Shoulder Patch Question

[137th Gebirg]

In Saga and Lost Warrior:

Was Martin (Puppis' father) from the Battlestar Atlantia?

As it was revealed how Martin died, Bella brings out his old flight jacket. It had an angular figure-eight with a sword going down its mid-section. This looks a lot like what I recall the Atlantia bridge crew wearing on their shoulders before she blew up, but the pics of the people wearing them were so small that a definite ID doesn't seem possible at present. Anyone else know what these folks were wearing? Is this an Atlantia patch?

Update: Pic of this patch found: http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4728/18thmed2gv.gif

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In Saga cut scenes:

The Gemon who Starbuck was playing Pyramid with had a few close-up shots (this guy had HUGE curly hair). He seemed to have a Blue Squadron/Galactica patch on, but with something extra raised on top of it, in the shape of a diamond. I couldn't make out much detail on the diamond section (something for future research), but I was wondering if anyone knew what that extra piece was to the patch?

Update: I made this conceptual patch based on what I could tell the Gemon was wearing. It is a standard blue squadron patch with a colorized medical diamond patch to match the color of the gold:
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/6853/gemonpatch6zc.gif

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In Saga (supposedly):

Several members of Red Squadron were seen (allegedly) wearing a patch that looked something like this:

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6266/redsquadron3fr.gif

I snagged this pic off a site that was selling them YEARS ago (mid 90's) and haven't seen it since. They claim (and I do stress "claim") that this patch was one of a handfull that were on uniforms in the first episode (Saga) designating Red Squadron. They later had everyone wearing the normal version:

http://img276.imageshack.us/img276/8174/bluesquadron1ze.gif

as a generic patch for all Galactica personnel. After some PhotoShop analysis on the image, I can fairly confidently claim that the red patch pic does NOT appear to be colorized. Anyone know if there is any truth to this?

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It is surprising how many little details I've overlooked in watching this show that I am just now noticing with the DVD set. The visual quality is astounding and I LOVE the bonus sections. This set was WELL worth the wait. It is absolutely perfect!

[Belloby]

I have seen Saga dozens and dozens of times since it's first airing and I have NEVER seen a red patch like that. I don't have any doubt that the red patch was sold by various Sci-Fi vendors but I can tell you for sure that was not used in Saga.

You mentioned the Pyramid game at the beginning of Saga. I have not seen a complete version of that scene since it aired in 1978. The DVD is at home. I'll play it back and if that scene was included, I'll post any visual observations I can make of it.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We'll see if we can solve another one of Galactica's great mysteries. :D

[137th Gebirg]

Originally posted by Belloby
I have seen Saga dozens and dozens of times since it's first airing and I have NEVER seen a red patch like that. I don't have any doubt that the red patch was sold by various Sci-Fi vendors but I can tell you for sure that was not used in Saga.

I, too, was concerned about the validity of the red patch, but I did download that image MANY years ago, long before the Second Coming trailer was made and all the different color patches were used:

http://img276.imageshack.us/img276/418/2ndcomingpatches1ub.jpg
Picture originating from the Battlestar Galactica Warrior Costume and Prop Collection (http://surfkid.net/battlestar/)

You mentioned the Pyramid game at the beginning of Saga. I have not seen a complete version of that scene since it aired in 1978. The DVD is at home. I'll play it back and if that scene was included, I'll post any visual observations I can make of it.

It is, I believe, the first of the deleted scenes from the pilot. I have been looking at the scene more closely, and it appears that the patch does have a diamond-shaped patch on top of it, but not a variant of the medical patch. It can be most clearly seen when the Gemon wins the pot and reaches forward tp take the cubits. His buddies to his right and left seem to be wearing the same modified patch, but not as clearly shown. The patch above seems more like a French fleur-de-lis (sp?) I thought back to my days in Scouting and recalled the Webelos patch, a diamond-shaped patch with a fleur-de-lis! Once again I scour the web and bring up my trusty-dusty Photoshop and come up with this image:

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/2087/gemonpatch28lb.gif

NOW! I checked out other threads and message boards and I came across a short message saying that the production staff mentioned one time that Atlantia bridge crew wore the same patch as the Galactica bridge crew. What if that was right initially? As this patch certainly has the Galactica main patch but has this other thing over it, what if this is the official Atlantia patch, and not this one:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4728/18thmed2gv.gif

on Martin's jacket in "The Lost Warrior"?? Then the question becomes, what is this one above? Or were different patches used on ships other than Battlestars as well?

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We'll see if we can solve another one of Galactica's great mysteries. :D

I look forward to hearing your take on this. I'm personally fascinated by symbols, insignia and the like. Have been since I was a youngster. Seeing these old shows with high-quality video playback is a Godsend!

[137th Gebirg]

Another update:

This patch:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4728/18thmed2gv.gif

...may be from the Battlestar Acropolis.

An excerpt from the website Battlestar Zone (http://www.geocities.com/sjpaxton/battlest.html):

Acropolis. This name is from costume department information; a ship patch was actually chosen for this ship and is a US military patch of a Greek temple and a sword. I have one of these patches which Larry received from a contact in the costume department at Universal, and interestingly it was obviously sewn on to something at one time. This ship is also mentioned in background dialogue in the premiere. This ship was at the ambush.

Now, I don't know if I would call that angular figure-8 a "Greek temple", but it does have a sword and this certainly is a real military patch, particularly from the U.S. Army 18th Medical Command.

Any opinions on this, yay or nay?

[Charybdis]

I'm not sure about the Martin patch, but it would be interesting to find out which ship he was from...

as to the Red Squadron Galactica patch, I have always heard that the "other" squadron aboard the Galactica did have these red patches but in the launch bays where the light is all red, they absolutely did not show up on film, so they ditched the concept and just used the gold one instead...

[137th Gebirg]

Originally posted by Charybdis
I'm not sure about the Martin patch, but it would be interesting to find out which ship he was from...

as to the Red Squadron Galactica patch, I have always heard that the "other" squadron aboard the Galactica did have these red patches but in the launch bays where the light is all red, they absolutely did not show up on film, so they ditched the concept and just used the gold one instead...

Thanks for confirming that. I knew I wasn't crazy! (At least, with regard to this)... :D

[Belloby]

I'm afraid I don't have good news.

After going frame by frame through the Pyramid Game scene many times I did not see the patch you mentioned. The cut was too quick and did not show the upper portion of the gentleman's arm...so I'm afraid I can't confirm your observation. I can tell you that he did have one star on his uniform though, which would make him, I believe, a cadet.

I also can't confirm the use of the multi-color or Atlantia patches. After reviewing the DVD I could not find anywhere where the Atlantia patch you are showing was used. The cuts are so quick and even after going frame by frame I can tell you, that yes, they do have a different patch on their right shoulders, BUT it doesn't look like the one you pictured. Actually, it looks more like the Pegasus one.

As far as the multi-colored patches, I saw no use of them anywhere at all. I have done stage lighting in the past, and I can tell you even under red lighting, the patches still would've appeared slightly different than the gold ones.

If you can site a scene or a time on the DVD, let me know. I would LOVE to review it.

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ I'll see what I can do on screen caps.

Unfortunately, my Mac has some kind of bizarre means by which it prevents me from making a screen grab from a DVD. I'll need to get some kind of video capture card to make it happen, which could take some time (and, invariably, money). I'll post to this thread when I have something of substance.

On an update, there was one scene where the Atlantia was about to blow and there was one guy on the bridge punching buttons on his console REAL hard. This is the only one I could see that was wearing a patch and it did seem to be round, like the Galactica patch. This was why I was thinking that the Atlantia had the same patch as Galactica, but with the extra applique on top of it. Larson went to a lot of trouble at finding designs to differentiate ship crews. I can't imagine why he would have recycled patches from other ships. I'll see if I can get some further confirmation on things.