Continuity errors (TRS)

This is a listing of continuity errors in the re-imagined series.

Acknowledged Mistakes

• At the beginning of "Downloaded" two captions are shown: one states that the Cylon Attack in the Miniseries occurred nine months before the current episode (which is consistent with the other episodes in Season 2.5), while the second reads "10 weeks ago", and then shows Cally shooting Galactica-Sharon in the past episode, "Resistance". However, it is impossible for this to have happened "10 weeks before 9 months after the attack": 9 months = 270 days. There is another plaque in the episode "Epiphanies" which clearly states on screen that that episode took place on Day 189. There are 70 days in 10 weeks. 70 days before Day 270 would be around Day 200; well after "Epiphanies", which was the ninth episode following "Resistance". In response to this serious error being brought to the forefront, the title card of the DVD and international television releases has been changed to "10 weeks later", meaning 10 weeks after Number Six's rebirth.
• In "Scar" Starbuck and Kat fly Viper Mark VII but the launch in the originally aired episode showed a Viper Mark II. This has been fixed in the DVD release which now includes a new, but somewhat shorter, launch sequence with the Mk VII.
  A few previous episodes like "Resurrection Ship, Part II" only use the Mk II sequence, but both types of Vipers are deployed by Galactica.

Retcons

• Season two timeline discontinuity: All episodes before Season 2.5 (starting with "Resurrection Ship, Part I") seem to indicate that Season 2.5 begins 3-4 months after the Cylon attack. However, "Resurrection Ship, Part I" and all subsequent Season 2.5 episodes indicate that "Resurrection Ship, Part I" began 6 months after the Cylon attack. See the main article for more detailed analysis. There are 3 main points of discontinuity:
  • Caprica-Sharon is not visibly pregnant in "Pegasus", but by "Epiphanies", roughly 2-3 weeks later, she appears to be in her second trimester.
  • The presidential elections in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II" are said to take place 9 months after the attack, when throughout Season 1 it was consistently said to be 7 months after the Cylon attack.
  • If all of the dates mentioned in each episode are counted up, "Pegasus" only occurs roughly three months post-attack, not six.
• Fleet numbers: In the Miniseries, a total of 40 FTL ships (led by Roslin) rendezvous with Battlestar Galactica at Ragnar Anchorage. This makes the count 41 ships, including Galactica. However, this number was enlarged for the series. In "33", Dualla states: "Jump 237 underway... 53 ships have jumped, 10 still reporting trouble with their FTL drives, including Colonial One." The count offered in "The Farm" was similar - 24 ships had left to join Roslin's fleet, which was "almost a third" of the fleet, putting the number at about 75.
• The Astral Queen: In the Miniseries, Billy Keikeya stated to Laura Roslin that the captain had 500 prisoners in his cargo hold, and that the Queen was a cargo vessel transporting prisoners to a prison. In "Bastille Day", Billy's lines were re-dubbed: 1,500 prisoners were aboard the Queen, that the Queen was a prison transport. Lee Adama would go on to later state that the Queen was en route to Caprica during the Cylon attack for parole hearings.
• Cylon Detector: In the episode "Flesh and Bone", it takes only minutes to identify Sharon Valerii as a Cylon. However, in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", he states that complete testing on one sample of blood takes 11 hours. Perhaps it's easier for his test to make a conclusive positive than a conclusive negative; it may also be likely that he would be lying, so as to avoid having a possible Cylon agent in his midst while determining the test results.

Danglers

• Zarek-Tigh Plotline: In the episode "Colonial Day", it is heavily implied that Ellen Tigh revealed the location of Valance to agents of Tom Zarek, and that she intends for her husband, Colonel Saul Tigh to meet with Zarek's people in the near future. As of the end of the second season, this plotline has not been revisited.
• Zarek-Black Market Plotline: Similarly, the end of "Black Market" implies that Zarek has assumed some measure of influence in that organization. This also has yet to be revisited.

Recasting

• Zak Adama: In the Miniseries, a different actor was pictured as Zak Adama. In "Act of Contrition", a new actor portrayed Zak, and the picture was changed to reflect the casting choice.
• Ellen Tigh: Same with Zak Adama. The picture of Saul Tigh's wife, which Tigh had burned a hole through, was originally a picture of David Eick's wife. When Kate Vernon was cast as Ellen in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", the image was changed.
• Richard Adar: In the miniseries, portrayed by David Eick in a photograph in Baltar's domicile on Caprica. Recast as Colm Feore for the episode "Epiphanies".

VFX Gaffes

Mirrored shot of Viper 1104 (Scattered).

• Viper and Pilot numbers: In the episode "Flight of the Phoenix", 42 Vipers are deployed at a time when no more than 34 could have been serviceable, and with no more than 25 pilots available.
• Colonial One: Half-way through Season 1, the Colonial One CG model was updated and the seal of the President of the Colonies was added to the hull. However, the reuse of stock footage from the Miniseries and earlier in the first season cause the seal to continually disappear and re-appear in the same episode depending on what shot is used.
• A shot of Viper 1104 is mirrored accidentally (Scattered).
• Viper 1104 must be the most prolific Viper in existence, no less than three copies are present at the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage. Of these, one is crash landed by Lieutenant Thrace, one destroyed by Cylon fire, and one successfully landed on Galactica (Miniseries)
• Miniseries and 33: As the Galactica prepares to jump to Ragnar Anchorage, the Landing Pods retract. As the ship jumps, the pods are not retracted. When the Galactica has jumped to Ragnar Anchorage the pods are retracted again. This same footage was shown during the opening titles of 33.
• 33: As the Cylon Centurion approaches Helo from behind, you can see the rain hitting it, but it does not drip off the Warrior's body. In contrast, water is dripping from Helo's face in a fairly consistent and noticeable manner.

Prop and Equipment Errors

Maj Spencer in Viper 2276 (Miniseries).

• Miniseries:
  • The Viper Mk. VII flown by Major Spencer during the first sortie (Miniseries) is still marked as "Viper 2276NC" which is the Viper flown by Captain Lee Adama to the Galactica.
  • As Sharon Valerii takes off from Caprica with the civilians in the Raptor, just after Helo shoots the civilian who jumps on to the wing, the camera points to Sharon and you can see in the window reflection the crane that is hoisting the Raptor into the air.
  • When Kara's Viper is hit during the second sortie ("I'm all right"), her helmet is unsealed and open.
  • Similarly, Lee's collar is opened when he scolds her for being "beyond insane" as Kara is pushing Lee's Viper into Galactica's flight-pod at the end of the last battle.
• 33:
  • When Dualla admits that she lost the Olympic Carrier, her headset changes sides during the conversation.
  • As Helo fires upon the Cylon Centurion that survived the detonation of an anti-personnel mine (similar to a Claymore mine), the first time Helo fires the pistol, it is heard to fire, but there is no accompanying visual spark from the barrel. In contrast, the second shot is accompanied by both a spark and the appropriate sound.
  • After the disappearance of the Olympic Carrier in Jump 238, and the timer is running towards the 33 minute mark, the viewer can see that the clock is at 10 seconds. When focusing on Adama and Tigh, the viewer hears ten seconds counting off, but when the camera quick-pans to the overhead console, it reads that 3 seconds have passed.
  • Before the clock reaches zero in the pre-title sequence, a wide shot of CIC is shown with Adama and Tigh standing at the central console. The timer on the screen above their heads is flashing 00:00:00.
• Six Degrees of Separation: The special-effects group for the Re-imagined Series appear dedicated to creating computer screens, equipment and interfaces that are familiar to viewers, but aren't full counterparts to real-world Earth materials. However, the logo for NEC computer manufacturers can be seen on the monitors while Gaeta is working on the photograph. Another similiar occurrance happens in Sacrifice.
• Colonial Day: During the bar fight scene, Valance's gun is shown with a silencer attached as it falls out of his briefcase, but the silencer is not present for the rest of the scene.
• Valley of Darkness: Kat finds a box of explosive rounds with only 6 shells. The shells in the container start out scattered within the box, but as the camera cuts back and forth in the scene the shells switch from organized to scattered many times.

• Scar: The little model plane on top of the "Top Gun" mug sported by Starbuck and Kat is actually an F/A-18 Hornet.

• Sacrifice:
  • When Starbuck is getting the handguns out of her case, she still has the environmental engineer's hat on. When she quickly turns around with the guns and starts firing, her hat has disappeared without explanation.
  • A computer mouse (a design used by Microsoft) is seen connected to Sesha Abinell's laptop computer.

• In several episodes characters wear the wrong rank insignia:
  • The Hand of God: Starbuck wears "Lieutenant j.g." (short chevron) insignia most of the time.
  • Home, Part I and Home, Part II: Apollo wears Major instead of Captain insignia.
  • Scar:
    • Starbuck sometimes wears Lieutenant insignia on her green uniform despite having been promoted to Captain.
    • Some of the nuggets have Lieutenant insignia despite being adressed as Ensigns. The prop departement hasn't produced any Ensign insignia yet.
  • The Captain's Hand: Apollo's insignia switch been Captain and Major a few times. Major is his correct rank at that time.

Dialogue Errors

• Miniseries:
  • Tigh inexplicably exclaims "Jesus!" when shown the photo of Adama, Zak and Lee. Ron Moore has stated that this was just an ad-lib by the actor, and was never in the script, and should have been removed during editing.
  • At the start of the episode, dialogue is retained from a draft script which placed the Twelve Colonies actually on Kobol, rather than spread among twelve worlds. The giveaway lines are spoken by Aaron Doral (played by Matthew Bennett):

    "Now, as I was saying, form follows function, and nowhere is this axiom of design more readily apparent than on the world famous Battlestar Galactica... now originally there were twelve battlestars, each representing one of Kobol's twelve colonies..."

  Given the show is set among 12 different worlds, and Kobol is now regarded as the birthplace of humanity, abandoned at some point in the distant past, Doral should have used the words "worlds' famous", and simply referred to the original battlestars representing each of the Twelve Colonies. Still, within context it is impossible for the casual viewer to tell this is from an earlier script draft: each of the 12 human-colonized planets is a "colony" of the mother-planet Kobol.

  • When being informed by Six of her true nature and mission, Gaius Baltar exclaims "Oh, my God!" as opposed to "Gods".
  • Jackson Spencer also makes this mistake after the Cylon Raiders launch missiles at his disabled squadron.

• 33: Helo states his rank as "Lieutenant, junior grade" despite consistently wearing "Lieutenant, senior grade" rank insignia

• Scattered: During the scene on Caprica , Helo exclaims "for God Sakes" instead of the more Colonial "for Gods' Sakes" or Cylon "for God's Sake".

Crew Visible

Crew member visible (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II)

• A member of the production crew, possibly a boom operator, is visible on screen in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II". He can be seen behind the damaged wall behind the display of the Arrow of Apollo.