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Battlestar Galactica
"A Day in the Life"
TV episode
Written by Mark Verheiden
Directed by Rod Hardy
Original air date: February 18, 2007
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A routine repair becomes a disaster
when Tyrol and Cally get
trapped in an airlock while their air leaks away; Admiral
Adama reflects on the life he’s lost.
Read the summary of the episode at the Battlestar Wiki
site
Notes from the BSG
chronology
In the pilots' ready room, it is remarked that it has been 49
days since the last sighting of Cylons by the fleet. As far as
we know, the last sighting was in
"Rapture", so this episode would take place 49 days after
that.
Didja Know?
The opening titles show the fleet population at 41,398, up two
from the end of the previous episode
"The Woman King". Presumably,
two births took place between episodes.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Admiral Adama
Carolanne Adama (in Adama's visions only, deceased)
Colonel Tigh
Chief Tyrol
Cally
Nicholas Tyrol
Laskin (mentioned only)
Perry (mentioned only)
Private Stewart Jaffee
Anthony Figurski
Specialist Seelix
Leeson
(mentioned only)
Kinsey (mentioned only)
President Roslin
Tory Foster
(mentioned only)
Baltar
(mentioned only)
Caprica Six
(mentioned only)
Apollo
Narcho
Hot Dog
Starbuck
Athena
Helo
Space Katt
Thin Man
Rocket
Sharky
Hyper
Dee
Susan Seklir (mentioned only)
Susan Seklir's daughter
(unnamed, mentioned only)
Dr. Cottle
Joseph Adama
(mentioned only, deceased)
Didja Notice?
Cally refers to her and Tyrol's baby son Nicholas by the
nickname Nicky.
Tyrol remarks to Cally that this was the first day their baby
didn't cry when he dropped him off at daycare. This may be an
indication that the baby is getting more used to being with the
daycare providers than with his own parents, due to their
workload.
In the crew head at 6:57 on the Blu-ray, a number of crew
lockers are seen with names on them. Among the names are Dutch,
Duke, Turbo, and
Anthony Figurski.
At 8:28 on the Blu-ray, a metal box in Airlock 12 has a Stack-On
logo on it.
Stack-On
is a manufacturer of durable metal storage products.

Admiral Adama practices a memory exercise to remember the names
of his subordinates. Here, he recites:
Leeson takes first watch.
Leeson takes first watch.
Kinsey checks the roster.
Kinsey checks the roster.
Jaffee brings me coffee.
Jaffee brings me coffee.
In his imagination, at 10:59 on the Blu-ray, Adama is walking
around his and Carolanne's old home on Caprica. He examines an
unusual little bicycle; it must have been Lee's (Apollo) and/or
Zak's when the boys were children.

At 11:04 on the Blu-ray, Adama handles a pyramid ball (actually
a repainted miniature 5-inch soccer ball).
When President Roslin admits to Adama that she could have done
her current day's work entirely on Colonial One but came to
Galactica because she was feeling stir crazy, Adama responds
that deep-space pilots used to call it OBE...Overcome By Events.
OBE is an actual term of military origin.
During her discussion about the planned trial of Baltar with
Adama, Roslin refers to Caprica Six as "the Caprica Six".
Technically, she should just call her "Caprica Six" as the only
Number Six model with that appellation (as far as we know). Or
she could use "the Number Six".
At 15:11 on the Blu-ray, what appears to be a toy or model
battleship of the sea is seen on a coffee table in the Adama home on
Caprica.

Apparently, Helo has been relieved from his administration
duties in Dogsville and reinstated to pilot duty, as he is present
for the pilots' briefing and is dressed in his pilot suit. It
may be that his reinstatement to normal duty is a sign of
forgiveness by Adama after Helo's having been proved right in
his suspicions about Dr. Robert in the previous episode,
"The Woman King".
At 16:30 on the Blu-ray, the status board in the pilots' ready
room lists a few new names: Space Katt, Thin Man, Rocket, and
Sharky.
Apollo tells his pilots they will be doing touch-and-gos until
every one of them hits an OK-three. "OK-three" seems to be
an original term for the series; I haven't been able to find a
similar reference in Earth military terms. "Touch-and-go",
however, is a term used in piloting of fixed-wing aircraft; it
refers to landing on a runway and taking off again without
coming to a stop.
Throughout the scene of Apollo talking to his father in the
ready room, the Admiral's uniform collar goes back-and-forth in
being open or fastened.
Apollo indicates to his father that he did briefly consider a
career as a lawyer, inspired by his grandfather, before joining
the service instead. This is something his father had never been aware
of. In BSG70, Apollo is also said to have
studied the law codes at the Academy in
"Murder on the
Rising Star".
When the leak in Airlock 12 gets
worse, Tyrol tells Adama, "I seem to have turned this into a
full-blown FUBAR."
FUBAR is military slang standing for "Fucked Up Beyond All
Recognition". Of course, in Colonial parlance, that would be
"Frakked Up Beyond All Recognition."
At 22:08 on the Blu-ray, the command table in CIC seems to
indicate the fleet is in the Prolatar Sector.

As Tyrol and Cally face the prospect of death
in the airlock, Cally worries what will happen to their baby son
if they die, saying, "...we both know what happens to kids in
the fleet when their parents aren't there for them." What does
happen? Is there no working adoption service in the fleet to
find qualified, caring homes? Do kids wind up at an orphanage?
Do they fall in with gangs?
Tyrol assures Cally that Apollo and Dee will take care
of little Nicky, but Cally emphatically states she does not want
any pilots, "He's not going through this twice." She asks Adama
to ensure Nicky is given to Susan Seklir, a civilian who has a
little girl. The last name, Seklir, is a nod to series editor,
and later associate producer, Andrew Seklir.
At 29:48 on the Blu-ray, what appears to be a mechanical
daggit (circa BSG70) appears to be among the debris that
rushes out of Airlock 12 when the outer hatch is blown!
I assume this is just an in-joke made by the CGI effects
team. But, who knows, maybe the Colonial military
actually uses mechanical dogs (daggits) in some combat
operations and had one stored in that bay! |
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At 30:05 on the Blu-ray, what appears to be a Colonial
landram is seen parked in the middle of the port hangar
bay. But why would it be there? Landrams are for use on,
well, land! And the Galactica has not been
around a planet in the entire episode. It should be
parked in an out of the way area. |
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Adama gives Apollo a box full of Joseph Adama's old law books, a
series titled Caprican Criminal Codes of at least 20
volumes.
The book Roslin gives Adama is Blood Runs at Midnight,
a Tim Spencer Mystery, by Ivana Vasak. This is a prop book made
for the episode.
Ivana Vasak was an assistant art director on the series. Tim
Spencer was a camera operator on the series.
Roslin says the book is not a loan, it's a gift. This
refers back to "Water", when Adama gave
Roslin one of his books, saying it's a gift because he never
lends books.
Notes from the audio commentary by Ron Moore on the
Blu-ray release
Moore notes that this episode was originally supposed to be an
actual "day in the life" style episode, a trope often used in a
television series to give the audience insight to a character or group
of characters, i.e. what do they do on a normal day, not the
more dramatic days a typical episode might focus on. This
episode starts to move away from the "day in the life" of Adama
idea when the Tyrol/Cally story comes in and the production
wound up leaning into it because they felt the chemistry between
Adama and Carolanne just wasn't strong enough to keep that
plotline enticing.
Unanswered Questions
If the breach in Airlock 12 could not be sealed from the inside
where Tyrol and Cally were trapped, couldn't someone in a
spacesuit seal it from outside?
If Helo is no longer the administrator of Dogsville, who is?