Battlestar Galactica 1.05: You Can't Go Home Again

Another excellent episode of Battlestar Galactica on tonight. I swear, this show is what's keeping me going through each week. The weeks have been going by quickly and we're already into week four of Battlestar Galactica.Prior to this episode, Starbuck was forced to come forward with her role in Zak Adama's death several years before the miniseries, because she did not adequetly train him. An explosion forced her back to training pilots, and this brought up memories of Zak. Last we saw of Starbuck in episode 1.04, she took on eight Cylon Raiders and was shot down. Our last view of her was her ejecting out of her downed viper and falling though the moon's atmosphere.This episode picks up right after that. The fleet has been mobilized in search and rescue operations, trying to find out what happened to Starbuck. They realize that Starbuck has less than fifty hours of oxygen left, and move quickly, deploying vipers to search the moon near where she was last seen. Lee and Adama are adamant that they find Starbuck, and Col. Tigh and President Roslin become very worried that the Cylons will return and that it's a hopeless case. Starbuck is alive, although she hurt her leg on the way down. She decides to move to higher ground, where she finds a downed Cylon Raider. She also makes a startling discovery: The Cylon Raiders are part machine and part biological. She also finds more oxygen and works on getting the Raider back up and running. On Caprica, Helo and Boomer are surprised when a pair of Cylons come in and fire on them. Helo is knocked out and when he comes to, Boomer is missing. Meanwhile, back on Galactica, President Roslin tells Adama that he's gone too far, and that they should end the search. Adama and Lee reluctantly do so. As they're about to jump, a Cylon Raider appears, flying oddly. Lee flys out to take it out, and notices that it's not only flying oddly, but it's got Star Buck taped to the bottom in large letters. They bring Starbuck on the ship and jump.


Another kick ass episode, nicely finishing up the first episode, and with some great results. First, on the cinamtography, there's some excellent stuff here. The moon that Starbuck lands on is wonderful, with some great orange-tinting going on that really sets this appart from other worlds that we've really seen in any scifi. The rapid camera movements in this portion is great as well. On Caprica, there's also some great tinting, although this is blue, and I got a distinct Black Hawk Down feeling to some of the overhead view shots. The story was great, expecially on the character level. The rift between the military and government is starting to move apart slightly, with Adama being very adamant about not leaving Starbuck behind, despite all the evidence that she might be dead. He gets flack from everyone, including his XO, which really tightens the tension there. Plus, we see Helo and Boomer's relationship,a nd how lost he seems when she goes missing.We're also setting up with several elements for future episodes, mainly with the Cylon Raider, which will come into some very prominent parts later on towards the end of the series. What's also very interesting is that the Raider is half organic, which helps Starbuck survive. I believe that this is a slight remake of an original episode, which is pretty cool. There's some smaller things, like Starbuck asking the gods for a break, and finding the Raider shortly there after. Just a taste of things to come.I would imagine that the ratings will be just as high for this episode, so I'm wondering how on Earth the SciFi channel will even think about cancelling this show. If they do, there will be blood.