Thirteen Facts about BSG’s Beings of Light (Original Series)
(#27)
Tyrol: Yeah, well… it’s breakfast, lunch and dinner until someone finds a hot fudge planet.
That quote above has nothing to do with this post. I was just amused by it. I’ve been under the weather since Friday, so that’s why I’ve been MIA most of this week. I’m blaming the punchy humor in this post on the meds.
In the comments of last week’s BSG post, commenter Brian asked me to elaborate on the Ship of Lights and/or Beings of Light. So, here goes.
Below, the Final Five from the D’Anna Beirs/Number Three’s vision of the Kobol Opera house in the episode Rapture.
1. In scripts for the episodes for which they appear, the Beings of Light were also referred to as “Seraphs,” a term implying a connection to Seraphim, the highest ranking angels in the Bible.
Left, the Beings of Light from the Original Series episode “War of the Gods, Part 2.”
2. The Beings of Light appear in three episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980 and are represented not only by ethereal beings clad in white sparkly robes, but also by three specific characters: Count Ibis, Angela and John.
3. Count Iblis appears in the original series episode “War of the Gods,” as a rogue Being of Light who kills Apollo. The Beings of Light then take Sheba, Starbuck and Apollo onto their ship, resurrect Apollo, and give them directions to Earth. Watch part one and part two of this episode.
4. Angela appears in the Galactica 1980 episode “The Return of Starbuck,” which explains Starbuck’s final fate through a dream as retold by Dr. Zee. In this episode, Starbuck finds himself stranded on a planet, alone, after a dogfight with Cylon Raiders. Starbuck builds his own Frankenstein Cylon named “Cy,” who finds a mute and pregnant Angela on the planet and brings her to Starbuck as human company. After a few days of no conversation, Angela suddenly asks Starbuck “Would you die for me?” Angela remains enigmatic and refuses to elaborate on how she came to be on the planet. She also starts referring to her unborn baby as “our child,” meaning her and Starbuck, and indicates a vehicle must be built to transport the baby.
5. The Seraph/human hybrid Dr. Zee is referred to as “Starbuck’s godson,” who is described as having a “cerebral mutation.” (Cerebral Mutation, great band name.)
6. John appears in the episode “Experiment on Terra,” where he helps both Apollo and Starbuck avert disaster on an Earth-like planet named Terra. John enables Apollo to move about on the planet under an assumed identity, so that others actually don’t see what he really looks like. Viewers see both Apollo and Starbuck in the white version of their uniforms the entire time they’re on Terra. (Why am I hearing the Knight Rider theme song?)
7. Count Iblis is pronounced /ib-lee/. (I keep referring to him as Count Chablis.)
8. In these episodes, Starbuck, Apollo and Sheba wore nifty white versions of their uniforms, including white helmets. (Great Halloween costumes, but only about three people would get it. When do you think it will show up on The Big Bang Theory?)
9. At the end of “War of the Gods,” Starbuck, Apollo and Sheba blurt out the coordinates of the Sol system and of Earth. (The Beings of Light haven’t been so specific with Starbuck in the re-imagined series. Poor gal. “We’re going the wrong way!”)
10. Even though Starbuck ships both Angela and Zee off to the fleet in a makeshift escape pod too small for all three of them, Angela disappears before Zee reaches the fleet. (Not a very nice thing to do, stranding Starbuck on that planet when she had no intention of joining the fleet anyway. Evolved much?)
11. A never-filmed episode called “The Wheel of Fire” had Starbuck rescued from an asteroid by the Beings of Light, after which he becomes a Guardian of the Universe. (We can only hope Angela went back for him.)
12. The Ship of Lights can cross between dimensions, not just space. (But this one goes to 11.)
13. Even though he was a rogue Being of Light, Count Iblis’ true form was that of a horned ram/pig type being. (Pam? Rig?)
What does all of this mean for the re-imagined series? For starters, I doubt the writers will suddenly have new Beings of Light characters popping up in the third act, but I do think that Starbuck was with the Beings of Light while she was gone and that’s what she’s drawing over and over again. So, the Beings of Light have been there all the time, just no one recognizes them. The Final Five are intimately connected to the Beings of Light, possibly are them in some way, and we see a hint of this when they are shown in their white robes in the Temple of Five. Perhaps the Final Five have other models like the Significant Seven. I’m hoping we get to see a wholly intact Tigh at some point as one of them. It’s possible the Lords of Kobol are also intimately tied to the Beings of Light, and The One Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken is similar to the rogue Count Iblis, using his powers for evil. (I bet he has a lair full of ill-tempered mutated sea bass.)
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Sirantha Jax is a Jumper, part of a small group of people genetically attuned to navigate ships through Grimspace. Such abilities lead to a shortened lifespan, but Jax is unique among her kind, having survived over 500 jumps and living to the ripe old age of 33. The story opens after the destruction of her ship and with it the death of hundreds of people, the least of which was Jax’s pilot and lover. Jumpers and their pilots often become involved due to the nature of Grimspace where their minds must intertwine. Jax finds herself in a psych lockup with memory loss from the event when March breaks into the station and offers escape — at a price. His rogue Jumper has just died, so getting off the station means jumping one more time, a jump that could be her last.