andreikirilenkotattoo on TV: A doomed ship, and what caused its downfall

Today's column previews tomorrow night's premiere of "Battlestar Galactica: Razor."

The TV-movie "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" opens with a montage of events that took place aboard Pegasus, another military ship that turned up in the middle of "Galactica" season two and was destroyed at the start of season three. We see, in rapid succession, the murders of two commanding officers and the battlefield death of a third.

All are events we've seen before in the course of the series, but packed this close together, they suggest a cursed ship - that the crew of Pegasus and, especially, its leaders, were damned by actions they took long before we met them.

"Razor," which is bridging the long scheduling gap between seasons three and four (debuting sometime next year), shows exactly what the men and women of Pegasus did to deserve their fates. The problem is, we already know most of it, and so what's at times a gripping yarn and compelling morality tale eventually crumbles under the weight of the audience's knowledge.

To read the full thing, click here. Given the holiday weekend, I don't know that I'll have a chance to do a separate "Razor" blog post with spoiler commentary, so if you want to discuss it after it airs, feel free to comment here.