Titles: Battlestar Galactica: Winter Season Premiere: “Resurrection Ship: Part 1” & “Resurrection Ship: Part 2” SCI FI Inside: Battlestar Galactica
Stars: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas, and Tahmoh Penikett
Special Guest Star: Michelle Forbes
Writers: Michael Rymer and Ronald D.
Moore
Based On A Story By: Anne Cofell Sounders
Director: Michael Rymer
Executive Producers: Ronald D. Moore and David Eick
Running Time: 44 minutes each without commercials/22 minutes without commercials
Media: SCI FI Channel Original Series/SCI FI Inside Special (NTSC DVD Screeners)
Winter Season Premiere:
“Resurrection Ship: Part 1”: Friday, January 6, 2006, at 10pm (ET/PT)
“Resurrection Ship: Part 2”
Premiere: Friday, January 13, 2006, at 10pm (ET/PT)
“SCI FI Inside: Battlestar Galactica” Premiere: Monday, January 2, 2006, at 10pm
Network: SCI FI Channel (Check your local cable/satellite listings for channel)
TV Rating: Not Available At The Time Of Review
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
The midseason finale of
“Battlestar Galactica” left viewers with an unthinkable cliffhanger. For
their disruption of the questionable interrogation technique one of the Pegasus’s
Commanding Officers was about to use on the humanoid Cylon “Boomer” (Grace
Park), which lead to that Officer’s accidental death, Chief Tyrol (Aaron
Douglas) and Lt. Agathon (Tahmoh Penikett) are to be executed without a trial.
Objecting to Admiral Cain’s (Michelle Forbes) decision Commander Adama (Edward
James Olmos) orders squadrons of vipers to escort a shuttle to the Pegasus
to rescue his men. In retaliation Admiral Cain orders her vipers out to
intercept Adama’s squadron with a fleet battle imminent. Then suddenly fate
intervenes with the realization of a Cylon Raider scouting the scene followed by
the return of Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) aboard the stealth viper with photos of
two Cylon Base Ships protecting a Cylon Resurrection Vessel that has been
trailing them since their exodus from the 12 colonies. So a truce is called and
the President (Mary McDonnell) calls both Adama and Cain aboard her ship and
orders them both to set aside any animosities and make their top priority the
destruction of the Cylon Resurrection Ship. When Cain is dismissed Adama
receives a disturbing recommendation from the President, who has realized that
Cain will not back down and based on her past actions and thus she presents a
danger to the fleet as a whole. She tells Adama that sooner or later he’s
going to have to kill her.
SCI FI Photos By Carole Segal
Cain knows their can’t be two
fleet commanders and begins to arrange for Adama’s assassination just after
the destruction of the Resurrection Ship. Adama arranges for the same action to
be taken upon her and gives the duty to Starbuck, who has grown to respect the
Admiral and is emotionally troubled and torn between obeying the orders of both
commanders. Meanwhile Baltar (James Callis) develops feelings for the Number 6
clone (Tricia Helfer) he is caring for aboard the Pegasus, ignoring the
objections of the other Number 6 in his mind.
SCI FI Photo By Carole Segal
“Resurrection Ship: Parts 1 &
2” is an excellent continuation of the second season of “Battlestar
Galactica” that focuses primarily upon the nature of compassion and humanity
between the Colonials and the Cylons as well as explores to some degree how one
might face the inevitability of death. Do we cling to hope and faith? Do we
fight back regardless of the odds, or do we accept it? By the end of the second
part fans will quickly realize that the series has just taken a new turn and
nothing from here on is going to be quite the same ever again.
Without revealing spoilers, I can
say that certain actions that occur in both episodes leave open certain
questions regarding how and why the events that unfold take place and who really
determining the nature of these events? It also makes the viewer wonder, will we
ever learn whether or not the humanoid Cylons that we have seen so far are
original creations or are they based on people the Cylons abducted and used as
templates? If that were the case, an episode detailing how these humans met
their tragic fate would be of great interest and could play an important part in
our understanding of what the Cylons are looking for and how they view us. We do
get an answer in this two-part Winter Season Premiere that reveals one reason
why the Cylons are disgusted with humanity. In addition there is a sense that
what the Cylons are looking for could already be in their midst, but they
don’t know it just yet. If I am correct, the role of Baltar might actually be
the key to a detent making him the true savior of both sentient adversaries. I
guess we’ll just have to see what happens as the rest of season two unfolds.
SCI FI Photo By Carole Segal
In addition to the SCI FI Winter
Premiere of “Battlestar Galactica” on Friday, January 6, 2006, at 10pm
(ET/PT), the venerable network will air a chance for both new and continuing
viewers to catch up and or get reacquainted with the characters and storylines
so far with the premiere of “SCI FI Inside: Battlestar Galactica” on Monday,
January 2, 2006 at 10pm. Hosted by Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer, this
program features brand new cast and producer interviews and features some scenes
from the second half of season two as well. As an aside I’d like to give a
special thanks to SCI FI. Anyone who reviews television professionally already
knows that pretty much most of the networks now send out their reviews screeners
on DVD instead of VHS. In the case of programs shot in 16 by 9, the screeners
often present the programs in a letterboxed aspect ratio, which is fine since
the majority of viewers watch these programs letterboxed in analogue standard
definition broadcasts anyway. The screener disc for the Winter Season Premiere
of “Battlestar Galactica” actually presented the two-part adventure in
anamorphic widescreen instead of letterboxed, which as reviewer of home
entertainment that spans home video products as well as television, is a much
appreciated surprise and I think SCI FI is the first network to do this. So I
had to make a special mention of this with the hope that perhaps other TV
networks will follow SCI FI’s lead on this and hopefully If it is not already
happening, maybe cable and satellite subscribers can look forward to the SCI FI
Channel in HD in the coming year.
I also should note that another way
to get up to date on season two of “Battlestar Galactica” is to purchase the
“Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0” DVD box set that contains the first ten
episodes from season two and will debut at retailers on and offline on Tuesday,
December 20, 2005, courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. A review of
this DVD set will be published presently.
A brand new “SCI FI Inside:
Battlestar Galactica” will debut on Monday, January 2, 2006, at 10pm while the
two part Winter Premiere of “Battlestar Galactica” entitled “Resurrection
Ship” will air on Friday, January 6, 2006, at 10pm (ET/PT) and Friday, January
13, 2006, at 10pm (ET/PT) respectively. The Winter Premieres of “Stargate:
SG-1” and “Stargate: Atlantis” along with brand new episodes thereafter
will precede “Battlestar Galactica” at 8 and 9pm (ET/PT) respectively only
on SCI FI. Please check your local cable or satellite television listings for
additional information and or visit www.scifi.com.
© Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.