[Croft2018]

A rival of Starbuck's, Ortega (Frank Ashmore) is found dead and evidence says he did it; Apollo takes on his defence (his Protector) in the legal case but he lacks experience. Boomer and Apollo investigate and find that circumstantial evidence indicates that the killer is one Karibdis, the man who helped disable the Caprican defence systems for Baltar and thus allow the Cylon forces to attack ... who is now living in the fleet under an alias. Baltar is recruited from the Prison Barge as he's the only one who can spot Karibdis.

Usually considered one of the weakest BG episodes and and it's thumpingly obvious that Starbuck isn't a murderer from the off, but the script, production and performances are good enough to distract from the fact that the resolution is a foregone conclusion. Throw in two other suspects with secrets to hide and given that the writers had only two days to get this script done, it's surprisingly engaging.

This is still a filler episode and a minor entry in the sense of the series taken overall but I found that I enjoyed it much more than previously with this viewing. There are several nice little aspects to this episode that indicate the wider Colonial culture like the broadcasts, the Triad game and the fact that many in the fleet follow the sport (also seen in War of the Gods).

It's also interesting in how it portrays Ortega as a blackmailer; a sound bit of depth to a Colonial Warrior that we hadn't had before; a shame he hadn't been a semi regular. I also found the depiction of the Colonial legal system interesting; it would've been good to see that explored in the further seasons.

Of course the 2003-09 remake did explore the darker, negative side of the premise to the hilt; sadly, it didn't deal with the positive side much.