Continuity errors (TRS)

Part of the series on Continuity Errors

Original Series Galactica 1980 Re-imagined Series Caprica

This is a listing of continuity errors in the Re-imagined Series.

Acknowledged Mistakes

• At the end of "Home, Part II", when everyone is looking at the map to Earth in the Tomb of Athena, Lee Adama points out the Lagoon Nebula in one of the constellations shown in the sky. According to him, and supported by the visual effects, the nebula is located in Scorpio, but in the real world it is actually in the constellation Sagittarius.
• At the beginning of "Downloaded" two captions are shown: one states that the Cylon Attack in the Miniseries occurred nine months before the current episode (which is consistent with the other episodes in Season 2.5), while the second reads "10 weeks ago", and then shows Cally shooting "Boomer" Valerii in "Resistance". However, it is impossible for this to have happened "10 weeks before 9 months after the attack": 9 months = 270 days. There is another plaque in the episode "Epiphanies" which clearly states on screen that that episode took place on Day 189. There are 70 days in 10 weeks. 70 days before Day 270 would be around Day 200; well after "Epiphanies". To correct this, the title card of the DVD and international television releases has been changed to "10 weeks later", meaning 10 weeks after Caprica Six's resurrection.
• In "Scar" Starbuck and Kat fly Viper Mark VIIs but the launch in the originally aired episode showed a Viper Mark II. This has been fixed in the DVD release which now includes a new, but somewhat shorter, launch sequence with the Mk VIIs. (Although, a few previous episodes like "Resurrection Ship, Part II" only use the Mk II sequence, but both types of Vipers are deployed by Galactica.)
• "Exodus, Part I": At the end of "Precipice" Cally is clearly in the woods when the gunfire is going off. At the time Tyrol and his group take aim at the Cylon Centurion, Cally has not reached the wooded area by the time gunfire sounds. Further, when the gunfire begins in "Precipice", Tyrol is at the firing position, far from Cally, while in "Exodus, Part I" he is holding her to the ground when it begins.

Retcons

• Season two timeline discontinuity: All episodes before Season 2.5 (starting with "Resurrection Ship, Part I") seem to indicate that Season 2.5 begins 3-4 months after the Cylon attack. However, "Resurrection Ship, Part I" and all subsequent Season 2.5 episodes indicate that "Resurrection Ship, Part I" began 6 months after the Cylon attack. See the main article for more detailed analysis. There are 3 main points of discontinuity:
  • Caprica-Valerii is not visibly pregnant in "Pegasus", but by "Epiphanies", roughly 2-3 weeks later, she appears to be in her second trimester.
  • The presidential elections in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II" are said to take place 9 months after the attack, when throughout Season 1 it was consistently said to be 7 months after the Cylon attack.
  • If all of the dates mentioned in each episode are counted up, "Pegasus" only occurs roughly three months post-attack, not six.
• Fleet numbers: In the Miniseries, a total of 40 FTL ships (led by Roslin) rendezvous with Galactica at Ragnar Anchorage. This makes the count 41 ships, including Galactica. However, this number was enlarged for the series. In "33," Dualla states: "Jump 237 underway... 53 ships have jumped, 10 still reporting trouble with their FTL drives, including Colonial One." Thus making the total 64 ships, including Galactica herself. By the end of "33", the count drops to 63 as Lee Adama and Kara Thrace destroy the Olympic Carrier. In "You Can't Go Home Again", Colonel Tigh mentions the Cylons searching for "a sixty-odd ships". The count offered in "The Farm" is similar — 24 ships leave to join Roslin's fleet, which was "almost a third" of the Fleet, putting the number at about 75. About 65 ships have been named to date, mostly on the vote tally boards in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
• The Astral Queen: In the Miniseries, Billy Keikeya states that the captain had 500 prisoners in his cargo hold, and that the Queen was a cargo vessel transporting prisoners to a prison. In "Bastille Day", Billy Keikeya's lines were re-dubbed: 1,500 prisoners are aboard the Astral Queen and that the ship was a prison transport. Lee Adama would go on to later state that the Astral Queen was en route to Caprica for parole hearings.
• Cylon detector: In the episode "Flesh and Bone", it takes only minutes to identify "Boomer" Valerii as a Cylon. However, in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", he states that complete testing on one sample of blood takes 11 hours. However, this could be because a negative result takes 11 hours to confirm but a positive result potentially may be more instant. Although, since Ellen is later revealed to be a member of the Final Five in "Sometimes a Great Notion", coupled with the fact that Baltar rigged the results to always read as negative and said he would "never tell" what Ellen's true results were, it is possible that it takes 11 hours to alter any positive readouts so that they'd appear to be negative.
• The exodus from Kobol: In "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I" Elosha, Billy and Roslin are discussing Kobol and the exodus of the tribes. Billy says that the ruins on Kobol are 2,000 years old. Elosha states this is when the Thirteen tribes left Kobol. Other mentions in the show (particularly Season 3 episodes concerning the Cylon virus and the Temple of Five) mention that the 13th tribe left Kobol about 2,000 years before the other twelve did. Elosha's comment implies that all thirteen tribes left Kobol together, just in different directions.
• In "Final Cut", Louanne Katraine says hello to her mother on camera in the duty locker and says hello to her buddies on Freighter 212, yet in "The Passage", Katraine is noted as the alias for Sasha, a gun-runner who has been avoiding her past. These two pieces of information are not fully congruent.
• In "No Exit", Cavil tells Ellen that he had programmed himself to stop sleeping decades ago. However, Cavil is shown in pajamas getting into bed in "The Plan", which takes place only a few years before his statement to Ellen.

Danglers

Danglers are plotlines that have been started, but were never resolved.

• Zarek-Tigh plotline: In the episode "Colonial Day", it is heavily implied that Ellen Tigh revealed the location of Valance to agents of Tom Zarek, and that she intends for her husband, Colonel Saul Tigh, to meet with Zarek's people in the near future. Nothing of this is touched again up to Ellen's murder in "Exodus, Part II" or even Zarek's execution later in "Blood on the Scales", at which point the Tighs had been outed as Cylons.
• Zarek-black market plotline: Similarly, the end of "Black Market" implies that Zarek has assumed some measure of influence in that organization, yet there is no mention of his association with the black market in the remainder of the series.
• Demand Peace: The pro-Cylon terrorist faction that sprung up in the fleet during "Epiphanies" has yet to resurface as well. The episode concluded without any firm resolution regarding the fate of the movement and its leader Royan Jahee, however their base of operations, "Cloud 9", was destroyed by Gina Inviere in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II". The plotline of "Epiphanies" implies that the group is gearing up for a full-scale campaign against the Fleet's leadership, but they are never seen again and the fates of the group's members are not discussed later on.
• Colonial Workers Alliance: This union, lead by Galen Tyrol, begins on New Caprica in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II" and is touched upon in the episode "Dirty Hands". However, in light of Tyrol's discovery of being a member of the Final Five, and his subsequent breakdown occurring after the death of his wife, his association with the union has not been noted since, and its existence has not been mentioned post-"Dirty Hands".

Recasting

• Zak Adama: In the Miniseries, a different actor (or stand-in) is pictured as Zak Adama. In "Act of Contrition", a new actor portrays Zak, and the picture was changed to reflect the casting choice.
• Ellen Tigh: Same with Zak Adama. The picture of Saul Tigh's wife, which Tigh has burned a hole through, was originally a picture of David Eick's wife, Jennifer Berchfeild. When Kate Vernon was cast as Ellen in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", the image was changed.
• Richard Adar: In the Miniseries he is portrayed by David Eick in a photograph in Baltar's domicile on Caprica. When Adar appears in person in "Epiphanies" he is played by Colm Feore.
• Carolanne Adama is portrayed by an uncredited actress during a cameo in "Act of Contrition". She is portrayed by Lucinda Jenney in the episode "A Day in the Life".

Logic errors

• "Scar":
  • In the last act of this episode, when Kara Thrace enters the rec room, an intercut scene of the people in the room shows Kara Thrace (at ~38:50) sitting at a table drinking from the "Top Gun" stein. However, the stein is being used by Louanne Katraine at this point, and Thrace had just entered.
• "He That Believeth in Me":
  • In the previous episode (Crossroads, Part II), it is established that Samuel Anders has a limp from a broken leg he received in "The Son Also Rises". The limp is visible in the revelation of the "Fantastic Four" in the last act. However, the limp disappears completely in "He That Believeth in Me" in events that are depicted to happen 10 (or fewer) minutes later.
  • In "Crossroads, Part II", it is implied that Samuel Anders only began his training, as he is being shown avionics and other key systems in a Raptor by Lieutenant Margaret Edmondson. In this episode, he tells Kara Thrace that he concluded basic training and began ACM, and is capable of flying the Viper.
• The events of the episodes "Sine Qua Non" and "The Hub" occur concurrently, yet the population count drops by one in between the two episodes. Arguably there should have been no drop until the survivor count appears again in "Revelations". The appearance of Eammon Pike, who dies during the events seen in "The Hub" but whose corpse is found in the preceding episode probably explains the error.
• In "The Plan", William Adama asks Sharon Valerii to take her Raptor and destroy the Basestar orbiting Kobol, the same scene from "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II". In the next scene, Giana O'Neill returns from working on the hangar deck, saying that Galen Tyrol had asked her to look over the captured Raider. This is a sequential error, as Adama had sent Valerii on the mission because Tyrol had been shot down on Kobol and Kara Thrace had stolen the Raider.

VFX Gaffes

Mirrored shot of Viper 1104 (Scattered).

• Miniseries: No less than three copies of Viper 1104 are present at the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage. Of these, one is crash landed by Lieutenant Thrace, one destroyed by Cylon fire, and one successfully landed on Galactica.
• Miniseries and "33": As Galactica prepares to jump to Ragnar Anchorage, the flight pods retract. As the ship jumps, the pods are not retracted. When Galactica has jumped to Ragnar Anchorage the pods are retracted again. This same footage is shown during the opening titles of "33".
• "33": As the Cylon Centurion approaches Helo from behind, the rain is hitting it, but it does not drip off its body. In contrast, water is dripping from Helo's face in a fairly consistent and noticeable manner.
• "You Can't Go Home Again": Before searching for Starbuck, Apollo climbs into a Viper Mk VII, although he is shown piloting a Mk II in all other effects shots. However, his Mark VII is mentioned as being down for repairs at one point, implying that he flies it off screen.
• Amid Season 1: Half-way through Season 1, the Colonial One CG model was updated and the seal of the President of the Colonies was added to the hull. However, the reuse of stock footage from the Miniseries and earlier in the first season cause the seal to continually disappear and reappear in the same episode depending on what shot is used.
• "Scattered": A shot of Viper 1104 is mirrored accidentally.
• "Flight of the Phoenix":
  • Viper and pilot numbers: 42 Vipers are deployed at a time when no more than 34 could have been serviceable, and with no more than 25 pilots available.
  • Blackbird: As the Great Cylon Turkey Shoot begins, the Blackbird (still incomplete, untested, and missing its composite skin by this point) can be seen swooping across the screen in a manner inconsistent with its flight characteristics; the ship was built for speed, not maneuverability. The ship also fires what appears to be autocannons, although Blackbird is unarmed except in its final mission.
• "The Captain's Hand": As Starbuck leads Pegasus's Viper Mk VIIs into combat, a cockpit shot of her mistakenly shows Viper Mk IIs around her ship.
• "Crossroads, Part II":
  • Lee Adama's Viper Mark VII is identified as 2220NC, or Viper 2220. However, Viper 2220 has already been established as a Viper Mark II, not a Mark VII, which has seen multiple appearances as Adama's Viper throughout Season 1.
  • Further, Kara Thrace's pristine Viper does not have a nameplate. This is telling in closeups of her in her Viper's cockpit. However, this error is not present in the following episode, "He That Believeth in Me".
• "Revelations": When Felix Gaeta stumbles in the CIC, the shadow of his amputated leg is visible.
• "Razor":
  • When Starbuck orders Showboat to "open up with all you've got" as they find themselves in Pegasus' firing solution, the gun shown firing is that of a Viper Mark II. However, Starbuck and Showboat are in Viper Mark VIIs.

Anachronisms

• Miniseries:
  • An F-16 Fighting Falcon is visible in a picture in Adama's quarters when he and Colonel Tigh discuss Starbuck striking Tigh. However, this could be a tribute; the F-16 is sometimes called "Viper" by its pilots.
• "Six Degrees of Separation":
  • The special-effects group for the Re-imagined Series appear dedicated to creating computer screens, equipment and interfaces that are familiar to viewers, but aren't full counterparts to real-world Earth materials. However, the logo for NEC computer manufacturers can be seen on the monitors while Gaeta is working on the photograph. A similar occurrence happens in "Sacrifice".
• "Home, Part I":
  • As Adama gives his first press conference after recovering from his gunshot wounds, the logo of the electronics manufacturer SHURE is seen on the podium microphone.
• "Scar":
  • The little model plane on top of the "Top Gun" mug sported by Starbuck and Kat is actually an F/A-18 Hornet.
• "Sacrifice":
  • A computer mouse (a design created by Microsoft) is seen connected to Sesha Abinell's laptop computer.
• "Exodus, Part II":
  • In the scene where Galactica falls to New Caprica after an inter-atmosphere Jump, a closeup of the grease pencils that roll around on the navigation table makes the markings of where they are made visible, in this case: China.
• "The Plan"
  • The Caprican landmasses shown at the beginning of the attack on the Colonies are clearly identifiable as those of Earth, specifically an inverted and stretched image of Europe, as well as the Iranian Peninsula, the Arabian Peninsula and Turkey. This most likely represents an instance of CGI corner-cutting.
  • In what is either an Easter egg (given the large amount of Battlestar Galactica filming which took place in and around Vancouver) or another CGI cost-cutting move, a Cylon MIRV is seen detonating over a large city [1] which is actually a Google Maps satellite image of downtown Vancouver, rotated approximately 180 degrees counterclockwise. [2] The domes of the General Motors Place and BC Place Stadium sports arenas are clearly visible when the nuclear missiles are falling.
  • The CGI landscape which appears during the Hybrid's statement that the "courthouses of Libran are burning" is the exact same landscape which is shown on screen as Tauron City in the Caprica episode "Know Thy Enemy", which takes place some 58 years before the events of The Plan. The Caprica version is widened and more buildings added. (It is unclear whether the landscape shown in "The Plan" was indeed intended to represent Tauron, or if this is simply another example of CGI corner-cutting by incorporating footage created for "The Plan" into Caprica.)

Prop and Equipment Errors

Major Spencer in Viper 2276 (Miniseries).

• Miniseries:
  • The Viper Mk. VII flown by Major Spencer during the first sortie (Miniseries) is still marked as "Viper 2276NC" which is the Viper flown by Captain Lee Adama to Galactica.
  • As "Boomer" Valerii takes off from Caprica with the civilians in the Raptor, just after Helo shoots the civilian who jumps on to the wing, the camera points to Boomer, where viewers can see in the window reflection the crane that is hoisting the Raptor mockup into the air.
  • As shown in a closeup of the pilot after giving Laura Roslin the Case Orange reply, the spaceline's name on the Colonial One captain's uniform, "Eversun," is mismatched to the spaceline name used on Colonial Heavy 798 itself: Intersun.
  • When Starbuck's Viper is hit during the second sortie ("I'm all right"), her helmet is unsealed and open.
  • Similarly, Lee Adama's collar is opened when he scolds her for being "beyond insane" as Thrace pushing Adama's Viper into Galactica's flight pod at the end of the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage.
• "33":
  • When Dualla admits that she lost the Olympic Carrier, her headset changes sides during the conversation.
  • As Helo fires upon the Cylon Centurion that survives the detonation of an anti-personnel mine (similar to a Claymore mine), the first time Helo fires the pistol, it is heard to fire, but there is no accompanying visual spark from the barrel. In contrast, the second shot is accompanied by both a spark and the appropriate sound.
  • After the disappearance of the Olympic Carrier in jump 238, with the timer running towards the 33 minute mark, the viewer can see that the clock is at 10 seconds. When focusing on Adama and Tigh, the viewer hears ten seconds counting off, but when the camera quick-pans to the overhead console, it reads that 3 seconds have passed.
  • Before the clock reaches zero in the teaser, a wide shot of CIC is shown with Adama and Tigh standing at the central console. The timer on the screen above their heads is flashing 00:00:00.
• "Colonial Day": During the bar fight scene, Valance's gun is shown with a silencer attached as it falls out of his briefcase, but the silencer is not present for the rest of the scene. The silencer is back when Valance is interrogated by Starbuck and Apollo.
• "Valley of Darkness": Kat finds a box of explosive rounds with only 6 shells. The shells in the container start out scattered within the box, but as the camera cuts back and forth in the scene the shells switch from organized to scattered many times.
• "Black Market": At around 42:55 in the episode, the John Fowles historical fiction/romance novel The French Lieutenant's Woman appears on a shelf behind the couch in William Adama's room, to Lee Adama's left.
• "Scar":
  • When getting intimate with Apollo, the bandage on Starbuck's back moves from one side to the other. Usually, such bandages are used to cover a tattoo of a crucifix on her shoulder.
• "Sacrifice":
  • When Starbuck is getting the handguns out of her case, she still has the environmental engineer's hat on. When she quickly turns around with the guns and starts firing, her hat has disappeared without explanation.
• "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II": When the rescue mission returns from Caprica, Cavil (as well as probably Sharon Valerii and Karl Agathon) are carried by Raptor that is labeled with Racetrack's name. However, Racetrack never made it to Caprica.
• "Exodus, Part II":
  • The DRADIS displays on Galactica and Pegasus are free of interference from the New Caprica nebula, even though it continued to be an obvious problem for both ships at the end of "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
• "The Passage": Raymond "Raygun" Lai's name appears on Galactica’s flight roster. His name previously appeared on one of the 40 year-old Viper Mk. IIs in the Galactica museum during the Miniseries.
• "Razor":
  • Early in the scenes with the search and rescue party in the Guardian basestar, Kara Thrace can be seen with the tattoo she gets after marrying Samuel Anders, an event that won't happen for months from the story's perspective. It is absent in later scenes.
  • Kendra Shaw has a band-aid on the end of her right index finger throughout the episode, in both the present and in the flashback scenes. However, it seems highly unlikely that she would either still be wearing it over the course of ten months or would coincidently have to apply another one on the same part of the same finger.
• In several episodes characters wear the wrong rank insignia:
  • "The Hand of God": Starbuck wears "lieutenant j.g." (short chevron) insignia in several scenes.
  • "Fragged": Cally is wearing petty officer, 2nd class instead of crewman specialist insignia.
  • "Home, Part I" and "Home, Part II": Apollo wears major instead of captain insignia.
  • "Scar":
    • In the first scene in the recreation room Starbuck wears lieutenant insignia despite having been promoted to captain.
    • Some of the nuggets have lieutenant insignia despite being addressed as ensigns. Apparently, the prop department had not produced the ensign insignias at that time.
  • "The Captain's Hand": Apollo's insignia switch between captain and major at least once. Major is his correct rank at that time.
  • "Hero": In the flashback scenes in Valkyrie's CIC, Commander Adama is wearing admiral's insignia.
  • "Dirty Hands": Again, lt. j.g pins are used for the rank of ensign.
  • "Escape Velocity": Saul Tigh wears admiral's insignia during the episode's teaser.
• "Sometimes a Great Notion": Commander Adama spills liquor on Saul Tigh's table and throws the marine's pistol on the table. In each of the six cuts, the module below the barrel of the gun changes: first it is slightly wet, then dry, then wet in a different way, dry again, then wet matching the first scene, then dry again.

Dialogue Errors

• Miniseries:
  • The pronunciation of Lt. Gaeta's name frequently shifts between GAY-ta and GUY-ta during the Miniseries. Colonel Tigh regularly calls him GUY-ta while Adama vacillates between GAY-ta and GUY-ta. From "33" onward he is referred to by everyone as GAY-ta.
  • Tigh exclaims "Jesus!" when shown the photo of Adama, Zak and Lee. Ron Moore has stated that this was just an ad-lib by the actor, and was never in the script, and should have been removed during editing. In fact this was removed from the "theatrical version" shown on Universal HD.
  • "Oh my God!" as opposed to "Gods".
    • When being informed by Six of her true nature and mission, Gaius Baltar exclaims "Oh, my God!"
    • Also when Caprica Six breaks the neck of the baby the mother, Chantara, screeches "Oh, my God!" several times.
    • Jackson Spencer also makes this mistake after the Cylon Raiders launch missiles at his disabled squadron.
    • When Secretary of Education Laura Roslin informs the passengers of Colonial Heavy 798 about the attack a woman reacts "Oh my God".
      • All of these instances of the use of "Oh my God!" may not necessarily be errors. The events of Caprica have demonstrated that monotheism was known to the Twelve Colonies; the Colonials were not uniformly polytheistic. However, Baltar did not explicitly adopt monotheism until much later in the series.

• "33":
  • Helo states his rank as "lieutenant, junior grade" despite consistently wearing "lieutenant, senior grade" rank insignia.
  • Later in the episode, when President Roslin and Dr. Baltar are discussing cutting off communications with the Olympic Carrier, Baltar uses the term "radio" instead of the in-universe term of "wireless" during the conversation.
• "Valley of Darkness": When Apollo, Kat and others are searching the ship for weapons a Centurion turns the corner and Kat says "Jesus".
• "Downloaded": In the Miniseries, Boomer claims that her parents died while she was very young, regarding the accident at Troy, which is later supported by dialogue in "Flesh and Bone". In "Downloaded" she explains that she received a gift from her mother when she left for the Fleet academy.
• "Hero": The episode places the flashback events one year prior to the Cylon attack. However, this conflicts with earlier information that Adama served on Galactica for several years, Tyrol under him for at least five years and Gaeta for three years. For more details, see Hero#Analysis.
• "Unfinished Business": When Adama is down in his corner and bleeding badly, Roslin says "coagulant for the swelling, ice for the bleeding". This should be the other way around.

Crew Visible

• A member of the production crew, possibly a boom operator, is visible on screen in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II". He can be seen behind the damaged wall behind the display of the Arrow of Apollo.
• In "Flight of the Phoenix" another camera operator can be briefly seen after the fight between Tyrol and Helo, as Tyrol walks to the Raptor to sit on its wing.
• At ~31:14 in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II", a cameraman can be seen to the right of the frame as another camerman pushes in through the small crowd that celebrates Laura Roslin's victory over Gaius Baltar and ultimately up to Roslin's reaction at her desk.
• At 1:06:12 in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II", as the Cylons are marching in, a video screen of the crew can be seen in the distance on the right. Also, a camera dolly track can be seen on the ground just to the right of the crowd. The camera is most likely obscured from view by a plastic tarp.
• At 00:02:26 in "Unfinished Business", a camera can be seen briefly in the darkness behind the crowd.

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  Crew member visible in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II".
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  Camera crew in "Flight of the Phoenix".
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  A camerman in shorts and sneakers off to the right of the frame in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
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  A video screen and a camera dolly track are visible in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II".
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  A cameraman can be seen in the dark during a fight in "Unfinished Business".