By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
photos copyright Universal
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
The original Battlesta Galactica had a very distinctive look to it featuring Egyptian infuences with a language that was yet wasn’t quite English. Words like frak are part of pop culture now but those influences have led to fan speculation as to whether what we were watching was in fact where our world started when Galactica finally finds Earth. The subsequent Galactica 1980 blew that out of the water but before that happened there are themes of good and evil between higher beings with powers beyond us normal humans.
Count Iblis is one such person. Played By Patrick Macnee, the Avengers and The Howling actor also narrated the intro to the show and provided the voice of the Imperious Leader of the Cylons. When he appeared in the War of the Gods two parter, it was thought that he may actually be the Imperious Leader himself in some sort of elaborate trap to capture the humans. But the truth was greater than that and again feeding in to Earth religious beliefs.
When Apollo (Richard Hatch), Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) and Sheba (Ann Lockhart daughter of Lost in Space’s June Lockhart) discover a crashed ship on a planet, they find one survivor, Count Iblis.
From the start Count Iblis wields his power to get what he wants. Rather than letting the pilots explore the crashed ship, he manipulates Apollo’s instruments to register radiation levels too high to be safe. Sheba is immediately taken by the Count who is charming to a fault. As John Steed in the Avengers, Macnee fine tuned this to a masterclass. Dressed in white, he immediately subconsciously is taken as a good guy by anyone that meets him. Only good guys wear white in our minds. But when mysterious white orbs flash across the sky he is desperate for them to leave as his enemies are hunting him.
When he is given refuge aboard the Galactica, Adama (the late, greatLorne Green) is uspicious listening to his son’s concerns but the Council are not only taken with Iblis but prepared to hand power over to him. Similarly Iblis manages to sway the refugees to his side by providing food where there is none and comfort where there is hardship. He is very critical of how Adama and the Council has treated their people. Iblis can seemingly control people especially those who give themselves to him like a cult leader. Boomer unwittingly falls into this trap as he reveals he would do anything to beat Apollo and Starbuck. Unconsciously he has a resentment of their seeming place as favourites of Adama. He feels his abilities are not being recognised and Iblis can secure that reality for him. Adama is helpless as he loses control of the refugees but Iblis pulls of a seemingly impossible feat. He promises to lead them to Earth and deliver the traitor Baltar. At the end of part one, he does deliver Baltar to them for trial for his crimes. This secures his power as he keeps his word and to the hungry and frightened refugees, Iblis is the man that can deliver them to Earth and a new life free of Cylon tyranny. Such is the indolence, the pilots are too sluggish to respond to the arrival of great balls of white lights buzzing the Galactica. Iblis is furious alerting Apollo that something about these lights may prove to be their salvation. Pilots are going missing when ships are launched to intercept the lights including Boomer yet Iblis is unconcerned. Surely if all these people are his followers would Iblis not want to keep them close rather than let them fall into the hands of whomever is behind the light ships?
Baltar too sees something familiar on Iblis in that he recognises the voice as that of the Imperious leader. The remains of the human fleet have given themselves over to the person responsible for the destruction of their worlds. But with Baltar sentenced to life on the prison ship and Iblis on the verge of becoming president of the Council, he confronts Baltar in his cell. He dismisses the notion he is the Imperious Leader by saying he couldn’t possibly be over 1000 years old.
Adama tells Apollo that the balls of light were written about by their ancestors, The themes introduced her are that they are a higher power something that the humans too may evolve into at some point in the future. However Iblis confirms he is from the same dimension as them. Putting together all the so called miracles and strange mind control, Apollo believes they are dealing with the Prince of Darkness himself, here to drag the Galacticans into a life of indolence and slavery under him. The fleet is vulnerable now the rest of the pilots are allowed free reign to indulge themselves.
Returning to the crashed ship, Apollo finds the truth and shows a horrified Sheba the remains of the people in the wreckage. Iblis appears knowing he has been discovered. When Apollo shoots him, Iblis’s true form is revealed breaking Sheba free from her infatuation. Iblis tries to kill Sheba but Apollo is struck down instead. Iblis disappears vowing to return in another time and place. The beings of light revive Apollo and give them a set of coordinates. The Galacticans learn that there are beings out there that are watching over them and fighting the darkness just as they are.
While Iblis gets away scott free at the end, the door is open for a return which sadly did not happen given there was only one season before the show was cancelled and reinvented into the awful Galactica 1980. What is interesting is that the implication of Iblis bring the Devil raises the Ship of Lights must be God or at least angels on his behalf. It would not be the last time the Ship of Lights would appear. Does that make the Galacticans journey a holy trial or a prophecy?
Parick Macnee was an easy choice to play Iblis because as John Steed, he charmed British audiences as the quintessential English gentleman for years. To be fair, he was brilliant and so popular with sudiences. It is easy to see the Devil parallel as his philosophy is that the only law is there is no law. Indolence and over indulgence are part and parcel of Iblis’ way and given the desperate state the Galacticans find themselves in makes them easy targets for Iblis. Now the connection to being the Imperious Leader is intriguing but appearance wise they are very different. But as we see Ibis has more than one face. Add to that the Imperious Leader is a robot. If Iblis truly is the Devil Then he would amuse himself by setting the Cylons on the fleet. But the Devil needs followers and when a man is starving he will do anything for a slice of bread. Iblis’ grass is muh greener than what Adama can offer butt a desperate person does not listen to reason. They listen to their growling stomachs and unwashed bodies while sleeping in a makeshift bed. Remember there are famlies here and parents have to feed their children. Equally Iblis has no issue persuading the humans to make themselves easier targets by letting themselves fall into sloth. Iblis is very much set up as a cult leader. I wonder if the Cylons had attacked would he have sacrified his new found lambs or unleashed his power to destroy the Cylons? Perhaps he took the Imperious Leader’s voice to taunt Baltar upon his capture?
His confidence and supremacy ooze from his very being making him the ultimate enemy who uses your own weaknesses against you. This may be why Sheba falls under his influence so quickly as she sees in Iblis the father figure she needs since she lost her father, Commander Cain of the Pegasus. It would also explain why Adama, Apollo and Starbuck are not sucked in. Adama ‘s only drive is to find Earth and get his people a home. Apollo is fiercely loyal to his pilots and Galacticans so needs nothing. Starbuck’s unquestioning faith in Apollo is his saving grace. There is nothing as dangerous as an enemy that uses your own weaknesses spoken and unspoken to win you over. It’s a web you become stuck in without even knowing it until you try to leave.
Count Iblis was a great character in Battlestar Galactica that promised so much but was cut short by television executives dumb decisions.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 