Since BSG started as a miniseries there seems to be some confusion about the episode numbering scheme. According to some 33 is E1, E5 or most numbers in between. It feels right to me to list it as episode 5. The miniseries was equivalent in length to four episodes, but apparently doesn’t divide into 4 segments the right length, despite being sold in some forms as four separate episodes. Anyway, difficulties of naming aside, this was a really nice way to continue the series proper. The episode was tense and intriguing, providing action and moral ambiguity. The only thing I am worried about is that they’re setting themselves an impossible standard.
I know it’s early days, but I’m loving the way that the series is keeping you guessing about the grand plan. We don’t know for sure who might be Cylons or Cylon agents. It seems to be clear that the Cylon’s have a plan, but quite what it is and how it works is wonderfully obscure. I am hoping it will be revealed gradually, and each step in some sort of genuine plan will be made clear. One of the problems with X-files was the writers themselves never really seemed to know what they were doing. Lost suffered from the same problem, but I’ve had a lot more faith that the Lost guys know what’s going on in the end. It seems like we’re witnessing the first moves of a chess game, and whilst there might be missteps along the way or whatever, I just want to know that it’s more than a few unconnected events.
There’s plenty of questioning about what exactly the best course of action is, and what the right thing to do is. The real difficulty of an episode concept like this is getting the relentlessness of the situation they’re in across. But this was done really well. The production stuff I mentioned before really helped with this, the sense of claustrophobia adding to the exhaustion evident in all the performances, which I again felt were really strong. I loved the constant countdown and the use of lots of different clocks added something in urgency that 24’s intensely irritating beeps never managed. As in all TV the series will live or die with the characters, and I think there’s going to be a need soon to develop different interactions, as apart from Apollo and Commander Adama no one seems to interact with more than one other character. Still it’s been great so far, and I’m certainly going to keep watching.