Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part Ⅰ is the penultimate episode of Season 1 of the 2004 TV series, Battlestar Galactica.
Plot[]
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Opening on a new day, Lieutenant Karl Agathon rushes through Delphi on his own, having left the Number Eight - "Caprica Sharon" - behind to escape on his own. When he finds her again, he raises his sidearm at her. She does not try to escape, and tells him to "just do it", and is shot in the shoulder so he can interrogate her for more information. On Galactica, the "Boomer" Number Eight takes out her own sidearm, considering suicide. She is stopped when Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla calls her up to the briefing room. Elsewhere, Dr. Gaius Baltar and Lieutenant Kara Thrace are having sex, but they stop when she inadvertently shouts out the name "Lee". Cpt. Leland Adama meanwhile spars with Commander William Adama, who chastises him for not working on his instincts.
Plot[]
After an appointment with Dr. Cottle, President Laura Roslin meets with her Priestess, Elosha, where she gives the bad news. She now has six months to live at best, as her breast cancer has spread to her lymphatic system. Elosha tells President Roslin how she had began to question her faith ahead of the Cylon attack, but meeting with the President has rejuvenated her faith in her faith in the sacred scrolls, and she trusts that humanity will find the promised land.
At the pilot's mess, Dr. Gaius Baltar joins in on another Triad game, with Cpt. Adama, Petty Officer Dualla, Lieutenant Felix Gaeta and Lieutenant Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo. Dr. Baltar is drunk, and continues to serve all but Lieutenant Gaeta, who is due on watch soon. Dr. Baltar is quiet, still sullen over his encounter with Lieutenant Thrace, while the others bicker amongst themselves to distract from the game. More drunk than normal, he even disgusts Messenger Six, who has herself been hurt by his feelings for Lieutenant Thrace. After Dr. Baltar wins another round, Lieutenant Thrace enters the room. His attitude towards her makes her leave the room, leaving no one the wiser as to what happened.
Apollo angrily confronts Starbuck in the hangar bay after he figures out she slept with Baltar. Head Six, jealous over Baltar's feelings for Starbuck, torments him. On Caprica, Helo demands that Caprica-Boomer find him a way off the planet despite her pleas of friendship.
On a scouting mission, Galactica-Boomer and Crashdown discover a habitable planet. Reviewing reconnaissance photos from the planet, Roslin at first sees an inhabited city but looks again and sees only ruins. Elosha identifies one of the structures Roslin reports seeing as the Opera House on Kobol and concludes that the planet is Kobol. Roslin agrees and declares her belief in the Scriptures.
Galactica-Boomer again contemplates shooting herself but is interrupted by Baltar. Boomer confides that she is afraid she will hurt someone. Head Six warns Baltar that Boomer's model is weak, but that in the end she will carry out her mission. Baltar encourages Boomer to listen to her heart and do what she thinks is right. A gunshot sounds as he leaves, and while a crewmember runs to investigate Dr. Baltar carries on walking. Boomer ultimately aborted the suicide attempt and lies to the medics, claiming she was cleaning her sidearm and forgot to check the chamber. Chief Tyrol hears about what happens and goes to check on her, and she tells him the truth; she feels she will do something horrible soon and has to stop it.
Commander Adama and President Roslin discuss the newly discovered planet, which he agrees could be Kobol. he orders a survey team to check the planet and assess its suitability for permanent settlement. President Roslin does not want Kobol settled, as the sacred texts say the Arrow of Apollo can be used on Kobol to show the path to Earth. The Arrow of Apollo is a well-known relic that was taken to the colonies during the Exodus, and is displayed at a museum on Caprica. President Roslin insists the captured Cylon raider, with its superior computer systems for jump calculations, should go to Caprica on a mission to obtain this relic. Commander Adama refuses to commit a military asset to the mission, insisting the scripture is "just stories, legends, myths" they should not waste resources on.
The three-raptor survey team arrives at Kobol, and is immediately attacked by a Cylon raider squadron. All ten on-board one Raptor are killed in a collision. Cartman is shot dead from a round piercing the hull; the damaged Raptor falls down to the planet. Specialist Socinus orders the third Raptor to escape back to Galactica to report what is happening.
Roslin meets with Starbuck and asks her to use the Raider to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo. Starbuck expresses reluctance to disobey orders, so Roslin appeals to Starbuck's religious beliefs and reveals Adama's deception about knowing the location of Earth. After a conversation with Adama seems to confirm it, Starbuck defies him and takes the Raider to Caprica.
Cast[]
- Edward James Olmos as Commander William Adama
- Mary McDonnell as President of the Twelve Colonies Laura Roslin
- Katee Sackhoff as Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
- Jamie Bamber as Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama
- James Callis as Doctor Gaius Baltar
- Tricia Helfer as Messenger Six
- Grace Park as
- Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
- Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
- Tahmoh Penikett as Lieutenant Karl "Helo" Agathon
- Kandyse McClure as Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla
- Paul Campbell as Billy Keikeya
- Alessandro Juliani as Lieutenant Felix Gaeta
- Sam Witwer as Lieutenant Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo
- Lorena Gale as Elosha
- Donnelly Rhodes as Major Sherman Cottle
- Alonso Oyarzun as Specialist D. Socinus
- Bodie Olmos as Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza
- Stephen Spender as Pilot
- James Bell as Lieutenant Steve "Red Devil" Fleer
Appearances[]
Characters[]
- Lee "Apollo" Adama
- William Adama
- Karl "Helo" Agathon
- Gaius Baltar
- Anastasia Dualla
- Felix Gaeta
- Calandra Henderson
- Billy Keikeya
- Number Eight
- Number Six
- Laura Roslin
- Saul Tigh
- Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
- Galen Tyrol
Locations[]
Species[]
Technology[]
Vehicles and vessels[]
Organizations[]
Production[]
Discussion of how to conclude Season 1 came about midway through the story-writing phase, with character arcs leading up to it.
The original idea for the teaser was to use extreme close-ups and pull back to reveal the scene, such as Lieutenant Valerii with a gun in her mouth. A similar idea was kept for the sex sequence to lead the audience to think Lieutenant Thrace and Cpt. Adama are together. Another idea cut in the episode was to have the episode told through flashback in the form of survivor interviews. This never got past the page.
The ending of Part 1 was originally to be of the Raptor crashing, but Lieutenant Thrace stealing the Raider was added to the episode from Part 2.
The idea of it constantly raining on Caprica was to imply climatalogical disorder on the planet that would quickly differentiate it from Kobol.
The idea of Cpt. Adama being angry at Lieutenant Thrace evolved during the draft process. Originally he was to leave the Triad game thinking the subtle hints to her sleeping with Dr. Baltar was her idea to hurt him. This was cut when it was decided he really would rather just ask her.
In the draft, the discovery of the planet being Kobol was much different. Rather than Boomer and Crashdown taking photographs of the city during a low pass, it was decided a survey team consisting of Chief Tyrol and Specialist Cally and Socinus would land on a Raptor and discover the remains of a temple, commenting its resemblance to the forum on Caprica. The Cylons shooting down a Raptor at the end was still to take place, though it would instead carry the second survey team, consisting of Cpt. Adama and a number of Marines. The cliffhanger was to have Centurions attacking the temple, with the crash survivors and Tyrol's team trapped inside.
Notes[]
- Ronald D. Moore recorded a podcast, which can be found here.
Sources[]
External links[]
- Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1 on Wikipedia
- Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1 on The Internet Movie Database
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