Home (Battlestar Galactica)
Encyclopedia
"Home" is a two-part episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica
television series. Part 1 aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel
on August 19, 2005, and Part 2 aired on August 26, 2005.
In the episode, Starbuck
returns to the human fleet bearing the Arrow of Apollo. President Laura Roslin
leads a team to the surface of Kobol
to find the Tomb of Athena and a map to Earth. Commander William Adama
overcomes his anger at Roslin and her allies and joins them on Kobol, where the Tomb provides a clue to Earth's location. The fleet is reunited.
According to executive producer David Eick
, who wrote Part 1 and co-wrote Part 2 with executive producer Ronald D. Moore
, "Home" is more about character development and relationships than about story. The episode received favorable critical review.
", Adama returned to command following an assassination attempt by the Galactica copy of Boomer (Galactica-Boomer). Roslin led almost a third of the fleet back to Kobol to search for a way to Earth. Starbuck left Caprica with Helo
and the Cylon
known until then as the Caprica copy of Boomer (Sharon).
of Apollo
's loyalty. Tom Zarek
suggests arming the civilian ships in case Galactica attacks, but Apollo says they would stand no chance against the battlestar. Priestess Elosha reminds everyone that the Scriptures predict that a return to Kobol would result in lives lost.
Starbuck docks with Roslin's flagship. Before she can explain about Caprica-Sharon, Apollo sees her and puts a gun to her head. Helo appears and draws his weapon on Apollo to defend Sharon. Roslin defuses the standoff by promising Sharon will not be harmed but then orders her thrown out the airlock
. Roslin only relents when Sharon claims to know the location of the Tomb of Athena, where the Scriptures claim a path to Earth can be found. Roslin threatens to put Helo and Sharon, and thus their unborn child, out the airlock unless Sharon leads them to it.
Privately, Zarek admits to his aide-de-camp, Meier, that he does not share Roslin's religious convictions. They plot to kill Apollo so Zarek can replace him at Roslin's side.
On Kobol, Roslin leads a team that includes Apollo, Starbuck, Sharon, Helo, Zarek, Meier, Elosha, and several guards. Elosha is killed by a land mine
. Cylon Centurions ambush the party, who fends them off with the help of Sharon; she grabs a stray grenade launcher and destroys one of the Centurions, to Apollo's surprise.
On Galactica, Commander Adama assesses what resources remain after the defection of part of the fleet to "a religious fanatic and a terrorist", as he describes Roslin and Zarek. He appoints George Birch, an inexperienced but "honest and loyal" pilot, to replace Apollo commanding the Viper
pilots; several accidents happen under Birch's leadership. Adama appears before the press; denounces those who followed Roslin, whom he describes as no longer President; and threatens to detain anyone who reports that he does not know where Earth is. Later, he confides in Anastasia "Dee" Dualla
how hurt he is by betrayal. Dee replies that he has broken his promise to find the fleet a new home and suggests his hurt has more to do with his own feeling of helplessness than betrayal. Adama dismisses Dee brusquely but later asks for reconnaissance photos of Kobol, promising to reunite the fleet, "our family".
that their child will be born in the cell built for Galactica-Boomer. Baltar loses patience and starts mocking the idea that he could have a child with an imaginary woman. Six dons a casual appearance and tells Baltar that she is nothing more than a coping mechanism created by his subconscious
following his participation in the genocide of humanity. She taunts him and encourages him to get a brain scan. Doctor Cottle finds nothing wrong and writes Baltar off as a hypochondriac.
Sharon continues to guide the party on Kobol based on her knowledge of (in-universe) human theology. Apollo remains suspicious of Sharon and Helo, but Starbuck vouches for them. Sharon tells Helo she has many memories as Boomer aboard Galactica and that their child will be female. Meier suggests to Zarek that they frame Sharon for Apollo's murder, but Zarek insists they wait until they've found the Tomb.
Commander Adama arrives on Kobol with Billy Keikeya
and Chief Galen Tyrol
. Roslin reconciles with Billy. Adama reconciles with Apollo and Starbuck. He attacks Sharon, recalling Galactica-Boomer's betrayal, but is prevented from killing her by chest pain following his surgery. Adama reconciles with Roslin, acknowledges her role in saving his and Apollo's life following the Cylon attack on the Colonies, and joins her quest for the Tomb. Tyrol approaches Sharon uncomfortably; Sharon tells him she "remembers" him and hugs him.
Meier tells Sharon about the murder of Galactica-Boomer and warns her to start looking out for herself and her baby. After Adama arrives, Zarek orders Meier to stop plotting, to no avail. Sharon tells Helo she plans to "take matters into my own hands." Meier provides her a handgun, and she promises to ambush Commander Adama when they reach the Tomb. However, when the time comes, she shoots Meier instead, declares she has no hidden programming like Galactica-Boomer's, and surrenders the weapon to Adama.
Adama orders Tyrol to guard Zarek, Sharon, and Helo and enters the Tomb with Roslin, Apollo, Starbuck, and Billy. Starbuck inserts the Arrow of Apollo into a statue of the archer Sagittaron, triggering a vision of a grassy field under a night sky. The party sees constellations
representing each of the Twelve Colonies
, and Starbuck realizes they are "standing" on Earth. Apollo recognizes a nebula
among the constellations and concludes the fleet can plot its next direction based on it.
Returning to Galactica, Adama promises to keep the fleet unified and reinstates Roslin as President. Sharon is placed in a cell built for Galactica-Boomer. Helo speaks to Sharon about their baby through a direct phone line. Eavesdropping, Baltar realizes the connection with Six's prediction for their "child". Having ruled out the possibility that Six is created by a chip in his brain, and now concluding from her foreknowledge of Sharon's pregnancy that she cannot just be his own creation, he asks what she is. She answers, "I'm an angel of God sent here to protect you, to guide you, to love you." He asks, "To what end?" She replies, "The end of the human race."
from Part 1, Elosha confesses to Roslin that she had lost her faith before the Cylon attack on the Colonies. Seeing the hope in Roslin as Elosha administered Roslin's oath of office restored her faith. In a scene deleted from Part 2, Billy confesses to Roslin that he is an atheist but says he is joining her on Kobol because he believes in her and Commander Adama.
Eick said that actor Edward James Olmos
(Commander Adama) helped him craft the encounter between Adama and Sharon by saying that he expected Adama would try to kill any Number Eight copy he met. Moore said Olmos "did your [Eick's] homework", and Eick agreed.
Moore and Eick view Adama and Roslin's reconciliation scene as a different tone for the characters, who to this point had only shared, in Eick's words, "stiff pleasantries". By the end of the scene, they are calling each other by their first names, something the characters had not done before.
Moore says that during "Home" Helo begins to develop "conflicted loyalties".
told him the episode was too long, so the production team petitioned the Sci Fi network
to let them split it into two parts. Once the network signed off, the writers had very little time to craft enough material to fill both episodes. The split also allowed them to spend more time on Apollo and Starbuck's reunion and Adama and Roslin's reunion. In Eick's view, this was important because of the episode's emphasis on the characters.
In the script, Birch's mistakes rather than Dee's entreaty were the cause for Adama to change his mind and travel to Kobol. The scene between Adama and Dee and the scene with Birch's biggest mistake were swapped during editing. An artifact of this change is that Adama enters the CIC
for the Birch mistake scene followed by Dee.
When Starbuck first appears on Roslin's ship, Apollo kisses her. This was actor Jamie Bamber
(Apollo)'s idea. Bamber and actress Katee Sackhoff
ad-libbed some of Apollo and Starbuck's dialogue in "Home".
The mechanics of the land mine that kills Elosha were inspired by the S-mines deployed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The shot of the mine bounding
into the air was filmed conventionally, without visual effects
.
Executive producer Ronald D. Moore
compared the teaser
of Part 2, which intercuts between Roslin's party following scriptural clues to find the Tomb and Adama using scriptural clues to guess Roslin's location, to the teaser of "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1", which also features intercuts.
The writers had considered having Head Six tell Baltar he's crazy during the first season but never managed to fit it into any of that season's episodes. Splitting "Home" into two episodes created the space they needed to incorporate the idea into the episode. They considered having Baltar visit Sharon in her cell and replacing Six with a vision of Sharon in this episode.
Adama and Billy's skin ripples as their Raptor
enters the Kobol atmosphere. Eick had seen the effect in the film Moonraker
and wanted it in the episode. The effect was achieved with an air blaster
, the same way as in Moonraker, despite some danger for the actors.
The party enters the Tomb cave by pushing a boulder out of the way, but only after Starbuck tries and fails to open the cave by waving the Arrow of Apollo around. Eick felt that the finished episode did not convey Starbuck's initial disappointment after having gone through so much to bring the Arrow from Caprica.
The writers went through several versions of what the party would learn in the Tomb. First they thought that the Arrow itself could be a map to Earth, but they dismissed that because it didn't mandate a journey to Kobol. Then they considered having the party's investigation interrupted by a Cylon attack that would prevent them from learning Earth's exact location; this was abandoned because it seemed unnecessary and because the visual effects would have been too expensive.
's character in The Great Escape
. The shot of Six sitting naked on a backward chair is an homage to Scandal. The scene in which the Galactica crew applauds Roslin is an homage to Brubaker
.
Apollo identifies the nebula as the Lagoon Nebula, in the constellation Scorpio. His father refers to it as "Astral Body M8." The real-life Lagoon Nebula
has Messier designation M8 but is located in Sagittarius
, not Scorpius
.
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
television series. Part 1 aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
on August 19, 2005, and Part 2 aired on August 26, 2005.
In the episode, Starbuck
Kara Thrace
Kara Thrace is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica franchise. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
returns to the human fleet bearing the Arrow of Apollo. President Laura Roslin
Laura Roslin
Her first actions include organizing all FTL-capable ships together and convincing Commander William Adama to abandon a retaliatory attack on the Cylons. President Roslin and Billy Keikeya, her aide/press secretary/chief of staff, establish a working office space aboard her transport, renamed...
leads a team to the surface of Kobol
Kobol
Kobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the Twelve Colonies on other worlds...
to find the Tomb of Athena and a map to Earth. Commander William Adama
William Adama
William "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series...
overcomes his anger at Roslin and her allies and joins them on Kobol, where the Tomb provides a clue to Earth's location. The fleet is reunited.
According to executive producer David Eick
David Eick
David Eick is an American producer and writer, best known as the Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica, of which he also wrote several episodes with Ronald D. Moore, as well as the re-imagined version of Bionic Woman...
, who wrote Part 1 and co-wrote Part 2 with executive producer Ronald D. Moore
Ronald D. Moore
Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, for which he won a Peabody Award for creative excellence in 2005 and an Emmy Award in 2008.-Early life and...
, "Home" is more about character development and relationships than about story. The episode received favorable critical review.
Plot
In the previous episode, "The FarmThe Farm (Battlestar Galactica)
"The Farm" is the fifth episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on August 12, 2005...
", Adama returned to command following an assassination attempt by the Galactica copy of Boomer (Galactica-Boomer). Roslin led almost a third of the fleet back to Kobol to search for a way to Earth. Starbuck left Caprica with Helo
Karl Agathon
Karl C. Agathon is a fictional character on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica TV series, portrayed by Tahmoh Penikett.-Background:...
and the Cylon
Cylon (reimagining)
Cylons are a race which appear in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series and its prequel Caprica. They have several forms, some of which resemble and even mimic the behavior of humans, while others are mechanical in appearance and function.In the first DVD, one of the show's creators...
known until then as the Caprica copy of Boomer (Sharon).
Part 1
Roslin struggles to persuade the Quorum of TwelveQuorum of Twelve
The Quorum of Twelve is a fictional governing body of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol on the two Battlestar Galactica television series. In both series, it was composed of one representative from each colony.Series creator Glen A...
of Apollo
Lee Adama
Leland Joseph "Lee" Adama is a fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica. He is portrayed by actor Jamie Bamber. He is one of the main characters in the series.-Early life:...
's loyalty. Tom Zarek
Tom Zarek
Thomas "Tom" Zarek is the name of a fictional character on the Syfy series Battlestar Galactica. He is played by Richard Hatch, who had previously portrayed Captain Apollo, a character on the original Battlestar Galactica series of the late 1970s....
suggests arming the civilian ships in case Galactica attacks, but Apollo says they would stand no chance against the battlestar. Priestess Elosha reminds everyone that the Scriptures predict that a return to Kobol would result in lives lost.
Starbuck docks with Roslin's flagship. Before she can explain about Caprica-Sharon, Apollo sees her and puts a gun to her head. Helo appears and draws his weapon on Apollo to defend Sharon. Roslin defuses the standoff by promising Sharon will not be harmed but then orders her thrown out the airlock
Airlock
An airlock is a device which permits the passage of people and objects between a pressure vessel and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it...
. Roslin only relents when Sharon claims to know the location of the Tomb of Athena, where the Scriptures claim a path to Earth can be found. Roslin threatens to put Helo and Sharon, and thus their unborn child, out the airlock unless Sharon leads them to it.
Privately, Zarek admits to his aide-de-camp, Meier, that he does not share Roslin's religious convictions. They plot to kill Apollo so Zarek can replace him at Roslin's side.
On Kobol, Roslin leads a team that includes Apollo, Starbuck, Sharon, Helo, Zarek, Meier, Elosha, and several guards. Elosha is killed by a land mine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
. Cylon Centurions ambush the party, who fends them off with the help of Sharon; she grabs a stray grenade launcher and destroys one of the Centurions, to Apollo's surprise.
On Galactica, Commander Adama assesses what resources remain after the defection of part of the fleet to "a religious fanatic and a terrorist", as he describes Roslin and Zarek. He appoints George Birch, an inexperienced but "honest and loyal" pilot, to replace Apollo commanding the Viper
Colonial Viper
The Colonial Viper is the primary fighter spacecraft type used by the human protagonists in the Battlestar Galactica fictional universe. Appearing in both the 1978 original series and the 2003 reimagined series, as well as various derivative works, the single-pilot spacecraft are carried aboard...
pilots; several accidents happen under Birch's leadership. Adama appears before the press; denounces those who followed Roslin, whom he describes as no longer President; and threatens to detain anyone who reports that he does not know where Earth is. Later, he confides in Anastasia "Dee" Dualla
Anastasia Dualla
Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, portrayed by Kandyse McClure, is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.-Character history:...
how hurt he is by betrayal. Dee replies that he has broken his promise to find the fleet a new home and suggests his hurt has more to do with his own feeling of helplessness than betrayal. Adama dismisses Dee brusquely but later asks for reconnaissance photos of Kobol, promising to reunite the fleet, "our family".
Part 2
Head Six tells Gaius BaltarGaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar is a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
that their child will be born in the cell built for Galactica-Boomer. Baltar loses patience and starts mocking the idea that he could have a child with an imaginary woman. Six dons a casual appearance and tells Baltar that she is nothing more than a coping mechanism created by his subconscious
Subconscious
The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
following his participation in the genocide of humanity. She taunts him and encourages him to get a brain scan. Doctor Cottle finds nothing wrong and writes Baltar off as a hypochondriac.
Sharon continues to guide the party on Kobol based on her knowledge of (in-universe) human theology. Apollo remains suspicious of Sharon and Helo, but Starbuck vouches for them. Sharon tells Helo she has many memories as Boomer aboard Galactica and that their child will be female. Meier suggests to Zarek that they frame Sharon for Apollo's murder, but Zarek insists they wait until they've found the Tomb.
Commander Adama arrives on Kobol with Billy Keikeya
Billy Keikeya
Billy Keikeya is a fictional character in the miniseries and television remake of Battlestar Galactica. He is portrayed by Paul Campbell. Billy appeared until late in the second season, at which point he was killed by terrorists. Paul Campbell has said that his character was killed because he had...
and Chief Galen Tyrol
Galen Tyrol
Galen Tyrol is a character on the television series Battlestar Galactica. Tyrol is responsible for the maintenance of the Vipers and Raptors aboard Battlestar Galactica...
. Roslin reconciles with Billy. Adama reconciles with Apollo and Starbuck. He attacks Sharon, recalling Galactica-Boomer's betrayal, but is prevented from killing her by chest pain following his surgery. Adama reconciles with Roslin, acknowledges her role in saving his and Apollo's life following the Cylon attack on the Colonies, and joins her quest for the Tomb. Tyrol approaches Sharon uncomfortably; Sharon tells him she "remembers" him and hugs him.
Meier tells Sharon about the murder of Galactica-Boomer and warns her to start looking out for herself and her baby. After Adama arrives, Zarek orders Meier to stop plotting, to no avail. Sharon tells Helo she plans to "take matters into my own hands." Meier provides her a handgun, and she promises to ambush Commander Adama when they reach the Tomb. However, when the time comes, she shoots Meier instead, declares she has no hidden programming like Galactica-Boomer's, and surrenders the weapon to Adama.
Adama orders Tyrol to guard Zarek, Sharon, and Helo and enters the Tomb with Roslin, Apollo, Starbuck, and Billy. Starbuck inserts the Arrow of Apollo into a statue of the archer Sagittaron, triggering a vision of a grassy field under a night sky. The party sees constellations
Constellations
Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of critical and democratic theory and successor of Praxis International. It is edited by Andrew Arato, Amy Allen, and Andreas Kalyvas...
representing each of the Twelve Colonies
Twelve Colonies
The Twelve Colonies of Man are fictional locations that constitute the principal human civilization in the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the "reimagined" series of the same name in 2004, and in the prequel series, Caprica...
, and Starbuck realizes they are "standing" on Earth. Apollo recognizes a nebula
Nebula
A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...
among the constellations and concludes the fleet can plot its next direction based on it.
Returning to Galactica, Adama promises to keep the fleet unified and reinstates Roslin as President. Sharon is placed in a cell built for Galactica-Boomer. Helo speaks to Sharon about their baby through a direct phone line. Eavesdropping, Baltar realizes the connection with Six's prediction for their "child". Having ruled out the possibility that Six is created by a chip in his brain, and now concluding from her foreknowledge of Sharon's pregnancy that she cannot just be his own creation, he asks what she is. She answers, "I'm an angel of God sent here to protect you, to guide you, to love you." He asks, "To what end?" She replies, "The end of the human race."
Deleted scenes
In a scene deletedDeleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
from Part 1, Elosha confesses to Roslin that she had lost her faith before the Cylon attack on the Colonies. Seeing the hope in Roslin as Elosha administered Roslin's oath of office restored her faith. In a scene deleted from Part 2, Billy confesses to Roslin that he is an atheist but says he is joining her on Kobol because he believes in her and Commander Adama.
Characterization
Eick says "Home" is more about character development and relationships than about story. Susan Tankersley of Television Without Pity agrees, comparing the episode to "a long family car trip." Jason Davis of Mania notes that Apollo and Starbuck act like children with one another and connects their behavior to "their damaged social development".Eick said that actor Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos is an American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Lt...
(Commander Adama) helped him craft the encounter between Adama and Sharon by saying that he expected Adama would try to kill any Number Eight copy he met. Moore said Olmos "did your [Eick's] homework", and Eick agreed.
Moore and Eick view Adama and Roslin's reconciliation scene as a different tone for the characters, who to this point had only shared, in Eick's words, "stiff pleasantries". By the end of the scene, they are calling each other by their first names, something the characters had not done before.
Moore says that during "Home" Helo begins to develop "conflicted loyalties".
Production
"Home" was the first teleplay written by Eick. Director Sergio Mimica-GezzanSergio Mimica-Gezzan
Sergio Mimica-Gezzan is an American film and television director and son of famous Croatian film director Vatroslav Mimica. He has received three Directors Guild of America awards for his work as an assistant director and is now a regular lead director in episodic television. He has often worked...
told him the episode was too long, so the production team petitioned the Sci Fi network
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
to let them split it into two parts. Once the network signed off, the writers had very little time to craft enough material to fill both episodes. The split also allowed them to spend more time on Apollo and Starbuck's reunion and Adama and Roslin's reunion. In Eick's view, this was important because of the episode's emphasis on the characters.
Part 1
The writers decided to have Elosha die in "Home" because they felt it was important that Roslin to pay a personal price for leading the pilgrimage to Kobol. They considered having Billy die instead or as well, but ultimately they decided to kill only Elosha to symbolize the end of Roslin's journey to religious awakening. The writers also anticipated Roslin rebuilding her relationship with Adama and returning to political rather than religious leadership in later episodes, and Elosha represented changes in the opposite direction.In the script, Birch's mistakes rather than Dee's entreaty were the cause for Adama to change his mind and travel to Kobol. The scene between Adama and Dee and the scene with Birch's biggest mistake were swapped during editing. An artifact of this change is that Adama enters the CIC
Combat Information Center
The Operations Room is the tactical center of a warship or AWAC aircraft providing processed information for command and control of the near battle space or 'area of operations'...
for the Birch mistake scene followed by Dee.
When Starbuck first appears on Roslin's ship, Apollo kisses her. This was actor Jamie Bamber
Jamie Bamber
Jamie Bamber is the stage name of Jamie St. John Bamber Griffith , a British actor known most widely for his roles as Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica and Detective Sergeant Matt Devlin on the ITV series Law & Order: UK...
(Apollo)'s idea. Bamber and actress Katee Sackhoff
Katee Sackhoff
Kathryn Ann "Katee" Sackhoff is an American actress known mainly for playing Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program Battlestar Galactica. In 2004 she was nominated for a Saturn Award in the "Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series" category for her work in...
ad-libbed some of Apollo and Starbuck's dialogue in "Home".
The mechanics of the land mine that kills Elosha were inspired by the S-mines deployed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The shot of the mine bounding
Bounding mine
A bounding mine is an anti-personnel mine designed to be used in open areas. When tripped, a small propelling charge launches the body of the mine 3-4 feet into the air, where the main charge detonates and sprays fragmentation at roughly waist height....
into the air was filmed conventionally, without visual effects
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
.
Part 2
Shooting for Part 2 proceeded slowly because of the large number of exterior shots and the size of the cast in those shots. The writers compensated by putting the actors in pairs or small groups where possible so the director would only need a few of them at a time. Nonetheless, Eick called "Home, Part 2" the most difficult episode in the series up to that point to produce, with the possible exception of the first-season finale, "Kobol's Last Gleaming".Executive producer Ronald D. Moore
Ronald D. Moore
Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, for which he won a Peabody Award for creative excellence in 2005 and an Emmy Award in 2008.-Early life and...
compared the teaser
Cold open
A cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown...
of Part 2, which intercuts between Roslin's party following scriptural clues to find the Tomb and Adama using scriptural clues to guess Roslin's location, to the teaser of "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1", which also features intercuts.
The writers had considered having Head Six tell Baltar he's crazy during the first season but never managed to fit it into any of that season's episodes. Splitting "Home" into two episodes created the space they needed to incorporate the idea into the episode. They considered having Baltar visit Sharon in her cell and replacing Six with a vision of Sharon in this episode.
Adama and Billy's skin ripples as their Raptor
Colonial Raptor
The Raptor is a multipurpose military spacecraft featured in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. According to producer Ronald D. Moore, the Raptor is analogous to the U.S. Navy's EA-6B Prowler.-Description:...
enters the Kobol atmosphere. Eick had seen the effect in the film Moonraker
Moonraker (film)
Moonraker is the eleventh spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The third and final film in the series to be directed by Lewis Gilbert, it co-stars Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Corinne Clery, and Richard Kiel...
and wanted it in the episode. The effect was achieved with an air blaster
Air blaster
An air blaster or air cannon is a de-clogging device composed of two main elements: a pressure vessel and a Triggering mechanism...
, the same way as in Moonraker, despite some danger for the actors.
The party enters the Tomb cave by pushing a boulder out of the way, but only after Starbuck tries and fails to open the cave by waving the Arrow of Apollo around. Eick felt that the finished episode did not convey Starbuck's initial disappointment after having gone through so much to bring the Arrow from Caprica.
The writers went through several versions of what the party would learn in the Tomb. First they thought that the Arrow itself could be a map to Earth, but they dismissed that because it didn't mandate a journey to Kobol. Then they considered having the party's investigation interrupted by a Cylon attack that would prevent them from learning Earth's exact location; this was abandoned because it seemed unnecessary and because the visual effects would have been too expensive.
Reception
Critical reception to "Home" was favorable. Tankersley gave Part 1 an A- and Part 2 a B. Davis gave Part 1 an A- and part 2 an A, calling Sharon's betrayal of Meier in favor of Adama "one of the best executed pieces of writing seen on television in years." Simon Brew of Den of Geek was less enthusiastic, criticizing the episode's pace but nonetheless calling it "some smashing viewing."Connections to other series elements
- Moore and Eick said that "Home" resolves much of the conflict that began in "Kobol's Last Gleaming". In this sense they considered it the true end of the first season.
- In the third-season episode "TornTorn (Battlestar Galactica)"Torn" is the sixth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. This episode introduces the concept of a "hybrid", a semi-organic computer which operates the Basestar and is believed by some Cylon models to "be" the Basestar.-Galactica:After...
", Head Six reaffirms her self-description as an angel sent to protect Baltar. - In "The Farm", Starbuck promised Sam Anders she would return to Caprica and rescue him. In "Home", she encourages Roslin to plan a rescue mission to Caprica.
- In the original seriesBattlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction television series, created by Glen A. Larson. It starred Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict and ran for one season in 1978–79. After cancellation, its story was continued in 1980 as Galactica 1980 with Adama, Lieutenant Boomer and...
episode "Lost Planet of the GodsLost Planet of the Gods"Lost Planet of the Gods" is a two-part episode of the original Battlestar Galactica television series.-Re-Imagining:*This episode was remade into a nine-episode story arc in the new Battlestar Galactica starting with season one's Kobol's Last Gleaming in which Kobol is discovered and ending in...
", Commander AdamaCommander AdamaCommander Adama is a fictional character in the 1978 movie and subsequent ABC television series Battlestar Galactica and its continuation series, Galactica 1980. Adama is the commander of the great military vessel Battlestar Galactica, commander of the refugee fleet and military commander of the...
discovers Kobol and tries to decipher ancient clues to finding Earth.
Film homages
Starbuck playing with her Pyramid ball is an homage to Steve McQueenSteve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
's character in The Great Escape
The Great Escape (film)
The Great Escape is a 1963 American film about an escape by Allied prisoners of war from a German POW camp during World War II, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough...
. The shot of Six sitting naked on a backward chair is an homage to Scandal. The scene in which the Galactica crew applauds Roslin is an homage to Brubaker
Brubaker
Brubaker is an American 1980 film about a prison in distress and the Warden Henry Brubaker who attempts to reform the system....
.
Astronomy
The constellations Roslin identifies in the Tomb correspond to the real-life Zodiacal constellations. Moore and Eick concede that all twelve of these constellations cannot be viewed simultaneously in the night sky but say it would be disorienting for the audience to rotate the sky throughout the scene in a way that would make the representation faithful. They also concede that the constellations shown in the episode do not resemble the real-life constellations.Apollo identifies the nebula as the Lagoon Nebula, in the constellation Scorpio. His father refers to it as "Astral Body M8." The real-life Lagoon Nebula
Lagoon Nebula
The Lagoon Nebula is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula and as an H II region....
has Messier designation M8 but is located in Sagittarius
Sagittarius (constellation)
Sagittarius is a constellation of the zodiac, the one containing the galactic center. Its name is Latin for the archer, and its symbol is , a stylized arrow. Sagittarius is commonly represented as a centaur drawing a bow...
, not Scorpius
Scorpius
Scorpius, sometimes known as Scorpio, is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for scorpion, and its symbol is . It lies between Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east...
.