Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity is an episode of the TV series, Battlestar Galactica, and aired during the show's fourth season. 
==Plot==
=== Opening ===
The episode begins as Chief Galen Tyrol holds a memorial service for his late wife Cally. During the service, President Laura Roslin tells Admiral Adama that she would like a similar service when she dies. As the service concludes, Tory Foster tries to convey her condolences to Tyrol. 
Colonel Tigh and Tory later meet the Chief in his quarters. There, he confesses that he is still confused by his Cylon identity, but Tory tries to persuade him that he is perfect and that they are superior to humans. She suggests that he "switch off" his guilt, but Tigh vehemently disagrees saying that grief is human.
=== Act 1 ===
Tory Foster visits Gaius Baltar in his sect's quarters. As she seduces him while bringing him pain, a group of masked men break in, launch tear gas, deface Baltar's shrine and beat up anyone they can find. They demand Baltar surrender himself, but he hides in his alcove. The intruders flee when security arrives. After the attack, Baltar comforts an older woman who is praying to Asclepius, a god of healing.
An investigation is launched and Baltar is informed that the attackers are known as "The Sons of Ares" – a religious sect opposed to Baltar's monotheistic teachings. "Head Six" appears to him and says that it seems "the old gods are fighting back." She encourages Baltar to coordinate a counter-attack and he makes a speech in which he calls upon his followers to cast aside their fear and retaliate. Later, Baltar and his followers break into a polytheistic religious ceremony to denounce the old gods. Baltar declares that people are not being told the truth and begins defacing the temple. Security personnel arrest him before a riot starts.
In Galactica's sick bay, Adama meets Roslin, bringing a novel to read aloud during her cancer treatment. He tells her that he has never finished this particular novel because he enjoys it too much to bear reaching the end.
Down in the brig, Colonel Tigh pays a visit to Caprica Six and asks how she can cope with her guilt in the deaths of billions of human beings. He then hallucinates, seeing his dead wife Ellen Tigh in her place and he fearfully leaves.
On Colonial One, the Quorum meets where Lee Adama challenges President Roslin's latest emergency decree, in response to the religious attacks, which restricts assemblies to twelve people or fewer. Roslin assures him that the decree is aimed squarely at Gaius Baltar and his monotheistic sect, but Reza Chronides and the Gemenon Delegate argue that the decree could be applied to many polytheistic believers as well, whose beliefs approximate parts of Baltar's religion. An angry Roslin challenges the Quorum to override her decree, while reminding them of what happened when Baltar was President and warning them of what might happen if he were to obtain significant religious influence.
On Galactica, Tyrol returns to work, but remains distracted. He clears Racetrack's Raptor for flight, but the ship soon suffers an explosion and is forced into an emergency crash-landing. Although Racetrack and her ECO Skulls escape injury, the Raptor is destroyed. An inspection reveals that Tyrol failed to swap a damaged part for the replacement he was carrying at the time. Racetrack tries to drop the matter saying that nobody was hurt—"It was human error"—but Tyrol becomes furious and challenges any of the witnesses to face him and say that he "frakked" up.
Distraught over the incident, Tyrol sits alone in Joe's Bar. Adama arrives and tries to console him over the death of Cally; Tyrol hallucinates and hears Adama call Cally a Cylon-lover who birthed a half-breed abomination, but really he had said that Cally was a good person. Tyrol becomes enraged, insulting Cally and denouncing her as second-best. He says that the one who he really loved was Boomer, but she turned out to be a Cylon. Adama insists he heard enough from the Chief and tells him to end his outburst, but Tyrol turns his tirade against Adama himself and the Galactica. Adama dismissed Tyrol from Deck Crew Chief of Galactica with rank demotion to Specialist, then commands him to appear for a duty reassignment the following morning. He leaves a despondent Chief behind at the bar.
Later, Roslin visits Baltar in the brig where she tells him that she doesn't have long to live and warns that her impending death has left her willing to act outside of the law. She threatens Baltar not to disturb the peace and then has him released.
Meanwhile, Colonel Tigh visits Caprica Six once again but he continues to see Ellen in her place. He orders the guards and observation crew away and turns off the surveillance cameras. He then repeats his earlier question of guilt to Six who says that humankind learns from pain and needs pain to achieve clarity, as she has learned from her own pain. She removes Tigh's eye-patch, but after a moment he pushes her away. She responds by savagely beating him down to the floor, but Tigh asks for more. She admits that it appears that she was wrong about his needs and starts to kiss him.
At the sect's quarters, Baltar and several members are barred from entry to their home by a guard at the door who says he is enforcing Roslin's emergency decree against assembly. Head Six appears to Baltar and tells him he will not be harmed if he continues on. Baltar then attempts to pass but is beaten down by the soldier. Bleeding and kneeling on the floor, Baltar whispers that he cannot continue, but Head Six orders him to his feet. She then forcibly pulls him upright and Gaius appears to be physically lifted by an unseen force. The surprised guard again knocks him to the floor. Lee Adama then arrives and declares that the Quorum has overturned Roslin's decree and that the people are free to assemble. In his quarters, Baltar delivers a lengthy speech. He declares that his monotheistic followers contain the spark of God inside them and that they must learn to love themselves before they can begin to love each other.
As the speech continues, the scene briefly moves to the Demetrius, where Starbuck has fallen asleep atop her navigation charts. A concerned Samuel Anders enters the room and stares at her.
Back on Galactica, Baltar concludes by telling his followers that since God loves them, they must therefore be perfect as they are. The followers cheer. Tory Foster stands in the rear of the room. Head Six is next to her, observing her. Lee Adama stands further back, also listening.
==Cast==
*Edward James Olmos as Rear Admiral William Adama
*Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin
*Jamie Bamber as Commander Lee "Apollo" Adama
*James Callis as President of the Twelve Colonies Gaius Baltar
*Tricia Helfer as 
**Caprica Six
**Messenger Six
*Grace Park as 
**Lieutenant Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
**Sharon Agathon
**Number Eight
*Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
*Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
*Michael Trucco as Samuel T. Anders
*Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
*Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
*Keegan Connor Tracy as Jeanne
*Leah Cairns as Lieutenant Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson
*Colin Lawrence as Lieutenant Hamish "Skulls" McCall
*Don Thompson as Specialist 3rd Class Anthony Figurski
*Finn R. Devitt as Nicolas Tyrol
*Leela Savasta as Tracey Anne
*Lara Gilchrist as Paulla Schaffer
*Donna Soares as Gemenon Delegate
*Andrew McIlroy as Jacob Cantrell
*Judith Maxie as Picon Delegate
*Iris Paluly as Dahlia
*Marilyn Norry as Reza Chronides
*Heather Doerksen as Sergeant Brandy Harder
*Laara Sadiq as Priestess
*Karen Austin as Lilly
*Steve Lawlor as Marine
*Hector Johnson as Marine Lieutenant
*Lee Jeffery as Lieutenant Paolo "Redwing" McKay
==Appearances==
===Characters===
*Lee "Apollo" Adama
*William Adama
*Karl "Helo" Agathon
*Gaius Baltar
*Anastasia Dualla
*Felix Gaeta
*Calandra Henderson
*Number Eight
**Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
**Sharon Agathon
*Number Six
**Messenger Six
*Laura Roslin
*Saul Tigh
*Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
*Galen Tyrol
===Locations===
*The Fleet
===Species===
*Cylon
**Centurion
**Humanoid Cylon
**Raider
*Human
===Technology===
*FTL
*Wireless
===Vehicles and vessels===
*Basestar
*Colonial One
*Galactica
*Raider
*Raptor
*Viper
===Organizations===
*Colonial Fleet
*Colonial Government
*Colonial Marine Corps
==Production==
=== Writing ===
The basic story outline was developed when work began on Season 4. With Nicki Clyne's decision to quit the series, it went through changes along with several others though was already intended to push through with multiple story arcs.
Jane Espensen, tasked with this episode, wanted to flesh out how both Batlar's cult and how mainstream Polytheistic worship functions, as it was recognised that the Cylons' faith in the One True God was more fleshed out than the Colonials'. It was also felt that by making Baltar's cult increasingly Monotheistic in nature it would allow for a more relatable Christian parallel than continuing Season 3's aborted Sagittaron persecution arc. For the Sons of Ares scenes, it was originally planned that Head Baltar would be in attendance, watching their attack unfold, but this was dropped due to concerns James Callis would be overworked by playing two parts.Podcast For the episode's ending, it would be revealed that they were secretly being paid-off by Tom Zarek as a means of creating instability on board Galactica so that Roslin's reactionary tendencies would create dissent.
Mary McDonald met with Moore to discuss her character's cancer, with one of the ideas being a scene where Roslin would be shown several wigs for her to pick out, which would both highlight the progression of her disease and offer real-world parallels. Ultimately the scene was never filmed. One of the themes of the episode is Roslin's increasing push towards totalitarianism; the initial idea for this storyline was for direct discussion between Roslin and Lee over the theoretical and philosophical issues of persecuting the Baltarites; late in development this was turned into Quorum delegation scenes on Moore's recommendation.
As it was already suspected that Kate Vernon's presence on set would be leaked, it was decided she would appear in Escape Velocity as an hallucination to throw people off ahead of her planned reveal in Revelations.
When planning out Tyrol's scenes, ideas were initially offered that he would be seen incorrectly maintaining the Raptor before take-off, and that it would be Helo as pilot. When Helo was scrapped, it was suggested that Racetrack and Skulls be the victims instead, as they wanted to avoid any more redshirt deaths so late into the series.
=== Directing ===
During filming of the Final Four meeting, Michael Hogan was accidentally given Admiral pips. During development of the pre-viz for the Raptor crash scene, it was decided there would be workmen in space suits on the flight deck, implied to be entering the vehicle which is destroyed. In the scene where Baltar is beaten, Moore was disappointed with Callis being raised too high; in previous episodes, particularly Season 1, the Head Six moments would cut in such a way that it could reasonably be believed by the cast and audiences that he is simply imagining her. By raising Callis too high it almost appeared as though he were hovering, which would have revealed the truth outright. In Adama's final performance of the episode, in which he reads to Roslin, Eddie Olmos continued to recite the story while closing the book; this was not scripted, and was accepted by Moore due to it leaving questions open - as Adama had supposedly never read the book before, he could have lied as an excuse to sit with Roslin, that he had read it just before visiting, or that he was speaking from the heart and not reading at all.
==Cast==
Actor 	Character
Edward James Olmos 	Admiral William Adama
Mary McDonnell 	President Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff 	Captain Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace
Jamie Bamber 	Lee Adama
James Callis 	Dr. Gaius Baltar
Tricia Helfer 	Number Six / Caprica
Michael Hogan 	Colonel Saul Tigh
Aaron Douglas 	Chief Galen Tyrol
Michael Trucco 	Ensign Samuel Anders
Kate Vernon 	Ellen Tigh
Rekha Sharma 	Tory Foster
Keegan Connor Tracy	Jeanne
Leah Cairns 	Lt. Margaret Edmondson
Colin Lawrence 	Lt. Hamish 'Skulls' McCall
Don Thompson 	Specialist 3rd Class Anthony Figurski
Leela Savasta 	Tracey Anne
Lara Gilchrist 	Paulla Schaffer
Donna Soares 	Speaking Delegate #1
Andrew McIlroy 	Jacob Cantrell
Judith Maxie 	Picon Delegate
Iris Paluly 	Speaking Delegate #2
Marilyn Norry 	Reza Chronides
Heather Doerksen 	Sgt. Brandy Harder
Laara Sadiq 	Priestess
Karen Austin 	Lilly
Steve Lawlor 	Marine at Baltar's
Hector Johnson 	Marine Lieutenant
Lee Jeffery 	Lt. Paolo 'Redwing' McKay
==Sources==
4.04