The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (Part 2) Analysis
By Walt Atwood

STORY SYNOPSIS

The Galactica fleet is at a dead stop in space, waiting for its commando team on the icy asteroid Arcta to disable the powerful weapon on Mount Hekla. Baltar is upset that the crash-landed commandos were never found and killed. On the surface of Arcta, Apollo and his team, lead by the Arcta clones, hide in a frozen crevasse while a Cylon foot patrol passes by. Once the way is clear, the clones lead Apollo's party to a vast underground network of interconnecting caves which form a village.

Apollo breaks off from his expedition to be led by a bearded male clone, Series 5, Culture 9 (Denny Miller) to meet the "Father-Creator", Dr. Ravashol (Dan O'Herlihy) in his laboratory. Apollo confronts the human scientist about the use of the Pulsar as "a weapon of war". At first, Ravashol pleads ignorance, "I have no control over the use of my creations; no responsibility!" But Apollo presses on and reveals that Ravashol's clones do not use the "energy lens" for benevolent purposes. Indeed Ser 5-9 insists the clones "would be whipped if they came near" the mountain-gun. But three Cylon centurions come calling, cutting the debate short. Apollo is able to secret himself in a curious trap-door inside an electronic "research stack", but Ser 5-9 is taken by Vulpa's centurions to be punished; a "worker clone" is not permitted to visit Ravashol, only "planners" are. Once the Cylons are gone, Apollo comes out of hiding and confronts Ravashol again, this time revealing the clone are secreting offspring in the underground village. Ravashol relents, showing Apollo plans to the mountain-gun and garrison and advising him on how to effectively destroy it. Ravashol warns the clones will be reluctant to help in destroying the very weapon which makes the Arcta outpost such a threat; without the Cylon garrison, the clones will want the mountain-gun as insurance. One of the convict/commandos, Thane (James Olson), secretly attacks a clone and steals his clothes just before being captured by the Cylons and paraded around before the villagers. Starbuck later reports back that Wolfe was killed.

Baltar presses Lucifer to keep the Cylon fighters from his base-ship in the environs of the Galactica. He keeps ordering the attack craft to attack and then withdraw to give Adama the impression that the pursuit force is actually closer to striking the Galactica fleet than the Cylons really are. Lucifer quarrels with Baltar over this strategy, arguing it jeopardizes the body of fighters. Baltar also radios ahead to Vulpa, ordering the Ravashol Pulsar gun to begin a random sweep of Arcta's approach corridor to further harass the refugee fleet. Vulpa gives up on the cerebral cortex scan of the captured pilot, Cadet Cree (Alan Stock) and orders the prisoner locked in a cold cell. The mountain-gun's skyward assault begins.

Ravashol accompanies Apollo to the village to meet with the clones. The clones resist the notion of destroying the Pulsar, but their "Father-Creator" urges them to regard the fleet of human refugees as their "brothers". The clones agree to assist Apollo in climbing Mount Hekla. Starbuck and Boomer set out with the female clone Tenna (Britt Eckland) to attack the garrison. The clones lead Apollo, Croft (Roy Thinnes), Leda (Christina Belford), and Wolfe (Richard Lynch) up the side of the mountain. As the Pulsar fires, the noise triggers an avalanche. The falling debris injures one of the clones, forcing Apollo to go on without them. Once up to the garrison heights, Wolfe pulls a blaster-pistol on Apollo and declares himself free. Croft intervenes, and in a struggle, gets the blaster. Wolfe escapes into the blizzard. Croft, Leda and Apollo continue their ascent. Inside the garrison, Starbuck and Tenna separate from Boomer's force. The two break into the Cylon brig and free Cadet Cree. They then rejoin Boomer and get into position to place explosive charges for their timed assault on the Cylons. Apollo's team reaches the summit, entering through an air-intake vent. Once inside, they secret themselves near the base of the gun so they can strike on schedule.

The Galactica fleet is forced to move forward in the corridor. Baltar has two more base-ships escorting his own into the area. The brilliant weapons fire from the mountain-gun is zeroing in on the Galactica. Adama has Tigh order all ships to accelerate through the corridor. On schedule, Apollo, Leda and Croft attack the base of the gun, taking out a few Cylons there. They plant the bombs on the gun's mechanism. If Ravashol's plan works, detonating the base of the gun will cause a chain reaction, destroying the entire facility. As Apollo is about to lead his team out, Vulpa appears and kills Leda.

Starbuck, Boomer, Tenna, and Cree attack the garrison's control center. With the Cylon forces in the dark, the team withdraws and meets Apollo for their descent in the elevator. The force reaches the bottom and evacuate the other clones and their children. As the Galactica is set in the sights of the mountain-gun, the surviving Cylons at the summit prepare to fire. The entire top of the mountain explodes. Far below, Apollo asks Ravashol what the Arcta community will do now. The "Father-Creator" promises that they will not bow to the Cylons again. He apparently has more defenses in mind for Arcta.

Baltar and Lucifer spar over the failure of the Pulsar plan. How will they explain this disaster to Barkol, the Cylon Imperious Leader?

A Second Look

The episode suffers from so many bloopers and non-seqitors it can barely be taken seriously. The weirdest continuity goofs come from the use of Vulpa, the golden Cylon command centurion on Arcta. Starting with the Ravashol scene in the laboratory, Vulpa is the first golden centurion to use a deeper voice. Later in the story, when Vulpa orders a probe of Cadet Cree's brain, that voice reverts back to the usual one used for silver Cylon centurions. To make matters worse, Vulpa is shown in two places at once. First, Vulpa is in command of the Pulasar's fire control station. Then, as Apollo's team is about to withdraw, Vulpa is shown surprising Leda. Vulpa is destroyed by Starbuck in that scene. Later, Vulpa is back up in the fire control station. These goofs underscore the need for Vulpa to be an Lucifer-like IL-series Cylon, if not of some other variety.

It doesn't make any sense for the commando team to split up. It seems more logical to board a few Cylon fighters at the garrison, launch them up to the summit, and attack the gun from below. They may not destroy the gun by doing so, but they could certainly disable it long enough to usher the fleet through. (The only new footage needed would be the gun being hit by weapons fire and some scenes with commandos in the cockpits of the Cylon fighters.) And the whole notion of the convicts expecting to use Cylon ships to escape sounds absurd. It would make more sense for them to seek asylum in the village. That would seem like an equitable trade where everyone, even Ravashol, would be happy.

The convenient way Apollo is hidden in the "research stacks" points to Ravashol being a double-agent all along. Ravashol doesn't seem too surprised by the notion of the clones having children, either. It is as if he had his own secret endeavors in place all along, and Ser 5-9 knew of them. It makes one wonder why there were no follow-up episodes or novels done on the exploits of Ravashol and his Arcta society. They seem to be more powerful than anyone else in the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA universe, except for the beings of light. It looks like Ravashol had designs on the Cylons; they seemed to have him right where he wanted them. Isn't it neat how the centurions have to ask for permission to enter the laboratory? And the centurions do nothing while Ravashol calls their commander on them.

Only on 1970's prime-time television would a kid (Boxey) refer to other kids (the offspring of the clones) as "children". That poor boy needs some starch taken out of his collar.

When Baltar's fighters begin harassing the fleet, Blue Squadron is called on to patrol the rear. In the ever-rudundant launch sequences, we see female pilots manning the vipers. Where were they in Part 1, when those cadets were in trouble? :-)

It is a forgone conclusion that a Colonial centon is analogous to a minute, give or take a few microns. Mount Hekla must be a pretty small hill if the climb to the summit takes only 200 centons. Maybe someone took the cable-car. Those Cylon fighters are looking mighty sensible.

Baltar orders Vulpa to begin random sweeps of the corridor leading to Arcta. This leads to a few perplexing issues:

1: What corridor? The images of Arcta and the fleet in space look like there's a backdrop of vast openness. Somebody forgot to insert some FX to make the image of the corridor more convincing.

2: Every time the Pulsar fires, a brilliant spear of light shoots skyward. Adama even has time to order evasive maneuvers to avoid the beams. This seems to suggest the weapon operates at the speed of light, though this is never made clear. So how much of a threat is this gun?

3: With the number of viper-squadrons the Galactica has available, how can that one gun possibly stand a chance in the event of an advance assault? (Of course, who's gonna volunteer to go in first?)

4: How come the spear of light keeps exploding in deep space, every time it passes the Galactica? Shouldn't it just keep going on into the galaxy, merrily evaporating any unsuspecting comets that get in the way?

The drama involving Ravashol seems to draw some small substance from THE HEROES OF TELEMARK, in which captive scientists are forced to live in their laboratory which the Nazis demand they accelerate their heavy water experiments. It seems more than a little ironic that Richard Hatch would appear on THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO as Inspector Dan Robbins, a character who succeeded Inspector Steve Keller, played by Michael Douglas. In "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero," Hatch's Apollo plays much the same role in the story as Kirk Douglas (Michael's father) played in TELEMARK. In light of these parallels, it should be noted that TELEMARK was no critical darling, and "Gun... Part 2" didn't pack the dramatic punch it could have. Too much fireworks and not enough plot and character development.

The basic plot rotates around the mission to neutralize the Pulsar so the Galactica fleet can escape. Still, what is this story really about? Is it about Baltar's obsession with avenging himself? Is it about Apollo confronting Ravashol about the scientist's responsibility? Will Starbuck begin warehousing girlfriends? There are so many sidebars going on that the story winds up being convoluted, a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none.

Spectacle Value

The viper combat footage in this episode adds nothing to the story. It wastes valuable time.

The mountain blowing its top was a beautiful effect, although ridiculously derivative. The detonation scene in THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and Count Blofeld's self-destructing volcano in the James Bond flick YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (British/MGM-UA, 1967) had already done this more than a decade before.

IF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA WERE NEW TODAY:

The Pulsar weapon effect could be done more effectively, as an expanding bolt of energy instead of a straight laser beam. STAR TREK provides a few decent examples: in the "Classic" episode "Balance of Terror", the Starship Enterprise tries unsuccessfully to evade a Romulan weapon that resembles an expanding ring of fire. In STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (1979), the alien V'Ger launches plasma-energy weapons that can engulf whole vessels. But perhaps the best effect was the "shock wave" resulting from the explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis (STAR TREK VI - THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, 1992) or the forced super-nova explosions (STAR TREK - GENERATIONS, 1995).

The drama between Apollo and Ravashol would have to become the focal point. Getting someone in Ravashol's position to take responsibility was a golden opportunity to show both characters in a genuinely compelling controversy with no easy answers.

Instead of just running from the Cylons all the time, doing this story differently (setting it up so Apollo's forces could damage the gun temporarily with a view toward taking it over intact) would allow Adama to briefly turn the tables on Baltar. The fleet could lure the Cylon base-ships to Arcta on the pretense the fleet was trapped there. Once Baltar advanced, Apollo could turn the Pulsar on the Cylons. This would put the Adama in a position of power the Cylons would have to respect, and assuring Ravashol would maintain that respect even after the Galactica left.

The Baltar-Lucifer drama would have to be even better than this. The two often come across as bickering fools. If the whole Cylon allegory is supposed to remind us of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Japanese imperial forces during World War II (only magnified), then we should see more realistic depictions of the war-criminal mentality. Lucifer could still be calculating, using that buttery-smooth voice, but what these characters would say would be much more sinister.

TIDBITS & NITPICKS

Again in this episode, there's another use of naval protocol: in the scene when the Galactica bridge crew realizes the Pulsar is destroyed, Tigh answers Adama's command with an "Aye, sir."

If Cree was being kept in a cold cell, how come he isn't suffering from hypothermia? He isn't wearing a hat or helmet, and much of the body's heat is lost through the head. Once Starbuck releases Cree, the cadet seems fully ready for combat. Cree should be incapacitated.

This is the first episode where the Cylon Imperious Leader is referred to by a name, not just a title: Barkol.

We also get to see Baltar in direct telecommunication with Cylon forces off his base-ship (he confers with Vulpa at the Arcta garrison). The scene leaves the impression that Baltar has clout as a Cylon leader, albeit at Barkol's whim.

They would have to put Dirk Benedict in a Fonzie-like scene where he's kissing three women. Why not just show him reporting for duty in red-velvet pajamas? Strangely in contradiction to this display, Tenna is shown speaking for her people in telling Starbuck the clones will not aid in an attack on the pulsar.

Bridge aide Rigel (Sara Rush) is given a little extra time at the end of this story to do something other than say "launch when ready" or recite a count-down.

The scene where Thane suicidally encourages the centurion to tamper with a "hand mine", thus resulting in both he and the Cylons being blown up in front of the villagers, was an important occurrence in the original airing of this story. This passage was omitted from the Sci Fi showing. Disappointing since Thane's death along with the Cylons probably helped fuel the revolt the plot seems to depend (at least a little bit) on.

Lucifer's sentiment "we are all machines, even you" seems odd for a race that seems to disrespect humans. The Cylon enslaving of the clones, rather than killing them, seems to mesh well with both Baltar's designs to seize control of the Colonial fleet, as well as Barkol's use of Baltar to be a "more charitable" dictator over the humans once they are captured. Perhaps extermination is only seen as a wartime tool, with the desired goal being subjugation. Apollo obviously doesn't see it that way. He believes that if the Cylons didn't kill him, he'd be better off dead than under their rule.