Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 - Episode 4 - "Act of Contrition"
Full details of the episode (that's SPOILERS!) can be found on the Sky One Battlestar Galactica episode guide
Starbuck is in a flat spin in her Viper, slowly burning up in the atmosphere, far away from the Galactica. Layered flashbacks slowly reveal what has happened.
The slow bit of the titles is growing on me despite the enya-esque music. However the fast forward preview of the coming episode really irritates me. I find it patronising. I don't want to see flashes of what is going to happen, I just want to watch the episode. I've started looking away and waiting for the music to end. It's as bad the "coming next week" previews that are often tagged on the end of some series.
To the episode in hand; the layered flashbacks inside flashbacks inside flashbacks was only slightly confusing and I love the feeling when I don't know what is going on. The atmosphere was impressive with the highly charged emotion seriously engrossing. Although the actual plot ticked along slowly the flashbacks and the characterisation kept my attention and once again it felt like a short episode. Having said that I'm glad it was a "to be continued" rather than try to resolve the arc in one episode, a bit of class and restraint shown there.
Character run down: Commander Adama was seriously cool and is rapidly ascending to my favourite character. Starbuck showed a few new sides to her character rather than the slightly tedious brash cocky side and I warmed to her a bit. Apollo was a bit better than before but is still a bit wet. Helo and Sharon find some supplies in the shape of a secret bunker, but otherwise do pretty much nothing, still.
This was probably my favourite episode so far and I couldn't wait to see the next one.
