"Greetings From Earth" Galactica 1980 #2 (Dynamite Entertainment) Written by Marc Guggenheim Illustrated by Cezar Razek Cover by Lucio Parrillo 2009

With the apparent death of Commander Adama, Dr. Zee takes command of the fleet and begins a Colonial invasion of Earth.

Read the synopsis of this episode at the Battlestar Wiki site

Didja Know?

The title of this issue is borrowed by the writer from the BSG 2-part episode "Greetings From Earth", though it has nothing to do with that episode.

Didja Notice?

Before nuking the Galactica (last issue, in "Galactica Discovers Earth"), the U.S. President and his closest advisors are seen here to have moved to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the East Wing of the White House. This is an actual room, built for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during WWII. The long meeting table seen here looks very similar to the one that was there when President Bush and his advisors operated from there during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Troy's Viper is here referred to as Viper 5480.

In this issue, we begin to see that the Colonial characters have first and last names after all, despite only single names used throughout the original BSG series. Troy is Troy Adama and Dr. Zee is Gaius Zee. Obviously the idea of giving the characters first and last names is a nod to the reimagined BSG2000 series, but it doesn't make much sense that the last names would suddenly be in use now when they were not before.

The falcon emblem is missing from Troy's helmet on pages 1 and 4.

Page 2 reveals that Dr. Zee had biomonitors implanted in each member of the Council of Twelve, including Commander Adama. It's not clear whether this was done with each individual's knowledge.

Also on page 2, Dr. Zee declares a state of cerebral law within the fleet. This seems to be something beyond martial law (the imposition of military rule during an emergency), allowing Zee, presumably as the smartest person in the fleet, to assume sole command, over that of both the military and civilian (Quorum) leaders.

On panels 3 and 4 of page 2, Dr. Zee appears to be looking at a schematic of the Galactica on his tablet device.

As the battle in Washington D.C. is taking place, Dr. Mortinson is seen to be at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. This is a real world radio telescope run by SRI International (Stanford Research Institute) and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Dr. Mortinson was depicted in a 1971 scene in "Galactica Discovers Earth" with a mustache, much like the version of the character that appeared in the G1980 TV series. Now, in 1980, he's sporting a full beard.

Mortinson remarks that the language being spoken by the Colonials bears a strong resemblance to ancient Aramaic, which is over 3,000 years old. It is a language that was used to write parts of the Bible and would have been the language spoken by Jesus.

Page 5 jumps to Moscow, U.S.S.R. Moscow is the capital of Russia and was the capital of what was then the U.S.S.R. The man ordering a counter-strike against the U.S. is certainly meant to be Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the U.S.S.R. at the time.

Panel 1 on page 5 is a view of St. Basil's Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church on the left and the Spasskaya Clocktower on the right with the Kremlin clock clearly seen.

Also on page 5, notice that the painting hanging behind Brezhnev's desk in panel 2 is actually a reproduction of panel 1, suggesting a film-like camera pull out from a close-up of the images to reveal the actual office setting.

In this issue, Dillon is seen wearing his pistol on his left, as the original character did in the TV series (in "Galactica Discovers Earth", he was wearing it on his right!).

This issue reveals that the Colonials have some kind of an inoculation or vaccine against radiation. Technically, inoculations and vaccines are the introduction of a living or dead guest organism into or onto that of another in a controlled manner, so that the first might transfer an immunity or resistance to the host (usually to prevent a stronger infection of the guest from occurring in uncontrolled circumstances). Since radiation isn't alive, "inoculation" does not seem like the correct term to use here.

On page 8, Dillon refers to Troy as Dillon!

The U.S. soldiers in this story are seen carrying the M16A4 assault rifle, the rifle currently used as the U.S. military's standard service rifle. But in 1980, U.S. soldiers would have been carrying the M16A1 instead. The M16A4 was not introduced until 1996.

On page 13, we learn that Dr. Zee's full name is Gaius Zee. Obviously, "Gaius" is a nod to the name of Gaius Baltar in BSG2000. But then, why isn't Baltar called Gaius here?

The scene on page 15 takes place in front of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C.

On page 16, Dr. Mortinson records a journal entry and reveals it is January 27, 1980. In the real world, this date is the one on which the Galactica 1980 TV series premiered on the ABC television network.

Mortinson states into his journal recording that probably the only people capable of translating the Aramaic-like language of the alien invaders are Frellich at Stanford, Lupo at Harvard, and McCullough at Duke. The names are references to behind-the-scenes personnel on the G1980 TV series: Jeff Freilich, producer/writer; Frank Lupo, producer/writer; and Bob McCullough, writer of the episode "Space Croppers".

Ironically, Mortinson, at one point in his journal recording, refers to the aliens as "colonists". Presumably, he is just assuming they've come here to establish a colony, but he has also inadvertently touched on their Colonial origins in the Twelve Colonies of Man in the Cyrannus galaxy.

Somehow, many of the characters manage to travel considerable distances to Washington, D.C. in a very short amount of time. For example, Dr. Mortinson is in Puerto Rico when he hears the Colonial communications after the Galactica is brought down and he races from his lab to go borrow his friend's plane to fly back to the states. Yet, somehow he arrives in the D.C. area while Troy and Dillon are beginning their search on the ground for Commander Adama, which seems to basically be immediately after the battlestar's destruction. Likewise, Dr. Zee's invasion forces from the fleet arrive there almost immediately after as well, even though the order came only after the battlestar's destruction leads him to believe Adama dead.

Both Dillon and Troy use the swear word "godsdammit" in this issue, presumably referring to the multiple Lords of Kobol. In the original BSG series, however, the singular term "God" was also used, suggesting the Colonials believed in a single God, but also worshipped the lesser deities of the Lords of Kobol.

Dillon dies from gunshot wounds in this issue. In the G1980 TV series, he remained alive throughout the series.

On page 19, while speculating on who is attacking Washington D.C., someone suggests Iran and another of the President's advisors remarks, "The Ayatollah couldn't find his ass with both hands and an instruction manual--" This is a reference to Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran at the time; "ayatollah" is the highest rank of Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics.

On page 20, Baltar is playing a classical music piece on a piano in a specially decorated room he has reserved for it on his basestar. He tells Lucifer the piece is Larson's "Apogee in C-Minor". "Larson", of course, is a reference to series creator Glen A. Larson. "Apogee" is a term used to denote the farthest point of an object orbiting Earth. Since Baltar must be referring to a fellow Colonial (or possibly a Kobolian), the use of the term "apogee" in the title of the musical piece must be a reference to the legendary Thirteenth Colony. (The Battlestar Wiki points out that Apogee was also the name of John Dykstra's visual effects company that produced most of the special effects for the BSG pilot movie "Saga of a Star World".)

Baltar is seen to now have the left side of his face replaced with metal and a cybernetic eye. Whether this was done simply as an augmentation or done to repair an injury at some point in the past is unrevealed.

Lucifer looks largely the same as he did in the original BSG series.