Unfinished Business (Extended Version)

"Unfinished Business" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 9
Writer(s)	Michael Taylor
Story by
Director	Robert Young
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	309
Nielsen Rating	{{{rating}}}
US airdate	{{{US airdate}}}
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate	{{{UK airdate}}}
DVD release	25 March 2008 US
Population	41,422 survivors ( 1)
Additional Info	Extended DVD Episode
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Hero	Unfinished Business	The Passage
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
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Overview

The Season 3 DVD set released in North America includes a version of "Unfinished Business" that contains 25 minutes of new scenes. Moreover, Ron Moore recorded a new audio commentary for the episode.

Summary

Given the massive rearrangement of scenes compared to the aired version, this page summarizes the entire episode - not just the new scenes - but shortens the description of scenes identical or nearly identical to the aired version when appropriate.

• Admiral Adama is resting on New Caprica. He pushes his bare feet through the sand and lets sand run through his fingers. This is intercut with Kara Thrace and Samuel Anders having sex in a bunk and brief scenes of a boxing match.
• Anastasia Dualla gives a status report to Admiral Adama in his quarters. She notes many incidents showing a lack of discipline and standards across many departments, suggesting that they cancel the boxing tournament and call everyone back to duty. Adama rejects that, saying that it's important for everyone, her including. He quips that she should put in her tags too.
• Thrace and Anders finish having sex (intercut with more boxing and Thrace and Lee having sex on New Caprica). Their conversation is longer. Anders wonders if sex is all he is good for these days, Thrace says that's all she can handle right now, and he and states that he is aware of what she went through on New Caprica. When Anders wonders if maybe he is not who she wants after all, she replies that she won't try to change his mind if that is what he really feels, and leaves.
• Thrace goes to the hangar deck and watches Apollo and Helo fight. She goes to the ring and talks to the Agathons. Adama is eventually disqualified by Dr. Cottle and Tigh on medical grounds. Sharon Agathon enthusiastically congratulates her husband for the win.
• The verbal sparring between Thrace and Adama after the fight is longer and more intense. Adama picks up on her trouble with Anders. Thrace blames Adama for not having been able to assign them to the same ship; Adama can't believe that she would do so. Thrace only puts her dogtags in the can after Adama asks her how far she wants to push this.
• Admiral Adama briefly talks to Dualla, noting how good his son looks now that he has lost weight. Lee Adama congratulates Helo on the win, and Dualla asks how her husband is. She asks him if they should have a "private tussle" if he is done brawling, but he tells her that he has another fight. Seeing that it is with Thrace, she leaves without another word.
• Adama talks to Tigh about the event, and then the fight between Omar Fischer and an unnamed crewman begins. Roslin walks up to Adama and the two talk. The flashback with her finding him playing with the sand is also shown.
• When Adama notes "all the frustrations" he has, he flashes back to congratulating Chief Galen Tyrol about the birth of his son. The Chief requests to settle on New Caprica, which the admiral declines.
• After Fischer wins, Hot Dog is called into the ring and picks to fight Starbuck, which he loses.
• During the fight, Dualla massages her husband's shoulders and tells him a story of her childhood. When some boy kept beating her up on the way home from school, her mother told her it wasn't because she pissed him off. Much later, she realized that the other side of hatred is love. She wonders what the fight between Adama and Thrace is really about.
• The flashback to Dualla and Lee Adama on New Caprica, where she tells him that her transfer to Pegasus has been approved.

Notes

Information from the audio commentary

• Ron Moore calls the episode an "editor's cut". In some ways it was the starting point for cutting down the episode to the standard length of 42 minutes. That is, while it offers a lot more details on the characters, it is a rough cut (unlike the "Pegasus" extended cut). He considers some scenes better and some worse than in the final cut, sometimes preferring story points only being told by implication and not spelled out. He thinks some scenes may be too long, with the ideal cut maybe somewhere between the two.
• Moore likes that it focuses more on the other characters besides Starbuck and Apollo, giving more context to their relatively small scenes that were aired. Moreover, he particularly loves the extended scenes with Adama and Roslin. At the same time, he is glad that they didn't lose much if anything of the actual story in cutting the episode, because it is entirely about the characters.
• The flashbacks are not indicated literally with bright flashes. Moore notes that the network often insists on these visual cues to help viewers. He hates how such elements underestimate the viewers' comprehension and hold them by the hands, but admits that they helped to create a faster pace in the aired version.
• The scene of Adama and Roslin getting high is a bit longer and can thus emphasize the smoking and its effects more. Moore notes that he was very furious at the network for insisting on the cutting, screaming at them to frak themselves. He repeatedly comments how the two are stoned in all their scenes on the planet and how natural the actors are at it.
• Moore and the editor note that the network and some viewers were confused about why Admiral Adama picked on Tyrol so much. They repeatedly point out that he doesn't have a personal problem with Tyrol, but uses him as a symbol for both the unhealthy closeness of the crew and especially the breakup on New Caprica, which started with him and Cally. They think that the extended cut makes this clearer.
• As scripted, the final fight between Apollo and Starbuck was supposed to take place with them completely alone. As shot, there is a smaller, but considerable audience that only dwindles down at the very end.

Other

• The groundbreaking ceremony headed by Baltar on New Caprica is identified as "Founders' Day".
• The square dancing on New Caprica shows a lot more of the background civilians dancing, sometimes with the main characters.
• During the scene with Adama and Roslin lying down at night and looking at the stars, Adama breaks into a small song that he says he learned from a fellow pilot during the war.
• The episode deliberately concentrates a lot more on the "dance" and its boxing matches. There is far less inter-cutting with the flashbacks, allowing more time to be spent on continuous scenes in both time frames.
• Small continuity hiccup: Lee Adama tells Dualla "let's get the hell out of here" and both board a Raptor. However, in his next flashback, Lee talks to his father on New Caprica; a scene that seemingly belongs before the first one, given that the flashbacks are in chronological order. His next one then shows him and Dualla in the Raptor in space.
• In this version Anders and Thrace still live and work on different ships. Anders is noted as living on the Salpica, although the subtitles incorrectly refer to it as "the Caprica.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Saul Tigh on alcohol:

"I'll tell you the secret to avoid hangovers. Don't stop drinking."

Guest Stars

• Michael Hogan as Saul Tigh
• Aaron Douglas as Chief Galen Tyrol
• Tahmoh Penikett as Captain Karl Agathon
• Nicki Clyne as Cally Tyrol
• Alessandro Juliani as Felix Gaeta
• Kandyse McClure as Anastasia Dualla
• Michael Trucco as Samuel Anders
• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Cottle
• Luciana Carro as Capt. Louanne "Kat" Katraine
• Bodie Olmos as Lt. Brendan "Hotdog" Costanza
• Christian Tessier as Tucker "Duck" Clellan
• Don Thompson as Anthony Figurski
• Dominic Zamprogna as James "Jammer" Lyman

Re-imagined Series definition: all-purpose vulgarism; Colonial version of "fuck" (see: frak)