| | |  | Beanie Babies & Plush Toys | Home » » Battlestar Galactica - Season Three | | | | | | | Description: | | Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 03/18/2008 Rating: Nr | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer | | Format:
| AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Subtitle:
| English, Spanish | | Number of Discs:
| 6 | | Studio:
| Universal Studios | | Run Time:
| 953 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| March 18, 2008 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 216 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 216 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
103 of 120 found the following review helpful:
 Battlestar is the greatest show, but this was its weakest seasonFeb 05, 2008
By Joshua G. Feldman
"Technophile"
Battlestar Galactica's new incarnation is superb entertainment. The first two seasons were the best show on television, SciFi or otherwise. Huge themes, such as an apocalyptic vision of the end of the world born of the robot servant's revolt (the Cylons); or a theory of human genesis that posits sister worlds, is interwoven with minute intimate personal detail of fascinating charaters. Characters are explored - their pasts delved into to reveal their evolving natures. These individual threads are picked up and engage the main threads and build towards exciting conclusion after exciting conclusion. The central plot - humanity's struggle against the robot Cylons is nuanced as well. There are moments of savagery on the part of the humans, and moments of odd tenderness, vulnerability, and spirituality on the part of the Cylons. Like life, there is little black or white. Hated characters become humanized, then loved. Characters evolve and change. They are scarred by their experiences (physically and psychically) - and are never again the same. This all increases the sense of reality and our (the viewer's) sense of involvement. Many of the plots echo current events - New Caprica looks like Iraq, for example. The writing, on the whole, is exemplary.
Battlestar's staging succeeds as well. The special effects advance the state of the art for television. As others have noted, technology does not dominate. In fact, many key technologies are familiar - or even retro: they use telephone handsets with intermittent audio problems; guns shoot bullets; space fighters look like 1960s jet fighters; "Dradus" looks like contemporary radar; books are on paper (albeit with a trapezoid shape); their computers are not networked by design. Like the rest of the writing, even these small details are explained and woven into the plot - the anti technology slant is a reaction to the Cylon's revolt. This allows the plotting and writing to remain in the fore - transcending the SciFi genre. I didn't even mention the subtle and addictive language "Galactica speak" that you will soon be talking (if you don't already). This is some 'frackin' good stuff indeed.
Season 3 starts where season 2 left us - with the Cylons occupying the human settlement on New Caprica and oppressing the humans. The humans react with armed resistance and acts of insurrection including a suicide bombing. This depiction of armed insurrection as a basic human response to oppression is bold, and extremely brave considering the political environment at the time those episodes were written and filmed. These early episodes in Season 3 are controversial, thus, and as hard to watch emotionally as anything in the series. To folks who feel that this means the writers of this show have joined Al Qaeda, I'd refer them to read history, including the history of the American Revolutionary War. Americans have behaved this way before (not that the humans of Battlestar Galactica's world are Americans, of course, but they represent us - unavoidably. The 1984 film "Red Dawn" is all about American citizens engaging in insurrection to fight the Russians for example). The resolution of the New Caprica crisis involves a space battle that contains the most thrilling special effects sequence I have ever seen on the small screen. The finale is also extraordinary - involving a mind blowing confluence of events impossible to even remotely characterize without spoilers but involving brilliant plotting, emotional power, and fantastic special effects too.
So why not 5 stars? Season 3 has a tough time exceeding the high bar set by the first two seasons. Other than the New Caprica beginning and that crackling ending, the focus on Gallactica and the Colonial Fleet becomes absolute for much of the remainder of the season and the show loses sight of the Cylons. This is a shame. The battles with the Cylons - both physical and psychological, are the wellspring of the show's crackling tension. Without the Cylons in view, the show sags. We have an airlock crisis, a whole show about Admiral Adama's memories of his troubled marriage, a long show trial of Gaius Baltar - that while dealing with great issues and having great moments lacks the life or death slam of events in the first two seasons. Season 3 is more cerebral, and less action packed than the first two. Is it still worth watching? There are many great moments even in the slower episodes. If you've come this far you've probably fallen in love with the characters and will not mind some psychological background story. Plus, you're crazy if you don't watch the first two seasons and if you do you'll absolutely need to wait on tenterhooks for season 4 with the rest of us - and you'll need to have watched season 3 for continuity alone. Make no mistake, season 3 is still great television - just not quite up to the heart pounding level of the first two seasons, that's all. The finale to season 3 is incredible, and will leave you panting for more. So say we all!
24 of 26 found the following review helpful:
 The dark side of the moonMar 30, 2008
By Jay Dickson
Consistently the best thing about the ongoing BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series has been in its intellectual ambitions. While its predecessor and namesake, the Glen Larson series from the late 1970s, was largely a space opera, this series is actually a study in war, and attempts to cover such difficult ethical problems as loyalty, violence, torture, religion and class in a war-torn society (except this happens to be a society in outer space). But you often find yourself applauding the series more for its intentions than for its execution, particularly in this, its third season.
Season 2 ended extremely thrillingly with a leap forward in time of a year in the final episode when the fugitive fleet, after settling on an Earth-like planet, found themselves invaded and conquered by their Cylon nemeses. This season begins four months after that during the ongoing Cylon occupation; although the show's creators remark repeatedly on their pride concerning these first four episodes (which involve the humans having to escape the Cylons yet again) in their somewhat gaseous podcast commentaries provided as extras on their DVDs, these actually some of the least enjoyable and least original episodes of the series so far. The creators of the show seem to have tried too hard to push for contemporary analogies to Iraq and Afghanistan. The cinematography replicates the gritty stock and overexposed lighting of recent international problem films (such as RENDITION and BABEL), and the tone goes from the darkness of the previous seasons a bit too far into out-and-out bleakness. There are too many fancy torture scenes here (and in other episodes during the season), and it's a big relief when the fleet gets back into space. The succeeding episode, "Collaborators," is one of the best of the series, and some of the other stand-alone episodes are quite intelligently done. But by the end of the season, when the show has bizarrely become an endless courtroom drama (with Apollo a defending attorney!) you feel like the writers have become a bit bored by the premise and don't know where to go next. It may be the best thing for the series that it ends next season.
The acting on this series can be absolutely first-rate, and Grace Park, Alessandro Juliani and Katee Sackhoff continue to turn in terrific performances episode after episode. Some of the other actors seem a bit hampered by the fact their characters seem caught in a creative revolving door: yet again we have to see Colonel Tigh descend into alcoholic sprees and depressive bitterness, Laura Roslin struggle with cancer, and Apollo and Starbuck have another fling. The special effects are sometimes heartstoppingly beautiful, as with a flight through a bullseye -colored planetary storm system and a battlestar falling through clouds towards the ground of a planet below; at other times, such as in the scenes set on the Cylon basestars, the sets seem cheaply furnished courtesy of a Seventies mall headshop. The whole season is worth seeing despite its wild unevenness: you always feel at the very least the creative team is trying at something, even when they don't quite succeed.
21 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 I can't get no FRACKIN relief!Jan 09, 2008
By S. White
Having grown up as a kid totally addicted to the original campy/glossy BSG I must say when I heard they were beginning the whole thing anew in a new big way I was excited! I remember all the hoopla and hubbub regarding the direction of the new series and treatments of characters and can safely say I love BOTH series with equal veracity.
Allow me to state however that the modern BSG is fast becoming for me one of THE greatest works of film making art I have ever had the privilege to witness. The story arc of the modern BSG series is beyond superlative. Unlike some other reviews I have been gripped equally by each season and have also been totally immersed in it's emotive and deeply powerful story line. To be quite honest the story line of BSG makes Star Wars seem like a cartoon by comparison and I love the Star Wars series as well.
I am not going to bother giving away ANY plot spoilers as it's the last thing any new viewer needs - all you need to know is that with each season that passes I find I can't get no frackin relief! It was an agonizingly long period to have to wait in Australia between Season 2 and Season 3, so much so I feared we'd never see it at all. Now I have literally just finished watching my edition all in the one hit in the space of 2 days ... after the final scene I HAD to jump online and read the reviews I had been deliberately avoiding!
This show kills me! So now I find out there is a new Mini Series prequel about Pegasus called RAZOR! When can I get this and when will it be released in Australia? If any Aussies out there care to fill me in I will be eternally grateful. All I can say is that I am totally spent after Series 3 and yet I NEED more already. Those who have watched this season already will know exactly what I mean when I say ...
"I can't get no relief"
BSG reigns supreme and I would love this to run to 10 seasons! So say we frackin all!
72 of 93 found the following review helpful:
Every season gets better and betterJan 08, 2008
By David J. Huber
"Addicted to books!"
Some of the best writing in TV is in Battlestar Galactica. As well as some of the best acting.
All seasons have been great, but this one is particularly excellent - the characters and the people are truly struggling and striving to survive. Not a season of space battles, like the previous ones, but a season of introspection and character development. As well as a fair number of plot twists and "Whoa! I didn't see that coming!" moments.
I am constantly amazed at the depth of the writing in this series. It is filled with creative and complicated plot lines; many plot twists; and terse writing that is so efficient, that I often have to rewind and listen to a part of a scene again to get all the words. This series has the least amount of exposition of any show I remember seeing. It can make following what's happening difficult, but it makes for far more exciting and interesting story telling.
If you are new to Battlestar Galactica, I suggest that you start with the movie and then work your way through the seasons. The episodes don't exist very well on their own, since they are all intertwined in one grand narrative that one needs to watch from the beginning.
I think this series is brilliant. And not just as a science fiction fan, but also as a fan of writing and story telling in general. Technically, Battlestar Galactica is excellent. The story line is also compelling, watching a small group of human beings trying to find their way back to their ancestral planet of earth while they deal with issues of religion, mythology, lost and altered history, and fight their own mechanical creations which are more fundamentalistically religious than the human who created them.
Great stuff!
19 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 worst presentation of BSG so farMar 22, 2008
By Mushroom Samba~
BSG has had something of a sordid history with video quality on dvd. my motivation for writing this review is to let others know what the quality of the product is, as opposed to the quality of the show. if you're a fan, you're going to want to buy this, we already know that. but what exactly are you getting for your money?
a brief history of BSG on DVD
with the release of the miniseries on dvd, fans were treated to a digital quality copy of the source material. this dvd was far from perfect though, suffering from excessive grain in every shot.
with the release of the seasons 1-2.5 box sets, audiences were treated to a much better visual experience. the show itself is shot on HD, so these transfers benefited from much better source material. on a 42' HD set, these DVDs looked fantastic.
the BSG season 1 HDDVD release held a lot of promise, as it's only logical that a show shot in HD should be viewed in it's native format. sadly this version BSG season 1 looked arguably worse than its standard def counterpart. this version suffered from excessive grain, low contrast, a lack of delineation of fine detail in dark scenes, and a blown out color palate. the HD release looks even worse than the universal HD broadcasts, which suffers from its fair share of problems.
being familiar with the hit or miss quality of BSG on disc, it was with some anxiety that i picked up this boxed set. sadly my fears have been borne out, as season 3 is one of the worst presentations of BSG available.
the details:
20 episodes are packed onto 6 dual layer discs, which would appear to provide ample space for a high video bitrate and any commentary/subtitle tracks. unfortunately the video quality is beyond sub-par, the biggest complaint here being rampant grain in almost every single scene. for the record, i've viewed every episode in the set (although i have yet to work my way through all of the commentaries). i know people are thinking "grain", all this guy talks about is film grain, well it's film get used to it. no, i won't. well-lit scenes look great, but the darker a scene gets the worse the detail gets. since so much of the show takes place in dimly lit interiors of various spacecraft, this deficiency hits BSG particularly hard. this version of season 3 is definitely a step up from the standard def broadcast versions, but if you've seen any BSG on sci-fi HD or universal HD you're going to feel cheated.
bit rates hang around a very average 4Mb/sec. for comparison the seasons 1-2.5 box sets hover around 8Mb/sec, which (math time!) means these dvds check in at roughly half the quality. so it's not just me being picky here, there's a quantifiable difference in video quality between this release and earlier box sets. the main difference, as far as the human eye is concerned, is that these dvds lose much of the fine detail inherent in the source material. look at virtually any scene aboard the galactica and you'll see what i mean. the BSG interior design is filled with clean lines and deep shadows, none of which comes through on this release. at first i wasn't convinced that these dvds could really be so bad. i figured that maybe the discs were suffering because of upconversion to 1080p, courtesy of my ps3, so i turned off upconversion. even at 480p these dvds look every bit as awful as i had feared. bottom line, this is most visually disappointing presentation of what is otherwise a visually stunning show.
extras:
included in this set are some deleted scenes, an extended cut of the episode unfinished business, and some web-released content that is now being billed as a "special feature". the deleted scenes don't change anything major throughout the season, and would appear to be largely cut for time. the extended episode is easily the best bonus feature, as it just feels like you're really getting something extra, whereas most of the material i could do without. the podcast commentaries are by far the weakest of the bonus features. they are every bit as cheap sounding as one might imagine a podcast to sound, and lack the thoughtful introspection i'm accustomed to hearing on commentary tracks produced after the on-air run of an episode. there are only two proper commentary tracks included in the set, and they are what one would expect. i completely bypassed the video blog and webisodes, since i've no interest in the former and have already seen the latter. if you're a fan of youtube quality video on dvd, by all means spend your time watching these.
my big beef with this release is that it seems to pack a lot of special features, but does so at the expense of the main attraction; the episodes themselves. yes i like special features, but good ones, why not use more of that valuable storage space to up the quality of video?
the bottom line here is this; if you, like me, want to brush up on season 3 before season 4 airs this is really your best option unless you've tivo'ed the HD episodes. the video quality of this set is superior to the standard def broadcast and itunes downloads, but beyond that there's not much to be said about quality here. if you're gifted with more patience than i, i would suggest waiting for a blu-ray release. given the quality of the first HD BSG release though, i still hold a fair amount of skepticism. in the end, it gets two stars simply for being BSG.
See all 216 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| | |
|
