[Eric Paddon]

There is a deleted scene at the beginning of Part 2 that had it remained, I think would have done a lot to dispel the biggest knock that's often made at the series regarding the military-Council relationship. Critics often point to the way the Council comes off in GFE and especially "Baltar's Escape" to note how stupid and dangerous the Council is. And WOTG also gets cited to note how quick the Council is willing to make Iblis the President following Baltar's capture.

But actually the scene where Adama is able to get a delay from the Council runs much longer in its unedited state (I don't think it was even put back in the telemovie version) and John Williams's Sire Montrose (in his last ever role BTW) proves to be far more thoughtful and intelligent than does Murray Matheson's Geller in GFE or John Hoyt's Domra in BE. He listens thoughtfully to Adama, acknowledges his points and is then willing to agree to the delay. In short, we get to see Adama interacting with the Council in a way that critics of the series say never happened!

I can understand why for timing and pacing this scene was lost because those are the demands and pressures you face (and if the scene had been kept it would have meant losing something else later). It's too bad that Adama's interactions with the Council in the Terra episodes weren't written as well as this one was.