ADAR, PRESIDENT (Lew Ayres)  Adar was President of the Council of Twelve at the time of the Cylon peace offer. Adar shared his people’s desire for an end to the Thousand Yahren War and he fully believed that Count Baltar had brought that peace. His intense longing for peace blinded him to the doubts of more objective people like Commander Adama. Adar was killed when the battlestar Atlantia was destroyed during the Cylon ambush, believing almost to the very end in the Cylons’ “good intentions,” only realizing in the very last moments of his life that he had been betrayed and had led “the entire human race to ruin.” Interestingly, actor Lew Ayres was in real life a pacifist who risked his film career by refusing combat duty during the Second World War. Instead, he served as a medic (with distinction, I might add), as did many other men who shared his views and wished to serve their country without taking human life

ADENA  A ship of the fleet that experiences difficulties in the Void (LG)

ADULTERESS 58 (Tasha Martell) Adulteress was a female prisoner on the penal planet Proteus. When the new prisoner “Bootlegger 137” insisted that his name was Starbuck, she wanted to know what kind of a crime “Starbuckin’” was—it sounded “interestin’.” Indeed (LP)

AERIAL SALUTE  Starbuck thought that the alert that interrupted his card game was some kind of aerial salute for the President (P).

AERIAN MERCHANT CODE  A communications code once used by merchants from the Colony Aeries. Robber used it when he attempted to contact the Colonies with Recon Viper’s communications gear. Cassiopiea learned it from her father and recognized it (LP).

AERIES  One of the Twelve Colonies. Robber is descended from an Aerian robber sentenced to the penal colony on Proteus.

AGRO PARTS  Supplies needed by farmers. According to Robber, his shuttle contained agro parts; in fact it was full of stolen ambrosa (LP).

AGRO SHIPS  Enormous spacecraft in the fleet that carry vast geodesic domes in which food for the people of the fleet is grown. Two agro ships were destroyed by a Cylon attack; the third lost its airlock (MW). Sheba and Iblis visit the agro ship (WG). These are the same model spacecraft used in the Douglas Trumbull/John Dykstra film Silent Running.

AGRO SHIP NINE  The surviving agro ship carries this designation (WG, MN).

AGRON OUTPOST  Serenity is an agron outpost, or farming colony (MW).

AGRON PURCHASES  Agricultural purchases. When Sire Bogan refused to make a deal, Starbuck informed him that he and Boomer would have to make their “agron purchases” elsewhere.

ALE  A beer-like Colonial beverage. Flight Sergeant Greenbean stole ale and ambrosa from the officer’s mess for Apollo’s bachelor party and was informed by a knowing Colonel Tigh that the only crime worse is getting caught doing it (LG).

ALLIANCE  Term used occasionally for the Cylons. This suggests that the Cylons may have allies in their war against the humans.

ALLIANCE ENFORCERS  Nazi-style goons who carry out the decrees of the evil Eastern Alliance. They wear black uniforms with visored helmets, carry large, primitive-looking laser rifles, travel in spacecraft of a distinctive U-boat flavor, and tend to speak in bad German accents (GE, BE, ET).

ALPHA CHANNEL  When Apollo went in the shuttle to pick up Baltar and hopefully reveal Karibdis as the killer of Ortega, he instructed Boomer to listen to Alpha channel, which would be broadcasting from the shuttle and picking up all the activity within. When Karibdis did come out of hiding Boomer had to plead with Adama, head of the Tribunal, to listen, because “Our defense is on Alpha channel!” In despair, Boomer switched it on in spite of Adama’s doubts and the truth was revealed (MR).

ALPHA SHUTTLE  Shuttle flown by Captain Apollo on the Fleet Damage and Supply Survey (P).

ALPHA 37  Rendezvous coordinates for Blue Squadron to meet up with the medical shuttle after launch (LG).

AMBROSA  A rare drink highly prized by the Colonials; best when suitably aged. Ambrosa was the sole product of the penal colony on the planet Proteus after they stopped making munitions 700 yahrens ago, and the prisoners each received a bottle per day. Millions of bottles of rare vintages went up in flames when the warehouse there was struck by a crashing Cylon fighter, much to the distress of Lieutenant Starbuck (LP).

AMNESIA  Apollo mistakenly thought that this was Brenda’s name after she picked him up on Terra. In fact, she thought he was suffering from amnesia (ET).

ANDROID  A robot constructed in human form. When Dr. Salik reported that Iblis’ vital signs could not be detected, Apollo theorized that Iblis might be an android. Dr. Wilker was more than willing to tell Apollo how to find out if Iblis was indeed one, but never got the chance (WG).

ANDROID SISTERS (Patty Brooks, Myrna Matthews, and Stephanie Spruill)  Entertainers in the casino on Carillon, they were of the species Tucana and possessed two mouths with separate sets of vocal cords, giving the effect of a sextet when the three of them sang. In a moment of insanity, Starbuck decided that they were his “ticket out of the military” and tried to hire them to put them on the “Star Circuit.” The leader turned him down—fortunately, since there was no “Star Circuit” left after the Cylons destroyed the Colonies (P). Also referred to as the “Space Supremes” in the premiere script.

ANSWAW (Unknown)  Woman in the elevator on Carillon; her friend informed her that she felt like a “total glutton.” She and her well-fed friend became food for the Ovions (P).

ANTI-ASSAULT BATTERIES Cylon ground-based anti-aircraft defense system, probably consisting of laser and possibly projectile-firing guns, missiles, and associated detection and aiming gear. Evidently very efficient, as Commander Adama describes them as being  “almost foolproof.” A ground team led by Captain Apollo was sent to the surface of Gamoray to knock out the central control center so the batteries would be disabled, thus lessening casualties amongst the vipers assigned to attack the base (LL).

ANTI-BURN BAFFLES  Protective firewalls inside a viper. When Starbuck’s viper was shot up over Attila, Boomer informed him that “everything behind your anti-burn baffles is gone.”

ANTON, SIRE (Wilfrid Hyde-White)  Anton was a member of the new Council of Twelve elected after the holocaust and tended to follow Sire Uri’s line, more through cheerful senility than calculation (P).

APOLLO, CAPTAIN (Richard Hatch)   Captain Apollo is Adama’s son and commander of Blue Squadron and the Galactica’s elite Strike Wing. An extremely able and courageous officer, nothing of his pre-series career is known. Among his many notable accomplishments are planning and leading the mission to destroy the Madagon minefield (for which he was awarded the Gold Cluster) (P), leading the assault on the pulsar cannon on Arkta (GI), misleading a Cylon patrol and then ridding a planet of a renegade Cylon known as Red-Eye (LW), leading the paratroop assault on the Cylon control center on Gamoray (LL), standing up to Count Iblis (WG), risking his life to clear Starbuck of charges he murdered Ortega (MR), helping to save Terra from the Eastern Alliance’s nuclear first strike, and, with Starbuck, penetrating the heart of a Cylon baseship to knock out its sensors so the Galactica could attack and destroy it (HG). And those are only the highlights! As the central character in Battlestar Galactica, the action and relationships center on Apollo.
Apollo is Adama’s eldest child and they share a close and warm relationship (always beautifully portrayed by Richard Hatch and the late Lorne Greene). This relationship with his father helps guide Apollo in his dealings with his adopted son Boxey. On the other hand, Apollo does not appear to be particularly close to his sister Athena or, for that matter, his late brother Zac, but that may be an effect of age, as Apollo is almost certainly at least 10 yahrens older than either of them.
Apollo does not have Starbuck’s knack for picking up every eligible female in sight, but appears to prefer quality to quantity. After the destruction of the Colonies Apollo met and came to love the glamorous Caprican newswoman Serina and they were sealed (P, LG). Unfortunately, the relationship was destined to end in tragedy, when Cylons on Kobol mortally wounded Serina (LG). Since that time he has become involved with Cain’s daughter Sheba, but the series ended before the relationship became particularly deep.
Starbuck is Apollo’s closest friend, but he is liked by all of the Galactica’s warriors and crew, presumably for his undoubted skill as a warrior and his pleasant personality.
In early BG scripts the Apollo character was named Skyler. Reportedly both Patrick Duffy and Kent McCord were considered for the role, which Richard Hatch, evidently always Glen Larson’s first choice, initially turned down.

APOLLO 11  Although the Colonials don’t know it, the old-fashioned communication system installed in the navigation dome picked up transmissions from the Apollo 11 mission, the first manned moon landing (HG).

AQUARIA  One of the Twelve Colonies

ARIADNE (Brigette Muller)  The youngest daughter of the imprisoned Megan on Attila, she spent her spare time knocking off Cylons in company with her siblings.

ARKTA  The desolate planet on which the Ravashol pulsar was located, composed of (according to scanner readouts) crystalline elements, table M-1. It was covered by frozen seas, fields of ice, and blizzard conditions marked by diethene storms. Not a nice place (GI).

ARMAMENT DAY  Evidently a Colonial holiday celebrating the military. Apollo commented to Adama that the closest his ex-shuttle pilots turned warriors had been to a viper was at an Armament Day display (LG).

ARMAMENT ROOM  Presumably the armory aboard the Galactica, where smaller weapons were stored. Starbuck distracted Corporal Komma by telling him that the female viper pilots could be found in the armament room (LG).

ARMISTICE  As the series began the Colonials were about to sign an armistice with the Cylons, or so they believed (P). The terms “armistice” and “peace treaty” are used interchangeably in the premiere to describe the Colonial-Cylon agreement, but technically they are different; an armistice is merely a truce, whereas a peace treaty implies a permanent cessation of hostilities.

ASSAULT 9 (Sean McClory)  A prisoner on Proteus. At first he tried to convince Starbuck to make the most of his imprisonment; later he was one of the first to join Starbuck in his prison break (LP).

ASTEROID DUST  The fleet is passing through a belt of asteroid dust—presumably small particles similar to what might be found in a planet’s ring system—as “The Long Patrol” begins.

ASTEROID OUTPOST  The small Cylon base discovered by Boomer and Jolly while on patrol. It consisted of a hangar set into the rocky wall of a canyon. It was on this asteroid that the two pilots contracted the mysterious disease they transmitted to most of the other pilots aboard the Galactica. Apollo later destroyed the outpost in order to make it safe for the medical shuttle to land and investigate the disease.

ASTRALONS  Meteors.

ASTRONAVIGATOR  When Adama proudly passed around Boxey’s artwork at the banquet that concludes “The Long Patrol,” Starbuck asks Boxey if he wants to become an astronavigator.

ASTRUMS  Commander Cain charmingly informed Adama that he was not really surprised to find him and his fleet “sitting on your astrums” (LL).

ATHENA, ENSIGN (Maren Jensen)  Athena is Adama’s only daughter and is a bridge officer and occasional pilot aboard the Galactica. In her spare time she helps teach some of the children of the fleet. Before the holocaust she was close to Starbuck, but they afterwards drifted apart, partly because of Cassiopiea, but also because Athena wasn’t sure she wanted to be involved with someone likely to go out and get killed like her younger brother Zac (P).
One of the tragedies of BG is that Maren Jensen, although she certainly looked the role, was not an experienced actress. Judging from early BG scripts, the role of Athena was originally on the par of Starbuck and Boomer, but when her limitations became apparent her role was drastically cut back, Laurette Spang was retained (Cassiopiea was originally a temporary part) and she left the series after “Greetings From Earth.”

ATLANTIA  The flagship battlestar at the peace conference, she was destroyed after Cylon suicide raiders flew into her landing bays and detonated, causing uncontrollable fires.

ATTILA  The Cylon-occupied planet in “The Young Lords.” A wet, swampy place, Attila was settled by people from the Colonies who evidently set up a feudal way of life. All the settlers save Megan and his five children were killed by the Cylons, who found the victory somewhat hollow since, in addition to having to constantly fight off the pesky children, they find themselves rusting out!

AURORA (Ana Alicia)  Aurora was Commander Kronus’ shuttle pilot aboard the repair ship Celestra. Starbuck had been involved—evidently fairly seriously—with her before the holocaust and afterwards presumed her dead when he found her home in ruins on Caprica. He later spotted her in the award ceremony for Kronus. She had in the meantime replaced Starbuck in her affections with Damon, a Celestra crewman who was plotting mutiny against Kronus. She participated in the mutiny but like the other seven original mutineers she helped Starbuck, Apollo, and Kronus retake the ship. She and her fellows were found guilty of mutiny, but due to extenuating circumstances were given probation. Like the other Celestra mutineers she objected to the long hours and hard work and didn’t seem to realize that founding a new home on the planet they wished to settle would have been a hell of a lot harder (TC)!

� 1987, 2002 by Susan J. Paxton

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