In this episode, the Galactica finds Earth…  or Terra… which probably isn’t Earth.  Plus Apollo and Starbuck get a little help from on high.

Ben and Eugene discuss this Experiment in Terra.

Episode Synopsis: 

Picking up from last week’s episode, the evil Eastern Alliance enforcers, along with the Borelean Nomen have escaped the Galactica.  Rather than recapturing them, Galactica’s fighters are pursuing them, hoping to follow them back to Lunar 7.

Apollo is separated out and captured by a Ship of Lights.  As he was mostly dead the last time he was there and his memories were erased, he remembers nothing of the previous experience.  He is introduced to John, one of the beings that has taken human form to interact with him.  Apollo must go to the planet Terra and stop a devastating war.  John can’t help him, though, so he’s on his own and just like that, he’s approaching the planet Terra in his Viper.

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Back on the tail of the evil Eastern Alliance ship, Starbuck detects Apollo’s absence but spots his locator at the extreme edge of detector range.  Starbuck heads off on a one-way trip to rescue him.

On the planet Terra, Apollo really isn’t capable of getting with the program quickly enough.  The Beings of Light have granted him a protective aura which makes him appear to be Major Charlie Watts – a bit of a scoundrel who is missing in action.  He is met by Brenda, Charlie’s former girlfriend who was directed to Apollo’s landing site by John.  Brenda’s father is in the Presidium, the ruling council of the Terran Nationalists, the democratic opposite to the evil Eastern Alliance.

Because Apollo is too stupid to figure out the situation that was clearly explained to him by John, he manages to convince Brenda not that he’s an alien lookalike of Charlie Watts sent to impersonate him and stop a war, but instead that he’s Charlie Watts gone nuts.  He’s captured, sent for medial examination, and then locked up.

It turns out that the President of the Nationalists is preparing a massive peace treaty with the evil Eastern Alliance and he’s been locking up everyone that might oppose peace with the evil Eastern Alliance.  Charlie Watts is one such person.

Meanwhile, Brenda’s father returns from a secret mission with evidence, but not proof, of some of the atrocities being carried out by the evil Eastern Alliance.  He’s locked up, too – as is Brenda.

Now for the part you didn’t see coming:  The evil Eastern Alliance has signed the peace treaty as a ruse.  They plan to stage a massive surprise nuclear first strike and wipe out the Nationalists on the eve of peace.

Starbuck arrives and, after John grants him a protective aura, he breaks out Apollo and the others.  Apollo must go to the Presidium, tell what he knows about Paradine and Lunar 7, and denounce the President’s peace treaty for what it is:  A foolish attempt to placate an intractable and evil enemy.

Meanwhile Starbuck tries to get a signal back to the Galactica.  The Galactica had already noticed the location of the missing pilots and left the fleet to intercept, traveling at light speed.

The Galactica arrives just in time to use its lasers to destroy the nuclear barrage while still in space.  The evil Eastern Alliance think that the Nationalists have a new super weapon that renders their nuclear arsenal useless and so, once again, sue for peace, this time on the Nationalist’s terms.

The Nationalists, knowing that they don’t have a new super weapon, nor will they in the future, agree to talks from a position of false superiority.  Peace, based on a wholly false premise seems assured.

Apollo returns to the Galactica, but before he does, John reveals to him what he needed to know:  Terra is not Earth.  Their journey continues.

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