User Reviews

At the start of this episode 'Flat Top' makes his 1000th landing so the pilots and deck crew have an impromptu celebration. The celebration turns to tragedy when an accident leads to a recon drone firing in the hangar and killing thirteen pilots. Needing replacement viper pilots Commander Adama orders Starbuck to train those people in the fleet who have flying experience. Still feeling guilty about passing Adama's son Zac to fly Starbuck fails the new recruits at the first opportunity. Apollo, needing those pilots, goes to see his father and lets slip that Starbuck had a reason to feel guilty. When Adama learns the truth he orders her to continue their training and on their first flight they run into a Cylon patrol. In order to save the recruits Starbuck takes them on and as the episode ends her ship is hit, spins downwards to a nearby planet and she ejects. In secondary stories the president finally sees Dr. Cottle and requests an alternative therapy for her cancer and back on Caprica Helo and Sharon find a bunker which appears to contain everything they need.

This was a good episode which introduced new characters 'Cat', 'Hot Dog' and 'Chuckles'; of course this being Battlestar Galactica there is no telling how long they will survive. Katee Sackhoff did a good job as Starbuck as she had to deal with the guilt of getting the man she loved killed. We will just have to wait and see whether or not Adama can forgive her; assuming she can be rescued from the planet.

My father was a reluctant convert to Battlestar Galactica. He had watched the mini-series/pilot and first 3 episodes with me and enjoyed them, but he kept the jaded view that he was watching science fiction. He was no fan of the genre.

I was trapping him into watching this show, because I felt it was too good a show to watch alone so every week I made sure I was over for dinner on BSG Night.

It was this episode that finally won him over. We were both awed by this episode. The writing, the drama, the music. The way the Memorial Ceremony for the pilots killed in the accident aboard Galactica was inter cut with flashbacks of Zack Adama's funeral service on Caprica.

Both me and my father came to the realization that we were now true fans of a show like no other. True drama and character interaction in a science fiction series was something completely unexpected. It stopped being a scifi show for my dad.

Battlestar Galactica was about strained relationships and tortured introspection. Lee Adama's failed relationship with his father, Commander Adama. Commander Adama's relationship with Kera "Starbuck" Thrace who he loved as a daughter and she was equally loyal to him.

That I got to watch and enjoy BSG with my father is one of my greatest memories. Sadly he passed away a couple of years before the story of the rag tag band of colonial ships came to a close, but I cherish what I got!

Excellent episode in that it depicts how quickly jubilation can turn into destruction, or calm can turn into storm.

A mechanical accident on the hangar deck causes nearly half Galactica's veteran pilots to die unexpectedly. They must be replaced, and Lt. "Starbuck" Thrace has to train the replacements. She begins by washing them out on their first day, but is coerced into readmitting them. During basic flight training the trainees and their flight instructor are jumped by enemy raiders. Starbuck, the flight instructor, engages the raiders so the trainees can run for the ship.

Technical mistake (spoiler): When Starbuck's Viper is seen spinning out of control down through the atmosphere of the planet, the altimeter is shown winding up, gaining altitude, instead of unwinding as the craft rapidly loses altitude.

This episode is an homage to The Right Stuff and to Top Gun, with shots and scenes quoted from both. Watch for Bodie Olmos spinning his pen and striking a look in homage to Val "Iceman" Kilmer of Top Gun.

The remake of Battlestar Galactica focuses on what makes humans more unique and special than their machine enemies. That's what sets this series apart from most science fiction stories. Act of Contrition is one of the best episodes to illustrate the human element.

In the opening disaster scene, an accident kills 13 pilots on the celebration of Flat-Top's 1000th landing. Time compresses as it does when death is near, blurring the lines between past, present and future, leaving the conscious mind abandoned in the present to dutifully act out events in sequence. We are transported in flashbacks to the past where Starbuck and Zak fell in love. A close-up of Zaks fascination with Starbuck's cute little ear elicits the possibility of a fetish. A simple romantic interest is innocent enough, right? No. There is a reason why romantic involvement within ranks is prohibited in the military. For selfish reasons, Starbuck passed Zak as her flight trainee, where he should have failed. That placed him in a dangerous situation that led to his death.

Back in the present, Starbuck is tasked with training the new pilots, called nuggets. Having no simulators, they are forced to begin training in fighters. After a miserable first day, Starbuck washes out the entire class, vowing to never be responsible for another cadet's death. When Apollo relays this information to the Commander, he misreads the conversation, and hints that Starbuck washed out the nuggets out of guilt, but says "I've already said too much", leaving it to the commander to ask Starbuck about the personal involvement and guilty feelings. When he forces the truth from Starbuck, Commander Adama contains his volcanic rage, ordering Starbuck to reinstate the nuggets in training, and then the most memorable line of the episode, "get out of my cabin while you still can."

The nuggets are training in fighters when a group of Cylon raiders appear. Starbuck orders the nuggets back to the Galactica, then defies orders in a suicidal act of heroism to attack the Cylons herself; an act of contrition for her sins against the fleet, the commander, his son, her lover and fiancé. Nugget "Hotdog" confirms his newly earned call sign by also defying orders and joins Starbuck in the fight. The final scene is the premonition that had been dogging Starbuck since the launch bay accident – Starbuck's ship damaged, spinning out of control into fiery clouds of an unknown planet, and Starbuck ejecting. To be continued…

In parallel plots, President Roslin speaks with a doctor who smokes about her cancer and her inattention to exams. Meanwhile on Caprica, Boomer-Cylon and Helo track down the remnants of a hidden disaster shelter.

Perhaps Dr. Baltar's mythological Cylon detector should focus on depth of emotion.