Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 - Blu-ray Review

This ain’t your old fashioned Battlestar Galactica. You’ll not find Muffet here. This new version is a gritty, darker journey that has epitomizes quality television. As with all things, even the best series must end (though other Battlestar spinoff shows are in the works) and this release brings us the last voyage of Battlestar Galactica.

This is going to be difficult. It’s mainly because if I really mention much of anything that happens in Season 4.5 that it will be considered a spoiler. Heck, a ton of stuff happens in the first episode of this season alone. The new series follows some of the basic plotlines of the 1970s series. The basic story is thus: the twelve colonies of Kobol were annihilated by the Cylons. The survivors were led by President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) and the captain of their surviving Battlestar named Galactica, Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos). Their ragtag fleet of surviving ships set out into space to search for the long-lost thirteenth colony called Earth (sound familiar?). The Cylons are hot in pursuit to make sure that what they started is finished and all of humanity is destroyed. The expanded cast also includes Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff), Lee “Apollo” Adama (Jamie Barber), and the conflicted Dr. Baltar (James Callis). The plotline of season 4.5 is best left to be discovered by fans, but needless to say if you’re beginning with the show this season is not the place to start. I will say that the ragtag fleet finally makes it to Earth, but it’s not what they’ve been expecting. The new series is darker, grittier, has a more religious bent, and turned out to be more of a ratings winner than its predecessor. What can be discussed without spoilers is that the final season is given a wonder cache of extras to enhance your viewing experience on Blu-ray. Battlestar Galactica is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.78:1). Exclusive special features to the Blu-ray include two fact tracks via Universal’s U-Control, the 31 minute “The Musicians of Daybreak” about scoring the final episode, though it’s presented in standard definition, and the disc is BD-Live enhanced (if you have a player that is capable). Each episode also features commentaries (from the likes of series creator Ron Moore, Olmos, and others) and three episodes (A Disquiet follows my Soul, Islanded in a Stream of Stars, and series finale Daybreak) are presented in unaired, extended versions. The following are the special features that are presented in high definition: the 13 minute “The Journey Ends: The Arrival” details the ending of the series, the 37 minute “A Look Back” looks at the development of the series, and the 5 minute “…and they have a plan” previews the upcoming direct-to-video movie The Plan. The remainder of the special features is in standard definition. There are over 40 minutes of deleted scenes, the 23 minute “Evolution of a Cue” in which composer Bear McCreary works through the creation of a musical cue, the 8 minute “What the Frak is going on with Battlestar Galactica” which summarizes the entire series in humorous form, and 45 minutes of video blogs with executive producer David Eick. Season 4.5 is the final season of Battlestar and it will be missed, but the show will go down as quality television. Technically it’s the first season to debut on Blu-ray, but the entire series is also coming out on the same day as a massive set. Whatever version you decide to buy you’re in for a treat. I wanted to be snarky and give it 4.5 stars but I’ll have to award all five stars. Fracking excellent show. Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.