Galactica.com - Battlestar Galactica: "A Measure of Salvation" Review

By Patrick Sauriol, ugo.com, on 16-11-2006

Favoured : 118

baltar and six

"...an episode that fails to live up to the promise..."

Just like last week's episode, "A Measure of Salvation" (let's call it AMOS for short) raises more questions about the universe of Battlestar Galactica - but instead of reaching the same level of intrigue and wonder as "Torn" left me, this time around the result is an episode that fails to live up to the promise of the first installment.

The biggest issue I have with "AMOS" is the portrayal of the character of Helo, the current XO of Galactica. Now promoted to Captain and his Cylon wife finally accepted amongst the crew, you think that Helo would be far past acting like a dummy, but his decision to ice the surviving Cylons from the infected basestar because the thought of using them to launch a biological attack against the sworn enemy of humanity just doesn't cut it.

While an argument can be made that it's faithful to the character that he made this decision, it's also in direct conflict with him wearing the colors of a commissioned officer much less being the actual XO of the ship. During the debate about what to do with the infected Cylons Galactica has in the brig, Helo fairly represents the side of compassion and humanity, trying to convince his superiors that each of the Cylons are their own separate person and thus may not agree with their brothers and sisters. Really, Helo? The last time we checked there were 12 of these human Cylons, and just because Athena decided to switch sides to get her some Helo lovin' doesn't pardon the race that nuked an interplanetary civilization. Tigh said in the webisodes that 20 billion were killed in the Cylons' nuclear bombardment of the Twelve Colonies, and here we are less than two years later and the second-in-command of Galactica wants to pull his punches in a fight to the death.

Furthermore, Adama's decision to let the matter drop over who killed the skinjobs in Galactica's brig feels like a copout by the writers. This is the same show that gave us Roslin and Apollo taking stands for what she believed in and paying the price, but now that Helo's a regular character they took the easy road and let him off the hook when really he should be in the brig and up for court martial. Don't tell me that would have made for an interesting story arc, especially now that Athena would be on the other side of the bullet-proof glass.

For all of the commendations that BSG deservedly earned about its three-dimensional characters and take no prisoners storylines, we're reaching a critical stage where enough back story has been given and irregularities like Helo's decision in "AMOS" begin to stick out like zits on prom night. For instance, whatever happened to that throwaway line of dialogue we heard in "Lay Down Your Burdens Part II" where one of the Cavils told us that the Cylons had made a decision to leave the Colonies. Uh, hello? Doesn't that mean that there are no Cylons left to shoot at any remaining survivors back home? You can't just drop a bombshell like that and forget about it once everyone's reunited and back on the search for Earth, but for all intents and purposes, it looks like that's ancient history.

Sure, the writers need the Cylons to have a new reason to chase down the Fleet and their desire to settle on Earth works, but those of us that are following BSG passionately are left scratching their heads wondering precisely why the Cylons would need Earth. Don't they already have a homeworld? Or do they need Earth now because that idea to end the occupation of the Twelve Colonies was another bad decision in Cylon judgment? You see where I'm going with this? Once you play fast and loose with dangling storylines, characterization and plot points you open the door for criticism because the bar you've raised is scaled up high. That's why Helo's decision doesn't make sense, nor does Adama's decision to drop all investigation into the matter. Furthermore, now that we know that Caprica-Six is with Baltar on his basestar, where has her own internal Baltar that we saw in "Downloaded" gone to? Why were the Cylons so easy to give up all hope for a cure to the infection when they could have just sampled some of Baltar or Hera's blood and saw that it was resistant? Why did a Resurrection Ship jump into battle this time and never before? I know, I'm nitpicking, but it's because I love you so much Battlestar. Please say that you love me the same way back.

The high water mark of "AMOS" is undoubtedly the scenes with D'anna torturing Baltar. James Callis once again gives us a Baltar that we cannot completely hate and simply write off as a man that deserves to die for his actions at self-preservation make sense. The return of Baltar's internal Six offering the salvation of him during his torture was also nicely done and beautifully shot with its washed out beach backgrounds. That the Cylons saw through Baltar's deception so quickly serves as a nice contrast to what Baltar thought he could get away with based on his time onboard Galactica. Everything about these scenes work perfectly; it's just a shame that the other parts of the show didn't gel as well as these moments on the basestar.

UGO Rating
Direction: B
Writing: C
Performances: B+
Visual Appeal : C+
Overall: C+

Vitals
Original Air Date: Friday, November 10th, 2006 - 9/8c
Channel: SCI FI Channel
Cast: Edward James Olmos, Jamie Bamber, Kate Vernon, Michael Hogan, Alessandro Juliani
Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama
V Chip Rating: TV-14

Source Link: UGO Rating
Direction: B
Writing: C
Performances: B+
Visual Appeal : C+
Overall: C+

Vitals
Original Air Date: Friday, November 10th, 2006 - 9/8c
Channel: SCI FI Channel
Cast: Edward James Olmos, Jamie Bamber, Kate Vernon, Michael Hogan, Alessandro Juliani
Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama
V Chip Rating: TV-14