Battlestar Galactica | Leaving the sublight ships behind

Scene from the Battlestar Galactica Miniseries (2003) where newly sworn in President Laura Roslin must make a difficult decision to save what's left of humanity.

I searched everywhere for this but it wasn't posted so I thought I'd upload it myself!

[albertjester]

In a way, the Cylons showing up at the last second was a (admittedly dark) blessing for the people in charge of the fleet. It proved them right, if they'd waited any longer, they'd ALL have died. Small comfort, but better than dwelling on the posibility that they jumped away and it might have turned out they COULD have evac'd the sublights.

[ronin]

The way this show started was perfect. That is a rare thing in sci-fi.

[BlaneNostalgia]

This is the scene to show people who are interested in BSG. This sets the tone of the entire series. Dark, brutal with a glimmer of hope.

[firepatriot]

This was one of the most emotional scenes in the mini series. The agony in all their faces knowing what they're doing and can do nothing about it. Hard decisions.

[GlamorousTitanic]

I feel that this was really the scene where fans knew that the remake wasn’t frakking around, and that this show would be gritty and tragic to the ‘t’.

[commanderjroc]

Watching that little girl play with her toy, not knowing that she would soon get vaporized was so heart wrenching. Especially as a dad, I was like nooo

[thesparduck]

In any other show another hero (maybe Pegasus or Atlantia) would have arrived to save the sublights, not this one though. This really set the stakes of the show, and showed exactly why Galactica was required for humanity’s survival. Asides from Pegasus reinforcing the fleet there was never really much relief for Galactica’s crew.

[firepatriot]

Lee is a good advisor, hard and direct, no bs.

[starchy]

I realized at 2:44 it was apollo who did the FTL jump, my theory is that the copilot at the back was supposed to do it because you can see he was very distressed from this but he couldn't bring himself to do it so Apollo did it in his place.

[manzi]

Watching this scene for the first time on tv, I knew this show was going to be a classic!

[GBart]

"I hope you people rot in hell for this!"

Damn...

They made the right call though, they really had no choice.

This show is an anxiety feast

[deathstrike]

Sometimes the most difficult choices lie in who gets who doesn't.

I couldn't imagine the pain Laura had to keep with her after her aide told her the little girl she met that her ship didn't have FTL capability. To me, knowing the Cylons had advanced FTL should have prompted the Colonials to "refit" as many ships to FTL as possible. I know many ships probably aren't powerful enough or designed in a way that FTL may not have been practical for all ships, but as many as possible. Another idea is some kind of an "FTL teather" would have allowed a non FTL ship to "hitch a ride" with an FTL vessel.

But at the end of it, Laura made the right decision. There was NO time to try to save them and NO Cylon was going to grant them any mercy. So the only mercy was allowing them a painless death. And that's what the little girl and thousands of others met.

[allenharper]

This was the only time I had hard feelings towards Billy. There was literally NO REASON for him to bring up the little girl to the President when she was already stuck with a hard decision. Did he think they should risk annihilation because of one little girl?

[sawyernorthrop]

The atmosphere of this scene is why the pilot is some of the best TV ever produced

[maryrosetran]

Dang. I would have made the decision to transfer as many civilians to FTL ships... and got us all killed. I wouldn't make a good president.

[gasgano]

Moral dilemma, the concept to a great story!

[FPH-CAT]

This is what TOS was missing. The horror.

[松之Hoozaru]

The 12 colonies can build faster than light space ships, scorpio shipyard to station an entire galactic fleet, and do instant blood test to tell human vs cylons. Yet they still haven't figured out what to do with cancer? Someone must be really bad with tech trees.

[bandofbrothers]

I couldn't believe how right Adama was. How fast and efficiently the cylons striked was jaw dropping.

[NewInkFoHalo]

Definitely one of the best scenes in the mini-series. I love the circling shot as everyone’s advising the president, really drives home the immediacy and reality of the situation.

And the radio chatter + escalating eerie music as the Cylons appear contrasted with the clinical efficiency of their guided missiles … and of course the little girl, blissfully ignorant of her fate.

Lords of Kobol protect their souls indeed.