Experiment in Terra Analysis
By Walt Atwood

STORY SYNOPSIS

It has been seven sectars since Commandant Leiter and his Eastern Alliance destroyer escaped from the Galactica along with the fugitive Borellian Nomen. Adama dispatched Blue Squadron to track the Leiter's ship to its home port on Luna 7. While maneuvering his squardon's vipers around to reconnoiter, Flight Captain Apollo is captured by the same Ship of Lights that had saved him from death in the earlier "War of the Gods, Part II". Apollo is recruited by John (portrayed by the late Edward Mullhare), one of the beings of light, to assume the identity of Colonel Charlie Watts. Watts, who serves in the People's Nationalist Force, has been captured by the Eastern Alliance on Luna 1. Apollo must use Watts' identity to get into the Nationalist capitol, known as the Presidium, and warn of an impending attack by the Eastern Alliance. John stresses that the outcome of the conflict on Terra is of cosmic significance.

Apollo finds himself landing on Terra, where he is found wandering outside the capital by Charlie's estranged girlfriend, Brenda Maxwell (Melody Anderson). She takes him in, but is concerned by his odd disorientation. She calls the Nationalist Security police, who arrive at her apartment and take him away. In space, Starbuck and Boomer register Apollo's long-range distress beacon, far ahead of them. Starbuck decides to set up his own beacon to warn the Galactica, which is now far behind them. He leaves Boomer in command of the squadron and takes off after Apollo. On the Galactica, Tigh reports to Adama about the strange movements of Apollo's and Starbuck's vipers. With the rest of Blue Squadron out of communications range and the Fleet moving too slow to do much good, Adama orders the Galactica to leave the Fleet to be escorted by two squadrons of vipers, while the battlestar will follow the beacons at lightspeed.

In the capitol, advisor Moore (Logan Ramsey) reports that unidentified flying craft have been detected in Nationalist airspace. Moore suspects the Alliance is up to something, and has dispatched troops to the area where the unknown ships were last sighted. But President Arends (Peter D. MacLean) is more worried about the sudden re-emergence of Colonel Watts, whose knowledge of Luna 1 being attacked by the Alliance could jeopardize the peace treaty in the hawkish Presidium parliament. He tells Moore to sweep all of these developments under the rug fast, including anyone who talked to Watts. Apollo is thrown into a security holding cell controlled by the People's Nationalist Force. At the site in the desert where Apollo's ship sits unattended, Starbuck accesses Apollo's log recording that tells of how he set out for the nearby city; he has left his communicator on standby so he could be tracked. Before Starbuck can do anything else, helicopter-like flying machines from the P.N.F. land nearby and their troops dismount to investigate the vipers. Starbuck tries to warn them off, but their squad leader (John DeLancie) insists the warrior submit himself for interrogation. Starbuck stuns the troops with his blaster pistol and destroys their machines. "I sure hope I don't have to pay for those machines," he mutters to himself. Starbuck sets out on foot to track Apollo.

Brenda is surprised again, this time to find her father, General Maxwell (Ken Swofford) ringing at her front door. He is glad to be back on Terra, explaining to her that he was unsuccessful in trying to reach Luna 1 due to the Eastern Alliance destroyers. She tells him of Charlie Watts' reappearance, and how she handed her ex-boyfriend over to the authorities. "That call may have cost Charlie his life," her father warns. It seems the president has become so bent on his ambition for peace that no development or witness can be allowed to get in his way. But things take a turn for the worse when the Nationalist Security police show up again and arrest the father and the daughter. They are both taken to the same military holding cell block where Apollo is held. Apollo tries to explain to Brenda, Gen. Maxwell and his assistant Stone (Sidney Clute) that he is not Charlie.

Starbuck wanders into the compound of the Nationalist facility in the capitol where Apollo and the others are being held. He is first greeted by John, who touches the warrior and causes him to "see the lights" and remember. With the knowledge gained from John, Starbuck breaks into the Nationalist facility and frees Apollo and the others. They set out for the Presidium. In space, Adama presses on: the Galactica continues toward Terra at lightspeed.

Brenda takes Starbuck to his viper, while Apollo, Gen. Maxwell and Stone gain access to the Presidium. President Arends is due to argue for the ratification of the treaty with the Eastern Alliance, while John warns Apollo that the Alliance is preparing to launch a devastating attack on Terra.

The Supreme Commandant of the Eastern Alliance (Neremiah Persoff) confidently struts around his warroom. Loyalists have been evacuated to underground bunkers in preparation for the nuclear assault he is about to order. The Alliance survivors will rise from the ashes of this nuclear war to re-establish themselves on the Lunar colonies; the civilian population of both sides will be sacrificed so that this new civilization can be born from the ashes of Terra.

Inside the Presidium's parliament, Arends offers Maxwell a chance to rebut the proposed treaty. John urges Apollo to address the parliament, and warn them of the dangers when negotiating with an enemy. Apollo proceeds to tell the Nationalists that, on his world, people mistook "the opposite of war to be peace", when it turns out to be slavery instead. Brenda, who is still not sure she believes what has been happening, is about to abandon the search in the desert when Starbuck spots his viper. He climbs in and launches into the Terra night sky. John appears on his scanner and warns Starbuck about the Eastern Alliance missile launch. The Supreme Commandant has given the word, and the missiles are starting to race skyward. In the Presidium, Maxwell hotly tells Arends that the nuclear exchange has begun; the Alliance double-crossed him. Starbuck warns the approaching Galactica about the missiles. Adama orders battlestations sounded, and the battlestar's lasers to destroy the arcing missiles. "We must destroy every single missile," Adama orders Omega (David Greenham).

The Galactica is successful: all the Nationalist and Alliance missiles are destroyed above Terra's atmosphere. This baffles the Supreme Commandant. Did the missiles reach their target? There are reports of explosions high up in the ionosphere. Could the Nationalists have devised some kind of anti-missile shield? The Eastern Alliance leaders agree, it is time to rethink their strategy and sue for peace. Back in the Presidium, Arends and Maxwell set aside their differences and renew their old friendship. They will re-negotiate with the Alliance and keep the Luna satellites free. They turn to thank Apollo and solicit his future aid, but the warrior has disappeared.

John walks with Apollo outside the Presidium. He looks into the Terra night sky, then tells the warrior that this is not Earth, the Fleet still has a long way to go on its journey.

A Second Look

It would've been far more interesting if "Experiment in Terra" has been a two- or three-part story, in which Apollo and company explore this new civilization and save it from war in the process and figure out it's not Earth on their own. That would've required more time and imagination. This would've also allowed more time to make use of characters like Athena, Sheba, Bojay and others, and the use of their own wits to figure things out. The notion of a clumsy guardian angel pulling everyone's strings only begs the question: if John can orchestrate all these things in advance, does this mean he and his luminaria friends allowed the destruction of the Great Colonies to take place so the Galactica would probe the Universe and eventually stumble on Terra at the right moment? The revisitation of John and the Ship of Lights was a lame device to move things along quickly. The goofy portrayal of characters talking to themselves was a new low for the series.

The caricature of the Eastern Alliance elite in their warroom looks like a bad imitation of the Nazis in their bunker from so many World War II movies. Doesn't anyone realize that space-age nuclear weapons would be so powerful that no bunker would be safe? The off-the-cuff remark by the Supreme Commandant that a nuclear holocaust would serve to mitigate Terra's overpopulation problem belongs in an old James Bond movie from the 1960's. Once again, Battlestar's makers can't fathom a character that would add plausibility to the story, so they come up with a knockoff of Blofeld. How would any leader get away with that kind of talk without being overthrown by his subordinates? Somebody in that room must have family or friends in harm's way. That whole scene was too fantastic. Notice that the scenes involving the Eastern Alliance top brass do not involve any of Battlestar's regular characters, or any guest stars who have interacted with said characters. They are completely isolated from Apollo and Starbuck. While this is a bold and innovative move for a prime-time drama of the 1970's to take, the practice of introducing and then dispensing with these characters in the confines of a single hour-long episode undermines the value of their appearance in the first place. They become cardboard, just as scenes of Baltar and Lucifer were from "The Long Patrol".

While this final installment in the Terra anthology does wrap things up and pulls many pieces together, it also seems to be an exercise in discontinuity, especially concept erosion. Unlike previous episodes in the Terra anthology, this story is not in typical Galactica format. We end up making a superficial exploration of Terra, its politics and people, and how Apollo, Starbuck and the other regular characters affect this strange new world they happen upon. As a result, Battlestar looses its focus. Will saving this world from one nuclear war assure that its rival factions get back on track? And how does this affect the survival of the Colonial Fleet? What happened to Commandant Leiter and the Borellian Nomen? How does this affect the survivors on Paradeen and the other Terra colonies? Instead of answering these questions, we're sidetracked into a bizarre crusade that resembles a bad fusion of the STAR TREK episode "Patterns of Force" and those silly stories from BEWITCHED (ABC/Screen Gems/Ashmont, 1964-72) about Darrin Stevens (the late Dick York/Dick Sergeant) trying to conceal from the "mortal world" that his wife and in-laws are all witches.

Up to this point, the Battlestar series was a war show, where Apollo and his fellow warriors faced threats (both foreign and domestic) set against the backdrop of escaping the Cylons. While there had been comical moments (some not intentional) and even a bizarre story of fancy or two, (?) it was not until the Terra anthology that an element of outright farce was introduced into the show. Given the Cold War analogy that is explicit in "Experiment in Terra", the MORK & MINDY (ABC/Paramount, 1978-82) notion of "stranger in a strange land" characters wandering around mumbling to themselves seems very out of place. Patrick Macnee's opening narrative "There are those who believe..." is absent once more, and it becomes apparent that this outing's makers deliberately stepped out of Batterstar's "space soap" dramatic format for expediency reasons, to provide a final installment in an anthology whose content mastered them, rather than the other way around.

It took "Greetings from Earth", parts one and two, to introduce us to the Terra anthology, and we never even got close to the homeworld itself. It took another episode to provide an opening for Leiter and his destroyer to escape (the incorrectly titled "Baltar's Escape"), thus moving the Galactica closer to Terra. Why would it not take at least another two-part story to flesh out the Alliance-versus-Nationalist dilemma?

The most bizarre example of concept erosion came in the form of John and the Ship of Lights. Given the abilities exhibited by these aliens, they could've created their own impostor-facsimile of Charlie Watts without the need for abducting Apollo, he could've delivered the same speech to the Presidium, and stopped the missiles in the sky without troubling the Galactica. All without violence. But the most troubling layer of abuse of concept comes in the form of John himself. Edward Mullhare seems to be at least partially reprising his role as Captain Daniel Gregg from THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (20th Century Fox, 1968-70), in which the spirit of a deceased sea captain continues to inhabit his former seaside home and form a relationship with the subsequent owner, Carolyn Muir (Hope Lange). What does this have to do with a super-race which Adama once referred to as the "light of truth and good"? This race's first face-to-face appearance in "War of the Gods, Part II" was presented as far more alien and mysterious. A viewer couldn't be sure if they were akin to angels or the manifestation of U.F.O. phenomena credited with unexplained disappearances. The use of a deep male voice in concert with tall, lithe, feminine forms shrouded in shimmering veils was effective in producing "not quite human" effect. With the arrival of all-too-human John, all that illusion was shattered. And the notion that these aliens don't get involved in violence doesn't ring true after they abducted so many viper pilots. They even visited themselves on Baltar's baseship, inspiring him to rendezvous with the Galactica in "War of the Gods, Part I"

Spectacle Value

There is an odd scene at the beginning of this episode in which we see an Eastern Alliance enforcer, who is apparently sitting before a console aboard Commandant Leiter's destroyer. The figure says nothing, does noting. Still, we hear what seems to be another enforcer announcing that they've detected alien fighters following their ship. This does effectively provide a link to the previous installment in the anthology. Despite that, the use of only one enforcer, whose lips do not move, is a failing in production values. It would've been more effective if we saw a row of enforcers sitting at their stations as they work. The voice could still have been off-camera.

The whole deal with the white uniforms is a very lame gimmick. And when you stop and think about it, why didn't this "protecting white aura" also envelop the vipers and allow them to escape detection?

True to Battlestar's past, Apollo and Starbuck land on Terra at night. This is a handy way to avoid showing us this world's society, automobiles, and anything else that might give it substance. It was, however, a clever way to avoid having to reveal the details of the helicopter-like flying craft used by the People's Nationalist Force when they discover Starbuck. Funny though, that we see daylight scenes of the outside of buildings in the capitol, yet the actors are all shown either in nighttime scenes or in windowless rooms.

The use of U.S. missile footage, combined with the "not again!" use of Apollo L.E.M. extraction footage, cannot be excused. If Battlestar's makers wanted to produce a Cold War allegory on another world, they should've realized they'd have to cough up the money to create their own special effects.

Just what was that web-like aura that the Galactica sprayed down on Terra to destroy those missiles? It would've been much more interesting (and probably simpler) to show the battlestar's laser turrets picking off the missiles. (Missiles of this type would have to be slower than the Cylon fighters these turrets are used to shooting down.)

The parliamentary chamber inside the Presidium doesn't look like a deliberative body at all. It looks more like a theatre in-the-round.

If Battlestar Galactica were new today...

This show would underscore the utility of two-seat vipers, the return of C.O.R.A. from "The Long Patrol", and the introduction of a bomber-like vehicle that would allow at least a squad of warriors to make incursions on unknown worlds. Apollo could've lead one or two such ships to Terra and facilitated the story much more practically. If another warrior (or group of same) were with him, he would not have to talk to himself. Also: think of the possibilities of having Apollo and Sheba sharing a ship during a mission... or Starbuck and Athena.

The whole John thing was a mistake. If the Ship of Lights were to return, it would have to be presented in a more alien, more mysterious form. In the context of this anthology, it would be best to expand the story into two or more parts and let the Galactica crew do their own exploring, make their own determinations using their own wits, and arrive at a decision to leave this world alone. It would've served as a more fitting finale for the series. The Galactica and her laser turrets would have to be shown more actively engaging the missiles over Terra. The weird effect that was used seemed more like something the Starship Enterprise would apply. It would also be much more effective to show vipers launching over Terra and getting in on the act.

Tidbits & Nit-picks

The Supreme Commandant's suspicion raised in the episode's ending that the People's Nationalist Force could be responsible for blocking the missile launch provided an interesting allusion to President Reagan's so-called "Strategic Defense Initiative" in the mid-1980's, which was given the popular nickname "Star Wars".

Funny how John's "reflection" could not be seen outside the confines of the Ship of Lights, yet Apollo and Starbuck can converse with him on Terra. Could John's illusion be telepathic?

Notice that none of the Galactica characters ever express any concern about Terra ever being vulnerable to Cylon attack. Apollo repeatedly insists he is from another galaxy. This being the case, the legitimate question comes to mind: if they left the Cylons behind, why doesn't Adama start seeding habitable worlds with volunteers who can build a new future and carry on the Colonial legacy in relative safety? In the Galactica's situation, it makes little sense to put all your eggs in one basket if you don't have to. Surely not everyone in the Fleet agrees with Adama's quest. Why not offer breathing equipment and leave some folks off on Paradeen?

The Borellian Nomen who escaped in Leiter's ship are never mentioned again in the series. Presumably, they will seed Terra (the Eastern Alliance?) with Colonial culture, albeit the rebellious ways of the Nomen. If Maga and his two partners in crime retained at least some of the Borellian weapons upon their escape, then it can be assumed that at least some Colonial technology will be absorbed into the society on Terra.

While it is never explicitly spelled out during the Terra anthology, there is the strong implication that Terra and its colonies are spread out over at least a couple of closely adjoining planetary systems. This would explain the relative isolation of Paradeen (and the need for refugees to use a sleeper ship) and the long travel time that Leiter's ship takes to return to its home port, supposedly Luna 1.

Speaking of travel times, it seems that more than just a few hours or days passed between the ending of "Baltar's Escape" and the beginning of this episode. Adama states in the computerized dictation of his memoirs that "it has been seven sectars" since Leiter's ship was allowed to escape. Following the past alleged "system" of Colonial measures as a guide, a sectar (the spelling shown on Adama's dictation scanner) would have to be the next level of magnitude in time after a secton, which would be the next step up after a centar/centare, which in turn would be next up after a centon. Extrapolating logically (and we're really taking a chance here) from the notion that a centon is a Colonial minute, and a centar/centare would therefore be their version of an hour, it would seem that a secton is roughly analogous to a day. Could a sectar therefore be much like a week? Is it safe to assume that seven Colonial weeks have passed since "Baltar's Escape?" This would reinforce the notion that, even as sublight vehicles go, spaceflight technology on Terra is much closer to the standards of present-day real-life Earth than even the relatively primitive "sixth millennium fighter" and shuttle from the penal asteroid of Proteus seen in "The Long Patrol".

One failing in this episode's plot: why couldn't the Eastern Alliance launch their attack from their destroyers? It would've been much quicker. For that matter, why aren't the People's Nationalist Force actively deploying their own spaceships? Given the strong implication that both sides seem to have a fairly equal technological and military footing, the whole situation is that much more confusing. And why couldn't spaceships and satellites from Terra detect the approach of the Galactica? It would be pretty hard to miss an incoming starship one nautical mile long and partially self-illuminated.

Tigh's remark "Sir, it has been some time since the Galactica has been pushed to..." in response to Adama's order for lightspeed is puzzling. Does this imply their intergalactic travel was accomplished through some kind of jump mechanism, or the use of wormholes? Or could this simply mean that since their arrival in the environs of Terra the Fleet has kept a sublight pace?

Why was Apollo babbling on about the "opposite of peace"? The reason the Colonies fell was Baltar's betrayal.

More discontinuity: why would Apollo tell Brenda/"Amnesia" this his ship crashed, when we later see Starbuck climbing atop Apollo's viper, intact? Why would he say that to her?

This episode provides some seldom-seen references to distinctive viper ships in the series. In "The Long Patrol", Starbuck's modified probe ship, nicknamed the Starchaser, was designated "Recon Viper One", or "RCV-1" on the Galactica's scanners. In this show, Apollo's ship is referred to as "Viper Two" and Starbuck's ship is referred to as "Viper Four". Notice there is no reference to squadron affiliation.