So Battlestar Galactica is back for Season 3 .. and how! Nothing subtle about the political undertones in these episodes, eh? For those who haven’t read a newspaper in the past three years, here’s the breakdown: New Caprica = Iraq; Cylons = U.S. “Liberation” Forces. Any guess which side the writers have made more sympathetic? Did NBC execs even bother to watch the season premiere when they made the decision to move this show to network TV? Then again, we’re talking about a show that has “fooled” the FCC for two years now by using the word “frak” liberally and pretending it doesn’t mean exactly what we all know it means. I guess it only takes a thin veneer to make the unacceptable acceptable?
Anyway, I won’t bore you with a full recap of the entire two hours. But here are the salient points …
Four months have passed. Tigh has one eye, and his wife is whoring around with the Cylon Cavil. Tyrol is married to Cally, and they have a baby. Apollo is married to Dualla, and is starting to morph into Homer Simpson. Starbuck is a love prisoner of the Cylon Leobon, and they have a baby together. Helo and Boomer are still together, and Boomer has just become the first Cylon to be sworn into the Colonial Fleet. Roslin is still teaching, Baltar is still a coward, Gaeta is riding a fine line between traitor and patriot, and The Resistance has finally pushed the Cylons’ balls to the wall. They’re desperate to keep order in New Caprica, to fulfill their divine destiny of bringing enlightenment to humans, and are willing to kill every last human to do it. But Adama and the Colonial Fleet are on their way to … do something. I’m confident it will be brave and reckless and spectacular and will turn everything upside-down.
So I’m keeping count of the various Cylon “models” at this point. There’s Six, Sharon, Cavil, Leobon, Xena, Kevin Spacey, and the new African-American model (have we seen him before?). That makes seven. Which leaves five more we don’t about yet, right? We can assume that the writers plan to surprise us this season by revealing that at least one of the main characters is a Cylon. Any guesses who it will be? Should we start a pool?
Oh, and did I mention that I love this show? How about you?