Continuity Comparisons and Questions

When does Galactica take place?

Each of the competing visions of the Galactica universe has a different take on this question. 

In the Maximum Press Universe, for example, the events of the series take place in the ancient past, before the human settlement of Planet Earth. In an sense, the Maximum view is that Galactica takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far.. well, you get what I mean.

The series itself gives a few clues. The opening monologue to the series concludes with: "Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man, who even now, fight to survive, somewhere beyond the heavens." This would seem to suggest that the events of Battlestar: Galactica are contemporaneous with the events on Earth. So, taken to its logical extreme, the Destruction of the Colonies was in September of 1978.

Galactica 1980, of course, establishes a fixed time frame for the whole series, with the Destruction of the Colonies happening around thirty years before that program, so the classic series took place around 1950.

Of course, in the episode "Hand of God" in the classic series, a transmission is intercepted from the year 1969.   This both helps and hinders the ability to determine when the show takes place, particularly as it contradicts the Galactica 1980 timeframe.

Another theory, popular with some fans, is that Galactica takes place in the future, and that the Earth that the Fleet was to encounter would be one of the future as well. This is based on the similarities between our contemporary Earth and the Terran society of "Greetings From Earth." Some have suggested that Terra may even be a lost Earth colony.

The new Galactica series on the Sci-Fi Channel has deliberately stayed away from this question. 

What happens to Starbuck?

Well, Starbuck generally has a horrible fate - and a couple of times, the character dies! 

In Galactica: 1980 we learn that Starbuck crash landed on a remote planet, and was apparently never rescued from it.    However, there was an unfilmed script which had him being rescued by the Ships of Light from "War of the Gods."

In the Richard Hatch novels, Starbuck gets married to Cassiopeia, then divorced, and then dies during the course of the books. 

In the Maximum Press comics he is killed as well, sacrificing himself to stop a Cylon spy. 

In the Sci-Fi series, Starbuck's fate is gradually unfolding, but she is a long way from dead.   In deep emotional pain and physically beaten perhaps, but not dead! 

Of course, rumors of Starbuck's death are often premature - the character generally comes back when least expected.

What happens to Adama?

In almost all the continuities, perhaps as homage to the late Lorne Greene, or perhaps as part of a mythic motif, Adama passes away.

Adama dies in the novelizations sometime after the end of the Galactica 1980 adventures, and Troy becomes Commander. 

In the Maximum Press comics, as well as in the Richard Hatch continuities, Adama dies and the mantle of power goes to Commander Apollo.

Another weird commonality is the memory machine. Adama ends up in a memory machine during a large part of the Marvel comics. There is also a memory machine sequence in the Berkley novels. Finally, Adama is kept alive in a suspended animation tube for a long time in the Maximum Press timeline, and is revived when the Fleet reaches Earth.

Adama occupies a less mythic place in the new Sci-Fi series.   It could even be argued that the religious aspects of Adama's role in the classic series have been transferred to the character of Laura Roslin, who, of course, is dying of cancer.

Does Commander Cain return?

Yes. In both the Hatch and Maximum Press universes, Cain returns with the Pegasus. 

There were rumors that Cain was going to appear in a later episode of Battlestar Galactica had a second season been filmed, and Cain was the main character of Glen A. Larson's now apparently dormant attempt to create a Battlestar Galactica film.

Further rumors that Cain may appear in an episode of the new Sci-Fi Galactica series remain just that, rumors.

Does the fleet ultimately find Earth?

Yes and no. In Galactica 1980, the fleet finds Earth in, uh, 1980. But they can't land because they don't wish to draw the Cylons to Earth.

In the Maximum Press comics, the Fleet comes to an ancient Earth.

In the Richard Hatch universes, the Fleet has stopped looking for Earth and has settled on a planet.

And, in the Glen A. Larson project, Commander Cain discovers Earth - and presumably, that was to be contemporary Earth.

As for the Sci-Fi series, Ronald Moore has stated that he thinks the Galactica and the ragtag fleet will probably never find Earth during the course of the show.   Recent developments in the series, however ("Kobol's Last Gleaming") suggest that the Earth plotline is going to be developed as the show moves forward.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, April 26, 2005