Battlestar Galactica (2003)/Flight of the Phoenix

Flight of the Phoenix
Season 2, Episode 9
Airdate	September 16, 2005
Written by	Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
Directed by	Michael Nankin
Nielsen Rating	1.9
Fleet Survivors	47,853
← 2x08 Final Cut	2x10 → Pegasus
Battlestar Galactica (2003) — Season Two

Flight of the Phoenix is the ninth episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica, and is the twenty-second episode overall.

Edward James Olmos (Commander William Adama), Mary McDonnell (Laura Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace), Jamie Bamber (Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama), James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number Six) (credit only), Grace Park (Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii)

Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Galen Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Karl "Helo" Agathon), Paul Campbell (Billy Keikeya), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Felix Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (PO Anastasia "Dee" Dualla)

Guest Star: Donnelly Rhodes (Dr. Cottle)

Cast: Bodie Olmos (Brendan "Hotdog" Costanza), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Jennifer Halley (Seelix), Christian Tessier (Tucker "Duck" Clellan), Dominic Zamprogna (Jammer), Don Thompson (Specialist 3rd Class Anthony Figurski)

Uncredited: Elizabeth Thai (Crew member), Leo Chiang (Tattooed pilot)

Plot Summary

While Galactica suffers from an invasive Cylon computer virus, Chief Tyrol begins work on a new Viper to replace a damaged one.

Viper

After being forced to declare one of the Galactica's remaining Vipers unrepairable, Chief Galen Tyrol decides to build a new one from scratch. While most of the Galactica's crew are skeptical at first, most come around eventually and by the time the framework for the new fighter is constructed, people from all over Galactica are helping, including some CIC crew—Petty Officer Dualla chips in, helping them set up the new Viper's communications system, and Colonel Tigh finds Tyrol a set of engines for the new ship. Upon completion, Helo suggests that since they can't find any plating to use on the outside, they should use carbon composite. As a side effect, this renders the new Viper, nicknamed the Blackbird, invisible to DRADIS. Starbuck flies the first successful test run in the newly constructed fighter.

Virus

Galactica is attacked by an insidious, adaptive Cylon virus. The only way to purge the virus from the systems is to do a complete ship systems wipe and restart. The virus is capable of attacking ship's systems, in its early stages doing things like causing power fluctuations and shutting off life support to various areas of the ship, and in its later stages supposedly capable of taking over Galactica's navigational systems and using it to attack the fleet. Boomer helps the Galactica crew get rid of the virus, not only purging it from Galactica's systems but using some sort of Cylon communications uplink to bounce it back to the incoming Cylon fighter swarms and shut them all down, rendering them vulnerable to complete destruction by the Colonial fighters.

Notes

• This episode was the first time that the survivor count remained constant between episodes since the count was added to the opening.

• This episode had the highest Nielsen rating of the evening for Sci Fi Friday.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Cylon virus left behind when Galactica was networked has become a logic bomb, spending weeks cracking encrypted pass-codes. It waits to be activated by an incoming squadron of Cylon Raiders. In order to purge it, they need to wipe the hard drives. Thanks to Sharon, it's isolated and she transmits the virus back to the squadron, leaving them disabled and vulnerable.

• Tyrol, with the help of the help of other crew members, help build a stealth ship dubbed the blackbird. Kara tests it and it proves to be a success.

Characters

• Cottle has determined that Roslin's cancer given her no more than a month to live.

• Tyrol is still bitter over Sharon. He initially lashes out at Helo for reasons even he doesn't understand and later goes to talk to Sharon in her cell.

• Much of the other pilots are animus toward Helo, but have slowly come around to accepting him.

• Dee spars with Lee, which borders on flirtatious.

• Sharon proves herself by saving Galactica and transmitting the virus back to the Cylons, perhaps motivated by Adama pointing a gun to her head. Despite this, he still refers to her as a "thing" when he orders her to be taken back to her cell.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• The episode title is a reference to the book/movies Flight of the Phoenix, in which survivors of an airplane crash build a new airplane out of the wreckage of the old plane.

• The name of the new Stealth Viper, the "Blackbird", is a reference to the United States' SR-71 Blackbird stealth spy-plane.

Goofs

• When Helo and Tyrol stop fighting, in the very first shot of the two in front of a Raptor, one can see in at the left side of the screen, in front of the Raptor's wing, a crewman.

• During the assault on the disabled Cylon Raiders, at one point one can spot the Blackbird joining the fray, even though it had not been completed at this point in the episode's continuity.

Quotes

• (after meeting Helo)

Duck: So he's the Cylon lover?

Kara: You know what? I don't care who or what he fraks. He saved my ass down there, all right?

Duck: How could anyone fall in love with a toaster, though?

Kara: Same way I hear everyone was high-fiving our Sharon right before she put two in Adama's chest. The bastards frak with your head.

Hotdog: Yeah. Just ask the Chief.

• Racetrack: Been playing with these cards for so long, I know every fold.

Kara: So life's a bitch. What do you want to do, cry about it?

Racetrack: No, I just want it to end, okay? The bad food, the endless rotations, pretending that a card game is the high point of our day.

Kara: It's not going to last forever, all right? Earth is out there.

Racetrack: Right. We could all be chasing our tails over some half-assed planetarium show.

Kara: You guys can all go to Hell. I'm going to go find Helo.

Racetrack: Good idea. Maybe that Cylon whore taught him a few tricks.

• Helo: Look, Chief. I never intended for Sharon and I to - You know, it just kind of evolved.

Tyrol: Just a couple lovesick kids, huh?

Helo: I know how she felt about you, okay? She loved you.

Tyrol: Did she fill you in on the rest of the plan? She and I were going to muster out at the end of our service. You know, then we would get married. Maybe we would have children. I guess I'm just a big frakkin' idiot, though, huh? Probably that godsdamn toaster's plan all along.

Helo: Don't call her that.

Tyrol: Sucker some moron into giving her a kid. Hey, you know, but you know what? I should probably be grateful to you. Probably be grateful. You know why? Because that freak in her belly could have been mine.

• Gaeta: Checking each line of code could take days.

Tigh: I am not interested in excuses. Fix it!

Gaeta: (losing his composure) It's not an excuse, sir. It's a frakking fact!

• Tigh: What the hell is his problem?

Adama: Months on the run and what do we have to show for it? Causalities, deteriorating conditions.

Tigh: Yeah, this crew needs a rest.

Adama: It's finally hitting them, Saul. Our old lives are gone. The only thing have to look forward to is this.

• Lee: Nobody's expecting any miracles.

Tyrol: Maybe that's the problem.

• Roslin: We both know the Cylons are experts at manipulation. They will do anything to confuse you.

Adama: This is not the one who shot me.

Roslin: Can they really be that different from one another? Commander, if you're asking me if it's possible that your judgement's been clouded by your history with this particular Cylon model, I'd have to say yes. But... we created them. There's always a chance we might find common ground.

• Tigh: What's this, Chief?

Tyrol: Uh... Making solvent, sir. Clean engine parts--

Tigh: Solvent my ass, I know a still when I smell it. What the hell are you up to?

Tyrol: I need booze. To trade for parts. I'm scrounging most of what I can from the fleet, but I need engines. I know I need Commander Adama's permission to cannibalize one of the wrecks--

Tigh: Engines or not, we both know that piece of crap out there is never gonna fly.

Tyrol: I gotta try, Colonel.

Tigh: What's the point?

Tyrol: Because that ship, the work, that's all I've got left. I don't have that, I...

Tigh: (starts to leave) I almost forgot. I promised the XO of the Baah Pakal I'd help him out.

Tyrol: (confused) Sir?

Tigh: He's got some obsolete DDG-62 engines taking up space in his flight deck. They're probably crap, but I told him I'd have a crew in there to haul 'em out soon as possible.

Tyrol: (momentarily speechless) Glad to be of help, sir?

Tigh: Good.

(Tigh walks over, takes one of the jars of homemade booze, and leaves)