Battlestar Galactica: Episode 101, “33″

I don’t plan on taking a deeper look at every Battlestar Galactica episode from season one, but since it just started replaying on UHD this past weekend and some new people may be checking it out, I thought I’d outline a few things about this first episode and what makes it so great.

If you didn’t see the 2-hour miniseries, you missed out on how everything starts. Episode 101, which is called “33″ for reasons that you soon discover, picks up as the human race is on the run from the Cylons.

How did they get to this point?

• Cylon Number 6 infiltrated the Colonies’ defenses by using Gaius Baltar, who is a major character in the overall plot
• The Cylons create a virus that they can upload to any Colony defenses, including weapons and spaceships. This renders them utterly defenseless and they get wiped out.
• The Battlestar Galactica however didn’t have the wireless access that the rest of the Colonial fleet did, so they survive the attack and run.
• Along the way, they pick up the new president, Laura Roslin of the Colonies, who is the only survivor of the presidential cabinet, someone so low that at first people laugh. But she is a natural leader and along with Admiral Adama, they keep the fleet safe.
• The fleet finds refugees and grows to around 50,000 people scattered in many ships.
• A big plot line is the character of Helo who is left on Caprica in order to save some people, including Baltar.
• Baltar should have died, but somehow lived and now has Number 6 stuck in his head somehow. Is she real? Or is she just a figment of his imagination?
• Admiral Adama tells the crew that there is hope for them, despite their homes destroyed. They will find this planet called Earth, which the prophecies talk about.

Episode “33″ starts off with the fleet on the run. They can jump away, but are somehow being tracked by the Cylons who appear every 33 minutes. This puts the crew into utter exhaustion, being unable to sleep at all. They lose people, and lose some ships in the process of jumping.

This episode has a huge revelation at the end. You already know that Cylons look like people now, and that there are a certain number of them. Sharon is on Galactica, but then Helo sees her on Caprica at the same time, apparently rescuing him from another Number 6 clone.

There is a reason for all this and the Sharon(s) plotlines are pretty sweet.

You see the insanity that arises from Baltar, who deals with his own guilt in ushering in the destruction of the colonies, but never wanting anyone to know, plus plagued by a Cylon stuck in his head. Those scenes maybe confuse some people, but I feel they are on a different plane than the rest of the normal characters.

The show is so great because you have a mixture of a few things: Love, politics, miltary, science fiction and religion.

The Baltar scenes frequently deal with the subject of God and divine destiny. You get more later with the prophecy about Earth and other elements.

But then you also get politics, which are evident in the struggle to maintain control and order despite being scattered over a bunch of ships in the middle of space. President Roslin firmly believes in keeping the same government no matter what. It’s pretty brilliant.

And you also have military issues, like with this episode and the Olympic Carrier. At the end, it’s obvious that the Cylons have control of it and have been tracking it. That’s how they keep catching up every 33 minutes. Yet you don’t know if any humans remain on board and thus the controversy arises.

This is a clear parallel to things like 911 and planes crashing into the Twin Towers. Do you shoot the plane down and kill everyone on board who is innocent, or do you risk them destroying you?

On top of all that, you have fantastic, and I mean, FANTASTIC acting here that they never get credit for.

The scenes with Roslin at the end smiling because a child is born is all you need to see.

Battlestar Galactica is so deep and has so many levels, that’s why it’s right up there with Lost in my book as one of the best dramas on TV. Some people will immediately dismiss it because they think it’s all science fiction, but Lost is the same type of thing. Both shows are so much more than that.

They are about people, decisions and the reality of the times we live in.

And the one plot element that really draws me in: It has a goal. Find Earth. The overall mythology behind their search is amazing.

Fantastic opening episode and I’m really excited to be watching them all over again. If you missed it, just look for it repeating this week on Universal HD.