15 Best ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Episodes — Ranked!

2024 is a momentous year for Battlestar Galactica. It’s the 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere (discounting the pilot miniseries which aired in 2003) and the 15th anniversary of the series finale.

A refrain we often see with remakes is that instead of attempting to do new versions of old classics, TV should instead remake stories with potential that fell short. That’s precisely what co-creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eick did with this series.

The pair took a cheesy, one-season space adventure that ripped off Star Wars and added depth, verve, maturity, and greatness. The reimagined version has eclipsed the original series wholesale. Whether episodes are singular stories or part of a larger story arc, so many of them soar.

Here are our rankings for the 15 best episodes of Battlestar Galactica: 

15. The Mini-Series

Battlestar Galactica began not with a traditional pilot but a two-part, four-hour mini-series. This double-length pilot set a high bar for the TV series that would later be developed.

The creators set out to make a science-fiction show about real people, with spaceships and robots as mere tools to tell that story. If they’d only made this miniseries, they would have succeeded.

Making the 12 colonies of man look more like present-day Earth than the “Star World” of the original makes their destruction feel terrifying; the audience can imagine their world going up in smoke.

It’s easy to forget that the basic tenets of the series (such as the Cylons as human-looking androids) were radical reinventions of the original. That ingenuity starts in the miniseries, and it’s gripping television from the beginning.

14. Downloaded (Season 2 Episode 18)

Right before the season ends, Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Episode 18, “Downloaded,” provides a significant perspective flip. Up to this point, the Cylons have been seen from the human character’s perspective as dogged, inscrutable enemies.

The POV characters are two previously killed Cylons familiar to the audience — Caprica Six (Tricia Helfer) and Boomer (Grace Park). “Downloaded” shows what they’ve been up to since they were resurrected.

For the past two seasons, the audience has seen Helfer primarily as the dominating trickster Head Six, who can only interact with Baltar. This episode lets her stretch her acting muscles as the more unsure Caprica Six.

Using familiar characters to extend the Cylons (for lack of a better term) humanity is a wise dramatic move that makes this outing a stand out.

13. Scar (Season 2 Episode 15)

Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Episode 15, “Scar,” is one of the series’ best one-offs.

The series understood that serialized shows still need the occasional standalone episode to let you live with the characters in a particular moment. 

The Cylon Raiders are Stormtrooper-esque cannon fodder for our Viper pilots most of the time, but they’re shown from the beginning to be sentient (they have no pilot but a head with a glowing red eye, just like the Centurions).

“Scar” focuses on a particular raider with a rusty visage and a death wish (but only after it takes down as many Viper pilots as possible). Scar is pitted against Starbuck and used to explore her adrenaline junkie recklessness. 

12. Act of Contrition + You Can’t Go Home Again (Season 1 Episodes 4 and 5)

On Battlestar Galactica Season 1 Episode 4, “Act of Contrition,” Kara Thrace/Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) must confront her past, which feels right at home in a grounded military drama.

After all, this is a Navy series as much as a science-fiction one (Moore briefly served on the USS W. S. Sims).

Zak Adama (Bill’s second son, Lee’s little brother, and Kara’s former fiance) died in a Viper crash. Kara was his flight instructor at the academy and passed him even though he should’ve failed; he died because he wasn’t skilled enough to fly.

In “Act of Contrition,” she must admit her role in Zak’s death to Adama, and her confession scene with Edward James Olmos is an early taste of the great human drama on the show.

The second half of this two-parter, “You Can’t Go Home Again,” shifts to action-adventure as Starbuck must re-engineer a crashed Cylon raider to escape a desert planet. Katee Sackhoff has been magnetic in the part since the mini-series and her two-punch first focus episode(s) deliver.

11. Collaborators (Season 3 Episode 5)

In his series production bible, Moore wrote that these main characters aren’t supposed to be heroes and that the show must have consequences. This was unlike shows like Star Trek operated.

No episode makes that more obvious than Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Episode 5, “Collaborators.”

After the events of New Caprica, where the fleet settled on a planet and then suffered invasion by the Cylons, a “circle” of six has been less-than-legally charged with trying those who collaborated with the Cylons; if they’re found guilty, out the airlock they go.

How leaders will suspend Liberal Democratic values (and their humanity) in times of crisis is a series theme. “Collaborators” is the most harrowing case of this. The opening scene, where the minor character Jammer (Dominic Zamprogna) is executed, sticks in your craw.

10. Kobol’s Last Gleaming (Season 1 Episodes 12 and 13)

Season 1 closes with a two-parter: Battlestar Galactica Season 1 Episodes 12 and 13, “Kobol’s Last Gleaming.”

It’s an excellent example of how a season finale should serve a narrative; the threads of the season finally go off, yet it ends openly enough to set up season 2 splendidly.

The rift between Adama and Roslin finally explodes as the former stages a military coup, Starbuck jumps back to Caprica and reunites with Helo (Tahmoh Penikett), who’s been dodging Cylons all season, and Boomer can no longer deny she’s a Cylon — especially after she shoots Adama in the series’ first cliffhanger. 

The episode breaks from its usual cinema verite style and goes into slow-motion during Boomer’s betrayal, letting the audience’s jaws hang. I first became a fan via streaming and can’t imagine how agonizing that wait between seasons must have been on first airing.

9. 33 (Season 1 Episode 1)

The show carries on from the shot in the arm of the mini-series and leaves our heroes no respite in Battlestar Galactica Season 1 Episode 1, “33.” Every 33 minutes, the Cylons appear and attack, forcing the fleet to continually “jump” light years to new locations in a seemingly endless cycle.

It’s a great hook, from the constant suspense to the catchy title.

One of the things that turned Moore off from writing on Star Trek was the lack of interpersonal conflict. With all the main characters sleep-deprived, this episode solidifies how these are working stiffs and ordinary joes, not the pinnacle of humanity who never lose their cool.

The conclusion, where Starbuck and Apollo (Jamie Bamber) must destroy the ship the Cylons are tracking (and maybe kill 1000+ people)? It tells the viewer there aren’t easy answers on this show either.

8. Lay Down Your Burdens (Season 2 Episodes 19 and 20)

Battlestar Galactica is a profoundly political show, inextricable from the zeitgeist of the Bush years.

A devastating attack followed a mutually dehumanizing campaign against the enemy. The writers were writing about their world when telling us about Galactica.

What good is a political show without at least one election storyline? On Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Episodes 19 and 20, “Lay Down Your Burdens,” Baltar runs against Roslin on the promise to colonize New Caprica. The senior crew is opposed and briefly attempts an election rigging with Roslin’s camp but can’t go through with it.

As we languish in an election year ourselves, the questions raised during “Lay Down Your Burdens” about the fragility of democracy remain pointed.

7. Revelations (Season 4 Episode 10)

The Final Five decision is understandably controversial.

Back on Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Episodes 19 and 20, “Crossroads,” Tigh (Michael Hogan), Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), Anders (Michael Trucco), and Tory (Rekha Sharma) discovered they were Cylons. This complicated the show and its characters, not always for the better.

All that is almost worth it for the scene during Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Episode 10, “Revelations,” where Tigh confesses to Adama. The Old Man must accept that his best friend of 30 years is a sleeper agent. It’s the most devastating and best-acted scene in the whole show — a man of steady authority breaks and sobs.

“Revelations” shows that even when the show was less than the sum of its parts, those parts were so dang good.

6. Sometimes A Great Notion (Season 4 Episode 11)

“Revelations” ended with the series’ most devastating moment (doubly since it marked the mid-season break). The fleet, with their new Cylon allies, finally made it to Earth — and their promised land is revealed to be a long-dead world, wiped out in nuclear fire like their own 12 colonies.

Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Episode 11, “Sometimes A Great Notion,” is not so much the second part of “Revelations” as its fallout (dark pun intended). It is a painful episode to watch as the characters hit true rock bottom, and the audience falls with them.

There is Dualla’s (Kandyse McClure) abrupt suicide, Laura burning her holy books, another painful moment between Saul and Bill, and Kara discovering her corpse and feeling more uncertain than ever in her mission. “Sometimes A Great Notion” is the show at its bleakest.

Still, though, even during the darkest of dark times, you must keep going on.

5. Maelstrom (Season 3 Episode 17)

A tearjerker from the season prior is Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Episode 17, “Maelstrom.”

The episode explores Starbuck’s internal world, both via flashbacks (starring her abusive mother) and dreams (where she discusses a mysterious painting and her destiny with her Cylon stalker Leoben). 

Katee Sackhoff spends several key moments in tears, and she’ll bring them to your eyes, too, especially when Kara flies into a gas giant to meet her destiny and tells a frantic Lee, “Just let me go.” The climax uses simple but effective cross-cutting close-ups between the two, making it feel like they share the scene even as they’re separated.

It’s not truly Starbuck’s goodbye episode, but even on a rewatch, it feels like it could be. She’s always been most comfortable in a Viper, and though she’s never afraid to die, it’s only on “Maelstrom” that she achieves peace. 

4. Unfinished Business (Season 3 Episode 9)

After the serialized second season and the back-to-back excitement of New Caprica, the third season loosens the pacing, going for standalone episodes that usually focus on a single character or two.

The best of this lot, and by far the most meaningful, is Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Episode 9, “Unfinished Business.” This flashback-heavy episode has a unique premise; the Galactica holds a crew-wide boxing ring to let everyone blow off steam.

In particular, Lee and Kara — the love story that never quite blossomed — get in the ring together. Sackhoff and Bamber bring out the best of each others’ talents, both in the present and in flashbacks of how they almost got together.

When they tear up and hug it out, your eyes will be watery, too.

3. The Oath/Blood on the Scales (Season 4 Episodes 14 and 15)

This will probably sound like a backhanded compliment, but Battlestar Galactica is best when it’s an action show.

When the show goes into action mode, it’s not rooted in pure spectacle (e.g., spaceships dog-fighting) but character and suspense — especially since the show has a ruthless trigger finger. 

The best showcase for this is the mutiny arc: Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Episodes 14 and 15, “The Oath” and “Blood on the Scales,” the last major step before the endgame starts.

Saving this for (almost) last makes it feel earned. After the roller coaster of tragedy that the fleet and Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) go through, it’s believable they turn on Adama.

The episodes range from exciting (Kara saving Lee from execution by mutineers) to tragic (Gaeta’s execution by firing squad), but they never let up. 

2. New Caprica (Season 3 Episodes 1-4)

With Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Episodes 1-4, “Occupation/Precipice/Exodus Parts 1-2,” all four episodes are a sustained story, so choosing one over the other is a fool’s errand. 

“Lay Down Your Burdens” ended with a year-long time jump, with New Caprica settled and the old status quo gone even before the Cylons showed up. The Cylons decide they don’t want to exterminate humanity but coexist with them — which means forcing that peace onto them.

For a show about the chase, Battlestar Galactica never felt more suspenseful than when the setting stuck in place as it did on New Caprica. It’s also the most politically daring chapter of the series; the Cylons’ occupation allegorizes the then-present U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and it’s the “good guys” who use suicide bombers. 

The series was never the same again after these four episodes; it would’ve been dishonest to the viewers had it been.

1. Pegasus (Season 2 Episode 10)

One of the few times this reimagining directly adapted an original series episode was Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Episode 10, “Pegasus,” (and the following Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Episodes 11-12, “Resurrection Ship” two-parter). 

The fleet discovers another Battlestar that survived the Cylon attack. The Pegasus’ CO, Admiral Cain (Michelle Forbes), lacks Adama’s moral fiber and quickly becomes just as much a threat as the Cylons.

This isn’t a show about evil robots but about what evil people do to each other. “Pegasus” makes that observation literal, with stunning results.

The ending of “Pegasus” (cross-cutting between Cain and Adama as they stand on their respective ships’ control centers, the camera spinning in 360 degrees and Bear McCreary’s “Prelude to War” score blaring) is the most nailbiting moment of the show. 

Yet again, compared to Star Trek, the analog tech (here, a phone rather than a viewscreen) results in a much more dynamic scene.

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Did your favorite episodes of Battlestar Galactica make our list? Share your picks with us in the comments below!

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