TV Take: Frak Yeah!

Battlestar Galactica is back and better than its ever been.

Battlestar Galactica guru Ronald D. Moore told fans to expect some major developments in the first episode of the show’s final 10 installments and boy, he wasn’t kidding.  Only three minutes have elapsed in tonight’s premiere (airing tonight at 10pm on Sci Fi Channel) before the writers unleash their first revelation about the bombed-out Earth the crew of the starship Galactica discovered at the end of the mid-season finale, broadcast last March.  Two more big surprises follow at the 10 and 15-minute marks and then 27 minutes in, a gunshot rings out, signaling the passing of a major character.  I’d tell you when to expect to learn the identity of the fifth and final Cylon, but that scene was clipped from the screener by the powers that be at Sci Fi, the first time I’ve ever seen that done for a non-reality show.

The ridiculously hot cast of BSG

Maybe its just my glee at having Battlestar back after such a long hiatus, but based on this episode, it seems like the show is the best its ever been.  The writers used their time off wisely bringing a momentum back to the series that often faded away during the third year and even the first half of this season.  There’s no question that giving the storyline a definitive end-point is largely responsible for this welcome burst of energy.  Going into this last batch of episodes, I was concerned about whether there was really enough plot left to fill 10 hours of television, but I’m happy to say Moore knows what he’s doing.  This episode is exquisitely paced, answering several long-standing questions, while also showing there are new angles to existing mysteries.  It also contains what may just be the best-performed scene I’ve seen in the show’s history–and that’s saying something–a tense face-off between Admiral Adama (the brilliant Edward James Olmos) and his friend/second-in-command/recently revealed Cylon Saul Tigh (the equally brilliant Michael Hogan) that’s both pulse-pounding and emotionally overwhelming.  As sorry as I’ll be to see the show come to an end, it’s clearly gonna go out at the top of its game.