| By Alan Stanley Blair, www.syfyportal.com,
on 22-10-2006
|
Favoured : 119 |
 SPOILERS: Alan Stanley Blair reviews the first three episode of the third season of BSG
The following story contains MODERATE SPOILERS for the first three episodes of third season of "Battlestar Galactica."
I have to admit, I was worried at the end of the second season when the series was on the receiving end of the dreaded reboot switch. "Why change the show now?" I asked myself. After all, over the last two years the series has redefined sci-fi entertainment as we know it and showed no signs of becoming stale.
Other shows out there have tried it and failed. At the end of it’s second season, "Alias" leapt forward one year and changed the lives of the entire cast. For over a year, the series had to deal with the repercussions of that decision, and some might say never truly recovered.
So with this in mind, I feared for "Galactica's" future. I was afraid it would suffer the same post-traumatic problems as "Alias" and might never recover.
How wrong I was. In the first three episodes of the season ("Occupation," "Precipice" and "Exodus"), the series continues with the same dark themes that were threaded throughout the first two seasons, and as Producer David Weddle told SyFy Portal last week, it’s all part of being human.
Although it is actively being developed and constantly moving towards a more grandiose vision, the overall mythos of the series takes a back seat to something far more important: the characters we all know and love. And that is why "Battlestar Galactica" is without a doubt the best television show there is.
Who needs fast-paced revolts on New Caprica, or flashy space-battles when you’ve got so much emotional trauma that you just can’t pull yourself away from the screen? Each and every one of the characters are now in the spotlight dealing with their own moral and psychological crisis at the hands of their new Cylon masters. And they are all following paths were completely unimaginable only a year earlier.
President Baltar (James Callis) is reluctantly becoming the sinister villain he was in the original 1970's edition of the series, and Starbuck (Katee Sackoff) is dealing with her own inner-demons as she is introduced to her half-Cylon daughter. Sackoff is once again unmitigated joy as Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, delivering more of the hardened battle-ready pilot with the same relentless drive that has made the series so damned watchable.
Now while all three episodes appear to follow the developing revolution on the face of New Caprica, there is once again a subtle story building elsewhere. Far from New Caprica, Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) and a now-overweight Apollo (Jamie Bamber) struggle to reach an understanding regarding their situation. Do they go back for the rest of humanity, or continue forward and find help from the planet Earth? It’s not quite the same graceful storytelling that was the Caprican Boomer of the first season, but the result is the same … a multitude of stories ready to cascade into a single form with all the relentless entertainment that the series is now famous for.
I for one can hardly wait.
"Battlestar Galactica" stars Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell and Jamie Bamber. "Occupation" and "Precipice" were written by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan. "Exodus, Part 1" was written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, and directed by Felix Alcala.
Alan Stanley Blair is a staff writer and columnist for SyFy Portal, contributing from his home country of Scotland. Source Link: http://www.syfyportal.com/news.php?id=2927 Submitted by Zipper Talk about this article on our forum: http://galacticabbs.com/index.php?showtopic=453
Last update : 22-10-2006
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