Baltar quotes from Battlestar Galactica (1978)

Lucifer! I'll tear you apart, limb from limb, circuit by circuit, so help me! Mark my words, Adama! You have not heard the last of Baltar!

Good luck! [To Adama's incredulous/cynical look] If they don't succeed, I die, too.

Commander Adama

Mr. President, a wall of unidentified craft is closing in on the Fleet.

Possibly a Cylon welcoming committee.

Commander Adama

Sir, might I suggest we launch a welcoming committee of our own?

Mr. President, there remain many hostile feelings amongst our warriors. The likelihood of an unfortunate incident with all those pilots in the sky at once?

President Adar

Commander?

Commander Adama

Sir, did Baltar suggest that our forces sit here, totally defenseless?

President Adar

My friend, we are on a peace mission. The first peace man has known in a thousand yahrens.

Their destruction is complete.

Our forces have taken prisoners near the spacedrome. They tell of survivors who escaped in ships.

What ships? How far can they go? If a handful of survivors did indeed escape, they would have neither fuel nor food for a prolonged voyage.

The information is not complete. It is offered in exchange for life.

And what is the standing order for humans from your Imperious Leader?

Extermination.

Then carry out your orders. If they exist, they're doomed.

The Imperious Leader

Welcome, Baltar. I have grave news. A handful of Colonials prevail, but we will soon find them.

What of our bargain? My colony was to be spared!

The Imperious Leader

I now alter the bargain.

How can you change one side of a bargain?

The Imperious Leader

When there is no other side. You have missed the entire point of the war.

But I have no ambitions against you.

The Imperious Leader

Could you think me so foolish as to trust a man who would see his own race destroyed?

Not destroyed - subjugated! Under me!

The Imperious Leader

There can be no survivors. So long as one human remains alive, the Alliance is threatened.

Surely... you don't mean me.

The Imperious Leader

We thank you for your help, Baltar. Your time is at an end.

No! You can't! [A Cylon Centurion begins to draw his sword.]

The Imperious Leader

[orders his Cylon Centurion to stop.] No. Not now, Centurion. Remove him for public execution.

The Imperious Leader

You are Baltar?

[chuckles] It's as if you don't remember, hmm?

The Imperious Leader

My predecessor has left me with a difficult choice.

Your... predecessor?

The Imperious Leader

Was destroyed by your peers. A foolish miscalculation of the will of your people.

I... I tried to warn him! I... I could've helped! I could've prevented his...!

The Imperious Leader

Yes. I have examined your epistle suggesting you would be able to locate the humans.

Why, yes. Oh, yes. I... I think as they do. I... I know where they will go, what they must do...

The Imperious Leader

I find your reasoning logical.

Then... I am to be...

The Imperious Leader

Spared.

To serve the Empire!

The Imperious Leader

No. To serve your people. To help us extend the hand of truce.

Truce?

The Imperious Leader

My predecessor was programmed at a time when our Empire was less capable of tolerance. Now that we are omnipotent, we can afford to be more charitable. You will explain my policy of good will. I have spared you. I will spare them.

They are... not likely to be receptive.

The Imperious Leader

I will send with you a base star, entirely under your command. Lucifer!

The Imperious Leader

I have examined your epistle suggesting you would be able to locate the humans.

Why, yes. Oh, yes. I... I think as they do. I... I know where they will go, what they must do...

The Imperious Leader

I find your reasoning logical.

Then... I am to be...

The Imperious Leader

Spared.

To serve the Empire!

The Imperious Leader

Lucifer! [Lucifer approaches the Imperious Leader and stands next to Baltar] I'm sending you a base ship entirely under your command.

[walking with Baltar] It will be my pleasure, Baltar. I think I can assure you, with some sense of pride, you will inherit the most capable Centurions in all the Empire.

[to Lucifer] Do not fence with me, my friend. Everything is still proceeding according to my plan, except you have not captured one of their pilots, as I ordered.

To assure such a capture, we would have to risk being discovered. You ordered us out of the Galacticas scanner range.

They send out patrols, do they not? Capture one!

Lieutenant Starbuck. How nice of you to drop in.

Lieutenant Starbuck

Baltar! I'd trade my life for one shot at you.

You will come to understand that I had nothing to do with the defeat of the Colonies. I, too, was a victim.

Lieutenant Starbuck

Yeah. You look like one.

Fortunately, there have been some changes in the Cylon Empire, changes favorable to humans and their predicament.

Lieutenant Starbuck

You'd know a lot about that.

Don't antagonize me. I come to bring an offer of peace to all humans. There people here are our friends.

Lieutenant Starbuck

Really? Then you won't mind my leaving with the good news.

In time. [to a Cylon Centurion] Remove him. See that he's fed and made comfortable.

Lieutenant Starbuck

I just want you to know that torture won't do you any good. I had a course in resisting. [The Cylon Centurion forces him to start walking] Hey, careful. I bruise. Easy.

I know exactly how you feel, old friend.

Commander Adama

Baltar. [rushes at Baltar, puts his hands around his neck and tries to strangle him]

Captain Apollo

[comes between Baltar and Commander Adama and separates the two] No, Father! Leave him to the Council!

You almost killed me! What is this madness?

Captain Apollo

[removes Baltar's pistol] You need to ask?! Selling out your own flesh and blood?!

Selling out?!! What has he told you? What great truths has Adama spoken to my back?

Captain Apollo

You mean to say you didn't arrange the destruction of our Fleet, our cities, almost every living thing in the Colonies?!

Are you completely mad?! What sane human being would do a thing like that? Adama, surely you could not have supported such lies! How could you think of me so evil? I, too, hold the seal of the Lords, and a member of the Council of Twelve! I was as much a victim as any of you. I lost everything. My family, my people. I was trapped between the President's Battlestar and my own. Captured by the Cylons, taken away like an animal, to face trial!

Serina

Apparently, they found you innocent. A friend of the Cylons!

No. I was spared to lure you into another trap through a message of peace from some new benevolent Cylon ruler.

Commander Adama

Get him out!

Adama, wait! You must hear me out. I have been to the Cylon seat of power. It is in chaos. The Cylon forces are searching for you throughout the star system. The route back into the Cylon Empire is barely defended. One single Battlestar could take control of the Empire and bring it to its knees!

Commander Adama

You have the tongue of an angel and the soul of a serpent!

I can prove my good intentions, that I have the power to lead you back into Cylon, supposedly as my prisoners, but, in actuality, to launch a counterattack against those demons.

Captain Apollo

What proof?

The release of one of your officers. Lieutenant Starbuck.

Serina

He's alive!

Let me show you!

Commander Adama

At what price? Remove him, Apollo!

Captain Apollo

Father, what if he can prove what he's saying?

Commander Adama

If they've sent him, then it is a trap.

Then why haven't they attacked?!

Commander Adama

I cannot tell you. But our safety is not behind us with you or the Cylons. It lies somewhere out there along the path taken by the Thirteenth Tribe. The tribe that colonized the planet Earth.

Earth?! You can't be serious. That's nothing but a fable.

Commander Adama

I believe it is as real as the existence of the Thirteenth Tribe. And the key to that tribe is here in this place, locked away somewhere. I'm certain of it.

Adama, listen to reason. You could drift forever in search of what? A planet that may be the myth of half-drunken star lords who came back to die here? We could all die here! Unless I give the appearance that I've delivered you. We must attack and seize power. It will take them completely by surprise.

Commander Adama

I trusted you once!

I cannot stay here too long before my machine friends will become nervous and do something rash.

Commander Adama

Serina! Apollo! This is what we came for. This is a record of the mass exodus. The final departure of the first twelve tribes, the ones which eventually became the Colonies we knew. And here, the last days, the final days of Kobol. It tells of the Thirteenth Tribe.

Captain Apollo

Can you tell where they went?

Captain Apollo

[as everyone is coughing profusely] The... the door, it's been blasted open!

Commander Adama

[despondent] The writings!

Forget the writings!

Commander Adama

They're disintegrated; they're gone!

Help me!

Sit, Baltar. Do not pace.

You. You!

Sit, old friend.

I will not! And you cannot ever again force me to do anything. I know you! I remember that voice.

Do you?

The voice of the Cylon Imperious Leader.

But the Cylons are machines.

Yes...now. But once they were a race of beings who allowed themselves to be overcome by their own technology.

And when did this happen?

A thousand yahrens ago. At the onset of the thousand yahren war against humans.

Then my voice would have to have been transcribed into a machine leader a thousand yahrens ago. I'd have to be a thousand yahrens old. Do not fear, my friend. All is not lost.

You see those prisoners behind you? They are from an alliance which, in this corner of the universe, may be as powerful as my Cylon friends. They are going to be transferred to the Galactica.

And how do you know this?

I have my sources. When the shuttle comes for those prisoners, we will make our break, take the shuttle, and escape.

And what of the Vipers?

I have a plan to deal with them. When we reach the Alliance, I'll be welcomed with open arms. For I know the Galactica, her strengths, her weaknesses, and most important, her Commander, Adama. I'll be treated like a prince. And so will those who are with me.

Your record to date does not exactly inspire confidence.

I had incompetent followers.

We do not follow, Baltar.

Oh, no. No, no. Of course not. We're all comrades... in this together.

Good. When the time comes to escape, we will momentarily die.

Die?!

We do many things to survive... even die.

The micron the hatch opens, you and your men will eliminate all guards. Take as many hostages as possible.

Don't worry. We are very good at such operations.

I'm sure you are. Maga, you and your Nomen follow me to the lift. We can be on the bridge in a matter of microns.

And once we control the bridge...

We control the Galactica!