"Galactica Discovers Earth" Part 1 Written by Glen A. Larson Directed by Sidney Hayers

After many yahrens of travel, the Colonial fleet at last nears Earth, but quickly discovers that the world that has beckoned them is not advanced enough to withstand a potential Cylon onslaught.

Read the synopsis of this episode at the Battlestar Wiki site.

Didja Know?

Many months after cancelling Battlestar Galactica in April 1979, the ABC television network decided it wanted a cheaper, kiddie version of the show for the 7 p.m. Sunday timeslot (often known as the "children's hour" at the time). Rumors persist that ABC somehow threatened both Universal and Glen A. Larson to do this new version of the show that neither wanted to do. The combination of lack-of-interest-bordering-on-outright-hostility of the producers and the limitations of children's programming (which network Standards and Practices departments demanded had to include educational elements in each act) yielded only ten episodes of a series that has been a perennial contender for worst science-fiction television series of all time.

The main role of Captain Troy is played by Kent McCord. He is best known as Police Officer Jim Reed on the 1968-75 TV series Adam-12.

"Galactica Discovers Earth" was originally a 3-hour pilot for the series. In syndication, it was split into three 1-hour episodes.

The role of Dr. Zee is played by young actor Robbie Rist for the 3-part "Galactica Discovers Earth" pilot. Later episodes had Zee portrayed by James Patrick Stuart. Presumably Rist was no longer available after the pilot was accepted and ABC ordered more episodes.

The role of Dr. Mortinson is played by Robert Reed, best known as Mike Brady on the 1969-1974 TV series The Brady Bunch.

The role of Commander Xavier is played by Richard Lynch, who had also portrayed Wolfe in the original BSG two-part episode "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero".

Although it's never specifically stated in any episode, the series seems to take place about 30 years after the fleet fled the Twelve Colonies, judging from actor Kent McCord's age at the time (37) as Troy, and Noah Hathaway's age as Boxey (7) during the original BSG. This being the case, how is it that the fleet has arrived at Earth in 1980, when it was seen in "The Hand of God" that the Galactica intercepted the Apollo 11 transmission of the first moon landing in 1969, only 11 years earlier?

Didja Notice?

Commander Adama's opening journal entry remarks upon the Galactica being their home for the many years of their quest. Shouldn't that be yahrens?

Adama refers to Dr. Zee as having been "born to us in deep space." But the episode "The Return of Starbuck" shows us that Zee was found as an infant, alone aboard a cobbled-together half-Viper, half-Raider ship. It seems as if Glen Larson decided to alter Zee's origin for that story from what he had originally determined. (On page 85 of the novelization, Troy also remarks that Zee was born on the Galactica.)

Dr. Zee is seen monitoring Earth broadcasts made up of stock footage and old movie and TV clips, some of which I've been unable to identify from the brief images seen. At 3:24 on the DVD, we see Rod Serling introducing an episode of the classic 1970-73 horror anthology TV series Night Gallery. At 3:29, a scene from a Woody Woodpecker cartoon is depicted.

Dr. Zee refers to Earth's population as the last remaining humans in the universe besides the survivors of the fleet. As was usual in the BSG series, the members of the fleet like to ignore the fact that they've encountered many other human-inhabited worlds on their journey.

Notice that the boots worn by Colonial Warriors no longer have the large clasps on them that were seen in the original BSG series.

The ship through which Dillon walks, telling the inhabiting families they've made it to Earth, appears to be the same Gemini Freighter from which Cassiopeia was rescued by Starbuck way back in "Exodus". The same ship model footage is used as the fleet's schooling ship later in "The Super Scouts" Part 1, where it is destroyed in a Cylon attack.

At 5:24 on the DVD, we see there are at least two mechanical daggits to entertain the children aboard the Gemini Freighter. Whether either of them is the original Muffit II daggit owned by Boxey in the original series is not known.

It's implied in this episode that Captain Troy (formerly the little boy known as Boxey, Apollo's adopted son in the original BSG) is quartered on the Gemini Freighter. Why not the Galactica? In the original BSG it seemed as if all the Warriors were stationed on the battlestar.

At 6:47 on the DVD, it's good to see that good ol' Galactica shuttle 356 is still in service.

Adama describes Earth's solar system as having nine planets. Of course, this was considered true by Earth astronomers at the time the series was made. But in 2006, the ninth planet from the sun, Pluto, was demoted to dwarf planet status as, among other arguments, other similarly-sized objects have been found along with Pluto in the Kuiper belt since Pluto's original classification as a planet in 1930. Coming from outside the system and with the scanning capabilities of the Galactica, the fleet's astronomers would have realized this before we did, if they had existed in the real world.

During the Quorum and Warriors briefing presented by Commander Adama and Dr. Zee, Adama refers to Earth as the only planet in the galaxy comfortably able to support life as we know it. I think it's safe to assume he means "solar system" instead of "galaxy", though the original BSG series seemed to throw around the word "galaxy" in a similar manner at times. (In the novelization, he says only in this spiral arm of the galaxy.)

Dr. Zee seems to refer to the population of Los Angeles as 7 million. But the city only had about 3 million people at the time. Even now, in 2014, the population is estimated at just 4 million.

Dr. Zee's simulated footage of Cylon Raiders attacking Los Angeles is made up of scenes of destruction from the 1974 Universal film Earthquake (which also featured Lorne Greene).

At 9:15 on the DVD, the Hollywood Tower apartments are seen. This is an historic landmark in Hollywood and currently rents apartments to seniors.

In the same scene above, the Cylon Raider models can be seen to have a black stub on the back, on which they were mounted for special effects shooting. I'm sure the Raider footage was borrowed from the original BSG from space scenes where the black stub would have been essentially invisible against the dark background of space. The stubs are glimpsed in some later scenes as well.

At 9:23 on the DVD, we see the Capitol Records building and the Hollywood Taft building, both landmarks of Los Angeles. A billboard for J&B Scotch is seen on top of the Taft building; this is a real world brand, J&B standing for Justerini & Brooks, which has been around since 1749 (though known as Johnson & Justerini at that time).

At 10:03 on the DVD, we see the Taft building again in the simulation, though it was largely destroyed a few seconds earlier! This scene also shows the Broadway Building across the street, which is still accurate in modern day L.A. This scene also shows a billboard for Kamchatka vodka, a real world brand.

At 10:10 on the DVD, a Cylon Raider blows up the Cinerama Dome theater, a popular first-run movie theater in L.A. (although at 10:42, it is seen intact again!)

At 12:26 on the DVD, I do like that Adama still refers to Troy as Boxey at times.

The modern Vipers are seen to have seating for two, though normally only the pilot is present. Notice though, that all of the special effects flight scenes of Vipers depict the old cockpit/canopy for just one occupant, obviously because it is old footage from the original BSG reused. Also we never see more than one of these new Vipers on the ground at a time; when other Vipers are visible, they're always the old single-seaters. It would seem the production had only enough money to build one scale set piece and none for new matte paintings or models. Notice in the screen grab below that the foreground Viper is a two-seater, but the ones in background are single-seaters.

The object Adama throws at the cloaked Viper to prove it's still there, at 14:31 on the DVD, is a cubit, a Colonial coin.

I wonder if Larson was trying to make Dillon sound a bit like a Starbuck-type character when he says, "It's not often you get the entire population of a continent's women to choose from. I think we're going to have one fine time." However, Dillon does not seem to make the best of his situation throughout the series; possibly the restrictions of airing the show in "children's hour" prevented scenes of such fine times.

At 17:13 on the DVD, we see that the North American Air Defense Command (identifiable from the logo on the wall in the background) is tracking Troy and Dillon's Vipers. The North American Air Defense Command is more properly known as North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint operation of the U.S. and Canada to provide early warning and defense against air and space offenses against the two nations. The logo seen on the wall is accurate.

At 18:45 on the DVD, we can see from the name badge on the NORAD General's uniform that his name is Cushing. In the novelization, it is General Tucker Wilson instead. The book also identifies the Colonel who reports to him with news of the "U.F.O.s" as Colonel Henry Becksworth Davies.

The footage of the two fighter jets that are scrambled to intercept the Vipers appears to be a mixture of footage of F-16s (single tailfin) and F-15s (dual tailfin). At least three different sets of fighters are seen during the chase sequence, all from stock footage.

One of the pilots of the U.S. fighter planes is identified by the name stenciled beneath his flight canopy: Captain McNally.

At 19:33 on the DVD, Dillon is wheeling his turbocycle from the front of his Viper. It would seem the cycles were somehow made to fit within the nose portion of the vehicles' fuselage.

The turbocycles used in this series were originally built for a script for BSG (see "Showdown" at the Battlestar Wiki) that wound up unproduced!

Notice at 20:12 on the DVD that, apparently, Dillon's Viper was rigged to be able to render both his and Troy's ships invisible with the flick of a switch.

As they climb aboard their turbocycles, Troy tells Dillon they should stay off the main arteries of traffic to avoid attracting attention. But at 21:16 on the DVD, they are riding on a California freeway, hardly a lesser artery! (They pass a Yarnell St. exit approaching I-5, so it must have been the 210 Freeway.)

In the scene from 20:37-21:15 on the DVD, the road on which Troy and Dillon are riding keeps changing. The ground view is of a two-lane rural road, but the aerial view is an obvious suburban road complete with sidewalks.

At 21:43 on the DVD, it can be seen that the front tire on Troy's turbocycle is not rotating; the actors and their bikes are simply mounted on a shooting trailer towed by a truck for the scene.

After other drivers start staring at them on the freeway, Troy guesses their clothes (Warrior uniforms and jackets) are making them stand out, so he tells Dillon they should pull off and put on the Earth clothes that were designed for them. Uh, why didn't they just put those on as soon as they landed?

One of the bikers who harass Troy and Dillon is actor Mickey Jones. The novelization reveals that his character is named Donzo Gates and the biker gang was actually a chapter of the infamous Hells Angels. Jones went on to play Chris Faber in V.

The car driven by Jamie Hamilton is a Ford Mustang, possibly the original 1964 model, convertible.

The song playing from Jamie's car at 24:09 on the DVD is "My Life" by Billy Joel.

At 26:34 on the DVD, the reflection of a production crewmember can be seen in the glass of the phone booth.

Jamie is trying to get a job as a reporter at UBC, the United Broadcasting Company (in the novel, the United Broadcasting Corporation). This is a fictional TV network, though there was a Los Angeles based radio network by that name in the 1930s. There is also a wall sign in Mr. Brooks' waiting room at the UBC building reading United Broadcasting Station.

When Jamie first tries to call United Broadcasting at the pay phone, she has to dial the operator and ask to place a call to them. But when she comes back with additional change to complete the call, she just dials the number straight to them!

Jamie says she was formerly a reporter with KENO Reno. There does not appear to be a real world equivalent television or radio station in Reno, NV but there is a KENO radio station in Las Vegas.

Dr. Mortinson works for the Pacific Institute of Technology. This appears to be a fictional institution, but is probably based on the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA.

When Jamie, Troy, and Dillon pull up to the Pacific Institute of Technology, with the protestors outside, notice that the same protestor signs show up from multiple angles at the same time as the three sit in the car discussing the protests and nuclear power.

Dr. Mortinson's secretary refers to him by his first name of "Donald" after protestors throw a rock through his lab window. His full name of "Donald Mortenson" is also seen on the Institute directory sign at 33:16 on the DVD. (In the novelization, his first name is "Alfred" instead.)

Troy and Dillon carry small, gun-like devices with their Earth clothing that allows them to "freeze" for a short time any person who gets in their way.

The security guard stunned by Troy at the Pacific Institute of Technology is named Jack Archer, judging from his nametag ("Archer") and the later conversation with Mortinson's secretary ("Good morning, Jack."). In the novelization, he's Scott Miles.

At 33:15 on the DVD, the directory sign at the Pacific Institute of Technology lists Leslie McCarthy. She was actually the set decorator on the 3-hour pilot episode of this series.

Mortinson's lab is in room 323. In the novelization, it's 408.

Here, Mortinson's secretary is named Dorothy Carlyle, but in the novelization, she's Carlyle Tabakow.

Troy and Dillon mention having heard about Dr. Mortinson's paper on PBS. PBS is the Public Broadcasting Service of the United States. Mortinson later says it was a paper about "brother worlds and atomic travel", which sounds a lot like the Twelve Colonies and the Colonials' exodus across space.

The scene where Troy and Dillon leave an altered scientific equation for Dr. Mortinson is similar to a scene in the classic 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which an alien visitor to Earth writes out a new equation on a blackboard for Professor Jacob Barnhart to discover later.

At 39:13 on the DVD, notice that the Hollywood Sign is visible through the window of Brooks' office at the UBS building.

When the police attempt to book Troy and Dillon at the precinct house, they find that the two men have no fingerprints! This implies that none of the Colonial humans have them. But the "Murder on the Rising Star" episode of BSG depicts Apollo and Boomer logging into the personnel computer on the Galactica with their handprints.

At the precinct house, Troy tells the sergeant there that they must see Dr. Mortinson right away and the sergeant retorts, "Then later, I suppose, you want an appointment with the President." Besides being just a sarcastic remark about his prisoners' demands, the line could also be considered an ironic statement on the old "Take me to your leader" cliché in alien contact pop culture. 

In the episode, the police sergeant's nametag shows his last name as James. In the novelization, he is Sergeant Michael Lalor. Also the drunk being held in the tank along with Troy and Dillon is called Moran in the episode, but in the novelization he is called James William Cavin, a.k.a. Jimmy the Lush.

Notes from the novelization of "Galactica Discovers Earth", by Glen A. Larson and Michael Resnick (The page numbers come from the 1st printing, paperback edition, published December 1980) Pages 1-59 cover the events of "Galactica Discovers Earth" Part 1

The cover painting of the book appears to have been based on the original script of "Galactica Discovers Earth" which described the turbocycles as riding on a force field instead of wheels.

The back cover of the book describes Earth as "the ancient homeworld" instead of the colony world of the lost Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol as suggested in the original BSG series.

The Adama journal entry on page 3 reveals that Apollo is dead, but not when or how he died. (The story of Apollo's death was later told in the comic book mini-series The Death of Apollo, specifically "The Death of Apollo" Part 6)

Pages 3-4 reveal that Commander Adama had a rather Utopian vision of what the fleet would find on Earth. How wrong he was.

On page 4, Dr. Zee remarks in his diary tapes that when he told Adama that the fleet could not land on Earth, he'd not seen the Commander look so shocked and stunned since the day Apollo died.

On pages 5-6, Adama describes viewing a savage Earth sport that is clearly what we know of in the United States as football. If he thinks that's savage, good thing he wasn't watching rugby!

On page 6, Adama describes watching part of what must be a Western movie. He tells of a man riding into town on a strange-looking animal, obviously describing a horse. But horse-like animals are seen several times in the original BSG series in "The Long Patrol", "The Lost Warrior", and "The Magnificent Warriors", as well as in the logo of the Pegasus. Adama remarks that the man's steed probably couldn't travel 100 microns in a yahren; in the original series, "micron" was only ever used as a unit of time (about a second), not one of distance.

Also on page 6, Adama describes an Earth cartoon about a furry carnivore that keeps trying to kill a bird. This is probably a reference to the Looney Toons shorts featuring Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird.

On page 7, Adama is watching a scene of men with painted faces and ill-fitting clothes throwing circular pans of food in each other's faces. This presumably describes clowns throwing pies.

In Dillon's log on page 7, he remarks that rumors are flying throughout the fleet about the current state of Earth: it was radioactive; it was deserted; it was ruled by Cylons; it was ready to help the fleet; it was ready to declare war on the fleet; it was too advanced to be bothered with the fleet; it was too primitive to help the fleet. The truth, as Dr. Zee points out, is that Earth is too primitive to help. It's interesting to note that the first rumor, Earth is radioactive, is what the fleet of the BSG2000 series discovers in the middle of it's final season.

In the televised episode, Adama remarks that the fleet has not seen the Cylons in a billion star miles. In the novel he says the Cylons haven't been seen for two yahrens instead.

On page 9, Adama refers to Dr. Zee as being 14 years old. He should have said "yahrens" instead of "years", especially since he uses the term "yahrens" in another context within the same conversation!

On page 10, Dr. Zee explains he thinks it would be best for Quorum and Warriors to start using Earth terms whenever possible.

Adama describes Earth's sun as a G-2 star on page 10. A G-2 type is, in fact, the scientific classification of our sun by astronomers.

On page 11, Dr. Zee refers to Barnard's Star as having two gas giant planets orbiting. This is an actual red dwarf star only 6 light-years from Earth. But astronomical science has generally refuted the idea of gas giants in that system since the mid-1970s.

Continuing on page 11, Dr. Zee says that a significant amount of neutrino activity has been detected in the vicinity of Barnard's Star, indicating the Cylon fleet is hiding there, waiting for the Galactica to lead them to Earth. But how would Zee be able to detect neutrinos from a source around 6 light-years away? Obviously, it would take 6 years for the neutrinos to reach him in the fleet! Besides that, if the Cylons are that close to Earth, they should be able to detect our planet's radio emissions themselves, even it they are six years old, i.e. from 1974; possibly, as I speculated in the study of "The Hand of God", the transmission frequencies used by Earth are too primitive to be considered worth monitoring regularly (as suggested by Apollo's description of the old celestial chamber in that episode).

Also on page 11, Dr. Zee remarks that he's ordered the Galactica to be taken out of the system and to the Centaurus system, to lure the Cylons away from Earth. Wow, Dr. Zee is ordering course changes? Shouldn't that be Commander Adama's job? Centaurus is actually a constellation, not a system; Zee is presumably referring to the Alpha Centauri triple star system which is part of the constellation as viewed from Earth and only 4 light-years away.

Dr. Zee's comments about the beginning dates of the Christian and Jewish calendars on page 12 are accurate.

On page 13, Dr. Zee shows footage of a traffic jam on the Ventura Freeway. The Ventura Freeway runs between the cities of Ventura and Pasadena in southern California, incorporating U.S. Route 101 and State Route 134.

Page 13 describes Dr. Zee's simulation of a Cylon attack on Earth beyond just the scenes of L.A. in flames as seen in the episode. New York City, NY; Paris, France; and London, England are described as well. The landmarks mentioned are all real places in those cities.

Page 14 continues the simulation, with the U.S. Strategic Air Command sending up a squadron of twelve fighter jets, which are wiped out by the Cylons in a matter of seconds. Strategic Air Command (SAC) was based out of Offut Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska and SAC has since been disbanded in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union.

On page 15, Dr. Zee praises the minds and work of several science-fiction authors on Earth who have helped to spur new perceptions of the universe on the planet: Wells, Verne, Heinlein, Asimov, Stapledon, Bradbury, and Clarke. These were all actual authors over the past century and more.

On page 17, Dr. Zee seems to refer to the Warriors' wrist computrons as Languatrons. A hand-held Languatron was used by Apollo to translate Ovion speech in "Deathtrap".

In regards to the Colonial Warriors who are to infiltrate Earth society, Dr. Zee remarks, "...it should be much easier for you to disguise yourselves as semi-barbarians than it would be for them to disguise themselves as civilized men." I suspect author Mike Resnick paraphrased the line from the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", in which Mr. Spock quickly detects the mirror universe versions of Kirk, Scotty, McCoy, and Uhura by their barbaric behavior, later telling the real Kirk, "It was far easier for you as civilized men to behave like barbarians than it was for them as barbarians to behave like civilized men."

Page 20 features a UPI news dispatch about the U.F.O. incident. UPI is United Press International. The dispatch quotes three different Air Force public relations officers as identifying the U.F.O.s as swamp gas, a low-flying commercial airliner, and meteorites; this is likely a tongue-in-cheek criticism by Resnick of the U.S. military's public dismissal of U.F.O. sightings and refusal over the years to take U.F.O. reports seriously. All three of these "explanations" have been commonly used to dismiss such sightings over the decades.

The UPI article describes the U.F.O. sighting (of the Vipers) as being the largest mass sighting since the one 22 years ago over an army base in South Africa. 22 years ago would have been 1958 in the story. I'm not sure if this is meant to refer to a real event. The closest I've been able to find is the April 11, 1958 mass sighting in Johannesburg, South Africa, but it's not over an army base.

Page 21 describes the fighter jets that were sent after Troy and Dillon as being from a SAC base in New Mexico. However, there were no official SAC bases in that state.

In the novel, Troy and Dillon get into a fist fight with bikers, beating up the lead two members and eventually Troy stuns the rest with his laser. In the episode, they simply activate the flying capability of their turbocycles and fly away before violence can ensue.

On pages 25-26, Troy and Dillon encounter a more friendly biker on a Harley-Davidson at the gas station in a scene that does not occur in the episode. He makes a bunch of "strange" references they totally do not understand. Most Earthers will realize he is talking about placing bets on the horse races. His references to Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, and Seattle Slew are all to real world thoroughbred race horses of the time. Hollywood Park is a real world horse racing track in Inglewood, CA. His comment about Spectacular Bid racing next to a bunch of hamburgers is probably a reference to the ground horse meat that has been known to be used in canned dog food, so he is basically insulting the other horses in the race.

The definition of "furlong" looked up by Dillon on his wrist computron is accurate. Furlongs are often used to measure distance in horse races.

On page 27, Troy and Dillon are surprised at how Jamie operates the telephone, Dillon referring to the handset as a "thingamabob". It shouldn't be such a difficult concept for them...we've seen phone-like handsets used on the Galactica in episodes of the original BSG series!

On page 28, Troy scans the pay phone with a belt sensor instead of his wrist computron as he does in the episode.

Page 30 presents another news dispatch, this time from AP (Associated Press). The nuclear plant north of San Francisco mentioned in the article is probably Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station in Herald, CA (decommissioned in 1989 by public vote). The article also reveals that Dr. Mortinson is a Nobel Prize winning scientist. The Nobel prizes are awarded once a year by a committee of the Scandinavian countries for work in the studies of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace and are considered the top prizes in the world in each field.

On page 35, Mortinson refers to Jane Fonda as a rabble-rouser. Fonda is an actress who is well-known for her activist presence as well, including protests of nuclear power.

Also on page 35, Dr. Mortinson accuses the protestors of likening him to Baron Von Frankenstein. The Baron, of course, is the character from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein who brings to life an artificial man from the stitched-together body parts of human corpses.

On page 39, Carlyle compares Dr. Mortinson's nuclear equations with Sherlock Holmes' remarks on the mathematical treatise of Moriarty, that there was no one in the world capable of criticizing it. Moriarty was the arch-nemesis of detective Sherlock Holmes in the Holmes novels of Arthur Conan Doyle. Carlyle's reference is specifically to the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear.

On page 40, the security guard, learning over the phone that the two intruders are in Mortinson's lab with Carlyle, tells her to move to the west corner of the room, away from the door. In the episode, he tells her to move to the east corner.

In the novel, Troy and Dillon surrender themselves to the police at the Pacific Institute of Technology after leaving the equation for Dr. Mortinson, allowing the doctor to know where to find them. In the episode, it seems as if they're caught by security.

Page 42 reveals that Troy and Dillon have destroyed more than 700 Cylons between them.

On page 45, Dr. Mortinson reveals that the PBS broadcast Troy and Dillon were speaking of was a round-robin discussion with Carl Sagan and Adrian Barry. I've been unable to find a connection to a figure named Adrian Barry, but Dr. Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was a real world astronomer and astrophysicist. Starbuck was fond of the phrase "For Sagan's sake," in episodes of BSG, which was probably also an homage by Larson to the scientist.

The police blotter on page 47 describes Troy as 6'4" and Dillon as 6'3" in height. In real life the actors Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke are 6'2" and 6'1", respectively.

Here in the novel, Jamie's job interview is with a man named Dana Anderson, West Coast News Director of UBC instead of Mr. Brooks as in the episode.

On page 49, Anderson has photos of himself as a reporter with Presidents Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, and Kennedy. Carter was U.S. President at the time of this story and the other four were the preceding four to hold the office before him. There are also photos of him with Governors Reagan, Brown, Sr., and Brown, Jr.; Jerry Brown the younger was governor of California during the time of this story, with Ronald Reagan preceding him and Brown the elder preceding that.

Anderson also has a photo of himself interviewing Don Drysdale after pitching 54 consecutive scoreless innings for the L.A. Dodgers. This photo would have been taken in 1968, the year Drysdale went on to pitch 58 consecutive scoreless innings for the Dodgers.

In the episode, Mr. Brooks tells Jamie that if she can pull off an interview with Mortinson, she's got herself a job for life. But Mr. Anderson is not quite so generous here in the novel: he only promises her a 36-month contract.

On page 57, Sergeant Lalor is on the phone with someone in the police hierarchy who tells him Dr. Mortinson wants to see the two new prisoners and Lalor asks, "Dr. who?" This may be a reference to the British sci-fi TV series Dr. Who.

Page 57 suggests that Troy and Dillon have cloaked the weapons and computers on their bodies before being taken into police custody. But the devices are still on their person, so wouldn't they have been noticed by a police pat-down?

On page 58, Jimmy the Lush asks the guys if they have any Dago Red. This is a reference to cheap Italian wine.

Also on page 58, Jimmy mentions the poets Frost, Yeats, Whitman, and Benet. These are references to the real world poets Robert Frost (1874-1963), William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Walt Whitman (1819-1892), and either or both of the brothers Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) or William Rose Benét (1886–1950).

Jimmy also goes on to tell the two he used to own stock in Anaconda Copper. This was a mining company which was one of the biggest companies in the world in the early 20th Century. The stock went down the can in 1929 though, just as Sergeant Lalor states, due to a Wall Street pump-and-dump fleecing of stockholders and the crash of the stock market that year.

Sergeant Lalor mentions the pennant-winning home run by Bobby Thompson (sic) for the Giants in 1951. The National League pennant was won for the San Francisco Giants over the Brooklyn Dodgers in that year by Bobby Thomson's home run in the bottom of the ninth inning after the Giants had tied the game up from a 3-run deficit earlier the same inning. Thomson's home run came to be known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" (borrowed from the 1837 poem "Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, about the battle that is considered to have begun the American Revolutionary War).

On page 59, Jimmy's tall tales of largesse continue with his statement that he lost a bundle betting on the Packers in the first Super Bowl. The Green Bay Packers actually won the first Super Bowl in 1967.

Unanswered Questions

Why?