STORY SYNOPSIS

As the Galactica and her refugee fleet continue to probe deep space, there are reports coming back of more habitable planets. Morale is lifting. With no sign of Cylon pursuit, time is found for other diversions.

In a large ceremony aboard the Galactica, Adama awards the Distinguished Service Medallion to Commander Chronos (Paul Fix), former senior officer over Adama and once commander of the Battlestar Rykon: flagship of the Fourth Fleet. Pulled out of retirement after the Cylons invaded the Colonies, Chronos is placed in command on the electronics service ship Celestra as well as two other of the Fleet's "industry ships". During the ceremony, Starbuck gazes out into the crowd and his eyes meet with those of his long-lost love, Aurora (Ana Alicia Ortiz). She quickly ducks out of the ceremony and heads for the Galactica's guidance system. There she requests guidance information for the Beta Sector, acting as Chronos' pilot.

As the ceremony ends and the festivities begin, Starbuck finds Aurora. He tries to explain that he thought she was dead, be she refuses his greeting. Casseopia comes along and announces that she just got duckets (tickets) to the evening concert. But Starbuck tries to stand her up: he has a date with his viper, now bound for the Celestra. As Aurora pilots Chronos' shuttle back to the Celestra, executive officer Charka (Nick Holt) congratulates his commander on his new command. The hard-nosed Chronos insists his alleged command "isn't a fleet... it's a convoy". Chronos recalls his days aboard the Rykon, when he commanded 600 fighting ships. Charka is surprised to hear his commander insist on remaining aboard the Celestra. "You are not ready to command," Chronos tells a quietly fuming Charka.

Once the shuttle lands on the Celestra, Chronos and Charka return to the bridge. Aurora heads for another rendez-vous, with her lover Damon (Randy Stumpf). The two gather sidearms for the ship's locker in preparation for a mutiny. On an engineering deck, Aurora and Damon join other mutineers in the sabotage of a turbodyne (a component of the ship's propulsion) which causes the Celestra to loose all motive power. While the Celestra is stopped dead in space, the mutineers attack the Celestra's landing bay in an attempt to seize a shuttle. An attendant tries to stop them and a firefight ensues. Chronos takes a squad of men to put down the incident. Just then, Apollo and Starbuck land. The two walk into the firefight. Starbuck winds up facing Aurora at gunpoint. Apollo helps Chronos mop up the opposition. Aurora and the other rebels are placed under arrest and shackled. Starbuck asks Aurora why she would involve herself in such a scheme. She hotly responds that there was no other choice.

Chronos insists that the mutineers be shuttled back to the Galactica for immediate arraignment; he will file the charges personally. Apollo asks if perhaps it would be best to wait for the Celestra to fire its engines and rejoin the Fleet, but Chronos is adamant. Apollo and Starbuck herd the prisoners into the shuttle. Starbuck takes a minute to talk to Aurora, explaining that her home was destroyed the night the Cylons attacked. While she understands his tenderness toward her, she hardens and continues to reject him.

As the shuttle launches back to the Fleet, Charka reveals his own designs on the Celestra. He orders his lieutenant, Hermes (Richard Styles), to sabotage the guidance information feed to the shuttle. This will misdirect Chronos' ship away from the Fleet, thus disposing of the commander without a shot being fired and paving the way for Charka's promotion. Charka orders all personnel except for his loyalists to quarters, and all sidearms collected and stored on the bridge. As work proceeds on restarting the Celestra's powerplant, Charka orders Hermes to wait until the shuttle is at the point of no return to shut down the Celestra's beacon so the ship will "go dark" and offer no way for the shuttle to plot a return course.

On the Galactica, Boomer and Sheba return from a viper patrol to meet Casseopia. Boomer notes that the Celestra is stopped dead in space, and there's been no word from Starbuck or Apollo. Casseopia confides in Sheba that she does not want a possesive relationship with Starbuck.

On board Chronos' shuttle, Starbuck can't resist asking Aurora what she thought she was doing in that firefight. Aurora and Damon insist they had to commandeer a shuttle to escape the abusive rule of Chronos and Charka; they planned to take the shuttle to the twenty-first planet in the nearby system to found their own haven. When confronted with these charges, Chronos admits that Charka could be a taskmaster, but he could never believe this would drive the workers to seek escape. Apollo discovers the Celestra has disappeared from his scanners, and the Fleet is nowhere to be found. He reverses course immediately. With flawed navigational information and a civilian shuttle that offers limited scanning abilities, he will be hard-pressed to find his way back on limited fuel. The shackled mutineers offer their help in rebuilding the shuttle's electronics if they are released and offered a fair hearing. Chronos and Apollo agree.

After converting the shuttle's systems for more sophisticated military use, Apollo and Starbuck are able to locate and approach the Celstra. Charka and his minions can't know of their approach, because shutting down the trackable beacons and other spacial electronics also blinds the ship. The warriors pilot the shuttle into the darkened hangar bay. They lead the mutineers in an attack on the bridge. In the firefight, Chronos is mortally wounded, but Charka is captured. The Celestra is restored to her original course to be reunited with the Fleet.

Adama fights back his emotions as he eulogizes the late Commander Chronos. Once Chronos' casket is jettisoned through a viper launch tube, Starbuck reports to Sheba and Boomer that the mutineers were granted leniency. When he encounters Casseopia, the two make up. She tells him that she had a feeling he'd come back.

A Second Look

Stupid plot hole #1:

Why would Charka plot to overthrow Chronos? Chronos is apparently semi-retired to begin with, so why not just wait until the old man ends his service?

Stupid plot hole #2:

Why would Apollo's attack on the Celestra bridge be a surprise? Wouldn't someone hear/feel the shuttle's bumpy landing and report it to the bridge?

Stupid plot hole #3:

Even assuming that Charka's plan worked and the shuttle was lost in deep space, why would he assume that he would automatically be promoted? Wouldn't there be an investigation into how the commander's shuttle was lost?

Stupid plot hole #4:

Assuming that the ships of the fleet typically use "thruster" rocket engines for sub-light velocity, why would the Celestra immediately stop dead and be left behind by the rest of the Fleet? Wouldn't it continue on with most of its forward momentum? (NOTE: If the Fleet were exceeding the speed of light, this dilemma would be understandable. Then it becomes a question of what relevance physical thrust would have in propelling a ship past the ligthspeed barrier.)

Stupid plot hole #5:

If the Fleet were passing close to a system of at least twenty-one planets, wouldn't Starbuck and Apollo be able to figure out their position relative to the Fleet by using the system as a point of reference?

Stupid plot hole #6:

The sidearms are brought to the bridge in one large shipping-crate-like tub. "Is that all of them?" Charka asks. Indeed, that's a good question. A ship of that size, with a large enough workforce on board apparently to tend to the electronics needs of the Fleet, and there's only that many sidearms?

Stupid plot hole #7:

Why should we assume that Charka could get away with abusing his power on one such vital ship in a Fleet of this size? We've seen from previous BATTLESTAR outings that a public transportation infrastructure of shuttles operates between ships in the Fleet, like taking a bus across town. Wouldn't someone notice what's going on? In fact, wouldn't the morale of the civilian workforce be as vital to the Fleet's survival as that of the warriors'?

By this point in the BATTLESTAR series, the Starbuck-finds-intrigue-within-the-Fleet's-own-ranks plot has already worn out its welcome. The paint-by-numbers writing isn't even good enough to be called a formula. In "The Man With Nine Lives", Starbuck seems ready to bail out of his career to reunite with his long-lost father when both get in trouble with the Borellian Nomen. In "Murder on the Rising Star," Starbuck's career is jeopardized once again when he faces charges he murdered his longtime rival. (A rival we had conveniently never saw him confront before, that is.) And in "Take the Celestra", Starbuck is jeopardizing his relationship with Casseopia to pursue his long-lost lover Aurora when he winds up walking into a hornet's nest aboard the Celestra. Note that in all three of these stories the disruption of the Colonial holocaust is used as a plot device to show how unfinished personal business in suddenly catches up with the Fleet. Dirk Benedict's character benefited from far too many wild coincidences.

The question of Starbuck's personality also becomes an issue in the series. There seem to be two Starbucks: one is a conscientious, command track warrior. He coolly faced his Cylon captors in "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II". He insists on continuing to seek Apollo past the reach of his fuel reserves in "The Lost Warrior." He led a band of "convicts" in a jailbreak on Proteus in "The Long Patrol." He frets over the loss of one of the cadet pilots under his command in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero." And we see him stand up for Apollo in "War of the Gods, Part II". While all the time his wisecracks and stunts never let you forget his curiously creative outlook on the way he conducts his life, the warrior Starbuck seems at odds with the other Starbuck: the jerk that doesn't seem fit to wear a uniform. Consider: if Starbuck was seeing Aurora before the Colonies were invaded by the Cylons, doesn't that mean he was cheating on Athena even then? Even if Starbuck didn't want to get serious with Athena, this still makes you wonder him. He apparently didn't go through much of a period of mourning before he wound up horsing around with Casseopia in that viper launch tube. Here is a character who deserves a good "STEAM PURGE". How these two contradictory personalities are reconciled is anyone's guess.

Where, oh, where, are you Athena? Starbuck needs to let off a little more steam.

Why should Chronos get away with treating Tigh that way? And why should we assume that Chronos outranks Tigh? Tigh is no junior officer.

"Take the Celestra" has a good combination of ingredients, but the episode comes out half-baked like too many other BATTLESTAR outings. A mutiny in the name of refugees seeking to break free of their fellow humans and settle on a planet they can call their own was tried at least twice before in the SPACE: 1999 (British/ITC, 1974-6) episodes "Testament of Arkadia" and "Seance Spectre". Despite some critical panning of this other "disco astronauts" sci fi series from the '70's, either of these stories can be seen as superior to "Take the Celestra". The notion of Starbuck finding a long-lost lover is the reverse of what happened between Cain and Casseopia in "The Living Legend, Part I". The old flame subplot was handled with class and flare then. The crummy dialgoue and scenery chewing done by Starbuck, Aurora, and Damon makes the whole thing look like a writer's afterthought. Even some of the background violin music sounds run-down like a worn-out old record. The notion of a mutiny seems plausible as well, but only with the right set of circumstances. If morale in the Fleet has been improving, then this would not be conducive to an escape attempt or the overthrow of a commander.

Only on BATTLESTAR: we've come this far in a series dominated by war/military drama, and this episode marks the first time we see characters salute, let alone conduct a formal ceremony. Up to this point, it was beginning to look like the Colonists never did these things. Either the series' makers had no idea how to create a military culture in which these characters live, or these makers proceeded forth on the assumption that their audience wasn't smart enough to understand such a culture's relevance. Either way, this represents terrible short-sightedness on their part. While it is ironic that so much of BATTLESTAR's applied fighter combat tactics and visual combat vignettes were borrowed from air war-based motion pictures like MIDWAY (Fox, 1976) it boggles the mind why some of the behavior of the characters from those same movies didn't make it into the ever-more-important character drama.

So, your shuttle doesn't have the proper tracking scanners to do the job? Don't worry! We're from the electronics ship! We'll just yank out those boards, do a little soldering job, and your ship will be equipped with the best of 'em! You can tell when this show was made...

Spectacle Value

The military ceremony at the beginning was nice, though obviously outclassed by the final scene in the original STAR WARS (Fox, 1977). Still, we should've seen more of this kind of ceremonial proceedings in BATTLESTAR. This was way, way overdue.

There was a nice flight scene in which we see Chronos' shuttle, returning to the Celestra, weaving around various other ships toward the rear of the Fleet.

The firefight scenes looked positively silly. Isn't anyone afraid of rupturing a fuel line or some high-energy equipment? Couldn't the writers come up with something more clever than this?

The scene during the firefight on the Celestra's bridge when the ship's steering joystick is hit not only seems devoid of any sense, but it actually looked cheap. Why spend all that money on a firefight and then ruin it?

The notion of refitting the shuttle with improved scanners all from the inside of the ship was another major oversight. The show's makers missed the opportunity to show Aurora, Damon and others donning spacesuits to rig equipment on the outside of the ship. This would've both made sense and added drama to the story.

In BATTLESTAR, landing bays on Colonial ships are typically located either in the rear or top/bottom of the hull. What sense does it make to launch/land ships from the front-end?

If the series were totally fresh and did not have the 1970's legacy, then the elements which made this story (the escape, the long-lost-romance, the corruption, the decorated elder hero's last battle) could each be used for their own respective episodes. Take into account the possibility of a series revival however, and the notion that Fleet refugees would wait so long for tensions to explode seems a little hard to believe.

A character like Aurora would have to be more active, both in a plot sense (she has to do something more than steal information and weapons, then freeze in a firefight, then pout) and in a romantic sense. The whole "Why didn't you try to find me?" cliche was too lame, even for a younger audience.

"Take the Celestra" missed the opportunity to show Chronos' dramatic realization that his command is corrupt. Why hire a guest cast like that and not use them to their full potential? Imagine what it would've been like to see the heroic Chronos face his own failure. What would this do to Adama, Apollo and Starbuck, who look up to this man? One would also hope that such a character would also have a lifespan of more than one episode. We should've seen Chronos at least participating in the strategy conferences in "The Living Legend".

TIDBITS & NIT-PICKS

Notes from Chronos' war record: the elder commander held the flag of the Fourth Colonial Fleet, aboard the Battlestar Rykon. He was wounded at the Battle of Comaro Archipelago. Despite his injuries, Chronos directed his fleet to destroy three Cylon baseships. Chronos bragged that he commanded a fleet of 600 fighting ships. He preferred it when Adama was his subordinate. The elder flag officer retired only a short time before the Cylon invasion of the Colonies, when he agreed to re-enter the service as commander of the Celestra. The Council of Twelve was appointing him to serve as executive commander of all three industry ships ("the pod ship, the textile ship, and the Celestra"). This establishes that the Fleet is capable of turning raw materials into a means of both living and renewal.

Chronos' bragging does bring up an interesting point: even if his tally of 600 fighting ships included every viper and shuttle under his command, the Fourth Fleet must've been large. Could all those fighters fit aboard a single battlestar? Indications from the rest of this series would suggest otherwise. If the Fourth Fleet was comprised of multiple warships which each possibly survived until Chronos retired, and the assumption is valid that there are at least three other such fleets, then how come we didn't see them in "Saga of a Star World, Part I"? Viewers never saw more than five battlestars. Were they all destroyed prior to the Cylons' aborted peace conference? If the Colonies sustained these kinds of losses, why did they ever consider negotiation?

Chronos noted that the refugee Fleet under Adama is "held together by mutual dependency," referring to the ships of the Fleet as "this collection of moving derilicts", and judging it to be "a convoy". Whereas he believed a military fleet "is held together by force and discipline... it doesn't just move, it performs, although I sometimes wonder if Adama remembers that." Doesn't Chronos remember that badmouthing a Fleet commander in front of a junior officer sets a bad example?

It is never made clear what kind of vessel the Celestra is. Is it a warship, or a civilian workhorse made to service warships/outposts in deep space? Chronos does refer to it as a military ship, even though it houses a civilian workforce. This implies that Aurora and company are in fact civilians even though they all wear silvery uniforms.

The Colonial salute consists of reaching one's right hand across one's chest and softly resting the palm on the left shoulder, then relaxing the right arm back down to one's side again. It is a gentle movement, not like the swift hand-salutes of twentieth-century Earth's militaries.

Why would Tigh give the parade commands in a military ceremony? He's a high-ranking officer in the Fleet. That task would seem better suited to the Galactica's top enlisted man, who would appear to be Omega (John Greenan).

Later in the episode, Omega's announcement from the bridge indicates Apollo's and Starbuck's respective ships are cleared to launch. They are identified as Vipers Four and Six. As we've noticed from the previous episode "Experiment in Terra", Starbuck's fighter is known as Viper Four.

Two well-known character actors, the late Paul Fix (1901-1983) and Ana Alicia Ortiz, are under-utilized in this episode. Paul Fix is known to many sci fi buffs as Dr. Mark Piper in the STAR TREK 1966 pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Fix made his motion picture acting debut in the 1920's, and became close friends with John Wayne. Mexican-born Ana Alicia Ortiz, known to Hollywood as Ana Alicia, was a regular in the 1980's primetime soap FALCON CREST. According to the Internet Movie Database, her television career started in 1975 on the daytime soap RYAN'S HOPE and continued in motion pictures through the early 1990's.

Think of how differently things would've turned out if Starbuck had escorted Chronos' shuttle in his viper...

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