"The Lab" Battlestar Galactica: Razor webisodes Written by Michael Taylor Directed by Wayne Rose (webisodes 1-2) and Felix Alcala (webisodes 3-7) 2007

Lt. William Adama makes a shocking discovery on the final day of the first Cylon War.

Read the story summary of these webisodes at the Battlestar Wiki

Notes from the BSG chronology

This story takes place on day 4,571 of the first Cylon War, the day the armistice was signed, ending the 12-year conflict.

Didja Know?

"The Lab" is an ~20-minute webisode made up of seven minisodes that were available online shortly before the airing of the Razor TV movie in 2007. The minisodes were originally shot as flashbacks to be placed within the movie itself, but most of the material was cut from the finished presentation and made available online instead. The title I have applied to the overall flashback story, "The Lab", is borrowed from that of webisode 5 of the series.

Didja Notice?

Webisode 1: Day 4,571

As the webisode opens, the Galactica is seen with its flight pods retracted towards the main hull. This was usually done when the battlestar was just about to make an FTL jump or has just emerged from such.

Adama is seen to be romantically/sexually involved with pilot Jaycie McGavin.

Adama and Jaycie use the "nothing but the rain" and "bring the cat in" phrases later used between him and Starbuck in the BSG2000 episodes. Series developer Ron Moore has said that the phrases are meant to be from one or more military cadences of the Colonies.

The tattoo of the Tauron symbol is not on Adama's back as it was in Blood and Chrome. Maybe he got tired of being accused of associating with the Ha'la'tha and had it removed!

As they suit up, Adama remarks to Jaycie that he's never flown in combat before. This seems belied by the fact that he faced Cylon Raiders as a Raptor pilot in Blood and Chrome and in a stealth Viper in "Stealth Mission".

Webisode 2: The Hangar

At 0:06 in the webisode, a Galactica crewmember is seen to be wearing a uniform very similar to the ones worn in BSG70.

At 2:23 in the webisode, the logo of 1st Squadron (Primus) is seen on the nose of Adama's Viper.

Webisode 3: Operation Raptor Talon

The helmets of Galactica's Viper pilots are seen to have the bird emblem painted on, not a raised metal emblem as in Blood and Chrome.

Some of the music playing during the Viper/Raider dogfighting sequence uses samples from the original music of BSG70 by Stu Phillips.

The shot of the Galactica at 0:31 in the webisode has the top-mounted gun emplacements seen in Blood and Chrome already missing. You'd think they'd still be there since the war's not over yet.

The battlestar Columbia is destroyed in the Cylon attack. In the BSG70 episode "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" Part 1, Cadet Cree claims to be from the Columbia while under interrogation by the Cylons, but the Cylons know that the Columbia was destroyed at the peace conference (presumably during "Annihilation", in an unscripted scene).

At 1:49 in the webisode, Adama's Viper kind of just winks out of existence in a rather poor effect of diving into a cloud bank.

Webisode 4: Free Fall

At 1:07 in the webisode, a large blade emerges from the back of the Cylon centurion's wrist as it attempts to kill Adama with it. Notice also in this shot that the Cylon head even has the tiny eye holes above the visor for the actors that the costumes on the original TV series had!
Cylon centurion in this webisode	BSG70 Cylon centurion pinholes

As the webisode ends, notice that Adama has picked up the gun of the centurion he defeated to replace the one he lost during the sky grapple.

Webisode 5: The Lab

At 0:39 in the webisode, Adama discovers what may be a prototype resurrection tank, seen later in episodes of BSG2000.

When Adama sticks his hand into the gelatinous fluid in the tank, he seems to experience telepathic flashbacks to the humans who were imprisoned and mutilated in the facility. However, it's not clear whether he actually even stuck his hand in the fluid...the hand appears dry after he pulls it out and the visions stop; also, the liquid surface of the tank has no ripples in it immediately after he pulls it out.

Adama hears a voice speaking the phrase, "All this has happened before and will happen again." This is heard a number of times in episodes of the BSG2000 series, a quote from the Pythian prophecies.

Webisode 6: Survivors

The prisoner Adama speaks to through the door in the Cylon lab is actor Ben Cotton, who also plays Coker in Blood and Chrome.

Webisode 7: Escape

The Cylon basestar seen here is sort of a mix of the old design and the current spiky version. It is later revealed in Razor that the battlestar Pegasus destroyed the basestar that escaped the ice planet here.

The armistice ending the war with the Cylons is signed (behind the scenes) in this webisode.

The webisode ends 40 years later, with Commander Adama contemplating the past as the Galactica is being readied as a museum. He exchanges a few words with a PR executive whom we will meet again as the BSG2000 series opens (Doral in "Humanity’s Children") and who is not long after revealed to be a Cylon.

As the webisode ends, the camera pulls back, back, back, from the Galactica until a moon with a chunk torn out of it is revealed (a reverse of the push in scene that later opens "Humanity’s Children"). What is the meaning of this image? Is it the "old moon Cimtar", as described in the BSG70 episode "Annihilation" as the site of the Cylon betrayal and the beginning of the destruction of the Twelve Colonies? It may also be a bit of an homage to the closing titles of the 1970-1971 UFO TV series, which featured a pull-back from Earth to reveal a dead, pitted celestial body.