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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

No Exit

Battlestar GalacticaIn the wake of the Zarek/Gaeta mutiny, the first priority aboard Galactica is trying to patch up the scores of wounded – and preparing to bury the scores of the dead. Among the wounded is Sam Anders, shot in the back of the head during his own jailbreak; when he recovers from his surgery, he asks Starbuck to summon his fellow members of the final five: he has had a vision and remembers everything. President Roslin has pieces of her own to pick up, as she appoints Lee the new vice president, charging him with the formation of a new Quorum and advising him that he’ll have to do much of the work in keeping the government together now. Sam’s visions, as he relates them to the other Cylons, involve life on Earth (and the end of it), and even further back: ancient Cylon history, a power struggle between the Cylons’ creator (the woman that Tigh knew as his wife, Ellen) and a dissident who wanted to return the Cylons to their mechanical nature (Brother Cavel). When she resurrected aboard a Cylon ship after her execution on New Caprica, Ellen was virtually held prisoner by Cavel, until he needed her knowledge of resurrection after the Colonial destruction of the Cylons’ resurrection hub…at which point, Cavel decided to skip any kind of negotiation or interrogation, opting instead to kill Ellen and retrieve the knowledge from her brain. Before Sam can remember much more, though, Doc Cottle insists that the bullet should be removed from his brain, and over the objections of the other Cylons, Starbuck readily agrees. Sam is given until the moment the anesthesia takes hold in the operating room to continue relating his visions. And at the same time, Tyrol has bad news for Admiral Adama: after the years of fighting, rushed repair jobs, and corners that were cut back when the keel was first laid for the ship, Galactica is nearing the end of her time as a spaceworthy vessel.

written by Ryan Mottesheard
directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Dean Stockwell (Cavel), John Hodgman (Dr. Gerard), Kerry Norton (Nurse Layne Ishay), Darcy Laurie (Deklind)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

Deadlock

Battlestar GalacticaRepairs begin on Galactica, using the Cylon material to shore up the weakening superstructure. When Baltar returns to his followers, he finds that his position among his own cult has weakened; a woman named Paula has seized control in his absence and is advocating using more violent means to ensure their survival. The chaos that followed in the wake of the discovery of Earth and the subsequent mutiny has left Baltar’s faction in a delicate position, and while he advocates using their food supplies to help others, he finds that the use of force may not be such a bad idea.

Boomer returns to Galactica after a long absence, bringing the resurrected Ellen Tigh with her; for her trouble, Boomer is thrown into the brig, while Ellen is reunited with her husband…only to be enraged when she discovers that he’s expecting a child by one of the Sixes, the first biological child born to Cylon parents. Ellen begins to sow dissent among the final five and the other Cylons: with Six’s child, Hera is no longer the only remaining hope for the Cylons’ future without resurrection. Ellen believes that the Cylons should leave the fleet – despite Sam’s prophetic warning not to – to move Six’s child to a safe environment. The lone holdout is Tigh himself; Ellen uses the moment of dissent to convince Six that Tigh’s love for serving alongside Adama is greater than his love for any woman, and Six collapses. Doc Cottle confirms that Six will miscarry…leaving Ellen and the rest of the Cylons no choice but to remain with the humans, counting on Hera for their very survival.

No one realizes it yet, but the other faction of Cylons is counting on the very same thing.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Robert Young
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Roark Crichtlow (Pianist)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

Someone To Watch Over Me

Battlestar GalacticaDespite the ongoing the Cylon repairs, Tyrol’s prognosis for Galactica is grim – at most, the ship has five jumps left before her back breaks. A Six is welcomed as the first Cylon representative to the Quorum, but she shocks Lee by making it clear that her first act is to request the extradition of Boomer, who will be tried and executed for turning against the rest of her model in the Cylon civil war. Tyrol goes to visit her in the brig, where she introduces him to a Cylon form of mental projection, allowing them to visit the dream home that they were never built together. But what Tyrol doesn’t realize is that Boomer’s mission wasn’t just to return Ellen Tigh to Galactica; that was the distraction. Her true mission was to kidnap Hera – and with Tyrol’s unwitting assistance, she’s about to succeed.

written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
directed by Michael Nankin
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Brad Drybrough (Hoshi), Roark Crichtlow (Pianist)

Notes: The piece of music that Starbuck accuses the pianist of “stealing” is indeed borrowed – from original Battlestar Galactica composer Stu Phillips. The piece is actually called “Exploration” and opened early episodes of the classic series under a narration asking “What if life here began out there?”

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

Islanded In A Stream Of Stars

Battlestar GalacticaAdmiral Adama quietly authorizes a one-off recon mission to search for a Cylon colony – the last great Cylon stronghold – where Ellen believes Hera has been taken. As the only surviving child of a Cylon, and the only true Cylon-human hybrid, she is the key to both races’ survival. With Boomer’s explosive exit and the repairs proceeding anything but smoothly, Galactica is falling apart, with power outages and other random failures taking their toll. The Quorum is already busying itself dividing up Galactica’s remaining viable equipment, over Lee’s objections that no such dismantling has been authorized. Starbuck goes to Baltar, asking him to trade his messianic fervor for his old life as a scientist: she wants him to analyze the dried blood on the dog tags she found on the body of the long-dead Viper pilot on Earth. What she doesn’t expect is for Baltar to announce his findings at the funeral for those lost in the recent repair accident: the tags were indeed Starbuck’s, and they were removed from the dead body of Starbuck…and is the woman who walks among the crew of Galactica still Starbuck? As the ship herself continues to fall apart at the seams, Admiral Adama decides that the time has indeed come to dismantle Galactica to ensure the survival of the rest of the fleet.

written by Michael Taylor
directed by Edward James Olmos
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavel), Brad Drybrough (Hoshi)

Notes: Instead of dog tags, shouldn’t members of the Colonial military be wearing daggit tags?

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

Daybreak – Part One

Battlestar GalacticaCaprica City, before the fall: As Dr. Gaius Baltar falls under the spell of an enticing blond woman who seems to want nothing more than a quick tour of Caprica’s defense mainframe, Bill Adama angles for a sensitive government job whose interview process will include a strenuous test of his loyalties – something that, after his illustrious military career, he finds more than just offensive. Laura Roslin celebrates her sister’s impending motherhood, and later goes numb when her entire family is ripped away from her in a tragic accident.

Now: With Galactica’s dismantling underway, Admiral Adama decides that the ship should fly one last mission – into the heart of Cylon territory to rescue Hera. With some hints gleaned from Sam Anders’ hybrid-like ramblings, a recon mission finds the elusive Cylon colony, but it’s sitting in a very precarious position near a black hole: Galactica may be able to jump in, but the strain of jumping out again may be more than the ship can bear. Raptors might be able to jump out, but it’s likely a one-way trip for Galactica; Adamas asks volunteers for the mission to step forward for Galactica’s final flight.

written by Ronald D. Moore
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Rick Worthy (Simon), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Kerry Norton (Nurse Ishay), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavel)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

Daybreak – Part Two

Battlestar GalacticaCaprica City, before the fall: Saul and Ellen Tigh drink to Bill Adama’s impending career move, but during the intense interview – bordering on an interrogation – Adama decides he’d rather be back in uniform, fading into obscurity performing ceremonial duties aboard a museum piece of a battlestar that will never see action again…

Now: Instructed to stay with the fleet to provide medical care, Doc Cottle issues Roslin with enough drugs to keep her up and moving for the mission to save Hera. Surprisingly, Baltar finally joins the mission as well. Their orders are simple: Galactica will jump into the heart of the Cylon stronghold, and Sam will communicate with the colony’s hybrid, convincing it to bring the automatic defenses’ assault on Galactica to a halt. Adama rams Galactica right down the Cylons’ throats, causing massive damage to both vessels – and giving the combined Colonial/rebel Cylon forces a perfect entrance to the colony. But even when a remorseful Boomer hands Hera back over to her parents, the fight isn’t over: Brother Cavel and his forces raid Galactica, and just when it seems Hera is safe and sound, he grabs the child and threatens to kill her unless the secret of resurrection is restored to the Cylons. This requires a group-mind link among the final five, during which all will be revealed, something which makes Tory nervous. During the link, her murder of Cally is revealed to Tyrol, who breaks the link to exact revenge. Deciding that he’s been tricked, Cavel orders his forces to open fire again, and he himself dies in the ensuing bloodbath. A stray raptor, its pilot dying, accidentally fires nukes into the heart of the Cylon colony; with Hera safely aboard, Galactica jumps away from the imminent cataclysm, on a heading for nearly-random coordinates that Starbuck has derived from musical notes written down by Hera.

But it proves to be the ship’s last jump: returning to normal space is the straw that literally breaks Galactica’s back. The battlestar will never jump again. Galactica has arrived near a habitable planet, and summons the rest of the fleet to follow. On this planet, primitive humanoids – genetically combatible with Colonials and Cylons alike – are thriving. But rather than introduce technology and concepts – and trouble – to advance the natives, Lee has a better idea: the survivors of the fleet should abandon their technology and go native, learning to live off the land anew. The Cylon centurions are dispatched in their base ship to find freedom, though no one can say with any certainty that they won’t return to this planet and wipe out the rest of the Colonials. On the ground, the crew begin making plans for a new, simpler life…but will their progeny learn from their mistakes, or repeat them?

written by Ronald D. Moore
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Rick Worthy (Simon), Mark Sheppard (Romo Lampkin), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Kerry Norton (Nurse Ishay), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavel), Brad Drybrough (Hoshi)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 4

The Plan

Battlestar GalacticaAfter placing copies of their human models in strategic positions around the twelve colonies, the Cylons put their plan to overthrow their human creators into action. The colonies are wiped out almost completely, though a few of the human Cylon models who were expected to die and resurrect aboard the Cylons’ ships survive the holocaust. Those Cylons are trapped by humans, but also living as humans, some of them with no awareness of their true nature. Brother Cavil, who has taken control of the Cylon agenda in the absence of the Cylon known to the humans as Ellen Tigh, is furious that any of the colonials escaped and sets out to destroy them any way he can. From all-out frontal attacks, ambushes to guerilla warfare from within the colonial ranks, Cavil will settle for nothing less than the total, permanent extinction of humanity. He’s frustrated when he notices that some of his fellow Cylon operatives are faltering, failing to complete sabotage and assassination assignments that they are given, and failing to show the ferocity of Cavil’s absolute conviction that humanity must be wiped out. He doesn’t realize, until too late, that he has only succeeded in planting the seeds of his own people’s extinction.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Edward James Olmos
music by Bear McCreary
additional music by Aaron Roethe and Brandon Roberts

Cast: Edward James Olmos (Commander Adama), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavil), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Grace Park (Sharon “Boomer” Valerii), Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Rick Worthy (Simon), Lymari Nadal (Giana), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Alisen Down (Jean Barolay), Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (Hybrid), Alonso Oyarzun (Specialist Socinus), Colin Corrigan (Marine Alan Nowart), Diego Diablo Del Mar (Hilard), Bruce Dawson (Coach), Lawrence Hagert (Wheeler), Tommy Europe (Rally), Maya Washington (Sue-Shaun), Luvia Petersen (Kai), Richard Yearwood (Marine), Alex Ferris (Boy), Gina Vultaggio (Jemmy)

Battlestar GalacticaNotes: Many of the scenes which, technically, take place during earlier episodes (and even the pilot miniseries) were reshot at least in part for this movie; a good rule of thumb for spotting clips from earlier episodes is that the reused material features actors not specifically credited above, such as Jamie Bamber and Lucy Lawless. The Plan revisits, and expands upon, events from the miniseries, 33, Water, Litmus, Kobol’s Last Gleaming Part 2, Resistance, The Farm, and Lay Down Your Burdens Parts 1 and 2. The premiere date for this movie indicates the release date of the unrated DVD version; a shortened, edited broadcast edition would air in 2010.

LogBook entry by Earl Green