"Enemies Among Us" Battlestar Galactica (the mini-series, part 2, hour 2) (45:33-end) TV episode Written by Ronald D. Moore and Christopher Eric James Based on a teleplay by Glen A. Larson Directed by Michael Rymer Original air date: December 9, 2003

Baltar warns of possible Cylon agents aboard the Galactica; the fleet begins a lonely quest.

(This episode opens with Commander Adama struggling to control his emotions over the seeming loss of Apollo and ends with the revelation that Boomer is one of the Cylon humanoid models.)

Read the full story summary of Part 2 of the Battlestar Galactica mini-series at the Battlestar Wiki

Notes from the BSG chronology

This episode takes place immediately after the events of "Flight".

Didja Know?

The Battlestar Galactica mini-series was made up of two 2-hour parts, originally broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy). I have chosen to break down the mini-series into four ~45-minute segments to more closely match the running times of episodes of the ongoing TV series that followed it. For this episode, I have assigned the title of "Enemies Among Us" based on events in the story such as Baltar's existence in the fleet, his warning that their may be Cylon agents aboard the Galactica, and the revelation of Boomer. 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Baltar

Lt. Gaeta

Head Six

Aaron Doral

Dee

Leoben Conoy

Colonel Tigh

Commander Adama

Apollo

Baltar

Starbuck

Zak (deceased, mentioned only)

Captain Kelly

Billy

President Roslin

Elosha

Cally

Chief Tyrol

Elosha

Didja Notice?

When Colonel Tigh learns from Commander Adama that some Cylons look human now, he remarks, "They could be anywhere. Anyone." Ironically, Tigh is (unknown to him) a Cylon himself, as later revealed in "Crossroads" Part 2.

At 51:06 on the Blu-ray, notice that many of the books scattered around Adama's quarters do not have the traditional diagonal cuts on the outer corners normally seen on Colonial tomes. We see it again at 1:21:23 (and in many later episodes). Most likely, the props department was running behind on chopping the corners off everything and hoped these books would slip past the viewer unnoticed!

Though Leoben's autopsy showed normal organs and that he appeared to be human, a tissue sample from the corpse yielded unique chemical compounds that showed the sample to be synthetic, and thus a Cylon. Adama and Tigh then tell Baltar they need his help in developing a way to screen human from Cylon. But they already know of a way...take a tissue sample and analyze it for the same chemical compounds that showed Leoben's sample to be synthetic! In fact, this is what Baltar claims to have done in order to out Aaron Doral as a Cylon (with the help of a special form of spectrum analysis that he claims he'd been experimenting with for quite some time and a computer subroutine he's written to screen the analysis for synthetics). But did Baltar really do this? He had already singled out Doral as a potential scapegoat for having planted the Cylon device Head Six had pointed out to him in CIC. But, we do find out near the end of this episode that Doral is, in fact, a Cylon. But if Baltar now has this claim of a special form of spectral analysis for screening Cylons, why is he still depicted as trying to come up with a screening test in later episodes of the regular series?!

In an attempt to refute the accusation against him that he is a Cylon, Doral tells Tigh he's from Oasis, a hamlet a couple stops out of Caprica City and that he went to school at the Kobol Colleges on Gemenon.

At 58:49 on the Blu-ray, as Adama enters the conference room to meet with President Roslin, notice that she makes him wait while Billy finishes going over his update on the status of the civilian fleet. This is undoubtedly her way of showing him that she is not a "schoolteacher", but the one in command, as the newly sworn President of the Twelve Colonies.

Roslin asks Adama if he acknowledges her position as President as duly constituted under the Articles of Colonization. The episode "Colonial Day" states that the Articles of Colonization were signed about 52 years before, during the first Cylon War, to unite the Twelve Colonies under a single government. The name is undoubtedly based on the Articles of Confederation which united the original thirteen colonies of the United States before the drafting of the United States Constitution.

It's never really answered how the Cylons found the human fleet at Ragnar Station. In the novelization, the command personnel speculate that the Cylon device found in CIC was a transponder or that Doral or Leoben managed to get a message out (of course, unknown to them a message could have been sent by any number of sleeper agents, including Boomer). And it is revealed in the "previously on Battlestar Galactica" sequence at the beginning of "Kobol's Last Gleaming" Part 1 that the Cylon device is a transponder.

When Adama decides the Galactica must flee the Colonies with the civilian fleet, he orders Gaeta to plot a jump to the Prolmar sector, beyond the "red line" where it is statistically safe to plot an FTL jump.

At 1:09:11 on the Blu-ray, notice that the Galactica launches a mix of Mark II and Mark VII Vipers against the Cylons.

During the memorial service for the fallen aboard the Galactica, Adama says, "Life here began out there. Those are the first words of the sacred scrolls, and they were told to us by the Lords of Kobol, many countless centuries ago." The phrase "life here began out there" is also the first line of the preamble of the opening credits of episodes of BSG70.

At 1:20:34 on the Blu-ray, a tattoo is visible on the back of Starbuck's neck, mostly obscured by a tuft of hair on the back of her head. This is an actual tattoo that actress Katee Sackhoff has, the Chinese character for the word "choice".

At 1:21:35 on the Blu-ray, one of the swords seen hanging on the wall of Adama's quarters is a Cylon sword, carried by Centurions in episodes of BSG70.

At 1:24:05 on the Blu-ray, the painting by Monclair of a scene from the first Cylon War that was given to Adama by Commander DiMarco in "Endings and Beginnings" is seen hanging in Adama's quarters. It hangs there throughout the series.

As Tigh enters his quarters at 1:25:14 on the Blu-ray, notice there appears to be a display case of medals hanging on the wall. Seconds later, we see the logo of Squadron 3, the Vigilantes, of which he was presumably a member in his old war days as a Viper pilot.

Although it's never actually revealed in the course of the series, according to the audio commentary on the Blu-ray, the note that Adama finds in his quarters about there being 12 models of Cylons was, in fact, left for him by Baltar.

At 1:27:43 on the Blu-ray, notice that there is an unfinished portion of the rings of Ragnar station. Was the station still under active construction at this time? Or was it built during the first Cylon War and left unfinished when the war ended? It does seem that the station was built within the gas giant planet Ragnar's formidable atmosphere in the first place because the Colonials had discovered that something about the place was destructive to Cylon technology.

At 1:27:46 on the Blu-ray there almost seems to be some kind of pattern to the Cylon Raiders that are flying above Ragnar station. Is there any significance to the pattern?

The shot of the fleet at 1:15:15 on the Blu-ray, has the starship Enterprise from Star Trek in it in the top right corner! It looks like the refurbished Enterprise that first appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This shot also appears in the opening credits of the Season 1 episodes.

The final spoken words of the episode are a Number Six saying, "By your command." The phrase is used only a few times in BSG2000, but was frequently used by Cylons in the original series.

Notes from the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray

Boxey is given a bunk in the pilots quarters aboard Galactica by Tyrol. Tyrol tells him that it belonged to a pilot called Carrot who was killed in the Cylon battle.

Billy tells President Roslin that Colonel Tigh is third generation Colonial warrior, his father a celebrated pilot, and his grandfather a chief of staff to President Mueller as well as a war historian and author. It may be that this scene was written before it had been decided that Tigh would later be revealed as one of the Final Five Cylons, since it seems like it would be hard to have such a high profile family history for someone who was not born of human parents and, in fact, not even "born" in the Colonies.

Notes from the novelization of the Battlestar Galactica mini-series by Jeffrey A. Carver (The page numbers come from the 1st printing, paperback edition, published July 2006)

Chapter 42

Pages 257-260 feature a modified version of a deleted scene that appears on the Blu-ray disc of this episode. It establishes that Billy won the Siltzer Prize for his paper on Diplomacy and Leadership Models. The Siltzer Prize is likely a play on the Pulitzer Prize, an award in the United States for achievements in journalism and literature.

Chapter 43

On page 269, Head Six is impressed with how Baltar managed to alert Colonel Tigh to the presence of the Cylon device in CIC without implicating himself and framing Doral for it instead, saying, "We should really make a copy of your brain patterns at some point." In the BSG70 novel Redemption, it is revealed that the Cylons have created cloned duplicates of Baltar's brain and they have an organic computer based on one of the cloned brains.

Chapter 45

Page 282 states that the Prolmar sector the fleet jumps to is about 30 light years away from Ragnar and in the opposite direction from Armistice Station.

Chapter 46

On page 286, the human fleet is described as motley and ragtag. In BSG70, the fleet is described as a "ragtag, fugitive fleet" in Adama's closing coda at the end of most episodes.

Chapter 48

Page 301 states that the prayer Elosha reads at the memorial service for the fallen is from the seventh scroll of Kobol. The Sacred Scrolls are the basis of the mainstream polytheistic religion of the Colonies.

Chapter 50

On page 315, Tyrol reflects that they lost 8 Vipers in the battle at Ragnar, with 14 more seriously damaged.

Coda

It is implied here that Doral was a sleeper agent, not realizing he was a Cylon until he is confronted by a group of them who rescue him from Ragnar Station when his true memories emerge spontaneously.