Tuesday 26 January 2016

1978: EVIDENCE THAT BATTLESTAR GALACTICA'S BEHEADING OF BALTAR WAS FILMED?

From 1978: Is this positive proof that Baltar's execution was shot for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA?

I've long pondered whether the beheading of the human traitor at the feet (?) of his erstwhile ally the Imperious Leader was ever shot. This admittedly blurry still suggests it might well have been.

Depending on which cut of the epic opener you watch, Baltar is either executed off camera (the scene cuts must as the Cylon blade is about to strike) in the released first movie version or delayed (and ultimately, ahem, terminated) in favour of a public (huh?) decapitation in the TV print (assembled later, once the decision had been made to retain the character for the weekly series).

Marvel's first crack at adapting Saga of a Star World/ the movie channeled Hammer horror and left little to the imagination. But was that based on an early print or artistic license?

The extensive deleted scenes on the DVD box set shed little new light (I assume the same scenes were ported across to the BR release although I've not double-checked). There some alternate takes of the scene but nothing radically different or more gruesome. Which left me wondering: was there more shot and either overlooked or deliberately dropped from the outtakes?

The still is from an obscure British magazine called ON SCREEN published in 1978. It appears pretty small on the cover so I've enlarged it here. I doubt very much that they went to the trouble of faking it (although you never know) but it might have crept out of the studio before the decision was made to drop the cut (ahem) from all versions. 

Apologies if you are reading STARLOGGED over breakfast or lunch.

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