Battlestar Galactica Miniseries
Script by Ronald Moore Part 2
Reviewed by Susan J. Paxton
Part
Two of Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica miniseries script opens, not
unexpectedly, with a recap of the first night’s events, ending with Adama’s
belief that his son, Lee, has been killed when the ship he was on was the object
of a Cylon attack.
Meanwhile, back on the
transport, Lee, Laura Roslin, and the ship’s pilot are marveling over their
escape. Lee has utilized a technique he helped develop at the War College that
involves overloading the ship’s FTL drive to create an energy pulse with the
same kind of signature as a nuclear detonation. Although it had never worked in
simulations, it saved the transport and the liner it’s docked to from
destruction by the Cylons.
Sharon Valerii’s
Raptor, with its civilian escapees on board, is deploying a communications drone
in hopes of finding other ships to join up with. Baltar, crowded with other
survivors in a bay inside the ship, has another one of his visions of Number
Six.
The Galactica’s
old vipers, led by Kara Thrace, are still fending off waves of Cylon attacks. A
dogfight follows, and if Moore’s script instructions are followed, this should
be interesting to see; a series of very rapid cuts that emphasize the chaos and
confusion of the battle. One Cylon ship survives and breaks off to make an
attack run on the Galactica herself; Kara and the others set off in
pursuit but Adama, bestirring himself for the first time since the news of his
son’s apparent death, waves them off and prepares to defend the battlestar
himself. Since her weaponry is no longer operational with the loss of her weapon
coils, he has to improvise; as the Cylon lets off a spread of missiles, Adama
rotates the ship so her stern is facing the attack (and again Moore is to be
commended for making the ship maneuver as she actually would instead of the
airplane-like movements of the original) and lets loose a cloud of fuel that is
then ignited by one of the ship’s engines. The ensuing explosion destroys the
Cylon and the missiles. That done, Adama orders preparations for the Jump to
Ragnar to continue.
Sharon Valerii and her
passengers have rendezvoused with the President’s ship, and the still (and
always) unconvincingly brilliant Gaius Baltar is taken to meet with Roslin. The
two discuss the situation on Kobol; the Cylons are methodically nuking every
city on the planet (and I might repeat here what I have said elsewhere; this
kind of orderly slow-motion destruction is, if you want to destroy a planet and
everyone on it, a waste of time and resources; aiming a spaceship accelerated to
near-light speed at a planet will kill most of the life on it or, if you’re
willing to wait, a barrage of asteroids will do nicely as well. Evidently
writers of televised science fiction can’t figure this out for themselves), so
it is evident to both of them that if the human race is to continue, they must
gather all the survivors they can find and escape the system.
Running down their final
checklists, Galactica’s crew makes ready for the FTL jump, and then jumps to
Ragnar.
Ragnar proves to be a
gas giant like Jupiter, and in the eye of a giant swirling storm in the planet’s
atmosphere is the Ragnar anchorage, an enormous wheel-shaped space station that
spins to create gravity on board (oddly, the fact that the Colonials evidently
also have some kind of artificial gravity on board ships like the Galactica
is not addressed, nor is the fact that only some kind of artificial gravity
could keep the station itself in place in the planet’s atmosphere. Hmph). The Galactica
moves down into the storm to dock.
Kara Thrace, who has
learned of the deaths of many ground crewmen aboard the Galactica
including one of her own, and of the apparent death of Lee Adama, is in her
quarters praying. Fans who have suggested that Moore’s BG is some kind
of “liberal, amoralistic slop” evidently have passed right over this and
other scenes that show that Moore’s Colonials have the same kind of strong
religious beliefs as Larson’s, if a little less obviously based on LDS models.
In fact, on careful reading of the script, a number of the more hysterical
criticisms are based on the same kind of quick, angry overview that I originally
gave it (of which more later).
The docking with the
Ragnar space station proves a little dodgy, but when the Galactica
finally makes hard dock, a boarding party of ground crewmen, led by Chief Tyrol
(who we met in Part 1 as Sharon Valerii’s illicit lover) prepares to enter the
station. Once again, Moore has made a logical change. In Larson’s BG,
Adama or Apollo or Tigh would have led the boarding. Here, realistically, it’s
a bunch of enlisted types commanded by their NCO. As the airlock doors slide
open, the boarding party are, to their surprise, confronted by a man holding a
gun on them.
Act Two opens back at
the airlock, with the man, named Leoben, holding Chief Tyrol and the others at
bay. Leoben appears to be unbalanced at the very least; he wants an untraceable
ship out of the station and assurances that he won’t be arrested. For his
part, Tyrol can’t understand where this loony came from - the station was
supposed to be abandoned. He decides to bring in some help.
Adama arrives and
explains the situation to Leoben, who is shocked to learn of the destruction on
Kobol. He finally hands over his gun and permits the Colonials to enter the
Ragnar station. As Chief Tyrol and the others set off to get the weapon coils,
Leoben admits that he’d been on the station scavenging, and informs them that
the weapon coils are in the one of station’s loading bays.
Back aboard the
transport, Sharon Valerii is preparing her Raptor for a search mission,
“helped” by Boxey, who has more or less adopted her. Baltar, for his part,
is busying himself sorting through printouts and messages when he has another
one of his irritating visions of Number Six. The entire Baltar/Number Six/Cylon
theology plotline is certainly the weakest part of the script and each and every
scene never fails to grate. In the ensuing conversation, we learn that not only
has Number Six implanted a Cylon chip in Baltar’s head, thus explaining his
“visions,” but that the navigational software he wrote for the Fleet was
riddled with secret backdoors that permitted the Cylons to disable the ships
(Good God, does Baltar work for the Colonial equivalent of Microsoft?!). At this
point anyone with half a brain would shoot himself or fall on his sword or
whatever Moore’s Colonials do to off themselves honorably, but Baltar, as is
usual with him, fails to do the right thing.
In the loading bay of
the Ragnar station, Adama views with disapproval Leoben’s neatly stacked and
palletted booty, which is awaiting loading into his freighter. Chief Tyrol
informs Adama that Leoben has managed to so screw up the loading dock’s cranes
and equipment that he’ll have to bring equipment from the Galactica to
sort the mess out. As Adama and Leoben head for the airlock to leave, the
overhead crane, which is jammed and has a pallet dangling from it, suddenly
collapses.
Act Three commences with
Chief Tyrol and others digging through the wreckage in the loading bay searching
for Adama, who they believe has been buried under the collapsed crane. As they
discuss a strategy, the wall phone rings. To their relief, it turns out that
Adama and Leoben made it out the door before the collapse. Adama orders Tyrol
and the others to continue searching for the weapons coils while he and Leoben
make their way back into the bay by another route. As he hangs up, Adama turns
to Leoben, who is leaning against a bulkhead, looking unwell. Leoben informs the
commander that he’s been sick since he arrived at the station. Suddenly Adama
is suspicious of the man, and we see the hard look in his eyes as he follows
Leoben down the corridor.
On her search mission
for survivors, Sharon Valerii comes upon the refueling ship Tauranian.
For some reason, Moore has retained the “tylium fuel” of the original, which
always struck me as one of the more scientifically illogical facets of the
series (why keep this and lose the mythology?!). Sharon sends the ship the
coordinates for a rendezvous.
Around the President’s
ship, a small armada of surviving vessels is gathering. Laura has her aide,
Billy, collecting passenger manifests while Lee - who is irritatingly, in my
view, always referred to as “Captain Apollo” from this point (there’s just
one Captain Apollo, folks, and he’s Richard Hatch) - is preparing to conduct
an engineering survey of the ships. Aboard a passenger liner, Laura speaks to
some of the survivors, including a small girl who is shocked and still believing
that she will have dinner in Caprica City with her parents, unable to absorb
that Caprica City and her parents no longer exist. Again, Moore’s dark view of
the holocaust is a considerably more realistic take than Larson’s was.
The news that Sharon has
encountered a tanker and is sending it their way is welcome to Roslin and Lee.
So far 60 ships have joined them, although only 40 have FTL drive, and Lee
recommends that the passengers from the sublight ships be transferred to those
with FTL capability. He also recommends that the newer vipers that have arrived
be stored on board, since their electronics are suspect until further notice;
this way they can be conserved until a fix is found. Finally, Lee suggests that
this all happen as quickly as possible; Cylon attacks on Kobol have let up and
the enemy is beginning mopping up operations.
LAURA
You know the Education Ministry conducts the census.
LEE
No, I didn’t know that.
LAURA
12 billion, 254 million, 197 thousand, 512. At last count.
A long beat as they contemplate that number and the lives it represents. Then Laura refocuses.
LAURA (cont’d)
Will they be able to track us through a Jump?
LEE
No, sir. It’s impossible.
LAURA
Theoretically impossible.
LEE
(conceding the point)
Theoretically.
After
Lee departs, Laura is joined by Billy, her peripatetic aide and factotum. She
confesses the fact of her cancer to him, probably relieved that she can tell
someone else, in the midst of the disaster around them, of her own personal
disaster. After he leaves her, Billy stops by to visit the transport pilot - and
asks for a list of surviving doctors and their specialties. This is not a
plotline I particularly like (it seems an unnecessary complication), but Moore
handles it well here.
Back on the Ragnar
station, the increasingly ill Leoben has led Adama down the second dead end in a
row. It’s obvious that the staggering man hardly knows where he is, much less
his way around the station.
ADAMA
This is the second dead-end you’ve taken us down.
LEOBEN
Sorry.
ADAMA
Well, let’s keep going.
Adama waits, makes Leoben start first, then falls into step just a pace or two behind him.
LEOBEN
Can’t help noticing you always keep me in front of you...
ADAMA
Habit.
LEOBEN
Military training, right? Never turn your back on a stranger, that kind of
thing?
ADAMA
Something like that.
LEOBEN
Suspicion and distrust. That’s how you live your life, right? Never trusting
your fellow man. Sounds like a sad state of affairs to me.
ADAMA
I’ve learned to live with it.
LEOBEN
Amazing what a man will learn to live with isn’t it? Suspicion, distrust, war,
hatred, jealousy, revenge, cruelty, sadism -- a man can get used to anything.
ADAMA
You’re a scavenger/philosopher I take it.
They stop at an intersection. Leoben’s tone is deteriorating along with his condition, becoming less conversational, more accusatory.
LEOBEN
Just an observer of human nature. A man in my line of work tends to see things
that don’t get mentioned in polite society. You see people at their worst,
their most desperate. Humanity isn’t a pretty race when you get right down to
it. We’re never more than one step away from beating each other with clubs
like savages fighting over a scrap of meat.
(beat)
You know, we probably deserve what’s happened to us. The Cylons might be God’s
retribution for our many sins.
Adama considers him for a beat.
ADAMA
Maybe they are. Or maybe they’re just a penance we have to endure.
(re: intersection.)
We go right here.
Leoben doesn’t move, just watches him.
LEOBEN
I think I’d like you to go first this time.
A long, challenging look from Adama tells Leoben that the game is definitely afoot here. Each man knows the other man is watching the other carefully. And each man is starting to suspect that only one of them is walking out of here alive.
Sharon
leads the tanker to the rendezvous and the relief of its arrival is quickly
replaced by apprehension as a Cylon drone jumps into the vicinity, scans the
small survivor fleet, and jumps back out. President Roslin is about to have to
make a horrifying decision:
TRANSPORT PILOT
It definitely scanned us before it Jumped.
LEE
We need to go -- now. The Cylons will be here any minute.
DORAL
Madame President, there are still thousands of people on the sublight ships. We
can’t just leave them.
TRANSPORT PILOT
I agree. We should use every second to get as many people off the sublights as
we can. We can wait to Jump until we pick up a Cylon strike force moving in.
LEE
We’re easy targets. They’re going to Jump into the middle of our ships with
a handful of nukes and wipe us out before we have a chance to react.
DORAL
We can’t just leave them all behind! You’ll be sacrificing thousands of
people--
LEE
(hard)
But we’ll be saving tens of thousands. I’m sorry to make it a numbers game,
but we’re talking about the survival of our race here. We don’t have the
luxury of taking risks and hoping for the best, because if we lose... we lose
everything.
(to Laura)
And Madame President, this is the kind of decision that needs to be made right
now.
She meets his eyes, knows he’s right -- it’s her call.
LAURA
(to Pilot)
Order the fleet to Jump to Ragnar. Immediately.
The Transport Pilot hesitates for a beat, then EXITS to the Cockpit with Lee. Doral and Baltar head for the passageway, Doral shooting Laura a glare along the way. Only Billy is left behind. Laura notes him after a beat.
LAURA (cont’d)
Anything you want to say, Billy?
BILLY
No, sir.
(beat)
Yes, sir. That... little girl you saw today? Cami? Her ship can’t make the
Jump.
Laura doesn’t say anything, just picks up her paperwork and goes back to work. Billy quietly EXITS and we stay with Laura, who may have papers in her hand, but certainly doesn’t see them...
Again,
this is the kind of decision we know Lorne Greene’s Adama had to make - he
mentions the awfulness of it in a discussion with Athena in the three-hour cut
of the original premiere - but never on screen. The ensuing scene as the FTL-capable
ships jump out and leave the slower ships behind is harrowing. As the ships make
the jump, the Cylons close in on the remainder….
Act
Five finds the Galactica docked outside the loading bay on the Ragnar
station and Chief Tyrol reporting to Colonel Tigh that the weapons coils should
be in place and charged in about three hours. After that, he accuses Tigh of
having unnecessarily vented the Galactica’s hangar bay, killing the 85
crewman who were lost. It seems an unnecessarily cheap shot, to say the least.
As Tigh absorbs the accusation, an Action Stations alert comes from the Galactica;
contacting the bridge, Tigh learns of incoming contacts. His orders for cutting
loose from the station and preparing to launch fighters are cut short when the
incoming ships are identified as being Colonial.
The
ensuing confrontation between Tigh and Roslin is again, unfortunate; she
requests help for the many injured survivors, and his response is to inform her
that she does not give orders aboard the Galactica. Lee smoothes things
over, but the entire scene is unnecessary and regrettable in light of the
Colonial tradition of civilian control of the military.
Meanwhile,
a number of happy reunions are taking place; Chief Tyrol with Sharon Valerii,
Kara Thrace with Lee, and Billy with the female crewmember he was attracted to
in Part 1.
Back
on the station, Adama and Leoben are still wandering around the station
aimlessly, Leoben ranting away:
LEOBEN
Hubris. That’s Man’s greatest flaw. His belief that he and he alone is
chosen of God. That only Man has a soul.
ADAMA
(looks ahead)
There’s the central hub. We’re almost there.
LEOBEN
But what if God decided he’d made a mistake? What if he decided that Man was a
flawed and imperfect creature? What if he decided to give souls to another
creature?
(beat)
Like the Cylons.
ADAMA
Somehow, I doubt that.
LEOBEN
Why? Because they’re different than us? Because they’re the outsiders.
ADAMA
Because God didn’t create the Cylons. We did. And I’m pretty sure we didn’t
include a soul in their programming.
LEOBEN
But what if they do now? What if they’ve changed in the last four decades?
Adama stops at the CENTRAL HUB. Because the Spoke and the Hub meet at right angles, the floors are PERPENDICULAR to one another and the two men will have to transition from walking from what looks like the "floor" to what looks like the "wall." They’re both experienced space travelers and this is nothing unusual to them, but to us it should be strangely disorienting.
ADAMA
Changed into what?
LEOBEN
People. What if they’ve developed a culture, a society, an entire way of life?
ADAMA
You mean what if they’re imitating a culture, a society, a way of life. In the
end, they’re still just devices. Things. Pieces of technology that’ve gotten
out of control. They’re not people.
LEOBEN
You’re not even interested knowing the truth are you?
Adama turns on Leoben, faces him squarely as he lets some of his own deep anger bubble to the surface for the first time.
ADAMA
Let me tell you something. After today -- after using nuclear weapons against
defenseless civilians, after murdering people by the millions -- I don’t give
a damn who the Cylons are now or what the "truth" is about their
souls. All I know is that they’re murderers and killers and they’re trying
to destroy us.
(beat)
So today’s gonna be the first day of a new war. And this time we’re going to
finish the job. No armistice, no peace treaty, no mercy. This time we track them
down and kill them. All of them. Until there’s not one single Cylon left alive
in the universe. And if God has a problem with that, he can sort it out on
Judgment Day.
A quiet beat as Leoben slowly nods.
LEOBEN
And that’s why God wants the Cylons to destroy mankind. Because as long as
there’s a human race, there’s going to be a man out there like you. I don’t
think the Cylons hate you, Adama... I think they fear you...
As
well they should, of course. All of this “Cylon theology” strikes me as
being more than a bit bizarre, but one wonders if Moore has in mind a future
episode introducing the Cylon “savior” - Count Iblis.
As Leoben rattles on,
revealing that yes, he’s a Cylon, they have arrived at the place where a
“spoke” of the station meets the hub. Leoben makes a leap at Adama, but
Adama cleverly jumps through the door and lands in the hub. Leoben, who has not
planned his jump so cleverly, gets caught in a transitional area of zero G
between the spoke and hub and while he floats there helplessly Adama quickly
reaches for a control to shut the emergency doors and trap the Cylon. Before the
doors can close, Leoben drags himself through into the hub and lands on the
floor in a heap. Before he can gather his wits about him, Adama grabs a pry bar
and kills him with it. Seeing blood flowing from Leoben’s injuries, Adama
wonders if he’s made a horrible mistake of some kind. It should be interesting
to see this scene, by the way. Edward James Olmos’ Lt. Martin Castillo was a
real warrior in Miami Vice, and I’ll be curious to see how he handles
this.
On the Galactica’s bridge,
Baltar and Gaeta, one of the bridge officers, are discussing the navigation
program that proved to be the Colonial downfall. Fortunately, it was never
installed aboard the Galactica, although Gaeta does have a copy of it. As
Baltar erases it, he has another of his irritating (in more ways than one)
"visions" of Number Six. As Baltar and Number Six “converse,” she
reveals to him a Cylon device planted on the bridge. Baltar realizes that there
must be another Cylon somewhere on board as Act Five fades out.
One of the most
irritating things about the Baltar/Number Six relationship is that it’s an
exercise in lazy storytelling. Instead of revealing in other ways the Cylon
menace, Number Six, in her tiresome “appearances” to Baltar, blurts out
everything. It’s just as clunky as Larson’s dialogue in “Living Legend”
where Cain and Adama explain the Cylons to one another (“You see, Adama, the
Cylons are MACHINES…” Duh!) and is startlingly out of place here.
Act
Six opens with more boring Baltar/Number Six dialogue (and one of the sex scenes
that fans find pretty appalling - in this case I completely agree with them),
then we find Tyrol moving Boxey into an empty cabin in the junior officer’s
section of the ship. A nice piece of dialogue between the two ensues:
BOXEY
A lot of people are dead.
TYROL
That’s right, son.
He looks him right in the eye, doesn’t try to shy away or pretend with him that everything is fine. Tyrol seems comfortable with the kid, slips easily, automatically into a paternal role -- probably a result of having to care for deck hands who were little more than kids themselves for so long.
TYROL (cont’d)
But I don’t think you’re gonna die.
BOXEY
No?
TYROL
No. You know why? Because you’re aboard Galactica now and she’s a
very lucky lady.
BOXEY
It’s not a lady. It’s a ship.
TYROL
She absolutely is a lady. She happens to be made of steel and wire instead of
flesh and bone, but she’s still a living, breathing woman.
BOXEY
And she’s really lucky?
TYROL
That’s right. In the first Cylon War, she single-handedly fought off five
Cylon baseships and made it back to Kobol without a scratch. She always fights a
good fight, and she always brought her people home.
Boxey thinks about that, nods very seriously, seems to take him at his word.
BOXEY
So... she’ll bring us home?
TYROL
It’s a promise.
A
nice moment; that’s the ship we remember, too.
Meanwhile, Billy - who
it turns out wrote an important paper on diplomacy and so presumably isn’t
quite as callow as he seems - is reminding President Roslin how she has to deal
with the military. Respect them, remind them of their duty, but let them know
who’s in charge.
The ground crew are
finishing installing the “liberated” weapon coils; one of them, Cally,
confronts Chief Tyrol with her knowledge of his illicit, illegal affair with
Sharon Valerii. A punchup seems imminent, then orders come from the bridge to
begin charging the weapon coils.
Leoben’s corpse is
being carried to Life Station by some crewmen while Adama quickly briefs Tigh on
what he’s learned about the Cylons. Tigh is understandably appalled; after
all, if Cylons now look human, they could be anybody! And save a lot of money on
special effects, too! Tigh has news for Adama as well - Lee is alive and has
arrived on board.
Lee, now Galactica’s
CAG (Commander Air Group), is in the ready room getting his squadrons organized
when Adama comes in. Lee braces himself for a dressing down, but all Adama can
do is embrace his son. After a moment, Lee returns it.
Act Seven finds Adama
and Tigh in the commander’s quarters with Baltar discussing the medical report
on Leoben. His body appeared normal until a large tissue sample was incinerated;
analysis indicated the presence of synthetic compounds. Unfortunately this does
not promise to be a good way of detecting Cylons except after the fact, so Adama
assigns Baltar to produce a better way of detecting Cylons. Once Baltar departs
Adama and Tigh reminiscence for a moment. It is another nice scene, one I can
easily picture with Lorne Greene and Terry Carter, and again it has to be
pointed out that there are some in this script.
In the launch bay, Kara
is getting ready to take off on a brief reconnaissance mission, to look outside
the storm into the space around Ragnar and see what’s going on. Kara confesses
to Lee that his suspicions are right - Zak wasn’t a good pilot, but
because she had a relationship with him, she passed him anyway. Lee is shocked,
and wants to know why she’s telling him this now. Kara replies that it’s the
end of the world - shouldn’t they be confessing their sins? That said, she
takes off.
Doral, who we remember
from the President’s transport, is suddenly arrested by Galactica
crewmen. Baltar’s “Cylon detector” works; he’s found a way to identify
Cylons by analyzing hair samples. Tigh orders everyone on the ship screened.
This also gives Baltar the perfect opening to reveal the Cylon device on the
bridge without revealing how he knows about it. In spite of herself, Number Six
is rather impressed.
Laura and Billy are in
the wardroom going over problems when Adama comes in. After Billy leaves, the
two of them discuss the situation. Roslin learns that Adama is planning, once
the Galactica is refitted, to go back on the offensive against the
Cylons. She has to point out to him that the war is already lost. This is not
one of the better scenes in the script; it goes on too long and makes Adama
appear far too pigheaded.
Kara’s viper clears
the storm and she finds that the space above Ragnar is filled with Cylon
warships.
Act Eight commences with
Adama, Tigh, Lee, and others on the bridge listening to Kara’s report of at
least ten Cylon fighter squadrons, a couple of base ships, and dozens of drones
waiting for their departure. The Cylons are showing no signs of coming down into
the storm after the Colonials; they know that all they have to do is wait.
As Adama and the others
discuss options - try jumping from inside the storm? Escape alone? Try to cram
all of the civilians aboard the Galactica? - Moore interlaces their
dialogue with Billy talking to Dualla, the crewmember he’s enamored with.
Presumably Moore is Making a Point here, but it doesn’t seem to work and again
detracts from the good job he’s done in other places (that said, once it’s
filmed, it might work. We shall see). Finally Adama, who presumably has
been overhearing Billy and Dualla, realizes that all they can do is escape, with
the civilians. The President, after all, is right.
They begin planning a
Jump, an extremely long range one that might land them far from where they
intend to go, but the safest alternative in the circumstances. The Galactica
will run interference with the Cylons while the civilian ships Jump, then she
will immediately follow them.
Meanwhile, there is the
problem of what to do with Doral. Adama elects to maroon him in the Ragnar
station. Of course it would have made a lot more sense to just kill him, but
again the same kind of clunkiness betrayed by the interminable Baltar/Number Six
conversations rears its ugly head and Doral is left behind to become a Plot
Point. If only Scott Evil were here to remind Adama….
The
escape from Ragnar follows, and this time the Galactica doesn’t have to
resort to dumped fuel as a weapon; her main batteries and other defensive
armament are once again operational and as she and her vipers rip into the
waiting Cylons, the civilian ships begin to make their Jumps. Finally, the last
civilian ship is gone, and the Galactica begins to recover her vipers as
the Cylon base ships close in for the kill. Kara and Lee are the last two vipers
out; intellectually Adama knows he should abandon them, but even as the Cylon
base ships close in he knows he can’t. And for her part Kara can’t leave
Lee, whose viper is crippled. As the two base ships and the Galactica
close in a spectacular slugging match, Kara latches onto Lee’s viper and they
make it back to the ship in the nick of time. Her last vipers recovered, Galactica
makes the Jump.
In
the hangar bay sometime later, a burial ceremony is held for those crewmen who
died during the escape from Kobol. After prayers are said by the priest Elosha,
Adama takes the podium:
ADAMA
Are they the lucky ones? That’s the question you’re all asking yourselves,
isn’t it?
(beat)
We’re a long way from home. We’ve Jumped far beyond the Red Line and now we’re
in uncharted space. Limited supplies. Limited fuel. No allies. No hope. Maybe it
would’ve been better if we’d all died quickly back there on Kobol with the
rest of our families than to die slowly out here in the emptiness of deep space.
(beat)
Where will we go? What will we do?
He looks out at the surprised faces and knows that he’s struck a chord, caught them off-guard and grabbed their attention by voicing their darkest thoughts.
ADAMA (cont’d)
“Life here began out there.” Those are the first words of the sacred scrolls
-- the first words the Lords of Kobol gavve us countless centuries ago. They tell
us in explicit terms that we are not alone in the universe.
(to Elosha)
Elosha, there is a thirteenth colony of man, is there not?
A murmur ripples through the crowd. He waits, lets it pass.
Elosha
Yes, the scrolls tell us a thirteenth tribe left Kobol in the Early Days. That
they traveled far away and made their home on a planet called Earth... which
circled a distant and unknown star.
ADAMA
It’s not unknown. I know where it is.
Everyone is shocked, amazed -- hanging on his every word. He nods to a DECKHAND standing off to one side, who then turns on an OVERHEAD PROJECTOR, which throws an IMAGE up on the bulkhead of a DISTANT STAR and several planets. The image is blurry, indistinct. Adama points to one of the planets.
ADAMA (cont’d)
Earth.
Another murmur ripples through the room as people crane for a better look.
ADAMA (cont’d)
This image has been one of our most guarded secrets. The location -- or at least
the general location -- of this star system was known to only the most senior
commanders in the Fleet. We dared not reveal its location to the public while
the Cylon threat was still out there. And thank the Lords for that, because now
we have a refuge to go to, a refuge the Cylons know nothing about.
Genuine excitement starts to spread through the crowd like wildfire.
ADAMA (cont’d)
It won’t be easy. It will be a long and probably arduous journey to get there.
But I promise you one thing -- we will make it and Earth will be our new home.
Needless
to say, excitement and new hope breaks out amongst the Galactica crew at
Adama’s words.
A brief scene follows in
which Kara and Tigh make up - kind of - and Kara tells him that Chief Tyrol is
full of crap - how could anyone know what the fire was going to do? Tigh did the
right thing; he saved the ship. Kara still doesn’t like him, but finally she
evinces a bit of respect for him. And it’s clear, as Tigh pours a drink he’d
been about to have back into its bottle, that he’s found a bit of respect in
himself as well.
The miniseries appears
to be ending on a high note, then, for unknown reasons, Moore goes a long way
towards spoiling it as Adama admits to Laura Roslin that his speech about Earth
was so much moonshine. Why? Adama’s explanation makes a kind of sense - he has
given dispirited people something to live for - but this wholesale desecration
of one of the central series myths seems just unnecessary to me
Of course we can’t
leave without another Major Plot Information talk between Baltar and Number Six:
NUMBER SIX
Your escape is a temporary one at best. We will find you.
BALTAR
You can try. It’s a big universe.
NUMBER SIX
You haven’t addressed the real problem, of course.
BALTAR
Yes, yes. There may be Cylon agents living among us at this very moment just
waiting to strike.
NUMBER SIX
Some may not even know they’re Cylons at all. Sleeper agents programmed to
perfectly impersonate human beings until activation.
BALTAR
I’m not worried.
NUMBER SIX
I keep forgetting how truly arrogant you are.
BALTAR
If there are Cylons here we’ll find them.
NUMBER SIX
We? You’re not on their side, Gaius.
BALTAR
I’m not on anybody’s side. I’m just looking out for myself.
NUMBER SIX
Exactly. Which means you can’t tell them all you know about us without giving
yourself away. Which is a shame. You could be a real help to them.
BALTAR
Yeah. That is a shame.
And
the entire Number Six/Baltar plotline is a shame too. Oh well.
On the Ragnar station,
the Cylons have rescued Doral. Several of the traditional chrome Cylons are
present, along with three Leobens and two Number Sixes (and later a second
Doral). They question Doral, who knows nothing of where the Colonials went, but
the Cylons all agree that no matter where they did go, they must be hunted down
and destroyed. Then Moore drops another bombshell, and a Sharon Valerii walks
into the room….
Which
is how Moore’s script ends. Presumably the Sharon Valerii aboard the Galactica
is one of the sleeper agents Number Six spoke of.
So,
what do I think of all this? As I said in my wrapup to Part One, mostly I’m
disappointed. This could have been really good if Moore had done one of two
things: either hewed a little more closely to original series mythos OR if he
had put an original name on this project instead of calling it Battlestar
Galactica.
However,
in retrospect I’m also disappointed that Battlestar Galactica fans - including
myself! - reacted with absolute hysteria when Moore released this draft. The
explosion of negativity, including my own, only ensured that no positive changes
would be made. It’s worth remembering that Moore released the script himself,
presumably hoping to get constructive opinions on it. All he got in return was a
flood of screeching and screaming that in some cases, on closer reading of the
script, was unjustified. Yes, there are negative elements. But for fans to rant
and rave about this script being “liberal” is just asinine. These Colonials
are as militaristic as the originals, and as religious, and by the end of the
miniseries, ruptured family bonds have been healed. Many of the “negative”
characters that fans complain about, such as Tigh, grow as the miniseries goes
along. Tigh starts as a tiresome drunk, yes, but finds the courage to not only
save the ship, but to take a new look at his alcohol problem. It has been said
by one reviewer that the crew has “no respect” for Adama, but it’s clear
that they in fact idolize him (they located and restored his old viper
for him, for example, not something you do for a CO you detest, believe me). The
sex is no more intrusive than anything else commonly seen on network TV (that
said, there’s too much sex on network TV and too much here too, all of it
disgusting). If anything, the violence and people’s reactions to the holocaust
are much more realistic than the original. The second half is in my view
a distinct improvement on the weak Carillon plotline of the original. The focus
on noncommissioned ground crewmen as important members of the crew and an
important part of the show is very welcome.
That
said, there are many other elements that are problematic. The Baltar/Number Six
relationship, for one, is just laughable. Baltar is never a convincing character
at any level, and Number Six is an excuse for sloppy writing; whenever
Ron needs to reveal a plot point, he just has Number Six blab it. The “human
looking” Cylons themselves are clearly a device to save special effects
dollars (recently admitted by Moore in an interview, interestingly). The level
of technology is wildly inconsistent. The ending, with Adama revealing that he’s
lied about Earth, is a disaster (although I suppose if this goes to series
research by Adama or Baltar or Elosha or someone will reveal that there really
is an Earth). Elosha actually contradicts what Adama says; according to Adama,
Colonial scripture claims that “Life here began out there,” but Elosha says
that the Thirteenth Tribe left Kobol in the early days and went to earth - seems
to me it should be the other way around if indeed “life here began out
there.” The squabbles between the civilian authority and the military are the
same low point they were in the original. The setting of the Colonies - way too
Earthlike with earthian names - just trashes the mystery and mythology of the
original. Many of the characters are simply not distinctive. About the only ones
with any real individuality are Kara Thrace and William Adama. Lee Adama is
particularly a cipher, a shame in view of the fact that the Apollo character was
at the center of the original.
And
if we had reacted better, Moore might have been willing to fix some of this.
A
lost opportunity, all around.