ATHENA
Skyler thank heavens youre all right .
SKYLER
Ive got to go back for Zac. Its an ambush they jammed our communicators. You tell Commander Adama there were no base ships. Hell understand what Im saying.
ATHENA
Skyler .
SKYLER
Athena, just listen and tell Adama that its more than just an attack. The Cylon base ships are missing. That means theyre up to something diabolical. Now Ive got to go back for Zac. (he turns and starts to leave)
ATHENA
You dont have to go back. (Skyler turns back. His tone is positive but his expression uncertain)
SKYLER
You mean hes all right. One of the other ships picked him up! (tears begin running down Athenas cheek)
ATHENA
No . (Skyler stares at Athena emotionlessly, then turns away as she cries)
SKYLER
I guess I can give my report to Adama myself.
ATHENA
Your report is that all you can say? Zacs dead.
SKYLER
Well probably all be dead, soon.
What a cheerful guy! Richard Hatch
has stated that when he was originally approached to play the Apollo role he refused
because the character was inhuman. This script more than adequately corroborates his
account.
The section dealing with the battle and
escape from the Colonies is substantially like what was shot, though the plotline about
Adamas despair and threat to resign was a later development, and in the Council
scene dealing with the decision to go to Carillon, Anton and Uris lines are all
spoken by Anton and several of what became Apollos lines are given to Adama (dealt
with elsewhere). An interesting lost Baltar scene follows
this:
(two Cylon centurions enter Imperious Leaders chamber with Baltar between them)
CENTURION
By your command.
IMPERIOUS LEADER
The people of Cylon wish to offer you an opportunity to serve, Baltar.
BALTAR
To serve ?
IL
It appears that a small band of refugee humans eluded the Alliance.
BALTAR
I tried to forewarn you . (the centurions hurl him to the floor)
IL
I offer you life, and you question my judgment. Dangerous .
BALTAR
Kill me.
IL
Let him rise. (Baltar does so) I sense a bargain.
BALTAR
We bargained before and it left me a dead man. This time I will have my reward before I serve you.
IL
The entire Alliance serves me. Why do I need you?
BALTAR
Why do you spare me? Because you fear man. You do not understand him. When your forces had taken and put the entire nation of Tucana into slavery, man was there to break the chains. When you chose to dominate the people of Gaelon, man was there to make the Galics strong, to help them seek their own destiny. The Cylon is content to serve man is born to lead. But I can succeed, where you have failed.
IL
What is your bargain?
BALTAR
When I find the survivors of the Colonies they are mine.
IL
And how do you propose to protect this bargain?
BALTAR
There are those who will follow me. Away from your influence, away from your interests.
IL
All the stars interest me.
BALTAR
You can have no reign on tyranny there is room for all.
IL
You appear as a man but you think like a Cylon.
BALTAR
The better to serve you, while serving myself.
Much more interesting, in my view,
then the tacked-on Imperious Leader changes his mind and spares Baltar because ABC
wont let us whack his head off version we eventually ended up with. In this
version of the premiere, Starbuck shoots Baltar dead in the casino.
The order of scenes is mixed in this
version, compared to the one were used to; the decision has already been made to go
to Carillon, but the above Baltar scene is followed by the (somewhat changed)
Apollo-meets-Boxey scene. After that, we have this lost scene on board the livery ship as
Apollo goes on a search for a daggit:
STARBUCK
I dont think I can help you, Skyler. Other than fixing the landing servos on this livery machine, the only thing I know about livestock, which includes daggits, is that weve run out of food to feed them. Let me show you. (they enter a stall where there are two unicorns, one lying on its side)
SKYLER
How long has he been like that?
STARBUCK
He collapsed last night just after I was brought on board. You know unicorns are very monogamous. His ladys in foal they think hes been letting her have his share of the food ration. If we could have stopped at Borallus . (Skyler turns and storms away)
SKYLER
We couldnt stop. The Cylons would have been there, waiting.
STARBUCK
Well, when these animals are gone, theyre gone. Well just have to accept the fact that generations will grow up without ever having seen a unicorn, or a tagon, or a .
SKYLER
There wouldnt be any generations of anything if wed stopped. I would have made the same decision as my father.
STARBUCK
OK, OK its just rough to have to watch them slip away, one at a time .
SKYLER
Ill tell you whats rough. Weve got a little boy in the same condition. Are you sure no one brought any daggits along someplace in this whole fleet?
STARBUCK
No, were both out of luck. I already checked.
SKYLER
Both out of luck? You checked for daggits? Why?
STARBUCK
Daggit racing.
SKYLER
What?!
STARBUCK
Whats one of the most awful things that can happen to people on a long voyage?
SKYLER
They die!
STARBUCK
Not that awful Im talking about things to do for excitement.
SKYLER
Fifty million Cylons chasing us all over the stars, our ships are falling apart, theres nothing to eat, and youre worried about excitement?!
STARBUCK
Well, when you put it like that anyway, I got the idea before it began to look like we werent going to make it at all.
SKYLER
We are going to make it. The animals too.
STARBUCK
Tell him. (theyve arrived at a droid whose front is open, exposing its workings. There are tools in front of the machine, suggesting that Starbuck has been working on it) Hows it going this morning, Zeus?
ZEUS
Not well all species receiving inadequate food supplements to survive the voyage to the planet Carillon.
STARBUCK
Youre wrong, Zeus. Commander Adama has just decided to take a chance through the Nova of Madagon. Thatll cut two centons off the journey.
ZEUS
The Nova of Madagon is mined by the Alliance the percentile risk of successfully traversing the strait makes it statistically impossible.
STARBUCK
Is that right.
ZEUS
Yes, thats right.
STARBUCK
Thank you.
ZEUS
Thank you.
STARBUCK
Thank you.
ZEUS
Thank you. (Starbuck shakes his head)
STARBUCK
Idiot .
ZEUS
I beg your pardon? (Skyler reacts)
SKYLER
Starbuck thats the answer! Youve saved a life.
STARBUCK
What?
SKYLER
Never mind thanks. I owe you one. (he hustles out. Starbuck stares after him)
STARBUCK
Malnutrition its getting to everyone.
That scene has such a wacky charm to
it that it should have been retained; Starbuck the not-quite nature lover scouring the
fleet for racing daggits is all too in character. We also learn here that if nothing else,
Colonial robots would have been polite.
In spite of these lost scenes, the
different order of others, and an entirely different Carillon sequence, its obvious
that this early scriptjust two drafts removed from the first draftis so
similar in its overall outline to what ended up on film that Larsons ideas were
formed very early and in spite of George Lucas protestations really arent very
much like Star Wars except for superficial details like the (later deleted)
presence of Colonial droids. Sire Uri and Cassiopiea were added later; only in later
scripts did Serina (still Lyra in this draft) become Boxeys mother. Adamas
resignation and Serinas sickness were also late developments. With those largely
edited out of the final cut, what survives is very like this early, and so not quite lost
version of the Battlestar Galactica premiere.
Ó 1992, 1999 by Susan J. Paxton
Originally published in ANOMALY 19