TV Review: Battlestar Galactica – Daybreak: Part 1

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 14, 2009

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica, SciFi, Airs Friday 10/9c

Episode: “Daybreak: Part 1” (Season Four, Episode 21)

Synopsis: Galactica is being dismantled, and the crew is preparing to move to the other ships in the fleet, including the Rebel Cylon Basestar. During this process, Adama plans a rescue mission for Hera while various members of the fleet flash back to their lives on Caprica before the fall.

Review: For the past couple weeks, I have accused this show of marking time in anticipation for the series finale next week. And while it may appear that this week had some time being marked, particularly in the flashback sequences, I took this to be the direct set-up for the two hour season finale.

The more introspective moments of this episode, like Laura Roslin’s backstory and Gaius Baltar’s cold dealings with his father, were okay by me because I have faith they will come into play next week. Let’s keep our fingers crossed about that. Still, it was fun to see some of the characters – particularly Sam Anders – in his pre-fall, pre-Cylon personality.

Not enough screen time was devoted to the reality of Starbuck’s situation, although I think we’ll definitely learn the truth next week. Other less obvious seeds were planted in this episode, including the fact that Athena is ready to go nuts over the loss of her daughter, and we all know how dangerous a situation can be with an unstable Eight running around. Helo and the Chief’s conversation in the middle of the episode pointed pretty strongly to the fact that Athena is a ticking time bomb. After all, remember how she killed herself to kidnap Hera back when Boomer had “custody” the first time?

What really excites me about this episode is that it is leading into one hell of a finale with Galactica taking a suicide mission towards the black hole perimeter where John’s Basestar is located. I think we’ll see some action like we saw when New Caprica was liberated.

Sure, some of the recent episodes may have been a little slow, but I think we’re heading towards one hell of a series finale.

Up Next: The two-hour series finale, with Bill Adama crying havoc and letting slip the dogs of war on the bad Cylons.

Did you watch Battlestar Galactica this week? If so, feel free to discuss below.

Related Reading:

Comment Policy: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Film School Rejects reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. We also reserve the right to modify any curse words in your comments and make you look like an idiot. Thank You!

Kangaroo Be Stoned

I really like this episode. The flashbacks made it for me, especially Baltar's. I found that to be sad and funny at the same time. I think it is obvious that the flashbacks will have a part in the finale, I just hope it isn't something like "these characters who had flashbacks will live or die". That would be extremely lame.

The only thing I do not like about the episode is the retarded decision to go on a rescue mission for Hera. Adama and the crew do not know much about her. They don't know why she is so important. Hell, Cavil doesn't even know why. Since they do not know that, it makes the rescue mission look irresponsible. Hopefully this will be explained in the last episode.

RobertFure

This episode was mostly good. The flashbacks I didn't totally care for. Adama's was short as hell and I'm not sure how effective it was. Gaius' was like "Remember this guy is an asshole? Well he's an even BIGGER asshole than you thought!" The one I absolutely hated was Pres. Ros. That was terrible. Her character must be schizophrenic because she has been like 6 different characters. She started as a caring secretary, a disinterested President, a naive president, an insane war hawk President, a backstabbing bitch, a religious zealot, a dying woman, a kind lover, an exercise freak, and a few others and now she added 'young at heart big sister.' Her character flashback seemed COMPLETELY unrelated to anything she's ever done before, not to mention she's old enough to be both her sister's mother.

The stuff on Galactica was better. Pretty stupid plan going on a suicide mission with half of the surviving humans in the Universe with a ship that you've been stripping for weeks. I've got high hopes for the finale. If its awesome, I'll probably forgive most of the BS of late, but I have my doubts. I have a feeling Baltar is going to die now and that might push me over the edge. How horrible of an ending would it be for Baltar's one truly selfless act be to like, crash something into the colony? I wouldn't put it past them at the moment.

Also, I'm not totally expecting everything to be explained, considering they have "The Plan" coming up and will probably have a few more TV movies.

Kangaroo Be Stoned

Most of the sets have been destroyed, so you can count out any more TV movies after "The Plan".

TV Review: Battlestar Galactica – Daybreak: Part 1

Battlestar Galactica, SciFi, Airs Friday 10/9c

Related Topics:

Related Reading: