Battlestar Galactica (2003)
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''Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries'' is a three-hour television
miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
(comprising four broadcast hours) starring
Edward James Olmos Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Detective List of Blade Runner (franchise) characters#Gaff, Gaff in ''Blade Runner'' (1982) and its sequel ''Blade Runner 2049'' (2017), Lieuten ...
and
Mary McDonnell Mary Eileen McDonnell (born April 28, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received Academy Awards, Academy Award nominations for her roles as Stands With A Fist in ''Dances With Wolves'' and May-Alice Culhane in ''Pas ...
, written and produced by
Ronald D. Moore Ronald Dowl Moore (born July 5, 1964) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on ''Star Trek,'' as well as on the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series, for which he won a Peabody Awar ...
and directed by
Michael Rymer Michael Rymer (born March 1963 in Melbourne) is an Australian television and film director, best known for his work on the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica (reimagining), Battlestar Galactica'' TV series, for which he directed Battlestar Galact ...
. It was the first part of the ''Battlestar Galactica'' remake based on the 1978 ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series, and served as a
backdoor pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...
for the 2004 television series. The miniseries aired originally on
Sci Fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
in the United States starting on December 8, 2003. The two parts of the miniseries attracted 3.9 and 4.5 million viewers, making the miniseries the third-most-watched program on Syfy.


Plot


Part 1

After a 40-year
armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...
in a war between the
Twelve Colonies of Kobol "Kobol's Last Gleaming" is the two-part first-season finale of the reimagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series. In the first part, the human fleet discovers the abandoned planet Kobol, the mythical birthplace of humanity, who left her ...
(the homeworlds populated by humans) and the Cylons (human-created robots), the Cylons launch a surprise nuclear attack intended to exterminate the human race. Virtually all of the population of the Twelve Colonies is wiped out. Most of the Colonial military is either rendered ineffective or destroyed due to
malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...
in the military computer network that renders it vulnerable to cyber attack. The malware was introduced by Number Six (
Tricia Helfer Tricia Janine Helfer (born April 11, 1974) is a Canadian actress and former model. She played Number Six in the science fiction series '' Battlestar Galactica'' (2004–2009). She also voiced Sarah Kerrigan in the video game ''StarCraft II'' an ...
), a Cylon in the form of a human woman, who seduced the famous scientist Dr. Gaius Baltar (
James Callis James Nicholas Callis (born 4 June 1971) is an English actor. He is known for playing Dr. Gaius Baltar in the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series), Battlestar Galactica'' miniseries and television series, and Bridget Jones' best ...
) and exploited their relationship to gain access codes under the cover of an insider contract bid. The Battlestar ''Galactica'', a hybrid
battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...
/
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...
in space that fought in the earlier war, is in the final stages of being decommissioned and converted to a museum when the attack occurs. During her decades of colonial service the ''Galacticas computer systems had never been networked so the ''Galactica'' is unaffected by the Cylon sabotage. Its commander,
William Adama William "Bill" Adama (callsign "Husker") is a fictional character in the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series produced and aired by the SyFy cable network. He is one of the main characters in the series and is portrayed by Ed ...
(
Edward James Olmos Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Detective List of Blade Runner (franchise) characters#Gaff, Gaff in ''Blade Runner'' (1982) and its sequel ''Blade Runner 2049'' (2017), Lieuten ...
), assumes command of the few remaining elements of the human fleet. He heads for the Ragnar Anchorage, a military armory station where the ''Galactica'' can resupply itself with weaponry and essential supplies. Secretary of Education
Laura Roslin Laura Roslin is a fictional character in the reimagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' series. Played by Mary McDonnell, she is the President of the colonies and a key character throughout the series. The character is noted in part for a realistic moral ...
(
Mary McDonnell Mary Eileen McDonnell (born April 28, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received Academy Awards, Academy Award nominations for her roles as Stands With A Fist in ''Dances With Wolves'' and May-Alice Culhane in ''Pas ...
) is sworn in as President of the Twelve Colonies after it is confirmed that the President and most of the government have been killed (Roslin is 43rd in the line of succession). The government starship carrying her (''Colonial One'') manages to assemble a group of surviving civilian ships. When a
Colonial Raptor ''Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries'' is a three-hour television miniseries (comprising four broadcast hours) starring Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, written and produced by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer. It was the ...
shuttle from the ''Galactica'' lands briefly for repairs on the Twelve Colonies' capital world of Caprica, the two-person crew,
Sharon Valerii Number Eight is a female humanoid Cylon model on the television series ''Battlestar Galactica'', a reimagining of the 1978 show of the same name. She is portrayed by Canadian-American actor Grace Park. Two prominent Number Eight copies serv ...
(callsign "Boomer"; Grace Park) and Karl C. Agathon (callsign "Helo";
Tahmoh Penikett Tahmoh Penikett (; ; born May 20, 1975) is a Canadian actor. He is known for playing Karl "Helo" Agathon on SyFy's 2004 television series '' Battlestar Galactica''. He has appeared in TV series ''Supernatural'', '' Dollhouse'', the Showcase ti ...
), offer to evacuate a small group of survivors. Helo remains on the stricken planet, giving up his seat to evacuate Baltar, whom he recognizes for his celebrity status as a scientific genius.


Part 2

The Cylons locate the human civilian fleet, and Roslin is forced to make the decision to order all of the ships capable of
faster-than-light Faster-than-light (superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light in vacuum (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...
(FTL) travel to jump immediately to escape. Unfortunately this means abandoning many of the survivors who are aboard ships without FTL engines and, as Roslin and the FTL ships jump away, the Cylons launch an attack on the remaining ships. At the Ragnar Anchorage space station, Adama is attacked by a supposed arms dealer named
Leoben Conoy ''Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series), Battlestar Galactica'' is a 2004 American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica, ''Battlestar Galactica'' franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore and ...
who claims to be simply bootlegging supplies, but who is clearly being affected by the radiation cloud surrounding Ragnar, which humans are immune to. Adama deduces that he is facing a new type of Cylon that looks, sounds, and acts human. As the civilian fleet joins the ''Galactica'' at Ragnar, President Roslin appoints Dr. Baltar, who has not disclosed his suborning by the Cylons, as one of her scientific advisers to combat the Cylons. Number Six reveals herself to Baltar in hallucinatory form while attempting to direct his behavior. She suggests that she planted a microchip inside Baltar's brain while he slept, allowing her to transmit her image into his conscious mind. Responding to one of her suggestions, he is compelled to identify
Aaron Doral ''Battlestar Galactica'' is a 2004 American military science fiction television series, and part of the ''Battlestar Galactica'' franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore and executive produced by Moore and David Eick as a re-imagini ...
, a public relations specialist, as a Cylon agent masquerading as a human. Despite his protests and the lack of any evidence to support the accusation, Doral is left at Ragnar when the ''Galactica'' departs. As the Cylons blockade Ragnar, the ''Galactica'' and its fleet of Vipers engage the Cylon fleet in order to allow the civilian fleet to escape by "jumping" to a distant, unexplored area outside of their star system. The ''Galactica'' and the colonial fleet make good their escape. At a funeral, Adama announces his plan to reach a legendary thirteenth colony called "Earth", whose existence and location have been closely guarded military secrets. Roslin is skeptical and later confronts Adama who admits that Earth is simply a myth but he used it as a means to give people hope for the future. Returning to his quarters, Adama finds an anonymous note has been left for him stating "There are only 12 Cylon models." On Ragnar, Doral is rescued by a group of Cylons consisting of multiple copies of the Number Six, Leoben and Doral models, confirming his identity as a Cylon. When the group discuss how to track down the human fleet, a copy of Boomer arrives and reassures them that they will find them.


Cast


Production


Development

None of the previous attempts to remake or continue the story of ''Battlestar Galactica'' by
Tom DeSanto Tom DeSanto (born January 1, 1968) is an American film producer and screenwriter. Career DeSanto is a founding writer/producer behind several of the biggest franchises in movie history (''X-Men'', ''Transformers''). DeSanto's films have gross ...
and original series star Richard Hatch were successful. From the mid-1990s onwards, actor Richard Hatch (Captain Apollo from the original version of the series) made numerous efforts to revive the series, including co-writing several novels and a comic book series, and even went as far as to produce a proof-of-concept trailer called '' The Second Coming''. Hatch's campaign was based on the continuation of the original series, set several years after the final episode. DeSanto's planned version, which went into pre-production before being delayed and subsequently scrapped following the events of the
9/11 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
of 2001, was also a continuation, set some 25 years after the original series. Both versions ignored the events that occurred in ''
Galactica 1980 ''Galactica 1980'' is an American science fiction television series and a spin-off from the original ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series. It was first broadcast on ABC in the United States from January 27 to May 4, 1980, lasting for 1 ...
''. In 2002,
Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...
(the legal rights holder to ''Battlestar Galactica''), instead opted for a remake rather than a sequel. David Eick approached Ronald D. Moore about a new four-hour ''Battlestar Galactica'' miniseries for Universal. Moore developed the miniseries with Eick, writing the scripts and updating the old series, also developing a backstory that could work for a regular weekly series, should the miniseries be successful. At the same time, Moore was approached by
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
about running a new television series, ''
Carnivàle ''Carnivàle'' () is an American television series set in the United States Dust Bowl during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The series, created by Daniel Knauf, ran for two seasons between 2003 and 2005. In tracing the lives of disparate gr ...
''. While Moore worked on the first year of ''Carnivàle'', Eick ran the day-to-day production of the ''Battlestar Galactica'' miniseries in Canada. ''Battlestar Galactica'' aired in 2003 and became the highest-rated miniseries on cable that year, and the best ratings that year for any show on Sci-Fi. After ''Carnivàle'' reached the end of its first season and the Sci-Fi Channel ordered a thirteen-episode weekly series of ''Battlestar Galactica'', Moore left ''Carnivàle'' to assume a full-time executive producer role on ''Battlestar Galactica''.


Filming

The special effects of the miniseries were created by
Zoic Studios Zoic Studios is an American visual effects company based in Culver City, California, specializing in visual effects for feature films, episodic television, commercials, video games, advertising design, and interactive online media, the company ...
, who previously worked on the ''
Firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...
'' television series. In the opening minutes of Part 1, as the character of Laura Roslin sits in her doctor's office, a Firefly class ship is seen flying above the city. However, the ship does not appear in the Season 2 episode " Epiphanies" in which Roslin reflects on her wait in the doctor's office. The regular series also contains effects by Atmosphere Studios, Enigma Animation Productions and the production's own effects team. Executive producer Ronald D. Moore said the outer space battles were created and rendered to look like a Discovery Channel crew was actually shooting footage. Filming took place in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
.


Music

The soundtrack for the miniseries was largely scored by
Richard Gibbs Richard "Ribbs" Gibbs (born December 5, 1955) is an American film composer and music producer whose credits include '' Dr. Dolittle'', '' Big Momma's House'', '' Queen of the Damned'', the television series ''Battlestar Galactica'' and the fir ...
.


Reception


Critical response

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
the miniseries has an approval rating of 83% based on reviews from 12 critics. Brian Lowry of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote: ''Battlestar Galactica'' takes a while to find its directional heading and build up steam, but once it does, this proves to be a surprisingly engrossing odyssey." Ned Martel of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote: "The project might all be an exploitative departure from the ''Battlestar Galactica'' brand name, but it's hard not to like where the spacemen (and spacewomen) are going." Sonia Saraiya of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' reviewing the miniseries in 2014 gave it a grade of A−.


Awards

Wins * 2003 Visual Effects Society Awards – Outstanding Visual Effects in a Television Miniseries, Movie or a Special * 2003 Saturn Awards – Best Television Presentation Nominations * 2003 Visual Effects Society Awards – Outstanding Compositing in a Televised Program, Music Video or Commercial * 2003 Visual Effects Society Awards – Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Televised Program, Music Video or Commercial * 2004 Emmy Awards – Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Miniseries, Night 1) * 2004 Emmy Awards – Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Miniseries, Night 2) * 2004 Emmy Awards – Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Miniseries, Night 1) * 2003 Saturn Awards – Best Supporting Actress on Television,
Katee Sackhoff Katee Sackhoff (born April 8, 1980) is an American actress known for being Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on ''Battlestar Galactica'' (2004–2009), Niko Breckenridge on '' Another Life'' (2019–2021), Victoria "Vic" Moretti on '' Longmire' ...


Novelization

In 2005,
Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...
published ''Battlestar Galactica'' (the miniseries), by
Jeffrey A. Carver Jeffrey A. Carver (born August 25, 1949) is an American science fiction author. He was born in Cleveland, graduated from Brown University, and lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts with his family. His 2000 novel ''Eternity's End'' was a nomine ...
—a
novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...
of the 2003 miniseries. The book incorporates deleted scenes and gives background information not seen on screen.


Notes


References


External links

* * *
Miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
and Miniseries, Night 2 at the Battlestar Wiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Battlestar Galactica 2000s American science fiction television series 2000s American television miniseries 2003 American television series debuts 2003 American television series endings Battlestar Galactica television series Military science fiction television series Television episodes written by Ronald D. Moore Television miniseries as pilots Television series set on fictional planets Television shows filmed in Vancouver