The first of a two-parter featuring Patrick MacNee as the evil Count Iblis...

The War of the Gods (Part 1) Analysis
By Walt Atwood

STORY SYNOPSIS

Lieutenant Bojay (portrayed by Jack Stauffer), formerly of the Battlestar Pegasus, is leading Jolly (Tony Swartz) and a contingent of Silver Spar squadron vipers on a deep space probe ahead of the Galactica. As they near a planet, mysterious lights appear in space and begin buzzing the fighters with unusual speed and swiftness. Bojay orders the pilots to hold their course, they won't contact the Galactica until they have more information. But as the vipers probe deeper, the pilots are suddenly overwhelmed by a bright light and high pitched screech from a brilliant alien colossus which causes the pilots to black out in flight. On the Galactica, the bridge crew suddenly looses track of Bojay's patrol. There was a seismic report from the sector where the planet is located. Apollo, Starbuck and Sheba (Anne Lockhart) volunteer to fly a recon mission to the last known position of the Silver Spar patrol.

Upon arriving in the space where the vipers disappeared, Apollo's patrol finds no traces of the first probe. The scanners indicate no life forms on the planet. Still, Apollo decides to lead the patrol into this world's atmosphere for an examination of the surface where the disturbance took place. Sheba comments on the strange environs of this planet; while beautiful and habitable, the sky has an eerie glow and the vegetation is all red tinted. The vipers set down in a lush meadow near a huge, burned out crater that resembles the crash site of a great ship.

As the warriors start to descend the wall of the crater toward some wreckage, a strange, white-caped man appears nearby and warns the warriors off. Apollo and company meet the man, who identifies himself as Count Iblis (Patrick Macnee). Apollo's hand scanner cannot read anything, from the wreckage or from this stranger. Iblis tells in curiously vague references that he is the lone survivor of the crashed vessel, downed by the hitherto unknown Great Powers. When Apollo offers aid, Iblis smiles and returns the offer, apparently believing he has plenty to offer the them. Sheba seems sympathetic, even drawn, to Iblis. An irked Apollo wonders if this strange man, who speaks in convoluted riddles and seems distressed yet also appears fit and full of energy and confidence, could somehow be a threat. Sheba half-speculates Iblis could be one of Baltar's spies, but Starbuck seems to think one man couldn't be very dangerous. A shuttle is summoned to bring Iblis back to the Galactica.

Once back aboard the battlestar, Sheba offers to escort Iblis to quarters and an examination. Adama is curious when Apollo and Starbuck tell of their encounter on the planet. The commander will await a full report on Iblis. But Sheba seems completely captivated by the newcomer. She agrees to take him on a tour of the bridge. While there, the ship's instrumentation goes haywire. When Iblis departs, everything reutrns to normal. Apollo and Starbuck visit the Galactica's head surgeon, who reports that all attempts to scan Iblis' body have failed. When Adama learns from Tigh that Iblis was seen touring the bridge, the commander is outraged. Why would an unknown alien be exposed to a sensitive military post? Adama demands the Iblis be summoned to the commander's office immediately. Apollo and Starbuck find Iblis touring the triad court (like combining basketball with a little pool and doubles tennis) with an adoring Sheba, who is now in a civilian dress. Apollo orders Iblis to accompany him to the commander's office. Both Iblis and Sheba protest. Apollo offers Iblis the chance to come freely, or as a prisoner. Sheba leaves, insisting Iblis "is the only man who ever really knew me." Iblis goes to leave, but stops and says with an eerie smile "Apollo, don't ever make the mistake of threatening me again, or you'll forfeit your life in the wink of an eye."

Adama privately confronts Iblis, who reveals very few answers. The strange, caped man offers only this: "Your people will be safe, under my leadership."

Sheba takes Iblis to an agro-ship, where they tour an arboretum. There, Iblis reveals he can read Sheba's mind, about her wish to be reunited with her father, Cain. He uses this to seduce Sheba. In one of the Galactica's labs, Apollo and Starbuck ask Dr. Wilker (John Dullagham) if Iblis could be an android. Wilker agrees that it is very possible to make a lifelike machine. Just then, the Galactica goes on alert. The fleet is being buzzed by the bright lights which the viper patrols encountered earlier. Adama addresses the fleet's public address system, assuring people not be alarmed. There are no hostile moves being made by the lights. Interceptors are launched. The pilots try to track the lights, but find any attempts to keep up with them impossible. Before the ships can turn around to return to the Galactica, the brilliant alien colossus appears again and the interceptors disappear. Adama again confronts Iblis. This time, Iblis displays the power to move a candle display by sheer force of will. Iblis offers that he is from a race of beings that have harnessed the power of the mind. He proposes that he will perform three "miracles" as tests of his worthiness. Passing these tests will mean that Iblis will assume leadership.

In deep space, a Cylon basestar is buzzed by the strange lights. Baltar gazes into a malfunctioning scanner while Lucifer reports that the Cylon fighters are not swift enough to intercept these lights. Baltar muses on the origin of the lights: "Adama. He has scientists aboard the Galactica." Could this be some technological breakthrough? Lucifer expresses hope that it is. This astounds Baltar. Lucifer indicates that the alternative is that some other force in the Universe has been discovered, one that is more powerful than their own. On board a freighter starship fashioned into a refugee habitat, Sheba shows Iblis the primitive conditions people live under. Apollo again confronts Iblis, but this time Iblis rallies the civilians to his support. He says to go to the agroships and see that there is food in abundance. Sure enough, Dr. Wilker and the agroship hand show Apollo that the trees bare new fruit. On the Galactica, the Council of Twelve convenes, and Iblis tells them what they were thinking. The first test Iblis will face is to "deliver your enemy unto you this night".

On the Cylon basestar, Lucifer reports that attempts to intercept the lights proved impossible. Baltar decides to contact the Galactica and fly in his fighter to negotiate with Adama. News of Baltar's pending arrival spreads "like sunbursts, through every corner of the fleet." The people are jubilant. Their enemy has been delivered.

A Second Look

Once again, BATTLESTAR has shown us a two-part story where the first part stands on its own.

One thing I found odd: Apollo's scan of the red planet indicated "NO LIFE FORMS", yet we see the surface of the world covered with vegetation. And we hear the faint sound of songbirds in the background during the lush garden scenes.

There are some very loose ends in this story: why did the bright lights start buzzing the vipers in the first place, and why did the brilliant alien colossus abduct the fighter pilots? Were the Great Powers trying to keep the pilots from discovering Iblis on the red planet? If so, why didn't they simply drop the pilots off again, headed in the opposite direction? Why hold them against their will? This contradicts the notion of free will in this episode.

Why did the Council of Twelve not confront Count Iblis about the ship found crashed in the crater on the red planet? Shouldn't they make him explain what happened? It seems like everyone forgot where this Iblis was discovered in the first place. It doesn't make any sense for the fleet's leadership to welcome an alien so easily.

If Iblis must allow people to flock to him of their own free will, how did he get away with sweeping Sheba off her feet? She initially expressed concern for his well being. It seems that he took control of her by reading her thoughts and exerting telepathic influence over her. That's more than just con-artistry. Sheba's careless attitude toward Apollo is also disturbing. While her insubordination exhibits clearly that she is being influenced by Iblis, it also seems to take her out-of-character too suddenly. Would she be so disrespectful of a superior officer, so quickly?

The scene where Apollo confronts Iblis on the triad court, only for Iblis to turn and make a clearly terroristic threat to Apollo, was off the scale. Apollo was within his rights (and duties as a commissioned officer) to arrest Iblis right there, with Starbuck as his witness. Of course, they were all soft on Iblis right from the start. Iblis should've been placed in military custody from the time he was discovered on the red planet. It is the duty of warriors to treat a newcomer in a potentially dangerous situation as a suspect. Clearly, they had Probable Cause.

Count Iblis wins support from the civilians far too easily. The elder lady (Paula Victor) says "forget Adama" too quickly. If the people of the fleet respect their own protectors so little and exhibit such opportunism, then it seems they survive in spite of themselves, not because of themselves. Such a mentality would not last long in the icy cold of space...

A paradox is created by Baltar's arrival aboard the Galactica. Did Iblis cause Baltar to make contact? If so, then it's a foregone conclusion that not all of the dancing lights are hostile to Iblis. In fact, Iblis would have to be responsible for the lights buzzing the Cylon basestar. Why else would those lights visit the Cylons? Lucifer indicates they were previously unknown to the Cylons.

If Iblis did not cause Baltar to come to the Galactica, but simply saw the future and took credit for it, then why did the lights buzz the Cylons?

This episode walks a fine like between the telepathic science fiction of STAR TREK and the magical, spiritual fantasy of STAR WARS (20th Century Fox, 1977). The scenes where Sheba is being influenced by Iblis seem too much like the Jedi parlor tricks, like when Obi-Wan Kenobi affected the "weak" minds of the Imperial guards near the Skyport. GALACTICA would do best to keep inside sci fi territory.

Spectacle Value

The brilliant alien colossus, or "ship of lights", was a great special effect. The visual effect gives the impression that this is a huge, Death Star-like city in space that would make a Colonial battlestar, or even a Cylon basestar, look small in comparison. But equally eerie is the music and the sound effects that go with the colossus.

The little round balls of light do the job, but are less impressive. They seem too surrealistic, especially when superimposed over BATTLESTAR's existing special effects. They also seem inconsistent in size. And the sound issue begs the question: while it is one thing for warriors to use radio communications to converse while in flight, how do the lights use sound to cause them pain? Sound, on its own, does not carry through the vacuum of space. If the sound is being carried over their comm system, why don't they just turn the volume down, or shut it off? If the sounds from the lights are not being carried via comm-link, then how do these warriors come to hear them? Are the lights causing the ships themselves to resonate? Or maybe the sound is telepathic in its conveyance, much like the mutant telepaths in the subterranean Temple of the Holy Fallout in the bizarre post-apocalyptic tale RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES (20th Century Fox, 1970).

The scenes of the planet surface, apparently seen through a red filter, may seem like a cheap special effect. Still, they work. It's a shame the show's makers didn't see fit to show the fighters touching down in a locale more exotic than a meadow. Despite all this, the planetfall scenes are a dramatic improvement over seeing so many previous worlds in darkness. The scenes of the crash site are very effective.

We finally get to see a Colonial warrior using a handheld scanning device that seems vaguely reminiscent of the tricorders seen in STAR TREK. Apollo's unit has what appears to be a very small liquid crystal display. Too bad the makers of this show couldn't stray a couple of decades into their own future and borrow a Palm or PocketPC for ideas. This is one place where BATTLESTAR can make better technological sense than TREK: show the warriors using a handheld device with a built-in scanner, communicator and computer that can use a wireless link to the spaceships for telemetry purposes. We've already seen warriors using headsets for hands-free communications. Why not marry the two ideas? This would actually make for a very plausible special effect.

The costume worn by Count Iblis may not seem at first to be technically considered a special effect, but it only helped an already capable Patrick Macnee give that much more of a magnetic presence to his role.

IF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA WERE NEW TODAY...

Iblis' seduction of the Colonial people, including Sheba, would have to be less magical and more human in nature. Iblis would have to be shown as more of a lawyer-like con-artist.

There would have to be more exploration of interesting alien places, like the red planet and the crash site. And there would have to be more detail on what's going on there than just a "high radion levels" cop-out. Why not show civilian specialists accompanying a survey mission? It would add depth to the relationship between the warriors and the refugees in the fleet.

There should also be exploration situations where the Colonists meet aliens that are profoundly different from the human race. An excellent example of this would be the beautiful Speilberg picture CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (Columbia Pictures, 1977) which Galactica should've patterned itself after in the first place.

If BATTLESTAR were to be revived, its makers should think seriously about bringing Patrick Macnee back to the show. He may be getting older, but he's just too good to pass up.

This episode proves that BATTLESTAR does not need the Cylons. It would be far more interesting if the Galactica and her fleet encountered other alien races-- some more advanced, some not --whose intentions were unclear. Conversely, it would also be very entertaining to see a "strange bedfellows" story in which the Galactica has to join forces with a Cylon basestar to escape a common problem.

The whole use of the Freighter Gemini to exhibit the malcontent dregs of humanity, combined with the all-too-foolish Council of Twelve (aka dumb old men draped in grey and white) has, by this point in the series, become a very tired cliche. An insult, in fact. It's almost as bad as the repetitive use of Cylon combat footage. If the conditions in the fleet are that bad, then why doesn't someone propose a seeding program, where a small percentage of the fleet's people have an opportunity to part ways and settle on some isolated planet at their own risk? Given that the fleet apparently has the ability to manufacture fighters and important equipment, why not groom small contingents of warriors to accompany each group of "Colonial offshoots" in establishing a new home? This could lead to a variety of stories, including mutinies from those who do not wish to wait their place in line.

Tidbits & Nit-picks

In this episode, we get to see the warriors making planetfall on an unknown world, then returning to the Galactica without even mentioning decontamination procedures.

This marks the last appearance of Lucifer, or any other IL-series Cylon, in the original BATTLESTAR series. A pity, since they were the only interesting Cylon characters on the show.

If Iblis' presence jams all of the Colonists' equipment, how did they manage to launch a shuttle with him in it?

If the presence of the mysterious lights jams Cylon equipment like Iblis jams the Colonists' equipment, how did the Cylons know the lights were there, much less launch fighters to investigate?

It is strange enough that Sheba is able to give Iblis a tour of the Galactica's sensitive posts, but it is patently absurd to think she can give him a tour of the fleet at will. That takes time, fuel to shuttle from one ship to another, and permission. Sheba is, after all, in the military.

Earlier in the series, in the episode "The Magnificent Warriors", we are left with the impression that the fleet has three agroships; a Cylon attack destroys two of them and damages a third. During this BATTLESTAR outing, we see at least one, maybe two, such ships. The impression left in the episode is that there are several such vessels in operation. And apparently, there is enough excess room in the ship Iblis tours with Sheba for an arboretum. This implies plenty of room for growing both crops and less space-efficient trees and other non-agricultural plant life. All this implies that either there were more agro-ships in the fleet to begin with, or the fleet's internal industrial infrastructure was able to build new ships.

If the Colonists have the ability to either build new ships or rebuild existing ones while in flight, then why can't they work to improve the living conditions of their population?

In this episode, we get to see Adama at his desk with a pen and papers. On board a fleet in deep space under emergency conditions, one would think that this kind of primitive technology would be unheard of. Again, these folks need a Palm or a PocketPC for all their notes, memos and other documentation.

Once again, BATTLESTAR gives the Bad Guy the best line: when the bright lights buzz the agro-ship while Iblis is romancing Sheba on board, he tells her "Don't be beguiled! They taunt you with a glow that conceals everlasting darkness! Look away, Sheba!" Of course, Casseopia comes in a close second: "When all of our medical technology fails, we still resort to blatant feminine wiles."