How to Save the Battlestar Pegasus - Battle Plan 

I should say that while I don't have any problem with Lee's decision from a narrative standpoint, I would have liked to see him asked to resign from the military or at least more heavily demoted. They ended up giving him a civilian story arc later anyway so it wouldn't have made much difference to do it earlier.

As Roslin once said to Lee: "You're so hellbent on doing the right thing that you sometimes don't do the *smart* thing."

What Adama said: "Damn you, Lee." What Adama wanted to add: "That's an expensive Battlestar!"

Plan three brings to mind a comment I saw in the video of the Pegasus's destruction: "Lets have a big hand for the crew of Raptor 108 that appears to be going one on one with a Cylon Raider and an even bigger hand for Raptor 238 that seems to be attacking a pair of Baseships by itself."

This lessened Lee in my eyes so much that I stopped cheering for him. His command of the Pegasus is best remembered by Major Kendra Shaws opening comment "...it doesn't diminish the idea that your daddy handed you command of a battlestar like he was tossing the keys to a new car."

"The Pegasus' FTL drive was disabled" Clearly, Pegasus lacked plot armor... :(

This honestly bothers me more than anything that ever happened in the series. The Pegasus could have survived easily

How to save Pegasus: Don't put Lee in charge of anything. :)

All of you 5 plans are much more better then what actually happened. Great planning "Admiral Daniel Spacedock".

Someone put it pretty well: "We're losing our second-best ship! Quick, send in our best ship!"

I'm going to second a comment lower down. The loss of Pegasus never did sit well. Pegasus was clearly the superior Battlestar, and if you are trying to survive, Adama should have transferred his flag to Pegasus. If the Pegasus was more equivalent to the Galactica, as in the original TV series, well...that's a different story. But, this is not the original TV series, they are entirely different classes, as presented in the reimagined series. In the latest series, the logic works but...it doesn't, not really, if...you start thinking about it. Wish the scriptwriters had done the same.

The Pegasus should have been lost in an ultimate last stand, against dozens of Basestars, killing some major Characters in the process. Seriously the only time we see Battlestars destroyed was in the start of the show, and during Adama's flash back of the Colonia. We should have seen a Battlestar die in battle with it's fists swinging, not running head first into a wall. The way they handled it lessened the show a great deal for me.

Yep, all the plans make better sense! I'd go for a combination of three and four. Get the raptors to launch the drones, wait for the two basestars to go check it out and then send in the nuke armed raptors to take them out. The Galactica then to move into a position above New Caprica to launch a combo of Raptors and Vipers to aid the New Capricans to the ship's on the ground. Meanwhile, hold Pegasus back in the nebular to 're-in force' Galatica once the second two basestars emerge....not that I haven't thought about this much 😄😄 Though I love the 'Adama Manoeuvre' as a visually stunning effect, can't help but think after watching your video, this was a desparate gambit by Adama to create surprise.

Nuclear-armed raptors... I'll have to remember that one

Impossible, Spacedock did it... The final age is upon us

The loss of the Pegasus never sat right with me from the moment I saw Lee decide to go to his fathers aid. From an emotional stand point it fits Lee's character, and I disagree that if the roles had been reversed the Admiral would NOT have gone after his son. We see in other episodes where Lee is missing, hell even Starbuck, that Adama goes out of his way to stay in dangerous situations to get them back. I loved the Pegasus, it was an incredible ship and as he says here it was newer, more powerful and could construct Vipers and train the pilots so why everyone just went along with Lee's decision to basically go on a suicide mission to rescue his dad doesn't make sense in any form. Bad writing just to get an admittedly awesome visual spectacle and a stomach punch when the Pegasus goes down in flames.

The narrative was likely inspired by Commander Cain's similar sacrifice in the original BSG, where he used the Pegasus to launch strategic weapons at a pair of Cylon Base Stars at point-blank range. Unfortunately, mimicking the narrative goes from homage to cringe due to previous narrative decisions - primarily in that the original scenario had both ships of the same class, but in nBSG the Pegasus was a *vastly* superior combat ship possessing *critical* strategic resources in its factory and training facilities. This made the sacrifice of the Pegasus a dramatic sight, but *catastrophic* strategic blunder on a scale that the *average** viewer* with *zero* *military* *knowledge* could see how short sighted the decision was. Had Lee traded another ship of the same class as Galactica to save it, it would have been seen as a more-or-less even trade, and understandable for the audience.

How to save Donnager?

okay.. i thought i was the only one obsessed with this. ive been debating this topic since the episode aired...

I agree with many of the arguments made. However, it is important to remember that BSG is primarily a drama and does not focus on visual entertainment like big budget Star Wars. The point of this scene was to show Lee was willing to sacrifice his command and the potential survival of humanity on a mission he thought was hopeless because he couldn't deal with the guilt of leaving his dad behind. There are hundreds of tactical mistakes made during this show, many presented on purpose to show the flawed humanity involved. BSG is a masterpiece of drama and i think its unfair to diminish it with pure logic because for all our posturing, humans are rarely pragmatists when loved ones are involved.

Adama should have transferred his flag to the tactically superior ship and assigned Lee the rescue mission

Sometimes I lay in bed, wide awake. My window is open, I can hear the sounds of the highway in the distance. I take another drink from the bottle of Scotch I keep by the bed. I reach for the pack of smokes that I promised myself I wouldn't buy, light it. I walk up to the window thinking to myself the same question that haunts me for the last 10 years, _why sacrifice the Pegasus with such reckless abandon?_

This definitely felt like lazy writing. "The Pegasus is too awesome, how can we get rid of it?"

I've been waiting for this. Excellent points in the video all around. However, I'd like to add a few points. While Spacedock made excellent tactical critiques as well as quite a few operational points, it is the strategic scale that really decides the situation here. If the overall objective is the survival of humanity, then the colonials' fate as a whole was to be decided at New Caprica. Recall that the small population that kept off New Caprica was not genetically viable and, in all likelihood, not materially viable. Those few thousands that escaped would not have survived long, even without further Cylon pursuit. Therefore, both Adamas were ultimately wrong: both battlestars should have went in together with everything they had. On the operational side of things, there were equally egregious assumptions by the colonials. Lee leaving the Pegasus' CAG behind with the civies was absolutely idiotic. The Civies cannot maintain the Vipers or retrieve them under fire. The Vipers would have been deployed only once as a suicidal distraction at best. The only effective defense the civies had was the FTL jump which, of course having Vipers in the air was at best useless or at worst detrimental. With a proper accounting of friendly and enemy assets (even with the latter being somewhat sketchy) and objectives, the colonial fleet should have gone in with a full blooded strike. Each fully equipped Battlestar could go 1on1 with a Basestar victoriously and hold off two with some trouble. As Spacedock mentioned, there were additional tactical options that would have given the colonials a more or less favorable tactical and operational outcome. Of course, there was the operational problem that the colonials did not know the true strength of the Cylons and could not risk a prolonged attritional exchange. This problem could be simply, though perhaps not easily, solved with a predetermined contingency plan: in the event of overwhelming odds, at least one battlestar was to jump out. By this point, enough civie ships would have gotten off the ground to ensure colonial strategic viability. Ideally, both would survive, though it was also possible that both could be lost. However, this method would play the odds in the most sensible way with the greatest chance of a mostly positive outcome.

This video is well thought out and competently made. You’re knowledge and enthusiasm for this show are very commendable, but I’m afraid I have to disagree with all of your alternative solutions. 1. Lee leaving his fighters behind was quite a sensible decision, in my opinion. He knew there was a good chance that neither the Pegasus nor the Galactica were going to survive the battle. Fighters are just too valuable an asset to risk. After all, Vipers would be perfectly capable of defending the fleet against Cylon raiders whilst the fleet prepared to jump. This has been shown many times throughout the show. As you noted, they probably wouldn’t be able to do much against a baseship, but by the time one of those arrived the fleet would ideally already have jumped away. Of course, a squadron of Vipers is nothing compared to the protection a battlestar can offer, but it is nonetheless a credible way to defend the fleet and it would frankly have been irresponsible for Lee not to leave them behind. 2. I’m not sure a nuclear strike would have been successful. Baseships are not defenceless. It’s highly doubtful a squadron of raptors would be able to launch missiles before being intercepted by Cylon Raiders or missiles. Also, if a nuclear strike could have been successful admiral Adama would have executed one. The fact that he didn’t probably indicates it wasn’t possible for the above mentioned reasons. 3. The Adama manoeuvre was an essential part of the plan and not doing it would have meant none of the civilians would leave New Caprica alive. This is because the Cylons had raiders flying within the atmosphere of the planet. Raptors would indeed have been able to destroy the watchtowers and aid with the evacuation, but they couldn’t have dealt with those raiders. They needed Vipers to destroy the raiders or else they would have shot down the fleeing civilian vessels. 4. Using civilian vessels as a means of engaging and distracting the Cylon baseships would have been an exercise in futility. Most civilian ships in the fleet were not armoured and even those that were could never sustain more than a couple of missile hits. All such a tactic would be likely to accomplish is to make the other ships in the fleet a little more cramped than they already were. And finally, I also disagree that admiral Adama would not have returned to New Caprica if his and his son’s roles were reversed. In episode five of the first season, William Adama risked the survival of entire human race to search for Kara Thrace even though she was long out of oxygen and it was uncertain if she had even survived the crash. He send out every viper he had and even scattered the civilian ships to find his pilot, leaving the fleet wide open for a Cylon attack. Eventually he did abandon the search but only because the president gave him a dressing down. At the end of the episode, Lee asks his father if he would go to the same lengths to rescue him if it were him down on the planet instead of Starbuck. The commander replies that if it were him down there they would never leave. I think that scene paints a pretty clear picture of how the admiral would have acted in Lee’s place during the Battle of New Caprica. Whilst the loss of the Pegasus was certainly wasn’t the preferred outcome, I do think it was the only one where everyone made it out alive. And at the end of the day, when there are only 39.000 humans left, saving the thousands of souls onboard Galactica was far more important than the survival of the Pegasus.

Nah, the Pegasus felt like a guest star from the very beginning. The show is about the Galactica, hell, it´s called Battlestar Galactica for a reason. Many of you talk about "that´s so unrealistic blah blah blah" when it comes to the Pegasus´ end, well, most "advanced/awesome" ships don´t go down in a blaze of glory or in a heroic sacrifice, it´s often an unsatisfying, inglorious and brutal death, like the Bismarck or the HMS Hood. It doesn´t matter what you could´ve done with these ships in an "optimal" scenario. The awesome ship is gone, now make the best of this situation and don´t look back. -> that´s as real as it gets. The writers had to get rid of that ship and they did it in an appropriate manner. There was a sacrifice but it came at a cost, the loss of a splendid ship, which probably should have been saved. Well, the Colonies should´ve been saved too, but it´s too late. Make the best out of this situation and move on. Also Lee is no command material^^ , he is an ace pilot, nothing more.

In conclusion... *Don't give Lee your best ship*

Still not over her, eh?

I loved this scene in the series so damned much, but I really do have to agree. The way that Pegasus went out was grand, but made little to no tactical sense.

yeah i never understood their decision to kill off the greatest asset they had... the Pegasus was a true guardian for the fleet..

This whole situation shows up one of the major differences between the old show and the newer show. In the old show a state of emergency remained in effect which essentially left the military in charge of the overall situation. Adama was not only the last surviving member of the original Council of the 12 he was also the head of the colonial military at the fall of the colonies and the Battle of scimitar. This left him uniquely qualified to lead the fleet in the original series. In the new show they use an American style continuity of leadership system which keeps the civilians in charge and completely ignores the emergency nature of the situation allowing people so completely unqualified to make these decisions to actually be running the government. While I do not have a problem with Laura Roslin as a character there are others like their version of Baltar who just suck and this whole situation is completely and totally unbelievable. I cannot think of any situation where the entirety of humanity were reduced to less than 60,000 people that the military sworn to protect those people would let the civilians do something so phenomenally stupid as settle down on that planet and pretend like the cylons don't exist

I'm seeing many comments saying Lee shouldn't have been in command in the first place. As though there was an academy of qualified alternatives to draw on. Real life militaries often end up with commanders more inept than Lee, despite having time and money to train recruits drawn from populations of millions. With only about 50,000 surviving humans, it's realistic that their pool of qualified personnel is extremely shallow. Episodes like 'The Captain's Hand' showed that Lee was a competent commander in terms of technical and leadership skills. He wasn't exemplary, but he was better than the alternatives that were actually available.

Old man shouldn't have given Lee the command. That's all I'm saying.

Even with Lee foolishly jumping in with half strength pegasus and without Vipers, the surprise attack he was running couldve simply demolished the cylons proper... We see the distance the Pegasus was at, when it jumped in, so in that time after mincing the first cylon beehive, they coudlve gone for a second, and then would be in a nicely cut down 2v2 that they could manage with ease... But as is per usual in BSG, space combat is nothing but eye candy or a plot device.

If Admiral Adama was such a good commander then he would not have gone in on such a suicide mission. He would have been aware that his son was not of sufficient command caliber to either a. follow orders and /or to command the fleet.

I think both ships could have survived if they both worked in tandem. Galactica seems to have better anti-fighter capabilities vs Pegasus which seems to be better suited to ship to ship combat.

Why has Spacedock not featured the Mercury class battlestar? It seems so obvious a choice. Hopefully this oversight will be rectified soon. Love the channel! Keep up the great work.

I think if Kendra Shaw is still alive during the rescue mission, the tactics might be much better.

At last.

Dude IDK about Adama wanting to abandon his son if the roles were reversed. Remember the episode when the Colonial fleet was ready to abandon the search for Starbuck who was downed on a planet? Lee asked his father what he would do if it was him. Adama replied: _"If it was you, we'd never leave."_

yeah, losing the pegasus just like that... I gotta admit, that's one of my least favourite parts of the series.

Couldn't the Pegasus FTL in a favorable position after cutting down the first base star, we seen the galatica do it from orbit.

This happened because despite their excellent writing skills in terms of creating dramatic and insightful stories, the BSG creators were notoriously terrible at logical consistency. I love this show, but there are so many logic errors at key moments that it kind of irritates me on occasion.

in overall story line the Pegasus's fate was the same in the re-imaged story and original. recall Lloyd Bridges as Cain took on two basestars to allow Galactica and the fleet to escape. his fate was left open as it was season 1 and i think had the series continued as planned not that abomination bsg:1980 then Pegasus could have survived and met up with Galactica later and they both find Earth. For the re-image it happened several seasons into it and the story didn't really need Pegasus to survive to find Earth. well new Earth anyway. So it does parallel the original series with Pegasus except her fate is sealed in the new imaging of BSG. i am a big fan of both the original and the re-imaged and the way the original story/premise was "reversed" in context and given new motivations for many of the players like Baltar was brilliant. in the end i'm OK with Lee saving Adama and the fleet by sacrificing Pegasus. i would have preferred both Pegasus and Galactica make it to New Earth and with the rebel Cylons have one big battle with the remaining Cylons for control of New Earth then if you want to use Pegasus to ensure victory it would have been a more noble way to lose Pegasus.

Oh good. I wasn't the only person yelling at the show at this point.

Lee Adama ruined almost everything he touched...think about it for a minute or two

Saving Pegasus may have been the logical choice, but saving the galactica was the emotional choice, and Lee always thought with his heart, not his head. Emotion over intellect is kinda the theme of BSG, so the decision made makes character and thematic sense

No real tactics used ever. The Pegasus could have sat back and destroyed the basestars.

Plan 3 wouldn't work, at least not completely. The Raider squadron next to the decoys would be able to intercept the nukes.

Lee wasn't trying to save the Galactica, per say. He just realized that his father was a better commander, and that without him, humanity was basically screwed.

this is why i stopped watching galactica it got bad after this arc and destroying that ship was the dumbest move i could think of. I think it was so they could more easily get rid of all their tech but i feel that thats a stupid move. Technology is a tool no different than a hammer or spear only in how complex a tool is and how it is used. Starting over sounds like some new age silliness that i don't agree with.

One of the strategies would have failed almost immediately. To be specific, Raptors can't dogfight and would have been slaughtered by the Raiders

Reasons the Pegasus was destroyed: 1) The show was called "Battlestar Galatica," not "Battlestar Pegasus". 2) The Pegasus was destroyed in the "OG" BSG series, probably for similar reasons (see point 3). 3) Keeping Pegasus around made storytelling more complicated/challenging, and getting rid of it allowed a return to the series status quo. IMO, the last point is an example of the most disappointing aspect of BSG: for all of Ron Moore's railing against the Trek tropes when he ran DS9, he did many of the same things with BSG. It's just that the BSG story arcs ran a bit longer before they would hit the "Reset to status quo" button.

The writers could easily have saved The Pegasus, they just thought it would be better not to.

I love these kinds of videos. :)

4:34 but the close air-support launched by the galactica was contested by Cylon Raiders. The Raptors would have never been able to hold their own in a contested airspace. :)

I love this! That whole battle, when I wasn't stunned into silence by the amazing shots of the Galactica's last stand and Pegasus saving the day, I was thinking to myself, "Where'd all of those assault raptors go after the drone launch?" or "Why are they not using nukes when they're so heavily outnumbered?" and things like that. Come to think of it, why did the Cylons not use nukes? They clearly have that capability, and out of four basestars, not one Raider was carrying a nuclear payload? Setting a nuke on the ground, waiting until the battle is already over? That's not very efficient. Blasting the whole colony from orbit? Done by lunch.

Just like TITANIC were the screen play says in black and white "Jack dies" so did the screenplay for BSG..."Pegasus...explodes" Yes we all wanted it to live, yes nerds love lore, but at the end of the day the SCREENPLAY says all.

its finaly here! Thank you Spacedock

Pegasus sacrifice was not the best decision... ... but OFTEN is forgotten that: - probably a LOT of the best military is trapped on New Caprica, and BOTH Battlestar have a VERY limited manpower to have the force to fight. The assault on the Resurrection ship fleet (when combined the humans take out 2 Cylon Basestars) is made by two ships with all the man power available in they key roles: not only on board, but to use ALL the available fighters and raptor to support. - the point is not which Battlestar to save, but to save the people trapped into the planet: the remaining fleet at large has, probably, not enough people on board to actually survive for so long or long enough to increase numbers once a suitable new planet is found - the Galactica is old, do not have the modern equipment as the Pegasus, but is a fully fledged ship made to fight A WAR, often away from repairing facilities: is basically a BRICK MADE OF ARMOR. The Pegasus is a "peace time" ship, that was build to have versatility, more armament, but less protection, as the class was envisioned when, after a fight, she could return to some safe spacedock and be repaired, or stay out from other engagements and repair herself/rebuild fighters. I had always the idea that "the Pegasus sacrifice" could have been handled better: basically mantaining everything the same, up to the Adama's manouver, then having Pegasus appear just against the Cylon fleet, with both Battlestar going to fully commit together, but having to cover the older Galactica battered by the FTL jump in the amosphere (a feat that only the "brick of armor" could survive) the Pegasus could have been cut off (the Cylon could arguably think to attack the most modern one in forces, considering the older Galactica easier to deal later) and, actually, being loss for more suitable "battle events" than just a mindless rush to the death. ... but in any case, it could have been critiqued as "why did the humans not sacrified the Galactica instead?" From all the above mentioned reason, the third one: the Mercury-class (the Pegasus) was NOT really so better, without manpower to run her repair facilities and far less, actual, armor capability

To-Do List: Watch Battlestar Galactica because I haven’t before BREATHE

How to save Pegasus. Have it take a skeleton crew lure the Cylons away, seemingly on a suicide mission similar to TOS. Have Galactica, most of the remaining Vipers and Raptors aid in rescuing the New Caprica survivors, with Galactica continuing on towards Earth with the civilian fleet. While most of the surviving Colonials continue the search for Earth, and the show can still be "Galactica," there is, an in TOS, the possibility Pegasus is still out there surviving on her own or finding another seed of humanity to protect and build a new colony.

realizing this is arguing about a fictional story line and the writers were at least nominally try to follow some of the story arc of the original bsg.....where the original Pegasus was neither confirmed nor disproved destroyed, you seem to forget a few points 1.....most of the pilots that don't suck were on the ground, as demonstrated by the months and months of training by raptor pilots to simply fly parallel 2.....having already discussed the fact that most of the people in general were on the ground and both ships were less than understaffed, the Pegasus then went on the attack with even less crew as he made a decision after the original plan was underway....there was no months of planning and lead time to refit anything....never mind turn a civilian ship into a warship and then transfer the material needed to fight a war.....in less than 18 hours no less 3.....what training that had occurred by either ships crew was for the attack that went ahead, you can pretend all you want that the battle crews should be able to make it up as they go along.....but since the Pegasus was destroyed in the battle....that's pretty obviously not true the list goes on an on....basically what I'm trying to make you understand is the plan that actually "worked" only worked because of script writing and nothing else was going to "save" Pegasus if absolutely nothing else.....and I mean nothing else at all is taken into consideration ...... period.... 44,000 people were on the surface of new caprica......on the surface....not on whatever was left of the fleet in orbit (2000 civilians btw, running the ships of the civilian fleet still in orbit).....on the bloody ground that means there had to be enough ships on the ground to pick them all back up.....you know....the 44,000 that were packed like pretzels in a bag when things were going "well"..... and they couldn't even take off because the cylons had all there car keys these same people couldn't build a better settlement than a tent village in a year and even the president had to keep living on his space ship they sure as hell didn't build more of anything, never mind more ships.....and they had to get on board, warm up, take off, program a jump ( I will pretend that somehow they all just knew were they needed to go and not have to be told....and they all knew how to fly whatever ship they got on, since there is no way to guarantee the original pilot was even there), spool up and jump forget it oh yeah....one more thing....just because.... lee couldn't send raptors to do anything.....he didn't have any....the few they had were with Galactica pretending to be Pegasus, remember? At the beginning of the episode population count....the largest number I could find was 49 550 Galactica and Pegasus need between 7 600 to 8400 people to run at full strength there were 44 035 settlers on New Caprica at the time of invasion that leaves 5 515 in orbit, minus the 2 000 civies leaves 3 515 crew members between the two ships Galactica didn't use networks, so the lions share of the crewmen needed to be on board simply to move the damn ship simple math says there was no plan what so ever that should have let either ship survive never mind both

I kind of get why Adama didn't transfer his flagship. He didn't trust his son to be able to carry out the rescue mission for good reason. He thought his son could carry out a simple order, don't get involved. However, this video points out that the writers had it in for any ship not named Galactica to make it as hard as possible for that ship to survive.

I should watch BSG again. I quit watching after they established a colony on New Caprica. They had such a long gap between seasons back then I forgot about the show. I guess I’ll see if Netflix or Amazon have them available for streaming!

Adama would have returned also, Lee is his son and remember the episode in S1 where he almost scrapped every Viper looking for Starbuck? The Raptor nuke plan is probably the most sound however I think two skeleton crew Battlestars might have had far more trouble facing two Baseships as the Resurrection Ship battle was the Colonials at nearly full strength. Lee was a limited captain yeah but his suicide run made sense as the Cylons couldn't ignore it and it allowed both Galactica and the Civilians time to escape, if he tried something more complex then it might have back fired and then everything would have been lost...

Or here's what I said from shortly after the viewing- everything goes the same as the show up until Pegasus destroys the first basestar... Instead of playing "hey, I'm a target", and going into the middle of the basestars, Pegasus should either 1) turn towards the next basestar and drop another alpha strike on it (from the front arc), or 2) microjump away, and microjump back to do the same thing. (The Galactica could weather the reducing fire for a few more moments, I'm sure... Especially since the Basestars would likely be more worried about the ship that just splashed a quarter of their fleet) Six microjumps later, should have essentially wiped out the Cylon Basestars- and even given that the Basestars wouldn't just sit around waiting to be fragged, the Pegasus definitely outclasses them one on one- by not SITTING AROUND LIKE A GODSDAMNED FLAGETTATE and, I don't know, attacking the enemy more than once, you might defeat the enemy and not have to sacrifice your ship because you're an incompetent fighter-jock turned commander. (And suddenly, I think I see where Holdo got her anti-Poe leanings =p )

Although the visual sequence during the Adama maneuver was stunning, it was not realistic. The Galactica jumped into New Caprica's atmosphere with zero forward momentum, and then began falling. Since she was clearly in the lower atmosphere, she would not have enough time to accelerate to the hypersonic speeds needed to produce a plasma shockwave during her free fall. The jump out, though, with it's thunderclap shock wave was pretty accurate and absolutely fantastic.

Thankyou!!! been waiting on this for years.

This has bothered me since the day I first saw the episode even from a narrative standpoint. Now, I understand for the series plotline they might have wanted to destroy Pegasus, and that they could hardly swap the sacrifice around in a series titled 'Battlestar Galactica'. But at very least, they ought to have had the Pegasus destroyed in such a way that it wasn't essentially a voluntary sacrifice. Have some unexpected Cylon reinforcements come in after a solid victory saving Galactica, for example. It just annoys me that, from a tactical and strategic perspective, they had him do something inconceivably stupid for drama's sake, in using the more valuable ship for a kamikaze attack.

This video provides a good analysis on alternative strategies/scenarios for the Battlestar Pegasus to save the Galactica /escaping civilian fleet and itself in the "Battle for New Caprica" First and foremost Commander Lee Adama could have enlisted the help of the crew of the Pegasus to formulate a German Blitzkrieg (or Lightning attack) strategy in 18 hours. He did nothing. Second, my strategy is a modification of the Picard maneuver used by Captain Picard in the first season of ST TNG. Captain Picard used this maneuver with the USS Stargazer to destroy a Ferengi marauder when it attack the starship without warning. The USS Stargazer executed a micro warp jump and seem to be in two places at the same time. When it appeared in front of the ferengi starship the USS Stargazer launched all weapons and destroyed the ship. The Battlestar Pegasus could execute a number of micro FTL jumps to confuse the Cylon fleet. It would be a better strategy than option 2 (which was used by Commander Cain in " The Living Legend I & II in the original series) If you look at option 2, the Battlestar Pegasus enteres the battle zone above New Caprica and finds the Galactica surrounded by 4 Cylon basestars and their fighters. Next, the Pegasus attack one Cylon basestar and quickly destroy it. The computers on the Pegasus could calculate the position of the 3 remaining basestars and execute it micro FTL jump. When the Pegasus initiate its first

Adama ran the Galactica to feel out the Cylon superiority. You throw the Pegasus out and it may be too heavy for a ferry to the surface (Adama Maneuver). You must also factor in Adama's competence. While a good commander, his strategies are all sum battles showing little strategic poise, but more shock and awe. Adama is all surprise, showing his lack of standing in the order, he commands Galactica and not a more modern ship. While rigid, Adama never fluctuates until much needed in the fourth season. He is a third rate commander doing his best. A better commander would have seen these opportunites. Also, a first rate commander would have been in charge of a BattleStar that would have been disabled by the virus. These are the balancing discussions

1:00 Pegasus: Blows up after running into basestar Galactica: Rams into the Colony (much bigger and stronger than any basestar) and survives even with the "cuts" that was taken to make it... think about it.

Yeah Pegasus could manufacture Vipers. It was literally the most valuable capital ship in the galaxy. Lee should have been court martialed but I guess you cant call the show Battlestar Pegasus.

Lee Adama crashes his own fighter then Pegasus an finally convinces the remnants of Humanity to disgorge their tech an go primitive so they can die of disease, hunger, an hardship. The Cylons are so proud of him doing what they could not to ensure the colonials end. If I were Adama I'd have given stricter orders and announced to the crew 'if they disobeyed his orders not to bring the Pegasus into the battle risking their only real asset to destruction he would be executed son or not along with those that didn't follow the order!"

Lee Adama took an unacceptable risk. He effectively played double or nothing with what remained of the species. The vipers left to defend the civilian fleet would be unable to perform combat landings and so would be abandoned at the first enemy contact. Further to that, the mission would have been a success regardless of the Pegasus involvement. The ground operation to get the flight codes and the ground attack viper deployment had already happened, the Galactica had already lured the basestars away, all Lee accomplished was trading a superior asset to save an inferior one.

The loss of the Pegasus was when the writing for BSG when downhill. In a way, it represents when the show began its slow descent to one of the worst endings of a sci-fi show I have seen.

Galactica would still be the Flag Ship (no need to rename the show) and both would have survived if they had used better tactics. So say we all. Lee is not the Commander his father was and Bill acted recklessly also misusing resources.

Your points re: the Adama Maneuver show that the old man wasn't a great tactician either. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I watched this presentation a year ago and a few times since and think a better use and a better plot line would have been to go in a different direction with the main arc. When the Pegasus joins the fleet, it should have been made the core of the surviving Colonial population. The government and all civilian organs of the government would move aboard and the ship would act as the industrial heart of the fleet with her foundries and training centers. Being the newest ship she is also the most survivable and her role is to be the last ship to survive to protect the population. The Galactica would become a force projection and deterrent ship. The Pegasus in her new role would not lose her combat ability but to use them to defend the fleet, never leaving it. She would train new crew, build new components and fighters and perhaps eventually build armor plate for the Galactica that had been removed for her transition to a museum. This would set the Galactica up as a fleet guardian. She is old but she is also expendable. For a writer that means she can get into horrible situations to defend the fleet, being sent ahead to scout the path ahead or to stall an attacking force while the fleet escapes. The story lines possible from that point of view are endless. Who would be in command of what? Cain would be chomping at the bit to be a combat Admiral but that is the problem, she outranks Adama. He has to command Galactica and she has to coordinate with the President. Cain being a lesbian and the President being a woman, could be a spicy plot arc. The would be a three way triangle between Cain, Roslyn and Adama. Over time, Pegasus would refit the fleet for a long journey. Some ships would not make it and be salvaged for raw material. There would never be a New Caprica arc but there would be many other openings. I realize this presentation is to save the Pegasus but the writers wanted her gone because she was going to suck all of the air out of the concept of Galactica against the Cylons. With my set up, it is even more Galactica against the Cylons, with all of the eggs in one basket - Pegasus. Galactica could also lose the fleet in a story arc and have to find them, while the Pegasus defends the fleet on her own. Perhaps the Cylons would be stalking the Galactic with hit and runs after drawing her into a trap to keep her from getting back to the fleet and guarding the fleet.

I agree with you. The battle was a joke. I was pissed It went down like that. After that I Lost Instress in the show. At that time I was thinking of them doing maneuvers Like the Star Trek Discovery does. 2 battle wagons alternating shooting and jumping at almost point blank range. That's the Teg F4 maneuver. Even before STD was thought of.

Actually you kind of came up with another plan. What if Lee had led the attack and his father had come to rescue him. He would have attacked much more wisely. Might have been able to pull off what Lee could not.

Spot on alternatives to handling the battle and a great review of decisions made. However, the real reason the Pegasus was destroyed was that it was in the script and the original series features the Pegasus and was also lost so the creators of the show were somewhat following the original story. The show is Battlestar Galactica, not Battlestar Glaactica and Pegasus. I think, from a story telling stand point, the continued existence of the Pegasus in the show would have overshadowed the older, less capable BSG and taken to much of the spotlight way from one of the main characters - the Galactica herself. It's unfortunate that the writers couldn't find a way to better utilize Pegasus and leave her in the show but then this is the same set of writers who effectively left a foul taste in everyone's mouth with the poorly conceived ending of the series .

Regarding the Adama Manoeuvre and raptors, the main purpose of getting the vipers into the atmosphere quickly seemed to be to tackle the raiders that the Cylons had based on the planet and that posed a serious threat to the departing civilian ships. The raptors probably wouldn't have been able to provide adequate cover while the ships took off.

I was under the impression that the Pegaus, despite being newer and a better flagship for the human diaspora, was actually in worse shape than the Galactica due to the decisions made in The Captain's Hand. Due to the personnel reduction resultant of the colonization of New Caprica, both battlestars lost personnel but Pegasus, having fewer to begin with, felt the consequences of a skeleton crew more heavily. Adama's decision to leave Pegasus behind was with the knowledge that Galactica was more fit for the fight and Pegasus would at least be able to defend the remaining fleet until she could be brought up to full strength, should the rescue fail. Remember that above all, the Big Damn Heroes maneuver was planned to rescue the people, not the ship. That and the writers wanted to have Pegasus go out in style but didn't have the budget for more elaborate visual effects that are necessary for all of these suggestions.

I believe the true reason why Pegasus was destroyed was b/c the sets were too expensive to maintain. Another reviewer suggested they should have gotten rid of Colonial One’s sets instead and in the script, ordered Colonial One to ram a basestar instead of the Pegasus.

1. The show is called Battlestar Galactica 2. The production team need the space for the new basestar sets

Pegasus had to go at some point. However I feel she would have been better used/ sacrificed in an epic battle and have destroyed or rammed the resurrection hub. Rather than a heavily damaged baseship and a couple of dozen raptors and vipers!

Well then we'd have to change the name of the series part way through to Battlestar Pegasus. How about an Admiral Caine would've done this scenario?

they had to run away because they couldn't even get that battlestars fully manned I think they was dealing with limited resources in terms of military personnel

Adama should have taken command of the stronger vessel as his flag... that is protocol in the navy.

I agree with using the raptors to nuke the first two base stars. Pegasus alone could have taken out at least one of the other base stars. At that point there would have been a good chance the last remaining base star would have retreated or could have easily been dealt with by Galactica and Pegasus. Those were the only base stars in that whole area of space. Destroying that fleet could have radically changed the rest of the events until they reach old earth.

Only one way to save the Pegasus - add a 2 million dollars to the SFX and set budgets. Since that is why they revealed they did it.

I like plan 5 but I would have altered it a little I would have had the ex military ship's in the civilian fleet to do a fast gun run as close to one of the edges of the battle then have as you say the most worthless one ram 1 base star to help the others get away using that the Galactica can try to limp away while Pegasus fight's at long range also use the nuke raptors to the other side

Pegasus was killed by shitty writing and a need to sacrifice an important resource for the sake of drama.

Wow you finally did that! Really a good video but i think you forgett some things. Both Battlestars dont have their full wings, because of loss in the battles before and pilots beeing on new caprica (like Starbuck). Also the vipers which were started in the adama manouever protected the starting civilian ships against cylon raiders, a feat raptors could not do as good. Also also the two battlestar only could destroy the basestars in the battle of the reserection ship because there raiders were lured away. I allways thougt the best way to win the battle is to first do the adama manovure (with the galactica of course), then when the two basestars react, pegasus can jump in and take one out like it did in the show. Then the two colonial ships can finish the remaining basestar with ease. When the cylon reinforcment comes in to play the colonials should have no problem to hold them of long enough until the civilians escape. Well that video was the last nail in the coffin for me, considered your self pledged on patreon by me.

Lets keep in mind the battlestar pegasus had recently taken 3 nuclear blasts, suffered major structural damage, and regular ordinance damage prior to this battle. We know that hull repair capabilities are limited if not inexistent in the colonial fleet. While it would still be more useful than the heavily damaged galactica post battle, its safe to say that pegasus is not nearly as important as this video implies. Also, ADAMA HIMSELF is a major asset. You can see the state of lee, he would not be able to lead that fleet to survival. They needed william adama, the galactica had to survive

I feel like with plan two, it's no overcompensation, leaving every viper behind, if anything, said baseship would make it REQUIRED to have so many defenses, in addition: Raiders are fierce, especially swarms of them, a screen of vipers would be required to not only hold them at bay, but also fire upon any stray missile heading for a civilian ship from aforementioned raiders or basestar in question, so, if anything, a viper screen is JUST enough, for that. (In addition, regarding vipers not doing any damage to a basestar, considering the basestar's design, you know, no ballistics, flak, or guns, in a head-on match, assuming no raiders were present {Which they tend to be, so this would be admittedly rare} vipers would actually probably DESTROY the basestar, gradually, but they would, all while performing some movie-worthy fancy maneuvers to dodge said basestar's missile barrages, a lone viper? i can understand GETTING THE FRAK OUT, it would take starbuck or scar-level flying caliber to even manage, but a Mercury-sized screen of vipers?) Otherwise, i agree with all of the above.

"A soldier follow orders without question, An officer gives orders without doubt nor humanity"

I always thought it odd that they didnt just transfer Adamas flag to the Pegasus, screw the nostalgia bullshit.