Battlestar Galactica

Season 1

33

1. The pilots in the briefing room touch a picture of a man looking out at the destruction of his city. Although not explained in the episode that aired, the picture was introduced in a scene cut from the episode where it was presented to President Roslin (Mary McDonnell). It was supposed to have been taken on the roof of the capitol building in Aerilon City during the Cylon attack. Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore said that the picture was inspired by the famous picture of the fireman raising the American flag at the World Trade Center site in New York City following the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001.
2. Won 'Hugo Award' for Dramatic Presentation, Short Form at the World Science Fiction Convention (LACon IV) in Anaheim, August 26, 2006.
3. Sci-Fi Channel offered the entire episode #1.1, "33", uncut and commercial-free from its Web site, along with deleted scenes. It was taken down roughly a year later and replaced by the entire season finale episode #1.13 "Kobol's Last Gleaming", in anticipation of Season 2.
4. Won 'Hugo Award' for Dramatic Presentation, Short Form at the World Science Fiction Convention, Interaction, at Glasgow, UK (Scotland), in August 2005.

Water

1. In episodes #1.02, "Water" and #1.03 "Bastille Day", the Galactica crew needs to collect water from a frozen planet, a difficult job for which they seek to employ the services of prisoners traveling with the fleet. This bears a resemblance to episode #1.07 "Gun on Ice Planet Zero, part I" of the original Battlestar Galactica (1978) where several prisoners with arctic survival skills are brought in to help rescue a downed pilot and destroy the eponymous gun down on the ice planet.

Bastille Day

1. Tom Zarek is played by Richard Hatch, who played captain Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica (1978).
2. The character of Cally was supposed to be killed off in the original drafts of this script, but David Eick decided he wanted her to fight back during the rape scene rather than be killed off. Cally later became an important recurring character in the series.
3. When Boomer and Helo are walking through Cylon controlled Caprica and stumble upon the corpse being eaten by rats, they are actually walking in front of the Vancouver Public Library.

Act of Contrition

1. Starbuck splits her trainee pilots groups of two and tells them they're going to learn a maneuver called the "Thorch Weave". This is a reference to the "Thatch Weave", a two-plane defensive maneuver developed by U.S. Navy pilots during World War II.
2. The opening bit in "Act of Contrition" where a drone accidentally breaks loose from a storage rack and spontaneously ignites is based on a real incident aboard the USS Forrestal where a missile accidentally ignited and hit several planes on the flight deck. The cadence-like chant the pilots were singing was a rewritten version of a chant sung by A-10 Thunderbolt pilots.
3. One of the paperback books Boomer knocks off the shelf when finding the bomb shelter in the restaurant is "The Warbirds" by Richard Herman, Jr., which revolves around a dwindling US Air Force fighter wing single-handedly fighting a small-scale conflict.
4. The red paint Apollo knocks overs forshadows the blood that will be spilled in this episode.

You Can't Go Home Again

1. Helo uses a toaster to make breakfast in Caprica, just before he's attacked by the Cylons. "Toaster" is a scornful word the Colonialists use to refer to the Cylons.
2. The story is a homage to Galactica 1980: The Return of Starbuck (1980), in which Starbuck from the original series is shot down on a desert planet and has to rely on a Cylon centurion he reactivated to help him survive. In this episode, Starbuck must reactivate a Cylon raider to fly off the moon and back to the Galactica in order to survive.
3. Bodie Olmos, son of Edward James Olmos (Adama), appears in several episodes as Brendan 'Hotdog' Constanza, and shares one brief scene with his father in episode #1.5 "You Can't Go Home Again"
4. In the original series episode Battlestar Galactica: The Hand of God (1979), Starbuck and Apollo used the "waggling wings" maneuver to identify their Cylon Raider as they approached Galactica in order to not be shot down. The same maneuver was used between Starbuck's Raider and Apollo's Viper once the colonials realized it was Kara flying the Cylon fighter.

Litmus

1. When Commander Adama picks up his reading glasses, he does so from atop a Reader's Digest Condensed Book copy of "A Walk In The Park".
2. Chief Tyrol invokes the twenty-third Article to avoid testifying against himself during the tribunal. The twenty-third Article is the Galactica equivalent of the rights protected by the self-incrimination clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 5 is the sum of digits of 23.

Six Degrees of Separation

1. Baltar whistles part of the "Top Gun (1986) Anthem" during the scene where he is speaking with Gaeta from within a bathroom stall.

Flesh and Bone

1. The long, entangled relationship between Kara Thrace and Leoben Conoy begins here, in a standoff, as Kara and Leoben sit opposite each other. Leoben says: 'a part of me swims in this stream...the current never takes me down stream.' This phrase, and more of what it (can) mean is in the 4th season episode, entitled 'Islanded In A Stream Of Stars.'
2. It is in this episode (as it is also done in another early episode) that the character of Number Two is named 'Leoben ConROY,' NOT "ConOY' (by President Roslyn, when she's looking over Leoben's dossier). As there are few points in the series where the model's full name is ever mentioned, and a subsequent typo that he's referred to as 'Conoy.'
3. When the airlock is about to open and flush Leoben out of it, a brief image of a dark forest surrounds Leoben. This is a glimpse into what is later found out about Cylons; they can project their consciousness into any environment they choose.

Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down

1. When Gaius in his laboratory and Six appears to him, we can hear the song "Battlestar Operatica", which is a humorous opera-like song. The lyrics, which are sung in Italian, like most operas, reference Baltar's relationship with the Cylons and specially Number 6, and they say things like "Your Cylon heart is cursed" and "Your girlfriend is a toaster".
2. This episode was originally called "Secrets and Lies" and was a dark story, but since the previous episode was really dramatic, the producers decide to change it into a comedy.
3. In the miniseries, Col. Tigh ('Michael Hogan') is seen burning a picture of his wife which, in reality, is a picture of executive producer David Eick's wife. However, this scene had to be re-shot for the series when Kate Vernon was cast as Tigh's wife.

The Hand of God

1. The story for episode #1.10, "The Hand of God", is a loose remake of the basic plot of an episode from the Original Series, which was also named "The Hand of God".

Colonial Day

1. Roslin tells Zarek, "Don't worry, I won't kiss you," to which Zarek responds, "That's too bad, I shaved extra close this morning just so you could smack me." This exchange is an almost word-for-word quote of a famous exchange between George C. Scott and 'Michael Bates' in Patton (1970).
2. In the struggle on the floor of the bar, a beer bottle with the label "Hawryliw" is used by Lee to defend himself. 'Ken Hawryliw' is the property master for the production.

Kobol's Last Gleaming: Part 1

Kobol's Last Gleaming: Part 2

1. Part of the score for this episode includes Latin lyrics which translate to, "All of this has happened before / All of this will happen again," and, "So say we all."
2. Went through a number of changes according to the Podcast commentary. Some of these early differences include: 1. Part One was to conclude with the Raptor crashing and Part Two would end with Starbuck stealing the Raider to finish the finale with a season-ending cliffhanger. This was changed when the original pacing wasn't working. 2. Originally, the ruins on Kobol were supposed to be a huge temple that was mirrored on Caprica. This was abandoned due to cost constraints. 3. What Baltar and Number Six experienced inside the ruins on Kobol went through a number of changes. Originally, Ron D. Moore proposed to the other writers that there was supposed to be a bright corridor of light. In a later version, there was to be complete darkness punctuated with music from a song recognizable by both the audience and the two explorers. Then, Dirk Benedict (Starbuck from the original "Battlestar Galactica" (1978)) was supposed appear and say something like, "Hi. I'm God." followed by TO BE CONTINUED... However, the other writers quickly disparaged the idea as implausible, and Ron D. Moore reluctantly agreed. 4. One concept that the writers liked, but were forced to abandon was the idea that the interior room of the ruins was to be located in "otherspace" or in a different spatial or dimensional location.
3. The interior location of the Opera House is the Orpheum Theater in Vancouver, BC. This is a popular filming location. The location was used in an episode of the X-Files, (Season one, "Lazarus") among other television series and films.