When the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series was cancelled, it abandoned a number of unshot scripts, some of which failed to make it to the first season due to logistics problems and some that were intended for the expected second season. Two scripts, “The Beta Pirates” and “Crossfire”, were written even before a final shooting script for the series pilot, “Saga of a Star World” was locked down. Apollo is still called “Skyler” in these scripts, his name changed to appease George Lucas, in case people got confused with Luke Skywalker (!). Athena also has a larger role in these scripts. She is primarily a Viper pilot and secondly an expert in systems analysis.
The Ovions also make a couple of appearances. Intended to play a much bigger part in the series, they were relegated to guest creature of the week status in Saga, due to Glen A. Larson being unhappy with their design.
Michael Sloan was given credit in the broadcast episode of “Fire in Space” even though the writers never actually read his script! Information from the unshot script notes make this situation more clear.
Finally, “Two for Twilly” was almost shot, casting auditions having taken place, with Jamie Lee Curtis up for the part of one of Twilly’s wives; but differences with ABC scuppered this one. Maybe it was the bigamy plot. One can imagine standards and practices going apoplectic over that one!
The Beta Pirates
Written by Leslie Stevens (revision date: Oct. 31, 1977, two-hour script).
As the fleet enters an area of space called the Beta Triangle it is hit by a wave of force that results in the Gemini Freighter spinning out of control, away from the fleet.
Commander Adam orders Starbuck and Athena to take a salvage ship and retrieve the freighter. As the pair set off, they are unaware of a couple of adventure-seeking stowaways – Boxey and Muffey!
Meanwhile, Baltar is brought before the Imperious Leader and commanded to find the Colonial fleet or die.
Starbuck and Athena discover their stowaways but rendezvous with the freighter anyway, just as space pirates board it! In a pitched battle, the pirates kidnap Athena, Boxey and Muffey and Starbuck is left to die on the rapidly breaking up freighter, but Captain Skyler and Sgt. Boomer who have come after their fellow Colonials when contact with the salvage ship was lost save him.
In their fighter-bomber, Skyler, Starbuck and Boomer pick up a distress signal from an escape pod, assuming the signal is from Athena they intercept it, but instead of Athena they find a merchant named Aleph who says the pirates stole his ship the Bluestreak and that they are holding Athena and Boxey captive.
The warriors and Aleph return to the Galactica where the man tells them he can guide the fleet through the Beta Triangle but he needs his star charts that are on his stolen ship that is probably heading for a planet called Cordugo Pit to sell their captives as slaves.
The Galacticans head for the planet unaware that the Cylons are also on their way to it, thinking that the fleet will stop there to refuel. On landing, the warriors find that anything is for sale on the world, and insectoid aliens called Ovions run it. The team locate the Bluestreak and surprise the pirates, one of which calls Aleph “Captain”, Aleph silences the man quickly, as he is in reality the pirates’ leader!
Skyler and Starbuck find Athena and Boxey’s whereabouts after questioning the pirates, who have sold them to a slave auctioneer at a place called the Pleasure Dome. Skyler and Starbuck arrive to find the captives on the auction block and they try to buy them back but are outbid by an alien named Voyar, who is the owner of the Pleasure Dome. Before the pair can take any action though, a couple of Cylons arrive on the scene!
Skyler, Starbuck and Aleph infiltrate Voyar’s palace, finding Athena and Boxey, they have to fight their way to the docking bay where their ship is, but Boxey rumbles Aleph as Xenon, the pirates’ leader! The boy convinces the man that he should be doing everything to help his fellow humans.
During the fight however, one of Voyar’s men captures Athena and threatens to kill her if Skyler doesn’t reveal the fleet’s location, having no choice, he tells. Starbuck, Skyler and Aleph are imprisoned while Athena, Boxey and Muffey are free to roam the palace and its grounds, which is a big mistake on Voyar’s part as they later break out the three prisoners!
Heading for the docking bay, the escapees meet the space pirates, but Aleph convinces them to help the Galacticans. As the pirates bomb the streets of Cordugo Pit in a diversionary tactic, everyone else takes off in the Bluestreak. As the ship leaves the planet’s atmosphere it is attacked by Baltar’s basestar but the warriors manage to evade the ship by luring it into the gravity well of a black hole! Baltar manages to escape though in an escape pod.
The Galacticans return to the fleet where Aleph joins the ship’s crew.
Crossfire
Written by John Ireland Jr. (first draft, dated: Dec. 8, 1977).
[This is a very early version of The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, parts one and two]
While Starbuck is leading a flight of cadets through a system, an unmanned Galactica probe as encountered an asteroid with a huge laser cannon atop a mountain on the asteroid’s surface. The cannon destroys the probe and cadet Terry Cree finds himself downed on the asteroid when he disobeys orders to return to the Galactica. Cree is then captured by a Cylon patrol.
The Council of Twelve urges Adama to turn the fleet around and head away from the asteroid, but he cannot, as the ship’s scanners reveal a fleet of baseships pursuing them. The fleet has no choice but to continue its present course that will take it into the cannon’s range!
Skyler and Starbuck lead a twelve-man force to assault the mountain from its east and west sides and take out the laser cannon. After splitting up, Starbuck’s team happens upon a village populated by a race of humanoid immortals called the Nari.
The Nari say a human research scientist who was investigating ways of retarding ageing created them thousands of years ago. One of the Nari shows Starbuck a book that describes their creation but Starbuck cannot read the language it is written in, and neither can the Nari as their creator died before she could teach them the language. Later, Starbuck is shown a room full of copies of Earth paintings (we would recognise them as the works of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Warhol etc).
Back on the Galactica, Adama contacts Skyler’s team with a change of orders; instead of destroying the cannon they are now to capture it. Skyler’s force enters the Cylons’ base and manages to free the captured cadet Cree; while out in space the rag tag fleet moves closer to the cannon’s range.
Skyler and Starbuck rendezvous at the Cylon base and manage to capture several Cylons. Putting on the Cylons’ armor, they manage to infiltrate the cannon’s control centre and capture it. As the Cylon basestars closes in on the Galactica and her fleet, the warriors aim the weapon at their pursuers, wiping them out.
Fire in Space
Written by Michael Sloan (first draft, dated; June 22, 1978, two-hour script).
In a bar on the planet Adelphos, Apollo, Starbuck and Boomer are heavily disguised as non-humans in an attempt to gather information on Cylon movements.
Entering into a card game with an Ovion dealer, a reptilian gambler reveals that the Cylons have indeed been in the area and are preparing to launch a plan called the Delta Factor. A fight breaks out when one of the aliens in the card game accuses Starbuck of cheating, to add further to the Galacticans’ misery a Cylon patrol enters the bar and Starbuck is revealed to be a human being when his disguise comes off in the fight.
A shoot out ensues between the warriors, the Cylons and the bar’s patrons, but the warriors manage to make their escape but not before Boomer is wounded, Starbuck manages to take with him a slave girl called Helatia he found chained up in the bar!
On returning to the Galactica, Apollo and Starbuck report all they have learned to Adama while Boomer and Helatia are taken to the life centre. With the information at hand Adama alters the course of the fleet but no one is any the wiser to what the Cylons’ Delta Factor plan is.
Back home, Starbuck becomes embroiled in a murder trial when he is accused of killing the husband of woman called Rachel, who he has been involved with, and what’s worse Boxey maybe the only witness to the murder that was really perpetrated by Councilman Callon, who had feud back on the Colonies with the dead man.
While all this is going on, a Cylon attack takes place, their enemy finding the fleet even though they changed course. Could this be the Delta Factor at work?
Apollo finds out that the girl Helatia that they rescued back on Adelphos, has had a tiny transmitter placed in her brain that broadcasts a signal back to the Cylons. Apollo orders the device to be removed from the poor girl.
As the Cylons attack, one of their ships crashes into the bridge and Adama is badly wounded.
Adama is taken to the life centre and the doctor informs Apollo that Adama must be operated on if he is to survive, the catch being the supplies needed to save the Commander’s life are in a storage area cut off by the fire that now rages onboard the battlestar after the devastating initial attack.
Apollo must battle the fire to get to the supplies while Starbuck, who had been grounded during the murder trial, takes flight in a Viper loaded with foam in an attempt to put out the fire from outside the ship, all the while having to dodge the still attacking Cylon fighters!
The crazy plan works, the fire is extinguished and Apollo and his crew secure the medical supplies and Adama’s life is saved.
After the danger has passed, Apollo returns to his quarters only to find Councilman Callon attempting to get rid of Boxey, the only witness to the murder Starbuck is accused of, by setting fire to the place.
Apollo struggles with the man eventually knocking him out. Boxey confesses that he wanted to tell Apollo that it was Callon all along who was the murderer, but was afraid.
After Starbuck, Boomer and the rest of the Galactica’s squadrons land back on the ship after their fierce battle driving back the Cylons, Apollo informs Starbuck that he is a free man and that Adama is in recovery.
Showdown
Written by Frank Abatemarco (revision date: Aug. 15, 1978).
A Galactican shuttle containing Apollo, Starbuck, Bommer, Athena, Dietra and Boxey and Muffey are heading for an asteroid called Croy which lies ahead of the fleet. As they near their destination, the shuttle’s engines fail and Starbuck barely lands it in one piece.
The Galactica has monitored the shuttle’s plight and Col. Tigh orders those responsible for maintaining the shuttle to his quarters. Specialists Andor, Bule and Masi are confined them to quarters, except during duty assignments while an investigation is conducted.
On the asteroid, the Galacticans discover an ancient spacecraft with the word “Thorus” in Kobollian on it. One entering the ship, the crew finds symbols that are nearly the same as the ones used back on the Colonies. The ship, it is speculated, could even be from Earth!
Back on the Galactica, the three specialists ignore Tigh’s orders and go to the officer’s club. After an altercation with Omega and Rigel, the trio head off in a shuttle for the asteroid, but not without first jamming the ship’s launch tubes leaving the Galactica defenceless!
The three fugitives upon landing on the asteroid, discover a town that is Romanesque in appearance as are its citizens, who are dressed in togas and tabards. The three attract the attentions of a couple of local girls when they ride through the town on their landprobes, disrupting its tranquility. While the girls are fascinated by the men’s behaviour, a town elder named Selmar is not, he asks the men to leave or they will find themselves in prison. Bule promptly levels the prison with his blaster!
Meanwhile, the shuttle crew finally discover the town and its inhabitants, who are trying to put out a fire started by the three renegade specialists. The crew put out the fire and then are told to leave by Selmar.
In space the Cylons have once again discovered the fleet, but the Galactica can’t launch her Vipers due to the sabotage caused by the renegades. Contacting the shuttle crew, the Galactica informs Apollo of their plight. He, Starbuck and Boomer go in search of Andor, Masi and Bule, as they are the only ones who can fix the launch tubes. The rest of shuttle crew head back to the Galactica
The warriors find the specialists holed up at Selmar’s place and plead with them to come back with them and repair the damage they have done. The specialists refuse and end up trying to run the three warriors down, but they come a cropper when they are knocked off their landprobes by a thin strand of wire stretched across a street!
After having the felgercarb beaten out of them, they all shuttle back to the Galactica and Masi repairs the damage to the launch tubes. The vipers launch and repel the Cylon attack.
The Mutiny
Written by Guy Magar (revision date: Oct. 2, 1978).
When the Council of the Twelve votes to end the fleet’s journey to Earth and settle on the planet Zarta, Adama, Apollo, Col. Tigh and a skeleton crew are left to run the Galactica as all the fleets population have made their way to the planet’s surface..
Meanwhile, Baltar’s baseship picks up the fleet’s trail and he becomes curious about why the fleet has stopped on Zarta and orders that the planet be monitored
On Zarta, the people of the fleet begin to build small cities but trouble arises when the Taurans choose to build their city away from the other tribes, trouble that escalates when food supplies go missing leading to friends becoming enemies.
When a pack of wild daggits raids the Galacticans’ camp, Starbuck’s skill with the blaster is the only thing that stops Boxey becoming Daggit food! As the warriors chase off the daggits, they glimpse a “wild man” running with the pack. Pursuing the man, Starbuck and Boomer come upon an old deserted town littered with human skeletons and rusted Cylons. As the pair explore, the daggit pack attacks again, and the warriors have no choice but to kill all the beasts. Stopping short of killing the daggits’ master, the wild man, who appears to be wearing a golden amulet with the sign of the Lords of Kobol engraved upon it.
Above the planet, the Cylon forces commanded by Baltar, attack the helpless Galactica. Baltar demands Adama surrender, and realising that he has no choice; he pilots a viper to Baltar’s baseship to surrender.
Back on the planet Zarta, the Taurans are on the verge of violence with the rest of the Colonials but their attention is diverted when Starbuck and Boomer arrive with the wild man. They play a videocassette that the wild man had that was made by his father. The old man on the tape tells of a portion of the thirteenth tribe that abandoned the journey to Earth and settled on the planet. Their civilisation was short-lived, however as dissent, selfishness, and greed became widespread until the settlers were too weak to repel Cylon attacks and were destroyed. The old man gave the amulet to his son, Bengun (the wild man) to warn others to continue the journey to Earth.
Meanwhile, as Adama’s viper approaches Baltar’s baseship it begins to attack it! Adama is clearly outgunned and has no chance of survival, but before his viper is destroyed, all of the Galactica’s vipers arrive in a blistering counterattack! The surprised Cylons turn tail and run.
After hearing Bengun’s story, the people of the fleet abandon Zarta and recommence their long journey across the stars. Adama summons Bengun to his quarters and asks him to join the fleet.
I Have Seen Earth
Written by Steve Kreinberg and Andy Guerdat Earth (revision date: Nov. 11, 1978).
When Apollo, Starbuck and Athena save Jaspar, an old man in his sixties who is accompanied by Nugget, a feathered Simian, and their ship the Golden Queen from a Cylon attack, the pair finds themselves enjoying the hospitality of the Battlestar Galactica.
On the Galactica, Jaspar is curiously vague about his planet of origin, saying only that he is a prospector and has been just about everywhere. Boxey becomes attached to the strange old man, and when he tells him that they are searching for the planet Earth, he becomes intrigued.
Meanwhile, on the planet Opelon, Baltar is supervising a mining operation when a Centurion reports that Jaspar has escaped them due to Colonial intervention. Baltar is livid when he hears the news, as he is sure that Jaspar will alert the fleet of the Cylons’ presence in the area.
Back on the Galactica, Adama questions Jaspar, the man gives nothing away, but mentions he has visited several planets in his lifetime, on of them being Earth! Adama is astounded and asks Jaspar to lead them to Earth, but the man states that he isn’t going back there but will lead the fleet to the planet Opelon, which is inhabited by Earth settlers. Although he doesn’t trust the man, Adama has no choice but to follow Jaspar to Opelon.
Baltar can’t believe his luk when the fleet arrives at Opelon. Jaspar cons Rigel into granting him clearance to launch his ship, but the old man isn’t aware that Boxey, who has become attached to him, and Muffey have stowed away. When Jaspar’s ship lands back on Opelon, the old man and Nugget escape from a Cylon patrol, but Boxey is captured. Back at the Galactica, they discover that Jaspar and Boxey are missing. Knowing of Boxey’s habit of stowing away, Apollo and Starbuck immediately head down to the planet to find him.
Boxey is brought before Baltar and makes a spirited attempt at resisting imprisonment. Having landed on the planet, Starbuck and Apollo locate Jaspar in the Cylon mine, he had returned to get his gold mine back, which had been stolen by the Cylons.
Onboard the Galactica, a baseship is detected entering the system.
Baltar is furious at the arrival of the other ship has it has ruined the element of surprise that he was counting on to destroy the rag tag fleet. Baltar contacts the Galactica and threatens to kill Boxey unless Adama helps him overthrow the Cylon Empire! Adama refuses, and sadly heads the fleet back into deep space away from his son, grandson and Starbuck.
Meanwhile, the baseship, which is commanded by the Imperious Leader, prepares to launch an attack on the Galactica, but Baltar refuses to allow anyone else to destroy the Galactica, so he orders the forces on Opelon to abandon the planet and attack the fleet.
Back on Opelon, Apollo, Starbuck and Jaspar rescue Boxey and Muffit. Jaspar then gives Boxey a gold medallion and begs his forgiveness. The old man stays behind to blow up the mine while Apollo, Starbuck, Boxey and Muffit escape in a Cylon fighter. They fly straight at Baltar’s baseship and knock out its launch bays; crippling her fighting capability. Both baseships withdraw from the battle.
On the Galactica, as Adama tucks Boxey into bed, the boy tries to show him the medallion Jaspar gave him, but Adama says that he’s heard enough about Jaspar! On the medallion is the planet Earth, right down to its seven continents.
Two for Twilly
Written by Jim Carlson & Terrence McDonnell (revision date: Dec. 22. 1978).
Adama and Tigh hatch a desperate plam that will slingshot the fleet from the gravity of a maga-star, but their plan is hindered by one of the the agro-ships not having a vital component to proceed with the plan.
Apollo and Starbuck shuttle over to the agro-ship with the component, to be fitted by a man on the ship named Twilly, who the pair was at the academy with. Accompanying the warriors is Twilly’s wife Zeena, who is transferring over to be nearer her husband.
Onboard the agro-ship, Apollo, Starbuck and Zeena discover that Twilly actually married to another woman as well – Gayala! Twilly’s jaw drops when Zeena arrives, and he engages his old friends from the academy to sort out his tangled lovelife. Twilly does put aside his personal problems long enough to install the component.
The two wives eventually meet each other, despite attempts to prevent it. Gayla goes mad and tries to shoot Twilly with Apollo’s blaster, but misses and damages the agro-ship’s stabilizer, plunging the ship on a course for the mega-star!
Boomer and Sheba shuttle over to the agro-ship a spare stabilizer, and are about to land when Twilly tells them that if they do, they will upset the ship’s stability even more. Apollo comes up with a plan to secure the shuttle to the hull of the agro-ship and right it by installing the stabilizer in the shuttle, but Twilly is a mess because of the mess he has made of his life. Starbuck and Apollo persuade the two women to forgive Twilly, and he collects himself and installs the stabilizer in the shuttle. On activation, the agro ship gets back on course and catches up with the fleet.
Twilly must now decide which woman he wants to stay married to, but both Zeena and Gayla never want to see him again and Adama divorces him from them. The dejected man then radios the Rising Star and speaks with Vella – his third wife!
* This article was made possible by referencing material from the book, Galactic Sci-Fi TV Series Revisited, edited by William E. Anchors Jr. and through collaboration with Susan J. Paxton.
– written by Peter Noble