Battlestar Galactica: 10 WORST Things To Happen In The Colonial Fleet
5. Slave Labour
Dirty Hands was Battlestar Galactica's most 'socialist' episode during its run, insofar as it explored the idea of each member of the human race doing his or her part for the betterment for all. While there is nothing whatsoever wrong with that idea, the way that it is enforced straddles the line of the soviet approach to socialism i.e. do your job, or else.
This is best depicted by one young man who is forced to work on a tilium refinery, purely because he worked for one summer on a farm during the school holidays. He is clearly under-qualified to work in what is essentially a factory, something which is later vindicated when he almost loses an arm thanks to faulty machinery.
The episode marks a turning point for Chief Tyrol, who begins to see the conditions that the rest of the fleet are facing day in, day out. He even goes so far as to listen to Gaius Baltar, who is undergoing something of a crisis of identity - but asks the valid question:
Do you ever think this fleet will be commanded by someone who's name isn't Adama?
Though the episode has a relatively happy ending, it is a stark example of how far humanity had fallen.