TV REVIEW Battlestar Galactica 4.03 "The Ties That Bind

Original US air date: 18/04/2008

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Written by: Michael Taylor

Directed by: Michael Nankin

Rating:

The One Where: Cally suspects that Tyrol is having an affair with Tory. Following him, she eavesdrops on a meeting of the Galactica Four. Distraught at discovering he’s a Cylon, she takes son Nicholas and climbs into an airlock. Tory calms her down... then knocks Cally flying across the room, takes Nicholas, and blasts her into space! Boo! Hiss!

Meanwhile, Cavil agrees to the rebel Cylons’ terms for a truce: an end to Raider lobotomies, and the unboxing of the D’Anna series. But it’s a ruse, which leads the basestars under Six command into an ambush...

Survivor Count: 39,676

Verdict: Nooooo! They killed the cutest girl in the show! And they never did make much of Cally’s character. What a waste. Nicki Clyne, if you’re at a loose end and feeling a bit down-in-the-mouth about the whole unemployment thing, why not pop down to Bath? We’d happily provide a manly yet sensitive shoulder to cry on (browses the photo gallery at www.nickiclyne.com ; weeps gently).

Anyhow, in terms of the viewing experience, it’s a good thing that Cally buys the farm. Why? Meetings! There are far too many meetings in Galactica this season! Quorum meetings here, with Apollo arguing about the legality of tribunals. Meetings between the Cylons. Meetings for the Galactica Four. And meetings are about as interesting to watch as they are to participate in, so any actual incident is welcome.

And we get plenty of that here: Cally’s death is a shocker (Tory is one evil so-and-so – but then, aren’t all Tories?), and the outbreak of full-on Cylon civil war is breathtaking...

Did You Spot? The weapons locker where the Galactica Four meet up is marked 1701D. That’s the registry number of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ron Moore was a writer on Next Gen, of course.

Good Camerawork: There’s a lovely moment in this, just before Cally zonks Tyrol on the head with a spanner when he’s talking to her, and he’s just an out-of-focus blur. It’s the visual equivalent of when the teacher’s talking in Peanuts, and all you can hear is “wa-wah wa-wah wah”!

Nitpicks: While I’ve now learnt to live with the fact that there is (mystifyingly, on a military vessel living with the constant fear of enemy infiltration), no CCTV on Galactica, I’d have thought there’d be some way of checking how an airlock was opened, which would easily show that Cally was murdered. And should Tory be able to open the airlock, anyhow? She’s a civil servant, not a technician – would something this dangerous really be so easy as turning a key and pressing a button? And there’s something a bit too tidy about the way the Cylon fleet splits in two. Aren’t there Cylons of every model on every craft? In which case, wouldn’t there be a fight for control on every baseship, rather than a simple divide between “Six ships” and the others, hmm?

Best Line:
Cavil: "Quite honestly, I’m feeling very serious. Getting riddled with bullets affects me that way."

Ian Berriman

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