I just finished watching the iTunes versions of the three first episodes of the (original) BSG. I was intrigued by a few things... 1) The episodes, as iTunes has them, appear to include almost every deleted scene described on this site. I was not aware that any of these excised scenes (such as "Hope it's the Grog", Apollo's conversation with Boxey regarding the origin of the Cylons, the revelation that Baltar discovered Carillon but declared it too minimal for tylium mining, Serina's complete news broadcast from Caprica, and the full version of Starbuck and Apollo's discussion regarding "the secret of Carillon") were available on any home video version. I had assumed that they were only part of the long-since-lost original broadcast versions of the episodes. Am I, once again, missing something obvious? 2) This has probablty never been answered anywhere at all, but...how exactly the hell does Baltar manage to escape the destruction of the base star over Carillon? The Cylons were clearly planning to execute him, so even if a stray Cylon ship managed to get away, why would they bother to bring him along? And it's not like Baltar could have gotten away on his own, as he's clearly disheveled and beaten when he's brought before the new Imperious Leader... 3) In the early Council scene where they decide where to go after the destruction of the colonies, Sire Uri refuses to let them go to Carillon, he says it's "too far away". He suiggests going to Borallus instead, but Adama vetoes it, declaring that Borallus is obviously a trap. But what if the Cylons knew they would do that? Meaning, they deliberately engineered it so that Borallus WOULD be seen as a trap, so as to steer the fleet towards Carillon? Yes, there is the minefield in the Nova Madagon, but the Cylons probably figured that the fleet would find a way to clear the mines and get through it... 4) Who exactly is supposed to be president of the Council of the Twelve after the destruction of the colonies? All these years I always thought it was Adama...but is it? Now that I've refreshed my memory, I think it might be Sire Uri... 5) Near the end of the third ep, as Rigel is counting down the "microns" until the Cylons reach them, it hit me....this is one of the few times she ever gets to say anything that isn't stock footage (like "transferring control to probe craft, launch when ready", which is used in like half of the episodes).
Dunno. I ripped the DVDs for BSG TOS and the first 3 episodes as one file are 2H:18M:57S and Apple TV's first 3 episodes add up to 2H:16M. Are you watching on Apple TV? Of course there are numerous versions and edits, more than there needs to be.
Baltar survivng the first three episodes was a bit of an in-show retcon. If you watched the 'movie' of BSG that was released in theaters (in Sensurround!), Baltar gets executed. Then, in the TV show in EP 4, the new Imperious Leader taps Baltar the prisoner to lead the effort to track and destroy the surviving colonials. The original Imperious Leader was the one killed over Cariilon.
I thought I'd heard there was some tie-in novel that established Baltar was executed and then cloned, maybe from the Richard Hatch continuation series, but I'm looking it up now, and I'm not able to find anything about that, so maybe I imagined it, or heard someone's head-canon at some point.
Baltar was going to be sent off for public execution by the previous Imperious Leader. I would gather that would mean sending him off the their home world.
Been a long time since I watched it but doesn't a Cylon draw his sword and swing it to decapitate Baltar, with the scene freezing a micron before impact? I guess these are robots so it could have halted the swing millimetres before hitting flesh.
That only happens in the theatrical cut. They couldn't actually show Baltar's death, but it's clear that it happened. We even hear Baltar scream as his throat is cut. They just cut away so they wouldn't have to actually show blood. In the TV version, the Imperious Leader stops the Cylon before it even draws its sword. Yeah, that makes sense. Baltar could have been taken away by shuttle right after that scene. So he wouldn't have been on that basestar which was destroyed over Carillon. Baltar survives long enough to be taken to the prison barge (and meet the Borellian Nomen). He doesn't die in the series. He's also in The Second Coming, which takes place decades later.
I always thought that the second season of Buck Rodgers should have been a lead in for a second series of Battlestar Galactica. I mean The Searcher is basically on a mission to find Earth's lost colonies and Galactica is looking for Earth. The setup is perfect. But no, we got Galactica 1980 instead.
1. My dvd box set has all those scenes. "Maybe it's the grog" is one of my favorite lines. 2. As explained above, there is an edit for the TV version. In the theatrical release, Baltar is executed. In the TV episodes the sword stroke is halted and Baltar taken away for public execution. Then at the end of episode 3 there is a post script where Baltar is presented to the new Imperious Leader, given the commission to be an "olive branch" that will supposedly be sent to make peace with the humans, and Lucifer is assigned as his "aide" 3. Both could have been a trap. There was only 1 basestar at Carilon while multiple basestars attacked the colonies. A basestar could also have been at Borallus. 4. Don't know. Don't think it's ever depicted. In later episodes it's clear Adama defers to certain council members. This video is on point
That is a really cool idea. And, IMHO, both shows had great debut seasons, then the quality plummeted in the second season (if we count BSG1980 as a second season).
I loved both Buck Rogers and BSG when I was a kid, and ended up buying boxsets of both around 20 years ago. What I remember when I watched them was that I thought BSG held up a lot better, its by no means perfect but I thought it was a solider series than Buck, which was a tad silly to say the least!
There actually was a rumor that the Galactica would find Earth (of the Buck Rogers universe) and the two shows would merge. I don't know how close this got to actually happening, though.