"Endings and Beginnings" Battlestar Galactica: Origins #8 (Dynamite) Writer: Robert Place Napton Pencils: Jonathan Lau Cover A: Jonathan Lau 2008

Adama struggles with family and career desires as he grows older in the Colonial military.

Notes from the BSG chronology

This story opens aboard the Atlantia, 25 years after the end of the first Cylon War, then jumps ahead 8 years, then another 2.5 years after that. This would place the end of this story, as Commander Adama is being assigned to the Galactica, about 4.5 years before the fall of the Twelve Colonies.

Didja Know?

Battlestar Galactica: Origins was an 11-issue mini-series published by Dynamite Entertainment, covering the origins of several characters of BSG2000. Issues 5-8 featured a young William "Husker" Adama during the first Cylon War and its aftermath.

Characters appearing in this story

William Adama
Saul Tigh
Admiral Tanner (mentioned only)
Carolanne Adama
Lee Adama
Zak Adama
Lucky
Jigsaw (mentioned only)
Commander Julian DiMarco
Monclair (painter, mentioned only)
Sandavol (an officer on Valkyrie, mentioned only)
Lt. Daniel "Bulldog" Novacek
Joseph Adama (mentioned only)
Sister of Carolanne (unnamed, mentioned only)

Didja Notice?

The cover depicts both Mark II and Mark VII Vipers.

On page 3, the banner hanging at the airfield misspells "Remembrance Day" as "Rememberance Day". Apparently, the Adama family is at the air field to celebrate a Colonial holiday called Remembrance Day, to honor the fallen veterans of past wars. Many countries on Earth have a Remembrance Day holiday as well for the same reason. In the United States, Memorial Day is similar.

The photo taken by Carolanne of Adama and his two sons in front of his Viper is later seen in “Humanity’s Children”.

On pages 4 and 5, we see that Bill Adama's older son Lee is eager to be a Viper pilot like his dad, but his younger one, Zak, is not so enthusiastic, feigning interest to keep his dad happy and due to his dad's pressure to follow in his footsteps.

On page 5, Adama claims he just wants to reach the rank of colonel so he can retire with a real pension, but his wife knows what he really wants is to command a battlestar. Page 7 reveals that he is currently a major.

On page 7, Adama visits an area of the Remembrance Day grounds set aside for a reunion of P.O.W. Association members. There he meets Lucky, the pilot he flew alongside in "Stealth Mission" and who was taken prisoner by Cylons in that same story. P.O.W., of course, stands for Prisoner of War.

On page 8, panel 1, a sign hanging on the chain-link fence in the background says something about "Cylon scrap". 

On page 8, Adama asks Lucky if he remembers Jigsaw, telling him he's still in the fleet, on Pacifica. Pacifica is presumably a battlestar, as the name is mentioned as one in a couple episodes of the BSG70, though not otherwise in BSG2000.

On page 9, panel 1, a sign reading "Don't let them down" can be seen in the background. This is from an actual WWII poster promoting support of U.S. service personnel.
Colonial "Don't Let Them Down" poster	"Don't Let Them Down" WWII poster

Lucky says he was a Cylon prisoner of war for years. But he was captured just 6 months before the end of the war, as seen in "Stealth Mission". So why did it take so long to get him back?

Lucky tells Adama the Cylons took apart his body piece by piece and put him back together just so they could do it again. Obviously, they were trying to figure out how to build their own humanoid bodies, as attested by the humanoid models seen in episodes of the TV series. The image Adama recalls when he tells Lucky he saw one of the labs is a scene from "The Lab".

8 years after the Remembrance Day event, Adama has been promoted to commander, commanding the battlestar Valkyrie. Colonel Tigh becomes his Executive Officer. The Valkyrie was previously seen in Blood and Chrome and is later said (in The Plan) to have been destroyed during the fall of the Twelve Colonies.

This issue introduces Commander DiMarco of the battlestar Columbia, under whom Adama served as Executive Officer for several years. He gives Adama a painting by Monclair of a scene from the first Cylon War as a gift (the painting is later seen hanging in Adama's quarters aboard the Galactica as well). A previous battlestar called Columbia was destroyed during the events of "The Lab". The newer Columbia is reported destroyed during the fall of the Twelve Colonies.

In the painting, both the Caprica and Tauron flags are seen flying, and there is a sculpture of the Colonial emblem.

On page 12, Adama thanks DiMarco for helping Zak with his flight school entry.

Page 12 reveals that Adama is having all computer systems on Valkyrie converted to be independent of each other, just as he later will do on the Galactica.

Page 13 introduces Lt. Daniel "Bulldog" Novacek, a Viper pilot aboard Valkyrie. He is later seen again in "Hero".

The Stealthstar ship piloted by Bulldog for a special mission across the Cylon Armistice Line has a somewhat similar look to the stealth Vipers piloted by Adama and Lucky in "Stealth Mission".

After being struck by an assailant ship, Bulldog calls for help, saying, "Krypter! Krypter! Krypter!" This term is the Colonial equivalent of "Mayday".

The two ships that tow away the Stealthstar after disabling it are similar (or the same) as the Cylon ones seen towing Lucky's stealth Viper in "Stealth Mission".

Page 21 shows us the funeral of Zak Adama (glimpsed again in "Act of Contrition").

Page 23 reveals that Carolanne has at least one sister, unnamed.

As Adama and Tigh are to be reassigned to the Galactica, Tigh refers to her as "frak-up-star Galactica", most likely because of her age. The Galactica is almost as old as Adama himself and he considers his assignment as her commander to be a forced retirement.

On the last page of this issue, Adama reveals to Tigh that all the letters he's written to his father over the years of his service were never sent. They were filled with classified information which would have been heavily censored, so he didn't bother.