Battlestar Galactica 0

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[[Category:Separate continuity ({{{universe}}})]]

This official comic book uses the characters, situations, and events of the Re-imagined Series between the events in "Home, Part II" and "Pegasus." However, this comic book series is considered a separate continuity to the aired series. Comments and information to this article should reflect only aired content before the episode, "Pegasus."

Issue 0 An issue of the Dynamite series.
Issue No.	0
Writer(s)	Greg Pak
Illustrator(s)	{{{illustrator}}}
Penciller(s)	Nigel Raynor
Inker(s)
Colorist(s)	David Curiel
Letterer(s)	Simon Bowland
Editor(s)
Collection Design	{{{designer}}}
Cover Artist(s)	Steve McNiven
Adaptation of
Published	May 2006
Collects
Collected in
Reprints
Reprinted as
Pages	{{{pages}}}
ISBN	[[Special:Booksources/|]]
Population	0 Survivors
Special	{{{special}}}
Chronology
Previous		Next
None	Issue 0	Battlestar Galactica 1
Purchase
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Available at Amazon.com – [[amazon:{{{amazon}}}|Purchase]]
Available at Amazon.co.uk – Purchase
Available at Things From Another World - Purchase

Plot

"Battlestar Galactica discovers a group of human survivors in a small Medivac ship under attack by Cylons. Adama suspects a Cylon plot. But Roslin points to the Sacred Scrolls, which contain an ancient prophecy: 'The dead shall return in an ark of fire.' Who are the "Returners?" Will they unite or divide the fleet -- and heal or break the heart of Commander Adama?" -Greg Pak

Summary

• Commander William Adama, despite mending fences with President Roslin, appears to have problems in reconciling the actions of Kara Thrace and his son, Lee Adama during the factioning of the Fleet.
• Commander Adama has created a book of journal entries to his late son, Zak Adama, apparently to help him cope with his feelings about his family in its past turmoil. He recounts Thrace's actions in the book as if she were his daughter.
• From an external window, Commander Adama shows President Roslin a battlefield of years past, when the Colonies declared wars between each other, and before the Articles of Colonization established the Twelve Colonies under a unified government over 60 years prior. He points out an older Viper model as well as a ship he called a "Sagittarian Warbird."
• CIC receives a distress call from an old medivac ship, its hull containing numerous fires that are venting into space, in the old battlefield. The call claims to have been boarded by a group of Cylon Centurions.
• Adama immediately suspects this call is bait for a Cylon ambush. Roslin notes a verse from the Sacred Scrolls about the dead returning in an "ark of fire."
• Starbuck requests, and Adama reluctantly accepts, her request to board the medivac ship to investigate. She wears a wireless headset to allow her to communicate with the CIC hands-free.
• Starbuck immediately encounters Cylon resistance. She returns fire, taking down Cylons while demanding the names of each and every survivor on the ship.
• Billy Keikeya and a large group of people run through printed and computerized ships' records on Colonial One for each survivor. They discover that every name that Starbuck has read is a person that had died relatively recently (before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies) or years before.
• Adama orders Starbuck to return to Galactica, but she plows through the last of Cylon resistance to enter the ship's cockpit. To the commander's shock (from hearing over Starbuck's comm link), Thrace encounters an apparently living Zak Adama in the cockpit--a man dead and buried long ago (Act of Contrition) on Caprica.

Questions

• Are these are the actual original bodies of the dead from the past?

• The Cylons (using Humanoid Cylons as an example) are highly skilled in genetic manupulation. How, however, can they glean the personality (including nuances such as nicknames) of a dead human? Wouldn't the neurons of the dead brain cells be too far dessicated for information retrieval?

• If the Cylons didn't recreate these dead people, who did, and for what reason?

• What was the "Third Colonial Conflict" noted by Commander Adama? Would it be similar to the real-Earth series of World Wars?

• Commander Adama (in the aired events of "Home, Part II") appears to be very happy to see Kara Thrace and Lee Adama. Why the change in characterization in this comic?

Analysis

• This new comic appears to have taken a few liberties with the aired Re-imagined Series continuity characters and ships.
• The likenesses of the characters to their actors is barely recognizable, but this is likely due to contractual requirements between the comic, the actors, and NBC/Universal.
• One event shows Commander Adama showing the old Colonial battlefield while standing in front of a 20 foot high window. One of the major design elements of the Re-Imagined Series is that Galactica is obviously a ship designed for war in space: there are no external windows on the entire ship, except for the one Observation deck which can be covered with retractable armor shutters.
  • It is likely that the inspiration from this was taken from the original series's core command, which had a large window.
• The stress of Commander Adama's problem in young Adama's and Thrace's breaking of ranks appeared concluded with "Home, Part II," but the comic changed this to show Adama still ill at ease with the insubordination.
• The notion of allowing a single (and one of Galactica's most valuable) pilot to fight out an unknown number of Cylon Centurions (which could have been heavily armored such as the ones that board Galactica in "Valley of Darkness") seems very contrived at best, and foolhardy at worst. Thrace should have boarded aboard a Raptor filled with a squadron of marines.
• The Re-imagined Series thrives on avoiding extraordinarily complicated plots involving unbelievable technology or events. Bringing humans (with their memories apparently intact) back from the dead seems quite improbable. Further: Each human comes from periods that are decades between each other, and each would have to explain why they all exist in a future time, having aged little or not at all.
  • Ron Moore has stated in an webcast interview that there are only 12 models of humanoid Cylon, and that none of the 12 is a copy of a pre-existing human; rather, they represent what the Cylons think are the 12 basic archetypes of human personality.
  • Moore has intimated that if the Cylons were ever to make additional human-like models, it would be considered a controversial move by the Cylons themselves, and at the least, a major story arc for an episode would have to be devoted to revealing it^{[citation needed]}.

Notes

• In several panels, almost all the sheets of paper have squared edges.

Note on Canonicity

"Battlestar Wiki" considers this comic book storyline to be separate from the continuity of the Re-imagined Series. Given the liberties the comics take with the places and events, "Battlestar Wiki" asked writer Bradley Thompson if the comics are canonical. Thompson answered:

"The comics group runs their proposed stories by some of the series writing staff to make sure they are not stepping on the toes of upcoming episodes. Apart from that, the series writers currently have no input to the comic or novel tie-ins."

As such, the comics writers do not confer regularly with the television series writing staff, other than to make sure they do not kill off major recurring characters, or change major plot points.