By Your Command....

~~~~The premise~~~

Though it lasted only a single season in the late 1970’s, the original Battlestar Galactica remained a cult favourite across the following years, with repeats, lunchboxes, T-shirts, and more. It was therefore with great trepidation that fans of the original series heard that Ronald Moore, he of such controversy over his Star trek production escapades, was now turning his attention to another sci fi icon with intent to meddle. While the original featured a mostly male cast with a handful of token females, and very metallic “men in robot suits” Cylon Centurions all battling it out for unspecified reasons, the new one was to have very clear origins and a much more up to date military structure. The overall premise was to remain however. Humans had royally annoyed their Cylon creations, who took revenge and started a war that destroyed the 12 planetary colonies of Kobol, with only a single Battlestar, the Galactica, alone remaining to lead a ragtag civilian fleet of refugees across the galaxy in search of the legendary 13th colony: Earth.

What Ronald Moore and the re-imagining succeeded at was bringing the premise to a more logical place. We get a glimmer of just what mightily annoyed those Cylons, and see a logical progression of the hostilities take place. The “baddies” are not quite so evil, and are rather sympathetically portrayed, despite the genocide they embark upon. In this BSG, humans created the Cylons to be their servants, a slave race of AI beings. Like many an Earth civilisation, this led to rebellion, but with the creation of AI soldiers, the Centurions, the 12 Colonies really sealed their own fate. These soldiers took them on, and with a great vengeance. So horrific was the toll on both sides that a ceasefire was declared, and the Cylons banished to another world very far away. A station on the fringes of colonial space, towards the dark their servants had been sent to, was set up with the Colonials deciding that the Cylons might decide to normalise relations and decide to trade with them, overlooking the fact that for decades they had treated these beings with disregard, and NO practical amends had been made. To this end, it is perhaps not so shocking to see the opener where the Cylons arrive after 40 years to speak to the once a year Colonial representative, and blow the station to smithereens.

Things are never quite so black and white however. The Cylons had evolved, and unknown to the colonies, were no longer the clunky “toasters” they had been. The centurions were sleeker, and more deadly. They had also extended their race to other groups, creating “hybrids” that were literally half human appearing and half star ship, as well as fully AI living flying Raider fighters, and even their most shocking pinnacle of achievement, a human appearing cyborg. Human in almost every way, save for the mechanical nature of their origins and the ability to upload their consciousness at death to resurrect in a new copy of their body with the ultimate of cyborg software applied in a wet ware application. Sadly, this led to a schism as the Cylons decided to return to fight. The 12 Colonies of Kobol are unprepared as the human appearing Cylons are planted as sleeper agents, and infiltrate high levels of the government, civilian workforce, and even the military.

Having destroyed the human civilisation of the 12 colonies, only the antiquated and non networked Battlestar Galactica remains, rising from its living museum status to flag ship of the Fleet once more, leading the few survivors on a journey to find the 13th colony. It is not actually a real goal at this point, as Commander Adama lies to the crew and civilian survivors about knowing where it is, and how everything will be fine once they get there. The only surviving member of the senior government who has been promoted to president of the colonies, catches him in this lie, and uses it to manoeuvre her way into forming a civilian government aboard the ships. He agrees, and they both agree to use the earth ploy to soothe the masses ands give them hope.

~~~The cast~~~

We see nobility in these colonials, but also darkness, hinting at the depths that lie in the darkness of the human soul, with a promise of depravities to come. Rape, pillaging, murder, and more abound as the following series progress on from this mini series, but this IS only the miniseries, so let’s talk about the cast in this one.

First up we have Edward James Olmos. A veteran actor with a rather impressive CV on IMDB, he portrays Cmdr. William Adama. He is the emotionally and physically scarred veteran Fleet officer with command of the mothballed and turned into a museum Battlestar Galactica. He is divorced, but still in love with his ex, and deeply loves both his sons. One son died tragically flying a Viper fighter ship on a routine flight, and his surviving pilot son blames him for the death as he feels his brother should never haven sent to flight school. The loss and resulting schism renders him a man who feels deeply, but knows that duty must go on. Make no mistake about it, he is a soldier, and it shows.

His surviving son, Lee Adama (played by Brit Jamie Bamber), call sign Apollo, is a hot headed young man who is ready to shift blame about. Unfortunately he is not as mature as he thinks he is, and discovers that he makes mistakes because of this. As the war begins to rage, he learns a few home truths, and showing the same inner strength of character as his father, makes amends with his parent. He also shows the same ability to separate duty from sentiment in a hard choice scene regarding non FTL ships and an armada of Cylons popping into firing range.

Also grieving for the younger Adama son is ace pilot and severely insubordinate Kara Thrace, call sign Starbuck. It was she who passed the young man through flight school, and was also engaged to marry him. She bears the emotional scars not only for this, but from growing up in a home full of physical and emotional abuse. This is one of the show’s two most controversial characters. The controversy raged not because of the back story to the character and the change from happy go lucky pilot, but due to the change in sex. In this re-imagining, Starbuck is a woman, ably played by Katee Sackhoff. While I was initially unsure about this myself, I was won over by the skill she portrayed her character and the way the Starbuck character seemed a more logical fit to the crew. It also served to help update the reality of modern militaries. Women do fly fighter planes and serve in combat and combat support roles. It is more believable that this would also be true in a society that is supposedly more culturally and scientifically advanced than our own.


The other male to female character transformation took place with Boomer. In the original, Boomer was male and black. In this one, Boomer, Lt Sharon Valerii, is female and from a Korean background. No one had issue with the change of ethnicity, but again, the outcry was over the sex change. As the character is more fully developed in this version, they way Grace Park’s character is used is served better by way of her gender, so it is not mere idle meddling on Moore’s part. Park gives a splendid turn as the orphaned girl who flies support, Being a sort of non combatant scout ship pilot, as well as operating the shuttle for intership transfers of small numbers of personnel. She is very able, but unsure of herself and very conscientious about her work. She also has a secret that she herself knows NOTHING about…

Michael Hogan gives a gritty turn as Adama’s XO, Col. Saul Tigh. He is a bitter alcoholic with an axe to grind. He best likes riling up Starbuck, whose insubordinate nature gives rise to confrontations he can use to wield power to give himself a sense of self satisfaction. He holds respect mainly by virtue of being long standing friends with the beloved Cmdr. Adama, as well as his position of rank. We see glimmers of concern over his fitness to command and his skewed logic, all which are to have deeper repercussion along the line.

British actor James Callis is Dr Gaius Baltar. He is the scientific genius whose lack of moral fibre brings down the colonial civilisation. He might be smart with numbers and bits of code and most things scientific, but he is absolutely clueless with anything else. He fails to spot the devious works being done by his companion (Tricia Helfer) nor to note her strange mannerisms, so intent is he on letting her do his job while he takes credit, and in how hot her body is. He is not an evil man; rather he is a very weak and selfish one. His sole preoccupation throughout it all is to divert suspicion and blame from himself during and after the catastrophe and to make himself look good while he survives.

Despite the occasionally odd mannerisms, and her purpose for seducing Baltar and doing the work on the dense main frame, Helfer manages to imbue her character with a sensitivity that makes one feel a sort of sympathy with her character. She is carrying out orders, and following software programming to a certain extent. It is also obvious though that she is a woman in every sense of the word, wanting to be loved and cherished. Indeed, a scene with a very young infant is shocking, but her motivation is one of charity in the light of what was to come, and it is plain to see from the sadness in her eyes, the look of longing and regret upon her face, and the very loving way she first holds the child.

As you can imagine, a very strong willed character was needed to play the surviving cabinet member who was to become president, and lead a government in such a time of chaos. Such a person also needed to be a foil for Cmdr Adama, and so it was that Mary McDonnell was asked to play Laura Roslin. The minister of education, she is has just that day been shocked to discover she has advanced and untreatable breast cancer. On hand initially to talk to Adama about improving access for students and teachers to the museum ship, she escapes the massacre. He finds she is no mere school teacher, however, but has a will of indomitable iron and it forebodes the shape of things to come, both good and very, very bad.

Lastly, we have as pivotal characters a few humanoid Cylons and various members of crew. First we meet the cunningly deceitful Leoben Connoy, pretending to be an arms merchant, then managing to tip off Adama that he is indeed a Cylon and that they are pretty indistinguishable from humans. Next we have Aron Doral, a media and public relations consultant who has no idea he is even a Cylon until they come for him after he is framed by Baltar to divert attention from himself. Chief mechanic on the Galactica is one Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol. He is an amiable sort who cares deeply about his crew and is involved in a non regulation affair. Lt Karl Agathon (call sign Helo) is also introduced to us here. Tahmoh Penikett shows us a gentle person who cares about his job and those he works with. He also takes his duty very seriously, as evidenced when he gives up his ride back to Galactica for an important refugee.

There are many, many others as this is indeed a true ensemble piece, but they are bit parts in this miniseries, and if I list them here, the section would be too long to be manageable. All in all, a strong cast was chosen, and well written scripts were provided, making for masterful performances by all concerned.

~~~Visuals and all that jazz~~~

Being a sci fi show, one expects gadgetry and special effects. We get that in spades here as needed, and always used for maximum impact.

First off, the sets were full scale, just as they were in Firefly. Intricate pieces of machinery were put into place, but as the Galactica is supposed to be outdated and a museum piece, it is all slightly anachronistic. We see corded phone type intership communications, computer workstations that look like rather grubby office pieces, hatches are like on a contemporary submarine, and even the pilots have helmets that use a very 20th century style neck ring type locking system. It all adds to the veracity of age, but also serves to make us immediately familiar with the technology we see. We see not much of anything that could not be found on a modern aircraft carrier, and indeed, this is pretty well much what she is: an aircraft carrier in space. Only instead of launching Tomcats, they are fighter plane type spacecraft.

CGI does make its mark in this film however. Most spectacularly used in the space battle shots, with the only niggle to the realism given by the addition of admittedly muted sound when we are viewing the scene from OUTSIDE the cockpit. Yes, it makes it exciting, in a bam bam bam sort of way, but given the emotional scenes of pure destruction we see, I cannot help but feel the reality of silence would have perhaps served better. I cannot fault the stunning visuals, though, and so they get two thumbs up from me.

Much ado has been made about the new Centurions being CGI and how scary they are. These are indeed some seriously scary creations. From the mechanistic look to the deadly but graceful way they move with guns to the ready, you know these are not someone or something you want to mess with. Even more chilling though is when they put the guns away. This may sound odd, but it is because of what happens when they do. They do not merely holster them. Oh no, the gun slides up into the arm, and their hands unfold into long, incredibly slender and pointy fingers. I have to say those fingers give me the heebee jeebies big time. They look almost knife like ad you just know they are strong enough to get plunged right through your skull, which thankfully, does NOT happen anywhere. Where they do fall down though is there is something every so slightly off. Looking at them in the metal space station for example, it was obvious they were CGI and not actual metallic creatures standing there. I am unable to quite put my finger on it, but as much a marvel as they are, they fall just sort of being real in being there meaning of the word. This does not lessen their impact however; as it also seems to oddly serve a second agenda. While my brain says, look they are not really there, they are there and my nerves begin to fray watching them do their thing as my mind becomes aware they, the improbable, ARE actually there. This may be intentional, but if not, I take my hat off to the animators for pulling it off anyway!

~~~~More controversy~~~

As the original was a family type show, and merchandising was done to reflect that, one of the other controversial things about the show has been its use strong language and overt sexual situations. This is NOT a family programme, and indeed, as perhaps more befits the premise, has mature themes. So if sex and profanity (mostly mild, but the much stronger and get round the censors made up word Frak do pepper the conversation, but never overtly gratuitous) bother you, this is NOT for you. Due to sex and language and the onscreen mild violence, the DVD does have a rating of 12.

Lastly, we have the religion thing. The colonists worship beings with names we will recognise from the Greek myths, but these beings seem to have an entirely different mythology here and played a very real part in the humans setting up their colonies aeons past. The Cylons are monotheistic, and refer in places to a belief in a single God. This is mentioned briefly and it is all done in passing on both religious counts during this show.


~~~Soundtrack~~~

Unlike many modern sci fi shows, BSG turned to stringed instruments. Unlike older shows who also did so, this does not mean we have great stirrings of pomp with a full orchestra. We get odd combinations of instruments, that work together to make the sounds melodic and evocative, but in an unusual sort of way, adding to the feel of foreignness but with a feel of familiarity at the same time. Some of the music is very militaristic, others subtle, but all befitting the scene in which they were used. Music was very well used in this production, and the soundtracks to this franchise have actually sold well on their own.

~~~~The DVD release~~~

This is where it loses that star. When I first watched this on television, there was a superb crispness to the whole thing. Unfortunately, they decided to cram all the episodes onto a single disc, and while the picture end sound is good, some of the finer detail has been lost. It is only 2 hours and 55 minutes, but still, the loss of some of the clarity does disappoint, especially given the fact that they use fade in and out between what was the episodes to make transition, so a natural stopping place to change the disc could be found. I do appreciate not having to fast forward through the entire intro each time however, so they get bonus points from me on that.

There is a single extra on the disc. It takes place as a series of commentaries, all culled from interviews with the cast, some of the crew, and the directors and promo spots for the new series, and woven into a whole to make a nice little featurette. It is nice to have it here for completeness, and it was especially fascinating to see the TV interviews on the how the characters were re-imagined with two of the old stars of the original TV show. Sadly, though we hear from the actors how they got lost o such enormous life sized sets, we never get more than a glimpse of them as sets. It would have been a nice touch to have had a tour, perhaps from the viewpoint of it being a museum at the start of the show! This is a lost opportunity perhaps that can be rectified on a future release.

Despite being a Region 2 and 4 release, the only language on the disc is English. It also has subtitles, but again, only in English. Sound is in Dolby Digital 5:1, so if you have surround sound, you will be in for a treat, especially during battle scenes if you can get over the minor annoyance of sound in space. I admit I got over it! It is in widescreen format and while a widescreen TV would make best use of this, I had no issues with badly done side chopping or anything else when I watched it on my non widescreen TV. The case is the standard black snap case plastic one with a well done printed paper sleeve, which is a relief as so many are coming with crappy paperboard cases with cheap and hard to snap on/off plastic disc holders that are brittle and awkward.

~~~Verdict~~~

Overall, a superb take on the Battlestar universe and a fantastic introduction to the series that followed on. Priced at a mere GBP 4.98 at the moment on Amazon.co.uk, it is a steal, and well worth the purchase. Despite the ever so minor niggles, this is well worth a watch again and again.