The 7 Best And 7 Worst Episodes Of Battlestar Galactica

There may be no show with a greater range in quality than "Battlestar Galactica," Ronald D. Moore's re-imagining of the original 1970s science fiction show. An almost instant cult classic, "BSG" took forgotten intellectual property and reinvigorated it as a propulsive, pause-worthy drama that became one of the most addictive and bingeable shows of the 2000s. The series even spawned a short-lived prequel show, "Caprica," and a short-form web series subtitled "Blood & Chrome."

But for all its euphoric highs, "Battlestar Galactica" hit some dismal lows during its four-season run. Some episodes in the middle years are obvious filler, with a number of plot twists coming out of nowhere. Many fans felt that the "Battlestar Galactica" finale ruined the show, but its reputation was already thoroughly mixed by that point. The greatest parts of the show are gripping drama that often deal with trenchant and relevant themes, like the way the occupation of New Caprica paralleled the Iraq War. Unfortunately, there are just as many self-contained and largely pointless episodes that stink of lazy writing and an aimless overall plan. These are the seven best and seven worst episodes of "Battlestar Galactica."

After a mostly tight and compelling first season of 13 episodes, "Battlestar Galactica" received orders of more than 20 episodes for the next three seasons, and the middle parts of each began to show the burden of having to tell a longer story. Season 2's "Black Market" feels like a strange dream where Apollo is a private eye all of a sudden. It's as transparent and strange a departure from the normal tone of the show as any "Star Trek" holodeck episode, telling a story that's of little consequence to the rest of the show's continuity.

After the miniseries and 26 episodes of storytelling, we're supposed to just accept that Apollo, one of the leads of the series, has both a pregnant ex-girlfriend who died in the Cylon attack on the colonies and a semi-regular habit of seeing a sex worker on Cloud 9 who reminds him of said dead ex-girlfriend. We're further expected to believe that there's a thriving, inter-ship black market in the rag-tag group of surviving vessels that make up the fleet, and that it's a good idea to let it continue at the end of the episode despite the murder of a Battlestar commanding officer. It's a strange, nearly impossible pill to swallow, resulting in by far the most skippable episode of the show.

Billy, we hardly knew ye. Once the seasons fluff out to full length, "Battlestar Galactica" often turns to its various romantic plotlines for drama, only to find a near-complete lack of believable chemistry between the actors. To be fair, they don't have much realistic or compelling material to work with, as Roslin's aide de camp Billy (Paul Campbell) seems to have a crush on CIC Officer Dualla (Kandyse McClure) just because they're in the same room sometimes. 

Apollo also develops a weird thing with Dualla seemingly out of nowhere in the middle of Season 2, and it all comes to head on Cloud 9 during a very inconveniently timed hostage situation. It's actually a shame, as the viscerally un-compelling love triangle distracts from what could be an interesting story about a woman — played by guest star Dana Delaney — resorting to violence after her husband's death. In the end, though, this forgettable "Battlestar Galactica" episode is memorable only for Billy's untimely and supremely senseless death in a shootout.

Season 3 contains some of the absolute best and worst of "Battlestar Galactica." It begins with several episodes concerning the occupation of New Caprica and subsequent fallout, and then the quality absolutely craters for a while until the show reveals the Final Five and moves into the end game. "The Passage" is a transitory episode that takes a relatively beloved minor character in brash Viper pilot Kat (Luciana Carro), gives her a new and completely random backstory, and then kills her off.

For some reason, the writers must have decided that Kat's slow maturation from petulant rookie to confident veteran wouldn't be enough on its own, so it's revealed that she stole someone else's identity to hide her life of crime before the Cylon attack. She's then redeemed, sacrificing herself to guide the fleet safely through a radioactive star cluster that can't be passed through in a single jump (because of plot device reasons). Pair all of this with some of Baltar's time in the weird Cylon basestar white robe dreamland and you've got one dud of an episode.

Another episode mired in the interminable wheel-spinning in the back half of "Battlestar Galactica" Season 3, "The Woman King" finds Helo suddenly in charge of supervising hundreds of civilian refugees in a Galactica hangar bay. The refugees are dealing with Mellorak Sickness — a mildly serious illness that's treatable within the first 48 hours. Unfortunately, the superstitious citizens from planet Saggitaron have religious objections to the treatments and distrust the prejudiced Dr. Robert (guest star Bruce Davison).

So many questions are raised by all of this: Why haven't we met Dr. Robert before? Does an entire planet share the same religion? Is this really the best use of Helo's training? But instead of telling any sort of nuanced story about internal prejudice or the dangers of faith-based objections to modern medicine, "The Woman King" has an incoherent plot twist where the Saggitarons turn out to have been right to fear Dr. Robert, who was poisoning them all along. No one learns anything, and Helo never speaks of any of this again.

"A Day in the Life" finds "Battlestar: Galactica" at its worst, twiddling its thumbs playing marriage counselor to one relationship that's hardly compelling and another that's barely even mentioned before. Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) and his wife Cally (Nicki Clyne) are trapped in a malfunctioning airlock, forcing them to confront the dangers of working together while balancing the new responsibility of caring for the child they had on New Caprica. Considering that this relationship more or less starts (from our perspective) when Tyrol accidentally beats Cally while sleepwalking, it's never really a marriage you find yourself rooting for.

Meanwhile, Commander Adama is having visions of his long-dead ex-wife on their wedding anniversary, although for a while it just seems like he's lost his mind. After three seasons of Baltar and Head Number 6, the show struggles to fit in yet another character who isn't really there. Eventually, we find out Adama's just been imagining his ex as being much more pleasant than she actually was in real life, so it's just a strange nostalgic waste of everyone's time.

In "Crossroads," "Battlestar Galactica" reveals four of the mythical Cylon "Final Five," and in doing so it completely jumps the shark. There's just no way around how head-scratching and confusing it is to have Colonel Tigh be a Cylon in addition to Tyrol, Anders (Michael Trucco), and Tory (Reka Sharma). It's borderline insulting to just throw this at the audience, and doubly so by using the device of all four of them hearing mysterious music that turns out to be a cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower." The parts when they say some of the lyrics in dialogue are groan-inducing once you notice them, as if the writers were pausing the episode to ask us, "Eh? Isn't this clever?"

As if that weren't enough on its own, "Crossroads" also features the interminable trial of Gaius Baltar, which hinges on a bizarre tactic of having Apollo take the stand despite him being one of Baltar's own lawyers. There's also the sudden reappearance of Starbuck, despite her definitely exploding into smithereens a few episodes earlier. Starbuck's reappearance and Tigh's identity as a Final Fiver are both wild swings for the show, and in setting up the final season, they reveal just how much the series had been making up as it went along.

In truth, there are a lot of "Battlestar Galactica" Season 4 episodes that could qualify as some of the series' worst. The entire last season is kind of a step down in storytelling quality, as the show has to explore an elaborate, borderline-nonsensical cosmology involving ancient Cylons to explain the backstory of the Final Five. Baltar starts a cult, a lot of other confusing things happen, and the Galactica goes on an all-out mission to rescue Hera from the Cylons. Ultimately, in the three-part "Daybreak," humanity and the Cylons reach peace, but at the last minute it falls apart and the Galactica jumps away while the Cylons fall into a black hole. Neat!

Fortunately, the Galactica randomly ends up jumping right to a nice, habitable planet, after four years of trying to find one on purpose. That's pretty lucky. On the planet, the humans settle in for good, and it becomes clear that Starbuck was an angel (or something) the whole season when she vanishes without a trace. It's further revealed that the planet they land on is actually Earth thousands of years in the past, and that the hodge-podge of humans and Cylon-hybrids who settle on the planet are in fact the ancestors of modern-day humanity. In a way, you have to respect "Daybreak" in spirit for going big instead of going home at the end of "Battlestar Galactica," but in practice it just leaves a real bitter, puzzled taste in your mouth.