“The commander of the Galactica after the death of his
father, Adama, Apollo is forced to battle charges of treason, while struggling
to defeat the deadly Cylons and their ally, Count Iblis, and investigating
rumors that his friend, Starbuck, missing after a Cylon raid, is alive.”
There were several attempts to revive Battlestar Galactica after its cancellation in 1979, with Bryan Singer, Tom
DeSanto and eventually series star Richard Hatch all making some effort. Most
of the ideas were going to be a continuation from the last episode, The Hand of
God, and would ignore the events of the misbegotten spin-off Galactica 1980 (now rebranded as season two
of the original series). Berkley Books, for their part, continued to adapt popular
episodes into novels well into the 1980s. They also released four original
novels before bringing the publishing line to an end.
It’s well known that before ABC settled on what the
failed spin-off became, most of the principle cast was asked back (Terry Carter’s
Colonel Tigh, Noah Hathaway’s Boxey, Maren Jensen’s Athena, and Laurette Spang’s
Cassiopeia would be written out to save money). But Hatch grew concerned with
the direction and felt the spin-off had altered his character too much. Thus he
declined. But in the 1990s, as he continued to appear at conventions, Hatch was
reconsidering the role of Apollo and set out to convince Universal Studios –the
rights holders for the franchise- to bring back the series by co-directing and executive-produced a
trailer called Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming (which can be found on
Youtube). Hatch's idea would have be a direct continuation of the original 1978
series, and featured original actors John Colicos (Baltar),Terry Carter
(Colonel Tigh), Richard Lynch, and Jack Stauffer (Bojay). Though the trailer
won acclaim at science-fiction conventions, Universal was not interested in Hatch's
vision for the revival and instead opted for a remake that launched in 2004. Even though he was
disappointed and angry, he began to write (with various authors) novels based
on his idea for that revival.
The first of these books is Battlestar Galactica:
Armageddon and is set 18 years after the events of last episode aired in 1979. It
opens with what was a staple of the series, a “crash of the week” plot where both
Apollo and Starbuck are on a recon patrol. They’ve encountered the Cylons again
after years and years of no contact with them. But Starbuck’s viper is damaged and crash
lands on a planet swarming with Cylons. Apollo leaves him behind to warn the
fleet, but by the time he arrives, his father, Commander Adama has died. And
all hell breaks loose within the rag-tag fleet. But like his father, Apollo
follows a vision that tells him about Adama’s faith and that Starbuck is still
alive and needs his help.
This novel also continues the Mormon themes that series
creator Glen A. Larson introduced in the original series, such as marriage for
"time and eternity", the “council of twelve" and the “lost
thirteenth tribe of humans, and a planet called Kobol.” But it adds much more violence
and sees the fleet falling apart after Adama’s death, as those citizens don’t seem
to have any faith in Apollo as their commander. I found this an interesting change and something I'm sure never would've been done had the series continued on TV. It reintroduces Count Iblis,
the “demon” the crew encountered in two-part episode War of the Gods (and Iblis
promised they would see him again). It also details the origins of the Cylons and sees them creating Cylon/Human hybrids.
While Apollo is not the big hero as he was portrayed in
the series, he still is too much a boy scout for my liking. Still, Hatch and
Golden do capture much of roguishness of Starbuck, but the rest of the writing
is a bit dry and never achieves what writer Robert Thurston did back in the
1970s and 80s (he adapted four episodes of the series and penned four original novels).
It was nice, however, to see the women in the Galactica
universe having something to do other than play worried sister, lover, or
friend. Both Athena and Cassiopeia get strong arcs here (though I wonder what
happened to Dr. Salik, as Cassiopeia is still a
Medtech in this series) and we are introduced to new character like Dalton, the
daughter of Starbuck and Cassiopeia. Boxey is still here, but is now about 24
and goes by the name of Troy (the one hold over kept from Galactica 1980).
Seven books were released between
1997 and 2005.
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