Due to the inclusion of Razor on the Season 4 Part 1 DVD, I will be reviewing the feature-length special here as well as the first 10 episodes of Season 4.So, Razor... I'm not going to lie, I found it terrible. Maybe because I was expecting the thing to center around Admiral Cain which it definitely did not. I really wanted to like it, but on reflection after it finished, I came to the conclusion that I just didn't really enjoy it at all. It seemed very choppy, and just like a bunch of scenes were thrown together around Kendra's unsatisfying story. The razor metaphor was also unconvincing and ridiculous considering the movie's disjointed and choppy plot. As an outline on paper, Kendra's story is very promising. Kendra Shaw (played by one of the many up-and-coming Australian's in Hollywood, Stephanie Jacobsen) joins Pegasus as a new lieutenant and witnesses Cain's shocking actions in the name of the fight, and slowly she begins taking part in the same acts. There is a great morality tale there, but somehow it got lost on the way. I know I could say, well if Ron wrote it and Rymer directed it would be so much better, but I doubt that would be the case. There are just too many thrown in scenes from the cutting room floor, and the whole thing was rushed. Perhaps the inclusion of a lot of the deleted scenes would have made it more coherent, but after being left so cold by the feature, I didn't watch them.
After a good beginning and a fantastic ending with season 3, I come to the final season. Battlestar Galactica is honestly the most inconsistent series I have ever watched in full. Episodes range from terrible to near-genius. It is a very strange thing. While other good shows can have short moments of decline, these moments are never actually 'bad'. However, with Battlestar whole episodes are terrible, and quite a number of them. The reason I think they stick out because the series has so much potential that is occasionally realised and hinted upon throughout the run of the show.
A perfect example of what Battlestar is capable of is the episode Escape Velocity. While this episode isn't held as one of the greatest by the fan community, it really is. There isn't a great deal of plot development or cool space fights, but the entire episode is a wonderful character-study. Jane Espenson's script is absolutely sublime - she also wrote The Hub which wasn't anywhere near as emotional, and some of the comedic notes didn't work for me. Those who know me, know that when something lacks plot and action there is a pretty good chance I will fall in love with it - as was the case with Dirty Hands. However, other attempts from Battlestar to have these 'character' episodes generally fail.
Standout episodes in the first half of season 4 for me were:
Escape Velocity
Faith
Revelations
I loved the scene in Faith with The Hybrid, the flashing mis en scรจne reminded me of the lodge in Twin Peaks, as well as the cryptic and prophet content of the scenes. Also notable is the cliffhanger for Guess What's Coming To Dinner? with the Hybrid jumping away with the President and Baltar as soon as she is plugged in.
At the end we are left with a very bleak mid-season, which is a great thing. I hope the darkness we have had hinted at us follows through until the end of the show. I'm sure there will be some kind of the decline before the end of the season, as usual, but no doubt they will leave us with the near-genius Moore dispenses occasionally.
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