Battlestar Galactica: 33

January 13th, 2008

Season 1, Episode 1

Synopsis

The Battlestar Galactica is shepherding a fleet of survivors — all that’s left of the human race after a devastating Cylon attack. They’re pursued by a fleet of Cylons which appear every 33 minutes. Outnumbered each time, they are forced to “jump” to a new location.

Baltar, on President Roslin’s ship, reminisces about life back on Caprica, with Six appearing only in his mind. To everyone else, it appears that he’s talking to himself. They contemplate God — Baltar doesn’t believe, while Six is devout and believes there is a higher plan. At one point she demands that he repent, and also mentions that she wants to have a child with him.

President Roslin and assistant Billy keep a tally of the number of human survivors on a white board which marches persistently downward after each Cylon attack.

On the Galactica, the crew is overtired and worn down, hopped up on stimulants, and fearful of mistakes. After each jump they might get ten minutes of sleep if lucky.

After one jump, the ship “Olympic Carrier” is inadvertently left behind. After 33 minutes, the Cylons do not attack. Then the carrier reappears. After an initial elation, suspicion kicks in. A difficult decision is made that stems directly from the war situation at hand.

Meanwhile, back on Caprica, Helo is a lone survivor, running from Cylon centurions. After fighting off a few of them, he encounters a Six model dressed in white. She is killed by Boomer (a Cylon). Helo has no way of knowing Boomer is still aboard Galactica, and so believes that she has returned to save him. They run off into the rainy woods together, as another Six watches.

At episode’s end, the head count is updated to +1 because a baby boy was born on one of the ships. The tally is 47,973.

Thoughts

Starbuck jokingly accuses Boomer of being a Cylon, which is actually true (revealed in the miniseries) but none of the characters (not even Boomer herself) knows this yet.

There is a choice made to sacrifice some civilians so the rest can survive. The responsibility falls directly on Bill Adama and Roslin who give the order and Lee, who pulls the trigger. We see a distribution of power as Adama confers with Roslin before the crucial decision. This check and balance is absent on the Battlestar Pegasus in Razor.

But Baltar influences the decision in his distasteful, Baltar way. He allowed the Cylons access to the Caprican defenses and therefore is partly to blame for its destruction. A Dr. Amorak, aboard the Olympic carrier, knows this and wants to speak to Roslyn. Therefore, Baltar would personally benefit from the carrier being destroyed. So Baltar has an outburst in front of Roslyn, which undeniably influences her final decision.

So while the leaders believe the carrier was destroyed to save the fleet, Baltar only wanted it destroyed in order to save himself. Batlar’s despicable, self-centered, self-preservation appears repeatedly throughout the series.

The DVD’s episode commentary reveals some amusing tidbits regarding the ever-present conflict between the show’s creators and the network:

• The network worried that everything going on in spaceships would be too dull, so we have many trips into Baltar’s head and Helo on Caprica — basically different environments with blue sky and rainy woods outdoors.
• The network didn’t like how all the characters looked like hell (unshaven, bags under their eyes, groggy from drugs) for this premiere episode. But the ugliness makes total sense for the story and I think it was a cool idea to start the episode in the middle of a tense situation without any explanation.
• Lastly, the commentary reveals that the original shooting script definitively showed helpless civilians still aboard the Olympic Carrier, visible through the windows. There was much conflict as to if this was too dark, or necessary to show the gravity of the decision to destroy the ship. My personal preference would have been the former, which is my only complaint about 33. Otherwise, it’s an excellent episode.

Next Episode: Water
Previous Episode: 2003 Miniseries