Those Evil-Natured Robots, They're Programmed To Destroy Us
"Battlestar Galactica: Razor" / Daniel Carlson
It’s been a long time since “Battlestar Galactica” has put any new content on the air. The show’s third season ended in March, and it won’t return to start its fourth season until this coming March; were it not for the TV-movie “Razor,” the show would have gone nearly an entire year without offering any new story lines or resolutions for old ones, and that’s a long time to wait. The last season ended in a typically epic fashion, hinting at grand stories and star-crossed destinies far off on the horizon, and while “Razor” cannot by definition fulfill those promises — it is, after all, only two hours, and it plays like an extended episode instead of a telefilm — it’s still a welcome chapter in the “Battlestar” universe that deepens the show’s mythology and acts as a kind of narrative stepping stone between the show’s third season and its upcoming fourth and final one. That’s the greatest success of “Razor”: Although it deals entirely in flashbacks, it still feels fresh and current. It mines the show’s history for character nuance and the kind of complex, heartbreaking interpersonal conflicts that have become the driving force behind the series, all the while adding layers to the overarching mystery of just what might happen in the final battle between the human survivors and the robotic Cylons. “Razor” isn’t a storytelling anomaly or a way for the show’s creators to kill time between seasons; everything here is an important part of the whole.
(Because this is a review of what’s basically a specific episode of a highly serialized TV series, a very few spoilers about the episode in question and the series at large are unavoidable. If you have a problem with that, well, I can’t help you.)
“Razor” takes place at a very specific point in the series’ continuity, and screenwriter Michael Taylor (a co-executive producer on the series who also scripted the episodes “Unfinished Business” and “Taking a Break From All Your Worries”) doesn’t attempt to coddle the newcomers or even the fans with easygoing exposition. Aside from a few brief flashes setting up the events of the Season Two that led to Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) being promoted to major and given command of the Pegasus, “Razor” leaps right into the fray by outlining what happened with the crew of the Pegasus when the Cylons attacked and wiped out all the human colonies and every ship in the fleet except for the Pegasus, the Galactica, and a few stray civilian ships floating through space. The Cylon attack is this fictional universe’s Pearl Harbor, and directors Felix Enriquez Alcala and Wayne Rose drive this home by showing the true scope of the attack and the colossal damage it wreaked on the fleet. The ending is a foregone conclusion — we know that the Pegasus will survive, and that some of her officers will later die once the Pegasus and Galactica rediscover each other — but the scene is still terrifying for the way it drives home once again the sweeping loss suffered by the characters who lost their families and homes. “Battlestar Galactica” has always been about the people serving in its battered military, and “Razor” is no different; the emphasis here may be on different characters making tougher choices and bigger mistakes, but it doesn’t abandon the care and respect it carries for each character’s inherently flawed but redeemable humanity. Admiral Cain (Michelle Forbes), the commander of the Pegasus at the time of the attack, was portrayed as a nail-hard bitch in her arc on the series’ second season, but “Razor” has the fantastic skill and insight to show that she used to be softer, and that she only became lost in a maze of self-righteous anger by losing herself in war. Indeed, one of the most stirring images of the attack sequence is of Cain kneeling beside the covered corpses of her dead crewmen, silently crying. In the space of two brief hours, “Razor” deepens Cain’s personality and turns her from a villain into something much more compelling: A human being who made the wrong decisions.
But those wrong decisions come later. Taylor’s screenplay telescopes in and out of the flow of linear time with surprising fluidity, which is no small feat given that “Razor” itself is one giant flashback whose “present day” is already a couple years gone in the show’s universe. In addition to following the Pegasus in the weeks and months after the Cylon attack, “Razor” also tracks Lee in his first days as commander of the Pegasus some eight months after the attack. (This is confusing; hang in there.) Lee appoints Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen) as his executive officer to help restore morale on the ship. Kendra had served under Cain and has become the kind of hard-nosed soldier Cain wanted her to be, making her both the perfect way for Lee to let continue Cain’s legacy continue and for Taylor to structure the flashbacks to Kendra’s time on the Pegasus after the attack. The rest of the episode unfolds along the parallel timelines, cutting between Cain’s command in the past and Lee’s command in the present. However, the older story following Cain and her crew never feels repetitive despite the fact that it cannot by definition introduce new elements whose presence would change the later episodes that have already aired. But rather than paint themselves into a corner, the writer and directors come up with some pretty ingenious pseudo-retconning that deepens old plots and ups the emotional complexity. For instance — and again, for the slow folks in the cheap seats, spoilers follow — when the Galactica and Pegasus originally found each other, it was revealed that the Pegasus had discovered one of the Cylon models had infiltrated their crew. Gina, a No. 6 model (Tricia Helfer, as always), was living in the brig when the ships met, covered in cuts and bruises and wearing nothing but rags; it was clear she’d been repeatedly raped when the Galactica crew found her. But “Razor,” rather than simply place Gina on the ship, puts her in a romantic relationship with Cain, which adds layers of betrayal and heartache to the way Cain eventually turns on her. Cain would later come to treat the imprisoned Gina as an object, but the way Cain tears up the first time she sees Gina in the brig is a small but powerful moment that revolutionizes the story line.
Granted, as has happened on “Battlestar Galactica” before, the plot point is introduced subtly — Cain gives Gina a soft look, Gina squeezes Cain’s arm — and is then driven home a few more times just to make sure it sinks in that Cain is, you know, a lesbian. Still, Taylor, Alcala, and Rose have done something pretty great here by retroactively strengthening a show’s history without damaging its present. The only other comparable thing on TV in recent years was the way the second season of “Lost” tracked the survivors of the tail section of Flight 815, but instead of the endless rehashing of past events, “Razor” is focused on filling in the gaps with new material. Lee’s time at the helm of the Pegasus has already been detailed, but “Razor” still manages to find new ways to make what should be a predictable story anything but.
While the older arc follows Cain as she sinks into bitterness while waging a guerilla war against the Cylons, the later one deals with Lee’s investigation into an old Cylon outpost that could house a leftover hybrid between the clunkier robotic models and the human-like synthetic ones. And just for good measure, in case you weren’t flashbacked out by now, it turns out that Admiral Bill Adama (Edward James Olmos) investigated that very same outpost when he was young, which is revealed in a brief flashback. (I know.) But the second half of the episode drives home what “Battlestar Galactica” is always about, namely, the difficulty of creating a moral code to live by when there’s virtually no civilization left to guard. Adama and Lee wind up on opposite sides of another thorny issue, this time about whether to sacrifice an away team, and talking about it later, Adama says to his son, “You did nothing wrong. Neither did I. We both made decisions that we had to to accomplish our missions.” The show has never been about easy answers, and “Razor” doesn’t offer any. In keeping in line tonally with the rest of the series, as well as for the way it adds new texture to old ideas, “Razor” becomes not so much an anomaly as a valuable part of the story so far. Everything here happened in the series’ past, and that makes it the only way to look to the future.
Daniel Carlson is the managing editor of Pajiba and a low-level employee at a Hollywood industry magazine. You can visit his blog, Slowly Going Bald.
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Comments
Once Pushing Daises, Dexter, and 30 Rock finally end their short runs this year I vow to get caught up with BG.
Her name is Yoshimi, she's a black belt in Karate
Posted by: X at December 5, 2007 3:03 PM
God damn I need to see the rest of BG. I haven't seen past the first season and all the previews for Razor and season 4 are driving me crazy.
Posted by: the_wakeful at December 5, 2007 3:11 PM
Who? What? X? Never mind.
About freakin' time! Seriously, what took you so long? I've already watched it twice. I'm waiting for the DVD. Razor changed my feelings about Cain and I'm glad we got to see her story. It's one of the things I love about BSG, there are no villains and no good guys. I'm glad they fleshed her out. I would've loved to see more of her relationship with Gina rather than hear about it.
Thanks Daniel :)
Posted by: joker at December 5, 2007 3:17 PM
yay! BSG was back for a brief moment! They could have danced a jig and boxed for two hours - I wouldn't have cared. I was good to see the Adamas and Starbuck and the rest of the crew together again.
When does the new season start?
****SPOILER*******SPOILER*******SPOILER***
Did anyone else love that Starbuck has doomed humanity? Is that a reference to GhostBuck that Lee saw when he was flying around? Is GhostBuck going to lead the Adamas straight into the mouth of the cylons?
And, is the point of the show that WE'RE cylons? That all this has happened before and will happen again?
Posted by: Estelle at December 5, 2007 3:31 PM
I enjoyed seeing more of Cain's story, and thought the movie was a great story of what happens when you are willing to physically survive at all emotional and moral costs. As opposed to what happens when you waffle about what you're willing to sacrifice (Adama & Co.)
Posted by: Brook at December 5, 2007 3:38 PM
Estelle,
I actually thought the "end of humanity" statement was a bit vague. It could be the end of the dominion of humanity, and the start of something new...
And yeah, the humans seem to have been creations, too.
Posted by: Brook at December 5, 2007 3:41 PM
2 Questions: When does Season 3 come out on DVD and can Razor be watched before Season 3. Just sarted watching the DVDs (through the mini-series, 1st disc of set 1) and I have 2 and Razor as well, stiing in the pile.
Brian: I'd guess that Season 3 will hit shelves in March or April to coincide with the premiere of Season 4. You can probably get away with watching Razor after Season 2, but it'd be best to wait until after Season 3 (for reasons I cannot explain without spoiling things.) --DC
Posted by: Brian at December 5, 2007 3:51 PM
Hmm, I don't know, I wasn't thrilled with Razor. I did like learning the back story of the Pegasus, but two things seemed totally contrived [spoiler]: the flashback in which we learn that Adama knew about the failed hybrid from his past life and that they would risk an entire battlestar for 5 people who might have been taken by cylons.
Also, while it was nice to know more, I'm not sure the story humanized Cain much for me. It emphasizes that she made the opposite choices of Adama -- instead of saving civilians, she kills them. She chooses revenge instead of protection -- though it is certainly in line with the show's interest with what kinds of decisions people would make in this situation.
Posted by: Alarmjaguar at December 5, 2007 4:30 PM
yay flaming lips pajiba pun!
Posted by: caro at December 5, 2007 4:45 PM
Finally! I've been waiting for this!! Thank you.
I'm not sure if it was Michelle Forbes's original nuanced acting or an unwarranted inference, but the Cain/Gina relationship was not a reveal for me...I thought that was obvious?
Posted by: yogh at December 5, 2007 5:16 PM
I've really gone from loving this show to absolutely DREADING every depressing, dark, dreary soul crushing second of watching all these ASSHOLES, they are all ASSHOLES not one deserves to live *bleh*
I'm not sure this people even deserve to live.
A truly inspiring ending would be for them to be ALL wiped off the face of the universe and have Cylons become "humanity."
Posted by: BarbadoSlim at December 5, 2007 5:33 PM
Oh boy, disregard that sentence in the middle there.
Posted by: BarbadoSlim at December 5, 2007 7:11 PM
While I'm never sad about getting to spend a couple hours with my BSG friends, I didn't love Razor. I thought the character work was strong but structurally it was a mess by the third act. I saw a screening of the DVD version and numerous times wished I had a remote to rewind and rewatch to sort out my confusion. It also felt bloated. I wonder if I'd have felt the same had I seen the version minus all the young Adama stuff.
Posted by: Beckylooo at December 5, 2007 7:24 PM
Just finished watching Season 3 on DVD and can't wait for Razor and Season 4 to finally be released here (Australia). We're forced to wait for the series to be released on DVD, unless of course you're happy to watch season 2 being repeated for about the 15th time on SCI-FI Channel. Hooray Foxtel, who says it's important to play episodes in the correct order.
Posted by: Dexter Morgan at December 5, 2007 8:21 PM
Just wanna point out that Gina wasn't saved by two members of Galactica- Sharon Agathon was. [Ack -- this is what I get for editing with my eyes closed. Caught and corrected. -- DC]
I frakking miss Boomer. I hope she pops Cally in the new season and she and the Chief hook back up. I mean, come on- a member of the new guard and a member of the old one just happened to find one another, when neither knew they were a Cylon and neither faction seems to be aware of the identities of the other? FATE. Totally fate.
Posted by: Jon at December 5, 2007 8:25 PM
Thank you Mr. Carlson - I'll just stick Razor on the bottom of the stack then and wait for Season 3 on DVD.
Posted by: Brian at December 5, 2007 8:25 PM
I've never seen BSG but I love the Flaming Lips reference of the title. Good jorb.
Posted by: Miranda at December 5, 2007 10:05 PM
Brian: if you're interested (or just impatient like me), you can purchase Season 3 on iTunes.
Posted by: alissa at December 6, 2007 3:43 AM
Hey Daniel (or anyone else for that matter)
My buddies keep insisting that I watch BSG saying it's one of the best things on tv (and from what I gather round these parts missing BSG deserves a paddlin) but I never found the time to really sit down and get into it due to other commitments (job, woman, robot... just kidding I don't have a woman)... finally I am taking some time off work and one of the things I want to do was watch BSG.
Thing is I have all the series shot so far but I need some advice as to when I should watch Battlestar Galactica:Razor? (post 1st season, 2nd, when?). Please help... Cheers
Posted by: Superkays at December 6, 2007 4:25 AM
Just now, at 3:30 in the morning, got done watching this.
Despite the way it sounds in print, Razor seemed to me to be very straightforward and easy to follow. I thought it did a great job of, as you said, providing depth to characters and story lines. The only real problem I had with Razor was the actor who played young Adama in the hybrid-facility flashback. He was terrible, and that whole scene felt like it was out of a b-movie because of him.
That being said, I'm actually writing a paper right now (due in like 8 hours) for my Nietzsche class. We could write our essay on anything. I chose B-star. If anyone is interested on reading it, I should have it up on my blog by 8:00 AM.
Posted by: Kevin Longrie at December 6, 2007 6:36 AM
I've always liked BG, and now they got them hoes freaking. So now I'm sho nuff watching.
Posted by: Pookie at December 6, 2007 7:17 AM
Superkays- after season 3. Cain is easier, Shaw too, to understand if you've seen Occupation (the season 3 opener). Also, a Cylon throws a nugget out at the end of Razor that makes more sense if you've seen the last half of season 3.
I like this Razor review- it's like the one at TWoP, but shorter.
Posted by: Jon at December 6, 2007 9:10 AM
Jon, the TWoP recapper for BSG is Jacob and he's a little...wordy and then he waxes on poetic/philosophical forfuckingever and I got exhausted somewhere on page 5 (out of 22 or something). I normally love their recaps, but when it's Jacob, I just move on and hope Pajiba will cover it.
Posted by: joker at December 6, 2007 10:15 AM
Amen to the forfuckingeverness of Jacob's recaps. This one was balls out better.
Posted by: Fred at December 6, 2007 1:10 PM
i loved Razor, especially seeing the old school cylons--i can't help it, the original was my favorite show as a child (next to Star Blazers). i completely understand what the Pegasus crew did; they thought they were the only ones left, they didn't have a civilian fleet to protect, and they didn't have any pesky Earth prophesies to get in the way of what needed to get done (in their minds).
yogh--me too. i thought that they had already revealed their relationship. other members of my viewing party were surprised though, so i thought it must have been my imagination.
not to diss Jacob on TWoP (i love his gossip girl recaps), but he reminds me of the minister on Deadwood. he has a point--and it is often a good one--but he needs more editing.
Posted by: pq at December 6, 2007 3:31 PM
Cheers Jon...
Posted by: superkays at December 6, 2007 3:55 PM
Oh, I dig the TWoP recaps- as y'all pointed out, they're pretty in-depth and really fit with the show. They're just SO FUCKING LONG. I never get through one in a single sitting. His Serenity recap is one of his bests, imo.
The Quiznos commercials that kept airing during this cracked my ass up. "THEY'RE LEZBOS! Who knew?"
Posted by: Jon at December 6, 2007 4:57 PM
I agree, yogh, the Cain/Gina relationship wasn't so much of a reveal as a confirmation of what I already suspected, which makes me appreciate all the more the subtle way they dealt with it.
While I generally loved the classic cylons, I laughed out loud at "by your command", and it kind of took me out of the moment.
Posted by: Lisa at December 8, 2007 4:47 AM
I too laughed at the 3 Cylons flying their fighter and was thrilled when one of them went "By your command."
Ah...childhood memories. Now if only another one of them had gone "Beedeebeedeebee" like Twiggy...
As for "Razor" I liked it a lot. More than anything I think it played like a mirror version of what happened to the Galactica and what can happen when there isn't an equally-powerful force to temper our darker natures.
Remember back to the opening movie and how Adama was dying to get back out there to fight all of the Cylons. How they're looking for weapons and supplies and it's Roslin and Lee who force him to accept the situation around him. That's all I could think of as I saw Cain commit mistake after mistake. Instead of having someone to protect, she focuses entirely on surviving and fighting. And everyone is secondary to that drive.
Adama was forced to protect. Cain never had that chance and instead chose to kill.
But switch their spots and Cain would have been leading the survivor's fleet and it could have been Adama killing fellow humans for supplies and crews or to maintain authority.
And it's that human drama that has made BSG such a great show.
Posted by: Fredo at December 9, 2007 12:50 PM
