I figured at some point, President Roslin and Commander Adama would butt heads on how to manage defenses for the fleet with the threat of cylons always a possibility. When Starbuck has to eject from her Viper, a moon is her destination, along with a parachute caught in a dust wind, diabolically poison atmosphere, a knee cracking against a giant boulder, and a cylon ship with some alien "engineering" her possible escape from it all. Starbuck's resilience when up against a dwindling oxygen supply, a ship she is unsure she'll be able to make operational and pilot, and a serious obstacle of not being destroyed when Vipers and the BG notice her cylon ship appearing from a moon give us one hell of a good show. Father and son Adama having to convince Roslin that a continued search for Starbuck is necessary, potentially jeopardizing their fuel supply and fleet's safety becomes a problem, as does, Colonel Tighe, questioning their willingness to push for her rescue when it detrimental to so many others. Vipers having to go under repairs, resources straining, tempers flaring, the code of "not leaving a soldier behind" potentially placing so many others in harm's way coming under scrutiny produce plenty of tension and drama. Adama's paternal worry and love for Kara, especially when she is healing in sick bay, is quite worthwhile, and the acting once again is uniformly excellent. Commander Adama refusing to listen to reason, dismissing Tighe, and telling Apollo that if it were him missing he'd not stop looking for him are definite highlights. Roslin taking the Adamas to task for compromising their safety when so much time has been spent on finding Starbuck, and their realizing she's right, followed by Starbuck's fancy flying in space, dodging Apollo's laser fire, conclude this excellent episode on a masterful note.
10 Reviews
How long should one wait?
Tweekums8 September 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Following on from where the previous episode ended we find Starbuck stranded on an inhospitable moon with only forty six hours of oxygen. Commander Adama is determined that she will be found and orders all available ships to search for her; this isn't easy though as the visibility is minimal and the atmosphere is not good for the vipers. As time passes both Colonel Tigh and the President start to question Adama's judgement, thinking he is being reckless risking the fleet for one pilot due to personal reasons. Once the forty six hours have passed and he still insists on staying it looks as if they might be right. On the surface Starbuck has found the Cylon raider that shot her down; it is dead but it still has a working air supply, she just has to figure how to fly it before Galactica leaves.
This was a fairly gripping episode and while it was unlikely that Starbuck would be written out of the series there were still some tense moments. It was interesting to learn more about the Cylon raiders to; these are clearly living creatures unlike the piloted craft in the original 1977 series. We are getting to characters more as the series progresses; they don't always agree, even the military officers are shown to have differing views. While ultimately his choice paid off we also see that Commander Adama does make illogical decisions.
This was a fairly gripping episode and while it was unlikely that Starbuck would be written out of the series there were still some tense moments. It was interesting to learn more about the Cylon raiders to; these are clearly living creatures unlike the piloted craft in the original 1977 series. We are getting to characters more as the series progresses; they don't always agree, even the military officers are shown to have differing views. While ultimately his choice paid off we also see that Commander Adama does make illogical decisions.
Emotional, gripping episode trumps it's flaws
frodsham_town27 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is the 2nd time I've watched the show now and just finished watching this episode again and remembering how emotional it was - expected it to have good reviews but apparently a lot of people disagree. I'll address a couple of the points:
1) Adama's actions not making sense for such an experienced captain. This one I disagree strongly with. Almost everyone; no matter who they are, has weaknesses and can let emotion cloud their judgment and this one you can understand. He was angry at Kara in the last episode after her confession and didn't want to see her again. Then, she suicidally risks her life because of this and is why she is suddenly in this predicament stuck on the planet. Adama is clearly feeling guilty about it and realises he was wrong and doesn't want her to die before they can make up.
2) Cylon technology - fair enough. I don't know enough about it so maybe the writer did mess up this part
3) However, despite the flaw of (2) the episode was highly gripping and emotional and is arguably what got me hooked to the show (as someone that hasn't really watched an awful lot of sci-fi)
1) Adama's actions not making sense for such an experienced captain. This one I disagree strongly with. Almost everyone; no matter who they are, has weaknesses and can let emotion cloud their judgment and this one you can understand. He was angry at Kara in the last episode after her confession and didn't want to see her again. Then, she suicidally risks her life because of this and is why she is suddenly in this predicament stuck on the planet. Adama is clearly feeling guilty about it and realises he was wrong and doesn't want her to die before they can make up.
2) Cylon technology - fair enough. I don't know enough about it so maybe the writer did mess up this part
3) However, despite the flaw of (2) the episode was highly gripping and emotional and is arguably what got me hooked to the show (as someone that hasn't really watched an awful lot of sci-fi)
More raw suspense than several dozens features I could name
A_Different_Drummer11 March 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This review penned in 2014. Historically, the overall rating for the series is 8.8, which seems high at first glance (given how critical IMDb users can be) but is in fact possibly a tad on the low side. What amazes me -- and triggered this review -- is that this episode, one of the best of the series, has a lower rating than the overall, and that is just plain wrong. First of all, the writers cleverly launched two parallel stories at once (one involving the lost ship, discussed above; and another involving a crew member stranded on Caprica, fighting for his life, alongside a beautiful female pilot who he believes to be stranded just like he is, but in fact the truth is anything but...) and they (those darned writers) elected to resolve only of the two plot arcs here, and I think they chose wisely. The "lost on the foggy moon with no air supply" story is good on its own (better than many Star Trek features, in fact) but backed by the extraordinary talents of Olmos and MacDonnell -- and with Sackhoff, long before her stint in Longmire, carrying her own weight, acting wise -- this episode becomes a thing of beauty, especially the last few minutes when the crew of BSG almost shoot her out of the sky, in error, after all her hard work. A must see.
Galactica 1980 inspired this episode
ohroonoko5 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This episode is clearly inspired in part by the last episode of Galactica 1980, The Return of Starbuck. A summary of that episode: Starbuck and Boomer encounter Cylon Raiders on a scouting mission and shoot them down, but Starbuck's Viper takes critical damage and is unable to return to Galactica. Starbuck tells Boomer to warn Galactica. Boomer returns to Galactica and pleads with Adama to rescue Starbuck. But Adama puts the safety of the fleet first and orders it to flank speed to avoid the Cylons, thus abandoning Starbuck. And this is where You Can't Go Home Again diverges, seeing an opportunity for dramatic conflict, because reimagined Adama "breaks the rules" and searches for Starbuck beyond 48 hours, giving in to the possibility that she had an extra oxygen supply. He gets angry with Tigh, Gaeta and Roslin for suggesting that he is putting personal feelings for Starbuck ahead of the safety of the fleet. Eventually he responds to Roslin talking sense into him and he ends the search and orders the fleet to jump. Roslin and Adama frequently throughout the series serve as each other's conscience, which drives their character development. Adama's soft spot for Starbuck causing a temporary lack of judgement may be a character flaw, but it is not a flaw in the show. Character flaws and conflict drive a story and this is why we love this show. Galactica 1980's Adama was cool as a cucumber and we understood his decision, but he couldn't afford to have a lack of judgement because he didn't have a President Roslin to talk sense into him.
In The Return of Starbuck, Starbuck discovers the crashed Raider he shot down, and uses it to build a vessel for his "son" (Zee) to escape the planet and returns to the fleet. In You Can't Go Home Again, Starbuck discovers the crashed Raider she shot down and uses it to escape the planet and return to the fleet herself. (The Return of Starbuck has a lot of implications that are borrowed by the reimagined series, such as Starbuck/Zee being an angel that guides the fleet to Earth, but I'll talk about that in later episode reviews).
Also worth mentioning is the nod to the original series' final episode, The Hand of God, where Apollo and Starbuck steal a Raider off of a Cylon basestar and return to the fleet. Boomer almost shoots them down, but they "waggle" the wings which was a sign to Boomer that this was Apollo and Starbuck. In You Can't Go Home Again, Starbuck has written her name on the Raider to make sure she doesn't get shot down. Then Apollo and Starbuck both waggle their wings in amusement.
Now I want to respond to some criticism of the episode, most of it which is overthinking, some of which is a lack of understanding of physics, and plot holes that aren't plot holes. I will try to avoid addressing criticisms that are purely a function of a lack of suspension of disbelief when watching science fiction.
One reviewer criticized Starbuck's assertion of basic flight controls being thrust, pitch, yaw and roll, by comparing balloons and insects and referring to "six axis" flight control. Well, balloons are not controlled flight, so that's a silly comparison. Pitch, yaw and roll are three axes of basic flight control. The other three (of six axis flight control) are forward/backward, up/down, and left/right. This is not considered basic flight control; they aren't even axes independent of pitch, yaw and roll. The are movement along the axes of basic flight control. These are used in helicopters (and helicopter-based drones). The common denominator remains pitch, yaw and roll. Starbuck is correct to assume that the Raider would have these basic flight controls (along with thrust).
Another criticism is that she stuffed the hole in the Cylon's head with her flight suit, so how good is that when she goes into space? Well, the interior of the Raider isn't pressurized (oxygen is fed through a tube, not flooding the cabin), therefore there would be no pressure on the flight suit to blow out of the hole. There certainly isn't any pressure in space to push it in. Frankly, the hole doesn't seem to be a big issue either way. The other criticism is she doesn't have seatbelts. Well, all that fleshy Cylon tissue seems pretty cushy, so that seems to absorb shocks pretty well making seatbelts unnecessary.
The notion that Starbuck can physically control the Raider despite not having a brain connected to it: this is a cybernetic organism, which means it does have physical controls. Why couldn't those be some kind of muscular controls that she can activate by squeezing or prodding? This only requires a modicum of suspension of belief. This is of course science fiction, so if you lack a suspension of belief or the imagination to imagine science fiction solutions then you shouldn't be watching science fiction!
The criticism that when Cylons are killed, their consciousness is uploaded into a duplicate model, therefore Cylons would instantly know what happened to the Raider patrol and be on top of the fleet. This refers to Cylon resurrection, which requires the Cylon to be close to a Resurrection point (a Resurrection Ship, the central Resurrection Hub, the Cylon homeworld, or planet-based facilities. Since the Cylons didn't zero in on the fleet after the Raider scouts were destroyed, it's assumed that they were unable to transfer their consciousness due to being out of range of a Resurrection point. And it's fair to say they were out of range of a Resurrection point since the Cylons sending scouts out far and wide in every direction looking for the fleet.
In The Return of Starbuck, Starbuck discovers the crashed Raider he shot down, and uses it to build a vessel for his "son" (Zee) to escape the planet and returns to the fleet. In You Can't Go Home Again, Starbuck discovers the crashed Raider she shot down and uses it to escape the planet and return to the fleet herself. (The Return of Starbuck has a lot of implications that are borrowed by the reimagined series, such as Starbuck/Zee being an angel that guides the fleet to Earth, but I'll talk about that in later episode reviews).
Also worth mentioning is the nod to the original series' final episode, The Hand of God, where Apollo and Starbuck steal a Raider off of a Cylon basestar and return to the fleet. Boomer almost shoots them down, but they "waggle" the wings which was a sign to Boomer that this was Apollo and Starbuck. In You Can't Go Home Again, Starbuck has written her name on the Raider to make sure she doesn't get shot down. Then Apollo and Starbuck both waggle their wings in amusement.
Now I want to respond to some criticism of the episode, most of it which is overthinking, some of which is a lack of understanding of physics, and plot holes that aren't plot holes. I will try to avoid addressing criticisms that are purely a function of a lack of suspension of disbelief when watching science fiction.
One reviewer criticized Starbuck's assertion of basic flight controls being thrust, pitch, yaw and roll, by comparing balloons and insects and referring to "six axis" flight control. Well, balloons are not controlled flight, so that's a silly comparison. Pitch, yaw and roll are three axes of basic flight control. The other three (of six axis flight control) are forward/backward, up/down, and left/right. This is not considered basic flight control; they aren't even axes independent of pitch, yaw and roll. The are movement along the axes of basic flight control. These are used in helicopters (and helicopter-based drones). The common denominator remains pitch, yaw and roll. Starbuck is correct to assume that the Raider would have these basic flight controls (along with thrust).
Another criticism is that she stuffed the hole in the Cylon's head with her flight suit, so how good is that when she goes into space? Well, the interior of the Raider isn't pressurized (oxygen is fed through a tube, not flooding the cabin), therefore there would be no pressure on the flight suit to blow out of the hole. There certainly isn't any pressure in space to push it in. Frankly, the hole doesn't seem to be a big issue either way. The other criticism is she doesn't have seatbelts. Well, all that fleshy Cylon tissue seems pretty cushy, so that seems to absorb shocks pretty well making seatbelts unnecessary.
The notion that Starbuck can physically control the Raider despite not having a brain connected to it: this is a cybernetic organism, which means it does have physical controls. Why couldn't those be some kind of muscular controls that she can activate by squeezing or prodding? This only requires a modicum of suspension of belief. This is of course science fiction, so if you lack a suspension of belief or the imagination to imagine science fiction solutions then you shouldn't be watching science fiction!
The criticism that when Cylons are killed, their consciousness is uploaded into a duplicate model, therefore Cylons would instantly know what happened to the Raider patrol and be on top of the fleet. This refers to Cylon resurrection, which requires the Cylon to be close to a Resurrection point (a Resurrection Ship, the central Resurrection Hub, the Cylon homeworld, or planet-based facilities. Since the Cylons didn't zero in on the fleet after the Raider scouts were destroyed, it's assumed that they were unable to transfer their consciousness due to being out of range of a Resurrection point. And it's fair to say they were out of range of a Resurrection point since the Cylons sending scouts out far and wide in every direction looking for the fleet.
You Can't Go Home Again
Prismark1018 December 2020
After the events of the previous episode. Starbuck's viper crashes on a moon and she only has forty six hours of oxygen supply left.
Commander Adama wants Starbuck found and puts Galactica's resources at risk looking for her. Both Colonel Tigh and the President Roslin question Adama's judgment.
However Starbuck finds a crashed cylon ship, some oxygen and is determined to make the ship fly and hopes someone identify that it is her flying it.
It was shocking to find out just how much resources were expended to search for Starbuck. It was also confusing to discover that the cylon needed oxygen to breath. I thought they were machines.
Still Starbuck was a wonder flying that cylon ship and she managed to find some paint.
Commander Adama wants Starbuck found and puts Galactica's resources at risk looking for her. Both Colonel Tigh and the President Roslin question Adama's judgment.
However Starbuck finds a crashed cylon ship, some oxygen and is determined to make the ship fly and hopes someone identify that it is her flying it.
It was shocking to find out just how much resources were expended to search for Starbuck. It was also confusing to discover that the cylon needed oxygen to breath. I thought they were machines.
Still Starbuck was a wonder flying that cylon ship and she managed to find some paint.
Saving Lt. Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace
claudio_carvalho25 August 2008
Starbuck is hit by a Cylon raider and falls in an inhospitable moon with about 46 hours of oxygen supply. Meanwhile, Commander William Adama and Captain Lee 'Apollo' Adama lead a rescue mission, using all the possible resources under the protest of President Laura Roslin that orders to call off the mission. Meanwhile in Caprica, Helo is attacked in the shelter while preparing the breakfast for Boomer and him.
Definitely I hate the incoherent and cynical character of President Roslin. Maybe the intention of the writers is to raise this kind of feeling in the viewers, but I can not accept the arrogance of this ill school teacher giving orders in a trained commander. The rest of the story is OK. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Você Não Pode Voltar para Casa" ("You Can't Return Home")
Definitely I hate the incoherent and cynical character of President Roslin. Maybe the intention of the writers is to raise this kind of feeling in the viewers, but I can not accept the arrogance of this ill school teacher giving orders in a trained commander. The rest of the story is OK. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Você Não Pode Voltar para Casa" ("You Can't Return Home")
Fortunately, you can skip this one
Karl Aksel18 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This is possibly the only clunker episode of the entire series, at least as far as I'm concerned. It's a good thing there is no story advancement in this episode, which means you can skip this one with no ill effects. Because there are a few glaring issues:
1. Plot wise, I find it inconceivable that a seasoned commander like Adama - who is no stranger to personal loss - should risk the entire human race for one pilot. This isn't even a tough decision. It's a painful one, but remarkably easy all the same: Leave, and leave immediately. The sheer stupidity of Adama and his son in this episode is not backed up by their personalities anywhere else in the series. Someone in the reviews here actually complained that President Roslin had the nerve to presume to tell Adama what to do, but she should have pressed him harder. She was 100% right, and Adama 100% wrong - and everybody knew it.
2. It has already been established, to the characters as well as the audience, that when cylons are killed, their consciousness is downloaded into a duplicate model. At least the characters know this is true for the human models, but we later learn this is true for the raiders as well. This means that it wouldn't take the cylons days to figure out what had happened to the scouting party - they'd know pretty much right away. Everything the raiders knew before they were destroyed, the rest of the cylons know. So they'd have no time to look for Starbuck in the first place. This constitutes a plot hole, and would normally be my biggest grievance. But there are a couple other things which beggars belief.
3. Why would cylon raiders, which operate mainly in the vacuum of space, have any biological parts at all? Why wouldn't they be all machine? The human models have a biological part because they need to pass for human. That's the only reason. The raiders have no such need, so why make them extra vulnerable to the effects of damage in space by making them part biological?
4. Even if we ignore the preposterous notion that Starbuck should be able to crawl into the thing and use the flight functions despite not having her brain hooked up to those controls (like the cylon's brain), that still leaves the question how she was able to navigate. The raider has no windows, only optics, which were hooked up to the raider's brain - not a monitor for human convenience. Yet she treats the slit as though it was a window. Even if we accept that (and there's no reason we should), that gives her only an extremely limited view straight ahead. She would not have been able to bob and weave from Apollo's attacks when he was behind her, because she couldn't possibly have seen him. Nor did she have any DRADIS in there. So even if she were able to get the thrusters going (she wouldn't), she would not have been able to see where to go.
5. Oh, and that hole in the front of the cylon, which killed its brain? It looked like she stuffed it with her flight suit. That may have worked to keep the wind out, but how good is that seal supposed to be when she takes the raider into space? She also didn't have a seatbelt, but that didn't seem to matter, either.
So I'm actually glad there's no story advancement in this episode. That means I can skip it, and pretend that Kara was successfully recovered by a rescue team.
1. Plot wise, I find it inconceivable that a seasoned commander like Adama - who is no stranger to personal loss - should risk the entire human race for one pilot. This isn't even a tough decision. It's a painful one, but remarkably easy all the same: Leave, and leave immediately. The sheer stupidity of Adama and his son in this episode is not backed up by their personalities anywhere else in the series. Someone in the reviews here actually complained that President Roslin had the nerve to presume to tell Adama what to do, but she should have pressed him harder. She was 100% right, and Adama 100% wrong - and everybody knew it.
2. It has already been established, to the characters as well as the audience, that when cylons are killed, their consciousness is downloaded into a duplicate model. At least the characters know this is true for the human models, but we later learn this is true for the raiders as well. This means that it wouldn't take the cylons days to figure out what had happened to the scouting party - they'd know pretty much right away. Everything the raiders knew before they were destroyed, the rest of the cylons know. So they'd have no time to look for Starbuck in the first place. This constitutes a plot hole, and would normally be my biggest grievance. But there are a couple other things which beggars belief.
3. Why would cylon raiders, which operate mainly in the vacuum of space, have any biological parts at all? Why wouldn't they be all machine? The human models have a biological part because they need to pass for human. That's the only reason. The raiders have no such need, so why make them extra vulnerable to the effects of damage in space by making them part biological?
4. Even if we ignore the preposterous notion that Starbuck should be able to crawl into the thing and use the flight functions despite not having her brain hooked up to those controls (like the cylon's brain), that still leaves the question how she was able to navigate. The raider has no windows, only optics, which were hooked up to the raider's brain - not a monitor for human convenience. Yet she treats the slit as though it was a window. Even if we accept that (and there's no reason we should), that gives her only an extremely limited view straight ahead. She would not have been able to bob and weave from Apollo's attacks when he was behind her, because she couldn't possibly have seen him. Nor did she have any DRADIS in there. So even if she were able to get the thrusters going (she wouldn't), she would not have been able to see where to go.
5. Oh, and that hole in the front of the cylon, which killed its brain? It looked like she stuffed it with her flight suit. That may have worked to keep the wind out, but how good is that seal supposed to be when she takes the raider into space? She also didn't have a seatbelt, but that didn't seem to matter, either.
So I'm actually glad there's no story advancement in this episode. That means I can skip it, and pretend that Kara was successfully recovered by a rescue team.
I can only hope the title refers to the writers
delnegro-IMDb23 April 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Remember that episode about half way through the first series of McGyver where his plane crashed, so he climbed into the body of a dead albatross and squeezed its organs to make it fly, after explaining that birds only have four muscles? No? You don't remember that episode? That's probably because it doesn't exist. McGyver's writers took some liberties with reality, but they didn't treat their audience like complete idiots.
But if you ever wondered what such an episode would look like, you're in luck, because that's exactly what Galactica's writers and producers decided to give us.
To make a long and painful story shorter (and slightly more bearable), Starbuck shoots down a Cylon ship and then crashes near it herself. Since her ship is destroyed and her oxygen is running out, she climbs into the Cylon ship (which is inexplicably still in one piece), hoping to fly it home. This, in itself, makes no sense (because Cylon raiders were supposed to be autonomous drones, without a cockpit or physical controls, but let's ignore that - it gets worse).
She finds that the spaceship is in fact a kind of cybernetic creature, part living organism and part machine. The organic tissues are also inexplicably intact, despite having just fallen from orbit onto solid ground. But let's ignore that too, because it gets worse.
Starbuck then explains that "all flying things have the same controls: pitch, yaw, roll, and power", so she just needs to find those. I guess she has never seen a balloon. Or an insect. Or a bird. Or a helicopter. Or indeed one of Galactica's own fighters, which have six-axis movement (i.e., they can rotate around three axes and also move independently along three axes).
Armed with this piece of "knowledge" she climbs into a mass of bloody organs and veins and starts squeezing things "because there has to be a throttle somewhere". You know, like every flying organism has. I love roasted chicken's throttle, and I'm sure you do, too.
She also concludes that "living things have to breathe, so there has to be oxygen around here somewhere". Yes, surely a fighter designed to operate IN SPACE must require oxygen to breathe, and must continue to pump it even after a) being shot and b) crashing down on a planet. And, guess what, she finds a gas coming out of one of those random tubes. So what does she do? She removes her helmet (despite being on a planet that has no viable atmosphere) and sucks on the tube. At this point, it probably won't surprise you to know that her face doesn't explode, and that the space fighter built by robots is indeed full of exactly the right mix of gases for humans to breathe.
What are the odds, eh? 100%, as it turns out.
She then squeezes a couple more random organs and, in a matter of seconds, has the alien spaceship under full control. Undeterred by the bullet holes in its fuselage (yes, it can resist atmospheric re-entry and impact, but not bullets), she flies it back to space, manages to easily outmanoeuvre one of her fleet's best pilots by squeezing pieces of meat, and lands safely aboard Galactica.
Not only is the "plot" a series of insultingly nonsensical events, but there isn't even any sense of danger or uncertainty, because all this is happening to one of the four main characters of the show, and it's obvious that she isn't going to die half way through the first series. The only doubt hanging in the air is what level of stupidity the next scene will manage to attain. To describe the outcome as "deus ex machina" is probably blasphemy; it's more a case of stercus ex scriptor.
Meanwhile, the rest of the characters are behaving in their usual irrational and illogical ways, but the main plot is so amazingly bad that you don't even notice them. I guess that's the silver lining.
I can only hope that the episode's title is what the writer's family told her after watching this.
But if you ever wondered what such an episode would look like, you're in luck, because that's exactly what Galactica's writers and producers decided to give us.
To make a long and painful story shorter (and slightly more bearable), Starbuck shoots down a Cylon ship and then crashes near it herself. Since her ship is destroyed and her oxygen is running out, she climbs into the Cylon ship (which is inexplicably still in one piece), hoping to fly it home. This, in itself, makes no sense (because Cylon raiders were supposed to be autonomous drones, without a cockpit or physical controls, but let's ignore that - it gets worse).
She finds that the spaceship is in fact a kind of cybernetic creature, part living organism and part machine. The organic tissues are also inexplicably intact, despite having just fallen from orbit onto solid ground. But let's ignore that too, because it gets worse.
Starbuck then explains that "all flying things have the same controls: pitch, yaw, roll, and power", so she just needs to find those. I guess she has never seen a balloon. Or an insect. Or a bird. Or a helicopter. Or indeed one of Galactica's own fighters, which have six-axis movement (i.e., they can rotate around three axes and also move independently along three axes).
Armed with this piece of "knowledge" she climbs into a mass of bloody organs and veins and starts squeezing things "because there has to be a throttle somewhere". You know, like every flying organism has. I love roasted chicken's throttle, and I'm sure you do, too.
She also concludes that "living things have to breathe, so there has to be oxygen around here somewhere". Yes, surely a fighter designed to operate IN SPACE must require oxygen to breathe, and must continue to pump it even after a) being shot and b) crashing down on a planet. And, guess what, she finds a gas coming out of one of those random tubes. So what does she do? She removes her helmet (despite being on a planet that has no viable atmosphere) and sucks on the tube. At this point, it probably won't surprise you to know that her face doesn't explode, and that the space fighter built by robots is indeed full of exactly the right mix of gases for humans to breathe.
What are the odds, eh? 100%, as it turns out.
She then squeezes a couple more random organs and, in a matter of seconds, has the alien spaceship under full control. Undeterred by the bullet holes in its fuselage (yes, it can resist atmospheric re-entry and impact, but not bullets), she flies it back to space, manages to easily outmanoeuvre one of her fleet's best pilots by squeezing pieces of meat, and lands safely aboard Galactica.
Not only is the "plot" a series of insultingly nonsensical events, but there isn't even any sense of danger or uncertainty, because all this is happening to one of the four main characters of the show, and it's obvious that she isn't going to die half way through the first series. The only doubt hanging in the air is what level of stupidity the next scene will manage to attain. To describe the outcome as "deus ex machina" is probably blasphemy; it's more a case of stercus ex scriptor.
Meanwhile, the rest of the characters are behaving in their usual irrational and illogical ways, but the main plot is so amazingly bad that you don't even notice them. I guess that's the silver lining.
I can only hope that the episode's title is what the writer's family told her after watching this.
Worste Episode of the Series.
ReaLMoisan6 September 2020
A couple of other reviewers have already mentioned most of the issues with this episode, but they include spoilers. So I thought I'd give a warning, and state that this is without a doubt the worse episode of the entire series. Almost everything about this episode is wrong. The lore, design, and tech of the Cylons introduced this episode really hurts the credibility of the Cylons as an intelligent species. While the motivations and behaviour of the colonies military and their leaders really hurts the credibility of humans as an intelligent species too. Seriously, the motivations and behaviour of the two Adamas this episode can only be defined as character assassination, and their actions were ridiculous.
It's no surprise that the writer of this episode, Carla Robinson only has three episodes of BSG to her solo writing credits. Then one story credit in an episode of a children's show before never finding writing work in the industry again. This episode is her first solo writing credit, and it was so bad I almost stopped watching the entire series half way through this episode.
When you introduce new technology and species designs into a series, the show runners really need to asses these concepts for their impact on canon, and influence on all future content. They really wanted the added suspense of a ticking clock episode, but they really hurt the logic and logistics of the Cylons by introducing some new concepts into the episode. Ticking clocks can work, but the resolution to this conflict was lazy and sloppy writing; like I'll never watch this show again bad.
Science fiction world building really relies on a strong, well structured foundation to build it's world upon. When the writing and world building is this bad, this early, it's never a good sign. Thankfully, the show does get better again, but the damage to canon and characters has already been done. There are issues with failures of understanding basic science and their logistics. Also, there's issues with plot contrivances and conveniences too. There's an issue or error, and sometimes multiple ones in almost every scene of this episode. Someone far more competent really needed to rewrite this episode before shooting started.
It's no surprise that the writer of this episode, Carla Robinson only has three episodes of BSG to her solo writing credits. Then one story credit in an episode of a children's show before never finding writing work in the industry again. This episode is her first solo writing credit, and it was so bad I almost stopped watching the entire series half way through this episode.
When you introduce new technology and species designs into a series, the show runners really need to asses these concepts for their impact on canon, and influence on all future content. They really wanted the added suspense of a ticking clock episode, but they really hurt the logic and logistics of the Cylons by introducing some new concepts into the episode. Ticking clocks can work, but the resolution to this conflict was lazy and sloppy writing; like I'll never watch this show again bad.
Science fiction world building really relies on a strong, well structured foundation to build it's world upon. When the writing and world building is this bad, this early, it's never a good sign. Thankfully, the show does get better again, but the damage to canon and characters has already been done. There are issues with failures of understanding basic science and their logistics. Also, there's issues with plot contrivances and conveniences too. There's an issue or error, and sometimes multiple ones in almost every scene of this episode. Someone far more competent really needed to rewrite this episode before shooting started.
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