Slicing "Battlestar Galactica: Razor"

Around Halloween, Battlestar Galactica fans were treated to a leaked DVD screener to a special television movie called "Battlestar Galactica: Razor". Like the name implies, it sliced it way through legality and found its way onto peer-to-peer downloading networks. By now, a whole bunch of lucky fans has seen the event on the big screen, thanks to the generosity of Microsoft.

The conditions are certainly ripe for such a release. In light of the drought of new Battlestar Galactica material, aside from the Dynamite Entertainment comics and the wonderful soundtrack for season three, it is unsurprising that the screener has spread the Internet like wildfire to fans suffering from withdrawal. For the most part, the wait was worth it.

I'll try not to spoil most of the movie for you, but if you're going to stop reading because of the spoiler territory I'm about to cover, then just read this sentence and be done with it: I wished that the series third season had quality consistent with what I've seen in "Razor", because it is one of the best installments of the re-imagined series bar none.

The Meat of the Story

Haven't stopped reading yet? Wonderful!

For those of you who are new to the series, the "current" events in "Razor" are anchored in between second season episodes "The Captain's Hand" and "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I", following Lee Adama's (Jamie Bamber) appointment to be Pegasus' commander. I want to say that the "current" events happened before Sharon Agathon's (Grace Park) giving birth to Hera in "Downloaded" (the episode following "Hand"), however it is hard to tell as all the camera angles featuring her were conveniently filmed either from behind or from the chest up.

While there is a flashback that dates back to the end of the first Cylon War with a young William Adama (Nico Cortez), a majority of the flashbacks take place during the events of the Miniseries and up to "Pegasus", the episode that introduced Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes) and her crew. Most of what happened in that interim has already been explained in "Pegasus" and the "Resurrection Ship" two parter, so nothing that happens in these flashbacks is really new, aside from a few clarifications of who did what.

However, during these flashbacks, there are nice touches to the backstory of the battlestar Pegasus. These primarily deal with the interplay between Cain and her former XO and friend, Jurgen Belzen (Steve Bacic), in addition to her lesbian relationship with Gina Inviere (a Number Six played by Tricia Helfer). Cain's relationships tend to humanize her, even if one of them is with a manipulative Cylon.

The revelation that her lover Gina is a Cylon only further allows Cain to be galvanized as a Captain Ahab of the Colonial Fleet. To detractors who scoff this "convenient" relationship that ended up being the betrayal that cut her deep: Cain was already well on her way to becoming Ahab when she ordered the all-out attack on what initially appears to be a lone, lightly defended communication's relay, despite the fact that this became an obvious ambush and the subsequent objections of Colonel Belzen. Of course, she dealt with this truth by asking him for his weapon and shooting him in the head, which is a scene that makes you want to reach out to your television and smack sense into both of them.

In any event, the story follows a new character, Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen), who ends up being Cain's prot�g� and represents her legacy: one that isn't liked by most of the Colonial Fleet, including her new commander, Lee Adama. Most of the "A" story tie in with her, which isn't such a bad thing, since Jacobsen is able to pull off this story of a soldier's redemption very nicely. This is well done, considering the fact that she's a character no one's ever heard of before and hasn't been referred to since. One could neatly explain that as wanting to cover up the shameful, immoral acts that surrounded Shaw.

As we get to see, Shaw's major claim to "razor-hood" is that she's responsible for the events of the Scylla, which resulted in her putting a bullet in a woman's head to force these civilians to capitulate to Cain's demands. Much like Lee Adama, who may have killed over a thousand civilians on the Olympic Carrier in "33", she's still having a difficult time coping with her actions. However, like Galactica's XO, Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), she deals with the pressures through chemical means, up until the point where she sacrifices herself to complete the mission to destroy the ship of the first Cylon hybrid.

The "B" story is the one that sets up the events for season four and ties in to Kara Thrace's "destiny", the latter of the two is probably the most annoying aspects of "Razor", which (thankfully) rears its ugly head only at the end. Although it could be worse in that this could be shoved in the audience's face-which it very nearly was at the end-the way in which the destiny is jokingly referenced by Thrace herself is fairly well done.

Along with the story, there are various touches that can make fans squeal for joy. In addition to the appearance of most of the Pegasus crew, including conscript Peter Laird (Vincent Gale) on the Scylla, we have various nods to the original 1978 series as well.

The old school Centurions make an appearance in CGI-and unlike their original series counterparts, these Centurions are actually a force to be reckoned with! We also see the old Cylon Raiders. Regrettably, we discover that the Raiders are controlled by three Centurions, which is an aspect that shouldn't have made its way into the re-imagined series due to the sheer lunacy of the concept. There's also a few homages to crafts, aside from the obvious. These include an over-sized landram in one of Pegasus' bays cleaning up the remains of a Cylon boarding craft and a ship looking conspicuously like the Rising Star, which is part of the civilian fleet Pegasus finds and loots from.

Slicing the Fat

So having just said all this, there were a few things that I didn't particularly care for, but are mostly forgivable by this Battlestarved Galactica fan.

The scenes directly leading up to Gina being unmasked also caused problems for the narrative, because it it relies on contrivances and idiocy one a scale that was "Razor's" nearly-rung death knell. It is utterly absurd that there just happened to be a small camera directly across from where Number Six just happened to die, not to mention the fact that lay nicely propped up against a bulkhead. If there is no finer example of a writer's laziness, it is this contrivance. Also, the scenes stemming from Cain's inherent disbelief regarding this and the later proof from the camera feed is, in and of itself, groan-worthy. While such utter disbelief to the "Cylons look like us now" claim rightfully exists, the way Gina was unmasked could surely have been handled far better.

For instance, why not have carried the body to CIC and thrown it on the table like a slab of meat. Sure, it's melodramatic, but it would have left no room for doubt and avoided the defecated writer-laziness that was Gina's reveal. Hell, it would have been better to drag Six's body so that it can be placed in front of a camera. Sure, it's a little extra effort, but this would have been appreciated since it's, well, naturalistic.

Then on the opposite end of the spectrum, the scene of the Cylons in the Raider cockpit was pure, homogenized cheese. I'm sorry, but while it might have looked like a nice homage on paper, it made me cringe. So much so that I thought I had a back spasm. On top of that, I felt that I had a bout of cognitive dislocation, since the scene jarred so badly from the narrative. For one, I can't ignore the obviously corny, early age SF conceit of robots talking amongst themselves for the sake of the audience. Centurions should be able to communicate through wireless means, thus being able to transmit instructions instantaneously. This would be far more efficient than verbal speech.

Secondly, why on Gods' green Kobol does it take three Cylons to operate a fighter? This was the most annoying aspect of the original series as well; if the Cylon craft was a bomber or carrier, I could probably see it, but to have three machines control what has acted thus far as a pure fighter craft is conceptually and feasibly ridiculous.

Another gripe deals with Lieutenant Thorne's (Fulvio Cecere) one-minute brief cameo appearance. It was previously inferred in "Resurrection Ship" that he is responsible for saving a lot of lives on Pegasus during the Cylon boarding action, yet his appearance on-screen solely consists of Cain issuing her order to torture Gina by any inventive means he can come up with. It would have been great to see him in action and find out how exactly this lusting, smug rapist earned the respect of so many.

Furthermore, where are the Sunshine Boys (Mike Dopud, Derek Delost), the CAG (John-Pyper Ferguson) and Viper jock Narcho (Sebastian Spence)? They could have easily been a part of the "So Say We All" scenes on the hangar deck, instead of the throwaway characters we were subjected to. The fact that they were conspicuously absent during these scenes cheapened the experience, although I doubt the occasional viewer would have noticed.

There's also the fact that Pegasus' CAG should have been at Cain's dinner shindig-where she assures her top people that she won't go Ahab on everyone-since he does lead fighter operations aboard the ship.

And here's where the razor blade should have really been used...

Then there's this not-so-small, grating, annoying thing: "Oh-by-the-way,-did-you-forget-that-Kara-Thrace-has-a-destiny-that-we-shall-repeat-ad-nauseum?"

There's nothing like a Buffy Summers/Anakin Skywalker/Chosen One clich� to throw a wrench into the works. I am thankful that this reared its inevitable Medusa-like head very late in this installment, however it unfortunately sets up her resurrection and its possible affects to the story, which serves to only make her more and more like the Sumerian goddess Inanna. (That comparison is ripe for another article, so I won't go into how Starbuck is to the Colonials as Inanna is to the Mesopotamians legends here.)

Other than the semi-mythical mumbo-jumbo, "Razor" is a solid offering that shows us why Cain and the Pegasus should have stayed along a little while longer. Without being overly preachy, it shows us the decisions Cain had to face and the circumstances under which these decisions were made. It also poses several moral questions with no clear-cut answers: How will morality play a role when the world ends? Will we still be-or could we even afford the luxury of being-human in the face of such adversity?

Even with Kara "Almighty Frakkin' Harbinger of Death" Thrace, "Razor" offers us a shining hope for the future of the re-imagined series, should enough fans stick around to watch the story's conclusion when season four debutes in April 2008.

Oh, and if you happen to be one of the thousands of fans to have downloaded the screener, do everyone a favor and buy the frakkin' DVD! Really! It's worth the money!

So say we all!

"Battlestar Galactica: Razor" was screened theatrically on November 12th in select cities. See BattlestarEvent.com for details. Its television debut will be on November 24th at 9/8 P.M central on the SCIFI Channel, with a subsequent unrated DVD release to occur on December 4th.