I am – Hercules!!

Battlestar Galactica Razor FAQ

What’s it called?
“Razor.”

Who’s responsible?
Teleplay is credited to “Deep Space Nine”/“Voyager” vet Michael Taylor (“Unfinished Business,” “Taking A Break From All Your Worries,” “Crossroads”).

What does TV Guide say?
“Flashbacks recount the tough choices made by Admiral Cain and the Pegasus crew in the wake of the Cylon attack on the Colonies; Lee Adama assumes command of the troubled Battlestar and appoints a hardened soldier as his executive officer.”

What is TV Guide not telling us?
The story set during the Lee Adama command deals with the return of the old-school toasters, who will play an important role in the series' fourth and final season.

And when does that fourth season begin again?
The first 10 episodes of season four, which have all been shot, will hit SciFi in April. The latter half of the season, which has not been shot, will hit SciFi after NBC Universal comes to terms with the striking Writers Guild of America.

So how does that work? We get an hour of Cain commanding Pegasus, then an hour of Adama commanding Pegasus?
Not exactly. The movie focuses largely on a new character, Kendra Shaw (27-year-old Hong Kong native Stephanie Jacobsen), who served as Lee Adama’s first executive officer, before Adama’s wife, Anastasia Dualla, became Pegasus XO. “Razor” is really set during the earliest days of the Lee Adama era aboard Pegasus, but Shaw is haunted by lengthy flashbacks to her service as a lieutenant under the late Helena Cain 10 months earlier.

So Shaw and Bill Adama both get extended flashback sequences?
That’s correct, though Adama’s flashback, which comes at the movie’s midpoint, is considerably less extended and (as followers of the Razorette minisodes now know) set at the very very end of Cylon War I.

Are Cain officers Fisk, Garner and Thorne in “Razor”?
Jack Fisk (Graham Beckel), who saved the lives of Galen Tyrol and Karl Agathon before he died at the hands of black marketers, is back – but it turns out he wasn’t Cain’s XO at the start of Cylon War II. Alastair Thorne (Fulvio Cecere), who liked to use rape as an interrogation technique, is back as well. Barry Garner (John Heard), the chief engineer who briefly succeeded Fisk as Pegasus commander before succumbing to a more heroic death, is referenced but appears in no new footage. Peter Laird (Vincent Gale), who became the Pegasus’ version of Tyrol, returns as well.

Can we assume Gina, the Pegasus version of Six, is wandering about during Shaw’s flashbacks?
Gina is prominent, and her presence is one of the most compelling elements of the Cain-era sequences.

What’s Kara Thrace up to?
Starbuck was Lee Adama’s first CAG aboard Pegasus.

What’s doing with Baltar?
Baltar is referenced but James Callis is inexplicably the only one of the “big seven” actors who does not appear in “Razor.”

We assume Bill, Laura, Lee and Kara are in the movie because they're on the cover of the extended, unrated edition coming out in a week and a half. What about the kinda-regulars like Tyrol, Tigh, Dualla, Agathon, Gaeta, Cally, Hot Dog, Racetrack, Dr. Cottle, Billy Keikeya, Sam Anders, Tom Zarek, D’Anna Biers, Tory Foster, Aaron Dorel, Diana Seelix, Romo Lamkin, Leoben, Cavil and Simon?
Tigh’s around. I didn’t notice the others, though the actors who play Tyrol, Helo, Gaeta, Dualla, Anders and Dorel are all in the credits on the screener AICN received. Which portends, I think, for the season ahead.

Do we spend more time in the Cain era or the Adama era?
The Cain era. Though the Adama era dominates in the second hour.

Are the Cain-era flashbacks more compelling than the Adama-era story?
Not necessarily. The Cain-era stuff offers excellent continuity-porn, but no big-picture revelations. It’s the Adama-era stuff, which starts with the Pegasus investigating an overdue science expedition, that reintroduces Cylon Classic and offers hints of what’s to come. Both eras tie together with horrific elegance in the movie’s final minutes.

Did I read something about a tan toaster?
Most are silver; one is gold.

What’s great?
Stephanie Jacobsen as Kendra Shaw. Michelle Forbes generally and in particular the very different Helena Cain we observe before the Cylon attacks transform her into the most powerful human alive. Tricia Helfer as Gina. Katee Sackhoff as Kara, who gets a meaty role in the final act. Colonel Belzen (Croatian-Canadian Steve Bacic, who also crewed “Andromeda”), Cain’s pre-Fisk XO. Edward James Olmos and Nico Cortez as Husker. Gina’s surname. The tale of Laird’s conscription. “Whatever you’re about to stick in your neck.” Shaw’s rescue of DaSilva. “You know damn well why.” The fact that the plaintive soldier is named Hudson. Those beautiful (and here copious) Zoic special effects. Those beautiful old-school toasters. Bill’s final verdict on Helena. The hybrid’s words about Kara Thrace, surely the key to the whole shebang (I expect I’ll speak more of this in talkback after the episode’s transmission). “Come in, Major. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”

What’s not so great?
No Baltar. No Dylan. Cain’s “so say we all” speech isn’t as good as the one Adama gave in the miniseries.

Herc’s rating for “Battlestar Galactica: Razor”?
*****

And the fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering.

9 p.m. Saturday. SciFi.

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