Battlestar Galactica 2.8: "Final Cut"

Written by Mark Verheiden
Directed by Robert Young

In which a civilian reporter is brought onto Galactica to document the state of the crew and typical operations, but when threats are leveled against Tigh, the story gets complicated…


Using the perspective of a civilian reporter as a gimmick for storytelling has been a tradition for genre series for quite some time. The modern use of the gimmick actually goes back to “MASH”, which had a much-acclaimed episode devoted to a film crew visiting the 4077. (Yes, there are older examples, but that’s the one everyone seems to mention these days.) Series like “Babylon 5” used the gimmick to explore subtle aspects of political and social issues within the series’ mythos, while other shows like “Stargate SG-1” used it less effectively.

Ron Moore (in a remarkably dirty and possibly drunken podcast for this episode) mentions a number of reservations about the episode, and I agree with most of them. I suppose what disappointed me in the end was the abrupt lack of serialization. Yes, I knew it was coming, but that didn’t really prepare me for such a stand-alone episode.

I really couldn’t get into the whole “Tigh in jeopardy” plot element, because I don’t find his character to be sympathetic. And D’anna didn’t seem to have much of a hidden agenda, at least in terms of what she put on film and how she cut it. Until the very end of the episode, there was really no reason to question her motivations. It was good to get some fresh perspective on minor characters, and Moore got the opportunity to present “new viewers” with the mission statement of the series.

Two things, however, factored against my enjoyment of the episode. First, that final moment was spoiled by some jerk on a Live Journal community, so I spent a lot of time during the episode trying to find clues that Moore mentioned were intentionally not there. So I was a little disappointed that it was, in fact, inserted out of left field. And then there’s the fact that episodes designed as “jumping on points” typically bug me.

Here’s what I don’t get…it’s eight episodes into the season, and the series will be off until January in two weeks. Who really expects a “new viewer” to be tuning in now? It’s like promoting issue #589 of a comic book as a “jumping on point”. The only people likely to discover this are the established fans, who are not looking for the writers to dump something like that into the monthly schedule.

That’s not to say that I didn’t like aspects of the episode. There have been moments, since the series began, where I wondered if this would have been better as an HBO series. This series likes to take things right to the limit, and there are some moments in this episode where I got a glimpse of what it could be without restraints. A lot of those moments were in the documentary footage, so in that respect, the gimmick worked.

I also really liked Lucy Lawless in this role. I always thought she looked better as a blonde, and this episode confirms my opinion. I also have a thing for that accent, which doesn’t hurt. I rarely saw her as anyone other than D’anna, which I think speaks volumes of her ability. Hopefully, she’ll show up again, because that twist at the end needs to be explored.

Speaking of the twist…I’m still trying to figure it out. So what was the point of it all? One would assume that it was all about the spying, and getting past barriers that would normally be impenetrable. The Cylons wanted to confirm that Boomer and the baby were alive, but they also seemed fascinated by the humans and their ability to transcend their flaws. I suspect that this will become an important clue in the future. Perhaps then I will be less annoying by this episode’s stand-alone qualities.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 6/10