Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5 – DVD Review

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Image courtesy DVDActive.com

Creators/Executive Producers:
Ronald D. Moore

Cast:
Edward James Olmos ………. Commander William Adama
Mary McDonnell ………. President Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff ………. Lieutenant Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
Jamie Bamber ………. Captain Lee “Apollo” Adama
James Callis ………. Doctor Gaius Baltar
Tricia Helfer ………. Number Six
Grace Park ………. Lieutenant Sharon “Boomer” Valerii

Recurring Characters:
Paul Campbell ………. Billy Keikeya
Nicki Clyne ………. Crewman Specialist Cally
Aaron Douglas ………. Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
Michael Hogan ………. Colonel Saul Tigh
Alessandro Juliani ………. Lieutenant Felix Gaeta
Kandyse McClure ………. Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla
Tahmoh Penikett ………. Lieutenant Karl “Helo” Agathon
Richard Hatch ………. Tom Zarek
Graham Beckel ………. Colonel Jack Fisk
Leah Cairns ………. Lieutenant Margaret ‘Racetrack’ Edmondson
Luciana Carro ………. Louanne ‘Kat’ Katraine
Michelle Forbes ………. Admiral Helena Cain
Bodie Olmos ………. Brendan ‘Hotdog’ Constanza
Donnelly Rhodes ………. Doctor Cottle
Rekha Sharma ………. Tory Foster
Michael Trucco ………. Samuel Anders
Kate Vernon ………. Ellen Tigh

The Show:
NBC Universal has stumbled onto something good. And I don’t mean getting Ira Behr and Ron D. Moore to oversee some first rate sci-fi shows for them. No, I’m talking about taking the Galactica season, splitting it into two parts, and then releasing a set of each half at about $40CDN a pop. That’s a lot of loonies. And oddly enough, cheaper than season sets of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Anyways, season “2.0” featured Roslin’s quest to find Kobol, and Tigh’s reign as temporary Commander of the fleet. We ended things off with what looked to be the onset of civil war.

Episodes:
Disc One:

2-10, Pegasus: Extended Episode
This is the “90-minute” (if aired on TV) version of the mid-season cliffhanger. And since I’ve got my old DVD review handy, here it is again:

The Pegasus, a Battlestar-class ship thought to have been destroyed, reappears. As ranking officer, Admiral Cain takes over the fleet, which of course causes tension among the troops accustomed to Adama’s command. Helo and Tyrol save Sharon, the mother of Helo’s child, from getting raped by Pegasus’ Cylon “interrogator”, who had allowed the crew of Pegasus to have their way with their own Cylon prisoner – Six a.k.a. Brig Six a.k.a. “Gina”. All of this comes to a head when Cain sentences Helo and Tyrol to death, Adama decides to attack the Pegasus.

Some of the “extra” things we get: an extended, slightly more graphic rape scene (yay?) and in the audio commentary, information that Cally has a large fan following. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one.

2-11, Resurrection Ship, Part 1
The standoff between Galactica and Pegasus continues, as Kara ends up CAG on Pegasus and Roslin covertly supports Adama in overthrowing Cain. We learn that Cain “did what was necessary” to keep her people alive, even if it meant coercing civilians into helping out. Meanwhile, Starbuck’s recon mission has turned up a Cylon “resurrection ship”, which carries around extra bodies for the Cylon consciousnesses to download themselves to should the old one get destroyed. So a mission is planned to take that out. And as a side mission, Starbuck and Fisk are assigned to kill Cain and Adama, respectively.

2-12, Resurrection Ship, Part 2
Apollo takes out the resurrection ship in the Blackbird, but is hit in the process and is floating in space with a leak in his oxygen tank. Baltar is still talking to Brig Six, trying to convince her to live. As for the assassination orders… well nothing comes of it. Cain does end up dying though, so Roslin promotes Adama to Admiral.

2-13, Epiphanies
Guest Star: Colm Feore as President Richard Adar

Roslin’s cancer takes a turn for the worse, and thus orders the abortion of Sharon’s baby. Meanwhile, there’s apparently an underground movement to make peace with the Cylons, which perhaps is not the best idea in the world. Especially when they reveal who the leader of this movement is. As for Roslin, she gets better in a way that may make you throw things at the telly.

Disc Two:
2-14, Black Market
Guest Star: Bill Duke as Phelan
Fisk is the new commander of Pegasus, but that doesn’t last long, as he’s murdered due to having some ties to the black market. Apollo’s sent to investigate, and after a couple of bumps and some help from Tom Zarek, he encounters Phelan, the kingpin of the black market, who is trafficking all sorts of things, including kids. The end result of all this is that the black market still exists, but no more selling of kids. Apparently, this was not one of Ron D. Moore’s favourite episodes.

2-15, Scar
Starbuck and Kat go after a Cylon Raider who has been single-handedly responsible for the deaths of several pilots. At stake: $200 plus Starbuck’s “Galactica Top Gun” beer stein. Oh, and Starbuck pines for Anders.

2-16, Sacrifice
On board Cloud 9, terrorists grab some hostages – including Ellen Tigh, Billy, Dualla and Apollo – and demand Sharon in return. Starbuck is sent to try and conduct a rescue/negotiation, and apparently the BSG universe has never heard of “Billy Don’t Be a Hero”, as Billy sets out to do that.

2-17, The Captain’s Hand
Guest Star: John Heard as Commander Barry Garner

Two Raptors from Pegasus go missing during a training mission, and Starbuck discovers that they were responding to a distress signal. She senses a trap, but Commander Garner has other ideas, with fatal results. Meanwhile, abortion becomes a big issue for the upcoming election, and buoyed by Zarek and Six’ support, Baltar declares his candidacy for President.

Disc Three:
2-18, Downloaded
Guest Star: Lucy Lawless as Number Three

Caprica Six has her consciousness downloaded into a new body, and oddly enough, she starts having hallucinations of Baltar. Later, another Cylon consciousness is downloaded into a new body, and this one is a bit more reluctant to even BE a Cylon – the Number Eight model known as Sharon “Boomer” Valerii. But these two seem different from their interactions with the humans, and they decide to try and change the Cylon’s way of thinking. Meanwhile, aboard Galactica, Sharon gives birth to a girl, but prematurely.

2-19, Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1
Guest Star: Dean Stockwell as Cavil

Adama allows Starbuck to plan a rescue mission to Caprica. Tyrol has nightmares and ends up beating the cute out of Cally. During the rescue mission, Racetrack jumps to the wrong coordinates and finds a habitable planet, one that may turn the tide in Baltar’s favour. And on Caprica, things look bleak for the humans.

2-10, Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2
Guest Star: Dean Stockwell as Cavil

On Caprica, the Cylons have disappeared. A man named Cavil tells them that they’ve left, and that humanity has been spared. During the election, Roslin’s aide Tory Foster and Tigh help rig the election in her favour. And they would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for that meddling kid Gaeta. So Baltar wins the election and declares that humanity settle on “New Caprica”. And Brig Six sets off the nuclear bomb Baltar gave her a while back.

One Year Later…

Gaeta is Baltar’s aide, Baltar’s screwing everything that moves, and most of the Fleet has moved to the planet, leaving what amounts to a skeleton crew aboard the military ships. Oh, and Adama has a bad-ass porn mustache. But all is not well, as the Cylons have returned, and begin the occupation of New Caprica.

The DVD:

Video:
(Presented in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
Colours are bright, blacks are black, we get some fun with oversaturation on Caprica. Does the frakking job.

Audio:
(English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround)
English is your only spoken language option, but they do have Spanish subtitles. They make decent use of the Dolby, but not too much as this was originally designed for your standard TV.

The Extras
Deleted Scenes:
Lots of stuff, but nothing you’d miss the first time around.

Audio Commentaries:
Once again, Ron D. Moore’s podcast commentaries from the Sci-Fi website are provided, and we also get a new commentary from Moore and David Eick for Pegasus: Extended Edition.

David Eick’s Video Blogs:
We get several videos from David Eick showing us things from different points of production. Among the tidbits: Cutting the corners off of everything takes up a lot of time, and green screens cost a lot of money.

R & D’s logos
Because we’ve got space on the DVD, we get to see the various animations used for R & D TV. It’s self indulgent, violent, and funny.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE MOVIE

9
THE VIDEO

8
THE AUDIO

8
THE EXTRAS

9
REPLAY VALUE

8
OVERALL
9
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

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Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).