What did Baltar want?


Im rewatching the original. it snot as bad as I thought it would be

What did Bakltar want5? To wipe out all the humans or rule over them? If he wants to wipe them out then what he's the only one left????

That be boring

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He was told that his planet would be spared, and he would rule over it.

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Was his planet spared? This enquiring mind would like to know.

Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!

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Nope! And he doesn't do much better...
In the original film he finds out, takes it up furiously with the Imperious Leader of the Cylons who goes all "Vader on Lando" (you will wear these clown shoes, a dress, answer to the name Candy and ride a Unicycle!) and tells him

"I now alter the bargain".
"How can you alter ONE SIDE of a bargain" Baltar retorts, to which he gets...
"When there is no other! Baltar, you have missed the entire point of the war"
And Leader signals for the Centurions to cut 'is head orf!

(GREAT Acting by the LEGENDARY John Colicos, by the way, and nice vocalisation by the lovely Patrick Macnee)

It was reworked in the 3 part TV version as the series needed a human protagonist who'd be "The bad guy" but I saw even less motivation for Baltar, to be honest.

Still, 70s telly, eh?

I don't recall dying - must have happened when I was too drunk to give a flying FU.....

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That's kind of what I thought happened. Although it would have been a nice (so to speak) change of pace for the Big Bad to keep his word.

Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!

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so how did he survive his decapitation?

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Gorilla tape, Dr. Lester!

Nah, there are 2 versions. The series was conceived as a 3-part opening story, other 2-parters and a handful of episodes. One of these, the 3-part introductory tale "Saga of a Star World" was cut down into a 2 hour motion picture because Universal saw how well "Star Wars" had done (a lawsuit ensued, Lucas LOST!) and it received a limited theatrical release in the Summer of 1978. In this version, an alternate take/idea was used and Baltar was killed but, in the TV version, Patric Macnee added some dubbed lines as Imperious Leader about Baltar being "removed for public execution" and a scene was tacked on the end with Baltar being commissioned by another Imperious Leader to find the Humans (his predecessor having been blown up!). Well, I say "tacked on" as I saw the film in the UK first and read the book and both differ vastly from the first 3 TV episodes but it is my understanding that it was always intended as a series with Baltar as the protagonist, for really dumb reasons!

The same thing happened with "The Living Legend" which became a sequel film "Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack" with elements from the standalone episode "Fire in space" incorporated.

Basically, Universal wanted to shore up the TV and Film market with their new product and make more cash than "Star Wars" - it's better explained in the excellent guide book "By your command: An unofficial guide to Battlestar Galactica".

It's such a shame they didn't follow up with a second series but some ideas for that were HORRIBLE as were unmade Series one episodes like "Two for Twilly" (I SH*T you not! UGH!!!).

This explains it much better than my feeble efforts:
http://www.kobol.com/archives/BG-FAQ.html
E12. What happened to Baltar in the premiere? Didn't he die?
Prior to its premiere on ABC, the Battlestar Galactica pilot first appeared in theatrical release in Canada and Europe. In the theatrical version of the premiere, after Baltar betrayed humanity, he was beheaded in front of Imperious Leader. The execution never took place in the television premiere, as Baltar was spared for a later public execution (never to take place.)
In an interview in Starlog #138, John Colicos (Baltar), discussed the evolution of the Baltar character between the two versions of the premiere:
"Initially, I was only going to be in the pilot. Then, Glen [Larson] decided he liked the character and the work that I was doing, so he decided to keep Baltar as a running character. He redirected the pilot's final scene himself, so that when the sword came down to cut me head off, he stopped it at the last second and I was spared if I would betray the human race."

Then we got "Galactica 1980" and Earth was found and the series had nowhere to go thematically and it was canned after a rather good "Return of Starbuck" flashback episode. They were actually filming "The day they kidnapped Cleopatra" when everybody was sent home. Done. Except Kent McCord & Barry Van Dyke (Son of "King of Television", Dick) who were already on strike as they were angry at being sidelined for a Starbuck story.

It's quite a protracted and messy business and Glenn Larson wasn't very nice to many people.

I don't recall dying - must have happened when I was too drunk to give a flying FU.....

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that's CAPTAIN Lester

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"I'M THE CAPTAIN! I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivZ3q5NFXpY

I don't recall dying - must have happened when I was too drunk to give a flying FU.....

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It was restored by the alien idiots who stoled Spock's Brain.

Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.

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He wanted sex for a while, then he wanted the Galactica.

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Initially, Baltar wants to rule over the human race (not just his planet). He states, "They were to be subjugated! Under me!" When the bargain wasn't kept, he was spared by a Cylon Leader who believed that perhaps Cylons and humans could co-exist.

After receiving his own base-star, Baltar's goal was to deliver the Galactica to the Cylon Empire. When he was left behind on Kobol, Baltar's goal then became the destruction of the Galactica and the fleet. (Revenge, particularly against Adama)

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I never quite understood the new Baltar mission.

At the end of "Saga of a Star World", in the tv version, the previous Inferious (I mean Imperious) Leader is killed when Carillon explodes and destroys his basestar. In the last scene the new Imperious Leader tells Baltar he believes that it is possible to live in peace with Humans and assigns Baltar to command a mission to find the Humans and negotiate with them. And he assigns Lucifer to be his assisant I don't remember whether Lucifier was present when the Imperius Leader told Baltar his mission but presumably LUcifer would have been given a copy of the mission orders.

In "Lost Planet of the Gods" Baltar goes down to the planet Kobol andfinds Adama in a pyramid and tries to convince Adama that the Cylons now want peace. Meanwhile Lucifer in the Basestar orders Cylcon raiders to attack Kobol and the Colonial fleet, which seems to be exceedng his authority if the mission is to make peace withthe Colonials. Baltar is trapped in the collapsing pyramid and begs Adama to help him but Adama leaves, angering Baltar.

And in later episodes Baltar is seen in command of a Cylon Basestar or two with Lucifer as his assistant, implying that Lucifer rescued him from the Pyramid. And the mission seems to be to track down and exterminate the surviving humans.

So why did the orders change? Did vengeance crazed Baltar change the mission on his own authority to extermination instead of negotiation after been abandoned by Adama? Did he convince the new Imperious Leader that extermination was the only way to deal with humans? Did the new Imperius Leader lie to Baltar (and the audience) about the mission and plan to order the exterminatin of the Humans once they were found, and did Lucifer know that all along?

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