If you love Cylons then this two-parter will whet your appetite. Unfortunately we're exposed to so much footage of them (including 40% recycled content) that they start to wear out their welcome. It's neat to see a "head Cylon" kinda akin to a Cyber Leader on Doctor Who, and there's really little to separate the Cylons from the Cybermen if you look at them closely, aside from the cool red eye. I had misremembered this episode to feature some elaborate under-the-ice set with neat aliens that helped the humans in their quest to destroy a gun, but unfortunately I was thinking of the Cryons in "Attack of the Cybermen". Instead, it's a diverting episode with some good effects here and there (the crashing viper effects still hold up extremely well) marred by way too many recycled shots and cliches.
Neat supporting cast including Richard Lynch, Dan O'Herlihy, and Britt Eckland (who is pretty much wasted). Lynch of course gets to be a sniveling traitor and it would have been neat to see him return as a recurring villain but no such luck. Boxey uselessly tags along on the mission and the writers obviously didn't know what to do with him so he gets stuck in the "kid's room" for almost the entire second half. I did recognize the ice gun charging up sound effect from Disney's THE BLACK HOLE which actually came out the year after this episode aired, strangely enough. Get used to that whole gun firing sequence as they re-use the footage at least 4 times, along with most of the usual space combat shots we've come to know and love by this point in the series.
Still it's better than most of the original BSG episodes (with the first, the last, and the "Living Legend" episodes reigning supreme), and interesting seeing them try something more ambitious than usual. The clone subplot is corny though and could easily have been dropped, especially because their efforts to make several actors look like clones of each other looks ridiculously fake (where can I buy one of those Britt masks?).
Neat supporting cast including Richard Lynch, Dan O'Herlihy, and Britt Eckland (who is pretty much wasted). Lynch of course gets to be a sniveling traitor and it would have been neat to see him return as a recurring villain but no such luck. Boxey uselessly tags along on the mission and the writers obviously didn't know what to do with him so he gets stuck in the "kid's room" for almost the entire second half. I did recognize the ice gun charging up sound effect from Disney's THE BLACK HOLE which actually came out the year after this episode aired, strangely enough. Get used to that whole gun firing sequence as they re-use the footage at least 4 times, along with most of the usual space combat shots we've come to know and love by this point in the series.
Still it's better than most of the original BSG episodes (with the first, the last, and the "Living Legend" episodes reigning supreme), and interesting seeing them try something more ambitious than usual. The clone subplot is corny though and could easily have been dropped, especially because their efforts to make several actors look like clones of each other looks ridiculously fake (where can I buy one of those Britt masks?).