The Man with Nine Lives comments

Chameleon did lose a son as a baby or small child, but he wasn't sure it was Starbuck.

Colonel Tigh, yeah.

The Nomen were likely made up for this episode, more bad 70s writing.

The censorship of 1970s family viewing -- they couldn't have Chameleon actually kill the Nomen.

Yes, the intro was gone, evidently deemed no longer necessary, and to make more time for commercials.

As a kid watching this episode for the first time, the fact that Chameleon was Starbuck's father, I didn't see that coming. It was kind of a nice twist to add when I thought the story had aleady been resolved.

It's never clear whether Chameleon is being truthful about his story re: losing a wife and baby son on Caprica during a Cylon raid. It's possible he's telling the truth (he sure seems to know enough about how to do genetic tracing to actually be a genetic tracer), even likely when you consider that if he's lying, the odds of him actually being Starbuck's father are ridiculously high.

The one part that confused me about his story,though, is saying his child was a baby at the time. Obviously a baby wouldn't be wandering anywhere, so it's pretty safe to assume Starbuck was a toddler at the time of the raid, likely 2 or three years old at the youngest. So, not a baby.

The part of the show that makes me think Chameleon was telling the truth about having a wife and son on Caprica is the part where Cassiopea tells him that he IS Starbuck's father. Chameleon's response isn't shock, which is what you'd expect if he made the whole thing up. It's rather as if he sort of expected it to be the case, because he doesn't argue with Cassie that it CAN'T be right, only that it shouldn't be right, because he knows if Starbuck knows he'll ditch being a Colonial warrior. The fact that Chameleon approaches it from a "I know it's true but we should pretend it isn't for Starbuck's sake" rather than a "WHAT?!!! I made the whole thing up!!! I really AM his father?!!!" sort of tells me his story was true, and he really has been looking for his son all this time.

Not sure about the Borellian Nomen, although I found their sort of Bedouin story setup interesting. I got that they were maybe a culture on one of the planets, and since their dialogue revealed that they don't mix with other Colonists it would explain why we don't see them often.

Of course, like most of classic BSG this episode isn't perfect - I for one would have liked some further explanation as to why Starbuck gets all huffy when he finds out Apollo was doing a background check on Chameleon. I mean, Starbuck knows all about con men, you'd think he would be more skeptical than anybody about a guy who shows up claiming to maybe be his father! He would have run a background check first thing.

If I was writing that episode, and needed Starbuck to blow up at Apollo, I would have written a scene that addressed the fact that Apollo has always had parents - always had a loving family and known exactly who he is. Starbuck never had that, and deep down inside it's something he's always needed - and here comes family-rich-kid Apollo to throw a damper on his possible happiness.

IMO THAT'S why Starbuck blows up. It's like the wealthiest kid on the block noticing a poor kid looking at toys in a toy shop window and saying to the kid, "I'll bet your dad will never be able to buy those for you. You're too poor," while strolling on in to buy the most expensive toy in the shop. Apollo doesn't get why Starbuck is so desperate to find his family because he's never had that need.

Of course that's way too deep for a zippy sci-fi show like BSG to address, and considering how truly crappy some of the episodes were, I'm just happy that this is one of the really good ones. Fred Astaire is always fun to watch, he has some good chemistry with Dirk Benedict, and Apollo's concern for his buddy's well-being is nicely played. It's right at the top of my favorite BSG episodes.

It was established in the pilot; but, moreso in the novelizations that the Colonies had contact with other races and had splinter colonies. It's possible that these Nomen were from one of these splinter colonies. It's also possible that they were an offshoot of the early settlers of one of the colonies and evolved in a slightly different fashion, in isolation from the others. Perhaps they were a mutation.

As for 70s tv writing, like any era, it depends on the show. Columbo, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, MASH and many others had tremendous writing. Writing for episodic tv isn't easy, especially an adventure-drama.

The problem with a lot of the writing on BSG is that it was conceived to be a series of movies, which would carry the story to a conclusion. However, ABC wanted a full on series. The developed movie scripts formed the basis for the two-part episodes; but, they had to add a lot of filler, which is why you get a lot of episodes like this one and things like Fire in Space, or the Lost Warrior. They are placeholders and character pieces. They also had the problem that, now that it is a full on series, that the moment they find Earth the series is over (in the minds of the producers and network people). However, once the ratings/budget battles with the network became a big issue, they teased Earth to boost the ratings. Thing is, it served to tick off the audience and they didn't fall for the same trick twice.

I still think this would have played out better as a mini-series. That said, I always felt they should have introduced the Galactica into Buck Rogers continuity, though both shows had vastly different tones. Somebody did a mash up, on Youtube, that was a great teaser; though, the last I looked, it was gone.

Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!

When Chameleon saw the "Warrior of the centar" on the Canaris, it would make sense if he made up the story. But Starbuck was surprised when Chameleon told him he had lost a son in the raid on Umbra. Why did Starbuck not realize he had just told his origin to the entire fleet?