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"The Night the Cylons Landed"
Galactica 1980 #4 (Dynamite Entertainment)
Written by Marc Guggenheim
Illustrated by Cezar Razek
Cover by Lucio Parrillo
2010 |
The Cylons rain destruction down upon Earth. With the
Galactica already destroyed, can anything stop them?
Read the synopsis of this episode at the Battlestar Wiki site
Didja Know?
The title of this issue is borrowed by the writer from the
2-part episode of the same name in the G1980 TV series.
Didja Notice?
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The cover of this issue is
loosely based on promotional art
for the original Battlestar
Galactica TV series, most
notably used on the cover of the
novelization of the series'
3-hour pilot episode. |
Page 1 reveals that Baltar's basestar is named Omega-Monthu.
In ancient Egypt, Monthu was the
falcon-headed war god. The word also meant "nomad". Together
with "Omega", which is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and
often stands for the end of something, the name of the ship may
be symbolic in the story of the end of the Colonials' nomadic
journey through the stars to Earth (in this case, Baltar's
desire for them to end their journey in death).
Also on page 1, Baltar states that Adama always claimed that
Earth was just like Caprica. There was never any suggestion in
episodes of BSG that Adama had any particular knowledge or
beliefs in exactly how Earth would be when the planet was
discovered.
Page 2 reveals that the purge of Caprica took the Cylons only 2
centars (hours) to complete. As the Cylon assault on Earth
begins, page 3 states that it takes no more than 10 centons
(minutes) for more people to be killed than died in both world
wars.
The Colonials seem not to be familiar with the concept of nuclear
weapons, as Adama calls the ones that brought down the
Galactica a super-weapon. It is implied that the radiation
of the missiles is what allowed them to penetrate the
Galactica's shields. Later in the story, the Cylon fleet is
also destroyed by Earth's nuclear weapons. It is hard to believe
that neither the Colonials nor the Cylons would be familiar with
nuclear weapons technology through their own histories. If
nothing else, the Galactica was involved in stopping a nuclear
showdown between the Eastern Alliance and the Western
Nationalists on the planet Terra in the original BSG episode
"Experiment in Terra".
The clock tower on page 5, panel 1 appears to be
Big Ben in London, England.
On page 5, we see the reintroduction of the turbocycles, as seen
in the G1980 TV series.
As Dr. Zee flees from the battle aboard the Rising Star,
a Cylon Raider heads towards the ship, identified by the ship's
computer as an Alpha class Raider. This is the first mention of
an Alpha class Raider. It looks like the standard Raider seen in
past episodes; this one does, however, fire a missile that
destroys the Rising Star, rather than the standard
laser guns.
President Carter takes Adama, Troy, and Dr. Mortinson to Langley
Air Force Base in Langley, Virginia. At the time, this was a
real U.S. Air Force base. In 2010, it was merged with the nearby
Fort Eustice Army Base to form Joint Base Langley–Eustis.
On page 10, Lucifer suggests to Baltar that the humans may be
planning a counter-attack, to which Baltar sarcastically
responds, "What could they possibly fight back with, I wonder.
Harsh language?" This may be a reference to the 1986 film
Aliens, in which one of the Colonial Marines asks,
when their ammo clips are taken away, what they are
supposed to use against the aliens "...harsh language?"
As Commander Adama announces he's going to pilot Troy's Viper in
a suicide mission against the Cylon fleet, the sun shines behind
his head in panel 1 of page 12, looking a bit like an angelic
halo. This story is the first time the elder Adama has been
depicted flying a Viper since
Surrender the Galactica.
Page 13 depicts Cylon Raiders strafing mujahideen rebels in
Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. The Soviet Union aided a communist
takeover of Afghanistan in 1978 and sent in troops to fight the
country's mujahideen rebels from 1979-1989.
Page 13 also depicts Cylon Raiders having shot down a Colonial
shuttle over Jinshanling, China.
Jinshanling is a section of the Great Wall of China.
On page 14, Lucifer appears to have human-looking metallic
hands, unlike the more organic-looking hand seen in the BSG comic
book story
"Search for
Sanctuary" Part 2 or the tendril-like fingers described
in
The Nightmare Machine.
Being a mechanical entity, Lucifer may have interchangeable
parts.
In this issue, Baltar calls Adama "Bill", implying his first
name is William as in the reimagined Adama of BSG2000. In part
three ("Experiment in Terra"),
he was referred to as Troykus Adama in the narration.
Commander Troykus/Bill (take your pick) Adama dies in this
issue, sacrificing himself to pilot a Viper loaded with a U.S.
nuclear bomb straight into the central pylon of Baltar's
basestar.
The dialog boxes disbursed throughout the panels of page 20
suggest Adama seeing his dead friends and relatives and joining
them in the afterlife. Or perhaps on the Ship of Lights?
Six quatrons after the defeat of the Cylon fleet,
Troy is seen driving a Jeep through the wheat fields of Guymon,
Oklahoma with a Ms. Hamilton.
The term "quatron" may be the Colonial
equivalent of "month"; in
"The Magnificent
Warriors", Adama remarked that he had been cooped up on the
ship for 16 quatrons. If a quatron is approximately one month,
then this scene takes place at the end of August or beginning of
September since part two of the mini-series ("Greetings From Earth")
established this story as taking place on January 27, 1980.
Guymon is a real world city in the state of Oklahoma.
Ms. Hamilton is depicted as a journalist and is obviously Jamie
Hamilton, who also appeared in the G1980 TV series as a
television news reporter. (Jamie is also depicted on the cover
of
Galactica 1980 #1 even though she does not appear in
it.)
In panel 5 of page 21, notice that the license plate of the Jeep
Troy is driving reads BSG 1980, i.e. Battlestar Galactica 1980.
Just an in-joke by the writer or artist of the series. Or maybe
the Jeep is owned by Troy and he ordered a personalized license
plate? ;-)
On the last page of the story, we see that the Colonials, in
cooperation with the U.S. (and probably other countries) are
building a new battlestar to protect Earth from the second wave
of Cylon forces they expect to come. Notice that the design of
the new ship appears to be the same as that of the reimagined
Galactica from BSG2000. The landing bay of the
under-construction battlestar shows the name of the ship to be
Adama.
The story ends with the final panel simply stating "To be
continued in...Galactica 1981." Though our current
mini-series was published in 2009, no sequel series has appeared
or been otherwise announced. I'm not really sure if writer
Marc Guggenheim necessarily intended to write a follow-up series
or just put that last panel in as a sort of "the story
continues, as all stories do, somewhere in a ficton universe."
Unanswered Questions
How many people died in the destruction of the Rising Star?
Presumably there were other people on board besides just Dr.
Zee, even if only crewmen to serve his needs.
From Earth's surface, the explosive destruction of the fleet of
basestars is seen in the sky. Obviously Adama's Viper was not
the only one armed with a nuclear bomb and kamikaze volunteer.
But how did they pick which basestar each pilot would hit?
Particularly, how did Adama know which one was Baltar's to throw
his own ship against? Did he just pick the one that was hanging
to the rear, similar to Commander Cain's assumption in
"The
Living Legend" Part 2?
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