Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy (2008–2009) User Reviews

Solid extras that only suffer a bit from the lack of enforced gap before the next "proper" episode (suggestive spoilers)

[bob the moo · 6 July 2009]

Although I joined Battlestar Galatica after it had already been finished for some time, I tried to watch it the way that many other fans will have done – with some gaps and with the various webisodes viewed in the right locations. In the middle of season 4 there was a long gap between the first ten episodes and the final ten episodes and I tried to sort of replicate this (kinda) by watching the first half before I went on holiday for a few weeks and the second half a while after my return. Before recommencing the season though I watched this collection of webisodes that play out to be just a bit shorter than a normal episode of the proper show.

As with previous webisodes, these are not critical to following the show although the abrupt ending and the setting ahead of the timeline a bit means that it may fit better than I think – I won't know that I guess till afterwards. The episodes do also focus backwards to the time on New Caprica, in particular the actions of Gaeta and his relationship with one of the Caprica 8's (Athena). In this regard it is engaging enough as dramatic events unfold both in the present time and the past. Some of the episodes are very short and the ultimate ending is a bit blunt and open but they still work for what they are – which is filler. The lack of connection to the big cliffhanger of the proper episode before this is a bit annoying though and ultimately I watched this with a certain air of "having to" watch it before getting into the second half of the final season – the web episode is better than that but it is still hard to shake that feeling.

Worth seeing for completists and I suppose it is good enough as a dramatic collection of shorts to watch on its own anyway, but, without the enforced wait of the writers strike, it is harder to watch when the main season is sitting on the shelf behind you ready to go on DVD's.

Explains a LOT about Gaeta

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 13 January 2023]

Because when I saw "a disquiet follows my soul/the oath/blood on the scales", I could never understand why Gaeta went ballistic. Of course, getting shot in the leg and then having to have it removed might have made the guy a little bit bitter. But I never thought that even that would make him turn against Adama.

If he had just told somebody what had happened in this little webisode... but he never told anybody.

One thing that was very surprising was that a relationship was revealed between him and another of the CIC crew. I won't say who that person is, watch this. And he never, ever, told that person, either.

The thing that is evident during "disquiet" is that Gaeta shows a very vehement anti-cylon predjudice. Out of the apparent blue! All this time I had asked why? Because there is always a reason for these kinds of prejudices to pop up.

Unfortunately, Gaeta told no other soul, not Adama, not Zarek, not even his "lover". And the entire crew of Galactica suffers because of this... The whole colonial fleet suffers.

Gaeta is trapped in a certain situation with several other people and unfortunate things start happening. We never know the reason why these things are happening until practically the very end. And it was because Gaeta trusted somebody, and never knew until way later that he was actually betrayed.

Betrayal would be a good cause for a person to become bitter, but it never really had to get this bad, but because Felix never discussed it in detail with anybody who could actually help him, well, all that was left was for him to complain about the pain in his leg and sing in order to get rid of the pain. Plus, take Morpha.

In a way, we had betrayed Felix. By just assuming that he would continue to do his job without complaining, even after being severely injured.

And nobody really asked him the right questions. Nobody cornered him and made him spill about what had happened here in this Webisode.

This is just one of those small narrative shorts that we were given. I suppose this was on the Galactica website in between a midseason hiatus. As I only got involved with Galactica during the last broadcast season, and now later, 14 years later, I never knew about all of these goodies that were available to watch.

There was also an extended short involving the young Adama expanded on from "Razor", which gets into the Adama character much more thoroughly than the footage from Razor gives us.

"All this has happened before, it will happen again, and again, and again, again, again"

Fine Filler During the Hiatus

[ZMAN738 · 1 January 2009]

*This Post Contains Possible Spoilers*. The SFC loves to make we SF viewers wait. Happened with all of their popular shows over the last few years like Farscape as an example. With Battlestar Galactica however the SFC have given us "Webisodes" to help fill the gap during the hiatus.

*The Resistance* webisodes between S4.0-S.4.5 filled in a lot of story arc dealing with the Cylon occupation of New Caprica that played out during S-4. The writers used flashbacks to the webisodes to add depth to the ongoing story during the regular series run. Same here with the *Face of the Enemy* webisodes as we again flash back to NC and the relationship between Lt. Gaeta & Caprica 8 aka Lt. Sharon 'Athena' Agathon aboard the lost Raptor or another 8 as I've kinda lost track of which is which at this point. Bottom line is we have, at least, some BSG to watch and as events have proved in the past we can expect these webisodes to play a part with the final conclusion of the series.