Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I

Overview

The Battlestar Galactica and the Colonial fleet reach the planet Earth, but soon realize that the Cylon fleet, long thought to be gone, has trailed them to the fabled planet, and will stop at nothing to extinguish all human life.

Robbie Rist as Dr. Zee

Plot Summary

Part One

30 years after the Destruction of the Colonies, the ragtag fleet receives information from remote probes that they have at last found Earth. Unfortunately, Adama and Doctor Zee, a child genius that advises the Commander, discover that they have arrived at Earth in 1980, and that the planet is at a low level of cultural and technological development.

Dr. Zee's simulation of a Cylon Attack on L.A.

To make his point further, Zee shows the leaders of the Fleet to a video simulating a Cylon attack on Los Angeles. The conclusion is clear, at its present level of technology, the Earth will be of no assistance to defending the fleet against the approaching Cylons.

Adama orders pairs of warriors to contact key scientists with the various nations on Earth, to help them speed up the planet's technological capabilities. However, embittered Council Member Xaviar rejects this strategy as too slow.

Two Colonials to be dispatched are Adama's grandson Captain Troy (who we knew as Boxey in the former series) and Lieutenant Dillon, who are tasked with contacting scientists in the United States. Before they leave, Doctor Zee provides the team with some gadgets to assist their infiltration efforts. First, is a invisibility cloak that can render the warriors and their vehicles unseen. In addition, the warriors will be able to use motorcycles to get around on the surface, which are also able to fly, and will have the use of stun weapons to incapacitate Earth humans without killing them. Finally, it is also noted that in the lighter gravity of Earth, the Colonials will have the ability to leap to great heights.

Descending to the Earth in their Vipers, Troy and Dillon are intercepted by US Air Force fighters, and make a hasty landing in a field near Los Angeles. Hiding their ships with the invisibility screens, they take to their motorcycles, and shortly thereafter have a run in with a biker gang, which they escape through use of their motorcycle's flying capabilities.

Changing into contemporary clothes, Troy and Dillon stop at a service station to make a call to the scientist they are to contact, Dr. Donald Mortenson. While attempting to use the phone, they run into Jamie Hamilton, who's on her way to L.A. for a job interview with the UBC television network. When she learns that the duo are on their way to see Dr Mortenson, Jamie offers to give them a lift to the Pacific Intstitute of Technology.

Pushing past anti-nuclear protesters at the campus, and stunning a guard, Troy and Dillon reach Dr. Mortenson's lab but he is not there. Before being hauled away by security, Troy and Dillon leave a complex math equation on Dr. Mortenson's computer as a way of verifyingh they are vistors from an advanced culture. Troy and Dillon are hauled off to jail. When Dr. Mortenson returns to his computer, he quickly realizes that the only people possible of producing the formula he is seeing on the screen must have been from another planet.

Using their invisibility devices, Troy and Dillon escape their imprisonment. Meanwhile back in the field where they first arrived, the two Vipers suddenly shimmer back into view. A young boy named Willy is playing in the field with his dog, Skipper, and stumbles upon the ships, and he runs to inform his parents.

Statistics

Guest Stars

• Robert Reed as Mortinson
• Richard Lynch as Xavier
• Pamela Susan Shoop as Dorothy Carlyle
• Sharon Acker as Anne
• Richard Eastham as General Cushing
• Vernon Weddle as 1st Cop
• David Moses as 2nd Cop
• Brion James as Biker / Willy
• Mickey Jones as Biker / Donzo
• Duncan Mackenzie as 1st Pilot
• Bruce Douglas as 2nd Pilot
• Eddie Firestone as Derelict
• Frank Downing as 1st Guard
• Don Maxwell as 2nd Guard
• Fred Holliday as Mr. Brooks

Production Notes

• Airdate Order: 1 (of 10)

First Run Air Dates & Releases

• US Airdate: 27 January 1980