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Battlestar Galactica (1978)

American science fiction television series of the 1970s

Battlestar Galactica is a 1978 science fiction television series about the adventures of humans in a distant galaxy who are now on the run from a force of killer robots called Cylons.

1978 TV series

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Saga of a Star World

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Narrator: There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. That they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria, or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man, who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens.
President Adar: I see the party is not a huge success with all my children.
Commander Adama: What awaits us out there is what troubles me.
President Adar: But surely you don't cling to your suspicions about the Cylons. They asked for this armistice. They want peace.
Commander Adama: Forgive me, Mr. President, but they hate us with every fiber of their existence. We love freedom. We love independence to feel, to question, to resist oppression. But...to them, it's an alien way of existing they will never accept.
President Adar: But they have, through Baltar. They have sued for peace.
Commander Adama: Yes. Of course, you're right.
Captain Apollo: [on seeing the Cylon Raiders gathering for the attack] Let's get out of here!
Lieutenant Zac: Why?
Captain Apollo: (lighting the boosters of his viper) I'll explain later!
Cylon pilot: Colonial Viper in quadrant. Intercepting.
Lieutenant Zac: (seeing four Cylon Raiders in pursuit and firing) I see what you mean!
Lieutenant Zac: Nice shooting, but...they hit my high engine!
Captain Apollo: That's okay, little brother; we got all of 'em. The day those guys can outfight us without a ten-to-one margin.
Lieutenant Zac: Apollo, better look at your scanner.
[A solid wall of Cylon raiders is chasing them.]
Captain Apollo: Ah, but a thousand to one, that's not fair.
Lieutenant Zac: What does it mean?
Captain Apollo: It means there's isn't going to be any peace. There might not be much of anything if we don't warn the Fleet!
Lieutenant Zac: Do it. I'm short an engine; you know I won't be able to keep up with you.
Captain Apollo: Zac, I'm not gonna leave you!
Lieutenant Zac: You have to! I'm putting my foot on that turbo. I'll make it back ahead of 'em, now go on! You've gotta warn the Fleet! I'll be all right.
Captain Apollo: [sighs] You can fly with me any time, little brother. Good luck!
Commander Adama: Mr. President, a wall of unidentified craft is closing in on the Fleet.
Baltar: Possibly a Cylon welcoming committee.
Commander Adama: Sir, might I suggest we launch a welcoming committee of our own?
Baltar: Mr. President, there remain many hostile feelings amongst our warriors. The likelihood of an unfortunate incident with all those pilots in the sky at once?
President Adar: Commander?
Commander Adama: Sir, did Baltar suggest that our forces sit here, totally defenseless?
President Adar: My friend, we are on a peace mission. The first peace man has known in a thousand yahrens.
Colonel Tigh: Captain, we have to know how many base ships we're dealing with.
Captain Apollo: No base ships.
Colonel Tigh: You must be mistaken, Captain! Fighters couldn't function this far from Cylon without base ships; they don't carry enough fuel!
Captain Apollo: I said no base ships! Just fighters, maybe a thousand.
Commander Adama: How do you count for that, Apollo?
Captain Apollo: I don't know. They...! We picked up an empty tanker on our scanner. It's my guess the Cylons used it to refuel for the attack after flying to that point from wherever their base ships are.
Colonel Tigh: Well, why operate this far from Cylon without base ships when it isn't necessary? They would've been well out of our range at the old moon!
Commander Adama: Unless it was necessary... for them to be somewhere else! Get me the President!!
Commander Adama: Mr. President, I request permission to leave the Fleet. I have a reason to suspect our home planets may face imminent attack.
[Cylon raiders blast away the bridge of the Atlantia and portions of its bridge explode.]
Commander Adama: Maintain contact!
[The communication image of President Adar distorts, then clears.]
President Adar: How could I have been so completely wrong? I have led the entire human race to ruin...
Commander Adama: Mr. President, it wasn't your fault. You didn't lead us to this disaster. We were led!
President Adar: [last words] Baltar! I don't believe it...
[A Cylon raider blasts one of the Atlantia‍'‍s anti-assault batteries and the explosion surges into the bridge, knocking out communications.]
Commander Adama: Mr. President!
Cylon Centurion: By your command.
The Imperious Leader: Speak, Centurion.
Cylon Centurion: All base ships are now in range to attack the Colonies.
The Imperious Leader: The final annihilation of the life form known as man. Let the attack begin.
Lieutenant Athena: What are you saying about my father?! Do you realize what we've just been through?!
Lieutenant Starbuck: Oh, yeah? You should have seen how we spent our day! We managed to single-handedly keep the Cylons off our backs while you took off on a little cruise!!
Lieutenant Athena: Starbuck, don't you realize what's happened?!
Lieutenant Starbuck: Oh, yeah! Sure, I realize what's happened! You should see this baby in the air when it takes off across the sky!! It's a beautiful sight! Beautiful! Unless it happens to be your base ship!
Lieutenant Athena: Starbuck, listen to me! The Colonies are gone! All of them!
Lieutenant Starbuck: What are you talking about, gone?!
Serina: I want to know where you were as well! All of you! We waited, we watched and prayed, and you never came!
Captain Apollo: Most of us are dead. The Fleet is all but destroyed.
Serina: But you're here.
Captain Apollo: From the Battlestar Galactica.
Serina: It survives?
Captain Apollo: Yes.
Serina: But what of the President and the Council of Twelve and...and all the other Colonies?
Commander Adama: All destroyed.
Serina: Commander Adama.
Commander Adama: Yes, Serina.
Serina: It's true, then. We are defeated. Doomed.
Boxey: Can I ride in your ship, sir?
Captain Apollo: Fighter planes are no place for little boys.
Serina: They're going to have to be if our people are going to survive. We must fight back.
Commander Adama: Yes, we are going to fight back. But not here, not now, not in the Colonies. Not even in this star system. Let the word go forth to every man, woman and child who survived this holocaust; tell them to set sail at once in every assorted vehicle that will carry them.
Commander Adama: And the word went forth to every outpost of humanity, and they came – the Aries, the Gemons, the Virgos, the Scorpios, the Pisceans and the Sagitarrans. In all, two hundred and twenty ships, representing every colony, color and creed in the star system. The human race might have one more chance, but first it would have to survive the alliance, the elements and the unknown dark and sinister threats that would lie ahead.
Baltar: Their destruction is complete.
Cylon Centurion: Our forces have taken prisoners near the spacedrome. They tell of survivors who escaped in ships.
Baltar: What ships? How far can they go? If a handful of survivors did indeed escape, they would have neither fuel nor food for a prolonged voyage.
Cylon Centurion: The information is not complete. It is offered in exchange for life.
Baltar: And what is the standing order for humans from your Imperious Leader?
Cylon Centurion: Extermination.
Baltar: Then carry out your orders. If they exist, they're doomed.
Commander Adama: We gather here as representatives of each ship in our fleet to answer that single question: Where will we go? Our recorded history tells us that we descended from a mother civilization, a race that went out into space to establish colonies. Those of us assembled here now represent the only known surviving colonies, save one. A sister world, far out in the universe, remembered to us only through ancient writings. It is my intention to seek out that remaining colony, that last outpost of humanity in the whole universe.
Serina: Commander Adama? This thirteenth colony, this other world. Where is it and what's it called?
Commander Adama: I wish I could tell you that I know precisely where it is, but I can't. However, I do know that it lies beyond our star system, in a galaxy very much like our own. On a planet called... Earth.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Why don't you just give me your name, okay? It's all right.
Cassiopeia: My name is Cassiopeia.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Cassiopeia. It's beautiful. It means fairy queen, doesn't it?
Cassiopeia: I think so.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Designation?
Cassiopeia: I'm designated a socialator. It's an honorable profession; it's had the blessings of the elders for four thousand yahrens.
Lieutenant Starbuck: I didn't say anything. I'm just curious about what all that excitement was about back on the barge.
Cassiopeia: That woman is a member of the Otori sect amongst the Gemonese. They don't believe in physical contact between genders, except when sanctified by the priest during High Worship of the Sun Storm, which comes once only every seven yahrens.
[Starbuck is remembering a card game he was playing before the Galactica ordered battle-stations drill, which had suddenly turned into the real thing.]
Lieutenant Starbuck: No wonder those little buggers are such good card players.
Cylon Centurion: Flight Leader Serpentine, by your command.
The Imperious Leader: Report, Centurion, on the final assault.
Cylon Centurion: On each of the twelve planets, a similar story is told of a handful of ships that escaped destruction to rendezvous with a warship.
The Imperious Leader: What kind of warship?
Cylon Centurion: The Battlestar Galactica.
The Imperious Leader: Then go and seek out Baltar. Tell him I'm displeased. Tell him I've offered a choice: Deliver the Battlestar Galactica or deliver his head.
Commander Adama: And just what did you think you were doing, volunteering for a mission like that?! Sire Uri must be laughing up his sleeve!
Captain Apollo: What's worrying you more – the mission, or you being made to look foolish by Uri?! [Adama glares at Apollo] Look, I'm sorry I know better than that, but there was no choice. You didn't seem to have a viable plan! It was his way or mine!
Commander Adama: Now you see?! He's got us doing it! Turning one against the other! If Uri weren't such a prima donna, I'd say let him lead! But we must not allow ourselves to be fractioned off; there are too few of us left! A single voice is imperative!
Captain Apollo: But not his! He's only interested in himself! I don't understand how he got elected to the Council of Twelve, and you voted for him!
Commander Adama: You should known him back in the Renaissance days of Caprica. He was one of the best! A builder, an architect of dreams! (Adama falters at the memory of Uri's regression to a corrupt politician) Now he just sits and decays himself with drink and remembrance. No wonder our world fell apart.
Captain Apollo: Looking back is contagious. Decay and corruption go hand in hand with defeatism and lack of action. Uri moved in because you failed to act to have alternatives to his plans!
Commander Adama: I believe it is sometimes prudent to steer away from the flames once you've been badly burnt.
Captain Apollo: And I'd say you'd better look around more carefully. You're nursing wounds while we're still in the fire.
[Admiring Starbuck's space fighter]
Cassiopeia: It's beautiful, isn't it? It's a perfect machine, born to dance among the stars...
Lieutenant Starbuck: Yeah, it's bumping into them that has me worried.
Cassiopeia: Why did you volunteer, Starbuck?
Lieutenant Starbuck: Well, somebody had to do it.
Cassiopeia: Did Apollo make you?
Lieutenant Starbuck: Yes... you certainly have a way of cutting through the felgercarb.
Cassiopeia: Do you ever take that smoldering weed out of your mouth? [She kisses him.]
Lieutenant Starbuck: I have this wonderful speech all prepared...
Cassiopeia: About this being your last night here? About possibly not seeing another night as this one, or another girl as beautiful as I am, ever again?
Lieutenant Starbuck: Yeah, well, that speech is a little better that the one I had. Would you mind if I borrowed it on some future occasion?
Lieutenant Starbuck: [having been invited into a launch tube by Cassiopeia] Oh, Lord, I'll do anything you ask tomorrow. Just, uh... don't call an alert tonight.
Lieutenant Boomer: What if we miss a mine?
Captain Apollo: One of us will be the first to know.
The Imperious Leader: Welcome, Baltar. I have grave news. A handful of Colonials prevail, but we will soon find them.
Baltar: What of our bargain? My colony was to be spared!
The Imperious Leader: I now alter the bargain.
Baltar: How can you change one side of a bargain?
The Imperious Leader: When there is no other side. You have missed the entire point of the war.
Baltar: But I have no ambitions against you.
The Imperious Leader: Could you think me so foolish as to trust a man who would see his own race destroyed?
Baltar: Not destroyed - subjugated! Under me!
The Imperious Leader: There can be no survivors. So long as one human remains alive, the Alliance is threatened.
Baltar: Surely... you don't mean me.
The Imperious Leader: We thank you for your help, Baltar. Your time is at an end.
Baltar: No! You can't! [A Cylon Centurion begins to draw his sword.]
The Imperious Leader: [orders his Cylon Centurion to stop.] No. Not now, Centurion. Remove him for public execution.
[Exploring the dark surface of the planet Carillon]
Lieutenant Starbuck: I wonder this looks like in the daytime.
Lieutenant Boomer: Hey, this is the daytime.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Oooh... lovely.
Commander Adama: We've come so far, so quickly. There's been little time for reason. What is the secret behind the existence of this outpost on the outer rim of our star system? There are many such oases for intergalactic travelers, but none so far off the arteries of trade, and none so curiously close a tylium mine. Fuel has begun to arrive from the Ovion mines, but in curiously small quantities. Now I feel the growing need for extraordinary measures of precaution. The ships continue to hover over the planet, supported by maintenance crews whose spirits are depleted as their numbers. Everyone seems to have forgotten our flight from the Cylons. The beauty and wiles of Carillon hold our people spellbound.
Colonel Tigh: You wanted to see me?
Commander Adama: I've been sitting here for yahrens, it seems, examining our military intelligence on this Carillon outpost.
Colonel Tigh: I didn't think we had any beyond the exploration for fighter fuel.
Commander Adama: That's the disquieting part. It was Baltar's people who engineered that expedition, and declared the Tylium too minimal for mining. And our military intelligence is based on that report.
Colonel Tigh: And now we find one of the largest Tylium mines in the star system.
Commander Adama: Exactly. So the mystery is, who's behind such a huge remote mining operation? There's no local food source to feed their laborers. They must be bringing it from who knows how far?
Colonel Tigh: They have plenty to share. Some of our people are getting right down obese.
Commander Adama: Yes. And there's another mystery. There seems to be no connection between the Ovion workers underground and the resort on the surface, and yet there must be some connection.
Colonel Tigh: Do you suspect a tie-in with the Cylon Empire?
Commander Adama: Where Baltar's involved, I suppose I suspect everything. You've had no reports of anything odd, out of the ordinary?
Colonel Tigh: No, sir. The people are having the time of their lives.
Starbuck: Uh, I've got this hot streak goin' here, and–
Athena: [with false brightness] Oh, I see!
Cassiopeia: Yes, I do, too. Well, have a good time, you two. And... [proving that "socialator" is a Colonial euphemism for "high-class prostitute"] ...next time, it's at office rates, Lieutenant.
Sire Uri: What I propose, instead, is that we now appeal for justice and mercy.
Commander Adama: [clearly surprised] Justice? Justice from the Cylons? Is that what you actually said? Gentlemen, they'd told us that they will not stop until every human has been exterminated. Now why should they believe we are now willing to accept that which we have always found unacceptable – to live under Cylon rule?
Sire Uri: Because we would destroy our arms to prove we are willing to live in peace.
Commander Adama: Destroy our only means of defense?!
Sire Uri: Or attack. May I remind my brothers that we did not have conflict with the Cylons until we intervened in their relations with other nations?
Commander Adama: Yes. Yes, you are right. We did not come into conflict with the Cylons until we helped our neighbors, whom the Cylons wished to enslave. And until we helped the Hasaris get back their nation, taken by force by the Cylons.
Sire Uri: Correct. But if we mind our own business, there's every reason to believe that the Cylons will leave us alone... permanently.
Commander Adama: If you've all come to this Council to turn your backs on the principles of our fathers and the Lords of Kobol, from whom all colonies evolved, you do so with my utter contempt.
Ovion Insectoid: [in Ovion language] The humans are in full attendance.
Cylon Centurion: How many warriors?
Ovion Insectoid: [in Ovion language] We have counted over 200.
Cylon Centurion: Nearly their full complement of warriors. See that the humans remain entertained until the end. Then they will be yours in the lower chambers.
[Apollo and Starbuck spot Cylon centurions escorting the Ovion queen Lotay within the deep bowels of Carillon]
Lieutenant Starbuck: [in hushed tones] Me and my big mouth.
Captain Apollo: Well, at least we know the secret of Carillon. Let's get out of here.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Wait. You go.
Captain Apollo: What are you talking about?
Lieutenant Starbuck: We still don't know the connection between the casino and this mining operation. For all we know, they could be supplying half their fuel to the Cylon empire. We just can't leave it fully operational.
Captain Apollo: We've got our entire population up on top. That includes women and children!
Lieutenant Starbuck: Look, you go. I won't do anything until you've had a chance to get away.
Captain Apollo: What can you do all by yourself?
Lieutenant Starbuck: Look, this whole planet is loaded with Tylium. If I can ignite it with my laser, it will blow the entire planet apart.
Captain Apollo: Starbuck, I can't leave you down here. You'll never get out alive.
Lieutenant Starbuck: You don't have a choice.
Captain Apollo: Starbuck, I had to leave Zac behind. I'm not leaving you, too. You go up and I'll set fire to the Tylum.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Apollo, by the time we get through arguing about this, it'll be—
Captain Apollo: [noticing the elevator activating] Shh! Someone's coming.
Boxey: [runs out of the elevator behind a Cylon centurion] Muffit...! [The centurion unsheathes his sword to behead him]
Captain Apollo: [firing at the centurion] Run, Boxey, run!
Sire Uri: ...an opportunity to throw down our arms and prove once and for all that peace begets peace, and love begets love. And so I—
Captain Apollo: [bursting into Sire Uri's celebration, firing his blaster to get everyone's attention] Everybody listen to me! I want everyone to move quickly and orderly toward the exits! That is an order!
Sire Uri: Stay where you are! I am in charge here! [The elevator doors open and armed Cylon centurions march in and open fire] Do as the man says! He's in— [a Cylon laser rifle burst forces him to run]
Cylon Centurion: The warriors continue to advance, at least six squadrons.
The Imperious Leader: Recall all raiders to defend base ship!
Cylon Centurion: Our raiders are all destroyed.
The Imperious Leader: All destroyed? How? We took them by surprise.
Cylon Centurion: Apparently it was not as big a surprise as we had hoped for.
The Imperious Leader: Retreat closer to Carillon! Below their scanners!
Cylon Centurion: There are reports of fires on Carillon. It is dangerous to move closer.
The Imperious Leader: I said lower! Or they will destroy us!
Cylon Centurion: By your command.
[Two centurions drag Baltar into the High Throne Chamber of the Imperious Leader]
The Imperious Leader: You are Baltar?
Baltar: [chuckles] It's as if you don't remember, hmm?
The Imperious Leader: My predecessor has left me with a difficult choice.
Baltar: Your... predecessor?
The Imperious Leader: Was destroyed by your peers. A foolish miscalculation of the will of your people.
Baltar: I... I tried to warn him! I... I could've helped! I could've prevented his...!
The Imperious Leader: Yes. I have examined your epistle suggesting you would be able to locate the humans.
Baltar: Why, yes. Oh, yes. I... I think as they do. I... I know where they will go, what they must do...
The Imperious Leader: I find your reasoning logical.
Baltar: Then... I am to be...
The Imperious Leader: Spared.
Baltar: To serve the Empire!
The Imperious Leader: No. To serve your people. To help us extend the hand of truce.
Baltar: Truce?
The Imperious Leader: My predecessor was programmed at a time when our Empire was less capable of tolerance. Now that we are omnipotent, we can afford to be more charitable. You will explain my policy of good will. I have spared you. I will spare them.
Baltar: They are... not likely to be receptive.
The Imperious Leader: I will send with you a base star, entirely under your command. Lucifer!

Lost Planet of the Gods, Part 1

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The Imperious Leader: I have examined your epistle suggesting you would be able to locate the humans.
Baltar: Why, yes. Oh, yes. I... I think as they do. I... I know where they will go, what they must do...
The Imperious Leader: I find your reasoning logical.
Baltar: Then... I am to be...
The Imperious Leader: Spared.
Baltar: To serve the Empire!
The Imperious Leader: Lucifer! [Lucifer approaches the Imperious Leader and stands next to Baltar] I'm sending you a base ship entirely under your command.
Lucifer: [walking with Baltar] It will be my pleasure, Baltar. I think I can assure you, with some sense of pride, you will inherit the most capable Centurions in all the Empire.
Colonel Tigh: There's only one thing worse than lifting rations from the officer's mess! Do you know what that is, Sergeant?
Sergeant Greenbean: No, sir.
Colonel Tigh: It's getting caught lifting rations from the officer's mess. Do I make myself clear?
Sergeant Greenbean: Yes, sir.
Colonel Tigh: Good. Captain Apollo and Lieutenant Starbuck should be returning from their patrol anytime now. Let's see to it that things are in full swing.
Colonel Tigh: With Captain Apollo and Lieutenant Starbuck returning late from patrol, I was calling in to extend the curfew. But if you men are going to get falling down drunk...
Lieutenant Boomer: I am not drunk, sir. I just got a little... dizzy.
Colonel Tigh: Anymore... dizziness, and I'll send everyone back to quarters! Understood?
Lieutenant Boomer: Yes, sir.
Captain Apollo: Serina, we're about to be married!
Serina: What does that have to do with it? Your own sister's a pilot. And a warrior.
Captain Apollo: She's my sister, not my wife to be!
Baltar: [to Lucifer] Do not fence with me, my friend. Everything is still proceeding according to my plan, except you have not captured one of their pilots, as I ordered.
Lucifer: To assure such a capture, we would have to risk being discovered. You ordered us out of the Galactica‍'‍s scanner range.
Baltar: They send out patrols, do they not? Capture one!

Lost Planet of the Gods, Part 2

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Baltar: Lieutenant Starbuck. How nice of you to drop in.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Baltar! I'd trade my life for one shot at you.
Baltar: You will come to understand that I had nothing to do with the defeat of the Colonies. I, too, was a victim.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Yeah. You look like one.
Baltar: Fortunately, there have been some changes in the Cylon Empire, changes favorable to humans and their predicament.
Lieutenant Starbuck: You'd know a lot about that.
Baltar: Don't antagonize me. I come to bring an offer of peace to all humans. There people here are our friends.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Really? Then you won't mind my leaving with the good news.
Baltar: In time. [to a Cylon Centurion] Remove him. See that he's fed and made comfortable.
Lieutenant Starbuck: I just want you to know that torture won't do you any good. I had a course in resisting. [The Cylon Centurion forces him to start walking] Hey, careful. I bruise. Easy.
[Commander Adama, Captain Apollo and Serina are exploring the ancient ruins on the planet Kobol]
Serina: I wonder what the city was called.
Commander Adama: There were many cities here on Kobol. Eden was the largest. It was the first to fall. This... this might be it. I don't know.
Captain Apollo: I can't read any of it.
Commander Adama: I know. It's difficult. But I've been spending so much time with the old records. For example, that... that refers to the ninth Lord of Kobol. That's his seal. He was the last ruler before the thirteen tribes migrated to the stars.
Serina: Twelve to settle our Colonies.
Captain Apollo: That's why you entered the void. You think you can find a clue to where the Thirteenth Tribe went!
Commander Adama: Yes.
Baltar: I know exactly how you feel, old friend.
Commander Adama: Baltar. [rushes at Baltar, puts his hands around his neck and tries to strangle him]
Captain Apollo: [comes between Baltar and Commander Adama and separates the two] No, Father! Leave him to the Council!
Baltar: You almost killed me! What is this madness?
Captain Apollo: [removes Baltar's pistol] You need to ask?! Selling out your own flesh and blood?!
Baltar: Selling out?!! What has he told you? What great truths has Adama spoken to my back?
Captain Apollo: You mean to say you didn't arrange the destruction of our Fleet, our cities, almost every living thing in the Colonies?!
Baltar: Are you completely mad?! What sane human being would do a thing like that? Adama, surely you could not have supported such lies! How could you think of me so evil? I, too, hold the seal of the Lords, and a member of the Council of Twelve! I was as much a victim as any of you. I lost everything. My family, my people. I was trapped between the President's Battlestar and my own. Captured by the Cylons, taken away like an animal, to face trial!
Serina: Apparently, they found you innocent. A friend of the Cylons!
Baltar: No. I was spared to lure you into another trap through a message of peace from some new benevolent Cylon ruler.
Commander Adama: Get him out!
Baltar: Adama, wait! You must hear me out. I have been to the Cylon seat of power. It is in chaos. The Cylon forces are searching for you throughout the star system. The route back into the Cylon Empire is barely defended. One single Battlestar could take control of the Empire and bring it to its knees!
Commander Adama: You have the tongue of an angel and the soul of a serpent!
Baltar: I can prove my good intentions, that I have the power to lead you back into Cylon, supposedly as my prisoners, but, in actuality, to launch a counterattack against those demons.
Captain Apollo: What proof?
Baltar: The release of one of your officers. Lieutenant Starbuck.
Serina: He's alive!
Baltar: Let me show you!
Commander Adama: At what price? Remove him, Apollo!
Captain Apollo: Father, what if he can prove what he's saying?
Commander Adama: If they've sent him, then it is a trap.
Baltar: Then why haven't they attacked?!
Commander Adama: I cannot tell you. But our safety is not behind us with you or the Cylons. It lies somewhere out there along the path taken by the Thirteenth Tribe. The tribe that colonized the planet Earth.
Baltar: Earth?! You can't be serious. That's nothing but a fable.
Commander Adama: I believe it is as real as the existence of the Thirteenth Tribe. And the key to that tribe is here in this place, locked away somewhere. I'm certain of it.
Baltar: Adama, listen to reason. You could drift forever in search of what? A planet that may be the myth of half-drunken star lords who came back to die here? We could all die here! Unless I give the appearance that I've delivered you. We must attack and seize power. It will take them completely by surprise.
Commander Adama: I trusted you once!
Baltar: I cannot stay here too long before my machine friends will become nervous and do something rash.
Commander Adama: Serina! Apollo! This is what we came for. This is a record of the mass exodus. The final departure of the first twelve tribes, the ones which eventually became the Colonies we knew. And here, the last days, the final days of Kobol. It tells of the Thirteenth Tribe.
Captain Apollo: Can you tell where they went?
[Cylon raiders fire a killer laser burst that explodes the pyramids and collapses the temple around everyone]
Captain Apollo: [as everyone is coughing profusely] The... the door, it's been blasted open!
Commander Adama: [despondent] The writings!
Baltar: Forget the writings!
Commander Adama: They're disintegrated; they're gone!
Baltar: Help me!
Baltar: Lucifer! I'll tear you apart, limb from limb, circuit by circuit, so help me! Mark my words, Adama! You have not heard the last of Baltar!

The Lost Warrior

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The Long Patrol

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The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part 1

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[Starbuck and Boomer take accounting of the four ex warriors freed from the Prison Barge]
Lieutenant Starbuck: Croft, garrison commander on the ice plant Kalpa. Four of them raided a Cylon outpost.
Lieutenant Boomer: There's nothing illegal about that.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Not a military operation. Armed robbery. They'd plundered a Cylon Platinum mine. Wouldn't surrender the bounty to the Colonial commander.
Croft: He didn't go in under Cylon guns, so he didn't deserve any part of it.

The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part 2

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Doctor Ravoshol: Before you came everything was in its proper place! Planners to think, workers to work!
Captain Apollo: I've got news for you, Doctor! Your workers are thinking...and breeding!

The Magnificent Warriors

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Commander Adama: Equally important to our quest for food seed, the planet, our advanced scouts located, supports a small band of human inhabitants. Perhaps they're the remnants of pioneers who set our yahrens ago from our own Colonies. Or even more hopefully, they might be descendants of the Thirteenth Tribe, those elusive brothers of man whose trail might lead us to the planet Earth.

The Young Lords

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The Living Legend, Part 1

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Lieutenant Sheba: You will maintain silence until we land aboard the Battlestar Pegasus.
Captain Apollo: Pegasus?! But that's just not possible!
Lieutenant Starbuck: Do you know whose ship that was?
Captain Apollo: Cain, the greatest military commander who ever lived. He was my idol!
Commander Cain: When it was clear that the Fifth Fleet was destroyed, I took every survivor I could aboard the Pegasus and headed straight for Gomoray, a most remote supply base. We've been living off them ever since.
Commander Adama: Incredible. If they control Gomoray, they wield power across half the Universe.
Commander Cain: The only thing I've been able to do is keep knocking that base down so they can't get a good full strike at me, but what I'd never been able to figure out is why they didn't send a force of base ships to finish us off. It's clear now why they didn't.
Commander Adama: Yes. The Galactica.

The Living Legend, Part 2

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Fire in Space

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War of the Gods, Part 1

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Commander Adama: Word of the mysterious stranger has swept through the fleet. His promises are giving our people their first real hope. And yet his presence, his unwillingness to submit to routine medical procedures, leaves me with grave doubts about his integrity or his ability to fulfill his bold promises. However, another major disappointment in the lives of our beleaguered survivors might spell the end of our journey or my ability to maintain order. The possibility of hope must be sustained.
Commander Adama: Though our pilots have been missing for a secton, spirits throughout the fleet remain inordinately high due to the presence of Count Iblis and his nightly feats of magic and promise. Is he our deliverer? Or...I don't know which way to turn.
Commander Adama: This is an event unlike any we've experienced since the destruction of our civilization. Baltar's ship has reached our quadrant and is being intercepted by an elite squadron which will escort the treasonous instrument of our holocaust directly into our hands. Word is spreading like sunbursts through every corner of the fleet. It is a jubilation unprecedented as Baltar is brought before the Council of Twelve. It is just as Count Iblis promised. Our enemy has been delivered.

War of the Gods, Part 2

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Count Iblis: Sit, Baltar. Do not pace.
Baltar: You. You!
Count Iblis: Sit, old friend.
Baltar: I will not! And you cannot ever again force me to do anything. I know you! I remember that voice.
Count Iblis: Do you?
Baltar: The voice of the Cylon Imperious Leader.
Count Iblis: But the Cylons are machines.
Baltar: Yes...now. But once they were a race of beings who allowed themselves to be overcome by their own technology.
Count Iblis: And when did this happen?
Baltar: A thousand yahrens ago. At the onset of the thousand yahren war against humans.
Count Iblis: Then my voice would have to have been transcribed into a machine leader a thousand yahrens ago. I'd have to be a thousand yahrens old. Do not fear, my friend. All is not lost.
(Iblis leaves the warriors' chamber after threatening to arrest them for not launching amid the return of the ships of light)
Commander Adama: (angrilly following Iblis) Iblis!! Who is attacking us? What are they? What are you?!
Count Iblis: I have told you all you are capable of comprehending.
Commander Adama: For a man of such remarkable powers, you show very grave concern for those light forces observing us so closely.
Count Iblis: They, too, are from my dominion.
Commander Adama: Then why do you fear them?
Count Iblis: I fear no man, no creature.
Commander Adama: (a sneer of growing disbelief in his voice) Not even God?
Count Iblis: (clearly wounded by Adama's tone) What do you primitive children know of what you call God?!
Commander Adama: Only that we have been given laws which cannot be broken by any man or creature.
Count Iblis: Those laws do not apply to me.
Commander Adama: I wonder.
[Captain Apollo enters Adama's quarters and is shocked to see him use his psychokinetic powers on a small object]
Captain Apollo: How did you do that?
Commander Adama: It's impolite not to make your presence known.
Captain Apollo: I think I've finally discovered how Count Iblis has been doing these miracles and then I see you do this.
Commander Adama: This was not a miracle. This is a simple test of mind over matter, long a key study of our military institute. I remember I used to drive your mother mad by bending eating utensils until she made me stop the practice.
Captain Apollo: How come I never knew?
Commander Adama: It was before you were born. It was in my early days at the institute, a special program, strictly a military study. Our life expectancy now, Cylons not withstanding, is about two hundred yahrens. We're just beginning to utilize some portion of our brains' incredible potential. Now imagine. Imagine if you will, a race of beings whose life expectancy is thousands of yahrens. A race of that kind would certainly have learned to do what we would consider to be miraculous things.
Captain Apollo: That's what you think we're dealing with here? With Count Iblis and these strange lights?
Commander Adama: No, not lights. The ancient Lords, who first settled on Kobol, spoke of visitations from what they, in their primitive way, referred to as angels.
Captain Apollo: Angels?
Commander Adama: Think of them as custodians of the universe. Advanced beings, very highly advanced, whose mandate it is to make certain that their powers are never abused by anyone of their own kind.
Captain Apollo: And they're watching him. Meaning he's one of them.
Commander Adama: Or was. Now the key, I believe, is to be found in that crashed ship where you discovered Iblis.
Captain Apollo: That's just what I thought.
Commander Adama: Now you couldn't examine your ship because of radion levels.
Captain Apollo: But with special equipment...
Commander Adama: All right. Now...I want you go to back there...alone. You mustn't tell anyone of this. And you must forget this conversation. Iblis will pick out your thoughts easily.
Captain Apollo: I understand.
Commander Adama: I hope so. This could be the most important mission of your life.
Captain Apollo: If you run into the Count, he'll know where I've gone.
Commander Adama: I'll crowd my mind with other thoughts. That, too, was part of the institute's investigation into telepathy.
Captain Apollo: How is it after all this time I'm still learning things about my own father?
Commander Adama: How is it after all this time I'm still learning things about my own son?
Commander Adama: I left orders that I was not to be disturbed.
Count Iblis: You have sent your son in search of my identity.
Commander Adama: You told us your identity.
Count Iblis: When a mortal breaks a bargain with me, there is a high price to be paid.
Commander Adama: I don't believe in you, Count Iblis, as did those poor souls who were destroyed on your ship on the planet. They followed you and they paid the price.
Count Iblis: There is a price that you will pay: a life more meaningful to you than your own.
Count Iblis: [referring to Lieutenant Sheba] Let her go! I command it!!
Captain Apollo: You command no one who does not willingly give you dominion! You have no power over me!
Count Iblis: (sensing danger for the first time) You know who I am.
Captain Apollo: Yes, I finally know.
Count Iblis: I will give you one more chance before I strike her down.
(Apollo suddenly shoots Iblis, who glows a sickly bluish red and reveals his true, malevolent, form before reverting to human form)
Count Iblis: (referring to Sheba) Death to her, Apollo. (gets ready to strike Sheba down) May her soul curse you through eternity! (Apollo suddenly rushes in between Sheba and Count Iblis and takes the full force of Iblis' power. Apollo falls down, dead)
[as the orbs of light appear overhead yet again]
Lieutenant Starbuck: What is it? What's wrong, Count?
Count Iblis: Nothing's wrong.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Then why do you look so worried? Did you break some kind of rule?
Count Iblis: It's time for me to go.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Why? What happened? Was it within your dominion to strike down a follower? A soul given to you freely, but not an innocent? A spirit whose life you took against his will?!!
Count Iblis: No one has dominion over me!!
Lieutenant Sheba: I wonder.
Count Iblis: I am not finished with you mortals. There will come another time, another place. And we will meet again.

The Man with Nine Lives

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Commander Adama: It has been twelve sectons since Baltar's surrender and our encounter with the advanced race, the mysterious ones who gave us coordinates which presumably would guide us to the planet Earth. No reference of time seems apparent in the curious directions so it's impossible to know whether we can expect to find Earth tomorrow or many yahrens from now. But our scouts have located increased signs of the trail taken by our ancestors, the Thirteenth Tribe. In my heart, I feel we are getting close. Celebrations are everywhere. Our people's expectations grow with every passing centar. We've given our weary combat pilots time for leisure and rejuvenation. Food, water and hope.

Murder on the Rising Star

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Commander Adama: Our scouts have sent back word of yet another planet among the coordinates given to us by our mysterious super race. More and more often, the planets we come across bear signs of the lost Thirteenth Tribe. We are getting closer to Earth. And once we have plotted her precise location, we will carefully formulate a plan for observing and sampling her culture. Too sudden an appearance from their relations in space could send our sister world into a wave of culture shock from which she might never recover. And are the inhabitants of Earth far in advance of us in their development or merely primitive animals fallen from a greater time? I feel we will soon know.

Greetings from Earth

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Commander Adama: By the good graces of the Lords of Kobol, the Galactica continues to lead her flock of survivors towards the coordinates, given us by those great white lights that vanished as mysteriously as they first appeared. There are those who speculate that those lights, advanced ships really, might have come from Earth, giving us great hope that they have a highly developed technology. Even now, our long range scouts patrol the quadrants, watching for signs that indicate we are drawing close.
Captain Apollo: I want you to discontinue your work at once.
Doctor Wilker: Captain, I'm afraid you don't have the authority to–
Captain Apollo: I'm not asking you; I'm ordering you out of the ship!
Security Officer Reese: Halt!! In the name of the Council, I order you to stop!!
Lieutenant Boomer: Don't fire into that ship! You'll take out the whole landing bay! You are in trouble, officer!
Commander Adama: The ships have been gone for almost a secton now, and still no word. The Council has asked me to appear before them for an inquiry.

Baltar's Escape

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Commander Adama: Since the return of our warriors with prisoners from the Alliance of the planet Terra, the fleet has been in a state of constant confusion. If this Terra is the planet Earth it is we seek, our flight across the universe may have been in vain. For we will have eluded the Cylons only to be faced by an equally oppressive human enemy. As usual, of late, the Council, led by Sire Domra, is in total opposition to me. They wish to release the prisoners and have an unarmed peace envoy return with them to their outpost on Lunar Seven. I am afraid that the Council is bent on repeating the mistakes that led to the destruction of our Colonies at the hands of the Cylons. I am determined that shall not happen again so long as I am in command. In the meantime, I have ordered the fleet to full alert while I shuttle to the prison barge to interrogate personally those Eastern Alliance enforcers.
[Baltar is talking to the Borellian Nomen about the Eastern Alliance soldiers aboard the prison barge]
Baltar: You see those prisoners behind you? They are from an alliance which, in this corner of the universe, may be as powerful as my Cylon friends. They are going to be transferred to the Galactica.
Maga: And how do you know this?
Baltar: I have my sources. When the shuttle comes for those prisoners, we will make our break, take the shuttle, and escape.
Maga: And what of the Vipers?
Baltar: I have a plan to deal with them. When we reach the Alliance, I'll be welcomed with open arms. For I know the Galactica, her strengths, her weaknesses, and most important, her Commander, Adama. I'll be treated like a prince. And so will those who are with me.
Maga: Your record to date does not exactly inspire confidence.
Baltar: I had incompetent followers.
Maga: We do not follow, Baltar.
Baltar: Oh, no. No, no. Of course not. We're all comrades... in this together.
Maga: Good. When the time comes to escape, we will momentarily die.
Baltar: Die?!
Maga: We do many things to survive... even die.
Colonel Tigh: Commander, if you'll excuse me, my duty period was up over a centar ago. I need some air.
Siress Tinia: Colonel, if you decide to take your air on the landing bay, or order any warriors there, I will view it as an act of insubordination!
Colonel Tigh: Do I have the Siress's permission to retire to the Officer's Club?
Siress Tinia: You may go anywhere you wish, Colonel, as long as it is not the landing bay!
Baltar: The micron the hatch opens, you and your men will eliminate all guards. Take as many hostages as possible.
Commandant Leiter: Don't worry. We are very good at such operations.
Baltar: I'm sure you are. Maga, you and your Nomen follow me to the lift. We can be on the bridge in a matter of microns.
Maga: And once we control the bridge...
Baltar: We control the Galactica!
Commander Adama: Tigh, attack now!
Colonel Tigh: Adama, no time to explain. Launch at once! Repeat, launch at once!
Commander Adama: It won't work!
Colonel Tigh: Adama! I'm in command! LAUNCH!!

Experiment in Terra

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Commander Adama: It is now seven sectars since the escape of our captives, numbering amongst them, a group of Nomen and the dangerous soldiers from the Eastern Alliance, whose ominous destroyers apparently cruise these skies in search of any opposition to their political will. I have a recon patrol launched to track the escaping destroyer to its base on Lunar Seven. Once located, we can assess the strength of the Alliance on the outpost and determine our next step.

Take the Celestra

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Commander Adama: Morale continues to rise, due in part of the number of habitable planets we encounter and the reintroduction of amenities we enjoyed before the destruction of the Colonies. Once again, although on a limited scale, we are able to partake of music and the theater and when the occasion warrants, even indulge in ceremony.
Commander Adama: And only a short while after we gathered to honor Commander Kronus in duty, so must we now gather again to honor him in death. Let us remember him not only as a warrior who died heroically in conflict, but as a man who lived in pursuit of excellence. Now we return this warrior to the cradle of space.

The Hand of God

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Lieutenant Starbuck: I'm picking up something. Just rising on the back side of the planet. Oh, no. No!
Captain Apollo: Starbuck?
Lieutenant Starbuck: Get out of here! It's a Cylon base star!
Colonel Tigh: [referring to the Cylon base star] She has 300 fighters, carries two long-range mega-pulsars here, and here, and over 100 laser turrets. She's an orbiting killer, capable of destroying every ship we have, including the Galactica.
Baltar: Good luck! [To Adama's incredulous/cynical look] If they don't succeed, I die, too.
Lieutenant Sheba: Who picked you for this mission?
Captain Apollo: I did.
Lieutenant Sheba: You really want to get yourself killed, don't you?
Captain Apollo: What's that supposed to mean?
Lieutenant Sheba: Ever since you lost Serina, you've taken every high-risk mission.
Captain Apollo: Serina has nothing to do with it.
Lieutenant Sheba: She was a very lovely woman, Apollo. But she's dead.
Captain Apollo: Look, can we just drop this?
Lieutenant Sheba: No, we can't just drop it! [tearful] You think you have the corner on loneliness here?! I'm sorry.
Captain Apollo: It's all right.
Lieutenant Sheba: I guess we've been at each other's throats ever since we met.
Captain Apollo: Yeah, I guess we have.
Lieutenant Sheba: Except for lately. You've included me in your tight little circle of friends, and I appreciate that, Apollo.
Captain Apollo: Yeah; well, I realized I'd been a little hard on you.
Lieutenant Sheba: Did you ever think about the fact that maybe two people who snap at each other for no reason are doing it to avoid their real feelings? I've thought about it quite a bit. [kisses Apollo] Be careful.
Lieutenant Starbuck: You still don't think that transmission was a lure, do you?
Captain Apollo: No. Only now, we'll never know. Wilker's lab was destroyed in the battle and the recording with it.
Lieutenant Starbuck: So you're waiting here for another transmission.
Captain Apollo: Yeah. Boomer rigged a gamma signal booster. If anything's out there, I should pick it up.
Lieutenant Starbuck: [realizing] You – think it came from Earth, don't you?
Captain Apollo: I hope it did. Our first contact should be a transmission, something similar to what we saw.
Lieutenant Starbuck: Just looked like an old spacecraft on a routine run to me.
Captain Apollo: [chuckling] Well, what would you expect, a momentous message? No, we'll just pick up routine radio or video scans. Nothing extraordinary... to them, anyway.
Captain Apollo: They're really gonna give us a medal?
Lieutenant Starbuck: Did I say us? I think they're just decorating me!
Voice of Neil Armstrong: Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

Taglines

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  • There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man, who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens.
  • Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar Galactica leads a rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest... a shining planet known as Earth.
    • Commander Adama

About

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  • Asimov: Well, I liked Star Wars. I thought Battlestar Galactica was such a close imitation of Star Wars, emphasizing the less attractive portions, that I was a little impatient with it.
  • Asimov: Battlestar Galactica for instance, started off with twenty to thirty minutes of space battles which looked exactly like air battles in World War I. You could swear that the space ships were surrounded by air the way the maneuvered. One felt it was unworthy.
SWA Magazine: The Vipers in Battlestar Galactica look like jets. Is this a realistic design for the future?
Asimov: It is as if people in the 1880s were writing fantasy stories about airplanes of the future and they had the pilots lean back at the wheel and yell "whoa" and the airplane came to a halt in mid-air.
  • I was vested emotionally in Battlestar, I really loved the thematic things. I don’t feel it really got its shot, and I can’t blame anyone else, I was at the center of that.
But circumstances weren’t in our favor to be able to make it cheaper or to insist we make two of three two-hour movies [instead of a weekly one-hour series] to get our sea legs.
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