Ball sport (Battlestar Galactica)

Triad or Pyramid is a team sport first shown in the "Battlestar Galactica" (1978) two-part episode "War of the Gods". A variation, with a different name (Pyramid), is shown in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica (2003) series.

Original Continuity

It is played by two teams of two players each. The court is a three-sided, walled enclosure perhaps 30 feet (10 meters) on a side. The "baskets" are circular holes about 14 inches in diameter in the centre of each of the three walls about 8 feet above the floor. A few feet above the holes are transparent windows so that spectators may observe the game first-hand. The games are also televised throughout the fleet.

The length of a game is unknown, but there is a timer that counts down to the end of the game. At the beginning of the game and after each basket, the players form a circle holding hands while circling in the centre of the court. The ball, about the size of a volleyball and painted silver, is launched in to the court from one of the baskets. The players attempt to gain possession of the ball by breaking away from the circle. Passes may be made to your team-mate by bouncing the ball off of one or more walls.

The players are dressed in shorts and a halter top, both with conspicuous padding. Triad is a rough, contact sport. No fouls were called during the episode, so it is unknown if there are any.

A point is scored for the team who manages to put the ball in one of the baskets. The three baskets are painted from floor to the top of the wall dark yellow (gold), dark blue and dark green (almost black), respectively. A trapezoid is painted on the floor between the bottoms of each of the baskets.

In the episode "War of the Gods", the gold team is seen scoring in the gold basket, and the blue team is seen scoring in the blue and green baskets. Since the rules aren't given, it is unknown if a team may score in only its own color plus the third color, or if a team may score in any baskets.

In further episodes (e.g. Murder on the Rising Star), fouls or penalties are called, including unnecessary blocking after the score and fighting. Punishment was expulsion from the game for one call of fighting, and for two calls of roughness. As for scoring, one team is shown scoring on their opponents goal after a take over, but rarely otherwise, this might be the Triad version of a Safety, only allowed under certain conditions.

New Continuity

The game has also been featured on several episodes of the new Battlestar Galactica (2003-2005). It is no longer called Triad, instead being called Pyramid, which was formerly the name of a card game in the original series. Producer Ronald Moore said at a convention once that the error in naming was due to a mistake on his part which no one caught in time before the first episode featuring the sport had aired.

This new incarnation of the game bears some resemblance to basketball or Rugby, and seems to have been more thought out as a sport than it was in the original show. Formal games can be played by two people against each other, or up to at least three on a team at once. "Pick-up" games played one-on-one may also be common.

The revised version includes triangular fields located symmetrically on the ground, their sides approximately one meter long. These are the 'safe' fields. Whenever a player touches such field with a ball, no attempts to take it away from him can be made.

The "Caprica Buccaneers" were a professional Pyramid team that survived the Cylon sneak attack on Caprica because they were out in the mountains high-altitude training away from the major targets. The character Samuel Anders of the Buccaneers led the remnants of the team and other survivors as a resistance militia against the Cylons who were repopulating the city of Delphi.

Admiral Adama also refers to the "Picon Panthers" as his favourite Pyramid team; this may imply that each colony had their own Pyramid team rather than particular cities as both teams thus far are named for entire colonies.