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On the Galactica, kid genius Doctor Zee (James Patrick Stuart) recounts to Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) a dream he has had, a dream about the fate of one of the Galactica's top fighter pilots, Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) - see the original Battlestar Galactica series. In the dream, Starbuck is downed in a spacebattle with the Cylons but manages to save his ship onto a desert planet - where to his surprise also a Cylon ship has crashed, with no survivors. Starbuck gets so bored on the planet that he ultimately builds himself a playmate out of the three Cylons on the Cylon ship, but at first, that playmate, whom he christens Cy (Rex Cutter, voiced by Gary Owens) just wants to kill - which is why Starbuck equipped him with a deactivation button. Slowly then the two learn to trust one another, and Cy even starts to show interest into human culture (while Starbuck is less interested in the culture of the Cylons). Eventually, Starbuck remarks he'd love to have a female companion - upon which one night, Cy carries home a woman, Angella (Judith Chapman), who as it turns out is also pregnant. Angella only slowly warms up to Starbuck and especially Cy, while Cy throws a jealous fit every now and again, feeling neglected by Starbuck - and he's right on the money concerning that, however he doesn't fail to do Starbuck's bidding, right up to the point where the two build an escape shuttle out of Starbuck's and the Cylon ship. And Cy helps when it comes to deliver Angella's baby, even if that makes him feel even more like a third wheel. Then a Cylon ship lands, and Starbuck puts Angella and the baby into the shuttle and sends it off into space before preparing for a shoot-out with the Cylons - which of course is won when Cy intervenes on Starbuck's behalf and shoots his brothers, even if it ultimately costs his own life. And in conclusion, we find out that the baby that Angella has had grew up to be Doctor Zee ...

The last episode of Galactica 1980 just shows that the show was still desparate to find its own voice 10 episodes in when it abandoned all previous continuity (and main characters) for a story that might as well be an unfinished episode of the original Battlestar Galactica (which truth to be told I have absolutely no proof for), even bringing back one of that series main characters, Starbuck, that so far had no impact on Galactica 1980.

Now that said, the episode at hand, somewhat of a precursor to the movie Enemy Mine (that though was based on Barry B. Longyear's novella of the same name first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine roughly a year before The Return of Starbuck first hit the screens), is really one of the livelier entries in the series. Sure it's high on pathos, but shows genuine heart, and Dirk Benedict shows some acting range he was only rarely allowed to show in the original series.

On the downside, one can't but accuse the story of a certain amount of racism as Starbuck and Cy have a clear master-servant relationship, where Starbuck has no problems neglecting Cy for Angella's sake or exploiting his expertise, while despite all his jealous fits Cy proves fiercely loyal to the point of killing his own for his new friend, something one can't shake the feeling Starbuck wouldn't have done in a million years. Also, the episode has some esoteric aspects that are just a bit much for straight science fiction, but that all said, maybe the best of all Galactica 1980 episodes, so the very uneven series was at least allowed to end on a high note.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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