For the Adherent of Pop Culture
Adventures of Jack Burton ] Back to the Future ] Battlestar Galactica ] Buckaroo Banzai ] Cliffhangers! ] Earth 2 ] The Expendables ] Firefly/Serenity ] The Fly ] Galaxy Quest ] Indiana Jones ] Jurassic Park ] Land of the Lost ] Lost in Space ] The Matrix ] The Mummy/The Scorpion King ] The Prisoner ] Sapphire & Steel ] Snake Plissken Chronicles ] Star Trek ] Terminator ] The Thing ] Total Recall ] Tron ] Twin Peaks ] UFO ] V the series ] Valley of the Dinosaurs ] Waterworld ] PopApostle Home ] Links ] Privacy ]


Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138 at popapostle dot com
Battlestar Galactica: A Higher Purpose "A Higher Purpose"
Battlestar Galactica: Origins #1 (Dynamite)
Writer: Kevin Fahey
Pencils: Jonathan Lau
Cover A: Jonathan Lau
2007

From humble beginnings on Aerilon, Gaius Baltar rises to power within the Colonial Ministry of Defense.

Read the story summary of this issue at the Battlestar Wiki

Notes from the BSG chronology

This story takes place mostly on Caprica two years before the fall of the Colonies. Some flashback scenes to Baltar's youth take place on his homeworld of Aerilon an unrevealed number of years before.

Didja Know?

Battlestar Galactica: Origins was an 11-issue mini-series published by Dynamite Entertainment, covering the origins of several characters of BSG2000. Issues 1-4 feature Gaius Baltar rising to prominence in Caprican computer science before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.

This issue reveals that Baltar is a fan of professional pyramid, appreciating it as a game of true skill and intellect and mastery of hand-eye coordination.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Gaius Baltar
Bernard Baltar (Gaius' brother)
Gaius' girlfriend (unnamed)
Dr. Amorak
Samuel T. Anders
Caprica Six
D'Anna Biers
Number Three
Number Eight
Miller's daughter (mentioned only)
Admiral Nagala
Captain Atticus Rourke
President Richard Adar
Verheiden
Vanessa Baltar (Gaius and Bernard's mother)

Didja Notice?

On page 2, young Gaius finds an old destroyed Cylon in the fields near his family's farm on Aerilon. It is a model not previously seen.
Early Cylon model

On pages 3-6, Baltar and his girlfriend are enjoying a game of pyramid, the Caprica City Buccaneers (mistakenly spelled "Buckaneers" here) versus the Picon Panthers (a couple Picon fan signs are just barely discernible in the background of panel 3 on page 3). Since the caption says they're on Caprica, they must be at the Buccaneers home stadium, Atlas Arena, though the depiction of it does not look particularly like the one seen in episodes of Caprica; but then, this is about 50 years later, so the stadium may have been rebuilt since then (not to mention that this comic was published a couple of years before Caprica aired on Syfy). In "Gods & Monsters" Part 3, Anders refers to the Buccaneers' stadium as "New Atlas Arena".

On page 3, panel 4, a Buccaneers fan is seen waving a Caprican flag.

On page 4, Dr. Amorak introduces Baltar to Caprica Six with a human name, but we as readers don't get to hear it. Dr. Amarak (note a slight spelling difference) is later mentioned as being aboard the Olympic Carrier in "33", but is not seen; Baltar is then worried that Amarak will be able to out him as a traitor to humanity. Presumably, it is meant to be the same person.

When Baltar's girlfriend complains he's not paying any attention to her at the game, he leads her away and she continues to mutter, regarding the beautiful Caprica Six, "I bet her breasts aren't even real." Ironically, in a way, none of Six is real since she's a Cylon, not a human!

The two female Cylons with Caprica Six on page 7 are a Number Eight and a Number Three. In episodes of BSG2000, Boomer (and later, Athena) is a Number Eight model Cylon as well. A Number Three appears as journalist D'Anna Biers in episodes of BSG2000.

The computer used by Baltar on page 9 looks similar to an Apple iMac G3.

In the flashback on page 9, Baltar pulls out an application form for Caprica University. Notice that, among other items, it asks for a Social Security number. I guess Caprica uses Social Security just like the United States!

On page 10, Amorak is on his cell phone and mentions a meeting with Admiral Nagala tomorrow. Nagala will later be presumed dead aboard his flagship Atlantia when it is destroyed above Virgon during the fall of the Twelve Colonies.

When Amorak is tailed into an alleyway on page 11, he seems to recognize at least one of his two pursuers. Notice in panel 7, that the shadows of the two on the pavement look like they are probably Caprica Six and the Number Eight.

On page 12, Baltar is reading a copy of the Caprican Times. The headline on the front page reads "Top Politicians Vanish - Top Government Scientists and Military Officials Continue to Disappear". The sports page headline reads "Anders Leads Bucks to Another Victory".

On page 13, notice that Baltar has a framed schematic of a BSG70-style battlestar hanging on his office wall.

Captain Rourke tells Baltar that, with the disappearance of Dr. Amorak, he is now being promoted to director of the Command Navigation Program project and that President Adar has an intense interest in the project. The Command Navigation Program is the operating system that is installed in most Vipers, Raptors, and battlestars by the time of the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies and which has been compromised by the Cylons. Adar is still the President of the Twelve Colonies at the time of the Cylon attack in "Humanity's Children".

One of the farm workers in the flashback scene on page 14 is named Verheiden. This is probably a reference by the writer to Mark Verheiden, a fellow comic book writer and writer on several episodes of BSG2000.

On page 17, panel 6, Gaius has a poster on his bedroom wall that may be of the Cyrannus system, where the Twelve Colonies reside orbiting four suns.

As Baltar and Six make love on page 20, notice that Six has a slight red line glowing along her spine, just as occurs when they make love in "Humanity's Children".

Back to Episode Studies