Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I

"Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 12
Writer(s)	Ronald D. Moore
Story by	David Eick
Director	Michael Rymer
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	112
Nielsen Rating	2.2
US airdate	2005-03-25
CAN airdate	2005-04-02
UK airdate	2005-01-17
DVD release	20 September 2005 US 28 March 2005 UK
Population	47,897 survivors ( 1)
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Colonial Day	Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I	Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
Podcast Transcript – View
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
Photo Gallery			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
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Galactica discovers Kobol, and a chain of events are set in motion that threatens to change everything.

Summary

• Following the Colonial Day celebrations, Gaius Baltar finally beds Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, but as they make love, she cries out for Lee Adama, shattering Baltar's mood.
• Stricken by her apparent rejection of him in their coupling, Baltar in turn comes close to rejecting Six and finds it impossible to concentrate on anything – including his duties as Vice President.
• Elsewhere on ship, Boomer attempts to take her own life, but breaks down in tears before she can shoot herself. She is called to the Ready Room for a pre-flight briefing.
• Roslin discovers that her cancer treatment is not going well. Her cancer has spread to her lymphatic system, giving her perhaps 6 months to live.
• Baltar verbally fences with Lee Adama and is somewhat insulting to Thrace, tipping Lee off that the doctor has slept with Thrace. Later, still thinking about Thrace, Baltar cracks in front of Roslin.
• Following a recon mission, Boomer and Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo return to Galactica with evidence they have stumbled upon Kobol.
• Determined to have things out with Thrace, Lee confronts her in the Hangar Deck, and the two come to blows. Thrace realizes that her actions with Baltar have hurt Lee Adama.
• Reviewing the evidence returned by Boomer and Crashdown, Roslin has a vision which Elosha confirms to be the City of the Gods on Kobol.
• Roslin has two further visions – the Arrow of Apollo and the Tomb of Athena, and accepts the scriptures as fact.
• Boomer, still confused, attempts to take her own life – “encouraged” by Baltar in defiance of Six.
• When Adama reviews the evidence, he orders an extensive surface survey of the planet, seeing it as an opportunity for them to settle. Warned he should get off Galactica by Six, Baltar assigns himself to the survey.
• Roslin tries to convince Adama that Kobol will point the way to Earth, but they must use the captured Cylon Raider to return to Caprica and retrieve the Arrow of Apollo.
• Three Raptors depart Galactica for Kobol, but on arrival they find themselves in the midst of a Cylon force of Raiders – and a basestar.
• One Raptor is destroyed, and one – carrying Baltar – crash-lands on Kobol. The third escapes back to the Fleet.
• Before a rescue mission can be launched, the basestar must be taken out – and Starbuck hatches a plan to do just this using the captured Raider.
• Hearing this, Roslin meets with Starbuck and convinces her into going to Caprica instead to retrieve the Arrow, by telling her that Adama does not actually know where Earth is.

Adama studies ancient documents on Kobol.

On Caprica

• Helo, alone and on the run, encounters “his” Valerii. He shoots and wounds her. Unable to kill her outright, he takes her with him.
• When Valerii tries to talk to him, Helo cuts her off and insists that she is now just a means for him to get off the planet.

Notes

• Thrace leaves Baltar's quarters at the start of the episode with her blue dress from "Colonial Day". It seems like this episode continues directly on from the previous episode.
• There are now 47,897 survivors in the The Fleet, a net loss of 1 since "Colonial Day," accounting for the death of Valance.
• The Fleet is beginning to run short of supplies.
• Humans departed Kobol for the Twelve Colonies some 2,000 years prior to the setting of the series.
• Kobol is a place where the "gods and man lived together in paradise".
• Some of the "gods" appear to be buried on Kobol, as demonstrated by the Tomb of Athena.
• Socinus has been released from the brig and returned to duty; Socinus' release from the brig by Chief Tyrol was filmed, but ended up on the cutting room floor.
• Ellen Tigh does not appear in this episode, but she is present in deleted scenes.
• The Cylon transponder is an indirect nod to the Original Series, in which Apollo and Starbuck use an IFF-type device to identify their Raider to Colonial forces when they launch an attack on a Cylon basestar ^{(TOS: "The Hand of God")}.
• When Adama asks Starbuck what she is doing and she replies "Bringing home the cat," she is referring to their first exchange in the Miniseries: "What do you hear?" - "Nothing but the rain."
• The last scene, with Kara Thrace leaving in a Raider to return to Caprica, is scored differently on the US DVDs than either the UK DVDs or the initially broadcast version. In the initial broadcast, the score uses the drum sequence from the opening titles. The US DVD set, however, is scored with a drum cue from the Miniseries. Neither is the version originally scored by Bear McCreary, who went with a middle ground between intense action and subtle drama. (This version can be found on his blog).

Analysis

• Why would Starbuck have sex with Baltar? As Starbuck says, she feels she is a screwup. Based on what viewers have seen and heard of Starbuck throughout the season, and specifically Apollo's comments in this episode, she has a history of recklessly diving into physical relations with no thought whatsoever as to the consequences; Starbuck instinctively starts thinking something must be wrong when things are going right, such as her growing relationship with Apollo, because she's so used to things going wrong. Also, Lee Adama left her dancing with Baltar in the last episode.
• When Sharon shoots herself, she is holding an automatic pistol, but the sound is that of the larger sidearms carried by pilots when flying off-ship missions (only slightly suppressed), rather than the report of a "normal" pistol being fired.
• When Roslin tells Starbuck that she is dying from breast cancer, she says that she only told three people. However, four people (Doctor Cottle, Billy Keikeya, Lee Adama, and Elosha) actually know of Roslin's illness by this time. Whether this is a continuity error or whether Roslin simply misspeaks is unknown.
  • Billy inferred her condition before she told him, ^{(TRS: "Miniseries")}, so maybe she is being very particular, since he did not learn of it through her telling him.

Questions

Answered Questions

For answers to the questions in this section, click here.

• Why did the Thirteen Tribes leave Kobol?
• Given the similarities with the Greek pantheon, did the gods decide to follow the 13th tribe to Earth, thus establishing the myths of the Olympian gods?
• Do the Cylons consider Kobol as their spiritual home as well (“The birthplace of us all” – Leoben Conoy, "Flesh and Bone")?

Unanswered Questions

• What happened to the gods who lived on Kobol “with man”?
• Did the gods remain on Kobol after humanity left?
• Did Sharon Valerii's Cylon personality interfere in her attempt at suicide, resulting in her wounding herself, or did her human personality lack the conviction of the act, resulting in the wound? Or was it simply an accident that she missed?

Official Statements

Regarding the lack of definitive information regarding Kobol

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

"In the last two episodes it is noted by the priestess that the thirteen tribes left Kobol about "2000 years ago" and the initial estimate of the age of the ruins is the same, but nothing is concrete of course. This is where I have a problem: They were obviously a star faring civilization to leave Kobol to being with. To do so requires information technology. Why is their history of that time so sketchy and lacking of concrete records? Yes it was 2000 years in the past but come on, it's not like they only had papyrus to write on."

I've been presupposing some kind of cataclysm or crisis that occurred soon after mankind settled on the 12 worlds which either wiped out the knowledge base or had it deliberately destroyed for some reason. This doesn't seem that implausible when one considers that a tremendous amount of knowledge from the Greco-Roman tradition was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire and plunged the western world into the so called Dark Ages. Clearly, the Colonials did not fall all the way back to papyrus, and they do in fact, know that they are descendants of refugees from Kobol, hence the term "Colonies." They must have possessed star-faring technology at the time of the exodus, but I don't know how far we'll go into this specific backstory in the series, however.

Regarding Storyline Evolution and Potential Casting

• Early on during the "Daybreak" Blu-Ray/DVD audio commentary track, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick mention that original BSG actor Dirk Benedict was, at one point, considered for the role of "God" in an earlier draft of the script; presumably after the Colonials arrive at Kobol and the Opera House there. This plot-point was discarded not long thereafter, as the final version of the episode's storyline evolved into a different form.

Other Statements

• Jamie Bamber talks about his response to the argument held between Kara Thrace and Lee Adama in this episode:

It's sort of an explosion of jealousy that is a complete surprise to him because I don't think he's ... he's not fully aware of what he feels. There's something quite like a gut reaction that really was exciting to play. It was a surprise to me. [1]

Noteworthy Dialogue

• In the bunk room, when Gaius Baltar interrupts Sharon Valeri’s second attempt at suicide:

Sharon Valerii: [as she pretends to be cleaning her hand gun] What’s going on?

Gaius Baltar: [cautiously] Well, I was going to ask you the same question. Actually, I was looking for Lieutenant Thrace but...sometimes it’s good to...talk these things over.

Head Six: [feigning pity] Deep down she knows she’s a Cylon, but her conscious mind won’t accept it.

Valerii: Sometimes I have these dark thoughts.

Baltar: What kind of dark thoughts?

Six: Her model is weak, always has been. But in the end she’ll carry out her mission.

Valerii: I don’t know, but I’m afraid I’m going to hurt someone. I feel like I ought to be stopped.

Six: [moving to the other side of Valerii] She can’t be stopped. She’s a Cylon. You can’t help her, Gaius...but you could probably sleep with her. That’s what you want, right?

Baltar: [to Valerii] I’m not sure why...sometimes...we must embrace that which opens up for us...

Sharon Valerii: Embrace?

Gaius Baltar: Life can be a curse as well as a blessing. [more intensely] You will believe me when I tell you: there are far worse things than death in this world.

Sharon Valerii: So you’re saying…?

Gaius Baltar: No. No, no, no. What I say...is meaningless. Listen to your heart. Embrace that which you know to be the right decision.

[They look at each other as Six regards Baltar with a look of complete incomprehension, then Baltar stands and kisses Boomer on the forehead before walking out of the bunkroom. Seconds later there is the sound of a single gunshot from inside.]

• On the hangar deck:

Lee Adama: Going hunting?

Kara Thrace: [loading ammunition into the Cylon Raider] I'm manning the gunnery for the jump test tomorrow. See if our boy here can shoot anything with our ammo.

Adama: So it's a boy now.

Thrace: I changed my mind.

Adama: You ever wonder why everyone else calls it a "she," but to you, it's a "he"?

Thrace: That's fascinating, Lee. You should write a paper.

Adama: Well, that's not really my style. I'm not as smart as...say, Doctor Baltar. How is the Vice President, by the way?

Thrace: I don't know. Haven't seen him.

Adama: [thinks for a second] So...he's a love-them and leave-them kind of guy, I guess.

Thrace: I guess.

Adama: Ships just pass in the night...

Thrace: Yep.

Adama: Didn't mean a thing.

Thrace: No.

Adama: You were just bored, looking for something to do. So frakking the Vice President of the Colonies seemed like a great waste of time!

Thrace: Do you want something from me?

Adama: Not a thing—

Thrace: —because I don't owe you anything.

Adama: No, you don't owe me anything. Because I'm just a CAG, and you're just a pilot. A pilot who can't keep her pants on! Oh, it's just like old times, Kara. Like when you got drunk and you couldn't keep your hands off the major—

[Thrace turns around and swings a punch at Adama, but Adama returns the favor by punching Thrace in the eye.]

Adama: Why'd you do it, Kara? Just tell me why.

Thrace: Because I'm a screw-up, Lee. Try to keep that in mind.

• As Kara Thrace pilots the Cylon Raider in a weapons test, she contacts Commander Adama:

William Adama: [to Thrace] Go ahead.

Kara Thrace: I believed you. Believed in Earth.

Adama: What are you doing, Starbuck?

Thrace: Bringing home the cat, sir.

Adama: We can talk about this.

Thrace: No, I don't think so.

Adama: I want you to remember one thing. I do not regret anything that I did. Be sure that whatever you're going to do, you don't regret it later. Do you understand me?

Thrace: I guess we'll find out. [Thrace uses the FTL computer to jump to Caprica.]

Lee Adama: Galactica, Apollo. Starbuck has jumped away. Repeat, Starbuck has jumped away.

Saul Tigh: She wasn't scheduled for a jump test! Where the hell did she go?

Adama: Home.

Guest stars

• Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
• Aaron Douglas as Chief 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
• Samuel Witwer as Lieutenant Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo
• Lorena Gale as Elosha
• Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Sherman Cottle
• Alonso Oyarzun as Specialist Socinus
• Bodie Olmos as Lieutenant Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza
• Stephen Spender as Raptor 3's Pilot
• James Bell as Raptor 3's ECO

Re-imagined Series definition: transponder-based system to positively identify friendly spacecraft (TRS: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II")

Re-imagined Series definition: Battlestar Group ^{(TRS: "Water")}. It also doubles as an acronym for the television series itself.

Re-imagined Series definition: the process of using the FTL engines to make an near-instantaneous apparent faster-than-light transport of a ship from one point in space to another

Re-imagined Series definition: all-purpose vulgarism; Colonial version of "fuck" (see: frak)

crew member handling electronic countermeasures of a craft; ECOs are standard crew aboard Raptors (see: ECO)