Synopsis
Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (a prequel to the critically acclaimed hit series, Battlestar Galactica) takes place in the midst of the First Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, the sentient robotic Cylons, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a young, talented fighter pilot, William Adama (Luke Pasqualino), finds himself assigned to one of the most powerful battlestars in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. Full of ambition and in pursuit of the intense action that the Cylon war promises, Adama quickly finds himself at odds with his co-pilot, the battle-weary officer Coker (Ben Cotton). With only 47 days left in his tour of duty, Coker desires an end to battle just as much as Adama craves the start of it. Though they clash at first, the two men forge an unlikely bond when a routine escort mission with an enigmatic passenger (Lili Bordan) turns dangerous and becomes a pivotal one for the desperate fleet. [DVD] [Blu-ray]

Problems
- This entire movie conflicts with the dialog in the first Razor flashback where Adama claims to have never flown in combat before. The whole scene heavily implies that the battle which takes place in the Razor flashbacks is his first and last battle of the first Cylon war.

Factoids
- Carmen Moore, who plays Nina Leotie in this episode, also played Sister Tivenan in BSG: The Resistance and Fidelia Fazekas in Caprica.
- Mike Dopud, who plays Captain Deke "Minute Man" Tornvald in this episode also played Specialist Gage in the BSG episodes Pegasus, Resurrection Ship, Part II, The Oath, and Blood on the Scales. He also played Sal, the TV camerman at Atlas Arena in the Caprica finale Apotheosis.
- Ben Cotton, who plays Coker in this episode, has previously appeared on BSG as the terrified prisoner whom Adama meets on the ice planet in Razor. He also played Atreus, a Tauron mobster in the Caprica episode False Labor.
- This episode establishes that Adama's callsign "Husker" was given to him by Coker.
- Brian Markinson, who plays Commander Silas Nash in this episode, also played Jordan Duram on Caprica.
- Ty Olsson, who plays the tactical officer on the Osiris in this episode, also played Captain Kelly in BSG.
- Jill Teed, who plays Commander Ozar in this episode, also played Sergeant Hadrian in BSG and Colonel Sasha Patel in the Caprica episode End of Line.
- Sebastian Spence, who plays Jim Kirby in this episode, also played Lt. Noel "Narcho" Allison in BSG.

Remarkable Scenes
- The opening montage. Mostly a clip show, but still pretty.
- Adama's crazy eject-the-windshield maneuver.
- Coker giving Adama his callsign: Husker.
- Dr. Kelly and her secret orders.
- A body slamming into the raptor shortly before revealing the wreckage of the Archeron.
- The battle with the Cyclon raiders in the wreckage of the Archeron.
- Coker regarding his poor treatment upon landing on the Osiris: "Reminds me of Colonial Day at my mother-in-law's."
- Adama and Coker meeting Commander Ozar and going over Kelly's mission.
- Osiris engaging a Cylon basestar.
- Osiris kamikaze nuking the basestar after getting its ass kicked in the initial fight.
- The aerial dogfight over the ice moon.

My Review
In many ways Blood & Chrome is exactly what we've been waiting for since Razor aired: more detail about the first Cylon war. The Caprica TV series failed to deliver that, choosing instead to focus on what started the war rather than showing us its gritty action like Razor did. While I regard Caprica overall as a superior piece of drama, it most distinctly lacked the tantalizing action that Razor gave us, which is part of why it lacked the broad appeal that BSG had. As such, Blood & Chrome seeks to deliver the payoff to Caprica's long buildup. For the most part, Blood & Chrome succeeds in delivering the action that Caprica was leading to, but by cutting to the chase so quickly the narrative has lost most of its subtlety and intrigue. What's left over is terrific action devoid of the previously high quality dramatic backdrop.

While Caprica felt like a vast, expansive world, Blood & Chrome feels remarkably claustrophobic. Only a few characters, such as Adama, Coker, and Nash have any dramatic potential. All the others are one-dimensional throwaways, many of them played by actors we've seen play other roles already on BSG or Caprica. There are in fact so many actors reused from BSG and Caprica that it's hard not to be distracted by them throughout the whole movie. Some of the performances were so good that it may have been worth recasting the actor; particularly Commander Ozar of the Osiris (previously Sergeant Hadrian on BSG), who was delightfully evocative of Admiral Cain without the baggage of being a corrupt antagonist. A shame they had to kill her off. I liked her more than Blood & Chrome's primary cast. Her leadership of the Osiris and the battle which destroyed her ship were perhaps the most memorable parts of the entire movie.

Another reused actor that stood out as perhaps well worth it was Galactica's Commander Nash (previously Agent Duram on Caprica). But as fun as his character was to watch, it was disorienting. It's hard not to wonder things like "how did Agent Duram become a battlestar commander?" before realizing "oh right, it's a different character." Likewise, but conversely, it's also hard not to be distracted by the fact that they couldn't get Nico Cortez back to reprise his role as young Adama that he played in Razor, forcing Blood & Chrome instead to cast a different actor for the same role.

What's worse is Blood & Chrome's premise is one giant continuity error. It's established in the Razor flashbacks that Adama had never flown in combat before the battle which destroyed the battlestar Columbia, which was the final battle of the war. Blood & Chrome on the other hand establishes Adama fighting in the war much earlier than that. This is definitely sloppy, but luckily the movie dodges an unresolvable retcon thanks to the fact that the offending scene in the Razor flashbacks was actually cut from the final edit of Razor. You have to watch Razor's extras to see that scene and I'm perfectly fine with declaring all the Razor flashbacks which were cut from the final edit of Razor no longer canon, which obviously the producers of Blood & Chrome are asking us to do as well.

Not all the continuity in Blood & Chrome is sloppy though. It was fun watching the viper simulation program Adama participated in, which was quite obviously an evolution of Caprica's holoband. It seems likely that as the war progressed, such technology was eventually phased out in accordance with BSG's stated strategy of deliberate technological regression out of growing fear of Cylon cyber warfare. Additionally it was a nice touch to introduce the character of Dr. Kelly as a former Graystone Industries staffer who worked on a more advanced MCP for the Cylons.

The Blood & Chrome pilot is a two hour (two episode) pilot. My review continues in the next episode.