I was a fan of the original Battlestar Galactica, which aired in 1978-1979. Over the years, I’d heard many rumors of the series being resurrected. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that Ron Moore, one of the Star Trek gurus, managed to get enough backing to launch a new series. The new series was built on ideas from the original series, with a bit of it being updated and changed. For many of us who were fans of the original series, many of these changes weren’t palatable. The main source of my own resistance to the series was the changing of the character of Starbuck from a man to a woman. I could swallow the updated special effects and increased action and intensity that changed with the show’s very different time slot and intended audience. I couldn’t bear to watch what was being done to characters I loved and basically grew up with, having watched episodes I taped over and over again through the years.

After a couple of seasons of hearing just how great the new series was, I relented and tried watching it. My first attempt was to pick the series up in the middle of the run. I don’t suggest this avenue if you haven’t seen the series before now. Whether or not you were a fan of the original run, you’ll likely be confused. The best way to get the entire story, including the nuances of the relationships between the various characters, is to watch it in order, right from the first episode.

The third season of the new Battlestar Galactica opens a bit after the end of the second season. The primary action is taking place on “New Caprica”. The Cylons are subjugating the humans, but the humans are rebelling. When I started to watch these DVDs, I was left feeling like something was missing. That was because there was. The producers of the series created a series of 10 “webisodes” that showed what life was like under Cylon rule, including the formation of the resistance. These showed what events took place so that Colonel Tigh came to be imprisoned by the Cylons.

However, I still felt like I missed something. The last I remembered, Starbuck was with her husband, who was sick, on New Caprica. The next time I see Starbuck, she has been captured. She is told the Cylons preserved her ovaries when she was captured back on Caprica. A girl-child, “Casey”, is presented to her as a Cylon-human hybrid using her DNA. This somewhat awakens her maternal instinct and leads to a whole mess of psychological issues throughout the season for her, including flashbacks to conflicts involving her own mother.

The third season is rather complicated as the fallout involving collaborators and the bitterness of the experiences on New Caprica rears its ugly head. Commander Adama manages to reunite the fleet, but in many ways, they are more divided than ever. The lines are blurred between good and evil. Both Starbuck and Tigh have lasting scars from the experiences on New Caprica that don’t bring out the better sides of their personalities. There’s the question of torture and secret tribunals. There’s less action this season; fewer battles and scenes in space. What happens over the course of these six discs is more character-driven and psychological than the series has been up until now.

In some ways, that works very well. Couched in the science fiction setting of a people like us, but in their own culture, many of the issues and questions that have plagued us here on Earth as we enter the 21st century are explored. This works well most of the time, sometimes better than others.

The Cylons, meanwhile, have the traitorous Gaius Baltar with them. He is the lone human among them, and he is treading lightly as to whether he once again betrays his own race or betrays the Cylons. He seems to be descending into madness. Eventually, he is turned back over to the humans and put on trial for his crimes against humanity. The episodes involving the trial are excellent, if a bit far-fetched in my opinion.

Hanging over the entire season is the question of just who the remaining Cylons among the human population are. At the end of the season, they are revealed, and it wasn’t who I would have guessed. This makes for an interesting plot twist and almost makes me want to go back and see what clues were there to who they were all along.

With so much of this season being character-driven, you would think that would develop the characters’ relationships a great deal. There are many complications in romantic relationships, as well as in people’s characters. The questions they must answer about the line between right and wrong are some excellent moments. However, romantically, I thought much of the season really missed the mark. One character who was in conflict for quite some time in her love life just left me with an empty feeling. By midway through this season, I didn’t care who she ended up with. The relationship I enjoyed seeing develop was the one between Adama and President Laura Roslin. This is handled with great dignity, maturity, mutual respect, and affection.

The DVD sets are excellent. Moore continues to do podcasts for each episode, and these are wonderful. He’s gotten away from taking jabs at the fans and just concentrates on talking about the series and what motivations are behind some of what’s happening on the screen, as well as how it was done. One thing I didn’t like was the fact that I noticed more and more storylines this season that have allusions to stories from the original series. It bothered me a bit that in his commentaries, Moore doesn’t give credit where credit is due. He doesn’t out and out claim they are original storylines, but he doesn’t mention that very similar stories were present in the original series

Some of the episodes also have podcast commentaries with various members of the cast and crew. The commentary by actor Mark Sheppard on the trial episodes titled The Son Also Rises and Crossroads was probably the most boring commentary I’ve ever listened to. There were long periods of silence during the shows as the volume for the episode was turned down so you could hear the commentator speak. The only problem is, Mark Sheppard left a lot of dead air.

Perhaps it was the lack of action and the fact that this became more of a psychological drama, but as the season wound down, I found the show was losing its appeal as well. I can’t exactly put my finger on why. I wanted to get to the finale and move on, hoping the next season would pick up and be more of what I had really liked about the first two seasons. I think in the scope of things, if you are going to commit to the entire series, this season is worth it for how it advances the characters. I do like the amount of extras and all of the commentaries, but out of the three seasons I’ve seen so far, this is definitely the weakest.



BONUS FEATURES

• Deleted Scenes
• Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance webisodes
• David Eick’s Video Blogs
• Ronald D. Moore’s Podcast Commentaries
• Podcast Commentary on Unfinished Business with Ronald Moore, Grace Park, and Tahmoh Penikett
• Podcast Commentary on The Son Also Rises with actor Mark Sheppard and Writer Michael Angeli
• Bonus Podcast on Crossroads, Part 1 and Crossroads, Part 2 by Mark Sheppard