WEBISODES 6-10 (-9) REVIEWS

Once again Sci-Fi has technically mucked-up their jewel in the crown ... with Amazon posting all the webisodes (but #9) [revised 12/30 - Amazon took them down] here (backup here [scroll down to Post #7]).

EPISODE 6
Hoshi and Racetack on a Colonial Raptor search for our wayward lifeboat with fewer live bodies. Gaeta dreams of recent events, wakes to find sweet Sharon has untied herself and tells her he was going to untie her anyway. He gives her the scalpel he's hidden away and with the others still asleep she slices open her hand and he inserts the blue-flashing wire (complete with moans to complete the stupid sexual penetration metaphor). Cable laid, Sharon projects - flashing back to an intimate candle-lit encounter with Gaeta on New Caprica which is crosscut with a real kiss between them in the Raptor, then Sharon intones: "I found it. Memory address 5-A-2-5 ... Get ready for the jump ... Felix, I'm taking us home." Five out of ten Galacticas


EPISODE 7
The Galactica's Raptor is still looking for our lost little Lifeboat. Sharon jumps the lost Raptor with the rest of the crew still asleep (conserving oxygen) and the countdown clock now shows less than 9 hours. Gaeta rushes to wake Finn and Esren(?) but they be dead, having had their throats slit in Grand Guignol style. It's looking like our sweet little Sharon is perhaps Sweeney Todd Sharon (or crazy-in-love-stalker-to-Gaeta-Sharon) and he looks to her with a Oh-no-you-dint look and she gives him an Oh-yes-I-did look back. Five out of ten Galacticas.

EPISODE 8
This episode could be titled "Betrayal" or "Felix Pulls Out." Racetrack and Hoshi are still searching for Gaeta and the lifeboat Raptor, and Racetrack tries to talk Hoshi into abandoning the search since they are just jumping randomly in hopes of finding it. Hoshi has an introspective moment and there is a momentary flash of the murdered Esren and Finn (is Hoshi psychic or gimmicky editing?). Cut back to Felix Gaeta in a panic over the dead all around him. "Sweet" Sharon tells him "I picked you over my own kind, over my own model ... I did what you couldn't do," "We needed the air." He looks at her with horror - how could she kill so easily? Flashback to Felix sleeping after sex with Sharon on New Caprica and she passes off a note to another Sharon and says "Kill them all." That note of names we saw earlier in the webisodes. Back on the Raptor the horror of it all settles in - Gaeta got played. [Prediction: this Sharon is a Boomer Sharon and is trying to find Cavil, not the fleet] Eight out of ten Galacticas.

EPISODE 9 (Coming)
... for some reason this ep isn't up yet on Amazon but Gaeta and Betrayer Sharon fight to the death and guess who wins ...

EPISODE 10
No countdown clock, so it must be down to the final minutes. Gaeta seems all alone and is now covered in blood - so did he kill Sweeney Sharon? Gaeta finds his morph pack and has 2 doses left and shoots up again into that red hole in his elbow crease. Panting, crying and sad, he pulls out the other syringe dose (a lethal amount as foreshadowed earlier) and hesitates ... he sings that song again and in his delirium he barely notices the light from a vessel jumping into his Raptor's zone. Hoshi and Racetrack have found him - the sole survivor (Betrayer Sharon must have been offed in a fight in ep 9). Crossfade to Gaeata on stretcher being wheeled into the medical bay. He's got some 'splainin' to do. We do a camera pan across the fleet to the Galactica - and back inside C&C Tigh tells Gaeta strange things can happen at sea (Poseiden would know wouldn't he?) and says the Old Man (Adama) isn't inclined to look into the issue lest he risk the alliance with the rebel Cylons. Gaeta quietly but sternly protests that there shouldn't be an alliance and says he wants to meet with Adama directly - Tigh says he can talk to him at a meeting later that day. Shortly after Hoshi approaches him in a corridor and it is implied that Gaeta will seek out Zarek and instigate or help in Zarek's coup efforts to come. Four out of ten Galacticas.

In total these webisodes didn't lend much to the overall story. They didn't even serve as filler, coming so close to the return of the series.

CLUE 14 and NEW TRAILERS

14.Video Clip: Adama enters his quarters in a hurry, takes a drink, washes his face, looks in the mirror and catches the reflection of something that horrifies him. He turns abruptly and looks up at the wall near the ceiling - there is a huge tear. Is it a metaphor for the ship coming apart at the seams? A representation of the wear-and-tear on this vessel after several years without dry-dock and a refit? Is it indicative of his pschological state? All three? [Galactica is falling apart yet Zephyr gets rebuilt?]
Sitrep has a couple new trailers posted and what's new is Tigh walking into the water (Neptune?), and Roslin appears to go blind and is apprehended. The Last Supper Image shows Roslin and Adama on opposite sides of the table, Roslin's faction with the Book of the Old Gods closed, Adama's with the Book open. The Roslin clip starts with her burning Kamala and reading again the prophecy of Pythia (or it is her hand tearing pages from the book as seen in earlier trailers).

WEBISODE 5 - REVIEW

Much better. Leather Sharon is given the heave-ho (see booty-licious CGI version below), and the countdown clock ticks away, 16 hours ... Gaeta looks around, he's in pain, everyone else is asleep. He pulls out the Morphine that his boyfriend Hoshi gave him prior to his departure and shoots up in a rough-and-ready red spot in the crease of his arm. Nice Sharon sneeks a peek. Crossfade to countdown clock and now 4 hours have gone by and Gaeta wakes up and nice Sharon wakes up and she suggests the old stick-the-wire-into-the-Cylon-palm trick to find out their exact location and has an eXacto-knife in hand when Gaeta notices the murderous red-shirt isn't moving and tries to wake him (which wakes the other sleeping crewmembers) - a couple needles fall from redshirt (he shot-up Gaeta's stash! ... or did he?). ... Immediately the helmeted Raptor pilots accuse nice Sharon of killing him (he was a red-shirt after all, so, yes, he's dead Jim) and Sharon is tied up (but I think she kinda likes it). So the lifeboat gets a little lighter and suspicions get a little thicker. Seven out of ten Galacticas.

CLUE UPDATE, 11-13

11. Audio Clip [with masking static]: (perhaps Leoben or Lee Adama) "Every revolution begins with one small act. But I hope you know how serious this is." [Crowd noise] Unknown voice (perhaps Leoben) "[inaudible] ... Administration" Unidentified male voice, "You know what I'm talking about" Another unidentified male voice (possibly Baltar) "Our little secret" Kara (or possibly Sharon): "Or anyone else" Gaeta: "A pity frak is out of the question then?" .... distant church bells toll (12 times of course)
12. Video clip: A fire warning sounds as Kara listens, then goes to a corridor and asks former Pegasus pilot "Zerchak(?)" why a pilot is in charge of evacuation. He tells Kara hatefully to "Take your frakkin' hands off me. Gods, nobody even knows what you are anymore." She doesn't trust him and heads back in the wrong direction (she senses a false alarm and possible mutiny?)

13: Video Clip: Old scene [From Guess What's Coming to Dinner] of Adama, Tigh, Roslin and Helo discussing a plan [to hold onto the Five until they reach Earth ... meanwhile Natalie and her rebel 2,6,8 alliance with one rebel Base Ship had their own double-cross in the works if you recall] This is only interesting if it shows Adama setting them up ... we now know Tigh is a Cylon as of this scene so only Roslin or Helo could betray the secrecy of the plan and casting suspicion on them seems the only reason for showing this clip

THE END IS THE BEGINNING

This is the most important sequence in the whole story of Battlestar Galactica. If the cycles of time repeat then the end must be the beginning. The story began with Six and it should end with her. In the miniseries we were left with a great mystery: who was the person she was meeting (that we did not see) after she met up with Baltar? Most likely this person is the fifth and Final Cylon. Roslin will have a memory flashback or a dream at the same place, where she is crying/laughing in the fountain ... is this after her cancer diagnosis? In a dream/hallucination where she realizes something profound by returning to this place?

CLUE UPDATE 8 thru 10

The latest from the Sci-Fi Clue Site: 8. Video Clip: Baltar attempts to seduce Tyrol into becoming a religious follower of his message 9. Video Clip: Adama (with weird echoey voice) demands a gun from a soldier in a corridor and goes into his office and says "Sit down Cylon" probably to Tigh (not seen) 10. Video Clip: Gaeta sits with Baltar and smokes a small cigar and tells how he thought he'd end up an architect, then finishes with "I hope that people realize, eventually, who I am," - this seems to indicate delusion, narcissism and a bit of megalomania and Baltar seems stunned by what he's hearing. Then in echoey, surreal voiceover we hear Baltar say "I know who you are." [Now, if Gaeta is the Final Cylon, what a letdown, in that he seems insubstantial. Somehow Gaeta is in control of this meeting and Baltar's eyes show concern - even fear] [Clues 1-7]

SCRAMBLE

The letters scramble at the end of this clip.
Does it mean anything?
MORE

AH, SUSPICIONS

[potentially mega-spoilery] New Sci-Fi teasers (click Sitrep link to view) ask us Who Is The Final Cylon? Then they show an image of Helo looking at Dualla with concern, Laura Roslin on the rebel Base ship, Baltar on the rebel Base ship, Romo being pushed around by armed marines, and some guy with an underbite with a gun to his head (is that the guy from the Tillium processing ship?). Another shows Kara in front of a burn area in a field of dead grass "What am I?" Then the juicy stuff: (see image montage) ... Tyrol touches the ruins of a temple wall and has a profound flashback - did he destroy Earth? Or is he merely holding an avocado?

Is this a blond Adama? [the hairdresser on the Galactica puts in summer high-lights?]

WHAT FUTURE FOR SIX?

The most important character to the story is in limbo right now. Why didn't Head-Six show up when Baltar was near death on the rebel Base Ship? Is she the center of the universe? Will she fade away? Is she just a number? A literal angel? If the end is the beginning, Six must be there.

Kudos must be given to actress Tricia Helfer who has played the Six character. Cast in the show with limited acting experience and a background as a model she was tasked with creating multiple characters (sometimes for the same scene) and has excelled in the part, holding her own alongside seasoned and talented veterans such as Mary McDonnell, Michael Hogan, Edward James Olmos and the scenery-chewing James Callis. It is the depth and nuance she brings to her performance(s) which has anchored the show.

WEBISODES 4, 3, 2 REVIEWS

Ep. 4 They decide to dump the leather Sharon body but worry about losing air in doing so. The weasily mechanic denies pulling the insulation from the pliers. Gaeta tells them all to "shut up" and without investigation makes the claim that it was "an accident." Another flashback to the list of names and Gaeta asks nice Sharon to try to find them. She says the "Ones keep good records." On the Raptor nice Sharon foreshadows her wire into hand idea to Gaeta. Three Galactictas out of 10.


Ep. 3 Red-shirt mechanic lifts a Spock panel and looks at the "scrubbers." Gaeta flashback to New Caprica with the nice Sharon showing him a list of names. Leather Sharon tries to fix what red-shirt mechanic could not. She is electrocuted and dies. Gaeta notices that the pliers red-shirt handed her have no insulation. Four Galacticas out of ten.

Ep. 2 On the Raptor the stranded passengers wonder what happened. The Sharons raise the threat of the Cavil Base Ships, and Gaeta reminds them the Galactica knows they're missing. Jump drive doesn't respond, a red-shirt kisses his Poseiden medallion, to which one of the Sharon comments: "We're a long way from water." Technical discussion about a random high-energy particle flipping a bit of data and randomizing their jump coordinates. Leather Sharon recognizes star patterns with her naked eyes and nice Sharon cozies up to her former lover Gaeta from the New Caprica days. Meanwhile, back on Galactica, Geata's boyfriend Lt. Hoshi pleads with Tigh (still in charge) to let him take a Raptor and go look for "Felix," and mentions it's been over "two days." Start the countdown clock, only 20 hours of air left ! ... cue suspicious looks among the passengers (Hitchcock's Lifeboat anyone?). Five out of ten Galacticas

ESPENSEN COMMENTARY
Click on Galactica Sitrep link upper right if you want to watch the clips. On their site they have a clip with writer commentary from Jane Espensen, who informs us that Col. Tigh is the authority figure because Eddie Olmos was busy directing and acting in The Plan (the 2-hour Cylon perspective story to air after the series). Espensen further mentions a coach and Pyramid players so that story must be partly about Sam Anders being a star player and Six going to see the games.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The creators and writers of Battlestar Galactica like to impart double or multiple meanings, and perhaps they have done so with their choice of names. Here are a few names and some of their translations and potential meanings. Feel free to add others to the Comments.

William - will, helmet Adama - diamond, Ethiopia, Admah Gaius - jurist and writer (Roman), Corinthian baptized by Paul Baltar - places in Portugal and Spain Laura - laurel (wreath, tree) - victory Roslin - Scotland Saul - king of Hebrews, battled philistines, committed suicide Tigh - close, inclosure, Irish loch, Capt. Bligh Kara - gift, joy, dark, black, Sikh bracelet Thrace - region: northern Greece,Turkey Carl - Scandinavian peasant Helo - Helios (sun god) Agathon - physical beauty, poet, dramatist, famous, innovator Felix - happy, lucky Gaeta - coastal city in SW Italy Six - the cardinal (red) number the sum of 5 + 1 Cavil - carping criticism Leoben - place in Austria Galen - philosopher, doctor Tyrol - in Austria Sharon - forest, shrub, rose, fruit Simon - "he has heard," common Hebrew name Lee - the side of a ship which is downwind Apollo - light and truth D'Anna - Diana/Artemis: Goddess of the Moon and the hunt (region: Lake Nemi) Biers - a coffin along with its stand Sam - a judge or prophet, name of god Anders - common name, manly, different Natalie - birthday (born on Christmas Day)

CONTINUITY QUIBBLE

Hate to nit-pick, but didn't we see the Zephyr get it's hoop blasted apart (click on inset) in He That Believeth In Me? Who straightened the supports? Who manufactured the replacement hull? Who did the work? When? The purple pic is from Webisode 1 - most recent. The yellowy image is from 10 episodes ago.

WEBISODE 1 REVIEW

A bloody Gaeta is on a Raptor "Nine Days After Finding Earth" and we see flashbacks (names on paper) of violence and a bloody hand (did another Sharon stick a wire in there?). "Three Days Earlier" (so six days after finding Earth) On the C&C, Tigh is in command(?) ... Gaeta, sporting a new prosthetic leg (and walking cane-same-side a la Dr. House), is ordered by Tigh to take R&R on the Zephyr (the ship with the big hoop - looking pretty good despite the major damage it took in Season 4, episode He That Believeth In Me). Hoshi gives Gaeta some morphine to take with him and then gives his boyfriend a goodbye kiss. Two Sharons pile in with some red-shirts and off the Raptor goes, Gaeta has two crutches this time. En route, Lt. Hoshi comes over the Comlink with a warning, "Draedus contact, incoming hostiles" ... the entire fleet jumps away and somehow the Raptor ends up in space alone. Dunno if Bamber or Callis directed this one - has the feel of the show. 4 Galacticas out of 10.

DELETED SCENES

io9 posted these in October, and they're worth a revisit. The Kara/Athena scene is crucial - too bad it hit the editing room floor. The fade out of Head-Six was a travesty - good they cut that. The Boomer mea culpa to the 2-6-8 faction was illuminating and added depth, a pity that was shorn. Chief chokes out Callie was less elegant than having Tory off her - good choice there.

RETURN OF LORD IBLIS?

There seems to be a strong focus on Baltar and Head-Six for the final run of episodes, and now Baltar is sporting some devilish facial hair. Is Lord Iblis going to manifest in him? Is Head-Six an archangel or a servant of the sinister?

And could this be their baby all grow'd up?

FINAL CYLON - ROBOT CHICKEN STYLE

Those nutty geniuses over at Robot Chicken have revealed not only their pick for the Final Cylon, but how Ron Moore made the careful choices he did in selecting them.

CLUES: 7 DOWN, 23 TO GO . . . . . .

Ron Moore and Sci-Fi are ladeling out the clues prior to the January 16th air-date on the official site You Will Know the Truth. There have been 7 so far, with 23 more to go the next 43 days. Here's what we've been given so far: 1-Quote, 2-Quote, 3-Audio Clip: Leoben asks Kara, "What is it? What does it mean?"

4-Video Clip: President Lee Adama Press Conference - blanked out audio of him saying something in response to a question asking the identity of the Fifth and Final Cylon, then regretting what he said. 5-Image: Black and white picture of a Cylon fetus floating in some sort of amniotic fluid or in mist with the red-light-spine glowy thing happening 6-Video Clip:Head-Six (in a teal dress) asks Baltar which of the Old Gods he would be and asks him to imagine what kind of man he would be if he took on the Old Gods 7-Image: Last Supper minus Roslin

ONE COOL CHICK

Everything you love about Katee Sackhoff, right here in this clip:

Oh, and it looks like you can cross Ellen off your Final Cylon list.

CONCEPT ART - ORIGINAL GALACTICA

Ain't It Cool News found this terrific Flickr set of images of original concept art for Battlestar Galactica. Wonderful images. It looked as though they were attempting to integrate a Star Wars aesthetic, with a little H.G. Wells, Dr. Who, and Fantastic Planet thrown in and certainly were paying homage to 60s sci-fi artist Robert McCall.