battlestar galactica
One of the things that made the Battlestar Galactica reboot so cool is that it had many world-building details that were easy to overlook. One of those details is that Viper pilots will touch a photo when they enter or leave the briefing room. When a fan asked showrunner Ronald D. Moore what that photo was all about, he revealed that it was inspired by the photo of firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero and has its own sad story in the show.

The Inspiration


For this Battlestar Galactica story to make any frakkin’ sense, we need to quickly review the iconic real-world photo that the pilots’ fictional photo is based on. Raising the Flag At Ground Zero is the name of a famous photo taken by Thomas E. Franklin after the September 11th terrorist attack.

It shows firefighters raising the United States flag in the midst of the wreckage and the photo became a powerful symbol that the values and fighting spirit of America were still alive despite the devastating attack.

An Homage

Battlestar Galactica Plot hole
What does this famous photo have to do with the mysterious image the Viper pilots touch when they enter and leave the briefing room? When a fan asked Ronald D. Moore about the photo, he responded on his blog that it was a fictional homage to the famous 9/11 photo.

The image in the show is one of an unknown soldier falling to his knees on top of the capitol building on Aerilon while he witnesses the devastation of the Cylon attack, all while the Colonial flag waves at the edge of the photo.

An Important Symbol


In answering the Battlestar Galactica fan who wrote to him, Moore’s answers still left a few questions. It’s not clear who this soldier is, for example, or what his final fate was.

It’s also not clear whether or not he is falling to his knees because he was shot or simply because of sheer emotion as he examined the horrors around him.

However, to the showrunner, those granular details were less important than the symbolic value of this photo. To the pilots aboard the Battlestar Galactica, this photo was (in Moore’s words) “a snapshot taken in the moment that becomes a symbol of the day they can never forget and of all they had lost.”

The pilots touch this photo as something of a lucky ritual, helping them to remember (fittingly enough for this show) what has happened before and what they are fighting to keep from happening again.

President Roslin


Interestingly, there was a cut scene from the premiere Battlestar Galactica episode “33” where President Laura Roslin gets her own copy of this photo. Her version had a plaque with a special inscription that read “Lest We Forget.”

The phrasing was actually a shoutout to a forgotten Western, as these are the words inscribed on a watch that John Wayne receives in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

The TNG Veteran


We love Battlestar Galactica stories like this because they prove that even the most seemingly minor background details have their own epic backstories. Moore was a bit like his villainous Cylons, and he had a plan for almost everything you see onscreen. But what would you expect from someone who began his Hollywood career on Star Trek, transforming The Next Generation into must-see TV?