Battlestar Galactica: Season 2 - SciFi US broadcast thread - Page 52

Ack! I forgot about that! Knowing how much Galactica Sharon is still loyal to her former crewmates, she's gonna take this pretty damn hard! Then again, she did feel a lot of remorse over what she's done and might let it slide.

Kinda off topic from the discussion. But, as someone mentioned earlier. Its amazing how they have a society with tech & culture comparable to us in 2006. Yet, have FTL spaceships. I understand Moore doesn't want technobabble. But, it seems a little ridiculous that the only difference in tech between us in real life and BSG is Spaceships with and without FTL. Even, their medical equipment seems the same as ours. I think they should have some non-ship future tech.

They were forced to revert to low-tech during the first Cylon War in order to keep the Cylons from using their tech against them. In the miniseries, Baltar gives a TV interview where he talks about how laughable it is that there are still sanctions on tech research based on the (then-)nonexistent threat of a Cylon attack.

Todd, that's a fair question. I, for one accept that there could be a civilization with both FTL travel and analog radio technology, even if only for the reason that many discoveries in applied science and technology are purely accidental. Some things do require "figuring out", but a great many of our discoveries were stumbled upon accidentally.

I read somewhere that the odds of discovering penicillin by accident (which is exactly how it was discovered) are about the same as winning the lottery, since the strains of mold that produce penicillin are outnumbered by those that don't by tens of millions to one. Except for one very fortunate -- and very unlikely -- accident, ours could well be a civilization without penicillin.

A fairly recently-discovered molecule, known affectionately as the Bucky Ball, is a common product of combustion and exists in almost all soot. Under the right circumstances, it could have been discovered by any competent, early 20th-century chemist. Had it been, today's technology and construction techniques would already be taking full advantage of nano-tubes, close cousins of Bucky Balls. But because that accident didn't happen a hundred years ago, we're still toying with nano-tubes in the lab.

So it's not at all a stretch for me to believe that some scientist on Kobol leaned over to change the reel-to-reel archival tape on his computer and spilled his coffee on a sample of graphite lubricant made of platinum-doped Carbon-14, and witnessed a quantum tunneling event that eventually led to the development of FTL. Thanks to that one clumsy scientist, they were flitting among the stars with their vinyl records and lava lamps.

Add to that the varying degrees to which various technological advancements are driven by war and politics, and you have a mish-mash of technologies that is not at all likely to parallel technological developments of humans findng their way on a different world.

It may also be an issue of resources. A civilization that arises on a planet in a white-dwarf star system devoid of radio isotopes may never discover nuclear power. It's a little more of a stretch, but Kobol simply may have had some isotope, compound, or substance we have yet to discover that facilitated the development of FTL.

I remember in Babylon 5, the thing that made opening a hyperspace jump point possible was an element called quantium-40, a form of stressed potassium found only on planets that just barely survived their suns going supernova. Such a substance could never be found on any planet with indigenous intelligent life, so it wasn't possible for even the most technologically advanced civilization to discover quantium-40, and thus FTL, without first going to the stars in sub-lightspeed vessels. The first civilization to stumble upon it the hard way suddenly had FTL, and it probably wasn't the most technologically advanced civilization out there.

Or it could simply be an issue of motivation. Perhaps Kobol sucked so bad they just had to get off.

[Edted to correct spellng. Stupd phone keypad has an ntermttent "eye" key. -Bran]

Come to think of it, why was Kobol abandoned?

I thought about that soon after viewing the finale. My solution would be to have a Raptor briefly land on New Caprica in remote location and inject clandestine crew members who would make their way to the habited areas. Once there they would be to seek out former key members of the battlestar crews and arrange predetermined times and locations for Raptor extractions.

I know way too fanciful but I cannot imagine two understaffed battlestars risk taking on that immense Cylon fleet.

I agree. Even on Earth, pre-"globalization", historically the different isolated civilisations advanced in different areas at different rates (IIRC, for instance the South American Indians that built Macchu Picchu in Peru never invented the wheel, which makes their achievement in building that city even more amazing).

So as suggested by Brian, perhaps by some fluke they stumbled on the secret of FTL drives, yet haven't managed much better in other areas. Or to be a cynic about it, the producers "created" the minimum in high-tech advances necessary to tell the story, i.e. FTL, and left the rest more-or-less the same as our 2006, so as not to have to "create" too many fancy gadgets and techno-babble lingo -- come to think of it, they've never tried to "explain" how the FTL works in the BSG universe, it's just taken as a given. Contrast that, I guess, with Star Trek -- matter/anti-matter reaction, dilithium crystals (at least in ST:TOS), Cochrane etc

Well, it saves quite a bit on budget for props and set design. BSG is a fairly low budget show by network, certainly "Star Trek" standards. It does irk me that they are seemingly much more advanced yet use so much "contemporary" stuff.

Yet they still have "magic" anti-radiation medicine, FTL, and advanced robotics...remember the Cylons were created by man, sentient, and rebelled.

I still have a problem with the Cylons that are "so close to human anatomy that a medical exam can't tell them apart" yet they apparently have some kind of data port in their arm.

I like the use of contemporary tech. I always hated the Star Trek "wave this light wand at a person and heal them" medical procedures. People are still people in the future, and they'll use IVs and surgury and needles and all the rest.

I would call all the spaceships plenty of future tech. I don't need to see laser pens and holograms and who knows what else unless it helps the story.

I suppose sufficiently advanced nano-technology could make the port indistinguishable from human tissue when it's not in use.

That isn't that far off even in current Human Technology. Direct communication between optical/digital transmission lines and nerve endings is pretty close. With the obvious sophistication of the the Spylon 'biology' I just don't see why this is so hard to believe at all. It is certainly easy enough to believe it would blend in to look like regular human tissue and be indistiguishable in exams.

Also, these are truly "routine medical exames." These ships aren't the Enterprise in that they don't have, as someone pointed out, magical beams of light that do everything. They aren't rigged for science and exploration. They are rigged for war and triage. One might think a more detailed scan and detailed autopsy done at incredibly minute levels would find things that a typical autopsy might not.

Also, their one true laboratory (that we know about) was run by a guy who already had a method of detecting cylons but he chose not to use it. Dr. Coddle (how you spell this??) is a navy surgeon, not a scientist. Nor a bricklayer.

First post ever here! Just had to jump in here for a bit...I was trying to figure this out, too, but I thought of an idea. What if they jumped to some random point (dead space is fine), and take the skeleton crews from the civilian ships onto the two battlestars? Yeah, they're not military, but whoever is left must know *something* about flying ships, so they wouldn't be totally useless, and I'm sure given the situation, they'd be willing to lend a hand or two. I'm betting if you add all of those people up, you'd have enough to at least run the two battlestars somewhat competently, even if not efficiently. The civ ships wouldn't be doing much good, anyway, so better to leave them behind during the attack. Then, when all is said and done and our heroes have Won The Day(tm), they just return back to that point and pick up the ships where they left them.

Wouldn't be any worse than finding survivors on the 12 colonies to staff the battlestars, or at least not much (anyone with military training left on the planets was probably killed defending during the initial attack, I would think).

As an aside, count me in as someone who likes the ending. Yes, it threw me for a loop, but in retrospect, I don't think RDM meant it as a "oh, this'll throw the audience for a loop!" type deal. Settling the planet, yes, because it was unexpected (for a TV series) yet logical. As some have pointed out, do you really want to see a year of settlement with no Cylon attacks? Yes, we'd see our characters develop to the point we saw them in in those fateful 30 minutes, but it'd be a sloow journey to get there. Instead, RDM jumps us ahead a year in the narration to where things get really interesting again, knowing we're smart viewers and can pick up what little happened in between as we go along. And I don't agree that we'll be coming at these characters from outside looking in again--they're the same people, changed by a year's experience perhaps but fundamentally the same nonetheless.

October is *still* to far away though!

--mcn

I smell a "reset" coming. According to www.trektoday.com Michael Taylor a writer for Star Trek: Voyager will be joining the writing staff for Galactica. I am good with it...if they bring back Cloud 9.


On a side note...Is "Colonial One" actually the Presidential spaceship? Or was it converted? What makes me think it was the Pres ship. Is that their are Presidential markings on it. And I really don't think the survivors would go through the trouble of marking the ship, especially when an attacking Cylon force would see it and go after it.

Was the ship ever talked about in Moore's podcasts??

Greetings

And if they gave us just 4 shows of settling NC ... we'd be complaining about how nothing is happening since there is no Cylon threat to speak of. Or clammering about just when they were going to get off that rock.

Hmmm are there animals on that planet?

Humans are sometimes like tellerites ... we just like to argue and complain.

Speaking of which, kind of doubtful that any of the ships have the collected histories of colonization and careful records of all technology and science ever invented through out the history of mankind. This isn't trek ... no such data archive like that.

It's even been made evident that there aren't that many doctors out their as well. Cottle and a few med techs ... can 20 doctors take care of 50000 people?

Regards

Greetings

Colonial One was Ros' ship. An official gov't ship. It became C1 when it was made clear that she was president. The Pilot of the ship said that in the mini series.

Regards

Its original designation was Colonial Heavy 798. It became Colonial One when Roslyn recieved her promotion. (Which is how it works in the US. There's a special plane designed to ferry the President around, but any plane he's on is Air Force One.)

Cue that somewhat corny line from Air Force One (the Harrison Ford movie): Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

I really like that the show doesn't get too "high tech." It makes it seem more relatable, in a way.

Here is a story idea that could really change things up...

In the mini-series we see the Colonial fleet engage the Cylons. In real life in a war situation the President is taken to a safe refuge. What if the Colonial government seeing the fleet being destroyed. Decided to take the President on the "real" Colonial 1 and with some escort ships FTL's quickly out of the system to prevent the president from being killed.
So the story can be. That somehow the fleet meets up with Colonial 1 and some escort ships. Think of the story plots from it. It would throw the presidential question into a mess and their was a romantic link between Roslin and the Pres. Which could be explored now with the 3rd wheel of Adama in the mix.

Some comments after skimming through..

People are wondering why Adama has not or did not challenge Baltar the way he did Roslin. The explanation for that is simple. Baltar was elected by the democratic process. Roslin assumed the Presidency and was not elected. Baltar has the power and the will of the people behind him. Adama, no matter how much authority he has, has no choice but to accept that. He cannot and will not go against the democratic process. This is true to his character. A President that has been elected carries much more weight than one that has not.

The thing that makes the show is watching this drama unfold under the constant threat of Cylon attack. On the planet with that threat gone all we have left is basically a soap opera. Would you really want to sit through 4-7 episodes like that? Do we really need an episode arc to show all the changes in the characters that we saw in 30 minutes? I'm afraid that it would be the most boring thing on TV.

I think this shake up was needed. Do you want this show to turn into the typical formulatic show? Do you need to be spoon fed every little detail? How about the writers actually giving their audience some credit and giving them some room to think on their own? Everyone is judging the show on the last Thirty minutes. How about seeing how they deal with this at the beginning of next season?

Of course they are going to leave things up in the air. Remember this is a season ending show. They are going to leave us wanting to see whats going to happen next. Leaving us with this "What the FRACK" feeling is exactly what a season ending episode is supposed to do. We have no idea were this will go and it makes us feel a little uncomfortable about the characters we have come to know. This show mirrors life and life as not always comfortable and predictable. The writers have taken away the comfortable world of BSG that we have know for the last 2 seasons and put us in a brave new world. This is what good writing is all about. Comfortable writing is safe and boring.

Not impossible. Also, they may not have a limit on how many terms of office a president can hold. The original president may have been in office for over a decade for all we know, and was planning to hold on to his job at the next elections.

Greetings

Except for the fact that of all the different directions in the galaxy to jump ... they would jump in the same direction and be further ahead of them?

And it was a sneak attack after all.

Although it would be neat to see colm feore reprise the role.

I kind of figure that Adama keeps in mind what Sharon said to him about the human race not being deserving to survive. If the population chose the path to extinction ... well.

There seemed to be a certain tone of resignation in his voice as he spoke to Roslin about it. This is not Adama knows best like in the original series. Sometimes people made bad choices and they have to live with them and you just have to go along with it and sort out the car crash after it happens.

regards

My theory:

The battlestars jump away and think up strategy.
The resistance starts to meet (think Rebel Alliance)
battlestars end up getting in their own skirmishes and being vigorously training everyone they've got. To the point where half the remaining fleet abandons THEIR ships and works on Galactica.
The Cylons start conferring back and forth with THEIR leader as to what to do now.
Resistance starts to kick off/fights/hit and fades/cylon response gets nasty.
Battlestars begin to enact their plan: Empty everyone off galactica, move them over to Pegasus. Send Galactica in as a decoy/kamikaze.
Get as many people off, in the meantime, onto the Pegasus
Baltar is left behind/abandoned, Caprica Six adopts him
Pegasus escapes, Cylons follow. Pegasus renamed Galactica II.

All that can happen in a nice 5-episode Arc.

One thing I think was interesting was the way the POV camera was affected by the explosion, as if the camera were on another ship in the fleet. I know that the special effects shop once said that, while doing Firefly, they strove to give the space shots the feeling they were being filmed from another ship, but I didn't know they would take it that far.

Way back when the treatment for the miniseries first leaked out, Moore was talking about keeping where the cameras were mounted in space shots, to the extent of suggesting that space shots should be grainy footage taken from cameras mounted on one of the fighters' wings. I think they've toned that down, for the most part, although sometimes they do use that for effect.

Not quite as much, though. His term had expired anyway, which is why Roslin was running for election (she served out the rest of his term), and therefore his own presidency would have expired by now too. It would have been an issue if he'd shown up before his term expired, I guess.

Whilst he could notionally have "won re-election" in an election held in his "rag-tag fleet", unless the population of that fleet was reasonably close to the 40K+ in the Galactica's fleet, his mandate would clearly have to defer to that of Baltar's. However, I'd venture to say that any plot involving finding a significant number of other ships, and therefore Colonials, would be quite a stretch.

Not Galactica-A?

Er, that voiceover during the end credits seems to be suggesting where the show could be going. Instead of the Cylons fighting humans, it sounds like they may be planning on coddling us, rather like the sons/daughters of elderly parents. To me anyway, such a storyline is much creepier to see unfold than a simple root'em out and shoot'em situation.

It surprises me that only myself & maybe two others here have mentioned the possibilities contained in that ominous 10 second speech.