[TV] Battlestar Galactica Razor (minor spoilers)

[Luckers]

I figured someone should get this started... thoughts?

 

Personally i enjoyed it, but I didn't think it lived up. I really did like the new character, and i really loved the way that they showed the reasoning for Admiral Cain, but ultimately i just thought that is was anti-climatic. The relied too much on the whole Starbuck comment, and frankly given the end of last season it just wasn't a surprising or big enough moment for the end of a movie length screening.

 

What did you guys think?

[Emperor]

Wait... when did this play?  Did you see it in the theatre?

[Luckers]

Nah, I was naughty, i downloaded it.

 

Apparently it was a made for TV movie in the states. I assume it played on TV.

[Tenshin_Xo]

I didn't think it was due until 11/24.

[Emperor]

I think it is in theatres on the 12th.  Well theatres in select cities.

[Tenshin_Xo]

From wiki, so grain of salt.

 

Battlestar Galactica: Razor is the title of an upcoming television film of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series airing on the United States' Sci Fi Channel on Saturday, November 24, 2007, at 9PM/8C.[3] Copies of this film appeared on the internet on October 30th 2007.

 

Sci Fi Channel confirmed on March 21, 2007 that part of the show's renewal for a fourth season of 22 episodes includes a television film to be released sometime in the fall of 2007. The film will comprise two of the 22 episodes and will be shown on Sci Fi.[4]

 

Since original series creator Glen A. Larson still holds all film rights regarding the show, "Razor" will be aired first on television but will be quickly released to DVD on December 4, 2007, 10 days after the airing on cable television.[5]. The DVD version will be an extended cut and include extras such as the cast members discussing their favorite episodes. "Razor" technically comprises the first two episodes of the fourth season, and is sold internationally as such, but in practice it is intended to be a stand-alone film. SciFi.com also allowed fans to choose the cover art for the DVD release. The winning cover was announced on September 14, 2007.[6]

AND

The SciFi Channel and Microsoft will partner on a special early screening of Razor that can be seen in theaters two weeks before it airs on television. Screenings will take place on November 12, 2007, in New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, and Seattle[12].

 

[ironcross]

i was gona say, i thought they were playing it on tv, and as i just saw a add for it a few minnits ago, i relly dident think that it had relly been showen.

[Haxorsist]

I downloaded it too. It was alright.

[JenniferL]

You should probably edit the thread title to include a spoiler warning. I had no idea you'd actually seen it when I opened this thread. I thought it was just a speculation thread.

[Luckers]

Yeah sorry, i thought it had been released widely in the US.

[Segurant]

GAH!!!!  I wished they had a screening of it here in Atlanta.

[Emperor]

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.

 

Additional Spoilage:

 

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