"Battlestar Galactica": Life-Saving Moments Quiz

Answer: Lee Adama used an electromagnetic pulse from EMP generators transported on Colonial One to disable Cylon warheads and imitate a nuclear explosion.

Although it was hard to believe that the showrunners would kill off some of the major characters in the first half of the miniseries, the end of this episode still left the viewers waiting for the resolution of the cliffhanger ending with bated breath.

In "Miniseries, Part 2" Lee Adama explained that when the Cylon Raiders arrived, he decided to test the theory that "they toyed with" in War College, that a strong electromagnetic blast would render nuclear warheads harmless and look enough like a nuclear explosion to fool the Cylons. Fortunately for all involved, it worked out better in practice than during the simulations, when the Cylons would see through the ruse and destroy the target anyway.

Answer: Starbuck (Kara Thrace)

Kara actually saved Lee twice during this battle: first time by shooting the missile that was about to destroy his Viper out of the sky, and later by executing a daring and extremely complex maneuver in which she rammed her Viper into his and flew them both through the closing doors of Galactica's landing deck at the last moment. Her flying skills even earned her grudging respect from Colonel Tigh, the ship's XO, with whom she had a very strained relationship (although, unfortunately, she was not yet ready then to bury the hatchet).

As a Raptor pilot, Boomer (Sharon Valerii) did not directly participate in the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage, and Hot Dog (Brendan Costanza) and Kat (Louanne Katraine) were not yet Viper pilots during the events of the miniseries.

Answer: A Cylon Raider

For some reason, Starbuck was not as lucky as some other "Battlestar Galactica" characters when it came to her friends saving her from imminent death - more often than not, she had to do it herself. Fortunately for her, most of the time she was perfectly capable of doing that.

In this case, despite a massive rescue operation authorized by Commander Adama and led by Apollo, Galactica pilots were not able to find Starbuck on the surface of the moon, and were forced to stand down when Roslin pointed out that the whole fleet was put at risk because of this apparently futile mission. Kara, however, rescued herself by finding, repairing and learning to fly a Cylon Raider that was shot during the previous confrontation, not only returning to Galactica herself, but bringing a valuable piece of enemy technology with her.

Answer: Number Six, to create an illusion of struggle during her capture

The "capture" of Sharon (later known as Athena) was orchestrated by the Cylons in order to test Helo's commitment to her. They, including Sharon herself, were monitoring his actions after her disappearance - if he loved her enough to risk his own life to save her, then he would be spared in order to continue with the plan; if he left her behind, he would be killed.

When Helo, after some hesitation, decided to go look for Sharon, unknowingly saving his own life, a Six who was watching him with Sharon beat her up in order to create an illusion of struggle during her "capture". The episode hints at her being a bit over-zealous in her effort, most probably due to the fact that she was jealous of Sharon and her ability to experience love.

Answer: Caprica Six appeared in a vision and told him to take her hand.

Although one might argue that it was his survival instinct presenting itself in the form of Six, without this vision Baltar might not have dared climb through the flames to his rescue - the sight of Crashdown and the very real prospect of death by fire were obviously not inspiring enough for him. Looking at this event within the larger narrative of the series, it is even more likely that this appearance of Six was more than just the product of Baltar's subconscious, but rather the representation of the larger force that so often seemed to drive his actions.

Answer: Saving Cally increased the group's chances of survival.

In the example typical of "Battlestar Galactica"'s writing, the whole situation with the anti-aircraft battery on Kobol exists firmly in the gray area, where it is hard to pin labels on any of its participants. Everybody was both wrong and right in this situation and carried part of the blame: Crashdown for insisting on carrying out an already risky plan even after the situation had changed (new centurions arriving on the scene), instead of exploring other possibilities (destroying the DRADIS dish that may have been unprotected); Baltar for failing at reconnaissance but insisting that his information was correct; Cally for refusing to carry out the orders of a superior officer; Tyrol for failing to protect Cally; the list goes on.

It is unclear whether the actions of Baltar should be interpreted as heroic or mutinous, and whether he put the group at an even greater risk by his actions.

However, there is no doubt that it was a remarkable life-saving moment.

Answer: Number Eight (Sharon)

Upon waking up in a mysterious hospital that the resident doctor, Simon, claimed to belong to the Caprica Resistance, Starbuck quickly became suspicious of everything she was being told. Faking sleep after being administered a sedative, she followed Simon to the hallway, where she saw him talking to a Number Six about their plans for her.

Shortly thereafter Starbuck stabbed Simon in the neck and fled from the facility, knocking out Six with a fire extinguisher on the way. When she got outside, another Four (Simon) showed up to block her path, only to be shot by the Caprica Resistance who appeared just in time. However, they quickly got bogged down in a fight with the centurions, which ended only when Sharon flew in in a Heavy Raider and destroyed all the remaining Cylon guards.

Number Two (Leoben) did not appear in the episode at all.

Answer: Cylon logic bomb

The Cylon computer virus originally infected Galactica's systems during the events of the episode "Scattered", however, it had been believed to have been removed until system malfunctions started in "Flight of the Phoenix". Caprica Sharon, upon reviewing the code, informed Commander Adama that the virus had mutated into a logic bomb, which had studied all the systems on Galactica and was prepared to turn the Battlestar against its crew and the civilian fleet once the Cylons showed up.

Sharon offered to save the fleet by connecting herself to Galactica's mainframe to neutralize the virus while the hard drives were being wiped to be restored from uninfected backups. She did more than just neutralize the virus, however - she reprogrammed it and sent it back at the Cylon ships, leaving them powerless and easy targets for Galactica and its Vipers.

Sharon's actions during this episode, however, did not help her win the trust of Commander Adama, at least not at that time, because right after the Cylon fleet was destroyed, he, referring to her, ordered to take "this thing" back to "its" cell.

Answer: Gaius Baltar

Early on in the episode, Dr. Cottle told Laura Roslin, Admiral Adama and Gaius Baltar that he discovered something odd in Caprica Sharon (Athena's) fetal blood work, which lead Roslin to the conclusion that her pregnancy should be terminated for the safety of the fleet. Baltar, charged by Caprica Six with protecting the human-Cylon baby at all costs, started desperately looking for the reasons to allow the pregnancy to continue. Surprisingly, he found one when he discovered that the fetal blood had such high resistance to disease that it was able to dissolve a sample of Roslin's cancer cells. Injection of this blood thus saved Laura Roslin's life, at least for the time being.

In a podcast after the episode, the show's creator Ron Moore stated that a longer explanation of how Roslin's cancer was cured was originally filmed, with fetal stem cells being the actual cure, but the showrunners decided against it for fear of being criticized for "technobabble". Ironically, ultimately it was the brevity of the explanation that became the source of the critique.

Answer: Caprica Six and Boomer persuaded the rest of the Cylons that the occupation of the Twelve Colonies was a mistake.

According to Brother Cavil, the "War heroes" (Caprica Six and Number Eight previously known as Boomer), using the fact that their voices carried more weight than the opinions of "regular" Cylons, managed to swing the opinion of the rest of the Cylons to their side and persuade them that both the occupation of the Twelve Colonies and the pursuit of the fleet were errors of judgement. From that moment on, the humans and Cylons were supposed to go their separate ways.

The end of the season finale, however, showed that this did not happen.