Season 2 finally resumes, despite SCI FI's odd insistence that this is a new season. When we left off, Galactica and Pegasus were about to go to war.
Battlestar Galactica, Episode 2.11, “Resurrection Ship, part 1”
Directed by Michael Rymer
Written by Michael Rymer
Story by Anne Cofell Saunders
Things pick up in the middle of a bloodless dogfight as each battlestar's vipers jockey for position in the sky between the ships, playing chicken to try and provoke the other side into a fight. The whole thing comes to a sudden end when Starbuck jumps into the middle in the Blackbird, overflowing with great surveillance shots of the mysterious Cylon ship. Zooming in on the photos reveals the ship to be full of inert Cylon clones. The two sides agree to put aside their differences to join together and destroy that ship. Baltar manages to coax the abused Number 6 in the Pegasus' brig to tell him that the ship is known as the Resurrection Ship to the Cylons. When a Cylon dies, their consciousness downloads to a new body and they start over. Usually this happens on the Cylon home world, but this far out in space, the Resurrection Ship is necessary to do the same thing. That makes it a very tempting target.
Starbuck is promoted to Captain of the Pegasus air guard, thus making her Apollo's superior. She is also charged with planning the attack. Tigh has another drinking session with the Pegasus XO and finds out that they used to have a civilian fleet until Cain had it stripped for parts and useful people, leaving the rest stranded in space. Roslyn warns Adama to expect an attack from Cain and also advises him to kill her. Amazingly, he plans just such an attack. Less amazingly, Cain does too. That sets the stage for Part 2, which should be probably the most action packed episode yet. An all out battle to destroy the pursuing Cylon fleet along with dueling assassination plots guarantees anything but a quiet episode.
One interesting element was the discussion between Starbuck and Cain about returning home to the colonies to reclaim them from the Cylons. The original series never got beyond the Pegasus plot line (definitely not exactly the same as in this series) so we don't know where things were heading but the notion of returning home was never brought up. This series has already taken all the best ideas of the original series, twisted them and made them much better. This idea could give it the chance to stand fiercely on its own. Maybe they still continue on towards Earth but at least they aren't blindly following along.
I love that they have managed to encapsulate current debate over the war on terrorism and the Iraq war without breaking stride. Admiral Cain obviously stands in for those who feel that winning a war is to be achieved at all costs, including the sacrificing of values to get the job done. Commander Adama and President Roslyn stand in for those who want to prosecute a war against the enemy but balanced against the needs of a healthy free society. The show even pulls the debate over allowing torture as a means of extracting information from the enemy. Each battlestar has a Cylon prisoner. Each is kept in a high security cell. But Galactica's crew has mostly been decent to their prisoner and have found some middle ground by which information can be obtained. The Pegasus crew however has abused and violated their prisoner and it appears little has been gained from it.
I absolutely love the score to this show. Very rarely do I take any notice of the music for a TV series but the militaristic percussions and discordant beats of this score have a way of ratcheting up the tension of every conflict to almost frantic levels. The opening scene in which each battlestar's vipers face off is wonderfully accented by the score.
The prospect of continuing the series without President Roslyn is highly disturbing. Her cancer is about to kill her and it is hardening her considerably. Clearly the end of her own life has crystallized a lot of things in her head and she is suddenly very forceful about her desires. Admiral Cain has been a pit bull in the middle of this situation. But watch the way Roslyn stands up, explains her position and then firmly dismisses Cain. In the beginning, she never could have forced a military leader to stand down and respect her authority like that. Roslyn has been a great character, growing and changing steadily from the very beginning. She and Adama have developed a great working relationship, not necessarily peacefully but with considerable respect on both sides. The thought of losing that character is depressing. While I hate the notion of some miracle cure that would keep her around, as such a plot line would be far below the level of this series, I truly fear her character's passing. Even more I fear the notion of Dr. Baltar as President.
The series in general, but this episode in particular, is filled with very strong female characters, for which is should be applauded. I can't think of another show on the air right now with this many powerful women in it. It's a refreshing change of pace to watch as the most meaningful exchanges are mostly between women. Roslyn and Cain face off. Cain and Starbuck have a conversation that shows them as alarmingly similar in attitude. Watch carefully to see a lot of the men pushed aside, left in awkward weak positions. Adama is suddenly not the top dog. Apollo finds himself answering to Starbuck. Adama finds himself in the awkward position of apologizing to Boomer. And Helo and the Chief spend the whole episode in the brig wondering about their fate. Positioning characters like that is very unusual in TV or the movies and is just one more reason why this show is the cream of the crop.
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