Battlestar: Razor Preview: "Jaw-dropping" Details and Shocking Returns!

Battlestar Galactica's TV-movie gives the show's rabid fans a hint of what's to come.

Tired of waiting for Battlestar Galactica to frakking return already? Thefourth and final season of Sci FiChannel's space opera won't start untilApril, but a special two-hour extendedepisode — Battlestar Galactica: Razor (Saturday, Nov. 24 at 9 pm/ET on Sci Fi) —arrives Nov. 24 to bring relief tothe show's hard-core addicts.

It's also a chance to raise the dead. Razor flashes back to the eve of the firstdevastating attack on humans by therobotic Cylons, when Helena Cain — thedeliciously maniacal admiral played byMichelle Forbes — was helming the battlestar Pegasus. Cain, or "Saddam Husseinin bangs" as Forbes calls her, was big withfans but was assassinated by the Cylonagent Gina (Tricia Helfer) in Season 2,something executive producer Ron Mooreregretted even as it was happening.

"Cain was ripe with possibilities andMichelle was sensational," Moore says."In the middle of her last episode, wewere going, 'Wow. It's too bad we're killingher off. Are we crazy?' But we'd boxedourselves into a corner." No prob. Razor remedies that, plus it throws in a jaw-droppingrevelation — Cain and Ginahad a lesbian fling goin' on! — and dropssome seismic scoop about Starbuck(Katee Sackhoff) that's sure to shake upexpectations for Season 4.

"Like BSG, Razor doesn't messaround," Forbes says. "It hits you withthose tough moral questions and thendoesn't answer them because there are noanswers." Razor boasts sharp supportingturns by several BSG heavyweights —Sackhoff, Helfer, Jamie Bamber (LeeAdama), Edward James Olmos (AdmiralAdama) — but it primarily focuses on Cain'smentoring of Kendra Shaw, a young officerplayed by Aussie newcomer StephanieJacobsen. She eventually becomes arazor — military-speak for an unflinchingwarrior determined to survive.
The BSG execs were dazzled by Jacobsenwhen she auditioned for the lead in Bionic Woman (David Eick producesboth shows). On the Razor set in Vancouver,it's easy to see why. Though ashort slip of a thing, Jacobsen stands talland tough amid a sea of extras who areplaying freaked-out civilians. UnderCain's orders, Kendra is leaving thesehumans to almost certain annihilationby the Cylons in order to protect thehuman race as a whole. As lunch iscalled, Jacobsen is clearly shaken.
"This is so difficult, because I'm reallya good, compassionate person," she says."The only way I can do this is to stayfocused on Kendra's goal — to preservethe species." But the actress eventuallylightens up. "This beats the hell out ofwearing a floral dress and being someone'sweepy, pouty girlfriend," she noteswith a laugh. "I could be quite happyplaying this kind of character for years."
Forbes is equally jazzed to be back incommand. "After they killed me I becamea real fan of BSG," she says. "I returned tothe show in awe and a little bit shy." Well,not that shy. In BSG lore there are 12Cylon models that look like humans. Sofar on the show, 11 have been revealed.Says Forbes, "I'm dying to know the identityof the last Cylon, so I was askingeveryone on the set, 'Who do you think itis? C'mon, tell me!'" She got nowhere.
Forbes' Cain isn't the only one who'sback from the dead. Fan favorite GrahamBeckel returns as Col. Jack Fisk, who tookcharge of Pegasus after Cain's murderbut was himself garroted soon after. "Myson read on the Internet that I was goingto be playing Fisk again and I thought,'No way!'" Beckel says. "Sure enough,a few days later I got the call. I think theaudience is gonna go crazy for this."
That's the plan. An extended-cut DVDof Razor hits stores Dec. 4, andMoore fancies "there are more bits of BSG lore than could be similarly expanded."That would get Forbes' vote. "I'm asgutted as everyone else that we're comingto the end," she says. "I understand wantingto go out in a blaze of glory, but Ihope this universe doesn't die altogether.There are so many more stories to tell."

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