Battlestar Galactica episode "Experiment in Terra"

"Experiment in Terra"


Now we come to the Quantum Leap episode. I don't know if anybody noticed this before--this is my independent conclusion but this must have been noticed by somebody before (I edited the Battlestar Wiki page on this). One of the writers and producers of Battlestar Galactica is also the creator of Quantum Leap, one Donald P. Bellisario. The situation is just way too coincidental. This horrible episode of BSG was also even made into a longer movie-of-the-week. OMG, is all I have to say. If this is the episode of BSG that they made into a longer movie, they had no idea what they were doing.


First of all, it amazes me how they are still giving acting credits to people who aren't even in the show any more. There's no Boxey or Athena and they get "Also Starring" credit. Jolly, that fat pilot who is barely in the entire frakking series, is in it for all of ten seconds.


Captain's Log: Galactica is chasing the Eastern Alliance ship back to its base. And that's the last we hear of this ship. I guess it tucks its tail between its legs, yet never calls home base to tell them of their imprisonment or the remarkable Battlestar that is on its way, following them. Don't even try to tell me they don't know the Galactica is following them.


Apollo's Viper is immediately abducted by the ship of the Beings of Light in order to meet some dude named John. "You have got to help [Terra]," John says. "You must do your best to stop a war." He says he has no physical body. He says he is Apollo's "brother" but from many generations in the future. "What happens to the people on Terra can affect us as well as you and your people." John is going to put Apollo on Terra in the persona of a soldier named Colonel Charlie Watts who has gone missing in action. He's "a bit of a scoundrel," John says. The real soldier is held captive on Luna One. This is supposedly because Apollo does not have time to gain their confidence as Apollo. What the hell kind of plot is this? This is where the Quantum Leap shit starts.


Starbuck goes to help Apollo when his ship comes back. And poor Boomer! Always left behind Apollo and Starbuck to mind the store.


Apollo lands on Earth and is now Charlie Watts. He's almost run over by a car driven by his girlfriend, a girl named Brenda. She received a phone call to meet him out there--I guess John placed that call. She takes Apollo to her apartment and this should have been my first clue as to the ending because I could not tell if they were being all 1970s futuristic or not. You simply cannot tell the year or decade from the decor of the buildings. There is a video-phone and everything is all white and clean.


John appears again, just like Al in Quantum Leap. Nobody can see him but Apollo. John says his sense of humor is necessary in "working with primitive cultures." Brenda calls the military police to take Apollo away. A forcefield on the jailcell is another indication of advanced culture.


We see the President of the Western Alliance, some ponce in high boots, that knows all about Charlie Watts being "tucked away" on Luna One. He is trying to make a peace treaty with the Eastern Alliance. Indeed, he is fighting the Precedium for such a treaty. I guess, when all is said and done, you have to think of this President as Poland making a non-aggression treaty with Germany. He says he is trying to avoid "an abyss which will end all civilization on this planet."


Starbuck finds Apollo's Viper on Terra. He is then found by the People's Nationalist Force. He stuns all nine of them and blows up their vehicle.


Brenda's father has been on a secret mission for the Precedium, saying that the President has been lying. Watts would be the only proof of the President's deception. He and Brenda are then captured.


Apollo tries to convince everyone he isn't Watts. So why the bloody cover or disguise in the first place? It would have been simpler if he just tried to prove who he really was.


John appears now to Starbuck. "I am not allowed to interfere in any way." Even though it sure looks to me like he is interfering. Then he talks to the sky, presumably the other Beings of Light, saying, "It's the best I can do with the material I've got. They're primitives!"


Starbuck rescues everyone. The father says, "You mean that crazy story you told us was true?" Which would be easier to believe: a man saying he is from another planet or a man that you know very well saying he is really a man from another planet underneath? Wacko. Starbuck says the Vipers are enough "to prove we're from another galaxy."


The Eastern Alliance, I can't tell if they're Nazis or from the Death Star briefing room, is readying its final strike. The Precedium doesn't believe in the holocaust on the Luna Bases.


Brenda takes Starbuck back to his ship to contact Galactica. Hopefully, the Galactica can save them all.


Apollo, even introduced as Apollo and not Watts, gives a little speech to the Precedium. He tells them about the Twelve Colonies. Wouldn't he be considered an utter wack-job right now? The Eastern Alliance launches its nuclear attack. The Western Alliance automatically launches its counter attack. The Galactica finally arrives in orbit.


So how does the Eastern Alliance think it's going to win anything, when John tells Starbuck that 4/5 of the planet will be destroyed? Did Apollo actually fail to prevent the bombs from going off in the first place?


Galactica takes out all the missiles with less than 30 seconds to spare. It's a shield of some kind and looks like what Reagan probably conceived of as Star Wars during his Presidency. I swear, Reagan must have been influenced by this episode. The Eastern Alliance caves.


Apollo thanks the Lords of Kobol, yet five seconds later, John tells Apollo it was good to put "the fear of God" into them. Apollo disappears.


Apollo asks John, "Is this Earth?"

John answers, "This is not Earth and this is not the end of your journey."


So it's yet another colony of humans?? Presumably, this one is an offshoot from Earth and not the Twelve Colonies. And there's part of me that wonders if one of the reasons we have not seen any Cylons recently is that they are letting the Galactica find all of these human colonies and then coming up after them to destroy them all.

Question: Why the hell does what happen on this fake Terra in any way affect the people of the Galactica?

Question: What exactly did Apollo and Starbuck do on the surface of the planet? Nothing. The Galactica did everything from space. They didn't even need to be on the surface of the planet in any way, shape, or form. You could argue that Apollo gave that little speech on peace, but remember, he was supposed to be Charlie Watts, not Apollo. That speech didn't do anything anyway.


Now do you see what I mean by that Quantum Leap connection? A man is put in the guise of a local to solve a situation with the help of a "holographic" companion that only he can see or hear. This is the first Quantum Leap.


This is what Richard "Apollo" Hatch had to say about this episode in an official statement on
"Experiment in Terra"http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Experiment_in_Terra

Richard Hatch discusses his "Starbuck"-esque role in this episode: Richard Hatch: One of the biggest, well, kind of practical jokes was, there was an episode written for Dirk [Benedict], and I got the episode and I…I was a little upset. I felt they were, you know, knocking Captain Apollo. I felt they were really pushing him aside and I said, I think it’s time that HE had a story, that you did something for this character rather than just letting him give orders and go march around the ship. So he, Glen [Larson] said, you’re right, we really should, we need a story with Captain Apollo going down to HIS planet. So, about two hours later, the script I’d had, featuring Dirk, arrived at my house, and it
had been…the two characters of Captain Apollo and Starbuck were simply interchanged, they’d put my name where Starbuck was and put Starbuck where Apollo was. And I immediately got into the car and was seeking out Dirk to apologize, because I simply had no idea, I thought, down the road, the next story, maybe a couple of stories later he’d write one for Captain Apollo. He didn’t do that, he just took the very story that had probably been in Dirk’s hands, he’d been going “what a wonderful script I have here!” and two hours later he gets a script where he was now Captain Apollo and I’m Starbuck and
literally he has not changed any lines. In any case I was very embarrassed and I found him at a party and I explained the whole situation to him and how sorry I was and he said, well, I understand, I just think you should go to Glen Larson and ask him to reverse it, put it back the other way. So I tried to find Glen Larson, and I told him, I appreciate the gesture, but the next time will you be a little more subtle? Sometimes you want to expand your character, you want to
bring in new dimensions to the character and they gave Captain Apollo the chance to do a few things that he didn’t normally do on that show because, as you all know, Starbuck got to run around and have fun with the ladies and Captain Apollo…kind of had fun with himself…and from that time on they actually began to change, not change the characters, but to give Starbuck a little bit of the Captain Apollo quality and Captain Apollo a little bit of the Starbuck qualities, and they started to make the characters more well-rounded, and I appreciated that.