Latest BSG Web Eps Give Gaeta Some Serious Face Time

NTV StationIn preparation for the last half of Battlestar Galactica‘s final season, the show’s creators are once again casting a few breadcrumbs at insatiable fans. Battlestar Galactica: The Face of The Enemy is a 10-episode online sideshow revolving around Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and two Boomers (Grace Park), who are stuck aboard a Raptor (that’s “small space shuttle” to you non-BSG fans). All of those on board, including a gent introduced as a blue collar, maintenance-type guy (Joe the Space Plumber?) and the two pilots flying the Raptor, are expecting nothing more than a quick jaunt to a nearby civilian leisure ship, when a Cylon sneak attack separates them from the rest of the fleet. As if the postponed spa trip isn’t bummer enough, we’ll come to discover that there is also a murderer in their midst.

Given the particularly small confines of the Raptor, the murder mystery should play out like Lifeboat, set in space. So far it’s proving to be the perfect set-up for a web series offshoot: a bunch of people, stuck in a small space, with a psycho killer. You can hop this train and enjoy the ride without first devoting weeks to studying BSG‘s complicated mythology.

That being said, there’s some satisfaction to be had for long-time fans, too: Gaeta is indeed outed as gay in Episode 1, which many of the faithful had long suspected. But it’s likely that diehard followers won’t get significant clues that point toward the identity of the final Cylon; supplemental webisodes of oldteevee favorites tend to be little more than an extra dollop of frosting on an already heavily decorated cake, and Face doesn’t appear to be an exception here. But hey, who doesn’t like extra frosting now and then?

Face is only the latest example of Battlestar‘s established record of producing web-only content: Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance was similarly introduced to warm fans up for season 3, and a 7-part series, Razor Flashbacks, led up to the Razor television movie, which was slotted between seasons 3 and 4. (Interestingly enough, the Resistance web series was fraught with enough behind-the-scenes drama to rival what appeared on-screen: Series creator Ron Moore and the WGA were very publicly at odds with NBC/Universal over issues like credits and payment due to writers for online original material – material that NBC considered “promotional” and not subject to the usual rights guaranteed to writers for more standard fare.) In the end, both forays into cyberspace were highly successful, with Razor‘s webisode No. 4 earning an Emmy, and the first two webisodes of Resistance breaking all kinds of traffic records for Sci Fi.com.

Face of The Enemy is likely to enjoy comparable success. After all, this is it — 2009 brings forth the last heapin’ helping of BSG that will ever be ladled onto our plates, and viewers have been waiting impatiently to jump aboard Battlestar as it careens toward the much-anticipated series finale – a finale that James Callis (the uber-smarmy Baltar) has declared so operatic that, “If Adolf Hitler were back, he’d be crying in his handkerchief.

Like we weren’t already intrigued.

With many of BSG‘s usual creative suspects responsible for Face, it’s all the quality and intrigue you would expect from the franchise — and then some.

This review, along with more details about the show, can be found at NewTeeVee Station.

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