Reviews, reviews and reviews

It's here, it's here!

And here's some first reviews:

Battlestar Galactica: He That Believeth In Me (season premiere)

Posted Apr 4th 2008 11:00PM by Keith McDuffee

(S04E01)

Starbuck is dead. At least the Starbuck as we knew her before the events of 'Maelstrom'.

Now don't go thinking I've revealed some sort of spoiler pre-jump here. What I said is merely an observation of how Starbuck appears in this episode and how others perceive her now. It's also from something Katee Sackhoff was told by Ron Moore (as she mentioned in an interview). And can you really blame all parties involved for behaving quite a bit differently now, since then?

Some of you may have been lucky/sharp enough to notice that SciFi was airing the episode on its website earlier today, noon ET. Unfortunately I didn't know this until about fifteen minutes into the showing (it was live), so I wouldn't have had time to post about it until you would have missed some key moments. You did miss out on a crapload of Ironman commercials, though (not that that's such a bad thing).

In fact, once such key moment is captured in the screenshot I chose for this post -- Ander's reddening, Cylon eye. If there was any doubt at all about Anders (and the other three from last season's finale) being Cylons, this put that to rest right quick. I do wonder, though, if this is the first time Anders had such an experience during combat. Did he have this seemingly subconscious control over other Cylons before that "switch" turned on last season? How about the others? This scene and the battle around it was a spectacular way to kick off the season.
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And from the New York Times:

Space Opera Returns: One Last Step for Mankind
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

Earth, not space, is the final frontier of “Battlestar Galactica.”

The galaxy-wandering survivors of an apocalyptic attack begin the fourth and last season of this Sci Fi Channel wunderseries where they left off: with the faint but improbable hope that one of them has found the lost, mythical home planet.

Whether anyone should believe Kara Thrace, a k a Starbuck, the swashbuckling fighter pilot who was thought to be dead for two months and cannot account for her lost time or prove her claim, is only one of many mysteries confounding the crew of the Galactica. Another is her latest sleeping arrangements: Kara (played by Katee Sackhoff) has a husband and a lover (two, if one counts the amorous Cylon who held her captive on the robot-occupied settlement New Caprica).

“Battlestar Galactica,” which begins on Friday, is a space opera, a high-minded space odyssey with more than a touch of the daytime soaps. It is critically acclaimed and widely respected, but the science-fiction show’s fiercely dedicated cult following has become something of a mass-culture joke: the two lonely mathematicians on the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” decline lunch with a pretty girl so they can view the commentary on the DVD of Season 2.

And that is a disservice because “Battlestar Galactica” is one of the more beguiling series on television, an action-adventure drama that travels through time and space to explore morality, politics and metaphysics. Science fiction often serves as a modesty curtain that permits authors to think big thoughts at a safe remove — special effects and laser make-believe palliate abstract musings and pompous parables that might otherwise bore or offend viewers. (Without phasers and Vulcan death grips, the moralizing streak in the original “Star Trek” would have been insufferable.)

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What did you think of the first episode?