Love in the time of Cylons

The series 3 finale of Battlestar Galactica aired in the US on Sunday. Although Sky is a few weeks behind in its episodes the wonders of the internet mean that within hours of each US episode airing it is available to fans around the world.

The story has progressed gradually over the three series. I caught some of the early episodes but thought it would be rather slow going, combined with the fact I did readily have access to them. However I've rejoined the story at the beginning of series 3 and have become completely hooked, to the extent that I've gone back to the first two series and am watching them through, as most add something to the overall plot arc.

Sci-fi is a funny thing. At the time of watching the various series on TV - in my case Star Trek: The Next Generation or Babylon 5 I've been rather hooked to them, but watching old episodes now doesn't do anything for me at all. Star Trek in particular seems terribly episodic and Utopian, where a minor modification to the sensor array or conduit can accomplish anything. In comparison BSG is dark and covers some deep areas such as religious beliefs, which the Guardian newspaper has likened to the two sides in the ongoing war on terror. The audience is kept in the dark almost as much as the crew on board BSG. The Cylons have a plan, but what is it? A little is discovered as the episodes progress but often more new questions are posed than are answered. Even with our insight into a Cylon Basestar, much still remains unclear and unanswered. There's no clear plot exposition going on here, and it keeps you clamouring for more in each episode.

The season 3 finale has proven to be a particular high point. The fleet seem on the point of discovering Earth but all manner of calamities take place leaving us with some major cliffhangers and loose ends in desperate need of explanation in series 4, due in early 2008.

------------Spoilers follow with regard to end of the series 3--------------


The fact that several crew members including the XO are hearing all along the watchtower is particularly confusing. Are they really Cylons as the Chief assumes, or could the ship be receiving radio signals from Earth which they are particularly in tune to? In any case it doesn't explain why they were all drawn to the same part of the ship at the same moment - although this did coincide with the jump and the power outage. The power outage is similarly unexplained and seems unlikely to be a piece of Cylon work (why haven't they used it already), although what else could it be? We know there are only 12 models of Cylons and it seems difficult to believe the four present could be four of the final five models.

The identity of the fifth, or possibly fourth and fifth, or is that first and second of the final five is also up for debate. The President is sharing dreams with the two other Cylons on board. Coincidence, or evidence she is a Cylon? And most monumental of all was the return of Starbuck at the end of the episode. She's back, in what seems to be a brand new MKII Viper and she claims to have been to Earth and will show the fleet the way. How is this possible when we saw her Viper destroyed by the gravity of a planet? One possibility is that she is one of the final five Cylons, or that she's residing in the subconscious of Lee Adama in a similar way to that of Number Six and Baltar. Or perhaps her role was greater all along, although this doesn't explain her return from the presumed dead. Was there really a Cylon Raider that she was pursuing? Did she eject and somehow was picked up? And perhaps most crucially of all will Starbuck play a role in preventing the fleet from being destroyed by four Cylon Basestars just a few clicks away?

Always more questions than answers, but it's turning out to be a superb series and on a completely different level to that of the original from the late 70s/early 80s. The new BSG is superior in every way.