|
"Journey's End" Part 2
Battlestar Galactica: Journey's End #2 (Maximum Press)
Story: Rob Liefeld
Script: Robert Napton
Art: Hector Gomez
September 1996
|
With the
rest of the fleet and the ark destroyed, the Seraphs propel the
Galactica into the future…a future ruled by the
Eastern Alliance.
Didja Notice?
In this future time period, the former Eastern Alliance is now
known as the Eastern Empire.
On page 6, Commandant Leiter refers to Apollo as a living
legend. This is, of course, an ironic allusion to Commander
Cain, who is known as a living legend among the Colonials.
Leiter reveals that in this future time period, Terra and Earth
are united and they have conquered the Cylon Empire.
On page 8, panel 1, Apollo's word balloon is misplaced so that
Leiter seems to be answering Apollo's question before he asks
it.
The logo of the Eastern Empire
is seen on page 8 as being a
lightning bolt between two
globes. Not sure if it was
intentional, but the design
seems kind of phallic, if you
know what I mean. The two globes
are presumably Terra and Earth,
given Leiter's explanation that
the two worlds are united, but
neither globe has continents
that look much like Earth. |
|
On page 11, Apollo muses on how he has been working as a slave
on the Eastern Alliance work detail for a secton. A secton is
one week.
On page 15, the stranded Starbuck is visited by the Seraph Elias
on Planet Starbuck. This is another similarity to the
"Return of Starbuck" episode of
Galactica 1980 (as
discussed in the study of "Journey's End" Part 1),
in which Starbuck encounters a woman named Angela on the planet
and, though it is not made clear in the episode, a later script,
if the series had continued, would have revealed her as one of
the Beings of Light.
On page 17, the Cylons in
panel 1, for some reason, are depicted with ridiculously large
eye slits! I suppose it could be argued that the Eastern Empire
has designed some new Cylon types, though they are not drawn so
in any other part of the issue.
Also on page 17, Apollo refers to Dr. Wilker as a cybernetics
genius.
In panel 1 of page 21, Apollo is suddenly wearing his
Commander's jacket when he wasn't just a moment before. And then
it's gone again in the following panels.
Notes from the BSG lettercol
In the lettercol of this issue, letter writer Gene Farris
asks how many humans survived the holocaust in the Colonies and
were stuck there after the fleet left. And did these survivors
organize a resistance to the Cylon occupation? Although we never
learn the answer in BSG70, the BSG2000 saga included stories of
a guerilla resistance movement on Caprica after the Cylon
attack. Given that there are a number of similarities found
between BSG2000 and the expanded universe stories of BSG70
comics and novels, perhaps producer Ron Moore was inspired by
Gene's letter!
Unanswered Questions
In what year in the future does this story take place? We're
never told. Apollo guesses it must be dozens of yahrens (at
least) for the Eastern Alliance to have advanced as far as they
have. Even so, it seems unlikely that the Eastern Empire could
have conquered the Cylons without help from some more advanced
source; perhaps Count Iblis took a hand in it for reasons of his
own? A more likely possibility is that much of what we're told
about the Eastern Empire is propaganda and they are not quite as
formidable and unconquerable as they make out to be.
How is it that Earth has a significant enough population (and
technology) to be a worthwhile ally to the Eastern
Alliance/Empire? Just last issue, the fleet debarked from Earth
with only Adam and Eve left behind!
Back to Episode Studies