Kobol and The Battle of Kobol


Kobol (The Planet)

TOS Series:
In the original series Kobol was the mother world where mankind originated. In that series, it was an ecological / environmental disaster that lead to the migration. During the migration, 12 tribes set out for the stars, but became lost in a starless void before stumbling into the worlds that would become the new twelve colonies of mankind, while the 13th again headed for a world called "Earth".

Kobol is rediscovered in the episode Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I, which sees a team from the Galactica arrive among the ruins of Eden, the planet's largest city. Here they seek to enter the tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol in order to find clues as to the route taken by the Thirteeth Tribe (Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II). A Cylon attack prevents them from doing so.


Kobol the world
Kobol is the homeworld of humanity, from which twelve "colonies" of man were founded in deep space, and a thirteenth, which colonised the planet Earth.

Kobol orbits an irregular variable star, and its encompassing system of planets lies immediately adjacent to a magnetic void. The population was space-faring, and within the story it is suggested that their population likely reached the limits inherent in occupying a single planet, and, coupled with other disasters or factors (such as Kobol's sun being a pulsar), motivated humans to leave the planet.

Eden was the name of a city on the planet, and, according to Commander Adama (Lorne Greene), was "the first to fall" to some unknown cataclysm.

In scenes that were filmed, but deleted from the final broadcast of the episodes, Captain Apollo explains that in its final days, Kobol was stricken with terrible overpopulation and waste. The surface and atmosphere of the planet were in fact so polluted that only the absolute strongest of creatures could still survive. After the human inhabitants of Kobol fled the planet and founded the colonies, they deliberately destroyed all of their technology and spacecraft; it took several centuries to rebuild even the most primitive ships for exploring the stars.

Also unexplained is the culture of then-Kobolian society and their division into 13 distinct tribes. Twelve of these groups traveled through the magnetic void and eventually settled a group of inhabitable planets in a common solar system. These settlements became the colonies depicted in the series, known collectively as the Twelve Colonies of Man.

For some unexplained reason, the thirteenth tribe presumably traveled a greater distance and in the opposite direction, settling on Earth.

At the time the original series began, there had been no contact between the thirteenth tribe and the Twelve Colonies of Man. People of the Twelve Colonies of Man generally considered the existence of Earth and the thirteenth tribe a myth.

Kobol is rediscovered in the aforementioned "Lost Planet of the Gods", which depicts at least part of the planet as being a desert, with ruins similar (or possibly identical) to the Egyptian Pyramids of Giza; parts of the episode were filmed on location at Giza. A great deal of the symblogy in the series is of an ancient Egyptian nature.

Notes:
  • "Kobol" is an anagram of "Kolob", and its name is part of the mythopoetic fabric of "Battlestar Galactica" that borrows from Mormon theology. The Mormon hymn If you could hie to Kolob touches on themes related both to the original and the re-imagined series. As written fiction, Kobol is believed to take its name from the Mormon Kolob, a celestial body named in the Book of Abraham and identified as being near the home or origin of God. Many connections between Mormon beliefs and the story of Battlestar: Galactica have been pointed out by observant fans. Glen A. Larson, the writer of the original Battlestar: Galactica, is Mormon and articulated some of his religious beliefs through this science fiction metaphor.
  • The original series included the Earth, or an Earth-like world, in two storylines. The first was as a human planet called Terra, and though it was very similar to Earth, the beings from the Ship of Lights confirmed that Terra is not in fact Earth. The sequel series Galactica 1980 involved the Galactica finding the real Earth.
  • In ancient Persian, it also means "Heaven".
Eden
Eden is a city on the planet Kobol. According to the Book of the Word, it was the largest city on the planet. Due to an ecological disaster -- which had caused the exodus from Kobol -- Eden had become a desert, populated by ruins.

The structures of Eden are similar to Egyptian architecture, populated by pyramid structures. (An architectual trait that is also apparent on Caprica.) It is here that the Tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol was located.

Eden was further damaged by a Cylon attack from Baltar's forces in the form of a Cylon Raider phalanx, as ordered by his cogitator Lucifer. (Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II)


Ninth Lord of Kobol
The Ninth Lord of Kobol was the last of the Lords of Kobol to have survived. Apparently, he survived long enough for a tomb to be built in his honor by the humans, who were apparently leaving due to an ecological disaster on Kobol. While much was never revealed about the Ninth Lord, it in his tomb that held the location of Earth (Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II).


Tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol
The tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol is located inside a large pyramid in the city of Eden on the planet Kobol. Its entrance is marked with an inscription that tells that the Ninth Lord of Kobol lays there in peace, and promises death to those who enter it. Despite the dire warnings, Adama enters the tomb, using his council member amulet as a key. Serina and Apollo accompany him. A trap springs shortly after they enter, and the bones of tomb raiders in the trap reveal its deadly nature. Adama again uses his amulet, this time to free them from the trap and continue. The next chamber appears to be the crypt, but they are interupted by the entrance of Baltar through a different door. Apparently his amulet works as well.

Baltar is taken back to the camp, and Adama remains trying to decipher the writings. When Starbuck returns and tells the camp of the basestar that is just beyond sensor range, Apollo and Serina bring Baltar back to the tomb. It is then when the star of Kobol begins to shine again, reflecting off of Adama's amulet and causing the crypt to retract revealing a stairwell. Baltar charges in first, followed by the others. Baltar manages to pry off the lid of the sarcophagus before Apollo can stop him, and grabs a sceptor, activating a trap. A large stone block traps them in the tomb.

Adama discovers that the inscriptions he was searching for, regarding the last days of Kobol and the exodus of the thirteenth tribe to Earth are on the walls of this room. Shots from a Cylon Raider end up blowing a hole in the tomb, freeing them from the room but also destroying the writings and trapping Baltar under a large stone (Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II).


Battle of Kobol (TOS)
A risky play for power on the part of Lucifer, the Cylons nearly catch Galactica at a very vulnerable time.

Nearly all of Galactica's Viper pilots had contracted an unknown illness, which forced Adama to call up a group of female shuttle pilots to be trained on Vipers. Their initial training completed, the female Viper squadron accompanied Adama down to the surface of Kobol, where Adama hoped to learn the location of Earth.

Baltar met Adama on Kobol, and released Starbuck from captivity as a show of good faith. When Baltar remains on the surface too long without contacting Lucifer, the Cylon seizes his absence as an opportunity to gain power. Lucifer ordered an attack, hoping to gain the glory of having destroyed Galactica.

The female Viper pilots on the surface scrambled to defend against the Cylon Raiders, but their lack of experience in addition to being outnumbered left them in a dire situation. In the course of the fighting a Raider shot the Tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol, freeing Adama, Apollo, and Serina. The explosion that freed them also caused a large rock to fall on Baltar, pinning him. The other three are forced to escape, leaving Baltar to his fate.

Just when things were looking hopeless for the Colonials, the male Viper pilots report for duty. Dr. Salik had found a cure. They still weren't strong enough to walk yet, but they were able to fly their Vipers. They join the fray and their combined force was enough to drive the remaining Raiders away (Lost Planet of the Gods).


Sources:
Battlestar Wiki
Wikipedia