Battlestar Galactica (2005 Novel)

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Overview

A novelization of the Re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica" Miniseries was published by Tor Books on December 27, 2005. Content and page numbers are from the trade paperback edition (ISBN=0765315416 ), First Edition: January 2006.

The book, written by science fiction author Jeffrey A. Carver, includes a few background elements not shown in the aired Miniseries, and incorporates some deleted scenes. Since the information in the Miniseries article (Overview, Summary, etc) covers the novelization, the focus of this article is a comparsion of the two very similar versions of the same story.

Notes

Interesting additions to the novelization include:

• Colonel Wakefield: The name given to the first human, the Armistice Officer, that viewers see in the Miniseries (pg. 16). He meets a unexpected arrival of a Cylon "diplomatic group"--and his death--on the Armistice Station. This also suggests that his son, Boxey, shares his father's last name.

• The discussion about the fate of Kara Thrace between William Adama and Saul Tigh has a light-hearted end (pg. 38).

• The motive for the controversial murder of the infant by a mysterious infiltrator known later as Number Six (as well as Caprica-Six after her resurrection) is explicitly explained as to spare the infant any suffering in the imminent attack (pg. 45).

• Natasi: The name given to Caprica-Six (pg. 47).

• The light emitted by the illuminated spine of an aroused humanoid Cylon is explained as being mostly infrared, with a small amount of gamma radiation, and nearly invisible to the human eye (pg. 50)

• In normal operations, Galactica carries as many as fifty fighter, recon, and other spacecraft. At the time of the decommissioning ceremony, Galactica is carrying fewer (pg. 51).

• Carver assigns first names to the three members of Deck Crew 5; "Jane Cally", "Brad Socinus", "Leonard Prosna". When asked why he named Cally "Jane", Carver said "she just looks like a Jane" (that is, he named her that himself, not with input from the cast and crew) (pg. 56-57)

• The meeting that Caprica-Six has with an unknown individual (immediately following her discussion with Gaius Baltar about the CNP status and her motives for assisting him on the project) has extra dialogue. The unknown individual she meets after Baltar leaves says, "It is indeed (about time). The time has almost come." Caprica-Six replies, "All right, then. I'd like to be with him." The unknown individual says, "Of course. There is much for him to do yet. And one way or another, you will always be with him" (pg. 62). The area in which both these conversations happen is named the "Government Center Plaza" (pg. 60).

• The museum's exhibits contain actual Cylon Centurions captured during the Cylon War (pg. 63).

• At the decommissioning ceremony, there is a enormous video projection screen at one end of the landing bay that give the illusion of an open window to space. The screen displays the approaching Vipers participating in the flyby to the audience (pg. 85)

• The TV interview that Baltar has with the newscaster Kellan Brody occurs two days before the attack (pg. 91).

• It is specifically said that there are a few Viper Mark VII's remaining on Galactica, but they are in need of heavy maintenance at the time of the initial Cylon Attack and not in working condition (they are presumably fixed in time for the final battle at Ragnar, where several Viper Mark VII's are seen on screen) (pg. 107).

• Carver made it a point in interviews that he rewrote it that the Viper Mark II's in the museum have had their reactor cores pulled and they're in storage, although Tyrol is able to reinsert them fairly easily, as he didn't think it was safe to leave them in a museum like that (even though the Miniseries states that they have "rad buffers" inserted in them to make them nonfunctional) (pg. 108).

• New dialogue is added in which Starbuck says that Galactica has almost no ordnance because it was unloaded at "Rhapsody Station", but they have enough for the Viper Mark II's (though not the main batteries of Galactica) because they were supposed to dump off some extra ammo at a base on Caprica. A deleted scene from the Miniseries actually shows that the ordnance of Galactica wasn't dropped off anywhere, but released into space and remote detonated (pg. 108).

• Carver bothered to assign stray names to Viper pilots over the com link, "Scott", "Erin", etc. (pg. 112)

• The description of the cockpit of Colonial Heavy 798 includes an instrument monitoring Lorey-field gravity (pg. 117) Half a dozen times throughout the novelization, Carver refers to the artificial gravity technology used by the Colonials as "Lorey-field gravity".

• The unnamed pilot of Colonial One is given a name, "Captain Russo" (pg. 123)

• Jack, the man who Roslin is talking with over the wireless back on Caprica who tells her that President Adar broadcast an unconditional surrender and the Cylons didn't even respond, is given a full name, "Jack Nordstrom" (pg. 126)

• It is revealed how Gaius Baltar survives the nuclear explosion that strikes his home. Caprica-Six shoves him to the floor and throws her body over his. Despite her sacrifice, Baltar is still tossed across the room, but he is more or less okay. The home is not completely destroyed and he is able take a jacket and a briefcase containing incriminating evidence he had given Caprica-Six from the remains of the home. Baltar even points out to himself that his house must be over 30 kilometers away from Caprica City, and not was "not really so close" to the blast (pg. 130).

• The Blade Runner-style handguns used in the Miniseries are given a name, "Previn automatics" (pg. 132).

• Carver bothered to give a name to the nameless black copilot of Colonial One: "Eduardo". Humorously, in the DVD commentary for the Miniseries Ron Moore and David Eick point out that the extra who played the copilot recurs in other backround extra roles through season 1, and they actually feel he's one of the best extras they have, but he never gets any speaking lines whatsoever (pg.134)

• The cargo bay of Colonial One is described as "like the lower deck of a seagoing ferry", most likely an in-joke: the scenes on Colonial One's cargo bay were actually filmed on the car deck of a BC Ferries V Class car and passenger ferry (pg. 136)

• Commander Adama brought Chief Galen Tyrol onto Galactica at a time when no other commanding officer would because of a single mistake in the past that cost lives (pg 171).

• The entire procedure of retracting the flight pods takes ten minutes and forty-three seconds (pg. 187).

• The Red Line is defined as the distance beyond which jump calculations are too uncertain, too risky for a single Jump (pg. 282). This definition is also given in the original draft of the Miniseries.

• Aaron Doral is a "sleeper" agent who doesn't realize he is a Cylon until he is rescued from Ragnar Anchorage by the Cylons and sees another Aaron Doral model (pg. 317). He thinks of himself as "a public relations man" (pg. 27). Additional information about him is presented.

• Apollo hasn't been on a battlestar for years, but last served on the (brand new at the time) battlestar Atlantia. Atlania is actually one of the original battlestars, but unlike Galactica it was given extensive refits over time to keep it on par with other current battlestars, but it was still not completely new. In his blog Ron Moore has said that Apollo never served on a battlestar, but out of various planetary bases.

• The water outside Baltar's house is called "King's Bay Inlet".

• The book that Commander Adama was reading when he received word that the Cylon attack was underway is named "A Time of Changes: Five Colonial Presidents Before The War", a history book about a series of leaders of Caprica before the Cylon War. In Ron Moore's blog during season 1, he stated that a unified government encompassing all Twelve Colonies was only formed in response to the outbreak of the Cylon War (though there may have been local President of Caprica itself before this, presumably) (pg.97).

• The Cylon Attack occurs while it is spring on Caprica.

• Tigh has known Adama for over 40 years and fought with him in the Cylon War. As the series progressed it was revealed in "Scattered" that Tigh first met Adama 20 years ago, 20 years after the Cylon War ended, and never served on the same ship as him.

• At times, Billy and others refer to Laura Roslin as "Dr. Roslin" instead of "Secretary Roslin". As Secretary of Education is a high level position Roslin could presumably hold a degree.

• The dialogue between Baltar and Number Six when she reveals the nature of the new humanoid Cylons, just before a nuclear explosion shatters the windows of Baltar's house, has been changed to clarify what Number Six says: here she specifically says that there are "twelve human-type models", to avoid confusion that Raiders or Centurions might be included in the count.

Included deleted scenes from the Miniseries:

• Billy introduces himself to Laura Roslin as her new assistant aboard Colonial Heavy 798 (pg. 40-41).
• Cally, Socinus and Prosna talk about Valerii's and Tyrol's forbidden relationship (pg. 57-58).

Scenes not in the novelization:

• After Lt. Gaeta's and Commander Adama's discussion about the Armistice Officer, Lt. Gaeta leaves CIC where he passes and salutes Colonel Tigh who is slouching over and holding on to a railing with a cup in his hand.

• The controversial interjection "Jesus" coming from Colonel Tigh during the discussion with Commander Adama concerning Kara Thrace. (This is to be expected, as that exclamation was an ad-lib by Michael Hogan. The Colonials have a polytheistic religion)

Error(s) in the novelizations include:

• Commander William Adama's callsign is stenciled on his old Viper Mark II as "HUSHER" (pg. 30).
  • Carver has admitted that this was a mistake, due to his misinterpreting the font style's K for an H.

• Starbuck refers to Boomer as a "crook" not a "rook", Carver probably misheard the line (pg.34)

• Geminon is spelled as the non-standard "Geminon", Aerelon as "Aerilon".

Analysis

• The conversation between Caprica-Six and the unknown individual could have implications on whether Baltar is a Cylon and definitely has implications for the nature of Baltar's Six. It implies that Caprica-Six knows Baltar will survive and continue to do the Cylons' work, and that the virtual Six is a deliberate Cylon implant in his mind; however, the events of "Downloaded" (an episode aired after the novelization was released) contradict this.

• Baltar's suspicious survival of the destruction of his home remains one of the few key issues that point to Baltar's remote possibility of being a Cylon agent himself.

• In the Re-imagined Series, a Galactica type battlestar can carry more than fifty support spacecraft.

• The description of Doral's "awakening" to being a Cylon is in sharp contrast to another Cylon who will have trouble accepting the truth during Season 1 (2004-05).

• In the Re-imagined Series, Chief Galen Tyrol says that no one has ever died while working on his deck before in the episode "Litmus".

Official Sources

In a interview on 05/31/2006, David Eick states that Baltar is a man of many tastes and it is likely that he never knew Caprica-Six's name on Caprica in the Re-imagined Series.

In Jeffery Carver's blog, he discusses writing the novelization.

In a thread at Ragnar Anchorage, Jeffery Carver answers questions about the novelization.

Re-imagined Series definition: Colonial equivalent of radio

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: a nickname used as a substitute for an aviator's given name in wireless communications and in conversation

Re-imagined Series definition: "rookie," typically refers to those on their first tour of duty after initial training ^{(TRS: "Miniseries")}, q.v. nugget