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Battlestar Galactica - War of the Gods
episode 13 & 14
USA 1979
produced by David J. O'Connell, Glen A. Larson (executive), Donald P. Bellisario (supervising) for Glen A. Larson Productions, Universal/ABC
directed by Daniel Haller
starring Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Herbert Jefferson jr, John Colicos, Maren Jensen, Laurette Spang, Tony Swartz, Anne Lockhart, Terry Carter, Patrick Macnee, John Williams, George Murdock, Janet Julian, Jack Stauffer, Ed Begley jr, John Dullaghan, Kirk Alyn, Paula Victor, Sarah Rush, Paul Coufos, Harry Johnson, Bruce Wright, Leann Hunley, David Greenan, Olan Soule, Norman Stuart, Felix Silla, Jonathan Harris (voice)
screenplay and created by Glen A. Larson, music by Stu Phillips, visual effects supervisor: Peter Anderson
TV-series Battlestar Galactica, Classic Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar Galactica (original series)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A patrol squadron of Vipers has disappeared from the face of, erm,
space, so Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) sends top pilots Apollo (Richard
Hatch), Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) and Sheba (Anne Lockhart) to the next,
alledgedly uninhabited, planet, figuring this the only place they could
have gone. Now down on the planet, our trio doesn't find any sign of the
Vipers but the wreck of a spaceship roughly the size of Battlestar
Galactica, and they find Count Iblis (Patrick McNee), who claims to be the
only survivor from the wreckage and to be from a far advanced
civilisation. Apollo, Starbuck and Sheba offer him passage on the
Galactica, and especially Sheba soon falls for Iblis' charms. On the
Galactica, Iblis offers Adama to take the Galactica safely to the as of
yet elusive earth, but demands to take over command of the battlestar. And
he even shows his benevolence by feeding the masses and making the
Galactica's nemesis Count Baltar (John Colicos) surrender. However, Adama,
Apollo and Starbuck soon figure there's something wrong about Iblis and
that he might have mind-reading abilities, so without telling anybody,
Apollo and Starbuck make it back to the planet to investigate the wreckage
Iblis claims to have come from, and find the crew massacred. Iblis and
Sheba catch up with them, but when Sheba sees the massacre, she escapes
Iblis' spell and he wants to shoot her, but Apollo takes the bullet for
her, sacrificing his life for her. On their way back to the Galactica,
Starbuck, Sheba and dead Apollo are intercepted by a ship of light that's
apparently controlled by some benign Gods, and they resurrect Apollo and
suggest Iblis might be the Devil - but they take care of him, and not only
grant our three heroes safe passage to the Galactica but also restore the
lost squadron from the beginning of the show back to the battlestar, to
let the Galactica move on towards elusive earth ...
Now despite Patrick Macnee turning in a great, ambiguous performance
and the idea of having him play a Messias-like villain being at least
inspired, this is not one of the better episodes of Battlestar
Galactica, basically because the plot seems to be unnecessarily
stretched out over two episodes, the esoteric finale lacking any real
punch, and the story lacking any real tension. Sure, there are some good
points too in this one, but in all it's just mediocre.
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