Battlestar Galactica

Episode #210 - "Pegasus"

This document is ©2005, John Larocque. All rights reserved.

49,605 survivors in search of a home called Earth.

The Cylons were created by man. They evolved. They rebelled. There are many copies. And they have a plan.

Synopsis

Tigh launches the alert fighters. Gaeta reports, "New dradis contact, they're launching raiders." Laura asks, "How long till we jump." "Another two minutes." Gaeta tells Tigh, "Sir, I'm getting Colonial transpoders." "Hell, now they're using our own signals against us." Adama replies, "Maybe. Weapons hold. Hold the jump too." Laura asks, "Something up your sleeve, I take it." "We'll see." He orders Dualla to send out a ship to ship message on the Colonial priority one channel. "Send hostile challenge and then put your reply on the speakers." She says, "Attention, unknown vessel: This is the Battlestar Galactica. Identifiy yourself, or we will fire upon you."

The Pegasus' XO, Colonel Fisk, responds. "This is the battleship Pegasus to the ship claiming to be Galactica. Please respond." Tigh asks, "Pegasus, how could that be? The entire fleet was destroyed?" "Give me direct contact. Pegasus, this is Galactica actual. Authenticate identity with recognition codes immediate." Gaeta declares them authentic. Admiral Cain responds."Galactica, this is Pegasus actual. Adama is tha tyou?" "Admiral Cain. What a pleasure to hear your voice." On the Pegasus, they disengage their fighters. "Commander, I don't know what to say. This is a miracle." "You took the words out of my mouth. Step down to condition one throughout the fleet." Lee radios the Galactica, "You are not going to believe what I'm looking at out here. It's like a dream." Adama responds, "It is a dream."

A Raptor from the Pegasus lands on the Galactica in the hangar. The crew and senior staff stand in formation as Cain and her command staff disembark. Adama welcomes her aboard the Galactica and introduces her to President Laura Roslin. She replies, "On behalf of the officers and the crew of the Pegasus, it's a pleasure to see all of you. Welcome back to the Colonial fleet." The crew cheers and they begin introducing themselves to each other.

In Adama's quarters, Laura asks how Cain found them. "Well, we were tracking a Cylon fleet. We were trying to predict their movements, which seemed rather random, initially, until we realized that they were just jumpping to systems with natural resources. So we began to scout those systems ourselves, hoping to carry out hit-and-attacks on their fleet. But instead of finding the Cylons, we found you." "So you've been attacking their fleet?" "Well, you know what they say about the best defense." Laura asks, "How did you avoid the initial Cylon attack on the Colonies."

"We were docking at Scorpion Fleet Shipyard. We were getting ready to go for a three-month overhaul. Most of the crew was getting ready for extended shore leave and family reunions. XO had the deck. I was down in my quarters, wrapping up some paperwork, and getting ready to pack up and go home to Tauron. And that's when the Cylons attacked. They hit the shipyard with three, maybe four nukes. Five syips, two of them battlestars, they were destroyed right there. And by the time I got back to CIC, I discovered that I'd lost over 700 men." "My gods." "We were completely defenseless. So I ordered a jump." "To where?" "Wherever. Nowhere. Just jump." Adama adds, "Blind jump. You could've ended up anywhere. Gutsy call." "Desperate move. Didn't see any other choice." She asks Adama to hand over his logs when he has the chance, and he replies, "Yes, sir."

Laura is surprised that Cain is Adama's superior. "Admiral Cain is my superior officer. She will take complete command of the entire fleet." "I was wondering how to broach that topic. Trust me when I say that while the chain of command is strict it is not heartless, and neither am I. This is your ship, and I have no desire to interfere with Galactica's internal affairs." "I appreciate it, Admiral." "Madam President, you look like I just shot your dog." "No, it's just... it's just the Commander and we've been through a lot." She excuses herself and leaves when Billy arrives. She comments to Adama. "The Secretary of Education?" "She's come a long way." "I'm sure."

"Admiral Cain. We have a Cylon prisoner aboard this ship." "Really? We have one on ours as well." "Ours has proven to be an excellent source of intelligence. She's been very cooperative. Vice President Dr. Baltar has been working with her." "It gives me no pleasure to have to take command, Bill. I want you to know that." "Don't give it a moment's thought, Admiral."

Tigh and Fisk are in the tool room having a drink. "I figure if you've seen one old battlestar, you've seen them all." "Yeah, well, she's an old one. I can't believe the Cylons didn't kick your ass up one side and down the other in this bucket.... Sorry." "And just for that, you have to skip this round." "Tell me about Admiral Cain." "Officers discretion?" "Of course." "We were going after what we thought was a little Cylon Comm relay. Easy target, right? Turns out it wasn't a comm relay at all. It was a staging area full of 15 squadrons of raiders." "Whoah." "Admiral Cain ordered our XO to attack. Those two were real close. He had served witih her for years. But here's the thing. He refrused the order. What'd she do?" "She asked for his gun, shot him in the head with it in front of the whole crew. And then she turned to me." "What did you do?" "Well, I ordered the frakkin' attack. What do you think I did?" He laughs. "No, no, I'm just joking. I'm just kidding, you know."

In the hangar, Kara is incredulous that Pegasus Viper flyers keep kill scorecards along the sides of their ships. Captain Taylor tells Lee he thinks it's a good idea for the Galactica. "I see you don't keep track of your kills. You should start. Encourages morale, gets competition going, esprit de corps." "Well, that's one philosophy." "It's Admiral Cain's philosophy. That means it's your philosophy now, Captain." "The name of my Commander is Adama, which should be pretty easy to remember, because it's my name." "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind, daddy's boy. Let's see your ordnance lists."

Cain and Baltar are walking in the hallway. "They made me head of the Cylon project. My main focus is Cylon detection." "We have our own Cylon prisoner. I'd like you to examine it as soon as possible. See if you can glean anything from it." Number Six comments, "I wonder who the Cylon will turn out to be. Stranger, familiar face, trusted friend who suddenly turns out to be the enemy." Baltar pauses and Cain asks, "Did you hear what I just said?" "Yes, and I'd be really... I'd be very happy to examine the prisoner, Commander." "Admiral."

In the hangar, the Pegasus crew chief, Laird is examining the Blackbird Viper. "That is one ugly baby." He asks to take a look around. "DDG-62s. I'll be. I designed these engines. I thought they phased them over ten years ago." "You're an aeronautical engineer?" "Yeah, I was. Then the war happened, and I got drafted into being deck chief on Pegasus." "So you're really a civilian? How'd that happen?" "I was on the Scylla, and we got picked up by the Pegasus. Things happened. Mind if I crawl around inside her? I heard you designed this yourself. I'd love to see how you did it." "Yeah, go ahead."

In the hallway, Laura is inquiring about fleet supplies. He tells her, "Pegasus has been resupplying Galactica from its own reserve, for military operations." "Which I completely support, bu when will some of these supplies start getting out to the fleet." "Well, Admiral Cain has assured me that those supplies are on their way. " "Well, at least she's taking your phone calls. I can't even get her to answer mine." "I'll bring it to her attention." "How are you dealing with all this?" "She outranks me. It's as simple as that." "You know, if President Adar stepped off that Raptor, I'd be elated. grateful to have someone take over. And yet..." "I don't go to the 'and yet' part. I've been taking orders my entire career. This is no different." "Well, then, Commander, thank you. We would appreciate all the help you can give us." "You shall receive it."

Adama and Tigh are having a discussion in his quarters. He has the logs on his table. "Sounds like you were both drunk." "No question. But he wasn't lying. I can tell you that right now." "Well, I hope you won't jump to conclusions. Wait for all the facts. Context matters." "Context?" "That woman shot an officer in front of the crew. We shot down an entire civilian transport with over a thousand people on board. Says so right here." "That was completely different. And we don't know there were people on that ship." "Which is why I hope the Admiral reads the complete log and understands the context." "We should ask Admiral Cain for her logs, just so we can put her in context." "Wouldn't that be nice?"

Lieutenant Thorne escorts Baltar to the Cylon prisoner. "Don't get too close. It killed seven of my crew. Do you want my guards to come in with you?" "No, I think we'll be fine, thank you." When they enter the brig, they see a bound, gagged and beaten copy of Number Six on the floor. "My God, Gaius, it's me. Look at what they've done to her." Baltar gets Thorne to open the door. Baltar leans over to get a closer look. "She must have struggled. She must have fought back." Number Six is crying. "That doesn't justify this." "She's obviously been abused, tortured." He shines a light in her eyes. "But there's no obvious sign of head trauma. Voluntary eye movement suggests conscious thought." "Can't you stop being a scientist for one moment and look at the abused woman lying therre in front of you." "Now, listen. I know this must be very difficult for you." "Don't patronize me." "I'm not patronizing you. I'm trying to reason with you. If I'm going to help her, I have to understasnd her first." "Will you help her, Gaius?" "I will do everything I can. After all, she is remarkably similar to someone I care about a great deal. I think it would be best if you left us alone for a while."

In the Pegasus hallway, Baltar reports his findings to Cain. "It suffered no serious head injuries and therefore no physical damage to its neural pathways or cognitive reasoning centers. But it's quite clearly traumatized, which would suggest that its current condition is psychological in nature. Had you thought of that?" "No." "It shows that the Cylon consciousness is just as susceptible to the same pressures and cleavages as the human psyche, it can be manipulated in the same fashion. Simply put, Admiral, you have already used the stick. It's time to use a carrot." She orders Fisk, "Please give the Doctor whatever he needs."

Adama meets with Cain aboard the Pegasus. "Commander, having read your logs, it appears that you have been through quite an ordeal." "We've had our moments." "Well, you did yourselves proud." "Thank you, Admiral." "As I told you, we were tracking a Cylon fleet when we found Galactica. And now that I've had a chance to compare their route to your ship's, it's quite clear that they've been following you. Well, our recon so far tells us the fleet is composed of two Baseships, about a dozen or so support ships, and one large vessel we are still unable to identify." She shows Adama some recon pictures. "It's this large ship here that I'm interested in. What's it's function? Is it a command and control ship?" "A raider factory?" "Possibly. Whatever it is, the Cylons are protecting it." "That's what I'd call a tempting target." "Hmm. And here I was getting ready to do a whole song and dance about combining resources for a joint strike mission."

"Which leads me to the next subject, Commander. I'm going to integrate the crews. And I'm starting by reassigning Captain Adama to the Pegasus air wing." "I have a team that works very well together." "Let's just cut through it, shall we? After reviewing your logs, it is my judgment that having your son as Galactica CAG has been a grave mistake. He's been insubordinate, even mutinous, and these are direct quotes from your logs, by the way. And I dare say he's not the only one with disciplinary problems. There's a Kara Thrace, who habitually strikes fellow officers and disobeys orders. This Lieutenant Agathon has fraternized with and evidently impregnated an enemy agent. Let's not even discuss your XO. So... there is a complete list of the transfers." "I thought you said you had no desire to interfere with my command." "I'm saving your command, Bill. You're way too close to these officers, and it's blinding you to their weaknesses and to the damage that they're doing to unit cohesion and to morale." "I don't agree." "Well, that is certainly your right. You have your orders."

Lee and Kara are complaining about their transfers to the Pegasus in Adama's quarters. "We can't just let her come over here and frak up our entire roster on the eve of a major Cylon operation." "She's just trying to frak with the G, because their CAG has a stick up his ass." "That's enough! You're both officers. Act like it. She's given you an order. You will carry it out." Kara asks, "Permission to speak freely?" "You may not. We've all gotten used to bending the rules, having our way, letting things slide. Well, that's over. You wear the uniform, you will accept the rules that go with it. You've been transferred. Pack your gear and report to the Pegasus CAG. Dismissed."

Captain Taylor briefs the pilots aboard the Pegasus. "This is a photo recon mission. We are interested in one Cylon ship in particular which is larger than anything we've encountered before. Analysis to date suggests they will be in this star system next. We will hide behind this moon which has an abmorally large magneto tail and will mask our dradis signatures. We'll power down, hide near the surface, wait for the fleet to pass by." He hears Kara whispering to Lee. "Starbuck? You have something to add?" "Your plan sucks. And the Cylons aren't stupid. That moon's a blind spot. They'll never go near it. You really want to get close? You got to use the stealth we constructed aboard Galactica." One pilot adds, "The homemade tin can?" "That's enough, Starbuck. You're off this mission. Whiplash, Thumper, get your optical gear ready. Apollo, you'll pilot the Raptor with me. Your jacket says you're qualified in one. Remember how to fly it?" "Yes, sir." "Good. Dismissed." In the hallway outside Kara tells Lee, "They expect us to take this lying down? Now you're driving a frakking Raptor? It's humiliating." Lee hands her a bag with a camera in it. "Is that a surveillance package?" "Go get the Blackbird. Take some pretty pictures of our Cylon ship." "Copy that."

Pegasus and Galactica personnel have gathered in the tool room. Tyrol asks Laird, "Chief, where's the Blackbird?" "Oh, Lieutenant Thrace took it out. She said Admiral Cain had ordered a performance check." "What?" Several of the Pegasus crew are enjoying the alcohol and bragging about participating in the rape of their Cylon prisoner. "You remember when Thorne put that Please Disturb sign up on the brig?" "I got in line twice." "Oh, I hear that. Remember she was just laying there, like, with that blank look on her face." Cally is disusted, and some of the Galactica personnel walk out. "Think Thorne'll give us a chance at this one too?" "Nah, I heard him say he's going to have to break her in a little first." Helo is ready to get in a fight but Tyrol holds him back. Helo asks who Thorne is. "Lieutenant Thorne, sir. Cylon interrogator. Rides 'em hard and keeps 'em talkin'." "You're little robot girl is in for quite a ride. Helo wants to strike at him but Tyrol tells him they need to go.

In Sharon's cell, Thorne asks Sharon what is the function of the Cylon ship. "I don't know." "Here, take a closer look. What makes it so important? Why would two Basestar be tasked to protect it?" He grabs her by the throat and pushes her against the wall. "I don't... I don't know." He starts beating her, then pushes her over the bed. A marine grabs her arms and Thorne pulls down her pants. "No!" Helo and Tyrol are running to Sharon's cell and enter. Tyrol orders Thorne, "Get off her!" He throws him against against the wall where he strikes a bolt and dies. Helo and Tyrol are beating the marine guards but they recover and pull their weapons against the intruders. One of them checks Thorne's pulse. "He's dead." Sharon is crying and pulls the sheets over herself.

A Raptor escorts the two prisoners and Thorne's body to the Pegasus. Adama phones Cain from his quarters. "The assuault happened here. They should face court-martial on Galactica." "Commander, I am the senior convening authority present and they will be tried on Pegasus." "They're my men." "One of my men is dead." "Fine. We both have strong feeling about the case that only underlies the need for an impartial trial." "Oh, you mean an independent tribunal? Because according to your logs, Commander, you dissolved an independent tribunal when you didn't like the verdict. And if I'm not mistaken, Chief Tyrol was on trial there as well." "That was a different time." "Yes, indeed it was. I'll bein touch, Commander. Thank you."

Aboard the Pegasus, Baltar has the guards unchain their prisoner. He places a dish of food near her. "The food is yours. It's not a trick. I'm not going to take it away at the last second. You know, I... um... I'm just going to talk right now. I don't expect you to say anything, back o?n Caprica, before the attack, and sometimes I forget there a world before the attack. I knew someone -- a woman, unlike any other woman I'd ever known. She was unique -- beautiful, clever, intensely sensual. When she wasn't in my bed, she was in my thoughts. She was a Cylon. And she changed my life in a very real, very fundamental way in that I have quite literally never stopped thinking about her, because I love her. To this very day, I love her. And she looks exactly like you. My name is Gaius Baltar, and I'm here to help you." She reaches for an apple slice and places it in her mouth. She is crying and so is Baltar.

In Taylor's Raptor, Taylor notices Lee is distracted. "Something I should know about?" "Two of my friends just got arrested and charged with treason." "I suggest that you file that under not your problem. We have a recon mission to perform. I need your head in the game." "Right." They are ready to FTL and will jump in tean minutes. In a hallway on Galactica, Cally asks Adama, "Any word on the chief, sir?" "He's going to have to stand trial." "He's a good man, sir." "I know. I'll do everything..." Over the intercom, Gaeta has him field a call from Tigh in CIC. "I jjust talked to Fisk. Court martial's over." "Over? When did it start?" "I don't know, but they've been found guilty on all counts. She's going to execute them for murder and treason." "I want a Marine strike team in a Raptor in five minutes. Prepare to launch alert fighters."

In CIC, he phones Cain. "You told me they'd get a fair trial. What kind of a trial could have possibly had." "I assure you, I heard them out. I weighed their statements against those of the guards and I took into consideration their service records and commendations. It was a difficult decision, Commander, but I dare say it was a fair one." "They have the right to have their case heard by a jury." "I am a flag officer on detached service during a time of war. Regulations give me broad authority in this matter." To Tigh, Adama orders, "Launch the fighters." He continues with Cain. "You can quote me whatever regulation you'd like. I'm not going to let you execute my men." "I highly suggest you reconsider that statement, Commander."

Fisk informs Cain they've launched Vipers and Raptor. "Please arrange for Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Agathon to be handed over to my Marines as soon as they arrive." "I don't take orders from you." "Call it whatever you like. I'm getting my men." "You are making such a mistake." "I'm getting my men." Cain declares action stations and Fisk cautions her, "Admiral, this will spiral out of control fast." "Launch the alert Vipers. Adama has taken us over the line. He's left me with no choice."

Ron Moore's Commentary

11/5/2003 -- I would definitely like to bring back the Pegasus, Sheba, and do something with the Ship of Lights. (source: Cylon Alliance)

1/27/2004 -- The whole point of doing the Pegasus is to do Cain, and to do that aspect of the character. That would be an interesting character to position against Adama, and his daughter is lead pilot, and I always liked that parallel between that ship and Galactica. So there's definitely stuff to play there. (source: galactica.tv)

1/19/2005 -- We have discussed the Pegasus storyline for a couple of years now. It's still tooling around inside my brain, but I haven't settled on a take yet. Call it a strong possibility at this point. No plans to see any other battlestars at present.

2/19/2005 -- We are talking about shows that deal with other survivors right now. Don't ask about the Pegasus -- I haven't made up my mind yet.

8/11/2005 -- I opted not to include Sheba aboard our Pegasus (and for those of you who aren't fans of the original series, Sheba was the daughter of Cain, who commanded the Pegasus in the episode "Living Legend".) I did think about it, however, and we discussed her character at length in the writers' room before deciding against it. Ulitmately, as intrigued as I was by her inclusion, I just decided that it was too cute for Cain to also have a child commanding the air group in our version of Galactica. I acknowledge that Cain/Sheba is a key part of that mythology, but it just felt wrong for us and would've immediately been out of place in our show. It's hard to define all the reasons why, but in essence, what worked for it in the original series was the vague wink and a nod to the audience in having Apollo encounter a female version of him and then become interested in her, and in our show that very wink would break our conventions.

8/19/2005 -- With Cain, I wanted to maintain that kind of superior warrior attitude of someone who wants to concentrate on the battle against the Cylons as opposed to the survival of the human race. There's a twist, through, in that we've made Cain an Admiral, and that throws a wrench into everything. Adama is no longer the senior military officer, and therefore not in command of the fleet any more. Suddenly, Roslin is no longer dealing with Adama, and this creates a new set of problems for her and everyone else. Here's this outsider who comes in and goes, "What the hell have you people been doing? Apollo is a mutineer, and this Starbuck is smacking people around. This isn't a pirate ship, it's the military." So Cain starts making changes, and that becomes great fodder for our storytelling... ["Pegasus" is] going to propel a whole series of storylines in the latter ten episodes of this season. (source: Starburst)

9/23/2005 -- This is the one-hour version of Pegasus. We struggled mightily to get this show to time. And when the footage was complete, I believe the director's cut was a good fifteen minutes over, which is a bit of problem, because that's more than an act's worth of material. And as we tried in varying ways to get this down to the hour running length, I kept feeling like, the best version of the show was the longer version. So we actually explored for a while the possibility of showing a 90 minute version of Pegasus, and there was various discussions with the network back and forth. Ultimately, one of the problems was, we had an episode that was too long for an hour and too short for 90 minutes. We could never quite plump it out to the point where it could be a 90 minute show, and it was always very difficult to pare it down to an hour show. So we finally got it down to an hour, rather than pad it out, and just make it slow to get to 90 minutes. We compromised and decided to go with the fastest barnburner of an episode that we could in the one hour. And fortunately Universal home video has agreed to show the longer version of Pegasus in the season 2 DVD set. So there's something for all of you to look forward to...

You can tell that the pace of the show is just relentless. We're just being brutal with these scenes, we're moving from scene to scene, in trying to give you the juice of each one. In some ways you can argue it makes for a tighter, more compelling drama, but my feeling of the longer version was, it was a richer meal, you got more textures, more flavors, a greater sense of the complexity of some of the relationships. You saw more of the consequences or ramifications of the Pegasus showing up, how it affected more characters lives. And that's really why I was attached to the longer version. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- Sheba was a character that is not present in this version of the show. I felt that Sheba ultimately was too cute of a character concept, that you'd run into another battlestar, and that Commander also would have a child as the commander of his air group. I just felt it was one step too far. It pushed the reality of the show across the line, where essentially the show is kind of winking at the audience and going, "They did it, so we're going to do it too." It's kind of cute, isn't it? It worked for the original series... it just didn't feel it would work very well in our episode. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- I had worked with Michelle Forbes on Star Trek: The Next Generation where she played Ensign Ro, and other people knew her from her film work. There was something really interesting about going with not an older woman, but a slightly younger woman, that she would personify this character... There was something I really liked about bringing in a younger fast-tracked admiral, who then comes in and takes command of the Galactica and the entire ragtag fleet. I should say that in the original "The Living Legend," Commander Cain did not outrank Adama. That story was similar only in so far as there is a Battlestar Pegasus, they do meet up with it unexpectedly, and that there's an Admiral Cain who is more of a hardass character than Commander Adama... I liked the kernel of that, that another battlestar comes on the scene, and the commander is a tougher one than ours is, and is a bit of a crazy person. On top of that, what I thought was even more interesting was then to say, what if that commander shows up they outrank Adama? What if that commander shows up and takes command of the fleet away from Adama, which would happen? And suddenly I realized, that was a more interesting tale. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- There's a lot of things that did not make it into the one hour version of "Pegasus." There's a whole leadup to this scene with Adama and Laura and Tigh walking through the hallway. And that's where they talk about who Admiral Cain is. They talk about the fact that Cain was a very young admiral, had been promoted over several people on the commanders list, was sort of an up and comer, and a bit of a tough one, and that she had taken command of Battlestar Group 75 only recently before the attack. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- We had varying storylines and drafts dealing with the interaction between Laura and Cain. In one of the drafts, Cain in this moment did not even address Laura as President, just that it's a pleasure. I kept playing a card where Cain never quite acknowledged Laura as the President. There was a scene at one point when Cain went over to talk to Laura because there was also a subplot where ships in the fleet holding back supplies and not delivering fuel etc. because they weren't getting spare parts, they weren't getting help when Pegasus is helping the Galactica after they arrive, and the civilian fleet's getting fed up and they go on strike. They're not going to deliver fuel supplies to Pegasus until they get some of their needs met, and Cain got very upset and goes to confront Laura. And in that scene, Laura goes, "Hey, what do you want? You're not helping these guys out." And Cain makes it very clear to Laura in that moment that she doesn't accept her as the President. This is a military operation and she'll take what she needs from these people if need be. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- I'm glad we waited until the middle of the second season, because at this point, the show had matured to the point where I think we can do this episode. We've had enough happen within the show to these people. These characters have gone through enough things, that there's material to mine in this kind of an episode... Mike Rymer, when he read the script, said he loved the fact that Admiral Cain comes over here and everything she says is right. She should take command and these people have been screwing up... Her agenda is quite simple. Hit the Cylons, hit them hard, keep hitting them, do whatever it takes to accomplish that mission. And looking at the way Galactica has been run up until this point, she goes, "What the hell is this? This is ridiculous. This is no way to run a fleet." ... She doesn't say anything here that's out of line. She doesn't say anything that's wrong. Everything she says is logical. It's all based on his logs, and how can he argue with it? But you kind of hate her for bringing it up, because it's all family business. And then somebody comes in from the outside and says, "You people are screwed up." And you kind of flinch back from that kind of a naked appraisal and wish that it weren't so, but it is, and you have to deal with it. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- What would happen, to put a story where Baltar comes across the tortured and gang-raped Six of his dreams, and be forced to deal with her? There was something so powerful about that idea, and it would speak to the heart of who the man is now, and what goes on his life, to then be confronted with another Six, and that this Six had gone through this horrific experience and wasn't the powerful, sexy woman that we've come to know and in this case had been reduced to this state, where she's lying virtually catatonic on the floor... I'm really fascinated with the idea of Baltar coming to look at the Cylons in a different way. To look at this particular Cylon in a very different way. That here's a real, flesh and blood woman, another version of the woman he knew on Caprica, and that he would have an enormous amount of sympathy for this version of Six. That this one had gone through an experience that made him want to reach out to her, which is something he had never wanted to do. He had always been the character who had held his emotions back, who never connected with a woman, who never gave himself to love or to care. Right from the beginning their relationship had been, he was a player and she was just another conquest that turned the tables on him. That as much as she wanted him to love her, he never could or would. There was something amazing about flipping that upside down, having him reach out emotionally, but only to the one who had been tortured and raped. And there was something twisted about that, and there was something true about that. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- This character does have a name, by the way. While Number Six is how she's referred to in the scripts, this character is called Gina. Gina comes out of the fact that there are certain people out there in the fan community -- and I know who you are -- that refer to the show as GINO, "Galactica in Name Only." And there was something so funny about that. And I always get a kick out of people who would refer to the show as GINO. They couldn't even bring themselves to just call it Galactica. They had to really make up this other name, and it was GINO. I just decided that, let's call the tortured Six, Gina. But it's never actually spoken in the show. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- There was some piece that talked about [U.N. ambassador] John Bolton's style or lack of style with his staff, and he mentions at some point, he made his staff come into his office and hold all the meetings standing up, because he wanted to get through the meetings rather quickly. And he found that if he made his staff stand during the entire meeteing, that they got through it much faster. That says so much about that man, and I thought it was a really interesting telling kind of bit of character, so I used it here, that Cain was that kind of person. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- There was an additional scene where Tyrol is relieved of his deck. That Chief Laird is assigned to take over the hangar deck as the deck chief, and Tyrol is relieved and has to play second fiddle to Laird. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- This whole sequence of Sharon being raped by Lieutenant Thorne was one of much controversy as you can imagine. On the page we wrote this the way it's essentially cut here in this version of the show where the rape is averted at the last minute. It was shot a different way, we shot the whole rape. We shot a very disturbing rape sequence of Thorne raping Sharon, and there was a version cut where the guys come in and it's happening as opposed to about to happen. And there was a lot of controversy back and forth, and ultimately we opted to go with this version, where they come in just as the rape is happening... This is a really dark scene, this is a dark storyline. Things happened on Pegasus that you don't want to know about, and suddenly they're happening on our ship. And I like the fact that Helo and Tyrol, in the episode that precedes this one, were literally at each other's throats for a moment, that they both come charging in when this horrific thing is happening with Sharon. And they get in there and they go at these guys, and then Thorne is killed. It wasn't intended to happen, none of them set out to do this, but it just happened in the moment, that he was killed accidentally. And that that would set off a chain of events. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- That little beat you just saw with Cally and the female deck crew sort of walking out on the conversation as it gets more about the joy these guys from the Pegasus had in going and raping their Cylon prisoner was something that Mike Rymer came up with. It wasn't in the script but it was realy nice touch and it was a very smart move. That Cally etc. walk out on these guys, because if these are co-ed ships and the notion that the women all stand around listening to them make jokes about the fact that they went in on this twisted gang rape of Gina, it didn't seem right that they would just stand around. That's great, the yee-hah. That kills me. The yee-hah that actor gives just makes you want to reach through the camera lens and kill him. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- Adama launches the Vipers and says, "I'm getting my men back." And there's something really interesting about the fact that a man who's obeying the rules and doing the right thing, admiting his mistakes, there comes a point, right or wrong, he's not going to let her execute his men without a trial. He's just not going to do that. There are places where Adama will not go, and I love that in this moment she nails him on the tribunal thing. Last year during "Litmus" he dissolved a tribunal when he didn't like the answer and it hits him. It registers on the character in that moment. He knows that that too is true. And the fact that it's true doesn't mean that he doesn't feel the way he feels in this scene. And when he finds out a moment later that they've been sentenced to death, it felt right that Adama, a man who risked so many lives when Kara Thrace was down on that planet, that he would again do anything it took to save the men that were under his command, that his bond with them was that strong. And you could very logically argue that it's a profound mistake on his part, that it's a command flaw, but people have flaws and that's one of his blind spots. It's one of the places where Adama is not the ideal commander if you want to look at it that way. And in many other ways he's the most human commander of them all. (source: Pegasus podcast)

9/23/2005 -- I like the idea that Baltar [is] sitting and really exposing himself emotionally and talking in very frank terms about the experience that he has had with Six and with Six on Caprica and what she means to him in a very real and profound way. And he would do it in this context and that it was just a monologue. I felt really comfortable writing a monologue for James because I knew that James would embrace it and would really sink his teeth into it and really make it sing. (source: Pegasus podcast)

10/1/2005 -- I think it is worth noting that contrary to what some believe, I have yet, in my many years as a writer to write a scene -- ever -- strictly for shock value. I have no patience with the idea of a show that brings in an audience based on shock value alone, and have no interest in doing the dramatic equivalent of "Fear Factor." I do try to write stories to provoke thought and passionate debate and I'm gratified that "Pegasus" has managed to do both, as evidenced by the debates on many boards on topics ranging from the historic dehumanization of prisoners throughout the world to the question of whether abusing a machine even counts as abuse.

I am more than happy to let the audience decide whether this version of Galactica should continue or not based on nothing more than their willingness to watch it or not. If they decide to turn it off because of storylines or scenes they find offensive or morally repugnant, and as a result it gets cancelled, then so be it. I also find it a continuing source of fascination that the show is cited by publications as diverse as the National Review and The New York Times as not only worthy viewing, but also as supposedly espousing views similar to those found on their own editorial pages.

There are those who will say: that all of the above is a lie and a manipulation, and simply further proof that I am a liar, that I have no morals, no respect for my audience, my country or our military institutions, that I am a misogynist, a pervert, and a drop out and and am only interested in dragging the American public into the muck. There is no way for me to prove otherwise. Perhaps if they knew me, my family, my friends, they might see things differently. But that is not possible, and I am happy to be judged by the words that I write and more than willing to accept that many will judge me harshly.

If writers chose their words to win friends, there would be many great works that would have never seen the light of day. I think that it is essential that we all hold true to our values and beliefs and not be cowed by the views of those who may disagree with us. We live in a world where too few neither hold, nor are willing to stand by, core values and principles. I cannot argue with, and indeed have the greatest respect for, those who choose to stand by theirs, just as I choose to stand by mine. (source: Colonial Fleets message board)

10/6/2005 -- It's a very provocative moment. Any rape scene, you're going to have an emotional response. I knew that that was gonna be a trigger on some level. But stepping back from it, you can see it's more of a thing on the Internet than it is in reality. I mean, we did not push the boundaries of television. It's certainly nothing that you haven't seen on Law & Order or NYPD Blue or 50 other shows that have gone into this territory. It's nowhere near as graphic and disturbing, in my opinion, as the moment where the character on The Sopranos beat the stripper to death. That was disturbing television. That was really hard to watch! Like, omigod! And this doesn't even approach that. It's a controversial moment. It's a provocative moment, but it was important to the story. It was built into the fabric of what show was about, the whole show dealing with what was happening to the Cylon, prisoners we had seen, evidence of what had happened already on Pegasus, and this was a natural outgrowth of that. So, a lot of the reaction on the Internet is just sort of what people do on the Internet. They become very dramatic. It becomes a whole thing for people to get on a soapbox and start yelling at the stars. But that's OK. That's what people like to do! (source: EOnline)

10/6/2005 -- The Pegasus episode was one that I did reach back, because it was sort of the best one that they did in the original series, the idea of them meeting up with another battlestar that survived the attack and that that commander was a different type of commander than Adama , more of a hard charger, yet who still wanted to take the battle with the Cylons. That's just a great idea and it seemed a natural fit that at some point I would want to do that story, and I wanted to kind of wait for the show to mature to a certain point where we could really mine that for all its richness. (source: EOnline)

10/2005 -- This is [Ann Cofell Saunders'] first gig. She was a secretary on 24, and she wrote such a good spec script that she did an episode for them and they spoke highly of her. We really responded to her material and she totally gets our show. (Battlestar Galactica: The Official Magazine)

3/8/2006 -- Question: Why was it that Pegasus was able to escape given that it had networked computers? Seems odd. My theory is that the Pegasus is one huge trojan horse.

This will be explained in the longer version of "Pegasus" that'll be included in the Season Two DVD box set. Essentially, Pegasus had her network off-line in preparation for going into the shipyard for an overhaul and wasn't vulnerable to that point of attack.

9/19/2006 -- Question: Was Admiral Cain guilty of murdering her XO and ordering the murder of civilians? Was Admiral Cain guilty of marooning/stranding the Pegasus RTF? Was Admiral Cain guilty of "drafting" civilians into the Pegasus crew?

The answer to all of the above is, yes. While we heard about all these actions second-hand, the intention was that they were all factually correct.

David Eick's Commentary

Commentary

"The arrival of the Pegasus has helped galvanize our characters into who they are and who they're trying to be. These later episodes [in Season 2] also further drive home the fact that the Galactica's crew could be exterminated by its own kind, meaning that humans are potentially far more terrifying an enemy than perhaps the Cylons... You're looking at someone [Gina] who has been physically and mentally raped, but it's not just anybody. This is the person that you supposedly love more then anyone else in the world. You want to break down and become all emotional but you can't. For the first time in his life Baltar has to pretend to be strong for someone else." -- James Callis (Baltar) on 12/12/2005 (source: TV Zone)

"I did research -- not only for rape victims but also torture, stress, war, disasters, etc. Basically I looked into Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and was fascinated with the idea that the human Cylons were made so similar [to humans] that they could also suffer from a psychological illness as well, and wanted to bring that into how Gina reacts physically, emotionally and intellectually." -- Tricia Helfer (Number Six) on 12/7/2005 (source: SciFi.com Behind the Scenes)

"When it was first scripted, it was written that an attempt was going to start, but before any penetration, Helo and the Chief run in and stop the atrocious rape from happening. That is how it was written, but knowing on the day coming in that it was Michael Rymer directing, and he was going for a raw and intense (performance), I asked him, are we going to shoot it that way, or are we going to shoot it so that she gets raped? He said, what do you think? And I said, I'm open to it. I didn't really mind either way, and he said let's shoot it as a rape, and we will have to deal with everything else later. So shooting it that way was intense leading up to it, but we all kind of knew that our hands were going to be somewhat tied when it came to how they were going to edit it. I had an exact feeling how they were going to edit it, and it was true, they edited it in a way so that there was no graphic specific evidence, but from the cuts you could put together the pieces (in regards to) what was happening and that she was indeed getting raped.

"But the network freaked out, and a lot of the people up top freaked out, and said we couldn't do that, so they just kept trying to edit it down. What I found was that the more the network and executives were getting upset that we were trying to include the rape scene, (the more) I was getting upset... How come on our show, we can have people beating each other up to a bloody pulp, and assault, even a man to a woman, killing hundreds of thousands of people, putting people out an airlock, or people just sleeping with each other, getting drunk, like you name it, you can have all of those things, mutiny, threatening to shoot a commander? Yet something that happens every single day around the world, many times a day, is too taboo, and we have to be shameful of it. It's a shameful act, but it happens everywhere, and I thought that covering it up was a way to blind everybody's eyes, and pretend that this is not happening. I thought that was very unfair. It robs everybody of an experience, and of a story, and of a release, and also of a compassion that we missed. So I started to get pretty upset." -- Grace Park (Boomer) on 1/24/2006 (source: TheSciFiWorld)

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