Islanded in a Stream of Stars

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"Islanded In a Stream of Stars" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 4, Episode 18
Writer(s)
Story by
Director
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	420
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	March 6, 2009
CAN airdate	March 6, 2009
UK airdate	March 10, 2009
DVD release
Population	survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Someone to Watch Over Me	Islanded In a Stream of Stars	Daybreak, Part I
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
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Overview

Repairs on the Galactica continue, but it seems little headway is being made. The ship's power and temperature are fluctuating, and the creaks and groans of metal fatigue can be heard constantly. A major hull breach kills about 60 people. Lee "Apollo" Adama struggles to convince the newly-elected Fleet Quorum that Galactica can be saved, but many councillors are worried about becoming dependent on the Cylons for military protection. Others demand that Galactica be stripped for parts. Laura Roslin's cancer is killing her, and she is now confined to bed in the ship's hospital. She gradually convinces Admiral William Adama that he has to abandon Galactica and move everyone over to the Cylon Basestar. Ellen Tigh tries to convince Colonel Saul Tigh that Roslin is right, but he refuses: The decision is Adm. Adama's alone. Karl "Helo" Agathon's marriage to Sharon "Athena" Valerii is falling apart, as she cannot overcome the loss of her child, Hera, or the knowledge that her husband had sexual intercourse with the Number Eight known as "Boomer". Trying to save his marriage, Helo tries to get Adm. Adama to approve the launching of a Raptor to find Hera. Adama has already permitted Sonia, the leader of the Sixes and a member of the new Quorum, to secretly take a Heavy Raider to the Cylon home world, known as "the colony". The colony though has already been evacuated by Cavil prior to the Cylon civil war; sending Helo out in a Raptor would be a suicide mission for Helo. Adama finally refuses to give permission, to which Helo appears devastated. Gaius Baltar continues his religious broadcasts to the Fleet, and his latest message focuses on angels walking among humanity. Baltar encounters Caprica Six, who rejects his romantic overtures. She tells him she's changed and that he has not. Baltar breaks down over the loss of his former lover. Later, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace meets Baltar while they are both in the ship's head. Kara tells him that she died on Earth, and discovered her own body there. She gives him her dog tag to analyze. He scrapes blood from the dog tag, and finds it came from a body which was already dead. When the Galactica crew, Cylons, and Baltar's believers meet on Galactica's flight deck to bury those who died in the hull breach, Baltar reveals what he discovered about Starbuck and calls her an angel. He preaches about eternal life, but Starbuck slaps him and the service breaks up. Later, Apollo meets with Starbuck and offers her his unconditional love and support. They part as friends. Starbuck puts a photo of herself on the memorial wall of the dead. Aboard the stolen Raptor, Hera keeps crying for her mother, infuriating Boomer. Boomer almost sedates the child, but cannot bring herself to do so; they keep jumping toward their destination. In an attempt to calm Hera, Boomer reveals her "Cylon projection" dreamworld to Hera. Hera can see the world, too, and bonds with Boomer. Boomer begins to develop strong emotional ties to the child. When the two arrive at the "colony", a Cylon base on top of a small, rocky planetoid, Cavil takes Hera from Boomer and declares that soon there will be many Heras. The child weeps and calls out for Boomer, and Boomer also sheds copious tears unwilling to part from Hera. After an emotional breakdown, Adm. Adama realizes the ship must be abandoned. He meets with Col. Tigh, who initially resists the evacuation order but gives in after a brief discussion. All civilians are to be removed over the next few days, arrangements are to be made to put the military personnel aboard the Basestar, and Galactica is to be stripped for parts. Rather than let the ship break down, Adama intends to destroy it "in style." Galen Tyrol, Tory Foster, Saul Tigh and Ellen Tigh—the only conscious members of the Final Five—meet and discuss what to do with Samuel Anders. They agree that hooking him up to a hybrid tank may help bring him out of his comatose state. But after several days in the hybrid tank, there is no apparent change. Starbuck (Cpt. Kara Thrace), Anders's wife, goes to Anders' bedside alone, and decides to kill him rather than let him live in a vegetative state. But as she aims a gun at his head, Anders comes awake. He babbles, but his raving also indicates that he's aware of the threat to his life. With one hand, he subdues Starbuck and she drops the pistol. The other Final Five meet to discuss what is happening. Anders continues to babble, but some of his rants indicate that he is reintegrating, perhaps even repairing, his mind. The Galactica's power and temperature fluctuations were because Anders was connecting to the ship, as the hybrid tank and the Cylon polymer used to repair the battlestar is giving him the power to interact with the ship's computers. Tigh deems this too dangerous to continue, as Anders might jump the ship. Anders is disconnected from the hybrid tank, and he falls into a coma again. A few days later, Starbuck meets with the comatose Anders. She brings Hera's drawing of the song (the song which helped awaken the Final Five in the episode "Crossroads", and about which further complications were revealed in the episode prior to this one, "Someone to Watch Over Me"), and states assertively, that together, they will discover what is going on. She reconnects him to the ship's power systems. He awakens again, and begins speaking in the kind of a hybrid.

Notes

• The title comes from the book The Outermost House, by Henry Beston, where he chronicles his time spent living on an isolated beach in Cape Cod. In the chapter "Night on the Great Beach" he wrote, "For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in its stream of stars— pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across eternal seas of space and time."

Guest Stars

• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster