Episode 103: Bastille Day

This is an episode that I’ve been waiting to see for quite some time. Gateworld.net posted up several images before, showing some Galactica soldiers in black, SWAT-like uniforms. It got me excited, because for once, Science Fiction is actually doing accurate military stuff. It’s about time.This episode takes place just after Water, where a water moon is found, although the only stuff that’s drinkable is the ice, which will have to be mined. Lee, Adama and Roslin remember the Prisoners. They decide that if they work and mine the ice, they will be let free. The prisoners, on the other hand, have other ideas, and with the help of a prison guard, they are let out and take Lee, Callie, Dee and Billy hostage, while a well-known prisoner, Tom Zarek, makes demands. The president must resign, and formal elections should take place. The Galactica sends three units of special marines and Starbuck to take out Zarek, and to free the prisoners. Callie is about to be raped, but after biting off her attacker’s ear, she creates enough of a distraction for Lee to grab a gun and to put it at Zarek’s head. He tells Zarek that he won’t get the bloodbath that he wanted to gain sympathy. He tells him that he’s going to help them mine the ice, and that they will be freed, and that elections would be held. They then leave the ship.This episode was great. More than the previous two have, it breaks some of the tension and brings some humor into it. There are several great moments where characters make fun of each other, or utter some great lines.

Tigh: (To Boxey) Where’s your mother?Boxey: She’s dead. Where’s yours?

There are several others that lighten up some points in it as well, but what did even more was the scenes on Caprica, where Helo and Sharon reach a city on planet. The producers did some outstanding lighting effects, bathing the entire scene in a great yellow, reminiscent of Pitch Black in some places. It was a welcome change from the dark grays on the ships and other things.What really blew me away was the military response to the hostage-taking. After the people are locked up, the Galactica sends in three teams, Alpha, Bravo and Constellation, which was a plus. Alpha and Bravo are company names that are used. Constellation is not, but it certainly fits with the universe. But the way that they actually got onto the ship, landing Raptors on the ship, cutting their way in and taking down former prisoners was great to see, especially when they actually moved and responded like real soldiers. It’s something that just hasn’t really been well done in Sci-Fi TV. Stargate has been getting better at their military tactics, but for a show to go right off the bat is outstanding. Plus, they got the uniforms right, the weapons right, pretty much everything there.Tom Zarek is a very cool new character, played by Richard Hatch, the original Apollo from the first Battlestar Galactica. His character is a political terrorist. Like several other elements in the show, this is one thing that really resonates in a post-9-11 era. He’s got tremendous support from some people, hatred from others and is a fairly complex character. As Lee finds out, he’s not interested in his demands, but as Lee put it, “Has been out of the news for 20 years,” and wants to go out in a Blaze of Glory, by provoking the Galactica’s soldiers into shooting the prisoners. Lee is able to stop it, and to turn the tables entirely.Several other characters have had a little more limelight, namely Callie, Dee and Billy, who are all taken prisoner. Callie is one of the characters that I haven’t really paid much attention to, who is kind of in the background most of the time. However, in this episode, she’s taken prisoner, mouths of to some of her captors and is nearly raped. He bites her captor’s ear off, and is shot. Something I never would have expected. Billy and Dee have been forming their own little relationship since the miniseries, and we can see that they’re two very different people, especially where Tom Zarek is concerned. Billy thinks that he was somewhat justified in his actions, while Dee, coming from the same planet, is horrified at what he has done. Their actions become fairly heated.Col. Tigh and Starbuck also have their troubles between each other. They have a small confrontation in the ready room, where they have a difference of opinion over how discipline. Starbuck jokes around the problem, but gets to the source of it, while Tigh would have wanted a more direct approach. She later makes fun of him for his drinking problem, something that’s probably going to play out more later.Baltar had little screen time, but he is turning out to be a hilarious character with Six in his head. His reactions to her screaming at him are funny, especially when he does a double take when she tells him to ask for a warhead—a double take to something not there, and when he drops his glass when she screams at him.Similarly, Boomer (Galactica’s Boomer) and Chief Tyrol have been ordered to stop seeing each other by Tigh, but they get little screen time, and it’s almost an afterthought.
I think that the only thing that bugged me about this episode was the recycling of the music. There were a couple places where some music was lifted right out of the miniseries, and dropped in here. I kind of wish that there was some more original stuff there.
Overall, this series is getting better and better with each episode. This one was exciting, tense, well filmed, colored and scripted, and like any good story, gives us just a little more to keep us held over for the next episode. I can’t wait to see the next episode. The next episode will go more into the past- with Starbuck’s fiancée and Lee’s Brother Zach, and more into the details of his death after an accident. On the Galactica, an accident kills 20 pilots, meaning that Kara needs to overcome her guilt and train new ones, even though she was responsible for Zach’s death.