Battlestar Galactica (TV Series) The Man with Nine Lives (1979) User Reviews

An Astaire affair that's light as air

[Fluke_Skywalker · 7/10 · 26 October 2016]

Plot; A con man pretends to be Starbuck's long lost Father in an effort to escape angry hit men.

Guest star Fred Astaire (Yep, that Fred Astaire) delivers a charming performance as a scoundrel in a slightly lighter episode (coming off of a rather heavy two-parter). Like the aforementioned two-parter, we get a look and a sense of the fleet beyond the Galactica. It's small stuff, but it does help to flesh out this "world" and make it more three dimensional. Along with Astaire the late great Lance LaGault stars as one of the Klingon-esque Borrelian Nomen, helping give the otherwise amusing affair some stakes and more menace. - 7/10 - Astaire apparently called up producer Donald Bellisario and asked for a small part on the show because his grandkids were big fans of the show.

a charming episode!

[mm-39 · 7/10 · 13 June 2023]

The Man with Nine Lives is a charming episode! There is a mix of acton and a personal side. Starbuck has a gambling system and a old man tells Starbuck the system can not work. Starbuck does not know the elder is his dad. What works here is the womanizing and conman personality are traits both father and son shares. The dad is worse conman, and regrettable has Borrillian Nomen out for old dad with a blood hunt. What works is the Starbuck finds out his potential father tried to trace back his son lost during the Cyclon wars. What works is we see Starbuck's human side as an orphan, while old dad see the good life Starbuck has and lets the D N A tests stay secret so Starbuck does not ruin his life. How the story ties in makes The Man with Nine Lives charming. 7 stars.

Action and mystery

[keyope · 10/10 · 22 January 2019]

This is one of my favourite episodes of BG. Starbuck meets Fred Astaire, aka Chameleon, a con man who's managed to get on the wrong side of a group of three nutcases called the Borrillian Nomen (not sure I'm spelling that correctly). What follows is a mystery where Chameleon might just be Starbuck's father, or just an old conman using him to get away from the 3 weirdoes. Pretty soon the Nomen are after Starbuck too. A really great fun episode with a few twists.