CLASSIC MERCHANDISE: 'GALACTICA' RISES!

I thought I'd seen all the variant covers to the original novelisation of Saga of a Star World, but not this international one with that groovy red logo adorning it with just 'Galactica', a uniqueness which makes it more than worthy of posting.

REMEMBERING 'BATTLESTAR GALACTICA' BOOK 3: 'THE TOMBS OF KOBOL'

Ancient mysteries, modern conflicts at The Tombs of Kobol. Art by Bob Larkin.

With the success of the first two Galactica novels for Berkley Books, a third was inevitable and welcome for fans, as Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston delivered their next exciting adaptation- this time for the classic two-parter Lost Planet of the Gods, renamed as the more-exciting-to sell-books titled The Tombs of Kobol. This adaptation particularly follows the original scripts from Larson and Donald P. Bellisario very closely, whilst also expanding the story and characters, plus fixing any discrepancies, character inconsistencies or small plot holes.

Here's a look at some of the notable interesting changes/additions:

The late Serina's involvement in the story is told through her eyes in the past tense, as a grieving Apollo discovers and plays recording crystals from her telling the adventure- part of her job to keep the history of Humanity and the rag-tag fleet preserved. This idea temporarily replaces the Adama Journals of the previous two books.

Unlike the TV version, it is the walking computer egotist Lucifer (not a Cylon itself but built by them) who stops Baltar from being executed, and convinces the Imperious Leader to let the freed human pursue the Galactica and destroy it with a baseship under his command. There is no talk of peace as seen at the end of the original Saga of a Star World TV pilot.

The writers clearly have fun writing for Lucifer's character - his ego, his functioning systems and his later command of the baseship to attack Kobol. His observations of the humans Baltar and Starbuck, especially the latter, making a great impression on him for all the wrong contaminating reasons. Lucifer also plays cards with the captured Starbuck at one point, and, despite all his intellect and logic, loses to the pilot.

At the asteroid with the Cylon outpost, it is Boomer who catches the disease- an ungloved hand catching some moisture from a rocky surface that he passes onto Jolly inadvertently. Unlike the TV version, the duo enter Decon on their return to Galactica but it fails to take out the virus. This is well handled and smooths over some of the inconsistencies of the TV version. Once on the medical asteroid, Dr. Salik discovers that a dose of Potassium will wipe out the disease organism.

Like the deleted scenes from the Blu-ray, the Star of Kobol is seen prior to the wedding of Apollo and Serina and shines brightly as they get sealed. 

Cassiopeia isn't happy that Starbuck will be with Athena training the new pilots. Athena, having always been a viper pilot in the book, helps train the female pilots with Starbuck and Apollo and equally doesn't like the way her former lover is enjoying their company. The training scenes are adjusted from the TV version.

Amongst the female pilots, a new heroine called Gemi, unsure of herself and feeling inadequate compared to the beauty of the other women pilots, is introduced by the authors. She tries but fails to win the attention of Starbuck- too ordinary, and is tragically killed during the final space battle above Kobol with barely a remembrance by him. I suppose Gemi was introduced to counterbalance the the beautiful female heroines introduced and to restate how delicate and brief life can be as a Colonial viper pilot.

There's some fascinating new background on the Lords of Kobol and the exodus of the Thirteenth Tribe, in a sequence where Serina secretly records a conversation with Adama prior to exploring the lost planet.

Jenny the launch officer makes a little cameo giving the recovering Boomer a quick kiss for luck as he leads all but the too-ill warriors in their cockpits out of the Galactica launch bays to help the Cylon-attacked cadets.

Athena shows her pilot skills to save Starbuck, caught in a Cylon pinwheel attack, in an extended sequence where the other female pilots continue their erratic combat skills against the enemy.

Serina's novelisation death is different and more heroic. Unlike the version on TV, where she is shot in the back by one of the original Cylon fighter escorts to Starbuck, this sees her shot whilst helping Apollo, Athena and an ankle- injured Starbuck fight off four Cylons alongside a sneaky Lucifer, the latter ultimately rescuing Baltar and carrying him back to its ship for escape.

CLASSIC ART: BACK TO THE 'TOMBS OF KOBOL'!

Protecting themselves and the secrets of the Thirteenth Tribe, Apollo and Starbuck shoot back at attacking Cylon Raiders in this great art by David Schleinkofer for the original 1980 Berkley Books adaptation of Lost Planet of the Gods as The Tombs of Kobol, which would be reprinted by TITAN BOOKS UK in 1988, at about the time the series was back in TV reruns.

REMEMBERING 'BATTLESTAR GALACTICA' BOOK 2: 'THE CYLON DEATH MACHINE'

Following hot on the heels of their novel success with the adaptation of the movie version of Saga of a Star World, Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston would return to pen a second novel based on the scripts for the next planned TV movie of the series, Gun on Ice Planet Zero, which ultimately went through varied adjustments and re-filming before it eventually made the screens as a two-part episode during the end of the shows first quarter run. Book two doesn’t quite have the depth of the original, but it’s a terrific and exciting read nonetheless, featuring new and expanded material that I wish could have been in the TV version. One day, it would be interesting to compare all three versions of the story: its original scripts, its eventual shooting script and the novel (if anyone can help with the first one please get in touch…)

For the moment, though, here are some of the intriguing differences and additions within the FUTURA published novel:

The location of the Cylon pulsar weapon is Tairac, and, in a nod to the original idea, located on an unusual planetoid rather than a planet. The Diethene storms present there are a by-product of Cylon weapon technology. In charge of the Cylon pulsar and garrison, Vulpa was a lieutenant with great brainpower who had been exiled to the ice planet because he was a threat to the current Imperious Leader

The Cylons now have Ghost Fighter ships that are remote controlled, armed with a powerful missile, to attack the Colonial Fleet. They are amongst the Cylon ships attacking the Galactica and herding it into the range of the Pulsar- prior to the opening patrol discovering Tairac, the Cylons press another of their attack the Colonial Fleet, where we also get to see one of its vessels holding the in-training, up and coming viper pilots, and there’s mention of a foundry ship making new combat craft from raw materials. These newcomer vipers are a little clunkier than the original ships but are a necessity to protect the fleet…

A lot of CDM is told from newcomer Croft’s point of view, presenting his backstory, the relationship with his renegade team, and how they were captured and arrested by a younger Commander Adama (unnamed in the TV version) after raiding a Cylon platinum mine. By books end, with his success in destroying the weapon, he returns to being a Colonial Warrior. The book also some has some more history on the characters and situations in the Adama Journals.

Despite her presence in the previous book and not being killed off it, CDM has no mention of Apollo’s love, Serina, or what happened to her since the first book. The same with Cassiopeia, who wouldn’t be introduced back into the TV series until the later filmed Lost Planet of the Gods (ultimately shown before Gun).

The accompanying Galactican warriors alongside the experienced criminals are introduced during a pep talk given by Adama, as in the deleted scenes for the story on the DVD release.

Viper pilot and escort to the Galactica ground force, Killian, has a braver death than on TV (where he's destroyed by the Ravashol pulsar weapon)- here he destroys several Cylon ships and suicide rams into one of their Ghost Fighters before it can get to the shuttle.

Rogue turned medic Leda’s intentions to desert the Galacticans and the mission takes place in the book earlier than the TV version’s part two.

Starbuck, with no Cassie in the story, keeps many of the skirt-chasing characteristics of the pilot, heavily enamoured with the Tenna clones females. He is still also not the best friend to Apollo he would be by the series.

To further understand the humans and their plans, the Imperious Leader creates a simulacrum of Starbuck in order to guess their next moves. Suffice to say, this Starbuck is imbued with the original's personality and proves an irritant to the Cylon.

Five Clone Planners, looking like more youthful versions of their Father Creator, run the colony near the garrison, of which Ser 5-9 and Apollo see them in order to get permission to meet Ravashol. One of these Planners then goes on to tell the Cylons of the Colonials arrival in the village, resulting in their disruptive search beginning (as seen in the TV version). A Planner with blue stripes and white hair resembling Ravashol can be seen in the TV version’s finale (played by Liam Sullivan) but his role in the final two-parter is pretty much removed, also looking different to the way the Planners are described in the book.

Unrestricted once again by the TV censors as the weekly series had been, this is another tougher, novelization. An about to escape Thane almost tries to force himself on to Leda and almost kills her, but she grabs his throat and almost kills him in response.

Originally, Ravashol was part of a research team on the planet. The Cylons arrived and killed the others but spared him, recognizing his potential usefulness with the pulsar weapon. Ravashol then used some of the genetic material from his dead friends to research and create the evolving clones over the years.

Their hiding place discovered, Boxey and Muffey lead an escape with the clone children from the Cylons and go outside into the garrison airfield containing Cylon fighters, which they then stow away on.

Going upwards on their dangerous mission, the book has believable passages about mountain climbing for the Galactican party, especially from the viewpoint of Croft- obviously some major research into the field has been done here by the writers.

The ending of the book has some notably different scenes than the TV version. Ser 5-9 and the main Tenna are with the party all the way to the end of the mission with Apollo’s party. Wolf doesn't make a run for it- instead he and Leda are forced by Croft into helping to attack the pulsar. Taking on a Cylon gunner commander lieutenant in physical combat, Wolf is killed- his neck broken and thrown to the floor like a rag doll. Leda survives the battle and helps lay the charges to destroy the weapon. After the top of the mountain is destroyed, the group, having escaped in the elevator shaft, finds that their journey is cut short through power and mechanical failure, resulting in their having to rappel down to the bottom of the shaft. Sadly, Leda is killed here, falling to her death, with Croft, guilty with her loss, unable to save her.

With the weapon destroyed, Athena leads a rescue shuttle with full Viper escort, and soon gets to show off her piloting skills. Vulpa, having survived the garrison attacks, takes command of a fighter and several Ghost Fighters to attack them, one of which contains a trapped Boxey. As Athena tries to avoid destroying Boxey’s ship, and with the vipers unable to do further battle, Apollo and Croft take a Cylon fighter and perform a risky mid-air rescue of Boxey, with Croft descending on a ladder in mid-air motion to get him. Then the remaining Cylons are shot down by the eager Vipers.

The book ends with Vulpa’s ship crash-landed, the warrior damaged but not destroyed, going into a hibernation state in order to conserve power, though likely soon to die in the icy wastelands around the destroyed gun mountain. 

REMEMBERING THE ORIGINAL 'GALACTICA' 1978 NOVELISATION...

With Classic Galactica's imminent 35th Anniversary, I thought I'd re-read Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston's original novel adaptation based on the 1978 feature film release, published in the UK by FUTURA. It's still a terrific book, as important and enjoyable a read as that other great sci-fi/fantasy film adaptation done for STAR WARS the previous year by Alan Dean Foster (ghost-writing for George Lucas). This copies that one's same sense of scale, even grander than the already ambitious, costliest TV enterprise of all-time, and contains a wealth of character material and story depth that the three-hour mini series wasn't able to cram in or didn't quite have the budget to achieve, alongside historical backgrounds of the colonial fleet, its civilisations and their conflict with the Cylons, and descriptions of even more epic in scope land and space action. The book, which is also quite adult-themed in place (away from the restrictive environs of ABC TV bosses and programme censors), boasts some scenes that were filmed but deleted from both the pilot and film versions, later appearing on the shows eventual UNIVERSAL DVD release in the early 2000's. It's clear that Ronald D. Moore, in his 2003 re-imagining of Galactica, as well as its its spin-off: CAPRICA, had this book as one of his influences for his darker and more post-9/11 interpretation, particularly using a part of the books slightly different ending for part two of his launch pilot.

Here are some choice highlights of the book's changes/additions:

Character-wise, Athena, who has much more to do in the book, is blond, whilst Cassie is dark haired and a little more strong-willed than she is in the series. Boxey is not Serina's child (as edited in the movie version)-she rescues him during the Cylon attack on Caprica - the destroyed event taking place as the Presidium being the Festival of Paradise. Serina doesn't die in the book, as the deleted scenes from Saga were originally shot.Adama took control of the Galactica from his father, whilst his journals, sprinkled throughout the book, reveal much about his family, being in the colonial service with Tigh, and his relationship with Adar, who starts his political road to Presidency. A raw recruit to the Galactica, the late Zac, youngest son of Adama, had the highest entrance exams of all the students in the Academy.

Before aiding the Cylons, Count Baltar was an on the rise trader-as in the film version he is killed, but taken away from the Imperious Leader for execution- his body thrown in the waste disposal. Imperious Leader is totally different from the way he is portrayed in the series, and wears a special helmet for the use of his three brains and access to the Cylon technological mainframe. The Cylons in general, as referred to in the original three-hour pilot, were reptilian creatures who have evolved to become androids. Several Cylon warriors have reptilian faces that can be seen behind their helmets, and they talk in a more human way.

The Colonial Vipers are also referred to as "Starhounds", and launch from the Galactica bays via special cribs, in a way that's different from the film/TV series. Starbuck's viper deck officer is a lady named Jenny. 

Following bigger descriptions of the destruction of the human Twelve Colonies, the Galactica survivors convoy comprises 220, 000 vessels, far more than the 220 seen in the movie and series. They are partially protected from Cylon scanners by a special camouflage net set-up by Apollo. The Galactica and the lightspeed capable ships travel to Carillon but have to leave half the lightspeed incapable fleet behind in the process, planning to return to them with food and Tylium. 

The Ovions were an enslaved race sent by the Cylons to work the mines for them on Carillon. The book shows that the Ovions are all female and that they kill their males. Seetol has a clear affection and love for Queen Lotay. In the mine, the duo kidnap Boxey and threaten to kill him in front of Srtarbuck, who fights them whilst also rescuing Cassie. Muffit is shot by a Cylon during the underground mine battle, but is later repaired on the Galactica.

In the Ovion Casino, the female singers are called Tucanas, from Tucan, whilst the Ovions have been gradually poisoning the Council of Twelve's drinks to make them, especially Sire Uri and Councillor Anton, susceptible to their influences. Uri seemingly survives the Cylon sneak attack, of which a planet-side Colonel Tigh takes part in the counter-attack, alongside his fellow warriors.

As the Cylon task force from Borallus attacks the Galactica, Starbuck and Cassie, whose father was a merchant ship pilot, fly a rickety Ovion fuel ship to their home vessel. Livery and agriculture ships would also land on Carillon and grow/beef-up on supplies and food stocks.

The book's ending sees the Galactica and the lightspeed capable ships having to travel once more through the Nova Madagon mine field, which isn't totally cleared of Cylon mines, and take on re-grouped Cylon fighter squadrons. The Galactica and vipers acts as a shield whilst the rest of the ships escape -a sequence that would be adapted for the Ronald D. Moore mini-series re-imagining. They then return to the rest of the fleet and stop another sneak Cylon fighter attack. After the Cylon forces have been beaten, our heroes gather for a celebration event and toast their journey to the fabled lands of Earth.