"Prison of Souls" Part 3 Battlestar Galactica #5 (Season II) (Realm Press) Written by Chris Scalf and James Kuhoric Illustrated by Chris Scalf and Robert Scott Cover by Chris Scalf Back cover by Robert Scott July 1998

Both humans and Cylons deal with the repercussions of the Somnian attack.

Story Summary

Aboard Vulpa Six's basestar, the human captives, now possessed by Somnians, overcome the Cylons, grabbing up weapons, and a firefight begins. As chaos erupts, the Somnian derelict ship collides with the basestar, destroying both. But, Vulpa Six manages to escape in a Raider with two centurion pilots.

Meanwhile, on the Galactica, Apollo's journey to the Somnian universe (as seen in "Prison of Souls" Part 2) has brought an end to the Somnian possessions on the battlestar, returning human consciousnesses to their bodies. But Apollo is gone.

On the prison barge, Starbuck and Boomer ambush Krolis. But the traitorous guard continues to hold Baltar as a hostage and makes his way to the hangar deck to escape. The two Colonial warriors manage to beat them there and during the renewed firefight, the cyranite generator is hit and a tremendous explosion kills one of the two criminals, while the other escapes in a Colonial shuttle. But which one is dead and which escaped?

Back on the Galactica, Dr. Salik uses a neuro-memory recall device on Adama in an attempt to gain information about Apollo's whereabouts that may have been left behind by the being who had inhabited Adama's brain. They manage to obtain star coordinates and Starbuck and Boomer are sent to investigate the location in a shuttle with a Viper escort.

Farther out in space, Vulpa Six's Raider is intercepted by a mysterious alien ship. The reptilian being on board claims he can help them in their pursuit of the scourge called man. And it seems his help will be taken whether it's wanted or not.

And, in the debris field of Vulpa Six's basestar, a large chunk of the ship hums back into life...with one of the alien Somnians aboard.

Didja Know?

This was the final issue of the so-called "Season Two" arc of Battlestar Galactica from Realm Press. The publisher had fallen behind on issues and eventually decided to proceed with Battlestar Galactica: Season Three, with a promise to complete the Season Two stories at a later date. However, with the exception of the (also incomplete) "Search for Sanctuary" arc, no further Season Two stories were published. I had vague hopes that the last known holder of the BSG comic book license, Dynamite Entertainment, would republish the Realm Press issues in TPB form with the never-before-seen continuations by writer James Kuhoric; but so far, nothing. I even corresponded with James a few times and he sounded like he could have been convinced to do it if there was an interested publisher. Everyone write in to Dynamite Entertainment!

Didja Notice? 

The back cover depicts a scene that has nothing to do with the story in this issue. It is interesting to note that judging by the size of the Vipers in comparison to the gigantic snow beast they are attacking, the creature is almost the size of the Galactica itself! (Click the image to see the full cover.)

Page 1 reveals that Vulpa Six is in command of Baseship 24. 

On page 1, artists Scalf and Scott depict Vulpa Six's two Cylon centurions as more robotic looking in their torsos and limbs, moving away from the man-in-a-costume look seen in the TV series and most other licensed sources (the rest of the issue, however, goes back to the normal look). Interestingly, the look here is similar to what would eventually be adopted for the old-school centurions who occasionally appeared in BSG2000.
Vulpa Six's centurions	CGI centurion from BSG2000

Page 4 gives us a broader view of the hangar bay of a Cylon basestar than we've ever seen before.

Page 19, panel 1, has an empty narrative box...somehow the words were left out.

On page 19, Dr. Salik subjects Adama to neuro-memory recall in an attempt to gain information about Apollo's whereabouts possibly left behind by the being who had inhabited Adama's brain. Is the device seen here the same as psycho-electron recall mentioned in "War of the Gods" Part 1?

Starting at the end of this issue, there seems to be some renewed romantic tension between Starbuck and Athena. This is followed up on in "Search for Sanctuary" Part 1 and the issues of Season III.