Awesome / Battlestar Galactica (2003)

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• William Adama
  • In Battlestar Galactica (2003), William Adama had always been pretty badass, but he will be remembered for an exchange in the third season, when threatening to destroy an archeological site that his own son is currently at:
    Saul: We just picked up six heavy raiders falling away from the Cylon fleet, definitely heading down towards the planet.
    Roslin: I don't get it, they'd have to know we'd see them.
    Tigh: They're testing us, want to know if we're bluffing about nuking the planet.
    Roslin: Well, unfortunately we are bluffing.
    Adama: Are we?
    (Dramatic Pause)
    Adama: Mr. Hoshi, order nuclear ground-strike missiles into launch tubes 4 through 10.
    Hoshi: Aye, sir. (On the intercom) This is a nuclear mission order...
    Adama: Open launch tube doors.
    Roslin: What are you doing?
    Adama: Getting ready to nuke the planet.
  • Beating the crap out of a Cylon with a flashlight during the miniseries. Although said Cylon was sick with radiation poisoning, he still demonstrated physical strength and resilience far beyond human capabilities. Regardless, Adama, a relatively old man, still managed to overpower and kill him anyway.
  • There's the moment in "Resurrection Ship, Part I" where Roslin is attempting to cool tensions between Adama and Admiral Cain and points out that the Pegasus would have the advantage in a fight. Adama's response? A disdainful snort and a muttered "wouldn't count on it.".
  • The movie BSG: Razor the flashbacks show a young Adama beating the crap out of a Cylon in free fall.
  • "Exodus, Part 2", when the Galactica makes a rescue run of all of the humans on New Caprica. Various awesomery occurs on the ground, and then a small dot in the sky is revealed to be the Galactica in freefall, which scrambles all of its Vipers and then jumps back into space just before impact, aka The Adama Maneuver.
    Adama: Prepare for turbulence.
    • Why is this a big deal? Battlestars are not rated for atmosphere at all. As in they cannot hover, fly in atmosphere, or operate anywhere below orbit: their mass is too great. Galactica weighs easily upwards of several million tons, meaning an object of its mass smashing into the ground at terminal velocity would have leveled the whole colony with the kinetic energy of a nuclear bomb. Not to mention that Galactica had just jumped, and has to calculate a jump while hurtling towards the ground, which is no small feat. ^note : FTL jump calculations require mathematical plotting of star coordinates and the ship's current position, among other factors. Easier in space when the ship is more or less stable, less so plummeting to the ground from 100,000 feet. If the calculations are incorrect, or the ship's FTL drives malfunction, Galactica pancakes into the ground or jumps into the sun.
  • Defying Gaeta and the mutineers who have just taken over CIC, killed a marine who took the bullets for him, and have their guns pointed at him:
    Adama: I WANT YOU ALL to understand this! If you do this - there will be no forgiveness; no amnesty. [To Gaeta] This boy ... died honouring his uniform. You ... You'll die with nothing.
  • "Litmus":
    Adama: This is a witch hunt. I will not have it aboard my ship. Now these proceedings are closed, and you are dismissed with our thanks.
    Sergeant Hadrian: Corporal of the guard, return the Commander to the witness' chair!
    Adama: Your orders are to escort Sergeant Hadrian to her quarters. Make your choice, son. (the corporal escorts Hadrian)
  • The ending of "Pegasus," so very much.
    Adama: I'm getting my men.
• Apollo
  • When Apollo flew his Viper through the mining tunnels in The Hand of God to get past all of the defenses and destroy the facility from the inside.
  • Despite having quit the service, Lee still immediately suits up and gets into a viper in "Crossroads part II", without the knowledge of chain of command, because he still views it as his duty.
  • Lee Adama's would definitely be the Patrick Stewart Speech in the third season finale. Notable in that it was an extremely effective Take That! against not only the Fleet, but to to the viewers as well for their willingness to forgive anyone for anything... unless their name is Gaius Baltar.
  • With prompting from Starbuck, Lee makes possibly the biggest diplomatic breakthrough of the series with the Cylons by offering the way to Earth for both of them...
    D'Anna: All this has happened before.
    Lee: But it doesn't have to happen again.
  • What about Lee Adama's grenade? When Lee and Kara are trying to get past the guards guarding the Cylon prisoners, Lee casually throws a grenade down the hallway. The guards scatter, then he and Kara shoot them down. As Kara ducks behind cover, Lee walks over to the grenade and picks it up. "I never pulled the pin."
    • Made all the more awesome when Starbuck scowls at him, to which he replies "You would have loved it if it was your idea."
    • Also, it may have been inspired by a deleted scene in Serenity.
• Saul Tigh
  • Shortly after realizing that he's a Cylon, Galactica comes under Cylon attack, and Saul makes his stand:
    Saul: My name is Saul Tigh. I'm an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am, whatever else it means, that's the man I want to be. And if I die today, that's the man I'll be.
  • In the midseason break for Season 4, D'Anna is back and being just as much of a bitch as ever. In order to stop the Cylons killing the hostages, Colonel Tigh confesses to Bill that he's a Cylon—and offers himself as a counter-hostage, knowing that even if the Final Five could resurrect normally, the Resurrection Hub is gone and D'Anna wouldn't dare doing it if there was a risk.
    Saul: (as Lee hesitates to eject him from an airlock) What are you waiting for, Apollo? Do it.
  • Tigh has an early one when trying to motivate Starbuck to get back to work after her knee injury.
    Tigh: The chief wanted me to kick your ass out of bed so you could help figure out that Raider of yours but, clearly, you still need the rest. So take your time, no rush.
    Starbuck: Do you actually think that reverse psychology crap is gonna work on me?
    Tigh: I really don't care what you think, Lieutenant. All I know is that every day you spend in that bed is another day that I have my opinion of you confirmed. As you were.
  • "Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, chief. We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go."
  • The episode "The Woman King" might not be a fan favorite, but it does contain a CMoA for Tigh. Four words: "SHUT THE FRAK UP!"
  • Standing up to Hammerhead, fully admitting his responsibility for the Gideon massacre while pushing his forehead against Hammerhead's gun barrel. Then, when Hammerhead hesitates, he reaches up and pulls the gun away, and delivers this devastating one-liner:
    "Gideon was an accident. This (nods to the pistol) is a choice."
• Starbuck
  • In season one, Starbuck crashes on an barren wasteland planet and, with a busted knee and only a few hours of oxygen with her, fixes and pilots a Cylon raider she had just shot down, and manages to convince everyone to not shoot her with with her name taped on the wings.
  • "Exodus Part 2" is crammed with Crowning Moments of Awesome. Another:
    Leoben: I'll never forget this moment.
    Starbuck: Neither will I. *stab*
  • Lee Adama has just flown from Colonial One to the Galactica to confirm his father's "release" of Tom Zarek. Upon landing, he is captured by mutinous crewmen and marines intent on killing him. One of them (Connor) asks him "Where are your precious Cylons now?" The next sound he hears is Kara Thrace shooting his would-be executioner. She doesn't hesitate to wound another mutineer who objects, saying "I can do this all day." These are HER pilots she's threatening. You do NOT fuck with Apollo with Starbuck in the room.
    "Follow me. Please."
  • From the pilot miniseries, the civilian ships have escaped, and Galactica is about to jump, but Apollo's Viper is crippled and Starbuck is stubbornly defending Apollo from the Cylon raiders, leaving both of them at risk for being left behind. Adama gets her attention over the radio by asking her what she hears.
    Adama: What do you hear?
    -shattered debris of destroyed Cylon raiders clattering on the canopy of Starbuck's viper-
    Starbuck: Nothing but the rain, Sir!
    Adama: Grab your gun and bring the cat in.
    • Followed by Starbuck pushing Lee's Viper back into the hanger just in time for Galactica to escape.
  • In Razor, she lands a Viper on zero fuel, after turning around in Pegasus' landing tube to blast the Cylon ship chasing her.
  • The writers apparently had a Throw It In! moment for Kara in the final episode:
    Apollo: (meeting Kara's squad inside the Cylon colony after a delay) Where were you?
    Starbuck: Stopped for coffee.
• Cally
  • Cally is being held hostage after a prison riot. One of the prisoners tries to rape her, and she bites his ear off. Later on while recovering in sickbay, she confesses that "He's lucky that's all I bit off."
    • Particularly notable as the original script had Cally dying after the prisoner shot her for biting off his ear, but everyone quickly realized that it made the character far too interesting to not make more use of.
• Gina 6
  • Gina, killing Cain.
    Cain: Frak you.
    Gina: You're not my type.
    • This is even more awesome if you've seen Razor and know that Cain and Gina had been lovers.
• Caprica 6
  • Clubbing D'Anna over the head with a rock.
    D'Anna: God loves me.
    Caprica Six: He'll see you again soon.
  • Snapping Boomer's neck after Boomer had threatened to snap Hera's, then escorting Athena and Hera back to Galactica, knowing full well the reception she would get.
• Helo
  • Helo, one of the series' quieter characters, has had a few, but one of the most memorable moments is when he's confronted by President Roslin after "killing" his Cylon wife so that she could rescue their infant daughter Hera from the Cylon fleet. He looks her straight in the eyes and, with restrained but overt rage in his voice, says that he wouldn't have had to do it if she hadn't deceived him about Hera not dying shortly after her birth. The normally stoic Roslin is actually shaken by this.
  • Punching Saul in the face, after getting fed up with the insults towards Sharon. Frankly, he just did what more than a few viewers have wanted to do for a while.
  • Killing Sharon's attempted rapist aboard the Pegasus. He may be a really nice guy but You do not hurt Sharon Valerii and live to tell about it when Karl Agathon is around.
  • Sabotaging the Colonials' plan to introduce a virus into the Cylon resurrection process and kill them all. On a series where everyone and their grandmother is either becoming a hopeless drunk or is willing to kick an entire animal shelter full of dogs on their way to the bathroom, or simply descending into angst-ridden nihilism, he's just about the one person who is unwilling to sacrifice his convictions just for a few more days of running and hoping the Cylons don't catch up to them. At the end of the day, he's ready to make the moral choice, and frak the consequences, and prove that Humanity is worthy of survival.
• Athena
  • "The Farm". Starbuck is escaping a nightmarish Cylon breeding facility, some of La Résistance have appeared for the rescue, and looks like she'll make it, when four centurions appear and start spraying the rescue party with their arm guns. Starbuck is pinned down, resistance fighters are getting killed... and Athena's Heavy Raider swoops in over the trees and opens up with all six machine guns, obliterating the centurions. Helo even slaps Anders on the arm as if to say "That's my girl up there!"
  • In "Home, Part 1", the group searching for the tomb on Kobol is under attack by a trio of centurions. Athena runs through the hail of gunfire, retrieves a grenade launcher from a dead soldier, overpowers Apollo (who thinks she's going to turn on them) and nails the last centurion with a grenade from at least twenty meters away. Worth noting that she did all of this while her forearms were cuffed together, so she made that shot one-handed.
    Apollo: You gotta be frakking kidding me.
    Starbuck: Not bad.
  • Best of all, in the next episode? Athena is being allowed to walk around with no restraints anymore.
  • Redirecting a Cylon virus back at the gigantic fleet of Raiders about to attack, proving her trustworthiness to much of the crew.
  • After Roslin gives the order for her baby to be aborted Sharon goes into an Unstoppable Rage. She headbutts the walls of her cell so hard she manages to crack the bulletproof glass. When marines come to take her for the procedure she puts up one hell of a fight and knocks one of them down before they can sedate her.
  • In "Rapture" she persuades Helo to shoot her current body so she'll download into a new one on the Basestar where Hera is being held. She's effectively willing to die and be reborn to get her baby back.
• President Roslin
  • Roslin has a crowning moment of awesome too when everyone is evacuating New Caprica...
    Laura Roslin: Tom, you go that way. Head to the shipyard.
    Tom Zarek: You're coming, right?
    Laura Roslin: [points to Colonial One] My ship's up there.
  • Laura Roslin gets one with her resolute promise to Zarek after he tries to demoralize her into surrendering with a lie. Namely, that Tigh and Adama had been executed.
    Roslin: No. Not now, not ever. Do you hear me? I will use every cannon, every bomb, every bullet, every weapon I have down to my own eye teeth to end you! I swear it! I'M COMING FOR ALL OF YOU!
  • YMMV on this one, but Roslin slapping Tigh on New Caprica when he asks if she's siding with the Cylons is pretty damn satisfying. Colonel Badass he may be, but Tigh really needs a slap once in a while.
  • Roslin telling Adama quite calmly that he has to kill Admiral Cain in the 'Pegasus' arc. When the chips are down, she's the only one determined enough to state out loud what has to be done; the other characters are shocked and hesitant at the suggestion.
  • Make that her entire reaction to the Galactica/Pegasus standoff, where she sits them down on Colonial One and proceeds to smack them both down like naughty children who have been misusing their Battlestar privileges.
    • Doubles as Fridge Brilliance, when you remember that Roslin was Secretary of Education before the Fall of the Colonies, and a school teacher before that. She's doing exactly what a teacher would do with two unruly students: calling them into her office and giving them a talking-to.
  • Virtually the entirety of the miniseries, some of which we only find out in "Epiphanies". As Jacob from TWOP put it so succinctly:
    "First she got inoperable cancer, then she solved a union crisis verging on bloodshed, then she watched some people making out hardcore in public, then she got dumped and fired, then took a trip to a museum, then the whole world ended, then she got LBJ'ed, then she killed a few thousand people, then she freaked out for a while, and then she may or may not have grabbed a nap. And she did all this with total class, while looking — at worst — a little tired, with everybody treating her like she was completely slow the entire time. Jack Bauer's like, "Lady, I gotta hand it to you." "
  • Starbuck spends nearly the entirety of "Flesh and Bone" trying to interrogate a copy of Leoben as to the whereabouts of a bomb planted somewhere in the fleet, and not only does she obtain no information whatsoever she lets Leoben the get under her skin big-time. At the end Roslin gets him to cough up the location of the bomb (or rather the fact that there was never a bomb to begin with) in less than two minutes by simply threatening to have him thrown out of the airlock. Which, for good measure, she then does anyway with these immortal words:
    ''"Throw it out the airlock."
• Gaius Baltar
  • Baltar evangelizing a Centurion (note that this is after the Centurions gain sentience).
  • His noblest action was in the season 4 mid season finale, talking D'Anna down from nuking the civilian fleet, convincing her to at least try and work with the humans. It saved the fleet and was something no other person could have achieved thanks to his personal history with D'Anna and his extraordinary charisma, as well as highlighting his path towards redemption (though whether his crimes can ever really be balanced out is another matter).
  • After being nearly killed by Gaeta, he testifies against him in the trial.
    Gaius Baltar: We all know that this man tried to stab me. And you missed! BUTTERFINGERS!
    • Which doubles as a CMOA for James Callis, since according to Word of God that was an ad lib.
  • Killing Crashdown after he goes off the deep end, then covering Tyrol as he blows up the dish that would let the Cylons shoot down the ships about to rescue them.
• Doc Cottle
  • The love for Doc Cottle as a character occurred in "Pegasus" after the Attempted Rape of Sharon/Athena at the hands of the Pegasus officers. Sharon is recovering in sickbay, and Adama isn't quite sure how to handle it. Cottle, however, has no such problem:
    Adama: What happened to you tonight...
    Cottle: (quietly furious, almost snarling)...was unforgivable.
    • Also note that Adama doesn't contradict him, implying that he silently agrees.
  • Cottle gets a subtle but long running one throughout the entire series: he has no reservations about treating anyone, be they military, civilian, Human or Cylon. Even though he is a member of the Colonial Military, he is first and foremost a doctor and a healer, making him one of the few main characters, more or less, who survive the entire series with no dubious morality moments.
• Chief Tyrol
  • Tyrol gets in on the awesome action. Zarek and Gaeta are about to jump away, which would mean even if Adama does succeed in getting his ship back he'll be surrounded by ships disloyal to him and isolated from Roslin and the basestar. Chief singlehandedly sabotages the FTL drive, and what makes this all the more awesome is that he hadn't had any communication with Adama. He simply figured out what he needed to do on his own.
  • At the end of the episode "Lay Down Your Burdens Part II" the occupying Cylons march past the colonials. After a year of civilian life, Chief simply turns to Starbuck and says "What'd we do now, Captain?" Absolutely perfect Chief moment.
  • Sure, it's a bit of a What the Hell, Hero? given what follows, but when the Final Five link up and share memories to give the Cylons resurrection technology, Tyrol learns that Tory killed Cally, his wife. He breaks out and strangles her, complete with a look of completely unrestrained RAGE on his face.
• Romo Lampkin
  • Romo Lampkin stabbing a Marine in the neck with a pen and killing him and then referring to him as his "pen pal".
• Lt. Felix Gaeta
  • In "The Oath", Felix lets William Adama absolutely have it when it counts most, standing as a voice for all the survivors of New Caprica:
    "You swore the same allegiance! What happened to your oath? For seven years I have done my frakking job and for what? To take orders from a Cylon? To let machines network our ship? No, you...you are not the leader you were when we started. You're just a sad old man who has let his heart and his affection for a Cylon cloud his judgment!"
  • And heaps coals of fire on Starbuck's head in "Collaborators" with one quiet line: "I did what I could. I don't know what more I could have done."
• General
  • The Great Cylon Turkey Shoot in "Flight of the Phoenix". A massive squadron of Cylon Raiders appears in formation facing the Colonial Fleet. Then Sharon Agathon turns the virus against the Raiders, shutting them down completely and turning them into sitting ducks for the Viper squadrons.
  • The last scene of Pegasus is a CMOA for both Cain and Adama.
  • Even though Fisk isn't actually on Helo and Tyrol's side, him showing up right when they are having the crap beat out of them by Pegasus soldiers while in custody and reprimanding them is pretty sweet.
  • Helo and the Chief overcoming their mutual animosity and throwing away their careers, and possibly lives, to rescue the pregnant Athena from a rape in progress. Intense, heavy and somehow totally awesome all the same time.
  • During the mutiny, Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh beat the crap out of their armed guard. Standard action fare until you remember that these are supposed to be two pudgy old guys.
    • Supposed to but actually not, if you do not discount the scenes of old guy Adama beating the shit out of young Adama in the boxing ring.
    • Also Tigh was in full Cylon mode by this point too, and the Final Five were at the least considerably stronger than your average human.
    • Adama and Tigh running around the ship, dual-wielding guns (an assault rifle and pistol), shooting down anyone who gets in their way as they take back Galactica.
  • Apollo, having just ejected from the destroyed Blackbird stealthfighter, discovers a rip in his suit. After seeing this, the camera pans back to reveal Galactica and Pegasus beating the absolute crap out of two Basestars, whilst the Vipers blow the Resurrection Ship to hell. Totally. Freaking. Awesome.
    • Based on the story of Ensign George Gay, who, after having his Devastator dive bomber shot from under him at Midway, ditched in the sea and, from under his seat cushion, watched three of the four Japanese carriers sunk there go down.
  • Under the command of Apollo, the Pegasus jumps into New Caprica, guns-a-blazin', destroys two Basestars and damages a third, before going nuclear WITH ALL HANDS STILL ALIVE.
    • To elaborate, Lee Adama sets it on a collision course with all the automated systems running as he and the crew make a run for it. As they escape, we're treated to a shot of the Pegasus plowing through space, everything on it firing at the Cylons attempting to stop it. Then it rams into a Basestar, explodes, then a flying landing pod takes out a second Basestar.
    • The entirety of the rescue mission on New Caprica could be listed here.
  • In the Grand Finale, as Baltar and Caprica Six bring Hera to CIC, amid the human-centurion fighting going on, we see Adama kicking a centurion to the ground and shooting him.
  • The Galactica itself. It went through everything in the series, despite the fact that corners were cut during its construction. That's right. Everything it did was done while it was hobbled by poor construction. Galactica got the absolute snot pounded out of it, time after time after time. Did it fail? Did it break down? No, the old Jupiter-class battlestar, a relic of the First Cylon War, proved so resilient despite the efforts of the Cylons to destroy her and her fleet, that in the end, what did the old girl in wasn't Cylon missiles or subterfuge. It was metal fatigue from advanced age. Even her last engagement, when Galactica jumped into the Colony and was mercilessly pounded by Cylon batteries and cannons, the ship held and rammed the Colony with her bow, succeeding in her mission and jumping to Earth. She broke her back getting there, losing FTL capability but still able to move at sublight. The Colonials knew how to built a ship that could take a licking.
    • The first shot of our earth in the season 3 finale.
    • In the miniseries, the Colonial fleet is ambushed by the Cylons. Galactica is an undermanned, antiquated ship two days from being turned into a museum. Adama is outnumbered, outgunned, he has no ammunition, no backup, no information, and one of his flight decks has been turned into a frakking gift shop. What's his response? Stand and fight! Get me some bullets!
  • It's already been mentioned in Adama's section, but that image of the Adama maneuver is something amazing to behold. An 'over shoulder' shot of the side of Galactica, ON FIRE, as dozens of vipers comes streaming out reading to attack.
  • After Zarek's uprising he goes to the Quorum of Twelve for their support. After giving his big speech able hope and endurance and asks them for their support, one of the Quorum members, a man who has been argumentative and difficult all season, stands up and says "I think you should leave now Mr Vice President".

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