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Battlestar Galactica Series 2 DVD boxset
01/11/2006 . Source: Tomas L. Martin 
DVD Region 2. Universal DVD Video 824-270-8-11, 6 discs, 882 minutes 20 episodes. Price: £49.99 although can be got as cheap as £35.00 (UK). stars: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. Buy Battlestar Galactica Series 2 DVD in the USA - or Buy Battlestar Galactica Series 2 DVD in the UK  check out website: www.universal-playback.com
I've been reviewing much of the accompanying material for the new 'Battlestar Galactica' on the Crowsnest for a while now. I've reviewed the novelisation of the excellent mini-series, second series soundtrack and the official companion to both seasons. Having bought the DVD of series two, I thought it high time I reviewed the original material from which everything else stems.
Let me be frank. In my opinion, 'Battlestar Galactica' is the best thing on television right now and whilst there are other series like 'The Sopranos' or 'Six Feet Under' that could lay claim to best TV of recent times, this is by far the best Science Fiction show ever made.
I'm not the only one to think this. 'Time Magazine' called it their 'No. 1 TV Show of 2005' and the plaudits have been coming in from every direction for Ron Moore's remake of the seventies cult show. Even reviewers not normally genre-orientated are lapping it up and with good reason.
The big difference between this and many other SF series is that 'Battlestar Galactica' is not the cheesy, implausible 'skiffy' that the literary side of the genre has lambasted for years. This is Sience Fiction not Sci-Fi, the distinction being a sense of realism and verisimilitude, human, flawed characters and a distinct lack of cliché.
To recap: in 2003 a 'Battlestar Galactica' mini-series was jointly made by Sci-Fi Channel and Sky, radically re-making the seventies show in which the robotic Cylons came back to destroy the human worlds that created them. The military ship Battlestar Galactica, led by Commander Adama and his viper pilots, son Apollo and the gutsy Starbuck, survives the attack and leads the remnant of the human race out into the stars, fleeing in search of Earth.
That's where the similarities between the two shows end. Starbuck became a girl in the new show and the character of President Roslin (actress Mary McDonnell) was introduced to lead the civilian fleet, adding a political conflict between the military and the president. The robotic Cylons could now take twelve human forms, able to infiltrate the fleet undetected and cause havoc.
In feel, the new version feels far more like '24' or 'The West Wing' - a big reason for its popularity with normally SF-shy critics. This is a human drama in a futuristic setting, with gritty violence, natural dialogue and many moral ambiguities. There's no black and white good and evil here. Many of the characters on both sides of the conflict are deeply flawed and their own worst enemies.
Season Two picks up where the shorter first season left off, with a major character lying near death from a Cylon assassination attempt and the fleet in disarray. Over the course of the twenty episodes, the themes of the first series are expanded on. Are the synthetic Cylons human or machine? In such a crisis, does military rule over-ride civil rights and liberties? Are the humans any more deserving of survival than the Cylons?
There are no throwaway episodes in this season. There is none of the filler that usually accompanies SF shows, every one has a moral question to ask and advances the show. There's a strong narrative running through the series. Characters not traditionally principle players will play much bigger roles in episodes where the story demands it. The 'stars' of the show are no more important than their co-stars.
Season Two has three main story arcs. The opening seven episodes complete the story of the first season, wrapping up the action on the planets Kobol and Caprica and bringing all the surviving cast back to the fleet. The second arc sees the Battlestar Pegasus appear and thrust its way into the politics of the fleet, led by its hard, over-zealous Admiral Cain. The last arc has many shorter stories, leading up to a powerful two-part climax with a breathtaking twist at the end of the season.
It's hard to pick between the episodes. All of them are required to enjoy the show and there are no low points. There are some fantastic highlights though. 'Valley Of Darkness', the second episode in which Cylon centurions wreak havoc on board the Galactica is a fantastic action piece. The assault of the metal killing machines on ship countered by the struggles of a small landing party on the planet Kobol. 'Scar', a much later episode in which the viper pilots fight an incredibly intelligent enemy star fighter is of similar tension.
The best, however, is the three episodes at the backbone of the whole series, the middle arc where the Battlestar Pegasus appears. The difference between the staff of the two ships, Galactica with its caring commander and softer rules, Pegasus with its overzealous military discipline and an officer who has gone too far following the rules and has lost touch with her humanity. The three episodes in which Admiral Cain and Commander Adama's style, personalities and ships face off is electric from beginning to shocking climax and knits the whole season together.
The overwhelming feeling of this season is one of a tired, stressed military, driven to its limits by a war they can't escape with enemies that could be among them at any time. In the post 9/11 world of Gulf War syndrome and terrorism, the themes of 'Battlestar Galactica' resonate strongly. It examines humanity under the magnifying glass of another war and asks the hard moral questions time and time again.
Ron Moore's creation has been a delight from the very first frame of the mini-series and with season three close approaching we can expect more brilliance from this very fine drama. If you love Science Fiction, particularly the more literary, realistic kind, you owe it to yourself to watch this show.
Tomas L. Martin
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