WRITER: Michael Angeli DIRECTOR: Bill Eagles
CAST: Edward James Olmos (Adama), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), James Callis (Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number 6), Jamie Bamber (Lee), Mary McDonnell (Roslin), Grace Park (Sharon), Lucy Lawless (D'Anna/Number 3), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy) & Kandyse McClure (Dee)
Galactica finds the infected Basestar and transports some diseased Cylons into quarantine, with a genocidal plot to defeat the enemy forever...Season 3 is certainly flying along, untainted by a single dud episode. The show works best as a continuing serial, and the sense of momentum this year has been fantastic. A Measure Of Salvation effectively completes the story begun in last week's Torn, giving further credence to the theory that most episodes this year are couplets.
Writer Michael Angeli deivers another of BSG's trademark morality plays, this time focusing on the ethics of wiping out an entire civilisation. The Cylons may be an enemy who committed genocide, but should you wipe them all out as revenge, or rise above such an horrific act? Is it even genocide if the enemy are machines?
The dilemma is instigated when a Galactica team board a Basestar stuck by a deadly disease, and Lee suggests transmitting the contagion to the entire Cylon race. All it would take is executing some sick Cylons in range of their Resurrection Ship. As usual, characters are split over the decision, the most vocally against being Helo (Tahmoh Penikett; always a valuable presence).
Baltar's situation worsens, after his lie about seeing the diseased beacon aboard the infected Basestar is exposed. James Callis is always great fun to watch; never the stereotypical villain, just a conflicted and tortured person whose only thought is for self-preservation and misguided love.
He soons finds himself physically tortured by D'Anna/Number 3 (the wonderful Lucy Lawless), leading to a fantastic extended sequence where Baltar attempts to test D'Anna's faith with scientific reasoning, while visions of Number 6 coax him to separate his mind from bodily pain. It's a surreal three-way conversation that oozes tension, quite magnificently directed by Bill Eagles and performed brilliantly by Callis, Lawless and Tricia Helfer.
Being very critical, while A Measure Of Salvation is a strong episode, plots involving moral decisions are commonplace on the show and tend to follow a set pattern. As such, it's enjoyable but predictable to see how the matter resolves itself, and the episode is perhaps more memorable for the peripheral information concerning the search for Earth and Baltar's loyalties.
