Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 - DVD Review

I'm back again quickly with a review of Battlestar Galactica Season 2 on DVD. Before reading this review, ensure you have already viewed season one in its entirety as it will be difficult not to mention events from that season in this review.

The story develops further as the survivors continue to avoid the Cylon's, locate Earth, and run into other devastating troubles along the way. I enjoyed season two more than the first: the actors seem to be fitting into their characters better, and the stories seem more serialised, as well as more focused. Some of the political and social allegory that BSG is known for is implemented more comfortably in this season, as opposed to being tacked-on. There are some excellent two-parters, as well as guest stars, such as Michelle Forbes and Lucy Lawless, in very interesting roles. Unfortunately, between the middle and the end of season there is a slump that sticks out very obviously. Black Market, Scar, and Sacrifice are the perpetrators this season. Even creator Ronald D. Moore, expresses his regret and dislike of the episode Black Market in his podcast - which is quite admirable. I think the reason some of these episodes failed were due to the writers looking at ways of exploring the colony - deepening it. Black Market is to do with, you guessed it, the Black Market, and Scar to do with the fighter pilots hunting down an angry Cylon raider. These episodes don't fail because of the change-up, they fail because of the execution. One example of this that succeeded was the Final Cut episode, guest-starring Lucy Lawless. She played a journalist filming a documentary on Galactica. The episode was well-done and intriguing, due to her questionable intentions and the conflict of the Galactica crew.

The characters with a lot of power are explored in more detail this season. Instead of them having little disagreements, they are now at each others necks. We are also drawn to think about the morality of these characters, as they all make questionable decisions a lot of the time - that often are of large consequence. Unfortunately, when the series delves into character-study it always fails. Way too many silly flashbacks, and the inner-conflicts always seem tacked-on. This is very sad as completely character-driven stories are my favourite, but none of these cut it at all. It may be a problem that is due to the show being very action-packed and plot-driven, so that when they try to do something solely to do with character it is jarring and weak. However, it is inexcusable because Buffy the Vampire Slayer held the line between plot and character probably better than anyone. Many of my other favourite shows are pure character-studies, so they are fairly incomparable. Don't get me wrong though, this season was thoroughly entertaining. The grand decisions being wrestled over by conflicted characters and the tough-spots the fleet get themselves in are engaging, especially when done over two-parters.

My last criticism is the abuse of the flash forward teaser. Firefly used it wonderfully a couple of times, but using it as much as BSG has been is just gimmicky. Whenever a story is boring, unengaging, or takes a while to get going, they go back and create a teaser which has a prominent character in mortal danger toward the end of the episode. The device can be used well, but like this, it just becomes a gimmick. They have used it well once, with Starbuck, when the mortal danger has large future consequence as far as plot and character are concerned.

Video

The bad visual quality in this show is usually attributed to a stylistic choice. The same is the case in this release, but the picture did get overly grainy once or twice - not a big deal.

Audio

Dolby Digital 5.1 is utilised again in this release. The mix is just as good as in the first season release and generally makes the most of the 5.1 sound.

Extras

Special Features:

• Slipcase Packaging
• Deleted Scenes
• Producers Commentaries

The audio commentaries aren't as special as would usually be the case, as the creator Ronald D. Moore has created a podcast commentary for every single episode of the series, available for free from The Sci-Fi Channel's website.

The end of season cliffhanger creates even more epic drama. It was a bold move from the producers, and I respect them for that. Greatly improving from the first season I assuredly Recommend this set. The story could really go anywhere from here, and that's the idea! I'll be reviewing the third season soon. Don't be a stranger.

Battlestar Galactica - Season One - DVD Review

My miniseries post explains most of the exposition that would usually be in this part of the review. The bulk of the review will be short thoughts on each individual episode as I watch them.

33 - This first episode exceeded my expectations for the series completely. We meet the fleeing survivors as they continue to struggle for their lives from Cylon attacks every 33 minutes - a LOT of 33 minute intervals have passed. Nobody has slept, and it seems like nobody will be able to until they die, or some ridiculous deus ex machina occurs. This episode is extremely action-packed and very engaging. It also tells us the series will have a prominent sense of urgency and hopelessness.

Water - This episode had enormous potential, with the loss of 60% of the ship's water supplies, and Cylon Boomer trying to sabotage the ship. I felt this episode could have easily been drawn out over a few episodes, or a two-parter at the least. The episode was very fast-paced, wasting no time getting to the real point of each scene. This is something that I have admired during the first two episodes of the series. The audiences intelligence is not being insulted with repeated exposition, and scenes jump about without too much introduction. Still, the plot had bigger potential. Again, a very engaging episode.

Bastille Day - We are introduced to Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch), a political prisoner who has influence over all of the prisoners on the Astral Queen prison ship. Adama wishes for prisoners to labour the water from the site that has been found. Roslin sees this as slavery, so announces the prisoners can earn freedom points by working. Zarek and the prisoners refuse, and order an election. This episode centers quite heavily on Apollo having to choose between blindly going with the military opinion, or pushing for democracy. Roslin confides in him regarding her cancer at the end of the episode - they clearly have mutual respect. This episode turns into a political piece, asking the question of the role of democracy during a state of emergency. Also how prisoners should be contained and treated during immediate and ongoing crises.

Act of Contrition - This episode could be the best so far, the only thing that lets it down are the character thought reminder flashbacks - I just made a badly phrased phrase. The teaser flash-forward and the others throughout the episode were exciting, and remind me of Firefly. Starbuck feels guilt over the death of Adama's other son Zack, whom she was engaged to. Adam finds out the truth behind Starbuck's guilt and is deeply angered. Starbuck trains some new pilots after an accidental explosion occurs and kills thirteen in the teaser. The Cylon's show up just as Starbuck is training the newbies. The space fight sequence in Act of Contrition is the most suspenseful and involving so far. The episode ended with an exciting cliffhanger, where anything could happen next.

You Can't Go Home - Starbuck is missing. Adama and Apollo recruit all of the pilots to search for her, leaving Galactica undefended. When the verdict does not look good, people start to wonder whether Adama and Apollo are acting under personal influence. This was an entertaining episode, especially the scenes involving Starbuck. The concept behind the Cylon raider was awesome too!

Litmus - A humanoid Cylon suicide bombs on Galactica, killing and injuring several people. This episode was basically an interrogation into who let the bombing occur - who is responsible. The interrogation scenes were quite flat, and the military music was awful - reminding me of Stargate or some other similarly vile show. Helo is still on Caprica, being manipulated by the Cylons. The episode was pretty dull, the weakest so far.

Six Degrees of Separation - As usual, the Boomer part of the episode was uninteresting to me, made worse by the pretentious sex scene intercutting with Galactica Boomer rubbing crayon off a mirror. Great job! Apart from that, this episode was one of the best so far. Number Six kicks her plan further into action. It was quite tense seeing Baltar at the mercy of her and everybody else turned against him. Even as the episode ends, he is still weak, dumb, and completely at the hands of Number Six. James Callis takes full advantage of his large screen time in this episode, and really shines in comedic and dramatic scenes - unfortunately pointless cutting/jump-cutting, again, puts a stop to any emotional resonance which could have been realised.

Flesh and Bone - Baltar makes an interesting discovery. Starbuck interrogates a Cylon, and ponders questions of man vs. machine, and faith. It seems the machine, isn't completely inhuman as it has faith, but isn't completely convinced. I see parallels to religious fundamentalist terrorists, and the war on terror - which I guess is where all the fun allegorical talk comes from when people talk about BSG. This is an involving episode, however the cliffhanger pointing the finger at Adama is silly. I highly doubt he will be found out as a Cylon.

Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down - Adama is acting strange, and it turns out he has brought aboard Saul's wife, Ellen Tigh. That dispels suspicion of him being a Cylon (obvious red-herring), and casts suspicion over Ellen. Kate Vernon plays Ellen, quite unrealistically, and it doesn't help that the character is ridiculously flat. She is supposed to make this a comedy episode, but it was more lighthearted than anything - I didn't laugh once.

The Hand of God - Lost meets The West Wing. This episode was probably the most accomplished episode so far. Exciting!

Colonial Day - Roslin rebuilds the legislative branch of the government. Tom Zarek is elected as a member, and immediately attempts to gain vice-presidency. This is an exciting episode, as we see what Zarek is potentially capable of in the future. This episode also highlights the true idiocy of politics, with Baltar gaining large power, and Roslin's other strange decisions. Helo finds out the truth about Boomer.

Kobol's Last Gleaming: Part 1 - Great episode. The one thing that let it down was the Apollo and Starbuck angst. It was very pointless, tacked-on, and annoying. Character-driven story-lines are the best thing about fiction, but quickly collapse into drivel if they aren't handled with care. It will be interesting to see where fate and faith take the series.

Kobol's Last Gleaming: Part 2 - Very exciting and suspenseful. Boomer entering the Cylon base was intense, and the inside of the base looked amazing. The cliffhanger ending to the season was unexpected and immediately shocking. Number Six shows Baltar the shape of things to come.

Video

Like the miniseries release we have 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. The video quality on the series release actually looks quite good, a tad better than the miniseries, in fact.

Audio

The sound in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, uses 5.1 to its advantage, and everything is mixed well. Not a complaint.

Extras

An episodes worth of deleted scenes that are interesting, but for the majority, it was probably better that they stayed on the cutting room floor.

Battlestar Galactica does not yet live up the hype and praise I have continuously heard about it. I feel there were missed opportunities around the middle of the season, considering the enormous potential a show like this has. 33 and these last couple of episodes have been real highlights - but the rest were not as engaging. Some of the deeper elements of the show such as allegory, philosophy, and morality often seem tacked onto the show. These elements may be worked into the show better in the second season, as the show finds itself a little more, but sometimes the writing wasn't as smart as it wanted to be. I will definitely watch the second season, but without the last two episodes, I may not have. Without a doubt, this is not your regular space-opera fare, and I do Recommend it to viewers who generally wouldn't watch a sci-fi show, as well as, of course, fans of sci-fi, with which it should be a surprising treat.

Battlestar Galactica - Miniseries

I found this TV movie, miniseries, or backdoor pilot, or whatever people want to call it, quite entertaining - more than I thought I would. However there were some problems for me that I will address. The tone and music of the show do not seem to fit with the bleak screenplay - there are times in which it tries to, but that sense of the 'upbeat' space-opera television show feel (ala, Star Trek) is evident.. This surprised me as many reviews I have read, note that the miniseries is very dark and bleak. It wants to be, even the gritty hand-held camerawork tries to reflect the depressing nature of the show, but the other elements work completely against it, and the script. I was very relieved when the 'hope in Earth' speech turned out to be a sham as it dispelled the worry that the show would be even less bleak than I was led to believe. I have heard the old series in which this is based on was extremely cheesy, campy, and silly, so I have no interest in it and will not be comparing the two. Perhaps fans are calling the re-imagining especially dark in comparison with the old series, or that they weren't expecting it because of the source material.

I will just say that the teaser for the miniseries is absolutely amazing - it really surprised me. I was not expecting it to be so good so quickly. To outline the plot a little, I will say that humanity is now twelve colonies, and has come under attack from Cylons - rebelling robots that were originally created by humans. These robots have not been heard from in forty years, until now. They are staging an attack to wipe out humanity. They are quite successful and all that seems to be left of humanity are roughly fifty-thousand people, and a bunch of ships. Basically, they have nowhere to go and they are constantly being chased by advanced technology.

Edward James Olmos plays Commander William Adama, who operates Galactica and the colony's military operations. There is no doubting that he plays that character well, he obviously enjoys his role. There were some great moments for him in the miniseries, but they can test him further in the series, and I'm sure he will step up to whatever they give him. Captain Lee 'Apollo' Adama (Jamie Bamber) is the Commander's estranged son - I will not give too much away, except to say that there is some conflict between them, and some interesting ideas that can be expanded upon in the series.

Securing Mary McDonnell for a lead role on Battlestar Galactica is a definite win for the show. In the featurette the producers say they were looking for a Mary McDonnell type - the real thing was inconceivable. She is the secretary of education and when the colonies are wiped out, she is next in a long line of next President's. To add to the stress she has also been diagnosed with cancer. McDonnell plays the role with naturalism and you can tell she has thought about the character, the situation, and the questions that arise from them. In my opinion, the best performance of the miniseries - the editor did cut a few of her reactions short, which was annoying, but mostly she was done justice.

Katee Sackhoff plays Starbuck, a masculine fighter, who doesn't respond well to authority. Katee Sackhoff pulls off Starbuck well in the miniseries, the best performance out of the 'young people' so far. I found most of the other performances to be unengaging - just kinda flat.

Number Six is played by Tricia Helfer, who is surprising a very good actress, at least in this role. She plays a number of Cylons, and also lives inside the head of Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis), a computer genius, who has some responsibility for the Cylon attack being successful. Number Six has been gaining information from his high-level security access, while they have been a couple. Number Six lets it be known to Baltar that he is responsible, and this is a heavy burden to carry. We see him on Galactica having Number Six talking to him and attempting to manipulate him, due to some sort of device she planted inside his head, so she could insert her consciousness into his. He comes off as quite crazy to the other passengers, and it will be interesting to see where his character goes.

Personally, I am not a fan of hand-held camerawork on television dramas, but I wasn't particularly put off by the use of it here. The 'seek and zoom' in space is a fun stylistic choice, I think I recall it being used in Firefly - which is probably the only other sci-fi show of this nature I have watched properly.

The scenes where everybody rejoins on Galactica at around the two hour mark didn't sit well with me. They came off as overly sentimental, and when you are trying for the gritty hand-held approach it comes off as contradictory, and a little more tacky - it definitely did not have a subjective feel.

Adama eating pasta was a highlight. Also, the cliffhanger was quite effective, even though it was inevitable. On a final note, the name of the show is kinda silly, it suffers from the Buffy The Vampire curse of being based on a previous work. Even though Joss Whedon wrote the original film too, the title is still misleading.

Video

Battlestar Galactica was released in 1.77:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. Okay, there is the intentional grain in the hand-held camerawork that makes its way onto our screens - but I think the transfer could have been considerably better. There were a few instances where there was an abundance of grain, then it improved, and then it got worse again. However, the transfer still could have been a lot worse, and it did not detract from my enjoyment to any notable degree.

Audio

The audio is in 5.1 and sounds impressive, more so than the video transfer - no complaints.

Extras

Special Features:

• Battlestar Galactica: The Lowdown

The DVD comes with a 20-minute featurette. This offers some interesting insight into creating the miniseries, and the task of adapting it from the original series. Many of the cast speak about the series and their characters, as well as some of the crew - notably director Michael Rymer and creator/showrunner Ronald D. Moore.

I definitely Recommend this miniseries, even if you aren't a fan of sci-fi, you should find it engaging. It paints a bleak canvas, and there are many philosophical and psychological questions that can be raised in the following series and explored. I will definitely be watching the first season as soon as possible.