[Eric Paddon]

This is the only one of the "Terra Trilogy" episodes I've tackled so far, but while the other two episodes remain untouched, strengthening the continuity from one episode to the next is one thing this episode needs!

My adaptation has an opening prologue dramatizing the escape of Michael/Sarah and children from Lunar 7, and to provide linkage to "Experiment In Terra" they get assisted by the real Charlie Watts, who we learned in EIT was on a spy mission of sorts checking out the other Terran colonies so it made sense to me to get this character introduced right away. Among the reasons why EIT is so weak is because the Watts character is just too much of a convenient plot device, badly written so this way I felt could strengthen that episode eventually when I get around to doing it.

Lot of other changes needed to be made to this episode that are too numerous to mention in one post, but here's one thing I really wanted to change. The next time you watch this episode, I want you to count the number of times the Terrans are referred to as "children" by everyone aboard the Galactica, as though they keep forgetting that there are two grown adults among these people! I kept hearing so many different characters refer to them as "children" it was driving me nuts after awhile (and that's just one of many things about this episode in its original form that can drive a Galactica fan nuts). Getting rid of that in the characters dialogue was another thing I was anxious to do.

Also, some more rational context needed to be given to Apollo's very bizarre behavior in Pt. 1. He is just so over-the-top in demanding that the Terrans be set free and never gets to the point of why this should be done, and doesn't provide a coherent explanation until the last minute as to how this can be helpful to the people of the Fleet if they are released. I've always felt this episode was Hatch's worst performance in the series.

Another change relative to Pt. 1. The flip way that Adama/Apollo/Starbuck/Tigh etc. brush off the Council in springing the Terrans loose is IMO the most powerful argument for critics of TOS about the contemptible treatment of civilian authority because unlike "Baltar's Escape" where the Council is just plain DUMB regarding their decision to trust the Alliance, a legit case can be made for the Council's actions in GFE because they just want to get to the bottom of where the Terrans are from and do they come from Earth (and even if you find their view wrong in the end, you have to concede it was a position a reasonable person could take and could be fairly debated and not treated with the heavy scorn given by Adama/Apollo/Starbuck etc.) And then I realized, you can provide a believable context for their dumb thinking in Baltar's Escape if you establish (1) that Adama in GFE knows he's unfairly disrespected them at a couple occasions and (2) Council members who might have been supportive of Adama in the past are now of a mind to think less highly of him and disregard his advice. Thus, they're receptive to the Alliance the next episode more out of spite for what they felt was the raw deal given them in GFE.

Another change. Apollo is way too obsessed with wanting to know the coordinates for Lunar 7 but the problem is, this isn't the question he should be interested in. He should be trying to find out the location of Terra, and more importantly he should be trying to find out if the coordinates to Terra match the course heading for Earth they were given by the SOL, and if the Terra system matches what they know about Earth's system (remember, at the end of WOTG they were also given the information about a system of "nine planets with one sun"). But GFE is so badly written an episode that asking the obvious questions just seem to be entirely elusive to all of the Galactica's characters it seems like, and so any adaptation has to address this.

Ultimately, I felt the suspense of "Is Terra Earth?" needed to be removed in this story and not sustained implausibly to EIT and dealt as an afterthought in the final scene of that episode. The drawn-out, pointless scene of Starbuck trapped in the Archives provided a way out by having Starbuck find a map of the Terran system and he right away knows it doesn't match the system he saw on the wall of his cell on Proteus back in "The Long Patrol" so as a result in the next two episodes, the debate for Adama is whether they should settle in this system anyway even if Terra is not the Earth of Kobollian belief (this too was a question the series failed to deal with once this overly long trilogy came to an end).

Other details to mention (they are voluminous for an episode that was in serious need of a rewrite to begin with!) later.