The Original Battle Star Galactica Commentary

8/6/2019 The Original Battle Star Galactica Commentary

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The Original Battlestar Galactica: A Geeks WTF? Analysis of aCult Favorite

By Matt Butcher

***Picture from Episode 10*****

There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans

who may have been the forefathers of theEgyptians, or theToltecs, or theMayans. That they may havebeen the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations ofLemuriaorAtlantis. Some believe thatthere may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens...

So say the opening lines of the 1970s BattlestarGalacticatelevision series.

I was a bit young when these first came out (five!). I remember watching them but having no realunderstanding of depth of plot--just space shoot-em-ups with cool robots. Star Warswas the hottest thingin the universe and everyone with a television studio was trying to capture the hype of space shows. StarTrekbecame revitalized because of the hype and came out with the first of, what, nine movies now. Thinkof it in today's terms of all the comic book movies coming out.

So it was cool to see these Colonial Vipers in a resemblance of X-Wing Fighters. Cylons looked like

different kinds of Stormtroopers. There were similarities but there were also differences. The biggestbeing the fact that they were fleeing to Earth. Earth is a dream.

The basic concept of BattlestarGalacticais pretty cool, cool enough for the spectacularly perfectrevitalization on the SciFi Channel 25 years later. However, as I watch these original 1970s episodes, allavailable for free onNBC.com, I remember why I didn't like the bloody show in the first place.

It stinks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toltechttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toltechttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toltechttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria_%28continent%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria_%28continent%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria_%28continent%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantishttp://www.nbc.com/http://www.nbc.com/http://www.nbc.com/http://bp3.blogger.com/_3KK8G4X5N7A/SI99aIHmSvI/AAAAAAAABV4/ndl7T3cfilo/s1600-h/bsg+ep+10.jpghttp://www.nbc.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria_%28continent%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toltechttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt


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It was 25 years too early. There are parts of me that think it was necessary to engage in this show for thebetterment of science fiction on TV, and parts of me that think it just wasn't handled right.

It is sort of like watching the 1970s Spider-Man movies and then watching the new Spider-Man. Theywanted to do stuff but just couldn't.

That's one of the reasons I waited so long to watch the new show. I waited until DVD, got it through myNetflix account. I was worried, I really was, that it would be a cheesy remake of the 1970s show. But itwasn't. It was one hundred times better, and that first Battlestar Galacticamini-series remains some ofthe best science fiction I have ever watched.

So I have gone through every episode on NBC.com and have gathered my thoughts on the show.Pointless, I know, but I am a geek that likes doing this crap.

Matt Butcher

Mjb0123.blogspot.com

Summer 2008


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Episode 1: "Battlestar Galactica--Part One"

Even the opening music sounds like Star Wars. It's good theme music though. It still actually has goodspace effects that stand up today. Those ships are pretty cool, all of them. Then the episode starts...

Do they ever really explain who the Cylons are, or are they just an alien race? (Not until episode 2.) Whydo they hate the humans? In the light of retrospective history, this episode has nothingon the firstepisode and mini-series of the new show. I remember my jaw dropping with awe when I saw the newshow. Not here. I distinctly had the feeling that they were taking the annihilation of the Twelve Coloniesquite well. There was no "utter devastation" and hopelessness that should have been there. The onlything it seemed to have is that kind of Empire Strikes Backfeeling of being beaten. Although, it still did notseem hopeless.

Apollo and his brother Zack (played by Rick Springfield) go out to fly by the Cylon convoy for a peaceconference. It was kind of fun to watch Rick Springfield get blown up! Apollo also has a sister, Athena, inthis show.

Starbuck, a male Starbuck by the way, feels the worse of anyone but is still tying to make a play for love

on Athena. All during an utter holocaust.

Baltar is so different on this old show than on the new show. The new show is definitely a change for thebetter, whether you think the new Baltar is whiny or not on the new show.

All in all, it seemed to be an episode that focused on cool effects over story. Flashiness over substance.And that is exactly what it lacks--a heart. Sure, it is cool to see the Colonial Vipers take off but there isreally no concentration of the effect that this devastation plays on its characters.


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Episode 2: "Battlestar Galactica--Part Two"

The continuation of episode one. The Ray Milland character Yuri as a hoarder was quite cool. That playswell into some of the best new BG episodes on the black market and such.

Now the real differences, apart from Baltar, take shape. The Council of Twelve is said to be still active,Yuri being one of them. The Laura Roslin--Secretary of Education now President--character is not thereat all. Adama seems to have complete control.

I still have a soft spot for that stupid robotic dog character, Muffet the Daggit. I remember having a figureof him as a kid.

Now it gets...strange. As the Galacticais fleeing, they come to a SPACE DISCO! I kid you not. The entirehuman race gets wiped out and the people left alive are hanging out in a space disco and gambling in thecasino. It's a planet called Carillon, inhabited by some insect people. And a really strange woman/manalien with two faces. This was the obligatory CANTINA scene knockoff from Star Wars. Bad space musicand aliens drinking. And it has that classic feeling of "too good to be true."

Interestingly, in a side conversation with that kid Boxy, Apollo talks about the Cylon origins.

Apollo: [Cylons] are machines created by living creatures a long, long time ago.

Boxy: Who created them?

Apollo: We didn't. Another race did called the Cylons.

He goes on to say that the organic form of the Cylons was dying off. They created the robotic Cylons inhuman form because of the apparent perfection of the human form. Makes you wonder what the originalCylons looked like. Still never answers the question of why they hate humans. They just do. Remind meone day to talk about this compared to the Matrixmovie.


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Episode 3: "Battlestar Galactica--Part Three"

Part three of the three-part opener. They are still having the time of their lives in a space disco. ColonelTigh says, "The people are having the time of their lives." On another note, this Colonel Tigh is extremelyone-dimensional compared to the foibles of the drinking Colonel Tigh of the new series. Will they evergive this Tigh a personality? Substance? (The answer is no, because they completely removed hischaracter as being superfluous when they go to create the Galactica 1980TV series.)

Cylons are already part of the Carillon planet. They are going to finish the humans in one stroke. Apolloand Starbuck accidentallyfind the food chambers that the insect people are putting the humans into,and accidentallystart a chain reaction with the made-up combustible substance they are mining in theplanet. They escape. The planet explodes. The Cylon Base-Star blows up with it.

And I have to ask--this is the first storyline?? This is a story that had to be told? No, it wasn't. It wassimply a way for the writers and producers to get their series into space so that they can explore, like StarTrek, a new world each week, fly some Vipers and blow up some Cylons. I see that now and I don't carewhat anybody else says about it. That was the plan.


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Episode 4: "Lost Planet of the Gods--Part One"

Apollo is going to marry Serina (played by Jane Seymour), the mother of Boxy. Again--they are worriedabout marriage on the second storyline, the fourth episode, after the utter annihilation of mankind?

There is a void in space. No light or stars penetrate. I was extremely curious because I remember thisfrom an episode of Star Trek: Voyagerand I looked it up. Sure enough, it is a real phenomenon.

Boomer and Jolly, two fighter pilots, contract a disease out on patrol and then skip decontamination to goto the bachelor party! The entire regiment of fighter pilots gets infected. The doctor says they have to goback to the Cylon-infested planet to find out what it is. So they recruit women pilots.
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12546-biggest-void-in-space-is-1-billion-light-years-across.htmlhttp://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12546-biggest-void-in-space-is-1-billion-light-years-across.htmlhttp://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12546-biggest-void-in-space-is-1-billion-light-years-across.htmlhttp://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12546-biggest-void-in-space-is-1-billion-light-years-across.html


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Episode 5: "Lost Planet of the Gods--Part Two"

This episode is amazingly sexist about the fact that women will be flying the Colonial Vipers. Part of thetime, I guess.

Starbuck disobeys orders right and left, somewhat like the new Starbuck. Then Starbuck gets capturedand brought to Baltar's Base-Star. He has been given one to hunt down the remaining humans. SoStarbuck disappears for a while. The rest of Galacticadon't know that he is captured. So Apollo andSerina get married in the very next scene!Boy, they sure can put tragedy behind them.

At the end of the void, they find the planet Kobol, the mother world of all humans, where life began, saysAdama. And it has pyramids!

They go down to find clues to Earth in the temples. Baltar goes to the temple to try to trap Adama.Fighting happens. Baltar gets trapped in the collapsing temple. The Adamas try to save Baltar but theyleave him when it gets really hairy. Serina gets shot by a Cylon and dies! I was actually beginning towonder why Jane Seymour was only listed as a "special guest star."

I don't know how Baltar escapes but I would think that the Cylons, if they stayed to research this planet,

could find out a hell of a lot of stuff about Earth. Also, the bloody planet Kobol wasn't all that fricking faraway, now was it????


8/37

Episode 6: "The Lost Warrior"

Apollo while out on patrol is attacked and manages to escape to a planet called Equellus. Then it getsstrange. It turns into a space-western. Here is where it specifically turns into a "What's on this planet?"type of show.

Uh, first of all, why is there a planet with people here? Is it a colony or not? Is it not part of the TwelveColonies?

Old Red Eye is a malfunctioning Cylon controlled by Boss Laserta in town, playing an enforcer takingtribute from people. Could TV seriously not get away from the Western concept, complete with gunfights?(Digressing, the TV show for The Planet of the Apesalso seemed to do a lot of old-West type of junk.)

Apollo basically sacrifices one man so as not to blow his own cover. There's a classic quick draw gunfightbecause Apollo as the only laser gun on the planet that can take out Old Red Eye (why, oh friggin why,doesn't Apollo sneak up on the damn thing?). It's honor, I guess.

Interestingly, Apollo at one point talks to a boy about killing, saying, "I pray to God that it's something we

won't have to do again." God, not the Lords of Kobol.

And then the fleet moves on, just leaving this planet and its people. I...if the Cylons are exterminating allhumans, and they are following the Galactica, wouldn't that leave them in danger? I don't understand...

This was more of a Doctor Whoor a Star Trekepisode transposed into the BGuniverse. Substitute anyrobot for the Cylon and you could literally have any science fiction series.

And I also have to say while watching this episode that I am so glad that the new show doesn't do thatCENTONS and YARNS time measurements anymore. That is bloody annoying!


9/37

Episode 7: "The Long Patrol"

The Galacticais leaving its galaxy, its star system, they say. I honestly don't think they had any idea whatthose terms meant! Or the distances involved.

There is still no feeling that the entire human race has been extinguished. That must be the case becausethey find another planetof humans. Planet Crodin.

Starbuck's new patrol ship has a talking computer named C.O.R.A. that has a personality. She can runthe ship on her own so I'm wondering what the hell Starbuck has to be there for at all! She is like KnightRider's K.I.T.T. for a Battlestar GalacticaColonial Viper. I'm also sitting here wondering--just a coupleepisodes ago, they were worried about women flying the Vipers. If they had even half of the self-operatingintelligence of C.O.R.A. anyonecould fly the damn things.

Starbuck meets a smuggler and says he is from the "Sirinus Galaxy" but he may have been lying becausehe called himself a privateer. Long story short--Starbuck ends up at Proteus Prison where the inmates areimprisoned for crimes that their ancestors committed. Apparently, this is a penal asteroid that madeambrosia wine form the Colonies, ostentatiously forgotten about many, many years ago.

The obligatory Cylon attack of like three ships is repulsed. I swear, they just throw in a couple Cylons toblow up, making the Cylons seem really really stupid.

There is a brief mention at the end of the people on the asteroid joining the Galactica. Not much else ismade of it.


10/37

Episode 8: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero--Part One"

It's Guns of Navaronein space!

The Galacticaare being herded into a certain sector of space. On one side are Cylon fighters. On theother side is some big pulsar cannon that shoots ships in space.

Two Vipers get destroyed by the cannon. Another crashes on the surface, a Cadet Cree. It's an iceplanet, long before Hoth in Empire Strikes Back.

And I am sitting here thinking that this is space, three-dimensional space! You can go anywhere! You cango aroundthe obstacles. It is not like the idea of the gun in Guns ofNavarone. There, it is a sea channelthat you can't get around during World War II. That makes sense. No, here they get together a cracksquadron of prisoners and criminalsto take out the gun. And I can't help but thinking, "Why don't youfricking go around it??" Even the best gun cannot shoot belowthe horizon if you come at the planet fromthe opposite side or something.

Muffet and Boxy stowaway on board the shuttle going down to the planet. After they crash, they findyet anothercolony of people on the surface, this one some colony of clones that I think we will find out

more about in the second half of the two-parter.

(Digressing, I am watching this on NBC.com and the commercial is that of a Dove hair care ad. Look, Iknow Starbuck's hair is feathered and lethal but shouldn't they do a little better with their targeting ofads?)


11/37

Episode 9: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero--Part Two"

I watch the counter at the bottom of the screen--it took 5:45 of a 48:47 episode just to show the openingcredits and the recap of the previous episode.

The clones are Theta class lifeforms and the Cylons consider them "subhuman."

Baltar is literally just walking in circles on the BaseStar for no apparent reason. Why do megalomaniacspace so much? Don't they have anything to do?

Dr. Ravashaw doesn't know his Theta clones are breeding. So he decides to help Apollo blow up the gun(a project of his that was being misused by the Cylons).

It was cool when one of the criminals, Thane, was captured by the Cylons and made them set off a bombto destroy himself and a couple of Cylons.

All in all though, the criminals were much more of a hindrance than a help. Utterly stupid. They had noserious expertise that was utilized. I can see that they were actually used as cannon fodder by the writersso the big name good guys don't get killed. Quite action packed ending, really.


12/37

Episode 10: "The Magnificent Warriors"

As you can tell by the title, this one is the BSG ripoff of the movie The Magnificent Seven(which I guessitself was a ripoff of a Kurosawa movie).

It starts with a pitched space battle with no idea what's going on. Apparently an attack to take out theAgro-ships. Cylons took out 2 of the 3. Now they need new seed to feed the fleet. And they just happenedacross yet another small human settlement to trade with.

In retrospect, wouldn't these Cylons be destroying all these human settlements afterthe Galacticaleaves? Aren't Adama and company actually doing the work for the Cylons?

In order to get seeds, they need an Energizer to trade with, and only a woman named Bellaby has one.She makes Adama promise to "court her" for the Energizer. Yeah, the entire human race is running fromthe Cylons and they are worried about dates. Even Adama's reticence to dating her is stupid--do anythingyou have to, it's not like she was a lizard or something.

See here, this is where I just don't understand this original BSG--the settlement knowsabout Colonialmoney. Yet the BSG knows nothing about this settlement. The sheriff's badge that Starbuck is forced to

take reads in "the ancient tongue of those who first colonized this planet." What?? Then one of the guyssays, "I'm honored to be in the presence of Warriors from the Colonies." How does a backwardssettlement know more than the BSG?

They have to save Bellaby from the pig-like creatures known as the Borays and somehow fix it so thereare no more raids--they make the Boray chief the new constable. After killing and raiding, the humansaccept this? Idiotic. Borays didn't even speak English.


13/37

Episode 11: "The Young Lords"

While on patrol, Starbuck is shot down. He is forced to land on a strange planet. This is already a patternon this show and this is only flipping episode 11.

Of course, Cylons are on this planet in full force. After crash landing, Starbuck is captured by the Cylons.A tribe of kids riding unicorns rescue Starbuck--no, I ain't kidding.

Colonel Tigh says, "The Cylons have penetrated more deeply than we imagined." Yet, this colony knowsall about the Galacticaagain! They say they learned it from the Cylons. Starbuck actually mentions takingthem back to the Galactica.

The leader of the kids wants to trade Starbuck for their father. The Cylons, of course, renege of the deal,but so do the kids. Starbuck creates a rescue plan by creating and chanting nursery rhymes. The kidsfree the father in a nice little plan; however, I'm not really sure about only one girl lobbing bombs at theCylons on the bridge.

Ha! The Cylon leader on the planet named Spectre, an IL-series like Lucifer, reports to Baltar that theyare all rusting on this planet. Baltar says they can leave after all the humans are exterminated. Spectre

interprets that to mean NOW so he packs everybody up and leaves, without another shot. The humansnow have their planet back.

The father says, "Our ancestors originally migrated here from the Colonies." Boomer and Apollo rescueStarbuck and go back to the Galacticawithout the little family.


14/37

Episode 12: "The Living Legend--Part One"

The Battlestar Pegasus! The irascible Commander Cain is played by Lloyd Bridges.

While on patrol, Starbuck and Apollo encounter a patrol from the Pegasus. "That's impossible! We're theonly ones left alive in the entire star system!"

Starbuck says the Pegasuswas destroyed two years ago in the Battle of Molocade with the Fifth Fleet.Starbuck and Apollo are taken aboard to meet Cain.

Meanwhile, the Galacticaand the fleet are running out of fuel. We learn eventually that Cain turned hisship out to deep space after the Battle of Molocade and has been running raids and sorties on Cylonbases. Wouldn't he have to report? Is he renegade like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now?

The Delphinian Empire?? The Cylons control an old Colonial fuel base, the most remote in the Colonies,named Gamore. Another inconsistency in that they have said before that nobody has been out this far.

Cain wants to attack--Adama wants to escape. Cain is apparently subordinate to Adama in this originalseries (she's an admiral in the new show).

Cassiopeia, one of Starbuck's girlfriends, finally has a small part to play in the show--she is apparently theold love of Cain. (Digress: That's actually interesting--what does a person do when their love whodisappears in war comes back years later?) Cain's daughter Sheba doesn't like her father's cradle-robbing.

Cain leads a couple of squadrons in a raid to take two Cylon tankers. Then he blows up the tankers,saying he was shooting at Cylons. This is so Adama is now forced to attack the Cylon base like Cainwants.

(Sidebar: They are always talking about "getting out of the quadrant." Aren't there only four quadrants?Quadrant of what?)

Adama decides to distribute the fuel from Pegasusto escape the quadrant. Cain vehemently objects andAdama relieves him, putting Tigh in command of the Pegasus. This can't bode well...

Baltar is prepping another strike on the Galacticaat Gamore. He is overconfident yet again. You'd thinkafter previous defeats, he would use everything at his disposal, more Cylons than are necessary, just tocrush them. But no, like a classic two-dimensional bad guy, he doesn't. And we all know he is going to getsurprised by the new Battlestar. This is Baltar from "Living Legend":
http://bp3.blogger.com/_3KK8G4X5N7A/SJdfnzfnpdI/AAAAAAAABYI/fDf1gJB4Rs8/s1600-h/Batar+on+Living+Legend.jpg


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The Pegasuscrew sort of mutiny from Adama's orders to support Cain. Guns are drawn but luckily theimpending Cylon force makes them fast friends again.

How the hell does the Pegasus"go around" without being detected by the Cylons? Throughout this show,we are constantly shown a graphic of incoming ships, all clearly marked, and I know Cylon tech is good.Yet, the Pegasuscan "go around" in this episode when back in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" goingaround wasn't an option. I tell ya...


16/37

This is the IL-series Cylon named Lucifer:
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj262/matthewbutcher2/bglucifer.jpg


17/37

Episode 13: "The Living Legend--Part Two"

Just because I can tally this watching it through NBC.com, the opening credits and music last for awhopping 1:37, then the update on what happened last episode lasted until 4:29.

The Cylons, with Baltar in that weird headgear, retreat when they see the Pegasus. I still want to knowhow the hell they weren't seen "coming around." How did they sneak up?

Prepping an offensive attack on the old Colonial fuel outpost known as Gamoray, now a Cylon city, hasAdama and Cain argue a bit. Cain says, "As you know, Cylons have no independent initiative. Theircontrol circuits are always centralized." So what, are they like Star Trek's Borg? And does this really makesense with the episodes we have seen so far? What about the IL-series (those Lucifer look-alikes)?

They all figure Cain is planning something crazy. So the Galacticaground force has Cassiopeia join as amed-tech with Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer, Sheba (Cains daughter), and another dude from Pegasus,Bojay. The ground force parachutes into the city--how the truck did they get in close enough?? They takeout the communications depot, I guess they do. Just a lot of explosions. Sheba, showing a lot of stealth,shouts loudly, "Bojay! Bojay!" when he is hit by fire.

The Cylon Imperious Leader is now on Gamoray. This robot is neverfully seen on the series as they were supposedly not happy with how it turned out. From one source, DickDurock, who later becomes Swamp Thing for that horrible USA Network early-90s TV show, is in thecostume. He is voiced by the dude who later plays Count Iblis.

Hilariously, from a cheesy standpoint, one of the IL-series Cylons sings, "Uh-oh!" when the munitionsbunker explodes.

And I just love how duringthe mission, Cassiopeia finds a few moments to talk to Starbuck about Cainand kisses him.

Apollo hears that Cain is going to attack Baltar's forces head-on. It's actually pretty exciting at times.Two BaseStars get blown up. The Pegasusis lost--not blown up per se, they just don't know where it is.Then the episode ends.

What the hell happened to Cain's attack on the third BaseStar? What??
http://bp2.blogger.com/_3KK8G4X5N7A/SJiVgyRB8OI/AAAAAAAABYY/dTdswDO-b30/s1600-h/200px-ImperiousLeader.jpg


18/37

Episode 14: "Fire in Space"

It's got a regular opening because, hey! it's a one-part episode! Imagine that. The regular opening takes2:40. I guess it can be seen as sort of introducing you to space for the episode, but since each opening isthe same...

This one is actually a cool concept, although it fails horribly in execution. Two Cylons get past defensesand kamikaze into the Galactica. Now the ship is a burning wreck in space. So the crew all have to workon putting out the fires and saving people. Commander Adama, for one, has some "fragment lodged inthe wall of his heart" that the doctor has to operate on. One group is closed off and suffocating.

Now, that part is good, but this is also where it immediately went wrong.

According to the radar-thing, the Cylons are dishing up an all-out assault, with multiple BaseStars. Cool,they got through and hurt the Galactica. Now I couldn't help but wonder why the Cylons called off theattack. Why didn't they press the attack? Why did they break off at all? To be honest, it seems that theCylons completely wasted this kamikaze attack. This is apparently a completely devastating move as thisepisode shows. They should have either pressed the attack, or sat back and watched, or launchedanother one and then pressed another attack once they knew how well it could work. Imagine afterwatching this episode that the Cylons did this like two, three, or more days in a row. Bye

bye Galactica. They should have been done for. The writers could still have had this episode work justfine if they had the warriors keep fighting in space, devastating a BaseStar or two with some heroism, andthe people on the Galacticarescuing themselves at the same time. Just seemed a complete waste ofopportunity. This is another one of those episodes where it seemed they couldn't handle their own ideas.Now compare this episode with the new series episode 1 entitled"33" from immediately after the fantasticmini-series. You will see how Cylons can press the attack and never let up. Yet, the humans can win withdedication."33"showcases, in my opinion, the best that the new series of Battlestar Galacticahas tooffer.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/33http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/33http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/33http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/33http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/33http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/33http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/33http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/33


19/37

Episode 15 & 16: "War of the Gods--Part One" and "War of the Gods--Part Two"

Now this is where the casual viewer probably stopped watching back in the late 1970s. This is just eitherweird or way ahead of its time.

Four Vipers while out on patrolcome across strange moving lights in space and disappear.

Apollo and Starbuck finish playing that weird space game called Triad (a cross of basketball andracquetball, it looks like) and then they go out to look for the missing ships on a planet that they just cameacross.

On the planet, they see the wreckage of a spaceship and meet a mystery man named Count Iblis(pronounced ib'-lee). He offers to help them on their quest for Earth. "My knowledge of the universe isinfinite!" They take him back to Galactica.

Iblis knows a heck of a lot and seems to have strange powers, can offer and do just about anything,including increase the food supply. He says he has enemies that are worse than the Cylons. He knows allabout Earth and the Thirteenth Colony and will lead them there if they put him in charge. "I've come toprepare your way to Earth." They think at first he might be an android or something.

The moving lights come to the Galactica. Colonel Tigh says, "They must be travelling at speeds beyondour comprehension."

We find Iblis has telekinesis, saying he is further advanced than humans. He has now miraculouslyincreased the food supply. He promises to deliver their enemy Baltar to the Galactica. Then, Baltar callsAdama to come aboard the Galacticain peace. End of Part One.

(Sidebar: Kirk Alyn, who played Superman in the 1948 and 1950 Supermanmove serials, the firstSuperman in film, gets one or two lines of dialogue and gets credited as "Old Man.")

In Part Two, Baltar is immediately arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Life in prison? Only life inprison? After genocidal treason against his own people?

Baltar then has an interesting conversation with Iblis in prison, saying he has heard Iblis' voice before.

Iblis: Sit, old friend.

Baltar: I know you. I remember that voice.

Iblis: Do you?

Baltar: The voice of the Cylon Imperious Leader.

Iblis: But the Cylon's a machine.

Baltar: Yes. Now. But once they were a race of beings who allowed themselves to be overcome by theirown technology.

Iblis: And when did this happen?

Baltar: A thousand yahrens ago, at the onset of the Thousand Yahren War against the humans.

Iblis: Then for my voice to be the voice of the Imperious Leader, it would've had to have been transcribedinto machine leader a thousand yahrens ago. I'd have to be a thousand yahrens old.


20/37

So I am befuddled by that conversation. That's word for word, as I kept pausing it and writing it down.Based on what we find out at the end...Well, let's let that go at the end. I did have to research quickly thatterm "yahren." According to theBattlestar Wiki, it is roughly what we call a year. But some fans, includingRichard Hatch who plays Apollo cites a yahren as being about 250 days, which coincides with whatAdama says later in this episode about mankind having a lifespan of 200 yahren, or if you do the math(250*200)/365=roughly 136.9 years.

So then they go play Triad! Who the hell designed thoseTriad uniforms anyway. (Triad becomes a cardgame in the new series--although there is a similar game that the female Starbuck plays called "Pyramid"which is a card game in the original series.) Iblis wants to swing the win for the always-losing Boomer, justto show his influence. Boomer wins. They celebrate at another space disco and dance with ropes.

Iblis threatens Apollo and Adama. Adama specifically asks Iblis if he isn't "afraid of God." Ummm, Ithought they had the gods, like the Greek pantheon? It's complicated, and even fans don't know thewhole truth.

The strange lights come back, and even though eight ships have been lost chasing those things, they goahead and launch another squadron. And now Boomer disappears, apparently encompassed by astrange alien ship. I still have no reason after this entire storyline why these Beings of Light took these

pilots--and no explanation is ever given.

Adama showcases his own telekinesis, saying he used to bend spoons a long time ago and did someexperiments for some telekinetic institute. He says that this power is in all mankind, but man doesn't livelong enough to learn how to do it. "Our life expectancy is about 200 yahrens." They think Iblis is an angel,one of the Beings of Light. Apollo, Starbuck, and Sheba go back to investigate the crash site--finally goand investigate it. Iblis goes after them.

Apollo surmises that Iblis is the Prince of Darkness. Apollo is killed by a bolt of energy meant for Sheba.

Iblis disappears after revealing his true image, afraid of an altercation with the Beings of Light.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Yahrenhttp://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Yahrenhttp://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Yahrenhttp://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Triad_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Triad_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Triad_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Twelve_Colonies_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Twelve_Colonies_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Twelve_Colonies_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Twelve_Colonies_%28TOS%29http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3KK8G4X5N7A/SJxVMFj1H3I/AAAAAAAABZQ/gEVBbQEkIv0/s1600-h/iblis+1.jpghttp://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Twelve_Colonies_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Twelve_Colonies_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Triad_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Yahren


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They are taken aboard the ship of the Beings of Light. The Beings say it is another dimension. WhenStarbuck asks if they're dead and if the Beings are angels, the Beings say, "Oddly enough, that issomewhat true." Apollo is resuscitated by the Beings, apparently for being a good soul. There is crypticand wacky talk by the Beings, who cannot interfere with free choice.

Apollo, Starbuck, Sheba, and the eight missing pilots including Boomer are returned to the Galacticawithmemory loss of the incidents aboard the ship of the Beings of Light. However, the episode ends with them"knowing" the directional information to get to Earth.

I sort of liked this episode. Just some weird stuff to get past. Supposedly, fans of the new show surmisethat the Cylon God seen so far is the Iblis character.

So now I have to ask about that conversation with Iblis and Baltar. The "old friend" is probably justbecause Baltar fell into evil. But that whole voice thing--are they saying that the Cylons are agents of thePrince of Darkness? If it is his voice, did he create them or did his followers create them?
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Apollo from "Greetings from Earth--Part Two."

Episode 17: "The Man With Nine Lives"

Adama is using the coordinates and directions given by the Beings of Light to make the way to Earth.Adama mentions "following the trail" left by the 13th Colony on their way to Earth. I guess that kind ofsolves my problem of what all these humans are doing on all these different planets all over the place.However, now aren't there many more such "colonies"?

Starbuck is interviewed for a TV show to recruit new pilots. He is an orphan, his parents supposedly killedduring a Cylon raid on Umbra on Caprica when he was a baby. There's an old con man amongst the fleetwho decides to take advantage of that and "become" Starbuck's father. His name is Chameleon--butpronounced SHA-me-le-on. Amazing how all the information he has is exactly just what Starbuck did inhis interview and he never wonders, but I guess he wants to believe.

Of course, everyone is going gambling and dancing! I know they need some R&R but...The dancing is inskin tight jumpsuits with some kind of triangular hula hoop.

The Borellians, who are amongst the survivors, have come on a "blood trail" for the con man. The bestway to describe Borellians is to compare them to Star Trek Klingons.

Starbuck is using a late 70s calculator to compute the odds of the Pyramid card game, right out on thetable. WTF?

The Borellians answer the TV commercial in order to chase down the con man on the Galactica.

Funny how the crew on board the Galacticaare running tests on Starbuck's paternity not by DNA but bycomparing brain cells. That's 1979 for you! DNA wasn't being compared yet, was it?
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Starbuck acts like a little bitch when he fights with Apollo about not believing in his "father." He actuallyeven plans on resigning his commission to be with his "father."

Chameleon (SHAmeleon) is running from the Borellians because he posed as Jackal Captain Dmitri--I'vegot no idea if the Jackal is just a curse or the name of a ship. They fight the Borellians and beat 'em. Of

course. Then we find that Chameleon really is Starbuck's father! He makes Cassiopeia lie so Starbuckdoesn't give everything up.

Actually, this wasn't a bad episode, but only if you are invested in the characters already.


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Episode 18: "Murder on the Rising Star"

Adama mentions that they will observe Earth before just landing and scaring the hell out of Earth. Forthese last couple of episodes, Adama is speaking into his microphone as a sort of Captain's Log, and wewatch the words come up on the screen sort of like Doogie Howser.

Starbuck and Apollo are in some kind of Triad tournaments on the Rising Star. That's that game that's across between basketball and racquetball. It is much more physical than we saw before, with punchesand elbows. Starbuck and Ortega fight and get kicked out of the game. (Apollo tells Starbuck, "Go take aturbo-wash and cool off." Don't you just love it when they make a new name for common things? Turbo-wash = shower.) Ortega winds up shot to death in the locker room. Starbuck is seen running away fromthe scene, nervous. Adama wants Starbuck's laser gun checked. The laser has been fired. They run alaser ballistics check and prove that Starbuck's gun killed Ortega. (Although, the test measured the laserpower the body took and how much Starbuck's full laser gun expended. I just wonder if that's accurate onabsorption and wouldn't a laser gun fire the same amount every time? Maybe I am just looking forsomething to pick apart--it's not like there's a laser science or that I know anything about it, but I justdoubt the "laser absorption" that we were meant to buy.) Starbuck is arrested.

Apollo and Boomer get a lead on some dude named Charybdis. Starbuck makes a jailbreak but Apollotalks him out of running.

Charybdis is some other guy named Proteus, Baltar's pilot and electronics expert, the man responsible forsabotaging the defense computers on Caprica. He is supposedly dead. How the hell do they know ofProteus? How would they know he was dead? I guess they may have coerced some info out of Baltar inthe brig.

So Apollo questions Baltar in the brig. They get another lead back to a gambling table on the Rising Star.The dealer is the same guy who found Ortega's body. We find out that his real name is Rifkis. He bribedhis way onto the Rising Starwhen it was escaped from the devastation on Caprica, taking some child'splace. Ortega was the bribe-taker. There were also two others who bribed themselves on board and nowOrtega was blackmailing them. One of them is secretly Charybdis. (One of them is Ferris Bueller's father!)I wish here that there was more on this. It's a sad and evil little story on the hearts of men. Almost likethey didn't really want to dive into that story because they were afraid of upsetting viewers. But that wouldbe cool to concentrate on.

Apollo plays Baltar against Charydis. There's a confession, of course, listened to at Starbuck's trial.Starbuck is let off. Question #1--How the hell does Apollo get Baltar, public enemy #1 for genocidaltreason, remember, out of the brig? Even if he says it is for the trial, even on Apollo's word, there is no

way he would be alone on a shuttle with him.

It's not a bad episode really. The new BSG could really give this a refresher.


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Episode 19 & 20: "Greetings from Earth--Part One" and "Greetings from Earth--Part Two"

Another Captain's Log entry from Adama reveals that they are "looking for signs that we are getting close"to Earth. I wonder how the plan for the series changed when they show was getting cancelled. After thistwo-parter, there are only four episodes left. That's just the part of me that wonders at creative changesdue to ratings, and remember thatwriter's strike earlier this year, 2008, that supposedly changed the plotof the TV show Heroes, filming alternate endings in case of strike? I wonder if that affected BattlestarGalactica?

While out on a long range patrol, Starbuck and Apollo discover a sub-light ship with a family of humans insuspended animation. The whole Colonial fleet gets excited. Why didn't they get very excited at all thoseother human settlements? But they are hoping it is their "first contact with an Earth vehicle." Again,another monotheistic reference when the doctor says, "By the grace of God" when they go aboard theship.

Athena --when was the last time we saw this character? No wonder she was considered superfluous lateron--is running a school. Even her part here seems like something thrown in just to use her and Apollo'sstep-son character, Boxy. No daggit either.

When the crew discuss the new ship and Athena mentions they've encountered other humans, Boomer

says, "Not since we've left range of our home planets...Everyone we've encountered up to now, everycolony or outpost, are drifters or pioneers who set out from our home planets, terms, dress, technology allfamiliar to us." He goes on to mention that these settlements, if they are from the people who were to bethe Thirteenth Colony, were left behind, and never made it to Earth. This ship is supposedly an alientechnology to the Colonial Fleet. (In previous episodes, they mentioned leaving their "range" of their homeplanets long ago and then still meeting humans...They specifically mentioned back in the seventhepisode, "The Lost Warrior," that they were leaving its galaxy, its star system, they say. But then that alsodoesn't make sense with the Gamoray outpost in "The Living Legend." But then again, like in Star Trek,maybe this is not intended to undergo all this scrutiny that I am putting it under.)

While they are all fighting about what to do with the people in suspended animation, they woke up on theirown. Michael, newly awoken, stuns a Galacticapolice officer named Reese when he tries to come

aboard. Michael is all disoriented and we discover that there is an incompatibility with the atmosphericpressure.

Adama decides to put the Earth-ship back on its original course to find the planet that they must be goingto.

Michael asks if Apollo and company are part of the Eastern Alliance. He says his race isoriginally fromTerra (Earth) but his family was born on Lunar 7. "That's where we were escaping from."

They take off and the end of the episode shows Adama mentioning that they have been gone for a secton(week) already. We find the Earth-ship is heading for a planet called Paradeen.

I must say, at the end of Part One here, I am quite invested in this show now. I'm extremely intrigued

about them finding Earth.

Part Two begins. (Sidebar: I find it interesting that characters and their actors who didnt actually appearin part one, just part of the previews for about a second (micron!), are still given billing in the credits inpart one.)
http://mjb0123.blogspot.com/search?q=Heroes+strikehttp://mjb0123.blogspot.com/search?q=Heroes+strikehttp://mjb0123.blogspot.com/search?q=Heroes+strike


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They find the planet Paradeen. It's a Terran colony. There's not much left, just farmers, and the city thatthey do find is abandoned.

There are two androids, Vector and Hector, that take them to Sarah's father's ranch. Her father has died.These two androids are like two C-3POs, with Ray "The Scarecrow" Bolger playing one of them. Theydiscover that the atmospheric pressure difference will never allow the four children to go back to Earth.Then there is a really weird song and dance from the androids, reminiscent of the "best" from the StarWars Holiday Special--remember that fiasco? (except the cool Boba Fett cartoon).

Anyway, we also discover that the Earth was made up of many nations but became the Eastern Allianceversus the Western Alliance. The war continues and the East is apparently the evil one, destroying Westterritories and outposts and known to kill children, all in the name of war. The Eastern Alliance is anoppressive government. Michael tells Apollo to "forget about Terra." The Eastern Alliance even looks likeNazis. Here is a picture of the leader of the Eastern Alliance ship and one of its operators:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3KK8G4X5N7A/SKGlBfDoIsI/AAAAAAAABZw/jnZzcKLNGHw/s1600-h/eastern+alliance+leader.jpghttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3KK8G4X5N7A/SKGlBnKeGQI/AAAAAAAABaA/keclozsv8XE/s1600-h/hector+and+vector.jpg


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What tends to get lost a bit in this episode is that they have found proof of Earth.

Sarah has fallen for Apollo and Cassiopeia has fallen for Michael. Blah blah. Apollo and Vector meet afamily of farmers, the Morlans. Someone has sabotaged the Vipers beyond repair. Starbuck winds up lostin the city archives, so they go after him. (This is a rather stupid error on Starbuck's part.) We find Sarahis the one who sabotaged the Vipers so Apollo would stay. Yeah, that's the basis for a strong, lovingrelationship.

The Eastern Alliance ship has landed near Sarah's farm and takes her prisoner. Apollo and the restrescue Starbuck and then go to rescue Sarah. They do. Sarah all of a sudden falls in love with Michael--even for a woman, that's fickle. The Eastern Alliance commander says, "We are the most advancedmilitary force in the galaxy." But they don't know about the Galactica. Apollo and Starbuck take thecaptured Eastern Alliance ship back to the Galacticaand the Alliance people are awed at the size of it.

Then it ends, but I can't wait to see what happens next. They have proof of Earth, but they have broughtaboard the bad guys.
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Episode 21: "Baltar's Escape"

Captain's Log: The Fleet is buzzing about the oppressive Eastern Alliance. Have they traded to Cylons foranother bad guy? Adama does not want to release the prisoners from the Alliance because he does notwant a rehash of the Cylon "peace" mission that went horribly wrong.

Adama, Apollo, and Starbuck go to interrogate the prisoners. The Alliance Commandant says, "We are atwar with the Nationalists...people who want to change the natural order."

Baltar on the prison barge joins the Borellians in a jailbreak to get on the shuttle that is due to take theAlliance prisoners to the Galactica. The Borellians can fake death.

The Council of Twelve wants to give Adama the Star of Kobol, but he refuses because he knows it is justto take away military control, something he does not think is wise in their present situation. The Councildoes it anyway, taking away martial law. One of the Council, Siress Tinia, is to be Adama's civilian aide.

(Sidebar: a toilet is known as a turbo-flush.)

This Siress Tinia ends up directing Adama's decisions completely, almost taking away any securityprocedures. She thinks it is time for the diplomats to take over. It's exactly like the Cylon "peace" thoughthey didn't even need Baltar to lead them astray this time.

The bad guys capture the Council waiting to speak to them. Apollo and Starbuck prevent the bad guysfrom taking the bridge of the Galactica. Now it's a hostage situation.

Part of Baltar's demands is the release of the two Cylon pilots who flew him to the Galactica.Unfortunately, the scientist Dr. Wilker has dismantled them as he was experimenting on them. So thereally interesting question this poses is whether or not these Cylons have any kind of sentience in themthen. Were they killed? Are they just robots gone astray?

Now Siress Tinia says, "Commander, I am not stupid" when she finally goes along with a military assault.You just wanted to slap her.

Baltar agrees to give them another [hour] to put the Cylons together if they take Adama as anotherhostage. Tinia says she is going too. Apollo changes Adama's planned attack because the Cylon pilotsare rigged. They can't put them back together well enough and everything they touch gets destroyed.

Baltar is captured. They let the Alliance ship go in order to track them back to Luna 7. Adama gets quitecozy with Siress Tinia.

Now, even after all this, Baltar is still not executed? Genocidal treason, jailbreak, and a hostage situationinvolving most of the members of the Council of Twelve. Boy, are they lenient.

According to theBattlestar Wiki page I like:
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Baltar%27s_Escape_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Baltar%27s_Escape_%28TOS%29http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Baltar%27s_Escape_%28TOS%29


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At the end of the show, Baltar is again captured, and the Eastern Allianceprisoners flee aboard they['re] [sic] vessel, with the Borellian Nomen along for the ride.The ultimate fate of the escapees is never dealt with, however. The episode endswith the capture of Baltar and although Blue Squadron, and Boomer in particular,

pursue the Eastern Alliance cruiser back to Lunar 7 during the course of thenext episode, Experiment in Terra, this plot detail is lost amidst the drama ofthe intervention at Terra, and we never learn what happens to the Alliancevillains or the Nomen.


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Episode 22: "Experiment in Terra"

Now we come to the QuantumLeapepisode. I don't know if anybody noticed this before--this is myindependent conclusion but this must have been noticed by somebody before (I edited the Battlestar Wikipage on this). One of the writers and producers of Battlestar Galacticais also the creator of QuantumLeap, one Donald P. Bellisario. The situation is just way too coincidental.

This horrible episode of BSG was also even made into a longer movie-of-the-week. OMG, is all I have tosay. If this is the episode of BSG that they made into a longer movie, they had no idea what they weredoing.

First of all, it amazes me how they are still giving acting credits to people who aren't even in the show anymore. There's no Boxy or Athena and they get "Also Starring" credit. Jolly, that fat pilot who is barely inthe entire frakking series, is in it for all of ten seconds.

Captain's Log: Galacticais chasing the Eastern Alliance ship back to its base. And that's the last we hearof this ship. I guess it tucks its tail between its legs, yet never calls home base to tell them of their

imprisonment or the remarkable Battlestar that is on its way, following them. Don't even try to tell me theydon't know the Galacticais following them.

Apollo's Viper is immediately abducted by the ship of the Beings of Light in order to meet some dude

named John.

"You have got to help [Terra]," John says. "You must do your best to stop a war." He says he has nophysical body. He says he is Apollo's "brother" but from many generations in the future. "What happens tothe people on Terra can affect us as well as you and your people." John is going to put Apollo on Terra inthe persona of a soldier named Colonel Charlie Watts who has gone missing in action. He's "a bit of a

scoundrel," John says. The real soldier is held captive on Luna One. This is supposedly because Apollodoes not have time to gain their confidence as Apollo. What the hell kind of plot is this? This is wherethe Quantum Leapshit starts.

Starbuck goes to help Apollo when his ship comes back. And poor Boomer! Always left behind Apollo andStarbuck to mind the store.
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Apollo lands on Earth and is now Charlie Watts. He's almost run over by a car driven by his girlfriend, agirl named Brenda. She received a phone call to meet him out there--I guess John placed that call. Shetakes Apollo to her apartment and this should have been my first clue as to the ending because I couldnot tell if they were being all 1970s futuristic or not. You simply cannot tell the year or decade from thedecor of the buildings. There is a video-phone and everything is all white and clean.

John appears again, just like Al in Quantum Leap. Nobody can see him but Apollo. John says his senseof humor is necessary in "working with primitive cultures." Brenda calls the military police to take Apolloaway. A forcefield on the jailcell is another indication of advanced culture.

We see the President of the Western Alliance, some ponce in high boots,

that knows all about Charlie Watts being "tucked away" on Luna One. He is trying to make a peace treatywith the Eastern Alliance. Indeed, he is fighting the Precedium for such a treaty. I guess, when all is saidand done, you have to think of this President as Poland making a non-aggression treaty with Germany.He says he is trying to avoid "an abyss which will end all civilization on this planet."

Starbuck finds Apollo's Viper on Terra. He is then found by the People's Nationalist Force. He stuns allnine of them and blows up their vehicle.

Brenda's father has been on a secret mission for the Precedium, saying that the President has been lying.Watts would be the only proof of the President's deception. He and Brenda are then captured.

Apollo tries to convince everyone he isn't Watts. So why the bloody cover or disguise in the first place? Itwould have been simpler if he just tried to prove who he really was.

John appears now to Starbuck. "I am not allowed to interfere in any way." Even though it sure looks to melike he is interfering. Then he talks to the sky, presumably the other Beings of Light, saying, "It's the best Ican do with the material I've got. They're primitives!"

Starbuck rescues everyone. The father says, "You mean that crazy story you told us was true?" Whichwould be easier to believe: a man saying he is from another planet or a man that you know very well
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saying he is really a man from another planet underneath the looks of a man you know? Wacko. Starbucksays the Vipers are enough "to prove we're from another galaxy."

The Eastern Alliance, I can't tell if they're Nazis or from the Death Star briefing room, is readying its finalstrike. The Precedium doesn't believe in the holocaust on the Luna Bases.

Brenda takes Starbuck back to his ship to contact Galactica. Hopefully, the Galacticacan save them all.

Apollo, even introduced as Apollo and not Watts, gives a little speech to the Precedium. He tells themabout the Twelve Colonies. Wouldn't he be considered an utter wack-job right now? The Eastern Alliancelaunches its nuclear attack. The Western Alliance automatically launches its counter attack.The Galacticafinally arrives in orbit.

So how does the Eastern Alliance think it's going to win anything, when John tells Starbuck that 4/5 of theplanet will be destroyed? Did Apollo actually fail to prevent the bombs from going off in the first place?

Galacticatakes out all the missiles with less than 30 seconds to spare. It's a shield of some kind andlooks like what Reagan probably conceived of as Star Wars during his Presidency. I swear, Reagan musthave been influenced by this episode. The Eastern Alliance caves.

Apollo thanks the Lords of Kobol, yet five seconds later, John tells Apollo it was good to put "the fear ofGod" into them. Apollo disappears.

Apollo asks John, "Is this Earth?"

John answers, "This is not Earth and this is not the end of your journey."

So it's yet another colony of humans?? Presumably, this one is an offshoot from Earth and not the TwelveColonies. And there's part of me that wonders if one of the reasons we have not seen any Cylons recentlyis that they are letting the Galacticafind all of these human colonies and then coming up after them todestroy them all.

Question: Why the hell does what happen on this fake Terra in any way affect the people ofthe Galactica?

Question: What exactly did Apollo and Starbuck do on the surface of the planet? Nothing. TheGalacticadid everything from space. They didn't even need to be on the surface of the planet in any way,shape, or form. You could argue that Apollo gave that little speech on peace, but remember, he was

supposed to be Charlie Watts, not Apollo. That speech didn't do anything anyway.

Now do you see what I mean by that Quantum Leapconnection? A man is put in the guise of a local tosolve a situation with the help of a "holographic" companion that only he can see or hear. This is thefirst Quantum Leap.

This is what Richard "Apollo" Hatch had to say about this episode in an official statement on

"Experiment in Terra"http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Experiment_in_Terra :
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Experiment_in_Terrahttp://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Experiment_in_Terrahttp://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Experiment_in_Terrahttp://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Experiment_in_Terra


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Richard Hatch discusses his "Starbuck"-esque role in this episode: RichardHatch: One of the biggest, well, kind of practical jokes was, there was anepisode written for Dirk [Benedict], and I got the episode and II was a littleupset. I felt they were, you know, knocking Captain Apollo. I felt they werereally pushing him aside and I said, I think its time that HE had a story, thatyou did something for this character rather than just letting him give ordersand go march around the ship. So he, Glen [Larson] said, youre right, we reallyshould, we need a story with Captain Apollo going down to HIS planet. So, abouttwo hours later, the script Id had, featuring Dirk, arrived at my house, and ithad beenthe two characters of Captain Apollo and Starbuck were simplyinterchanged, theyd put my name where Starbuck was and put Starbuck whereApollo was. And I immediately got into the car and was seeking out Dirk toapologize, because I simply had no idea, I thought, down the road, the nextstory, maybe a couple of stories later hed write one for Captain Apollo. Hedidnt do that, he just took the very story that had probably been in Dirkshands, hed been going what a wonderful script I have here! and two hourslater he gets a script where he was now Captain Apollo and Im Starbuck andliterally he has not changed any lines. In any case I was very embarrassed and Ifound him at a party and I explained the whole situation to him and how sorry I

was and he said, well, I understand, I just think you should go to Glen Larsonand ask him to reverse it, put it back the other way. So I tried to find GlenLarson, and I told him, I appreciate the gesture, but the next time will you bea little more subtle? Sometimes you want to expand your character, you want tobring in new dimensions to the character and they gave Captain Apollo the chanceto do a few things that he didnt normally do on that show because, as you allknow, Starbuck got to run around and have fun with the ladies and CaptainApollokind of had fun with himselfand from that time on they actually began tochange, not change the characters, but to give Starbuck a little bit of theCaptain Apollo quality and Captain Apollo a little bit of the Starbuckqualities, and they started to make the characters more well-rounded, and Iappreciated that.


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Episode 23: "Take the Celestra"

No Cylons again! When was the last time we say a Cylon? Way back in "Fire in Space" NINE episodesago. I don't count those two in "Baltar's Escape" because they were dismantled and hastily put backtogether, presumably dismantled again after Baltar's re-capture. Those don't count as they were nothreat. Nine episodes ago. I guess that kind of gives a bit of credibility to the suicide attacks of thatepisode being some kind of last ditch effort.

Captain's Log: Adama talks about the increasing number of inhabited planets they are discovering.

Starbuck sees a long-lost love, Aurora, when the Commander Kronus of the Celestrais being given anaward. She's pissy that Starbuck never looked for her.

Kronus has a list of accomplishments that would put him above Adama, but he retired and only becameactive again after the Cylon decimation when they needed people. He even remarks that Adama wasonce his aide.

Starbuck wants to patch things up with Aurora, even though Apollo tells him to remember Cassiopeia.They both head for the Celestra. Cassiopeia must be a real stupid woman to let this go.

We find that Aurora is part of a rebel force on the Celestrathat mutinies against Kronus and his firstofficer Charka. The mutiny takes place, luckily with Apollo and Starbuck already on board. They stop themutiny. They put the prisoners on a shuttle for trial, with Kronus who must press charges, to go back tothe Galactica. It's all Mutiny Plan B by first officer Charka. Seems he is pissed when Kronus won't retire.He knew either the mutiny would succeed, deposing Kronus, or they would be captured and this shuttle-thing would happen. The shuttle is given directions to take it out into deep space so it will run out of fueland never make it back.

The shuttle is lost. There's a stupid little love triangle between Aurora, Starbuck, and Damon, one of themutineers. They find the Celestraby a very good guess. They land just as their fuel runs out. (As they tryto retake the Celestra, why do they bother getting out of the shuttle? They weren't seen boarding.Couldn't they just radio for help? I don't know.)

They retake the ship in a fun little gun battle. Charka kills Kronus saving the ship. Charka is imprisoned.

Cassiopeia goes back to that bastard Starbuck after he was chasing an ex-girlfriend. She says shedoesn't want to "own" him but she could at least stand up for herself. He's done this before with Athena,

remember? What a strong, modern woman.


35/37

Episode 24: "The Hand of God" The last episode of Battlestar Galactica.

Whether or not they wanted this to be their last episode, it is what it is. It may have been a forcedconclusion because the plug was pulled to give a hell of a series finale. This show must have beensomewhat successful enough to allow for a spin-off series, Galactica 1980, no matter how ill-conceived orill-perceived it was. That spin-off will only last ten episodes. But we'll get to that another time.

To me, this is all just a duplication of the Battle of Yavin (the first Death Star battle at the end of StarWars: A New Hope). You'll see.

Starbuck gets a cheap look up Cassiopeia's skirt as they and Apollo and Sheba climb to the highest pointof Galactica's interior to look at the stars. While there, we hear that Galacticalaunched over 500 yahrenago (that's about 342 years ago according to my calculations). They pick up a TV signal on an unusedgamma frequency of the Apollo moon landing, although they don't know what it is. Apollo says the ship"looked like something the Colonies flew a couple of thousand yahren ago." They have no idea how longthe signal has been floating through space.

Apollo, Starbuck, and Sheba go on patrol to search for the source of the transmission. Poor Boomer hasto stay behind to work on cleaning up the signal. They fly past planets as fast as I drive past lampposts,Jupiter, Mars, the Moon--then something comes out from behind the Moon--a Cylon BaseStar! Sheba willlater confirm that the BaseStar was "behind the third planet." The case could be made where this is justanother solar system though, I guess, but it sure looks like the Cylons found Earth first.

They run back to the fleet without being seen. Adama says, "I thought we'd lost them for good." Adamawants to make an all-out assault on the BaseStar. "I'm tired of running."

They prepare for the assault. Jolly gets one sentence of dialogue even though he still gets an "AlsoStarring" credit, talking about "If the commander is buying, I'm drinking!" That poor actor who playsthe Galacticaoperator Omega gets more dialogue and action and screen time than this fat bastard butdoes not get the billing. What the frak does Jolly do to warrant even a name?

Knowing that they still have Baltar's Cylon ship to help them with the sneak attack, Adama strikes a dealwith Baltar. Freedom for info. Adama will let him off on some habitable planet somewhere, all alone.

The romance ensues! Sheba and Apollo kiss. Cassiopeia and Starbuck kiss.

Apollo and Starbuck will pilot Baltar's Cylon ship inside the BaseStar to blow up the control center whileBoomer gets to lead the squadron in the attack.

Baltar briefs Apollo and Starbuck. His info that was so important that Adama would make a freedomexchange for? The control center is at the bottom of the central core with one guard--smash thosecomputers and the BaseStar is blinded. That's the important info? They could have beaten that out ofhim. They get aboard the BaseStar without incident. They infiltrate the central core, killing the one guard.They set the explosive charges. The squadron takes out the Cylon Raiders in a nice little space battle.The Galacticadestroys the BaseStar.


36/37

(Sidebar: It's amazing how at least two Viper pilots are blown to smithereens but there are no tears oreven mention of them--they are all worried about the return of Apollo and Starbuck.)

The end has Apollo and Starbuck back in the observation deck. They leave for the party without seeingthe new television signal of "The Eagle has landed" coming through. The case could be made, like SETI,that if you don't monitor signals you could miss it.


37/37

So that's the end. The end of a show that everyone knows about but lasted only one season and 24episodes.

There are so many questions that never got answered. Who were the Cylons? Why did they want theextermination of mankind? Who exactly were the Beings of Light and just WTF did they want? Did theyever find Earth? I guess we get a kind of answer to that last one in the horrible spin-off series Galactica1980, but as I have been reading, most BSG fans don't even consider that as part of their canon material.

The biggest question is why did the ideaof this show last? Admit it, everyone knew about this show, andremembered it. I honestly thought it was getting better as the season progressed. What if there had beenat least one more season--could it have taken off? Think of all the shows that really gather a fan base wellinto the second, third seasons. TV was at a point in 1979 where there was no SCI-FI Channel to save it. Iremember this show being successful enough to have an attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood that Iremember seeing when I was younger. Why did the idea attract enough devotion to ultimately inspire thenew re-imagined series? Thank goodness it did because the new series is one of the best shows ever.

Could this type of show be better as like a "movie of the month" than a TV show? Concentrate on, like, sixto ten "episodes" a year. Would this have fared better or worse under the current system of like 12episodes to a season? It would have sort of eliminated its budget problem, plus the creators couldconcentrate on better stories.

Well, at least they re-imagined it for us. Thank goodness for that. I just remember not giving the newshow a chance when it first came out because of all the horrible things that are said about this 1978show. I wonder how many other people skip it based on what they "remember" of the old show?

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The Original Battle Star Galactica Commentary

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