GALACTICA 6551: A fan-made virtual 2nd season of BSG by Revell-Fan

Revell-Fan

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@Gandolf50 : It was such a lucky incident that he was chosen for three roles in the show. He is such a great actor and had one of the best roles in TOS.

@ASC Mclaren : I have just finished "Voice of the Serpent". I'm pretty much satisfied with it (I will maybe describe Baltar's state of mind a bit clearer but for now it is okay) and have attached the German version of it just for you. ;)

(EDIT: Since the episode has been officially released there is no reason for the preview being here any longer.)

It is a very short episode (that was intentional because it is somewhat a prelude of what's coming later) and is set on Baltar's asteroid. You have to know that in one of the previous episodes a giant glowing crystal has crash-landed near Baltar's camp. It is half-buried in the sand. The crystal is a key plot element which determines the course of the wholse season.

Baltar has hooked the transmitter he got from Adama to the crystal after he had found out that it is able to boost the strength of the signal. Just before a base star is dropping by Baltar is haunted by an old friend... I recommend to recall John Colicos' portrayal, especially the scenes where you can grasp the insanity of the character (especially when he twitches his mouth corners). Have fun and enjoy! :)
 
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Revell-Fan

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Short sitrep: Exodus, part II: Awesome. Really bad situation at the end for the crew and the readers because EVERYTHING goes down the drain. Exodus III seems a bit too long but has many great character moments. Baltar in particular is such a fascinating character. First he wants everything, then he gets everything, but that does not please him at all. Working on Exodus IV now.

I have found snippets of another episode which was the predecessor of "Charon" but was set on Earth. It is a crime story and deals with crystal skulls. I called them "Geminisian supplication skulls"; they are fowarded from a mother to her oldest daughter as a wedding gift. Cynthia, a historian from Earth, is very interested in those skulls because they may be a real proof that the 12 colonies and Earth share common roots. When Cassiopeia's Supplication skull is stolen and a fellow historian is killed Apollo and Starbuck team up with Cynthia to find the skull and the killer. Their hunt becomes very creepy when they find out that the killer is alive - and not alive at the very same time: It might be a Golem!

The story was unfinished because of - Indiana Jones (and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). No kidding. When I learned that the latest movie would deal with crystal skulls I abandoned the idea because I thought that crystal skulls would loose their mythological appeal. Oh well. The idea did not let me go, however, so that I developed "Charon". This episode is set in space and deals with - crystal skulls and murder. However, this episode concentrates on the female leads of Galactica who were a bit neglected during TOS (mainly Athena). The story got even more mysterious (this time it is a ghost hidden inside one of the skulls).

Another story deals with the end of the dinosaurs (also set on Earth): EVOLUTIONS. A giant asteroid is destroyed by Galactica's powerful weapons before it hits Earth. When they want to return to a nearby space station they find nothing. No station, no Earth defense force, no fleet. An away team lands on Earth and is forced to witness that the planet is ruled by dinosaurs, mankind is still in its early stone age stages. Something must have happened in the past that has changed the present. Adama launches into the past to investigate. When the crew learns that they have destroyed the asteroid that was supposed to hit Earth 65 Mio years ago they consider to have a similarly heavy mass crash onto the planet to initiate the end of the dinosaurs and pave the way for mankind's evolution. Just Centons before Galactica is set on a collision course with Earth they find a Cylon Basestar orbiting Saturn: The Cylons travelled through time to stop the evolution of mankind and transported the asteroid into the future. Their time travel was flawed, they were left dead in space unable to return. So the Galactica crew decides to have the Basestar crash on the planet. The basestar crashes, the dinos go extinct, mankind evolves. Galactica returns to the present and everything is fine again - save for one thing: In the final scene some archeologists are digging deep enough to find some residues of a Cylon base ship, crashed 65 Mio years ago...

This story was abandoned because: It made no sense. The characters were so extremely uninteresting. And the show was set in the Galactica 1980 universe (UGH!). But I still have it. ;)

These are the kind of things that happen when you change the direction of your writings. :)
 
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Revell-Fan

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The first four pages of the "Dinosaur" episode from 1996 I mentioned above. Posted just for fun. The only pages of the story which have been drawn (with pencil and a fine marker; still incomplete, but, well, at least there is some action ;) ). :)

You may easily notice the striking resemblance to one of the Star Trek: TNG episodes in which the Enterprise destroys an asteroid in the teaser (which in fact served me as a model for this scene). ;)
 

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And another one: The teaser of the very first draft of what would become "Experiment in History". This too was supposed to be a "Galactica 1980" episode, called "A Stitch in Time". Again posted here just for fun! :)
 

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Sitrep: Exodus IV is a tad too long as well but it is a worthy ending of the whole season. You're gonna love it (and maybe shed some tears, I hope ;) )! :)
 
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"The Confession" was slightly refined and is "State of Mind" now (first title was boring, new title fits the story better).
 

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I just have to bring the topic up her:

http://www.zealot.com/threads/total-eclipse-in-oregon.179966/

Rhaven posted this spectacular picture:

20170821_101718-1-jpg.159760


Now why am I referencing it here? Well, keep this picture in mind when you read the last third of "Exodus, Part 2". Imagine some "space swirls" and debris around it which emerge into the center of the eclipse and it's a perfect representation of what I had in mind when writing the episode. If you believe that the Cylons are the biggest threat in the universe, wait till you know more about THAT one..! ;)
 
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Revell-Fan

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Two days ago I had an idea how to make the Cyclops story. And guess what, I think it works. This time I will put Bojay and Bree in the focus of the story. The first idea had Starbuck and Apollo sitting in the line of fire but I felt they would be over-used then. Apollo is the star of the whole season anyways and maybe I'll be completing another episode I have hidden in one of my crates in which Starbuck gets... well.... a bit "thicker" than usual......! :D ;) (Only because we could need a comedy before everything goes down the drain. :) )
 

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UPDATE: "Cyclops Forever" is complete! After spending 15 years inside my head the story was finally "put on paper". It turned out surprisingly well and I am sure you will like it. Since the story deals with some kind of ghost ship I have chosen two cast members of "The Walking Dead" as guest stars, Andrew Lincoln as Commander Gideon of the Experimental Core Breacher Class Vessel Cyclops and Melissa Suzanne McBride as Colonel Jerra, Bree's mother. The episode starts with a surprising encounter in outer space, has a special twist in the middle and a nail-biting action sequence in the third act. It is one of the longer stories (32 pages) but this is due to the many character moments. I especially like the end because it is very emotional and conciliatory. It took 12 days in total to write it. :)
 

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"The Unique Warrior" was shifted up before the final four-parter in order to lighten up the mood after all the dramatic character episodes that come before. I felt this was necessary to give you comething to laugh, and you will laugh, I guarantee! :D ;)

Yesterday I got an ingeniuos idea to flesh out "Charon", the mystery episode, when I was waiting at the doctor's. I spend quite some time waiting at the doctor's because that's something my job requires but I have never got an idea for a story before. So, instead of letting the ghost escape from his prison (the crystal skull) and kill people the new main plot element is to have Cassiopeia's mind trapped inside the skull while she is praying. I'm now playing with some ideas on the setting (medieval castle or Caprica before the Cylon destruction). The possibilities are endless..! :)
 

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Yesterday I had an idea to incorporate "The Beginning" into the main story line. Doing this makes a complete number of 50 episodes in total which I like a lot. The original draft of the episode was supposed to be a hommage to the Deep Space Nine episode "Far beyond the Stars":

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Far_Beyond_the_Stars_(episode)

The Galactica version looks like this: It's a calm day aboard Galactica. Boxey is preparing an essay for school. The topic he chose: The beginning of the Cylon / human War. In order to know some facts which have not been recorded in the history books he asks Commander Adama to tell the story from what he remembers from his days at the academy. While listening to his granddad's story Boxey visualizes the events by putting the people he knows into the roles of the protagonists of the historic events, similar to what the DS9 episode did (President Adar is the President of the Colonies, Starbuck is a fighter pilot who has crash-landed on Hazar, Dr Wilker is the technician who has invented the Cylon Centurions and so on; you get the meaning ;) ).

The original version was supposed to be a two-part-episode. Part one deals with the Cylon attack on Hazar and the Colonials trying to find a diplomatic solution with the last sentence being "We are at War." Part 2 starts with a major battle sequence between Cylons and humans which leads to the decision of the Cylons to build more Centurions in order to overcome the growing support the Hazari are getting from the Colonials. The Cylon ruler demands to boost their intelligence, too, in order to make them deal with surprise attacks better. The Cylon technician warns the ruler but his objections remain unheard. After finishing work on a new kind of Command Centurion he finds out that the Centurions begin to ask questions about their purpose which is highly disturbing. He tries to shutdown the production, destroys all of his notes and thus is killed by the ruler. The ruler activates the Command Centurion and meets his demise at his own hands. Since the technician has destroyed all data on his projects he also took with him the key to deactivate the already working Centurions. The Command Centurion kills the ruler, takes his place and calls himself the "Imperious Leader". He orders to exterminate all organic life forms which are a threat to his order. The episode ends with Adama bringing Boxey to his quarters and a shot of Galactica leading the fleet in space.

This is a very interesting stand-alone story, a mix of facts and fiction and a few "what if" moments. However, this is exactly what made it difficult to incorporate into the existing time line of Galactica 6551. That's why I was not sure to finish and release it. It simply does not add anything to the main plot of the season. It is just an episode on Adama telling a bed-time story. Nothing more. So I put it on the back burner. Till yesterday.

I went through the draft one last time before putting it away for the time being. However, while reading I noticed something: There was no mention of Iblis and his connection to the Cylons. Weird. We do know that the Imperious Leader has Iblis' voice and it was hinted at that Iblis was somehow involved in the creation of the Leader. So Iblis met the Cylons 1000 yahrens ago. But why? What did he want from the Cylons? Leadership? Well, to be honest, I don't think so. If he wanted to be their leader he would be it still today, because the Cylons would not change their attitude toward a supreme being. Why? Because they are programmed to obey. The only ones capable of personal initiative are the IL series Cylons who have a second and a third data node inside their main circuitry. This is what the old novels call a second or a third "brain". If Iblis had been their leader it would not have been necessary to replace him with a mechanical Imperious Leader. So Iblis wanted something else. Something which would give him more than leadership over one single alien race. And he left the Cylon Empire, for whatever reason, to return later one day...

So I went back to the storyboard and altered the episode to fit in the main plot. I left the key elements intact but chose to concentrate everything. The first step was to turn it into a single part episode. All redundance and personal adventures of the protagonists were killed which would have unnecessarily dragged the story. The fact that the draft consisted of ideas and several fleshed out scenes only made this task very easy. Then I put the episode directly before the final four parter which turns it into a prelude now, especially the final scene. And this scene contains a very special clue which is important for the grande finale (and what a GRANDE FINALE it is, oh boy!) . And to give you a hint on what's going on I give you a little part of the first draft of said scene (not the complete one though in order to keep the tension and not to spoil too much ;) ). Enjoy! :)



Cylon.

CYLON: Imperious Leader, we are receiving a transmission from Ficus sector.
IMPERIOUS LEADER: Put it through.
CYLON: By your command.

The view screen activates. Count Iblis appears.

IBLIS: Greetings, Imperious Leader. I am Count Iblis.
IMPERIOUS LEADER: What do you want? I do not negotiate with humans.
IBLIS: Oh, you are mistaken. I am not human. I am the one who programmed you.
IMPERIOUS LEADER: Explain!
IBLIS: 1.000 yahrens ago your kind asked me to create your base programme. Please consult your historic data base. I am the one who created what you are now. Listen to my voice..!
IMPERIOUS LEADER: Interesting. What is thy bidding?
IBLIS: I have come to demand the reward of my hard work. 1.000 yahrens ago the first Imperious Leader promised something to me. He promised to take care of a certain artifact until I would return to take it. That time has finally come.
IMPERIOUS LEADER: What is it that you want?
IBLIS: Oh, nothing of importance. Something you do not require. It is a stone that had stranded on Cylon aeons ago. Give it to me and your debt is paid.
IMPERIOUS LEADER: So it shall be.
IBLIS: Thank you very much.

...

Baltar's Base Star.

BALTAR: So it indeed was you who led the Cylons to ruin?
IBLIS: They did that themselves. I only did what they asked me to do.
BALTAR: But you did know they would destroy themselves? You could have prevented that.
IBLIS (smiles): Old friend, I'm unable to make a society think. If they want it to be done I can only comply. Or not, depending on the reward I am offered. I'm not responsible for the consequences of their own wishes.
BALTAR: And so you are always off the hook. Clever!

...

IBLIS: So you finally trust me?
BALTAR: No. But for now it is logical to benefit from your presence. Your knowledge in particular. In order to achieve our common goal.
IBLIS: How true, my friend. I assure you, you will not regret your decision..!


TO BE CONTINUED


:)
 
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Revell-Fan

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While making the final adjustments to the final episode I noticed that the script got way too long. The average size of a script is 24 pages, this one was 42. The tension arc was screwed up but I did not know why. Yesterday I had an idea: I made a cut in the middle and split the episode into a two-parter. That did the trick! Now the finale consists of five episodes. This small change allowed me to tell the entire story as intended without having to cut anything from it. The tension arc was fixed for the fourth episode. The fifth and last episode starts off with non-stop action and ties all loose ends together. Its structure feels a bit like the final two-parter of "Star Trek: DS9". I'm pretty much content with that development, because now I have 24 full episodes in total which looks better than just 23. ;)
 
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A new (preliminary) preview cover was added to the episode guide (Episode 3: "The Value of Life"). :)
 

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Alright then, let's swing into action! I'm translating the stories I already have and am still looking for the script of the first story "The Present of the Gods". This episode sets up the stage for the whole season which is why it is so hard for me not to be able to present it to you at the moment. However, I don't want you to wait any longer, so I thought would give you "The 2nd Chance" first. It is a solid stand-alone adventure which should not require too much info from the first (still missing) one. Once the episode #1 is ready I'll give it to you in order to close the gap. I will proceed the same way with "Experiment in History". It is only a matter of time to retrieve them, so I hope to be able to present them before the final part of the Exodus story arc is released. Please don't bear with me because I can't foresee how much time I will have for this project, so I can't promise a new story every week or so. The German versions are ready, it is the translation that takes most of the time. Posting this story shall give you an idea of how to post such in the new section. ;)

Here you go:

2. The Second Chance

Synopsis:


John takes Apollo into the past to save the colonies. My version of a "What-If" story. ;)

Have fun and enjoy! :)
 
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Phew, just copied and pasted the final bits of the story. I'm looking forward to your comments! :)
 
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