Battlestar Galactica Reviews: Taking a Break From All Your Worries (Episode 3.12)

Reviews:
Episode Name: Taking a Break From All Your Worries
Episode Number: 312
Written by: Michael Taylor
Directed by: Edward James Olmos
Original Air Date: 1/28/07 on SciFi Channel
Review Posted: 2/2/07

Synopsis:

Baltar tries to kill himself as he gets tortured. A popular bar suddenly appears on the hangar deck, where Lee and Dee work on their issues. This also ends up bringing Kara and Anders closer together. Tyrol and Cally are apparently having marital problems of their own. Baltar and Gaeta have a falling out that results in Gaeta attempting to kill Baltar. In a bonus scene, Roslin offers Caprica Six a deal, but Caprica has a deal of her own.

Here's how it happened broken down by the story breaks:
- Teaser & Act 1
- Act 2 & Act 3
- Act 4 & Bonus Scene

Summing It All Up:
This episode turned out a whole lot better than expected. This is mainly because the soap opera between Lee, Dee, Anders and Kara was more of a 'B' story to Baltar's torture. On that note, someone needs to have a conversation with SciFi's PR department or whoever chose to put together the awful promo which aired after Rapture and failed to show Baltar's story at all. The episode spent sufficient time dealing with the tensions between the foursome that had been building since Lee and Kara's boxing match back in Episode 3.08 ("Unfinished Business"), but by featuring Baltar's story, the episode didn't devolve into a complete soap opera melodrama.

In an interview that went online the day of the episode, Edward James Olmos discussed the evolution of the episode. He directed the episode, which the writing team originally broke as a more light-hearted much like the previous episode (#1.09 - "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down") he directed. However, as other episodes were finalized, Baltar's story carried into the episode, which led to the episode turning darker. We're okay with that since it veered away from the four and our opinion that "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" is basically a departure from the show's prevailing style which we enjoy.

Of note as well is that Tigh was originally rumored to have a central role in saving the bar. That storyline is completely gone. Seems like Olmos was the dedicated "light" director, but he showed that he can do Battlestar Galactica-dark as well. Also interesting that Tigh looks to have had a central role just like the previous Olmos-directed episode. Our guess is that Tigh was replaced by Tyrol in the remaining bar scenes as the episode was altered from how it originally broke.

All that being said, the relatively small (compared to the two-parter the episode is following) tidbits concerning Tyrol and Cally's marital issues and Baltar's impending trial don't seem worth expending an entire episode on, but not every episode can take those jumps. This episode was more self-contained and hinged on the characters. Though the bulk of the story was predictable and formulaic, it was the kind of episode that the actors had an opportunity to take center stage and carry the episode. They, along with some nice direction and editing, delivered an installment that was riveting in spite being one of the least ambitiously written episodes in the series. This was not another Black Market as had been widely feared.

Continue to Teaser & Act 1

Battlestar Galactica Items Available at eBay - Scroll for additional items