Release and Reception
"33" first aired in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2004 (2004-10-18), and in the United States on January 14, 2005 (2005-01-14), almost three months later. UK viewers obliged US Battlestar Galactica fans by pirating the episode—uploading Torrents to the Internet—within hours of its SkyOne airing. "33" has been released thrice on home video as part of the first season collected sets; on July 26, 2005 (2005-07-26) as a Best Buy exclusive, again on September 20, 2005 (2005-09-20), and finally as an HD DVD set on December 4, 2007 (2007-12-04). The episode was also released on July 28, 2009 (2009-07-28) as part of the entire series' home video set on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Both series creator Ronald D. Moore and star Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama) claim "33" as their favourite episode. Bamber described it as "...the perfect episode of Battlestar Galactica." Emphasizing the dark, gritty, and nightmarish aspects of the episode, the actor felt it was a microcosm of the series as a whole. In interviews with Wired UK and the Los Angeles Times, Moore opined that the episode subverted viewers' expectations and was a "fantastic way to open that first year."
"33" won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, and drew a 2.6 household Nielsen rating, attracting 3.1 million viewers and making it the #2 program on cable (8pm-11pm). At the website Television Without Pity, the staff review rated the episode an "A+", while (as of November 2010) 546 of their readers awarded it an average grade of "B". The New York Post's "10 Most Dramatic Moments of the '00s" included "33" in its #10 spot, describing it as the premiere episode of "a sci-fi show with high stakes and serious guts."
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