To say that the final season of “Battlestar Galactica” began with a bang is an understatement: the crew discovers that residual radiation from a nuclear holocaust makes Earth uninhabitable; despondent, Dee shoots herself; and Ellen Tigh is revealed to be the fifth of the “Final Five” Cylons. But, it also started out with a whimper, literally, more quite moments of despair and confusion: President Roslin is confronted by the seeming failure of the prophecy she’s so adamantly clung to, and Starbuck quietly disposes of the original of which she is, we are led to assume, a copy.
In a recent conference call Ronald D. Moore, co-creator and executive producer of the re-imagined series, wouldn’t reveal too much about coming events but promised that Friday night’s show will be a smaller, character piece, that the nuclear holocaust on earth and destruction on Kobol are somehow related, and would neither confirm nor deny that Starbuck was a secret thirteenth Cylon.
Personally, I’m curious as to whether it’s the humans–or, rather, the characters we believe to be “human,” as the show keeps providing new reasons to wonder about the reality of the human/Cylon distinction–will be coming in to some new self-awareness. If the Final Five are among humans now, and somehow always have been as the flash backs lead us to believe, then what does it mean to be human?
Moore promises that the mythologies will be addressed fully in these final episodes and I, for one, can’t frackin’ wait. Besides there will be plenty to debate–religious terrorism, artificial intelligence, corporate responsibility–in “Caprica,” a prequel series set to premiere in 2010.
“Battlestar Galactica” airs Friday nights on the SciFi Channel at 10 p.m. ET.