Bastille Day

"Bastille Day" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 3
Writer(s)	Toni Graphia
Story by
Director	Allan Kroeker
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
Production No.	103
Nielsen Rating	2.3
US airdate	2005-01-21
CAN airdate	2005-01-29
UK airdate	2004-11-01
DVD release	20 September 2005 US 28 March 2005 UK
Population	survivors
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Water	Bastille Day	Act of Contrition
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
Deleted Scenes
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
Photo Gallery			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
Amazon: Standard Definition | High Definition

After the Fleet finds a source of water to replace that which was lost in sabotage, Galactica and the Fleet face a shortage of manpower to mine it, turning to their prisoner population for help, with unexpected complications.

Summary

In the Fleet

• After Galactica's extensive water supplies are sabotaged ^{(TRS: "Water")}, a source of water is found on a nearby moon—but it is in the form of ice, and must be mined. This will require a crew of around 1,000.
• As that number cannot be spared from Galactica's crew, and it is unlikely civilians will volunteer for the dangerous work, Captain Adama suggests enlisting the help of the prisoners on Astral Queen.
• President Roslin refuses to force the prisoners into the work, so Lee suggests that volunteering prisoners could be awarded points toward earning their freedom.
• The idea does not go over well with Commander Adama, who is already at odds with his son over his new position as "special advisor" to the President.
• However, Roslin decides to send a delegation led by Lee Adama to Astral Queen to put the idea to the prisoners. To address Adama's fears that they might inadvertently release dangerous prisoners into the Fleet's community, Billy Keikeya is selected to go as well and screen the prisoners prior to selection.
• As a further snub to his son, Commander Adama insists that military personnel also go – Anastasia Dualla is "volunteered" by Keikeya to assist in the screening and report directly back to Adama, and Cally Henderson is selected to ensure the chosen prisoners can handle the mining equipment.
• On Astral Queen, Captain Adama outlines the deal to the prisoners, but no one volunteers.
• The nominated leader of the prisoners, whom Billy Keikeya recognizes as the infamous political agitator Tom Zarek from Sagittaron, politely refuses the offer.
• While Dualla and Keikeya argue the merits of Zarek as a "prisoner of conscience" or terrorist, Lee meets with Zarek to try and persuade him to help.
• On Galactica, Commander Adama confronts Gaius Baltar about the Cylon detector. When Adama pushes him, Baltar almost admits he can't actually build it.
• This releases a torrent of anger from Baltar's virtual Six, which terrifies him into submission. She instructs him on what to ask for to make the detector: a nuclear warhead.
• Baltar realizes her instructions will actually work, and Adama agrees to provide the warhead.
• On Astral Queen, Zarek's elaborately orchestrated prison break takes place, and Galactica's delegation is taken hostage.
• With the ship in his control, Zarek broadcasts a message demanding the immediate resignation of President Roslin and her government, claiming that since they were never elected, they do not legitimately represent the people.
• As Zarek uses Lee Adama to try and gain insight into the dynamic between Roslin and Commander Adama, an assault mission consisting of Marines and led by Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is assembled. A crack sharpshooter, Thrace is ordered by Adama to kill Zarek if she gets a clear shot.
• Commander Adama's attempt to negotiate with Zarek is rebuffed. Lee Adama realizes the truth: Zarek wants the commander to send in the troops, believing a bloodbath aboard Queen will bring down Roslin's government through scandal.
• The Marines and Starbuck arrive in Raptors and cut their way into the ship.
• In the cells, a prisoner named Mason attempts to rape Cally Henderson. She bites off a piece of his ear, and he shoots her in retaliation.
• Lee Adama rushes to the cell and puts a sidearm to Zarek's head, giving him a choice: die now, or work with his men to supply the Fleet with water in exchange for control of Astral Queen and a guarantee of future elections.
• The Marines storm the area. Thrace takes a shot at Zarek, but Lee Adama pushes him to safety.
• Roslin and Commander Adama are initially displeased with Lee's arrangement, but he argues that the prisoners, while in control of their ship, are still reliant on the Fleet for supplies, and that under Colonial law, Roslin would have to face elections in seven months anyway.
• Later, Captain Adama tells Roslin he'll vote for her when the time comes. His honesty prompts her to reveal the truth: she has cancer and might not be alive to run for re-election.

On Caprica

• Karl "Helo" Agathon and the Caprica copy of Sharon Valerii reach a relatively undamaged city.
• As they explore, they are observed by a Number Five and a Number Six from a rooftop.
• The two Cylons discuss their heritage as the "children of humanity." While Six expresses regret that humans must be destroyed, the Five is less compassionate, stating that parents must die to allow their children to come into their own.

Notes

Behind the Scenes

According to So Say We All: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Battlestar Galactica, this episode was a pivotal moment for the series as it introduced the character of Tom Zarek, played by Richard Hatch, the star of the Original Series. The writers' room, led by Ronald D. Moore, saw the prison-ship storyline as the "perfect opportunity" to bring Hatch into the new series. The idea was to have the original Apollo play a character who voiced skepticism about the new leadership, creating a meta-narrative that the creative team found "a lot of fun." In the episode's home video-only podcast commentary, Moore elaborated on this, stating he loved the "delicious" irony of having the original Apollo play a character whose role was to say, "Everything about this show is wrong. All of this must be destroyed."

The producers considered the casting a "stunt," enjoying the dynamic of having the "two Apollos" confront each other on screen. The casting choice was initially met with some trepidation by actor Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama), who was "terrified" to work with Hatch, given Hatch's previous outspoken criticism of the reimagining. However, Hatch proved to be a consummate professional. Moore recalls that Hatch arrived at the table read completely "off book" and fully embraced the complex role. Co-executive producer David Eick noted that Hatch, who had been one of the most "vocally opposed" critics of the remake, ultimately became one of its "chief advocates" after joining the cast. Fellow actor James Callis (Gaius Baltar) noted that Hatch, a "prince of a man," relished playing a character so different from himself.

Continuity Notes

• Events here take place 2 days after those of "Water".
• In the Miniseries, Astral Queen is apparently a liner, rather than a prison ship. In the home video release commentary for this episode, Ronald D. Moore explains that the ship's mention in the Miniseries was just a "throwaway line" to establish that there were prisoners in the Fleet. The name itself was a Star Trek homage, and the idea of a full-blown prison riot episode was a natural extension of that initial mention when the writers were planning the series.
  • During a briefing, Billy informs President Roslin that: "The Captain of Astral Queen wants you to know that he has nearly 500 convicted criminals under heavy guard in his cargo hold. They were being transported to a penal station when the attack happened."
  • In the re-cap clip shown at the top of this episode, Keikeya's lines are re-dubbed so that he says, "The Captain of Astral Queen wants you to know that he has 1,500 prisoners under heavy guard."
  • Instead of being taken to a penal station, as in the Miniseries, Lee "Apollo" Adama states that the prisoners were being transferred to Caprica for parole hearings.
  • For the purposes of the increased number of prisoners, Astral Queen becomes a prison ship.
• The Colonials will face a fuel shortage at some point.
• Major Cottle, Galactica's ship doctor, is first mentioned in this episode, although he will not appear until the next episode.
• President Roslin's hair style changes starting with this episode, from the straight-down hairstyle she had since the Miniseries, to the swept-back style which she would sport through the end of Season 2.
• Galactica is referred to by Viper pilots as the "Big G." This mirrors the nickname pilots have given to the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the "Big E". The introduction of Pegasus would later change this; Galactica would be nicknamed "The Bucket," with Pegasus being nicknamed "The Beast."

Production Notes

• Richard Hatch played the character of Apollo in the Original Series and is the first cast member of the 1978 show to participate in the Re-imagined Series.
• This is one of only two Season 1 episodes to deal extensively with another ship in the Fleet. The other is "Colonial Day, which features Cloud 9 heavily and has few scenes on Galactica. Originally this was planned to happen more often, but building new sets turned out to be much more expensive than anticipated.
• This is the only regular-series episode in which Boxey appears, outside of his appearance in the Miniseries. According to the podcast, when the Miniseries was created, the writers envisioned Boxey as being a major recurring character in most episodes of the series. However, on a case-by-case basis, they found that inserting a child like Boxey did not harmonize with many of the dark scripts on the series, and once the show got underway and found its flow, they simply couldn't think of ways to write him into upcoming scripts. By the beginning of Season 2, they realized they hadn't been using him, and officially decided to simply abandon the character and consciously never tried to use him again.
• Starting with this episode, Cally Henderson started to become a larger character on the series, as noted by Moore and Eick in the podcast (see Official Statements, below). Originally she was supposed to die, but instead they rewrote the scene to give her an attention-getting grittiness and in turn, survival.
• The quip made by Astral Queen's captain, "I'm a bus driver, not a warden," is a homage to the original Star Trek television series. It is similar to Doctor Leonard McCoy's trademark quote, "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer," or whatever fits at the time in the latter portion of the statement.
• The setup for this plot might have been inspired by the TOS episode "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part I". In both episodes, a group of criminals was conscripted from a prison ship to work on the icy surface of a hostile planet. A notable difference between the two episodes lies in how the workers were chosen. While the workers in "Bastille Day" were chosen in part for their expendability, the conscripts in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part I" were chosen for their expertise in harsh environments and in demolition work. Also different was the prisoners' motivation to take on the work. In "Bastille Day," the prisoners are offered the possibility of earning their freedom, whereas the prisoners in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part I" were offered nothing overtly other than the fear that the fleet might be destroyed without their services. A number of them take the assignment in the hopes of escaping during the action.
• According to the DVD commentary for the episode, the startling scene when Number Six yells in Baltar's face that "they're going to throw you out of an airlock!" was a visual homage taken from the film "Jacob's Ladder," which has a similar startling close up shot. Tricia Helfer was given scary makeup for the shot, but in such a slight way that it is difficult for the eye to see what's wrong with the shot, but the audience can tell on some level that something's wrong. If you pause during her close-up shot, you can see that she's wearing contact lenses that make her eyes look unnaturally bright, and a mouthpiece of fake teeth which are bent out of shape and unnaturally large.
• The building seen in the first scene with Helo and Sharon is actually the Vancouver Public Library, one of the most recognizable buildings in the city of Vancouver.
• The scene where Lee "Apollo" Adama holds his pistol to a kneeling Tom Zarek is a recreation of Dirty Harry, according to David Eick's comments in the DVD commentary. "That is the 'I know what you're thinking, punk' shot, down to the move, the lens, the distance of the camera away from the actor."
• Bastille Day was helmed by Allan Kroeker, a veteran TV director whose credits include multiple episodes of such series as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise and Roswell.
• Much of the episode was filmed at the disused Port Mann Power Station in Vancouver's Surrey district. This location was transformed into the Astral Queen using a combination of practical sets and CGI set extensions.
• The episode's title was chosen by Toni Graphia because its plotline reminded her of the historic march on the Bastille which triggered the French Revolution in 1789.

Character Development and Casting

• Toni Graphia and Carla Robinson were responsible for naming Tom Zarek. Graphia recalls: "We knew we probably wanted something starting with a 'Z' for his surname, because a 'Z' sounds strong and futuristic. And we wanted him to have a religious-sounding name for his first name, so we looked at a number of Saints' names. His original name was Peter Zarek, but that didn't clear with our legal department. So we changed it to Tom."
• Initially, Tom Zarek was described by Ronald D. Moore as "a Nelson Mandela-style prisoner of conscience" before developing into one of the show's most intriguing and ambiguous characters.
• Richard Hatch had previously declined to make a cameo appearance as the then-male Elosha in the Miniseries, but was intrigued by Moore's description of Zarek and quickly signed on to play the potentially recurring character.

Set Design and Costumes

• Production designer Richard Hudolin designed the prison cells aboard Astral Queen with a specific twist: "The bars aren't a normal size and the prison cells are reminiscent of chicken in cages."
• Costume designer Glenne Campbell explains that the prisoner costumes were based on real-life prison clothing: "The prisoner's costumes are much like the orange coveralls prisoners in transport wear. We changed the color from orange to red because orange was just too close to reality, while deep red gave a good 'danger' signal. Richard Hatch loved wearing it. He said it was the most comfortable costume he'd ever worn!"

Analysis

• The Cylons didn't nuke every city on Caprica, although they did nuke most of them, including Caprica City. Ron Moore and David Eick point out in the home video-only podcast that at first this was a plot expediency, as showing the destruction of every city would have been prohibitively expensive. This production reality led to the story element of Karl "Helo" Agathon questioning why some cities were spared. The answer to this question comes in the episode "Downloaded," when viewers see the Cylons rebuilding and inhabiting a city themselves. The intense radiation exposure killed most humans on Caprica without the necessity of destroying all infrastructure.

• It seems strange that Agathon would be shouting loudly to see if anyone might hear him, as this might draw Cylon attention. However, viewers can't tell how many hours Caprica-Valerii and Agathon might have spent discovering that the city is apparently empty. Moreover, it has only been 12 days since the Cylon attack, and Agathon has no idea how far over Caprica they have spread yet.

• The flight briefing Kara "Starbuck" Thrace gives as acting-CAG seems a bit "out of character" compared to her personality as developed later in the series. She is in full "Top Gun" mode: wearing aviator sunglasses, sporting a cigar, and giving a very irreverent briefing. Actress Katee Sackhoff and the writers have said that after the first few episodes they learned to start adding "more of Katee into Starbuck," and Thrace's characterization is smoothed out further by the middle of the season.

• Another oddity with this scene is that Boxey's presence seems a bit forced. In the podcast commentary, Ron Moore explains that the original concept was for Boxey to form a "family unit" with Galen Tyrol and Sharon Valerii, living with them and acting as a sort of mascot for the pilots. This plot point was abandoned when Sharon's Cylon storyline was accelerated in "Water". The writers considered re-purposing him as an "Artful Dodger" character, but the idea was never developed, leaving his appearance in this scene feeling somewhat out of place.

• At the end of the Miniseries, Saul Tigh chooses to quit drinking. In "33," Commander Adama notes how good it is that Tigh isn't drinking anymore. However, Tigh has a relapse, having a few shots, and is a little tipsy in front of some crewmen (although he is not slurring his speech and stumbling over furniture).

• The notion of Starbuck being a sharpshooter, "best shot in or out of the cockpit" stretches the credibility of these scenes: shooting in a Viper and shooting a sniper rifle are entirely different things. In the podcast, Ron Moore concedes this was a "concession to the form" for dramatic purposes. Rather than introducing a new Marine sniper character the audience had no connection to, they made Starbuck the sniper to heighten the tension and drama of the final sequence, especially since it put her in the position of having her friend Lee Adama's life in her hands. Moore also addressed this in his earlier blog entry of April 11th, 2005, following the episode's airing:

"Kara might be the best shot in the fleet...but being a good shot is far from being a trained sniper. And she missed in that episode, a huge faux-paux for a scout sniper. In addition, she could not have been conducting unit training and sustainment training with the Marines...and fly her Viper.

In the season finale, with the Marine boarding party assaulting into the President's office...her guards would have had to put down their guns..or they would have been shot quickly..or at least physically detained at gunpoint. There is no way a standoff that close would ensue."

I think both comments are well taken and I concede the points. In both instances, we chose to go with the dramatic needs rather than the "real" choices. Making Kara the sniper was simply a way of providing more tension and drama into the final sequence of "Bastille Day" rather than going with a brand-new Marine sniper who the audience would have no investment in or identification with. Likewise, the stand-off aboad [sic] Colonial One would've probably never occured [sic] with real Marines and Secret Service agents, and indeed, early drafts of the script had the final beats playing out on either side of a barricaded hatch that separated the two sides. However, the feeling was that separating Laura et al from Tigh et al dissipated the drama and felt less suspenseful, so we decided to go for the stand-off. It's a judgement call, frankly. We're always striving to keep things as "real" as we can make them, but we are still producing a television series and we're telling a story, so sometimes we bend the rules to make the show more compelling or to avoid awkward scenes that actually slow it down and dissipate the momentum.

Questions

Answered Questions

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

• Is Tom Zarek genuinely willing to die for his beliefs?
• Can Gaius Baltar really use a nuclear warhead to build a Cylon detector, or does Head Six have some other plan?
• Will elections really be held in seven months?

Unanswered Questions

None yet.

Official Statements

Cast and Crew Commentary

• In the home video release commentary for "Bastille Day," David Eick and Ronald D. Moore talk about Cally Henderson, and how initial drafts had her being killed:

David Eick: Nicki Clyne, who you see here playing Cally, was somebody who in the Miniseries, I remember Michael (Rymer) and I cast just on the basis of her look, 'cause we thought she was really cute, she kind of reminded us of a young Shelley Duvall. [...] she turned out to be so good that we— in launching the series we started talking about ways to involve her and I'm very proud of a moment coming up where she does something rather nasty, that...

Ronald D. Moore: Well she almost died! She was gonna die in the initial drafts of this.

Eick: That's right! He kills her! He rapes and kills her! And they're telling us we're too dark this year.

Moore: Oh, I know. The second season is so much darker. And I don't think they even care. Yeah, Cally, Nicki, I hate to tell ya, but the bullseye was on Nicki here. And I can't even tell you why we decided it was, no I take that back I think it was your note; you said you wanted Cally to fight back and really show some balls in this scene. She bit his ear off...

Eick: I said, "She bites his frakking ear off" and I was totally being...you know, just illustrative! I didn't really mean it!

Moore: And I wrote, "she bites his ear off"!

Eick: "And I got the draft, and she bites his ear off! I was like "that's great!"

Moore: And from that moment on, I think, she really became part of the show. In a real sense, once she had gone through that and survived, and you know Tyrol and the gang come in and see her in the hospital at the end you kind of felt like she is one of the family.

• Nicki Clyne discusses her appearance in the episode:

"They used this mixture of corn syrup and coloring for the blood, which was extremely sticky...I had to squeeze this sponge of icky goo all over myself, and I had it on whole day. I couldn't wipe off the blood for lunchtime and put it back on, because of continuity reasons. So for the entire day I had my shirt completely stuck to me, and my face was all sticky — it wasn't a nice feeling. When I ate my lunch, no one wanted to sit with me. I even forgot I had this guck on me. I was walking around, throwing popcorn in my mouth and everyone was backing off and staring at me. I'm going "Hey, what's your problem?" Then it occurred to me, "Oh yeah, I look like Death! Right. OK!""

• Jamie Bamber on working with Richard Hatch:

"Before I read the script, I had my misgivings because there's always the danger you might be accused of tokenism or doing it as a marketing ploy. Richard had also been quite vocal in his disappointment that we weren't making a continuation of the original show. But once I read the script, all my misgivings were gone. I thought Richard's character was very strong and interesting, and Richard was just lovely to work with. He's a cool guy, and he's very supportive of what we're doing."

• Richard Hatch on working with Bamber:

"Jamie is a terrific actor and I was so grateful that he's such a gracious and nice guy. He plays the character very differently from how I played him. He made it clear to me that he was actually playing Lee Adama, and Apollo was his call sign!"

• Ronald D. Moore on the Apollo name exchange scene:

"It was tricky to get that right. I wanted to make sure it wasn't too overt and stuck out too much, but you kind of want to acknowledge it and deal with it in some way."

• Richard Hatch on the scene where he discusses Apollo's name:

"I found it interesting that I was given those lines to talk about who Apollo is and what that name signifies. I think that was a great way to basically pass the mantle between us."

• Kandyse McClure on the prison set atmosphere:

"It was so creepy being locked in that cage. It was an intense and very eerie environment."

• Nicki Clyne on her character development in the episode:

"I was really happy with that episode. I thought the stuff with Mason was very powerful, and I was very happy that Cally got to show some strength and attitude. I knew she had it in her!"

• Toni Graphia on the decision to save Cally:

"In the first draft of the script, Cally was killed. But several people, including Ron, felt that they didn't want the show to portray any of our female characters as victims, because our women are very strong. So we changed it to Cally fighting back, and I was actually very happy about that."

• Jamie Bamber on Lee Adama's character arc:

"I relished doing that episode because Lee finally gets to stand up on his own two feet. You get an insight into how Lee views the military and civilians, and he gets to do something that's slightly controversial and may not prove to be the best decision in the long term. For those reasons, it is one of my favorite episodes of the season."

Behind-the-Scenes Insights

• Ronald D. Moore on the episode's origins in Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion:

"When we were originally talking about doing a series, the network and studio asked me to give them an idea of the variety of stories we could tell, and one of the things I said we would do was the 'prison riot episode'. I actually mentioned the prison ship in the miniseries specifically so we could do something with it. I saw this episode as an opportunity to really set up the politics of the show. I wanted the audience to know that politics were going to be an important part of the show as it continued."

• Toni Graphia on writing the episode:

"Coming in as the first person to write an episode apart from Ron Moore, I did feel a lot of pressure. Ron is so brilliant and created such an epic piece. Coming in after him, I really wanted to match his voice and do justice to the material."

• On developing Tom Zarek's character:

"We saw Tom Zarek as someone who had created a lot of trouble for the 'right reasons'. He had committed terrorist acts in the name of preventing his colony and his people from being exploited. Zarek is not a moustache-twirling villain. He's a something of a rogue hero, and he's supposed to be very likeable."

• Moore added:

"Tom Zarek is idealistic in his own way. But I think he has more personal ambition than even he would care to admit."

Noteworthy Dialogue

• On choosing sides:

William Adama: Every man has to decide for themselves which side they are on.

Lee "Apollo" Adama: I didn't know we were picking sides. [walks off]

William Adama: That's why you haven't picked one yet.

• On Cylon-occupied Caprica:

Doral: She's good.

Six: So far.

Doral: Jealous?

Six: This all makes me so sad.

Doral: (matter-of-fact) They would have destroyed themselves anyway. They deserve what they got.

Six: We're the children of humanity. That makes them our parents in a sense.

Doral: True - but parents have to die. It's the only way children come into their own.

• Later, aboard Astral Queen, in a broadcast by Tom Zarek:

Tom Zarek: I make these demands not for me....but for you, the people. The survivors of the holocaust and the children of humanity's future. I am Tom Zarek, and this is the first day of a new era.

Guest stars

Credited

• 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
• Connor Widdows as Boxey
• Alonso Oyarzun as Specialist Socinus
• Nicki Clyne as Specialist Cally Henderson
• Pat Adrien Dorval as Wilkens
• Ron Selmour as Seaborne
• Matthew Bennett as Aaron Doral
• Brent Stait as Mason
• Graham Young as Marine #1
• Curtis Lee Hicks as Marine #2
• Colby Johannson as Dwight "Flat Top" Saunders

Uncredited

• Scott Nicholson as Starke/Stunt Guard #1 and Stunt Con #6
• Guy Bews as Stunt Guard #1
• Lou Bollo as Stunt Guard #2
• Duane Dickinson as Stunt Guard #3
• Tony Morelli as Stunt Con #1
• Ernest Jackson as Stunt Con #2
• Gaston Howard as Stunt Con #3
• Scott Atea as Stunt Con #4
• Simon Burnett as Stunt Con #5
• Gerald Paets as Stunt Con #7
• Charles Andre as Stunt Marine
• Dave Hospes as Lee "Apollo" Adama (stunt)

References