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Tuesdays, don't you just love 'em? No matter how badly the working week might be going you can brush aside all the news of economic meltdown, safe and secure in the knowledge that the characters (or would 'inmates' be more accurate?) of BSG have got it much, much worse that you ever will. In the first two episodes we've taken a brisk canter through guilt, depression, suicide, dissolution, alcoholism, despair and impeding mutiny, all played out against the background of a ruined, radioactive and long dead planet Earth. Just for good measure, a considerable chunk of the first episode was dedicated to several of the major characters reliving their own violent deaths in a nuclear catastrophe. Ahhh! Feeling better already!

Much of the drama in BSG comes from the idea of a group of every-day people pushed to impossible extremes, caught between a relentless inhuman enemy on one hand and their own, all-too-human internal divisions on the other. After years on the run the revelations of the past couple of episodes seems to have been the final nail in the fleet's collective mental coffins. When the news sank in the resulting despair and madness was actually quite difficult to watch at times; the 'old man' staggering aimlessly down graffiti-covered corridors whilst Gius Baltar calls for revenge on God over the loudspeakers being a particularly stark scene. The first two episodes of series 4.5 have shown the show at its best, never shying away from showing the human cost of the decisions that have been made, never taking the easy way out and most importantly, they've contained the most brazen drink-driving scene ever filmed, with Tigh and Adama drunk out of their minds at the helm of a Battlestar without so much as a breathalyser in sight. Brilliant.

On a related note, I've been wondering where the fleet gets its stocks of whiskey from. The senior members of the military fleet alone seem to be draining a whole loch's worth every day, with Starbuck and Tigh scouring the hanger decks for paint thinner and half-empty bottles of meths. I can only assume that early on in the first series they came across an asteroid of pure Glenfidich that has been keeping the distillery ship (the C.S.S. Famous Grouse) working at top capacity ever since. There is clearly a future plotline being developed here, involving the hijack of the fleet's booze supplies by Tom Zareck necessitating Bill Adama to resolve the situation the way he resolves every situation... By ordering in the assault raptor and authorising deadly force.

Written by: Gareth Groarke

Written by Syfy.co.uk

Syfy.co.uk is the online home of Syfy. Here you'll find reviews, interviews and blogs on all the latest shows and films.

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