God's Will

a.k.a.

Intro

Changes

• The "reset" aspect is removed. The fear the aliens were pointing out in the Alphans is a fear they showed themselves, and the "war" between them has permanent results, including damage and some deaths on Alpha, and the (apparent) destruction(?) of the alien people.
• Fighters and bomber originally from Alphan memories, namely of (Terran) Hawks and an alien bomber, are instead replace with what (to S19) are "new" ships, thus making them the aliens', rather than alien projections.
• SFX: The "new" fighters are actually spliced-in Hatchet Fighters from the late 1970's series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. In that series, they are the fighter ships used by the Draconians (Ardala's people). The KB's Editor is unclear on the source of the "new" alien bomber.
• Through a sound re-edit, the death count partway through the episode, as a result of the first battle, is reduced from 128 to 28.
• SFX: Bob Mathias going through a Medical Center window has been removed, with new effects "erasing" Bob from being in front of the window, and instead showing the window shattering.
• Many or all of the major characters who "disappear" between Y1 and Y2 of the original series are seen here, in the last of the battles, as being in Eagles, followed immediately by a shot of an Eagle exploding, apparently implying their deaths.
• Clips of Y2 characters are spliced into the re-edit, such as Tony Verdeschi and Bill Fraser. In the final battle, they are seen in Eagles that do not subsequently explode. Indeed, Tony is seen as taking control during the battle as other officers are apparently killed.
• The SFX of the planet radiating its shield (final battle) are altered.

Conclusions

• The KB editor sees Eric's edits as apparently setting up a "bridge" between Y1 and Y2; i.e. a way of smoothing over many of the changes between seasons. Most of the subsequent points expand on this.
• Many Y1-only officers and other semi-major Y1-only characters are seemingly killed in the second battle, seemingly "explaining" their disappearance between the two seasons of the actual series.
• Bob Mathias survives, through what looks like a painstaking SFX edit. He is seen in a few of the early Y2 (actual) episodes.
• The overall death count is greatly reduced, implying the damage was not as severe as in WG, allowing greater viability heading into Y2.
• Some Y2-only characters are brought into this Y1 re-edit, apparently to show they were on the base in Y1 (which, of course they would have to be if Y1 and Y2 are assumed to be in the same timeline).
• Besides the loss of many officers, Tony's calmly taking charge of the situation in GW may have (speculation:) earned him a promotion before the start of Y2.
• The damage Alpha suffers to many of its upper-level rooms could be a reason the Alphans move most activities to lower levels in Y2.
• If the above interpretation is a reasonable correct one, the KB editor assumes GW is thus meant to be the last "Y1" episode.
• GW keeps the theme of "fear" that the original WG episode has, but alters it via changing the ships the aliens used and the lack of a reset.

Misc.

• The initials of the original episode and re-edit, WG and GW, are opposite of each other.
• Though GW retained the dialog about it probably being another six months to the next planet, in "The Metamorph" (first actual episode of Y2), Helena notes they just went through a space warp, which could thus be a surprise alteration to their course.
• Most(?) of the dialog implying some other severe damage is kept, but perhaps more detailed estimates "later on" find some damage is not as severe, or some new repair ideas are posited. Also, if Maya is assumed to arrive on Alpha shortly after GW, perhaps she brings some helpful ideas as well.