Galactica.com - "Battlestar Galactica" film keeps up puzzle

By Joanne Ostrow, on 25-11-2007

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"Battlestar Galactica" film keeps up puzzle
By Joanne Ostrow
Denver Post TV Critic
Article Last Updated: 11/22/2007 02:38:28 PM MST

"Battlestar Galactica: Razor" premieres at 7 and 11 p.m. Saturday on the Sci Fi Channel. The "Razor" story introduces one tough cookie named Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen), left - a young officer fighting personal demons along with those nasty Cylons - to series regular Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff), right. (Sci Fi Channel)"Battlestar Galactica" has always offered topical observations about war, the inhumane treatment of prisoners, bad imperial behavior during invasions and humankind's tendency to violence. The Peabody Award- winning space opera regularly draws parallels to Iraq.

On another level, "Battlestar Galactica" is mostly about action shots, tough-looking babes toting weapons, cheap sets and things blowing up via computer graphics.

Adoring fans claim "BSG" is a high- minded series dealing with humanity's struggle for survival and lapses into barbarism.

The rest of us dismiss it as a "Star Trek" clone, a revamped version of the 1970s original, with updated sex-and-violence eye candy and men barking "Yessir" to women in command. Smart or silly? It's both, really. A two-hour movie premiering this weekend is intended to lure newcomers into the leagues of fans.

"Battlestar Galactica: Razor" premieres Saturday at 7 and 11 p.m. on the Sci Fi Channel (Channel 48 on Comcast digital).

For the uninitiated, "Razor" may be a good place to start, since season four is going to be "Galactica's" last.

Executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick plan to wind it up in 22 episodes, starting next spring (depending on how the writers' strike affects scheduling). Setting the stage for that slow wrap, the movie "Razor" is intended as outreach to a wider audience.

Newcomers will find much to puzzle over. Why, for instance, on the technologically advanced spaceship, do they communicate via metal-cord telephones that look like they've been ripped from 1970 phone booths? The ship is designed to look like a spare parts salvage operation. (Set designers actually used abandoned submarine parts.) Viewers are intentionally in the dark about the story's time and place. We are meant to wonder whether these humans are the predecessors or descendants of today's humans.

The theory is abroad that the adventures of Galactica will come together to form a backstory to present-day humanity. Futuristic and retro at the same time, the story is an ongoing guessing game about the time frame during which humans created the robots that rose up to destroy them.

Are we looking forward to the past? Is the past prologue? Can the producers make sense of all of this in the remaining 22 episodes?

For now, this two-hour special installment, "Razor," succeeds in piquing our interest. Newcomers to the serial can expect to be confused by the flashbacks sprinkled through the film. Committed fans will applaud the light "Razor" sheds on past relationships, wars and other dangling storylines. And they'll delight in the glimpses of old-style Cylon battleships.

There's plenty of background material in print and online. In brief: When the Cylon robots rose against their human creators, they launched a devastating nuclear attack that left fewer than 49,000 survivors. Since, our heroes have been on the run and in search of a new home. They are the last remnants of humanity, a ragtag bunch getting by with waning supplies, clicking their heels while repeating "there's no place like home."

"Razor" is concerned with Lee "Apollo" Adama's first mission as the commander of the battlestar Pegasus — and the harrowing tale of that ship's fight for survival in the aftermath of the Cylon's genocidal siege of the Twelve Colonies. Adama is played by Jamie Bamber who looks like a buff younger sibling of "Ugly Betty's" Eric Mabius. Apollo is the son of William Adama, played by Edward James Olmos.

So far so good. The "Razor" story introduces one tough cookie named Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen), a young officer fighting personal demons along with those nasty Cylons. She's just following orders to a harrowing climax. Her story, accessible to newcomers and beautifully acted, gives the movie its hook.

Officer Shaw reports to the tough commander, Adm. Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes), an icicle with a tyrannical hold on the crew. She is so devoid of compassion, she's nearly a one-note character.

Is this a good time to join the "BSG" journey? In the end, "Razor" may be a two- hour layover during which we decide not to take the rest of the 22-episode trip.

denverpost.com

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