Battlestar Galactica (2003 Miniseries) - Part 2 - S1-E2
Continuity mistake: In the last battle scene in the miniseries, above Ragnar, all the civilian ships Jump away and Commander Adama orders all the vipers to land inside Galactica's landing bay. At one point, Dualla reports that two vipers are still out in the fight - Starbuck and Apollo. When Starbuck pushes her viper and Apollo's towards the landing bay, there's a shot of one of the basestars firing a missile, which hits Galactica. In this scene, we can see (and hear) 3 vipers, one of which is firing at a Cylon raider in the distance. They couldn't be Starbuck or Apollo, since Starbuck's viper and Apollo's were joined together and the mystery vipers are not, nor are they any of the other pilots, since only Starbuck and Apollo's vipers were still out, as Dualla has stated.
Answer: The original BSG has something of a complex version history. Several versions exist, but the rationale behind what you're referring to is as follows. BSG, before anything else, was a TV series - the 'pilot episode' was a three-part tale called "Saga of a Star World". In that three-parter, a last-minute alteration to the script meant that Baltar was ultimately spared execution, because Glen A. Larson, the series producer, decided that he liked the Baltar character enough to keep him around for the rest of the series. The theatrical version, which was edited down from the three-parter and was shown in some countries before the US TV broadcast, lost quite a number of scenes, including the one where Baltar is spared. The real continuity of the series can only be found in the TV version - the movies, all of which were created by editing together existing episodes, miss out scenes leading to such apparent continuity errors.
Tailkinker ★