A Measure of Salvation

"A Measure of Salvation" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 7
Writer(s)	Michael Angeli
Story by
Director	Bill Eagles
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	Lucy Lawless as Number Three
Production No.	307
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	November 10, 2006
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	41,420 survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Torn	A Measure of Salvation	Hero
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
Podcast Transcript – View
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Listing of props for this episode
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Overview

Apollo and Athena are dispatched to investigate the derelict baseship. They find the humanoid Cylons dying from a virulent disease, which inspires Lee Adama to come up with a desperate plan against their enemy.

Summary

On Galactica

• A boarding party comprising of Raptors and Vipers investigate the derelict basestar. Among the boarding party are Apollo and Athena.
• Aboard the derelict, marines explore the corridors, finding the Cylons dead. Athena attempts to access the derelict basestar's Hybrid, but is unsuccessful.
• Some "skinjobs" around the control center revive and advise the boarding party of the situation regarding the probe and subsequent infection of the Cylons. One of the infected Cylons, a Number Eight, addresses Athena as "traitor."
• The boarding party and prisoners are en route back to Galactica when the basestar self-destructs.
• Galactica quarantines the boarding party and prisoners while Dr. Cottle finds out if the virus affects humans. The human members of the boarding party are cleared while Athena is ordered to stay put, as her blood work hasn't been done. Helo is infuriated, but wants to be notified as soon as her results are available.
• Dr. Cottle's investigation identifies a virus that can be treated, but not cured for Cylons. President Roslin, Admiral Adama, Lee Adama, and Helo discuss the idea of taunting the vaccine in exchange for information. A Simon is brought before them, and informs them that the entire baseship was abandoned, because resurrection would infect the others. He also mentions that Gaius Baltar provided the information on the path to Earth.
• Aboard Colonial One, Lee Adama suggests a plan to eliminate the entire Cylon race by executing their prisoners in range of a Resurrection Ship, where the downloaded consciousnesses would infect the remaining Cylons, because according to Simon the virus carries a bioelectric feedback component that could spread it even through the download process. Helo scoffs at the idea, considering it genocide.
• Aboard Galactica, Athena finds she's immune because of antibodies generated within her body by carrying her daughter, Hera. Helo tells her of the Fleet's plan, and Athena understands.
• Admiral Adama shows slight dissent about the plan, indicating regulations that forbid him to proceed without presidential order. Despite the ethical ramifications, the President authorizes the biological attack.
• Galactica jumps to a Cylon supply line, and launches Vipers and Raptors to attract the Cylon fleet. In the midst of this, Helo initiates a plan to thwart the execution, unplugging what looks like a standard power connector from an environmental control box.
• The Cylons jump into the area, with Resurrection Ship in tow. Adama orders the execution of the prisoners.
• Lee Adama leads a team to execute the prisoners, but finds that all the prisoners have been killed prior to the Resurrection Ship arriving. Adama orders a recall, and Galactica escapes without sustaining any major damage.
• Helo converses with Athena about his actions. He maintains that what he did was right, regardless of the consequences.
• Aboard Galactica, Adama reports that the prisoners were suffocated due to a failure in the environmental controls. Roslin is quick to point out one or two might be responsible, but Adama closes the issue. Subsequently, the virus was most likely an accidental exposure, similar to one reported 3000 years ago. Adama points out that they're on the right track to Earth, but Roslin notes that the Cylons are on the right track as well.

On a basestar

• Aboard the bastestar, Baltar is being interrogated by Three and Caprica-Six, knowing about the beacon. Three and Caprica-Six imply that Baltar is connected to the virus and to Galactica. Baltar attempts to reconcile, only to be confronted by Centurions.
• In his "projection", his mental Six tells him to relax. Meanwhile, his body is being subjected to torture; Caprica Six is visibly disturbed by the torture and backs away.
• Baltar's torture continues as Three continues to interrogate Baltar regarding his supposed involvement with the virus. In his mind, he attemps to avert the pain by making love to his mental Six. Despite extreme pain, Baltar endures.

Questions

• If Adama had brought the beacon aboard, what kind of information would it have given them about the location of Earth?
• Will Caprica-Six continue to stand by and permit Baltar's mistreatment at their hands?
• Where is Caprica-Six's own internal Baltar in all of this?
• Of the Cylons, which type told the basestar to self-destruct: The Hybrid or a Cylon agent? Considering her odd look after the destruction, might it have been Athena?
• What kind of new start are the Cylons planning for Earth? Just a new home planet, an attempt at human Cylon relations not tainted by the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, or something else?
• Why did an entire Cylon fleet (including a Resurrection Ship) jump to the encounter with Galactica? Why was the Resurrection Ship not left behind somewhere else, as it was done in previous battles?
• Is D'Anna in love with Baltar?
• Why is Gaeta so surprised to hear that Baltar is alive, given the fact that he was actually there when D'Anna offered Baltar to be evacuated from New Caprica?
• Why does Simon so quickly claim science can not provide a solution to the infection?
• Why wasn't the execution squad in place and waiting with the prisoners so the plan could have been implemented in a timely manner?
• Since the plan was to execute the prisoners then jump away, why wasn't the jump drive already spun up and ready?
• The environmental controls seem to have been circumvented by Karl Agathon pulling a single plug. In a combat ship aren't there cascading fail safe systems to protect against such catastrophic failures from simple system malfunctions?
• In his discussion with Laura Roslin at the end of the episode, Admiral Adama is aware that sabotage was involved in the death of the Cylon prisoners, yet he states there will be no investigation. While he might be relieved that the plan wasn't carried out, wouldn't he be seriously concerned and want to aggressively pursue this matter?
• Baltar calls the Number Three torturing him "D'Anna". Is she, or at least does Baltar believe she is, the same Number 3 that was previously masquerading in the fleet as a reporter?
• Has Starbuck regained full flight status, because she tried to pull her life together at the end of "Torn", or does she participate in the battle due to a pressing need for pilots?
• Will there be any consequences of the sabotage for Helo and Athena from other crewmembers who may figure they are behind said sabotage? How will this affect Helo's reputation as a Cylon-lover or his credibility as XO?
• Since the Cylon prisoners died after the jump, did they download and spread the infection despite Helo's sabotage? Raiders generally operate within range of a Resurrection Ship and Galactica encountered two Raiders immediately after the jump.

Analysis

• The Cylons could have cured themselves of this plague relatively quickly, if Galactica had succeeded in infecting them. It was quickly noted in the episode that Sharon was immune herself because fetal cells from Hera created effective antibodies against the virus. Hera is immune to the virus because she is a hybrid Human-Cylon. Now that she is in custody of the Cylons, Baltar could have utilized her immunity, as he previously did on Roslin, as capital to further his self-preservation amongst them.
  • It can be assumed that executing the captured Cylons will send them back to the Resurrection ship, thus infecting the Cylon network.
  • For the Cylons to study the plague they would have become infected themeselves, therefore, there was no way they could've tried to find a cure without potentially perishing
• The wider implications of such an event could have been religiously meaningful to the Cylons. Cylons have time and again shown religious deference by sometimes overlooking rational explanations. By saving the Cylon race Hera could have been elevated to messiah status, if her very creation has not already ordained her as one to the Cylons because their God proclaimed her creation.
  • The presence of Hera is profound enough to the Cylons, which could be preventing them from seeing that Hera could be used as a tool.
• There is a fundamental flaw in the plan Apollo develops: Even if the virus successfully infects the Resurrection Ship, the other Cylons would isolate that individual ship, thus preventing a widespread epidemic. The resulting impact on the Cylon fleet would be no greater than previous destruction of the Resurrection Ship in "Resurrection Ship, Part II".
  • Apollo's plan is based on an account of the Cylon analysis of the threat; he could simply assume they are correct and that the virus can spread like wildfire from one Resurrection Ship to another.
  • Also, by infecting a greater mass of ships, Galactica could board the ships, take much needed resources and more infected Cylons for further use as biological weapons.
• The science of the virus is somewhat questionable. While the biological aspect is sound, the existence of a "bioelectrical feedback component" appears to be technobabble. It would be impossible for a biological virus (i.e. a physical pathogen) to be transmitted by download to the Resurrection Ship. Such a feedback - scrambling the brainwave patterns - could disrupt the download process, but it is unclear how it could spread the virus itself on the other side. It simply may be a case of cylon superstition, which is known to happen from time to time.
  • From Dr. Cottle's dialogue, it would appear that the problem lies with how the Cylons' immune systems reacts with the virus, more than the virus itself. If this is the case, it is likely that the immune system's reaction would carry though the download and possibly be passed to other Cylons througout the network.
  • Conceptually, there is actually very little difference between a physical and a computer virus. Both usurp cell function. Moreover, if the virus is a retrovirus, its genome (be it physical or digital) will be transcribed into the cellular DNA, which might be downloaded to the Resurrection Ship.
• Dr. Cottle explains that Cylons carry antibodies that break down the RNA of his proposed vaccine. However antibodies have no degradative functionality, and only prime recognised pathogens for phagocytosis, though he may have simplified the explination. But as vaccines are developed from the pathonogenic organism (or a close relative) it would be impossible for the Cylons to carry antibodies specific for the vaccine RNA (or for the products it encodes) or otherwise they would be immune to the pathonogenic virus itself.

Antibodies certainly do have disrupting and degrading capabilities, though this particular explanation for vaccine failure is a bit of a stretch. Vaccines are composed of antigens which stimulate an immunological response. Antigens are the item the immune system reacts to, antibodies are produced by the immune system (by B-Lymphocytes – Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell) and are specific to a single antigen. (T-Lymphocytes are also involved, but along a different pathway.) There are several classes of antibodies and each is slightly different in its action, but generally they attack a cell by attaching to the corresponding antigen on the cell exterior and cause the cell to rupture, prevent it from replicating, or stimulate other mechanisms to attack the targeted cell. Phagocytosis by the macrophages (a different white cell) is a cleanup mechanism which may include some pathogens, but is generally directed at the cellular debris remaining after the antibodies have done their work. Most vaccines are composed of either dead or weakened cells or cellular surface components from the target pathogen. These antigenic cellular components are generally protein, lipoprotein (proteins with a fatty component) or lipids (fats) which are unique to the target’s exterior (cell membrane, cell wall, or cell coating depending on the class of organism.) While any type of foreign nucleic acid could potentially produce a substantial immunological response, it is unlikely that any RNA that might have been included in the vaccine (such as in a killed cell) would have had any bearing on the vaccine functionality.

Antibodies also locally generate ozone as a degradative function.

To clarify, antibodies don't have degradative functionality, though they do indirectly cause degradation. They do this, as discussed, by priming target cells or pathogens with antibodies that detect antigens presented by the target pathogen. After priming, an array of leukocytes (white blood cells like T-cells and phagocytes) recognise the bound antibodies and confer actions upon the pathogens (e.g. phagocytes engulf the pathogen [usually whole I might add] by binding the antibodies and closing their cell membranes around it, and then they proceed to breaking down the engulfed cells or viral components through the action of intracellular lysozymes). In the case of a virus, antibodies usually directly bind to the virus and block it from attaching to it's target or preferred cell, thus preventing it infecting cells with its RNA. To conclude, antibodies principally do one thing...bind to an antigen. The degradative and digestuve functions are completed by white blood cells that recognise the bound antibodies. (For a comprehensive review of Specific (Adaptive) Immunity please consult chapter 32, Microbiology, 6th edition, Prescott et al.)

• Adama's reaction to the premature death of the prisoners is yet another example of what are simultaneously his greatest virtues and most glaring flaws - his dedication to those under his command, and his need to keep his conscience clear.
• In this episode, Raptors are shown loaded to the teeth with weapons systems. In the past (Miniseries, The Hand of God), Raptors have rarely been depicted in actual combat, preferring instead to hang back while coordinating battlefield logistics. They have been shown armed in a few prior episodes (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II, Fragged), but this is by far their most prominent combat role to date. The Raptors are using the external missile pods and cannons introduced in "Exodus, Part I & II" and engage in the same maneuver used to launch the decoy drones during the Battle of New Caprica.
• The genetic pool the Cylons were created from predates the human immunity to the plague from just a couple hundred years ago, yet the Cylons, even as a class of machines, are only 40 to 60 years old. This indicates another, non-Colonial, source for the DNA.
  • The genetic pool need not be so old. Because humans had been completely immune to this virus for hundreds of years, the Cylons may have simply overlooked it while creating their biological models.
• It seems this virus could also be a fairly reliable (although not conclusive) litmus test to for Cylons in the Colonial Fleet.
• It seems reasonable to assume that if Baltar is not infected with the virus, he is not a Cylon, likewise for all members of the Galactica crew who boarded the baseship.
  • Baltar was in an isolation suit the entire time he was on the basestar. Using standard biohazard procedures, he would have remained in the suit which would have been disinfected from the outside before he took it off.

Notes

• Fleet population is 41,420. Barring any births, there is an unaccounted loss of at least two since "Torn".
• The story behind the Lion Nebula beacon and the virus may have been inspired by the lunar lander Surveyor 3. Before launching in 1967, its camera was accidentally contaminated by a common bacterium. When the camera was recovered by Apollo 12 astronauts, the microbes returned to life, having survived two and a half years of vacuum, radiation, and temperature extremes.
• This is the first episode in which Saul Tigh has not appeared, more than likely due to his promise to William Adama at the end of "Torn" after Adama's confrontation with both Tigh and Kara Thrace. Currently, the only characters to have appeared in every episode are Laura Roslin and William Adama.
• Helo has been promoted to the rank of Captain, as evident in both dialogue and costuming.
• Starbuck appears to have returned to flight status following her decision to pull herself together at the end of "Torn".
• Dr. Cottle identifies the disease as Lymphocytic encephalitis, however encephalitis is a condition (swelling of the brain) that can be caused by a pathogen, not a pathogen itself. More likely the pathogen is Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus.
• In his podcast, Moore notes that this episode shares similarities to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "I, Borg", though he does not mention the episode by name. Moore also noted that this episode was brought up for discussion during the writer's meetings to discuss development of this episode, as "I, Borg" discussed using a lone Borg drone implanted with a computer virus to infect the Borg collective.
• The location in space of the attempted attack on the Cylons is designated "The Region of NCD2539 Above/North."

Noteworthy Dialogue

• On Colonial One:

Karl Agathon: Genocide? So that's what we're about now?

Lee Adama: They're not human! They were built, not born. No fathers, no mothers, no sons, no daughters--

Karl Agathon: I had a daughter. I held her in my arms.

Guest Stars

• Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
• Tahmoh Penikett as Captain Karl "Helo" Agathon
• Alessandro Juliani as Lt. Felix Gaeta
• Kandyse McClure as Anastasia Dualla
• Rick Worthy as Simon
• Callum Keith Rennie as Leoben Conoy
• Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Cottle
• Matthew Bennett as Number Five
• Bodie Olmos as Lt. Brendan "Hot Dog" Constanza
• Leah Cairns as Lt. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson
• Eileen Pedde as Sgt. Mathias
• Tiffany Lyndall-Knight as Hybrid (credited)