The Farm (Battlestar Galactica)
Encyclopedia
"The Farm" is the fifth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica
television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel
on August 12, 2005. It is the first episode of the series in which the A plot is set on Caprica.
In the episode, Cylons
capture Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
and hold her in an abandoned hospital, where they are performing experiments with human reproduction. Starbuck escapes and leaves Caprica to return to the human fleet. Commander William Adama
returns to command of the fleet, but President Laura Roslin
persuades almost a third of the fleet to follow her back to Kobol
.
According to executive producer Ronald D. Moore
, the production process for "The Farm" was one of the most contentious of the second season.
Starbuck's portrayal in "The Farm" has attracted academic study. Critical reaction was mixed.
. She recommends the resistance give up fighting, move to higher ground, and wait for her to return with a rescue party.
Cylons ambush the resistance as they make plans to capture a Cylon Heavy Raider
. Starbuck is shot and loses consciousness. She wakes in a hospital, where a doctor named Simon
tends her. Simon explains that Anders brought her to the hospital but later died from a shrapnel wound. Simon laughingly dismisses Starbuck's suspicion that he is a Cylon and explains away her other concerns. He presses the idea that Starbuck have a baby, calling child-bearing women "a very precious commodity to us." Starbuck demurs.
Meanwhile, Anders, very much alive, leads a search party. Caprica-Boomer appears and promises to take them to Starbuck.
Starbuck is kept heavily sedated. She is suspicious after an unplanned emergency surgery following a pelvic examination, and her suspicions are confirmed when Simon calls her "Starbuck", a name she never revealed to him. Starbuck fakes sedation and sneaks out of her room, where she sees Simon talking to a Number Six
copy. When Simon returns, Starbuck kills him by stabbing him with a fragment from a broken mirror. Searching for a way out, she discovers other captured human women, attached to machines. One woman, a member of the resistance, says they have become "baby machines" and "can't live like this." Starbuck breaks the Cylon equipment, killing the women. Fleeing, she encounters another copy of Simon, confirming that he is a Cylon. The resistance rescues Starbuck with the aid of Boomer, who provides close air support
from a Heavy Raider.
Boomer explains that the Cylons have had no success reproducing on their own and are trying to reproduce with humans. Appalled, Starbuck volunteers to stay and help liberate these so-called "Farms". Anders reminds her of her mission, and she reiterates her promise to return with rescue. She departs in the stolen Heavy Raider to return to the human fleet.
, who are still on the run. After Apollo finds himself unable to go through with Tom Zarek
's suggestion that he denounce his father publicly, Roslin sends a message to the fleet asking anyone who believes in the prophecies to follow her to Kobol. Commander Adama dismisses the message as "religious crap" and is astonished when almost a third of the fleet follows her.
Chief Galen Tyrol
says Galactica-Boomer was just a machine, but Commander Adama insists she was more than that. Adama reminds Tyrol that the Cylons will resurrect Boomer and tells him Specialist Cally
will spend 30 days in the brig
for shooting her. Adama views Boomer's corpse in the morgue and weeps over her.
, Apollo explains his refusal to denounce his father by telling Roslin that he was disappointed that she did not back him up when he mutinied
to protect her in "Kobol's Last Gleaming". In his view, he has defied his father enough, and the struggle now belongs to Roslin. In another deleted scene, he promises to stick with Roslin regardless of the consequences of their imminent departure from the fleet.
commentary on "The Farm", Moore discusses his views of what the episode's events reveal about several of the characters.
Amanda Keith of Los Angeles Newspaper Group
attributes to Adama "a serious case of PTSD and a lot of misdirected rage." Susan Tankersley of Television Without Pity writes of Adama reminding Tyrol that Boomer would return, "it's not clear if Adama is trying to warn Tyrol, or comfort him. Probably a bit of both."
in the human fleet twelve episodes later, in "The Captain's Hand". Lorna Jowett argues that the Farm exists within a context of "masculinized science" in which a man (Simon) controls reproduction and the women are viewed as baby-making machines. Susan A. George argues that the Cylons are seeking to absorb the captive human women into a kind of biological machine.
Scholars have also identified real-world contemporary issues around reproduction discussed in "The Farm". In Jowett's view the Cylon "desperation to reproduce" reflects contemporary human anxieties. Hellstrand connects Starbuck's presentation as a career-focused white
woman choosing to remain childless with contemporary demographics in Europe and the United States. In this context, Simon's appeals to Starbuck correspond to attempts by governments in these areas to increase fertility rates. Hellstrand also notes that Starbuck's character is modeled in many ways on her male counterpart
in the original Battlestar Galactica, but only the female Starbuck is forced to explain her career-oriented lifestyle choices.
Jowett notes that the "image of women hooked up to machines for reproduction" can be found in other works of science fiction, citing the television series Dark Angel
and the film Alien Resurrection. Kieran Tranter cites the Dune franchise
as an additional precedent. Hellstrand compares Starbuck's destruction of the Cylon facility to Ellen Ripley
's destruction of clones of herself in Alien Resurrection, saying that both characters "feel violated by an authority pushing for scientific advancements linked to their reproductive ability." In Hellstrand's analysis, like Ripley, Starbuck destroys versions of herself that represent an unacceptable transgression against her reproductive rights. Hellstrand compares Starbuck's violent action with Boomer's decision in the third-season episode "Rapture
" to die so she can be resurrected and rescue her child from the other Cylons.
Patrick B. Sharp examines "The Farm"'s presentation of Starbuck as a female soldier. In particular, he contrasts Starbuck, who seeks to be an excellent soldier and uses violence to accomplish her objectives, with female soldiers in other works of fiction, such as G.I. Jane
, which he says present violence as incidental to their jobs rather than essential to their characters. Euthanizing
the captive women demonstrates how seriously Starbuck and the other female resistance fighters take their roles as soldiers: they "would rather die than be forced to become mothers." Sharp also compares Starbuck's ordeal of being captured during war and treated in a strange hospital to Jessica Lynch
's experience during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Keith argues that the episode inspires a measure of sympathy for the Cylons. In her view, their inability to reproduce is lamentable by itself, but it is made sadder by the fact that it precludes them from following their God's commandments.
Moore notes a reversal of gender roles in Starbuck's promise to return for Anders. In his view it is more traditional in stories for a man to promise to rescue a woman.
The outline of the episode remained largely the same from its conception. The largest change was for Starbuck to be unsure at first whether she is in a Cylon facility. According to Moore, the writers never believed they could fool the audience entirely into thinking Simon was human; rather, they sought to introduce ambiguity and then resolve it.
The first scene with Roslin and Apollo shows them hiding in cold storage aboard a civilian ship. Moore originally conceived for them to hide in a meat locker among "the last brisquets, burgers, filets, and pot roasts left in the universe" as a reminder of the magnitude of humanity's loss. When every meat locker art director Doug McLean scouted in Vancouver
, where Battlestar Galactica was filmed, proved too small or too cold to film in, production designer Richard Hudolin built the cold storage room on a set with a window that would suggest a meat locker in the next room.
The scene in which the resistance encounters Sharon was written as a night scene but was filmed during the day for production reasons. Also, a scene showing the bloody aftermath of Caprica-Sharon's capture of the Heavy Raider was cut due to time constraints. The shots of the resistance boarding the Heavy Raider were all done with a green screen
and a corresponding green ramp.
When Starbuck is shot, a wound on her eyebrow switches from the right to the left side of her face in an apparent mistake. In fact, the shot in which the switch occurs is a mirror image, as evidenced from the position of the steering wheel in the truck behind her. According to Moore, this was not a mistake but a deliberate editing choice to reflect the psychological trauma Starbuck undergoes.
Starbuck leaves one of her dog tags behind with Anders at the end of the episode. Actress Katee Sackhoff
(Starbuck) came up with this as a way for the character to demonstrate her commitment to return to Anders.
", "Final Cut
", and "Scar
"; he gave the last of these an A-. Tankersley gave "The Farm" a B- and wrote of the pelvic exam, "Gack. This scene's kind of short on things I feel comfortable making jokes about, honestly." Keith called actor Rick Worthy
(Simon) "criminally underused" and wrote, "First time through, I didn't think of a lot of this episode, but in hindsight, it packs a lot of character moments into what is essentially an action episode."
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
on August 12, 2005. It is the first episode of the series in which the A plot is set on Caprica.
In the episode, Cylons
Cylon (reimagining)
Cylons are a race which appear in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series and its prequel Caprica. They have several forms, some of which resemble and even mimic the behavior of humans, while others are mechanical in appearance and function.In the first DVD, one of the show's creators...
capture Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Kara Thrace
Kara Thrace is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica franchise. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
and hold her in an abandoned hospital, where they are performing experiments with human reproduction. Starbuck escapes and leaves Caprica to return to the human fleet. Commander William Adama
William Adama
William "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series...
returns to command of the fleet, but President Laura Roslin
Laura Roslin
Her first actions include organizing all FTL-capable ships together and convincing Commander William Adama to abandon a retaliatory attack on the Cylons. President Roslin and Billy Keikeya, her aide/press secretary/chief of staff, establish a working office space aboard her transport, renamed...
persuades almost a third of the fleet to follow her back to Kobol
Kobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
.
According to executive producer Ronald D. Moore
Ronald D. Moore
Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, for which he won a Peabody Award for creative excellence in 2005 and an Emmy Award in 2008.-Early life and...
, the production process for "The Farm" was one of the most contentious of the second season.
Starbuck's portrayal in "The Farm" has attracted academic study. Critical reaction was mixed.
Caprica
Starbuck wakes up with Sam Anders. He tries to persuade her to stay on Caprica, but she insists on returning to GalacticaBattlestar Galactica (ship)
The Battlestar Galactica is a space battleship in the original and re-imagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica.The Twelve Colonies of Man in the original television series built a number of Battlestars during their thousand-year war with the Cylons, whose battleships are...
. She recommends the resistance give up fighting, move to higher ground, and wait for her to return with a rescue party.
Cylons ambush the resistance as they make plans to capture a Cylon Heavy Raider
Cylon Heavy Raider
The Cylon Heavy Raider is a heavy fighter used by the Cylons, in the television series Battlestar Galactica.- History :The first Heavy Raider encountered by the Fleet crash landed into Galacticas non-operational starboard hangar bay, and a boarding party of Cylon Centurions exited the wreck to...
. Starbuck is shot and loses consciousness. She wakes in a hospital, where a doctor named Simon
Number Four (Battlestar Galactica)
Simon , is a fictional character, a Cylon from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series. He first appears in The Farm , an episode written by Carla Robinson and directed by Rod Hardy...
tends her. Simon explains that Anders brought her to the hospital but later died from a shrapnel wound. Simon laughingly dismisses Starbuck's suspicion that he is a Cylon and explains away her other concerns. He presses the idea that Starbuck have a baby, calling child-bearing women "a very precious commodity to us." Starbuck demurs.
Meanwhile, Anders, very much alive, leads a search party. Caprica-Boomer appears and promises to take them to Starbuck.
Starbuck is kept heavily sedated. She is suspicious after an unplanned emergency surgery following a pelvic examination, and her suspicions are confirmed when Simon calls her "Starbuck", a name she never revealed to him. Starbuck fakes sedation and sneaks out of her room, where she sees Simon talking to a Number Six
Number Six (Battlestar Galactica)
Number Six is a family of fictional characters from the reimagined science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. She is portrayed by Canadian actress and model Tricia Helfer. Of the twelve known Cylon models, she is the sixth of the "Significant Seven"...
copy. When Simon returns, Starbuck kills him by stabbing him with a fragment from a broken mirror. Searching for a way out, she discovers other captured human women, attached to machines. One woman, a member of the resistance, says they have become "baby machines" and "can't live like this." Starbuck breaks the Cylon equipment, killing the women. Fleeing, she encounters another copy of Simon, confirming that he is a Cylon. The resistance rescues Starbuck with the aid of Boomer, who provides close air support
Close air support
In military tactics, close air support is defined as air action by fixed or rotary winged aircraft against hostile targets that are close to friendly forces, and which requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of these forces.The determining factor for CAS is...
from a Heavy Raider.
Boomer explains that the Cylons have had no success reproducing on their own and are trying to reproduce with humans. Appalled, Starbuck volunteers to stay and help liberate these so-called "Farms". Anders reminds her of her mission, and she reiterates her promise to return with rescue. She departs in the stolen Heavy Raider to return to the human fleet.
The human fleet
Commander Adama returns to command and orders a ship-by-ship search for Roslin and Lee "Apollo" AdamaLee Adama
Leland Joseph "Lee" Adama is a fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica. He is portrayed by actor Jamie Bamber. He is one of the main characters in the series.-Early life:...
, who are still on the run. After Apollo finds himself unable to go through with Tom Zarek
Tom Zarek
Thomas "Tom" Zarek is the name of a fictional character on the Syfy series Battlestar Galactica. He is played by Richard Hatch, who had previously portrayed Captain Apollo, a character on the original Battlestar Galactica series of the late 1970s....
's suggestion that he denounce his father publicly, Roslin sends a message to the fleet asking anyone who believes in the prophecies to follow her to Kobol. Commander Adama dismisses the message as "religious crap" and is astonished when almost a third of the fleet follows her.
Chief Galen Tyrol
Galen Tyrol
Galen Tyrol is a character on the television series Battlestar Galactica. Tyrol is responsible for the maintenance of the Vipers and Raptors aboard Battlestar Galactica...
says Galactica-Boomer was just a machine, but Commander Adama insists she was more than that. Adama reminds Tyrol that the Cylons will resurrect Boomer and tells him Specialist Cally
Specialist Cally
Callandra "Cally" Tyrol is a fictional character from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series...
will spend 30 days in the brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
for shooting her. Adama views Boomer's corpse in the morgue and weeps over her.
Deleted scenes
In a deleted sceneDeleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
, Apollo explains his refusal to denounce his father by telling Roslin that he was disappointed that she did not back him up when he mutinied
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
to protect her in "Kobol's Last Gleaming". In his view, he has defied his father enough, and the struggle now belongs to Roslin. In another deleted scene, he promises to stick with Roslin regardless of the consequences of their imminent departure from the fleet.
Characterization
In his podcastPodcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
commentary on "The Farm", Moore discusses his views of what the episode's events reveal about several of the characters.
- Following Adama's brush with death, he returns to command with his "emotions... closer to the surface." This marks a change in his character that the writers intended to affect Adama for the rest of the second season. The change is manifest in this episode in his speech returning to the CICCombat Information CenterThe Operations Room is the tactical center of a warship or AWAC aircraft providing processed information for command and control of the near battle space or 'area of operations'...
and his angry reaction to Roslin's message. Roslin notices the change and Adama acknowledges it in a scene deleted from "Home, Part 2Home (Battlestar Galactica)"Home" is a two-part episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. Part 1 aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on August 19, 2005, and Part 2 aired on August 26, 2005....
". - When Adama asks Tyrol questions about his feelings for Boomer, he is also asking them of himself, internally. His conflict over her comes to a head when he views her body. Executive producer David EickDavid EickDavid Eick is an American producer and writer, best known as the Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica, of which he also wrote several episodes with Ronald D. Moore, as well as the re-imagined version of Bionic Woman...
said in a later podcast that actor Edward James OlmosEdward James OlmosEdward James Olmos is an American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Lt...
(Adama) told him following shooting the morgue scene that he expected Adama would try to kill Boomer if he ever saw her again. - Starbuck's relationship with Anders is consistent with her character: she "sleeps [with] who she feels like sleeping with and makes no apologies for it." However, her emotional reaction to Simon telling her of Anders's death proves that she does have genuine feelings for him.
- At the start of the episode, Anders wants Starbuck to stay, but Starbuck remains focused on her mission. By the end, Starbuck's fury over her violation has changed her mind, but Anders reminds her that she has to leave.
- Roslin chooses to "play the religion card" and is surprised at the effects: people of faith in the fleet start treating her differently, with reverence. Moore says she will later come to regret her choice.
Amanda Keith of Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Los Angeles Newspaper Group
The Los Angeles Newspaper Group is an umbrella group of local daily newspapers published in the greater Los Angeles area by MediaNews Group. The news coverage of the newspapers are mainly local stories. The newspapers contain some national and international news, often from the Associated Press...
attributes to Adama "a serious case of PTSD and a lot of misdirected rage." Susan Tankersley of Television Without Pity writes of Adama reminding Tyrol that Boomer would return, "it's not clear if Adama is trying to warn Tyrol, or comfort him. Probably a bit of both."
Analysis
Scholars have considered how "The Farm" approaches reproduction sociologically. Ingvil Hellstrand argues that the episode "raises issues of reproduction as a gendered imperative, where fertile women have a moral obligation or duty to reproduce." In this context, she identifies Starbuck with the desire for individual agency and Simon with "state-regulated biopolitics". In this regard, Starbuck is "both anti-natalist and techno-critical". The conflict between freedom and control is not presented in the series as strictly between human and Cylon; Roslin outlaws abortionAbortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
in the human fleet twelve episodes later, in "The Captain's Hand". Lorna Jowett argues that the Farm exists within a context of "masculinized science" in which a man (Simon) controls reproduction and the women are viewed as baby-making machines. Susan A. George argues that the Cylons are seeking to absorb the captive human women into a kind of biological machine.
Scholars have also identified real-world contemporary issues around reproduction discussed in "The Farm". In Jowett's view the Cylon "desperation to reproduce" reflects contemporary human anxieties. Hellstrand connects Starbuck's presentation as a career-focused white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
woman choosing to remain childless with contemporary demographics in Europe and the United States. In this context, Simon's appeals to Starbuck correspond to attempts by governments in these areas to increase fertility rates. Hellstrand also notes that Starbuck's character is modeled in many ways on her male counterpart
Lieutenant Starbuck
Lieutenant Starbuck of the Colonial Service, played by Dirk Benedict, is a fictional character in the 1978 science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck is a Viper starfighter pilot, gambler, womanizer and smoker of "fumerellos," or cigars. He is involved with Lieutenant Athena...
in the original Battlestar Galactica, but only the female Starbuck is forced to explain her career-oriented lifestyle choices.
Jowett notes that the "image of women hooked up to machines for reproduction" can be found in other works of science fiction, citing the television series Dark Angel
Dark Angel (TV series)
Dark Angel is an American biopunk/cyberpunk science fiction television series created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. The show premiered in the United States on the Fox network on October 3, 2000, and was canceled after two seasons...
and the film Alien Resurrection. Kieran Tranter cites the Dune franchise
Dune (franchise)
Dune is a science fiction franchise which originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Considered by many to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history...
as an additional precedent. Hellstrand compares Starbuck's destruction of the Cylon facility to Ellen Ripley
Ellen Ripley
Ellen Ripley is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Alien film series played by American actress Sigourney Weaver. The character was heralded as a seminal role for challenging gender roles, particularly in the science fiction genre, and remains Weaver's most famous role to...
's destruction of clones of herself in Alien Resurrection, saying that both characters "feel violated by an authority pushing for scientific advancements linked to their reproductive ability." In Hellstrand's analysis, like Ripley, Starbuck destroys versions of herself that represent an unacceptable transgression against her reproductive rights. Hellstrand compares Starbuck's violent action with Boomer's decision in the third-season episode "Rapture
Rapture (Battlestar Galactica)
"Rapture" is the twelfth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. Aired on January 21, 2007, this episode marks the return of regular broadcasting after the Christmas mid-season hiatus.-Plot:...
" to die so she can be resurrected and rescue her child from the other Cylons.
Patrick B. Sharp examines "The Farm"'s presentation of Starbuck as a female soldier. In particular, he contrasts Starbuck, who seeks to be an excellent soldier and uses violence to accomplish her objectives, with female soldiers in other works of fiction, such as G.I. Jane
G.I. Jane
G.I. Jane is a 1997 American action film directed by Ridley Scott, produced by Largo Entertainment, Scott Free Productions and Caravan Pictures, distributed by Hollywood Pictures and starring Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen. The film tells the fictional story of the first woman to undergo training...
, which he says present violence as incidental to their jobs rather than essential to their characters. Euthanizing
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
the captive women demonstrates how seriously Starbuck and the other female resistance fighters take their roles as soldiers: they "would rather die than be forced to become mothers." Sharp also compares Starbuck's ordeal of being captured during war and treated in a strange hospital to Jessica Lynch
Jessica Lynch
Jessica Dawn Lynch is a former Private First Class in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Lynch served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003 she was injured and captured by Iraqi forces but was recovered on April 1 by U.S...
's experience during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Keith argues that the episode inspires a measure of sympathy for the Cylons. In her view, their inability to reproduce is lamentable by itself, but it is made sadder by the fact that it precludes them from following their God's commandments.
Moore notes a reversal of gender roles in Starbuck's promise to return for Anders. In his view it is more traditional in stories for a man to promise to rescue a woman.
Production
"The Farm" was controversial among the production team, some of whom feared that the episode was too dark and would drive away female viewers. This was considered especially important because of female viewers' historical reluctance to embrace science fiction. According to Moore, among the episodes of the second season, only "Valley of Darkness" may have had as contentious a production process. The decision to suggest that Simon had given Starbuck a pelvic exam was particularly controversial.The outline of the episode remained largely the same from its conception. The largest change was for Starbuck to be unsure at first whether she is in a Cylon facility. According to Moore, the writers never believed they could fool the audience entirely into thinking Simon was human; rather, they sought to introduce ambiguity and then resolve it.
The first scene with Roslin and Apollo shows them hiding in cold storage aboard a civilian ship. Moore originally conceived for them to hide in a meat locker among "the last brisquets, burgers, filets, and pot roasts left in the universe" as a reminder of the magnitude of humanity's loss. When every meat locker art director Doug McLean scouted in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, where Battlestar Galactica was filmed, proved too small or too cold to film in, production designer Richard Hudolin built the cold storage room on a set with a window that would suggest a meat locker in the next room.
The scene in which the resistance encounters Sharon was written as a night scene but was filmed during the day for production reasons. Also, a scene showing the bloody aftermath of Caprica-Sharon's capture of the Heavy Raider was cut due to time constraints. The shots of the resistance boarding the Heavy Raider were all done with a green screen
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
and a corresponding green ramp.
When Starbuck is shot, a wound on her eyebrow switches from the right to the left side of her face in an apparent mistake. In fact, the shot in which the switch occurs is a mirror image, as evidenced from the position of the steering wheel in the truck behind her. According to Moore, this was not a mistake but a deliberate editing choice to reflect the psychological trauma Starbuck undergoes.
Starbuck leaves one of her dog tags behind with Anders at the end of the episode. Actress Katee Sackhoff
Katee Sackhoff
Kathryn Ann "Katee" Sackhoff is an American actress known mainly for playing Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program Battlestar Galactica. In 2004 she was nominated for a Saturn Award in the "Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series" category for her work in...
(Starbuck) came up with this as a way for the character to demonstrate her commitment to return to Anders.
Reception
Critical reaction to "The Farm" was mixed. Jason Davis of Mania gave the episode an A+, praising the writing's "elegance and economy" and writing that Sackhoff "never ceases to astonish with the naturalness of her performance." Simon Brew of Den of Geek also commended Sackhoff's acting and added that "The Farm" "was as good an episode as I've seen thus far of Battlestar Galactica." Writing retrospectively several months after the episode aired, Jacob Clifton of Television Without Pity also praised Sackhoff's acting and compared the episode as a whole favorably to the episodes "LitmusLitmus (Battlestar Galactica)
"Litmus" is the sixth episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. In the episode, after a Cylon suicide bomber gains access to Galactica, an independent tribunal is appointed to investigate. The inquiry comes to focus on the relationship between Chief Galen Tyrol and the...
", "Final Cut
Final Cut (Battlestar Galactica)
"Final Cut" is the eighth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on September 9, 2005....
", and "Scar
Scar (Battlestar Galactica)
"Scar" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on February 3, 2006....
"; he gave the last of these an A-. Tankersley gave "The Farm" a B- and wrote of the pelvic exam, "Gack. This scene's kind of short on things I feel comfortable making jokes about, honestly." Keith called actor Rick Worthy
Rick Worthy
Richard Worthy is an American actor and Star Trek veteran, having played several alien and one human role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise....
(Simon) "criminally underused" and wrote, "First time through, I didn't think of a lot of this episode, but in hindsight, it packs a lot of character moments into what is essentially an action episode."
Connections to other series elements
- The Cylons' inability to reproduce biologically, revealed in "The Farm", is the reason for their cultivation of the relationship between HeloKarl AgathonKarl C. Agathon is a fictional character on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica TV series, portrayed by Tahmoh Penikett.-Background:...
and Caprica-Boomer in the first season. - In "The Farm", Caprica-Boomer reiterates the contention Leoben ConoyLeoben ConoyLeoben Conoy is a fictional character portrayed by Callum Keith Rennie appearing in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series....
made in "Flesh and BoneFlesh and Bone (Battlestar Galactica)"Flesh and Bone" is the eighth episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series.-Plot:President Roslin sees a copy of Leoben Conoy, a duplicate of the Cylon that Commander Adama encountered on Ragnar Anchorage, in a dream. Soon afterwards, a copy of this Cylon is caught aboard the...
" that Starbuck has a special destiny. - Eick used Olmos's prediction of Adama's reaction to seeing Boomer again to help craft Adama's encounter with Caprica-Boomer in "Home, Part 2".
- Starbuck returns to Caprica and rescues Anders and the resistance, as promised, in the second-season finale, "Lay Down Your Burdens".
External links
- "The Farm" at the Battlestar Wiki
- "The Farm" at SyfySyfySyfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...