Review of Battlestar Galactica (Season 1)

Introduction

The mini-series that introduced this re-imagining of 70’s sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica ended with the ragtag fleet of transports and cargo ships carrying the remnants of the human race escaping the clutches of the pursuing Cylons.

The new series kicks off with a tense and action driven ‘33’, named so because the Cylons are able to locate and launch attacks on the fleet every 33 minutes. Whilst the Galactica and fleet are able to escape with the use of their Faster Then Light (FTL) drives each time and reset the clock, the numbers of humans is slowly decreasing as ships are caught. Also on radation-soaked Caprica, Boomer’s REO Helo is on the run from Cylon pursuers amidst the incessant rain brought on by the nuclear devastation launched by the Cylons.

The gang are all here and stumble across 13 episodes in an attempt to find answers and the lost world of Earth, whilst also evading both Cylon attacks and subversion by Cylon agents based on the 12 models previously identified within the previous excursion. One trusted member of the Galactica is already known to viewers as a Cylon agent, although she doesn’t herself and struggles with her conscience across this series.

Adama (Edward James Olmos) and President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) start to disagree more and more, which comes to a head at the end of the series after Roslin is convinced that she is the Chosen One who can lead her people to safety. Apollo and Starbuck simmer but never quite get it on until it’s too late and the Chief gets a nasty wakeup call in the aftermath of his illicit affair with Boomer. Meanwhile Colonel Tigh is struggling with his drink problem, not helped by Starbuck’s tact, but really falls off after appearance of someone from his recent past.

Video

1.77Anamorphic Widescreenthat looks gorgeous if not 100% sharp. Not sure if this is due to conversion between NTSC and PAL or just meant to be that way. There is grain on some of the picture, but then there’s grain on just about every US TV show on DVD, and it also seems part of the cinematographer’s palette these days.

The look of the Galactica and space carries on much the much same as the initial mini-series, the Galactica also has a number of wide panoramic shots that accentuate the shape and texture of the ship as well as giving you a real feel for battleship grey. Radiation-soaked Caprica is filmed with a high contrast and yellow filter mostly, in order to convey the appearance of a nuclear wasted planet. You can almost feel that rain that seems to fall every 5 minutes or so too…

Audio

Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround soundtrack that puts you in the centre of the action. Not too intrusive, but certainly not skimped on with a wall vibrating lowend even at low volume. The opening credits now have a Lisa Gerrard-ish vocal on them but the rest of the soundtrack is much the same as before.

English subtitles on the main features, but not on the deleted scenes.

Features

Basic static menus, that I thought we’d seen the last of many years ago.

Deleted Scenes – a number from each episode that adds a little extra to the story already told, although in some cases these have been removed as the story (episodic or overall) was rewritten. Nice extra in theory, but flawed in practice. Normal execution of such an extra would be to split them down in their component episodes, instead you get them all lumped together in a mock episode for about the same running time in total. Not good.

Conclusion

This truly is a quality re-imagining of the original series. It does follow elements of the original series, but never wholesale, and does also borrow elements from other series, so you can’t say it’s original. On the other hand, is there anything produced these days that truly original? What sets this apart from most of its contemporaries is the quality of the writing and the ensemble acting. I would never have imagined that an ex-Trekkie like Ronald D.Moore could pull something like together, but it really is something special. This series so far can easily sit alongside sci-fi luminaries such as Babylon 5 and Space: Above & Beyond.

In fact, BSG MkII does have a lot of similarities with both as these series also has a more realistic rather than sterile bland future look to them and both featured organic craft. Mind you, it does borrow a little from The West Wing too with the Press conferences aboard Colonial One. Still, none of these series is anything less than quality stuff so borrowing good from good is altogether good in my book. You good?

All the characters in this series have flaws, even the Cylons. Some are obvious like Tigh’s battle with the bottle or Apollo’s simmering resentment towards his father, but others are more subtle. Roslin slowly becomes convinced she is a messiah-like figure who can lead her people to safety when she starts having visions due to side effects from her medicine. Starbuck and Apollo realise way too late their feelings for each other. Adama must overcome the resentment he feels to someone he considered close after revelations about the death of his son. No-one, not even the lowest of the characters featured, does not escape some sort of flaw or life changing experience over the course of the 13 episodes.

Considering he is following the tragic-comic footsteps of John Colicos, James Callis breathes new and twisted life into the character of Dr Gaius Baltar. Alongside a deliciously demented Tricia Helfer, Baltar lifts this series to a different level. Although Baltar is ultimately a tragic figure for his unwitting part in the initial attack, his character is much more of a comic character than Colicos could have hoped for. As the series progresses, Baltar sees massive changes in his personal life and it would appear to be mainly thanks to the Number 6 stuck in his head.

Not that this is always so. When Baltar angers Number 6, she appears to move from the world of Baltar’s imagination to the real world in a conspiracy episode that is good but also doesn’t quite feel right. It’s never explained quite how she could have managed to pull that off. Another real flaw for me appears when Starbuck is shot down with a Cylon fighter on a distant moon. I can appreciate and follow that Starbuck could learn to fly the organic fighter but I can’t quite get around how she managed to survive space flight unprotected in a fighter that was holed by her own fire and that she literally hacked her way into. Maybe that’s just me being picky though.

There does appear to be a core concept to this first season, and it`s one of postioning in terms of character development. Like pieces on a chess board, each episode sees characters shift slightly in their positioning due to either their beliefs, what they see or imagine seeing, and what they experience. No-one remains unchanged at the end of this 13 episode run, which hopefully will be a continual shift through the following series too.

Overall this is superb and after that cliffhanger, roll on Season 2…