Pre-Blood & Chrome:
Battle of Caprica |
Fall of Djerba |
Operation Clean Sweep
Blood & Chrome: Battle of Sector 12 |
Battle of Djerba |
Ghost Fleet Offensive
Final Day:
Operation Raptor Talon |
Great Cylon Turkey Shoot
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| Great Cylon Turkey Shoot | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Powered down Raider fleet being massacred by Galactica's Vipers | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Conflict: | Second Cylon war | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date: | Roughly two weeks after Day 84 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Related Episode(s): | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Place: | Interstellar space, specific location unknown | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Result: | Decisive Colonial victory | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| [[Colonial battles chronology ({{{series}}})|Battle Chronology]] | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The Great Cylon Turkey Shoot is an initially pitched battle where a compromised Galactica turns the Cylons' own computer virus against them to completely power down a massive fleet of hundreds of Raiders and Heavy Raiders.
For several weeks after leaving Kobol, Galactica suffers system failures and malfunctions throughout the ship. Watch Officer Lieutenant Gaeta and Dr. Gaius Baltar determines that the Cylon virus which infected the ship shortly after the Fleet reunited (Scattered) and downed several ship functions for a time (Valley of Darkness) has returned. Apparently the virus had a latent element that hid itself, slowly emerging throughout ship computers, testing and probing for weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Lt. Karl Agathon then shows a printout of the virus to the incarcerated Caprica copy of Sharon Valerii, who determines that this logic bomb is a prelude to a Cylon attack. Gaeta determines a way to remove the bomb by erasing all ship computer hard drives, then reloading the computers from backups made before the war. However, this will leave the ship completely vulnerable for several minutes. If the logic bomb is "detonated", the virus would likely turn Galactica against itself and her fleet.
Commander Adama elects to use Caprica-Valerii to aid them. She interfaces her body to the ship's mainframe and communication systems via a fiber-optic link placed inside her left forearm. A massive Cylon force arrives to attack, and all Vipers are scrambled. As Galactica erases its hard drives, Valerii apparently copies the logic bomb code into herself and manipulates it. She releases the altered code through the communication channels, transmitting it to the Cylon attackers. In an amazing reversal of historic events, the entire Cylon fleet was disabled as Caprica-Valerii's version of the virus disables every Cylon ship, much like Colonial ships were shut down by the Cylons during the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Many out-of-control Cylon fighters are destroyed simply from crashing into each other.
Colonel Saul Tigh orders Galactica's Vipers to destroy all Cylon fighters. Apollo jubilantly relays the weapons free order to his fighter group, and Galactica's Vipers proceed to tear through the jumbled Cylon formations, destroying the disproporationately larger Cylon force in its entirety without losing a single Colonial ship in the process (Flight of the Phoenix).
The presence of numerous Heavy Raiders (troop transport vessels, never before seen in such numbers) suggests that the Cylons intended to board Galactica and possibly other ships in the Colonial fleet after the virus had rendered the battlestar helpless.
Notes
- According to Ronald Moore's podcast for "Flight of the Phoenix", this battle was specifically inspired by the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" of World War II. This page is named in light of that reference.
- The number of Cylon Raiders present was given on the Scifi.com official site's episode description.
- Visually, there are at least 42 Vipers on screen, but there is a strong possibility that this is a visual effects mistake: Apollo states in "Act of Contrition" that there are only 40 Vipers left. On top of this, several Vipers have been lost since then (see Viper tally). The current count leaves only 34 Vipers: 1 lost in "Act of Contrition", 4 lost in "The Hand of God", and 1 lost in "Final Cut". This doesn't take into account Tyrol's retirement of unserviceable craft, worn down by wear and tear. Furthermore, Galactica is severely limited by the number of pilots they have on hand - in this episode, no more than 22.
- Ron D. Moore admitted in an interview (Flight of the Phoenix) that this was probably a visual effects gaffe. The number of Vipers is more probably no more than 34 at best.
- Interestingly, the Blackbird appears in the Great Cylon Turkey Shoot, yet the Blackbird has not been finished by the time the Cylons are disabled. Producer and writer Bradley Thompson acknowledges this as a visual effects mix-up, as the Blackbird's lack of guns or sufficient maneuverability would make it a poor fighter, nor has the ship made its maiden flight before the Cylon fight.