.

And I think that's about all I have to say. Again, the right ending to satisfy for this series.

Daybreak, Part 1

Tonight was the beginning of the end, the first hour of the three-hour Battlestar Galactica finale (with the remaining two to follow next week). And it was very tough to know what to make of just this first piece without the rest to follow. Still, I'll give it a go.

So far, I must confess I'm a bit disappointed. Tonight's hour wasn't bad, but it was rather strange. My reaction mostly had to do with the flashbacks to Caprica, prior to the holocaust. Many of the scenes were neat for long time fans of the show to see and geek out over -- Starbuck's relationship with Zack Adama, for instance. Other scenes had strong emotion to them, like watching Laura have to clean up baby shower gifts for her now-dead sister.

But unforunately, what struck me more than any of that was the simple question: why? Why bother showing us this material now? Whatever dramatic content the scenes had was completely self-contained; the flashback material didn't appear to have any emotional resonance with events transpiring in the present. It was simply "here they were then; here they are now," with neither corrolation or contrast between the two being offered. I felt like all this material might have been better presented as a single episode called "Before the Fall," aired sometime far earlier in season four. Or perhaps as a separate movie like "Razor." But unless there's considerably more significance to this material coming in the last two hours, I really don't see what all of it is adding to the experience.

As for events in the present, everything was running up to what we'll see in a week's time. There were a few nice moments, but not really any fantastic ones. The sight of Adama's quarters all boxed up, Baltar's admission to Lee that "I wouldn't trust me either," a visibly shaky Roslin showing up on the hangar deck at the end of the hour. All nice, but Battlestar Galactica has given us better before. (Speaking of that hangar deck scene, I do have to give praise for staying true to the nature of the show. Not everyone volunteered for the resuce mission. Indeed, it seemed like barely one-third did. Hooray for playing the likely truth, rather than the gooey television moment... just as Galactica always does at its best.)

Still, it seems very possible to me -- even likely -- that tonight's hour will look better once seen in the context of the last two to which it is tied completely. So until then...

Islanded in a Stream of Stars

I thought the "whole" of tonight's Battlestar Galactica wasn't too extraordinary tonight. We're well past the point now where any one story is being told within the confines of a single episode; instead, many plot threads are leading up to the ultimate conclusion. So there wasn't really one narrative like the recent mutiny episodes, or the finding of Earth, or some such to rally around.

However, there were many smaller "parts" which transcended the whole, a number of really outstanding scenes and moments sprinkled throughout the episode.

Helo's scene with Adama, pleading for a chance to go after his daughter and breaking down when refused, was probably the strongest material the character has ever been given on the show, and actor Tahmoh Penikett really delivered.

The nice callback between Roslin and Adama, to their happy time on New Caprica, was a quiet and sweet scene.

The wonderfully crafted funeral montage was deeply moving, with its overlapping and intercut eulogies from several different religions and values.

The scenes between Boomer and Hera hit entirely different emotions. Boomer's threat near the beginning to drug the child to shut her up was particularly horrific, and yet the final scene involving the two, in which Hera pleads to Boomer for help, was just as effective.

I didn't find Adama's breakdown this episode as compelling as he's had facing earlier trials this season, though the final scene between he and Tigh was another triumph. The last shot, pulling back on the two as they sit side by side, spent, was perfect.

Just two weeks remain...

Someone to Watch Over Me

It took tonight's Battlestar Galactica 45 broadcast minutes to get to a great 15 minutes at the conclusion of the episode.

The plot thread of Kara Thrace trying to come to grips with seeing her own dead body could have been interesting, except that it didn't really lead to any meaningful revelation or emotional payoff this week. Anyone who didn't see the reemergence of All Along the Watchtower by episode's end really hasn't been paying attention to the show this season; that hardly counts as revelation.

It seemed like the Boomer/Tyrol thread wasn't really going anywhere, either. There were a few nice beats in remembering back to their relationship back in the first season, but nothing too extraordinary. It kind of seemed like this week would be a total wash.

But then there was the final act, where some serious drama started playing out. There were a lot of horrifying notions. Helo, a husband unable to tell that the woman he was making love to was not his wife. Boomer, coldly exploiting a past relationship with Tyrol, a man she actually did have feelings for at the time. A small child being abducted from her parents. Regardless of the mythological significance of Hera, or what her abduction means for the plot, these were all just some terrible events to behold and contemplate. And there, once again, is what Galactica seems to do best -- portray awful events, and deal truthfully with the emotional aftermath.

I wish the pacing had been better leading up to that conclusion, but I do think it redeemed what would have been another less powerful episode in this final run of 10.

Three to go...

Deadlock

Tonight's episode of Battlestar Galactica wasn't quite "bad," but I did find it disappointing, and certainly the weakest of this last batch so far. It didn't have many of the good character moments and drama that made the bulk of those shows great, nor did it pack all the answers that last week's installment did.

There were a few good moments, mostly piled in at the end. Tigh's breakdown in Adama's arms, for example, was a powerful moment, affirming that the two's friendship is as strong as ever despite the realization of Tigh as a Cylon. Very well acted by both.

But just as I never really thought Ellen Tigh did much for the show in the early days, I didn't find her doing much here. She was supposed to stir the pot, I suppose, but there have been conflicts among the Final Five already, and Ellen didn't really bring much to it, I thought.

Indeed, I was mostly just frustrated with Ellen's appearance this week, since all she did was cause Caprica Six to miscarry, sweeping a plot under the rug in a way I didn't even find as interesting as the realization that Hotdog was the true father of the Chief's baby. Did the writers always have planned for Six and Tigh's baby to miscarry from the moment they began the plot, or was this a sudden change of course to prepare for the upcoming ending? I suppose it's consistent with the tone of the show at its best -- bad things happening to people. But it just felt like the jettisoning of a story they'd decided wasn't going anywhere.

I was perplexed by Roslin's scene with Six, in which the president says she hadn't considered there might be something "special" about the Cylon child. First of all, nothing seemed unusual to her about two Cylons producing a biological offspring? Has she not been watching the show? And secondly, why is she suddenly at all invested in "miracles" once again? On the subject of religion, we last saw her burning out the pages of her holy book. If she's having another spiritual reawakening now, before the end, it didn't seem earned to me before this odd scene this week.

I suppose the reemergence of Baltar's "Head Six" was an important moment for his character, just as the arming of his "harem," on the way to a possible revolution, is an important moment for the plot. But how interesting both seem sort of remains to be seen until we see where things are going.

Four to go...

No Exit

I expected that somewhere before the end of Battlestar Galactica, we'd get an episode like the one tonight. Long on exposition, short on plot and drama. And it's simply a necessity -- there's too much 'splainin to do to have it come out naturally in the time left.

And so it was that, between Anders' "sick bed" realizations and the filling-in of what Ellen has been up to since her execution in early season three, we were stuffed full of info almost like we ourselves were downloading. I wish that the writers could have found a more eloquent way to get all this across, but at least the answers themselves were rather compelling.

So the "Final Five" are actually the First Five, as it turns out, having built all seven of the other Cylon models. No, scratch that, eight of the Cylon models. Not long after it appeared we had the "who's the last Cylon" question answered, we learn there's actually another last Cylon. I don't think this was part of the writer's master plan at all. I think it probably just came about as a way of ret-conning the Sharon model's numbering of Eight. If they'd just named her Seven in the beginning, we wouldn't have this problem, but now there has to be a reason why they skipped number Seven, and here we are.

There were a few good moments for characters sprinkled in with all this exposition, though. Adama's connection to his ship; Starbuck hoping to explain her death and resurrection by imagining herself as the missing number Seven; Ellen's interplay with her wayward son "John." And the strange cameo by John Hodgman.

I guess my feeling was simple: this may have been the most revelatory of this last batch of episodes (so far), but it was also the least exciting to watch. Perhaps you'll disagree if you're in it for the answers, and certainly I didn't think it a bad episode by any means. But I am hoping that with this necessary step out of the way, things get more dramatic from here on to the end.

Blood on the Scales

Another outstanding episode of Battlestar Galactica tonight. Even the moments not filled with action were filled with tension, and the hour raced by at blinding speed.

It was a very cool exit for the character of Felix Gaeta. He's been one of the most likable minor characters from a long time back, yet his descent into mutiny over the last handful of episodes was completely credible. You hated to see it happen to him, and yet I for one actually found myself hating him at points in this two-parter. In the end, though, I think you come back to the good man he was, and it certainly pollutes any thrill you might have at seeing Zarek executed at last to have Gaeta right beside him. And that final moment, where Gaeta's leg at last stops itching. Perfect.

But there were many more great moments throughout the hour. At first I was thrilled to see Romo Lampkin return, for love of actor Mark Sheppard's performance. Then for a fraction of a second, I wondered if it was implausible that he show up as though he were only lawyer in the fleet. Then I almost instantly decided, A) it didn't matter, because it was cool to see the character again; and B) you might imagine Gaeta specifically asking for Romo to humiliate, since Gaeta lied on the witness stand to see Baltar convicted, but the "slick lawyer" got him off anyway.

And then, of course, it was all worth it to see Romo (perhaps not as crazy as when last we saw him, but still certainly crazy) whip out the pen to take out his guard, and then almost not help Starbuck in her time of need.

The great little scene where Tyrol and the security guard pine for better times.

The odd scene of self-realization where Baltar discovers another layer to his relationship with his "fan club."

But the tour de force, once again, was Mary McDonnell's performance as Roslin. Every beat on her emotional roller coaster was strong. Her confrontation with the rebel Cylons, the moments where she believes she's lost Adama (and her threats that follow), and the scene where she's reunited with the man she thought dead. It stinks that all the awards are too snooty to honor science fiction -- this is only the latest of many times Mary McDonnell has delivered one of the strongest performances on television.

Can't wait for next week!

The Oath

A wonderfully tense episode of Battlestar Galactica tonight. In the show's history, enough "bad things have happened to good people" that when they do an episode like this about a mutiny/coup -- and with only a handful of episodes left before the series ends -- almost all bets really are off. How successful would the overthrow be? Who would live? Who would die?

Of course, we don't really have those answers, as the hour ended on a cliffhanger. And, in my mind, ended on the one false beat in the episode. I simply don't understand what purpose was served in having Adama or Tigh stay behind. It's not like they actually bought any more time for the Raptor to get away, nor were any arguments made about separating the two leaders in the event the Raptor should get shot down. I'd buy Adama's statement that he "couldn't live" with running, if it was actually necessary for anyone to stay behind and protect the escape, but it simply wasn't. They all could have run together, save for the writers' need to put someone in direct jeopardy at the hour's end.

Still, just about everything else about the episode rang true and was great to watch. Gaeta has now crossed over to the dark side, and given Adama's response, he won't be coming back from it. The reunion of Starbuck and Lee was a nice little moment -- and weird at the same time, since he still had someone else's blood splattered all over his face. The nasty insinuations of what would be done to Athena, recalling the fate of the imprisoned Gina aboard the Pegasus -- very unsettling. The forced alliance of Roslin and Baltar, accompanied with the realization of more things they have in common -- just fun.

They're still on a roll with this final run.

A Disquiet Follows My Soul

Tonight brought another strong episode of Battlestar Galactica. While it couldn't match the amazing power of last week's installment, it did offer what I like in an episode of the series -- character drama that's true even if it's harsh.

The revelation that Tyrol is not the father of Nicky was a bit of a cheat. My suspicion is this a consequence of these particulars not being planned ahead. At the time the writers gave Tyrol and Cally a child, they didn't know any more than we did that Tyrol was actually a Cylon. And rather than intrude on what makes Helo and Sharon's child Hera special -- and waste precious time of the little remaining -- to explain how another Cylon-Human hybrid could come to be, they just decided to "undo" the damage. I think it's probably for the best.

The Zarek plotline was also a bit weak, in that we've seen the character do this sort of "mustache twirling" a few times before. But at least, though it wasn't anything new for that character, it was part of a new direction for Gaeta. His Cylon hatred seemed a little more pronounced this week than it had been before (but arguably makes more sense in the context of the recent webisodes, set in between the events of this episode and the last). But any quibbles I might have with the setup for the story was forgiven by where it took us. The confrontation scene between Gaeta and Starbuck was great. The two were just plain nasty to each other, and it was really riveting to watch.

As it was last week, the Roslin story here was another highlight. I suppose the Roslin-Adama 'shippers had a fan-gasm over the ending of the episode, but I was most entertained by everything else in their story. Adama tried several ways to pick her back up and get her into the game again -- as he's been able to do in the past -- but this time, none of it worked. In the end, he had to just accept that she's finished, and for at least the two of them, that proved to be the best thing. Bittersweet material.

I must confess I'd sort-of forgotten the earlier revelation that the captive Six was pregnant. So I suppose that even though one "miracle child" was taken off the board this week, there are still two in play.

Once again, I'm looking forward to next week.

Sometimes a Great Notion

At long last, Battlestar Galactica is back. And back for the last time, as tonight began the final run of episodes leading up to the series finale. Seven months is a long time to lose narrative momentum, but tonight was certainly an episode worthy of the wait.

The theme of the night was hitting rock bottom. It was an emotionally draining episode to watch as character after character seemed to sink as low as they could in the aftermath of finding the ruined Earth. If each moment seemed like you were seeing the worst thing that could happen, the next moment seemed to prove you wrong. This is the sort of brutal, non-glamorous truth that has been the hallmark of the best moments of the show from day one -- from abandoning a ship full of defenseless civilians in the pilot, to the horrid implication of gang rape of prisoners by their captors in "Pegasus," to the grief after Starbuck was thought dead...

And is she? Why not start there? The discovery of the destroyed Viper on Earth's surface was a great moment, expanding the mystery surrounding Starbuck's return. "What am I?" Great question. And a wonderful performance from Katee Sackhoff.

Of course, great as it was, it was outshone almost immediately by the crushing scene of Laura Roslin, having abandoned her cancer treatments, methodically burning out the pages of her holy book. Everything had been stripped from the character, and Mary McDonnell's performance was painful to watch.

Then another slap in the face, as Dualla just shoots herself in a shockingly unceremonious moment. Which in turn left Lee -- who had apparently been finding a way to struggle through things perhaps better than anyone -- completely adrift. And it pushed the elder Adama even farther down.

It had seemed in the last new episode we saw, so many months ago, that that was Admiral Adama at his lowest, when we saw him completely unravel at the revelation of Tigh's true nature. And at the time, I praised the performance of Edward James Olmos. In tonight's episode, he found still more layers deeper down, and left me stunned.

I focus on all these character moments both because they have always been the strongest element of this series, and because they were all just so well done tonight. But you could also easily focus on the interesting progressions and discoveries in the plot. The "thirteenth tribe," the people of Earth, were Cylons? The Final Five lived there among them? The last Cylon was Ellen Tigh? (Explaining why the last of the Five didn't answer the "Watchtower" call at the end of season three.)

All this in just this first of this last run of episodes? Holy frak! If Battlestar Galactica can achieve even a fraction of this quality in the episodes that still await, then it's going to soar out on a high I'm hard-pressed to compare with the ending of any other show I've watched.

I wonder if my hopes are getting too high when I think that, but then I just have to think about how amazed I was watching this episode tonight. I want to go watch it again immediately.

Wow.

Frak is Back (Somewhat)

Galactica fans! It's been (yet another) long wait for new Battlestar Galactica to come our way, but the beginning of the end is finally almost here. Actually, it is here, provided you don't mind your new material coming in very bite-sized chunks.

That's because a new series of "webisodes" (like the ones that preceded season three) have just begun rolling out on SciFi.com. They're showing up twice a week over the next five weeks (at which time, the final batch of full episodes will actually start airing on TV).

The last batch of webisodes was actually pretty darn good, so I'm looking forward to enjoying this series.

Get Your Kicks In 66.6

Halloween is nearly here. So this would be a good week to head over to FEARnet.com and check out their 66.6 Second Film Festival. It's a series of famous horror movies cut down to just over one minute of running time. They're not as amusing and snarky as the What the Frak Happened on BSG? series, but they'll save you a lot of time.

Revelations

I found this week's mid-season finale of Battlestar Galactica to be a satisfying mix of the expected and the unexpected.

On the one hand, I had been starting to suspect that the fleet would actually find Earth some time before the actual series finale. The fact that the Final Five have been there before implies a story that needs to be fleshed out there, and I expected that couldn't be saved until the season finale. But did I expect the show would take them to Earth this early in the final season? No way.

Since day one, I've expected that Earth wouldn't be all it was cracked up to be when they final did get there. In exactly what way, I wasn't sure. My "guesses," if pressed to make them, might have ranged from (vaguely serious) Earth a few thousand years B.C. where our characters and their religions could have become the basis for actual historic civilizations, to (not-at-all-serious) finding the crew of the 1978 version of the TV show living together in a high-rise apartment with the Imperious Leader as their butler.

Utter desolation, I was not expecting. And on the one hand, I find that very cool -- it sure made for a hell of a punchy ending to this episode. On the other hand, I'm not sure where this leaves the story to go from here. The crew gets to Earth and finds nothing. Are we to feel particularly invested in what tragedy befell Earth? I wouldn't think so -- the show is about the characters we've watched for four seasons, not about what happened in the past of a planet we've never been to (even if it is ours, the viewers'). How is the show going to find a way to tell ten more hours of interesting stories in a devestated wasteland? I suppose there is a plan.

More than just the punchy ending, though, this episode delivered a lot of great character moments. The title "Revelations" says it all, as the Four were revealed as Cylons to everyone. The impact of this on Admiral Adama (where Tigh was concerned) was some of the most powerful stuff the show has ever presented. And though there wasn't really time yet to explore what this means for Anders and Starbuck, I'm sure we'll see that in episodes to come.

In fact, "not enough time" is really my only complaint about the episode. It felt like a two-hour episode wedged into the standard 42 minutes. The standoff between D'Anna and Our Heroes, with Lee having to act as President in his first real crisis, was actually very compelling material, and could have filled out a whole episode. Instead, it was squeezed into half that space to make room for the revelation of the Four. And all that was awesome too -- just again, shoehorned into too short a space of time. Then, the rather momentous event of having the fleet and the Cylons truly, actually agreeing to work together, without either really planning to screw the other, was completely bowled over in the rush to get to the arrival at Earth.

In short, it's sad that after half of this season's episodes have been (arguably) not all that great, all this spectacular material was squandered at once. It was an embarassment of riches, really. But nice in that it made for, in my opinion, the best episode of the show since season two's Pegasus.

But now we're stuck in limbo. The SciFi Channel hasn't officially announced the return date for the final episodes of the series, but all the expectation seems to be it won't be until January 2009 at the earliest. It's pretty ridiculous, I think, to go off the air for over a year between seasons three and four, only to come back for 10 episodes and then vanish again for another seven months or more. Certainly, it's a major stretch to call all of this a single season -- it's more like we're get a ten-episode season four and a forthcoming season five.

But I guess there's nothing for it but to just sit and wait. And while we're doing that, we can all contemplate D'Anna's almost off-handed comment that only four of the Final Five were among the fleet. Unless there's some peculiar way to parse that statement, it seems to say that the last remaining Cylon isn't actually going to be a major character on the show. Perhaps it could be some past character who hasn't been with the fleet for a while -- someone who died or was abandoned, perhaps? Or maybe it'll just be some bizarre bit of stunt casting, like maybe in the teaser of the next new episode, Dirk Benedict will walk up to the group of them across the scarred Earth landscape and say "hi, I'm the twelfth Cylon."

Ponder that for seven months, folks.

Hub

A pretty good episode of Battlestar Galactica this week. This time, we followed the more compelling half of the "after the Basestar jumps away" story, finding out how the attack on the hub and recovery of Three went. It was an engaging story punctuated with a great space combat sequence and good drama along the way.

Of course, it wasn't reasonable to expect the writers to give us the identity of the final Cylon as soon as D'Anna returned to the show. Yet it made it no less frustrating that D'Anna returned to the show, but we still don't know who the final Cylon is.

And yet what a brilliant tweak to the people who thought it would be Roslin (sorry, but I gotta say, "folks like Mkae"), to have D'Anna totally pull a gotcha on both Roslin and the audience.

I have to admit, her little prank got me for a second there too. I'd heard the Roslin-as-Cylon theory, and had been silently rooting against it for weeks. I felt the "dying of cancer" storyline was (and will be) much more emotionally and dramatically impactful than any "wow! she's a Cylon!" revelation we could have gotten out of such a twist. And in that moment when D'Anna tells Roslin she's one of the five, I had this crestfallen moment of "well damn, why'd they go and throw all that good material away like that?!" I should have known better. So, well played, writers.

On the other hand, I'm not quite sure the writers sold me on exactly where, when, and how the change came about where Roslin went from wanting to let Baltar bleed out and die to being desperate to save him. Yet I'm not sure it entirely mattered, because Mary McDonnell acted the hell out of it and made me totally accept the moment.

And give her more praise for the final scene of the episode, in which she reunited with Adama. Great work from both actors. Well written too, in that the words seemed perfect, and yet they weren't quite what you'd expect them to say.

Toss in a few other great tidbits to round out the fun: Baltar trying to talk a Centurion into rebellion, one of the Eights very creepily revealing to Helo that she's stolen and copied his Sharon's memories, and a brief return of Elosha in Roslin's visions.

In any case, things look all set up now for some kind of mammoth mid-season cliffhanger to arrive next week and leave us waiting until who-knows-when. Let me tell you, I'm both looking forward to and dreading that.

Sine Qua Non

After a week off with no Battlestar Galactica, and a compelling cliffhanger at the end of the last new episode, I was very eager this week to see what had become of the vanished basestar, and Roslin, Baltar, and Helo.

Of course, this week we didn't get to see them on screen for a single second. Which on the one hand was a bit frustrating. On the other, it played just perfectly into the major theme of this episode: Adama's anxiety over losing Roslin. The structure of this episode, keeping the viewers as in the dark as the characters, helped bring us as close as we could be to their predicament, safely on our couches.

On the plus side, it was a great episode for Colonel Tigh. The revelation that the imprisoned Caprica Six is pregnant with his child?! Holy frak, did not expect that. And the confrontation he had with Adama over this was pretty incredible.

The earlier confrontation between Adama and Athena was even more powerful. You knew when she shot the "Natalie" Six last episode that this was going to throw a grenade right in the center of their relationship, and this scene didn't disappoint.

But there were some areas that ranged from "I'm not sure" to "I didn't like that" as well. I was thrilled to see the return of the Romo Lampkin character, having so thoroughly enjoyed him in the last season's final three episodes. (Mark Sheppard is one of those great working actors who is outstanding on nearly every television show he guest stars on.) And yet the sudden turn to writing his character as having gone over the edge was disappointing.

The thing is, last time he appeared, we didn't get a sense that he was anywhere near the edge. And this time, we didn't really get any picture of what might have happened between then and now to explain his decline. The man we saw last time was not someone who'd be seeing visions of a dead cat and threatening people with guns. This was like a completely different character. One the actor turned in a great performance for again, but a different character all the same.

And then there was the subplot for Lee. Anyone who didn't know from the moment "we've got to find a new interrim president" was uttered that Lee would end up being that guy doesn't watch much television drama. I was hoping the Battlestar Galactica writers would either buck the expectation (as they so often do), or do something neat to earn that eventual twist in the story, but neither really happened. I suppose this could go somewhere compelling for the Lee character, and if so, I'm willing to forgive the conceit. Still, I'm always disappointed a bit when a show that so rarely resorts to cliche stoops to using one.

The resignation of Admiral Adama to stay alone in a Raptor and wait for the return of the missing baseship made up for the stumbles, though. It's a pretty major turn for the character to admit to himself and others that he really does care that much for Roslin. And even if Tigh is "not the man he was" last time he took command of the fleet, a fleet not led by Adama could well be a scary proposition for the lot of them.

Until next week...

Guess What's Coming to Dinner

Well, the down side is that my visiting friend returned home today. We had a great time, but his trip is now over. But I now did get to watch this past Friday's episode of Battlestar Galactica. And it was mostly a good one.

I was pleased to finally see us getting back around to the matter of the vision shared by Roslin, Six, and Athena -- it was really bugging me that this big deal from last season's finale had been shoved under the rug for this many episodes. How Roslin could be so down on Starbuck as a possible Cylon when she herself was sharing daydreams with them was a bit of a sore thumb in my mind.

This revisited plot thread led to a number of great moments. Hera's creepy creepy drawings of "6" were a credit to the show's art department. Athena's confrontation with the "Natalie" incarnation of Six had some nice "is she actually going to go through with it?" tension -- and she did! This will be big trouble for the fragile alliance, and possible trouble for her position on the ship too. (Though Cally got off easy for killing a Cylon "prisoner," so we'll see...)

The scene in which Roslin confronted Tory about her relationship with Baltar was great. Watching Tory wither under the president's stone cold accusation was great, and showed that Tory hasn't quite slipped totally away to "the dark side" yet.

Watching Tigh quake in his boots at the possibility of D'Anna returning to unmask him as a Cylon was kind of a one-note beat, but the note was fun anyway. Tigh has always been a character that has really made for good drama when he finds himself "tortured," and it's good to see that's no different now that we know he's a Cylon.

The thread of Gaeta losing his leg was also a strong one, but I have to say I thought they used the singing a bit overmuch. The first time we heard it, is was very powerful. The second time, when Roslin commented on it, was also effective. But the next several iterations of it lost a bit of dramatic power each time, in my opinion.

But to me, the weakest moment was in the teaser, with the blatant dramatic conceit of the Demetrius' jump engines failing just to create the false tension of the Cylon Baseship arriving in the fleet unescorted. Have jump engines ever failed to work before in the history of the show? Did anyone think for a second that the Baseship would actually be destroyed, or even fired on? It wasn't tense, it was pretense.

Still, the episode was far more good than not, and left off on the tantalizing note that the Baseship has separated from the fleet, taking Roslin and Baltar (and others) along with it. I look forward to seeing that thread continued next week.