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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138 at popapostle dot com
Battlestar Galactica: Gods and Monsters (Part 1)

"Gods & Monsters" Part 1

Battlestar Galactica: Gods & Monsters #1 (Dynamite)

Written by Karl Kesel

Art by Alec Morgan & Dan Schkade

Color by Chris O'Halloran

Letters by Tom Napolitano

Cover A by Alec Morgan & Chris O'Halloran

2016

 

Baltar rebuilds a Cylon centurion from captured parts.

 

Story Summary

 

After the reveal of the new stealth Viper, Tyrol is hailed as a hero in the fleet and on the fleet newscast, driving Baltar to jealousy. He decides to build a new Cylon centurion under human control from the parts salvaged from the destroyed centurions of the failed Cylon boarding attempt of the Galactica weeks earlier.

 

Meanwhile, the fleet is mining valuable agro minerals from a geologically unstable planetoid. And, on Cylon-occupied Caprica, a Number Four model Cylon has been found out as a doctor among the Buccaneers and Cavil helps Anders decide how to interrogate him.

 

Commander Adama brings Caprica-Valerii into Baltar's centurion-reprogramming project, hoping that Baltar can also eventually purge Valerii herself of any residual Cylon commands. When Baltar and Valerii reveal and activate the new centurion to the fleet, the centurion seems to pledge its allegiance to Valerii instead of Baltar.

 

CONTINUED IN BSG: GODS & MONSTERS #2

 

Notes from the BSG chronology

 

This issue takes place over about 15 days, shortly after the events of "Flight of the Phoenix".

 

Didja Know?

 

Battlestar Galactica: Gods & Monsters was a 5-issue mini-series published by Dynamite Entertainment in 2016-2017.

 

Throughout the mini-series, a brunette, female Cylon is seen in the screening room for the D'Anna Biers Fleet News Service broadcasts. She is not identified, and does not appear to be a Number Eight/Valerii model. It seems she must be a Number Six with dyed hair. Possibly she is the Six seen in The Plan and referred to as Tough Six in the script of that telefilm.

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

 

Leoben (seen in fleet news file footage only)

Doral (seen in fleet news file footage only)

Boomer (deceased, seen in flashback only)

Caprica-Valerii

D'Anna Biers

Starbuck

Commander Adama

President Roslin

Apollo

Baltar

Chief Tyrol

Head Six

Helo

John Cavil (Number One model Cylon)

Samuel Anders

Simon O'Neill (Number Four model Cylon)

Jean Barolay (mentioned only)

Verheiden (deceased, in flashback only)

Colonel Tigh

Lt. Gaeta

Tallos

 

 

 

Didja Notice?

 

Page 1 has the story opening with fleet newscaster D'Anna Biers speaking the "...and they have a plan" preamble that appeared in text at the beginning of most episodes of BSG2000.

 

Starbuck's hair is drawn much too short throughout this mini-series...almost a buzz cut!

 

On pages 2-3, D'Anna's newscast recounts the most recent events in the fleet that occurred in "Home" Parts 1 and 2 and "Flight of the Phoenix". Of course, in the PopApostle chronology, the events of the "Returners" storyline from the comic books published by Dynamite Entertainment also took place in this recent time period.

 

Page 3, panel 1 seems to indicate that Caprica-Valerii's pregnancy has become a public rumor throughout the fleet.

 

On page 3, Apollo remarks that he's glad Chief Tyrol is "on our side and not a Cylon." Ironically, much later on, in "Crossroads" Part 2, Tyrol is revealed to be one of the Final Five Cylons.

 

Page 4 reveals that Commander Adama has ordered soil mining of a minerally-rich planetoid the fleet has come across.

 

On page 4, Baltar wonders why the fleet is practically worshipping Tyrol for his construction of the new stealth Viper when Baltar himself invented a Cylon detector. He finally perfected the detector in "Six Degrees of Separation". In response, Head Six reminds him that his invention of the Cylon detector was done largely in secret and "most people pay attention to the shiny show in the front of a curtain, not the man in shadows behind it." This sounds like a play, by the writer, on the Wizard of Oz, a normal man working behind a curtain, in the Oz books and popular 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

 

Page 5 reveals that Baltar was given the surviving parts of the Cylon centurions after their failed boarding attempt in "Valley of Darkness".

 

The Cylon Number One model called John Cavil makes his first fleet appearance in this issue. In the TV series, he does not appear until Season Three, "Lay Down Your Burdens" Part 1.

 

A Number Four model Cylon called Dr. Simon O'Neill is revealed as the team doctor of the Caprica Buccaneers. He is also seen in this role in The Plan.

 

In the flashback to occupied Caprica on page 8, Anders asks the revealed-as-a-Cylon Simon if Verheiden's death from infection was caused by him, Simon, acting as the resistance doctor. In "A Higher Purpose" (Preludes), one of the farm workers is named Verheiden. Both cases are probably references by the writers to Mark Verheiden, a fellow comic book writer and writer on several episodes of BSG2000. It's unknown whether Anders is referring to the same Verheiden here as the one who appeared, years earlier on Aerilon, in that earlier story.

 

In the flashback to occupied Caprica on page 8, Cavil tells Anders that Simon "may have more in common with you than you suspect." Anders is also revealed as one of the Final Five Cylons in "Crossroads" Part 2.

 

Page 11 appears to depict Helo climbing into a single-seat Raptor cockpit via an open canopy, Viper-style. But Raptors in the TV series were always depicted with two-seat cockpits and entered through a side door in the passenger area of the craft.

Raptor cockpit

 

On page 13, Gaeta's name is misspelled "Geata".

 

On page 15, Apollo remarks to Baltar that the centurions he's attempting to rebuild killed 12 good men. "Fragged" does, indeed, imply that 12 Galactica crewmembers were killed during the Cylon boarding attempt in "Valley of Darkness".

 

Baltar names his rebuilt centurion Tallos. President Roslin remarks that it is named after Talos, an automaton protector that Zeus created, which killed the wandering Argoneers. Talos is an automaton from Greek mythology, largely conforming to the brief history Roslin gives here.

 

On page 19, Head Six remarks that only God and Daniel Greystone have created life before this. Greystone, of course, was the inventor of the Cylons, as seen in episodes of Caprica.

 

Baltar and Caprica-Valerii's throwing of the switches to bring Tallos to life is reminiscent of Dr. Frankenstein bringing his creature of assembled human body parts to life in Frankenstein, with a bit of the revelation of King Kong thrown in.


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