Whose picture was used for Ila?

[Proteus]

"Speak."

The information thus provided is indeed from a published source.
It is all to be found in the first novel conversion that Robert Thurston wrote, which adapted the story that Glen Larson wrote and the script that he dramatized and employed when he, Leslie Stevens, and John Dykstra produced "The Saga Of A Star-World."
Larson received a joint authorship credit for that novel.
It is in the passage where and when Adama finds the ruins of the house he and Ila shared, and it is written as the text in which he sorrowfully remembers his now-deceased wife.

[137th Gebirg]

I looked it up and I stand corrected, there was a paragraph about this, albeit a tad bit embellished (nothing about cubit usage and other minor specifics):

When he met her, Ila had been a dedicated career woman, determined to become one of the Quorum of the Twelve. At the age of seventeen she had run for, and won, a seat on the local council. Her radical ideas had already drawn attention to her, especially her plan to reduce her city’s contribution to the overall Caprican military budgets. Because she was gleaning some support from the populace, themselves tired of the war which was then almost a thousand years old, certain military and political circles concluded that she should be investigated. Adama, then a young ensign on TDY to the Caprican training base, was dispatched to check out the mild agitation in the boondocks, and see what he could do to smoothe it over. Caprican law would not allow Ila’s right of free speech to be interfered with, but there was nothing in the books that said a handsome young ensign couldn’t positively influence a beautiful young agitator. The insight of the military higher-ups in this matter proved to be extremely prescient. Not only had Ila been positively influenced by the ensign, he had fallen head over heels in love with her, from the first moment he saw her making an impassioned speech to her council.

[Cylon-Knight]

Interesting! I also hadn't heard of that. Cool find.

I wonder if they still return home to find her photo. Odd someone destined to be prominent would just be sitting home alone while the epic Peace Conference was in swing... that is till the Cylons arrived.

[Croft2014]

That's easily explained; she was never such in the script. She was just "Adama's Wife" and we only ever see a small photo the one time. The book is pure embellishment on behalf of the authors after the fact.

[137th Gebirg]

Yes. Although some stuff in the book, IIRC, was based off the original GAL script and didn’t make it to the final cut. I suspect an argument could be made for “author’s intent”, on the part of what Larson envisioned, but yeah, I figure most of the off-screen filler was embellishment on the part of Thurston.

The Star Trek: The Motion Picture novelization was the same way - had a bunch of kooky extra crap from Roddenberry’s odd little mind (“love instructors”??? ) that thankfully never made it on-screen. Most movie adaptations like this have similar embellishments to add to the depth of the plot. Some are more obtuse than others.

[Proteus]

"Speak."

Interesting! I also hadn't heard of that. Cool find.

I wonder if they still return home to find her photo. Odd someone destined to be prominent would just be sitting home alone while the epic Peace Conference was in swing... that is till the Cylons arrived.

After Adama and Ila were sealed, Ila reluctantly gave up her career to rear their children.
For all that was disclosed, though, the initial misgivings about Cylon treachery might have originated with her, not Adama himself.

[Proteus]

"Speak."

Peter Noble has posted a couple of photos of the mysterious Ila in a Facebook group (Battlestar Galactica Classic 1978-80). One of these is clearly from the same photo session as the finished product. The other is the exact picture that can be seen sticking out from behind Adama's picture of Zac and Apollo.





In the DVD commentary, Herbert Jefferson Jr. says: "She was one of our stand-in extras, and they utilized her likeness."

In the Facebook group, though, Dale Thelander comments: "Glen A. Larson said in the DVD extras that she was a secretary at Universal." I don't know where that appears on the DVD, but she could have been both a secretary and an extra.

I cannot see the likenesses.
Can they be posted here again?

[Specter]

"Speak."

Peter Noble has posted a couple of photos of the mysterious Ila in a Facebook group (Battlestar Galactica Classic 1978-80). One of these is clearly from the same photo session as the finished product. The other is the exact picture that can be seen sticking out from behind Adama's picture of Zac and Apollo.





In the DVD commentary, Herbert Jefferson Jr. says: "She was one of our stand-in extras, and they utilized her likeness."

In the Facebook group, though, Dale Thelander comments: "Glen A. Larson said in the DVD extras that she was a secretary at Universal." I don't know where that appears on the DVD, but she could have been both a secretary and an extra.

I cannot see the likenesses.
Can they be posted here again?

I tried reposting them on Facebook and changing the links here. It worked for a while, but then they disappeared again.

[Specter]

Interesting! I also hadn't heard of that. Cool find.

I wonder if they still return home to find her photo. Odd someone destined to be prominent would just be sitting home alone while the epic Peace Conference was in swing... that is till the Cylons arrived.

Cylon-Knight, if I PM you these photos of Ila, can you host them on the site?

[Cylon-Knight]

You sent them once before and life got in the way and I forgot, apologies.
I just attached them to your original post where the others went missing.

[Specter]

You sent them once before and life got in the way and I forgot, apologies.
I just attached them to your original post where the others went missing.

Tanks!

[Proteus]

"Speak."

The source of the information that I had provided about Ila, wife of Adama, was the novel that converted the story told as "Saga Of A Star-World" to prose, a novel originally written, unless I am very much mistaken, by Robert Thurston.