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Bull
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Novacek was part of a covert mission from the admiralty of the Colonial Fleet as the sole pilot of a special fighter known as a Stealthstar. The mission was to fly over the Armistice Line for reconnaissance of Cylon activity.
Upon crossing the Line, Novacek was quickly interdicted by an unknown contact. Under fire, his fighter is severely damaged and was spinning out of control.
With two more unknown craft bearing down on him, Commander Adama ordered Novacek's fighter destroyed so as to eliminate any evidence of their incursion into Cylon space. Novacek ejected a split second before the incoming missile struck, and is subsequently captured and imprisoned by the Cylons (TRS: "Hero").
Around 3 ACH (2002BYR), Novacek is permitted to escape his imprisonment as part of an elaborate ruse by the Cylons. Two Raiders in pursuit of Novacek's escape Raider were apparently unable to shoot Novacek down. As Kara "Starbuck" Thrace later discovered, the Cylons deliberately missed an obvious kill shot, allowing him to escape and bring a measure of terror to the admiral.
Shortly after telling Novacek of Adama's actions, Saul Tigh finds Novacek in the process of killing Adama. After stopping him, Tigh berates Novacek for almost giving the Cylons the assassination they wanted.
Later, Novacek boards a Raptor to start a new life on a civilian ship. Admiral Adama presents Novacek with a Colonial uniform and assures him he will always have a place as an officer on Galactica(TRS: "Hero").
David Eick's video blog "Introducing Bulldog"[external 1] revealed that after agreeing to the role, Carl Lumbly stated that he wanted to keep his dreadlocks, much to the bemusement of director Michael Rymer.
In early drafts Novacek's first name was Seamus[commentary 1] and then Eugene.[production 2] When Cottle checks if Novacek is a Cylon, the computer screen shows Novacek's first name to be Eugene, an on-screen remnant of the prior name before its change to Daniel.
A remnant for the Novacek's earlier first name before its change to Daniel by production (TRS: "Hero")
Comparing the "Hero" script to the final aired episode reveals several significant differences:
An extensive scene between Admiral Peter Corman and Adama establishing the mission's political context and reconnaissance objectives appears in the screenplay[script 1] but was omitted from the aired episode, which conveys the mission background through dialogue and flashbacks instead.
Detailed descriptions of Novacek's imprisonment include extended sequences about the Doral deception where Novacek believed Doral was a fellow prisoner for over a year, only to discover he was a Cylon when another identical copy walked in. The script describes Novacek being forced to play psychological "games," including being handed an empty gun and told to kill Doral or be killed himself.[script 2] These sequences were significantly condensed in the aired version, likely for pacing and broadcast standards.
The screenplay consistently uses "Daniel" for Novacek's first name throughout, indicating the name change from earlier drafts (Seamus, then Eugene) had been finalized by the October 2006 version, despite the on-screen computer display error showing "Eugene" in the final episode.
More extensive dialogue during Tigh's confrontation with Novacek includes detailed explanations of Cylon manipulation tactics and Tigh's analysis of how Novacek was "played" by the Cylons.[script 3] The aired episode streamlines this confrontation while maintaining the core dramatic beats.
An extended conversation between Tigh and Novacek about their shared military past was removed from the final version, including Novacek's reference to a woman called "Eileen the Machine" whom he describes as having "no front teeth" and being a "gift" to Tigh during their earlier service together.[script 4] This dialogue provided insight into the military culture and personal relationships between the characters during their Valkyrie service.
Novacek's family background receives more detailed treatment in the script, including specific mention of his mother's recent move from Scorpia to Aerilon and his emotional reaction to learning of the Colonies' destruction.[script 5]
↑While dialogue from "Hero" places these events at 1 BCH, this contradicts previously established dates about the time Adama and others served on Galactica. See Hero#Analysis for a detailed explanation why Battlestar Wiki chooses to treat this as a continuity error.
Pyramid is a close quarters ball game played on a pyramid-shaped court, hence the name of the game. The objective is apparently to score points by getting the ball into a goal at the top of the pyramid. Pyramid can be played one-on-one or in teams.
Players can take no more than "three paces" without passing, shooting, or rebounding the ball off of one of the walls. The outlined areas in the corners and the center of the arena are "neutral zones". When a player places the ball in these zones, other players must back off and may not make contact[2].
Full contact is allowed (when the ball is not in a neutral zone), and once a player has been tackled, they must pass the ball. How this is handled in one-on-one games is left unspecified. The game is won by the team with the most points at the end. However, under what circumstances the games ends is also left unspecified[3].
There are versions of pyramid for one, three or five players from each team on the court at once[4]. The play area is consistently referred to as an "arena" and the corner with the goal as the "head". Apparently each team starts out in one of the corners besides the head and then vie for control of the ball. The initial ball placement is not defined, but a face-off is mentioned tangentially later in the article with no details.
Despite the small size of the regulation pyramid court at Delphi Union High School (TRS: "Resistance") and the practice field used by the Caprica Buccaneers team just before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies(TRS: "The Plan"), the home of the Buccaneers fifty-eight years earlier, Atlas Arena, offered a much larger professional playing area. The relationship between the two is unclear, but it is possible that the regulation court may be considered a segment of the larger professional field. If this is true, while teams consist of over eight people, it is probable that the sport rotates players on and off the smaller court between plays. Three players per side within this area are a probable arrangement. Non-professional play (high school and collegiate, for instance) may have fewer players than the professional teams, indicating a skill factor needed to play with a large number of athletes.
Caprica Buccaneers player gear and pyramid ball.The ball is cantaloupe-sized, about the same size as a soccer mini ball. The ball's size, combined with the cupped structure of the goal mean that outside (towards the side-lines) shots are quite a bit more difficult than inside (towards the center of the arena) shots. However, the more inside a player gets, the more likely the defensive play. This defensiveness is why pyramid is so physical: battling over the good shooting space directly in front of the goal.
For purposes of clarity, this section is split up into pre-Cylon War and post-Armistice. This is due to the fact that some teams may not have survived beyond the end of the Armistice, given the scope and depth of the Cylon War and its affect on all aspects of Colonial civilization.
The following Colonial Pyramid League[5] (CPL) teams are professional pyramid teams that are known to have existed 58 years prior to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and played for the CPL Kobol Cup. It is not known whether these teams existed after the end of the first Cylon War.
Delphi Legion hail from the Caprican city of Delphi.
The Delphi Legion are scheduled to play the Caprica Buccaneers at Atlas Arena when U-87s attached to the Caprican Marines land at the stadium in their first public combat role, attempting to stop a Soldiers of the One terror attack (CAP: "Apotheosis").
A month after the Lev bombing, they face off against the Caprica Buccaneers in a long awaited game at Caprica City's Atlas Arena. It is the first game after a "controversial victory" involving the teams that transpired over one year prior, as well as the first game that Daniel and Amanda Graystone spectate after the bombing (CAP: "Rebirth").
Existing for nearly a century before the Fall, the Buccaneers (also known as the "Bucs" or "C-Bucs") played in the CPL Inner Conference Alpha Division and was purchased by Daniel Graystone and, later, Tomas Vergis, both contributors to the creation of the Cylons. The team would later be captained by one of the Final Five Cylons prior to the Fall.
The producers originally intended to show a full, professional pyramid game in the pilot episode, with Daniel Graystone and Joseph Adama sitting courtside. The sequence was cut for budgetary reasons, but the idea was revisited for the broadcast version of the pilot.[7]
...somewhere along the line I transposed the names. I misremembered what they called it and I- the sort of racquet-ball slash basketball game that they played in the original and that we referred to in this series, I now call Pyramid, and the name of that game in the original which was Triad is now what we sort of call our poker game. So it's one of those "Oh, it's one of the charming differences between the old and the new.," it's either that or it's just a stupid error that the writer made.
↑The game was derived by the Re-imagined Series writers from the triad games played in the Original Series, viewed as a cross between basketball, rugby and lacrosse.
↑This may be a rule somewhat like the NCAA's old "halo" rule on the declaration of a fair catch of a kick off in American football.
↑Perhaps, like basketball, a pick-up game could be played to a certain number of points, while professional (or otherwise more official) games have a clock or other timer.
