"Forbidden Fruit" Battlestar Galactica #18 (Marvel) Written by Steven Grant and Walt Simonson Layouts by Sal Buscema Pencils by Walt Simonson Inks by Klaus Janson August 1980

Apollo’s showdown with the transformed Enoch.

Story Summary

Picking up from last issue, the transformed Enoch has captured Athena, Cassiopeia, and Sapphire on the surface of the jungle planet where the other brutes have tied them to posts. He places a pile of jungle fruit in front of each, waiting for the heat of day to ripen it so the odor will force them to partake as it did him.

But Apollo has followed their crashed Vipers to the planet's surface and jumps him. Enoch directs the other brutes to attack him but, just then, Boomer flies over in his Viper, frightening off the primitives. With solar flare activity preventing communications, Apollo sends Boomer and the women back to the Galactica to warn them of the danger of the fruit already on board. Meanwhile, he seeks out Enoch in the jungle to try to bring him back to the fleet to find a cure for his transformation.

After another encounter, Enoch accidentally falls off a cliff. Apollo clambers down to the dying beast and Enoch finally realizes how he had been growing violent and primitive in his new, powerful body and apologizes to Apollo before dying.

THE END

Didja Notice? 

Commander Adama's log gives the date as 143-58-06.

After Apollo frees Athena, Cassiopeia, and Sapphire from Enoch's clutches, he orders the three of them and Boomer to head back to the Galactica to warn them of the danger of the fruit. But the women's Vipers were all damaged and crash-landed in "Ape and Essence". And we only see one Viper approach and land on the Galactica on page 22. So, are we to believe all four pilots were crammed into one Viper?! Lucky Boomer! (Co-Writer Steven Grant admits essentially the same thing in the lettercol of BSG #20!) The No-Prize solution, is that they actually took Apollo's Viper as well (even though we don't see it on page 22), so there would be only two in each ship (still cramped!). We don't actually see Apollo leave the planet at the end of the story, so his Viper could be gone and he has to be picked up by a shuttle shortly after his confrontation with Enoch. 

Notes from Battlestar Bulletins

In the Battlestar Bulletins lettercol of BSG #21, letter writer Dominic Dewlay complains about this story, arguing what's the point of a fruit that forces people to eat it? He seems to be unaware that the point of fruit (on Earth anyway!) is for something to eat it. It has evolved that way so that mobile creatures will take and eat the fruit elsewhere, discarding the seeds on new soil and allowing the species to spread to other locales. However, the story's writer, Steven Grant, answers Dominic that this particular fruit has evolved to transform the hungry victim into a carnivorous creature that no longer wants to eat fruit!