Brenik: the Cylon War boarding action Saul Tigh remembered but never lived
Brenik was a Colonial ship boarded by Cylons in the second year of the Cylon War, where 55 of 75 crew died fighting hand to hand over the ammunition magazines. Saul Tigh told the story as his own, and the memory had been written into him by Cavil before his resurrection.
Brenik was a Colonial military ship boarded by Cylon forces during the second year of the Cylon War, around 50 years before the Fall. Its crew fought the boarding party hand to hand through a battle over the ship's ammunition magazines, and 20 of the 75 aboard came out alive. (Battlestar Galactica, "Valley of Darkness" deleted scene)
What happened aboard the Brenik?#
Cylons boarded her in the second year of the war and the crew met them with their hands, fighting through the ship for control of the ammunition magazines until 55 of the 75 people aboard were dead. (Battlestar Galactica, "Valley of Darkness" deleted scene)
The tactic did not last. By the end of the war the Cylons had stopped putting bodies onto Colonial ships and had settled on venting the atmosphere and turning the guns against friendly vessels instead, which achieved the same result without the boarding party. Brenik belongs to the older, uglier method, and that is part of why Colonials still knew the name decades later. (Battlestar Galactica, "Valley of Darkness" deleted scene)
Did Saul Tigh really serve on the Brenik?#
No. Tigh is one of the Final Five, who only reached the Colonies late in the war, and Cavil later gave them false memories of human lives before resurrecting them and placing them among humans. His memory of the boarding has to be one of those. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")
It was a convincing fake, tied to a loss other Colonials knew well. When Tigh eventually told Adama the story, Adama knew what had happened to the ship before he finished. (Battlestar Galactica, "Valley of Darkness" deleted scene; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")
Where the story comes from#
The account exists because of a scene cut from "Valley of Darkness," and Ronald D. Moore explained on the podcast that it had been written to work like Quint's speech about the USS Indianapolis in Jaws: one man, one old sinking, and a room going quiet around him. (Battlestar Galactica podcast, "Valley of Darkness")
Sources
- SerialBattlestar Galactica, "Valley of Darkness" deleted scene, Season 2, Episode 2 (2005)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "No Exit", Season 4, Episode 15 (2009)
- SerialBattlestar Galactica podcast, "Valley of Darkness", Ronald D. Moore commentary podcast (2005)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Cylon War: the machines revolt
The Cylons rose against the people who built them on Caprica. Twelve years of fighting ended in a sudden Armistice that held for forty years.
Cylon
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Number One: John Cavil
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Saul Tigh
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William Adama
William "Husker" Adama was a Colonial Fleet officer who commanded the battlestar Galactica through the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. His refusal to network the ship spared it from the Cylon attack, and alongside President Laura Roslin he led the survivors of humanity in search of a new home.
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