Battlestar Galactica "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" Part 2 Story by John Ireland, Jr. Teleplay by Michael Sloan and Donald Bellisario and Glen A. Larson Directed by Alan J. Levi

Commander Adama assembles a dangerous band of criminal demolition experts to destroy the Ravashol pulsar.

Read the episode summary at the Battlestar Wiki

Didja Notice?

In "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" Part 1, Apollo had to stop and carry Muffit during the trek through the snow and ice. Here in part 2, Boomer is seen carrying the daggit at 7:00 on the DVD.

The Colonial emergency symbol appears on an apparatus behind Dr. Ravashol at 9:52 on the DVD.

Like Adama before them in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" Part 1, Apollo and Athena both refer to the approaching basestars as Cylon battlestars in this episode.

During Dr. Ravashol's conversation with Vulpa over the communication screen, there is a sudden jump in the discussion. Vulpa tells him the Cylon squad is searching for humans and Ravashol says he knows nothing about any humans. Then Vulpa suddenly says only planners are permitted to visit the doctor there and Ravashol replies, "He's here because I need a strong back to move some equipment at short notice," at which point Ser 5-9 is suddenly in the custody of the Cylon squad, even though he had been hidden. Apparently part of the scene was cut in which the Cylons found and brought the clone forward during the conversation.

At 13:02 on the DVD, notice that Leda has awfully beautiful nails considering she's been incarcerated on the prison barge until just before this mission! I guess she had them done as soon as she got out!

At 21:34 on the DVD, Apollo's timepiece appears to be a fairly standard calculator watch of the period, ~1978.

While planning their escape from the warriors, Wolfe and Leda tell Croft they could steal a Cylon Raider from the launch platform farther up the mountain and they could escape to Starlos, which isn't far and where they can pick up food, water, and fuel. This again seems to suggest that, as there is a somewhat familiar, inhabited planet within range of a fighter ship, they may still be in the Cyrannus galaxy (as I discussed in the study of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" Part 1). This does reveal some minor inconsistencies such as, if this is a somewhat familiar quadrant to the Colonials (referred to as Epsilon quadrant and having the familiar world of Starlos), how is it that the Void they travelled through in the "Lost Planet of the Gods" two-parter was completely unknown to them?

At 31:55 on the DVD, it's clear that Apollo shouts something to Croft, but the dialog has been cut out.

After Wolfe escapes from the expedition with plans to steal a Cylon fighter and flee the ice world, Apollo says he'll never make it in this storm. We never actually learn his fate. (In the novelization, Croft prevents Wolfe from fleeing and forces him to continue the mission; he is then later killed in an altercation with Vulpa.)

The white-bearded man who is standing behind Dr. Ravashol and Apollo at 46:47 on the DVD appears out of place, but the deleted scenes on the DVD reveal he is one of the otherwise unseen "planner" clones mentioned in the story.

Dr. Ravashol claims he did not give the Cylons all of his inventions and that he will be able to protect the clone village when/if the Cylons return. Does anybody really believe that any technology wielded by such a small force could hold back a determined Cylon assault against such an isolated world for long? Perhaps he knows the secret of powering the planet across the cosmos (as the novelization reveals the Cylons did originally) and actually plans to move the planet into hiding.

Notes from the novelization of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero", The Cylon Death Machine by Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston (The page numbers come from the 1st printing, paperback edition, published January 1979) Pages 129-end cover the events of "The Gun on Ice Plant Zero" Part 2.

On pages 129-130, Dr. Ravashol explains to Apollo that, some time ago, a group of human scientists fled the Cylon War and came to Tairac (Arcta in the televised episode) to develop research to bring and sustain peace. At the time, the planet was in a normal solar system around a sun, but the Cylons arrived and used their technology to power the planet away to its current location.

Page 143 describes Muffit as wearing a collar, though it's never been seen in any TV episode.

Page 146 describes Dr. Ravashol as being subtly deformed; he has a slight twist to his spine that turns his torso slightly away from his lower body. In the televised episode, we see only that he walks with a cane.

Page 176 suggests that Boomer and Starbuck occasionally use the nicknames Bucko and Boom-boom with each other.

The mountain-climbing scenes in the novel are a much more realistic description than what we see in the televised episode (which basically just has the team members walking along narrow ridges and trails up the mountain). The novel describes the use of ropes, carabineers, pitons, crampons, belays, etc., all equipment and techniques used in legitimate mountain and rock climbing on Earth.

One of the devices the expedition uses for climbing is a molecular piton, which can be set to penetrate and then bond inside various substances such as stone and metal to form an extremely strong, yet removable hold on a smooth surface.

Page 190 has the Imperious Leader thinking about the growing number of strange political factions that seem to be emerging throughout the Cylon empire recently.

On pages 194-197, the children of the thetas flee from the Cylon assault with Boxey taking command and leading them into hiding inside the empty Cylon ships on the mountainside.

In the Adama Journal entry on pages 210-211, Adama sort of briefly fantasizes about the possibility of a happy ending in their fight against the Cylons, such as the Cylons finally giving up, or being defeated, or a mysterious third force intervening to decide the outcome in humanity's favor. Possibly, this is a subtle foreshadowing of the Ship of Lights and the radiant beings which inhabit it as seen in several future episodes, starting with "War of the Gods" Part 1.

On page 215, the random firing of the Ravashol pulsar destroys a supply ship in the human fleet. Since we do not see this occur in the actual TV episode, I am not counting it's destruction in the ongoing tally of ships in the fleet (currently at 217).

In the televised episode, Leda is shot and killed by the Cylons during the battle. In the novel, she makes it onto the elevator heading back down the mountain with the rest, but the giant explosion which destroys the pulsar jams the elevator before it makes it all the way down, and she is killed falling down the shaft as they attempt to escape the elevator car.

In the novel, Vulpa escapes the destruction of the pulsar and station and uses several remote controlled fighters to attack the rescue party that arrives from the Galactica to pick up Apollo's team. One of the remote-controlled ships is the one that Boxey was hiding in and an elaborate show of flying by Apollo and rappelling by Croft is required to rescue the boy from the craft.

Vulpa survives still further when his own ship crash-lands in the snow after the aerial battle. After the Colonials have left, he climbs up Mt. Hekla to the remains of the pulsar weapon and uses his dual Cylon brains to go into a meditative state until Cylon reinforcements arrive or he dies. He doesn't care which as the novel ends.