WRITER: Mark Verheiden DIRECTOR: Michael Rymer
CAST: Edward James Olmos (Adama), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Michael Hogan (Tigh), James Callis (Baltar), Michael Trucco (Anders), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tricia Helfer (Number 6), Jamie Bamber (Lee), Mary McDonnell (Roslin), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Lucy Lawless (D'Anna/Number 3) & Richard Hatch (Tom Zareck)
A secret council known as The Circle begin illegally sentencing Cylon collaborators to death...It's time for readjustment. The New Caprica storyline reached its spectacular conclusion last week, so the show gets back to some semblance of normality back aboard Galactica.
Collaborators offers another painfully plausible storyline about vigilante justice being meted out on those who helped the Cylons during the occupation. It's ugly stuff, particularly as members of the self-appointed "Circle" include characters we've grown to like (Chief Tyrol, Anders, Tigh, etc).
Collaborators has guts. There aren't many TV series that show its main characters ejecting people out of hangars to suffocate in space. It's this uneasy edge that has always made BSG so compelling. This season I'm increasingly finding the good guys more sinister than the Cylons at times!
In fact, the Cylons may have committed unforgivable mass genocide, but who's to say we wouldn't sympathise with their actions if the nature of their former slavery was shown? Or at the very least understand why they thought nuking Caprica was justified.
Mark Verheiden crafts a tight script that milks buckets of suspense from its premise, while also allowing time for a nice sub-plot with Roslin and Zareck as they rebuilt democracy in the wake of Baltar's disastrous reign as Colonial President.
Baltar himself wakes up aboard a Cylon Basestar -- a situation that I hope will show things from the enemy perspective in the weeks to come. It should be very interesting to reverse things and see a human within a Cylon environment. How do their ships function? How are tactical decisions made? Who is in charge? Are decisions made democratically?
Overall, Collaborators is a thought-provoking episode that even makes Mr Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) a shade more interesting, while offering some tense dramatic moments. After the refreshing change in locations and situations for season 3, it's a comedown to be back aboard Galactica. But BSG always knows how to surprise, challenge and reinvent itself, so I'm sure the status quo will be upset soon...
