Battlestar Galactica "Fire in Space" Story by Michael Sloan Teleplay by Jim Carlson and Terrence McDonnell Directed by Christian I. Nyby II

A Cylon attack engulfs the Galactica in flames.

Read the story summary at the Battlestar Wiki

Didja Notice?

If you look closely at the board game being played in the Rejuvenation Center at 2:43 on the DVD, you can see that the board is not actually square, it's more like a + shape.

The game being played by Boxey and Athena at the beginning of the episode, which Boxey refers to as compartment billyarks, appears to be a Colonial variant of our own table shuffleboard.

As Galactica launches Vipers to meet the Cylon attack, at 3:54 on the DVD, we see Sheba launching in her Pegasus viper; the shield-logo is visible below the cockpit. She is also wearing the Pegasus helmet. But once she's out into space, we see her wearing a Galactica helmet! But then we see occasional shots of her with the Pegasus helmet again! Obviously, the production was reusing footage shot for "The Living Legend" to save time and money.

The bridge scanner at 4:20 on the DVD seems to suggest that there are two baseships behind the attack of Cylon Raiders on the Galactica.

As the ship's compartments are sealed off, the phone unit next to one of the doors at 4:52 on the DVD can be seen to have the word "Stentofon" on it. Stentofon is a real company on Earth that manufactures secure phone equipment for niche organizations such as police departments and hospitals. And battlestars apparently! (The phones are also seen aboard the Celestra in "Take the Celestra".

The collision of the Cylon Raider into the Galactica bridge appears to shatter the glass war map at 7:30 on the DVD (and again at 7:31!).

From the damage inflicted by the collisions, Colonel Tigh guesses the Cylon Raiders must have been packed with solenite. Solenite was previously used as the explosives carried by the landing team sent to blow up the Ravashol pulsar in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero".

We never see if it is Baltar commanding the kamikaze attack against the Galactica. If it is, perhaps he got the idea of ramming the battlestar to set it on fire and cripple it from the raging fires on both the Galactica and the Pegasus in the two-part "The Living Legend" episodes.

Boomer mentions that when he was younger, he used to hotlink hovermobiles. This is likely the Colonial version of hotwiring automobiles.

The crewmember who speaks to Cassiopeia in the Life Station about trying to rescue the people in the Rejuvenation Center  was previously seen in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" Part 1 and also appears later in "Murder on the Rising Star". According to the Battlestar Galactica wiki, his name is Corporal Komma.

At 22:19 on the DVD, we see somewhat of an overhead schematic of the Galactica. And at 23:12, a side view of the ductwork in the head section of the ship.

At 24:50 on the DVD, we can see tanks labeled "boraton" being pumped into the Vipers for fighting the fire in the landing bay.

Before sending Muffit through the air duct with a note for help, Boomer sticks the note in a fumarello case (a cigar tube).

At 27:18 on the DVD, we see a symbol on the fire leader's helmet. Is this the Colonial firefighting symbol?

At 30:21 on the DVD, we get a good look at the patch worn by medical personnel.

Dr. Salik tells Cassiopeia they must operate on Commander Adama, saying, "If we just let him lay in the lifepod, he doesn't have a chance in a centura." The meaning of the word "centura" is unknown. Might it be "century"? Or it could be a reference to a percentage since "cent" means "1 in 100" in English?

It's not entirely clear where on the ship's surface Apollo and Starbuck are when they do their spacewalk to plant the explosive charges on the hull of the Galactica, but it would presumably be towards the rear of the ship, where the fire seems to be raging most strongly. Supporting this, Apollo and Starbuck's exit through the airlock door at 33:15 on the DVD, seems to show the shape and contour of the engine block of the battlestar in the background.

In many scenes during the spacewalk, the guy wires holding the actors in the air to simulate weightlessness can be seen! (I've brightened the shot below to make it easier to see.)

I'd never noticed before, but Colonel Tigh wears a ring on his left pinky finger, as seen at 35:22 on the DVD.

At about 38:23 on the DVD, Boxey appears to give Boomer a wink as he shares his oxygen mask with the warrior.

At 41:23 on the DVD, it can be seen that the cuff of Starbuck's spacesuit sleeve doesn't attach to his glove; the skin of Starbuck's arm is exposed to space!

When Apollo loses his grip on the hull and begins free-drifting off into space, I'm not sure exactly how Starbuck leaping after him is supposed to have saved his life, but I guess it could be that Starbuck's momentum as he strikes Apollo carries them far enough away from the hull blast to survive the explosion.

After the explosion, why don't Apollo and Starbuck answer Colonel Tigh's queries over the comlink right away? It seems as if their comlinks suddenly work again only after Sheba spots them floating in space from her Viper. I think the real answer is simply that it was more suspenseful to have silence for a while, leaving Tigh and Sheba wondering if the two warriors had survived.

Muffit's almost-death saving a man from the fire is rather similar to the one he experienced saving Boxey in the engine room in "Trial and Error".

Though there was no novelization of this episode, the novelization of "The Long Patrol" featured scenes borrowed from this episode, i.e. the Cylon ramming attack and the people trapped in the Rejuvenation Center.

Notes from the Deleted Scenes on the DVD

You don't see it in the final cut of the scene, but the alternate takes reveal that when Boomer dives through the doorway into the storage compartment to escape the fire, his right boot is on fire! That is why he gives an appreciative clap on the shoulder to another guy as he gets up...the guy smothered the fire on his boot when he landed.

In one of the alternate takes of the above scene, as Boomer is getting up, it appears he has torn a seam in the crotch of pants!