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DVR alert for sci-fi folks

If you're gonna be out and about over the next two weekends, set your DVRs to record Battlestar Galactica's Razor (a two hour flashback epi that serves as the backdrop for BSG's season four, which begins in Janaury--we hope) and Tin Man (a Sci-Fi Channel miniseries). Here's the brief skinny on both:

BSG: Razor (Saturday, November 24). This episode looks like a pretty brutal exploration of the bents within us with which we humans struggle, why we make the decisions we do, the effects those choices have on the communities in which we live, and the consequences we (and others) bear for them--pretty standard fare for an edgy series that brings God-talk into open spaces on a regular basis. In particular, this episode flashbacks to:
. . . Lee Adama's first mission as the commander of the battlestar Pegasus — and the harrowing tale of that ship's desperate fight for survival in the immediate aftermath of the Cylon's genocidal siege of the Twelve Colonies.

Lee Adama's new XO, Major Kendra Shaw, is plagued by memories of her service and sacrifices under Admiral Helena Cain, who was able to save her ship during the Cylon attack — but only by making Shaw and her fellow officers rationalize suicidal battle tactics and brutal war crimes against their own people.

In the crucible of war, Shaw must let her hesitation and doubts burn away, until all that remains of her is the honed edge of a living human weapon — what Colonial veterans call "a razor." But an edge so fine cuts in more than one direction. It can cleave an enemy to pieces … or it can carve away a person's soul.
Tin Man (starts Sunday, Dec. 2). Billed as an "Ozian realm . . . much further over the rainbow than ever before," this miniseries reimagines the classic Wizard of Oz tale:

A fierce tornado rips DG (Zooey Deschanel) from her clock-watching life as a waitress in the Midwest and deposits her with a shocking bump on "the other side."

The Outer Zone (O.Z.) is a fantastical land rife with wonder but oppressed by dark magic. The O.Z. has been plunged into a decade-long night of fear by the sorceress Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson).

Aided by her Longcoat storm troopers and winged Mobat (monkey-bat) spies, she has seized power from her own mother, the rightful queen known as Lavendar Eyes (Anne Galvin), and compromised such once-potent Ozian leaders as the Mystic Man (Richard Dreyfuss). Even the tiny but fierce Resistance Fighters of the Eastern Guild are losing hope that the sorceress can be stopped.

Heeding the whisper of her own emerging memories, DG realizes that only she can halt Azkadellia's twisted master plan . . . .

DG's (aka "Dorthy") companions echo the classic tale's with some twists: the Tin Man (Neal McDonough) is actually an ex-cop who was imprisoned by Azadellia in a metal suit for years; the Scarecrow is now "Glitch" (Alan Cumming), a genius who's had half his brain removed while being imprisoned by Azkadellia; and the Lion is now "Raw" (Raoul Trujillo), a half-human, half-wolverine psychic whose power has been stolen by Azkadellia.

(Images: SciFi Channel website)