Ten Things To Know About Battlestar Galactica's Razor

Note from Kristin: When a coworker receives a copy of Battlestar Galactica: Razor and shrieks as if she's won the lottery and that John Krasinski delivered the check, shirtless, you gotta let her be the first to see it, right? Such is the case with WWK's resident cult TV expert Jennifer Godwin, who devoured the two-hour movie (I'm guessing more than once), and has this to report back...

Thank gods! Battlestar is back!

Battlestar Galactica: Razor, a two-hour TV movie premiering Nov. 24 on Sci Fi, is meant to tide us over until Battlestar Galactica the series returns in February 2008, and it absolutely delivers the BSG glories we've come to expect, with a little streak of Alien and Terminator 2 thrown in for good measure.

Preview copies were distributed to the press last week, and while we're not at liberty to disclose the entire story, I did feel it was my duty as a fellow fan to check it out and share what I could.

So, for your previewing pleasure, I've distilled Razor down to a list of the top 10 things you need to know. Enjoy!

1. Setting: Razor switches back and forth in time between Lee Adama's leadership of the Battlestar Pegasus and Admiral Helena Cain's (Michelle Forbes) leadership of the Pegasus immediately following the original Cylon attack.
2. Winks at the Audience: Gina's (Pegasus Six) last name is Inviere. Inviere is Old Gemenese for resurrection. Oh, those wacky Cylons and their name games.
3. Characters: Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen—who plays the heroine of our story, Kendra Shaw—is a star of tomorrow. Casting directors, have your phones at the ready.
4. Mythology: DNA is sooo cool. Just like on Heroes these days, everything is about missing links, evolutionary dead ends and hybrids. Also, maybe a few zombies.
5. Cast: Razor features lots of Lee, Kara, Adama and Gina/Pegasus Six; a smattering of Roslin; Tigh and Sharon in passing; and no Baltar, Tyrol or Helo.
6. Pacing: The first 15 minutes are unforgivably slow.
7. Quote to Remember: "All this has happened before and will happen again."
8. Foreshadowing: Kara Thrace gets another prophecy. Girl's the most heralded thing since Buffy, I'll swear.
9. Themes: Cain, for all her robust leadership, is best understood as a "Don't."
10. Effects: Here's to the creation of the 12 humanoid Cylons for the reimagined series. It was an inspired choice, because as Razor reminds us, the original-recipe toasters really are kind of clunky and dumb. De India, there were quite a few middle level hits such as Dhamaal, and Heyy Baby.