Battlestar Galactica & Caprica Reviews

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BSG TOS 1980 - Season 1 - Episode 04

My Rating - 1

Fan Rating Average - 3.26

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Synopsis
After a Cylon surprise attack, Adama sends the fleet's children (disguised as "Super Scouts") with Troy and Dillon to Earth, where they enlist Jamie's aid to protect the kids. [DVD]

Problems
- So the freighter Delphi has engine trouble and comes to a complete stop, eh? Seems the writers still haven't learned their lesson about inertia.
- So the children have superpowers because the gravity is less on Earth. Why aren't the adults imbued with these powers too? They sure could have came in handy during the last few episodes.

Factoids
- It seems (possibly due to manpower shortage?) that Boomer is not only the Galactica's XO but also the ship's lead pilot.
- Child actor Patrick Stuart (not the Captain Picard one ;)) replaces Robbie Rist as Dr. Zee starting in this episode.

Remarkable Scenes
- The destruction of freighter Delphi.

My Review
Aside from the annoying plot itself, this show is becoming heavily formulaic. Every episode seems to have to have some scenes where Troy and Dillon stumble over Earth customs and some scenes where they bewilder Earth people with their technology. In many cases, those scenes are numerous and repetitive.

And so here begins what made Galactica 1980 so universally hated. This episode is all about children, and places kids in the center stage. Following in the tradition of Star Trek, children in science fiction shows are almost always universally lame. And this episode is no exception. We get to see a number of annoying misbehavior scenes and even an annoying singing scene. What's worse is this entire farce is based on a shoddy premise. The freighter Delphi, which for some reason is the "children ship," has unexplained engine trouble and comes to a full stop. Have the writers learned nothing from episodes like Take the Celestra?

The one redeeming quality of this episode is the reintroduction of the Cylons. It's nice to see they actually ARE following the fleet, and Dr. Zee isn't simply making things up. It's a shame much of the battle was recycled footage, but at least the destruction of the freighter Delphi was something of a spectacle to watch. A few minutes of genuine science fiction in what's quickly becoming a children's educational show. What happened to the grandiose exploration of the human condition that this show was supposed to be about?

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