Battlestar Galactica: An Overview

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

I'm your driver for this month's small fandom: Battlestar Galactica. Actually, we have a two-for-one deal this month. As you may be aware, there are two versions of Battlestar Galactica (the original series from 1978, and the new series which is currently screening), and so the crack_van mods very kindly let me convince them to pimp both fandoms at the same time.

The following manifesto gives a brief overview of the premise and main characters of both versions of BSG, but only contains spoilers for the initial movie (for BSG78) and mini-series (for BSG03). That's mainly because I'm a bit of a spoiler-phobe, and here in Australia we've barely seen any of the new BSG yet. However, I've linked to episode guides at the bottom of this page, so if you're less spoiler-phobic than I am you can get your fix there. I'll update this entry at the end of the month.

Battlestar Galactica 1978

It begins with a surprise attack: the twelve planets colonised by humans are taken out simultaneously by an army of sentient robots, the cylons. It isn't clear why the cylons hate humanity so much, but it is absolutely clear that they won't stop fighting until every last human is dead.

There are some survivors of the initial attack on the Colonies, small groups of people stranded on the devastated planets. They are mostly defenseless civilians, easy for the cylons to pick off in attack after attack, until humanity is extinct.

Then... a last hope. Thanks to the vigilance of Commander Adama, one battlestar—the Colonies' ultimate space-based weapons platform—escaped the initial Destruction. Its name is Battlestar Galactica.

The Galactica launches a rescue mission, rounding up as many survivors as possible, placing them on whatever spaceships are available. Then, under the protection of the Galactica's massive weapons and skilled viper pilots, this rag-tag fleet successfully makes a dash for the safety of deep space.

But the cylons have not given up. They will keep on searching for the Galactica, no matter how long it takes.

And so begins the story of humanity's search for a new home, or, rather, for their old home: the mythical thirteenth colony known as Earth.


Regular Cast

Despite the grand scale of the premise, both versions of Battlestar Galactica are strongly focused on family relationships, primarily Adama's.

Commander Adama - Lorne Greene

Adama is the commander of the Galactica and the head of a noble Caprican house. His wife, Ila, was killed on Caprica during the Destruction, and his youngest son, Zac, was a viper pilot killed in action. His surviving children, Apollo and Athena, both serve on the Galactica.

Capt. Apollo - Richard Hatch

Apollo is the Strike Captain of the Galactica, in charge of co-ordinating the viper pilots. His best friends are Starbuck and Boomer. He married Serina just after the Destruction, but she was killed in action shortly thereafter. He's guardian to her son, Boxey.

Lt. Starbuck - Dirk Benedict

As his name implies, Starbuck is a galactic playboy of epic proportions. He drinks, gambles, has incredible luck as a pilot, and there's barely a woman in the fleet he hasn't got a romantic past with. He is totally devoted to Apollo, to the point that he offers his life in exchange for Apollo's when God-like beings cause his death (fortunately for slash writers, he's rejected, but Apollo is restored anyway).

Baltar - John Colicos
The traitor.

Col. Tigh - Terry Carter
Second-in-command of the Galactica.

Lt. Boomer - Herb Jefferson Jr.
A viper pilot, and friend to Apollo and Starbuck.

Athena - Maren Jensen
Serves on the Bridge, and is pretty much a token female. Athena is the daughter of Adama and sister to Apollo. She has a romantic history with Starbuck (and as she looks quite amazingly like Apollo, this is rather suggestive).

Boxey - Noah Hathaway
Apollo's son. Has an appalling pet robot called Muffit.

Cassiopea - Laurette Spang
Former "socialator" (read: prostitute), who becomes a medical technician aboard the Galactica. Also has a history with Starbuck.

Flight Sgt. Jolly - Tony Swartz
A viper pilot.


Additional Characters
Serina - Jane Seymour (reporter and viper pilot, mother of Boxey, Apollo's wife)
Zac - Rick Springfield (viper pilot, Adama's youngest son, sibling to Athena and Apollo)
Sheba - Anne Lockhart (a viper pilot interested in Apollo, and yet another token woman who tends to be vilified in fanfic)
Imperious Leader (chief cylon)
The Council (the Fleet's governing body, often in conflict with Adama)
Muffit the Daggit (Boxey’s robot dog)

Battlestar Galactica 2003

The premise is almost identical, but the details have changed in the most fascinating way. The new Battlestar Galactica is like an Alternate Universe of the original. In particular, the sexual and racial politics are much more sophisticated in this re-telling of the story.

The most important changes are in the characters, as detailed below, but there is one alteration of the premise which is worth mentioning. In BSG2003, the cylons are not a mysterious deux-ex-machina, but rather, the creation of humans. Consequently, their motives in trying to eradicate humanity are more understandable, and much more psychologically and philosophically interesting. There are now two types of cylons: the traditional metallic robots, and newer organic androids—created by the cylons themselves—which can pass as human.

The melodramatic character names of the original show are now used as military call signs for those on duty. So, for instance, the call sign "Apollo" belongs to the Chief of Air Group (CAG), Captain Lee Adama.


The Regular Cast

Commander William Adama (Husker) - Edward James Olmos

Adama is the commander of the about-to-be-decommissioned Galactica. He and his son, Lee, have a strained relationship, with much bitter feeling between them. Adama is also the ex-husband of Ila (who was killed in the Destruction), and father of Zack (who was killed two years before the Destruction in a viper accident).

President Laura Roslin - Mary McDonnell

Roslin is a former school teacher who was 43rd in line to the Presidency when the Destruction occurred. She was the highest ranking survivor and was inaugurated on the shuttle, Colonial One, just before the formation of the Fleet.

Dr. Gaius Baltar - James Callis

The traitor. Baltar is a programming genius who inadvertently gave the cylons access to the software used in all the newest military computers. He has frequent visions of the cylon, Six, which may or may not be due to an implanted chip.

Number Six - Tricia Helfer

Chief cylon protagonist and lover of Baltar. When individual cylon units of her model-type die, their memories are uploaded to a cylon base and reinstalled into a new unit.

Capt. Lee Adama (Apollo) - Jamie Bamber

He's the Chief of Air Group (CAG), responsible for co-ordinating the viper pilots. He's also the son of the Commander, and friend of Kara, with whom he shares considerable sexual tension.

Lt. Kara Thrace (Starbuck) - Katee Sackhoff

Kara is the best viper pilot on the Galactica. She was engaged to Zack Adama, and feels guilty for his death as she was his flight instructor. She's something of a wildcard, liking to gamble and smoke cigars and punch superior officers. She has a close relationship with William Adama, a more fraught one with Lee Adama, and despises Tigh.

Lt. Sharon Valerii (Boomer) - Grace Park

Boomer is the pilot of the long-range scout ship, and is also possibly a cylon. She's the lover of Tyrol, and has informally adopted Boxey.

Col. Saul Tigh - Michael Hogan

Second in command of the Galactica, an alcoholic, and something of a tough old bastard.


Additional Characters

I will update this list at the end of the month. To date (in Australia), we have:

CPO Tyrol - Aaron Douglas (chief technician in charge of viper maintenance)
Billy Keikeya - Paul Campbell (assistant to the President)
PO Dee Dualla - Kandyse McClure (a Bridge officer)
Lt. Karl Agathon (Helo) - Tahmoh Penikett (work partner of Boomer, who was left behind on Caprica during a post-Destruction mission)
Crewman Cally - Nicki Clyne (a viper technician)
Boxey - Connor Widdows (a survivor rescued from Caprica by Boomer after the Destruction—his parents were left behind)
Tom Zarek - Richard Hatch (the actor who originally played Apollo in BSG78 is now playing a political prisoner/terrorist on the Prison Ship)
Lt. Gaeta - Alessandaro Juliani (Tactical Officer and assistant to Baltar)

Links

General
The Official Website
Episode Guide
galacticanews (daily news of BSG fandom)
rec_room (my rec community, which has a section devoted to BSG)

BSG 1978
By Your Command (slash archive)
ApolloLover (slash archive)
bsgslash (a new LiveJournal community)

BSG 2003
bsg_news (news about the show)
Unofficial Fanfiction Archive
The Automated Archive
Cylondreams.com
bsg2003fics (the main LiveJournal fiction community; the userinfo page has a good list of links)
galactica_vids (the main LiveJournal vid community)

Drive the Van
You can sign up for a turn driving for BSG here, and do your part to keep the Van on the road.

Comments

[plumtastic.livejournal.com]

The automated archive for the new series is located here (http://www.galacticafics.com).

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

The userinfo page for bsg2003fics has links to a bunch of other related LJ communities.

:-) Whee, BSG!!

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's a great list, isn't it? It was my starting point when I first went looking for BSG2003 links.

I <3 BSG so. Both versions.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

There's also galacticanews which is a digest/announcement community about the new Battlestar fandom. I haven't had time to add it to the links lists in the userinfo of bsg2003fics or bsg2003chatter yet.

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

Great minds! I just found it myself the other day, and have added it to my BSG manifesto.

Thanks for running such a useful comm. Makes life much easier!

[stopawhile.livejournal.com]

Great job! I'm looking forward to your recs.

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I hope you enjoy them :)

[twigged.livejournal.com]

Very nice, thank you!

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[(Anonymous)]

I just watched the 2003 miniseries with a friend of mine and loved the potential of it all to pieces. Having missed the first season entirely, in both original run and rerun, I'm still planning to tough my way through the season two premiere come this Friday (when it plays here in the States).

I was wondering, though, if you had any knowledge of where I could download at least a couple of the season one eps to catch up? I would be forever grateful, if so.

[dylant.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry. My name's Dylan. Forgot to log in on the post above.

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to reply. I've had sketchy internet access lately. I'm afraid I can't really help you either, as I'm out of date on good Torrent sites. I have no way to download something as big as that an episode at the moment. Normally I'd point you in the direction of vegetariansushi, as she's a real whizz with that kind of stuff, but she's ill at the moment. Your best bet is probably to make a request at one of the BSG chat livejournals, like bsg2003chatter.

Actually, if you do find a good source, I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me know. I'll include the information when I update the BSG manifesto.

Good luck!

[vegetariansushi.livejournal.com]

Ages and ages later, I was just reading through the comm info and came across this post. If anyone's hunting for eps, the best place at this point is mininova (http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=battlestar+galactica) -- that's a direct link to the search string. They look to have most of S1 and S2 still fairly well seeded; most of the other sites that I hit are either private sites or only have the most recent episode or two.

[vegetariansushi.livejournal.com]

This is so late, but I was just reading through the stuff on crack_van and came across your query about where to download S1 BSG2003. Your best bet at this point -- assuming that you've not found anything -- is to hit up mininova (http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=battlestar+galactica) -- that's a link direct to the search string. They look to have all of S1 and S2 available and reasonably well seeded, which is several steps ahead of most of the other sites at the moment.

Anyhow, I'd imagine that this is a moot point at this late date, but figured that I'd mention it justin case.

[ann-i-blessing.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. I like the new version of the series because it's a drama and it has monotheist androids and polytheist humans. Still no idea why the Cylons need to eradicate the "previous dispensation," but it's surely interesting. But don't let BSG's version of the media fool you (g), the President was Secretary of Education in the Colonial government, with the usual and necessary advanced degree in educational policy, not necessarily ever a teacher. But if your species is reduced to less than 50,000 people, I can't think of better qualifications to be in charge.

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for lthe comment. I'm glad the links were a useful starting point.

I love Roslin, and I agree we don't know enough about her, but that's part of the charm of the series, don't you think?

[ann-i-blessing.livejournal.com]

The first time we see Laura Roslin, she is being told she has breast cancer and it's too late to operate. *Then* the Colonies are attacked and she's no longer, what, eighteenth from the top, she *is* the top of the administration. Not balancing policy issues to position Colonial education where all the stakeholders feel heard and respected, but catapulted into responsibility for what might be the last humans alive, persuading and negotiating to keep the last battlestar with the remaining civilians instead of going out to die gloriously in battle. And now she's got this mythic religious-leader role to juggle with the practicality of finding a safe place in the face of diminishing resources to keep safe the people for whom she is responsible. And perhaps determine whether anyone besides the political prisoner would actually be suitable to succeed her. No romance with Cmdr Adama is going to happen here, but perhaps partnership to keep their people alive, and that can create a kind of trust and love, if not romance. So, yeah, I think she's one of the pivotal characters. Adama is equally strong and complex and interesting, and I have admired the actor playing the role, too. So I'm having a very good time. And remember what the Cylon android told President Roslin before he was blown out the airlock: Adama is a Cylon. Any thoughts about which Adama it is?

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

There's been a lot of discussion about the Adama men as cylons, especially Lee. I've avoided most of it because I don't want spoilers for season 2, but if you're interested you can find links at galacticanews.

[rignach.livejournal.com]

BSG 1978 - By Your Command archive has now a e-fiction based one at
http://www.bsgslash.com/index.php