“Experiment in Terra” is episode twenty-two of season one of the classic series of Battlestar Galactica.
Adama is recounting how, in the previous episode, “Baltar’s Escape”, the captives escaped and Vipers are tracking the destroyer to Luna Seven to determine the strength of the Alliance and the outpost.
The destroyer has detected the Vipers; Apollo tells Starbuck to take point and the others to spread out to make it easier to detect other destroyers. Then the Ship of Lights appears behind Apollo.
Boomer asks Starbuck where Apollo is; he’s disappeared. Starbuck gets Jolly to take his place.
Apollo wakes on the ship and is told it’s time he meets someone. A man appears and says that Apollo’s memories of his last visit, in “War of the Gods”, have been locked. He introduces himself as John. Apollo needs to help the people of Terra to help his own. He’ll be taken as close to Terra as they can without causing complications. Then, Apollo will need to do his best to stop a war. John has no physical presence and those of Terra won’t be able to see him. What happens to Terra and the fleet can affect John’s people. And those who encounter Apollo will think he’s someone else; the identity of a missing warrior has been borrowed. Apollo wakes on his Viper in a white uniform and Terra ahead.
Starbuck picks up Apollo’s distress call and heads after.
A woman is complaining about a Charlie Watts calling her to pick him up. Then nearly hits Apollo. Who she thinks is Charlie. He ends up thinking her name is Amnesia.
In the woman’s apartment, she sees him as Charlie and, when she leaves the room, John appears and explains that others see him as Charlie. Apollo needs to get into the Presidium. The woman, Brenda, has called someone.
Brenda comes back, but she can’t see John. John also explains that Apollo has a protective white aura; when his uniform returns to its normal colour, he will be in trouble. Then the guards Brenda called turn up.
Apollo is put in a cell. Charlie was supposed to have been stashed away by the president, on a planet where everyone was killed by the Eastern Alliance. Starbuck is following Apollo to try and help, and it’s clear there are plots on Terra, the Eastern Alliance is going to launch a world-ending attack and the Galactica is heading after Starbuck and Apollo.