"Murder on the Rising Star" is the sixteenth episode of Battlestar Galactica. It premiered on February 18, 1979.
In syndication and on streaming, "Murder on the Rising Star" is sometimes listed as the eighteenth episode of the season. This happens when the series premiere episode, "Saga of a Star World", is split into three episodes.
Plot[]
- "Our scouts have sent back word of yet another planet among the coordinates given to us by our mysterious super race. More and more often, the planets we come across bear signs of the lost Thirteenth Tribe. We are getting closer to Earth. And once we have plotted her precise location, we will carefully formulate a plan for observing and sampling her culture. Too sudden an appearance from their relations in space could send our sister world into a wave of culture shock from which she might never recover. And are the inhabitants of Earth far in advance of us in their development or merely primitive animals fallen from a greater time? I feel we will soon know."
- —Commander Adama's opening monologue.
The episode opens with a Triad match being played on the Rising Star between two military teams, with Cpt. Apollo and Lieutenant Starbuck on the red team, and Sgts. Ortega and Barton in blue. The game is well attended by Galactica crew members, with Lieutenant Boomer, Athena and Sheba in the crowds as well as Cassiopeia, while Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh watch from a private lounge. Commander Adama notes that Sgt. Ortega is a "very competitive [man who] hates to lose", while Cassiopeia and Lieutenant Boomer note his fierce competition with Lieutenant Starbuck. During the match, Sgt. Ortega strikes him and passes it off as an accident, and this leads to a fight in the court. The two are penalised by being ejected from the game. During the fight, the senior staff, not interested in drinks, free the lounge's bartender, Pallon to go off-duty.
In the aftermath of the game, Cassiopeia is angry at Lieutenant Starbuck over his behaviour and warns him he has ten centons to get back to their shuttle if he hopes to continue seeing her after seeing the two men confront one another in the hallway. Cassiopeia warns Starbuck that he has ten centons to get in the shuttle if he hopes to continue seeing her. Sgt. Ortega returns to his private room booked on the ship, and after cleaning himself, an intruder enters the room and shoots him. Almost at the shuttle, Lieutenant Starbuck runs into a bartender, Chella, who's walk takes him towards Sgt. Ortega's room where he finds the man dead.
Hearing about the murder, Commander Adama uses his military influence to put a ban on travel between the Rising Star and the fleet in order to keep the murderer on board. Asked about his discovery, Chella raises his suspicions that Lieutenant Starbuck was the killer due to him running to the shuttle. Cpt. Apollo and Lieutenant Boomer run to the launch bay to detain Lieutenant Starbuck, and finds his laser has been fired. Though he protests this is a coincidence as he had been on the fire-range. In an attempt to clear him, a test is performed which results in a perfect match between Starbuck's weapon and the weapon that killed Ortega. Starbuck is charged with murder and risks the tribunal, believing it is not right to plea self-defense for a crime he did not commit. Apollo and Boomer, the only warriors who believe Starbuck, step up to act as protectors but have only ten centars to gather and present their evidence.
The two warriors first question Barton and he reveals that Ortega often gambled at a gambling Table 3 on the Rising Star and that Ortega often feared of being killed by a man named Karibdis. The protectors head to the personnel computer to run a query on the name but find no entries to anything related to "Karibdis".
Back in the brig, Starbuck tricks the guards into to coming into the cell, and makes his escape. He is about to fly off in a Viper, but Apollo convinces him to stay.
Apollo and Boomer tell Adama that they need to find Karibdis, whose name Adama recognizes as being Baltar's pilot who had sabotaged a colonial defense grid that preceded the Cylon ambush. Baltar is questioned by Apollo and Boomer on board the Prison Barge, but he refuses to talk as the two cannot offer him anything in exchange. He instead proclaims that Starbuck has many enemies on board the barge waiting to kill him.
The protectors go back to the Rising Star where Chella is dealing at Table 3 and question him once again about the murder. Chella reveals that his real name is Riftis, and had bribed Ortega into taking a spot on one of the ships fleeing from the Colonies. Since then, Ortega had been blackmailing him to expose his secret. Elias and Pallon were also victims of the blackmail, and had boarded a ship in the Fleet the same way Riftis did. The three are ordered to the Galactica to testify in Starbuck's tribunal.
As Apollo and Boomer shuttle the former blackmail targets, Apollo attempts a ruse to flush out Karibdis by announcing to the three suspects that the real killer has been identified. Having informed Boomer to keep an open channel to the shuttle, Apollo drops the suspects off at the Galactica and picks up Baltar. Pallon, who has secretly re-boarded the shuttle and grabbed a laser, soon reveals himself to Apollo and Baltar as Karibdis.
In the tribunal, Boomer manages to break the tribunal procedure by turning on the channel to the shuttle for the whole tribunal to hear, which reveals a chilling but triumphant confession of Karibdis's murder of Ortega. A scuffle between Apollo, Baltar, and Karibdis ensues and Karibdis is eventually caught, and Starbuck is finally acquitted.
Apollo and Starbuck are welcomed by a standing ovation by the crowd upon re-entering the Triad court.
Production[]
Cast[]
- Dirk Benedict - Lieutenant Starbuck
- Terry Carter - Colonel Tigh
- John Colicos - Count Baltar
- John Dullaghan - Dr. Wilker
- Lorne Greene - Commander Adama
- Richard Hatch - Captain Apollo
- Noah Hathaway - Boxey
- Herb Jefferson, Jr. - Lieutenant Boomer
- Maren Jensen - Lieutenant Athena
- Anne Lockhart - Lieutenant Sheba
- Laurette Spang - Cassiopeia
- Tony Swartz - Sergeant Jolly
Notes[]
- Brock Peters would later go on to play Joseph Sisko, Benjamin Sisko's father, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "Homefront", "Paradise Lost", "A Time to Stand", "Far Beyond the Stars", "Image in the Sand" and "Shadows and Symbols"
Sources[]
External links[]
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