SciFi
There is an excellent YouTube recap of the first three seasons of Battlestar Galactica below. It’s for “people” new to the show though to be honest it’s just as necessary for people like Aerial Telly who have watched every episode. It’s a demanding and occasionally confusing show. Telling human from cylon, good from bad, monotheist from polytheist is never straightforward. That’s what makes it such a rewarding watch, of course, but seriously, avail yourself of the geeky Galactica resources on the net to keep yourself up to speed vis-a-vis who’s fucking who, which version of Six that is and who had what vision about which particular nebula and how that relates to the book of Exodus. It’s a complex and intricate mythology but definitely worth your while if you’re serious about learning the way of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, one of the best shows on television.
“Tigh, Tory, Anders, and Tyrol have regular secret meetings where they get in touch with their inner cylon and convince each other that they are just as human as the next man (as long as the next man isn’t actually human)”
The fourth and final season finds the Galactica fleet in crisis. Well, of course it does. When are those fuckers ever not in crisis? Being hounded across the galaxies by Metal Mickey and chums will do that to people. But perhaps now more than ever with four key players on Galactica being revealed as cylons (for now, only to themselves and to each other) humanity seems closer to extinction than ever before. Tigh, Tory, Anders and Tyrol have regular secret meetings where they get in touch with their inner cylon and convince each other that they are just as human as the next man (as long as the next man isn’t actually human). Tigh is particularly conflicted. The cylons tortured him and ripped out his eye. That’s got to hurt.
“Starbuck wants to lead the fleet to the promised land. But Adama is all up in her face like ‘Take directions from a chick? Yeah, right!'”
In other news, Starbuck is back. Wait – isn’t she all dead and shit? Ah you poor fool. Kara Thrace is not a girl to let being blown to pieces in outer space slow her down. So now she’s back. From outer space. She just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face. You should have changed that stupid lock, you should have made her leave her key. But she has quite a tale to tell. She’s found Earth and wants to lead the fleet to the promised land. But Adama is all up in her face like “You’s a dead bitch” and “Take directions from a chick? Yeah, right!”. But being Starbuck, she has a way of getting what she wants and after holding President Donnie Darko’s mom at gunpoint Adama secretly commissions a small ship for Starbuck to captain, following her visions and instincts back to earth as the fleet goes merrily on its way in the wrong direction.
“Demetrius is a sewage recycling ship. This would cause endless fun on another drama. “This is the Captain of your SHIT speaking!” and so forth. But this is Battlestar Galactica where people only laugh when a cylon dies.”
Demetrius, Starbuck’s ship, is a sewage recycling ship. This would cause endless fun on another drama. “This is the Captain of your SHIT speaking!” and so forth. But this is Battlestar Galactica where people only laugh when a cylon dies. They’re funny like that.
And speaking of funny, Gaius Baltar is once again knee-deep in pum-pum like his name was Aerial Telly, wrapped in the warm arms of a largely female cult who regard him as a prophet. He’s also progressed to having hallucinations of himself (to add to the visions of Caprica Six) which is another one of those confusing development curveballs that Galactica likes to throw at us. Baltar’s Cult is monotheistic, a cylon trait, in direct opposition to the prevailing human polytheism. He’s acting increasingly like Jesus Christ this season. Throwing hypocrites out of temples, having miracles attributed to him. If he could only wash the stink of cylon snatch off himself he could truly be the Son of God.
Good luck with that, Gaius. There’s quite a few things that need tying up in this final season and it’s going to be intriguing to see how they make it work. It’s started very well and continues to be an intelligent, charismatic and perplexing show that people are going to be talking theorising about long after it’s finished.
The best thing about it: Baltar’s Cult of Pie.
The worst thing about it: Apollo gets increasingly pompous as the series progresses.
The verdict on Battlestar Galactica Season 4: Consolidating its position as one of TV’s best ever remakes.
Marks out of 10: 8
Imagined: 2nd May 2008