The Final Cut

I've finally gotten the chance to catch up on a couple of episodes, the most recent of which was the Final Cut. During the time that Col. Tigh was in command of the fleet, he made a couple of orders that were highly regretable, in part the killing of several civilians on a ship called the Gillian, now known as the Gillian Massacure. Because of this, and other actions, the Galactica and the military are in poor standings with the fleet. To overcome this, Adama gives one reporter complete access to the Galactica and her crew, in an attempt to show the fleet exactly what goes on on the Galactica and who the military really is. While on board, she has to face the crew and see exactly who the crew is.
War journalism has been apart of almost every SciFi show that I've seen thus far. Stargate SG-1 featured a two part episode entitled Heros, where the Pentagon wanted some civilian documentation of the Stargate program. Babylon 5 also featured a reporter episode, where the Earth Alliance wanted to show people on Earth what life on B5 was like, but the program was twisted into a completely anti-Babylon 5 program. These Journalism episodes are similar in story. It's also a highly identifiable event, given today's events. People want to see what goes on behind closed doors, and given Galactica's trend, keeping with realistic ideas, this falls in nicely.
Final Cut has much more to do with Heros than B5's episode, because the themes are much similar, right down to the conclusions- it's the people who matter, and it's the successes that you don't see that count, not the public failures.
Overall, this episode is one of the stronger, if slightly standalone, Galactica episodes. For once, we're pulled out of Galactica and placed in the civilian's view- usually through a small screen of a camera. Especially moving was the space battle- the one that we don't see at all. Everything is seen through the camera or on the CIC/Hanger Deck. The only way that we know what's going on is over the speakers, and for the first time, we can really see what it's like on the bridge and hanger decks as the fight goes on. Truely some outstanding acting here. There are some other links to other episodes, such as the small storyline with an LT getting revenge on Tigh for deploying him to the Gillian, and Kat taking Stims, which give this episode a really rich feeling, although at times, it feels like they're trying to put too much into an episode. Lucy Lawless's character is extremely interesting, right up to the point where we find that she's a Cylon. Very motivated, well acted.
Rating: A