Battlestar Galactica, Season 4.0 (2007)

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Rated: TVMA

Reviewer: Charity Bishop

The fourth season of the successful sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica gave us some answers and posed even more questions, as the humans and the Cylons continued the battle over who will reach Earth first...

Outnumbered and outgunned, the human race is about to annihilated by their mechanical enemies the Cylons, when a ray of hope appears out of pristine darkened skies... Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) has returned, in a polished viper with no memories of where she has been for the last two months. She has found Earth and intends to lead them home! Her reappearance coincides with the disappearance of the Cylon fleet and puts her under immediate suspicion. She is locked in the brig while they go over her ship with a fine-toothed comb. President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) does not want to trust her and encourages Admiral Adama (James Edward Olmos) to jump the fleet to new coordinates, but each successful leap causes Starbuck to lose some of her remembrance of the way home. Fearing she will lose the way altogether, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

In the meantime, four the mysterious Final Five Cylons are having difficulty adjusting to their newfound realizations. Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan) is intent on keeping his coworkers and especially his friend Adama in the dark, while Chief (Aaron Douglas) draws away emotionally from his wife, with serious consequences. The president's aid reveals a dark side to her nature when she becomes involved with the exiled Gaius Baltar (James Callis), who has gathered a religious following, and Anders (Michael Trucco) fears Starbuck's retaliations if she learns the truth. Then there is the unusual and alarming dreams that the president is sharing with Boomer (Grace Park) and Six (Tricia Helfer), who is held captive in the brig and who might provide the answers Colonel Tigh is searching for. Apollo (Jamie Bamber) has also abandoned his position in the military to pursue a political career, and may have obtained more trouble than he bargained for when he begins to question certain of the president's executive decisions.

Both engaging and frustrating, this half season continues in its dramatic character development but focuses more on minor figures than main ones, sometimes abandoning characters for several episodes while exploring more fully the lives and emotional issues of secondary figures. In some respects this works and in others it makes for occasional dullness... as much as the audience might like Cally, she cannot carry an entire episode by herself, and minimizing the presence of Adama and Roslin now and again causes the pacing to suffer. But the payoff in that regard is good, because this is the first time we really see their relationship progress. It's also the only hint of real romance this time around, since the emotional angst that fueled last season has been pretty much eradicated. There are one or two dull episodes, and situations in which characters' motivations and behavior come into question, but for the most part it's a solid continuation of the saga with more than a few surprises up its sleeves.

The same issues that intrude on earlier installments are present here, but minimized -- there are several instances of partial nudity (a woman's bare back after a sexual encounter, and another woman exercising topless -- her arms and the framing of the shot prevent us from seeing too much other than her bare back; a man falls out of a Clyon tank naked and we see part of his bare side), some implied sexual encounters (one of them involves the end of a tryst and heavy breathing), and immodest clothing. There are references to a prisoner having become pregnant. One Six kisses another Six on the lips before executing her. In the accompanying feature film, "Razor," included in the set, we learn through flashbacks that the admiral of the Pegasus is gay and was involved in a same-sex relationship with a Six. Language is minor apart from repeat uses of "frak" (sometimes coupled with "mother") and frequent minor abuse of the deities, sometimes coupled with a profanity. The violence is mostly stylized but sometimes involves blood as ships explode, people are gunned down, and fistfights escalate into brutality. Women are sometimes punched in the face, but usually return it as good as they get, and sometimes instigate the violence.

Religious and political themes pervade the undercurrent of the plot -- it takes on a more Christian twist this time around with Baltar professing to be a prophet of God (the "One True God") and challenging the human race's "gods," which include Zeus, among others. There are references to divine guidance and angels, and it's apparent that a higher power is leading them down a particular path. Roslin's presidency becomes a little more like a dictatorship in conjunction with her alliance with the military, which could be a reference to the previous presidential administration. There were moments that found me irritated (does Gaius really get to live until the bitter end?) and others that shocked me in positive ways (never trust anyone!), but the driving force here is really the controversial questions it asks about mankind and morality, as well as the relationships. The friendship-leaning-romance between the admiral and the president is particularly memorable, and very touching as we see him accompany her through her continued battle with cancer. It's not perfect, and in many ways could be improved, but it's engaging and for me, it is a great way to spend a weekend.