Olympic Carrier
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(Credit: Sky One)
The Olympic Carrier is an FTL-capable passenger liner that joins the Fleet carrying 1,345 survivors of the Cylon attack.
The Olympic Carrier, sometimes referred to as simply the Carrier, is officially designated an "Intersun Passenger Cruiser". With a length of 825 feet, it comfortably accomodates 1,000 passengers in posh and luxury on journeys between the Twelve Colonies. A commercial passenger ship, it has no weapons or defense capabilities.
The Carrier is able to successfully execute the first 237 Jumps in the relentless 5-day Cylon pursuit of the Fleet that occurs a short time after their escape from Ragnar Anchorage. Prior to the 238th Jump, the Carrier sends a message to President Laura Roslin aboard Colonial One. The message purportedly comes from a Dr. Amorak, formerly of the Colonial Ministry of Defense and a former colleague of Dr. Gaius Baltar, with information regarding "a traitor in their midst". Soon thereafter, the Carrier goes missing after failing to arrive with the rest of the Fleet on Jump 238.
Three hours later, the Olympic Carrier suddenly materializes at the Jump 238 coordinates, raising the suspicions of Roslin and Commander Adama. When asked over wireless by Lieutenant Sharon Valerii how they avoided Cylon attack, a voice from the starliner claims ignorance, saying that someone must have been looking after them, and that they used the intervening three hours to fix their malfunctioning FTL drive. Baltar, fearing exposure of his own deeds of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, urges Roslin to cut off communication with the ship.
When radiological alarms sound on Valerii's Raptor on CAP, indicating the presence of a nuclear device, Commander Adama and President Roslin come to a quick consensus that the ship must be destroyed. Pilots Apollo and Starbuck reluctantly carry out the order and destroy the vessel before the nuclear weapon could detonate. Neither viewers nor the characters know for certain whether the Cylons offloaded the humans aboard the starliner or left them aboard (and out of sight) to die (33).
President Roslin later writes the ship's name down on a piece of paper and leaves it in her desk aboard Colonial One as a reminder of her role in the tragedy. She had once seen President Adar do something similar when he also gave an order which resulted in the loss of innocent life through military action (Water).
Notes
The passenger count of the Olympic Carrier is not completely clear. Dualla tells us in "33" that there are "1,345 souls" on board, and Commander Adama reflects in "Pegasus" that they "shot down an entire civilian transport with over a thousand people on board". However, the deduction made from the survivor count whiteboard amounts to a loss of 2,026 people on board the Carrier, and is never corrected.
See this article's discussion page for why this note is inaccurate.
Cinematic Trivia
Producers Ron Moore, David Eick and director Michael Rymer noted in their DVD comentary for "33" that digital effects artists from Zoic hid small signs of movement within the Olympic Carrier during the up-close shots of the ship. In the scene where Apollo is trying to look for people inside through the windows, lights within the ship flicker on and off and several dark figures can be observed darting about the aisleways between seats in the lower part of the ship.