Battlestar Galactica’s Worst Episode Makes No Sense
Battlestar Galactica started strong with one of the greatest first episodes in sci-fi history, “33”, arguably one of the finest first seasons of all time, and though the final season was controversial, it’s still hailed as one of the best sci-fi shows. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and you don’t have to look any further than “Black Market,” from the back half of Season 2, for evidence of how bad it could get. With humanity on the run from the Cylons, you would think there are bigger issues than illegal commerce, but that’s the entire focus of the episode, which could be removed from the series with nothing being lost.
The Black Market
President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) asks for the military to shut down the black market that’s sprung up among the colonial fleet, blissfully unaware as to how deep the corruption goes. The Commanding Officer of the Pegasus, Jack Frisk, is found murdered shortly after taking on the assignment with Apollo (Jamie Bamber) put on the case. What Apollo finds is a small-scale conspiracy, with Frsk, Balter (James Callis), and Tigh (Michael Hogan) all involved, which would carry a little more weight if Battlestar Galactica hadn’t revealed that Apollo frequents the black market services of Shevron, a prostitute onboard a pleasure ship.
Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch) sends Apollo off towards the head of the smuggling operation, Phelan, where the true scale of the operation is revealed. Battlestar Galactica normally deals in various shades of grey for its characters and forces the heroes into moral situations with no clear answer, but this time, Apollo is faced with children being trafficked. When he kills Phealan, he’s justified in doing so, though of course, the snake in the grass that is Zarek steps up to fill the void as the new head of the black market, which Apollo convinces Roslin is needed for the betterment of the fleet.
No Impact On The Rest Of The Show
Outside of putting Zarek into a position of power within the civilian fleet, “Black Market” has no place in the grand story of Battlestar Galactica. Even the reveal of smuggling, illegal goods, and prostitution is undercut given the setting since if humanity is on the ropes, why does anything matter if it falls into a grey zone of the law? Killing, kidnapping, and child trafficking are different stories, which is why showrunner Ronald D. Moore stuck those in.
A Missed Opportunity
In an interview with SyFy, Moore explains the inclusion of child trafficking sidestepped the moral questions that Battlestar Galactica usually engaged in for a cheap solution to the problem. The plot falls apart once you realize the setting of the series, but the episode had the potential to explore a part of sci-fi that Star Trek stays away from, with the Federation no longer trading money for goods. What is life like for those on the bottom of the ladder in the fleet? We saw episodes that touched on it, but “Black Market” remains a missed opportunity.
The legacy of Battlestar Galactica isn’t tarnished because of one out-of-place episode, but it does serve as a reminder that, if the remake ever gets off the ground again, there are plenty of different areas of the universe for it to explore. In truth, “Black Market” is still a fine sci-fi episode, and it could stand up against some of the best of another series, but the bar for Moore’s dark and gritty reboot was so high that it fell woefully short. We didn’t need another reason to hate Zarek.
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