The Council of Twelve celebrate the soon to be ratified peace accord with their longtime enemies, the machine civilization who call themselves Cylons. But one of the Council is still suspicious of the machines, Commander Adama. But his concerns fall on deaf ears. Meanwhile his sons Apollo and Zack make ready to take one last patrol before the unit is to be disbanded. While on Patrol, Apollo and Zac learn that the peace talks are nothing more than a Cylon trap.
Soon Adama and the rest of the fleet learn the Human-Cylon peace accords are nothing but a ruse by the Cylons to exterminate all humanity. Only the battlestar Galactica and a ragtag Fleet survive, journeying across the galaxy in search of a long-lost sister civilization, Earth.
On the first leg of their journey, the Fleet is lured to the planet Carillon for fuel and relaxation. However this all turns out to be a trap set by the Ovions, an underground, insectoid species in league with the Cylons. Adama comes up with a plan to fool the Cylons into thinking all of the Viper pilots are on Carillon. The plan succeeds, in large part to Apollo and his wingman Starbuck, who pursue and destroy the Cylon baseship along with planet Carillon itself.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The main Ovions who speak, Queen Lotay and her aide Seetol, are unnamed onscreen.
- And This Is for...: Done by Starbuck and Apollo during the final dogfight.Starbuck: [shoots down a Cylon raider] That one's for the Atlantia!Apollo: [lines up a Cylon raider in his sights] And this one's for Zac.
- Bee People: The Ovions appear to be somewhat bee-like.
- Big Damn Heroes: Subverted, without Vipers the Galactica can do nothing but watch as the colony planets are attacked by the Cylon raiders. While it is later established that Galactica can go toe to toe against a baseship and can absorb damage from a few raiders, the ship is horribly outnumbered in this case and would accomplish nothing but its own destruction if it attacked.
- In the battle over Carillon, however, Starbuck, Apollo, and Boomer trade places doing this for each other.
- Bigger on the Inside: Apollo flies Adama down to Caprica in a Viper Space Fighter despite it visibly only having space for one person. Galactica 1980 later retconned them to being two seater.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Male Ovions appear to have green Monochromatic Eyes while female Ovions appear to have yellow. Their young who are eating the people have red eyes.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: There was a three-issue adaptation by Marvel Comics.
- Coming in Hot: After the battle with the Cylons, Starbuck crashes his Viper in the Galactica's landing bay.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The battlestars, although powerful, are designed for fighting other capital ships and are weak against small fighters. With their own Vipers grounded, the fleet ends up suffering a Death of a Thousand Cuts.
- Damsel in Distress: Cassiopeia is captured by the Ovions and about to be eaten when Muffit, Apollo, and Starbuck save her.
- Dragon Ascendant: Baltar, due to being spared from a quick death by
Executive Meddling. - Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The fate of Carillon, thanks to the tylium set on fire by Apollo and Starbuck.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:Colonel Tigh: Why operate this far from Cylon without base ships when it isn't necessary? They would've been well out of our range at the old moon.Commander Adama: ... Unless it was necessary for them to be somewhere else. Get me the president!
- Extra Eyes: The Tucana singers each have four eyes.
- Glass-Shattering Sound: The Tucana singers use their high and low voices to shatter a nearby drinking glass.
- Greater Need Than Mine: Cassiopeia has a broken arm but insists on having another man's medical needs taken care of.
- Head-in-the-Sand Management: President Adar is extremely guilty of this.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Apollo and Starbuck realize that the Ovions are working for the Cylons, the two of them argue about who should go back up and warn the civilians at the resort while the other stays behind to light the tylium deposits, which would destroy the planet.
- Homeworld Evacuation: What Adama calls for after the initial massacre. Knowing that no colony world would be safe anymore.
- It's All My Fault: President Adar falls into this after realizing it was through his gullibility that the Cylons were able to ambush the fleet.
- Kick the Dog: Amongst the many civilian casualties on Caprica, Boxey's dog is crushed by a falling obelisk.
- Killed Off for Real: Poor Zac.
- Loophole Abuse: Adama can't order his vipers to launch when he suspects trouble, but he realises that nothing prevents him from ordering a "battlestations drill" to at least put his own battlestar on an unofficial Red Alert with his warriors on standby in their launch tubes to scramble at his order.
- Man on Fire:
- There's a shot of Zac bursting into flames just before his fighter explodes.
- There's a news report of people running around on fire thanks to the Cylon strafing runs.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Apollo is unwilling to leave Starbuck behind to destroy the tylium, citing what happened to Zac earlier in the episode.
- Novelization: Was novelized by Robert Thurston.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Zac when he looks at his scanner and sees the mass formations of Cylon Raiders.
- Starbuck when he shoots between two Cylons as he, Apollo, Boomer, Cassiopeia, Boxey and Muffit reach the elevator. He even says it out loud.
- Pleasure Planet: Carillon is a resort planet where people are lured to be eaten.
- Retcon: For the TV broadcast version of Saga of a Star World, the final scene is an epilogue that shows Baltar being dragged before the Imperious Leader and being told that the Imperious Leader who ordered his death was destroyed at Carillon. This new Cylon Leader deduced that the Cylons were now supreme and could afford to be more tolerant thus Baltar was to be spared and act as a peace envoy. This scene ended in freeze frame with Lucifer entering the throne room but was recapped and continued in the Lost Planet of the Gods Part I. The scene is truncated to omit the offer of peace and new tolerance. Now Baltar's new function would be to help them think like the humans they are pursuing, thus his continued presence as a recurring villain.
- Sacrificial Lion: Zac.
- Sitting Duck: All the ships in the fleet, save the Galactica due to having its pilots and Vipers, on standby.
- Spotting the Thread: Apollo, Starbuck and Boomer see several men in dress uniforms that aren't from their squadrons. Apollo and Starbuck's attempts to Pull the Thread by finding the imposters winds up uncovering the Ovions' alliance with the Cylons.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The entire fleet of Battlestars, save the Galactica. Though all except the Atlantia are offscreen.
- Tempting Fate: While trying to escape the underground tunnels, Starbuck says "We're doing fine!". Then some Cylons show up."Whoops!"
- This Is Gonna Suck: Adama when he hears that none of the other Battlestars were able to launch their fighters.Adama: Lord help us.
- Too Many Mouths: The Tucana singers each have two mouths.
- To Serve Man: The Ovions lure tourists to their planet so they can eat them.
- Translator Microbes: Apollo uses a "Languatron" box to communicate with the Ovion queen. This is the first and last time it's used in the series with Aliens Speaking English from then on.
- Truce Trickery: The Twelve Colonies are celebrating a peace agreement between themselves and the Cylons, only for the Cylons to suddenly attack amidst the celebrations, killing most of humanity.
- Watching Troy Burn: The destruction of Caprica.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Zac is quickly and unceremoniously killed off barely twenty minutes in.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: "Well, it's a peace envoy, what possible trouble could there be?"
- While Rome Burns: Captain Apollo discovers Sire Uri of the Council gorging on food while others in the refugee fleet are starving; the young warrior instantly confiscates the party munchies for the needy.
- Woman Scorned: When Athena catches Starbuck making out with Cassiopeia in the Viper launch bay, she vents steam from the catapults on him. Borders into What the Hell, Hero? territory when you take into account the fact that Starbuck was going on a dangerous mission the next day that would determine whether or not every man, woman, and child in the fleet will die from hunger.
- Would Hurt a Child: A cylon tries to decapitate Boxey when the boy arrives on the lower levels.
- The fact that he wound up on the lower levels in the first place counts too, since this is where the Ovions are taking people and putting them in boxes where their young eat the people.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Cylons beheaded Baltar when they were done with him in the original movie. The scene was re shot for the TV series so he could become a recurring villain.
