Jammersreviews

Note: This review contains significant spoilers.

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Battlestar Galactica: "Final Cut"

In an effort to put a human face on an embattled military operation, Adama 
grants complete access of the Galactica to a video broadcast news reporter.

Air date: 9/9/2005 (USA)
Written by Mark Verheiden
Directed by Robert Young

Rating out of 4: **1/2

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
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There's something about the documentary-within-the-narrative structure of a 
show like "Final Cut" that is somehow both gimmicky and self-defeating. 
Putting cameras in front of the cameras adds an extra layer of artifice to 
something that is already artificial (although ostensibly real). Watching 
the episode through an extra level of video cameras is innately distracting. 
Plus, "Final Cut" has a twist ending that is unnecessary and frustrating.

Despite its flaws, "Final Cut" nearly transcends its structure. It has 
admirable qualities, like its focus on supporting characters and its obvious 
allegorical intentions. The premise brings a TV news reporter (if they call 
it TV) named D'Anna Biers (Lucy Lawless) to the Galactica, where Adama 
grants her unlimited access to do a story on the ship and crew. He does this 
because the distrusted military needs a PR outlet to put a human face on 
those who protect the fleet, particularly in the aftermath of the "Gideon 
massacre," where four people were shot and killed when Tigh sent marines to 
retrieve supplies from the civilian ship Gideon (see "Resistance"). Biers 
says that what she reports will not be a propaganda piece. Adama is fine 
with that, but he warns her: "If you start shooting anything that 
compromises the safety of this ship, it'll be cut."

This is an allegory for the role of the press in our current times, with our 
embedded wartime journalists, PR damage control teams, and endless political 
spin. By nature, I suspect, many people will automatically side with Adama 
and against Biers, for the simple fact that we are in sympathy with Adama 
while reporters like Biers are perceived as an annoying, interfering, 
hostile presence. There may be some truth to that characterization, but the 
press serves a legitimate purpose in real life because it ensures that 
someone will be held accountable for their actions (or inaction).

Coming less than two weeks after the Hurricane Katrina disaster, "Final Cut" 
has a certain magnified timeliness. On Sept. 2, President Bush famously (and 
idiotically) said, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," to FEMA Director 
Michael Brown, in the midst of a desperate situation in New Orleans where 
thousands of people were still stranded without food or water. A day 
earlier, on Sept. 1, Brown had gone on "Nightline" and actually admitted 
that he didn't know until that day that there were thousands stranded at the 
New Orleans Convention Center, something that had been reported on TV. It 
could be argued that FEMA was not doing a heck of a job. Brown resigned on 
Monday, in large part because the media -- right or wrong -- tore him to 
pieces and dug into his qualifications, until ultimately he became the 
sacrificial lamb. Politically, someone had to pay. (No, he wasn't fired, but 
he might as well have been.)

Now, I'll be the first to say that we should work the problem now and play 
politics later. But there was a certain arrogance in Bush commending Brown 
on a response effort that was barely under way and obviously inadequate. And 
the reason the slow response was obvious was because day after day we saw 
these images on TV being reported by journalists on the scene. There was a 
wide disparity between the initial attempted spin (or ignorance) and the 
facts on the ground.

Anyway, that's what I'm sure D'Anna Biers thinks she's about -- someone to 
dig beyond the sound bites and show what's actually happening. As such, she 
has one particularly good exchange when Adama confiscates a 
tape-of-happenstance showing a pregnant Cylon named Sharon in sickbay whom 
the civilian fleet doesn't know is in custody. He asks her if the 
repercussions of reporting the facts matter to her less than the fact that 
she can report it. Her response will be familiar in our post-war-on-terror, 
partisan world: "I'm sick to death of people like you questioning my 
patriotism. We all want this fleet to survive." It's a good point.

The question is, does D'Anna Biers serve the same purpose in the 
post-Colonial downfall as the press in current-day America? I'm not so sure. 
With only 47,853 survivors, and most of them having no chance to survive 
without the Galactica, mistakes along the lines of a slow hurricane response 
aren't likely to upend anybody or anything. Colonel Tigh is not going to be 
replaced a la Michael Brown of FEMA for making a bad call or looking bad in 
the press. Simply put, there's no one to replace Tigh unless it were to 
become absolutely necessary -- and by absolutely necessary, I mean gross 
incompetence or death.

Apart from comparisons to current headlines, I'd better cover the plot. 
There isn't much plot, really, as this episode is pitched as a "day in the 
life" episode. Fine and good; less plot often means more character, and in 
the case of this episode, we get some nice moments that get into the heads 
of minor supporting characters, like Kat and Racetrack, and more prominent 
supporting characters like Dualla and Gaeta. We also learn all of their 
names, first and last. Kat in particular gets her own little storyline, 
documenting her gradual decline of mental health as she takes drugs to stay 
awake on duty. Her confession at the end about being ashamed is a poignant 
moment. The interview footage of these characters works well.

What works less well is all the on-scene switching back and forth between 
the episode's cameras and the pixilated, scan-lined video cameras within the 
story. It gets distracting and somehow has a way of betraying performances 
as performances rather than reality of the moment.

If there's a "plot" here, it's about Tigh's death threats resulting from the 
Gideon tragedy, although how this plays out is just a little too banal. Lt. 
Palladino (Jeremy Guilbaut), who led the Gideon mission, turns out to be the 
culprit, although I have my doubts that if he's seeking "justice" that he'd 
first go to the trouble of making poetic threats on mirrors. I also doubt he 
would potentially put other people's lives in jeopardy by sabotaging a ship 
he knows Tigh will be aboard.

Strangely, the interviews with the main characters are less insightful than 
the supporting characters. While Lee has a good speech about how his 
officers deserve respect, Kara has an overly cliched Starbuck Scene where 
she's attacking a punching bag and remarking on how a good flight candidate 
is "one crazy enough to follow me into combat." Yawn. Then there's Baltar, 
whose antics here seem like needless filler. He's desperate to be 
interviewed, egomaniac that he is, and yet has the gall to force Biers to 
schedule an appointment so he can clear his already-empty calendar. What a 
toolbox. I suppose this is consistent with his character, but it's not the 
least bit interesting. And Six seems especially superfluous here; I'm 
eagerly awaiting the return of ponytailed Six.

One thing that seems like a missed opportunity is that there's no interview 
footage addressing the fractured and subsequently repaired relationship 
between Adama and Roslin. The episode doesn't go there. Maybe it doesn't 
need to, but it might've been an intriguing choice.

Lucy Lawless proves to be a good choice for Biers; personable but with an 
edge, with the capacity of being self-serving but not necessarily doing so. 
Not to mention tall and formidable. She's fair, but doesn't shy away from 
tough questions. Watch her interview with Tigh, where the first thing she 
does is pour them both drinks. There's also a subtle moment that 
demonstrates the relationship between the reporter and camera operator; 
Biers asks her cameraman to get a close-up of some mundane piece of 
equipment; he says, "Yeah, sure," then rolls his eyes and doesn't bother. 
He, like her, spends a lot of time in the editing room.

The story they end up with is not a propaganda piece, but certainly sees the 
military favorably overall. One wonders if the real-world press would come 
away with that story or if they would come away with a story about a Cylon 
prisoner being hidden from the public. I guess it comes down to your level 
of cynicism and how bad things in the world really are. Our present press 
would probably report on the Cylon, but then we haven't been virtually wiped 
out by them, either.

I didn't care for the ending, in which we see the Cylons watching the news 
story on Caprica. It wasn't that part that bothered me; indeed, there are 
some relevant story points, where the Cylons are delighted to see that in 
the cut footage Sharon is still alive and carrying the hybrid child, and the 
implications that "the baby must be protected at all costs." No, what I 
really could've done without was the needless "shocker" that Biers is 
actually a Cylon who helped get this footage to the Cylons. It muddies the 
whole meaning of the story.

Before the twist, the story is about how a reporter holds back major 
information on a story because she believes it's in the better interests of 
society to do so. But by making Biers a Cylon, that entire point is thrown 
out the window, because now it's about her Sinister Cylon Agenda. Or maybe 
here's the point: that no real reporter would actually hold back on that 
story, and her being a Cylon is the justification for it. I don't know. What 
I do know is that it feels like a needless cheat that turns the character 
into a device.

All that said, "Final Cut" is consistently watchable and sometimes 
compelling. But it's not on the level of what we've had so far this season.

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Copyright 2005, Jamahl Epsicokhan. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is prohibited.

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