Best/Worst introductory episodes

[Stairway]

Let's say you have a friend. Let's say that friend is pretty open minded. Let us also imagine that this friend is wondering what the big fuss is with you and Battlestar Galactica. Let's then contemplate what episode would be a good way to show this interesting friend to give the impression what kind of show BSG is .

Lets not say the miniseries because it's too long, your friend has a bus to catch. Just give the person a taste of what's to come but nothing too complicated.

I had a friend over and I showed her the Hand of God. I thought it was a nice way to introduce to her the series and not too much back-information is necessary. "They're on the run, cylons are bad guys, Baltar is seeing one in his head but no one else knows it".

Something that could also be fun; what would be the Worst episode to start someone off with? Black Market is bad, yes, but it doesn't require too much of a backstory.

I was thinking Sine Qua Non. I just know that if I watched that episode first I'd have no clue what was going on at all.

What do you think?

[genji2000]

Hand of God is a good one, yes. Did she bite? Scar might be equally doable.

For females (not intending to be sexist, but probably ending up so), isn't Downloaded a good one?

Final Cut should be useful because everyone is familiar with fly-on-the-wall documentaries.

Revelations is artistically amazing, but it'd give the entire game away I think.

Really, the Miniseries is the only way to go.

[Stairway]

Hand of God is a good one, yes.

Better than I had expected. She kept laughing at the "clichés" but also wanted Baltar to have a French accent. I don't agree, but I can understand that.

[Neakal]

Well, when I introduced a Trekkie friend of mine to BSG, I showed the conversation between Cavil and Tyrol at "Lay Down Your Burdens" as well as the clips from the war scenes at Razor Flashbacks and the death of Pegasus at Exodus II since I figured these three would give a good sense of the moods of BSG. He didn't mind seeing too advance stuff since he felt by the time he actually got there during regular watch, hed forget the details anyway.

In my own case, the first episode I saw ever was Kobol's Last Gleaming Part II followed by Scattered the same evening (it was a chain rerun). I did not understand a thing ("Shes a Cylon? But I thought they were machines" "Huh. Gods? Theyre pagans?" and "Holy Hell that was awesome"(in the aftermath of the Opera House scene)) but despite that, I found myself wanting more. So maybe one of those two episodes would be good introductory episodes though potentially spoilerific.

As for worst introductory episodes, Black Market on its own wouldn't be THAT terrible since a newwatcher would assume Apollo's existential crisis had been happening for a while and tbh, it did have a really big potential to be a good episode that one. I think I'll say "A Day in the Life" and maybe "The Woman King" although I am not sure about "the Woman King." Although its one of my less favourite episodes, I keep finding myself actually caring for Mrs. King's plight and feeling bad for her and I don't get that feeling too often in TV shows.

[Osprey]

um, if they can't sit through the miniseries, wouldn't 33 by definition be where to start?

any ep. on either side of a cliffhanger would be the worst since you'd be throwing them into the middle of reveals, twists, etc. -- so that lets out kobol's last gleaming, scattered, pegasus, res. ship, lay down your burdens, occupation, crossroads, he that beleiveth in me, and revelations ...

[Shane]

From Miniseries to Litmus. Otherwise the viewer loses that Cylons look like humans.