"The Memory Machine" Battlestar Galactica #6 (Marvel) Written by Roger Mckenzie Art by Rich Buckler and Klaus Janson August 1979

Commander Adama employs dangerous means to attempt to recall his memory of the Earth inscriptions he saw on Kobol.

Story Summary

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Didja Notice?

Serina receives a military funeral in space, her casket jettisoned into Kobol's sun.

On page 2, Adama reflects that Serina was much like his own wife, Ilya.

In "A Death in the Family", it's never stated that they've exited the void, yet we see background stars during the Cylon attack on Kobol, indicating they are outside the void. However, the Marvel Comics stories that begin here, immediately after "A Death in the Family", depict the fleet as continuing its journey through the void.

On pages 5-7, Lucifer and a squadron of Cylons land on Kobol and find the trapped Baltar, rescuing him. In the epilog of the book The Tombs of Kobol (adapting the two-part "Lost Planet of the Gods" episodes), an alternate version of Lucifer's rescue of Baltar takes place. In the TV series we don't get an explanation of how he made it back to his basestar. 

On page 7, Apollo is gazing at what appears to be a holo-cube of Serina's face.

The novelization of "Saga of a Star World" suggests that Sire Uri was forced to step down from the fleet's recently elected Council of Twelve after the debacle resulting from his suggestion that the fleet settle on Carillon, destroy their weapons, and make a renewed bid for peace with the Cylons. Here though, Uri appears to still be on the Quorum and still up to his shifty tricks. In fact, at the end of this issue, he gets elected President of the Council while Adama is trapped within the memory machine.

On page 19, a blond female in warrior attire is jealous of Starbuck's interest in Medea. But who is this blond supposed to be? It can't be Cassiopeia because she's a medical technician, not a warrior (although she is depicted as going through viper training as a reserve cadet later in "Ape and Essence"). Possibly it's supposed to be Athena and her hair is simply miscolored in these two panels.

The later episode "War of the Gods" Part 1, suggests that the Colonials have a safer memory-inducing scan called psycho-electron recall. Why doesn't Adama try that instead of subjecting himself to what Dr. Spang admits is a dangerous process intended for use in wartime against traitors and saboteurs to retrieve vital information. Possibly Adama already did attempt psycho-electron recall and it failed, so he opted for the next, more dangerous, approach.

As Adama's memories begin to appear in the mists of the memory machine globe on page 21, Apollo sees his destroyed childhood home on Caprica form in the images. He comments that he and his father returned there after the Cylon attack (in "Annihilation") and that they found his mother, Ilya, dead inside. But in the episode (and the novelization) it is clear that they did not find a body, though Adama is sure she was there and killed inside. Of course, in issue #15 ("Derelict"), Ilya turns up alive, though not for long.

Boomer's patrol of the fleet reveals that two of the 220 ships in the fleet have disappeared, leaving only 218.