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Battlestar Galactica Season 4.0 DVD-Video Box Set Genre: Adult Space Opera
Cast: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas, Tahmoh Penikett, Alessandro Julianni, Michael Trucco, and Grace Park
Guest Stars: Michelle Forbes, Grahem Beckel, Stephanie Jacobsen, Nico Cortez, Matthew Bennett, and Steve Bacic
Battlestar Galactica: RAZOR Minisodes Stars: Edward James Olmos, Matthew Bennett, Nico Cortez, Jacob Blair, Campbell Lane, Ben Cotton, and Chris Bradford
Episodes - Disc One: “Battlestar Galactica: RAZOR:
Unrated Extended Edition”
Episodes - Disc Two: “He That Believeth In Me”,
“Six Of One”, “The Ties That Bind”, “Escape Velocity”
Episodes - Disc Three: “The Road Less Traveled”,
“Faith”, “Guess What’s Coming To Dinner”
Episodes - Disc Four: “Sine Qua Non”, “The Hub”, “Revelations”
Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf and Hearing Impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles
TV Rating: TV-14
SPECIAL FEATURES: David Eick’s Video Blogs, Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes: The Journey, Cylons: The Twelve, Season 4.5: The Untold Story – Untold, The Music Of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica Sneak Peek
The events in Battlestar
Galactica: RAZOR take place before and concurrently to the second season
episode Epiphanies and feature a bit of the flashback scenes from the
minisodes since they are very important to the plotline of both this film and
what is to come in season four and it also dramatizes much of what we learned
happened during the Pegasus episodes as well as well as provide a few
explanations and character revelations that will surprise some and actually make
some nod and understand why exactly everything happened as they did from our
point of view now that we’ve seen what occurred from the Pegasus crew
point of view. Michelle Forbes as Admiral Cain is humanized and while her
actions are no less disturbing than what we learned from the previous episodes,
there are never the less easier to understand. Actors who guest starred in the Pegasus
story arc episodes are brought back even if it’s for little more than a cameo,
but the attention to details like this makes RAZOR feel more like a fully
integrated episode that could have even appeared during the second season with
just a little dramatic manipulation and no one would realize it is actually a
prelude to the fourth season.
Battlestar Galactica fanboys
and fangirls are going flipped with excitement when they saw classic Cylon
Raiders and Base Ships from the original series in action like they have never
seen them before. The special effects are outstanding and just about every
memorable detail from the classic series space dogfights, like that point of
view shot from a Viper cockpit of the weapons blowing away a Cylon Raider that
was recycled often for the classic series, is used in one of the minisodes. The
CGI classic Cylon Centurions, complete with their blades and that black cape
like thing that used to hang over their backsides, come to life in both the
minisodes and RAZOR like you’ve never seen them. The one effect I did
miss however was that sound the Cylons used to make when they got blasted in the
classic series, but trust me when I note that anyone who still has any doubts as
to the respect and honor the show’s producers have given the classic series,
should hopefully be finally dispelled after seeing both the minisodes and RAZOR.
In fact after viewing both and seeing a bit of what Paramount has done to Star
Trek: The Original Series to touch it up for high definition, I have to
state that I’d love to see Universal bring back the classic series in high
definition with new updated effects, even if it was just for the theatrical
version of the pilot. I think many videophiles will agree with me regarding
revisiting the original Battlestar Galactica after seeing the minisodes
and RAZOR. I think it is definitely worth the investment and would pay
for itself one way or the other.
The first disc within the
DVD set-containing RAZOR right down to the HD DVD spots that were once
relevant when the TV movie was first released on DVD so below is an exact
republication from my review of the original DVD release. To make it easier for
those who read that original review, I have placed the text in italics so you
can scroll past this part of the review and continue onward with my thoughts on
the rest of the set.
Both the recently aired
SCI FI Channel version and a DVD exclusive unrated extended cut are made
available to the viewer via seamless branching. The extended version gives a bit
more background into Admiral Cain’s past as well as Kendra and has more
dialogue. The editing and pacing is slightly different so this is truly a
different version of the same film and not just extra seems attached to the TV
version. I like both versions and in fact both work nearly equally as well, but
the added back-story on the extended version do make a difference. The extended
and TV broadcast versions are presented in a purposely gritty anamorphic
widescreen (1.78:1) aspect ratio with a full English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Soundtrack and English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as
Spanish Language Subtitles encoded onto the dual layered DVD as options.
Exclusive to the extended version is an audio commentary with Executive Producer
Ronald D. Moore and Writer Michael Taylor. The commentary is insightful and does
clarify one thing I did not realize from reviewing the broadcast version, but I
disagree with Moore on a key scene where Cain’s discrete companion is exposed
as being a Cylon. The reaction of the Cylon and the expression she makes toward
Cain is more deliberate and does not evoke any sympathy for the character. I
personally cannot blame Cain for her rage against the machine.
All of the minisodes are
presented as one short (19:17) with a 16 by 9 enhanced presentation and the same
subtitle options as the feature. In fact with the exception of the three deleted
scenes (3:38) and home video previews that appear before the main menu, nearly
all of the bonus materials are presented in a 16 by 9 enhanced aspect ratio and
include featurettes covering the cast member’s favorite episodes so far
(10:27), the look of the series (11:56), a sneak peak at the upcoming fourth
season (2:33) with a trailer (: 47) and the main menu is animated while the
subsequent menus are all standard interactive still frames that are easy to
navigate.
Home video previews for
American Pie Presents Beta House, Balls Of Fury, The Strangers, White Noise 2
and an HD DVD promo (8:32) precede the main menu.
The remaining three discs
contain the first ten episodes that make up the first half of the fourth season
of Battlestar Galactica. The second half just began airing on SCI FI
Channel. The fourth season premiere of Battlestar Galactica is all about
faith. Faith in a higher power, faith in your friends, faith in yourself, faith
in strangers, and even faith in your enemies. The episode entitled “He That
Believeth In Me” begins right where the third season finale left off. Starbuck
(Katee Sackhoff) is back from the dead and claims to have found Earth. She even
seems to have a strange psychic link or sixth sense about it in her mind that
tells her whether or not the fleet is on the right course. The trouble is, as
one should expect, no one believes her because to them she has been dead for two
months while she has no awareness of being dead let alone the passage of time.
Meanwhile the revealed four out of the five remaining humanoid Cylons are trying
to cope with the knowledge that everything they thought they knew may be a lie.
We see them struggle with
each other, but for the most part, they are still somewhere between shock and
denial and more than anything else, I’d say they are more afraid of themselves
than they are anything else. There is a great sense of unrelenting doom here as
well as a sense of futility because while humans take some solace in death as a
form of closure to the hardships of life, Cylons usually have their
consciousness download right into a new body aboard a resurrection ship. So
there is no escape from destiny, which is perhaps the other major theme that
runs throughout this episode and the series as a whole as personified in the
ever-changing role of Baltar (James Callis), who haplessly finds himself in one
unlikely position after another, flying by the seat of his pants. I think one
could argue that in a sardonic way, Baltar is like the comic relief at times and
yet he is still one of the most human characters on the show. From having the
burden of knowing he is at least partially responsible for the near extinction
of the human race, to having others expect miraculous things from him because of
his reputation on both the Colonial and Cylon sides, to being forced to make
life and death decisions as the President of the Colonials to finally being
placed on trial and having most people still wanting him dead despite being
acquitted in season three. Now Baltar is being seen as a messiah by an expanding
flock of young groupies filled with enough women to satisfy Baltar’s only
other base instinct outside of to survive no matter what.
The episodes features a
fantastic action sequence in space that ranks with the best space battle
sequences in the series and from my perspective as a critic on the outside
looking in, I can say that Executive Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick
have got their Poker faces on for the audience and I am unsure if we are going
to get any firm revelations any time soon, but at least I feel we are getting
somewhere and on a show like Battlestar Galactica, that is very
important. Eventually it becomes clear that the fates of humanity and the Cylons
are somehow irreparably intertwined as both sides realize that if they are going
to find Earth, they need to cooperate and both a faction of Cylons on the run
from their own kind and the surviving Colonials fight to evade the rest of the
Cylon fleet, which is closing upon them.
Each of the three remaining
DVDs presents the episodes in a beautiful standard definition (1.78:1)
widescreen aspect ratios that look beautiful when upconverted to near HD
resolution, which should satisfy fans until proper HD episodes are hopefully
released on Blu-ray Disc. Full English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks
are provided for every episode along with English Subtitles for the Deaf and
Hearing Impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles. Podcasts for each of the
episodes are included along with episode length commentary tracks on select
installments throughout the other three discs within the set.
Most of the extra value
material is 16 by 9 enhanced though not all. Much of the extra value features
include a “Play All” feature as well as the option to view the featurettes
separately. The second, third, and fourth discs contain over an hour of
letterboxed deleted scenes. David Eick’s Video Blogs run just over 40 minutes
for all ten collectively and the rest of the directly related material is on the
fourth disc and this includes a look at the road the series has taken to get
where it is now entitled The Journey (20:54), a featurette profiling the
11 known Cylons (15:56) as well as the music of the TV series (23:34) along with
a montage teaser (1:22) for the second half of season four on SCI FI Channel and
a sneak peek at the upcoming prequel TV series Caprica (1:34)
Previews for Universal
Studios Home Entertainment’s Back To The Future Trilogy, Heroes, Death
Race, Columbo, Friday Night Lights, House, Law And Order, Monk, The Office,
Psych, and Quantum Leap wrap up the extra value features included. The
interactive menus are all well rendered and easy to navigate. Battlestar
Galactica: Season 4.0 is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and
offline courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
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