Resurrection Ship - Production

Production

"Resurrection Ship" was originally written and shot as a single episode, with the assassination plots hatched at the end of the second act. After editing the episode was still about 20 minutes too long, so it was split. This allowed for more detail within each part and caused plans for a clip show later in the second season to be scrapped. Part 2 opens with several shots of Apollo imagining floating in water as he drifts in space; this would have opened the single episode. Director Michael Rymer came up with the specific imagery of Apollo floating on his back.

The writers decided on Cain's fate in early drafts of "Resurrection Ship". They also decided early on to allow Pegasus to remain in the fleet; Moore believed this would subvert the audience's expectation that the more powerful battlestar would be destroyed at the end of the episode. Originally the conflict between Cain and Adama was to center around Cain's failure to protect civilian decoys during the battle with the Cylons despite a promise to Roslin. At one point during writing, the script explained why Roslin does not promote Adama over Cain to defuse the situation: Roslin knows Cain does not accept her authority as President and would not obey Adama's orders.

Apollo's experience ejecting and witnessing the destruction of the enemy ships was based on the experience of George H. Gay, Jr., in the Battle of Midway during World War II. Plans to include footage of the wrecked Raptor and its dead personnel along with Apollo were scrapped due to the difficulty of creating the shots and the feeling that it would be too morbid. Plans for additional action in Apollo's swimming fantasy were abandoned as "too esoteric".

Gina was initially scripted to embrace and kiss Baltar. This was removed after actress Tricia Helfer (Six/Gina) noted that Gina, a victim of serial rape, would not be willing to do this.

A scene in Part 1 in which Helo and Tyrol discuss Sharon and the blanket party scene in Part 2 used to be the same scene; the characters are in the same physical positions at the end of the first and the start of the second. The scenes were split when the episode was split. The blanket party was inspired by the films Full Metal Jacket and The Grifters. The writers referred to the Pegasus crewmen administering the beatings as the "Yee-Haw Boys"; in the episode Helo calls them "the Sunshine Boys". Their confrontation with Fisk was inspired by Moore's own experience in the U.S. Navy ROTC.

The kiss between Adama and Roslin was not scripted. Actor Edward James Olmos (Adama) improvised it on set. Actress Mary McDonnell (Roslin)'s surprise is genuine.

The Viper standoff was especially time-consuming to write and film. The writers considered having the Vipers open fire shortly before Starbuck appears, but they feared the consequences for morale and cohesion in the fleet.

Cain's code word "Case Orange" for Fisk to kill Adama refers to War Plan Orange, a contingency plan developed by the American military before the Second World War in case of a Japanese attack. Cain's specific directive to "terminate Adama's command, starting with Adama" is an homage to a line delivered by Harrison Ford's character in Apocalypse Now referring to Kurtz. Adama's code word "Downfall" for Starbuck to kill Cain refers to the German film of that name or possibly Operation Downfall, the planned Allied invasion of Japan at the end of the Second World War.