The third season of Battlestar Galactica begins in New Caprica about four months after the Cylon occupation.
Of the principal characters, Gaius Baltar has become a puppet president. Colonel Tigh is incarcerated and is missing an eye. Galen Tyrol and Samuel Anders lead the rebellion against the Cylons. Starbuck is being held by the Cylon Leoben.
The fleet had escaped, and Admiral Adama is preparing the rescue of the human population in New Caprica. By the fourth episode, Galactica returns to New Caprica and successfully liberates the humans. By the fifth, a tribunal called The Circle secretly metes out sentences to Colonials who had collaborated with the Cylons by having them airlocked. Later, Baltar is tried for crimes against humanity.
The rest of the season shows how they continue their search for a new home planet, while dealing with food supply and health issues along the way.
The main theme of the series has been questions of identity, and in this season identity is expanded to include not just race (humans vs. Cylons), but also loyalties, faith, and social class. It asks, among other things, the question, How does one become a collaborator? In the case of Baltar, where do we draw the line between self-preservation and being a traitor?
In the continuing efforts of the insurgency, suicide bombing becomes an option. Where in the first season the suicide bombers were the Cylons, this time it is men who blow themselves up. In times of desperation, how can man allow self-destruction? How Macchiavellian can he get? How noble is it to belong to the human race? Where should our sympathies lie now? Especially when these people believe in the gods of Kobol, and the Cylons believe in one God, and one God only.
In techniques that borrow from the TV news, BSG effectively tackles the horrors of sleeper cells and America's War on Terror.
There are 12 Cylon models, and for most of the season, the identities of the seven are known. There is a lot of speculation on who comprise the Final Five, and when four of them are revealed, the results are heartbreaking, given the roles they have played in the series so far.
With a single pout, Mary McDonnell (as President Laura Roslin) reminds you of Meryl Streep. And with her steely resolve, special guest star Lucy Lawless (as Number Three/ D'Anna) suggests that she can be up for parts available to Jodie Foster.
Battlestar Galactica is absolutely riveting, and illuminates the human condition in ways you have never seen before. It is consistently excellent, and only three or four of the 20 episodes can be rated very good only.
More than any other TV series, Battlestar Galactica may have been the most relevant and the most resonant in this decade.
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