Battlestar Galactica episode "Fire in Space"

"Fire in Space"

It's got a regular opening because, hey!, it's a one-part episode! Imagine that. The regular opening takes 2:40. I guess it can be seen as sort of introducing you to space for the episode, but since each opening is the same...

This one is actually a cool concept, although it fails horribly in execution. Two Cylons get past defenses and kamikaze into the Galactica. Now the ship is a burning wreck in space. So the crew all have to work on putting out the fires and saving people. Commander Adama, for one, has some "fragment lodged in the wall of his heart" that the doctor has to operate on. One group is closed off and suffocating.

Now, that part is good, but this is also where it immediately went wrong.

According to the radar-thing, the Cylons are dishing up an all-out assault, with multiple BaseStars. Cool, they got through and hurt the Galactica. Now I couldn't help but wonder why the Cylons called off the attack. Why didn't they press the attack? Why did they break off at all? To be honest, it seems that the Cylons completely wasted this kamikaze attack. This is apparently a completely devastating move as this episode shows. They should have either pressed the attack, or sat back and watched, or launched another one and then pressed another attack once they knew how well it could work. Imagine after watching this episode that the Cylons did this like two, three, or more days in a row. Bye bye Galactica. They should have been done for. The writers could still have had this episode work just fine if they had the warriors keep fighting in space, devastating a BaseStar or two with some heroism, and the people on the Galactica rescuing themselves at the same time. Just seemed a complete waste of opportunity. This is another one of those episodes where it seemed they couldn't handle their own ideas.

Now compare this episode with the new series episode entitled "33" from immediately after the fantastic mini-series. You will see how Cylons can press the attack and never let up. Yet, the humans can win with dedication. "33" showcases, in my opinion, the best that the new series of Battlestar Galactica has to offer.