Battlestar Galactica & Caprica Reviews

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BSG TOS 1978 - Season 1 - Episode 03

My Rating - 3

Fan Rating Average - 4.41

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# Votes: 14 6 1 9 3 1 3 1 7 7 6

Lured by the gracious Sire Uri, half the fleet lands on the planet Carillon, unaware they are being set up for a Cylon attack. [DVD]

- How did all the colonials at the party get off the planet in time?
- The whole idea behind blowing the planet up the way they did was pretty ridiculous. If it was so unstable, why hadn't it blown up already by someone dropping a cigar or something? ;)
- The words "yahrens" and "years" are BOTH featured in this episode. This show can't even get its own terminology straight!
- Watch Adama during the battle. He will magically gain and lose a cape during the cuts. ;)

- This is the first episode to feature the term "yahren" in BSG.
- According to a member of the quorum of 12, the war with the Cylons did not begin until the colonials began intervening in their conflicts with other nations.
- This is the first episode to feature the term "frack" in BSG. (Starbuck is the first to say it.)

Remarkable Scenes
- Tigh embarking on his secret mission.
- The Cylon Centurion attacking Boxey.
- The dogfight.
- Starbuck and Apollo tricking the Cylon base ship into getting too close to the planet so that when the planet explodes it takes the base ship with it.
- The new Imperious Leader sparing Baltar.

My Review
Aside from serving to end the trilogy, this episode is almost a complete waste of time. Cut out all the crap in part 2 and fill it with the few good things in part 3 and this trilogy would have ended up making a far better two part episode than it was as a trilogy.

The episode picks up where all the silliness in the previous one left off. Starbuck's juggling his women. Starbuck pursues business deals. The slapstick humor is just overflowing, and most of it doesn't even work. There were some good attempts at it, like Tigh's secret mission, but they were the exception rather than the rule.

There are numerous technical problems in this episode and even more plot holes; certainly more than I've listed, though admittedly some of the ones I've avoided listing could be rationalized with some creative thinking.

The battle at the end makes this episode at least watchable, and the business regarding Baltar makes the conclusion interesting. But there was way too much garbage padding in the trilogy and especially too much of it in the third part.

A small part of me is glad they blew up the casino planet, even though the science behind blowing up the planet was a bit dubious. It makes me glad because now they can never go back to it again!

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