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Old January 31st, 2021, 08:35 PM   #22
Eric Paddon
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Morristown, NJ
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Default Re: Revisiting The Old Novelizations

#7-War Of The Gods by Nicholas Yermakov

2.5 of 5 stars.

-Yermakov's second novelization largely follows the pattern of "Living Legend" in being more by-the-numbers in terms of adapting the episode. Part 1 is almost completely unchanged from the episode as it aired with one minor exception. Greenbean is Boomer's triad partner in the initial game we see in Part 1 and when Greenbean later disappears, Boomer's new partner in Part 2 for the "Iblis controls Boomer" match is a young member of the Council of Twelve named Sire Edbyrn.

-Yermakov also establishes that the triad games take place on the Rising Star and not on the Galactica. Although Murder on the Rising Star was never novelized, this change is welcome in terms of giving us a more plausible explanation of where triad matches take place because it never struck me as credible that the Galactica would have a triad court with a spectators gallery and scoreboard.

-But there are some significant departures as we move further along. First, Yermakov's one major stylistic change is to bring back the "Adama Journal Entries" to intersperse between chapters that were part of the earlier Thurson novelizations but which were missing from "Living Legend" because that was being framed as a flashback story from the G80 universe. These entries combined with some other changes show Adama much weaker and indecisive when it comes to Count Iblis compared to the strength of character Adama shows in the episode. Adama's entries reflect more a state of fear and apprehension over Iblis than one who is fully sure of himself.

-Adding to that, the scene where Adama succeeds in moving an object across the table and his entire conversation with Apollo about his speculations of who the light beings represent is entirely absent from the novelization. It's absence further goes to weaken Adama's overall stature.

-But the biggest changes center on Baltar. First, because the novelization universe is still following (loosely) the original template of the Cylons as reptiles who only recently with the IL's have started to branch out more into robots, that means the most vital part of the episode, the Baltar-Iblis conversation in the cell and the linkage between Iblis and the Imperious Leader is gone. In fairness, the Baltar-Iblis scene and the linkage wasn't part of the original shooting script because they couldn't anticipate the casting of Patrick Macnee in the role, so Yermakov is basically returning to the "original vision" of Iblis in that respect, but I have to admit without it, I feel like the very heart of the episode is missing. That scene more than any other in the show IMO helped establish the background of the Cylons and why the idea of peace with them was impossible to contemplate.

-Related to that is the unexpected new ending unique to Yermakov. After Apollo, Sheba and Starbuck are returned by the SOL and we have the "coordinates revelation" moment (oddly, the important dialogue that sets this up in the SOL scene before is not present. Even the, "as you are now, we once were" line is missing!), we get a journal entry of Adama's where he's still troubled and uncertain about what this has all meant. We learn that the official explanation for Iblis's disappearance is a benign one to the Fleet, that he has chosen to return to the race he came from, which were the lights and this tamps down any uproar from the Council. Adama then writes of having a dream of making contact with the SOL himself and hearing words about the need for order and balance in the universe to be restored and how the avenger seeking revenge can find himself in a terrible debt. This is to set up the final scene in which lo and behold we discover the SOL have RETURNED Baltar to his baseship! (Baltar didn't go to the Galactica in a fighter, he went alone in a shuttle). Baltar has no memory of having gone to seek out the Galactica and he is befuddled by what has happened.

-It seems bizarre to wonder why the SOL, the force for Good in the Universe would return Baltar, but the Adama journal scene is meant to convey the idea that accepting Iblis's "gift" of Baltar's surrender would mean the people of the Fleet would still be in debt to him at some future date and thus, in the name of restoring cosmic balance and to avoid this in the future, Baltar must be returned. Ironically, this dramatic change to Baltar's fate would be completely forgotten in #9, the combined novelization of "Baltar's Escape" and "Experiment In Terra", when lo and behold with no explanation, Baltar is a prisoner again!! So consequently, the chance for Yermakov's dramatic change is short-circuited from having an impact in the novelization universe (or maybe it still did. "Hand Of God" was never adapted so there is no novelization story of Baltar's release, but when they started doing original novelizations in #11, Baltar was back in command aboard his baseship with Lucifer).

-Sheba comes off poor in the novelization. There is no attempt to really probe Sheba's mindset for why she follows Iblis. No going into her background to suggest why she's susceptible to him, other than a badly written scene before Iblis storms out on her in the agro-ship in which she is described as being in love with him which comes off as disturbing in the absence of a more detailed back story.

-Yermakov incidentally does pull no punches in describing what's inside the wrecked ship. He has quite thorough descriptions of Apollo and Starbuck seeing the remains of demonic creatures.

Like "Living Legend", "War Of The Gods" is an easy read, but they only end up reminding how superior the original episodes are IMO.
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