 |
"Galactica Discovers Earth"
Galactica 1980 #1 (Dynamite Entertainment)
Written by Marc Guggenheim
Illustrated by Cezar Razek
Cover by Lucio Parrillo
2009 |
30 yahrens after fleeing the Colonies, the fleet at last finds
Earth.
Read the synopsis of this issue at the Battlestar Wiki site
Didja Know?
This 4-issue mini-series was a reimagining of the concepts of
the
Galactica 1980 TV series. This version of events is
edgier and not aimed particularly at kids. In fact, the super
scouts are completely absent from this series. Hallelujah! If
anything, the story is a bit too pessimistically edgy, with an
alcoholic Troy, a suicidal Adama, plummeting fleet morale, a
borderline-sociopathic Dr. Zee, and
the destruction in the first issue of the Galactica!
Additionally, there are discrepancies in continuity to the
original BSG series, seeming to be a meld of both the original
and reimagined BSG series, as evidenced by the Colonial
characters having first and last names and Baltar seeming to
state that the Cylons are a creation of humanity. Like the G1980 TV series, I consider this mini-series, though
entertaining, an apocryphal telling of the end of the Colonial
fleet's journey, preferring the Maximum Press version of the
discovery of Earth in its
War of Eden
mini-series.
The title of this issue is borrowed by the writer from the
3-hour premier of the
Galactica 1980 TV series.
Didja Notice?
Although it's not so much true in the interior art, the covers
of this series depicted (besides Lorne Green's likeness as
Adama)Troy, Dillon, and Jamie with likenesses
similar to the actors who portrayed them on the Galactica 1980
TV series: Kent McCord, Barry Van Dyke, and Robyn Douglas (see
image with the comment below).
|
The cover of this issue is
loosely based on the packaging
of the Region 1 DVD set of the
TV series. |
 |
 |
|
Galactica 1980 #1 |
DVD
packaging |
The image of a mushroom cloud on the cover has a subtle skull
formed within the billows of smoke.
On page 1,
at a Harvard
lecture about the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations,
this series' version of Dr. Mortinson speaks the extended
form of the classic preamble of BSG (as originally heard at the
beginning of "Annihilation").
Panel 4 of page 1 depicts Earth scientists in 1977 readying the
two Voyager space probes which were launched into the
solar system by the U.S. that year.
|
The "Galactica 1980" logo that
appears in panel 5 of page 1 is
printed in a nearly identical
digital font as the one used in
the opening of the TV series. |
 |
 |
| TV logo |
Page 1 logo |
The Vipers seen in this mini-series are of the single occupant
kind, not the dual occupant cockpits depicted in the TV series.
The bottle Troy is drinking from on page 3 appears to be one of
the small ambrosia bottles seen in episodes of BSG.
Page 4 reveals that the Cylons have left the fleet alone for so
long that Dillon has never even seen a Cylon or a Raider.
Also on page 4, Dillon implies that Troy is drunk much of the
time.
On page 5, Commander Adama records Galactica log entry
nine-seventeen-nineteen-seventy-eight. 9-17-1978 was the
premiere date of the original Battlestar Galactica
series on the ABC television network.
Page 6 implies that Adama has been contemplating suicide and he
even holds a gun to his temple before receiving a summons from
Dr. Zee. The gun is similar in design to some seen in BSG2000.
Page 7 implies that the Rising Star is no longer the luxury
liner of the fleet, as we see that Dr. Zee seems to have a lab
there which he is currently using for the study of the
Voyager probe they've discovered. On page 8,
Dillon seems to imply that the Rising Star is Dr. Zee's
ship.
Adama asks if the Voyager probe could be from the Alliance. This
is a reference to the Eastern Alliance seen in the BSG episodes
"Greetings from Earth"
Parts 1 and 2, and "Experiment in Terra".
Dr. Zee is presented more in the likeness of Robbie Rist, the
young actor who portrayed him in the 3-part
"Galactica Discovers
Earth" premiere episode of the TV series (note the haircut and
glasses), and not the actor who appeared in the role in all
other episodes, James Patrick Stuart.
|
On page 8, Zee points to a
golden disc on the side of the
Voyager probe, stating
it took him approximately 3.2
centars (about three hours) to
devise a means of translation.
The disc is an actual part of
the two Voyager probes,
being audio recording discs
(records) of copper plated with
gold, placed with the
possibility of discovery by an
extraterrestrial civilization.
It's not revealed which of the two probes the fleet has picked
up, Voyager 1 or 2. |
 |
 |
In panel 4 of page 8, Zee states that he is an old man.
Apparently, he has reversed his aging or his consciousness has
been imprinted into the mind of a young boy. The particulars are
never explained.
Unlike in the TV series, where Adama was almost a father figure
to Zee, here the two have a somewhat antagonist relationship
with each other.
The Galactica emblem hanging on the wall in the chamber
of the Council of Twelve is a slightly modified reuse of the one
seen in the BSG2000 TV series.
After Zee shows the council and Adama the primitive
communications images from Earth, Adama remarks "Those pyramids
are nearly identical to the ones we found on Kobol." We only see
an obscured holo-image of the structures, but Adama is probably
referring to the pyramids of the Giza Necropolis in Egypt, where
the exterior Kobol pyramids and ruins were shot on location for
"A Death in the
Family".
On pages 12-13, Adama broadcasts to the fleet, stating to them
the words first used by him in the episode
"Galactica Discovers Earth" Part 1, a
slightly trimmed version of which served as the opening
narration of the G1980 TV series: "The great ship, Galactica,
majestic and loving, strong and protective, our home for these
many years we've endured the wilderness of space. And now we
near the end of our journey. We have reached our haven. We have
at last found Earth."
On page 14, the North American Aerospace Defense Command picks
up Troy and Dillon's Vipers as they soar into Earth's
atmosphere. The North American Aerospace
Defense Command (NORAD), is a joint operation of the U.S. and
Canada to provide early warning and defense against air and
space offenses against the two nations. NORAD also detected the
two in the episode "Galactica Discovers
Earth" Part 1.
On page 16, one of the President's advisors informs him that two
F-15 Strike Eagles are in pursuit of the two unidentified craft
(the Vipers) approaching Washington D.C. The proper name of
these fighter planes is
F-15E Strike Eagle, but they were not actually deployed by the
USAF until 1988. In the episode of
"Galactica Discovers Earth" Part 1, standard F-15s were seen
in pursuit.
|
On page 16, panel 2, what
appears to be
the Resolute desk is seen in the Oval Office of the White House.
The Resolute desk is so named as
it is made from the wood of the
British Arctic Exploration ship
Resolute, given as a
gift to U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 by Queen
Victoria of Great Britain. It was placed in the Oval Office by
President John F. Kennedy and since then the desk has been in
and out of the Oval Office for various reasons and used in that
office by several Presidents since then: Carter, Reagan,
Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama. (The painting to page right of
the desk appears to resemble one that was actually in that spot
during the Carter administration.) |
 |
 |
The real world U.S. President in 1980 was Jimmy Carter. The
President depicted here looks slightly like Carter
and in issue #3 of the mini-series ("Experiment in Terra"), he
is identified as such. The
President did not appear in the original TV series.
Inquiring after the UFOs, the President asks if the Russians
could've developed a new MiG. MiGs were
Soviet military planes during the Cold War, mostly fighter jet
models. MiG is the abbreviation of "Mikoyan and Gurevich", the
founders of the Russian Aircraft Corporation who built the
planes.
The President asks where is the call to Brezhnev. This is a
reference to Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at
the time, and therefore de facto leader of that country (Alexei
Kosygin was the actual Premier of the Soviet Union, a largely
figurehead position).
One of the President's military advisors recommends he take the
country to DEFCON-4. DEFCON (short for
Defense Condition) is the military state of readiness for
immediate combat within the country itself. U.S. DEFCON has 5
levels, with 1 being the highest (war is imminent). Here, the
President seems to think his advisor's recommendation is overreacting a bit, but it seems
like a reasonable stance when unidentified high-speed aerial
craft are heading towards the nation's capitol!
On page 16, panel 5, the President's military advisor calls him
"Sire"! I presume that was just a misprint of "sir".
In this issue, the Galactica enters the Earth's
atmosphere and hovers over the White House. The battlestar
entering a planet's atmosphere was never seen in the course of
BSG70 or G1980, but did occur in the BSG2000 reimagined series.
The Galactica is brought crashing to Earth by a U.S.
nuclear missile as it hovers over the White House. Part four of
the mini-series ("The Night the Cylons Landed")
suggests it was the radiation of the missile that allowed it
to penetrate the ship's shields, as the Colonials seem unfamiliar
with the concept of nuclear weapons!
Wouldn't Adama have communicated with Earth first, before making a dramatic
(and terrifying) entrance over the U.S. capitol?
The quotes from Deuteronomy at the end of the issue are
from the fifth book of the Bible, comparing Adama to
Moses.
Unanswered Questions
What "experiments" did Dr. Zee perform on people, as mentioned
by Adama on page 11? Are they related to how he has managed to
have his elder consciousness in possession of a child's body?
Back to Episode Studies
