Review for Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series

Introduction

This was never meant to happen. The idea of me and nu-Battlestar Galactica in close proximity was something that I never countenanced. But a combination of a litany of whole-hearted recommendations, and the Blu-ray boxset of the entire series for sale last year for under £29 made it inevitable, although it’s taken me this long to actually start watching it. Not that this isn’t my first time trying this show. About ten years ago, Sky trialled the first season of the show on what was then Sky Three (now Pick), the one Sky Entertainment channel on Freeview. I caught about half the episodes on and off, and dismissed the show as too dark, too depressing. I also dismissed the show as wallowing in post 9/11 angst, which I believe is a genuine criticism of early 2000s US drama. Following the Twin Towers attack it ventured into the shady, introspective, and ambivalent navel gazing of a nation trying to come to terms with trauma through entertainment, in shows like this and 24, and even season 3 of Star Trek Enterprise. That wasn’t what I wanted from my escapism back then, but I’m more open to it now.


I thought the show looked a little daft, a sci-fi where people wore contemporary fashion, where the world was recognisable, instead of the bright coloured lycra of Star Trek, and the fantastic technology of practically any sci-fi show. These characters were flying around in space, wearing suits and ties?! Then Sky took the show off Sky Three and locked it behind the paywall of Sky 1, the final insult. But you know what the real reason I shunned this show was? It wasn’t my Battlestar Galactica. My Galactica came out in 1978, a fantasy TV show riding on the coattails of Star Wars, with larger than life characters, played for fun despite its apocalyptic premise, with the classic Chrome-dome villains, and a robot dog. I even enjoyed Galactica 80 when I was still young enough to forgive stupidity.


I read the novels, and I followed the attempts in the nineties to resurrect the show in some form. Richard Hatch (Apollo in the original series) even co-authored a series of novels that continued the story. There was something about the Ancient Astronaut premise, the references to ancient Egyptian and Mayan civilisation that sparked my imagination in the same way that The Mysterious Cities of Gold did. I never got that vibe from what little I saw of nu-BSG. And let’s face it, Starbuck was a girl! Of course that’s a daft reason not to give a show a fair shake, and it was when I learned that Richard Hatch actually had a significant role in this version of the show, that it nudged me into buying the boxset. It’s like the old show had given the new its blessing.


Man created machine to serve him in the form of Cylons. The Cylons rebelled and there was a war between the Cylons and the twelve colonies of Man. That was 40 years previously. The Cylons retreated, and an armistice has stood since then. The Battlestar Galactica is a legacy of that war, deliberately constructed with a low tech paradigm, not reliant on computers which are open to infiltration. But that is old thinking, and the Galactica is due to be retired as a museum ship. High technology is coming back into vogue, spear-headed by genius scientist Gaius Baltar under whose aegis the fleet’s computers, and the planetary defence systems have been upgraded. Only Baltar chose the wrong woman to sleep with.


For the Cylons have returned, and this time they look and feel human, and Baltar just spilled the secrets of humanity’s defences to a bit of Cylon skirt. The Galactica is on its final trip home, under the command of William Adama. It isn’t exactly the poster child for fleet efficiency. The crew is slacking, the XO, Saul Tigh is a drunk, ace pilot Kara “Starbuck” Thrace is the kind of maverick who winds up in the brig after slugging the XO, Lee “Apollo” Adama has been given the ‘honour’ of leading the squadron during the decommissioning ceremony, but he hasn’t forgiven his father for the death of his brother Zak, raptor pilot Sharon “Boomer” Valeri is in a proscribed relationship with crew chief Tyrol, and it’s this ship that has to organise a response when the Second Cylon War begins and ends in a matter of hours with the destruction of all twelve colonies. The survivors gather around the Galactica in a ragtag fleet of ships, 50,000 people trying to salvage a civilisation of billions, pursued by the Cylons who are trying to finish what they started. The only hope they have is the legend of a mythical thirteenth colony named Earth. But even though they may have escaped the destruction of the twelve colonies, when the Cylons now look human, the dangers are still very much among them.


All five seasons of Battlestar Galactica are presented in this collection, although without The Plan, Blood & Chrome, and Caprica, it isn’t quite complete. The series is distributed as follows

Season 1 – Disc 1: The 3 hour mini-series in 2 Parts
Season 1 – Discs 2-4: 13 episodes of Season 1
Season 2 – Discs 1-5: 20 episodes of Season 2 as well as Pegasus – Extended Episode
Season 3 – Discs 1-5: 20 episodes of Season 3 as well as Unfinished Business – Unaired Extended Cut
Season 4 – Disc 1: Razor – Broadcast Edition and Unrated Extended Edition
Season 4 – Discs 2-3: 10 episodes of Season 4
The Final Season – Discs 1-3: 11 episodes as well as Unaired Extended Episodes for A Disquiet Follows My Soul, Islanded in a Stream of Stars, and Daybreak.

Picture

Battlestar Galactica gets 1.78:1 widescreen transfers at 1080p resolution, but note that each disc kicks off with a bunch of logos, copyright warnings, and most pertinent, a frame of caveats and provisos regarding the image quality. Battlestar Galactica was deliberately shot in a verité style, a lot of handheld cameras and candid footage to give the drama a documentary feel. While the miniseries was shot on film, the television series was shot in native HD, but both iterations of the show got put through the post-processing mill to add grain, wash out some colours, give each world its own visual style, lower the clarity a bit, blow out the whites, crush the blacks, keep some lens flare and glare (real lens flare, not the artsy fartsy JJ Abrams lens flare), generally make the show look like all the things that Blu-ray cinephiles complain about on back catalogue movies transferred to HD.


But it works. Battlestar Galactica’s style is immersive to the point of voyeuristic. It invites you into its world and makes you live the experience along with the characters. Even though the show is nearly ten years old now, the digital effects are good enough to be seamless, the sets and locations work well, the digital extensions, the spaceship shots, the action shots all maintain a level of quality that keeps you invested in the story without deliberately drawing attention to themselves, although there are one or two money shots each season that count as eye candy. You certainly don’t have to worry about the achingly small stock footage locker that was all that was accessible to the original Battlestar Galactica.

Sound

Battlestar Galactica gets a DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English track, with optional subtitles in English, French and Spanish. You can’t get away from the fact that it’s a television show, but the sound design does offer some envelopment and ambience, and the action sequences certainly get a boost. I’ll never be a fan of the excessive percussion in the music soundtrack, but I did become accustomed to it after a while. I certainly miss a melody or two, while the couple of moments where the classic BSG theme was used sparked more in the way of nostalgia than I’m comfortable with. The dialogue is as clear throughout as you’d expect, given modern drama’s penchant for realism i.e. mumbling actors. Thankfully the subtitles are concise, accurately timed, and well placed on the screen. You definitely want a home theatre set-up for this. A flat panel TV’s speakers are woefully inadequate.

Extras

Eight Blu-ray Amaray cases contain two or three discs apiece, twenty in total, with the three disc cases holding two on a central hinged panel, one at the rear, while the two disc cases hold one on either inner face of the case. All eight cases are held in a cardboard artbox.

You also get a booklet with the collection, with stills from the show, character guides, episode guides, a list of disc contents, and a glossary. Each season opens with a 1:23 introduction from show-runner Ronald D. Moore extolling the virtues of Blu-ray. There are also a whole lot of logos and disclaimers to deal with.

Extra features across all discs (excepting Season 4) that I have no intention of using include the BD Live content that is accessible via the discs and an internet connection.


The U-Control feature enables pop-up trivia during playback in the form of the Oracle, as well as in Season 3, Battlestar Blips, and Battlestar Actual in Season 4, while on the mini-series, you also get picture in picture interviews and featurettes. It’s the principle of the thing. If you’re going to put featurettes on a disc, don’t make me watch them in the corner of the screen against the main feature, I’ll be too distracted to pay attention. At least make them also accessible separately from the extras menu.

The conventional extras I can pay attention to, but are so extensive that rather than drown out the rest of the review, I’ve summarised them in a separate document, and if you want to read about them in detail, click here.

Conclusion

Brilliant, amazing, stunning, astounding television! The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica is peerless, a once in a lifetime television experience, that shatters expectations, and delivers a thought provoking, intelligent, engaging and relevant story, that you’ll watch again and again. The only real problem I had with it was that I watched it now, after I had been spoiled for much of the story, and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t watch it as it was broadcast. If you haven’t seen this show before, then stop reading now, buy the series and watch it, and do your best to avoid spoilers.


“It’s not my Battlestar” was my complaint initially, the reason why it took me so long to finally see the light. What initially appealed to me about the original series was the whole ancient astronaut tie-in. Each episode would begin with Patrick MacNee explaining about myths of ancient visitors from space, informing Greek, Egyptian and Mayan mythologies, brothers of man still fighting for existence far off in distant stars. It was a fantastic idea, and the universe of Battlestar Galactica was built on this premise filled with possibilities, mythological and spiritual... and it did very little with it.


The new series on the other hand doesn’t at first glance seem to share this premise. It offers a human society almost identical to our own, save for its religious beliefs, and its presence in space. Otherwise the people of the twelve colonies look, sound, live and breathe exactly the same way we do, down to their dress, their food, their system of government, and even their language. But over the course of its run, this Battlestar Galactica makes much better use of its premise, it really does explore its society, the way these people live, and the differences in their culture, their beliefs. Most of all, the premise, the whole mythological and spiritual aspects to the show, define the heart of the story, they are not merely just trappings to be bolted on as an afterthought.


Then there is the realism. Both shows begin with the end of the worlds, the virtual annihilation of the human race at the hands of the machine Cylons. A mere handful of survivors escape to search for the mythical sanctuary of Earth, fleeing Cylon tyranny all the way, both retellings of the biblical Exodus. But the original series, hot on the tails of the Star Wars phenomenon, kept its apocalyptical trauma for the pilot episodes. What followed thereafter was a series that focused on Apollo and Starbuck having fun in space. At the age of five, looking for bright lights and escapism, that was just what I needed from my entertainment, and I still love that original series for what it did.


That wouldn’t wash in 2003, but for a nation recently traumatised by terrorist attack, a more realistic approach to the Battlestar Galactica story could be taken. It may be hard to imagine what the near-extinction of the human race would have on the handful of survivors, but the trauma has an immediate and lasting effect that carries through the series. Grief and loss is a constant, as is escapism, and a frantic need to hold onto what little society and civilisation remains. We get to see both sides of a command structure in this show, with the military having to co-exist and serve the needs of a civilian government, which as you’d expect is faltering and cumbersome an arrangement in such dire circumstances.


You mustn’t forget the enemy, a shiny merchandising opportunity in the original, but complex, intelligent, and interesting in this show. Yes, Cylons now look human, and they have emotion. It isn’t a new idea, as the forgettable Galactica 80 spin-off first introduced Cylons that looked human, but here the whole thing has so much more meaning and depth, and adds to the allegory. There is the masterstroke of religion. The humans of Battlestar Galactica believe in a pantheon of gods, the direct analogue of Greek gods it seems, while Cylons, themselves created by humans, now believe in one God. That straight away throws the cat among the pigeons, as the majority of viewers will have grown up in monotheistic societies, and suddenly they have something in common with the show’s antagonists that they don’t with the protagonists. That ambiguity continues and grows through the series, you might find yourself sympathising with the Cylons, horrified at what the humans do, until eventually you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. Which I guess is the whole point of the allegory.


Speaking of Galactica 80, humanoid Cylons, and my protestations that this was not my Galactica, I was stunned to see just how much it actually paid homage to the original show, especially in the first season. There are elements of story that I recognised from the original Galactica, beyond the pilot miniseries. That original series had an episode dealing with supply shortages, it too introduced a prison ship, had to recruit new Viper pilots from civilians, Starbuck wound up crashed on a planet, and they too found Kobol and a signpost to Earth. It wasn’t just the appearance of Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek that tickled my nostalgia reflex.


By far the best thing about this show is the complexity when it comes to characterisations. These are rich, multi-layered, and wonderfully realised characters portrayed by an excellent cast. I too might have had my reservations initially about a female Starbuck, but Katee Sackhoff owns the role, creates a fascinating and rich character. On the other hand it takes a while longer for the Apollo character to settle in. Saul Tigh is amazing, a craggy, alcoholic hardliner at first, but a whole other side is revealed when his free-spirited and equally alcoholic wife Ellen shows up. The actors portraying the Cylons have it even harder, as they often have to portray different versions of their model. Tricia Helfer is brilliant at this, as she manages to create a subtly different personality for each version of Six that appears on the screen. I love Leoben, the uber-spiritual Cylon, and I only wish he’d had more screen time, but his interactions with Starbuck were always great moments. Then you had Dean Stockwell as Cavil, always good value.


The surprising character heart to the show, which in the original series was Starbuck and Apollo, here is Galactica’s Commander Adama and Laura Roslin, the on and off president of the Colonies. For one thing you have two supremely talented actors in the roles, Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, the second thing is that the story never leaves its premise of finding Earth, saving the human race, and in that respect it is the actions of the leaders of the fleet that have more direct bearing. Given the initial antagonism between the two, it makes for great drama, but as Adama and Roslin grow to respect each other, the character dynamic becomes a lot more central to the story. Of course there is no escaping the force of nature that is Gaius Baltar, played by James Callis. In the original series, John Colicos was one of the best things about the show, venal, ambitious, vain, but in the end he was an irredeemable villain of the old school. This Baltar goes on an amazing journey from unwitting traitor to potential saviour of the human race, and everything in between, including scientific genius, President, religious prophet and certifiable lunatic seeing visions of the dead Cylon he loved. It is as brilliant, fascinating and spellbinding a screen character as I have ever seen.


There are one or two minor flaws with the show, and with this collection. With any series that develops over the space of four years, you find things that niggle, the odd disappointment, and the odd inconsistency. It seems Cylons rather quickly figured out how to turn off their spine-bulbs during sex, and as mentioned I would have liked to have seen more Leoben in the series. Also as mentioned this collection misses out on the Face of the Enemy webisodes. The only real disappointment for me is the Razor movie, which suffers for a poorly cast guest star, and missing the opportunity to flesh out Admiral Cain and the Pegasus, by only showing that which had already been divulged in exposition during the series. The only good thing about that show is the young Adama flashbacks, available separately too as the Razor webisodes.


But these are small nitpicks in an otherwise excellent collection. I could go on for pages more expounding on what I love about the show, and would no doubt spoil it for you in the way that I wish I hadn’t been. The series is brilliant, I love the packaging, it’s loaded with extra features, and it’s the kind of show that will get plenty of watches over the years. It’s also refreshing to get a complete series, a complete story, from beginning to end. The Blu-ray presentation is solid, with good sound, and the picture if not exactly pushing the format to the limits, at least reflects the original intent of the creators. What I love most of all, thanks to its mythological core of that which has happened before, happening again, it also very happily allows the original Battlestar Galactica to exist in the same universe.