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Fire in Space Analysis
By Walt Atwood

STORY SYNOPSIS

Boomer and Athena are enjoying some "furlon" time (off-duty) in the Galactica's game room with other personnel, young Boxey (Noah Hathaway) and Boxey's pet robo-"daggit" Muffey (A daggit being a Colonial dog, played by Evie the Chimp). On the Galactica bridge, Adama and Tigh watch their scanners closely as an approaching Cylon baseship and fighter squadrons, which the Galactica evaded ten centares (hours) before, poise for an attack. The Galactica manages to launch all her fighters in time, and Apollo, Starbuck and Sheba (Anne Lockhart) proceed to blow the huge task force out of the sky. The Cylons aren't fighting back, instead, a couple of Cylon ships break through the vipers and attack the Galactica directly. The Cylon suicide mission results in Adama suffering critical injuries on the bridge, while the Alpha (port) landing bay is destroyed in a huge fire. The fire rages through the huge Galactica's interior, cutting off the game room and threatening the vital inner workings of the ship.

Dr. Salik, the Galactica's head surgeon, (George Murdock) discovers a metal fragment from the Cylon attack is lodged in Adama's heart. Still, Salik is reluctant to operate on his commander because of the ship's unstable condition. Power outages make surgery too risky. Firefighting crews, lead by the Galactica's Fire Leader (William Bryant) try advancing on foot with hoses to spray "boraton", a powerful extinguishing fluid, on the fire. But the Galactica's power plant and explosive storage remain in jeopardy, and the rest of the ship's fate along with them. Apollo, Starbuck and Sheba conduct straffing runs on the flaming landing bay with "mega pressure" boraton fire extinguisher cannon rigged in place of their weapons. The viper mission fails.

Boomer decides to attach an S.O.S. note to Muffey and the cyber-dog (er, "daggit") through the ventilation duct. Tigh visits Adama in the Life Center. Adama's condition is deteriorating, but through his weak voice we can hear his wisdom intact. The dying commander suggests a radical strategy: place time bombs on the Galactica's hull and blow holes in the ship's armature that will suck all the fire into the vacuum of space. As Apollo and Starbuck don spacesuits and begin a weightless travail to place the explosives at strategic points on the battlestar's exterior, the fire continues to rage. Vital parts of the ship are more threatened than ever. Apollo radios Tigh that Boxey trained Muffey to sniff out mushies, so Tigh places a tray of the snacks near an open ventilation duct. Sheba watches Starbuck and Apollo's spacewalk from her viper, running a close parallel course with the Galactica. Apollo nearly looses his handhold on the hull, and it turns out that the process of setting the explosives is more difficult than anyone expected. Muffey emerges next to the mushies, and Tigh reads the note from Boomer. Tigh attaches a sack of life support masks to the robo-daggit, along with a note warning Boomer about the explosive charges. Muffey crawls back into the vent, and makes its way toward the fire. Along the way, it spots and injured firefighter laying in burning corridor. When Muffey returns to Boxey, Boomer breaks out the air masks and Tigh's warning note. The trapped Colonists all huddle together and wait for the blast. But Muffey escapes through the vent again. In the Life Center, Salik decides to risk surgery on Adama's heart. Power outages make the operation tricky, but he presses on for his commander's sake.

Apollo places his last bomb, but slips off the hull. Sheba watches helplessly as Apollo tumbles over the blast zone. Starbuck see this, and lunges off the hull toward his captain. The two join hands and the momentum carries them off. Then the bombs explode, sucking the air out of the fire and ending the danger. But Apollo and Starbuck are nowhere to be found. Did they tumble off into space? Where they caught in the explosion? Sheba starts to look for them. She sees the two of them, gripping each other's hands. A shuttle is sent to recover them.

In the Life Center, Apollo is glad to see his father is awake and recovering. Boxey is mourning his Muffey. But Starbuck has a surprise: a burned and battered Muffey is hauled in. It appears that Muffey went back to drag the injured firefighter to safety. With a little work, Boxey's noble pet will be good as new.

A Second Look

People can look at this and see it is an obvious retread of THE TOWERING INFERNO and THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. It is a disaster movie, scaled down and watered down for television. As a criticism, this view has merit only if this outing does not bring something new and innovative to the well-used concept. To be fair, BATTLESTAR actually does, by introducing the notion of spacewalking to the show. This episode also skips the usual guest cast appearances in favor of emphasizing the regulars. This is a welcome change, although it is too long overdue.

The notion of a fire in space is a tricky one to justify. Fire, in the terrestrial sense, requires air. If the Galactica's exposed landing bay were set on fire, one would think the failure of the atmosphere containment there would suck all the air out to begin with. And if all the ship's compartments are sealed, yet the fire keeps repturing them, why wouldn't the inferno eat through the hull and open up holes for the vacuum on its own? Still, the advent of a fire on the aging Russian space station Mir points to the limited possibility of fire in space.

This whole story hinged on a ridiculous design flaw in the landing bays of Colonial battlestars: the absence of a door mechanism to close off these huge caverns from space during a battle. Close a door over the gaping hole in the rear of these bays, and there's no clear way for a Cylon fighter to attack the inside of the ship. End of story.

The notion of Cylon suicide runs on a battlestar is hardly original. Since the series' debut, we have seen repeated footage of the very same tactic, even contributing to the destruction of the Battlestar Atlantis. If we had to see the Galactica crippled by a Cylon attack, couldn't the show's writers and producers come up with a new approach? In the fifth-year episode of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (Paramount/syndicated, 1987-94) entitled "Disaster", the Starship Enterprise stumbled upon a natural phenomenon called a "quantum filament", which blindsided the starship, disabling its power and communications. This left people trapped inside the great ship, suddenly cut off from essential services they took for granted. This ship's delicate power plant was also in danger of malfunctioning, threatening to explode and take the rest of the ship and crew with it. While this was far from being original by the time it aired (October, 1991), it did manage to bring new life to the "great starship in distress" concept.

The silliest flaw with both of these "great starship in distress" stories is that both crews should've had access to wireless communications. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's characters routinely used high-power, computerized badges for voice communication, while it would seem that BATTLESTAR's warrior characters would have vaguely similar technology. The notion these two stories tried to pass off is that, with the ship disabled, it's every man for himself. Neither one was very convincing. If computers, lighting, heating and gravity still worked, why not communications? Taken the other way, if communications were down, the characters should be in the cold, weightless pitch black.

At least we get to see Athena doing something other than calling reports out on the bridge. Too bad she comes across as an airline stewardess helping injured passengers.

Just what a black character needs to depict on prime-time network television: a juvenile delinquent past stealing hovermobiles.

Maybe it would've been better if Athena used her circuitry smarts to improvise an escape to the next compartment. We already know of her technical expertise from the series' debut.

If the time bombs can use a magnetic base, why couldn't the boots of the spacesuits worn by Apollo and Starbuck? Use of magnetic "gravity boots" was seen in STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (Paramount, 1992) and again in STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (Paramount, 1996).

The best performances were given by Dr. Salik (George Murdock), Tigh (Terry Carter), Omega (David Greenham) and Sheba (Anne Lockhart).

Why would Sheba and Tigh have a hard time finding Apollo and Starbuck after the explosives go off? They have radio communications, don't they? And doesn't Sheba's viper have tracking scanners?

If the detonation of those time bombs cause the atmosphere to be sucked out of the fire zone, what good would those masks do Boomer and company in a vacuum?

Where were the Galactica's laser turrets when the crew needed them?

Why did Tigh insist there was a manpower shortage? Couldn't more firefighters be called from other ships in the fleet?

Spectacle value

The Cylon combat footage, which is repetitive from previous episodes, adds nothing to the action.

One of the hokiest gimmicks that is used in space action television and movies to show a starship suffering structural damage is the alleged spectacle of a structural girder, bulkhead or frame falling on someone on the bridge. This was a tired cliche long before BATTLESTAR was ever on the drawing board. It looked ridiculous when STAR TREK (NBC/Paramount, 1966-69) did it with a Romulan bridge in "Balance of Terror", and it looks worse in this episode. Did anyone ever stop to think that, if a starship were seriously damaged in an attack, a more logical spectacle would the failure of the ship's artificial gravity or the breeching of the hull?

The shooting of "boraton" fire extinguishing element from the vipers was a somewhat innovative, if decidedly weird, special effect. It begs the question: why not equip the fleet's other starships with "boraton" cannon, and have them draw in close enough to keep pumping the extinguishing substance into the Galactica, just as some habor fireboats do here on Earth?

While we're on the subject, isn't it interesting that the other starships in the fleet are not shown throughout the combat and fire portions of this episode? Where did 220 ships go?

Those wall phones seen on board the Galactica look so cluncky and silly today. Of course, they didn't win acclaim in 1978, either.

The Colonial spacesuits make their debut in this episode. They're bobbing around so much that we never get a definitive look at them. While they are a neat (and long overdue) effect themselves, I'm left wondering why we don't see helmets that look like they are more familial with the Egyptian-style viper flight helmets.

One handy special effect that is appreciated: Muffey. The robotic pet redeemed itself in this episode.

IF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA WERE NEW TODAY

Despite the critical panning of this episode, the use of a similar plot in "Disaster" makes it clear that a "great starship in distress" story can work, if it is done well enough. The Cylon attack would have to use a more original approach (Why not show a basestar inflicting heavy damage, or trying out a prototype ship-to-ship weapon? Or how about showing the Galactica destroying a basestar, and the explosion causes collateral damage to the Galactica?) and showing some other kind of crippling damage that is not a fire.

How about showing spacesuits with magnetic "gravity boots"?

How about showing characters like Boomer and Athena is a more flattering light?

How about showing the rest of the fleet getting involved to help save the Galactica?

One key thought: if the Galactica were so ravaged by explosion and fire, what would be the ongoing consequences? This episode did not indicate how many fatalities resulted, nor did it illuminate how the damaged sections of the mighty starship were restored. It is a foregone conclusion that the landing bay and adjoining sections would have to be at least partially rebuilt... while in flight. The clearly implied ability to do this brings some more questions to mind:

1: if the Galactica is able to repair and restore crippling battle damage while in flight, why can't the Colonists use her underside to create a kind of "mobile drydock" cradle, for repairing, rebuilding and refitting other ships in the fleet?

2: We've seen the Galactica, which is supposedly a self-sufficient starship, relying on other ships in the fleet (such as the Celestra) for support services. Is it not a forgone conclusion that the Adama chose to shift some facilities to other ships in the fleet, to prevent over-reliance on one ship in the event said ship could suffer damage or other failure?

3: Why couldn't the Galactica use its in-flight construction capabilities to construct new starships? They would be constrained to a size the Galactica could handle during in-flight construction, but smaller ships could further decentralize and fortify the fleet, cushioning the refugees from even greater disaster if something happened to the Galactica.

None of these three points would necessarily alter the premise of BATTLESTAR. In fact, they could open new doors while still showing the vulnerable fleet wondering the Universe. The Colonists simply would not be as vulnerable as they started out after Carillon.

Tidbits & Nit-picks

One embarrassing goof in production values: "old" shots of Sheba launching and piloting her viper from "The Living Legend" show her wearing a pilot's helmet with a Pegasus on it. In other shots, she is shown with a helmet just like the Galactica pilots.

Speaking of "Legend", this episode's use of suicide Cylon fighters does make logical sense after Cain destroyed those two basestars near Gamoray. What happened to all of those fighters that returned to find their motherships destroyed? Baltar had to do something with them. As with the damaged Galactica in this episode, Baltar's lone basestar could only handle so many fighters at a time. The rest would have to wait their turn to refuel. The ultimate solution is to throw as many at the Colonists as possible, on a suicide mission. This is the implication used in the MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK telemovie.

One interesting oversight is Tigh's reference to viper squadrons: he loosely implies there are only four. After the fighters from the Pegasus made the Galactica their new mothership, what happened? Were these squadrons absorbed into the Galactica's exisiting units, making each squadron double in size? Or did the Pegasus' squadrons disperse to other ships in the fleet, such as the Celestra? I don't recall Silver Spar Squadron ever being mentioned after the Pegasus vanished.

Why would a starship as compartmentalized as a Colonial battlestar need central air? Isn't it a foregone conclusion that the fire or poison gas could spread that way? And what's to stop the shock from the explosion from spreading throughout the ship through those ducts? Wouldn't it make sense for every compartment (or maybe every section, or subsection) to have its own self-contained life support systems?

They should've shown Boomer replacing the ventilation cover in the storage compartment and turning a knob to seal it shut to keep the atmosphere in the room. Explosive decompression is not necessarily a better way to die than fire or smoke inhalation.

Does anyone ever notice the angle from which we see the airlock situated, relative to the Galactica's engines? It looks like Starbuck and Apollo would have to be right on top of the burning sections when they emerged. Does this imply they walked through the fire to get there?