Gordon's Galactica heresy

[spcglider]

So, here I am, a creative guy. I like classic Galactica. Back in the 1980's I was heavily into Galactica Fanfic... in fact I co-authored the first Galactica concordance/tech-manual for Clean Slate Press and drew all the images in the book. Lots of hours of pausing grainy VCR tapes trying to determine the shape, size and proportion of a bazillion different little bits of Galactica props and costumes.

I didn't do very well in retrospect. But I tried. And many of the mistakes I made in that volume went on to be generally accepted by Galactica fandom in general as gospel. Go figure.

So I've spent a LOT of time noodling Galactica around in my head.

And one of the things that really has bothered me over the years was the relative non-scope of what we saw in the series.

Time to dive down the Geek Rabbit Hole. Ready? NOTE: Everything I say from here on in is MY OPINION. If you don't agree, more power to you. Its all fiction anyway.

1) It is clearly mentioned in the original novelization that there were 220 THOUSAND ships in the rag-tag fleet. To me, this makes more sense than a flat 220 ships. For a multitude of reasons. I can expound later.

2) I absolutely dis-agree with the popular fan notion that there was only one battlestar per colony. This was NEVER a part of official Galactica lore (here considered to be anything reported or produced by Glen Larson, Universal Studios or it's licensees). It just doesn't make any sense to me. Just like it doesn't make any sense that the entirety of the Colonial military fleet of ships consisted of battlestars, shuttles, landrams and vipers. There HAD to be something more. We're talking about TWELVE planets' worth of military hardware.

3) It is originally noted in the novelization that not all the battlestars were identical. Of course, allowing for time, money and production effort the battlestars we saw on-screen in the telemovie and beyond were the same model used again and again. They did, in fact, address this in the NEW Galactica... one of the few things IMHO they did right about that series.

So in my mind I have spent the last 20 years or so ruminating over and jigsawing all of this stuff together. Trying to make sense of what appears to be disparate "facts". Massaging bits here or there to go together... discarding extreme problem areas that just don't match the bulk of the rest.

And so I started working on a document. Possibly heretical (to the fandom) in nature. The document is NOT intended to supplant nor replace nor make irrelevant anyone's personally accepted view of the Galactica universe. It is simply an exercise in "making it all fit". Of course, in order to "make it all fit", I was forced to create from "whole cloth" areas and situations off-screen. That includes building a superstructure to hang it all on. And I will openly admit that in some cases, it is nothing more than my own ego-driven creative urges being manifested as part of the document. It is musing and hypothesis... nothing more.

It is also currently unfinished.

But I will gladly share the nascent document with anyone who cares to read it. In the best case scenario, perhaps it will be agreeable to you and you'll like what I've written. In the worst case, you can simply consider it trash fanfic and disregard it entirely.

But it is, for the moment, entitled "GXU"... short for "Galactica Expanded Universe".

Let me know if you care.

-Gordon

[monolith21]

Truthfully I think this is long overdue! Its no secret that a little creative liberty has to be taken with some of the terminology of Galactica. I got to speak with Terrence McDonnel about this on Galacticruise. He told me that by the time he and Jim Carlson came on board they were working over time to create some sense of continuity out of the slew of terms that were being thrown around. There were so many great ideas but they needed to be straightened out.

A lot of rumors have spouted up over the years in regards to Galactica be them story elements, prop and costume bits (to Ultrasuede or not to Ultrasuede...that is the headache!).

We've had to make some creative calls with the club organization in the charter. No real reference to their organization was made beyond a Squadron which is why we are so named. We could have been a "Wing" with local Squadrons, but there was never any mention of a Colonial "Wing". So we became a Squad with its appropriate sub divisions.

In short...I'll read it.

[spatter]

color me intersted

[spcglider]

emails sent!

Its actually much shorter than I recalled. But I have more that needs to be posted in it so I'll get to modifying the document soon.

-Gordon

[Reaper]

Definately interested sir!

And one area I have to stand up and agree with you on is the number of Battlestars! If there were only 12 of them (5 by the time of Cimtar) then how did Kronus command a fleet of 600 warships? not likely!!!

I also agree on having different classes of battlestars. some larger, some smaller. But more then just the single design. (I'll still cling to the thought that the Pegasus was of the same class as the Galactica though lol)

[charybdis]

Actually, I have to disagree with one of Gordon's statements (#2) that there was never anything released which spoke about 12 battlestars, one for each colony. I just checked my Encyclopedia Galactica and under the heading "Battlestar" it does say that there were 12 battlestars at the time of the final destruction.

True, it doesn't say one battlestar per colony or that there were more battlestars in service at some point before this, but I think this might be where the whole notion got started. But nevertheless, my point is that there is an official book out there that was released back in 1979 as a BSG licensee that does state there were 12 battlestars at the time of the destruction...

What this means, I have no idea!!!

[Admin]

Count me in as well, very interested in reading it!

[spcglider]

Jun 12, 2009 10:07:02 GMT -5 charybdis said:

Actually, I have to disagree with one of Gordon's statements (#2) that there was never anything released which spoke about 12 battlestars, one for each colony. I just checked my Encyclopedia Galactica and under the heading "Battlestar" it does say that there were 12 battlestars at the time of the final destruction.

True, it doesn't say one battlestar per colony or that there were more battlestars in service at some point before this, but I think this might be where the whole notion got started. But nevertheless, my point is that there is an official book out there that was released back in 1979 as a BSG licensee that does state there were 12 battlestars at the time of the destruction...

What this means, I have no idea!!!

Good catch, Charybdis... however...

There are several apocryphal entries in the Encyclopedia Galactica, that are at odds with series canon including images published upside down. It is not included in my list of canonical references.

I don't recall the passage that you mention, but I'll check that. What I do know, is that in a recent interview Glen Larson denied the "one colony/ one battlestar" popular myth.

I was interested in paring down the source material to as clean of a portfolio as possible. I didn't include many of the other items either, like Richard Hatch's books or Galactica 1980. However, I am including the "unproduced scripts" for Season Two as far as they don't interfere with the actual series continuity or screen-established canon. Like the inclusion (with discretion) of the "land probe" as part of the colonial arsenal. It was originally intended for a season 2 episode but got unceremoniously plopped into Galactica 1980 as the notorious "flying motorcycle".

And even though I don't include it in my source canon, contextually, the EG may be correct. Perhaps there were only 12 battlestars left at the time of the attack at Cimtar. We only saw (for certain) five on screen. I didn't include anything in the G:XU that precludes that.

Now, just on a personal level, I understand that there are folks who absolutely hold to the one battlestar/ one planet view of things. More power to them. They won't like what I'm positing in G:XU. But that's okay... its all fiction in the end.

We know that AFTER the battle of Cimtar there were only two canonical battlestars left (Galactica, Pegasus) with the Galactica being the only survivor of Cimtar. Expanding backwards along the timeline, there is the possibility of many multiple battlestars in many multiple individual colonial planetary fleets.

There's not much left to be imagined after the Holocaust except what might have occurred in-between episodes and taking place post Hand Of God. But before the Holocaust, there's a rich and fertile playground that anybody with a creative impulse can swing in. After Hand Of God is a familiar story situation where most fanfic writers have made their hay. I've always been fascinated with what the colonies might have been like beyond the confines of the miniscule slice of life we saw in the tv show.

-G

[charybdis]

The 12 battlestars reference is not in the actual body of the listing itself, it is a caption on one of the small pictures with the "Battlestar" listing in the Encyclopedia.

[spcglider]

Ahh! thanks!

[spcglider]

One of the elements that I need to do is the calculations section of the document to pseudo-scientifically support my rationale for 220 thousand ships as opposed to just 220. I know the series was very explicit about that number, but my numerical conceit is not necessarily a support column of the structure of G:XU.

Another idea I had was all about designing alternate battlestars... designs based in the Meso-American style with uniforms and fightercraft to go with them. Battlestars that might have represented other colonial planetary fleets we did not see in the show.

I've long thought about that divide. Because we were being told the tale through the eyes of the Galactica crew, possibly the telling was biased towards the "Caprican Fleet" and we were not privy to whole expansive differences among other fleet design and styling.

I even thought about what it would take to design an alternate fighter craft that looked almost completely dissimilar to a Viper but, for obvious reasons, would STILL fit easily down a triangular launch tube?

All just musings. But fun stuff to play around with in your head.

-Gordon

[Reaper]

Even that caption allows for more then one battlestar per colony. If there were 12 in service at the time of Cimtar, then we know there was also the Pegasus and Rycon no longer in service at the time of Cimtar. That alone brings us to 14 Battlestars. Now, how many other battlestars were under construction, mothballed due to damage, In drydock due to damage, or also otherwise not in service (undergoing upgrades?) All of these ships would not be concidered in service at the time of Cimtar. You are talking about possibly 20 or more battlestars, in total.

[spcglider]

Jun 12, 2009 14:17:21 GMT -5 Reaper said:

Even that caption allows for more then one battlestar per colony. If there were 12 in service at the time of Cimtar, then we know there was also the Pegasus and Rycon no longer in service at the time of Cimtar. That alone brings us to 14 Battlestars. Now, how many other battlestars were under construction, mothballed due to damage, In drydock due to damage, or also otherwise not in service (undergoing upgrades?) All of these ships would not be concidered in service at the time of Cimtar. You are talking about possibly 20 or more battlestars, in total.

In my fevered mind? MANY more. I personally feel like 12 planets worth of battlestars might add up to well over 60. I mean, that's only 5 per planet. Planets that obviously have satellite settlements and are well practiced in exploiting space resources to support the main body.

-Gordon

[Reaper]

Gordon, I'm there with you, I'd honestly not expect any fewer then 50 Battlestarts in the colonial fleet, plus HUNDREDS of smaller ship designs. And Each Colony would have a "Home Guard Fleet" not to mention ground squadrons and patrol ships. You did have satelite planets as well The Pegasus, along with the Fifth Fleet Cruised off to defend Molekay (not Gamoray as many fan fic writers like to imply) and it's satelites. Meaning there was more then one planet there. Possibly moon bases. We are looking at the resources of more then just the 12 colony planets here. It's almost impossible to imagine 12 battlestars defending all this against anything.

[spcglider]

However, those were simpler times, the 1970's... words like Billion only came along when you were talking about the vastness of space! Today, billion (in dollar terminology) is just like saying thousands back then. And tv writers weren't science savvy either... at least not much. That's why they touted the idea of having Issac Asimov as a series consultant!

But I digress. The overwhelming size of what we're talking about was something that wasn't considered back then.

-G