The Return of Starbuck[edit]
From the original script:
- In the very first scene, Adama is sitting at his desk in his quarters. He is reading his journal. Adama's Voice: "Entry dated the year one... of our discovery of Earth... We now reap the harvests of our first enclave on Earth... A colony from which we can learn and plan towards the day when we can come forth as a people and join with all of our Earth brothers..." (A chime brings Adama's attention from his discourse.) Adama: "Enter..." (Doctor Zee enters, looking very much like a small child.) Adama: "Doctor Zee... The hour is very late." Zee: "I am very troubled, Adama. May I ask your council?" Adama: "Please... Come in. Come in." (As he shows Doctor Zee the emenities... smiling... talking... we hear Adama's words...) Adama's Voice: "Doctor Zee had become such a force in our lives... It was rare when one saw him like this... Not as the great intellectual leader that had led us directly to Earth from all of the myriad stars in the Universe... But, with the voice and manner of a small child... Indeed, Doctor Zee was a child in years." Zee: "Adama, I had a dream." Adama: "Yes... Do you wish to tell me about it?" Zee: "Do you believe dreams are significant?" Adama: "Yes, I do... Not all of them... But some. And I believe dreams are far more important to some people than others..." Zee: "It was in a dream that I clearly saw Earth and knew in my very soul where she was amongst all the stars..." Adama: "I remember." Zee: "Why did you trust me with the lives of all your people?" Adama: "Someday I will tell you... Has it a bearing on your dream?" Zee: "How did I come to you, Adama?" (Adama for the first time sees where Doctor Zee is going.) Adama: "Ahhh... your birth..." Zee: "In my dream, I was not born aboard Galactica... Nor any of the ships within the fleet... Is that true?" Adama: "Yes." Zee: "Then, who am I? Where do I come from?" Adama: "Tell me about your dream..." Zee: "It was not a dream about me... It was a dream about a great warrior... (Zee walks over to the window to space...) Adama: "Did this warrior have a name?" Zee: "In my dream... his name was... (Zee looks back at Adama, perhaps for an indication...) Zee: "His name was Starbuck." (PUSH IN TO ADAMA'S FACE as a chill runs through his soul...) Adama: "Please tell me your dream..." Zee: "There was a great battle... amongst the stars... many years ago..."
- Starbuck damages Cy's Cylon raider and the cockpit fills with CO2, which is why it crashes (In the episode, Starbuck destroys the third raider, and then the Cylons in the remaining untouched raider inexplicably state that they are going to crash).
- Starbuck, in his damaged viper, approaches three planets. His scanner reads out various topography, geological, and atmospheric scans. Starbuck: "Four hundred and twenty units of heat... oooh... No, thank you. Too hot... Let's try... Minus one hundred and... No, thank you... too cold... Come on, honey... We're running out of opportunities... One hundred and fifty units per metron... Ahhhh... Now, that is what I call hospitable... Atmospheric readout... 78 parts nitrogen, at .05 parts hydrogen... to 21 parts oxygen... Well, I'll be a ding dong daggit... That's too good to be true... Oh, oh... Surface doesn't look any too smooth... Well, my little machine... You've got me this far... Let's see if you can ferrit out a meadow of softeness and delight for this tired old warrior with no place else to go..."
- There is extra dialogue after Starbuck creates a shelter and lights a fire with his laser. Starbuck's voice: "I had come close to death, many time in my life... But, never closer than now... My survival suit could not help me ward off the creeping fingers of sub-arctic temperatures... But, soon, the energizers which fed life-saving heat through my protective parka would run low and become useless arteries... What would I do then? The planet Starbuck was a nice place to visit... But, tourism and overpopulation would never become a problem."
- There is more to Starbuck's voiceover in the following scene as he wakes up: "Awakening aboard Galactica was usually a jarring experience... The blare of a claxon... The shouts of angry young pilots all being rudely mustered to duty... Left no time for farewells or preparation... It was considered poor performance if the entire squadron wasn't launched and ready for battle in less time than it would take a man to execute the mandatory morning hygenes... Teeth, hair, body... But, instead of a pleasant hydro-scrub in tepid chemicals prescribed to make your skin tingle and your hair shine... You would instead look down through the long cold corridors of war... A chance to meet the enemy... Those cold blooded metallic instruments of death, who would not cease their warring ways until every human was destroyed... Our enemy, the Cylons..." Then Starbuck wanders outside towards the Cylon ship.
- After Starbuck says, "They were definitely a loose group... It'd take some time to whip them into shape," we cut to a scene where we see Galactica moving through space. Doctor Zee's voice: "It was as vivid as if I were seeing it all before me on a microscan..." INSIDE ADAM'S QUARTERS - Zee: "Are they the abstract fantasies of a child entering the pubsecent journey to adulthood?" Adama: "Do not stop, my young friend. What you describe is far more than a dream." Zee: "More than a dream? Who was Starbuck? Was he real?" Adama: "Oh, yes... His laughter, his manner... his courage... They filled my heart... They echoed throughout the fleet... His young spirit was the essence of our people... His loss diminished us as if he were a thousand men... But, at the same time, he gave us the courage to fight on... to survive... to repay him in some way for his sacrifice." Zee: "What sacrifice?" Adama: "Tell me more of your dream... Then, I will speak..." Zee thinks about it, then turns to the window to space. Zee: "It was just a dream, Adama... Nothing more..." Adama: "Of course... We both understand that... How could it be anything more? Still... continue..." Zee nods. Zee: "It was on the third day of Starbuck's great journey that he came to his mountainous decision..." CLOSE ON STARBUCK sitting on a piece of Cylon debris... A cigar dangling unlighted from his lips. Starbuck: "Felgercarb..." He rises up, storms towards the Cylon ship. He arrives at the gaping hold and peers in... Starbuck: "Okay, I've had it with you three! You're all on report! What do you mean, what's the charge? Insubordination! Our energizers are running down. My hand laser has about enough juice left to start one more fire and I'm sick and tired of this silent treatment!" ON THE CYLONS slumped and silent... Eternally immobile... Staruck: "I'm returning to my quarters. One of you is going to come to me with a survival plan. I'll give you until mid-day. If not... I'm going to break up this little mutiny." ON STARBUCK as he storms across the clearing towards the lean-to. Suddenly, he stops in his tracks. Starbuck: "Break up... Starbuck... There's a reason they named this planet after you... You're a genius... A wizard before your time..."
- As Starbuck begins to work on one of the dead Centurions, we hear Doctor Zee's voice: "The great warrior called Starbuck struggled through a day and into the night. He had used the last of the charges from his weapon to light the small fire. His fingers were numb with cold, but the clumsy gloves provided for arctic survival... left him no dexterity for repairing the macro circuits of the complex machine he had only known before as his enemy."
- After failing to revive the centurion, Starbuck says, "All that work... This is downright discouraging..." He stands up and slams the backpack shut. "Why should I think I could fix you when everything else around here is a lost cause." He turns and looks away from the Cylon. "Face it, Starbuck... It's over."
- When Cy comes to life, Starbuck says, "You're alive! Or whatever they call it, when you're nothing but a pile of bolts."
- When Starbuck says, "So you feel no loyalty to me for saving you?," Cy asks, "What is loyalty?" Starbuck: "Loyalty is what I suppose you feel for your people. You're one of them. On the other hand, all lifeforms are brothers of a sort. Here, there is no one else for you to be loyal to than me."
- After Cy rushes off into the night in search of a woman, Starbuck hurries to the small fire inside the shelter and warms himself. He looks back out. Starbuck: "He'll be back." He looks at the two deactivated Cylons. "Well, he will. I can't go after him. I don't have any utility lights... and my heat insulation jacket is drained down to nothing... and... All right. I'm going. But we're both going to get ourselves killed wandering around on this God forsaken planet." Starbuck zips up his arctic survival coat and heads out... throwing a beam of light... first in one direction... then another. Starbuck: "Cy! Can you hear me? Where are you?" Starbuck's Voice: "It was nasty footing..."
- When Cy leaves Starbuck with the beautiful young woman, Starbuck brushes the hair back on either side of her angelic face. Starbuck's Voice: "She was prettier than anyone I had ever seen... and her clothes were of a fabric as soft as spun angels hair." Her eyes open... She looks ups. Starbuck smiles. "You're alive. You're going to be all right." Cy enters with a small container of water. Starbuck reaches back for it and uses some fabric torn from his own shirt to dampen the beautiful lady's brow... as he applies the moist compress. Starbuck's Voice: "I was so striken by the sudden appearance of this beautiful young woman... It was hours before I would have the presence of mind to ask that most obvious question of all... Who was she... and where had she come from."
- In the next scene where Starbuck is breaking wood in two with his laser and stacking it neatly, he says to her, "Since I never really knew my parents... I kind of built up this defense mechanism... You know... like nothing bothers me... I can get along without anyone... But I'll tell you... when you find yourself the only human being on an entire planet... It makes me wish I had been a whole lot nicer to everyone in my life."
- After Angela tells Starbuck to prepare a ship, there is a scene where Starbuck is walking up hills and down mountains. Starbuck's Voice: "I marched endlessly... trying to retrace the Cylon's steps in finding the girl. If she were part of a culture... a tribe... a lost outpost... everything could make sense... No question about it... The lost humans on their way to discovering Earth might have stopped on this very planet. If I walked long enough... I might find a whole civilization." ON STARBUCK as he sinks to a rock. Starbuck's Voice: "I couldn't march anymore... Whoever she was... Whatever... I'd have to find out from her... Maybe by pretending to go along with her." At night, Starbuck reenters the clearing. He stops. Starbuck: "Can't be rations... That smells like..." INSIDE THE LEAN-TO The Centurion turns the handcrank generator... across the room... A makeship stove made from coils... fresh vegetables are cooking. Starbuck: "Those are fresh grains and agrons... Where did you find them? I've combed every bit of this place with a day's walk." Angela: "I grew them." Starbuck: "You grew them where?" Angela: "I grew them today... The hand generator you fabricated works very well... They're almost prepared." Starbuck: "Show me where you grew them." Angela: "They will grow cold." Starbuck: "I said show me." She smiles and leads the way. OUTSIDE THE LEAN-TO vegetation grows... Starbuck looks at it and nods. Starbuck's Voice: "Things weren't getting any better... If this was what it was like to die and spend the rest of eternity doing pennance... I could understand people trying a little harder not to displease the God of their choice." She smiles at him... kisses him lightly. Angela: "It's too cold for you out here. Why don't you come back inside?" Starbuck: "What about you? That material is thinner than my temper right now." Angela: "I'll be happier knowing you're safe. You're only human, you know..." Starbuck: "I'm only human..." She enters the lean-to. Starbuck's Voice: "Pennance... It was pennance all right... Paying for my life of being selfish and lazy... I'd been dumped on a barren planet in a crash that should have killed me... Struck up a friendship with the most despicable lifeform in the universe... and now, had a girl on my hands who didn't come from anyplace... could grow food without seeds... in ground so hard you couldn't drive a spike into it... and I was about to be a father... Lord... What do I have to do? I'm willing to mend my ways."
- After the baby is born, and Angela says, "We have a healthy baby boy," Starbuck appears slightly embarrassed. Starbuck: "Well... In a way... I guess you could say that... since I'm the only..." And then Cy gets upset.
- Soon after, Starbuck says to Angela, "I have a surprise for you. The ship is finished. It's a little cramped. And I don't know how we'd ever get Cy into it... But if it's Cylons coming after us... I'm afraid he'd have to side with them anyway..."
- Moments later, we hear Starbuck's Voice: "No question about it... Motherhood is the single most physically demanding effort a human can endure. She'd feel more optimistic in the morning. I peered out without seeing any sign of Cy... It was a peculiar feeling to know that in being exposed to human beings, he was beginning to reveal human traits of envy and possessiveness... Maybe even those emotional characteristics that make men most vulnerable and unpredictable."
- After Angela climbs into the ship, she says, "Why aren't you climbing inside?" Starbuck: "I will. First, I have to try to take out a few of those Cylons. They're so close, they could knock us out of the sky with hand lasers. Look... What did you mean by Judgment Day?"
- After Starbuck tells her that the ship will automatically deviate course to avoid Cylons, she says, "You're good, Starbuck." Starbuck: "Ahhhh... I was always mechanically inclined."
- This is the complete final scene that takes place in Adama's quarters. Doctor Zee: "The small pod made its way across the heavens emitting its weak but distinct distress signal... Farther and farther into space it went, carrying the small child in a near frozen state... the temperature of the cocoon carefully controlled to sustain life as long as possible. On and on... and on, until..." Adama: "Yes, Doctor Zee. Until..." Doctor Zee: "Until my dream ended. I awakened to find myself shaking... damp with perspiration... I'm sorry." Adama: "Sorry?" Doctor Zee: "To come to you at this hour with this disturbing fantasy. What must you think of me? Perhaps I'd better check with the life station. I may be fevered and delirious." Adama moves forward and presses his hand against the young man's forehead. Adama: "Even without feeling your forehead, I can tell you're perfectly well." Doctor Zee: "But this nightmare... This disturbing dream..." Adama turns away. Adama: "I find it a beautiful dream." Doctor Zee: "Beautiful... that a child should be left to drift forever in space?" Adam: "I want you to look at something, Doctor Zee... even as the computron searches for the words in my journal, I can recall them as vividly as if they happened yesterday. It was nearly a decade ago. Colonel Boomer was a part of a sweep squadron searching a dangerous Cylon corridor..."
- ON A VIPER SQUADRON angling through the skies... Boomer: "This is flight leader Delta. I am picking up a Colonial distress beacon coming from Alpha sector... Request permission to break off from scout patrol to investigate." Leader's Voice: "Granted." Boomer's ship flies off. Boomer: "The signal is getting stronger... and it is clearly Colonial... not Cylon... Wait. There it is. But... what is it? The front half looks Colonial... and the engine pod looks Cylon..." ON DOCTOR ZEE seated at Adama's console reading, with Adama standing behind him looking on. Doctor Zee: "A recovery team brought the small pod aboard Galactica... taking every imaginable precaution... lest it be some treacherous Cylon trick... far from being a trick... the crude handmade space craft bore us an incredible gift... a small child... a child of the stars... Adama, then it was true... my dream... but, how could I know these things?" Adama: "I can think of two possibilities. You have always been gifted... that was evident from your first speech patterns. It is quite possible that in studying the history of our people, which you did at the age of two, I believe... that this incident of finding the child remained in your memory and inspired your dream." Doctor Zee: "But, it was so vivid... and you say that Starbuck was real... I am sure I recall reading of him. But I don't recall ever reading of his final mission... or what became of him." Adama: "We never knew... it has haunted me as much as the loss of my own son." Doctor Zee: "You said that there were two possibilities... the first being that the history records inspired my dream... what is the other?" Adama: "That you remembered what happened to Starbuck because you were there." Doctor Zee: "I was there?" Adama: "Yes, Doctor Zee, you are the child that came to us from the stars." Doctor Zee: "But, Adama... the records indicate my parents perished in a Cylon attack just after my birth." Adama: "So it was assumed, when you came to us in a strange concoction made from a Cylon warship and a Colonial viper." Doctor Zee: "Adama, could I be Starbuck's son? And if I am, who is my mother?" Doctor Zee moves back to the window. Adama: "The answer is still out there amongst the stars." Doctor Zee: "They may both be alive." Adama: "I'm afraid we'll never know." Doctor Zee: "On the contrary, Adama, perhaps my dream means that somewhere out there my father and mother are trying to communicate with me... perhaps, one night... sometime... somewhere... in the future... I'll have another dream." THE END