> > I caught the episode "The Hand of God" yesterday, where Galactica
I thought it was "Silver Spar", but thought it made no sense, "Silver Star"
seemed more appropriate, so I just left it. During one of the early episodes
(the 3rd one) Apollo and Starbuck attack a Basestar on their own as various
colours that they make up. Personally, I don't think there is any coherency in
the numbers of Vipers the Galactica carries, it appears to be around a score
from most episodes, but occassionally skyrockets.
> > Do we have a good feel for how large a BG squadron is? I had the
I've seen a squadron formed up several times (i.e. they kept using the same
footage). It looks like 4 vigs of 3, which, worryingly, is dumb British early
WW2 tactics.
Basically, I just think that a squadron was whatever the scriptwriter of the
week wanted it to be. Just don't get me started on B5 ship numbers (240
Omegas? Right.....)
> Bryn Monnery wrote:
> I thought it was "Silver Spar", but thought it made no sense, "Silver
The episode to which you refer is actually part of the series pilot. In it,
Apollo comes up with a plan to scare the Cylons aboard the base star by having
both he and Starbuck pretending to be two squadrons each. Starbuck later
"forwards" a request for Purple and Orange Squadrons to join the fight. On the
bridge of the Galactica, these transmissions are received, but the bridge crew
is puzzled only by the mention of Purple and Orange squadrons, which seems to
suggest that Yellow and Green do indeed exist. As for the maximum number of
ships that a Battlestar may carry, it can carry at least 67 fighters, as
that's what was recovered by the Galactica after the destruction of the rest
of the fleet. I would guess they can probably carry more than that, since the
Colonials seem to have suffered huge losses among fighters as well as
Battlestars, and very few got off their base ships besides the Galactica
(however I do agree with you that the number does seem to change from episode
to episode).
Mark
> > > Do we have a good feel for how large a BG squadron is? I had the
The only way I could deturmine how many fighters per BSG Squadron: Wait for an
episode where a single squadron scrambles...like during hour 3 of the pilot.
Pause the scene, and count the fighters onscreen during that "cloud of vipers"
shot. (4 head vcrs are great!) My friend and I counted about 25 or so on
screen. There are probably a few more just off the screen.
But 25 seemed to be a good figure to work with. As to the actual number of
vipers per squadron...I assumed the squadron size just depended on what the
squadron was doing. (ie: patrols only needed 5 or so, while battles used
everything...) So they seemed to have a habit of calling any group of vipers a
"squadron".
Because no-one during the bridge shot raised concern over green and
yellow squadrons, I assume they existed. And because they never appeared on
the show, (just blue and red) I had two thoughts. One, they might have been
off loaded somewhere before the peace confrence. (A common occurance. Just
after the 4th of july, the carrier JFK appeared as an exclusive viewing stand
for Boston's "Sail 2000" event. Her entire complement of aircraft were
transfered to land bases for the duration.)
Two, they were backup/training squadrons. (ie: replacements for red and
blue.)
When the Silver Spar (star?) squadron got transfered over to the
Galactica, no-one
seemed worried as to where they were going to park 'em.
What all this seems to me is that a battlestar could carry around 120 -
150 or so fighters.
As to the Galactica's missles...I just assumed that either: Adama had allready
used them up before the peace confrence, or was holding them back for a really
good moment. I just assumed that the Pegasis and the Galactica were identical,
because
no-one made any statements about the ships being different.
Just my thoughts