Frak me! Did you see that? Yes, I know, many of you got to go to the special screening a couple of weeks ago. I had to work, so I had to wait. And wow. Was that worth the wait.
If you don't watch Battlestar Galactica, then you wont care about this. And if you're not watching Battlestar Galactica...WHAT THE FRAK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!! It's the best damn show on TV, so get over your fear of sci-fi and watch it!
Battlestar Galactica: Razor is a special 2 hour episode dealing with a whole other story in the BSG (that's what us cool kids call it) universe.
Oh yes...there will be SPOILERS!
Razor tells the tale of what happened to that other battlestar after the Cylon attack. The Battlestar Pegasus. Admiral Cain and her crew have just docked for R & R. Meanwhile, a new officer has boarded. Lt. Kendra Shaw. She gets off to a rocky start with the Admiral and is soon thrown into it all with everyone else. The Cylons attack! We find that Cain takes a desperate measure in doing a blind FTL (faster than light) jump to escape. Luckily, they don't land in a sun. Now, what is to happen?
With Galactica, we know all of what's happened and how they reacted. Survival of the human race. Pegasus takes a different approach. Revenge.
We jump back and forth from after the initial attack to 10 months later when Apollo is in command of Pegasus. He meets this hard edged officer, Shaw. He makes her his X.O. We learn through the scenes from after the attack, how she became that way. She witnesses Cain being a cold, heartless leader. Willing to sacrifice her own men just to get revenge. Whether to just survive or embrace Cain's mission, Shaw slowly is turned to this way of thinking. As we learn later when it's revealed she did some cold blooded killing herself.
Meanwhile, in the somewhat present, Lee is ordered by his father, Admiral Adama, to do a search and rescue. Which turns into a full on battle with an old group of Cylons that broke off from the new group. One thing leads to another, a trap is sprung, and Starbuck, Shaw and others are trapped aboard a Cylon ship. They are fighting their way out and hoping for a rescue ship. They witness how the Cylons were experimenting on humans firsthand. Which we learned earlier in a flashback featuring a young Adama where he witnessed the same atrocity. The rescue ship comes, and a gravely injured Shaw stays behind so she can detonate a nuke manually. She stumbles across a Cylon "god" who reveals to her some interesting info about Starbuck.
Epilogue and...damn! What a frakkin' good episode! It wasn't just some throwaway thing to sate the fans. It had meaning and depth and mattered to the story. It reminded me of just how good this show is. And saddens me more that season 4 (the last season!) got pushed back 'til April. And saddens me even further that the writer's strike may not allow the season to end. So, we'll get stuck with no ending! What the frak?!!!
Positive thoughts, kids.
Razor proves that great storytelling can be done in any genre and BSG just keeps on doing it. I was on the edge of my seat at many moments and I literally yelled at the TV a couple of times. "HOLY SHIT!" was heard throughout the apartment! And, I know she was kind of a cold bitch, but why am I suddenly in love with Kendra Shaw? Too bad she died with that nuke because I'd love to see her back. Then again, there's possibilities for anything in the BSG world. But, I think she's done for. I'll have to love from afar. I guess they couldn't have 2 major Asian female characters on there. People would have gotten confused even more because, well...you know....we all look alike.
It's coming out on DVD on Dec. 4th. Go get it. And as I said, if you haven't seen any BSG, go buy the mini-series, and the first 3 seasons and then this special episode. And then....FRAKKIN THANK ME FOR IT, MOTHERFRAKKER! (And you'll finally get all of the "fraks").
