In the second season finale of Battlestar Galactica, the humans had finally outrun their Cylon pursuers. The remains of the human race found a habitable world, which they called New Caprica (after their now-dead homeworld), on which to settle. The story then took a leap forward of approximately one year. Most of the humans had moved to the new planet, leaving the battlestars, Galactica and Pegasus, circling high above with skeleton crews, in case the Cylons returned. Return they did, but not with violence as expected. Instead, they preached coexistence. But our crew knew that this was really a Cylon occupation that would control almost the entire human race. The crews on the undermanned battlestars knew they must retreat. And on the planet below, in the final moments of the finale, a resistance was born.
The third season of Battlestar Galactica, which picked up right where season two left off, would prove to be quite uneven. While the opening arc involving the occupation and liberation was successful, an attempt to introduce stand-alone episodes into what is largely a serial-format show did not meet expectations. Episodes such as "Hero" and "The Woman King," had little impact on the central story arc. Two favorite characters left the show in the latter half of season three in ways that seemed to be designed to elicit maximum shock value.
Too much time during season three was spent away from our crew, focusing instead on the behind-the-scenes happenings in the Cylons' world. D'Anna (Lucy Lawless), Cylon Number Three, investigated who the "Final Five" yet-to-be-seen Cylons were and paid the price for her curiosity. By season's end, four of those five stood revealed but the audience was still unsure if the overall story had lost its way.
But, season three had its high points as well. "Unfinished Business" is one of the best episodes in the series. A new extended cut of this episode is the centerpiece of Battlestar Galactica - Season Three, new on DVD this week. In his commentary for the episode, executive producer Ronald Moore reveals his original plan to revisit the lost year in flashbacks throughout the season. These flashbacks would follow various storylines that would be hinted at in the present-day storyline. I assume he abandoned that concept because of what would be the obvious comparisons to another hit genre show, Lost. He did however compress all the storylines he planned on exploring into this one, atypical, episode.
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