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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138 at popapostle dot com
Battlestar Galactica: The Road Less Traveled

Battlestar Galactica

"The Road Less Traveled"

TV episode

Written by Mark Verheiden

Directed by Michael Rymer

Original air date: May 2, 2008

 

The Demetrius encounters Starbuck’s old foe, Leoben, who has come to make an offer of alliance with the rebel Cylons.

 

Read the summary of the episode at the Battlestar Wiki

 

Notes from the BSG chronology

 

The episode opens on Day 58 of the Demetrius' mission. Starbuck also remarks that it has been two months since she reappeared to the fleet in her pristine Viper after her "death". She returned at the end of "Crossroads" Part 2.

 

Didja Know?

 

The title of this episode is inspired by the 1916 poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost:

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 

The title (and even Frost's poem) may also have been inspired by a passage from the Book of Matthew in the Bible:

 

Make your way in by the narrow gate. It is a broad gate and a wide road that leads on to perdition, and those who go in that way are many indeed; but how small is the gate, how narrow the road that leads on to life, and how few there are that find it!

 

The opening titles show the fleet at a population of 39,676, up one from the previous episode "Escape Velocity".

 

 

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Helo

Starbuck

Athena

Sam Anders

Phoebe

Jeanne

Baltar

Paulla Schaffer

Tracey Anne

Specialist Tyrol

Nicholas Tyrol

Jean Barolay

Sgt. Erin Mathias (dies in this episode)

Hot Dog

Hardball

Lt. Gaeta

Gonzo

Leoben

hybrid

Tory Foster

Cally (mentioned only, deceased)

President Roslin (mentioned only)

Admiral Adama (mentioned only)

Colonel Tigh

 

Didja Notice?

 

Tyrol remarks that Cally had been taking moxopan and cosapine, antidepressants. These are fictitious drugs.

 

At 16:56 on the Blu-ray, a painting on paper of what appears to be a Cylon Heavy Raider is seen hanging on the wall of Starbuck's quarters on Demetrius. Presumably, she painted this from a vision before the ship encountered Number Two's Heavy Raider in this episode, which partially explains why Starbuck is inclined to think Number Two has something of value to offer them.

 

In his quarters, Tyrol holds a Vektor CP1 pistol to his head, but is unable to pull the trigger.

 

Memorable Dialog

too much time with Baltar.mp3
you weren't meant to be enemies.mp3
an alliance.mp3
are you talking mutiny?.mp3
suck it up.mp3
if there is a God.mp3
an angel.mp3
it's a mutiny.mp3

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