Trivia for
Battlestar Galactica (2003) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

• Plans for a revival of the 1970s TV series date back to the late 1990s when original series star Richard Hatch went so far as to produce a short film suggesting what an updated Galactica might look like. In 2000-01 plans to film a new Galactica movie were shelved at the last minute. This new version is described as a "reimagining" of the original story as opposed to a continuation and includes many obvious and subtle references to the 1978 series.
  
  
• The characters of Starbuck and Boomer are female in this version; they were male in the original TV series. None of the characters in the original series had last or family names.
  
  
• Roslin calls Apollo "Captain Apollo", a nod to the original series.
  
  
• The music accompanying the Viper flyby during the decommissioning ceremony is fanfare from the original "Battlestar Galactica" (1978).
  
  
• On the original "Battlestar Galactica" (1978), Apollo, Starbuck and Boomer were the characters' real names. Here, they're their "call signs" (pilot nicknames).
  
  
• During the first Viper/Cylon engagement, the lead pilot calls for his wingman, "Jolly". Jolly was one of the pilots on the original "Battlestar Galactica" (1978).
  
  
• The hand held camera shot of Secretary Roslin being sworn in as the new President of the Twelve Colonies is a direct reference to the historic photograph of Vice President Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force 1 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
  
  
• Numerous props from the original series appear as items on display in the newly constructed museum in the starboard landing bay of the Galactica. They are all labeled in the typeface style used for the main title of the original series. The props which can be seen include a Cylon Centurion, a Cylon Raider, a Cylon Basestar, a Colonial Shuttle, a Landram and even an original Colonial Viper from the 1978 series.
  
  
• The officer aboard the contact station at the beginning of the first episode is reading a file on the Cylons which features the design of a Cylon Centurion from the original series. The shuttle which transports him to the station also closely resembles the shuttle craft from the original series.
  
  
• According to the official website, the officer ranks in the Colonial fleet are: Ensign, Lieutenant j.g., Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Colonel, Commander, Admiral. There are also Colonial Marines, but their rank structure is unknown - they only appear in the weekly series "Battlestar Galactica" (2004), and there are very few left.
  
  
• The wedge shaped, wired handsets used on the Galactica are US military issue TA-1/PT field telephones.
  
  
• An early version of the script had the twelve colonies as cities on the mother planet Kobol, not separate planets and moons all colonized from Kobol (as it is in the final version).
  
  
• Commander Adama's final speech to his crew (including his repeated use of the phrase "So say we all!" to rally them to action) was largely improvised by Edward James Olmos.
  
  
• Grace Park originally auditioned for both Dualla and Starbuck.
  
  
• The Cylon Basestar in the display case in the museum originally contained the Galactica from the 1978 series with a sign that read "The First Battlestar Galactica". The Galactica was eventually dropped in favor of the 1978 Cylon Basestar.
  
  
• A Viper from the 1978 series is clearly visible in a long shot of the landing bay during the decommissioning ceremony (to the left of the screen near the LandRam).
  
  
• A CGI rendering of the 1978 Galactica was to be used for the mini-series but a decision was made to go in a different direction with the Galactica's design.
  
  
• Ragnar Anchorage, the hidden supply dump, is named for Ragnarok, the Norse legend of the final battle at the end of the world.
  
  
• The Raptor's design is loosely based on the AH-64 Apache.
  
  
• DVD features deleted scenes with incomplete visual effects: - Laura meeting Billy for the first time on the space liner before it lifts off - Extended scene of Apollo arriving on Galactica: up in Pri-Fly, Aaron Doral explains why manned Vipers are still used; added shots from Apollo's point of view of the landing - Boomer lands the Raptor on Galactica, actually bouncing it on the deck a couple of times - Cally stops Socinus from going into the tool room where Tyrol and Boomer are having sex - Extended scene of Billy meeting Dualla: she explains why the Galactica has unisex bathrooms and helps him get to where he needed to be - The actual decommissioning of Galactica, involving the jettisoning of all her live ordnance into space for remote destruction - Extended scene of Apollo dealing with the missile fired at the space liner: he takes it on a chase through the canyons of a moon, using up all his fuel in the process, before flipping over and shooting it down - The space liner picks up Apollo after he'd flamed out Just as Galactica is preparing for the FTL jump to Ragnar Anchorage, Starbuck and her flight group have to deal with three more Cylon raiders and another nuke attack; she shoots it down this time Cally berates Tyrol for his affair with Boomer - Tyrol takes Boxey to his new bunk in pilots' quarters, saying it used to belong to a pilot with the call sign of Carrot - In the Galactica's wardroom, Billy explains to Laura that she's going to have to think in more military terms if she's ever going to win over Tigh and Adama
  
  
• Some of the small arms in the miniseries are actually famous anime weapons, such as the Seburo MN-23 (from Masamune Shirow's Dominion Conflict) which were used by Galactica's boarding party at Ragnar Station.
  
  
• The MkII Viper that Starbuck flies in the miniseries has "Raymond 'Raygun' Lai' on the side of the cockpit. Ray Lai was one of the preproduction concept artists for the miniseries.
  
  
• Donnelly Rhodes, who plays Galactica's doctor Major Cottle in the series, originally auditioned for Tigh.
  
  
• When Col. Tigh burns the photo of his wife, the woman pictured was originally executive producer David Eick's wife Jenny. However, his wife was brought back as a character in the series (played by actress Kate Vernon), the scene had to be reshot with a photo of Vernon so it could be inserted into the recap for her debut episode.
  
  
• According to the DVD commentary, the agriculture ship (with all the plants) and the little girl was intended to reference the agro ship from the movie Silent Running (1972). However, reused footage from that movie was used in the original Battlestar Galactica series to depict their agro ship, thus becoming a double homage.
  
  
• When Roslin finds out that she has cancer, there are ships flying above the Doctors office. One is making a landing and is the 'Serenity' from Joss Whedon's "Firefly" (2002).
  
  
• The humans live on 12 planets and moons known as "The Colonies of Kobol", whose names are taken from Zodiac signs. During Season Two, Laura Roslin mentions that the Zodiac signs are the "ancient" names of the colonies: Aerelon, Tauron, Gemenon, Canceron, Leonis, Virgon, Libron, Scorpia, Sagittaron, Caprica, Aquaria and Picon. At the end of the miniseries, Cmdr. Adama mentions a 13th colony called Earth. These references were influenced by the religious beliefs of series creator Glen Larson: The Twelve Tribes of Israel, the 13th is a group of Israelites who migrated to North America. "Kobol" is a misspelling of "Kolob," according to Latter-day Saints, is a place near the throne of God.
  
  
• Tricia Helfer based her performance on Daryl Hannah in Blade Runner (1982). Edward James Olmos gave her a copy of the film to watch.
  
  
• Richard Hatch was offered the role of the doctor who delivers the bad news to Laura Roslin but declined the offer.
  
  
• Ryan Robbins, who plays the officer on Armistice Station (identified as Colonel Wakefield in the novelization), is seen with age-enhancing makeup in his sole onscreen scene. This was because the original version of the opening teaser would have featured his character visiting Armistice Station several times over 40 years, each time appearing progressively older. However, all scenes but the final one were cut after filming.
  
  
• SciFi Channel's commercials about the miniseries included a scene showing a Viper coming out of lightspeed toward a planetary body. This was actually taken from a cut scene from the Xbox videogame, Battlestar Galactica (2003) (VG). The Vipers in the miniseries have no FTL drives.
  
  
• One of the initial proposals was to do this story as a theatrically-released movie (the original TV movie, Battlestar Galactica (1978) (TV), was released theatrically in 1979). However, although Universal Studios owns the television rights to the Galactica franchise, the movie rights are owned by creator Glen A. Larson -- thus, any theatrical release would require Larson's approval, which the producers of the new show were unwilling to allow (despite Creator and Consulting Producer credits and salary on the new show, Larson had no input). This is why spin-off "movies" from the new series, such as Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007) (TV) and Battlestar Galactica: The Plan (2009) (V), have been released as direct-to-video productions.
  
  

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