battlestar galactica (2003)

This article is about the 2003 miniseries and subsequent television series; for other versions, see Battlestar Galactica (disambiguation).

Battlestar Galactica is a science fiction miniseries which was first broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel on December 8, 2003. It spawned a regular television series which premiered on Sky One on October 18, 2004. This new series was promoted as a "re-imagining" of the Universal Studios late-1970s movie and television series Battlestar Galactica. It was not simply a remake of the original but a new direction taken from the same original premise, analogous to a "reboot" in comic books. Although purists from the original series's fandom loudly disapproved of changes to the premise, the show was the highest-rated cable miniseries of 2003. In fact, it has been the highest rated original program in the Sci Fi Channel's history. Its strong audience draw was enough to prompt the channel to commission a new ongoing television series, the first episode of which drew an estimated 850,000 viewers (5% multichannel viewer share) on its world premiere on Sky One. Furthermore, it and its subsequent series have enjoyed general critical acclaim as being superior to the original. On February 9 2005, the Sci Fi Channel announced that a second season of 20 episodes had been ordered, in contrast with the 13 episode run of the freshman season.

Reimagining

Previous efforts to remake or continue the story of Battlestar Galactica have mainly involved using the original cast, or at least the original characters and plot. None of these projects proceeded beyond the developmental stage. Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and screenwriter of the new Battlestar Galactica, was previously credited with bringing darker story arcs to in the 1990s. Of Battlestar Galactica, he wrote in February 2003: "Here lies a slumbering giant, its name known to many, its voice remembered by but a few. For a brief moment, it strode the Earth, telling tall tales of things that never were, then stumbled over a rating point and fell into a deep sleep." He tackled the remake with realism in mind, and intended to portray the show's heroes as being part of "flawed" humanity. Examples of this include Commander Adama and his son harboring resentment towards each other, Colonel Tigh being an alcoholic, a hulking battlestar prone to problems and outside sabotage, muted special effects shots lacking unscientific sounds commonplace in TV and movie sci-fi, and the use of bullets and missiles instead of lasers.

Differences from the 1978 series

Changes from the original series include:

The Cylons are now a creation of the humans. They rebelled against their creators during a war which ended forty years ago, and formed their own civilization, and are now resuming the same genocidal imperative after an extended truce.
There are twelve different models of humanoid Cylons, biologically undiscernable from humans, designed as stealth units for the purpose of infiltration. Some stealth units don't even know they are Cylons. They are such convincing copies, they can even have sex with humans without fear of detection (however, spines of female cylons pulse a red glow during intercourse). A defect may be their reduced resistance to radiation sickness. Another defect may be that the copies are too perfect and exhibit human frailties such as pride, jealousy, lust, wrath and religious zealotry. (among others)
There are also Cylon Centurions similar to the "classic" design. These new units are faster, streamlined, more agile, and have built-in weaponry. It is currently unknown if they possess any organic components.
Cylon Raiders (small attack craft) are no longer manned by a crew of three Cylon Centurions. Instead they are controlled by an organic/cybernetic matrix that is a permanent part of the craft.

Dr. Gaius Baltar, now a scientist instead of a Count, was tricked into betraying humanity. He now helps the refugee fleet as a valued scientific advisor, and he desires to help, but is influenced by a female Cylon agent and by his own fear of his betrayal being discovered. His election to the post of colonial Vice-President has also brought him greater prominence.
The Cylons have the ability to remotely seize control of sophisticated enemy computer systems for their own use (in an obvious parallel to modern-day malware), which enables their rapid defeat of the human colonies.
Instead of being a frontline warship in the human fleet, the Galactica is an outmoded ship, the last of its kind still in operation. It was originally slated for decommissioning, but was brought back into full service because it uses older technology that Cylons cannot gain control of easily. There are no computer networks on the Galactica, and all communications on board are conducted using old-fashioned wired telephones.
The costuming strongly resembles contemporary fashions, as does some of the technology. Soldiers carry rifles, Viper fighters fire bullets and missiles, and communications often take place on personal wireless telephones.
Most of the strange dialect of the original series (including the decimal time-measurement system of "centons" and "yahrens") has been removed and replaced by conventional present-day language.
There are no references to "daggitts" (dogs) and no robotic daggitt like the original's Muffit, though there is still a boy named Boxey.
There is no mention in the miniseries of the Council of the Twelve. Instead, President Adar and most other government officials are killed in the initial Cylon bombardments; next surviving in line is the Secretary of Education, who is sworn in as new President and capably shares equal authority with Commander Adama. In this version, the "Quorum of the Twelve" is more akin to the UN Security Council than a unifying government (the Cylons were made for wars between the human Colonies here).
The personal details of various characters have been changed; for example, Starbuck and Boomer are now women. Boomer is also Asian instead of black, and Colonel Tigh is now caucasian. The unusual names of some of the characters ("Starbuck", "Apollo", "Boomer") have become pilot call signs. (Note that it is no longer strictly correct to call the characters "Captain Apollo", "Lieutenant Starbuck" etc - but see the note on President Roslin in the next section.)
The Galactica itself has become much more military in its design and operation. Many of the details are taken, somewhat anachronistically, from present-day aircraft carrier operations, such as the pilots undertaking what are explicitly referred to as combat air patrols, and use of "CAG" referring to the Galactica's senior Viper pilot.
In the new series, Apollo's brother Zak was killed in a Viper accident prior to the first episode, and this becomes a major plot point in later episodes. In the original series, Zak dies in the initial Cylon attack.
The rag-tag fugative fleet is now made up of only ships with FTL or faster than light capabilities. This helped to clean up a problem with the orginal show, that had the fleet moving along at "flank speed", the speed of the slowest ship in the convoy. Episode "33" covers this topic.

Similarities and homages to the 1978 series

The "museum" section of the Galactica features both a suit of "classic" Cylon armor as well as the original model for the Cylon Base Ship.
The Colonial Anthem, heard briefly during the Galactica's decommissioning ceremony, contains a signature fanfare from the original Battlestar Galactica theme by Glen A. Larson and Stu Phillips.
The "cubit" is still the unit of currency in the Colonies, even though it appears now as regular paper money rather than the gold ducats seen in 1978.
Despite the removal of most of the original Colonial dialect, the word "frak" or "frack"—often described as a way to get "fuck" past network censors—has been retained as the all-purpose expletive of choice for most humans. The other BSG ersatz—"Felgerkarb", for bullshit—has yet to make an appearance.
The original series' Colonial Viper design—referred to as the "Mark II"—is retained with a few tweaks as the mainstay fighter of the Galactica, while a newer design introduced in the miniseries—the "Mark VII"—occasionally makes an appearance. One of those tweaks is the steering mechanism with manuevering jets which can enable moves such as a 180 degree pivot to attack a pursuing enemy, much like a Babylon 5 Starfury.
The military rank system is basically the same as in the original series. The officer ranks in the Colonial fleet are Ensign, Lieutenant j.g. (or Junior Lieutenant), Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Colonel, Commander, and Admiral - though all the Admirals in the fleet were lost in the Cylon attack. The rank of Admiral was never used in the original 1978 version, though one could assume something similar occurred.
Richard Hatch (Captain Apollo in the original series) returns to play Sagittaron politician/terrorist Tom Zarek.
After President Roslin calls Apollo "Captain Apollo", he tries to tell her that his real name is Adama, but she cuts him off and tells him: "I know who you are, but Captain Apollo has a nice ring to it." She repeatedly calls him "Captain Apollo" afterwards.

Miniseries (2003)

Synopsis

The Twelve Colonies of Kobol ("Heaven" in ancient Persian) long ago created the Cylons as machine worker drones for humanity. These machines became independent, after fighting in wars between the Colonies, rose in rebellion, created their own empire, and launched war on their masters. The war ended forty years ago when peace was declared and the Cylons have not been seen since... but, meanwhile, they have been evolving into more human form, becoming machine-created biological beings who seek to exterminate true biological humans. Following the nuclear destruction of the Colonies, the Cylons pursue the Galactica and its companion fleet, fearing that the surviving humans will someday return to take revenge on the Cylons. The Cylons use a human scientist, Dr. Gaius Baltar, to help one of their infiltrators (known as Number Six) penetrate the Colonies' master defense mainframes. Baltar is reluctant but is smitten by Number Six, who appears as a woman of seemingly insatiable sexual desire. The result of their affair is a nuclear sneak-attack which rapidly obliterates the Colonies and the fleet deployed for their protection. One ship, however, survives; an obsolete battlestar designated BSG 75: Galactica (a member of BattleStar Group 75), which had been scheduled for decommissioning. Its commanding officer, Commander Adama, assumes leadership of the fleet. President Roslin convinces him of the futility of continuing to fight and the importance of escaping. The Galactica must now lead the fifty thousand surviving humans on a quest for a new homeworld on which to rebuild humanity. Adama inspires his crew by pretending to know the location of the legendary thirteenth colony known as "Earth". Galactica's first task in its new life as sole remaining battlestar is to lead surviving ships of the Colonies to a weapons deployment base within a spatial storm. This rendezvous leaves them trapped when two Cylon base stars track them down and open fire...

Mini-series air dates

8 December 2003: Sci Fi Channel (United States)
17 January 2004: (Canada)
17 February 2004: Sky One (United Kingdom)
9 January 2005: NBC (United States) (edited)
11 February 2005: Ten Network (Australia)
1 March 2005: TNT Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and probably other places in Latin America)

Season 1 (2004)

Synopsis

The opening text before each episode:

The Cylons were created by Man.

They Rebelled.

They Evolved.

They Look and Feel Human.

Some are programmed to think they are Human.

There are many copies.

And they have a Plan.

Battlestar Galactica follows on from the miniseries to chronicle the journey of the last remaining humans from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol after their annihilation by the Cylons. The last surviving humans are led by President Laura Roslin and Commander William Adama in a ragtag fleet of ships with the Battlestar Galactica at its lead. Their mission: evade the Cylons and search for a new home.

Production

The first season of thirteen one-hour episodes aired in the UK between October 18, 2004 and January 24, 2005 on Sky One, which co-financed the series with the Sci Fi Channel and NBC Universal. Produced in 2004 by David Eick and Ronald D. Moore and starring the original cast from the 2003 miniseries, it was aired in the United States from January 14, 2005 and from January 15 in Canada. Moore left his position as producer on HBO's Carnivle after its first season to concentrate more fully on BSG. The series proved successful on its UK premiere, attracting favorable comments from reviewers and generating considerable anticipation in the US. The first episode aired in the US became one of the highest-rated programs ever on Sci Fi with 3.1 million viewers. Successive episodes proved equally successful, and in February 2005 Sci Fi announced that it was commissioning a 20-episode second season to be aired in the summer of 2005. All of the first season cast have signed contracts to make the second season. Battlestar Galactica aired in the UK three months ahead of the show's premiere in the US and Canada. This rare example of a North American television show being aired across the Atlantic before its first broadcast "at home" was the result of Sky's partially funding the show's production. This led to the inevitable postings of episodes to peer-to-peer networks, such as eDonkey and BitTorrent, as soon as possible after Sky One had aired them. It is anticipated that the second season will be produced entirely from US sources, which will probably mean that UK viewers will have to wait until late 2005 to see the program.

Main title

The music during the main title differs between the UK and North American versions of the show; the former has vocals over a lilting theme, while the latter uses a different theme with no vocals. The vocals sound Celtic but are in fact a famous Hindu mantra, the Gayatri Mantra, taken from the Rig Veda. The words are "OM bhūr bhuvah svah tat savitur varēnyam bhargō dēvasya dhīmahi dhiyō yō nah pracōdayāt", which may be translated in various ways but means approximately "may we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the God / so May he stimulate our prayers". The second part of the main title uses African-styled drums in both versions, playing over a montage of images from the coming episode. Moore intended this to be a direct homage to 's titles, which used a similar montage device in each episode.

Story arcs

While the first season mostly consists of stand-alone episodes plus one two-part episode, it features a number of major story arcs, including:

What happens to Helo, seen being left behind on Caprica in the miniseries (the writing team originally intended for Helo have actually died when left behind on Caprica while it was being nuked in the miniseries, but when production on the tv series started they created a new story-arc centered on him because fans had repeatedly asked if he somehow survived).
How the relationship between Adama and Roslin evolves.
How the fleet tackles its shortages of supplies and fuel.
What happens to Boomer, who is revealed to be a Cylon sleeper agent in the miniseries.
What the Cylons' master plan really is.

Development of the arcs is featured in almost every episode of the season.