Battlestar Galactica Week: Seasons 1-3 Recap

Courtesy of SCI-FI.COM

Regular Feature

"The Cylons were created by Man.
They Evolved.
They Rebelled.
There are many copies.
And they have a Plan."

A Miniseries and Season 1

Sometime in the future Mankind has peacefully divided into 12 colonies and survived a war with machines known only as Cylons. But their peace is shattered when nuclear explosions suddenly go off on all of the twelve worlds, and a once thriving race of humans becomes an endangered species trying to escape a new onslaught of evolved Cylons.

They look like us now.

The show, Battlestar Galactica presents an interesting dilema. What if 50,000 humans remain in the universe. What happens next?

Led by Commander Adama of the aging Battlestar Galactica, and a dying teacher, Laura Roslin, the new President of the Colonies, this ragtag fleet takes each day as if it were their last to escape the Cylons who are on a mission to eradicate Mankind. With so little rescources at their disposal, these two leaders find a way to co-exist and survive.

During the next thirteen episodes the fleet discovers it has been infiltrated by Cylons, that there are many copies, and that there are, some who do not even know they are Cylons. One slowly discovers what she is, and when she does accept her destiny the consequences are stunning.

One Cylon, Leoben, has visions of the future and a certain fascination for Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, the confused but best fighter pilot on Galactica.

Baltar, a scientist, makes it on board leaving Helo back on Caprica. He sees his old paramour, Cylon model #6, but only he can see her. Is she a figment of his imagination, manifesting because of his guilt of allowing her access to Caprica's defenses? He let the Cylons in. Now she's his conscience, and oddly enough she keeps him out of harm's way. So what is she?

Back on Caprica, Helo avoids the Cylons left and right as he searches for a raptor plane to escape. Then he runs into Sharon "Boomer" Valerii. They make a connection, and their union creates something impossible.

On Galactica, Adama has given the colonists hope. He's told them of a place called Earth, a new world they can call home that was written about in their scriptures. Adama knows Earth doesn't exist, but for a people desperate to survive, this glimmer of something is more than enough. The President believes otherwise. As her disease progresses she begins to see visions of Kobol, the birthplace of mankind. When Galactica finds what it believes to be Kobol, Roslin asks Starbuck to return to Caprica and get the Arrow of Apollo. Adama disapproves of Roslin's actions and he has her arrested, but Lee, his son, tries to intercede. Lee is arrested for mutiny.

Then Boomer returns from a succesful mission and chaos ensues.

Season 2

Battlestar Galactica leaves no theme untouched, and no relationship is ever the same nor should it be. Whether it be the consequences of war, or love lost and won, the second season explores love and death, politics and the affects that follow such decisions. A fleet keeps surviving, and the show serves as reminder that life does too.

On Caprica, Starbuck reunites with Helo and Sharon. She also meets Anders, but then she's captured by Cylons, and they do something to her reproductive system that confuses her even more. She escapes.

Meanwhile, Roslin and Lee Adama set out to find the Tomb of Athena on Kobol with Boomer as their guide. A recovered Commander Adama soon follows after them as a way to raise moral on the ship, and because he believes that a unified fleet is more important. They find the Tomb and a map with a way to Earth.

With renewed hope and a clear goal, Adama allows D'Anna, reporter to document the lives of the military for a day. The documentary is meant to humanize the military before the eyes of the civilian feet after a temporary military coup. D'Anna, in the process discovers Boomer's secret and reveals it to the rest of her family, the Cylons.

Roslin is looking forward to finding Earth as well, but her plans are derailed with the arrival of the Battlestar Pegasus commanded by Admiral Cain who outranks Adama. She quickly mixes both military fleets and devises a plan to strike back at the Cylons. It's clear from her demeanor that civilians are not in her best interest either. Her actions towards Cylons don't bode well for her.

Cylons are machines, and their actions at times are horrifying, but time and time again Galactica asks, "do they deserve to be treated this way." Sometimes humans are made to be the villians. Is it a fair label?

Baltar protects a Number 6 called Gina found on Pegasus. She does two very bad, bad things.

Adama becomes Admiral Adama, and Lee has a crisis of faith.

Boomer's surprise cures Roslin's disease, and then Roslin gets rid of Boomer's surprise. In present day terms we tend to say it's all for national security reasons.

Galactica finds a habitable planet and Baltar wins the Presidency because humans want to settle. A year goes by and the Cylons return occupying New Caprica.

And then there's the third season.

Season 3

The strongest criticism Battlestar Galactica receives is that it's too dark, maybe even too real. I love it for those two reasons and more.

The first four episodes of season three deal with the Cylon occupation and eventual escape by the humans who thought they had found at least a temporary home. Instead what they found was a home ruled by beings who didn't quite understand them. We are introduced to New Caprica, a world of poverty and suffering, where human retaliation against the Cylon is brought about through suicide bombings. Little thought being given to the civilians killed in the crossfire.

It's a harsh world and a hard life with dire consequences. No one is safe. The parallels to our lives are uncanny.

When Galactica swoops in to save the day; it's not a happy day. Rather, it's a day of relief and sorrow. People find themselves having to pick up the pieces, deal with their actions, and then move on. Nothing is glossed over, and everything is dealt with. Even Baltar has to answer for what he did on Caprica with 6, but it doesn't necessarily mean everything will go as planned.

Season 3 continues the search for Earth. It also continues delving into the lives of the crew of Galactica, but because so many of us haven't finished the season, I won't spoil the rest.

Feel free to fill in the blanks in the comments below, and to read more on Battlestar Galactica, keep an eye out this week. There's more to come from myself and Mykola Bilokonsky.

Brought to you by Look Again.

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7.8

2.4

1.0

{"commentId":1644675,"authorDomain":"yasmin"}

Is it April 4th yet?

{"commentId":1644675,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"yasmin"}

2 votes

#1 - Tue Apr 1, 2008 3:33 PM EDT

{"commentId":1647477,"authorDomain":"yasmin"}

Mykola just published his article on the main characters here.

{"commentId":1647477,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"yasmin"}

1 vote

#1.1 - Wed Apr 2, 2008 11:32 AM EDT

{"commentId":1644698,"authorDomain":"hemphill"}

hemphill

I watched the last two episodes again last night, just to prep. The finale is better the second go around.

{"commentId":1644698,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"hemphill"}

1 vote

#2 - Tue Apr 1, 2008 3:39 PM EDT

{"commentId":1644880,"authorDomain":"darkside"}

I just watched 'em as well, but it was on hulu.com so the quality was iffy.

{"commentId":1644880,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"darkside"}

#2.1 - Tue Apr 1, 2008 4:34 PM EDT

{"commentId":1644991,"authorDomain":"yasmin"}

Hulu wasn't around when I rewatched them. I was bad.

But now I'm good. I bought the DVDs.

{"commentId":1644991,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"yasmin"}

1 vote

#2.2 - Tue Apr 1, 2008 5:07 PM EDT

{"commentId":1644701,"authorDomain":"Griff69"}

Griff69

Hehehe... You said 'ragtag fleet'...

{"commentId":1644701,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"Griff69"}

2 votes

#3 - Tue Apr 1, 2008 3:40 PM EDT

{"commentId":1644719,"authorDomain":"yasmin"}

Next time I'll use motley. ;-)

{"commentId":1644719,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"yasmin"}

1 vote

#3.1 - Tue Apr 1, 2008 3:48 PM EDT

{"commentId":1644876,"authorDomain":"darkside"}

Man, that's a lot to cover in a single article. Still it leaves us with a decent skeleton, thanks for writing it up!

I'll try to fill in some cracks with my Main Characters article tomorrow.

{"commentId":1644876,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"darkside"}

3 votes

#4 - Tue Apr 1, 2008 4:33 PM EDT

{"commentId":1646135,"authorDomain":"thura"}

Thura

Good work. I won't be able to read yours and Myks coverage on S4 because I won't get to see it until much much later. Sigh.

{"commentId":1646135,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"thura"}

#5 - Wed Apr 2, 2008 12:03 AM EDT

{"commentId":1646472,"authorDomain":"vas"}

vas

I just read yasmin's article on year 1, which made me think about what the line oft repeated by the Cylons means:

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

Then an idea hit me... the Twelve Colonies are actually artificial beings too, only their creators were the people that fled (in the same way the Galactica, et. al. are fleeing now) and referred to by scripture as the thirteenth colony. In other words, the Cylons are the third "generation". Or perhaps the fifth and sixth "species generation":

Humans (or the thirtheenth colony species) creates...
robots with A.I., who create....
humanoid robots (in the same way Cylon toasters create Humanoid Cylons), who breed with humans to create...
the twelve colonies species, who either are not told of or over the centuries forget their origins, and end up creating...
toaster cylons, who create...
humanoid cylons, who bread with the twelve colonies species to create...
the next species (e.g. Hera), who...

{"commentId":1646472,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"vas"}

2 votes

#6 - Wed Apr 2, 2008 5:13 AM EDT

{"commentId":1646827,"authorDomain":"darkside"}

And earth as we know it is just the next iteration of the whole cycle, as this whole thing takes place in the past. Yeah, that's kinda what I'm expecting.

{"commentId":1646827,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"darkside"}

#6.1 - Wed Apr 2, 2008 9:09 AM EDT

{"commentId":1646858,"authorDomain":"yasmin"}

So then how does Kara fit in to all of this? She's meant to bring about the "destruction of the human race." Is this just an old-fashioned way of saying "life as we know it." Or basically, ha, the jokes on you. You're not human.

{"commentId":1646858,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"yasmin"}

#6.2 - Wed Apr 2, 2008 9:17 AM EDT

{"commentId":1646950,"authorDomain":"darkside"}

Yeah, you and I aren't human. We're the product of human/cylon breeding after they find earth. She probably has a kid with the 12th Cylon (Lee Adama?) and consciously makes a choice to merge the two races?

{"commentId":1646950,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"darkside"}

2 votes

#6.3 - Wed Apr 2, 2008 9:38 AM EDT

{"commentId":1648249,"authorDomain":"vas"}

vas

The cycle I was thinking of is the reverse... humans on earth are the cycle prior. So when Galactica shows up at Earth, the response would be, "oh @!$%#, the children of our demon seed has found us", except that we obviously don't remember that we fled from anywhere.

Then again, none of this really works given the fossil record on Earth... and BSG seems to care enough about such details to not paper over it.

{"commentId":1648249,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"vas"}

3 votes

#6.4 - Wed Apr 2, 2008 2:38 PM EDT

{"commentId":1651610,"authorDomain":"YuriyBilokonsky"}

Yuriy Bilokonsky

So the idea is that we, too, reproduce like plants. There's a haploid and a diploid generation.

{"commentId":1651610,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"YuriyBilokonsky"}

1 vote

#6.5 - Thu Apr 3, 2008 12:42 PM EDT

{"commentId":1647890,"authorDomain":"dotdot"}

JG.

Sometime in the future

Are you sure about that? :-)

{"commentId":1647890,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"dotdot"}

#7 - Wed Apr 2, 2008 12:56 PM EDT

{"commentId":1650083,"authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

Tedd Riggs

Hah...I am in Heaven now. My big box from Amazon arrived full of BSG DVD's and not a single bad DVD... Plus now with the write-up's, I can keep all the names sorted out, I think....

{"commentId":1650083,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"TeddRi"}

2 votes

#8 - Thu Apr 3, 2008 12:11 AM EDT

{"commentId":1689385,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

I don't have enough online time to watch the episodes via a web site but I do want to catch up. This show and these series of articles by Mykola and Yasmin were talked about favorably during Vinemeet. I just checked and my library does have seasons 1-3 - hooray - so I can watch them for free as I've been doing with Lost and the Office - but there's a waiting list so i may have to get some via netflix.
Unless someone has the dvds and can loan them to me so I can catch up faster.

{"commentId":1689385,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

1 vote

#9 - Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:44 AM EDT

{"commentId":1689461,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Question: Should I watch the mini-series BEFORE the first episodes or vice versa?

{"commentId":1689461,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

#9.1 - Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:02 AM EDT

{"commentId":1689505,"authorDomain":"darkside"}

Miniseries is basically the pilot for the series, so that's before anything else.

{"commentId":1689505,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"darkside"}

1 vote

#9.2 - Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:12 AM EDT

{"commentId":1689543,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Morning, Myk. Feeling better today?
Off to tell Netflix to send me the mini series first. Thanks.

{"commentId":1689543,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

#9.3 - Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:21 AM EDT

{"commentId":1689563,"authorDomain":"yasmin"}

Miniseries is in the Season 1 boxset. So make sure you add Season 1 to your queue first.

{"commentId":1689563,"threadId":"243733","contentId":"1403526","authorDomain":"yasmin"}

1 vote

#9.4 - Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:25 AM EDT

{"commentId":1689589,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}