Fire in Space

"Fire in Space" An episode of the Original Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 12
Writer(s)	Jim Carlson Terrence McDonnell
Story by	Michael Sloan
Director	Christian I. Nyby II
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	50917
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	1978-12-17
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release	2004-12-28
Population	survivors
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
The Living Legend, Part II	Fire in Space	War of the Gods, Part I
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Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
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Overview

After Cylon Raiders ram Galactica on destructive suicide missions, the crew scrambles to fight a raging fire threatening to incinerate the ship.

Summary

• Lieutenant Boomer enters Galactica's rejuvenation center to relax and unwind with Athena and Boxey, who are playing a shuffleboard-type game (Boxey is winning); Boomer is on furlon from duty for the next 24 centars.
• Boxey tells Boomer that he has trained Muffit to "sniff" out mushies (edible treats for daggits).
• Suddenly, a loud siren begins to blare, and red alarm lights flash throughout the ship. On the bridge, Colonel Tigh informs Commander Adama of incoming Cylon forces, possibly from a basestar they encountered 10 centars ago. Blue Squadron is launched.
• As Tigh and Adama study the scanner, they come to realize that they face a major attack rather than a mere combat probe. All squadrons are launched, and Galactica's compartments are sealed to protect against hull breaches.
• The Vipers engage a huge number of Cylon Raiders, which are not fighting back. The Vipers are destroying Raiders at will in numerous quantities, but two Raiders slip through the rain of Viper fire.
• One Raider heads toward Galactica's bridge, which closes its protective shield in defense. Apollo and Sheba close in and appear to destroy the Raider with laser fire. However, the destruction of the Raider occurs too close to the bridge, which suffers heavy damage, suffering explosions, fallen girders, and shattered glass.
• Adama, nearly unconscious, lies motionless on the floor of the bridge. Tigh finds him and orders Omega to bring Dr. Salik immediately.
• Starbuck tries but fails to destroy the other suicidal Raider. It successfully rams Galactica's port landing bay, causing massive explosions and damage throughout the ship, including the rejuvenation center.
• Boomer extinguishes a small fire and then attempts to restore communications, while Athena and Boxey tend to the wounded.
• Tigh believes the Cylon fighters were packed with solonite or a similar explosive. Boroton is used to extinguish the fire on the bridge, but they have lost "deep scan" and internal communications. They decide to use the Viper pilots as their "scanners", so they begin rotating squadrons to maintain a constant patrol.
• The damage report is grim: not only was energizer #1 destroyed, but so was the boroton mist control center (the main firefighting system aboard Galactica). Also, fires rage out of control on numerous decks throughout their crippled vessel.
• Smoke begins pouring into the rejuvenation center from the damaged doorway, but the lifemasks were destroyed in the initial impact. The stranded occupants move to the "safe" side of the room, while Boomer begins trying to hotwire the door to the storage compartment.
• Apollo visits a gravely injured Adama, who needs an emergency medical procedure that is quite risky, given Galactica's fragile state.
• After several attempts, Boomer finally succeeds in opening the door. The trapped crew members crowd safely through the door to (temporary) safety. Boomer dives through the hatchway just as the outer door succumbs to the raging fire outside.
• Apollo studies Galactica's schematics to find a way to reach his stranded sister and son. A small duct (part of the ship's intricate ventilation system) connects the bridge to the rest of the ship, including the rejuvenation center, but the accessway is too small for a person to negotiate.
• Tigh's first and foremost priority is putting out the fire threatening the ship. Apollo suggests firing boroton into the launch bay from a modified version of a Viper laser turret, while the Fire Captain thinks of a new way to use the megapressure pumps in conjunction with the firefighting equipment.
• Boomer, who has found their end of the small access way, affixes a help note to Muffit. Boxey order the mechanized daggit into the tunnel to seek help.
• As they activate the megapressure pump connected to the boroton firefighting system, Apollo, Starbuck, and finally Sheba fire their boroton loads into the landing bay, extinguishing the flames. However, the megapressure pump blows a seal and fails, reigniting the flames in the landing bay.
• As the inferno nears energizer #2, causing a momentary loss of power in sickbay, Adama is prepped for emergency surgery. He suggests Tigh put out the fire by blowing portions of the hull, employing the vacuum of space.
• Apollo and Starbuck don EVA suits and begin spacewalking (with tether lines), planting explosive devices at various points along the hull. Apollo remembers Boxey's "mushies" trick, and suggests to Tigh to put mushies near the open duct, which he does.
• As the temperature climbs to critical in the energizer and solium compartments, Muffit emerges unexpectedly onto the bridge from the ventilation duct. They attach lifemasks and a note from Tigh onto his collar and send him back to their stranded crewmates, who are sharing scant few lifemasks amid deteriorating conditions.
• A handhold on the hull used by Starbuck breaks away, but Apollo reacts quickly to catch him.
• Dr. Salik undertakes the critical procedure on Adama, as the energizer temperature exceeds critical.
• While making the hazardous journey back to the storage compartment, Muffit sees a fallen firefighter in the corridor below. However, he continues with his mission, delivering the lifemasks and Tigh's note.
• As Boomer and Athena prepare for the hull to be blown, Muffit dashes back into the duct, disappearing down the tunnel. Boxey dives in after him but is retrieved by Boomer.
• Apollo loses his grip and floats, adrift in space. Starbuck leaps toward him, the momentum carrying them to safety as the hull charges detonate, extinguishing the blaze once and for all.
• Adama, after a successful surgery, is awake and recovering in sickbay. Muffit, presumed dead, is suddenly brought in on a stretcher, badly burnt but still functional. The daggit had returned to save the life of the fallen firefighter. They promise Boxey that Dr. Wilker will fix up Muffit to be as good as new.

Questions

• If the attack destroyed internal communication, then how did Omega know so quickly (within centons) that Boomer, Athena and Boxey are stranded in the rejuvenation center? In most disaster situations, when chaos is reigning, initial reports are very terse, with extremely limited and fragmented information.
• In sickbay, a crewman tells Cassiopeia that he saw Boomer, Athena and Boxey "go in there [the rejuvenation center] right before the attack". But how is this possible, as they didn't enter together at the same time? When Boomer is first seen entering the room, Athena and Boxey were already comfortably camped out playing the shuffleboard game (which Boxey was winning, as they made a point of mentioning in the dialog). Perhaps the crewman couldn't remember correctly because his eyes were constantly being diverting down to Cassiopeia's ... uniform; he couldn't quit glancing down at it, even while being led away.
• Why was the storage compartment of the rejuvenation center so large and accommodating? It seemed to be about half as big as the rejuvenation center itself. It even had its own phone.
• How did the technical crews so quickly adapt the boroton pressure pumps to the Vipers' laser turrets? It sounds like a feasible plan in the long run, but it also sounds like something that couldn't be done at the snap of the fingers, given that the equipment comes from two totally separate systems (military attack craft, firefighting equipment).
• After activating the device interfacing the megapressure pump system with the boroton firefighting system, why did the engineer walk away from the device, leaving it completely unattended. Indeed, the unit would fail at a critical point soon thereafter, greatly jeopardizing their chances for success.
• If Tigh ordered Omega to "have some mushies sent up" to the bridge, then why is he (Tigh) seen fetching them himself soon thereafter? Wouldn't it make more sense to have someone from the mess hall bring it to the bridge, rather than have the acting commander of the fleet go to the kitchen to perform a delivery himself?

Analysis

Battlestar Galactica meets classic 1970's-style disaster movie. If you remove all the "action" caused by dealing with the fire mentioned in the title, you are left with little in the way of story or character development. Despite the Cylon attack at the beginning of the show, the real enemy is the fire. This episode marks a point in the series when the Cylons disappear for the rest of the season, until their appearance in the final episode. Perhaps this is because the Cylons didn't represent a credible threat to the Fleet after the Colonials overcame overwhelming odds so many times, or maybe Glen Larson and company were trying to take the show in a different direction.

This episode did give a few of the secondary characters a moment to shine. Colonel Tigh gets to take command for the first time since the Battle of Kobol in "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II", returning the Fleet to his commander in considerably better shape than his re-imagined counterpart. The situation with Tigh having to assume command for an injured Adama plays itself out in the Re-imagined series starting with "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II". Boomer demonstrates that he picked up some unusual skills in his misspent youth, establishing some basis for the electronics expertise that he demonstrates in "The Hand of God". Muffit gets to save the day, not only through his nose for mushies, but also in saving the firefighter.

This is something of a standalone episode, in that no subsequent episodes make note of any consequences from the damage to Galactica or Adama. The only element that would constrain this episode is the presence of Sheba, which would require this episode to be shown after "The Living Legend, Part II". Otherwise it might have aired in almost any available slot.

Notes

• In the rejuvenation center, crew members are briefly seen playing a board game resembling a combination of chess and checkers. Instead of being a two-player game, though, there are four players, each sitting at an edge of the playing board.
• Other rejuvenation center games include Colonial variations of billiards (without cue sticks), table tennis and shuffleboard.
• Boomer and Boxey agree to play a game called "Compartment Bulyarks" but are interrupted by the attack.
• Unlike the Officer's Club, the rejuvenation center is open to everyone aboard Galactica, from flight officers to crewmen; even civilians, children, and daggits appear welcome. Presumably (although not explicitly mentioned), people on vessels other than Galactica may reserve time in the rejuvenation center (after a short shuttle hop to the battlestar).
• The schematics of Galactica were very deficient, devoid of any markings or labeling; the naming schemas used for decks, sections, compartments, etc., appear to be little more than hastily-assembled dialogue sound bites. It seems that a lot more effort had gone into the intricate games in the rejuvenation center (which were destroyed in the first few microns of the episode) than on the "detailed" blueprints of Galactica.
• Because their is no air in space, fire can not survive for more than a millisecond unless being feed by a flammable gas. Proof of this psychics concept is shown during the Miniseries of the new series.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Starbuck: They're not fighting back. What are they up to?"

• Adama:"The Vipers will be our eyes."

• Boomer:"It doesn't show in my file, Athena, but when I was a kid on Caprica, I hot-linked more hovermobiles than there are doors on this ship."

• Boomer:"Boxey, it looks like I mashed your mushies."

• Tigh:"Apollo, if the fire reaches the Energizer or the solium, either one... the Galactica is doomed."

• Adama:"Let the vacuum of space smother it."

• Tigh:"Omega, order some mushies sent up here."

Guest Stars

• William Bryant as Fire Captain
• Jeff MacKay as Crewman