'Battlestar' back in top form

[GoldCylon]

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

After a string of episodes that even the producers admitted were pedestrian at best, it was beginning to look like "Battlestar Galactica"'s star was fading. "Black Market" was just too meandering; "Scar" seemed like a retread of an old "Space: Above and Beyond" episode; and the hostage-scenario "Sacrifices" just came across as contrived.

Not to mention the dramatic changes in pace: Earlier episodes took place within days of each other and now we're skipping a month or more, just to reach the nine-month date for the baby to be born this episode.

But Friday night's episode, "Downloaded," refreshingly succeeds on so many levels as we head into the season finale. It's a story told largely from a Cylon point of view, following the lives of Baltar's No. 6 and the "original" Sharon Valeri after they are resurrected.

In addition to finally getting a sense of what Cylon society looks like when it's not solely bent on wiping out humanity, we get a well-told tale of the travails No. 6 and Sharon go through after having lived and died in ways that made them more individual than other Cylons (not unlike the wayward Borg Hugh from "Star Trek: The Next Generation.")

The best twist is that this No. 6 is haunted by her own internal Baltar -- though that gimmick still reminds me of John Crichton's internal Scorpius from "Farscape" -- not to mention Mrs. Muir's ghost.

Though we see masses of Cylons strolling about and lounging at a coffee shop, teasingly we see only some of the handful of models we've already seen -- the Sharons, the No. 6s, the Lucy Lawless version (No. 3) and the public relations guy (No. 5). It's a great image to see them all walking around each other, but you have to wonder how they tell each other apart.

And if they are really individuals and their minds are not connected to each other, how did the original Sharon get programmed as a sleeper? (We know that human form Cylons can a) still use their bodies to generate command signals, as Sharon did to deactivate the Cylon raiders and b) the memories of dead Cylons can be transmitted over great distances from a dead or dying body, so there are some mechanisms involved.) And if the Cylon collective has that much ability to control an individual, why doesn't it purge or reprogram this Sharon and No. 6 when they're reborn?

Plus, is the Sharon model -- possibly designed just for her role as a Colonial warrior -- built less sturdily than other models? We saw one No. 6 body shield Baltar from a blast wave and another defeat the warrior Kara Thrace, and in this episode we see a No. 3 require two blows to the head with a chunk of rubble to kill -- but mama Sharon on the Galactica nearly bleeds to death giving birth?

Those are only quibbles -- and I'm sure we'll be well rewarded in the two-part finale as we deal with the loose plot threads of fate of the Cylon baby, Baltar's run for the presidency, the nuclear weapon Baltar gave the the Gina No. 6 to aid the insurgency and whatever the fleet's current goal has become. Are they still fleeing the Cylons and searching for Earth -- or did they indeed turn around to harass the Cylons?

Newshound: Sci-Fi