Survivors:

Air Date: 02/17/2006

Concerns over missing Vipers pit the new Pegasus commander (John Heard) against his temporary XO, Lee Adama. Meanwhile, the presidential campaign turns into a pro-choice vs. pro-life debate.

Episode Recap

On the Galactica, movement inside a cargo container draws the suspicion of Tyrol and his deck crew. When the box is opened, a stowaway is found inside, a pregnant 17-year-old girl named Rya Kibby. Once in custody, she asks to be brought to Doc Cottle.

Meanwhile, a pair of Raptors from the Pegasus, out on a training exercise in a region of intense radiation that interferes with communications, relay a garbled distress signal back to the Pegasus, under the command of the recently promoted engine room chief, Commander Barry Garner. Before Garner and his crew can verify the Raptors' transmission, the Raptors jump away and vanish from the fleet's DRADIS screens.
Ratcheting up the tension aboard the Pegasus is the running feud between Garner and flight training supervisor Capt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, a battle of wills that is only made worse by the arrival of Garner's interim XO — Lee "Apollo" Adama, newly promoted to the rank of major.
Back on the Galactica, Rya Kibby's desire to exercise her legal right to an abortion, and the revelation that Doc Cottle has been providing this service to women in the fleet for the past few months, becomes an incendiary political issue. The fleet's pro-life Gemenon faction threatens to pull its support for President Laura Roslin unless she condemns the practice of abortion and makes it illegal.

Aboard the Pegasus, Commander Garner proves unequal to the responsibility of commanding a Battlestar. He insists on mounting a quixotic rescue mission, despite Starbuck's insistence that the signal the Raptors followed was almost certainly a Cylon trap. But when Garner disobeys a direct order from Admiral Adama and orders the Pegasus to go after its missing aircraft, it's up to Apollo to take action and prevent the Pegasus and her crew from becoming the Cylons' next victims. Ultimately Commander Garner's engineering expertise pays off but at the loss of his own life. Admiral Adama, realizing his mistake in choosing Garner, selects a new commander of the Pegasus, his own son Lee.
As the abortion debate flares throughout the fleet, Roslin is forced to take a stand on the issue. Recognizing that every potential life counts in a shrinking human population, Roslin ponders an executive order that will create a wedge issue — one which Gaius Baltar is almost certain to exploit as he launches his own surprise bid for the Colonial presidency.

Remarkable Scenes:

- Tyrol discovering the young pregnant girl hiding in one of Galactica's cargo containers.
- Garner: "Nobody cut us any slack in the engine room. I can tell you that right now. But then, uh, I don't know, maybe being a snipe is different than being a viper jockey. No flashy stunts for us. No flying by the seat of our pants down there. The engine room is like a finely tuned watch; everything in it needs to be monitored and maintained in a very precise fashion. Nobody freelances. Everything is done in the proper way at the proper time in the proper order or there'd be no power. No lights. No hot showers for your flyboys. You know major, I think some of the people around here could learn a thing or two from the snipes."
- Adama meeting with Rya. I love the look Adama shoots at Cottle when Cottle suggests Rya apply for asylum. Cottle then just kind of tucks his tail between his legs and walks off. Then Adama just kind of looks back at Rya, hoping she didn't catch it. But she did. Adama's day just got a lot more complicated. ;)
- Adama reminding Roslin about her statement in the miniseries that if they want to save the human race, they had better start having babies, and how that statement relates to the abortion issue.
- Lee Laying into Kara.
- Kara: "Poor Lee, your life is so hard isn't it?" Lee: "You mean since I got shot?" Ouch. Below the belt!
- Baltar informing Roslin that the demographic projections of the fleet indicate that the human race will be extinct in 18 years.
- Roslin banning abortion.
- Apollo unsuccessfully trying to take command of the Pegasus after Garner went up against Adama's orders.
- The Pegasus jumping away, then 3 Cylon Basestars jumping to the Pegasus' position. An ambush.
- Garner placing Apollo in command so he can go take personal command of the engine room. I love how Apollo when assuming command just kind of stands there and says to nobody in particular, "I have the con."
- The sight of Pegasus firing her main batteries.
- Hoshi: "Base ship's turning away. He's, he's frakkin' runnin' major!"
- Garner's noble sacrifice.
- Adama promoting Apollo to commander.
- Baltar betraying Roslin and running for the presidency in opposition to her.

Additional Notes

• Survivors, according to the main title: 49584.

• This episode establishes that Mercury class battlestars (such as the Pegasus) do not need to retract their flight pods prior to jumping, unlike whatever class Galactica is.

• Steve Mcnutt, the director photography for this show complained to RDM about the whole "bucket" and "the beast" nicknames for Galactica and Pegasus. RDM was so "scalded" by the complaint from such an unexpected person that they never used the terms again.

• Despite appearing in the opening credits, Grace Park does not appear in this episode.