The second half of Walt's take on this two-parter...
The Living Legend (Part 2) Analysis
By Walt Atwood
STORY SYNOPSIS
Baltar is personally leading an attack on the Battlestar Galactica, using the combined Cylon fighter-bomber squadrons from three baseships. The Galactica and her fighters, outgunned, are on the ropes with Cylon attacks on the landing bays making relief impossible. Baltar savors the moment until one of his Cylon co-pilots notices the approach of another battlestar: Commander Cain (portrayed by the late Lloyd Bridges) aboard the Pegasus orders a counter strike with his ship's fighters freshly fueled and armed. Baltar's fighter narrowly avoids collision and anti-fighter fire from the Pegasus. He notices Pegasus' vipers swarming in and sounds a retreat. Cain radios Adama aboard the Galactica and requests a conference to plan their next move.
On the Galactica, Cain insists that the one way to prevent Gamoray's fighters (they have four complete squardons, the equivalent of a baseship) from joining Baltar's strike force in a attack would be to attack the Cylon city immediately. Once the supply depot is secure, the fleet can refuel and escape. Cain points out that with the Galactica damaged and still in need of fuel, Adama's flagship should remain over Gamoray until it is time to escape. The Pegasus will go out to meet the returning Cylon fighter squadrons and decoy them away from Gamoray. Adama reluctantly agrees. Apollo, Starbuck and Boomer and getting ready for a parachute drop onto Gamoray when their insubordinate rivals Sheba (Anne Lockhart) and Bojay (Jack Stauffer) show up and offer their familiarity with the target. As the airborne-commandos get ready to move out, Casseopia stops Starbuck and notes that Cain is leaving in the Pegasus without her. That can only mean he doesn't expect to come back. Since the commando team doesn't have a med-tech, she volunteers to go with them.
A shuttle sprints into Gamoray's atmosphere, and drops the commando team into the Cylon's outer capitol. Once there, the commandos start planting explosive charges on an exposed munitions dump. The team regoups to attack command post, but they are missing Bojay, they go back to find him hit. Casseopia manages to stop Bojay's injuries from getting any worse, but she has to stay behind with him while the others attack the Gamoray's office complex. While the warriors make their way back to the Cylon headquarters, the Cylon Imperious Leader's ship lands at the air dome. The Leader has come to dedicate the newly completed base. In a great reception hall, many Cylons gather to greet their Leader. The Leader appears, and begins his address to dedicate the capitol. Just this occurs, the charges planted in the capitol go off. The Cylon Leader demands an explanation. Starbuck and Boomer are first to make it to the Cylon command station. They get into a firefight with the locals and bomb the place. With the Cylons incapacitated, the battlestars launch fighter squadrons to strafe the defensive installations and secure the depot. With that done, shuttles begin arriving to rescue the commandos and to drain the fuel stores. As a shuttle begins taking Apollo's team up to orbit, he notes they are heading for the Pegasus. Casseopia gave the order because Bojay needs medical attention. She tells Starbuck she still hasn't decided, she is still confused. He tells her he understands.
Baltar learns that Gamoray is being attacked. He sees this as the perfect opportunity to attack the Colonial fleet; they will be vulnerable. Lucifer tells his commandant of how the Imperious Leader has come to Gamoray to dedicate the base. Baltar changes his tune: "Send everything we have to destroy those two battlestars, and let not a single ship return until that's accomplished!" As the Cylon squardons head for Gamoray, Cain orders the Pegasus to charge toward the baseships. Apollo confronts Cain, saying that he will be sending all the pilots of both battlestars, including Sheba, into battle against the odds. As the Pegasus meets the Cylon squadrons, Cain launches the combined forces of vipers from both battlestars to spearhead a corridor for the Pegasus right through the Cylons. The Pegasus takes on heavy damage to her landing bays, and its seems the Cylons will close in from behind and destroy the battlestar. But Baltar determines that the Pegasus is attempting a decoy to draw Cylon fire away from the Colonial fleet at Gamoray. He orders the Cylons to continue on to Gamoray, leaving the Pegasus alone. The Cylon attack force veers off, leaving the Pegasus to continue on, away from Gamoray. Apollo and Starbuck, who landed on the Pegasus when Sheba's viper was damaged and she was injured, realize Cain is planning to continue on to attack the Cylon baseships. Casseopia tends to Sheba's injuries aboard the Pegasus, which is undergoing quick repairs. Adama and Tigh realize that Cain's decoy isn't working, the Cylons are continuing in the Galactica's direction. They order a withdrawal of troops and shuttles from Gamoray. Adama opens a communication link to Cain, and confronts the Pegasus' commander about what he is doing. Cain admits he is out to attack the baseships, thus again he will draw the Cylon fighters away from the Galactica. Adama concedes there is nothing he can do to stop Cain.
Apollo is to lead all of the fighter squadrons on an escort of the Pegasus shuttles back to the Colonial fleet. All the injured and non-essential personnel are to be evacuated on the shuttles. On the lead Cylon basestar, Lucifer reports that the Pegasus is continuing to advance in their direction. Baltar is horrified upon discovering that the legendary Commander Cain may be after his head. He orders the fighter squadrons to reverse course, and return to the baseships for protection. Apollo and Starbuck realize the course that the shuttle fleet is taking will lead their force away from the path of the Cylons, should they return. So, why not check out the rear flank? The two steer their vipers to catch up with the Pegasus. As the Pegasus draws closer to the Cylon motherships, the Apollo and Starbuck's vipers approach from behind. Baltar orders the two supporting baseships to confront the Pegasus, while his baseship will retreat.
Cain is surprised to learn that two vipers are passing the Pegasus and attacking the two nearest basestars. Apollo and Starbuck note that the Cylon juggernauts can't fire at the vipers without hitting each other, so they don't. The two warriors pick off the Cylon weaponry, severely damaging the starships. The Pegasus moves in and fires her own weapons at point-blank range. The Cylon ships explode in an incredible cascade of energy. When the bright lights die away, there's nothing but smoke and debris. The Pegasus is nowhere to be found. As Baltar's fighter squadrons approach, Apollo and Starbuck sprint for the Galactica.
On the Galactica, Sheba is still recovering in the Life Station. Apollo and Starbuck visit her, and they speculate on what became of Cain and the Pegasus. The rogue battlestar has not been heard from since it engaged the two basestars. It was never conclusively proven to be destroyed. With the Cylon fighter force from the three baseships returning with no baseships to land on and drained fuel cells, the Pegasus could've slipped away. Adama stops in and welcomes Sheba to her new battlestar and a new family.
A Second Look
This clever story of maneuvering, both in tactical moves and in relationships, stands on its own as well as the first part of "The Living Legend" did. It introduces us to new characters who would continue to appear in the series, while also showing them working with and relating to the established ones. Unlike the first half, "Part 2" does not show a Colonial fleet as threatened from within as it is from without. Instead, the reclosive Cain orders his ship to go off on its own, with very little confrontation from Adama and his people.
Many aspects of the battle tactics in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA seem derived from MIDWAY (Universal, 1976), the epic hours-long feature film detailing the changes of fortune of the United States and Japanese navies from the Battle of Coral Sea through the pivotal Battle of Midway, in late May and early June of 1942. "The Living Legend, Part 2" especially capitalizes on the deceptive feinting tactics seen in MIDWAY. Still, Cain's reclosive battle tactics seem to have more to do with two other more commentary-based war movies from the 1970's, namely PATTON (Paramount, 1970) and COLLISION COURSE (TV movie, 1975). In PATTON, George C. Scott portrayed the legendary U.S. Army commander George S. Patton, Jr., who lead campaigns in North Africa, southern Italy, and the Battle of the Bulge. Scott's Patton was shown as a harsh and eccentric figure, sometimes abusive of his troops, sometimes a loose cannon. The movie translated to television well, which makes this GALACTICA outing somewhat disappointing. Lloyd Bridges could not draw his character from a real-life military leader, so he made up a gambler with big guns. Cain's egotistical demeanor seems to have as least something to do with Henry Fonda's portrayal of an insubordinate Gen. Douglas MacArthur in COLLISION COURSE, which focused on the Korean War.
So, now we're back to playing HOGAN'S HEROES again. Is that all these warriors can do, just sneak into enemy installations with curiously lax security, and plant stick-on bombs? At least the notion of parachuting commandos into the capitol was original enough, even though it remains to be seen how they landed on this alien world and knew right where to focus their attacks. It also remains to be seen how they managed to fly a shuttle so close to the city so that the parachutists could be deployed without being intercepted by Gamoray's fighter squadrons.
A recurring problem with BATTLESTAR's depiction of violence is that it makes the ongoing war with the Cylons look like a game, instead of the horror that war is. When the vipers fly strafing runs on the Gamoray capitol, pilot Jolly comments "This is almost to easy!" Indeed, this show is one of the most vivid examples of how the series trivializes combat. Even if prime-time television in the 1970's had to remain bloodless, earlier series such as COMBAT! (ABC-MGM/UA, 1962-7) showed it did not have to be a plastic parody of the real thing.
The "city" which the commandos parachute into looks conspicuously like a college campus in California, which fan lore maintains it is. The boxy concrete architecture of the buildings seems so incongruous, after what we've seen of the Cylon ground stations in the past. Could it be that, like the captured castle/citadel seen in "The Young Lords", these facilities were designed and built by the Delphian Empire? In the interior scenes, we see IL-series Cylons and centurions gathering to greet the Imperious Leader. We also see another species, which is not given a speaking role in the episode. This species is shrouded in shiny capes, and has what looks like a cyber-mechanical prosthesis for a face. Are these Cylons, or are they Delphians under Cylon rule?
The Cylon Imperious Leader, voice by Patrick Macnee, appears for the last time in this episode. Unfortunately, we never get to see the Leader's face. We see a profile of the Leader, facing away from our view. It looks conspicuously like the show's makers did not want to show to whole costume. Maybe this would've been too expensive, and maybe it should've been that way. To show the Cylon Leader in this episode, then reduce "his" appearance to only a couple of incidental scenes, makes the whole "dedication" into a ho-hum plot device. Given the significance of this figure, and the history of the Cylons on this show, it was clearly a mistake not to show more of the Cylons' interplay and eventual reaction to the Colonial attack. Could the Leader have been on Gamoray in anticipation of Baltar's attack on the fleet, and subsequently to relieve the human commander of his post in favor of the traitor's execution? Did the Leader know nothing about what was happening in this galaxy? And isn't it interesting that the Leader's arrival suggests even more Cylon forces would be on hand for the Imperious escort? There could be yet another baseship in the area (this was shown in the MISSION GALACTICA telemovie) which would raise the Cylon firepower to five baseships! And two battlestars got the best of them. Now that's pushing the envelope!
There is the implication from the viper strafing runs that yet another Imperious Leader was killed by the Galactica warriors, this one the second after the destruction of Carrilon.
Speaking of Carrilon, isn't it neat that the Cylon/Ovion tylium mines caused that planet to completely explode, but a more severe attack on the munitions dump on Gamoray leaves the base intact enough for the Galactica's shuttles to extract enough fuel to replenish the fleet's reserves? Given that whatever the fuel is that powers spaceships in BATTLESTAR must be powerful enough for those ships to at least approach the speed of light (if not go many times lightspeed) then wouldn't detonating an even small amount of this fuel create an explosion which would dwarf most nuclear devices on contemporary Earth? (The munitions dump must have some fuel, or something similar.) This is no nit-pick after "Saga of a Star World, Pt. 3". If anything, raiding the supply depot would be out of the question.
At least in STAR TREK, ground troops employ computerized sensing devices called tricorders to analyze the situation and tell them the difference between a repair shop and a command office complex. The commando team does not appear to use anything but their eyes and ears.
Spectacle Value
Despite the recycling of fighter combat footage ad nauseum, there are some long-overdue interesting sequences in this episode. We get to see a confrontation between starships (two Cylon basestars against the Battlestar Pegasus) for the first time. We also get to see a nice viper-strafing sequence where Cylons on the ground get chewed up by incoming fire.
There is a comical sequence where Apollo and Sheba catch up with Starbuck and Boomer, just as the Cylon command center explodes. Did they find the command center? Yep. Where? There! Kaboom!
You have to hand it to BATTLESTAR's makers: they recognized that commandos look good in basic black tights.
At the beginning of "Part 2", we see Batlar's fighter narrowly avoid collision with the Battlestar Pegasus. The size of Baltar's fighter seems unusually large next to the nose-section of the Pegasus.
Fans have been known to criticize the decline of production values in this episode. There is a sequence where recycled stock footage of a shuttle in flight is superimposed over itself a handful of times, to create the appearance of a squadron of shuttles in space. The recycled, overlapping footage doesn't fit together. It makes two of the shuttles look like they're about to collide.
A far worse misuse of stock footage would have to be the missile launch from the Pegasus during its final battle with two Cylon basestars. The images of missiles launching was actually real-life footage of the Command Module separation from the final stage, prior to "LEM Extraction" during N.A.S.A.'s Apollo moon missions. In "Part 2", this footage, unedited, is used to look like a torpedo/missile is being fired from inside the dark recesses of a launch tube on the Pegasus. An external view of this same process can be seen during the outstanding APOLLO 13 (Universal, 1995). The missile firing is further shown by large red streaks shown across the Cylon basestars. These red streaks look especially cheap and cheesy.
One semi-nice computer graphic used on the bridge of the Pegasus would have to be the profile views of two Cylon basestars. They are not very detailed, and not entirely correct in their proportions, but still fairly effective.
The best effects are when Apollo and Starbuck's vipers strafe the basestars. We get to see some new perspectives on those ships, even if they aren't well-lighted. It makes for a nicely done combat sequence.
IF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA WERE NEW TODAY...
This episode would be viable, although the combat would have to be much more creative than the same old same old. This is not simply true of the space dog-fights; it is especially true of the commando sequences. It would've been more convincing if several commando teams had landed, possibly using a bomber-craft or a small contingent of two- or three-seat vipers. It would really be interesting if dedicated, full-time infantry were used, instead of fighter pilots. There would have to be an explanation as to how the commandos got close enough to the Gamoray base without being detected. Perhaps a shuttle or bomber could land a discreet distance away from the base, and then use smaller, mini-viper-like attack craft to approach at low altitude. And the troops would have to do something more creative than plant those silly stick-on bombs. Maybe a computer virus could be inserted into a security system?
The story would have to allow less time to useless rituals, like the protracted display of fighter launches and dog-flight sequences.
The Cylon Imperious Leader would have to be presented in more than just a profile view, or a seated view from behind. Perhaps the Leader should be a special effect, like the adult ALIEN.
How about explaining the infiltration of the Gamoray base by showing cooperation with a Delphian underground? The natives of this planet could be part of a larger empire that is threatened by the Cylons. By working with the Colonists, they could be overthrowing the Cylons, while still leaving the base intact enough to sieze its technology to prevent a Cylon counter-strike.
While Adama's position is logical in regards to not being able to secure a planet, this episode missed the opportunity to show the Colonists doing more than just going on the offensive. It could've shown them having the upper hand over the Imperious Leader and impressing upon the Cylon chief that hunting down the human refugees is becoming more trouble than it's worth. It would also have been interesting to see Baltar pleading with Adama and Cain to spare the Leader.
It would also have been interesting to see the Galactica warriors stealing vital Cylon information from the Gamoray computers, and then sharing it with the Delphians, in exchange for information that might lead the Galactica to Earth.
In MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK, footage of the bridge of the Cylon basestar from the BATTLESTAR episode "The Hand of God" is cannibalized to show the Cylons' reaction an attacking Colonial battlestar. Despite criticisms of MISSION's patch-together nature of grafting footage of various unrelated episodes together, this was actually a nice touch. Maybe we should've seen more footage of Gamoray and the two basestars, each prior to their respective attacks. This would've meant making "The Living Legend" into a three-parter, which might not have been a bad idea, especially if it meant showing dedicated commando teams working with a Delphian underground.
Despite BATTLESTAR's very loosely sci fi pretense, this story had more to do with a war/fantasy arrangement. It was STAR WARS without the magical, mystical hokum. Perhaps it would've been better if Delphian collaborators with Cylons were exposed on Gamoray, ahead of a Cylon move to take over this world.
Tidbits & Nit-Picks
During this episode, Cain makes a couple of hitherto unheard of mentions of spacecraft protection. Prior to engaging the Cylon basestars, he orders "all electronic defense shields to maximum power". Later, he expresses confidence that the Cylons will not be able to survive a point-blank-range missile launch, "not even their shields will be able to help them". What was he talking about? The only shielding we ever explicitly see in GALACTICA is armor plating that comprises the hulls of starships. Is he talking about something else? If so, why do Apollo and Starbuck find it so easy to strafe the basestars, knocking out their flankside missile launchers?
There are some interesting inconsistencies in this episode. The Colonial brass is correctly convinced that there are three basestars involved in the attack on their rear. From "Saga of a Star World", and later "The Hand of God", we know a basestar carries approximately 300 fighters. As a result of "The Living Legend, Pt. 2", we know that the Galactica wound up carrying the combined fighter compliment of both the Galactica and the Pegasus, thanks to the evacuation. In "Hand", Tigh stated in regards to fighters, "You'll be outgunned, two to one." This implies that the lone basestar in that episode likely carried twice the fighters the Galactica retained. That would mean there would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 fighters between the squadrons originating from the Galactica and those from the Pegasus. If three baseships attacked with a full standard compliment from each, it would imply that a maximum of roughly 900 Cylon fighters would be involved. Yet, in "The Living Legend, Pt. 2", there are repeated references to the viper pilots facing "three to one" odds. It would seem more like six-to-one odds. When one factors in the fighter compliment on Gamoray (Lucifer indicates "four complete squadrons; the equivalent of a baseship.") that would imply a total of 1,200 Cylon fighters. And if we accept that the Cylon Leader arrived in yet another standard baseship, this brings the total up to 1,500. That's ten-to-one. The only way out of this is to assume the Pegasus has a very large overstocking of vipers and pilots, say, three times the implied normal compliment of about 75 vipers. In order for that number to be reduced by the time of "Hand", an awful lot of pilots and ships would have to vanish.
Upon hearing explosions in the Gamoray capitol, the Cylon leader also uses the decidedly old Earth expression "What, pray-tell, was that?"
In "Part 1", Tolan (Rod Haase) appears to be the Pegasus' top enlisted man by virtue of his position on the bridge and his demeanor. ("If you officers will excuse us...") Yet it appears in "Part 2" that Cain is addressing Tolan as "Colonel". Yet another inconsistency. Where's the Chief of the Boat when you need him?
We do get to see a greater variety of IL-series Cylons, as well as those other gold-shrouded creatures, in the grand reception hall on Gamoray. Too bad we didn't get to see more of this earlier in the series.
One irritating scene takes place in the Cylon headquarters on Gamoray: an IL-series Cylon is noting the detection of a U.F.O. in their quadrant. The person speaking the line nearly fumbles it on the word "quadrant". Could it be, like so much of the content of this series, that this scene was thrown together at the last minute?
Why do the Cylons need a city on this planet? To call it their own, maybe? And just what does constitute a Cylon civilian society, just different kinds of androids other than centurions? And what do all of these Cylons do? Do they build more ships to locate and establish bases on more planets? Do they sit around and write Java applets all day long? What do they do?
Nit-pick special: Spotlight on galaxies
Despite references throughout the series that clearly indicate the Colonial fleet is traveling through at least one galaxy other than their home one, some BATTLESTAR fans insist on ignoring this and assuming that all references to speed, astronomy and travel are suspect. While there is ample reason for this attitude, "The Living Legend", in both parts, reaffirms the notion of intergalactic travel, and that Gamoray is located in a galaxy other than the Colonists' home stars.
In "Part 1", Adama is disappointed upon learning that the Cylons control Gamoray, noting that if they do "they wield power across half the Universe!" While fans assign exaggeration to this, there's only so far that exaggeration can go, in light of explicit intergalactic references, especially in "The Long Patrol" and "The Hand of God", along with loose inferences in other stories. It is noted from "The Long Patrol" that, upon entering a new galaxy, Apollo tells Boxey that "no living human in this fleet has ever seen before", and the subsequent discovery of a human presence in this galaxy, including descendents of migrants from the Colonies, appears at first to be a contradiction. But perhaps it isn't: What is so wrong with a local cluster of galaxies being connected by some network of naturally occurring wormholes? Migrants of the past could've spread to other galaxies and lost contact with the Great Colonies easily. And just because no living human in the Galactica's fleet has never seen the stars of a different galaxy doesn't mean the migrants descendents had to forget about the Colonies, either.
On possible explanation for interstellar, and maybe even intergalactic, travel in BATTLESTAR lies in an alternative form of travel that would be divorced from either thrust-based rockets or "warp" drive in the STAR TREK sense.
Fan Susan J. Paxton, (http://www.fortunecity.com/banners/interstitial.html?http://www.geocities.com/sjpaxton) wrote on the Battlestar Galactica E-List: "In his novels Jerry Pournelle proposed what he called the Alderson drive, which assumes there are naturally occurring flaws or lines of force between star systems, along which ships can move almost instantaneously by using their FTL drive at the points where the flaws intersect normal space. This has become almost ubiquitous throughout science fiction; Lois McMaster Bujold uses it, Weber and White use it, etc. It certainly explains why the Colonials always seem to be near or in a planetary system..." Perhaps the same fllaws could exist between galaxies. And perhaps Adama knew about the Delphian Empire because the Delphians once visited the Great Colonies, long ago.
Still, there is another reference in this episode which lends itself to the notion of intergalacitc travel. When the Cylon Leader gives a dedication speech on Gamoray, the Leader makes the following remark: "With the securing of this outpost, deep in the heart of the Krillian Star System, our supremacy is all but assured." While BATTLESTAR frequently mangled astronomical terminology, confusing a galaxy with a star system, the Cylon Leader's language does appear to lend itself to the notion that Gamoray is meant to assure Cylon presence in a Krillian Galaxy
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