20 Years Ago, the Best Sci-Fi Show of the Century Delivered the Most Epic Space Battle in TV History

Admiral William Adama sends the Battlestar Galactica into New Caprica’s atmosphere to rescue humans living under Cylon occupation, launching fighters before the ship jumps back to space. The manoeuvre remains a celebrated and exceptionally risky moment in science-fiction television, but the episode’s battle also culminates in the destruction of the Pegasus, which helps secure the rescue.

“Exodus, Part 2”, from season three of Battlestar Galactica, reunited the scattered characters and returned the series to its central story of a battered warship protecting humanity’s survivors as they search for Earth. The New Caprica storyline was split across two episodes because it contained too much material for one hour and required costly sets, location filming, extras and visual effects. In the second part, the uprising begins, the civilian ships escape, and Lee Adama sacrifices the Pegasus to strike a Cylon basestar.