SATURDAY NIGHT GALACTICA

“Saga of a Star World” part 3 of 3

It’s that time again. Tonight is the final chapter of “Saga of a Star World”, the three-hour pilot for the original Battlestar Galactica. Click the episode title to go right to Hulu and watch the episode. Then come here for the review.

Please let this be the last time I have to deal with the extended version of the theme. It just feels disconnected from the traditional theme.

So when we last left our heroes on the mining…oops, casino colony of Carillon (spelling courtesy Battlestar Galactica.com‘s episode guide). However, things are not what they appear to be. The winning is too easy, and a group of elevator passengers find they aren’t where they want to go.

Although not up on the disappearances, Adama is still concerned. After looking at a report that the planet wasn’t good for fuel mining (a report made by Baltar), and how the people are acting, Adama and Tigh suspect the Cylons have a hand in this colony. The people are too caught up in the excitement, which Sire Uri is more than happy to exploit. He plans to have the fleet disarm as a show of peace towards the Cylons. That won’t end well. Unless your a Cylon.

Starbuck has his own problems, though. It seems that his relationship with Casseopeia has hit a snag: Athena. Despite dumping him in the first chapter, claiming that she was afraid to be in love after losing her brother, mother, and her home colony, she’s decided that maybe she should try to get back together with him. When she tries to woo him, however, Cassy comes by with a private room key. Athena decides to “claim her territory”, but what could have been a catfight is stalled when Starbuck tries to get out of the line of fire. Claiming he’s on a lucky streak (like everyone else on Carillon), they take offense, and Casseopeia tells him next time it’s “officer’s rates”. (The kids didn’t get that line, but I bet the parents did. See, that stuff works if you have the guts to tone it down. I could fill this site with stronger language myself. Kind of takes the fun out of it, though.)

Starbuck’s luck doesn’t get any better later on when he tries to get a contract with one of the four-eyed, two mouthed singers. She seems to indicate Starbuck might not be around to continue negotiations. That may have something to do with the reason for the elevator snatchings, this time including Casseopeia.

Someday, we'll be a family. For a whole week!

Meanwhile, Apollo and Selina are getting closer (Boxey later tells his mom “I wish he could be my daddy”), but the romantic mood is broken when Apollo overhears Uri discussing destroying the fleet’s weapons. Uri claims that it is because the colonists defended another group from the Cylons some time back, which he tells the Council of 12 the next day. Adama believes it’s following the ways of the Lords of Kobol (I’m not sure here if they’re supposed to be gods or ancestors to the colonists) to aid others and not only thinks they were right in helping their neighbors, but that willing to live under Cylon tyranny is foolish, and lets them know, in no uncertain terms.

Uri plans to break the “good” news to the fleet during a celebration to honor Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer. Meanwhile, Adama and Tigh have an idea, since they’ve determined that the Cylons will use the celebration (that all Warriors have been ordered to attend, thus leaving nobody able to man a Viper during an attack) to finish off the survivors. The plan is to replace some of the Warriors with imposters to fool Uri. That way, if Sire Uri is wrong, they’ll be have a defense against an attack. The scene where Starbuck and Boomer catch Tigh gathering spare uniforms is priceless, watching Tigh gets out of it.

(There’s also another father/son moment between Adama and Apollo. There seems to be a bit more in this scene than the last one, as Lorne Green and Richard Hatch seem to be a big more comfortable here. Adama can’t tell Apollo what’s going on, so Apollo thinks he’s still being weak. It’s a good scene and a good moment for both of them, but you can tell the actors are still figuring their roles out.)

At the party, the three honored Warriors know some of the guys at the party are fakes. Starbuck and Apollo think something’s up and try to follow one group, who disappears. This makes the two concerned, considering the other mysteries around, and hotwire the elevator to get to the bottom.

Ovions live on Solient Green.

They not only find Boxey and Muffit (the daggit ran off, suspecting something is wrong, as TV animals tend to do), but the fate of the missing colonists. It seems the Ovions are collecting them for food, and allowing the Cylons to mine the planet. The only one they are able to rescue is Casseopeia {shocker}, partly thanks to Muffy biting one of the Ovions. Running across a group of Cylons, they rush up and order everyone out of there. Sire Uri protests until he sees the Cylons.

"Man, traffic is terrible today."

The Cylons launch their attack. However, Adama is ready, with rescue vehicles on the ground and Vipers ready to launch. (Even Muffit gets a bite out them, although it looks more like he’s pecking them.) The Warriors take the battle to the Cylons, forcing them to retreat behind the planet. Suspecting a Base Star (sort of mini Death Stars looking like bowties) is hiding there, Apollo talks Starbuck into an attack, setting off the ore all over the planet and causing it to explode, and the Base Star with it. (Planets were easy to destroy back in the old days. Makes you wonder if a “Death Star” was even needed.)

With the Imperious Leader destroyed, Baltar’s death sentence is revoked as the Imperious Leader (new model) decides a new course of action. Baltar is to deliver a message of truce to the humans. Baltar’s sure they’re not going to buy it, so he’s given a Base Star of his own as proof, along with a sidekick, Lucifer. Yeah, I can see how that will work. Not!

However, one ship carrying an Ovion child, was launched, headed to a planet where the boy would have superpowers. Let's just say the aim was off.

ANALYSIS: All in all, not a bad opener. Some of the emotional moments seems a bit stiff, and you can tell people are trying to get into character. Patrick Macnee’s voice work as the two versions of Imperious Leader (there is a slight tonal difference between the two if you listen carefully) and Dirk Benedict (who is playing the type of role he’s famous for if you include later works like The A-Team and Bodyslam) and the ladies seem more comfortable than the rest of the cast, but Jolly and Boomer have bit parts so it’s hard to tell with them. John Colicos plays a bit over the top as Baltar, but I actually think that might be good for the character, kind of like Doctor Smith on Lost In Space, but a bit more relaxed, not being a campy show.

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The alien and Cylon costumes are really good in this story. The Ovions are definately alien looking, more so than most Star Trek or even Doctor Who aliens of the day and later. They may have had a huge budget, but ABC was definately getting their money’s worth here. Most of the space effects work as well, even showing burning areas of the Galactica during the final battle. However, any footage planetside shows the limitations of blue screen effects back then. It’s most notable when Starbuck and Apollo are approaching the Base Star. Still, it only briefly takes you out of the action, due to how well the story is framed, and if the actors are having trouble with the emotional scenes, it doesn’t transfer to the action scenes. I’m sure as we move on and the actors are becoming more comfortable with who their characters are and where they’re going the emotional scenes will improve.

The love triangle between Starbuck, Casseopeia, and Athena is fertile ground for some comedy and to humanise the pilot. Athena essentially dumped Starbuck, but when he moved on she gets jealous and decides to win him back. Doesn’t say a lot positive about her, does it? As for Casseopeia, the show will soon take her out of the hooker solicitator role, and I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing for a family targeted show. It would have been interesting to see how the more adult-targets new series would have handled her, but it doesn’t really matter, does it? They avoided the whole thing with one gender change. However, this is why I couldn’t accept such a radical departure for Starbuck. No, I wouldn’t want to see an actor play Dirk Benedict, and I would like to have seen a new take on the character, but the new series character is Starbuck in name only, and was the final straw for me. Although I will make myself watch those shows with an open mind as I move on.

JUDGEMENT: A good start, with the best effects of the day, actors who can show me something, and a bit of fun in the otherwise properly serious story of space refugees. If you don’t understand what bothers us old fogies about the new series, keep watching. It wasn’t perfect, it was a 70’s family show, but it was still a good show, which explains the fan base, and the desire by Sci-Fi to use the names. Next time, a new story.