Battlestar Galactica (2005 Novel)

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Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica
A book of the Re-imagined Series line
Book No. 1
Author(s) Jeffrey A. Carver
Adaptation of
No. of Pages {{{pages}}}
Published December 27, 2005
ISBN 0765315416
Chronology
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None Battlestar Galactica The Cylons' Secret
Paperback Version
Available at Amazon.com – Purchase
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Audiobook Version
Available at iTunes – Purchase


Overview

This novelization of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries was published by Tor Books on December 27, 2005. Content and page numbers are from the trade paperback edition (ISBN=0765315416 ), First Edition: January 2006.

The book, written by science fiction author Jeffrey A. Carver, includes a few background elements not shown in the aired Miniseries, and incorporates some deleted scenes. Since the information in the Miniseries article (Overview, Summary, etc) covers the novelization, the focus of this article is a comparsion of the two very similar versions of the same story.

Notes

Additions to the novelization

  • Colonel Wakefield: The name given to the first human, the Armistice Officer, that viewers see in the Miniseries[1]. He meets a unexpected arrival of a Cylon "diplomatic group"--and his death--on the Armistice Station. This also suggests that his son, Boxey, shares his father's last name.
  • The light emitted by the illuminated spine of an aroused humanoid Cylon is explained as being mostly infrared, with a small amount of gamma radiation, and nearly invisible to the human eye[5]
  • In normal operations, Galactica carries as many as fifty fighter, recon, and other spacecraft. At the time of the decommissioning ceremony, Galactica is carrying fewer[6].
  • Carver assigns first names to the three members of Deck Crew 5; "Jane Cally", "Brad Socinus", "Leonard Prosna".[7] When asked why he named Cally as "Jane", Carver said "she just looks like a Jane" [citation needed] In the series, it is shown that Cally's full name is Callandra Henderson.
  • The meeting that Caprica-Six has with an unknown individual (immediately following her discussion with Gaius Baltar about the CNP status and her motives for assisting him on the project) has extra dialogue. The unknown individual she meets after Baltar leaves says, "It is indeed (about time). The time has almost come." Caprica-Six replies, "All right, then. I'd like to be with him." The unknown individual says, "Of course. There is much for him to do yet. And one way or another, you will always be with him"[8]. The area in which both these conversations happen is named the "Government Center Plaza."[9]. This last sentence alludes to Baltar's Virtual Six, of which the Cylons have no knowledge in the series.
  • At the decommissioning ceremony, there is a enormous video projection screen at one end of the landing bay that give the illusion of an open window to space. The screen displays the approaching Vipers participating in the flyby to the audience[11].
  • The book that Commander Adama is reading when he receives word that the Cylon attack is underway is named "A Time of Changes: Five Colonial Presidents Before The War", a history book about a series of leaders of Caprica before the Cylon War. In Ron Moore's blog during Season 1, he stated that a unified government encompassing all Twelve Colonies was only formed in response to the outbreak of the Cylon War (Carver cleary thought that there was a local President of Caprica itself before this, but the Caprica pilot has since established that Caprica had a Prime Minister before the Cylon War)[13].
  • It is specifically said that there are a few Viper Mark VII's remaining on Galactica, but they are in need of heavy maintenance at the time of the initial Cylon Attack and not in working condition (they are presumably fixed in time for the final battle at Ragnar, where several Viper Mark VII's are seen on screen)[14].
  • Carver made it a point in interviews that he rewrote it that the Viper Mark IIs in the museum have had their reactor cores pulled and that they're in storage, although Tyrol is able to reinsert them fairly easily, as he didn't think it was safe to leave them in a museum like that (even though the Miniseries states that they have "rad buffers" inserted in them to make them nonfunctional)[15].
  • New dialogue is added in which Starbuck says that Galactica has almost no ordnance because it was unloaded at "Rhapsody Station", but they have enough for the Viper Mark IIs (though not the main batteries of Galactica) because they were supposed to dump off some extra ammo at a base on Caprica. A deleted scene from the Miniseries actually shows that the ordnance of Galactica wasn't dropped off anywhere, but released into space and remotely detonated[15].
  • Carver assigns names to mentioned-only Viper pilots over the com link such as "Scott" and "Erin."[16].
  • The description of the cockpit of Colonial Heavy 798 includes an instrument monitoring Lorey-field gravity[17]. Half a dozen times throughout the novelization, Carver refers to the artificial gravity technology used by the Colonials as "Lorey-field gravity".
  • The author devises how Gaius Baltar survives the nuclear explosion that strikes his home. Caprica-Six shoves him to the floor and throws her body over his. Despite her sacrifice, Baltar is still tossed across the room, but he is more or less unharmed. The home is not completely destroyed and he is able take a jacket and a briefcase containing incriminating evidence he had given Caprica-Six from the remains of the home. Baltar even points out to himself that his house must be over 30 kilometers away from Caprica City, and not was "not really so close" to the blast[20]. This makes sense as, in the Miniseries, Caprica-Six orders Baltar to get down and apparently protects him from the blast. Although not clearly shown, it is clear that she uses her body to shield him somehow (in the novel her neck is broken and there is a lot of damage from the flying debris).
  • Carver gives the nameless copilot of Colonial One the name "Eduardo".[22].
  • The cargo bay of Colonial One is described as "like the lower deck of a seagoing ferry." This is most likely an in-joke: the scenes for Colonial One's cargo bay were actually filmed on the car deck of a BC Ferries V Class car and passenger ferry[23].
  • Pilots are given more throwaway names, "Choker", "Shooter", "Keyhole", "Wedlock", and "Karen". A "Viper Mark IV" is mentioned as being among the Vipers that Galactica launches (this might just be a misprint, as it is not emphasized that it is a different model)[24].
  • It is implied that Cally and Prosna were a couple[25].
  • More detail is given about the mining accident that destroyed Troy: Boomer recalls that a mining accident cracked the dome which was protecting the 200,000 inhabitants from the planet's toxic atmosphere; Boomer only survived because she was en route to Caprica at the time for her admissions interview at Colonial Academy[27]. This contradicts Boomer's statements in the Miniseries that Troy was destroyed when she was a little girl, and actually contradicts the beginning of the same paragraph on this page when Boomer says her parents died when she was little. However, in "Downloaded" she says that her mother gave her present before she left for the Academy. Of course, Boomer was never a real person and her family was never real.
  • The entire procedure of retracting the flight pods takes ten minutes and forty-three seconds.[28].
  • It is said that the planet Ragnar is in the same solar system as the Twelve Colonies[29].
  • New dialogue is added of Baltar confirming to Roslin that a planet-wide "nuclear winter" is setting in on Caprica (and the other Colonies), rendering them uninhabitable[30].
  • When Boomer finds a ship named "Tauranian", on-air it was only said that it would help the "thirsty" other ships in the Fleet, but here it is elaborated that it is a tylium refinery ship, and would sate the other ships' "thirst" for fuel, etc.[31].
  • Laura Roslin says that the population of the Twelve Colonies at the time of the Cylon Attack was 23 billion. An early draft of the Miniseries script had a line which was cut from the final version, which said the population was 12 billion. A line from Saul Tigh in the webisode, Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance supports the 20 billion mark.[32].
  • The abandonment of the Botanical Cruiser and the non-FTL ships is shown from Cami's perspective (not that she dies; she just notices the other ships leaving). Her doll's name is "Jeannie"[33].
  • Dualla is described as having "olive-toned" skin[35], though usually in print this description is used for a "Mediterranean" complexion. Carver said that he actually struggled mightily to convey the ethnicity of certain characters without resorting to Earth-specific terms which do not apply because the Twelve Colonies are not in contact with or descended from Earth. For example, at various times, Boomer is referred to as "Asian", or "Oriental", references meaningless in the Colonies. Sometimes he resorts to descriptive writing such as saying that she has epicanthal folds around her eyes.
  • A new scene is added of Commander Adama struggling to walk back from his fight with Leoben Conoy to the other Galactica crewmen at the entrance to Ragnar station, and being found just as he collapses[36].
  • A new scene is added where Billy Keikeya gives Roslin advice. Roslin recalls that she let the government personnel office pick Keikeya and thus hadn't met with him in person before he was hired, and that Keikeya won a "Siltzer Prize for writing a paper on Diplomacy and Leadership Models"[37].
  • Baltar recalls that he was actually given hair and skin samples from various people and briefly tested them. As spectrographic analysis yielded no results, he simply chose to lie about them. In the Miniseries it is somewhat implied that he didn't even perform such preliminary tests[38].
  • Brief new dialogue is added between Adama and Tigh, agreeing that Roslin is the lawful president and they should follow her orders[39].
  • Doral says that he is from "Moasis": on the Miniseries DVD, the subtitles for "Oasis" were incorrectly transcribed as "Moasis" (it's really just that "from" ends with an "m" and slurs into "oasis")[40].
  • The Red Line is defined as the distance beyond which jump calculations are too uncertain, too risky for a single FTL jump[41]. This definition is also given in the original draft of the Miniseries (and actually later confirmed as correct).
  • Gaeta announces that 43 Vipers have returned aboard, not including the two that Apollo and Starbuck return in[42]. In "Act of Contrition," Apollo states that Galactica has 40 Vipers left: Apollo and Starbuck's Vipers were probably totaled, and the extra three could have been just scrapped for parts. However, "33" Apollo's Viper, 7242 is explicitly shown to be under repair and appears several times throughout the series, which would mean more of the other Vipers were scrapped.
  • Carver makes referrence to the FX gaffe that when Galactica jumps away to Ragnar, its flight pods are still extended. Ron Moore acknowledged in his blog that this is an error. In the book, Adama says that they're running out of time and have no choice but to take the risky move of jumping with the flight pods extended[43].
  • It is stated that Elosha's service for the dead is broadcast via live video feed throughout the entire Fleet. In the regular series (specifically with the first episode in the scene with Socinus, Dualla and the Memorial hallway), it seems to have been established that the Fleet doesn't have the resources for this, and are limited to audio-only wireless broadcasts[44].
  • Dialogue is added to Baltar's final scene with Number Six, with her telling him that he is important and has a mission (God's plan, etc.)[45].
  • Aaron Doral is a "sleeper" agent who doesn't realize that he is a Cylon until he is rescued from Ragnar Anchorage by the Cylons and sees another Aaron Doral model[46]. He thinks of himself as "a public relations man"[47]. Additional information about him is presented.
  • According to the novel, Apollo hasn't been on a battlestar for years, but last served on the (brand new at the time) battlestar Atlantia. The novel says that Atlantia is actually one of the original battlestars, but unlike Galactica it was given extensive refits over time to keep it on par with other current battlestars, but it was still not completely new. On his blog, Ron Moore indicates that Apollo has never served on a battlestar, but from various planetary bases.
  • The water outside Baltar's house is called "King's Bay Inlet".
  • The Cylon Attack occurs during springtime on Caprica.
  • Tigh has known Adama for over 40 years and served with him in the Cylon War. In the television series, "Scattered" and "Revelations" establish that Tigh first met Adama about 28 years before the Fall, or 12 years after the Cylon War ended, and never served on the same ship as him until his tour on the battlestar Valkyrie (Hero).
  • At times in the novel, Keikeya and others refer to Laura Roslin as "Dr. Roslin" instead of "Secretary Roslin".
  • The dialogue between Baltar and Number Six when she reveals the nature of the new humanoid Cylons, just before a nuclear explosion shatters the windows of Baltar's house, has been changed to clarify what Number Six says: here she specifically says that there are "twelve human-type models", to avoid confusion that Raiders or Centurions might be included in the count.

Included deleted scenes from the Miniseries

Scenes not in the novelization

  • After Lt. Gaeta's and Commander Adama's discussion about the Armistice Officer, Lt. Gaeta leaves CIC where he passes and salutes Colonel Tigh who is slouching over and holding on to a railing with a cup in his hand.

Errors in the novelizations

  • Commander Adama's callsign is stenciled on his old Viper Mark II as "HUSHER"[50].
    • Carver has admitted that this was a mistake, due to his misinterpreting the font style's K for an H. As such, this is corrected in the 2006 mass market edition. [citation needed]
  • Starbuck refers to Boomer as a "crook" not a "rook", Carver probably misheard the line[51]
  • Gemenon is spelled as the non-standard "Geminon".
  • Aaron Doral says that the radiation from Ragnar affects their Cylon "neural relays", when in the Miniseries he actually said "silica relays"[52].
  • The dialogue between the humanoid Cylon models on Ragnar Anchorage is added as well. After a Leoben says it might take decades to find the fleeing humans, Boomer says "Don't worry, we'll find them...and it won't take nearly that long". Number Six also says they must find the humans because "The Mission, the Project, require it": this was probably Carver alluding to the human/Cylon hybridization project which began to be revealed by mid-late season 1 when he was writing the novelization. In interviews Ron Moore has actually confirmed that the Cylons are actively trying to outright destroy Galactica and the refugee fleet, and have no great need to capture them for their hybridization experiments, as they already have enough captured humans on the occupied Twelve Colonies. This seems to be educated speculation by Carver [52].

Official Sources

  • In Jeffery Carver's blog, he discusses writing the novelization.
  • In a thread at Ragnar Anchorage, Jeffery Carver answers questions about the novelization.
  • Jeffery Carver's take on this article:
"Well, one thing leads to another, and soon I was checking to make sure that various articles about Battlestar Galactica included information about the novels. (They didn't; I fixed that.) And that led to the discovery of Battlestarwiki, and a search to see if the books were properly referenced there. At first, the answer seemed to be no. A search for novels didn't lead to much, but eventually I found an article titled "List of Books," which probably isn't the best title for search purposes, but never mind. That led to the discovery of a detailed page about my BSG novel, which is truly mind-boggling in its excruciating attention to detail. Some of their speculations are interesting and fun, and some lead me to scratch my head. I'm torn between awe at the energy and intelligence devoted to this, and wanting to say, "Get a—!" But no, no, that's the last thing I would say to fans! Amazing, truly amazing what these people have pulled together."

References

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  40. ↑ Template:Cite book/bsg novel 2005
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Template:Cite book/bsg novel 2005
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  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 Template:Cite book/bsg novel 2005

External links

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