The Living Legend
Original Airdate Part 1: November 26, 1978
Writer: Glen A. Larson.
Director: Vince Edwards.
Guest Cast: Lloyd Bridges (Cain), Rod Haase (Tolan).
While on patrol, Apollo and Starbuck discover the missing Battlestar Pegasus under the command of the military genius Cain. Although now under the protection of two Battlestars, the fleet is stopped dead in space do to a critical fuel shortage. To obtain the necessary supplies, Cain and Adama plan a daring raid on a nearby Cylon command base. One of Galactica’s most popular episodes, The Living Legend was re-edited with Fire in Space and released theatrically overseas.
“What I had in mind was Eisenhower and Patton,” reveals Larson. “Patton was blood and guts and Cain was really our Patton in space. In some ways we were hitting a production and theoretical stride in that one. There is a show that gave us a chance to provide pretty good character [development] with a pretty good space dynamic. I would have like to have been able to do more shows like that.”
Concerned about protecting the fleet, Adama opposes Cain’s aggressive military campaign against the Cylons. Although the episode featured a series of impressive action sequences, director Vince Edwards favored the drama inherent in the conflict of wills between Adama and Cain. “The relationship,” he says, “between these two powerful men – the conflict between these two great leaders getting together – was what I liked.”
Edwards also wanted to add a little more mobility to Baltar (John Colicos). "He said he wanted to get me off that bloody chair," recalls Colicos, "of course, they polished the floor so tremendously that I nearly fell on my ass. But I welcomed anything that got me off climbing that ladder because it was difficult to have a dynamic performance when you are rooted literally to a spot."
"He's a machiavellian kind of character," said Edwards of Baltar, "he is almost like a non-human character; a guy that portrays something that might be a villain of the future, that kind of look, that kind of sound. I tried to give him an inhuman quality because he had these robots around him."
