UBC = Cloud Nine = Caprica

Six adventurous members of the 13th Colony (and one very brave journalist) headed out on the second of our “Location Scouting Missions” over the weekend to the campus of the University of British Columbia to visit some of the locations that were used during Season One of Battlestar Galactica. Our first stop was the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, perhaps best known to genre fans as the 4400 Centre from the “The 4400.” The Season One episode “Colonial Day” features a meeting of delegates representing the various colonies and focuses on the election of a Vice President. The front exterior of the Chan Centre is where Roslin and Zarek shake hands in front of reporters. Several interiors were used, including the washroom where Roslin unknowingly interrupts one of Baltar’s romantic liaisons to ask him to run for VP.

Right next to the theatre is UBC’s Rose Garden, such a beautiful spot that it is rare to find it not being used as a backdrop for wedding party photos on a sunny weekend. The garden was used for the scene at the beginning where the reporters discuss the upcoming summit, and where Starbuck turns a water hose on Apollo, just for fun.

A few steps away down the Main Mall is the striking Koerner Library, whose distinctive roof is easily identifiable in the scene on Caprica from the same episode, where Helo first sees a second version of Boomer and realizes she is a Cylon.

Click here for an album comparing our photos and screenshots from “Colonial Day.”

We’ve got one more “Scouting Mission” planned for the year, out to the campus of Simon Fraser University, one of the most popular filming locations in Greater Vancouver. Its distinctive architecture was featured prominently in the BSG miniseries, “Kobol’s Last Gleaming” and in several episodes of Stargate and the X-Files.