Miniseries, Night 2

Galactica, the last battlestar, is determined to join the fight against the Cylons that attacked the Twelve Colonies. But the faces of the Cylons are changing, and the odds are against the last battlestar's survival.

"Miniseries, Night 2" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Special Episode
Writer(s)	Ronald D. Moore Christopher Eric James
Story by	Glen A. Larson
Director	Michael Rymer
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	(Noted later in article)
Production No.	Pilot
Nielsen Rating	3.8
US airdate	9 December 2003
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate	17 February 2004
DVD release	28 December 2004 US 1 March 2004 UK
Population	survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Miniseries, Night 1	Miniseries, Night 2	33
Related Information
Continuity Errors Present – View
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
Amazon: Standard Definition | High Definition
iTunes: [{{{itunes}}} USA]

Summary

• The second and final night of the miniseries shows a stunned Laura Roslin and pilots aboard Colonial One. The Cylon missile attack obviously failed. Roslin and the crew find Lee Adama collapsed on the floor of the cargo bar, next to the electric pulse generators that once belonged to Galactica.
• Adama explains that he caused a EM burst that disabled the missiles as well as emitting enough energy to convince the Cylons that the missiles detonated. Happy to be alive, Roslin directs the immediate evacuation of passengers from the disabled civilian ships they encountered before the attack and leaving before the Cylon realize the deception.
• Commander William Adama, unaware that his son is alive, orders his battlestar to jump to Ragnar. The jump is successful, and Galactica enters the tenuous upper atmosphere of the gas giant, where Ragnar Anchorage awaited with needed supplies and munitions.
• Boomer's Raptor is found by 798, lands inside the ship's cargo bay and offloads her survivors, including Baltar.
• President Roslin's caravan of stranded ships includes a mixture of sublight and FTL-capable ships. "Boomer" Valerii finds a needed tylium fueling ship just as a Cylon Raider scout discovers the caravan and disappears.
• Captain Adama recommends immediate escape for all FTL ships to Ragnar Anchorage. When Aaron Doral objects to this course of action, Adama reminds everyone that the war has changed to the survival of the human race. To take time to evacuate the sublight ships could leave the entire caravan open to nuclear destruction. To leave now would ensure that about 50,000 people would survive.
• Roslin orders the jump. The sublight ships left behind, including the Botanical Cruiser, are destroyed by Cylon nuclear missiles.
• Inside the station, Chief Tyrol discovers an unauthorized occupant. After calming him down and disarming him, Commander Adama visits the station while supplies and weapons are gathered up. The hideaway, Leoben Conoy, admits to being an arms dealer, and is apparently unaware of the events that have transpired in the Twelve Colonies.
• A munitions shell accidentally falls and detonates in the station. Commander Adama saves himself and Conoy from the blast but are trapped inside a corridor. Adama orders his crew to continue offloading the supplies while he and Conoy seek an alternate way back to the supply area.
• Roslin's caravan arrives at Ragnar Anchorage, to the surprise of Colonel Saul Tigh. Roslin orders Tigh to help the stranded colonists, but he refuses the order. Lee Adama requests a disaster pod to help the colonists, and Tigh relents, knowing how happy his father will be that his son has survived. Captain Adama is assigned the role of CAG by Tigh.
• Deep in the station's bowels, Conoy speaks to Commander Adama, talking philosophically of mankind, its flaws, and questions if humanity deserved to survive. Conoy now appears in some kind of physical distress, which he dismisses to Commander Adama as "allergies."
• Gaius Baltar, now aboard Galactica, is tasked with finding any ships that are using the tainted CNP he created. Galactica received the CNP, according to Tactical Officer Gaeta, however, as the CNP required a network, the program was never installed in any system on the battlestar. Baltar continues to be haunted by a virtual image of Number Six that only he can see and hear.
• The virtual Six points out a curious device below the DRADIS console, and suggests that there are Cylon agents lurking on Galactica. Baltar soon uses Aaron Doral as a scapegoat, accusing him of being a Cylon and having him arrested. He makes up questionably authentic reasons of Doral's guilt as Colonel Tigh orders the Cylon device on the DRADIS console removed and studied.
• Later, Conoy has some sort of painful attack from his "allergies." Commander Adama realizes that Leoben Conoy is some sort of new Cylon that looks like a human, but still relies on silica pathways and other Cylon technologies that, as the Colonial Fleet discovered, would be disrupted by the EM radiation emitted by Ragnar's cloud.
• Conoy appears to collapse from the radiation, then attacks Adama, throwing him about the dank, dark room filled with pipes and valves. Adama recovers long enough to fight Conoy off, eventually bludgeoning the Cylon to death with a flashlight that Adama carried.
• Commander Adama returns to Galactica with the Cylon's body. While he ponders that problem, Tigh gives him the good news about his son, but also of Aaron Doral.
• As she prepped for flight, Kara Thrace admits to Lee Adama that her fiancee, Zak Adama, failed basic flight, but as his flight instructor, she passed him anyway. Adama is stunned, realizing that his father didn't pressure his brother as much as he believed.
• Starbuck's reconnaissance mission to the edge of Ragnar's EM cloud reveals danger. She spots at least two basestars, hundreds of Raiders and a handful of other support ships. The Cylons choose not to enter the cloud, preferring to wait out the Colonials trapped inside.
• Commander Adama meets with the new President. She tries to convince Adama that she and the ships of her caravan are all that is left of humanity, and that taking one battlestar off to fight against such odds is suicide. Adama initially ignores her advice.
• Aaron Doral is marooned by the Colonials with basic rations inside Ragnar Anchorage.
• As Commander Adama, Captain Adama, Gaeta, and Tigh discuss their offensive options, Commander Adama sees Billy Keikeya and his communications officer, Dualla, talking, ostensibly about anything except business. Adama remembers (out loud) President Roslin's last words to him: "We better start having babies." Adama changes his mind. He decides that Galactica will take the civilians with her, towards the Prolmar Sector, leaving the solar system of the decimated Colonies, never to return.
• Lee Adama concurs, but the commander has to determine a way to save everyone from a direct Cylon attack. He chooses to bring the now-fully armed Galactica just outside the cloud boundary and provide cover fire while the civilian ships jump to safety behind the battlestar.
• The Battle of Ragnar Anchorage begins. The Fleet escapes, while Galactica desperately retrieves its Vipers (scrambled to aid in point defense) as quickly as possible. Apollo's Viper is struck, but Starbuck continues racking up Cylon kills while defending Apollo.
• Apollo's Viper loses all power. Starbuck finally hears the retreat order but refuses to leave Apollo. She creatively rams the noses of the Vipers together and flies both into the flight pod of the battlestar just before they close completely in preparation for the Jump. Galactica escapes the last incoming Cylons.
• During the Service for the Dead, Commander Adama addresses the assembly of his crew. He tells the crew that he knows the location of the thirteenth colony and their home, Earth. The crew's hopes are revived.
• Privately, Roslin (knowing that President Adar did not know Earth's location, or believed it existed) asks Adama why she told the crew a lie. Adama admitted that it was not enough for his crew to live, but gave the notion of Earth as something to live for. The two agree to share leadership responsibilities; Adama handled all military matters, and Roslin would manage civilian and government duties for its spacefaring colony.
• After Commander Adama retires for the night, he finds a note typed in his room with the message, "There are only 12 Cylon models."
• Later, inside Ragnar Anchorage, several copies of Number Six, Leoben Conoy and Aaron Doral rescue the Galactica-based Doral. Baltar's guess was correct: Doral was indeed a Cylon. The group discuss their current strategy and agree to chase the Fleet down. One final Cylon arrives, who looks exactly like Galactica's Sharon Valerii.

Questions

• Does Earth truly exist, despite Cmdr. Adama's disbelief? (Probable Answer)
• What happened to Helo on Caprica? (Answer)
• As of the Miniseries, viewers know of four of the twelve Cylon agent models: Sharon Valerii, Number Six, Aaron Doral and Leoben Conoy. What are the others? (Latest Update)
• Are there other Cylon ships aside from the Raider and basestar? (Three answers so far: the Heavy Raider, the Cylon Reconnaissance Drone and the Resurrection Ship)
• If the Cylons hate humanity with the passion that they do, why did they mimic human form? Was it for strategic purposes or was there something greater? (Likely answer from the Caprica copy of Sharon Valerii ("This form brings us closer to God...", "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II").
• Who was the unseen individual that Number Six met with on Caprica?
• When the Cylon device is discovered in the CIC by Baltar and eventually removed, Gaeta states that the device has been there for some time. Yet in the first scene in the CIC (when Adama is practicing his speech), there is a clear view of the bottom of the console and the device is not present. Was this a filming error, was Gaeta simply mistaken, or was Gaeta lying because he is a Cylon agent?
• Who was responsible for the note Adama received at the end of the miniseries informing him that twelve Cylon models exist? Baltar would be the likeliest, but how come there was no mention of the note later, or any debate over the veracity of the clue it gave?

Analysis

See the series article, Battlestar Galactica (RDM), for analysis of the miniseries and the central differences between the Re-imagined miniseries and the Original Series.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Adama's Speech at the Funeral Services on Galactica:

Adama: Are they the lucky ones? That's what you're thinking, isn't it? We're a long way from home. We've jumped way beyond the red line, into uncharted space. Limited supplies, limited fuel. No allies, and now, no hope? Maybe it would have been better for us to have died quickly, back on the Colonies with our families, instead of dying out here slowly, in the emptiness of dark space. Where shall we go? What shall we do? Life here began out there. Those are the first words of the sacred scrolls, and they were told to us by the Lords of Kobol, many countless centuries ago. And they made it perfectly clear that we are not alone in this universe. Elosha, there's a thirteenth colony of humankind, is there not?

Elosha: Yes. The scrolls tell us a thirteenth tribe left Kobol in the early days. They travelled far and made their home upon a planet called Earth, which circled a distant and unknown star.

Adama: It's not unknown. I know where it is! Earth. The most guarded secret we have. The location was only known by the senior commanders of the fleet, and we dare not share it with the public. Not while there was a Cylon threat upon us. For now we have a refuge to go to. A refuge the Cylons know nothing about. It won't be an easy journey. It'll be long, and arduous. But I promise you one thing: on the memory of those lying here before you, we shall find it, and Earth shall become our new home. So say we all!

• On the empty Ragnar Anchorage with a group of Cylon agents:

Sharon Valerii: Don't worry. We'll find them.

Number Six: By your command.

Cast

Starring

• Edward James Olmos as Commander William Adama
• Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslin
• Katee Sackhoff as Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
• Jamie Bamber as Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama
• James Callis as Dr. Gaius Baltar
• Tricia Helfer as Number Six
• Callum Keith Rennie as Leoben Conoy
• Grace Park as Lieutenant Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
• Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
• Matthew Bennett as Aaron Doral
• Paul Campbell as Billy Keikeya
• Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol

Guest Stars

• Barclay Hope as Transport Pilot (Colonial One)
• Lorena Gale as Priestess Elosha
• Kandyse McClure as Anastasia Dualla
• Tahmoh Penikett as Karl C. Agathon/Helo
• Connor Widdows as Boxey
• John Mann as Captain Jackson Spencer (CAG)
• Alessandro Juliani as Lieutenant Felix Gaeta
• Nicki Clyne as Deckhand Cally
• Michael Eklund as Deckhand Prosna
• Haili Page as Cami
• Alonso Oyarzun as Deckhand Socinus
• Ty Olsson as Captain Aaron Kelly
• Ron Blecker as Launch Officer
• Ryan Robbins as Armistice Officer
• Tim Henry as Caprica Doctor
• Kwesi Ameyaw as Liner Captain of Botanical Ship
• Brenda McDonald as Old Woman (who thought she forgot her glasses)
• Suleka Mathew as Kellan Brody
• Erin Karpluk as Woman #1
• Jenn Griffin as Woman #2
• BJ Harrison as Woman #3
• Moneca Delain as Blonde Woman
• Zahf Paroo as Man #1
• Robert Lewis as Man #2
• Denzal Sinclaire as Man #3
• Nadine Wright as Chantara
• Michael Soltis as Chantara's Husband
• Fred Keating as Junior Reporter
• Lymari Nadal as Giana
• Biski Gugushe as Pilot #1
• Nahanni Arntzen as Pilot #2
• Nogel Vonas as Pilot #3
• Ryan Nelson as Pilot #4

Related Topics

• Soundtrack (Miniseries)
• Battlestar Galactica: The Lowdown (Miniseries)
• The Miniseries novelization

External Links

• Miniseries at scifi.com
• Battlestar Galactica Miniseries at IMDB.com