ECHOES IN THE NOVELIZATION
The evolution of the Battlestar
Galactica premiere was evidently a continuous process. While much of the plot and
basic outline of the script remained fairly stable from the very first draft, scenes
appeared and vanished, were rewritten and revised, filmed and edited out later. While we
are fortunate enough to have a very early (November 1977) and late (May 1978) versions of
the premiere widely available in fandom, there are, so far as I know, no copies of the
actual shooting script in fan hands, so an exploration of what was actually shot and then
changed is an exercise in conjecture (or was until the DVD set was released in
2003). In this installment of our series exploring the
premiere, we’ll look at some scenes that were very probably in the shooting script,
were shot, and then edited out or changed drastically after the fact, and which have
survived in distorted form in Robert Thurston’s novelization.
The way in which Zac ended up on his
fatal mission with Apollo changed from script to script. In Thurston’s novelization,
Zac comments that he was assigned to the patrol with Apollo as punishment for a
Starbuck-style escapade with a nurse. In the May 8, 1978 revision—which, it’s
important to remember, was written after the episode was actually shot (in March
and April of 1978)—we find Zac and Apollo in the ready room exchanging this dialogue:
ZAC
I know why I drew this duty, I’m low man on the roster, but how did you get stuck with this patrol?
APOLLO
Oh, I was figuring they’ll be turning all of us warriors out to Liesuron once the armistice is signed…I wanted one last bite of a mission.
ZAC
Uh huh…it wouldn’t be that nobody else would be stuck with me on my patrol, would it, big brother?
APOLLO
Don’t be silly. You came through with the highest marks in the history of the Academy. When that includes the Commander in Chief, it’s downright embarrassing…even if it is his son.
Some of that dialogue is very
similar to Thurston’s novelization, suggesting that this is an edited version of a
scene that originally was longer before the bit about Zac’s encounter with the nurse
was cut out (possibly when ABC decided to start “cleaning up” the series to make
it a “family show”). Zac clearly was originally a junior pilot, but not the
absolute rookie he became when this scene was cut entirely and replaced by the scene shot
later in which Zac pleads with Starbuck to let him take his place on the recon flight.
NOTE 2003: This scene indeed was filmed and is on the DVD.
Another scene that was filmed but
appeared in very trimmed form is the Council meeting in which the decision is made to
travel to Carillon via the Straits of Madagon. As filmed, the premiere had a crushed Adama
wanting to resign leadership of the fleet. The only scene that survived into the premiere
as aired from that plot was the scene in which Athena attempts to comfort Adama as he
describes the horror of the evacuation on Caprica. This is the original beginning of the
Council scene from the May 1978 script; it opens with the Council members demanding,
“No…unacceptable…you cannot resign.”
ANTON
Adama, you have led us wisely and well. We cannot accept your resignation. Not now, when things are so grave.
URI
I disagree. I think our dear Adama is best qualified to judge his own capacity to lead. Here we are, a fleet of lost souls drifting through timeless space, without direction, fuel, or food. I cannot in good conscience recommend our predicament as the result of good planning.
ANTON
My dear Uri…I suppose the Cylon infamy should have been better coordinated with our departure.
URI
It’s the preparations after the attack about which I speak. Poor judgment in choosing fuel and food lots now leaves us on the brink of disaster.
ANTON
Councilman Uri…you have a lot of nerve casting accusations about food shortages, when you have been brought up on charges on hoarding in the face of starvation.
ADAMA
Gentlemen, please. This is not in our best interests.
(There are two scenes omitted here from the script; my guess is that they consisted of Anton protesting that Adama’s resignation was also not to their best interests and Adama’s reply. Then the sequence continues)
URI
Gentlemen…it is my understanding that we have been voyaging on a secret course that will take us out of this star system, and to this outpost of rock known as Carillon. A nine-centon journey at the very least. Is that true?
ADAMA
Apparently all but the secret aspect, yes…Carillon was once the object of a mining expedition from our Colonies. Rich sources of tylium.
URI
But it was abandoned as impractical to mine.
ADAMA
Only because there was no local labor and it was too far from the Colonies to make shipping a very practical proposition. That needn’t concern us now.
URI
On the contrary. The same problem still exists. Carillon is too far away. We will never make it because of the food disaster….(etc.)
Again, a very distorted version of
this scene appears in the novelization. NOTE 2003: This scene was indeed
also filmed and is on the DVD.
One last scene that was changed
after the fact has Apollo and Boxey in the landram on Carillon discussing the Cylons. This
had to be reshot because ABC demanded that the Cylons be changed from reptilian beings to
robots, since you could kill all the robots you wanted to, but at 8pm there was a limit to
how many people (or reptiles!) you could waste. Again, check the following dialogue
against the novelization:
APOLLO
We don’t dare stop on one planet for too long.
BOXEY
I don’t see why we had to leave home at all. Why’d those people want to hurt us?
APOLLO
Oh, because there are and always have been living beings that can’t accept anything they don’t understand…anything different.
BOXEY
What do you mean, different?
APOLLO
Just about anything at all. The shape of your eyes, the number of limbs, the color of your outer layer of skin…even thoughts and ideas. They just aren’t equipped to deal with difference.
BOXEY
You mean they’re stupid?
APOLLO
I guess by our standards. How can it be anything but stupid to kill what you don’t understand?
BOXEY
Why don’t we kill them back?
APOLLO
Then we’d be changing what we are to be like them. It’s better for us to go someplace else.
BOXEY
What if they come after us?
APOLLO
We might have to defend ourselves.
BOXEY
You mean kill them.
APOLLO
Possibly.
BOXEY
Then we’d be like them.
APOLLO
Boxey, you’re beginning to see how complicated life is. We don’t believe in war, but the opposite of war isn’t necessarily peace (a concept that popped up again in Apollo’s speech to the Nationalists in “Experiment in Terra”). What we want is freedom…the right to be left alone, but there’s always a chance someone will come along and spoil everything.
BOXEY
So you kill them?
APOLLO
No…you try to establish penalties. Something that makes spoiling someone else’s way of life unrewarding.
BOXEY
You kill them.
APOLLO
Boxey…you have a way of reducing everything to very simple terms. I don’t know, maybe you’re right. In the end we’re talking about life and death. Life is precious. No one has the right to tamper with another’s, without the risk of forfeiting their own. I think maybe we’re getting a little deep for a boy your age.
BOXEY
Why? You can die at any age, can’t you?
SERINA
Yes, Boxey, you can.
I’m inclined to prefer
this—possibly a revised version that has Apollo sounding less like a wimp—to the
robot speech that was filmed, with poor continuity and Jane Seymour obviously absent, and
tacked in later. NOTE 2003: This scene is also on the DVD in this form.
�1991, 1999, 2003 by Susan J. Paxton. Originally published in ANOMALY 18