Saturday Night Galactica ep 2

Battlestar Galactica classic episode 2 (or 1&1/3)

“Saga of a Star World” part 2

Written by Glen A. Larson, Directed by Richard Cola

http://www.hulu.com/watch/13326/battlestar-galactica-classic-saga-of-a-star-world—part-2

Another week, another edition of Saturday Night Galactica. Or Sunday morning, depending on how you look at it. A rather busy Saturday for me, but I’ll try to do better next week. This is part two of the three part story, originally released as one big TV movie, and a theatrical release. Here’s some backstory on that from Battlestar Galactica.com:

• Saga Of A Star World was seen both as an edited two-hour motion picture version and a three-hour television ABC-TV movie of the week for September 17, 1978. It was the most expensive television production of its time: $7 million (U.S.). Each weekly episode cost a purported $1 million (U.S.). “Saga of a Star World” introduced the primary series characters: Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer, Adama, Tigh, Athena, Jolly, Cassiopeia, Boxey, Rigel, Omega, Baltar and the Cylons. Guest stars include Jane Seymour as Serina, Rick Springfield as Zac, Lew Ayres as President Adar and Ray Milland as Sire Uri.

• Among cut scenes from the theatrical version: Serina in her news broadcaster role, reporting on the peace celebration as the Cylons attack; Athena and Starbuck discussing the destruction and their relatonship; Adama and Athena discussing the destruction, with Adama’s remorse of their inability to save everyone; Baltar’s beheading by the Cylons in the the theatrical version/Baltar’s salvation by the Cylon’s Imperious Leader to serve them in their pursuit of the fleeing Colonials.

All quoted directly from the site, and there’s more, so please visit them. And don’t forget to check out tonight’s episode. And here we go.

The Hulu airing is the original episode split into three parts (most likely for syndication), and so uses the movie-style opening. I have to note that while the usual version of the show theme is one of my favorites, the extra part heard in the movie-style opening just doesn’t match up and sounds bad to me. After showing us the obligitory “last episode” scenes, we get into the “action”. Actually, the action is pretty light, but we do get to see how Apollo and the boys try to deal with the food shortage. A bunch of the food supplies were exposed to some kind of radiation or something. I didn’t quite follow. However, it seems that Sire Uri (a nice job by Ray Milland) has been hording a whole bunch of it aboard the cruise ship Rising Star, a ship that becomes important on the show as Starbuck’s favorite place to gamble relax after a hard day’s work. I’m not sure Uri shows up again after the pilot, but the Marvel comics made use of the character, taking cues here as Uri tries to seize power from Adama because he wants to be able to have his parties in peace or something. I’m all for people keeping and enjoying what they earn, but this is a rather desperate situation, so I’m on Apollo’s side here. I also like Boomer threatening the security guard keeping the Warriors out of Uri’s room.

This episode also marks the debut of Muffy the Daggit, created to be a guard dog, but is given to Boxey, who lost his own daggit during the Cylon attack on Caprica. You’ll find more than a few fans who hate the character because he’s meant to be something fun for the kids, and kids aren’t supposed to enjoy anything we do. We hate kids, after all, and if anything in a show looks remotely “kiddie” it must be reviled and removed to make the true fans happy. Please note that everything past the first sentence is a STINKING LOAD OF HORSE DROPPINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!Seriously, maybe it’s because I was a kid at the time, but I liked Muffy and Boxey. It makes sense to me to have kids aboard this ragtag fleet, and seeing the nightmare through a kids eyes should help put things into perspective. We can debate if this happened or not, but I do not think they were a bad addition to the crew. Besides, it’s a science fiction show. Robot versions of local pets make sense, as do the non-humanoids other than Cylons. (More on that in a moment.) My only problem is that Boxey’s daggit, seen in part one, looks more like a dog, while this one looks more like a bear.

Actually, it looks like a cross between Alf, Crow T Robot, and a panda.

Interesting note for the five Galactica fans who didn’t know, but that’s actually a gorilla in a costume, with the ears and mouth remote controlled. And it wasn’t easy finding that Daggit picture. Like I said, he’s not a fan favorite. I’m not sure who is hated more: Muffy, Twiki (from Buck Rodgers), or Jar Jar Binks.

One fun part, and I really wish Hulu clips could be posted here (although last time I tried to make a clip of something for my MySpace blog I couldn’t get the end where I wanted it), is watching Apollo talk Boomer and Starbuck into “volunteering” for a dangerous mission to blast a shortcut to a possible source of supplies for the fleet. They have to take out a group of Cylon mines in a nebula-like area blind, so it’s just a bit dangeorus. Starbuck is supposed to be one of the best con artists around, but Apollo seems to be the only one who can get him to do something he’d rather not. And Apollo is the clean-cut one. Adama isn’t happy with the mission (I think it’s more about losing another son, like Zac last chapter), and Uri takes the opportunity to tighten his control. This leads to an argument between Adama and Apollo that seems a bit forced, but I think is supposed to be a long time coming. Uri used to be a good politician, but now he’s just a lazy bum who wants to party all the time. (He even organises that “escape” party earlier despite the fact that his wife is supposed to have died in the Cylon attack.) The problem for Adama is (and he later admits this to Athena) back on Caprica, as he was trying to get over the fact that he lost his wife as well as his son (apparently the Mrs. was the only family member not on the Galactica at the time) everyone comes to him to save them from what’s left of the colony. Watching the humanity (including a woman and her son pushed aside by others trying to get aboard the shuttle), or lack thereof, of it all shook him hard, and he’s not sure he wants to fight anymore, not even Uri. All he wants to do is get everyone to Earth. (Not that he’s thinking of how we’ll accept these refugees, mind you.) You can also tell he’s been drinking when he’s talking to Athena. A nice moment.

Speaking of Athena, although she pretty much dumped Starbuck last chapter (saying she doesn’t want to “love” anyone right now after losing her brother and her colony), she doesn’t take kindly to his budding romance with prosti…”solictitator” Casseopeia. When she catches them together in a launch tube, she sets off a steam vent to break up the make-out session. Nice girl, huh? 😛 We also find out that the woman who wanted to stuff Casseopeia out of the airlock is part of an orthodox religious sect who have some…interesting issues on the subject of physical relations between males and females. Apparently you can only have sex once every five years. (Starbuck thinks that’s why they’re such good card players.) I like watching Glen have to work that in as best he can within the limits of a family show. Some may have issue with that, but if you ask me these creative workarounds can sometimes be amusing, even out of the storyline, and I can still show it to a kid who enjoys watching for the robot bear thingy, the shiny robots, and the cool spaceships without worrying too much about what he or she is being exposed to. Everybody wins, except for the “every show for meeeeeee” crowd, but they’re sad anyway.

Space Indians or space mobsters? Yes, a casino joke.

Once they get past the “nebula” (A scene that involves blowing up the same three mines with the picture flipped over and over again), they head for what they think is an abandoned mining community. What they find, however, is a gambling resort run by these guys. They’re called Ovions, and they run the show. Boomer has a few questions about it. For one thing, the odds are definately not in the house favor. Starbuck’s winning hand over fist, which is fine for him, but everyone else is winning big, too.

I hear they’re touring with Max Rebo next year.

I have to give some credit to the people designing these aliens. The daggit, Ovions, and whatever these girls are supposed to be (apparently one mouth has a deeper voice than the other, one girl even shatters a glass with the manly lower mouth) look very alien. They give Star Trek a run for their money in the alien department. The casino scene may well be a nod to the Star Wars cantina, although these two are the only non-humans on the planet besides Muffy.

Boxey comes across the Ovions when he’s chasing Muffy after he jumps out of the rover (a pretty good alien Hummer). Starbuck and Boomer meet the girls in the casino lounge (Starbuck is sure he could make a lot of money bringing the girls on tour). Apollo already has a translation device ready (the Languatron), so they’re used to dealing with non-humans who aren’t trying to kill them. Apollo tells Boxey that the “real” Cylons were lizard aliens who used humaniods as their template to build an army of robots. However, the lizard Cylons died off, leaving only the machine Cylons who want to wipe the humans out. (As Baltar learns when the Imperious Leader betrays him. Funny how that works.)

And yes, I do wonder what Boxey and his mom were doing on a mining mission. I know Muffy 2 was designed for guard duty during mining and supply runs on planet (there are no real daggits on board), and they let Boxey help with Muffy’s training, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea. Then again, neither does Sire Uri’s arranging for half the fleet to visit the resort, as demonstrated when a group of “vacationers” take a wrong turn in an elevator, with a screaming cliffhanger. The previews for chapter 3 don’t bode well for the ragtag fleet, either.

And so ends the second chapter of the show. Not much action, but further set-up for what’s to come. Some might call it padding (the full-form pilot is three hours (centaurs?:)) long, including commercials). However, I think this part was needed, to give us an idea as to how the survivors are adjusting to their new situation (some better than others).

Next week, the final chapter of Saga of a Star World, as we learn the resort isn’t so restful, and our heroes fight for their lives. Maybe they can leave Uri behind? What are the Ovions really up to? Find out next week. (Or sooner if you have the DVD or Hulu.) And I promise to get this one on time! (This hasn’t been my week for promptness. Just look at my timecard at work.:P)