“War of the Gods” is episode fifteen of season one of the classic series of Battlestar Galactica.
A patrol of four Vipers led by Bojay suddenly encounters some lights they cannot detect. Bojay eventually decides to head back to the fleet, but their instruments go haywire, they are affected by a sound and they can’t flee as an enormous glowing ship approaches rapidly.
On Galactica, Apollo and Starbuck win a game of Triad, but afterwards Tigh tells them they have an emergency meeting in the war room. Adama tells them four Vipers have vanished; Sheba, Apollo and Starbuck are heading out to a planet where a seismic event was detected. Afterwards, Tigh tells Adama that the event was more like an explosion, but there was only one, not four if four Vipers had hit.
No life forms are detected on the planet and the three Vipers head down. There’s a burned-out area with wreckage in it and, after landing, they head there. Something the size of Galactica looks to have crashed. They are going to get closer when a man behind them warns them not to go down there.
He tells them the radium levels are too high and, when asked if he needs help, says it’s more likely he can help them. There were others on the ship, but they were destroyed by the Great Powers. No, not the Cylon Empire. It’s not easy to explain. He wants to move away, so he isn’t reminded of what happened to his people. Apollo can’t get a reading and the man says the radium field is too strong.
He says his weary and doesn’t know how he survived the crash. They won’t know of his people, but maybe he can help with their quest for his knowledge of the universe is infinite. The three from Galactica are wondering who he is, then Starbuck heads off first. The lights appear, but the man is unaffected by the sound.
Back on Galactica, the man, Count Iblis, is introduced to Tigh. Sheba takes him to find quartiers and Starbuck and Apollo report to Adama. Apollo doesn’t trust the count. Iblis himself is telling Sheba he doesn’t want to have their instruments used on him as he’s not of their world and they could be destructive to him. He seems oddly persuasive, and there’s interference with displays wherever he goes.
Count Iblis claims he can lead the fleet to Earth, but with him in command. He’s clearly not telling everything and there are the strange lights and glowing ship that seem connected to him, possibly as enemies. The story continues in the next episode, “War of the Gods, Part II”.