There’s nothing terribly new in what happens in this episode of BG — after the revolution, those who worked for of the old regime are always subject to execution, legitimately or not. In this case, a group of Galactica officers is holding star chamber trials for those accused of collaboration with the Baltar government and the Cylons. The peripheral cast continues to be whittled down — but by how much?
As I said, nothing terribly new, either in the setting or in how it gets (perhaps) resolved. What’s interesting is how, now back in the relative security of the Galactica and the fleet, the survivors of New Caprica show their emotional scars. Tigh and Starbuck in particular seem brutal shells of themselves, while others struggle to pull themselves back to civilization. A nice examination of how being brutalized creates brutality in retaliation, no matter how many times someone
says, “This isn’t about vengeance.”
And the series seems to have recovered its balance. The story here, even if (apparently?) glibly resolved, returning things (sort of) to the old status quo, is both comfortably within the zone of what BG has done best (the politics of survival) and fresh. BG has regained its balance that seemed lost in the Season 2/3 transition. And I’m truly curious as to how this will continue to play out over the rest of the season.
Meanwhile, Baltar, ironically, is facing as dire an evaluation as the collaborators are back on Galactica. Interesting.
And let me just say for the record that my initial aghastness at the casting of Richard Hatch (Apollo in the original series, Zarek in the new) was utterly unfounded. He’s doing an excellent job as the ruthless terrorist-turned-semi-legit politician. Well played.
Good stuff.
At some point, I’d like to have one of those discussions where we talk about why you think the season 2/3 transition was so bad.