While shows normally centre around heroes, individuals who go out there and do what must be done, it's often the villains who propel the story and provide the most memorable moments. Who can forget Alan Rickman's amazing performance in Die Hard (or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), Gary Oldman in Leon, Kevin Spacey in the Usual Suspects, Darth Vader and so on. Villains are just as important (if not more so) as the heroes in stories. Without someone to stand up against and constrast with our favourite heroes would be a shadow of their former self.

Lets face it, everyone loves a good bad guy, it gives you someone to either root for or rail against, and television is no exception to this. There have been some exceptional villains on screen over the years and here is a selection of my favourites.

Number One/John Cavil
From Battlestar Galactica. Portrayed by Dean Stockwell.

More than any other cylon in the show it's Cavil who stands out as the primary antagonist and most dangerous threat to humanity. A Machiavellian individual who not only threatens the humans, but also stands opposed to any cylons who attempted to get in his way. Lacking any kind of mercy he was responsible for the fates of the final five cylons, tormented Ellen Tigh terribly on New Caprica and constantly called for the culling of humans wherever possible.

He provided a face, voice and name for the threat the Cylons posed, while also turning out to be mostly responsible for the conflict between humanity and the Cylons as well.

Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh
From The Shield. Portrayed by Forest Whitaker.

Strictly speaking Kavanaugh is not a villain as such, but because of the unusual perspective of The Shield he is cast as one. Sent to investigate allegations of corruption amongst Farmington's Strike Team he is diametrically opposed to the series' anti-hero/protagonist Vic Mackey and his team. Kavanaugh is powerfully portrayed by Forest and charts a fall from grace as he becomes increasingly more and more desperate to find evidence that Vic Mackey is corrupt. His tactics become more agressive and gradually he is drawn into breaking the law in order to try and do what he feels is right.

It's this 'the ends justify the means' attitude combined with the powerful and intense performance from Forest which makes Kavanaugh a gripping villain and a worthy foil for Vic Mackey.

Maurice Levy
From The Wire. Portrayed by Michael Kostroff

Maurice Levy originally surfaces in The Wire as the lawyer responsible for D'Angelo Barksdale's case, it's his defense (combined with intimidation from the Barksdale organisation) which results in D'Angelo being released. But this rather innocuous initial appearance conceals someone who is far deeper into the world of crime than anyone would or even could suspect. As time passes it becomes clear that he's a major source of advice to the criminal world, assisting Avon Barksdale, Stringer Bell and even Marlo Stanfeld as time passes.

It's this corrupt and unscrupulous attitude combined with his 'light touch' which makes Maurice such an interesting villain, he's like the proverbial slippery eel. It's clear he's involved in crime, but because he has such a complete grasp of the law he's very difficult to pin down. He's dirty and almost untouchable...

Avatar
From Millennium ("The Mikado"). Portrayed by unknown.

Avatar is unusual when compared to the vast majority of villains in this list as he only made a single appearance in the second season of Millennium. Modelled around the Zodiac Killer, Avatar also communicated with the police using cryptic messages and was a dormant serial killer who had just resurfaced with a new modus operandi - killing his victims according to the number of hits his webcam site received. People who were visiting the site to see what was happening were quite literally facilitating the death of the victim on camera. Eventually the series of clues Avatar left for Frank lead into two traps, one of which took the life of a police officer and the other which nearly resulted in Frank shooting an innocent woman.

Little more is known about Avatar as he was not caught by Frank and the police force (like the Zodiac Killer) and as the show never revisited him he remains at large. Which is a big part of what makes him so interesting, he's still out there, on the loose, waiting to strike again.

The Greek & Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos
From The Wire. Portrayed by Bill Raymond and Paul Ben-Victor

The second villain(s) from The Wire on this list, The Greek and Vondas first make their appearance in The Wire's second season as the men behind the smuggling which Frank Sobotka was facilitating through his docks. Vondas is initially revealed as the head of the organisation through meetings which occur in a small diner. But a little while later on it becomes clear that the innocuous old man who is seen dining there all the time is in the true head of the organisation - The Greek.

The pair are the personification of prudent and cautious criminals, for them it's about "Business, always business." They are willing to deal with whomever has the cash to purchase the product and they are efficient in their role as drug wholesalers, human traffickers and large scale thieves. In fact there are few pies they don't have their hands in.

Of the two it's Vondas who is the softer, he forms quite an attachment with Frank and especially Nicky Sobotka. But if there is any killing to take place it is Vondas who will do the deed. The Greek on the other hand tends to keep his hands away from anything dirty, but is ruthless when it comes to taking care of business. If The Greek feels you've become a threat to himself and his operation then you won't last much longer.

Davros and the Daleks.
From Doctor Who. Portrayed by Various.

Quintessential Doctor Who villains the Daleks and their creator just have to be present on any list mentioning top villains. The murderous salt and pepper pots have menaced the Doctor (and countless children positioned behind the sofa) for longer than any other villain on this list.

There's something just so iconic and incredible about them, considering that they are little more than slow moving condiments with a plunger, a whisk and bunny ear lights on their heads. Their attitude and catchphrase of "Exterminate" moves them away from the comical and into the frightening. Daleks represent the purest form of racism, so far gone that they seek to destroy everything which is different to themselves. They are the equivalent of a man sized virus or plague; so virulent that not even the Doctor's repeated attempts to stop them has ever had any long term effect. They keep coming back and they will continue to do so as long as the series runs.

Nina Meyers
From 24. Portrayed by Sarah Clarke

You can draw a direct link between the quality of 24 and the presence of Nina Meyers. The first season was just fantastic and the gradual realisation that Nina was a double agent is a huge part of that, her shooting of Jack's wife is amongst the best ends to a season ever. But then in season three Jack encounters her again and shoots her dead - while it's an understandable action it also signals the start of the reduction in quality the show has. I didn't even manage to watch all of the rest of season three and every attempt I made to watch each season following resulted in failure.

The lack of Nina probably isn't responsible for the downward plummet 24 has taken, but the show would have been a lot more interesting if she was still around in some fashion. It feels like the pay off of Jack killing Nina would have made for an excellent show finale. But it was not to be like that, which in some ways is realistic, but in others clearly bad for the show's performance.

Old Yellow Eyes/The Yellow Eyed Demon
From Supernatural. Portrayed by Fredric Lehne

As the primary antagonist for the first two seasons of Supernatural the Yellow Eyed Demon (Azazeal) was responsible for the vast majority of the sorrow and torment the Winchester family suffered over the years. Both the boys mother and Sam's girlfriend were slain by Yellow Eyes. Almost unkillable, vicious, evil and ancient beyond measure he was a terrible opponent for the Winchesters. Even after the Winchesters defeated him his presence and plans continue to make themselves known and felt. While he didn't count on being slain, as demons are supposed to be immortal, dying hasn't stopped the wheels he set in motion.

He also had a dark and amusing sense of humour about everything, often taunting the Winchesters and even willing to banter and converse with them. Fredric Lehne brought a lot of presence and 'cool' to the character and made him much, much more than just "the enemy".

Honorable mentions:
Shane Vandrell (The Shield) who didn't make the cut because a) he's not a villain the entire time he appears in the series and b) I'd already picked one character from The Shield.

Antwon Mitchell was cut from the list for a similar reason.

Ben Linus from Lost also has a similar bent in that he's not strictly speaking a villain, as time passes he becomes more of a protagonist with his own agenda.

The Master from Doctor Who, again excluded because the Daleks had already taken a spot.

Sylar didn't make the top list because it feels like Heroes has done it's uttermost best to reduce the impact of this character by sucking hard. Zachary Quinto's performance as Sylar is one of the two best parts of the show, but he is stuck on a sinking ship now.

Captain Hammer from Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog also didn't make the cut. Strictly speaking he's a hero. But he is the villain of the piece, regardless I do hope he makes a return appearance in the next Doctor Horrible.

Spike from Buffy and Angel. Who lost out because he becomes somewhat redeemed and shifts into the position of anti-hero as time passed on. His wiry observations remain amongst some of the most entertaining in the shows.

So that's my list, but I'm sure there are many, many more who could and should have made these lists. Who are your favourite television villains and why?

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So the re imagining of Battlestar Galactica is over and the final season is out for DVD on general release. Battlestar Galactica is one of those shows I've had something of a love/hate relationship with, when it's good, it's very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid. Season Three was the biggest culprit for this, containing huge swathes of episodes filled with stuff I just couldn't care less about. Fortunately the final episodes of the third season more than made up for this, and Razor followed by the fourth season continued with many fantastic moments and episodes. It seemed that slimming things down and combining them with the sense of urgency that the end of the line brought really resulted in

At the end of the fourth season boxed set the crew of Galactica along with the human fleet had found Earth a dead planet, destroyed and torn down to ruins and dust. This leaves the fleet without direction and as such the despair is so palpable you can taste it. The final season goes to some truly dark places as humanity, morale and even the fleet begin to fall apart. Some of the episodes in this season are BSG at it's absolute finest, the acting, directing and script all have a sense of urgency and desperation to them which hasn't really been palpable since the start of the third season (and before that in the mini-series & season one). There's a real return to the struggle for survival, but while the Cylons were the largest threat before, now it's the nature of humanity and the stresses of prolonged space travel which rise up.

This season features rebellion, religion, racism and so much more as it touches upon real life issues in the way which BSG does best, true at times the show has in the past handled things a tad ham-fisted, but the final season (for the most part) is a more elegant creation and far more subtle. The show remains true to itself all the way up until it's final moments, but the best episodes are not the final one.

Which brings me to the final episode, which is something of a disappointment, while it does include some fantastic moments, it also suffers from 'repeated endings' a symptom of poor editing which Return of the King also has. This is where a scene is provided which is pretty much a perfect ending, then the show cuts to black for a little too long before opening up with another scene. The final moments of BSG had so many of these that I found myself getting increasingly more irritated as time passed and wishing that the show would just 'hurry up and finish'. That's not really the kind of reaction you want to inspire in a viewer - in comparison the finale of a show like Six Feet Under brought out a profound level of sadness and loss in the viewer, most people who saw that were emotionally crushed and uplifted by the events. BSG's finale instead just brings out irritation and impatience. Which is a shame, because the individual scenes are fantastic and heartfelt - they're just put together badly.

I can't let the massive spoiler sat right on the front cover of this DVD pass without remark, while the 'last supper' imagery used is a spoiler in it's own right it's the tag line which really ruins it. I hadn't seen the last six episodes of BSG when this set was released, and while I could easily make an educated guess as to how it would finish once I read the tag line I knew exactly. Needless to say this spoilt my watching, not as much as the old '24' DVDs which spoiler the events of each disc in the bleeding menu, but still, it shows a lack of thought and concern for the viewer who might have not already watched the season.

So I guess the question remains, is this season a great one and does it close out Battlestar Galactica as well as the show deserves? Fortunately, for the most part, it is. The show remains true to itself all the way until the final moments, it might have a few hiccups near the end but I'm sure knowing how it is edited will make re watching a far more pleasurable experience and BSG is a show worth re watching. Likewise this DVD set is a piece worth having for anyone who's already got the earlier seasons - for the rest of you I'd suggest picking up the complete collection instead.

Extras:
Deleted Scenes
Commentaries
Caprica sneak peak
An unrated version of the episode 'A Disquiet follows my soul'
Ten minute wrap up called 'What the frak is going on with Battlestar Galactica'
A look at the show's sound track with composer Bear McCreary.

Details:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Rating: 15
Regions: 2, 4 and 5
Soundtrack: English 5.1 and English Stereo
Subtitles: English SDH
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As BSG's final season (or second half of the first season if you like) will be returning this week I've decided to review the previous/first half on DVD. For the rest of this review I'm going to plump with calling this the fourth season, I predict that the DVD set for the remaining shows will either be called the final season or the fifth season.


Starring:
Edward James Olmos as Admiral William "Husker" Adama
Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslin
Jamie Bamber as Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama
James Callis as Dr. Giaus Baltar
Tricia Helfer as Six
Grace Park as Lieutenant Sharon "Athena" Agathon
Katee Sackhoff as Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
Aaron Douglas as Chief Galen Tyrol
Tahmoh Penikett as Captain Karl "Helo" Agathon


By now you should be aware of Battlestar Galactica in one shape or form, the remake of this 1980s sci-fi fun fest has exceeded all expectations and has revealed itself to be above most sci-fi shows in depth and quality. Having said this, the third season of BSG was not the best one the show had to offer, the extended length of the season resulted in a lot of filler episodes which were frankly awful. Much of the third season can be ignored, events on New Caprica, the Eye of Jupiter, Starbuck's incident and Baltar's trial are the only important parts of the previous season. The engineering accident and boxing match episodes in particular were complete rubbish.

But here's the good news, this season run is back down to ten episodes so there is no sign of human interest/filler episodes at all. As such the season is joy to watch, running from one exciting moment to the next and holding your interest throughout.

Before I go any further it's worth mentioning that this set also contains the standalone movie Razor, which can be annoying for those of you who purchased Razor separately. It's a pretty underhand move by the DVD release company to be honest and the box should have written on it "WARNING: CONTAINS RAZOR".

At the end of the previous season four of the final five Cylons were revealed with one remaining unknown. This season deals with those final four while also constantly teasing you about the fifth. The final five are meant to know the way to earth and as such both the humans and the cylons want to get their hands on them. I shall not be revealing anything further about the identities of the final five at this point to avoid spoilering anything for those who've either not watched the show or not watched the previous season.

As such it's difficult to talk about the season in full, it's filled with monumental events which turn everything upside down and then shake it about. There is nothing but quality writing and acting from the cast and most importantly, Laura Roslin finally stops being a completely petulant, self-centered and unlikable moose and finally does something corrigible. As I've not written about BSG much previously you won't be aware of my deep and unrepentant hatred of Roslin who's become increasingly more corrupt and whingy as time passed. But this season finally redeems her character somewhat.


The Packaging:
All of the BSG sets are packaged in a similar fashion except for the mini-series. Apart from the changes in colour to distinguish seasons they're well tied together. The artwork clearly highlights the religious theme of the show, both on the front cover (as seen above) and the uncomfortably sacrilegious 'last supper' photo shot on the back (pictured below).


These scenes serve to highlight the religious undertones the show holds with the followers of the "Greek" gods and the worshippers of the one god. This theme permate parts of the show and they're more present this season than ever before with "Ladies love Baltar: The Cult" making a heavy appearance.

The major issue with the boxed set is the material that the cardboard sleeve is constructed from, due to it's reflective foil nature it might look good but it picks up fingerprint smudges like it's an FBI file. Even with completely clean and dry hands you're still going to leave marks on the set. Irritating, but not a deal breaker.

The Start Up and Menus:
The start up for BSG is a quick and relatively painless affair for a DVD which has the FACT logo on the back, this is because the anti-Piracy movie is located after the episodes. It's the utterly hilarious "Pirates are out to get you" propaganda.



It's skippable, but so funny that it's worth watching at least once. I'm still waiting for some show to parody this one, but maybe it's already parodied itself.

I almost forgot to mention the menus because, well, they're rather forgetable. There's a loop which plays the same images from BSG on each menu, in short they're all exactly the same. I would have prefered something more interesting and engaging like the later Simpsons menus, or something simple and clean like the Living Planet ones. In the end they don't really offend, but they don't enspire either and as such they don't leave much of an impression.

The Extras:
There are a smattering of extras across the discs of the set. The first disc, which is the Razor disc, includes commentary, deleted scenes and minisodes. The final disc includes deleted scenes and a really short trailer/sneak peek for the final season.

The Details:
Aspect Ratio: 1.18.1 Anamorphic
Sound: 5.1 Surround
Regions: 2, 4 & 5 PAL
Rating: 15
Subtitles: English SDH
Runtime: 8 hours 38 mins

The Price:
HMV have it available for £24.99, but you might also want to check Zavvi - who have it priced in store at £27.99 but with 20% off due to their clear out sales. From HMV it works out at 4.8ppm, which is ok but not amazing.


Season four of Battlestar Galactica is a welcome return to the form of the first two seasons, it's well written, superbly acted and constantly entertains. The season paces well, gradually building up to a great season finale which will leave the viewer hooked in anticipation of the final season. It's all thriller, no filler.
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BSG isn't my favourite series. In fact I still haven't watched past the third or fourth episode of the current season. I'm not sure why, I just cba. Same problem with the last season of Nip/Tuck. I was enjoying both of them, I have them saved ready to watch, I just can't bring myself to do it.

But this guy's blog is almost enough to make me want to carry on watching it.

http://thescienceofbattlestargalactica.blogspot.com/

There's some great stuff there.
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