BG-05: Gun On Ice Planet Zero

Flamingo Girl · May 10th, 2003, 04:44 PM

Synopsis:
Baltar's Cylon forces herd the Colonial fleet towards an Cylon-controlled ice planet with an ultra-powerful laser pulse weapon, designed by a former Colonial scientist. A Colonial patrol is shot down and one of the pilots captured. As time runs out with the Cylons gaining on the fleet, ground assault teams are formed--with Warriors and knowledgeable Colonial convicts forced to work together to destroy the weapon. And the Colonials discover an entire colony of clones who may -- or may not--provide much-needed help in destroying their human creator's weapon.

Staring:
Richard Hatch as Apollo, Dirk Benedict as Starbuck, Herb Jefferson Jr. as Boomer, Lorne Greene as Adama, Terry Carter as Colonel Tigh, Maren Jensen as Athena, Tony Swartz as Jolly, Laurette Spang as Cassiopia, Noah Hathaway as Boxey, Sarah Rush as Rigel, David Greenan as Omega, and John Colicos as Baltar.

Guest starring:
Roy Thinnes as Croft, James Olson as Thane, Christine Belford as Leda, Richard Lynch as Wolfe, Denny Miller as Ser 5-9, Britt Ekland as Tenna, Dan O'Herlihy as Dr. Ravishol, Larry Manetti as Giles, Alan Stock as Cadet Cree, Curtis Credel as Haals, Jeff Mackay as Cpl. Komma, Larry Cedar as Cadet Shields, Alex Hyde-White as Cadet Bow, Patrick Milholland as Killian, and Walt Davis as Vickers.

Writers: Leslie Stevens, Michael Sloan and Don Bellisario.

Director: Alan J. Levi.

Original Airdate:
Part I - October 22, 1978
Part II - October 29, 1978

(Thanks to Michael Faries BattlestarGalactica.com)

Senmut · July 12th, 2003, 01:53 PM

Can you say "Guns Of Navarone" in Space? Still, it was a very good ep, and I thought the way Lucifer acts just like Baltar would, to find a good cover-up, was both funny, and believable.

Shatter · July 31st, 2003, 07:17 AM

I gotta agree with Senmut...this was definitely a retooling of a classic plot, but a fun ride just the same! This was one of my favorite Galactica episodes when I was a kid (still is, actually).

amberstar · July 31st, 2003, 07:58 AM

Good episode, but my favorite would have to be The Living Ledgend.
Amberstar

Charybdis · July 31st, 2003, 10:53 AM

Gun on Ice Planet was filmed after the series premiere. Notice that Cassieopea is not in it. She was brought back for the series in Lost Planet. Also, if I'm correct, this is also the only other episode that features the shots of the viper pilots being ferried down the corridor on those sleds of some sort. They only appeared in the pilot and in this episode never to be seen again...

Original name for the episode: Cylon Death Machine!

Dawg · July 31st, 2003, 11:13 AM

"Gun on Ice Planet Zero" is, actually a pretty darn lame title, and I thought so at the time, too.

I did enjoy the episode, though, having had a minor thing for Christine Belford (and/or Britt Ekland) at the time.

I am
Dawg

shiningstar · August 13th, 2003, 02:19 PM

I totally agree with you Senmut. This was one of my
favorite episodes. I totally enjoyed it

Reaper63 · August 27th, 2003, 05:29 PM

I always liked this one. It was definately full of action. We saw a concerned side of Starbuck, Worrying about the Cadet who got captured under his command.

IT also delivered the action with the Cylons, and as a kid, watching the Pulsar shooting at the Fleet as seconds ticked off the timers was exciting.

amberstar · August 27th, 2003, 08:03 PM

Welcome Reaper 63, and thank you for that memory of Starbuck! That is a good storyline, we get to see the compasion that Starbuck did have for his fellow man. He may have also felt responsible for his cadet, but it does prove that Starbuck was more than a dringking card shark, that spends his whole time chasing women.

Amberstar

Reaper63 · August 27th, 2003, 09:05 PM

Thanks for the welcome, and I do hold this one out as one of the best Eps. It gave more substance to Starbuck, fleshed him out more.

kingfish · August 28th, 2003, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dawg
"Gun on Ice Planet Zero" is, actually a pretty darn lame title, and I thought so at the time, too.

I did enjoy the episode, though, having had a minor thing for Christine Belford (and/or Britt Ekland) at the time.

I am
Dawg

I watched an episode of The Golden Girls and Christine Belford played Rose's daughter. I didn't recognize her at first with the blonde hair.

August 30th, 2003, 01:43 PM

One of my favorite episodes, The show was alot better when all the main players where in it, I like the shot when the viper crashed landed in the snow, great F/X!

shiningstar · August 31st, 2003, 10:38 PM

I think so Too Originalsinner!

KJ · November 5th, 2003, 11:40 AM

Wolfe didn't have a death scene? Either he got to a Cylon raider like he planned or escaped later on when he had a better chance to. It was very possible he could have returned in the second season had the series continued to a second season.

And since Croft besides Wolfe was the other survivor of that mission, he too could have reappeared. Well he did in some of the extended Berkley Novels!

KJ

Doctor Salik · November 5th, 2003, 02:13 PM

This is one of my favorite episodes and I like it very much. But I cannot help but wonder... why did the fleet bother to take prisoners with them? Especially dangerous ones? I see the need for a prison ship once the fleet is on its way, but while food and space is precious it was very merciful to take these criminals along.
(But of course, if they had not taken the prisoners along, there could not have been an episode.)

Muffit · November 6th, 2003, 11:25 PM

I too love this episode. It was a good idea to do a take off on Navarone, move it to an ice planet, and put in the excitement of the threat of baseships closing in forcing them to face the gun. This ep shows large groups of Cylons, which I think is really the best way to show off those cool outfits. Like the other best eps, there are a bunch of sub-themes going on at the same time, like a well written novel.

Gotta say though, two guest actors in this really made it a fav for me. First, Roy Thinnes, star of The Invaders, gets a big part. THAT was a GREAT show! I loved the cerebral hemmorhage thing, that's just what someone would do to cover up an invasion, make it look natural (hey! when's somebody gonna air a rerun of that?). And the other guest star was Dan O'Herlihy. If memory serves me correctly, he played the friendly alien Grig in The Last Starfighter.

This ep was very exciting. Can't believe the ratings were dropping. People with Nielsen boxes must all live in convalescent homes.

Doctor Salik · November 7th, 2003, 06:14 AM

Muffit's correct. Dan was Grig in Starfighter and gave his best performance as "Old Man" (CEO of OCP) in Robocop I and II.

dru · December 5th, 2003, 02:07 AM

I rewatched this last night. It's always been one of my favorites. And it remains so.

I think a Daggit should've been SOP with any ground missions. Say what you will but he was kept them alive and did likewise in Fire and Space. Even now we know there are times for remotes, droids or robotics from military operations to suspicious package containment or Egyptian pyramid exploration.

Ok, I was pretty surprised to understand the "Father Creator" made the clones as slave labour for the Cylons. Whoa! Where did that come from? Again, it's another bit of TOS that might support a cyborgification of human survivors left under Cylon rule as DeSanto proposed.

I couldn't figure why Galactica couldn't simply go around the other side of the planet, opposite the pulsar? There has to be an explanation.

Boxey was annoying anytime he disobeyed. We never see him get punished for stowing away that I can really although maybe this was the only time he was a genuine stow away. The spirit of the annoying child character is back in the form of that spoiled child in ER who invades everyone's privacy as he gawks from patient to patient. Grrr. Will Hollywood never stop?

I wonder if George Lucas was pulling his hair out since he hadn't done the Hoth ice planet in his Star Wars films yet.

Domiano · December 5th, 2003, 08:30 AM

"Nitpickers heaven". I loved the episode when I was 9 and now that I am older I can sit back and watched on my DVD player and nitpick it.

1. Starbuck's hair length changing back and forth.
2. When Starbuck blows up the Cylon Raider on the planet. Watch the explosion closely and you will notice the shot is from Saga of A Star World when the cylon base star explodes on the planet surface.
3. Starbuck is suppose to be on the planet surface. When the Galactica launches fighters you can clearly see Starbuck launching in his viper.
4. The stock footage of the same battle scenes. I will give them a break on that one...due to budget. I guess when you are spending 1 Million per episode you have to cut corners.

Overall I rate the episode

out of

shiningstar · January 5th, 2004, 05:41 PM

I found my self Nit picking the episode too when I watched
it on DVD ....... I still liked it .......I think your rating system is
RIGHT ON!

January 6th, 2004, 02:12 AM

Another of my favorites. It beat STAR WARS to the punch with a snowy world. Remember, The Empire Strikes Back featuring the rebels on Hoth was not to come out for 2 more years! The whole snow thing was great.

Great action. I loved the shots of the Cylon Raiders flying through the snow. And the Cylon foot patrol was cool, too.
The previously-mentioned Cree crash landing was awesome.

Britt's presence on the show is a nice touch. It truly gives the show a '70's feel. (Did she ever do anything in the '80's?)

The Sci-Fi relpays cut scenes out, like cadet Cree actually getting captured by the foot patrol, but not before a gun fight. I look forward to the arrival of my DVD Epic set in a few days!

shiningstar · January 11th, 2004, 07:49 PM

LOL Do you think Larson and Desanto should SUE for that?

February 14th, 2004, 11:13 AM

***1/2

GalacticanCajun · February 22nd, 2004, 09:28 AM

I just read the novilazation of this episode. It was great. I loved the additional scenes with the Imperious Leader inderacting with the Starbuck simulation. Great stuff.

shiningstar · February 25th, 2004, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Kingjason

Wolfe didn't have a death scene? Either he got to a Cylon raider like he planned or escaped later on when he had a better chance to. It was very possible he could have returned in the second season had the series continued to a second season.

And since Croft besides Wolfe was the other survivor of that mission, he too could have reappeared. Well he did in some of the extended Berkley Novels!

KJ

I think he would have been a great character to contend with in season two.

shiningstar · February 25th, 2004, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doctor Salik

This is one of my favorite episodes and I like it very much. But I cannot help but wonder... why did the fleet bother to take prisoners with them? Especially dangerous ones? I see the need for a prison ship once the fleet is on its way, but while food and space is precious it was very merciful to take these criminals along.
(But of course, if they had not taken the prisoners along, there could not have been an episode.)

I saw that too especially with all the colonists they kept saying they were
forced to leave behind. I was especially bothered by this after seeing the
deleted scenes with athena and adama from saga of a starworld when he
kept on talking about passing out priorities and a woman who was knocked
to the ground with a baby in her arms.

Even so though the ep still made for a great story.

March 5th, 2004, 03:07 PM

Cloned humans serving the cylons and ultimately rebelling! Someone should send that idea to Ron Moore (sarcastic). Between this episode and the BSG1980 episode where the human-cylon and a centurion roam New York on Halloween we see that Glen Larson is the father of the human-cylon concept.

Great episode! I liked it even better than it's inspirations, "The Guns of Navarone" and "The Dirty Dozen".

Reading that it was the second episode made (although not aired) is interesting. Starbuck's loss of the cadet being an episode after his loss of Zak, another new pilot under his wing when viewed as back to back episodes is very interesting. It helps bring Starbuck full circle in any feelings he may have had about losing Zak. By rescuing the cadet Starbuck could excise the demon of guilt he would still hold in his subconscience mind over the loss of Zak. This is a psychiatrist dream episode. It is brillant whether or not Larson intentionally designed it this way.

shiningstar · March 5th, 2004, 04:01 PM

well written Antelope .....

launchcruiser7 · March 13th, 2004, 01:48 PM

best two partter of show see baltar limping proves this was after lost planet of gods allso no cassie not wanted in show no space hookers after jane left she took her place wonder want tricks dr r had for those gallmongeling tin headssecond best choice for new show after cain this is fleet leader mayhem launch cruiser hawkeye where did you comefrom

shiningstar · March 13th, 2004, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by launchcruiser7

best two partter of show see baltar limping proves this was after lost planet of gods allso no cassie not wanted in show no space hookers after jane left she took her place wonder want tricks dr r had for those gallmongeling tin headssecond best choice for new show after cain this is fleet leader mayhem launch cruiser hawkeye where did you comefrom

While I liked the episode I was Saddened to see NO Cassie in the show.