WATF Review: Battlestar Galactica: The Hand of God (110)

My “Well After The Fact” (or WATF) reviews are my personal analysis of content. Usually this means that I purchase wrestling dvds, graphic novels/trade paperbacks, and television episodes of genre entertainment on the cheap, through ebay or other means. And then I review them.

I really enjoyed this episode. For me, one of the strongest episodes of the reimagined BSG, with all of the key characters: Apollo, Starbuck, Tigh, Adama… all acting within their characters, but also excelling in their own skills.   A fine bit of acting, good plot progression, and good character development.

Once again, I watched this several months ago, and am catching up to the Season 2.0

Well After the Fact Review
DVD Box Set: Battlestar Galactica Season 1
Episode 110: The Hand of God

As I said, it is one of my favorite episodes of BSG. I thought everyone was rather likeable, and it just came of very well.

Basic Plot

The fleet is running out of fuel, either general fuel or fuel to do space jumps. When scouting for the fuel, tylium, Boomer and Crashdown find an asteroid with the ore, that is heavily guarded by the Cylons. Instead of running and finding another source, Adama decides to attack the Cylons.

At the same time, President Roslin is having visions, specifically of 12 snakes. When she talks to Elosha (the religious advisor), she says that these visions were revealed in the book of Pythia, where the one who will lead the tribes of man to their new home will see serpents numbering twelve.

Adama comes to Starbuck to help hatch the plan, saying that this will required “out of the box” thinking to get it done. Starbuck’s plan is to pull the Cylons fighters away from the base with three decoy vessels, once the Cylons are pulled, Galactica will jump to a nearby location, and launch fighters to destroy the base. Additionally, Tigh and Starbuck consult Baltar to find the correct spot to target on the base to make it explode. Baltar, with Number 6′s help, picks a spot at random.

Starbuck is still injured for the run, and Apollo is scheduled to lead the fighters. On Caprica, Helo and Boomer are still on the run. Boomer starts to vomit after a meal, suggesting something… Later Helo spots another model of #6 who he had seen killed earlier, leading some Cylon Centurions.

During the attack, everything goes according to plan, until Cylon fighters pull away from the decoy ships and advance towards Galactica. All seems lost, when Adama orders the team of Vipers, hiding under the decoy ships, to launch and attack the base. The whole plan was a feint, supposedly by Adama who doesn’t like to tell everyone everything. Apollo leads the second squadron to the asteroid, and pulling a crazy “Starbuck-like” maneuver, destroys the base, using the random location selected by Baltar.

The Vipers destroy the remaining fighters. Galactica is able to take the fuel from the mine, enough to last them several years. And Baltar after hearing the same scripture (from #6) said to Roslin, realizes that he must be an agent of “God”

Analysis

Just a fun strategy episode. Didn’t like the ‘trick’… as the trick was mostly to make the episode more dramatic… rather than anything in the plot.

Fun Question: Did the Cylons know about the plan, due to Baltar, or is his Number Six working only with him.

The prophecy angle with President Roslin was somewhat unexpected. It’s a nice little twist. With Baltar using the same scripture, it brings an aspect of dueling faiths. And the ‘what is meant to be will be.’

Starbuck’s strategy planning in the face of Colonel Tigh is interesting as well, but I don’t think that will be followed up. Tigh is a straight by the books sort of leader. Regardless, this didn’t seem like something that was totally against ‘standard rules of combat’.

Boomer (on Caprica’s) throwing up is a huge red flag for any standard television watchers. As subtle as a freight train. I’m still waiting to see this develop into something interesting.

Baltar is so smarmy. It’s interesting and enjoyable. Nothing will ever replace John Colicos as the best Baltar, but it is a nice take on the character, and getting better.

Overall Grade

One of the two best episodes in this first season. Just fun and action packed. The show needs to get better quotes though, just way too dark.

A-