BG-04: The Long Patrol

[Eric Paddon]

Truthfully, I felt that matter of another "galaxy" was something best dispensed with as too implausible so that when I go back and clean up the flaws of the episodes in my adaptations, I just change it to something more plausible. But if we want to ponder it further, I think the term "Galaxy" in Colonial speak doesn't always mean what we think it to mean.

[Senmut]

Well, in our own astronomy, terms like "galaxy", "planet" and such have gone through various definitions over the centuries. We cannot assume that another civilization, more advanced than we, would use every term in exactly the same way.

[Eric Paddon]

Agreed. Though it may reflect poor science on the part of 20th century Earth writers, we can always take the No-Prize solution (to borrow from Marvel comics) and say that Colonial terminology isn't always the same as ours.

[Senmut]

Yup. Way back when, what we now call other galaxies were referred to as "island universes". That might confuse people from some other world, I suspect.

[CBSG4ever]

Just watched this episode again as well. I noticed something interesting. When the RTF emerges from the asteriod cloud, Adama asks what the status of Starbuck is. Athena refers to her computer console and it shows some of the crews names, ranks and status. Well, two of the names that are listed are Rigel and Omega. It shows that Rigel is a Sgt AND Omega is a Sgt as well. I always thought Omega was an Officer. Did anyone else happen to catch this?

[Eric Paddon]

Omega was only referred to as a "Bridge Officer" at various points which need not necessarily mean a commissioned officer rank of Ensign or higher.

[Athene]

I was watching this episode yesterday evening. This is my second favourite episode. I've lost count how many times I've watched Saga of a Starworld and The Long Patrol.

My avatar is from that episode.

[Eric Paddon]

Some new thoughts about this episode.

Production wise this episode was mostly filmed after GOIPZ and before LPOTG and when they began filming it, two things hadn't happened yet. (1) The successful effort to get Jane Seymour back for one more episode and (2) The decision to retain John Colicos as Baltar.

From a logical standpoint, if you just assume that Jane Seymour had put her foot down and refused to come back then "Saga" would have aired with her dying scenes intact. Then, we would have seen GOIPZ air in its originally conceived version in which it would be Imperious Leader, not Baltar, for all the scenes on the Cylon basestar. GOIPZ has the feel of "second shot" as well in that a deleted scene has Apollo specifically reference the death of Zac and his mother to Adama. Cassiopeia doesn't appear at all because at this point they may not have even decided to have her character live in Saga either.

If you had Saga first (with Serina dead), then GOIPZ, then "Long Patrol" would have been set up neatly to become the next show in order.

1-The whole beginning about them "entering a new galaxy/star system" has the whole feel of a "first regular episode".

2-Cassiopeia is still clearly a socialator and is not a med-tech. A deleted scene has her identifying herself still as a socialator and there is also deleted footage of when she arrives on the Bridge dressed in her low-cut red outfit and is making her way over to see Athena, every male Bridge crewman stops to gawk at her. It is probably the most un-PC moment they filmed! But once LPOTG aired first with Cassiopeia as a med-tech, they had to cut these moments that blatantly state she's still a socialator in order to maintain continuity. Taken in the revised continuity we can envision perhaps that Cassie, while no longer a socialator, still at this point likes to wear one of her old dresses when "off-duty".

3-Adama's somewhat off-hand reference about Earth at the end of the episode and the "ancient legends" works a lot better if by this point they *haven't* visited Kobol yet for more definitive clues about Earth's location/existence. Had Jane Seymour not come back as Serina I'm sure we still would have had a "Kobol" visit with a different script.

4-The one scene of Baltar and Lucifer consists entirely of footage from the LPOTG shoot with dubbed dialogue. This also happened with the final Baltar-Lucifer scene in Pt. 2 of GOIPZ to cover the changes that had taken place since the original shoot.

5-The prominence of Athena and the "space Casanova" juggling of her and Cassiopeia by Starbuck is also a clue to how early in the going this was shot since Athena's importance in the show would soon go down dramatically.

As for an earlier point as to why the daylight confrontation scene between Starbuck and Robber was then reshot as a night one, I see it as a simple case of Larson and the production team realizing the initial shot in the daytime just wasn't effective. Much like how "Lost Warrior" and "Magnificent Warriors" are all shot in night settings and look more effective than if they'd been done in daylight. It may have cost a lot to reshoot but it was more effective ultimately.

[Charybdis]

A lot of changes in those early days!

[Senmut]

Seeing the eps in their original form would be interesting. Have you seen them?

[Eric Paddon]

They don't exist in the "original form". There was never a final edit using the discarded footage for Long Patrol which makes us lucky to see the outtakes. Most of the unused footage stays unused for a good reason.

I have found though that it is possible with some basic video software (and if you rip the episodes to your computer along with the outtakes/deleted scenes) it is possible to create some longer versions. This comes in handy for recreating the "telemovie" versions of the two part episodes only this way you get to see the better quality footage of the remastered DVDs for the non-telemovie added scenes before new material comes up. I found that all but five episodes could be expanded with new material (in this case, material that still fits the episode narrative. A new edit of Saga still can't use the "Serina's dying footage" for instance or Long Patrol with the daylight footage because it's unmixed and you hear airplanes flying overhead and it also doesn't fit narratively with everything else that was shot. For that episode I think I just put back in a brief moment where the waiter explains what he meant about the days "before the war")

[Croft2018]

I wish someone would write a book about the creation of BG starting with Larson's 1969 Adam's Arc concept (a response to Star Trek apparently) and following it through the wilderness years prior to Star Wars, the release of Star Wars, it's early rip off of SW phase (Apollo being called Skyler et al) and to the final revisions and production. And I mean a real warts and all approach that's honest and fair. Covering the marginalisation of Maren Jenson, the rejigging when Seymour refused to sign on longer etc.

[Senmut]

And, how BSG was often trashed by critics, who wouldn't have known good stuff if it fell on them.

[Eric Paddon]

Originally Posted by Croft2018

I wish someone would write a book about the creation of BG starting with Larson's 1969 Adam's Arc concept (a response to Star Trek apparently) and following it through the wilderness years prior to Star Wars, the release of Star Wars, it's early rip off of SW phase (Apollo being called Skyler et al) and to the final revisions and production. And I mean a real warts and all approach that's honest and fair. Covering the marginalisation of Maren Jenson, the rejigging when Seymour refused to sign on longer etc.

For now the best book you can get on Galactica production history is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Say-All-Uncen...=books&sr=1-21

I hate the title of the book since that is a phrase unique to the other entity and only the first 30-35% of the book is about our show before it gives way to that other property but having said that, the quotes they put together tells as extensive a picture as there's been up to this point, though I agree we could use another book that tries to delve in to some of these other nuances you point out on the matter of when were change made to proposed storylines regarding when new decisions/edicts came down, and what plans might there have been if Jane Seymour *hadn't* agreed to come back for LPOTG? I think they were pretty much resigned to the fact from the get-go that they weren't going to land her for a full series.

[Charybdis]

If you check the bookstores, there's also a book out there featuring all the ships of the Galactica universe. Can't remember the name but it also includes at least the TOS Raider and Viper...not sure what else though since it's wrapped closed and you can't see inside...