Space Croppers

Space Croppers
"Space Croppers" An episode of the Galactica 1980 series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 9
Writer(s)	Robert L. McCullough
Story by
Director	Daniel Haller
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	1.9
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	1980-04-27
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	survivors
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
The Night the Cylons Landed, Part II	Space Croppers	The Return of Starbuck
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Listing of props for this episode
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Overview

After a Cylon attack that destroys two of the Galactican Fleet's Agro ships, Troy and Dillon are sent to Earth to set up an agricultural colony. In Southern California, they befriend a local Hispanic farmer who is struggling to keep his farm in the face of drought and the influence of his neighbor, a powerful rancher who controls the access to water for irrigation.

Summary

• On a Cylon basestar, positioned not far away from Earth, the Imperious Leader is addressing a centurion.

• He declares a new strategy in the war on the humans, ordering the targeting of the Colonial Fleet's food supply.

• When Galactica goes in search of food, it will lead the Cylons to Earth.

• Dozens of Cylon raiders are immediately launched to attack the Colonials.

• After breaking through the perimeter of Vipers guarding the fleet, the Raiders succeed in destroying two of the Agroships.

• Adama and Dr. Zee immediately realize why the Cylons picked this target, but concur that the Colonials will need to secretly establish an agricultural colony on Earth.

• During the planning, Adama and Boomer are interrupted by an unidentified captain who complains that D Squadron, nicknamed the Daggits, have been modifying their Vipers by removing the energy limiting devices from the turbochargers.

Hector Alonso

• Meanwhile, as Troy and Dillon make their way to Earth, we turn to a different scene: a small farm in Southern California owned by a Hispanic American family, the Alonsos. They are close to going bankrupt, and Hector, the father of the family has taken the last resort and placed an ad for help in the local paper, but is embarrassed to have done so in front of the local Growers' Association.

• Rounding out the family is the Mom, the Alonsos ten-year-old son Chris, and Gloria their teenage daughter.

• Landing on Earth, and responding to Hector's ad, Troy and Dillon arrive at the Alonso farm.

• They encounter a scarecrow and assume he is some sort of local.

• Hector's ad offers to sell half interest in the farm, but an irrigation quota placed there by John Steadman, of the Growers' Association, is starving him out.

• Hector takes Troy and Dillon to the perimeter of his property in a wretched old truck.

• There, as plain as day, is a dam - small, but big enough to cut off most of the water supply.

• As Hector explains John Steadman arrives. Hector relates that Steadman has a problem with Hispanics, but even more apparent is Steadman's greed as he offers to buy Hector's farm for an unreasonably low price.

John Steadman in "Space Croppers"

• Later, as Troy and Dillon go with Hector to buy seed, they are sabotaged by one of Steadman's men who throws a lit cigar into the bed of Hector's truck setting fire to the seeds.

• Troy and Dillon go to confront Steadman, and demand compensation for the burned seed. Steadman has a good play with his employees, deciding to take the payment out of his henchmen's wages.

• He can't resist the opportunity to put one over on Troy and Dillon, and throws in an offer of untamed racehorse Satan - if they can ride him.

• The Galacticans make fool out of Steadman, secretly pacifying the animal with a burst of alpha waves from their wrist computers, making him easy to ride.

• Winning the bet, Dillon heads back to the ranch and presents the horse to Gloria.

• Adama calls on the communicator. In order to get the seed planted and grown to replenish the fleet's hydroponic capabilities without impacting the food supply, they have to do it right away.

• Dr. Zee plans to come down in his anti-gravity ship and coax the clouds into producing a good rain.

• That night, under cover of darkness, Troy and Dillon use their superhuman jumping ability to rapidly seed the Alonso's fields.

• Steadman, who is passing by, can't believe his eyes. Young Chris is equally surprised when he sees a flying saucer, actually Dr. Zee's antigrav ship, soar past his window at roughly the same time.

Agricultural experts from the Fleet are outfitted with local garb

• Inside the antigrav ship are dozens of Galactican agricultural experts assigned by Dr. Zee to harvest the crops. Also arriving to help is Jamie Hamilton, who has of course brought the Super Scouts.

• The crops shoot up overnight.

• Steadman goes to the Grower's Association with frantic revelations of jumping aliens and flying saucers.

• His credibility gone, Steadman is laughed down and as a final insult they also vote to order the dam removed from Steadman's property and the water distributed freely.

Notes

• The final series episode, "The Return of Starbuck" was being filmed around the same time as this episode.
• "Space Croppers" is the final episode of the series to include the central cast outside of Adama and Doctor Zee.
• The voice of the Imperious Leader is furnished by actor Dennis Haysbert from 24 fame; Patrick Macnee typically did the voice work for the Imperious Leader, and may have not been available (or offered, due to budget constraints) to reprise the role. It should be noted that Haysbert was also working on Larson's Buck Rogers in the 25th Century series, which was being filmed around this time.
• Whether the voice change was intentional or a byproduct of casting, it does leave the impression that there is a new Imperious Leader in place at the time of the 1980 series.
• The episode contains a continuity error. In the Original Series it is established that the Colonials only have three Agro Ships, two of which are destroyed in "The Magnificent Warriors", thus leaving one remaining. However, there are three ships shown on screen during this "renewed" attack on the Colonial food supplies, due to battle footage from "The Magnificent Warriors" being reused.
• Much of the episode was filmed at the Disney movie ranch in rural Los Angeles county, a favorite location for Galactica 1980.
• The laser pistols used by Dillon and Troy to prepare the ground for planting are not Colonial pistols, but Cylon.
• Ana Alicia also guest starred in the Original Series episode "Take the Celestra", which was, much like "Space Croppers", the second to last episode of that series as well.

Analysis

• "Space Croppers" continues the storyline of Galactica's arrival at Earth, suggesting that the Cylons are now very close to finding out the location of the planet, and establishing the first colony from the Fleet on the Earth.
• If the series had continued, a conflict at Earth between the Colonials and the Cylons would have seemed to be a logical next step for the storyline.

Official Statements

• Chris Bunch discusses the episode in his interview with Susan Paxton:

Chris Bunch: [The episode] aired simply because Glen [Larson] has the wonderful habit of rolling paper into the typewriter, whackin’ away, and sooner or later coming up with a plot. In this case, he came up with a plot about page 56. So he simply wrote on and at page 62 typed END OF PART ONE. The turkey ran three parts before he finished, and was shown with Bob [McCullough]’s script in the middle.

Guest Stars

• Dana Elcar as Steadman
• Ana Alicia as Gloria Alonzo
• Anna Navarro as Louise Alonzo
• Bill Cort as Trent
• Bill McKinney as Barrett
• Herbert Jefferson Jr. as Colonel Boomer
• Joaquin Garay III as Chris Alonzo
• Dennis Haysbert as Imperious Leader (voice)
• Andy Jarrell as Maze
• Ned Romero as Hector Alonzo