Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0 (www.the-usher.com)

Devastated by a surprise attack by the Cylons, the last surviving Battlestar, Galactica gathers together the survivors in any spaceship that will fly and starts to run. Relentlessly pursued, the Convoy has only one hope, to reach the fabled 13th colony, located on a shining planet called Earth.

Scattered
With Adama out of action, Colonel Tigh takes his position as commander of the Galactica. The fleet makes an emergency jump, but due to an error by Gaeta, Galactica does not transmit the proper jump coordinates and the fleet becomes separated from Galactica. Boomer is in jail, and the cat's out of the bag - she's a Cylon. Back on Caprica Boomer takes off with Starbuck's Cylon raider.

Valley of Darkness
The Galactica has succeeded in reuniting with the fleet, but it has paid a terrible price: A Cylon computer virus has penetrated its computers. Col. Tigh knows from bitter experience what the Cylons are planning. The Centurions aren't going to blow up the ship; they're going to kill the crew by venting the ship's air and then turn its guns on the rest of the fleet. Only Lee whom Tigh despises for his "disloyalty" to Commander Adama and his small squad of marines are in position to stop the Cylon boarding party.

Fragged
Adama is still in surgery and the Kobol survivors are searching for a way out of their present situation when they discover the Cylons have built an anti-aircraft weapon, designed to destroy the rescue craft that is sure to follow.

Resistance
Martial law is having a bad effect on the fleet as ships are refusing to resupply Galactica. The Chief is arrested as a suspected Cylon, and it's up to Gaius Baltar to prove his innocence. The President, with the assistance of Lee Adama escapes her imprisonment aboard Galactica and takes refuge on Cloud 9 with the help of the most unlikely of Allies. Starbuck and Helo discover a group of fifty three survivors on Caprica.

The Farm
Adama returns to an excited CIC and retakes command of his ship. He orders a ship to ship search of all ships to find the President, but fails to find her before she sends out a message informing the other ships in the fleet that she knows where Earth is, and that she will lead them there. Over a third of the fleet leaves Galactica's protection and jumps back to Kobol to await the return of Starbuck.

Home: Part 1
President Roslin's fragile coalition is put to the test and Adama continues to struggle with the betrayal of his son. Starbuck, Helo, and Boomer return from Caprica and set out for Kobol to find the tomb of Athena.

Home: Part 2
Adama heads to Kobol to find Roslin, reassembles the fleet and heads down to Kobol himself with Apollo, Starbuck, Zarek, Billy, Tyro to find the presidential party in search of the "tomb of Athena" which allegedly leads to Earth.

Final Cut
A reporter is sent to Galactica to chronicle the harsh realities of life during wartime. Lucy Lawless guest stars as the television reporter, D'Anna Biers.

Flight of the Phoenix
Sharon informs Adama that the Galactica has been infected with a computer virus that is tampering with the basic ship functions and is scanning them for weaknesses. All this is preparation for a major assault by the Cylon Raiders. So with the clock ticking, Adama must pull himself together and decide whether or not she can be trusted. Meanwhile the flight crew is hard at work on a new fighter named The Black Bird.

Pegasus
Battlestar Galactica was not the only Battlestar to have survived the Cylon attack, The Battlestar Pegasus also survived.

After making a real splash with the mini-series and first season, can the re-imaging of 'Battlestar Galactica' keep up the same momentum for the first part of its second run? The answer is a definite yes.

With a bigger budget Ronald D. Moore and his creative team have created one of the best science fiction shows to grace television in a very long time. Keeping the story essence of the original 1978 classic and then making it their own, Moore has taken all his experience of writing political, social and war time drama he gained from 'Star Trek Deep Space Nine' and then pushed it to the next level.

While fans of the first series greeted the show with scepticism, not liking the changes to key characters such as Starbuck, Boomer and the how the Cylons looked, they were soon won over by the quality of the writing and the performances from the excellent cast.

After the cliffhanging season finale during the show's first year, the momentous pace of the show is taken up another gear as the crew come to terms with and act upon the events that took place. As with many TV shows, the continuing storyline is king and 'Battlestar Galactica' pushes that remit to the letter. This is a season that quickly becomes essential viewing as every episode is integral to the development of the story of the rag-tag, fugitive fleet's quest to find a shining planet know as Earth.

Key to the success of 'Battlestar Galactica' is the performances of the cast. Each of them has now grown into their roles and commands your attention every time they grace the screen. Chief amongst these are the performances of James Callis as Vice President Dr. Gaius Baltar and Tricia Helfer as Cylon Number 6. The betrayer of the human rate is slowly been driven to the Cylon way of thinking by the Cylon voice within his head. The writers and the actors have created an intriguing dynamic between the characters that causes the viewer to ask so many questions about their relationship and why he actually see and hears her.

Other key characters have also have their chance to develop and shine. Katee Sackhoff makes the character of Lieutenant Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace her own, as she comes out of the shadow of Dirk Benedict's original version. Grace Park has even more to do this season as Cylon agent Lieutenant Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii, as she is playing more than one version of the same character. The excellent Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslin, Michael Hogan as Colonel Paul Tigh and Edward James Olmos as Commander William Adama raise the bar even higher in their performances.

The first half of the second season of 'Battlestar Galactica' is quite simply superb. With character and story development driving the show, this showcases the best that science fiction television as to offer. As revelations come thick and fast, the show just keeps getting better and better.

PICTURE AND SOUND

Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack the transfer is very good.

BONUS FEATURES

Deleted Scenes
View deleted or extended scenes from the episodes 'Scattered', 'Valley of Darkness', 'Fragged', 'Resistance', 'The Farm', 'Home Part 1 & 2', 'Final Cut' and 'Flight of the Pheonix'.

Episode Commentary
Listen to the original Podcast commentary by executive producer Ronald D. Moore for the episodes 'Scattered', 'Valley of Darkness', 'Resistance', 'The Farm', 'Home: Part 1 & 2' and 'Final Cut'. These are excellent tracks from the man behind the series as he gives in-depth information about changes to the scripts, deleted scenes and the essence of each of the episodes, as he reveals how he sees the show progressing.

Battlestar Galactica Sneak Peek (3.24 mins)
A preview of the next ten episodes of the season with comments from the stars of the show

Trailers
Previews of 'Sea Quest DSV: Season 1', 'Serenity' and 'The Island'

OVERALL

Universal has done a good job with the DVD transfer of 'Battlestar Galactica'. The commentary tracks by Ronald D. Moore are exceptional and the deleted scenes are good. The inclusion of a making of featurette would have been the real bonus but hopefully that will be included in the second part of the season.

DVD

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