20 Years Later, Battlestar Galactica’s Most Intense Episode Is Still an All-Time Classic

“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again”

Ronald D. Moore’s reimagining of the 1978 sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica premiered in 2003 and became one of the defining works to tackle the aftermath of the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. The series kicked off with a miniseries where the android Cylons launched a surprise nuclear strike on Earth. Its flawless first episode, “33,” replicated the impromptu memorial and missing-person walls that appeared near Ground Zero. But rather than treat humanity purely as victims of Cylon aggression, the show’s writers explored the excesses of the War on Terror. The U.S. invasion of Iraq loomed large when the season 3 premiere, “Occupation,” first aired on Oct. 6, 2006. Twenty years later, the episode still feels depressingly topical.

Written by Moore, “Occupation” picks up four months after the devastating season 2 finale when the Cylons invaded New Caprica, the planet where the last surviving humans had hoped to find a fresh start. It’s an extremely dark episode as the show’s heroes try to organize a resistance that seems futile given that Cylons can resurrect themselves. Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, who had previously worked with Steven Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, directs the Emmy-nominated episode, which was inspired by both the Iraq War and World War II.

The time jump was far more effective than the notorious “year in Baltar’s hair” in the season 2 finale, where the newly elected President Gaius Baltar (James Callis) leaned back for a moment to mark the passage of a full year on New Caprica. The season break made the transition in "Occupation" feel more organic, helped by the fact that the roles most of the characters are playing in the new world order feel so natural.

You work with the Cylons, you’re a target

Taking inspiration from both Iraq and Vichy France allowed Moore to unleash endless horrors on the people of New Caprica, while also making the conflicts there feel timeless. Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) seamlessly transitioned from rabble-rousing labor leader to resistance leader. The grizzled Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) is imprisoned where he’s being physically and psychologically tortured by the Cylon Number One (Dean Stockwell). The brash fighter pilot Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) is held hostage by the Cylon Number Two (Callum Keith Rennie) who is convinced he can make her fall in love with him.

The episode is filled with absolutely brutal moments showing characters who have been pushed beyond their breaking points. Kara has taken to killing her captor over and over again, even though he taunts her with “I’ll see you soon” as he dies and announces his resurrection with a “Honey, I’m home.” Tigh had his eye removed in captivity and bluntly says it looking like a hard-boiled egg as he sips moonshine with his resistance compatriots. It’s clear the scars his captivity caused go far deeper than his flesh as he urges an especially ruthless plan to stage a bombing he hopes will kill Baltar.

Battlestar Galactica was often critical of the ways that people use religion to justify monstrous actions or abdicate responsibility, and that message is especially heavy in “Occupation.” Two explains his belief that God sent him to Kara as he attempts to shape one of the show’s fiercest characters into an obedient tradwife. One insists that the goal of the Cylons on New Caprica is bringing the word of God to humanity, even if that means instilling more fear.

“The insurgency stops now or else we start reducing the human population to a more manageable size, I don’t know, say less than 1,000,” he argues in a darkly funny meeting with his fellow Cylons.

The debate between the Cylons echoes the conflicting goals of the leaders that brought the U.S. into Iraq, and feels relevant once again as the country is engaged in a new war in the Middle East. One says it’s a holy crusade, Six (Tricia Helfer) thinks the Cylons are trying to atone for their initial attack on humanity, and Eight (Grace Park) believes they’re trying to find a way to live in peace. But most humans want nothing more than for the Cylons to leave and are willing to engage in increasingly radical action in order to send that message.

The chief argument among the resistance is whether it’s acceptable to stage a suicide bombing to kill Baltar at a graduation ceremony for the New Caprica Security Forces, a group of humans tasked with enforcing the Cylon regime’s laws. The collaborators were modeled on the Special Brigades of Vichy France, but the fact that they conceal their identities and use propaganda encouraging prospective members to “become part of the solution” also evokes the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the second Trump administration. These people are helping the Cylons round up and torture their neighbors, and Tigh has no sympathy for them.

“Send a message,” he argues. “You work with the Cylons, you’re a target.”

At a time when Iraqi suicide bombings were a regular occurrence that had killed hundreds of people, Moore and Mimica-Gezzan treated the tactic as both brave and brutal. The resistance recruits pilot Tucker “Duck” Clellan (Christian Tessier), whose wife was killed by the Cylons. Thirsty for vengeance and feeling like he has nothing to lose, Duck believes he will be reunited with his wife after his death. But the final moment of the episode shows the carnage the explosion wrought: a pile of human bodies that doesn’t even include the primary target, Baltar, who opted to skip the ceremony because of security concerns.

“Occupation” asked viewers to imagine themselves as both the occupier and occupied. Do they sympathize with the Cylons who are blind to the damage they are doing as they oppress people for some high-minded goal or the desperate people who will do anything to have a hope of one day being free? Would they collaborate with a brutal regime or risk everything to keep fighting for change? The questions feel especially relevant 20 years later, with echoes of the same conflicts happening in the U.S., Iran, and Gaza. The refrain “All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again” is repeatedly used in Battlestar Galactica to evoke the cyclical conflict between humanity and the machines they create. But it just as easily can be used to reflect the way humans war against themselves.

Battlestar Galactica is available to stream on Paramount Plus.