Battlestar Galactica "The Living Legend" Part 1 TV episode Story by Ken Pettus and Glen A. Larson Teleplay by Glen A. Larson Directed by Vince Edwards

The fleet encounters the lost battlestar, Pegasus.

Read the complete synopsis of "The Living Legend" Part 1 at the Battlestar Wiki site

Didja Know?

This episode is the first to eliminate the "There are those who believe that life here began out there..." preamble in the opening theme. All episodes from this point on do not include the preamble, with the exception of "Take the Celestra", which does include it for some reason.

The title and cast letters at the beginning of the episode (and Part 2) revert to yellow again, after having been white in episodes taking place after the fleet has left their home galaxy of Cyrannus. I suspect this two-part story was originally intended to take place before the fleet left Cyrannus, which would explain why everyone seems to be familiar with the planet of Gamoray, in the heart of the Delphian Empire, and how the Pegasus could have been lost in the sector while battling the Cylons two yahrens ago. (The novelization of this two-parter also suggests the fleet has only traveled halfway across their own galaxy). But we can't really place it sooner in the timeline since this episode introduces the new semi-regular cast member Sheba (and the lesser-seen Bojay), who is seen in most of the following episodes. We just have to assume that the Colonies had encountered representatives of the Delphian Empire in the past. Perhaps the Delphians were seeking help in their own war against the encroaching Cylons in the neighboring galaxy. This may be what sent the Pegasus so far out in the first place, to investigate. The distance does help to explain how the Pegasus failed to make it back to the Colonies in all this time.

Didja Notice?

I'm not sure what it all means, but the readout below appears on Sheba's viper screen as she scans Apollo's and Starbuck's Vipers.

Realizing the approaching ships are Colonial Vipers piloted by unknown humans, Sheba sends a communication to them via Unicom. This appears to be a means of communicating an encoded message between Colonial forces. In the real world, UNICOM (short for Universal Communications) is used at low volume airports that do not have a control tower to communicate with approaching craft.

At 3:32 on the DVD, an emblem, presumably representing the Pegasus, is seen on Sheba's Viper, just below the cockpit canopy. The emblem looks like a sword with wings.
 

The helmets of the Pegasus Viper pilots feature a winged horse instead of the falcon depicted on the Galactica helmets. Of course, Pegasus was a winged horse in the ancient Greek mythology of Earth.

The Pegasus is shown to have more cross-hatching marks on its surface than the Galactica.

Commander Cain wears a warrior's uniform instead of the more formal Commander's one, but he has some additional adornments on it compared to the typical warrior.

When Apollo mentions Commander Adama, Cain asks, "How is that old modocker?" "Modocker" is an unknown term, but it seems to be affectionate. Later, he also refers to Adama as "you old wardaggit," obviously like the term "war dog" used in Earth's own military history.

Apollo tells Cain that the fleet is composed of "some 220-odd ships". In "Annihilation" Adama seems to indicate there are exactly 220 ships. Have they picked up some ships we don't know about? Given the earlier figure, later stories I have tracked into the chronology suggest there are now just 214 ships left at this point (as noted in "Skirmish Beyond Skafrax"). However, if we consider the Pegasus to be part of the fleet as of now, there are now 215. (In the novelization of The Living Legend, Apollo says there are only 120-odd ships in the fleet).

Several times in the course of this two-parter, Cain uses the adjective "gol-monging" to describe the Cylons. This term is unknown, but may be similar to our own adjective "war-mongering".

Cain jokingly comments that Adama's fleet is sitting on its astrums. "Astrums" seems to be Colonial slang for "ass".

At 11:21 on the DVD, Cain flies over from the Pegasus to the Galactica on a shuttle. But on the hull of the shuttle, it can be seen that it is a Galactica shuttle (in fact, the same shuttle we see every time a shuttle is used in the TV series, GAL 366!).

Adama is shocked to learn from Cain that the Cylons now control Gamoray, the heart of the Delphian Empire. Presumably, the Delphians are an alien species with whom the Colonies had infrequent contact. Adama comments that if the Cylons control Gamoray, they wield power over "half the universe"; presumably, he means half the known universe, in terms of those portions the Colonies had some limited contact with.

At 14:41 on the DVD, Cain uses the expletive "Hades' hole", seemingly "hell hole". The term is later used to describe the red planet on which the fleet finds Count Iblis in "War of the Gods" Part 1.

When it appears that Starbuck may lose Cassiopeia to Commander Cain, Boxey comments, "Oh, well. He still has Athena and Miriam, and Noday and--" before Apollo cuts him off. Miriam and Noday are two names we have not heard before. In addition to these, we've seen in the Marvel Comics issues of BSG that he has Sapphire as well; maybe that's who Boxey was about to mention before his father cuts him off! (In the novelization, Boxey says "Miran" instead of "Miriam".)

Sheba tells the Galactica warriors in the officers' club that the Pegasus has just kept knocking down the Cylons' base at Gamoray and "every time they send one of their scramble-headed leaders in to rededicate that base, we go right in and turn it into scrap metal." By "scramble-headed leaders", she may be referring to IL-series Cylons like Lucifer and Spectre (the tops of the IL-series' heads looks like a scramble of coiled light tubes).

At 22:05 on the DVD, a chess-like game board is seen on a table in the officers' club.
 

The brooch worn by Cain on his ascot is somewhat similar to the medallion worn by Adama in "A Death in the Family". The novelization suggests that Cain's is actually the Gold Cluster, a recognition for heroism; this is the same award Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer were given after clearing the mine field in the Straits of Madagon at Carillon in "Exodus".

At 24:06 on the DVD, it can be seen that Cain has a swagger stick that has a winged horse on the end, suggestive of Pegasus.
  

At 29:53 on the DVD, the winged horse ornament on Cain's viper helmet is slanted to his left! At 30:16, it has been straightened out again.

Baltar tells Lucifer the upcoming attack on the Colonial fleet won't be a battle, it will be a rout because a single battlestar is no match for three baseships. However, recall that the Galactica also faced three baseships in "Collision Course" and managed to destroy all three with cunning. (Although, Adama later tells Cain that the Cylons did not use more than three baseships when they wiped out the entire battle fleet at Caprica).

Baltar comments to Lucifer that he has decided to make the city of Gamoray his seat of power. This implies that the planet Gamoray also has a city by the same name.

According to Adama, the Cylon task force that attacks the fleet near the end of the episode is the largest they've seen since the destruction of the Colonies.

Leading the attack personally, Baltar is seen wearing a helmet that seems to almost be a modified Cylon centurion head casing. Perhaps the original, reptilian Cylons wore a similar helmet before they were replaced by their own robotic creations?

As the Cylon attack begins, Baltar remarks to his pilots that "this is going to be a classic defeat, spoken of throughout the star system for a thousand yahrens." Ironically, the "classic defeat" becomes his own, thanks to the appearance of the Pegasus!

It may seem odd that Baltar should be surprised at the appearance of the Pegasus. After all, we're told over and over in this episode that Cain has been launching attacks against the Cylon base at Gamoray for most of the past two years. Did the Cylons not know who, or at least what, has been attacking them? In Baltar's defense, he does later criticize Lucifer for his "so-called intelligence reports" regarding the additional battlestar in "The Living Legend" Part 2. And it's also revealed in the pages covering "The Living Legend" Part 2 in the novelization that the base commander on Gamoray was providing false reports of the successfulness of the occupation of the Delphian Empire, just as Spectre did of his forces on the planet Attila in "The Young Lords".

Notes from the Deleted Scenes on the DVD

The deleted scenes include a second confrontation between Apollo and Sheba in which she states, in a slight towards Apollo's defense of Cassiopeia, that human weakness is a given. He then asks her, "What about you? Any weaknesses?" This deleted scene clarifies Apollo's later remark to her in the episode, after it seems that Pegasus' Silver Spar Squadron "accidentally" destroyed the two Cylon tankers, that "we have found a weakness or two, haven't we, Lieutenant?"

Notes from the novelization of "The Living Legend" by Glen A. Larson and Nicholas Yermakov (The page numbers come from the 1st printing, paperback edition, published April 1982) Pages v-79 cover the events of "The Living Legend" Part 1.

This is book 6 in the BSG series, coming after the novelization of the "Galactica Discovers Earth" episodes of the Galactica 1980 TV series, which was set 30 years after Battlestar Galactica. As such, pages v-viii are a prologue that seem to take place sometime after those events. In the prologue, Troy (formerly Boxey, now called Troy as an adult, as revealed in the Galactica 1980 TV series) is watching a video of Commander Adama, recorded sometime before his recent (undetailed) death. It's clear from the recording that Adama now expects Troy to become the Commander of the Galactica. In the Galactica 1980 TV series, which lasted only 10 episodes, Adama did not die; in the later re-imagining of the series by Dynamite Entertainment, a 4-issue mini-series also called Galactica 1980, he is killed in the Colonials' suicide attack to take out Baltar's basestar.

On page vi, Adama's recording reveals that he never told his son Apollo he loved him and regrets that. Apollo's death is said only to have taken place sometime after the fleet's encounter with the Pegasus and Commander Cain and that he didn't have time to reach the rank of Commander as his father had always hoped.

Page vi suggests that neither "Boxey" nor "Troy" are the real name of Adama's adopted grandson. Adama comments on how they never knew his real name and page vii reiterates the version of Boxey's parentage presented in the novelization of "Saga of a Star World", that Serina was not his real mother; the boy was caught in the middle of the Cylon attack at the Presidium and Serina heroically went to his aid and soon after adopted him. You'd think a boy Boxey's age would know his own name but, presumably, the shock of losing his parents, witnessing the death of most of humanity, etc., blocked his memories and he never fully recovered (in fact, something similar happened to Starbuck as a boy).

Page vii suggests that Adama has been the commander of the Galactica ever since its commission. This goes against some other reports that the ship is around 500 yahrens old and, thus, has had a number of commanders, including Adama's own father. "Baptism of Fire" suggests that Adama has been the commander for less than 20 years. "Shuttle Diplomacy" suggests that when Adama was a captain on the battlestar, Commander Ranyon was the head officer; I speculated in the study of "Shuttle Diplomacy" that Ranyon may thus be interpreted as Adama's father.

Page 5 reveals that Starbuck likes to drink baharri while playing cards with the other pilots. Presumably, baharri is an alcoholic beverage.

Page 6 reveals that an old military catchphrase, "Never volunteer for anything," has become known as Starbuck's Law on the Galactica.

Page 12 suggests that the Cylons have tried mimicking human voices with a vocal synthesizer in the past in order to trick their human enemies.

Page 15 suggests that Cain's Executive Officer, Tolen, is just a Flight Officer, not a Colonel as Tigh is as Adama's X.O. on the Galactica. Possibly a higher-ranking person once held the spot but was killed during the two years the Pegasus has been missing. (In the televised episode, Cain seems to refer to the off-screen Tolen as Colonel, however; and on page 124 of the novel, Cain also refers to Tolen as Colonel, so there seems to be a discrepancy.) Tolen seems to fill the positions of both Colonel Tigh and Sergeant Omega on the Pegasus.

Page 16 reveals that the Pegasus is slightly older than the Galactica. Also described are a number of battle scars on the ship from her two years battling the Cylons without refit facilities.

Page 19 suggests that a number of the smaller ships of the fleet have been cannibalized to become parts to repair other, larger ships. This kind of throws my ongoing ship count into disarray since the number of ships sacrificed (and when) is not mentioned!

Page 20 reveals that Commander Cain earned the nickname the Juggernaut back in the Colonies.

Page 27 reveals that Adama's hair turned prematurely white many years ago. This may explain why he has white hair already even in the flashback of him and Baltar at the Academy in "All Things Past and Present".

Page 32 suggests that both Tigh and Tolen have lost family during the war.

Page 42 tells us the guest quarters used by Cain aboard the Galactica were temporarily vacated by another occupant for him to use, living space being at a premium in the fleet.

Despite the episode "The Long Patrol" showing the fleet entering a new galaxy, page 66 suggests the fleet has only traveled halfway across their own galaxy (Cyrannus).