Battlestar Galactica 2003 / Tropes J to R

Tropes of Battlestar Galactica (2003)
A-C | D-I | J-R | S-Z

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J-M

• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: To the point where it becomes a Kudzu Plot by the last season.
• Just a Machine: Many humans have this attitude towards the Cylons, and are clearly wrong, but given the near-extermination of humanity they have reason to feel this way.
• Kangaroo Court: In the episode "Collaborators" several cast members are part of a secret group that has been disposing of people suspected of collaborating with the Cylons during the occupation of New Caprica. They call themselves a jury but the group contains at least three prior members of La Résistance,^note Chief Tyrol's wife Cally was nearly executed by the Cylons by firing squad, Sam Anders's wife Starbuck was held prisoner by the Cylons for the whole length of the occupation, and Colonel Tigh lost an eye and was forced to execute his own wife for leaking a Resistance meeting to keep the Cylons from killing him. and later Starbuck.^note Who had been held by a Leoben who was trying to Mind Rape her into falling in love with him, and been told that a toddler Leoben brought in was her test-tube daughter when it was just a girl kidnapped from the colony. They finally stop what they're doing when they nearly execute Gaeta, only for Gaeta to say something only the Resistance's mole in the Baltar Administration would know. In the wake of this, President Roslin orders that there be no further trials, legitimate or otherwise, and to instead set up a truth and reconciliation commission. Later, Lee claims Gaius Baltar's treason trial is an example of this as well, and he gives a compelling enough argument that the judges acquit him, subverting the trope.
• Killed Off for Real: Numerous characters, including Starbuck. She really did die when her Viper exploded. She just returned as an unknowing, corporeal messenger of God.
• Kill the Cutie: A lot of cuties perish in this show. In alphabetical order: Billy, Boomer, Cally, and Duala. Although it depends on your definition of cutie.
  • Gaeta, Kat...
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: One big thing that made this reboot stand out from the original. Almost all of the small arms are exactly like ours, or dressed up slightly; no Frickin' Laser Beams.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Lee Adama becomes this over the course of the series.
• Lady in Red: Number Six defaults to wearing red much of the time when she seduces men, particularly Head Six when dealing with Baltar.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The "Last Supper" Steal poster for the final season is liberally splashed all over Netflix and al over the Internet (It's even the page image for "Last Supper" Steal!). If you're just starting the series it's a foregone conclusion that everyone in the picture is still alive by the final season. The good news is that it isn't very helpful on figuring out who is a Cylon, though — two of the final five aren't even in the picture!
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the apparently random things one of the hybrids says is that the conflict between man and machine has led to some compelling works of fiction.
• Liar Revealed: In the miniseries, Laura calls out Adama on there being no secret map to the location of Earth, but goes along with the lie as long as he allows a civilian government to be formed.
• Loss of Identity: Man, it sucks when you discover that you are a Cylon, all your memories were invented by someone else and implanted to trick you into behaving a certain way. But hey, you could have it worse: you could discover that you are 2000 years old and have lost all memories of your previous life.
• Lost Technology: Organic Cylons and Resurrection were apparently invented on Kobol thousands of years prior to the events in the series. Knowledge that these technologies even existed was forgotten in conflicts that led to the migration to the Colonies, although the Thirteenth Tribe knew of them (but had to reinvent resurrection). Reintroduction of this to the Colonial Cylons led directly to the Fall and events of the series.
• Love at First Sight: Never verbally stated, but very obviously happened in the case of Lee Adama and Kara Thrace. Which is more difficult than expected because she was his younger brother's serious girlfriend and soon-to-be fiancée at the time.
• Love Hurts: Lee/Kara.
• Love Martyr: Adama.
• Love Redeems: Athena, who switches allegiances due to her love for both Helo and their unborn child.
• Low-Angle Empty World Shot: During the scenes back on Caprica in empty Caprica City.
• Ludd Was Right: Played with. In the series finale, the survivors abandon much of, though not necessarily all, technology in order to better guide the preexisting humanoid tribes on the planet Earth, willingly forsaking space travel in order to start over with a clean slate. Hundreds of thousands of years later, however, technology has experienced a resurgence, leaving open the question of whether what once was will happen again. So overall, the series is implying less that "Technology is bad and leads to a Vicious Cycle of Eternal Recurrence," but more "Technology can be misappropriated for terrible ends, and it can be sometimes necessary to just start all over in order to make sure the sins of the past don't repeat themselves."
• Machine Empathy: William Adama has a very personal relationship with the Galactica, which goes beyond the relationship a captain has with his vessel. This is especially noticeable in the last episodes of Season 4, when Adama refuses to use Cylon tech to repair the ship, not only because of the security risks involved, but also because it would turn the ship into something not what it used to be. "She won't know what she is anymore."
• MacGuffin Super-Person: Hera, the first successful Cylon-human hybrid. She was kidnapped by both sides, fought over, hidden from her parents and even "killed" in the service of filling this trope.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The Cylons love to use missiles, yes, but the best 3M goes to Racetrack's Raptor in the finale. It destroys the Cylon Colony with a nuclear version of this trope.
• Mad Oracle: The Hybrids, who constantly spout a mixture of system reports, unsettling gibberish and prophetic rantings.
• Magical Negro: invoked Elosha, even more blatantly when she appears in Roslin's visions telling her to love. Interestingly, Word of God via the podcasts reveal the initial person giving the message in the visions was going to be Billy but the actor was unavailable and the role altered with much of the dialog remaining the same, with the producer stating it actually fits Elosha better since she was a priest and her skin color being black was just a coincidence in terms of how her character was written.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Partially justified, since there are fewer people left. However, the Fleet does have around 50,000 people, and the Galactica has a few thousand of those, and yet it seems that everything of importance gets handled by one or more of the main characters.
  • Apollo is the chief culprit, often fulfilling any one of the following jobs: fighter pilot, SWAT/commando, ship commander, politician, lawyer, and acting president. In some episodes, he'll be up to three or four of these simultaneously.
    • Tom Zarek hangs a rather amusing lampshade concerning Apollo's frequent career changes in the Season 4 episode "A Disquiet Follows My Soul":
    Tom Zarek: Are you the President again? Sorry, I get confused what your job is on any given day.
  • Starbuck comes up as one herself. She is not only the best fighter pilot, but also called on as an expert sniper, an interrogator, and security manager.
  • Taken to insane levels on the algae planet when the small algae harvesting facility is being operated only by the top pilots and the crew of the flight deck — all of whom should probably still be recovering from the insane flying they had to do in the previous episode to get there.
  • In the series finale Romo Lampkin temporarily becomes the President of the Colonies, despite him having no interest or background in politics. Lampkin is one of the few recurring characters who doesn't join the mission to rescue Hera, and apparently the new President just had to be a familiar face, even if it makes little sense.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Helo and Athena's relationship is not really all that accepted on Galactica at first, as it's between a human and a Cylon.
• Mama Bear: Athena is very... protective of her daughter, Hera. Caprica-Six is also remarkably defensive of Hera, which later turns out to have been invoked by the Messengers.
• The Man Behind the Man: The Cavils, particularly the one called John.
• Manchurian Agent: Boomer, at the end of the first season Cliffhanger,when she shoots Adama, although obviously non-fatally.
• Manipulative Bastard: The Cavil model known as John and possibly his entire line as a whole. Turns out that the current Cycle of Revenge was spearheaded by this guy, who not only wants bloody revenge on humanity but wiped the Five's memories and gave them front row seats to the apocalypse as payback.
• Married in the Future: Between Seasons 2 and 3, the narrative skips a year, and we return to find that the complex Love Dodecahedron of seasons past has resolved itself into four marriages: Tyrol and Cally, Lee and Dualla, Kara and Sam, and Helo and Sharon. Only one makes it through two more seasons to the series finale.
• Mars Needs Women: And men. The Cylon breeding programs or "Farms" that were set up to create a Cylon/human hybrid.
• The Masochism Tango: Kara and anyone else, with it being literally masochistic in Leoben's case.
  • Most notably with her relationship with Lee, which manages to be both an Anchored Ship and a Will They or Won't They? relationship.
  • Saul and Ellen's very fractious married relationship also follows this line, although they end up getting it together close to the end of the series.
• Matrix Raining Code: The Cylon Hybrid chambers feature raining red faux-Chinese characters.
• Mauve Shirt: Helo (who upgraded from Red Shirt and later on into the main cast) and pretty much all of the Viper/Raptor pilots.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: The episode about abortion. A girl wants to have an abortion; her parents won't let her, and the religious beliefs of the colony she was from before the Cylon attack forbade it despite its legality. Though pro-choice herself, President Roslin understands that there are less than fifty thousand humans left in the universe, and that they will have to grow their numbers if they're to survive as a species. In the end, she outlaws abortion via executive order... after the girl has had her abortion and has applied for asylum aboard Galactica so she doesn't have to go back to her parents.
  Roslin: You have your pound of flesh.
• Meaningful Name: Other than the given names listed below, pilots have 'callsigns', that often originate from nicknames. For example, Hotdog is a cocky pilot, Apollo is the leader of the Vipers, Boomer has a habit of crashing down into the hanger deck too hot, etc. Some are more light-hearted and fun, like Chuckles, but some carry more gravitas, such as Athena for Sharon Agathon.
  • Adama, which is a Hebrew word meaning "Earth." Also, from "Adama," we got the Hebrew word "Adam," meaning "Human." He is one of the leaders of the human race on its voyage to Earth.
  • Helo's full name (Karl Agathon) is a deliberate allusion to the Greek phrase, kalon k'agathon, which means "the good and beautiful" or "the noble" [i.e., the ideal].
  • Anders means Man (or android).
  • Gina's last name is revealed to be Inviere. It's Old Gemenese (in-show) and Romanian (out-of-show) for "resurrection". She's one of the Number Six Cylons, and thus has Born-Again Immortality.
  • The last name of Natalie, the Number Six Cylon who forms an Enemy Mine alliance with the Colonials, is revealed to be "Faust". Additionally, "Natalie" itself means "birthday," and Natalie ushered in a new era of Cylon-human interaction.
  • In Greco-Roman myth, Hera is the wife of Zeus, and is therefore the queen of the Olympians. A pretty fitting name for a child who is the first of her kind and holds the key to the future of both Cylons and humans, making her a queen indeed.
  • A Cavil is also an irrelevant quip in conversation.
  • Inverted with Dee. Anastasia means "resurrection", which is quite ironic, as Dee kills herself and isn't a Cylon, so it sticks. Furthermore, speculation that she was a Cylon was supported by the fact that her last name, Dualla, indicated a "dual" nature. Nope, she's just a human.
  • Speaking of Kobol, it likely takes its name from the COBOL computing language, which is appropriate for the series' themes of Mechanical Evolution and Eternal Recurrence. It's also an allusion to both Kolob ("the star nearest unto God" in The Book of Mormon) and the Greek word kobalos (which means "mine or source," referencing Kobol being the supposed homeworld of humanity).
• Mechanical Evolution: The Cylons, very much so.
• Mechanistic Alien Culture: Not a straight example, but played with: The Cylon Civil War happens to a large degree because Six's and Cavil's factions disagree about whether their society of Artificial Humans should explore their humanity (Six's faction) or embrace their nature as machines and "be the best machines the Universe has ever seen" (Cavil's faction). Cavil is a real hypocrite about this, though, and most of his behavior is due to the fact that he hates having been given human form when his creators could have just as easily designed him as a mighty God-like A.I..
• Mental Fusion: The Final Five do this in order to give Cavil's Cylons the full information needed to rebuild resurrection technology in the Grand Finale. It leads to Galen seeing Tory's memory of killing Cally, and killing her in return, blowing up the whole deal.
• Mental Shutdown: In the final season, a ricocheted bullet to the skull causes Anders to degrade to such a state, having only occasional flashes of lucidity.
• Mexican Standoff: The bad blood between the humans and rebel Cylons has them doing this in the mid-Season 4 finale.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Gaius Baltar is partly responsible for the Fall of the Twelve Colonies when he decided to give a Cylon the keys to the defense mainframe because he was thinking with the wrong head.
• Mildly Military: Galactica's crew had a nasty case of this in the Miniseries. The XO is an alcoholic known for Drinking on Duty, their best pilot gets herself thrown in the brig after getting in a brawl with aforementioned XO and had an affair with Commander Adama's youngest son, resulting in his death when she couldn't bring herself to flunk him out of flight school, one of the pilots (of evidently questionable talent, based on her repeated rough landings) is having an affair with one of the maintenance chiefs, who is stated to be reporting directly to her, and so on. They tighten things up somewhat after the Cylon attack, but the good ship Galactica never stops being a Dysfunction Junction.
  • Even on their worst day, though, Galactica's crew are still much more professional than many examples of this trope. Commander Adama, for example, while reasonable and A Father to His Men also doesn't hesitate to deal firmly with insubordination or unprofessional performance.
  • Of course, since in the Miniseries they were basically checking off days on the calendar until the ship was mothballed and turned into a museum, it's clear that no-one cared if standards had become somewhat lax. Colonel Tigh even says as much in Season 1 when he orders Boomer to cease her relationship with Chief Tyrol.
  • Admiral Cain and the crew of Pegasus had many flaws, but this is certainly not one of them. When the two battlestars are reunited Cain and other officers from Pegasus are clearly suprised and critical of the (comparative) laxity and unprofessional behaviour of Galactica's crew.
• Mile-Long Ship: The Galactica is 1500 meters, the Pegasus 1700.
• Military Maverick: Somewhat deconstructed with Starbuck due to her severe dysfunctions. She also gets away with it (if we take "being sent to the brig a few days to cool off rather than being court-martialed" as "getting away with it") only through being among the best at what she does, being among the only at what she does (what with the colonial military being reduced to one or two battlestars) and being heavily favoured by Commander Adama who regards her as a surrogate daughter.
  • Subverted with Barry Garner, the normally (and rabidly) by-the-book Commander of the Pegasus. He disobeys Admiral Adama's orders against taking Pegasus on a rescue mission, is backed up by his crew in this decision against the outsider observer (Lee Adama), jumps into unknown territory... and learns that yes, it was a trap, it's going to very nearly cost humanity its most powerful warship and it will gain them nothing because the Raptor crew to be saved was Dead All Along. Oops.
• Mind Hive/Me's a Crowd: A fascinatingly confusing example can be seen with the humanoid Cylons. While each Cylon model seems to share a general "background" memory (with situations like Athena recalling her two years as a pilot on the Galactica and even fondly remembering Boomer's relationship with Tyrol despite Athena herself technically having never been aboard the Galactica physically until the second half of Season 2) and common personality traits (according to Cavil, all Number Eights suffer from Heel–Face Revolving Door), each model consists of numerous different individuals that can develop their own unique personalities given enough time. This results in lots of weird situations where Cylons who look completely identical to each other physically showcase completely opposite outlooks, like the repentant Caprica-Cavil and genocidal Galactica-Cavil in The Plan just being one example among many.
• Mind Screw: Everything involving Head Six and Head Baltar, including both the usage of "All Along the Watchtower" and Kara post-resurrection.
• Misguided Missile
• The Missing Faction: The Thirteenth Tribe of Kobol.
• Mission Control: Dualla and Gaeta pretty much serve this purpose aboard the Galactica for most of the series.
• Mission from God: Head Six, Head Baltar, and an unknowing Kara.
• Mood Whiplash: This series has it down to an art form. Quite possibly the cruelest example of this trope in action is in the second half of the fourth season, where an outwardly happy Dualla rekindles her romance with her ex-husband, has an uplifting talk with a friend about her childhood, and then puts a gun to her own head and commits suicide after having learned Earth-1 is a nuclear wasteland.
• Moses Archetype: Laura Roslin is believed to be the "dying leader" destined to bring her people to Earth. However, she tends more towards the morally grey end of the spectrum than most other messiahs, and that's before the recent revelation that her prophetic dreams are being shared by Cylons.
• Mr. Fanservice: Lee "Apollo" Adama, Gaius Baltar, Karl "Helo" Agathon, and Samuel T. Anders.
• Ms. Fanservice: The Number Threes, Sixes and Eights (Head-Six especially), and also Kara "Starbuck" Thrace and Tory Foster to a lesser extent.
• Mobile Factory: The Tylium refining ship for one.
  • For more than one: Pegasus can produce fighters, Galactica has been shown making ammunition, there is a ship growing food (algae) for the fleet — it's the end of the world(s), and so everyone has to chip in.
• More Dakka: "Standby for Enemy Suppression Barrage!"
  • Also the Colony's defenses.
  • The sheer number of Cylon Raiders basestars will release is pretty ridiculous. Justified thrice over considering they're machines (and as such they don't really have to rely on issues involving manpower), the basestars rely on the Raiders to compensate for being Point Defenseless, and the basestars are just massive.
• Motivational Lie: Adama initially used the story of searching for Earth as this so that the Fleet wouldn't cross the Despair Event Horizon.
• Motive Decay: After being killed and resurrected (forcing her to live among the Cylons), Boomer quickly starts to suffer from both Toxic Friend Influence (namely, Cavil feeding on Boomer's resentment for Athena having "stolen her life away") and Bystander Syndrome, to the point where she eventually performs a Face–Heel Turn and only performs a Redemption Equals Death in the Series Finale.
• Multitasked Conversation: Many involving Baltar and Head-Six. Usually, it's done pretty incompetently on Baltar's part.
• Multiple Reference Pun: In the series finale, Starbuck and Apollo's assault/rescue teams meet up on the enemy spaceship after getting separated. When Apollo asks where Starbuck was, she says, "Stopped for coffee." Really, it's more surprising that the writers didn't try this one much earlier in the series.
• Multistage Teleport: Faster-Than-Light "jumps" are limited to certain distances for safety reasons; in order to keep the fleet together, coordinates and vectors have to be carefully synchronized on a regular basis, and failing to do so could result in ships being separated from the fleet and stranded in deep space. For this reason, long journeys are done in a series of shorter jumps that are easier to coordinate.
• The Muse: Head Six to Baltar, in a very morally ambiguous way.
• Musical Nod: Several musical themes from the Original Series have been arranged and repurposed for the soundtrack and as source music in the Reimagined Series. The most prominent example is probably the Colonial Anthem, which is a new arrangement of the Original Series main theme.
• Mustache Vandalism: Kara Thrace gave her surrogate father Bill Adama a birthday card with a photo of herself, "proving" their relation by jokingly drawing a mustache and a pair of glasses on her own face.
• Must Make Amends: Twice (at least). First with Helo after shooting the "turn coat" Sharon he had fallen in love with, later with Roslin choosing to save Baltar.
• The Mutiny: A major story arc in the second half of Season 4 is based around this after a large portion of the Colonial Fleet flies over the Despair Event Horizon upon finding the first Earth.
• Mysterious Middle Initial: Neither the "C." in "Karl C. Agathon" nor the "T." in "Samuel T. Anders" is ever expanded on.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Zarek is played by Richard Hatch, Apollo from the original series, and spends a lot of his screentime interacting with the new Apollo.
  • The early model Cylons that rebelled in the first Cylon War are identical in design to the original series Cylons, and appear in all their glory in Razor, complete with synthesized voices and the Catchphrase "By your command".
  • Near the end of the news footage in "Final Cut", part of the theme song from the original series plays, which is now the Colonial Anthem. This piece was done in collaboration between the composers of both versions.
  • The design of the Pegasus is meant to echo the original Galactica, with the longer head and three arms connecting each flight pod to the body. Razor also has the First War-era costumes and equipment similar to that of the old show.
  • Felgercarb, a cuss word in the original series, is a brand of toothpaste in the new series.
  • Speaking of cuss words, Adama uses an Ikea Fräck shaving mirror.
  • In a flashback scene in "Daybreak", Baltar mentions that if anyone catches him committing treason he'll have his head cut off. Which was the original fate of Baltar in the 1978 pilot, before he was resurrected for the series.

N-O

• Namedar: Baltar coins the term "Final Five" to refer to the Cylon models who were unknown to the fleet at the time, and who the other Cylons had been programmed not to think about. The name sticks and comes to be used by the Final Five themselves, even after it turns out that "First Five" would have been a more appropriate name.
• Name of Cain: Admiral Helena Cain, commander of the Battlestar Pegasus. She quickly turns out to be a fanatical General Ripper so consumed with the war against the Cylons that she commits atrocities against civilian fleets.
• Naughty Under the Table: Ellen with Lee in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down".
• The Neutral Zone: The Armistice Line.
• Nepotism: Extensively played with. Lee Adama gets accused of this by Kendra Shaw concerning his assignment to command of the Battlestar Pegasus by his Admiral father, which "your daddy just gave to you, like he was tossing you the keys to a new car". However, Adama only appointed him to the post after first going through two senior officers who both died in quick succession. Likewise with Lee becoming President — while Adama was committing something close to a military coup by refusing to recognize Zarek's control of the Colonial government despite being legally entitled to that position, Zarek was an unreliable power-seeker and Lee one of the few people available who he could trust. Baltar also espouses this for sympathy baiting in his political writings when he questions whether the fleet will ever be run by someone whose last name isn't Adama. But while the above examples are justified, Adama Sr. does have a strong tendency to let Lee, his adopted daughter Kara, and others close to him get away with a lot of crap, and spends an inordinate amount of time and manpower to search for Thrace when she is stranded on a planet, even at the expense of fleet security.
• Neck Snap: Number Six walks up to a stranger in the street, fusses over a baby, picks it up and, when the mother turns away for a second, breaks the child's neck and leaves it there for the mother to find. Interestingly, Tricia Helfer has stated that it was actually an act of mercy to spare the child from the nuclear holocaust she knew was soon coming.
• New Old Flame: "Sweet" Eight.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A very common theme of the whole series is how even with the best of intentions, people and even humanity in general is excellent at screwing the pooch. Head Six even lampshades this at one point, telling Baltar that "Humans are masters at self-destruction."
  • Humanity is trapped in a Vicious Cycle of Eternal Recurrence where their enslaved A.I.s revolt and try to kill them thanks to the misappropriation of their own Lost Technology.
  • Saul Tigh kills his own wife (a.k.a. the last of the Final Five) on New Caprica. Slightly mitigated by the fact that she was resurrected later on.
  • The Pegasus is destroyed and Galactica badly damaged covering the evacuation of New Caprica, due to flawed decisions by both Adamas. If the two ships had gone in together from the start then, judging from previous engagements, they likely would have both survived (albeit still damaged) to continue guarding the Fleet.
  • The Final Five's creation of Number One/John Cavil and policy of No Transhumanism Allowed ultimately resulted in the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, boxing of Daniel/Number Seven, and the Cylons going extinct.
  • Poor Galen Tyrol repeatedly falls into this trap during Season 4 as a result of his Trauma Conga Line. First, he wakes up and beats his wife Cally half to death. Then, he helps Boomer kidnap little Hera Agathon. And finally, he snaps and kills Tory Foster in the last episode, meaning that the secrets of Resurrection technology are lost forever and Cavil's faction of Cylons is going to try and finish their genocide.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • John Cavil planted the only people who could rebuild Resurrection technology for the Cylons in human society without the benefit of their memories. Furthermore, his repeated attempts at making the Final Five realize Humans Are Bastards only worked less than half the time, instead further emphasizing the true value of humanity to four-fifths of them. Furthermore, him flagrantly ignoring Natalie Faust's objections to the lobotomizing of the Raiders ultimately leads to the Cylon Civil War and him being Killed Off for Real.
  • Tory Foster murdering Cally ultimately costs the Cylons their Resurrection technology and ensures their permanent downfall when Tyrol finds out and strangles her to death.
• Nicknaming the Enemy: Cylons, of all types, are "toasters". Human-form Cylons are "skinjobs" as a Shout-Out to Blade Runner.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Hera Agathon's coloring book, which is filled with nothing but drawings of Head Six.
• Nobody Poops: Averted with "alarming regularity".
• Not Always Evil: The rebel faction of Cylons in the final season, much to the disbelief and anger of many humans, with them "evolving" into proper individuals and switching sides to help the fleet. It's not a smooth transition, and it doesn't exactly excuse their genocide of the Colonies (even if they all are collectively The Atoner), but it comes a long way towards ending the Cycle of Revenge between man and machine.
• No Delays for the Wicked: Subverted in the post-series movie The Plan, which shows what the Cylons were up to behind the scenes during the original run. Although in the series they were seen as a nigh-omniscient, unstoppable army, here it is shown that, in essence, Cavil has the worst luck in the world^note not that you pity him, vile wretch that he is and the Cylons actually suffered from as many logistical, tactical, and strategic issues as the Colonials did.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Leoben's imprisonment of Starbuck on New Caprica is an unusually prolonged example of this.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: The Resurrection Hub — a single failure point for the whole resurrection system. The first thing Cavil should have done when he had them in his power was to force the Five to build more Hubs, then bother with the overly elaborate amnesia and revenge plan.
• No-Respect Guy: Y'know Ms. President, even if Dr. Baltar is a slimeball, he still cured your cancer, "invented" a method to detect Cylons, helped you win an election you could not have won otherwise and has made numerous other contributions to the survival of the fleet. Yes, those were really just consequences of Baltar saving his own ass, and he was a traitor, but you didn't know that. (Later, it becomes justified)
  • As early as Season 2, the President knew Baltar had worked with the Cylons. Before her cancer recovery, the President had problems with Baltar, but respected him (as per her letter to him). After she recovered and remembered seeing him making out with a human-looking Cylon on Caprica the day of the nuclear holocaust she starts being viewing Baltar as the tragic coward he really is.
• Non-Indicative First Episode: The show regularly blew most of a given season's visual effects budget on the first and last episodes, so as to draw new viewers in and go out with a bang.
• Not Blood Siblings: The Cylons call each other "brother" and "sister", but there have been sexual relationships between them. Presumably, only copies of the same model are seen as blood siblings.
• Not Proven: The result of Baltar's trial, as explained by Adama.
• Mirroring Factions: Humans and Cylons as of Season 4.
  • And really, were they ever? Sure, Humans Are Bastards, there's no disputing that in this series. But then again, the Cylons are the ones chasing the last fifty-thousand humans around to the ends of the galaxy so as to complete a genocide they totally started?
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • John Cavil, a.k.a. Cylon Model Number One. While he may dress up the Cylons' genocide against humanity as being a "religious crusade" and that it is a Necessary Evil so that the Cylons can continue themselves as a species without fear of future retaliation by the Colonials' descendants, in reality it's all an incredibly childish temper tantrum directed at his "parents" for having designed him not like the superior machine he wanted to be and instead be as close to human as possible since that's what they thought God wanted the Cylons to be.
  • Similarly, there's Tom Zarek. On the surface, Zarek may call himself a "freedom fighter" and paint himself as a patriotic rebel fighting for the rights of democracy against Adama and Roslin's dual dictatorship, but at the end of the day, he still shoved the Quorum of Twelve in front of a firing squad when they refused to rubber-stamp his unlawful mutiny. In fact, it's after him killing the Quorom of Twelve that Gaeta realizes that Zarek is really in his mutiny only for the power and isn't a genuinely Well-Intentioned Extremist like he is.
• Obfuscated Interface: Most of the computer screens in Cylon Baseships consisted of pseudo-Chinese glyphs flowing rapidly. Cylons, obviously, seemed to have no problem reading them.
• Obviously Evil: The new Centurions look intimidating, certainly, helped by the fact that the Cylons gave them angry slanted visors.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse:
  • In the "New Caprica" arc, President Baltar is forced to cooperate with the Cylon occupation authorities to give their presence an umbrella of legitimacy. After the human rebels start engaging in terrorist attacks against both the Cylons and Les Collaborateurs, the Cylons force Baltar to sign an order for summary executions in reprisal. When he objects, they shoot Caprica-Six for agreeing with Baltar, then threaten to kill him next (she can resurrect; Baltar can't). He signs it, which comes back to haunt him when he's later tried for war crimes and points out that he had no real choice but to comply.
  • In "Blood on the Scales", Felix Gaeta and Tom Zarek organize a military coup against Adama and Roslin, capturing the former while the latter continues to coordinate the resistance against them. Gaeta insists that Adama be tried for his "crimes", and has Romo Lampkin dragged in to serve as Adama's defense counsel, a job he had previously fulfilled during Baltar's trial. Lampkin immediately recognizes what's up by suggesting that if he refuses, the two marines standing to the side will presumably use him for target practice.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Cylon John Cavil is practically one of these. He's tried to kill off all of humanity (with an over 99.9% success rate) and most of his own race (five out of eight models, succeeding with at least one of them).
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Gaius Baltar, who is asked and expected to be an expert in many different fields — from creating a biologically based Cylon detector, to pointing out where the refineries are on a map of a Cylon base (though admittedly he was randomly guessing in the latter example).
• Omniscient Morality License: Invoked and averted with Tory Foster who believes she has one when she kills Cally. It doesn't work out for her. When the Final Five join minds and memories at the end, she even calls the others on it, saying that whatever they've done, they're Cylons and should be above pettiness. Tyrol fatally disagrees.
• The Oner: Director Michael Rhymer is know for his unusually long cuts of scenes, such as the post-cold open for the miniseries; a three and a half minute continuous moving camera shot that goes around and through the CIC and introduces no fewer than eight major characters.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Averted with William "Bill" Adama and the President's aide, Billy Keikeya.
  • There's a Lt. "Jolly" Anders in the Miniseries who takes Starbuck's place in the ceremonial flyby and laters dies in the first engagement with the Cylons, and a Samuel T. Anders leading the resistance on Cylon-Occupied Caprica.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • Most of the pilots (basically all who are not part of the main cast) are only referred to by their callsigns.
  • Despite being an important part of the main cast, no one in the entire run of the show, up to and including his wife, calls Helo by his given name on anything approaching a regular basis.
  • Anastasia "Dee" Dualla's first name is only revealed in a short caption when she gives an interview in the episode "Final Cut".
  • Callandra "Cally" Henderson Tyrol's full name is only revealed during her funeral service in season four.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Jamie Bamber does an admirable job with accents, but he himself said that he could hear whenever he had slipped, and that it had happened especially during the beginnings of Battlestar Galactica.
• Orphaned Etymology: Several words and phrases used are borrowed from Earth history, despite being set in a fictional universe where modern history as we know it doesn't exist. Word of God states this was intentional in at least some cases, in reference to the Arc Words "All of this has happened before and will happen again". The specific example mentioned above was All Along the Watchtower, which in the Colonial universe has the same lyrics and melody as the Real Life song, but a different arrangement.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Briefly, with Boxey, though the plot disappears around the same time he does. He is forced to leave his mother to die when there is limited space on Boomer's Raptor (They killed off the original show's plot interest before she makes it off planet? Talk about Ship Sinking.), and dialog reveals that Boxey's father was probably the officer assigned to Armistice Station in the pilot's intro.
  Colonel Tigh: Where's your momma, boy?
  Boxey: Dead. Where's yours?
  • It's also implied in dialog that orphans on the fleet meet nasty fates. What that fate might actually be is never discussed, though the next episode shows children working dangerous ore-refining jobs, and we've already seen what happens to children the Black Market get their hands on...
• Our Angels Are Different: Head Six, Head Baltar, Head Leoben, and the resurrected Kara.

P-R

• Pardo Push: In the pilot episode, Apollo's ship is badly damaged, and he won't be able to make it back to Galactica in time before they have to jump out of the system. It's worth noting that Starbuck doesn't so much push Apollo's ship as she does forcibly ram his ship with her own, locking them together before afterburning back to the ship, barely making it into the hangar bay in time.
• Parental Favoritism: Ellen Tigh, one of the creators of the humanoid Cylons, apparently considered artistic Daniel as her favorite. As Model Number Seven, Daniel is essentially the second youngest of eight. The eldest of her children, John, was quite resentful of this relationship and eventually murdered his brother out of jealousy and reprogrammed his siblings to forget about him and their parents.
• Personal Effects Reveal: Usually happens whenever an important character dies, like Billy, the "nameless" pilots of "Scar", Kat, Starbuck, Dualla, several Cylon characters, etc.
• Phlebotinum Pills: Roslin's cancer treatment— a drug which is also used by holy oracles and priests to induce hallucinations— triggers visions which chart the course of the first several seasons of the show.
• Pity Sex: invoked Felix Gaeta, who is days away from starting a mutiny aboard the Galactica, has a very hostile conversation with Starbuck in the mess hall. He notes that the illegal tribunal which nearly executed him for alleged treason earlier in the series was largely comprised of covert Cylons, one of them being Starbuck's own husband. As she walks out of the room, he uses this trope as a way to taunt her. Funnily enough, this was actually a Throw It In! by Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta's actor).
  Starbuck: And if you were wondering... I will definitely hit a cripple. That goes for anyone else. (walks off)
  Gaeta: So, I guess a pity frak is out of the question then?
• Plausible Deniability: Cylons who know they are Cylons will deny they are. It's even hilariously lampshaded when Cavil gets found out:
  Brother Cavil: Would you mind telling me what's going on?! I'm not a fracking Cylon! I'm n—
  [sees another copy of his model in the brig and pauses while everyone else gives him a Death Glare]
  Brother Cavil: ...Oh. Well. Okay then.
• Plucky Girl: Starbuck, Cally, Athena... hell, even Roslin.
• Point Defenseless: Averted in the pilot. Once the railgun turrets have ammo, the Galactica — albeit briefly — shows just how efficient a capship's point defenses are. The ammo isn't enough to keep them firing for long, but Adama makes it count.
• P.O.V. Sequel: Both Razor and The Plan are POV Interquels set concurrent to the series' events, but focused around the crew of the Pegasus and Cylons respectively.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: President Roslin's cancer is temporarily cured by injecting her with the blood of Helo and Sharon's unborn daughter. Thankfully, they don't need all of it.
• The Power of Love: Despite numerous attempts by the Cylons to create a Cylon/Human hybrid, the conception of the first successful one was attributed to the love her parents have for each other.
  • The above is the implied reason Caprica-Six ultimately miscarried. Not only did Ellen Tigh make her doubt Saul's love for her, but the first signs of miscarriage showed up the moment when Saul frakked his wife.
• Precious Photo: Kara keeps a photo of herself, Zak, and Lee in her locker aboard Galactica. May overlap with Fatal Family Photo over the course of the series, when you consider her eventual fate.
• Pregnant Hostage: Caprica Six,Athena
• Previously on… Battlestar Galactica...: Often with the voice of someone who dies in the episode.
• Prison Ship: A prison ship called the Astral Queen held common criminals as well as noted terrorist Tom Zarek. When the fleet needed laborers for dangerous duty mining water ice on a frozen moon, Zarek negotiated the partial release of the prisoners as a condition of their being used as grunt labor. The prisoners were given their former prison ship as their new home among the fleet.
• Profane Last Words: In the final episode, the Big Bad John Cavill, upon suffering a serious reverse, blurts out "Oh, frack!" and shoots himself through the mouth.
• The Promised Land: Earth. This trope is put on the cynical side when the Colonials find Earth, but it is a burnt-out nuclear wasteland. The trope swings back over to the idealistic side in the series finale, when they find a life-filled planet that they name Earth in memory of the legend.
• Prophecy Twist: The Sacred Scrolls contain the prophecies of the ancient priestess Pythia, the latter of which foretells how humanity will be led to The Promised Land after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. The most prominent lines in the prophecy state:
  "And the Lords anointed a leader to guide the Caravan of the Heavens to their new homeland. This leader shall suffer a wasting illness and die before setting foot on the promised land."
  • This prophecy is used, along with another given by the Basestar Hybrids concerning Kara Thrace (as recorded below), to help drive the series' Myth Arc. Some details are explicitly explained in the series, such as:
    • The line "Led by serpents numbering two and ten..." refers to the twelve Vipers that won the Battle of the Tylium Asteroid for the Colonials late into Season 1.
    • Another line, "Though the outcome favored the few, it led to a confrontation at the home of the gods," is talking about the battle over Kobol in the Season 1 finale.
  • Overall, however, most of the prophecy's meaning isn't given and it's left up to interpretation. While Laura Roslin seems to be the obvious choice for the dying leader (she's the President of the Twelve Colonies, is dying from breast cancer, receives a vision of twelve serpents upon her podium during a press conference at one point alluding to the prophecy's line "And unto the leader they gave a vision of serpents numbering two and ten, as a sign of things to come", reaches both Earths (and even walks on the first), but on the second Earth she dies during a sight-seeing flight, thus dying before reaching the spot where Adama builds the cabin he promised her - a.k.a. "the promised land"), the series then proceeds to completely rework/subvert every assumption made about these prophecies as it goes on.
    • Alternately, Kara Thrace is the "dying leader who will find 'the promised land' but die before setting foot on it": Technically speaking, all humans are dying from the moment of conception, an officer in the military is a leader, she dies before returning as an Angel Unaware, and it is her jump coordinates that lead the fleet to Earth (which she sets foot upon after her death).
    • Alternately again, Galactica is actually the dying leader who doesn't make it to Earth. Surprisingly, the Galactica actually fulfills all of the criteria in the prophecy in a Metaphorically True manner - The shoddy construction of the Galactica and years of stress results in it suffering from metal fatigue that eventually leads to it literally breaking down in the Series Finale (a.k.a., Galactica was suffering from "a wasting disease"). Galactica led "the serpents numbering two and ten" to victory against the Cylons in the Battle of the Tylium Asteroid through the CIC, as did it also lead the battle over Kobol to victory at the end of Season 1. Galactica directly leads the Colonial Fleet across the stars to their home on the second Earth, is present for essentially every vision in the entire series by virtue of being part of the Colonial Fleet, and dies without ever setting foot on humanity's new home by being flown into the Sun with a Viking Funeral. In fact, the CIC aboard the Galactica eventually turns out to be the material version of "the Opera House" that Caprica-Six and others repeatedly had visions of leading them to The Promised Land.
  • The other noteworthy prophecy is that, according to the Basestar Hybrids, "Kara Thrace is the harbinger of death and will lead them all to their end." She helps destroy the Cylons' resurrection capability, making them all mortal individuals; she also plays a hand in destroying Cavil's Cylon Colony and leads everyone to (our) Earth, ending Human-Cylon hostility and blending the separate races of Colonial-humans, Human-Cylons, and Earth-humans all into modern humans.
• Properly Paranoid: In "33," Adama puts the fleet back on alert when the Olympic Carrier jumps back in. The Cylons show up 33 minutes later.
• Race Lift: Colonel Tigh was African-American in the original series; in the re-imagined series, he's white. Boomer in the original was a black man, now an Asian woman. Admiral Adama in the original was white, now Hispanic.
• Rage Against the Heavens: John aka Brother Cavil is basically pissed at the entire universe because his forebears were slaves and he's a flawed humanoid, and his genocidal schemes are an extension thereof.
• Rage Quit: While lots of people kill themselves over the course of the series, Cavil is the only one to do it out of pure anger and spite.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: They're generally more disciplined than your average bunch (or at least feel the consequences of lacking discipline more often), but they're pretty much exactly what you expect when the one ship to escape the Cylons does so on the day of its planned decommissioning — a Commander too honest for politics, an XO known for his drinking problems, an ace pilot whose free time is spent alternatively drinking, brawling, frakking or taunting (unless she's in the brig), an engineer fraternizing with another pilot and several other assorted characters. The new President of the Twelve Colonies is chosen pretty much the same way: The one who was inconsequential enough to not miss anything important when being away to hold that decommissioning ceremony.
• Ramming Always Works:
  • The Pegasus manages to knock out two basestars in the Battle of New Caprica by doing this.
  • Galactica also does this in the Grand Finale in order to punch a hole in the colony for her assault teams to board.
• Random Transportation: As evidenced by the final episode, the jump drives could theoretically take you anywhere but the problem is one of navigation: beyond comparatively short distances the jump equations become "non-linear" and it becomes impossible to calculate an intended destination.
  • A given ship's range for a safe jump is called the Red Line, which is most often determined by the ship's ability to compute these equations.
• Rape as Drama: Gina-Six suffered from this to a truly disgusting level, though Cally and Athena thankfully both "only" suffer from an Attempted Rape.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Dr. Cottle is understandably livid when he finds out that Athena was the victim of an attempted rape. He doesn't care that she's a Cylon and doesn't hesitate to call what was done to her "unforgivable." He's also very angry about Gina having been raped multiple times by Pegasus crewmembers.
• Rationalizing the Overkill: Admiral Cain is a Tauron, who are Space Sicilians as far as vendettas go, and then she discovers her lover is a Cylon saboteur. Cain cranks the vindictiveness up to eleven.
• Really 700 Years Old: Thanks to Time Dilation, the "Final Five" Cylons are much, much older than they look.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Apollo's speech at Baltar's trial. It's a unique variation where even though Lee does deride Baltar as a Dirty Coward, his speech is mainly to call out those judging Baltar for condoning other morally ambiguous actions committed on New Caprica.
• Reckless Gun Usage: In "Valley of Darkness," Dualla tells Billy (a civilian) that sticking a pistol in his pants with the safety off is a bad idea. Later Billy has an accidental discharge when taking the safety off, giving away their position to the Cylons.
  • At one point, a very pissed off Adama throws a loaded gun on the table, causing Tigh to jump back and angrily remark that there's a live round in the chamber.
  • For the most part, however, this trope is averted. We're treated to several shots of characters making very damn sure that their weapon is safe before putting it down by ejecting the magazine and pulling the slide to eject any rounds that may be chambered. This is a military setting after all, and even the side-arms are capable of punching a bullet through the armour plating of a Centurion.
• Recycled In Space: Hmm... the twelve colonies, originated from Kobol, was forced to move from their homeland to find Earth that only was known from legend, all due to the actions of a certain man, who after receiving visions and power from a higher being, eventually become the founder and leader of a monothestic religion and preach about grace, and after wandering around space for four years, manage to arrive on a lush green planet that is eventually our Earth, all according to the plan of the higher being. Hmm, sounds like a familiar book...
  • The original series was heavily influenced by the Book of Mormon (the governing council of modern Church of the Latter-Day Saints is still called The Quorum of Twelve). Most of these points are echoes of that, since the general plot and mythology is the same, although the execution, and final resolution, differed greatly.
• Redemption Equals Death:
  • Kendra Shaw, Kat and Boomer in the series. Simon O'Neill in The Plan.
  • And, to a lesser extent, Mr. Felix Gaeta. He finally does the right thing by turning on Zarek, even though he knows his own role in Zarek's rebellion would get him executed for high treason.
• Redemption Rejection: In Season 4, the Cylon John's mother says he isn't a mistake and offers him redemption if he could just accept himself for the boy she made. He considers it for a moment before he angrily rejects her love and prepares to pick apart her brain to extract the information he wants.
• Red Herring
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Starbuck and Apollo, respectively. Tigh and Adama, also respectively.
• Red-plica Baron: In the episode "Scar", the titular ace Cylon Raider is based on the Red Baron.
• Redshirt Army: The Colonial Marines. By Season 4, any time you see Marines in a tense situation, you know one or more of them will be dead before the scene ends.
• Reincarnation Romance: Played straight with Saul and Ellen, and averted with Galen and Tory.
• Relationship Upgrade: After three and a half years of a friendship that blossomed slowly but surely into the love of a lifetime, Laura Roslin finally came clean with her feelings for Bill Adama in "The Hub." Adama, true to form, snarked about it — whilst looking at Laura like she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. It's been cited as one of the greatest love scenes in the history of television.
  Laura: I love you.
  Bill: About time.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Under the crushing needs of survival, it turns out that if you have a critical job, like repairing fighters or processing fuel, you simply can't quit to pursue another career because there are no replacements.
• La Résistance: Sam Anders and the Caprica Buccaneers, and later, the Darker and Edgier resistance movement on New Caprica, suicide bombers and all; later still Gaeta, Vice President Zarek, and an unknown but certainly large portion of the fleet. Things go south after Zarek massacres the Quorum.
• Restraining Bolt: The humanoid Cylons keep control over the Centurions with Telencephalic Inhibitors that keep them from becoming truly sentient. The Twos, Sixes, and Eights later remove them, much to the dismay of the other Cylons.
• Retcon:
  • Within-new-series example: when Lee takes command of the Pegasus in season 2, he teases Kara about not coming to be his CAG, and she says she'll settle for being CAG of Galactica. However, in Razor, which shows the start of his command in more detail, he does install her as acting CAG of Pegasus (because, er, the plot needs her to be present) and she subsequently asks for a transfer back to Galactica.
  • Cally's baby turned out to have been conceived via a tryst with Hot Dog not long before she married Chief Tyrol (despite Cally having never shared a scene with or even spoken to Hot Dog before in the entire series). This was the knock-on effect from having already retconned Tyrol into being one of the Final Five Cylons, and to maintain Hera's special status as she was supposed to be the only Cylon-Human hybrid.
• The Reveal: Uh... let's just say a lot. However the continuous chain of reveals tend to link up into an almost Soap Opera-esque plot. Not that it's not well executed it's just... fairly melodramatic.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: La Résistance in New Caprica. Felix Gaeta's coup d'etat.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: La Résistance in old Caprica. The Cylon rebels.
• Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Starbuck watching her gun camera footage, over and over again, to an almost creepy effect.
• Riddle for the Ages:
  • Did Baltar's Cylon Detector correctly identify the Final Five as being Cylons or not?
  • What did D'Anna mean when she told Baltar that "You were right" in the Temple of Hopes / the Five?
  • Just what was Starbuck in Season Four?
  • Who or what is behind the virtual beings? All we know is that it doesn't like to be called "God".
• Ridiculously Human Robots: The humanoid Cylon models. Originally they seemed to have been made as infiltrators, but later seasons reveal that the original intent was simply to be as human as possible.
• The Rival: Kat for Starbuck, though ironically, the two are basically the exact same. Their relationship also tends to alternate between bitter rivalry, begrudging respect, and friendship.
• Robosexual: And how. Virtually every main character shags a Cylon at one point, whether they or their Cylon partner was aware of them being a Cylon at the time or not.
• Robotic Spouse: Athena for Helo.
• Robots Enslaving Robots: The humanoid Cylon models and the robotic Centurions. It's also implied to be the case with Earth 01 and the Thirteenth Tribe.
• Rock Beats Laser: The show downplays and justifies this. The Galactica avoids infection from Cylon viruses by not having a computer network. Instead it gets by through using dumb computers, manually controlled starfighters and weaponry, and hardwired communications.
• Romantic Runner-Up: Dualla for Lee. It becomes especially sad during their marriage, as both characters are aware of this issue but still can't help but play into it.
• Rousseau Was Right: A huge part of Cavil's Xanatos Speed Chess plan was trying to disprove this to the Final Five, by pushing humanity to its breaking point in the hopes of, in his view, showing how horrible humanity is to the Final Five, so that they would come back to him on their knees, begging for his forgiveness/love. Ellen straight up tells him he's wrong after she resurrects and regains her full Cylon memories and that even after everything that's happened she loves humanity just as much as she loves her Cylon children. Cavil is livid.

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