Epiphanies - S2-E13
Factual error: Early in the episode a damaged Viper makes its way back to Galactica with its port-side gun trailing smoke as if in an atmosphere. But in a vacuum, the smoke wouldn't trail. It would build upon itself much the way shaving foam does when slowly leaking from a damaged can, unless the ship changed course and/or speed and then the smoke would appear to do the opposite - ship turns right, smoke moves off to the left because it remains on its original course regardless of what the ship does. The gun is not propelling the smoke rearward. The ammo inside is simply burning. (00:05:15)
Revealing mistake: When Billy lies dead in the morgue and the President fixes his hair while saying, "That's better." we can see Billy's throat move as he swallows.
Other mistake: In the CIC, Tigh challenges Apollo and asks why he isn't in the brig. Shortly after Apollo begins to explain the plan for the search and rescue of the Raptor downed on Kobol. He refers to it as "Raptor 3" when it is Raptor 1 they are looking for. Raptor 3 was destroyed when they first jumped to Kobol, Raptor 2 escaped back to Galactica, and 1 fell to Kobol. The Raptor on Kobol is referred to as Raptor 1 throughout the rest of the episode and on preceding episodes.
Downloaded - S2-E18
Continuity mistake: As Sharon shouts at Six, she is holding a photo frame in her right hand, waving it about slightly. But the moment she is about to throw the frame, it's instantly in her left hand and she passes it into her right to throw it. (00:14:40)
Epiphanies - S2-E13
Continuity mistake: Episode 2-13, 'Epiphanies': When Baltar is led by the wrist along a corridor by Number Six, two crewmen pass Baltar on his left, headed the other way. The shot from behind Baltar places the crewmen immediately to Baltar's left when the shot is cut to a shot looking in the opposite direction as Baltar approaches the camera and the crewmen are now far behind Baltar, instantly. He is speaking continuously before and after this shot change, so there is no 'time passage' between the shots.
Continuity mistake: After Starbuck's cover as the mechanic is blown, she reaches into her tool box and grabs some guns. She has her hat pulled down over her face, but a second later when she spins around, the hat disappears and is never seen again. (00:26:30)
Continuity mistake: When the President is lying on the couch, she starts coughing and covers her mouth with her right hand, however, as Adama hands over a glass of water she is now covering her mouth with her left hand.
Lay Down Your Burdens (1) - S2-E19
Continuity mistake: When the President is getting ready for her speech there is a pencil lying on the table in front of Adama. When it cuts to the President picking it up it has changed position on the table.
Plot hole: Gaeta and Tigh both reference the fact that the Galactica crew computes the changes in stellar drift for FTL jumps and then sends out the info to the rest of the fleet for their use. However, when they fail to rendezvous with the fleet after the emergency jump, Gaeta realizes a mistake has been made and says that Galactica's info is out of date. This creates a major plot hole because if Galactica sends out the new info to the fleet, Galactica would always have the most up to date info for FTL jumps. The crew would be able to solve the lost fleet crisis by simply reloading the last coordinates that Galactica sent out and jumping there where the fleet would be waiting for them. There would be no need to go back to the previous coordinates and recompute the jump.
Visible crew/equipment: Early on during a fight between Helo and the chief, you can see two cameramen to the left of the screen. (00:07:10)
Downloaded - S2-E18
Continuity mistake: When Sharon throws the picture frame at the wall and Six's face is cut, the camera angle quickly changes a few times showing Six alternately from the front and rear. But with each angle change, the location and position of her right hand is wildly different. Palm facing toward her face, then away from it, then closed fist with fingers near her cheek, then immediately arm down at her side, then back to fist at her cheek. (00:15:05)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Baltar and the President are talking aboard Colonial 1, the tea pot changes from shot to shot. In one shot it points away from the President and in the next it points towards her. Neither of them picks it up to move it. (00:25:00)
Other mistake: After she is sprung from prison and sneaks off the Galactica, President Roslin makes an appeal to the fleet to follow her ship to find the servant of the gods with the arrow of Apollo on Kobol. She is presumably speaking about Starbuck. But Starbuck was sent to and retrieved the arrow of Apollo from a museum on Caprica.
Continuity mistake: When the box of explosive rounds is opened, the six rounds keep changing position. Sometimes they are nearly laid on a row, whilst in other shots they appear scattered randomly in the box.
Home: Part 2 - S2-E7
Continuity mistake: Lee Adama is a captain, and is addressed as captain, yet he wears the rank insignia of a major on his collar - three chevrons rather than two. This is obvious without pausing when he meets his father in the woods midway through the episode as there is a revealing closeup. (Note: timecode is from the Blu-Ray release). (00:22:30)
Answer: The original BSG has something of a complex version history. Several versions exist, but the rationale behind what you're referring to is as follows. BSG, before anything else, was a TV series - the 'pilot episode' was a three-part tale called "Saga of a Star World". In that three-parter, a last-minute alteration to the script meant that Baltar was ultimately spared execution, because Glen A. Larson, the series producer, decided that he liked the Baltar character enough to keep him around for the rest of the series. The theatrical version, which was edited down from the three-parter and was shown in some countries before the US TV broadcast, lost quite a number of scenes, including the one where Baltar is spared. The real continuity of the series can only be found in the TV version - the movies, all of which were created by editing together existing episodes, miss out scenes leading to such apparent continuity errors.
Tailkinker ★