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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: David Mumpower weighs in on one series ending (Battlestar Galactica) and one just taking off (Dollhouse).

Pick of the Week

For people who go around singing All Around the Watchtower for no apparent reason: Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5

When the Battlestar Galatica reboot began with a well received mini-series in late 2003, none of us had a full appreciation for the way the show would fundamentally alter the television landscape. A harrowing post-9/11 allegory, the show was Ron E. Moore's examination on how survivors combat a ceaseless enemy whose primary goal is the extermination of our species. Within that first mini-series, mankind lost the war, accepted a new fate, and fled in an attempt to survive. Traitors were revealed within the military fleet defending our last vestiges of the human race, a total of fewer than 50,000 people. The enemy could mimic our form and had infiltrated our ranks, even in the highest levels of our officer corps and government. Mankind had been marked for extinction by the very Cylon machines we created.





In the five years that followed, Battlestar Galactica became a blueprint example of hallmark television. Starting with the first episode of the new series, Cylons hunted the few remaining ships in our intergalactic fleet, seeking to eradicate humanity once and for all. From very early on in the series, the opening credits simply stated that the manmade machines had rebelled, that they had a plan. Mankind's only hope for salvation was the discovery of the mythical 13th colony, Earth. Over the course of 65 episodes, mankind warred with, hid from, fell in love with and was enslaved by its machine creations.

Eventually, we came to discover that there were five within the human race who were unknowing Cylons, the mythical Final Five. Four of their identities were revealed during season 4.0, but the identity of the final Cylon remained a mystery. The bigger surprise at the end of season 4.0 was that the fleet and its temporary allies, Cylons who also sought out Earth, managed to find the 13th colony. Once they arrived together on a joint mission, all of them were horrified to discover that the planet they had spent years trying to discover was a desolate victim of nuclear holocaust. Their search had been for naught.

What does this mean for the final ten episodes? With all hope lost, humanity fights with itself in a civil war for control of the remaining people. The uneasy alliance with the assailants who tried to exterminate the race also propagates ongoing unrest among the bitter victims. The identity of the final Cylon is revealed and explanations are offered in one of the most verbose, existential television episodes ever crafted. And that's just the first half of the final ten episodes. I could go on, but I think it's readily apparent where I stand on the subject. BOP has chosen Battlestar Galactica as one of the best television shows of our era. If you have not started/finished watching the show as of yet, it is an imperative that you do so immediately. There is nothing on the fall television schedule that will approach the quality of Battlestar Galactica. Don't settle for less when you can have this instead.

Disc includes: Extended and unaired versions of three episodes, Behind-the-Scenes featurettes, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan sneak peek, audio commentary, Ronald D. Moore's podcast commentaries, David Eick's video blogs, deleted scenes

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