Taking place sometime during the second season of Battlestar
Galactica, Razor opens with Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) at a ceremony commemorating
his promotion to Commander of the Battlestar Pegasus. He gives a speech--which
is carried throughout the ship--about how things will now be different aboard
the Battlestar under his reign, and as he speaks, a figure listens intently
while she expertly plays with a knife in her hands. It’s Lt. Kendra Shaw
(Stephanie Jacobsen) a disgraced command officer who has been reduced to working
in the ship’s kitchen by the now-deceased Commander Gardner. Yet when Lee meets
with her, he’s impressed enough with Shaw’s record--having served aboard the
Pegasus under the ruthless Admiral Cain, who had nothing but good things to say
about Shaw--that he makes Shaw his XO, or second in command.
Lee’s first assignment as commander of the Pegasus is to track down a lost
Raptor filled with a science team whom the fleet has lost contact with. The
Pegasus goes in search of this Raptor, investigating the area they were last
seen in, when they encounter an overwhelming Cylon force. Starbuck (Katie Sackhoff),
who’s out scouting in a Viper, barely makes it back to the Pegasus with her
wingman under withering enemy fire. When the Pegasus rejoins the Galactica and
the rest of the fleet, one of the captured Cylon raiders is examined, and turns
out to be a relic from the first Cylon war over forty years ago. William Adama
once encountered these very same old-school Cylons, who are still operating on
the fringes of space to this day, and are still harboring a dark secret.
First premiering on the Sci-Fi Channel in late November of 2007, Razor was
released less than two weeks later on DVD with added scenes. It’s the first new
Battlestar Galactica story to be viewed by hungry fans of the series in nearly
eight months, and while it takes place during the second season--the series’
third season had already aired by this time--it still manages to offer a few
tantalizing clues regarding the series’ future. The movie also gives us a look
at the past, through the eyes of Lt. Shaw, who first came aboard the Pegasus
just before the Cylon attack on the twelve colonies. The superb Michelle Forbes
reprises her role of the dominating Cain in a series of flashbacks that reveals
a lot about the motives of her character.
And we also get an extensive flashback at the original Cylon war, when Bill
Adama was just a rookie fighter pilot with the call sign Husker. The "old school"
design of the Cylon centurions, along with their flying wing fighters, are
actually taken from the original 1978 series, and are a real treat to see in
action once again. Australian actress Stephanie Jacobsen, upon whose slender
shoulders this story revolves, is very sympathetic as Shaw. And BSG series
regulars Bamber, Sackhoff, Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos are as good as
ever as their characters. The DVD offers you the choice of watching the original,
shorter broadcast version, or the unedited edition, which is just over ten
minutes longer. There’s a decent selection of special features, including a fun
segment where the stars of BSG discuss their favorite episodes from the show. If
you’re not a fan of the new Battlestar Galactica, then this film is probably not
for you, but for die-hard fanatics of BSG, Razor is an early--and very
entertaining--gift.
--SF
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