Battlestar Galactica "Final Cut" TV episode Written by Mark Verheiden Directed by Robert Young Original air date: September 9, 2005

In response to resentment against the military by the civilians of the fleet, Adama and President Roslyn allow a reporter unrestricted access aboard the Galactica in hopes of putting a human face on the lives of the warriors that protect them all.

Read the story summary at the Battlestar Wiki clone site

Notes from the BSG chronology

This episode takes place after the end of the Returner comic book storyline (concluded in "Dreams"). In addition, Colonel Tigh mentions in this episode that there has been no Cylon contact for the past 10 days, meaning it must be at least 10 days since the end of "Dreams".

Didja Know?

The opening titles show the fleet at 47,853 survivors, down two from "Home" Part 2. The two were a pair Zarek's accomplices killed in "Home" Part 2. Of course, in PopApostle's BSG chronology, a number of other people also died during the course of the Returner storyline published in the comic book series by Dynamite Entertainment in between "Home" Part 2 and our current episode.

This episode is the first television appearance of D'anna Biers, though she has appeared previously in PopApostle's BSG chronology in some of the comics published by Dynamite Entertainment.

This episode reveals that Dualla's first name is Anastasia.

This episode reveals that Racetrack's full name is Margaret Edmondson.

Bell's video camera is a modified Panasonic DVX-100.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

D'anna Biers

Bell (D'anna's cameraman)

President Roslin

Commander Adama

Colonel Tigh

Lt. Gaeta

Dualla

Ellen Tigh

Racetrack

Starbuck

Apollo

Kataris (Caprican poet, mentioned only)

Hot Dog

Kat

Lt. Joe "Hammerhead" Palladino

Baltar

Number Six

Chief Tyrol

Private Scott Kelso

Lt. Jarrell "Fuzzy" Hief

Helo

Caprica-Valerii

Doc Cottle

Dutch (mentioned only)

Captain Kelly

Billy Keikeya

Didja Notice?

At 6:01 on the Blu-ray, Commander Adama is seen reading a magazine called Caprican Life. The cover story is a day in the life of a Caprican family. A highlighted excerpt from one of the articles is "Each child knows that they're special no matter what happens."

The warning painted on the mirror in Tigh's quarters "From the darkness you must fall," is revealed to be a line of poetry by a Caprican poet named Kataris. Starbuck quotes from the poem, "From the darkness, you must fall, failed and weak, to darkness all."

When D'anna and Bell follow Hot Dog and Kat into the officer's bunks, Kat looks into their video camera and happily yells, "Hi, Mom!" Is Kat's mother alive in the fleet?

When they run into the officers' bunks, Apollo refers to Hot Dog and Kat as "Tweedledum and Tweedledee". This is an odd, modern-day Earth reference, to the twin characters that appeared both in an epigram by English poet John Byrom (1692–1763) and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Number Six tells Baltar he needs to attract the attention of D'anna Biers and let her do an interview with him, saying, "Trust me. This one can help us." This may be an indication that Number Six knows that D'anna is actually a Number Three Cylon.

After speaking briefly with Baltar in the corridor, D'anna remarks to Dee, "What a strange little man." This is similar to Roslin's comment about him in "33", "He's a strange one, isn't he?"

At 16:25 on the Blu-ray, the cockpit fuselage of the Raptor tells us the pilot is Lt. Jarrell "Fuzzy" Hief. The callsign "Fuzzy" was seen on the chalkboard in the war room in "The Hand of God", but this is his first actual appearance.

Gaeta reveals he got a tattoo of a cat on his chest after a night of too much ambrosia.

During her interview with Tigh, D'anna states that he was in command of Galactica for over a week. This, of course, refers to his time in command while Commander Adama recovered from the assassination attempt suffered in "Kobol's Last Gleaming" Part 2.

At 23:12 on the Blu-ray, a locker labeled as Dutch's can be seen in the background in the gym. We never meet a character by that name in the series.

The video cassette tapes D'anna and Bell use to record their reporting appear to be of the MiniDV variety.

The crew of CIC uses the term CBDR, "Constant bearing, decreasing range", to describe an incoming Cylon vessel on collision course with Galactica. This is an actual navigational term, used mostly in seafaring.

During her interview with D'Anna, Dee reveals that she had a heated argument with her father, who disagreed with her decision to join the military, telling him she never wanted to see him again, just three weeks before the Cylon attack that annihilated the Colonies.

During the skirmish with the two Cylon Raiders, D'Anna films the events in CIC and we get a montage of snippets of her camera view interspersed with the "live" actions in CIC. In several instances, the images of D'Anna's camera can be seen to have been sped up in order to fit the scene's running time, the figures in the background obviously moving at double speed.

After her squadron intercepts and destroys the incoming Cylon Raiders, Starbuck tells them, "Let's head back to the bird farm." The term "bird farm" is military jargon in the U.S. Navy for an aircraft carrier.

At 35:24 on the Blu-ray, D'anna is seen handling a disc that looks like a CD or DVD...with the patented Colonial corner cut-offs!

As the end of D'anna's report plays, music familiar to fans of BSG70 can be heard playing softly behind her commentary. And then, a custodian sweeping the corridors of Galactica is heard whistling it!

The closing credits reveal that Lt. Palladino's callsign is Hammerhead.

Notes from the podcast commentary by Ron Moore on the Blu-ray release

Moore states that the news cameraman who appears in this episode is an actual documentary cameraman.

The name slugs appearing in the documentary news footage are the first mentions in the series of the first names of Felix Gaeta and Anastasia Dualla.

Unanswered Questions

Was D'anna's plan for the documentary about life on the Galactica changed once she discovered Caprica-Valerii was still alive and pregnant? Would she have cut together a more negatively-slanted piece if not for this discovery?

How did the Cylons get the complete report by D'anna? The Number Three in attendance at the screening remarks they lost two Cylon Raiders relaying the images back. These were the two Raiders that were destroyed by Starbuck's squadron near the end of the episode...but that occurred before D'anna's report was finished! So how could they now have a copy of the finished product?

Why does Caprica-Valerii never reveal that D'anna Biers is a Cylon? Surely, at some point, she sees the documentary or another news broadcast by the woman.