"Battlestar Galactica" Retro Recap: "33"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Few of us in this life have ever experienced true fear. We've been scared, but those moments that shake us to our core and force us to do whatever it takes to either survive or push through terrifying seconds on the clock often elude us and that's why we turn to television and film. 

This is a place we can go get a sliver of an idea of what that's like as we get the opportunity to experience such horror through the eyes of a fictional character. When it is done right...it's nothing short of spectacular and one such episode that pulled it off and still sends my heart racing every single time I watch it...was the official series premiere of Battlestar Galactica, "33".

This was an episode that set the tone for the series by putting the characters through absolute hell in incredible fashion. The last of humanity, now in deep space hoping to find the lost thirteenth colony of Earth have run into quite a problem. Every time they jump, the Cylons find them and to top it off...their evil archenemy appears every 33 minutes after said jump. By the time we join them in this episode they have been jumping and dealing with this nightmare for days now and the crew of the Galactica have seen little sleep and if they don't figure out soon how the Cylons are tracking them...there's a fair chance a mistakes will be made and mankind will come to its end.  

I mentioned earlier that this episode gets the blood pumping every time I watch it and I meant it. This is an episode of television that brings fear to life because there isn't a second wasted when it comes to the plot, the action or the acting because every single second you feel as frazzled as the crew of Galactica. Not to mention the threat of the Cylons is always out there and the dread that comes over you when 33 minutes strikes the clock only sinks you into the experience of this episode further. To top it off, the decision that has to be made regarding the ship that turns out to be the reason the Cylons have been able to follow them...is an ugly one that tears at you. We know Adama and Roslin are right...but the fact we never confirm if the crew is there or not haunts you as a viewer.

But what truly sells this episode...is the acting. Every single member of the cast is nothing short of incredible when it comes to their performance. Each one of them have to pretend they have been awake for over 130 hours and they all sell it. They look exhausted, you can see them teetering where they stand and their eyelids fight them every single step of the way.  It's a hell of a way to start the series and you knew from this point on, this show would push the envelope and put our characters in incredible situations and thankfully I didn't have to wait long for the next episode to air since the series went with a two hour premiere and we'll discuss the next episode, next time. Until then. 

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