WRITER: Bradley Thompson & David Weddle DIRECTOR: Felix Enrique Alcata
CAST: Edward James Olmos (Adama), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Michael Hogan (Tigh), James Callis (Baltar), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tricia Helfer (Number 6), Michael Trucco (Anders), Jamie Bamber (Lee), Mary McDonnell (Roslin), Grace Park (Sharon), Lucy Lawless (Number 3), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy) & Richard Hatch (Tom Zareck)
The rescue mission begins, with Adama taking Galactica back to New Caprica, while Lee is ordered to head for Earth with Pegasus. Meanwhile, the insurgents coordinate the ground operation...Battlestar Galactica certainly doesn't shy away from action. Exodus Part II contains some awesome visuals that FX fans will be particularly appreciative of. Some of the sequences here put a few movies to shame, illustrating the care and attention lavished on this series.
Exodus Part II is a thrilling pay-off to the careful build-up of the past three episodes. As such it's 80% action and suspense, but all action is hollow without emotion, so there are several spine-tingling scenes of human drama. Not to mention some surprises for Tigh and Starbuck...
Heroism. Loyalty. Duty. The episode has that suffocating feeling of people thrown into an all-or-nothing situation, coupled with the militaristic sense of duty BSG does so well. It's frankly a pleasure to watch this episode, and makes you realize how much you care about these characters. Even the villainous Cylons are more textured and three-dimensional than typical one-note villains, while the traitorous Gaius never loses our sympathy... no matter how low he sinks in his misguided beliefs.
At the centre of all this is Edward James Olmos as Admiral Adama. Simply wonderful. He's a man of few words, but his gritty determination is engrossing to watch. Adama is easily one of the most believable characters on television right now.
It's a sin how science-fiction is often snubbed by critics, although crossover successes like Lost and Doctor Who have brought the genre to a wider audience. The secret is that characters are the driving force behind these shows, not the fantastical situations. BSG is at the forefront of this, in a sense, because its premise is the most resolutely "science-fiction", yet reaches a wider audience because its characterisations and plotting is so assured.
It pains me to remember that some die-hard fans of the original 70s series haven't even given this "reimagining" a chance. Their reasoning is flawed, based more on red-tinted nostalgia than reasoned thinking. No, 21st-Century BSG isn't a simple update of Glen A. Larson's original series -- it's more involving, entertaining, enlightening and thought-provoking.
So say we all.
