Blogs

Introducing the review of the fourth regular episode of the original series...

The Long Patrol Analysis
By Walt Atwood

STORY SYNOPSIS

Filled with anticipation, Adama, Apollo, young Boxey and Colonel Tigh watch as the Battlestar Galactica leads the fleet out of a field of asteroid dust. When the ships emerge, they will have left their native Cyrannus Galaxy for an entirely new one, which "no human in this fleet has ever seen."

Adama is eager to begin scans and probes of this unexplored region of space. At the top of the list of volunteers to go on deep probe is Lieutenant Starbuck. Starbuck put his name in for the reward of a date on the Rising Star cruise ship. The warrior bribes his way into a private dining suite for himself and Cassiopeia. Lieutenant Athena finds out about Starbuck's whereabouts, and catches him alone in the dining suite waiting for Cassiopeia. She throws herself at him. Starbuck pulls Athena away from one suite and into another. He starts playing musical chairs between the private rooms, patronizing both women, when he is recalled to the Galactica for the patrol. He departs, leaving each lady with one of his warrior-pins. The Athena and Cassiopeia discover each other in the corridor, and realize what Starbuck is up to.

Starbuck, meanwhile, is reporting to Recon Viper 1, dressed in civilian garb. Life signs are indicated in sector alpha-6, and Adama ordered the lieutenant to conceal his warrior identity. Apollo and Boomer see Starbuck off. Apollo lets Starbuck know this fighter has double the ordinary speed and range, the drawback being the weapons were replaced with engine boosters. Once in space, Starbuck tries out the boosters. They prove to bit every bit as potent as Apollo promised. Starbuck discovers the ship is also equipped with a sentient on-board computer with a female voice that criticizes his flying as "sloppy." C.O.R.A., for Computer Oral Response Activated, advises her pilot that there is activity in the planetary system within sector alpha-6. An old, "sixth-millennium" sublight fighter is harassing an antique shuttle. Starbuck shocks the fighter pilot Croad (Ted Gehring) with a quick pass kicking in the boosters. The old fighter drops away, but the shuttle was forced to land on a nearby planetoid. Starbuck goes down to investigate. He finds a shuttle pilot, Robber (James Whitmore, Jr.) bootlegging ambrosia (cosmic wine? champagne?) of a stellar vintage. The shuttle pilot jumps Starbuck and steals away in Recon Viper 1. Starbuck is left to follow in the old shuttle, but is quickly apprehended by Croad, the enforcer from the Proteus prison colony. The two old ships set down there and Starbuck is imprisoned in an Aerian dungeon.

On the Galactica, Tigh is alarmed that Recon Viper 1 is beaming long-range signals in an unknown code back to their home galaxy. He fears a Cylon has taken control of the viper while on the asteroid's surface, and is using the transmitter as a beacon to attract more Cylons. This is exactly what happens: on a basestar in the Cyrannus Galaxy, Lucifer reports strange signals. Baltar orders interceptors launched to investigate. Apollo and Boomer are dispatched to track and destroy Starbuck's viper. Athena asks Cassiopeia to come to the bridge; with Starbuck's ship about to be shot down, Athena wants to tell Cassiopeia the news. But Cassiopeia recognizes the code as originating from the merchants of Aeries. Decoding the message reveals Robber is asking Aeries for coordinates; the renegade has no idea Aeries is in Cylon hands. Apollo's search-and destroy mission is called off. He and Bommer land on the asteroid Crodus to find Starbuck. Instead, Robber plays cat-and-mouse with the warriors on foot. Finally, Robber fears for his wife and daughter and surrenders. The "Robber" family tells of how the prison class has been trapped on Proteus for generations, serving Aerian Enforcers who have nothing better to do than manufacture ambrosia. Robber wanted to return to Aeries, but didn't have the ship to make it.

In the Proteus prison, Starbuck meets a bizarre cast of inmates who take on the crimes of their convicted ancestors as names: Forger (Ian Abercrombie), Adultress (Arlene "Tasha" Martel), and Assault (Sean McClory). The prisoners are glad to serve the war effort by making ambrosia, which the Enforcers feed back to the inmate population. Starbuck discovers this drunken social order has endured the centuries, despite the cell door locks no longer work; the people voluntarily remain and drink to their heart's content. But Starbuck reveals his true identity and tells of how this penal asteroid has long since been forgotten. He leads a revolt and all of the population rushes to the surface in time to see Recon Viper 1 landing, escorted by Apollo and Boomer. Three Cylon fighters are approaching, and Starbuck must lure them in so the other two ships can destroy the raiders. The plan works, but much of the stockpile of ambrosia is set ablaze by a crashing Cylon ship.

Even though the fleet changed course on learning of the Cylon fighter incursion, Starbuck and C.O.R.A. lead Apollo, Boomer and Robber's ships back to the Galactica. On the Rising Star, Adama hosts a banquet to welcome Robber and his family. Young Boxey presents Apollo with a drawing of a solar system Adama taught the boy about. Starbuck corrects the drawing, which he remembers from the cell walls on Proteus. Robber recalls a fellow inmate, "the Silent One," was wandered space before being imprisoned on the asteroid. The drawings belonged to the Silent One. This system included Earth.

A Second Look

Where "The Lost Warrior" failed to take the notion of an abandoned distant colony seriously, this episode at least begins to explain how it got there. There are vague similarities to isolated island-colonies in the South Pacific, and to Japanese soldiers secluded for years after the end of World War II. Still, it would be nice if we knew who the people of Aeries were, and what their relationship was to the Tribes of Kobol, if any. If "The Lost Warrior" had come after "The Long Patrol", things would've made a little more sense.

The notion of a backwards, Botany Bay-style penal colony is turned on its ear in this story, with hilarious results. While some people talk of how BATTLESTAR GALACTICA championed a supposedly conservative, militaristic theme, "The Long Patrol" illustrates that theme twisted around by an abusive social order kept in place by a mixture of misguided patriotism and booze. Here, Starbuck is ironically in his full glory leading an uprising against the establishment.

Nobody seems to care what will happen when the Cylons loose three interceptors in an inhabited planetary system. Will Baltar send more ships to investigate this loss? Does that not spell doom for the Aerian colonists on Proteus and Crodus?

This episode typifies how Baltar and Lucifer could be replaced by cardboard stand-up dummies and nobody could tell. "Launch fighters." "By your command." At least the basestar's eerie background noise explains Baltar's insanity. It would be enough to make anyone genocidal after a while.

Athena and Cassiopeia get air time in this episode, but the air seems used up by heavy breathing over Starbuck. The legitimate criticism has been made that women are depicted as either subservient junior personnel or as promiscuous teenage girls. Such is the case with "The Long Patrol", which gives away its 1978 origins. To be fair, one must remember that this was the era of disco, the first designer jeans, and the heyday of Hugh Hefner and Bob Guccione. The only era-inappropriate behavior of Starbuck is he was smoking a "fumarillo" (cigar) instead of some illegal substance. It is too bad that Athena, still listed as a viper pilot in this episode, wasn't shown piloting a ship instead of looking like an overglorified stenographer. They could've at least made her a lieutenant-commander; that would've given sitting in a chair reporting to Tigh and her father a little more credibility.

Donald Bellisario wrote a good premise in this show, but like all episodes of this series, we are left with questions. How did the Galactica fleet get from one galaxy to another? A vast, universal network of wormholes? What happened between Baltar and Lucifer? And why doesn't Adama want Starbuck to go on patrol in his regular uniform? Were the Aerians coopted by this "alliance"? How do the Cylons fit into this "alliance"? Do they lead it? In this show, the waiter of the Rising Star talks of what it was like "before the war". Later, the Aerian colonists on Proteus talk of how they helped the war effort hundreds of yahrens ago. Was there more than one war? Maybe a string of wars, spread out over more than a thousand yahrens? Or maybe one war, that was alternately hot-and-cold? These possibilities make more sense than just one hot war for a thousand yahrens straight.

How Starbuck leads Apollo and company back to the Galactica is not made clear. Do the same advanced abilities Robber used C.O.R.A. for to initiate long-range transmission prove useful in relocating the fleet?

The Irish metaphor in this episode sends it over the top. The curiosity exhibited by Adultress (Arlene "Tasha" Martel), as to what "Starbuckin'" is about was purely R.O.F.L.

Too bad BATTLESTAR GALACTICA slammed the door on galactic intrigue by totally wiping out the home planets. By the looks of the old "sixth millennium" fighter Croad was flying, and the loose intimations of other civilizations and intrigue, maybe they should've had refugees of only one or a few satellite worlds wandering space. The homeworlds could've been in chaos from internal divisions. If the Cyrannus Galaxy were teaming with schemes and counter-schemes of a variety of civilizations, the Galactica would have to navigate a more interesting course for its fleet.

Speaking of "sixth millennium" ships, how old could those ships be? If the events of the series occur in the 7000's, then that's the eighth millennium. This Aerian colony and ships would have to be over 1,000 yahrens old. Yet the Croad's fighter looks to be of the same lineage as the Colonial viper. By the way, that ship looked beautiful. Yet we never saw anything like it again.

C.O.R.A. is a pure joy. Her exchanges of sarcastic wit with Starbuck were worth a chuckle, even if the computer was too colloquial. Never explained was how Robber could steal the Viper and use it as a communications platform with C.O.R.A.'s cooperation. The computer can get smart with Starbuck, but never challenged Robber. And how did Apollo get the Starchaser operational again so quickly, after Robber had been stripping it down?

There is just a hint of science fiction in this episode, though only just a hint.

Spectacle Value

Funny how you can land on any one of a handful of asteroids and they each have agreeable climate. Funnier still that Crodus (Robber's refuge) has settlement and vegetation galore, yet it looks like a barren, airless rock from space.

The painting of the Proteus penal colony seen from a distance looked interesting, if a bit vague, shrouded in darkness. The combination of combat footage, fire and background imagery added in was beautifully done.

The most-used special effects in this outing were either recycled stock fighter footage or computer screen "tactical" graphics. There is very nice use of the full-scale mock-up of the viper ships.

We do see one brief scene of an alien world (Crodus) during the daylight hours when Robber's family talks to Apollo and Boomer about the prison situation on Proteus. Inexplicably, that's the only such scene in this episode. Every other planetary scene is at night.

Where did they conjure up that outfit for Starbuck's mission? At least the Colonial helmets offer some pretense of being useful as part of a spacesuit.

IF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA WERE NEW TODAY:

C.O.R.A. would have to be different. Even though C.O.R.A. arrived years before KNIGHT RIDER's talking K.I.T.T. car, everyone would still be saying "they made the talking Trans Am into a spaceship!" They really should've used C.O.R.A. more in the series to help the characters articulate more complex and interesting situations as part of the flow of the plot. It also would've opened the door to stories of encounters in space and on other worlds which had less to do with combating Cylons and more to do with exploring the Universe. In the absence of any teleportation device the characters could use to "beam down" anywhere, C.O.R.A. would've served as a better flight companion than the ubiquitous Federation computer (voice by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) heard in STAR TREK.

There would have to be a little more background as to how those Aerian colony-asteroids got there, and why. There would also have to be an explanation of how the Aerians would evade more Cylons.

This would also serve as the perfect story, if done in two-part form, to introduce characters in the fleet who would mutiny for the chance to disembark and settle on such a world. This would have the double-edged effect of showing how the Galactica deals with discipline while also showing seeds of the defeated Colonists' legacy being spread across the Universe. If GALACTICA were to continue on for years, these worlds could be revisited, showing how the planted seeds sprouted into civilizations sympathetic to the Colonial cause.

The whole love triangle thing would have to be dropped. Either that or Arnie Becker would have to get caught red-handed and dealt with decisively.

Athena could still be beautiful and have a thing for Starbuck, but she could also have a career. Maybe she could've volunteered to fly in Boomer's place or Apollo's.

It would be nice to see some kind of craft sized between a viper and shuttle. Such a combination "bomber"/scoutship would seem more practical than stuffing a pilot into a cockpit for extended periods in deep space. Design cues could be taken from the Eastern Alliance destroyers. To use an analogy from STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, they need a Runabout, or STAR TREK: VOYAGER's Delta Flyer.

If you don't like C.O.R.A., the answer is simple: use two-seat Vipers, as in GALACTICA: 1980. Maybe Athena could've been assigned to co-pilot on Starbuck's mission. The fight between them would've been more dangerous than the Cylons.

TIDBITS & NITPICKS

The performance of Starbuck's Viper, the Starchaser, combined with the implications of the missions of both Apollo/Boomer and the Cylons, make it clear that fighter craft in the eighth millennium are capable of faster-than-light speeds. C.O.R.A. even mentions that the Starchaser is slowing to sublight speed prior to engaging Croad's antique fighter, not to mention the braggadocio that the ship "can outrun anything in the Universe."

Taking C.O.R.A.'s assertion that Starchaser can outrun any ship in the Universe at (near) face value, (well, at least, the ships in the known Universe) just how fast can that thing go? Does this mean it could out-drag-race a battlestar? It was mentioned in "Take the Celestra" that the Celestra's top speed was "factor four", without elaborating what that meant. If that meant four times the speed of light, that would be too slow for the kind of interstellar travel seen in GALACTICA. The whole fleet must be faster than that. Warp factor 4? Don't laugh. Admiral Asimov of BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY once ordered the Starship Searcher to "slow to Warp 3". Or maybe the "factor" is a logarithmic order of magnitude, relative to the speed of light. Ten to the fourth power would mean 10,000 times the speed of light. Maybe that's Celestra's battlespeed for limited periods. And maybe Starchaser can do double *that* speed, or 20,000c, for brief "turbo" bursts.

While I like the Omega character, it seems all his lines could've been spoken by Athena, giving her more involvement in this story. This really isn't a "ship" story. So bridge banter should concentrate strictly on what's relevant to the story, namely: the detection of life and the mission. Athena could've done that.

The scene where Tigh and Adama make an elaborate stroll around the bridge of the Galactica was beautiful. The set was huge, but they did an effective job as making it look bigger and more active than it was.

Apollo makes the reference to "eating" the Starchaser's "ion vapors". It is never really clear where ships in this show derive their power from, much less how it is used to create the fantastic speeds which are obviously achieved. One thing is for certain: this does not sound like a reference to simple, chemical-reaction thrust rockets, at least not such rockets alone.

Starbuck concedes to Apollo that encountering Cylons makes Starchaser's probe into "a one-way mission." But if this recon viper is so powerful and swift, why can't Starbuck dodge the Cylons long before they can catch him? Surely, a doubling in speed and range makes it possible for the probe to plot a roundabout return course so the Cylons are fooled and the pilot still gets to return to home base. In a situation as desperate as theirs, it doesn't make sense for the Galactica to throw away a good pilot and a good ship.

At the beginning of this episode, Athena pulls up a duty roster on her computer screen:

PERSONNEL STATUS - BLUE SQUADRON

APOLLO CPT. LDR GAL RED ATHENA LT. HD GAL RED OMEGA SGT. HG GAL GREEN RIGEL SGT. HQ GAL RED STARBUCK LT. F/LDR TSS RISING STAR GREEN

Don't you just hate it when some nit-picker uses the pause button on the VCR? :-)

First of all, it is nice to see Athena is still considered part of Blue Squadron. The first column is obviously the character's name, the second the rank/rate, the third may be some kind of positional title, the fourth their current location, and the fifth their current readiness status for routine work. By the looks of this, and referring to what the characters say, Omega and Starbuck are off-duty "for the centon". But where's Boomer, Jolly, and Greenbean? Of all of them, at least Boomer must be in Blue Squadron. What about Brie, and the other female warriors? And what are Omega and Rigel doing on that list? It would seem that a squadron would include at least a dozen, if not twenty or more, pilots and ships.

One interesting notion: Apollo and Boomer joke about Starbuck's fitness as a warrior. They needle their buddy constantly. Yet Starbuck is apparently the "flight leader" if this roster means anything. This seems to imply Starbuck is second-in-command in the squadron. So they are sending the squadron's XO on a dangerous scout mission alone? (It seems that Boomer should be the XO of the squadron anyway.)

The story in this episode rests on the notion that this is a new galaxy and the Cylons don't know the Galactica left the Cyrannus Galaxy. Robber unwittingly puts an end to that. It is never made clear if the Cylons report anything back to the basestar. But it is made clear that the Galactica somehow guided the fleet through a dust cloud from one galaxy to another. What is going on here? Could the dust cloud have something to do with a naturally occurring wormhole? Or maybe the fleet plunged into a black hole at faster-than-light speed and emerged on the other side from a quasar, or "white hole", clearing the spat-out debris field in its wake. Whatever passage permitted this intergalactic travel, Robber is able to send some kind of long-range transmission through it. We know this because Lucifer reports on receiving the signals. So this episode establishes that at least some crude form of intergalactic travel and communications are possible.

It is possible that the Cylons picked up Robber's second transmission after emerging from the dust; the fighters would then fixate on the signals and head straight for them. This does not mean that the basestar, apparently still in the Cyrannus Galaxy, would have any idea where specifically the signals came from. It is a forgone conclusion that Baltar ordered his basestar to pass through this mysterious dust cloud to follow the Galactica's wake. It is not clear that the Cylons know what happened to their fighters or where they went. That could get Proteus off the hook insofar as Baltar's forces are concerned.

One wonders if Starbuck didn't leave behind anything with the colonists on Proteus; plans to a new Viper for them to build, maybe?