Battlestar Galactica Occupation (2004–2009) Online

First and foremost, a brilliant beginning to a show that has been consistently one of the greatest on television. From the acting of all the major (and minor) players, to the brilliant scripting, to the seamless blend of often disparate thematic elements, Battlestar Galactica is constantly delivering top-notch television, surpassing just about everything on the major networks, and on par with shows on HBO and Showtime.

But, now on to the real point of the post. One of the previous reviewers had stated that the third seasons parallels to the Iraq war were far to blatant and removed the viewer from the show, and I couldn't disagree more. Since it's inception, BSG (created by two polisci majors) has been about drawing parallels between the drama of the crew and the drama of real life. From Rosalyn's LBG-esquire inception, to this weeks full-blown insurgency, there has been no disguising that Ronald Moore and Co. have been using Battlestar Galactica as a way to reflect society in a surprising way, a way that both enlightens and entertains. That, my dear friends, is what Science Fiction is supposed to do, it's creation is meant to challenge the way we see things, to reshape our views using a medium that allows for the fantastic. And no one on the field of Scifi, from authors, to film writers, to TV producers, does a better job than the cast, crew, and creators of BSG.

Thank you thank you thank you, -Miles

As the third series of "Battlestar Galactica" begins, the series actually seems to be improving as time progresses, going from strength to strength.

Without a doubt, the latest "Battlestar" is a product of its time. Many parallels can be drawn between the Cylon prisoner of war camp and various similar institutions that we know have existed much closer to home. The discussion on the morality of suicide bombers was chillingly real and for many will have brought back recent memories of atrocities in the UK.

Gritty and uncompromising, unpredictable and engaging, I simply love this show. The cast are excellent - as always there are strong performances throughout the episode.

Regardless of how you interpret it - metaphoric political hackjob, brilliant social and political comment on the state of the world today, or just damn good story-telling (my own personal take) BSG is the most consistently smart and well-made show on television, and far less pretentious than the average HBO or Showtime original. A great solvent for the propaganda which poses as "The News" and a brilliant escape from the oxymoronic nonsense known as reality TV, the show has brought intelligence back to TV Science Fiction - a place it hasn't been since the end of Firefly.

Season 3 opens with Galactica and Pegasus far from the very bad situation on Cylon-occupied New Caprica. Tigh and Roslin are in jail. Baltar is becoming less insane, but more depressed. Starbuck is in a jail of a different kind. The cylons can not reach any agreement on what to do about the New Caprican resistance. And the Adamas are having leadership crises.

The episode was originally televised as a two part episode with Precipice, which resolves a few of the issues Occupation raised.

This episode gives us particularly fine performances from Sackhoff, Olmos, Callus and Hogan and the high production values and good writing the show is known for.

...just as thrilling as always, with deeply defined characters, the show keeps me wanting more in the third season just like in the first one. People accusing it of being too politically oriented and too obviously depicting the war in Iraq should watch more movies about world war II, with the public executions, the police with that kinda Nazi sign on their left arm... and shouldn't forget who's made more comparable to the American military forces: the Cylons or the crew of the Battlestar? Just look at the helmets! Galactica: Keep them coming, i can't wait... the Cylons particularly are still depicted as being very various in opinions and purpose, which is the big one mistake Humans commit, demonizing their enemy (now that's political!) as One, while reality is much more complicated, subtle and... interesting.

Who wouldn't feel like knowing them better, those Cylons?

Four months after the Cylons discovered humanity's new home on New Caprica the people are under a state of occupation; the government of Gaius Baltar is just a puppet regime and neither Galactica nor Pegasus has been heard from since fleeing from the Cylon fleet. Life is hard for the people; Colonel Tigh is in prison minus one eye, Starbuck is being forced to live with Leoben who believes that she will grow to love him and Chief Tyrol and Anders are striking against the Cylons when they can but victories have little meaning when the Cylons just download into a new body when killed. When Col. Tigh is released he is determined to strike against the Cylons in a way that will really hurt them... by targeting those people who are working with them. Meanwhile back on the fleet Adama is not pleased with how things are slipping; Apollo has grown fat, what pilots they still have aren't performing well in training and he has come to realise that the only person he can talk to is Sharon Agathon... a Cylon.

This episode was a good start to the third series; it quickly brought the viewer up to date before being thrown into the action. The story wasn't afraid to confront difficult issues as the 'good guys' turn to tactics such as suicide bombing which were being employed routinely by the 'bad guys' in Iraq at the time the series was made... the parallels were obvious and make the viewer think about whether tactics which are considered 'evil and cowardly' would be viewed in the same way if used in a cause we agree with. As expected the acting was top notch; I particularly like the scene with Edward James Olmos and Grace Park as Adama and Sharon and the scene between Michael Hogan and Aaron Douglas where Tigh and Tyrol discuss the rights and wrongs of their new tactics. If this is a typical season three episode this will be a fine season.

This episode is a not-at-all subtle metaphor for the fighting in the Middle-East. It's all about Americans, Israelis, Palestinians and maybe Iraqis. Of course it is similar too the WW2 occupied Europe dilemmas but the M-E connection is more direct. It's kinda brilliant though, portraying the Israelis and Americans as Cylons! As cold, uncaring robots! The makers must've have thought: "If this pisses the Israelis and Americans off to the point of steely resolve, well how much worse can it get for the Palestinians? In the mean time, here's something to enjoy." The humans are now the suicide bombers, This episode shows all sides to a story of occupations, there's the evil collaborator, Baltar, the good collaborator, Gaeta, the resistance movement, with the dilemma of using suicide bombers nicely split between hardliner Thigh versus moderate Roslin. Even the Cylons get some dilemmas thrown between them, should they pound hard on the resistance or appease them a while longer? (So it's not all bad, you Yanks! ;-) ;P )

The dilemma of collaborating and thus having some influence versus not cooperating so as not to be "tainted" by the oppressors, is of all times and places and was very real in the WWII. For example, the Dutch Royals fled to London, while the Danish didn't. The latter cooperated with the Nazis to some degree but it is said that this saved a number of Jews. The Netherlands, on the other hand, had the highest proportional number of Jews delivered to the gas chambers, including Anne Frank. There's no real connection there, but still ...

This dilemma is also reflected in the plight of the one soldier ('Jammer')joining the Cylon Police, which he thinks is a good thing, humans being policed by humans. He might've been right but he ends up being used by the Cylons and has to commit atrocities to humans.

Great episode, and it is a testament to deplorable state of affairs in the USA that one commentator here, expressed disbelieve that this episode was not censored in the USA. He just expects ANY anti-Bush statements to be censored, even if some are a fictional TV show. Bush (i.e. Karl Rove) was probably very wise not to mess with this episode, since it would've raked up a storm of protest ...

The Long awaited 2006 Edition of Battlestar Gallactica thundered onto the Scfi Channel with unparalleled magnificence.

The more recent Battle Star series is more than a re-run of the 1970s issue with Lord Greene as the fatherly figure Commander Adamo. Edward Olmos adds a personal element, a brick in a sturdy wall but a wall that's ready to crack under the pressure of deaths, defeat and pursuit by an unflagging enemy that offers no quarter.

Mary McDonnell is Admiral Adoma's perfect consort as President Laura Roslin the civilian leader of the refugees flying the hideous Cylons. As Occupation opens, Laura has lost power to the wishy-washy Quisling Gius Baldar who planted the exiles from The Colonies on a new world. Fate invited the Cylons in; Adamo winked out of orbit in flight and Baldar surrendered submitting to Cylon rule.

A kinder and Gentler Cylons have decided it unnecessary to wipe humanity out; they want to correct humanity's ways but their efforts at a benevolent dictatorship and even accommodation with humans are met with landing pod bombs and suicide attackers. The Cylons resort to recruiting Quislings to serve in masks to subdue the human population with mass arbitrary arrests and tortures.

Enter Colonel Tigh in this version the good Colonel is nothing like the super-straight Tigh of the 1970s series. Tigh's faults alcoholism, smoking and general surliness are his greatest strengths in a hit and run war. In an irregular war, he doesn't have to dress up or shave and his floosey wife can service the cause by prostituting herself to the entire Cylon council.

As humans have stepped up the attacks the Cylons have wandered in amazement how they are losing the battle for hearts and minds. "We're living in a fantasy world," exclaims one Cylon in High Council, a likely ringer for Dick Cheney, "what a feat for a machine programmed to function with logical regularity!" But the iron fist is ready to fall in massacres that might have made historical villains proud. Humans are being round up and driven into the bush to be shot.

I'm surprised this was allowed to air inside the US. I would have imagined that per the Cylonoidistic Dick Cheney this program would not have circulated in the US without substantial editing. Perhaps Battlestar reached the small screen because those who run the system are so obtuse they do not realize they have been lampooned.

Aaah, ya gotta love them Kanucks! This was a clear condemnation of the whole Israeli occupation. Here, it is the HUMANS who are in the role of the Palestinians and the Israelis are the ROBOTIC Cylons! The Cylons, which the humans fight, using suicide bombers as weapons. The suicide bomber explains his actions, by stating that he has nothing to live for ever since the Cylons (i.e. the Israelis, Americans) have killed his pregnant wife. This is not a metaphor that can be missed, except of course by the ever so shallow Americans, who start complaining of pretetiousness every time the camera is hand-held. I am really afraid that the underlying meaning of this episode is kinda wasted on the American audience, even if its message is delivered with brute force and anything BUT subtlety.

This really wouldn't have been made, without the strong Canadian influence upon the writing and cast. From Denmark and Tokyo, I salute the Canadians. Canadians are Americans as Americans were intended to be.

I couldn't disagree more with the previous comment. The beauty of last 2 seasons and the beauty of sci-fi is to make you think about the possible parallels to current society, events, and yes, affect perspective. But this season opener is so obvious and blatant, no thought is provoked. From the opening shot of a protagonist planting the future equivalent of a "roadside bomb" to arabic feeling music, we get it. Our protagonists in the story are called "insurgents", performing "suicide bombings", antagonists practically quoting the headlines of pro-war American's p.o.v. on the Iraq war. We got it in the first 2 minutes, Americans are the bad guys and the insurgents are the good guys. How annoying to have that piled on and hammered into us for the next hour and 58 minutes. There is nothing to consider with such ham-fisted propaganda. You either agree with it, or you don't. And it DOES take you out of the story. Did you switch writers, or simply get caught up in election fever? "Starship Troopers" did the same thing in a much more subtle way. That's right you've played to a lower common denominator than "Starship Troopers". Find the lighter, more subtle, thought provoking touch you had last 2 seasons. Embed your characters in complex situations of moral ambiguity that move an interesting storyline forward. We can relate to that and your messag will still be clear without sledgehammering us. Then we may even come around. Human themes in politics last forever,momentary politics at face value fade quickly.(And I can watch the news for that.) I'd like to see a season 4 and 5 of BSG so please get it together.

I am an American and none of this is lost on me. I do believe that there are many people out there who believe we are the Cylons portrayed in this excellent bit of television science fiction and drama. Yet, again perhaps, like the Cylons, we Americans, like many other people in the world, are too complex to be catagorized in such a neat little pigeon hole of goose-stepping neo-Nazi fools with a narrowly focused agenda of death and destruction to anyone who doesn't do as we say. I reject that argument and submit that there are few people or nations in the world that haven't at least once in recent history fallen into the same trap of national arrogance.

I am not in favor of my nation's action in Iraq and have done what I can to oppose it from the months before it began and will continue to do so for as long as it takes. I do not see "The Islamic World" as some marching, straight-lined monolithic entity, any more than I see other peoples, cultures or religions as being to robotic.

Shame on us, perhaps, for some of the disagreeable things we do in the world, but shame on the world for thinking we Americans are ALL so shallow that we goose-step to the same drummer. Frankly, goose-step has never been the right step for me, and neither has it been for most of the people in this nation with whom I am familiar.

As for Cheney, Rove & Bush, none of whom I support or even like, Abraham Lincoln said that people such as them can fool all of us some of the time, but can never fool all of us all of the time. To quote another character from scifi, "The sleeper has awoken."