#17: The Hand of God

[Croft2014]

Superb final episode in the first season perfectly encapsulates the arc with the Galactica encountering a Cylon Base ship on the edge of the galaxy a long way from home. It's great to have the Cylons back as the villains because apart from Count Iblis and Baltar they've been a dull bunch.

[johnnybear]

I was thrilled to see them back when I first saw this episode in April 1981! From the Cylon Commander climbing down the ladder to their sending out a patrol, this was heaven! The only thing that concerned me was the Basestar was on the very edge of the galaxy so the Galactica had traversed an entire cluster of stars since The Long Patrol where they first crossed into this galaxy!!! Plus those planets they were passing by could have been some of ours like Jupiter, Uranus and our Moon! Sad to think they kept on going past our planet and then had to turn back some fifty years later and use the faster than light accelerators!
JB

[Croft2014]

What's the obsession with Cylons and spaceships everyone seems to have, surely what matters is the characters?

[johnnybear]

The Cylons were an iconic part of the series! That and their Basestars which appeared every few episodes! I wonder why the two back up Basestars that showed up in Gun On Ice Planet Zero got to in The Young Lords? They must have stayed in orbit around Arcta and eliminated the Thetas and Dr.Ravashol maybe?
JB

[Croft2014]

I never really thought about it. The Cylons are visually and aurally iconic, as are the spaceships and other hardware but the main strength of the series was always the characters and the family atmosphere.

[bishopdonmiguel]

You’re on a site dedicated to the awesomeness of all things Cylon but you don’t understand their appeal?

I’d also say the various Cylons throughout the series are great characters on par with the human counterparts.

[Cylon-Knight]

Cylon obsession as they are critical to the situation of the Colonial characters and totally dictate their atmosphere (civilization laid waste). In any well done work hero(es) are only as good as their villain(s). Getting to know the villain is key as to why they are what they are... and why the hero is the hero. "Killer robot, run" only goes so far. Cylons had no depth and the original series started to fail with "bad guys of the week." As I said somewhere else before, no doubt the real-world reason was to save time and money patching up all the Centurions they blew up prior.

Imagine Star Wars and Empire Strikes back are ALL Stormtroopers - RUN! Toss in a darkly lit Darth Vader with three or four lines. *yawn*
Return of the Jedi bad guys are now Klingons. No reason, and no relation at all to Vader's Imperial forces. POOF. New villains. *!?*
...oh it's because the first bad guys chased our hero across the entire known universe, a boarder was crossed, they gave up. Yeah, that's it.
Totally falls apart. As did Cylons and Eastern Alliance.

Think about the Colonials interactions with Cylons more also... the Colonials had a Centurion, took it apart. Only learned to pull its strings like some mechanical homicidal marionette. That's fun, let's go play cards in the Warriors lounge. Odd. No insights. No weaknesses discovered (i.e. ST:NG and the Borg). They had a Raider, same deal. Alien technology. Think Hyperdyne Labs (Terminator), Sector 7 (Transformers), The US Gov (Independence Day). If you had the enemy itself would you make it snap its claw like some dead lobster then just go back to reading Boxey stories? They had Warriors ON a Basestar. Didn't they notice something? Have time to pick up a "techno-do-dad" or two, maybe swipe an everlasting gobstopper? Nope. Just in/out, back to smoking and cards. No insight, no advancement of either heroes or villains.

The ships, everyone is interested in that like Star Trek and real world ships. They are named, they assume a personality. They are part of the story and grow to be a character. And when restricted to them they are key in their setup as part of the story. It's location. If they are on the bridge. They can't open a door and walk into the flight bay, then next episode the same door leads to the sick bay. Without logic behind the location, again the story falls apart. We don't have to know how many bolts are in bulkhead #12 on deck B (but some do obsess to that level, that's totally true).

The Colonial family /crew were wonderfully fleshed out characters, yes. The Cylons, sadly, not so much.
Can't have a yin without a yang.

[johnnybear]

I think the Cylon pilot in the Galactica 80 Superscouts episode was quite creepy with his head at an angle while they were blasting the ships in the fleet! Another hint that Cylon centurions were more animated robots or that they were infused with some intelligence that we could never understand and at times could almost be lifeless in their appearance!
JB

[Cylon-Knight]

I wonder if the episode's Director had them looking toward the camera so the red eye scanners showed more. They are both always looking left, pretty odd, yeah.

Not as odd as the Colonials who seem to not care one tiny big about the MASSIVE amounts of smoke, not one single cough, mask, or rag over mouth/nose, nothing... also when they are talking about wanting to abandon ship before being full, they are just casually standing near a huge fire. No big thing.

OH Galactica 1980.... lol

[johnnybear]

That smoke in that episode was put on the video afterwards! The actors probably weren't even aware, that or Galacticans are fairely immune to death by smoke inhalation?
JB

[Cylon-Knight]

Exactly. G80 cutting corners resulting it in being wacky.

[johnnybear]

Shame they cut corners on the scripting as well!
JB

[Specter]

Extreme retcon of Sheba in this episode when she accuses Apollo of having a death wish. She says he’s volunteered for every high-risk mission ever since Serina died. Yes, he did, in episodes like The Young Lords and The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (but NOT The Long Patrol!), but those were before Sheba showed up. And how does she know Serina was a “wonderful woman”? Did she know her?

It’s weird because Apollo never talks about Serina to anyone after her death. Oh, probably to Boxey, and to Starbuck or to his family in private. But I can’t see him talking to Sheba about her, since those two mostly argued all the time. Weird.

[johnnybear]

Maybe Sheba met Serina while on Caprica with an interview about being a Viper pilot? That or she has heard all about her from Starbuck, Athena, Adama, Boomer etc.
JB

[Croft2014]

Apollo, Starbuck, Cassiopeia and Sheba are on a double date and for kicks visit the Galactica's last Celestial Chamber (an obsolete navigation aide) when they pick up a transmission that may be from Earth.

Meanwhile a Viper patrol finds a solo Cylon Basestar in the solar system the Galactica is passing through. However, because it's on the far side of a planet it hasn't scanned the Colonials yet. But it's just a matter of time before it does. Starbuck and Apollo use Baltar's fighter to infiltrate the Basestar and knock out it's scanners. Discovered as they escape, the Cylons launch all 300 Cylon fighters against the fleet; the Colonial fighters are out numbered 2:1.

One of the very best episodes that could've done with being a 2-parter. It also establishes that the fleet has approximately 150 Viper fighters in it's arsenal; they must've built loads because in Saga of a Star World they have only 67. In any case, this is exciting and makes ample use of the usual stock footage of Vipers vs Cylon Raiders. New material has been composited from old shots to show the Galactica taking on the Basestar.

A classic.