Category: Battlestar Galactica (New Series)

The Colonial Fleet arrives at Earth – the constellations match, the planet and its sun are where Starbuck’s signal said it would be. And the planet itself is a charred cinder, a haven of life laid to waste by nuclear weapons over 2,000 years ago.

For many in the fleet, including President Roslin, all hope is lost – this is the last straw. Many shirk their duties and others, like Dualla, simply commit suicide. As morale plummets, even Admiral Adama finds his resolve, and his will to live, faltering. President Roslin stops seeking treatment for her cancer and can face neither the Quorum nor the press. Lee finds himself having to step up to the plate to address everyone’s fears in their darkest hour…but even he can’t imagine how he, or anyone else, can hold the fleet together now. On Earth, Starbuck makes a very disturbing discovery: the wreckage of her old Viper, complete with a charred skeleton in the cockpit, wearing her dogtags.

The Cylons make startling finds of their own; the entire planet is littered with the skeletal remains of the race that once lived there – the 13th tribe of the Colonies – but the skeletons aren’t Colonials: they’re Cylon. Tyrol, Anders and Tory discover that they have memories of lives on Earth, thousands of years ago. Tigh discovers repressed memories too – and with them, he discovers the identity of the last of the final five.

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

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Lucy Lawless (D’anna Biers), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Brad Drybrough (Hoshi), Jennifer Halley (Seelix), Don Thompson (SP3 Anthony Figurski), Alexandra Thomas (Hera), Sonja Bennett (SP3 Margie Brasko)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The fleet tries to recover from the blow of both the discovery of a barren Earth and the heavy emotional toll, with the hunt beginning anew for a habitable planet for both Colonials and Cylons. The rebel Cylons demand full citizenship in the fleet, offering their technology – namely much more powerful FTL drives – in exchange. But some aren’t keen on the idea of the Cylons gaining citizenship and a seat on the quorum, and Tom Zarek is among them. Since President Roslin has gone into hiding following the Earth debacle, Zarek is effectively running the government, and sees no reason to grant the Cylons’ wish. When the tyllium mining ship – which carries the fuel supply for every ship in the fleet – tries to break off from the rest of the fleet, Admiral Adama orders his crew to board the ship and force the Cylon tech upgrades, while Zarek tells the ship’s crew to run for it. Adama, unconcerned that his actions might look like a military coup of the government, has Zarek arrested; the tyllium ship is found and boarded. Even below decks, the peace is tenuous – Baltar’s sermons have become rambles, demanding that God explain what has happened, while Tyrol makes a discovery about his son that rocks him to his core.

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

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Brad Drybrough (Hoshi)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Having thrown his lot in with Tom Zarek, Gaeta assembles a team of Galactica crew members whose discontent with what Zarek calls the “Roslin/Adama administration” has reached a boiling point; they smuggle Zarek out of Galactica’s brig and off the ship. Gaeta’s position in CIC allows him to cover for Zarek’s departure until the vice president is once again safely ensconced aboard Colonial One. But as the hub of communications between CIC and the rest of the fleet, Gaeta is also able to squash Lee’s demands to know how Zarek returned to power, and Starbuck’s warning that the armory has been broken into. Marines loyal to Zarek and Gaeta take over CIC, escorting Adama and Tigh away and putting Gaeta in command of Galactica. Lee returns to Galactica and is promptly abducted by Gaeta’s forces, but only Starbuck – and her utter lack of remorse on the issue of putting rounds through people she has served with for years – saves him. Their first task after that is to find Roslin and rush her to safety – namely, Baltar’s religious enclave, where she hopes to use his radio in the absence of Galactica’s own communications systems. Tigh and Adama prove to be quite adept at getting themselves out of trouble, and they’re already armed and free by the time Lee and Starbuck find them. Roslin’s message to the fleet is enough to confuse the issue of who’s in charge and buy time for her escape. But a few other members of the crew stay behind to cover Roslin’s (and Baltar’s) escape, and retake the ship – and Adama and Tigh are among those who refuse to give up without a fight.

written by Mark Verheiden
directed by John Dahl
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Sebastian Spence (Narcho), Brad Drybrough (Hoshi), Jennifer Halley (Seelix)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

With Tigh and Adama captured, Zarek arrives on Galactica and finds himself at odds with Gaeta, who insists on a token trial for Adama before putting the admiral in front of a firing squad. Zarek just wants Adama executed, and when he sees the quorum squabbling over the trial, he has his loyalists walk into their chambers on Colonial One and kill them all. Lee and Starbuck, having remained on Galactica, break into the brig and release the Cylon prisoners, but Lee is alarmed to find that his father isn’t among them. During the escape, Anders is shot in the back of the head, but barely survives. Roslin broadcasts to the fleet again from aboard the Cylon baseship, trying to reassure everyone that Galactica’s new “commander” has seized control illegally – just as Tom Zarek has done with the presidency. It’s enough to sow more confusion – and disagreement with the new order. But in response, Zarek lies that Tigh and Adama have already been executed, and that’s enough for Roslin to declare all-out war on Galactica.

written by Michael Angeli
directed by Wayne Rose
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), Mark Sheppard (Romo Lampkin), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Sebastian Spence (Narcho), Brad Drybrough (Hoshi)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

In 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

Repairs 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

Despite 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

Admiral 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

Caprica 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