Battlestar Galactica: Razor

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The Battlestar Galatica movie Razor felt like a slightly overlong episode, but was still a pretty solid mix of character study, sci-fi action, and appetizer for the now permanently delayed season 4 (frack).

Synopsis

(assume with all of these episode reviews that spoilers abound, thanks)

Halfway through season 2, the Battlestar Galactica located the Battlestar Pegasus, helmed by Admiral Cain (Michelle Forbes). They were a hardened, pissed off bunch, essentially acting as a military dictatorship. Adama and Cain eventually came to a tense standoff and battle where Adama seized control of the Pegasus and the Pegasus #6 Cylon (Gina Inviere) killed Cain.

Razor reveals the Pegasus back story, which I found fairly compelling, mostly from the point of view of Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen), an officer who rises up the ranks of the Pegasus and is taught to make some tough choices in the name of survival. Pegasus was in dry dock when the initial Cylon attack was launched. Its computer network was down for repairs at the time, explaining how they managed to get through that Cylon computer virus. Cain took a literal leap of faith and did a blind jump to save the ship.

Following that, Cain’s tough as nails behavior is somewhat justifiable. Soon after the attack, she gives a speech about how running and hiding would be the easy options, and the Pegasus will continue to fight the war. Since the Pegasus is a battleship with no civilian ships tagging along, they have no checks and balances to question her authority.

Cain also takes up Gina as a lover, which adds a heck of a lot more weight of betrayal to the torture at the hands of the Pegasus crew and eventually Cain’s death (and unfortunately, this also lends more evidence to my ridiculous sex disease theory).

The second half of Razor deals with the familiar Galactica characters. Lee Adama has taken command of the Pegasus and goes on a mission to find a missing Raptor. They discover a band of long lost Cylons called “watchers” that experiment with Cylon - human hybrids. It’s thought their technology led to the “skin job” Cylons that currently are in charge of the Cylon conquest.

Personally, I liked the nod to the original show, in the form of the wandering red eye Cylons speaking “By your command”. I watched the original series as a kid and I’d be game for more cheesy nods to the past (Jane Seymour and a Daggit please?).

At the movie’s end, we have some solid Starbuck action and some seemingly high stakes - although it’s unfortunately no surprise who will be left behind to set off the nuke.

Thoughts

So now it’s time for some rampant speculation. The old-school watcher Cylons, presumably out of touch with the “skin jobs,” could very well be creators of the Final Five. There may be a conflict of interest between the watchers and the rest, as the prophetic Cylon-in-a-Vat warns Kendra about Starbuck. Perhaps in the past, the final five were deliberately planted to fight against the skin jobs and shepherd the humans from their eventual destruction? Consider how each of the final five we now know of has a pretty crucial role in the workings of the Galactica fleet.

Also consider the Bill Adama flashback to the first Cylon war. He finds imprisoned humans from a Geminon ship, the Diana. As Adama talks to one prisoner, there’s an odd camera pan down to a young girl through the door jam - twice - could she be a young Starbuck? Bill Adama is unable to free them, so certainly the Cylons use them in the future for some unnamed purpose. Maybe the Starbuck in white from the end of season 3 is this child.

And as for the fifth of the final five? Razor leads me to believe it’s either Starbuck or Lee Adama. My memory fades, but wasn’t there an episode where he was off in space, giving up, and near death? Could he have been swapped out with a Cylon at that point - or perhaps a Cylon consciousness downloaded into him?

Perhaps Bill Adama’s brief visit to the Cylon hybrid factory and sticking his hand in a wet tank gave the Cylons enough information to construct a Cylon Lee. That one line from the Leoben model Cylon saying Adama is a Cylon may have been true.

It really sucks that we have to wait until April to learn more.

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