This document is ©2005, John Larocque. All rights reserved.
This document highlights differences between an early draft of the Battlestar Galactica pilot episode script by Ron Moore (written some time in 2002, and published online) and the version that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in December 2003.
ACT ONE
This is the significantly longer text describing the human/Cylon war which begins Part 1, with new material indicated in italics:
"The Cylons were created by Man. They were the product of a desire to make life easier on the planet Kobol. At first, they were simple robots. Toys. Conversation pieces at parties for the rich and trendy. The Cylons became more advanced. Began to work the mines. Do the hard and dangerous work Man no longer wished to do. And when the people of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol decided to war against each other, the Cylons began to do their fighting and killing for them too. The Cylons were the greatest soldiers the planet had ever seen. Smart. Fast. Deadly. They made decisions without waiting for orders."And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters. The Twelve Colonies rallied together for the first time in centuries. Betrayed by their own technology, they fought the Cylons with weapons that didn't rely on computers. After a long and bloody struggle, the war finally ended. An armistice was declared. The Cylons left Kobol for another world to call their own. A remote space station was built where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations. Every month, the Colonials send an officer. The Cylons send no one. No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years."
In the early draft there is only one planet, Kobol, on which there are twelve nations or Colonies. In subsequent drafts the twelve Colonies were restored as separate planets, as a result of a conversation between Ron Moore and a fan of the original series. Thus the final cut now substitutes "twelve Colonies" for "planet Kobol," and events taking place on the planet Kobol actually take place on Caprica.
According to the audio commentary on the DVD, a more elaborate version of the opening scene was filmed, featuring the Armistice officer aging over a period of years at his job. They had also planned to show this officer eating an apple for lunch, which was intended to signify that the Colonials lived on a world like our own. This was discarded in place of the current truncated version.
In the script Number Six "looks to be in her twenties, with long flowing raven-black hair, drop-dead looks and a perfect body. Her every move, every gesture is smooth and precise. Her eyes are keenly intelligent." Later on in the script is she described on Kobol (Caprica) as having "Carrie Moss Matrix hair." However, in the series Tricia Helfer's character is actually blonde.
In the script, Kara's morning jog includes the lines "Whaddya hear?" "Nothin' but the rain." "Then grab your gun and pull the cat out" This was a Marine-style marching cadence that the special effects people later requested be re-used in the Viper battle sequence in Part 2. In the final cut the line reads "Grab your gun, and bring in the cat." In "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I," Kara again uses the expression "bringing the cat home."
In the final cut, Tyrol hands Adama a picture of him as a younger man, standing next to a Mark 2 Viper with his two sons. The script (which doesn't mention his sons) describes it this way. "Tyrol glances at Prosna, who now steps forward with the wrapped package and hands it to Adama. Adama tears it OPEN and finds -- A PHOTO of himself as a much younger man standing on the wing on this Viper."
Tyrol is described as "in his late thirties, rugged, with the worn look of a man who's spent a lifetime working in and around big machines." The production team cast a younger Aaron Douglas in the role, resulting in a redefinition of his character. When Moore was in L.A. with Carnivale, David Eick supervised shooting in Vancouver and encouraged the actors to ad lib their dialog, which resulted in even more screen time for Tyrol with such lines as "let's get the old girl ready to roll and kick some Cylon ass." As Aaron stated in December 2003, "Tyrol was originally a minor character with something like 15 lines and very few scenes. ... On day two of my shooting schedule [David Eick] began to add me to scenes and would let me improv and ad-lib. Tyrol grew by about 30 to 40 percent from the original script and all of the new dialogue was ad-lib'd on the spot by me, with David telling me to add a word or take something out for the next take." In another interview that month, he said he ended up improvising 60% or more of his dialogue.
In Baltar's interview at the television station, the script notes the presence of Number Six who is watching it in an offstage area. "The Woman glances away from the monitor as a STAGEHAND goes to a small craft-service table and makes himself a cup of coffee. She watches him carefully, intently, focusing on every single move as he pours the cup, puts in cream... The man takes a sip of his coffee, then leaves it on the table before going. Her gaze goes to his abandoned coffee.... [she] picks up the coffee, inhales the smell deeply... then takes a sip... rolls the liquid around in her mouth... smiles to herself and then puts the coffee cup back." This is not in the final cut.
In the script, there is a longer discussion between Laura Roslin and Doctor Westin on Caprica. In the final cut, she's simply told she has a malignant tumor which has "advanced well beyond the left breast." The rest of the dialog is drowned out by ship noise, with the scene ending with the Colonial transport taking off. Billy's introduction to Laura is longer in the original script. He hands her a three-ring briefing book from the education ministry. In the final cut he tells her he's forwarded her decommissioning speech to the president. In the script the flight duration is "five hours, forty-three minutes" instead of "five and a half hours." The final cut then grafts in a scene originally intended for Act 3, where Laura is sobbing in the bathroom for a few moments. The final cut of the bathroom scene takes only a few seconds, though it's slightly longer in early advertising trailers and the "War and Propaganda" special. Billy's original introduction to Laura was actually filmed, and appears as a DVD bonus.
At the end of Act 1 is the controversial baby-killing scene, which was written to add more menace to the Cylons, and in particular, Number Six's character. It first appeared in later drafts of the script.
ACT TWO
"In what will become a signature stylistic element of our series, we open this Act with a MULTIPLE SPLIT SCREEN format." The production ultimately discarded use of split screens.
There is an extended version of Lee's Viper landing which appears as a DVD bonus with unfinished special effects, and also includes the following deleted Aaron Doral dialog. "A logical question to ask is why in this day and age, do we have men and women in the cockpit at all? Why not automate the Vipers or rely on unmanned missiles for defense? The answer, of course, is that an automated Viper would be susceptible to possible jamming or cyber-attack. There's a saying in the Colonial fleet that you can jam every sensor except the human brain."
The script describes Sharon as "the squadron rookie... she's less sure of herself than the other pilots, more vulnerable." Sharon's "unsteady, herky-jerky" landing of the Raptor was deleted from the final cut and appears as a DVD bonus with unfinished special effects. Additionally, references in the script to Sharon being a "rook" by Tyrol (and later Helo) are also absent. Sharon's landing is followed by Sharon and Tyrol arguing, and then finally embracing in the storage locker.
This is followed by another deleted scene between Cally, Socinus and Prosna which appears on the DVD, describing reactions to Tyrol's fraternising with Sharon. Cally: "The groping lamp is on in the tool shed." Socinus: "This is outta control. The Chief lost his mind or something?" Prosna: "Yeah. He's just sleeping with the division officer. What's wrong with that?" Another deleted scene featured on the DVD is the latter half of Billy and Dualla's first meeting in the officer's unisex bathroom. "What's your name?" "Billy." "I'm Petty Officer Second, Dualla... You can call me D."
There are differences between the script and final cut of Tigh's meeting in Adama's quarters. In the final cut Tigh wanted to press charges, and that Kara was to be put in the brig for striking a superior officer. He also admitted he provoked Kara by first kicking over the table. In the script, Adama is sipping coffee, but in the flimed version he's not drinking anything. In the final cut this scene takes place immediately following the card game in Act 1. This is the original version:
Adama: So you gonna press charges against Starbuck? Ask for a court?
Tigh: Hell, no. I revoked her flight status, that's enough. Just a friendly game that got outta hand.
Adama: Heard you were drunk.
Tigh: I had a drink. I wasn't on duty.
Adama: Been drinking a lot lately.
Tigh: Maybe.
Adama: This have anything to do with...?
Tigh: My wife? Why just because she's sleeping with half the population of Geminon while I'm away. Nah, doesn't have anything to do with her.
Adama sips his coffee for a beat.
Adama: Well, I doubt Starbuck's gonna ask for a court either. Lucky for you, considering your record.
Tigh: Doesn't matter. I'm getting out anyway.
Adama: There a chance you'll change your mind? The Fleet needs men like you, Paul.
Tigh: Like hell. You're the only sonuvabitch in the whole fleet dumb enough to want me as XO.
Adama: (wry) Now you see why they're putting me out to pasture.
Tigh: I did wonder.
The two old friends share a brief smile, then Adama takes a deep breath.
Adama: All right. Ceremony's at fourteen hundred. Be there on time, in a fresh uniform and clean shaven.
Tigh: Yes, sir.
Adama nods, the meeting over. Tigh heads for the door, then pauses.
Tigh: Has Lee reported aboard yet?
Adama doesn't answer for a long moment.
Adama: Three hours ago.
Tigh: Maybe you should...
Adama: He'll contact me when he's ready.
In the early draft, Kara joins the CAG meeting even though she wasn't supposed to be there. The script notes that "the insolence doesn't go unnoticed by the CAG." Kara sits down next to Lee Adama, which is the first encounter between the two. In the final cut, Kara is not present at the CAG meeting.
After Laura and Adama's argument in the hallway on networked computers, there's deleted dialog between Laura and Billy. "Where the hell have you been?" "Sorry, I got turned around back..." "Did you hear any of that?" "Uh... no." "Good." They walk away and Doral shrugs, "Bureaucrats."
The lines that are spoken in the brig in the final cut originally took place between Lee and Kara at the end of this meeting. Kara makes it clear in the script that she sides with Lee's father.
Kara: Seen the Old Man yet?
Lee: No.
Kara: But you're going to, right?
Lee: Not if I can help it.
Kara: Frak...
Lee: Kara, don't even start...
Kara: He's lost one son already, he shouldn't have to lose two.
Lee: Hey -- he's the one responsible for what happened to --
Kara: No he's not. Okay? I was there, you weren't, and what happened to Zak was an accident. That's it.
Lee: He got to you. I can't believe it. He actually got to you.
Kara: Look, when Zak died, I lost it. Okay? I was done. Probably would've ended up back in Picon driving a truck. The Old Man brought me here, said go be a pilot. Put me back on my feet.
Lee: I'm not looking for a fight with you, Kara.
Kara: You go up against Commander Adama, you've got one anyway.
Lee: And Zak actually wanted to marry you. Now here you are siding with the man who basically killed him.
ACT THREE
In the meeeting between Lee and and his father, he refers to Commander Adama pulling strings to get Zak into flight school. "You didn't call your buddy Commander Erdwell on the board?" In the film, and not in the script, Adama says that Lee has been here for an hour. In the script, Lee says that a man isn't a man until he wears the "wings of a Viper pilot." In the final cut, it's the "uniform of his colony." There's yet another coffee reference when Adama asks Lee, "Can I get you anything? We make a truly awful cup of coffee." In the final cut he simply asks, "Can I get you a cup of coffee?"
In deleted dialogue with Number Six, Baltar admits that by letting her poke around in the defence mainframe he added he was "breaking about twenty statutes in the process." In the script, after he mentions her other attributes, "he gives her a lascivious once-over." Then Number Six remarks, "You are the very definition of a sinner." Baltar: "Guilty as charged."
Adama's decommission speech is introduced by Elosha who is described as wizened 80-year old priest. In the series the role is played by Lorena Gale, an older female. Here is the longer version of Adama's speech from the script, with the parts in italics indicating lines which didn't make it into the final cut:
"The Cylon War is long over. Yet we must not forget the reasons why so many were asked to sacrifice so much in the cause of freedom. The values we fought for are still worth preserving today. The cost of wearing the uniform can be high, but... Sometimes it's too high. You know... we fought the Cylons to save ourselves from extinction, but we never answered the question... why? Why are we as a people worth saving? Look at us. We tell ourselves we're noble, intelligent creatures. Children of the Lords of Kobol. But we'll still let people go to bed hungry because it costs too much to feed the poor... we still commit murder for greed or spite or jealousy... and we visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to take responsibility for what we've done. Like we did with the Cylons. We decided to play god. Create life. And when that life turned against us, we comforted ourselves in the knowledge that it wasn't really our fault, not really. It was the Cylons that were flawed. But the truth is... we're the flawed creation. We're the ones that tried to manufacture life and make it serve us. But you don't play God and then wipe your hands of what you've created. Sooner or later... the day comes when you can't hide from what you've done anymore. A day of reckoning.
A version of the "flawed creation" line was filmed and featured prominently in the early advertising trailers but dropped from the final cut. "We decided to play God. We decided to create life, and when that life turned against us, we comfort ourselves in the knowledge that it was the Cylons who were flawed. But the truth is, we are the flawed creation.." In the early draft Kara/Starbuck joins Lee/Apollo and Jolly in the flyby.
The last dawn on Caprica ("an average day") is described. "SHOP KEEPERS open up their stores... POLICEMEN take a report at a crime scene... CONSTRUCTION WORKERS setting up their equipment... A MAN jogging down by the river..."
Dialog between Baltar and Number Six at his apartment has been deleted after she tells him to "spare me your feigned self-awareness and remorse." This includes such lines as "God wants children to grow and develop on their own. He wants them to reach their full potential. And so it is that parents must die. But parents who stand in the way of God's plan, who defy his will... they must be struck down."
After Laura's transport heads back to Kobol (Caprica), there's a deleted scene between Adama and Kara in the hallway. "Their relationship is warm, easy -- like father and daughter."
Kara: Staff duty? Hell with that, Old Man. I want to keep flying.
Adama: You've done a lot of flying. You need a little staff duty on your resume. Besides...
Adama trails off, something else on his mind. She looks at him curiously.
Adama: Kara... about Zak...? Yes or no -- was he cut out to be a pilot or not?
Kara: (stiffens) He was good. Okay? I taught basic flight. And I passed him. So he must've had something on the ball. Otherwise I wouldn't have passed him. Right?
A hatch OPENS down the passageway and Tigh looks out at them.
Tigh: There you are. We're ready when you are.
This is followed by a deleted scene which appears as a DVD bonus with unfinished special effects, featuring a ceremony where Adama "silences the guns of Galactica," ejects weapons coils into space and implodes them. Excising this scene resulted in later references to weapons coils being removed altogether or changed to other references. For example, at Ragnar Anchorage, Adama is looking for "bullets and equipment" instead of replacement weapons coils.
ACT FOUR
In the script, the CIC "is not a Trekkian bridge of neat lines and soft pastels, this is a working facility where men and women sit in chairs for too long, jury-rig broken consoles with tape and wire, and drink way too much coffee."
During the Cylon attack, Adama refers to "an attack on our homes." This was changed to "our homeworlds," again to reflect the change to twelve homeworlds from one. Deleted from the script are Adama's instructions for his XO "to find a new set of weapon coils." Adama's line to Dualla, "Pass the word for Lieutenant Thrace" (to restore flight duty) was changed to "get Kara Thrace out of the brig."
In the script, Lee in his Viper bangs his fist against the console "in rage and frustration... A DISPLAY flickers on and off for a moment, then finally goes OUT. Lee can't believe it." In the script Lee says, "My navigational system is still down" but in the final cut he says, "Just picking up a lot of confusing chatter." Also, in the script, after he says the Mark 2 was meant for show, not combat, he also says, "I don't even have a functioning gunsight over here."
One deleted scene involves Baltar boarding a passenger liner at a space terminal, but its engines are shut down just as it is ready for take-off because a "massive power disruption has just hit the traffic control system." Baltar leaves the ship and spots Number Six. "I can't leave." "I know." "That your doing?" "No. That wasn't my job." "What was your job?" "We should discuss this after."
Here are descriptions of Caprica City in the wake of the first mushroom cloud. "The Shopkeeper reacts to the FLASH... The Policemen reacts... The Construction workers react... The jogger reacts..." The spaceport terminal windows are "BLOWN OUT in a shower of GLASS." Caprica City is consumed "by a BLINDING WHITE LIGHT. The flash recedes, forms a BALL of FIRE, then rises into a tower MUSHROOM CLOUD as a fifty-megaton thermonuclear weapon detonates over the city. " In the final cut we only see mushroom clouds from space with muffled noise.
ACT FIVE
After Adama says "mourn the dead later" the script describes an "eerie quiet" throughout the ship "as people avoid conversation, try not to think about what just happened. Someone drops a coffee mug and it shatters." The shattered cup is not in the final cut.
After Boomer tells Helo they have "enough inertia to make it to Kobol's ionosphere" is Helo's deleted line "I think we can officially stop calling you a Rook now."
In the script, after Billy tells Laura his parents moved to Picon, she asked him if he had any family. "No. Just me."
There's more description of Caprica City's destruction. "We MOVE through the devastated city, finding it littered with rubble, drifting clouds of DUST and debris. And bodies. Hundreds of bodies, including the Shopkeeper, the Policemen, the Construction workers, the jogger..."
Jack is the name given to the person who informs Laura of the Preisdent's unconditional surrender. As he is speaking, he is actually shown on Caprica in the script, "standing in a room with blown-out windows, dust everywhere. The windows look out onto a STREET where there's a continuous RAIN OF DUST and debris. PEOPLE are shellshocked, coughing, trying to find their way to safety."
ACT SIX
This act opens up with a deleted scene that appears as a DVD bonus with unfinished special effects. Lee's Viper is being chased by a Cylon missile as he heads towards the canyons of the Trevor Moon. He notices that it is a Viper training range and takes it into a tunnel opening, turns the Viper around while inside, shoots the missile, and then exits out the other end of a tunnel. The result of this sequence is that the Viper is out of fuel. The main element of this scene (Lee flying into a tunnel) was used in the episode "The Hand of God."
There is an additional deleted scene on the DVD showing Tyrol's crew preparing Kara's Viper ready for take-off.
ACT SEVEN
Several lines of Dualla dialog were deleted -- she has a head wound as a result of the missile impact against the ship. Tyrol's "40 seconds" speech to Adama aboard the bridge is a later insertion, and not in the early draft. There are subsequent references questioning the correctness of Tigh's decision to vent the departments, however none of them appear up in the final cut.
There's more deleted dialog referring to Lee's moon sequence. Lee asks Laura how she knew where to look for him. "You had to go somewhere, Kobol was too far, and the nearest celestial body was the Trevor moon."
In the script, Helo and Sharon land the Raptor on an "abandoned emergency airstrip somewhere outside of Caprica City." In the final cut they land in an open field. Helo fires several shots to keep the approaching mob at bay. In the script, it says that his gun "does not emit an energy bolt effect -- it fires an explosive projectile." In the script, his first warning shot creates an explosion which "sends up a MOUND of DIRT and ROCK into the air. The MOB of people STOPS as the DEBRIS rains down on them."
ACT EIGHT
The early draft of the script does not indicate the presence of Number Six in the crowd during the lottery sequence on Kobol (Caprica).
Socinus' death scene was in a subsequent draft of the script. He made later appearances in Season One, most notably in "Litmus." Here are comments from actor Alonso Oyarzun in a June 2004 interview. "My death scene was cut from the final cut. I was supposed to die on night one... Prosna and I are repairing a leaky vent or something on the outside hull of the Galactica, and we have an accident... I was the first one to go... The plasma torch cuts a little hole in my space suit and I implode."
There are several lines of deleted dialog between Tigh and Adama prior to the decision to plot a hyperlight jump. Tigh: "Thought the Ragnar Anchorage was scrapped." Adama: "Should've been. Budget cuts kept the Ministry from getting out there and taking it apart." "Nice to see budget cuts helping for a change. It's supposed to be a royal bitch to anchor a ship there." "One of the reasons they decided to scrap it." The final cut refers to "50 pallets of Class B warheads and all the missiles and small arms we need" where the script originally refers to "three Class B weapons coils in cryo-storage."
Tigh comments that there are "probably rats living in the FTL relays." Adama replies "Hope not. Hate the smell of burned rat." In the script, "Tigh and Gaeta are overseeing TWO GROUPS of ENLISTED personnel as they ENTER information into the FTL computers at the Navigation station."
ACT ONE
There's deleted dialog between Sharon and Boxey aboard her Raptor. New material is indicated in italics:
Boxey: Is everyone on Kobol dead?
Sharon: I don't know.
Boxey: My Mom's dead. They told me.
Sharon: I'm sorry.
Boxey: That was when I was little. My Dad's an officer in the Colonial fleet. A Colonel. They told me he's missing. But I think he's dead too.
Sharon: You know something... both my parents died when I was little too.
Boxey: Really?
Sharon: Hm-mm.
Boxey: Who do you live with?
Sharon: A bunch of other people on a ship called the Galactica.
Boxey: Is that a battlestar?
Sharon: That's right.
Boxey: Can I live there too?
A beat as she looks at him and then makes a life decision.
Sharon: Yes. Yes, you can. You can live there with me.
Boxey nods, stoically accepts that as a fact.
Sharon: What's your name?
Boxey: Boxey.
In the first two acts of Part Two there's an entire battle sequence that does not show up in the final cut, where Mark 2 Vipers are engaged in a battle with three Cylon fighters. Here's part of Kara's radio chatter:
"All right, listen up. I think I figured something out here. That beam thing they tried to hit us with last time? I think that's what they've been using to knock out Colonial defenses. But for some reason, it's not working against these old Vipers. I don't know why and I don't care. All that matters is we've got a level playing field out here now."
ACT TWO
One of the Cylon fighters makes it through and is heading straight for the Galactica. "The bomb bay doors OPEN as before, and FIVE nuclear-tipped MISSILES drop down. We see A CLOUD OF FUEL pour out of Galactica's stern VENTS. The nuclear missiles are just heading out of the bomb bay when a SINGLE BURST of ENERGY shoots out from the right stern thruster of Galactica and IGNITES the entire CLOUD of FUEL. There's no time for the Cylon fighter to react and it's IMMOLATED along with the missiles." This entire sequence spanning the first two acts appears as a DVD bonus with unfinished special effects and a slightly altered ending, as Kara (not the Galactica) shoots down the last fighter.
There's additional deleted dialog after Sharon's Raptor lands on Colonial One. In the script she tells them to find as many survivors as they can and to go and find a new home. In the final cut she wants them to find as many survivors as possible, form a convoy and guide them out of the combat zone into safety. New material is indicated in italics:
Laura: What's your impression of the situation on Kobol?
Sharon: From what I could see, the Cylons appear to be systematically targeting every population center surface for nuclear attack. I doubt there's a city over a hundred thousand people left at this point.
Laura: Doctor, am I correct in assuming that an attack of this magnitude will trigger a world-wide nuclear winter?
Baltar: Yes. Fallout clouds are drifting across the major continents and altering weather patterns around the globe even as we speak.
Laura: Lieutenant Valerii, I understand your ship has a limited faster-than-light capability?
Sharon: Uh, yes sir. The Raptor was designed to make short Jumps ahead of the fleet, scout for enemy ships, then Jump back and report.
Laura: We need to find as many survivors as we can. As many ships as we can. And then we need to go.
Lee: Go where?
Laura: I don't know. Somewhere. A new home. A place to start over. Whatever future the human race has... is not here anymore. It's out there somewhere. And it's up to us find it.
There's deleted dialog between Aaron Doral and Boxey, asking him his name and offering him something to eat. Lee asks Sharon, "Kid's with you?" "He is now."
ACT THREE
There's deleted dialog between Tyrol, Leoben and Adama. Adama informs Leoben of the Cylon attack. "But why would the Cylons, after all those years... just like that, with no warning... doesn't make sense, does it?" "It doesn't have to make sense. it's the truth." In the script it's Adama, not Tyrol, who points out there are two thousand people on the Galactica. He tells him to get out of the way and "let us get those coils right now" to replace the ones they detonated earlier. Leoben tells them there may be a problem because "coils like that would fetch quite a price on the open market... that's why I'm here, you know? To scavenge equipment, sell it, make a nice profit... They're in one of loading bays, I was getting ready to bring them aboard my ship."
There's a scene in the script but not in the final cut with Sharon and Boxey in the Raptor. She is in preflight, preparing for her next mission.
Boxey: Do you have kids?
Sharon: No.
Boxey: Do you want kids?
Sharon: I've thought about it, but... I can't have children.
Boxey: Why not?
Sharon: Honestly? I... don't know, actually. I mean, I've never been told by a doctor or anything, but... somehow I've always just known... in my heart... that I can't have children.
Boxey: Does that make you sad?
Sharon: Sometimes.
Boxey: Can I go with you on your mission?
Sharon: No.
Boxey: Are you going to come back?
Sharon: Yes I am, Boxey.
In the script, Number Six tells Baltar, "I'm a person. I have hopes, feelings, wants, desires. And I want you to love me." In the final cut she says, "And what I want most of all is for you to love me."
There's deleted Adama/Leoben dialog prior to the accident. In the script, Tyrol tells Adama it will take two hours to sort things out because Leoben's "completely fouled up the station loaders," and they'll need to use their own lifers and cranes. According to Leoben, "They were fouled up when I got here. All this stuff's been abandonned for years." He tells Adama, "I almost joined the military... Failed the entrance exam though. Didn't get much sleep the night before and my girlfriend had just dumped me." Shortly thereafter a crane collapses along with a heavy suspended pallet. In the final cut, it was a loose explosive device that fell off a platform and detonated.
ACT FOUR
In the script the trapped Adama asks if the coils were damaged. In the final cut he instructs Tyrol's team to fetch bullets and equipment. There's additional deleted Leoben dialog, where he tells Adama "we'll have to take the ring around to the next spoke, go down to the central axis, then go back up the spoke to the cargo bay."
There's a deleted scene featuring a wireless conversation between a Tauranian refinery vessel (filled with Tylium) and Sharon's Raptor:
Sharon: Taurnanian this is Colonial Raptor 238. I have you in sight.
Refinery captain (voice): Hello, Raptor! Can't tell you what a relief it is to see you!
Sharon: Same here. Tell me you got a full load of Tylium fuel in those big beautiful tanks.
Refinery captain: Almost full. We had a bag rupture yesterday and lost a few million gallons. What the frak is going on? Everything's jammed. We've only been getting scraps of wireless traffic. Is it true the Cylons have hit Kobol?
Sharon: Afraid so.
Refinery captain: Bad?
Sharon: Worse than you want to know, Tauranian... Listen, is your FTL drive functional?
Refinery captain: That's affirmative.
Sharon: Then I'm sending you a set of coordinates to program in. I want you to follow me to a rendezvous.
Refinery captain: Okay... Who else is at the rendezvous?
Sharon: Everyone who's left.
The script notes the presence of Mark 7 Vipers "cruising through the area, guarding the fugitive fleet." Laura refers to them in deleted dialog on the Agroship. "Don't give up hope. We're all going to get through this. But we have to believe in each other and trust in each other. If we do that, everything's going to be all right... If you've looked out the dome, you've probably seen the Vipers which have joined us. They'll help protect us against further attack. We're going to survive. We're going to make it out of this alive. We're not going to give up and we're going to make it."
Here is more deleted dialog aboard Colonial One, after Lee advises tranferring people off the sublights into the FTL ships.
Lee: We should also bring the Vipers aboard the Transport.
Laura: They're our only protection.
Lee: They're Mark 7's -- new Vipers -- and from all indications, the Cylons have a way of just... shutting them down. We should bring them aboard and conserve them until we know how to protect them.
Laura: All right.
Lee: And... I don't think we should stay here much longer, sir. Sharon tells me the Cylons are starting to send sensor drones throughout the solar system, looking for survivor ships.
Laura: They're... "mopping up."
Lee: Looks that way, sir.
Laura: Am I right in assuming that there wouldn't be... mopping up unless they'd finished military operations on Kobol?
Lee: That'd be my assumption as well, sir.
Laura: You know the Education Ministry conducts the census.
Lee: No, I didn't know that.
Laura: 12 billion, 254 million, 197 thousand, 512. At last count.
More dialog was deleted after Laura admits she has cancer. Billy: "I know... Earlier, you know when you were in the bathroom... you got a message from a Doctor Westin asking when you wanted to set an appointment. He's one of the leading oncologists in the world. So I figured..." There's another deleted coffee reference, when Billy asks Laura, "Can I get you anything?" "Coffee. As sweet as you can make it." Later, Billy prevents the pilot from speaking to Laura, and tells him, "We're going to need a list of doctors they've rescued so far and their specialties."
Here is a section of dialog between Adama and Leoben, with new material indicated in italics. In the draft script, Adama refers to Leoben as a "scavenger/philosopher" instead of "gun-dealer philosopher" in the final cut.
Leoben: Suspicion and distrust. That's how you live your life, right? Never trusting your fellow man. Sounds like a sad state of affairs to me.ACT FIVE
Adama: I've learned to live with it.
Leoben: Amazing what a man will learn to live with isn't it? Suspicion, distrust, war, hatred, jealousy, revenge, cruelty, sadism -- a man can get used to anything.
Adama: You're a scavenger/philosopher I take it.
Leoben: Just an observer of human nature. A man in my line of work tends to see things that don't get mentioned in polite society. You see people at their worst, their most desperate. Humanity isn't a pretty race when you get right down to it. We're never more than one step away from beating each other with clubs like savages fighting over a scrap of meat. You know, we probably deserve what's happened to us. The Cylons might be God's retribution for our many sins.
Adama: Maybe they are. Or maybe they're just a penance we have to endure.
There's a deleted scene where weapons coils are being loaded onto the Galactica outside the station. Tyrol said "we're looking at three hours minimum before we have all four coils in place and ready to charge." Also, "I talked to Cally and Socinus. They had the fire contained. It wasn't going to reach the hangar deck or the fuel lines. You didn't have to vent the compartment." In the final cut, there's no Tyrol. Gaeta tells Tigh, "Chief says we're looking at three hours minimum before we have all the warheads in our magazines." "Book says there's also 50 tons of guando, huh?"
Here is yet more Adama/Leoben dialog, with new material indicated in italics:
Leoben: But what if God decided he'd made a mistake? What if he decided that Man was a flawed and imperfect creature? What if he decided to give souls to another creature? Like the Cylons.
Adama: Somehow, I doubt that.
Leoben: Why? Because they're different than us? Because they're the outsiders.
Adama: Because God didn't create the Cylons. We did. And I'm pretty sure we didn't include a soul in their programming.
Leoben: But what if they do now? What if they've changed in the last four decades?
Adama: Changed into what?
Leoben: People. What if they've developed a culture, a society, an entire way of life?
Adama: You mean what if they're imitating a culture, a society, a way of life. In the end, they're still just devices. Things. Pieces of technology that've gotten out of control. They're not people.
Leoben: You're not even interested knowing the truth are you?
Adama: Let me tell you something. After today -- after using nuclear weapons against defenseless civilians, after murdering people by the millions -- I don't give a damn who the Cylons are now or what the "truth" is about their souls. All I know is that they're murderers and killers and they're trying to destroy us. So today's gonna be the first day of a new war. And this time we're going to finish the job. No armistice, no peace treaty, no mercy. This time we track them down and kill them. All of them. Until there's not one single Cylon left alive in the universe. And if God has a problem with that, he can sort it out on Judgement Day.
Leoben: And that's why God wants the Cylons to destroy mankind. Because as long as there's a human race, there's going to be a man out there like you. I don't think the Cylons hate you, Adama... I think they fear you...
In the original script Adama beats Leoben with a rod, however the production was unhappy with the way the scene turned out and reshot it with Adama using a flashlight.
There is another deleted coffee reference, where Billy brings Baltar a cup of coffee. Billy: "Extra sweet." Baltar: "Thanks." Here is what follows: "Billy then takes a cup over to Dualla. Baltar sips the coffee, tries to get control of his racing heart. Number Six slides into view next to him as they both watch Billy hand Dualla the cup."
ACT SIX
In the script, after Baltar first starts discussing setting up Aaron Doral as a Cylon agent, there's a deleted line from Number Six. "And you wonder why God has told us to eradicate a devious species like yours. Say what you will about the Cylons, at least we don't turn on each other."
In a deleted scene that appears as a DVD bonus, Tyrol introduces Boxey to his bunk in the Junior Officer's quarters. Boxey choses the top bunk and Tyrol lifts him up and puts him there.
Tyrol: This is officer's country. This is where the pilots live.
Boxey: So who used to live here?
Tyrol: A pilot. They called him Carrot -- had red hair, freckles.
Boxey: Is he dead, too?
Tyrol: 'Fraid so.
Boxey: A lot of people are dead.
Tyrol: That's right, son.... But I don't think you're gonna die.
Boxey: No?
Tyrol: No. You know why? Because you're aboard Galactica now and she's a very lucky lady.
Boxey: It's not a lady. It's a ship.
Tyrol: She absolutely is a lady. She happens to be made of steel and wire instead of flesh and bone, but she's still a living, breathing woman.
Boxey: And she's really lucky?
Tyrol: That's right. In the first Cylon War, she single-handedly fought off five Cylon baseships and made it back to Kobol without a scratch. She always fights a good fight, and she always brought her people home.
There's another deleted scene between Billy and Laura that shows up in a variant form on the DVD. In the script, Tigh had her placed under temporary arrest in the Wardroom after her arrival on the Galactica. Billy tells Laura, "You overplayed your hand... when you tried to give Colonel Tigh a direct order. He's just second in command on this ship and suddenly you forced him to make a choice between you and his commanding officer." Also, "These are military people. Tradition, duty, honor -- they're more than just words to them. They're a way of life. If you want these people to accept your authority as president, you're going to have to make them see the situation in those terms."
The DVD version appears to be based on a later draft of the script. In it, Billy states that "Colonel Tigh is second generation Colonial Warrior. His father was a decorated fighter pilot, killed in combat. His grandfather was chief of staff to President Mueller. He's a war historian, published in three journals, before his personal life compromised his work." Also, Laura tells Billy, "I know you're a hotshot academic. I know all about the Siltzer Prize in diplomacy and administration." She also demands that Billy respect her presidential authority.
There's a deleted argument between Cally and Tyrol over Sharon, also on the DVD. "You can bust me down to recruit, but you're out of your frakking mind! She's our division officer -- she signs off on our fitness reports, our POD assignments, our promotions and you're banging her!"
Lee is on the phone, in deleted dialogue in the squadron ready room. "I want the new Mark 7 Vipers in Repair Bay five. We need to strip out the CNP programs from their navigation systems... No, no don't do that. We can strip out ox lines from the starboard relays." At this point, Adama enters. According to the script, "Adama looks into the eyes of the son he thought he'd lost, he walks across the room, hugs him tight and begins to cry... Utterly unprepared for this sudden show of naked emotion from his father... [Lee] finally puts his arms around his father and holds him in return." In the final cut, the reunion scene takes place in Adama's quarters, where Lee is looking at a family picture and crying.
ACT SEVEN
After his meeting with Adama and Tigh, there's a deleted scene in the hallway between Baltar and Number Six. Baltar: "I'm going to do just what they asked me to do -- build them a Cylon-detector." Number Six: "You know that's impossible, of course." Baltar: "They don't know that." Number Six: "One might almost believe you had an angel watching over you, Baltar."
There's a deleted scene betweeen Adama and Tigh in his quarters:
Tigh: What do you want to do about Laura Roslin?
Adama: Where is she?
Tigh: Cooling her heels in the Wardroom.
Adama: Leave her there for now. Figure out what to do with her later.
Tigh rubs his eyes, the stress of the situation and the guilt he feels over his handling of the fire.
Adama: You okay?
Tigh: Sure. Yeah. Just thinking about... the fire...
Adama: You made the call. I don't question it. You shouldn't either.
Adama notices a message slip stuck onto a corner of the desk.
Adama: Got a message from Getty yesterday.
Tigh: Yeah? Haven't heard from him since he cashed out two years ago. What's he doing?
Adama: Sales. Some kind of ad agency.
Tigh: Figures.
Adama: (chuckles) Yeah.
Tigh: Remember Getty and that one-eyed Colonel from Port Taurian?
Adama: How he got out of that, I'll never know.
Tigh: It's a gift. The man knows how to talk... You ever hear from Bushman?
Adama: Not in years. Last I heard, he was fishing up in the Coralines. Can't quite picture it, though. He always seemed to be in motion even when he was standing still.
Tigh: What about the rest of the old squadron? Kicker, Jackman, Billyboy...
Adama: Arnold, Slavy, Redbone... I get a letter now and again, but not much.
Tigh: How many times did we swear we'd stay in touch that night at Morrigan's?
Adama: Twice with each round of drinks as I recall.
A grin before the somber truth descends once again.
Tigh: Probably all dead now.
Adama: Odds are.
Tigh: The food at Morrigan's was really something.
Adama: Worst in the world.
And they lapse back into a silence that speaks volumes.
The scene between Adama and Laura is truncated compared to the script. Here's some samples of deleted dialog. Laura: "Correct me if I'm wrong, Commander, but as far as we know, isn't Galactica the last surviving battlestar?" Adama: "We don't know how many battlestars or how many other elements of the fleet may have survived." "Do you have any reason to think there are other survivors?" "We don't know." After telling him the war is over, Laura says: "Commander, your own pilot was there -- ask Sharon Valerii what's happening on Kobol (Caprica)," a reference to an earlier piece of deleted dialog between Laura and Sharon.
ACT EIGHT
The final cut truncates dialog between Adama, Lee, Tigh, Billy and Dualla, on the CIC deck. Some of it involves speculation on how Aaron Doral, the device Gaeta disabled from CIC, or even Leoben could have led the Cylon base stars to Ragnar Anchorage.
Adama's impromptu series of "So say we all" was expanded from what was in the original script, where he doesn't even utter the phrase. In the script, part of the speech involves a prop that Adama claimed was a photo of Earth's solar system. This was not used in the final cut.
There is deleted dialog between Kara and Tigh where Kara defends Tigh's actions from earlier. "I think the Chief's full of shit. How the hell do Cally and Socinus know the fire wouldn't have reached the hangar deck? They don't know. How could anybody? The point is, the safety of the entire ship was stake and you couldn't take that chance. End of argument. You're still an asshole, Colonel. But you made the right call. So don't feel guilty and don't punish yourself for it." In the final cut, there's entirely new dialog where Tigh apologises over the fight and Kara calls him an "asshole," weak and an alcoholic.
Several lines of dialog were deleted from the last conversation between Adama and Laura Roslin. Laura said that "Adar was many things, but he wasn't a very good liar. In fact, it was something of a problem in his political career." Adama admitted the photo was something he found from the library. "How long are you going to continue this charade?" "Hopefully long enough to find a planet that will sustain human life and let us start our lives over." An entire section of Laura's dialog referring to the rag-tag fleet also was deleted. In the script Adama agrees to accept Laura's civilian authority but in the final cut he offers the more ambiguous "I'll think about it"
A line referring to Zak was deleted from Lee's last meeting with his father in his quarters. Lee: "About Zak... I don't know. I talked to Kara... but I still can't help... I don't... I mean..." Adama: "What do you say we leave that for another time. I think we've pulled off enough miracles today, don't you?" In the final cut, Lee gets out only two words, "I just..." and his father replies, "Why don't we save this for another time, son?"
In the script, after Baltar tells Number Six he's not on anybody's side, he says, "I'm just looking out for myself." Number Six responds, "Exactly. Which means you can't tell them all you know about us without giving yourself away. Which [is] a shame. You could be a real help to them." "Yeah. That is a shame."
In later drafts of the script, a Cylon responded to the Ragnar Sharon #2: "By your command." This was inserted after Moore read a comment made by Roswell writer Breen Frazier, who reviewed the original draft and wondered how you could have Battlestar Galactica without the phrase.