Pegasus (episode)

For information related the battlestar Pegasus itself, see Pegasus (RDM).

Overview

Tensions run high when the Pegasus, a battlestar more advanced than the Galactica, is found -- only to have Admiral Helena Cain take command of the fleet and enforce her demands on those under her new command.

Summary

• Pegasus, a Mercury-class battlestar, has joined the fleet. She survived the attack by blind-jumping as the Cylons attacked the Scorpion Ship Yards.
• A Cylon fleet, comprised of two basestars, about a dozen support ships and an Unknown Cylon Ship have been trailing the fleet -- and detected by Cain and Pegasus.
  • Pegasus discovered this Cylon Fleet and have been carrying out hit-and-run attacks against the Cylons. At first the Cylon Fleet's course seemed to be random, until Cain realized they were going to systems with natural resources. Cain then tried to predict which system the Cylons were going to Jump to, and stumbled upon Galactica; after looking over Galactica's logs, Cain surmises that the Cylon fleet was following Galactica (which itself was Jumping to systems with natural resources for the civilian fleet, as seen in "Water", "The Hand of God", etc).
• Upon assuming command of the fleet, Cain begins moving crew members around, citing discipline concerns, transferring Lee Adama and Kara Thrace to Pegasus.
• President Laura Roslin has concerns about why Cain ignores her requests to talk and, more importantly, why Pegasus is only resupplying Galactica's military stores and ignoring the civilian fleet's needs.
• Tyrol welcomes his counterpart from Pegasus. Laird is a civilian aeronautical engineer-turned Deck Chief that designed the old engines in the Blackbird, and who's both appalled and impressed by Tyrol's new stealth fighter.
• Lee is essentially busted down to Raptor pilot in a recon mission to the Cylon fleet. But he shows his defiant side by asking Kara to commandeer the Blackbird to take some better recon photos of the fleet without being noticed by Colonial or Cylon forces.
• Helo and Galen Tyrol discover that Gina, the Cylon prisoner aboard the Pegasus, was raped by the crew as a form of torture. They rush to Galactica's brig, where a Pegasus lieutenant, Thorne, is about to rape the Caprica copy of Sharon Valerii. Tyrol throws Thorne against a bulkhead, unintentionally killing him. The pair are arrested for courts-martial.
• Commander Adama is angered to hear that Admiral Cain is going to hold the court-martial on Pegasus, not Galactica where the offense occurred. Cain assures Adama that they will be given a fair trial.
• Admiral Cain, however, does not give the pair a court martial hearing or trial by jury, instead rapidly deciding the verdict by herself and ordering Helo and Tyrol to be executed.
• Upon discovering what Admiral Cain has done, Commander Adama orders a Raptor to fly out with an armed Marine boarding party and launches Galactica's Vipers against Pegasus, demanding that Admiral Cain release Helo and Galen Tyrol.
• Admiral Cain refuses to return the prisoners and balks at the thought of an independent tribunal to settle the dispute. Using Adama's logs against him once more, she notes that the last time Galactica held one, Commander Adama dissolved the tribunal when he "didn't like the verdict." Adama refuses to back down and insists that he will get his men back.
• Admiral Cain launches Pegasus' Vipers against the incoming Vipers from Galactica. They close in on each other as the episode ends.

Questions

• Will Starbuck and her Blackbird stealth fighter play a role in the armed standoff between Pegasus and Galactica?
  • Although we won't know until next episode, that seems initially unlikely, as the Blackbird is being used for the Recon mission against the Cylon "Unknown". The episode seemed to suggest that both were occurring at the same time.
• Where did the Pegasus crew get fresh fruit?
  • Dualla explains in "Final Cut" that their ships have very effective refrigeration units to keep food fresh for long duration duty tours, etc.
• In the absence of Apollo and Starbuck, who is leading Galactica's fighters against Pegasus? George Birch? Simes?
• As for the unknown ship in the Cylon fleet, what is its function? Is it, as Adama speculates, a Raider factory? Or a Command-and-Control vessel? Could it be a Humano-Cylon creation facility? The next episode's title, "Resurrection Ship," could foreshadow that possibility, as when Humano-Cylons "die" they're downloaded into new bodies. Where would these new bodies be stockpiled?
  • Could the title "Resurrection Ship" refer to Pegasus, as it was presumed to be dead but "came back"?
• Could the new "Cylon mothership" be a command ship that contains the Re-Imagined Series' equivalent of the Imperious Leader?
• Roslin is commander-in-chief of the Colonial fleet. Could she be the one to order Cain to stand down by citing regulations to Roslin's benefit in the same way that Cain has done against Adama? Roslin could also order another member of Pegasus to assume command to enforce this. At the same time, Roslin's never been the type to use force, and may use other means to keep this event from turning into a bloodbath.
  • Further, Cain doesn't seem to think of Roslin as the "real" president, just "Secretary of Education". Even if Roslin does order Cain to obey Adama, would Cain even consider them legitimate orders?
• Does the Blackbird have FTL? It's a bit smaller than the Raptor and, if it's based on the Viper design, wouldn't have one. At the same time, how is Starbuck supposed to go on the recon mission without one?
  • Based on the information provided for the Raptor and Viper, both ships are similar in size. A possibility could be in the amount of energy generated by both fighters. Seeing as the Raptor is equipped with more surveillance & communication equipment, it may have additional generators to power a FTL Drive. Refer to talk page for additional discussion regarding Blackbird FTL capability.
  • Are the Vipers going on the recon mission? If not, why is it a blow to Apollo's honor for him to be piloting a Raptor? And how are the Vipers supposed to get there if they have to jump to the moon?

Analysis

• Cally's charged reaction to the drunken Pegasus crewmen bragging about raping Number Six/Gina repeatedly is probably due to herself being the survivor of an attempted rape, in "Bastille Day". This disgust with the Pegasus crew's gang-rape of Gina is interesting in light of the fact that Cally had no compunctions about killing the Galactica copy of Valerii. Evidently she now acknowledges the Cylons' humanity in at least some measure. Perhaps she's felt a connection between this and her own assault on board Astral Queen by Mason in "Bastille Day".
  • It's also possible that, since her fellow female deck crew also look disgusted and follow her out, women just don't appreciate talk about rape in general. RDM says something to this effect in the podcast.
• It is also interesting on a dramatic level how the portrayal of Cally's killing Galactica-Valerii in "Resistance" contrasts with the portrayal of the brutalized Gina and the attempted rape of Caprica-Valerii. It was less shocking to many to watch Boomer being shot to death than it was to watch Caprica-Valerii being pinned down over her bunk and almost raped—possibly because, while killing a Valerii copy is an understandable act of revenge, raping one would be a senseless act of cruelty.
• Talking amongst themselves on Cylon-occupied Caprica, the Cylons mentioned in passing that there was a main Cylon fleet in "Final Cut".
• In the miniseries, Adama first proposes that Galactica will go about independent of the rest of the fleet and fight the Cylons. Roslin persuades him to instead protect and lead the fleet on their escape from the colonies. The Pegasus, in contrast, did travel about independently attacking the Cylons. The condition of the Pegasus's crew may be an indication of what would have happened to Galactica if she stood and fought.
• In contrast to Galactica's nearly evenly gender-divided crew, the crew of the Pegasus seems predominantly male to a very high degree. Admiral Cain was the only female aboard Pegasus with a speaking role, with only a couple other females visible in the hallways or in the Pegasus ready room. This stands in notable contrast to Ron Moore's egalitarian vision of gender issues in the military, and appears to have been an intentional decision made during production. In addition, the dialogue of the drunken Pegasus crewmen suggests they've perhaps forgotten how to act around women— they either ignore or fail to understand Cally and Selix's disgust with their talk about gang-raping Gina. This may be a contributing factor to the behavior of the Pegasus crew—the relative paucity of women aboard Pegasus and the resulting sexual frustration could have led to the overly regimented, authoritarian, and brutal culture the crew developed, culminating in the senseless, repeated gang rape of the Cylon prisoner Gina.
• Not simply relying on her rank, Admiral Cain asserts her dominance in more subtle ways as soon as she sets foot on Galactica. Despite the fact that she's bringing one ship to join dozens, she welcomes Galactica back to the Colonial Fleet, thus defining the Fleet as wherever she is. Later she tells Roslin 'You look like I just shot your dog' when she asserts her authority over Adama. Both of these acts give some show of being welcoming or friendly, but also claim her spot at the top of the food chain.
  • Although Pegasus is only one ship, it's only one of two battlestars in the fleet. Being a Mercury class battlestar, it is also more advanced than Galactica, which was scheduled to be decommissioned. As such, the older battlestar hasn't the resources that Pegasus does. Although Cain's statement obviously shows her enlarged ego, it rings true purely from the standpoint of military prowess.
  • Cain is also the higher ranking officer—with the rest of Colonial Fleet destroyed, command naturally fell to her, not Adama, despite her absence from the remainder of the fleet. So by military regulation her statement also rings true.
• Laird, Pegasus' deck chief, refers to events since "the war happened". Admiral Cain and her Pegasus crew seem to still consider fighting against the Cylons to be a war, while in the Mini-series Commander Adama admitted that "the war is over, we lost".
  • Laird is still on Galactica during the period immediately leading up to the assault on Caprica-Valerii. As the deck chief of the Pegasus wouldn't his presence be required on his own ship or has he, like Apollo and Starbuck, been reassigned?
    • According to the podcast in a scene deleted for time, Laird is reassigned as deck chief of Galactica over Tyrol. Of course, that raises the question of who is now performing deck chief duty on Pegasus.
• Thrace's criticism of Taylor's reconaissance plan - that the Cylons would never leave such an obvious blind spot unaccounted for - is the same criticism she made of Tigh's initial assault plan in The Hand of God.

Notes

• Population count is 49,605, a dramatic increase of 1,752 since the 47,853 count in "Flight of the Phoenix", undoubtedly to account for the addition of Battlestar Pegasus and her crew to the Colonial fleet.
  • Cain notes that Pegasus lost 700 crew in the opening attack. Lieutenant Thorne also tells Dr. Baltar that Gina killed 7 of his men. Also, Colonel Jack Fisk tells Colonel Saul Tigh that Cain executed the previous XO for failure to attack a Cylon staging area. Thus we may speculate that at the time of the attack her crew totalled to 2,460, give or take a few.
    • This number does not take into account any casualties that may have occured because of the attack on the Cylon staging area, or any subsequent encounters with the Cylons.
    • Given the relative ease that Cain had with removing disloyal officers -- according to Colonel Fisk, her XO had served with her for many years prior to his execution by Cain -- there may be additional officers she had swiftly court martialed (ref: Tyrol and Agathon) and executed as well. Given Cain's meglomaniac streak, it is also possible that some of the civilians she'd rescued from the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards may have met unfortunate "mishaps" as well.
  • This is substantially smaller than Galactica's crew, possibly explained by many of Cain's crew being on leave at the time of the attack. Galactica, although soon to be decomissioned, was still fully operational. Also, Pegasus's systems are newer, and may be more automated.
  • Also, as Laird indicates, many civilians were pressed into service. So the actual number of actual pre-Holocaust Pegasus crew members may be far less than indicated above.
• Kat flies wingman to Apollo in the opening sequence of this episode, as the CAP scouts Pegasus. Evidently she's been judged fit to resume flight status after negligently damaging a Viper due to overuse of Stims in "Final Cut".
• As the episode ends, it's interesting to see that the bulk of Galactica's Viper fleet consist of the Mark II's, while Pegasus had the Mark VII's. A classic picture of "old vs. new".
  • While Pegasus seems to have entirely Viper Mk. VII's, they would presumably have had to removed most of the automated systems from them (to prevent Cylon virus infiltration). Doing this makes them more difficult to fly (Galactica's few Mk. VII's are only used by the most capable pilots now). Pegasus' pilots might have more advanced fighers but they aren't as reliable now as the tried-and-true Mk. II's.
• Helena Cain is the female version of Cain, who was portrayed by the late Lloyd Bridges in the original Battlestar Galactica.
• This episode is inspired by the two part episode, "The Living Legend".
• Ronald D. Moore also wrote another episode called The Pegasus, in the seventh season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Visual effects gaffe: When we cut to Galactica's exterior as Adama makes is way to the bridge, it is behind and slightly above and to the left of Pegasus. When we see it again a few minutes later as it launches Vipers towards Galactica, it's quite a distance away from the fleet, above it and facing its left side.
• During the premiere airing of this episode on Scifi Channel, when the episode came back from commercial at the start of Act 3 a "Viewer Discretion Is Advised" black and white message has inserted, warning of "mature subject matter" and content; the following final act of the episode is the one in which drunken Pegasus crewmen brag about raping Pegasus-Six, then the controversial scene where Lt.Thorne attempts to rape Caprica-Sharon and Tyrol and Agathon intervene and fight the marine guards.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Baltar (to Gina): The food is yours. It's not a trick. I'm not going to take it away at the last second. You know, I...um...I'm just gonna talk right now. I don't expect you to say anything. Back on Caprica, before the attack—and sometimes I forget there was a world before the attack—I knew someone…a woman, unlike any other woman I'd ever known. She was unique. Beautiful, clever, intensely sensual. When she wasn't in my bed, she was in my thoughts. She was a Cylon. And she changed my life in a very real, very fundamental way in that I have quite literally never stopped thinking about her, because I love her. To this very day, I love her. And she looks exactly like you. My name is Gaius Baltar, and I'm here to help you.

• Cain and Adama are discussing Helo and Tyrol's court-martial over wireles

Adama: You told me they'd get a fair trial. What kind of a trial could they have possibly had?

Cain: I assure you I heard them out. I weighed their statements against those of the guards and I took into consideration their service records and commendations. It was a difficult decision, Commander, but I dare say it was a fair one.

Adama: They have the right to have their case heard by a jury.

Cain: I am a flag officer on detached service during a time of war. Regulations give me broad authority in this matter.

Adama (to Tigh): Launch the fighters. (to Cain): You can quote me whatever regulation you'd like. I'm not going to let you execute my men.

Cain: I highly suggest you reconsider that statement, Commander.

Fisk: Admiral, Galactica is launching Vipers and a Raptor.

Cain: Commander, why are you launching Vipers?

Adama: Please arrange for Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Agathon to be handed over to my marines as soon as they arrive.

Cain: I don't take orders from you!

Adama: Call it whatever you like. I'm getting my men.

Cain: You are making such a mistake.

Adama: I'm getting my men.

Official Statements

• Ron D. Moore stated in his podcast that there were a number of scenes filmed for this episode that had to be deleted for time, but that he expects to be edited back into the episode for the DVD release. According to Moore, although most episode rough cuts run a little overtime and one or two scenes have to be edited out, "Pegasus" had more than a full extra Act worth of material left over. The full episode would have been an hour and 15 minutes long. Moore tried to put in more scened to push it to 90 minutes, in which case Scifi Channel would aire it as a 90 minutes special (as they had done in the past for "Stargate Sg-1" on occasion), but ultimately not enough material could be included in "Pegasus" to make it 90 minutes long without detracting from story quality; they were left with an episode that was too short to be a 90 minute special, but also too long to include all filmed scenes in a one hour episode. Deleted scenes, which Moore says will be restored in the DVD release, include:
  • A scene when Adama, Tigh, and Roslin are heading to the flight deck to meet Admiral Cain when she first arrives on the ship, and while they're walking Adama and Tigh give Roslin a brief biography of Cain; who she is, that she was an up and coming officer promoted to Admiral over several other possible choices, etc.
  • An extension to Admiral Cain's meeting with Adama and Roslin in Adama's quarters, in which she explains that Pegasus survived Cylon computer virus infiltration through the Command Navigation Program because Pegasus was being overhauled at the shipyards, and most of her computers were disconnected.
  • An extension to the scene in Cain's quarters on Pegasus where Adama and Cain discuss how Pegasus is a Mercury-class battlestar, and the differences between this newer model and Galactica. Cain also explains that she intentionally doesn't have any chairs there so her meetings with her staff will run faster.
  • A scene where Admiral Cain asks about Galactica's Cylon-prisoner, Caprica-Sharon, and goes to the brig to observe her.
    • According to an interview with James Callis (Baltar) in issue #197 of TV Zone, "There’s another cut scene where Cain is interviewing Sharon. She hardly says anything but she’s obviously furious that this Cylon has been treated so well. It sickens her, and that’s when Baltar realizes he’s dealing with a psycho."
  • An entire subplot alluded to in the episode when Roslin complains to Adama that Pegasus is focusing on re-supplying the Fleet's military assets (re-arming Galactica and re-supplying Pegasus from stores in the civillilan fleet) while ignoring the needs of the civillian fleet. The subplot show how Roslin wanted Pegasus to provide machine parts for repairs to the civillian Fleet, and that after these are repeatedly ignored the civillian fleet ultimately goees "on strike" by refusing to give Pegasus more tylium fuel. It would also expand on Cain's refusal to acknowledge Roslin as the President (and therefore her superior as Commander-in-Chief).
  • According to an interview with James Callis (Baltar) in issue #197 of TV Zone, "In one of [the deleted scenes], Six actually says to Baltar, ‘God, [Cain]’s a real tough nut, isn’t she, Gaius? She’s just your type. You like hard women, don’t you?’ Baltar says, ‘Yeah, I do.’"
• Moore also stated in the podcast that an alternate version of the attempted rape scene with Boomer was also filmed in which the rape was actually underway when Tyrol and Helo intervened. Ultimately, the decision was made to use the version seen where Thorne is stopped just in time, before he is able to rape Boomer. This is an alternate scene and thus doesn't "really" happen and will not be re-edited into the Director's Cut.

• Unfortunately, it has been [confirmed] that the "Season 2.0" DVD box set of Battlestar Galactica (containing the first ten episodes of season two) will not contain the Director's Cut of "Pegasus". Universal Home Video said that they could not ready the extended version of the episode in time for the DVD release. However, it will now be the first episode in the boxed set of "Season 2.5" (containing episodes 11 through 20 of season 2). So the next DVD set will have 11 episodes in it. The practical application of all of this is that fans have the opportunity to buy both versions (in his podcast, Moore said he liked the extended cut better because of the great character moments and drama, but that some might feel that the tight, rapid pace of the cut-down episode kept it more thrilling). This was not the case with Universal's previous release of a 90 minute "Stargate SG-1" episode, in which only one version was put into the DVD set.

• In an interview with BattlestarGalactica.com on December 28th, 2005 RDM was asked about controversy surrounding this episode:

"Q: Walt Kelly's Pogo used the phrase "the enemy is us" as part of a 1970's anti-litter campaign, and recently David Eick has cited it as a theme in the longer Pegasus arc of the second season. Some of the show's vocal critics charge that this notion promotes a "Blame America" attitude or is a sort of stealth anti-Americanism. What is this concept supposed to convey as we head into the bottom half of the second season?

RDM: The reference is to the fact that human beings are often their own worst enemy. In the context of the show, it means that the real challenges to who and what these people are often comes not from bullets, but from within. I continue to be amazed at how easily one gets tagged with the moniker of "anti-American" these days by those on the right. It's almost... well, anti-American."

Statistics

Guest Stars

• Michelle Forbes as Admiral Helena Cain
• Graham Beckel as Colonel Jack Fisk
• John Pyper-Ferguson as Captain Cole "Stinger" Taylor
• Sebastian Spence as Whiplash
• Fulvio Cecere as Lieutenant Alistair Thorne
• Vincent Gale as Chief Petty Officer Peter Laird
• Mike Dopud as Pegasus CIC officer Gage
• Leah Cairns as Racetrack
• Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
• Nicki Clyne as Crewman Specialist Cally

Writing & Direction

• Written by Anne Cofell Saunders
• Directed by Michael Rymer

Production Notes

• Series 2 (2005/2006)
• Production Number: 2.10
• Airdate Order: 10 (of 20)

First Run Air Dates & Releases

• UK Airdate:
• US Airdate: September 23rd, 2005
• DVD Release:

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Original Series definition: a Colonial court hearing (see: Law of the Twelve Colonies)

Re-imagined Series definition: technology enabling travel across distances faster than the speed of light would permit, see: FTL

Re-imagined Series definition: the process of using the FTL engines to make an near-instantaneous apparent faster-than-light transport of a ship from one point in space to another

Re-imagined Series definition: Executive Officer, e.g. Saul Tigh

Re-imagined Series definition: nerve center or "bridge" of a battlestar, see: Combat Information Center