3. The rise of a human resistance in the ragtag fleet and the ascension to power of Gaius Baltar.
4. The Cylon occupation of Caprica and the other colonies and their manipulation of the survivors, including the character of Helo.
1. One would expect the story of Adama and Laura to be the classic hawk vs. dove tale as they struggle to reconstitute an entire civilization with only 50,000 refugees while it becomes more and more apparent that there are also Cylon terrorists among them. However, we will be subverting these expectations by playing Laura as the increasingly hawkish leader and Adama as the defender of personal freedoms.
As time goes on, and the Cylon terrorist threat becomes more deadly, it will be Laura who finds herself advocating stronger and harsher measures in the name of security. She's surprisingly tough and pragmatic, not at all the idealist. For instance, at some point Laura will issue a presidential decree outlawing abortion in the fleet. The human race has to survive and women will have to start having babies and right now. She'll institute a system whereby some women in critical professions (such as pilots) will get birth control and others will not. Needless to say, this will be an extremely controversial and provocative order, but one born of a pragmatic assessment of what has to be done in order to survive.
Adama's instincts and feelings about civil liberties (which he inherited from his father) will put him at odds with Laura's increasingly tough stance and we will realize that it is Adama who is the idealist at heart.
But it is the relationship with his son, Lee, that convinces Adama to go along with Laura's harsher measures. Lee's position as Laura's military advisor and Adama's chief pilot puts him in an ideal situation to be liaison between the two and Lee's own instincts tend to agree with Laura at every turn. As Adama finds himself trying to reach out to the son he's been estranged from for so long he'll find himself listening to Lee's opinion and advice and then finally agreeing to do things that he never would have done otherwise. As the security situation worsens, Laura clamps down on dissent harder and harder, which of course, begins to breed more and more enemies within the fleet.
Finally, there will come a point when Adama believes that the security situation has gotten so bad, that he has no choice but to declare martial law and take direct control of the entire fleet. As he orders Laura put under arrest, we will fade out and await season two.
2. The story of Earth and the Cylons interest in our finding it, will be mapped out slowly as the season develops. Small clues will emerge at first, some spiritual in nature, others hard physical evidence, will point the way toward Galactica steering a course leading them to the promised land. At the same time, however, certain actions by Cylon sleeper agents, certain things said by Six to Baltar, and even a couple of open scenes back on the Cylon home planet, will indicate that the Cylons may actually want us to find Earth. And even more disturbing is the indication that the Cylons know a secret about Earth that the Colonials don't.
3. A human resistance to Laura's rule will form in the early episodes. Partly fomented by Cylon sleeper agents and stoked by human religious differences and conflicts, a group of humans will start to actively challenge her authority and leadership of the fleet, forcing her to rely more and more on the muscle of the military to maintain order. As Laura clamps down on dissent, there will come a point where "terrorist" actions are being blamed on both human and Cylon enemies and this in turn will trigger even tougher responses by the military.
Baltar, supposedly the sole possessor of "the amazing Cylon detector" will find himself trusted by the very highest levels of the military and civilian authorities. Baltar's ability to discern Cylon from Human (a complete hoax) will put him in a powerful position, one in which he can eliminate any enemy or threat simply by "proving" that person is a Cylon.
Very soon, Baltar will be contacted by the growing human resistance movement within the fleet and Number Six will encourage him to see the human rebels as the base of his own potential power source. Number Six starts to aid Baltar in positioning himself as the next leader of the Colonies as Laura becomes more and more unpopular.
4. We will continue to cut back to Caprica and the other original colonial worlds and realize that the Cylons have a plan for these worlds and their few remaining survivors. The character of Helo (Sharon's co-pilot, who was left behind on Caprica) is still alive and struggling to survive amid the onset of nuclear winter. With only the contents of his flight suit emergency supplies, he's trying to stave off radiation sickness and find a way off this planet. The Cylons capture him, interrogate him, and then just as he's about to give up hope, he's rescued by Sharon Valerii, who tells him she couldn't let him die alone here. The two of them escape into the Caprican night and begin a journey across Caprica in order to find other survivors, and eventually escape into space and join up with the Galactica and the rag-tag fleet.
Helo, of course, has no way of knowing that the woman he thinks is Sharon, is in reality, only one more Cylon that looks like her. Every conversation, every detail of Colonial strategy and thinking he shares with her will be instantly known to the Cylons. And Helo's own feelings for Sharon will be known to them as well.
As Helo makes his way across the planet, we win start to realize that the Cylons seem to have some larger plan for Caprica and the rest of the colonies, that devastation and genocide were not the only goals of the attack and that this was only the first step in a long-term strategy that ultimately will tie into the escape of the Galactica and her eventual arrival on Earth.
Character Arcs
Adama & Laura
They will form a personal bond forged in conflict. Their positions will inevitably put them at odds, but will also bring them together. Laura will be facing the solitary burdens of command for the first time and Adama is literally the only man have who can empathize with her experience. For his part, Adama will find himself drawn to Laura's world in no small measure because politics, and particularly the presidency, was a deep interest of his father's and in many ways Laura is fining the role that his father wanted for him.
A sexual chemistry between them will make itself felt, and the loneliness of their situation will tempt each of them to reach out, but neither will act on the temptation.
Laura Roslin
Her secret battle against breast cancer will become both a medical and political problem. Billy will attempt to secretly arrange medical treatments, but this will become increasingly difficult given the tightening security arrangements. The drain on Laura both physically and emotionally will color her decisions. Fear of her secret getting out and undermining the fragile government will only encourage her to use tougher measures to crack down on security issues.
Saul Tigh
His battle against his personal demons will not go away. He will continue to drink in private, and he will be a highly functioning alcoholic, who is able to maintain his job and life. However, as pressures build, old habits will reassert themselves and Tigh will run into conflict with Adama, whose tolerance for his old friend's flaws will decrease as time goes on.
Lee Adama
His role as commander of Galactica's air group will continue to be his primary role, but he will find himself drawn into what is at first an ad hoc role as military advisor to President Roslin, and then a more formal position later on.
Kara Thrace
She will continue to test the boundaries of Tigh's patience and the outer limits of military protocol. However, Kara will always be willing to inject herself into dangerous situations and usually comes up with victory in hand.
Lee & Kara
Their friendship and attraction for one another will quickly find them waking up together after a stressful night that turned into something more. Each will be wracked with guilt and mixed feelings and they’ll avoid talking or dealing with what happened, and each in turn will be driven toward other, more unexpected, people.
Lee & Laura
His position as Laura's trusted advisor will bring him closer to her em
otionally than he is to his own father. She will let him in on her secret and he will make it his personal mission to find a way to treat her illness without anyone -- even his father -- finding out the truth. Perhaps most unexpected of all, Lee will develop a budding attraction for Laura on a personal level -- an unexpected quality of their close interaction and one that actually makes him a quasi-rival to his father, increasing rather than decreasing their conflicted relationship.
Kara & Baltar
Following her one night stand with Lee, Kara will begin to be attracted to the one man in the universe she is the least like and least likely to become attracted to -- Gaius Baltar. At first holding him in contempt as an arrogant intellectual she finds that the more she abuses him and punctures his ego, the more oddly attracted to her he seems to be, and slowly she finds herself beginning to feel the same way. Truly, they will become the oddest couple of all.
Gaius Baltar
His one great sin -- the betrayal of the colonies and the destruction of their entire civilization -- will color the rest of his life. Nothing is more important to Baltar than making sure no one can ever know what he did. This, in turn, will make him extremely vulnerable to any pressure from either Number Six or any other Cylon agent. Baltar will both be trying to help the Colonials ferret out the Cylons in their midst and at the same time be compelled to help the Cylons under threat of being exposed as a traitor. Baltar will walk the line -- or attempt to walk the line -- all season, always finding a way to protect himself whatever the circumstance. Baltar's greatest challenge will be to deal with the idea that perhaps, he too, is actually a Cylon agent.
Baltar & Number Six
Their relationship will be an extension of the one they formed on Caprica -- Six's driving need to find love in the heart of Mankind's ultimate cad and Baltar's need to avoid emotional commitment at all costs. Six will challenge and seduce him both intellectually and physically, even seeming to join in one heated night when Baltar and another woman find themselves in bed.
Chief Tyrol & Baltar
Tyrol will start to become suspicious of Baltar and his motivations. Eventually Tyrol will become Baltar's implacable foe, convinced that the scientist is in league with the Cylons and plotting his own takeover of the fleet. However, Tyrol will be hampered by the his own relative low-rank and his inability to get the goods on the man that is increasingly seen as one of the heroes of the rag-tag fleet.
Sharon Valerii
She will begin to experience odd lapses in memory. Strange moments of missing time during which she seemed to go places and do things she cannot recall later. Bit by bit Sharon will discover clues pointing to her true nature, but instead of pursuing them, she will fight against them on an intuitive level and instead will attempt to form a family with Chief Tyrol and Boxey, seeking out the one thing she can never be -- a maternal role in a human family.
Sharon & Tyrol
Their professional lives will be thrown into chaos as Tigh cracks down on their personal relationship, deeming it destructive to discipline and unit cohesion. At first, they will obey orders and stay away from each other, but their feelings for one another will slowly but surely bring them back together in greater secrecy. As Sharon begins to realize that there’s something not right with her, Tyrol will become even more protective of her and he'll be determined to get to the bottom of what's happening to Sharon without ever considering that he may not like the truth once he finds it.
THE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
History
One of the original twelve battlestars, Galactica was built by and represented the planet Caprica. She was put into service five years into the Cylon War and saw combat until the signing of the Armistice five years later. She was one of the most highly decorated ships in the Colonial fleet and participated in some of the most famous battles of the war. Of the original twelve battlestars, only Galactica and two other ships survived the Cylon War intact.
Upon the conclusion of hostilities, Galactica served in the Fleet for the next twenty years as one of the frontline warships guarding the peace. Gradually, newer warships were built and Galactica's role became less and less prominent in Fleet exercises. Eventually, Galactica's other two Sister ships were retired and sold for scrap, while Galactica herself was retained in the Fleet for reasons more ceremonial than practical. She was a famous ship and it was good p.r. for the Defense Ministry to keep her in service and in the public eye. As a result, Galactica made many port calls to the twelve colonies and was a familiar ship to the public.
However, the cost and maintenance required to keep Galactica in service began to outweigh the p.r. benefits and during a series of budget cuts it was decided to retire the ship and donate her as a museum vessel to the Department of Education.
Combat Operations
Galactica is essentially a space-going aircraft carrier. As such, her primary weapons are the fighter squadrons she carries and her sole purpose is to provide a mobile base for those fighters to operate from. She is also something of a battleship -- that is, a vessel designed to stand toe to toe with another large enemy ship. As seen in the final battle of the pilot, Galactica has heavy weapons at her disposal and is capable of taking on a Cylon basestar in direct combat.
However, it is the fighter squadrons aboard Galactica which provide the real punch. The fighters allow Galactica to strike at targets far beyond the range of her own weapons while keeping her safely out of range from enemy weapons.
The spacecraft aboard Galactica are organized by type. Fighters, like the Viper, are in their own squadrons, while recon/electronic/attack craft like the Raptor are in their own squadrons. There are presumably more types as well that we have not seen yet, such as tankers and cargo vessels that would also have their own squadrons.
There is no hierarchy among the squadrons themselves. That is to say that the fighters are not superior to the tankers or that a pilot flying a Viper is going to look down on a pilot flying a Raptor. All are equal and all require their own specialties and skills. Pilots from one squadron typically do not pine away to fly a different type, in fact, each pilot believes his or her craft to be special and probably better than any other craft out there.
All the squadrons aboard Galactica make up the Air Group, and the ranking pilot is the Commander Air Group or CAG. (Within the squadrons themselves, there are squadron leaders and flight leaders and then senior pilots and their respective wingmen.) The role of the CAG is to carry out Adama's orders for the employment of the Air Group. In simple terms, Adama tells the CAG what to do and the CAG figures out how to do it. If Adama wants to send out a recon mission to scout the surface of a planet, the CAG decides who flies the mission, what their flight path will be, how long the mission will last, etc. That is not to say that Adama has no say in the details; he will review and approve all plans, but he should decide on the strategic objectives, and delegate the tactical planning.
The type and number of craft sent out on any given mission should be tailored to the objective at hand. If the target is nearby, sending out a tanker to refuel the craft will be unnecessary. A strike mission against a well-defended enemy target will require Vipers whose sole purpose is to hit the target while other Vipers would fly escort to attack enemy fighters, and Raptors to jam enemy electronics and act as early warning craft. A strictly reconnaissance mission will require more Raptors and only a couple of Vipers for escort.
Launching and recovering spacecraft are extremely dangerous operations, and are the most likely places for non-combat fatalities to occur aboard ship. A Viper is a large machine filled with highly combustible fuel, enormously powerful engines, and carrying explosives. When in flight, a Viper is a thing of beauty, able to pirouette and maneuver in space without the drag and pull of an atmosphere.
But when trapped in the artificial gravity of Galactica's flight deck, a Viper is a heavy, awkward and cumbersome chunk of metal that has to be physically manhandled into its place on the deck and worked on without damaging the interior of Gal
actica or injuring any of the deck hands.
Flight Operations
Here's a typical sequence of events for a Viper on a routine mission flying CAP (Combat Air Patrol) around Galactica:
The deck gang fuels and arms Viper 289 on the Hangar Deck. While this is going on, the pilot -- let's say it's Starbuck – has a mission briefing in the Pilot Ready Room. Every flight has a mission briefing, there is no such thing as "routine."
Starbuck goes down to the Hangar Deck and does a visual inspection of her Viper, talks to the Chief in charge of this particular Viper and goes over any maintenance issues or problems. Then she climbs into the cockpit, the Chief and/or a Deck Hand helping to secure her in the seat and hands her the flight helmet.
Deck Hands then maneuver the Viper toward the Launch Tube. Once the Viper is in the tube, a klaxon sounds and the order "Clear the Tube" is given, signaling the Deck Hands to leave and secure the bulkhead hatches. The Viper is now under the control of the Launch Officer, who sits in a small booth where s/he oversees the launch of all spacecraft leaving Galactica. No spacecraft can be physically launching without this officer's direct action -- in other words, there can never be the moment when the "rogue" pilot decides to take off on their own accord.
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