BG corrections... Re: The GZG Digest V2 #36

On Wed, 26 Jul 2000 07:49:15 -0500 devans@uneb.edu wrote:

> I caught the episode "The Hand of God" yesterday, where Galactica 
took on a Cylon base star. From the episode the Galactica has no 
missile armament, a large number of PDAF/ class-3's, and several much 
larger forward guns. The Galactica carries 2 squadrons (Red and Blue), 
with a 3rd Squadron (Silver) <

That's "Silver Spar" Squadron -- don't ask me why. There is also 
(circumstantial) reason to believe that the Galactica has a further two 
squadrons (Yellow and Green); we just never hear about them.

> [...]taken on in later episodes from the Battlestar Pegasus. The 
squadrons seem to be standard USN 12 ship squadrons, so Galactica would 
have 4 fighter squadrons, increased to 6 in later episodes (which 
caused problems as it was more fighters than she was designed to 
carry). <
 
> Do we have a good feel for how large a BG squadron is? I had the 
feeling they were as large as two or three FT squadrons. <

Probably more like four or five FT Groups, or, in the extreme, 8 or 9. 
We know from "The Hand of God" that a Base Star carries 300 Raiders. In 
that episode, Tigh tells the assembled Warriors that they will be 
outnumbered "2 to 1", which gives a baseline figure for the G's current 
complement of 150, despite their only having 67, IIRC, immediately 
after the Destruction (not to mention all the Vipers lost in episodes 
like "The Lost Warrior" <g>. This is all very vague, obviously, but an 
organisation consisting of 5 squadrons of 30 fighters seems reasonable.
 
> I think it was the episode with the Pegasus that BG is passing 
between two Base Stars, and firing large missles at each. I believe the 
footage was actually NASA film of rocket stage separations. <

That was the Pegasus charging between the Base Stars, and yes, the 
missile launch shots were stock footage, and their "flight" was your 
basic animated streak of coloured light, not unlike a zap gun. Oddly 
enough, the same footage was used in THoG to represent the Galactica 
firing _Lasers_ on the Base Star.

Phil
------------------------------------------
(Dr) P.A. Atcliffe
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University of the West of England, Bristol
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