Another Gem from Walt. This story features the wonderful & legendary Fred Astaire...
The Man With Nine Lives
By Walt Atwood
STORY SYNOPSIS
Adama notes that is has been twelve sectons since Baltar's arrival aboard the Battlestar Galactica. He expresses puzzlement over the curious directions given to the Fleet by "the mysterious ones"; there are no time references to easily tell whether the Fleet with find Earth soon, or many yahrens from now. The Fleet's commander has granted "furlon" (liberty) to warriors as no sign of Cylon pursuit permits a relaxation of the Galactica's defensive posture.
On a Galactica shuttle bound for the Rising Star entertainment liner, Starbuck is filled with anticipation at the thought of trying out his new gambling "system". Apollo is filled with dread; he can see the loss of yet another secton's pay when he will ultimately loan cubits to cover his friend's wagers. On a civilian shuttle, also bound for the liner, an old man sits next to a siress as they watch a civilian interview show on Inter Fleet Broadcasting. The interview is of a colonial warrior, Lieutenant Starbuck. Starbuck explains he was a war orphan, found wondering in the Caprican Thorn Forests near the agro-community of Umbra after a Cylon raid in seventy-three twenty-two. He was approximately nine yahrens old at the time. When an attendant approaches for collecting travel tokens from the couple, the man cons his way out of paying by insisting he is the head of interviews for the I.F.B., and that the interview showed poor judgement.
The lady, Siress Blassie (portrayed by Anne Jeffries), is impressed with the old man, who introduces himself as Chameleon (Fred Astaire). She seems taken with him, but his mind is on something else. They board the Rising Star and enter a night club there. Starbuck drags Apollo out during the performance in the club so they can hit the gambling deck. But Boomer and Jolly are taken by the act that's performing in the club. The act finishes its performance, but the celebratory mood vanishes as three cloaked Borellian Nomen enter. Jolly immediately suspects the Nomen, who don't usually mix with the other Colonists, are on a "blood trail". (The Nomen immediately take a table from patrons, establishing themselves as the Colonial equivalent of a cross between the Mafia and a motorcycle gang.) On noticing the Nomen's appearance in the chamber, Chameleon begs off the festivities with Blassie and tries to quietly slip out. The youngest of the Nomen sees Chameleon leaving and hastily plucks and arms a pair of grenade-like "laser boles" (jewel-like bolas which glow when they are armed) that must be expended on a support column before they automatically explode. Boomer confronts the wreckless Nomen gang, who say they will report to the Docking Lounge so they can depart on the next shuttle.
On the Gambling Deck, Starbuck is about to wager away Apollo's money in a Pyramid (Colonial poker) game when Chameleon breaks the ice by offering the wagering warrior some advice on his "system". Apollo expresses gratitude to the old man, and the three find a table and sit to chat. It turns out that Chameleon used to be a professional wager, but now he's into genealogy. He spends his career on the Orphan Ship, trying to re-unite lost children with relatives. He claims he found his calling after he lost his wife and son in the first Cylon raid on Caprica; he used to live in a community on the edge of the Thorn Forests called Umbra. Starbuck is thrilled at the possibility that this man could be his father. But Chameleon cautions that there were 3,000 orphans found in the Thorn Forest after that raid. The genetic tests have a "yahren-long" waiting list on the orphan ship, but Chameleon supposes there could be similar equipment aboard the Galactica. Starbuck is anxious to return to the battlestar and run the tests.
In the Docking Lounge, a group of Colonists board a shuttle to disembark. Three men remain in the lounge after everyone else is gone: the Borellian Nomen. The leader of the Nomen, Maga (Lance LeGualt) berates the errant youth Taba (Anthony DeLongis) for violating "The Code" by drawing his weapon prematurely. Bora (Robert Feero), Taba's elder, takes responsibility for the youth's indiscretion, and vows they will "bring the prey down." Taba apologizes for acting hastily at the sight of "the jackal, Captain Demitri", but Maga insists they apologies should wait until "after you have been punished, if you survive." Maga vows that as Nomen, "the very name strikes like a scorpius at the heart of others" and that "we alone survived in the lands of the Magus sun and the endless sands, and we alone will survive this trek through the stars."
Apollo meets Boomer just outside the night club and tells of how he had to confront the Borellian Nomen. Jolly walks in and reports that the Nomen are still waiting in the lounge. Apollo and Boomer go to confront the Nomen for not leaving. Taba again reaches for his laser boles, but this time Maga steps forward and disarms Taba, also disowning him. Fleet Security arrests Taba and escorts him away. Starbuck passes through the lounge with a cringing Chameleon, as they board the shuttle. Apollo and Boomer follow onto the shuttle. Once Maga and Bora are alone again, Bora asks why Taba must be left to the hands of "these weak Colonial warriors". Maga insists "they are weak, but they are many", and "we are on the blood trail." But how will they get aboard the Galactica? Just then, a Fleet recruitment message appears on an I.F.B. monitor, in which Flight Officer Omega urges "we need you."
On board the Galactica shuttle, Boomer confides in Apollo that it looked like the Nomen were after Chameleon. Could the connection to Starbuck be a hoax? Once back aboard, Apollo and company debrief Adama. They conclude that there is no problem running a security check on Chameleon. In the Life Station, preliminary tests reveal that Starbuck and Chameleon could at least be distantly related. A complicated genetic test will have to be run to be more precise. While Casseopia prepares the new test, Chameleon reveals that she is much like his late wife. Starbuck confides that he would like to get sealed (married) to her.
On the flight deck, Tigh and Omega greet a new batch of recruits. Among them are a pair of Borellian Nomen: Maga and Bora. The recruits are escorted to quarters for sleep period. Once there, the Nomen ask the duty officer Corporal Lomas (Bruce Wright), where they can find a "friend who saved our lives... Lieutenant Starbuck." Lomas tells them they must stay in quarters before getting security clearance. Would they like to get a message to Starbuck? No, they would prefer to surprise him...
Apollo and Boomer meet Chameleon in the Officer's Club for an interview. Chameleon explains that he has endured friction with the Nomen in the past, but that he didn't feel any need to report it. In the recruit's quarters, Maga and Bora approach Lomas and ask for a private room to pray in. While Lomas resists at first, the Nomen insist they must pray. When Lomas turns his back to open a closet for them, Maga strikes the Colonial warrior from behind, leaving the unconscious body in the closet.
Starbuck later finds Apollo and Boomer in a nearby corridor. Tigh approaches Apollo to report on the security check. The running of a background check on Chameleon infuriates Starbuck, who announces "the end of a friendship". After Starbuck storms off, Tigh reports there is no record of a Chameleon in the Fleet. On the bridge, Adama can't understand why this old man named Chameleon would want to get on board the Galactica. What's going on? Boomer suggests he wanted to escape the Nomen. This alarms Tigh and Omega, who check to see what happened to the Borellian recruits. There is no comm-link answer from the duty desk in recruit quarters.
In the deserted launch tube, Starbuck has seated Chameleon in a viper to demonstrate the weapons controls when the warrior confides he wants to resign his commission and help the old man with his work, reuniting babies with their families. Before Chameleon can break the news to his could-be son, he notices two Borellians approaching in hangar crew uniforms. Starbuck is puzzled with the presence of hangar crew in an empty bay when the squadron is on furlon. "They don't look like the hangar crew to me," Chameleon warns. As Starbuck steps down to the flight deck to meet these strange figures, Chameleon crouches down inside the viper's cockpit. The Nomen demand to see "the jackal, Captain Demitri." They draw their weapons hurl a pair of them at Starbuck. Starbuck returns fire, but the Nomen do as well, striking a nearby support column and knocking the warrior to the deck. His blaster pistol slides out of reach. He runs for the darkened refuge of the launch tube. As the Nomen pursue, Chameleon, still unnoticed, figures out how to arm the viper's weapons. As Starbuck doubles back in the darkness, Chameleon fires the viper's lasers into the launch tube. Starbuck is blown clear while the Nomen are trapped in the explosion. As Chameleon steps out of the ship to tend to an injured Starbuck, the young warrior remarks that only his father would be crazy enough to fire a laser in a launch tube. When Apollo and Boomer lead security guards to the scene, Starbuck explains the Nomen claimed they were on a blood hunt for some Captain Demitri. He doesn't know any Captain Demitri. A blushing Chameleon confesses, "I'm Captain Demitri... sort of..."
With the Nomen taken into custody, miraculously still alive, Starbuck debriefs Adama and other officers. It seems the Borrelians were hoarding supplies and equipment when Chameleon/Demitri crossed their wake and tried to swindle them. They responded by trying to hunt him down. Starbuck's colleagues express regret that his reunion did not pan out.
Casseopia reports to Chameleon that the genetic test results are positive: he is Starbuck's father. But Chameleon insists that she not reveal this to Starbuck: he fears that his son will throw away his career and attachment for her if he learns of the results. He pledges to be a good friend to the young warrior, maybe even reveal the truth to his son on the day he gets sealed.
Later, Adama meets with Chameleon and the officers. He's grateful that the Borellian problem has been discovered and addressed. But what is the fleet to do with Chameleon? It seems they've been receiving inquiries from a Siress Blassie who wishes to know what happened to the old man. She's offered to support his rehabilitation. To Chameleon's chagrin, Adama says "it is so ordered."
A Second Look
This episode provides a rare look at life aboard the Colonial fleet. Despite past fumbles in fleshing out aspects of the BATTLESTAR Universe, this episode is true to the series premise while also introducing a variety of well considered conventions in establishing the nature of fleet life. Such conventions include:
The decidedly cheesey notion of TV-like I.F.B. (Inter-Fleet Broadcasting). This actually worked very well.
The Borellian Nomen. They brought a wild-living wolf-pack savage culture to prime-time TV long before STAR TREK gave us a Klingon named Worf. While these gang-like rebels don't get enough exposure to really flesh out their culture or technology, we see plenty to display their potential. You've gotta love their icy attitude and "close only counts in horseshoes" weapons. We would get to see Maga, Bora and Taba again during the Terran anthology, in "Baltar's Escape".
There is the ever-present hint of science fiction in this BATTLESTAR outing. Chameleon/Demitri knows how to talk himself up, first as an I.F.B. executive, then as a "genetic tracer". Casseopia's notion of "neuro-cell extraction" to confirm a bloodline is based in today's medical/forensic science.
This story gives Dirk Benedict the chance to make Starbuck shine. The notion of him giving up his career as a pilot seems pretty off-the-wall. Despite this, we see an episode in which his character grows by leaps and bounds over some of the chessier passages from earlier in the series.
All of this having been said, this story, taken on its own merits as an hour of prime-time television, rates as a "good" show. It is not excellent. The notion of a main character discovering a long-lost relative/friend while trouble brews because the relative/friend turns out to be more than meets the eye is hardly an original idea. With a more detailed story about the Borellians and their ambitions, and how Chameleon/Demitri fits into their tangled web, this could've been an excellent two-part story like "Lost Planet of the Gods", "The Living Legend", or "War of the Gods". So here's yet another BATTLESTAR story with great potential that was left half-baked.
Why would the Galactica crew allow any new, unscreened recruits on board to carry their own weapons??? This one boggles the mind. Add to that the notion that Lomas would turn his back on the Nomen after he's seen that they are armed and you have to wonder whether it's the character who's incompetent or the show's makers.
When Starbuck announces the end of his friendship with Apollo and Boomer in front of Tigh, he is way too insolent. Tigh and Apollo both should've pulled rank on him by telling him to shut up and listen. This whole scene was unnecessary and contributed nothing to the story. And given the obvious past Starbuck has with his fellow pilots, it seems unbelievable that he would throw away his friendship with them so suddenly, as if it never mattered.
Curiously, Adama's log entry indicates that the coordinates to Earth do not contain a time reference, yet the recitation Apollo, Sheba and Starbuck blurted out in "War of the Gods, Part II" clearly makes mention of "nineteen million sectons".
And speaking of time, there is a reference in this episode which really throws a monkey wrench into a notion tied to the beginnings of the series: In the earliest moments of "Saga of a Star World, Part I", Colonial President Adar (Lew Ayres) raises a toast to the Council of Twelve in which he proudly mentions he expects peace as they approach "the seventh millennium of time". This implies that the yahren is probably in the late 59th centura. But in "The Man with Nine Lives", we are left with the impression that Starbuck was orphaned in a Cylon raid which seemed to occur in the yahren 7322. This would make it clear the Colonists are in their 74th centura, or eighth millennium of time. This obvious goof is more than just a minor nit-pick. One would think this would be obvious to television series makers who produced a show in the 1970's, which we part of the twentieth century. (Are we not currently at the brink of the third millennium here on Earth?)
Another odd fumble in the writing: Jolly knows enough about Borellian social behavior to realize they don't mix with other Colonists unless they are on a blood trail. But Boomer, not Jolly, knows that the Nomen weapons can't be disarmed once activated.
Yet another annoying fumble occurs in the direction, when we see Sheba in the scene where she pilots the shuttle. She talks, gestures with her hands and even looks away while she flies. This looks ridiculous. Sheba, you are grounded until you learn to keep your eyes on the road and your hands firmly on the wheel.
Spectacle Value
The makeup department may not have gone as all-out with the Nomen as STAR TREK has done with the Klingons, but it is understood that these Borellians are essentially human. They may be of a variety not seen on Earth, but they are apparently not completely alien, either. The costumes seem at least as important as the makeup, anyway.
The Borellian bola weapons, while a simple effect, are surprisingly effective and innovative for 1970's prime-time TV. They even look good by today's standards. Too bad we never got to see these Nomen tangle with the Cylons.
Other than some images of the civilian shuttle nearing the Rising Star, there is no space action in this show. It isn't really missed. The best spectacle of all, other than the action at the heart of the plot, is the emphasis on civilian life in the fleet. From the mention of "inter-fleet orbit beta" as a kind of transit route, to the Nomen pursuit of their vendetta, this story relies more on the viewer's imagination. This is a more powerful effect than a whole fleet of Cylon ships!
Another simple-but-effective scene is when Chameleon fires the viper's lasers. A very nice touch.
IF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA WERE NEW TODAY...
The notion of an episode dealing with intrigue within the fleet would have to come much earlier in the series. That was the problem with the first several episodes of BATTLESTAR. Too many battles with Altar and the Cylons and not enough fleshing out of who the people in the fleet were and what made them tick. Maybe this should've been the next episode after "Lost Planet of the Gods", or "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero".
This outing should've been expanded into a more in-depth two-part story. Fred Astaire did a great job with a mediocre story. He could've done an even better job if they had given him an even better story.
A revived BATTLESTAR should definitely bring back the Borellians, and not just as criminals doing their underworld dirtywork, either. Maybe instead of criminals being used in "The Gun of Ice Planet Zero", they could've used Nomen commandos. Things would definitely get interesting if Apollo had to command a team of unruly warriors from an autonomous organization.
TIDBITS & NIT-PICKS
Why wouldn't laser fire from a viper in a launch tube cause a fire or hull breech?
Lomas deserved to get clubbed from behind. Any idiot who allows recruits to walk up to him armed, then insult the recruits, and then turn his back on them, is asking for it.
There is mention in this episode that the Cylon raid on Umbra in 7322 was one of the first on Caprica. This seems to imply that the war between the Great Colonies and the Cylons/alliance escalated in stages. If the hostilities had continued for 1,000 yahrens straight, it would make sense that the Colonies were attacked long before this.
It is mentioned that Borellian bola weapons take at least 50 microns to reach critical mass before they explode. Also of note: the other Colonists in the nightclub on the Rising Star obviously knew what these weapons were once Taba plucked them.
Apparently, fuel consumption and standard of living are not the problem they once were for the ships in the civilian fleet. We are left with the clear impression that there is a regular transport system between ships ("inter-fleet, orbit beta") and that well-dressed people exchange money in an economy which permits them to enjoy leisure time aboard the argo-ships or the Rising Star. This is in contrast to the more grim pictures shown to us in previous episodes.
Apollo tells law enforcement personnel aboard this Rising Star that Taba "is to be held for a security council hearing. I'll file a complaint." This, combined with Boomer's repeated tough stance with the Nomen, points to law enforcement powers on the part of Colonial warriors. But it also shows that there are other personnel devoted to security who may not be (purely) military.
Maga's rant that "we alone survived in the land of the Magus sun and the endless sands" sounds like Borellians lived on a planet that did not orbit the same sun as Caprica. Could the great Colonies have been located in a planetary system of multiple suns? Or could this be yet another hint (after the "straights of Madagon") that the Colonies were within a dense star cluster?
While this is Dirk Benedict's show, Richard Hatch gets the best line, if the silliest: "I'm beginning to feel like an equetisus atrum!" Poor Apollo. It's not every day he looses a friend and makes a "horse's ass" out of himself.
One nice little touch when the "recruits" assemble on the flight deck of the Galactica was the appearance of huge containers marked "BORATON".
There is a cameo appearance of the same Rising Star host (John Holland) who appeared in "The Long Patrol".
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