Battlestar Galactica Does It Right. Again. Disc 5.

I've noticed, in both the just-wrapped season of Lost, and last year's season of (being the one I'm currently watching as we have no cable), a strong correlation between the fact that, prior to each season, each show got a guaranteed end date from its respective network - and, having the freedom of knowing exactly how much time they had left, each show made up for a weak pre-agreement season by soaring. Battlestar GalacticaBattlestar has surpassed itself, and just about everything else.

I've now cracked disc 5 of season 3, watching the first two episodes last night. The first of them, "The Woman King", guest starring the fantastic Bruce Davison, was the first time I've seen a TV show actually deal with the issue of people refusing medical treatment based on religious beliefs, instead of just saying, "they're crazy, let's force treatment on them, now all is well." The episode also dealt with the intense and long-seated bigotry people from other colonies, including members of the navy, had for the ones refusing treatment. Where Battlestar excels where most others fail is that it is a rare production that succeeds in being neither "liberal" nor "conservative" by giving equal, and equally logical and reasonable, attention to both sides. Kind of like why Stephen King endures where most other horror writers fail, because he recognizes that evil is not the only active supernatural force interested in Man.

This episode also made me play conspiracy theorist, making an awful lot out of one line of dialogue, because I believe all of Adama's dialogue is well-considered. At the end of the episode, when he apologizes to Helo - the lone voice of reason in the madness, as he has been ever since he fell in love with Sharon - he refers to him as "the lone voice in the wilderness." Because of the intense religious aspect of the show, and because I"m pretty sure that phrase originated with Isaiah's prophecy about John the Baptist as "the voice of one calling in the desert [wilderness], 'Make straight the way of the Lord'", and because Helo's half-Cylon child is a messianic figure to those among the skin job Cylons who are (allegedly) more in tune with God, I think there's some very interesting implications to that wee bit of speech.

The second episode of the night, "A Day In The Life", was dominated by Adama's reflection on his failed marriage, but with a Tyrol/Callie subplot, and the fact that most of the main navy characters are now married (Starbuck, Tyrol and Callie, Lee and Dualla, Helo and Sharon), it became a nice general reflection on marriage as well. It contained the bitterly ironic revelation that Adama had literally married his best friend, as our first-ever glimpse of his late wife showed her to be a character cross between Sol and Ellen Tigh, as well as the distinction of actually using that oft overused Beatles song of a title properly. It actually made sense, in the context of the song, for the episode to be called that. Well done! Bonus points as well for Adama and Roslin finally discussing the fact that, were they not at war, they would have a relationship. On an aside, Mary McDonnell is so gorgeous, don't you think?

Logan! Shame on you for going straight to season 4! You have missed out on so much! You still rock!