The Young Lords

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Overview

After crash-landing on a Cylon-occupied planet, Starbuck joins forces with a group of young human renegades.

This is a "Starbuck episode".

Summary

While on patrol in the Omega sector, Boomer and Starbuck are suddenly attacked by a band of marauding Cylon Raiders; the undercarriage of Starbuck's viper is badly damaged.
On his scanner, Boomer locates Attilla, a habitable planet for Starbuck to land his crippled fighter on; running low on fuel, Boomer retuns to the Galactica to bring back help.
In a Cylon-controlled garrison on the planet Attilla, the two vipers are tracked on scanner; when one viper is seen crash landing on the planet's surface, garrison commander Specter (an IL-series Cylon) orders a squad of Centurions to capture the downed pilot.
Starbuck pulls himself from the wreckage of his viper, but his leg is badly injured; meanwhile, the Cylon patrol looms closer and closer, approaching the Colonial Warrior through the tall marsh reeds. Starbuck tries to evade the Cylons, but he collapses on the riverbank in exhaustion, only to be captured by the pursuing centurions.
Specter informs Baltar (aboard his basestar) of the warrior's capture; Baltar, of course, seeks information about the location of the last remaining battlestar.
Returning to the garrison with Starbuck, the Cylon patrol is suddenly ambushed by a group of young fighters (children, really) who destroy the Cylons and rescue Starbuck, who passes out cold.
Aboard the Galactica, an ill Adama is told the bad news about Starbuck; they decide that Apollo and Boomer will pilot a shuttle — so as not to attract attention to themselves — back to Attilla to fetch Starbuck. They have 24 centares before the fleet is out of range.
On Attilla, Starbuck is helped back to the children's campsite, inside a cave. The children turn out to all be siblings, the true owners of the garrison currently occupied by the Cylons; the children have been waging war against the "tin cans" ever since.
The eldest son, Kyle, is their de facto leader; eldest daughter Miri is their moral leader and acting mother. The other children include Araidne and the boys Nilz and Robus.
With his father away on the mission to rescue Starbuck, Boxey crawls into bed with his grandfather, and they tell one another stories as they drift off to sleep.
Kyle, who had previously lied to Starbuck that his father (Megan) was dead, has secretly conspired with Specter and the Cylons to trade Starbuck for his imprisoned father. Specter gives the good news to Megan, who reluctantly agrees to cooperate.
Specter lies while reporting to Baltar, concealing the fact that Starbuck has escaped; Lucifer expresses his distrust of Specter, a previous IL-version of himself.
Starbuck, pleading to Miri's and Kyle's better judgment, finally convinces them to not proceed with the trade; instead, they put a dummy (wearing Starbuck's flight jacket) on a raft, and push it across the moat to the Cylons.
Specter and the Cylons, who had the same plan, push a likewise-fake dummy of Megan in a raft across the moat to the children; when Specter realizes that he has been deceived, the Cylons open fire on the children's position.
Kyle finally agrees to allow Starbuck to lead their forces, although Kyle will remain as the second-in-command. Together with their whole clan they compose a battle plan — and a rhyming poem to match — to attack the Cylons occupying their castle:

Through the tunnel, under the land/Starbuck and Miri creep hand on hand.

We swim the moat to the petro dump/And blow it up with a great big whump!

At the bridge, the youngest daughter/Drops tin cans into the water.

And around the castle, the son firstborn/Rides at a gallop and blows his horn.

We go up the steps to the castle floor/And sneek a peek through the secret door.

Although the dump is double-guarded/We'll sneak across when the guards are parted.

Robus sets one bomb and then the other/Leaving the rest to his older brother.

When all is ready across the moat/Kyle will sound the signal note.

At the bridge, the youngest daughter/Drops tin cans into the water.

Through all the confusion, noise, and bother/Starbuck and Miri rescue father.

As the plan comes to fruition, Specter files one final (bogus) report with Baltar; immediately thereafter, the entire Cylon force departs Attilla, as it is "too rusty for their circuits".
With the Cylon presence gone from their castle, Megan is reunited with his children.
Apollo and Boomer land the shuttle to bring Starbuck home to the Galactica, arriving just in time to see Starbuck get a passionate goodbye kiss from Miri.

Questions

Were Megan and his family the sole human occupants of the planet Attilla? If not, then why didn't the Cylon hunt down the other humans? The castle seemed to exist inside a vacuum on the planet.
Why do the Cylons so ruthlessly pursue the Galactica as the "last remnants of humanity" when, in reality, humans clearly exist in no small way everywhere they go. Each episode has them encountering some forgotten "fringe colony" teeming with humans, yet the Cylons turn a blind eye toward them and myopically follow the Galactica.
When Colonials encounter a planet such as Attilla (specifically, a planet populated with humans), then why don't they become inquisitive about the human inhabitants? In other words, why don't they assume that they're getting closer to Earth. After all, they left their homeworlds (in the pilot), went through a vast, unknown magnetic void (2nd episode), and are now effectively in "uncharted space". So when they find humans, shouldn't they be a little more inquisitive (or, at least, excited?) rather than dismiss them as an unimportant fringe colony.
Which one was adopted, Kyle or Miri?

Analysis

Notes

Noteworthy Dialogue

Starbuck: A viper pilot only flies three fighters — the one he trains in, the one he escapes from, and the one he dies in."

Boomer:"I'll be back with a clean uniform before you know it."

Centurion:"These humanoids are not well constructed. They damage easily."
Starbuck: "At least we don't rust."
Centurion:"Silence."

Baltar:"Excellent idea: scorched earth policy. You're a wonder, Specter."

Starbuck:"About time you showed up. Got the clean uniform?"
Boomer:"Clean uniform? What...?"

Starbuck:"Miri, you'd have broken half the hearts on the Galactica, including mine." (kisses Miri)
Boomer:"I don't know how he does it."
Apollo:"Neither do I. Starbuck, we have to go.... Starbuck!"

Official Statements

Statistics

Guest Stars

Writing & Direction

Written by Donald Bellisario and Frank Lupo and Paul Playdon
Directed by Donald Bellisario

Production Notes

Series 1 (1978 / 1979)
Production Number: 1.?
Airdate Order: 9 (of 21)

First Run Air Dates & Releases

UK Airdate: Date
US Airdate: 19 November 1978
DVD Release: 28 December 2004