Galactica 1980 "The Night the Cylons Landed" Part 2 Written by Glen A. Larson Directed by Barry Crane Original air date: April 20, 1980

Troy and Dillon are ordered to stop the Cylons on Earth at all costs.

Read the synopsis of this episode at the Battlestar Wiki site

Didja Know?

This story takes place on the night of October 31, 1980, Halloween.

Didja Notice?

The New York Police Department cruisers seen in this episode are pretty close to the actual vehicles used by the NYPD at the time.

At about 5:22 on  the DVD, the police cars chase Troy and Dillon past a fisheries warehouse displaying loading docs for Star Fisheries, Inc., Ocean Fish Co., and Independent Fish Co. There are a number of companies by these names throughout the world. Their proximity as seen here suggests that the scene was filmed in the oceanfront community of San Pedro, CA (substituting for the port of New York), which has companies of similar name and is near Los Angeles, where most of Galactica 1980 was filmed.

At about 5:43 on the DVD, large, metal shipping containers for CTI and Mitsui OSK Lines are seen. I've not been able to positively identify CTI, but Mitsui OSK Lines is a real world transport company based out of Japan.

Many of the costumes of the party-goers at Arnie and Mildred's party appear to be of the generic variety: gypsies, cowboys, etc. One child does appear to be dressed as Raggedy Andy.

As Troy and Dillon evade the police on foot and attempt to dry off from their dunk in the harbor, a number of sidewalk businesses are seen. They all appear to be fictional, studio back-lot facades: Nick's Liquors, Remos Club, True Value Loans, Rueben's Antiques, and the Yorba Luz Ballroom.

A dispatch on the police radio tells unit 47 to report to the east side YMCA. 

At 10:42 on the DVD, Troy and Dillon enter through a side door into a stage theater presenting a children's musical. Costumed characters based on animated children's' TV programs are dancing on stage to a song. The song is "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from the 1946 Disney film Song of the South. Three of the characters on stage are: Scooby-Doo, Hair Bear, and Hong Kong Phooey. I've not been able to identify the male and female hillbilly-dressed dog/bear/chipmunk characters.

When Troy and Dillon are forced onto the stage to perform in the children's show, the song being sung is "On the Good Ship Lollipop", the trademark song of actress Shirley Temple during her child actor years.

Troy and Dillon lift the "Shirley Temple" character onto their shoulders as part of the stage act. A few seconds into it, they activate their personal invisibility shields so they can make a quick escape. "Shirley" appears to be floating on air as they carry her across the stage this way, but the wires holding her suspended are visible. And why would she not turn invisible with them as Jamie and Dr. Mortinson did with them in "Galactica Discovers Earth" Part 2?

From signs posted outside the theater, it appears the children's' stage show is called Oh You Kids!

Notice that Troy and Dillon do not bring their regular Earth attire back out with them when they leave the theater still wearing the stolen white tuxedos and they are not seen wearing those sets of Earth clothes again. In the following episode, "Space Croppers", they are wearing all new attire.

Disc jockey Wolfman Jack appears at the party in a costume possibly meant to be Christopher Columbus.

In his conversation with Andromus, Wolfman Jack remarks that Marconi sent the letter S across the Atlantic in 1901. This is true, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio signal, a Morse code of the letter S from England to Newfoundland, on December 12, 1901.

Wolfman Jack goes on to comment on solar flares, which "stops radio plain dead." He is referring to solar flares on the surface of the sun, which can cause havoc with radio signals and other electronics on Earth.

Troy and Dillon walk through Central Park in tracking down the Cylon fugitives. Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan and one of the largest urban parks in the world.

Troy and Dillon make reference to the fact that they're carrying stolen money. This is a reference back to "The Super Scouts" Part 1, wherein Dillon inadvertently robbed a bank.

In this episode, we see that Andromus, and presumably all humanoid Cylons, has the ability to shoot red, lightning-like charges from his fingertips.

At 23:28 on the DVD, we see that Arnie and Mildred's apartment is at the Town House, near Central Park. This appears to be a fictional apartment complex.

Responding to the fire at 23:44 on the DVD, a fire engine rolls up to the Town House apartments. The "1" has been covered up so as to look like Engine 5, but it is clearly Engine 51, which appeared in the 1972-1977 Universal TV series Emergency! 

When fire breaks out in the apartment building, a young boy named Sammy runs back in to rescue his dog. Notice that the boy's Halloween costume is a spacesuit that is actually the same design as the ones worn by Michael and Sarah and their children in the 2-part BSG episode "Greetings From Earth"!
Sammy	Michael and Sarah from "Greetings From Earth"

As the Town House residents and guests are evacuated from the burning building, the fire chief tells them they will be taken to Bellevue receiving for examination. This is a reference to Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, the oldest public hospital in the United States.

Colonel Briggs tells the police chief that a fellow officer is currently in a Washington hospital suffering from "a kind of shock" and that is brain is "someplace else". This must be referring to Colonel Sydell, who was shot in the chest by a beam from Xaviar's laser pistol in "Spaceball". But what does he mean in saying that Sydell's brain is "someplace else"? Is confusion or delirium a side effect of surviving a shot from a Colonial laser? Or is Sydell having a nervous breakdown brought on by his failed efforts to track down the extraterrestrials?

The taxicab at 28:34 on the DVD has the phone number 555-6875 painted on the side. The 555 prefix of the phone number is a long-time convention in Hollywood TV and film. The logo on the door says Orange Checker Taxi; such a business exists in Biloxi, MS, but does not appear to exist in New York.

Wolfman Jack says the radio station's transmitter is located at the International Trade Center. This appears to be a fictional building for this story, though the World Trade Organization and UN have a subsidiary organization by the same name, with offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Mexico City, Mexico. (In the original script, the location was the World Trade Center.)

Notice that Dillon refers to an elevator as an ascension tube. Must be a Colonial term for elevator (though Armageddon refers to an elevator as simply an "ascensior").

The song playing at the radio station as the Cylons enter with Wolfman Jack is Linda Ronstadt's 1976 cover of "That'll Be the Day". Later, "My Life" by Billy Joel plays (which also appeared in "Galactica Discovers Earth" Part 1). Later still, "What a Fool Believes" by the Doobie Brothers is playing.

At 33:10 on the DVD, an Otari MX5050 audio recorder/player is seen among the automated equipment at the radio station. Otari is a real world producer of professional audio equipment.

At 33:13 on the DVD, an audio tape spool is seen playing that has the Scotch logo on it. Scotch is a brand name used by the 3M Company for various products manufactured by them; this once included Scotch audio and data tape, but these lines were discontinued in the 1990s.

The pre-recorded audio playing during the broadcast at the radio station reveals that the station's call letters are WQSL. At the time, this was a completely fictional station. Currently, there is a WQSL in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

As the party-goers tell the police chief about the man who shot flame from his fingertips, Arnie remarks that he once saw a movie in which a man who had a flamethrower attached to his arm, hidden under his robe, used it to create a burning bush to impress the natives. Is Arnie referring to a real world film? I'm not aware of any movie that quite fits that description.

The photos of Troy and Dillon that Briggs shows to Shirley must have been taken by surveillance cameras at Griffith Park Observatory, judging from a background sign in the photos that reads "THE MOON". They visited the observatory with the super scouts in "The Night the Cylons Landed" Part 1. But how did Briggs find out the two had ever been there to get the photos in the first place?

At 37:10 on the DVD, the police car is missing its rearview mirror. This is common in cars used in film and television production; the rearview mirror is often removed so as not to obstruct the actors faces when shooting from an exterior camera.

Andromus plans to use WQSL's Emergency Broadcast System equipment to transmit their signal to the Cylons. The Emergency Broadcast System is currently known (since 1997) as the Emergency Alert System, a national warning system in the United States allowing the government to transmit warnings and information to the public in the event of emergency.

At 40:14 on the DVD, an underneath shot of the Galactica is run in reverse, so the ship appears to be going backwards!

The Galactica detects Andromus' transmission from Earth. Commander Adama says it is aimed toward the star Balcon. This is not the name of any star in Earth's lexicon. Presumably it is a Colonial or Cylon name. Dr. Zee recommends transmitting interference to jam the signal, but fails to point out that a transmission broadcast by any Earth technology would take years, if not decades or centuries, to reach another star in the galaxy.

Is Andromus and Centuri's origin baseship located at Balcon? Is there an entire Cylon base there? In "Galactica Discovers Earth" Part 1, Dr. Zee detected neutrino activity in the vicinity of Barnard's Star, indicating the Cylon fleet was hiding there.

When Troy and Dillon discover Andromus and Centuri on the roof of WQSL, a firefight ensues. The Cylons use laser pistols, which were not previously seen used by them in BSG (except for the Cylon called Red Eye in "The Lost Warrior", who used a Colonial pistol stolen from a fallen Warrior); in that series, the Cylons carried laser rifles with a bayonet on the barrel.

At 44:03 on the DVD, the trash truck that picks up the dumpster containing the bodies of Andromus and Centuri is labeled N.Y.D.S. This obviously stands for New York Department of Sanitation, though the department is actually known as Department of Sanitation New York, DSNY.

At the end of the episode, Centuri is depicted in several pieces. Presumably, he and Andromus were crushed by the truck's compactor.