BSG Razor: Destroying Humanity to Save Humans

Cain, center, within Pegasus' heart of darkness. SCI FI Channel Photo: Carole Segal

Note: Friday's a work day for me--at least, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. But since I suspect it's neither a work day nor much of a blog-reading day for you, posting will probably be light, and I thought I'd post this early:

In Battlestar Galactica season 2--or 2.5, or whatever they were calling it--Michelle Forbes appeared as Admiral Cain, the chief of a second Battlestar, the Pegasus, which had also survived the Cylon genocide, and did some horrible things to get through it. The story was a chillingly perfect fit with BSG's post-9/11 theme: namely, what moral tradeoffs are justifiable in the name of security? Which is why I thought it was such a missed opportunity when the show dispensed with the storyline in a relatively few episodes.

BSG reclaims that opportunity, sort of, in Razor, a two-hour movie Saturday, which fills in some blanks as to how Cain and her crew sacrificed their humanity in taking necessary (they believed) measures to save humankind. Technically, Sci Fi is calling Razor "episode 401/402," i.e., the first two episodes of season 4, but the movie stands largely alone as a flashback, interweaving events on the Galactica, and a plot about the discovery of an earlier line of Cylons, with Cain's heart of darkness.

After the Cylon attack, we know, the leaders and crew of Galactica wrestled with their morality in extremis, but usually--with big exceptions--made the right, or at least decent, decisions. Cain, on the other hand, went into dark-side mode--Cheneyism exaggerated to a galactic scale--deciding that beating the Cylons would mean suspending liberties and leading her people cruelly for their own sake. In fact, she makes the case (and with BSG's typical nuance, it's not totally unpersuasive) that faced with extinction, humans must cultivate and practice this cruelty: it is a weapon, in whose use her crew must regularly prove their proficiency by making horrible decisions. A "razor," she tells an underling, is someone who has made him or herself (very often herself) into the kind of human blade the times require, lest the enemy be able to take advantage of the weaknesses of decency and scruples.

Insofar as it goes, Razor makes for a fairly compelling BSG standalone. Forbes owns the role of Cain, performing the difficult job of being despicable but sympathetic: she may believe wrong, but you see that she believes truly and that it's not easy for her. And the movie gets big bonus nostalgia points for working in the helmet-headed "By your command" Cylon Centurions from the 1970s show. But something bigger is lost in handling this promising story outside the serial. When Cain was introduced, the tension and stakes came partly from comparing her style, tactics and values with those of Galactica, and wondering which would prevail. Now that we already know how that played out, Razor seems more like an intriguing extended footnote.

It's still an excellent holiday gift for BSG fans, who've gone months without new episodes, and if it disappoints, it's only by comparison with what we know BSG is capable of as a provocative series of action and ideas. As it is, Razor is a movie worthy of its name: hard, sharp, cutting--just a little disposable.