Battlestar Galactica Line Honors Star Trek Iconic Character
Battlestar Galactica was Ronald D. Moore’s masterpiece, a show he created and ran after years of writing for Star Trek: The Next Generation and its spinoffs. Normally, the two franchises didn’t have much in common: Star Trek was a Utopian show about humanity’s potential, and Galactica was a dystopian show about humanity’s folly. However, the third episode of Battlestar Galactica (“Bastille Day”) surprisingly gave one character a throwaway line that was a deliberate homage to Dr. McCoy in Star Trek: The Original Series.
An Easy To Overlook Line
The line comes from a relatively minor character, the captain of the civilian fleet vessel Astral Queen. At one point, the captain quips, “I’m a bus driver, not a warden.” It’s a line that might not mean much to the average Battlestar Galactica fan, but it has special significance to anyone who grew up watching reruns of Star Trek: The Original Series.
The Famous Star Trek Quote
In that show, the cantankerous Dr. McCoy once quipped, “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer” in the episode “The Devil in the Dark.” While this is arguably the most iconic line, McCoy had several variations in other episodes, including “I’m a doctor, not an engineer” and “I’m a surgeon, not a psychiatrist.” The cranky doctor’s tendency to complain about the various responsibilities thrust upon him eventually became a pop culture catchphrase that even non-fans tend to quote.
It’s Funnier With the Modern Update
Interestingly, audiences tended to add (perhaps because of the Mandela effect) a bit of vulgarity in front of the phrases with “d*mn it, Jim,” and the profanity certainly seemed fitting to McCoy’s character. However, he never delivered his catchphrases with that profanity in The Original Series. They were, though, added to the Star Trek reboot films with fun new variations, including “D*mn it, man, I’m a doctor, not a torpedo technician!”
Battlestar Galactica’s Creator Was A Trek Writer
Why, though, does this Battlestar Galactica episode go out of its way to pay homage to a classic Star Trek line? There’s a chance that episode writer Toni Graphia simply wanted to add a winking nod to the classic science fiction series. However, if we had to bet money (preferably those weird little cubits from the show), we’d gamble that this reference was due to the influence of Ronald D. Moore.
As we touched on earlier, the Battlestar Galactica showrunner was previously known for writing Star Trek, and he got his start in television by joining the staff of The Next Generation. One of his strengths in this role was that he was a superfan of The Original Series, and he often snuck references to Kirk’s adventures in the newer episodes. Amusingly enough, his nickname on the TNG writing staff was “the Klingon guy,” and his obsession with this warrior race from Kirk’s era led him to write almost every TNG episode with a Klingon focus.
The Anti-Trek
Long story not very short, we don’t think it’s a coincidence that Battlestar Galactica, a show created by the world’s biggest fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, had an homage to Dr. McCoy hidden in an early episode.
The homage is still ironic, though, because Galactica was deliberately written as the opposite of Star Trek: it told grim and ongoing stories whereas Voyager (a show Moore abruptly left after writing only two episodes) told happy stories and consistently hit the reset button. Looking back, he may not have known how much overlap the different shows’ audiences would have, but what would you expect?
After all, he’s a writer, not a mind-reader.
