NuBSG Frackin' Review Thread

"As of this moment, we are at war!"

As promised, I have decided to start by reviewing the miniseries that started the whole thing. For those who've seen the series, none of this is new to you, but I will give a brief summary anyways just to refresh memories.We start off with a little backstory. We are given information that there are twelve human populated colonies that went to war with machines created by man called Cylons. A truce was signed forty years prior and every year a human liaison is sent to a space station to keep the peace; however, the Cylons haven't been seen or heard of since. That is until now. Two metallic robots show up and are escorting what appears to be a female human. It's later revealed that she too is a Cylon. This is our first hint that a newer model of Cylon exists that appear top be human. At this moment the female essentially ends the truce by blowing up the station and killing the liaison. This is how the show begins.

We are promptly introduced to the main cast. The series takes place mainly aboard the space ship Battlestar Galactica. The ship is a soon to be retired war ship commanded by Commander William "Bill" Adama. Unaware that a Cylon attack is eminent,the ship has been turned into a museum and is to be decommissioned.

Meanwhile on the Capital world of Caprica, we are introduced to Gaius Baltar a leading scientist who has a relationship with the female Cylon we were introduced to earlier. It is revealed that she manipulated him into giving her information about the defense mainframe that allows the Cylons to essentially destroy the twelve colonies. Baltar initially believed her to simply be a defense contractor seeking an edge in competition. It should be noted that while technology is far more advanced than our current RL tech, it's emphasized that these humans are very much like us. Ultimately Baltar will play a key role throughout the series. Anyway, the Cylons suddenly set off nukes and destroy almost the entire colonial fleet leaving the Galactica as the only remaining ship.

It should also be noted that some of the tech on the Galactica has been downgraded as to withstand cyber attacks from the Cylons.

Now our cast of characters
As mentioned before, Commander Adama declares himself Commander of the fleet.
XO Colonel Tigh
Brash young Kara Thrace call sign "Starbuck"
Stunning brave Lee Adama call sign "Apollo"
Sharon Valeri call sign "Athena"
Carl Agathon call sign "Helo"
Crew Chief Galen Tyrol AKA "Chief"
Secretary of Education Laura Roslin later President Roslin

Those are the main crew, though there are other important characters such as Gaeta, but we'll get to them later.

It's quickly established that "Starbuck", "Apollo" and Commander Adama have a friendly relation with each other, Lee being Commadner Adama's son. Colonel Tigh and Commander Adama do as well. It's also established that the Chief and Sharon have a romance going on. Sharon and "Helo" also have a good working relationship. That leaves us with Baltar and the female Cylon. She informs Baltar that she is in fact a Cylon and if she dies, her memories will be implanted in another copy. It's later revealed that the other humanoid Cylons have the same ability.

The first two episodes are broken into two parts. First we get the initial attack and the fallout and chaos from that. Then we get to the idea of what to do next. With the first episode it's a good reminder of 911 and the initial chaos that might occur with such an attack. There's a range of emotions such as fear and worry of the unknown. The military side is trying to figure out it's next move and where to attack while the civilian side led by Roslin are trying to round up as many survivors as possible and lead a convoy to safety. Adama and Roslin butt heads on what action they should take, but in the end Adama agrees that it's necessary to maintain a civilian government. We end the second episode with the decision to look for the fabled planet Earth where the remaining humans intend to make their new home.

Some of the highlights:
Sharon and Helo head to Caprica and end up rescuing a few people, most notably Baltar.
Helo stays behind. Baltar sees his lady friend, but she's dressed in a red dress. We only get a glimpse of her.
Plenty of space battles.
Sacrafices must be made for the greater good.
We are introduced to a new type of FTL which is distinguishable from prior types like Warp Speed or Hyperspace.
We are introduced to other models of Cylons and it's revealed that there are a total of twelve models, some of them may be sleeper Cylons who don't know they are Cylons.

The thing I liked about this two parter is is sets up the story well, delivers on action and drama and discusses the human condition that is different from Star Trek.

Finally, I want to discuss my favorite part of the series, Gaius Baltar's interaction with what seems to be the female Cylon that manipulated him. In this case, though, it's different. This is a person that only he can see and hear. Early on, it's hinted that there may be a chip in his brain, but we know what it turned out to be. going forward, I want to explore this relationship to see if there's hints of that or not. I know a lot of people at TBBS were really butthurt over the finale and what she turned out to be, I was not.

Lastly, this show's finale impacted me on a deeply personal level. If I get that far, I'll reveal why.

How do I rate this? Well, I already knew going in how I'd rate the first two episodes and I'm going to have to force myself to be more objective from here on out.


I did not intend to write such a long review and going forward I will try to keep it shorter. I have decided to move forward though. I'll be watching episode three next with a review pending.

Well fuck. There I go down the rabbit hole again...

Ehhhh ...

I KNOW I'm in the minority here, but I much prefer & like the 1979 Original Show much better.

It had a personality, wasn't drippy, was just plain ole fun.

That nuBSG was basically THIS:

Just started rewatching this myself over the last few weeks... well timed

"I pulled the trigger, it's my responsibility."

Disclaimer: If you haven't seen the show
(A) This is a thread full of spoilers
(B) Why are you reading this?
(C) What are you waiting for, watch the show!
***Spoilers***

01 x 03 "33"
So I screwed up on Sharon's call sign, at this point it's "Boomer". Speaking of Boomer, it was revealed at the end of the second episode that she is in fact one of the twelve Cylons. This becomes important later on.

I also neglected to mention that President Roslyn has cancer, this too will become important later on.

About the episode:
Well, the crew is under great stress as they have been chased for Cylons for five days and are forced to jump every thirty minutes and the entire time have had little to no sleep. For most it takes a toll, but some live off the Adrenalin and drugs, such is the case for Starbuck. This episode once again evokes 911 as Apollo is ordered to destroy the civilian ship, the Olympic Carrier. I imagine a similar situation might have occurred during 911 had we had know the two planes were hijacked. We now live in a world where this type of scenario is entirely possible. Good for the writers to acknowledge that.

Baltar and his imaginary friend:
Well, it's no secret that by now we all know she turns out to be an angel. The episode does early on kind of hint that Baltar's friend (I will now refer to her as head six and the real one as six or Caprica six since we are in spoiler territory) is not the same as six. They both speak about god and not gods, but head six seems to know a little more than six. Case in point, Baltar offended god in this episode and is forced to repent in order to save him from being exposed and head six seems to know exactly god's plan, while six and the other Cylons for that matter, only trusts that god has a plan, but does not know the details of the plan.

Helo was left behind:
I mentioned before that Helo was left behind. What eventually plays out is great and one of my other favorite aspects of the show. Helo is almost captured or killed by six when Sharon rescues him. As I said before, it's important to distinguish the two Sharon's. This one clearly knows she's a Cylon and it seems that the Cylons are planning to use Helo in some way. What is not clear is if the other Sharon that is with the fleet knows she's a Cylon. This is the mystery that gets us to stick around for the next episode.

President Roslyn:
This episode really highlights the stresses a leader has to make. she clearly cares for all of the souls in the fleet. She's made a tally of all of the survivors which there are only 49k and some change. What is really heart warming is at the end of the episode after making a tough call and knocking the number of survivors down, she's able to add a number, a baby boy was born among the fleet.

The score:
What can I say, there's not going to be a whole lot of awful episodes and this episode kept up the suspense, drama and mystery. Only one minor space battle though, but I don't have a hard on for space battles as someone else on this board does and I'm not giving half points, yet.


One last point I wanna make over all. The music in this show is just beautiful.

You should include episode titles. Otherwise, good reviews.

" I just couldn't leave you behind."

01 x 04- "Water"

The Cylons were created by man.
They evolved.
They look and feel human.
Some are programed to think they are human.
There are many copies.
And they have a plan.
​

This episode is decent. It begins with Sharon, which I will refer to as Boomer from here on out, who is soaking wet and has no clue what happened to her. This is our first major indication that Boomer is a sleeper agent. She has apparently placed a bomb aboard the Galactia, but is unaware of it. She promptly tells Chief about it and he promises to help her. The episode is about water or the lack thereof. It starts off with things being relatively fine. There's a bit of pomp an circumstance that Adama has put together for Roslyn, but there is an explosion that causes the Galactica to lose a huge chunk of water. This explosion is caused by Boomer, though she is not linked to it. Boomer is then sent to a planetoid or planet or whatever, to find water, which is most likely frozen. She is successful and ultimately saves the day. Chief keeps her secret and in this episode there's no Cylon attacks in the form of space battles.

The better story, IMO, is the one back on Caprica. It's brief, but will become important later. Helo and Sharon are stranded and trying to survive on Caprica. Helo and Sharon share some good moments and are beginning to develop a really close bond with Sharon manipulating the situation.

One thing that this episode illustrates and foreshadows is that these people really are surviving. They are in a search for water, there's rationing, the ship sustains damage. People often complain that this should have been the case with Star Trek: Voyager. If only there were a BSG writer who could have wrote for Voyager.

Like I said, this episode was decent, but not as good as the first three.

Oh, one thing I keep forgetting to mention. NuBSG is no longer on Netflix, I'm watching it on HULU, with commercials.

If and when I do my rewatch, I'll do it on Blu-ray.

I own the whole series on DVD which looked great in SD, but when I tried to watch it on an HDTV it looked dark and muddy. Fortunately, not too long after that Amazon ran a great deal for the whole series on Blu-ray so I grabbed it.

I haven't watched any of the discs yet, but it's got to look better than the shitty DVD.

Good thread dude! Looking forward to following along!

But this might be a hard show to actually review. I don't think they had a single bad episode. And no mediocre episodes until mid season 3.

Everything from the first two seasons is excellent IMO and very consistent.

That was one reason I reviewed TNG. It had quite a few stinkers, mediocre episodes, and great episodes. There were actual things about the episodes to pick apart.

i'm about midway through season 2 at the moment... could you save me the rewatches and include the population counts at the start of each ep?

"The government is illegitimate."

01 x 05 "Bastille Day"

Apollo, meet Apollo:
The water crisis continues and the water that Boomer found is going to take a lot of man power. The Galactica seeks help from a prison ship that joined the fleet after the attack and Lee is sent to seek out volunteers to help. Unfortunately something goes wrong and Lee is taken hostage by the prisoners led by a man named Tom Zerick. Zerick is played by Richard Hatch who played Apollo on the original BSG. Zerrick proclaims the government illegitimate and wants elections held. The great thing about this episode is it explores the need for rule of law and order even in the face of annihilation. In the end the conflict is resolved by Lee who grants freedom to the prison ship and forces Roslyn to accept that an election will take place when her term is up. It also forces Roslyn to accept that law and order must be maintained. In exchange, the prisoners agree to help with the water situation.

Billy and D:
These are two characters that were introduced in the first episode, but i didn't really mention them. They are beginning to form a relationship that unfortunately will end in tragedy. I just thought I'd finally mention them.

Baltar and Head Six:
Baltar is being pressured to build a Cylon detector. Baltar is hesitant in going forward because he knows he's full of shit, but Head Six pushes him in the right direction.

Meanwhile Back on Caprica:
Helo and Sharon are searching for survivors and we see Six and another Cylon are watching over them. I believe his name is One, but I don't remember.

Over all this is a really good episode. It moves along relationships which are being developed, it introduces new characters and it deals with the importance of maintaining law and order even if some disagree with the outcome. No space battles.

Yeah, the review is more about capturing the essence of each episode and the parts I find most fascinating. There's not a whole lot of bad episodes, but I'm sure we can find something to discuss. There's quite a bit in season two I can't wait to get to.

Sure, I'll try to keep up.

BTW, I also wanted to add that the CGI really holds up. It seems this show kind of set a standard for future shows on The SCIFI Channel (I refuse to call it SYFY ).

Maybe I should watch nuBSG again?

Give it a 2nd chance!

I only saw 6 entire episodes out of the whole series.

I'd put it on, ending up only for a few minutes, now & then before seeing those 6 episodes, & even since, but there's something about the show's overall tone & mood I find dreary & melancholy.

But ... I SHOULD give it a 2nd Chance!

You just liked a wet Grace PARK.

Caprica's got the perfect cast of any SciFi series.

It was all I could do not to cheer when it was over.


Also, poor Billy.

Billy's death was even more satisfying than Dale's on The Walking Dead.

This is why I splurged on the full DVD set. Loving the reviews so far!

You absolutely must. It's Star Trek for grownups.

only season i don't have is 4.0 on bluray.

Federal Farmer and garamet were put on no fly list for stalking grace park.

Sometime around the tail end of season 2 I came up with what I think is a much more interesting arc and backstory for the show, but it's very long and involved.

I should write up a synopsis and stick it in the The Workshop.

Stickied.

I'm not sure where I first noticed it... likely near the end of season 1... but the riff from "all along the watchtower" starts creeping in fairly early on. I didn't notice it in every episode at first, but having just finished S2, seem to hear it more and more frequently.

I'll have to listen for that.

"You may refer to me as God."

01 x 06 "Act of Contrition"

About the episode:
In this episode we get a little bit of backstory on Lee's brother Zak. Zak was engaged to Starbuck which gives us the connection to the Adama family. Unfortunately Starbuck was training Zak and passed him on his flight skills test despite him not being actually qualified. This led to Zak's death. Starbuck has been carrying around guilt because of this. Meanwhile, Starbuck is tasked with training new Viper pilots and her guilt initially makes it hard for her to do her job. The episode ends with a Cylon attack during a training exercise in which Starbuck is forced to eject. This episode ends on a cliffhanger.

Back on Caprica:
Helo and Sharon find some sort of bunker, that's about it.

The Verdict:
In retrospect, it's an intense episode heavy with emotion, but is kind of mediocre comparatively.

"We leave no one behind!"

01 x 07 "You can't go home again."

Population 47, 958

About the episode:
This is a follow up to the previous episode. Starbuck is stranded on an uninhabitable moon and is running out of oxygen. Adama orders a search and rescue mission that goes beyond the allotted time. Lee and Commander Adama make this a personal one. On the moon, Starbuck finds a downed Cylon raider. It turns out it has organic material, so in a sense, it's alive. I find this to be a cool idea and I wonder how much the raiders are aware of.

Caprica:
After finding the bunker, Sharon and Helo attempt to have a nice breakfast before resuming their search for their Raptor and survivors. Unfortunately a couple of toasters attack the bunker and Sharon goes missing.

Verdict:
This episode also involves high emotion as Commander Adama breaks protocol and continues to search for Starbuck. This episode also highlights Starbuck's piloting skills and wraps up the Zak backstory for now. As a two parter, this episode is better than the previous one. If it were a stand alone, it would also be pretty good.