This discussion is based on the extended version in the DVD and not the broadcast version.



WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW



I just watched Battlestar Galactica: Razor (the movie-length extra that chronologically fits between Series 3 and Series 4 of one of the best TV dramas of recent memory) a couple of nights ago. Wow. This was certainly one of the most intense peices of TV I've ever watched in my life.





The stellar performances of Michelle Forbes as Admiral Helena Cain and Stephanie Jacobsen as Major Kendra Shaw just have to be seen to be believed. Forbes brings charisma and a riveting coercion to her role while Jacobsen is utterly absorbing. One of the interesting aspects of both these characters is the way in which they are played so internally. You feel more than see a lot of the tensions that each woman experiences and this is a very hard act to pull off. The kind of micro-expressiveness you have to use in body language as well as facial expression only comes from being able to mentally inhabit the world of the character you are creating.



"Razor" kind of works as a standalone episode but is much more effective if you have seen Seasons 2 AND 3. It is structured in a much more intelligent way than most TV episodes, and in some ways is more like "Memento" or "Mulholland Drive" in it's use of flashbacks and multiple points of view.



Much has been made of the way in which the movie brings alive the back story to Admiral Cain, and the way in which the main protagonist, Major Shaw evolves through her relationship both actual and inspirational with Cain to become the Razor of the title: an instrument with neither feelings nor volition other than the will to carry out the mission.



The obvious subtext to the whole Pegasus/Cain story arc is the notion of Military Necessity and what it means. Helena Cain believes so thoroughly in the pre-eminence of her goals that she will sacrifice anything and anyone in order to follow her purpose through to the end. She articulates layers of "truth" with one explanation for the crew, and one for her command staff and finally the need for revenge that blinds her to everything else in its path (her escalation of the raid on the "relay station", her execution of her only real friend among the crew, her deliberate handing over of her lover to the interrogator).



Of course Cain's anger and venom towards Gina is amplified, not only by the notion that Gina was a Cylon agent, but that she (Cain) was also literally sleeping with the enemy: a double or triple betrayal given Cain's own personal history with the Cylons.



In fact, betrayal and conflict in many different forms lurks throughout the whole episode. The actual gunfights with the Cylons are easy by comparison with everything else and this I think is another reason why BSG as a whole is such a rich literary milieu.



It is of course, as the series from the very beginning has been, an extended exploration of the ethical and humanist consequences of the so-called war on terror and the military occupation of Iraq. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches those who watch?) in the words of Juvenal. Invoking Military Necessity, Cain shoots her XO through the head on the bridge of her own ship. Invoking Military Necessity she has her crew cannibalize, massacre and abandon civilian ships and their passengers and crew. Invoking Military Necessity she grinds her officers down until they become what she imagines herself to be: efficient tools in the prosecution of military objectives.



Kendra Shaw stands here for the modern junior career military officer (and by extension, the eyes of the viewer): intelligent, ambitious, a bit cynical, yet anxious to show her superiors she has what it takes. A product of wealth, she nonetheless believes in the military, and when her home is destroyed she makes the military her home and military people her emotional and professional center. Cain looms large on Kendra's horizon as the charismatic and successful mentor many of us have orbited hopefully in the beginning stages of our professional lives. Cain strives for achievement and uses a Prussian style of discipline to run her outfit. She lets her personal side show only in brief unguarded moments, and for the rest, she is all about the mission. But what are her default parameters? In the end, Cain has nothing to hold her in the world of human relations. She has duty, purpose and determination, but the center is filled with nothing but homicidal rage.



Can there be a more stunning indictment in modern popular culture of the dangers of excessive commitment to "the mission"? This dilemma lies at the heart of any military engaged in an occupation. Or indeed in anyone whose career significantly involves the prosecution of the interests of one's leaders. Modern military training has emphasized the notion that military personnel cannot indulge in the luxury of second-guessing the civilian leadership. "If they say go, we go". And while this is a good idea in theory, like all theoretical positions, it is capable of cynical manipulation especially by those in ultimate command.





Cain did what she did because she believed it was the best way to achieve her goals and for the survival of her crew (as long as they did what she told them to). Too often, we confuse a concern for the mission with a concern for the soldiers who carry it out. If you show caring for people in order to carry out the mission, do you care about them or are you more concerned with being able to continue to succeed militarily? The same quandary flitted across the mind of Henry V on the eve of Agincourt, and must inevitably haunt the minds of any leader of conscience. What and who do you sacrifice in order to carry out your goals?



In a way, Cain's decision to hand Gina over to the interrogators was the last act in her slide away from humanity. For not only was she encouraging torture (even of a "thing"), she was aiding and abetting the destruction of her own desire for love and companionship. As Adama argues at the end of the episode, it was the notion that he would be accountable to his own people that kept Adama from going down the same path as Admiral Cain. This sense that we are part of something for which we have a moral responsibility is what separates tools from people whether they be human or machine, us or them, "Americans" or "terrorists". Without that sense, we become slaves to the mission and in the process, as RDM and the cast and crew of "Razor" show us so brilliantly, we lose what it is that makes us people in the first place.