Saga of a Star World (Book)

For other uses of the title of "Saga of a Star World", see: Saga of a Star World (disambiguation)

This article has a separate continuity. This article is in the Berkley books separate continuity, which is related to the Original Series. Be sure that your contributions to this article reflect the characters and events specific to this continuity only.

Battlestar Galactica A book of the Berkley Books line
Book No.	1
Author(s)	Robert Thurston
Adaptation of	Saga of a Star World
No. of Pages	256 (reprint)
Published	September 1978
ISBN	0425039587
Chronology
Previous		Next
None	Battlestar Galactica	The Cylon Death Machine
Paperback Version
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Audiobook Version
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Saga of a Star World is a novelization of the premiere episode, "Saga of a Star World", for the Original Series.

This book was reprinted by iBooks Inc. on September 30, 2005.

Summary

"From the Adama Journals"

• First Entry (Before Chapter 1): Adama talks about how the Cylon war began abruptly with an outright attack on the Colonials' merchant ships, resulting in the destruction of thousands of ships. He tells of the first Cylon offensive against the twelve worlds, which the Colonial Fleet repulsed, thus beginning the thousand year war. He later notes that the humans later forgot the extent of Cylon treachery, and should never have trusted the peace offering the Cylons offered "just as abruptly as they had initiated hostilities". He believes that the Cylons were able to prey upon the humans' desire for peace, and blames himself for not trusting his suspicions.
• Second Entry (between Chapters 1 and 2): Adama notes that there is often debate between the significance of individual death and mass death. Adama doesn't believe there is a difference, noting that either set of deaths—a singular individual death (like that of his son, Zac) and the mass deaths caused by the Cylons in the same act—is "no less intense, no less meaningful, no less important".
• Third Entry (between Chapters 2 and 3): Adama reflects on his withdrawal from the Battle of Cimtar to rush to the Colonies and the misconceptions that surrounded it, particularly those from his own pilots, Boomer and Starbuck. In this entry, Adama tells of the legend of Gavin and the Villain; a moon miner from the solar system that contained Earth who spends his life looking for a villain after trying to best said villain in a game to prove his bravery. Adama relates to the legend, saying how his times of "apparent cowardice" made him feel like Gavin.
• Fourth Entry (between Chapters 3 and 4): Adama reflects on the assemblage of the rag-tag, fugitive fleet, astonished at the tenacity of disparate groups of survivors to assemble and coordinate efforts to evacuate, all while the Cylons were bent on exterminating any survivors. Adama tells of how Apollo improvised a camouflaging force field that made their rendezvous point invisible to Cylon patrols. He notes that many among the Fleet believe that a higher power was involved in making all these events occur; regardless of what one believes, Adama claims that the assemblage of the Fleet was a miracle.
• Fifth Entry (between Chapters 4 and 5): Adama reflects on being a benevolent tyrant, noting that if everyone were told the full truth around his plans, the Fleet and its people would succumb to ennui and fear once comprehending the full nature of the odds that they face. As he marvels at how resilient the survivors had become in repairing damages, converting ships to hyperspace ability, and dealing with the problems they faced, he notes that he remained aloof and emotionally detached so that work could be done.
• Sixth Entry (between Chapters 5 and 6): Adama discusses his first and only attempt to capture a young Ensign Starbuck in the act of illicit gambling aboard Galactica. He discovers that Starbuck and the other crew members have been betting on when Adama will die. Initially irritated at this, he discovers that all of the crew members have said "never"; Adama believes that Starbuck played him the whole time, knowing that the Commander was looking to nab him on something, and Adama never tried to catch Starbuck red handed again.
• Seventh Entry (between Chapters 6 and 7): Adama remembers a piece of advice that his father gave after transferring command of Galactica to him: to look for things that were absent when things appeared to be in place. He notes that he is odds with what he sees, or doesn't see, when it comes to the idyllic refuge of Carillon.
• Eighth Entry (between Chapters 7 and 8): Adama notes that the idea of paradise is something contrary to what it suggests ("an expansion of human potential") and is instead the complete reverse ("usually a reduction, generally to the state of inertia"). He notes that humanity has an "unfortunate tendency to welcome traps if we can find some way to call them paradises," noting that such traps included Count Baltar's peace initiative and the "Carillon paradise," and that humanity often doesn't "pay heed to the slaves who are the rest of the population in our ideal imaginary lands [...] be[ing] content if we don't have to think of the slaves or the inertia".
• Ninth Entry (between Chapters 8 and 9): Adama tries to make sense of Baltar's betrayal of humanity, but finds more understanding in the motivations of the Cylons and Ovions than in Baltar's evil nature.
• Tenth and Final Entry (between Chapters 9 and 10): Adama recalls his meeting with Adar during a lull in the Thousand Year War; Adar had been successful in filing his petition to run for a minor political office on Sagitara, and vowed to bring the War with the Cylons to an end, blaming the corruption of the politicians that ran the war. Adama discusses the gradual changes in Adar's outlook on things as he grew more powerful, up to the point where Adar was no longer welcomed by Ila, Adama's wife, into their home. (Also included is a brief story about a then-two-year old Apollo and his own daggit, an animal with a penchant of tripping people, and some memories of Ila.)

Notes

• Baltar is believed to be killed off by the Imperious Leader in this version. The Imperious Leader orders Baltar be beheaded and is told by a Centurion that Baltar's head and headless corpose are thrown in a garbage chute.
• The term "year"—not "yahren"—is used throughout.
• The names of the Colonies include: Aeriana, Caprica, Gemini, Virgon. The names of the occupants from each of the Colonies include: Aeries, Gemons, Virgos, Scorpios, Leos, Picons, and Sagitarians.

Contradictions

• The book contradicts itself over how the Thousand Yahren War with the Cylons began. In the first entry of Adama's journals, Adama claims that the "war with the Cylons began abruptly—without warning, without even a formal declaration that war was to be". Adama explains that the Cylons first opened fire on Colonial merchant ships, destroying their ships by "the thousands", and, following this, the Cylons sent a fleet of basestar to the The Twelve Colonies. However, this attack was repulsed by the Colonial military, who had the military might to do so. Later, in a discussion with the Quorum of Twelve over the issue of disarmament, Adama points out to the Quorum that the Colonials did not come into direct conflict with the Cylons (and thus start the conflict) until they defended their neighbors, the Hasaris, from the Cylons who sought to enslave them. (This contradiction can likely be interpreted by the fact that Robert Thurston was given many rewrites of the pilot script, which radically changed from its origins, as noted here.)

Analysis

• One of the jarring concepts of the Original Series was the fact that a large caravan of ships were able to successfully elude Cylon pursuit on mere sublight speed—its maximum speed being restricted to the maximum speed of the slowest ship in the Fleet. The book explains that the Colonials were able to construct camouflaging force fields to hide the Fleet. While mostly effective, the Cylons were able to periodically determine the Fleet's location whenever the field weakened, so as to get a general location of the Fleet.
• While faster-than-light travel was rarely broached in the Original Series, the book mentions that that the ships in the Fleet underwent conversion to hyperspace capability. Presumably, this term is neither inferred nor used because "hyperspace" is a term used in Star Wars for FTL travel, and was likely on the list of the various things that George Lucas and Glen A. Larson agreed not to use in Battlestar Galactica.

Official statements

• Robert Thurston explains the differences between the novelisation and the episode:

"There were many changes done in the novelization as the film script changed. Each week or so I would recieve new script pages (new pages were in different colors), which presented new writing and indicated material cut out, and I diligently tried to incorporate each change into the novelization. Actually, this was one of the more exciting things about this particular novelization. Features of it were always changing in the way one alters a clay figure. However, the book was done several months ahead of the TV premiere, which explains some of the major differences between the film and the novelization. The most important one, as I’m sure you already know, was the nature of the Cylons. In the script they were always aliens. When I finally saw the film in a theatre in Canada, they were still aliens. But of course, apparently due to some network stricture about how many could be killed, they were changed to robots. The gambling planet section was extensively revised and was, I thought at the time, better in its original than in its reworking. I wish I could remember why."

• The back-cover description from the first edition:

A VAST AND ANCIENT STARSHIP PROBES THE UNIVERSE FOR THE LEGENDARY LOST PLANET "EARTH"

THE NEW DEEPSPACE SPECTACULAR WITH THE MOST EXCITING SPECIAL EFFECTS EVER PRODUCED

Zac and Apollo are brothers—and rivals—in the ultimate adventure, as humankind's heroic star-fighter crews battle the alien Cylon for control of the known galaxy! BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is an epic multi-media event: the triumphant ABC-TV spectacular with the most expensive special effects ever produced, designed by Oscar-winning genius John Dykstra... and a powerful science fiction novel, a gripping space-war saga of interstellar adventure!

• "Preview given on the first page of the first edition:"

Flagship of the 12 Worlds fleet, she was as large as a planet, yet as swift as the Starhound fighters she launched from her bays. For generations the vast ship led the thousand-year war against the Cylons for control of the known Galaxy. Now that war was in its final phase, and Galactica had one final mission, win or lose: blast through the deadly grid of the Cylon Starfleet and dash for deep space in a desperate attempt to find the legendary "Stonehenge" of the universe - the lost planet the ancient microfilms call "Earth."

• The back-cover description from the iBooks Inc. reprint:

At the end of a bloody thousand-year war against an invincible enemy, an uneasy peace has finally between been achieved between humans and the dreaded cyborg warriors of the Cylon Empire. But peace soon turns to bloodshed when the Cylons launch an unexpected attack against humanity's twelve Colonial worlds, wiping out most of the inhabitants. Pursued by Cylon forces, the survivors gather together a ragtag fleet of ships, their only protection the valiant warriors of the Galactica, the sole battlestar able to escape the sneak attack. Led by Commander Adama and his son, Captain Apollo, the Colonials begin a desperate search for a new home: a planet called Earth, where legend says the long-missing Thirteenth Colony of Mankind will be found. Unfortunately, no one knows where, exactly, Earth might be, and the journey may be a long one-with the Cylons drawing closer with every passing moment.

Alternate covers

• 
  Cover from the original print.
• 
  Back cover to the original edition.
• 
  Cover for the reprint.

Galactica 1980 definition: a safety device that restrains the Viper pilot in their seat ^{(1980: "The Return of Starbuck")}, Troy and Dillon refer to the invisibility field as thus ^{(1980: "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I")}

Original Series definition: a title of nobility (e.g. Count Iblis)

Re-imagined Series definition: technology enabling travel across distances faster than the speed of light would permit, see: FTL

Re-imagined Series definition: technology enabling travel across distances faster than the speed of light would permit, see: FTL