1x04 Act of Contrition - Battlestar Galactica Episode Guide

Battlestar Galactica

- Episode 01x04

Episode: 01x04
Title: Act of Contrition
Type: Regular Episode
Production Code: 104
First Aired: Jan. 28, 2005

Season 1 » Episode #04 - Act of Contrition

Battlestar Galactica - 01x04 Act of Contrition

Summary: When an accident kills several Viper pilots, Adama puts Kara in charge of training more pilots. But the entire process is troubling for her as she is haunted by memories of Zak.

Who appeared in this episode?

Commander William Adama	played by Edward James Olmos
Lt. Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace	played by Katee Sackhoff
Chief Galen Tyrol	played by Aaron Douglas
Officer Anastasia Dualla	played by Kandyse McClure
Crashdown	played by Sam Witwer
Elosha	played by Lorena Gale
Sgt. Hadrian	played by Jill Teed
Zak Adama	played by Tobias Mehler
Lt. Dwight 'Flat-Top' Saunders	played by Colby Johannson

Season 1 / Episode 4: - Act of Contrition

Doctor Cottle: You are obviously an intelligent, well-educated young woman. Would you mind explaining to me why you waited five years in between breast exams?
President Laura Roslin: Yes, I would mind. It's none of your business. I was busy.
Doctor Cottle: [lighting a cigarette] And now here you are.
President Laura Roslin: Yes, here we are. Would you mind?

Doctor Cottle: I do, actually.

[More Quotes]

MISTAKES/GOOFS

FACT: When Starbuck is crashing (descending) into the moon, her analog pressure altimeter is climbing at a rapid rate instead of descending. Also (not as critical) her artificial horizon shows her in a spiral dive to the right but her viper is in a flat spin.

TRIVIA

Starbuck splits her trainee pilots groups of two and tells them they're going to learn a maneuver called the "Thorch Weave". This is a reference to the "Thatch Weave", a two-plane defensive maneuver developed by U.S. Navy pilots during World War Two.
One of the paperback books Boomer knocks off the shelf when finding the bomb shelter in the restaurant is "The Warbirds" by Richard Herman, Jr., which revolves around a dwindling US Air Force fighter wing single-handedly fighting a small-scale conflict.
The opening bit in "Act of Contrition" where a drone accidentally breaks loose from a storage rack and spontaneously ignites is based on a real incident aboard the USS Forrestal where a missile accidentally ignited and hit several planes on the flight deck. The cadence-like chant the pilots were singing was a rewritten version of a chant sung by A-10 Thunderbolt pilots.