Battlestar Galactica

[robbersean]

I think I would agree that it's either fatigue, or some other type of damage. I have a feeling that at some point later on in the season the Galactica is going to fall apart, or explode whilst saving whatever remains of the human race at that point.

I wanted to say that I really loved the last two episodes. I think they may have been my favorites since the Pegasus trilogy. There was so much packed in there, but I think my favorite part of the whole thing was the end of Gaeta's story. That last scene with Gaeta and Baltar was so perfect.

Here's a Question- Why kill Zarek and Gaeta using a firing squad? Haven't they used the airlock as the main means of capital punishment throughout the show? Does mutiny have a specific type of death penalty (they were going to kill Adama this way too when Zarek and Gaeta were accused of the same thing) in the Galacticaverse?

[Forsythe]

Perhaps you airlock the enemy but shoot traitors? Also there's the aspect that death by firing squad is instantaneous while being airlocked isn't quite as instantaneous (as we saw when both Cally and the Chief survived being airlocked together when the airlock door malfunctioned).

[Chip]

Ahhhh, too much too much!

Information overload!

Gonna have to watch that at least 2 more times.

I was wondering why they had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8, but no 7. You think they're going to reveal who 7 was?

And the final five...aren't he final five of the skinjobs. They were the final five Cylons from Earth? Did I get that right?

And and, that was the first time I've really felt like I understood what motivates Cavil/John. Way to flesh out that character, and a nice job by Dean Stockwell in this episode.

Oh, and John Hodgeman!

[sammy]

Well, if you go by what the whole "visions" thing, then Baltar leads the race as "Daniel"

[sammy]

I took what someone else wrote on AICN and edited it for clarity, since it pretty much jibes with my interpretion:



The thirteenth tribe of all Cylons left Kobol thousands of years ago for a planet they called "Earth".


The twelve tribes of humans left Kobol thousands of years ago and founded the 12 Colonies.


The humanoid Cylons on Earth had lost the technology of resurrection.


The humanoid Cylons on Earth created mechanical Cylons to be slaves to do the dirty jobs they did not want to do. The robots rebelled and apparently destroyed themselves and the humanoid Cylons on Earth in the ensuing war.



The Final Five on Earth were scientists and had rediscovered resurrection technology and used it to survive the holocaust on Earth...because some (or all of them) had received visions/warnings.



The Final Five then traveled to the colonies without Faster Than Light technology to try to warn the 12 colonies not to build robots and repeat the cycle. Which took the Final Five thousands of years due to relativistic travel.



The Final Five arrived at the colonies too late to stop the colonist from creating robot Cylons and the war was already under way.



The Final Five convinced the chromejob Cylons to stop the war in exchange for giving them skinjob technology and resurrection (the chromejobs couldn't create skinjobs that lived or were very humanoid ala the hybrid).



The Final Five however did not teach the colony Cylons how resurrection actually worked. Ellen also apparently placed an Easter Egg about the Final Five into the resurrection process.


John Cavil became angry because he felt that his humanoid body was limiting and because he was jealous that he was not Ellen’s favorite. Cavil killed the Sevens/Daniels.



Cavil killed the Final Five and allowed them to resurrect into new bodies with their memories wiped and deposited them in the colonies one by one over the last forty years. He wiped any knowledge of the Final Five from the memories of the 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s and 8s.



It was the chromejob Cylons that came up with the idea of monotheism and the true nature of God.



* * *


Sammy's thoughts -



My first theory is that Baltar is the singular Daniel that survived given his visions (HeadSix).



While the geek in me appreciates the Hodgeman appearance, the BSG fan in me didn't care for his acting/tone/etc. This was a critical moment in BSG lore and his acting and role were distracting.


I wish there was more SHOW than TELL in this episode--maybe little snippets from the Final Five's journey, etc. Maybe we'll see more of that in upcoming eps or in The Plan, which I believe is about Cavel's machinations.

[Chip]

I agree with the show vs tell thing. It felt like all of a sudden they realized they hadn't gotten enough of the story out and they only had so many episodes left. It was a LOT of information for one episode. But yeah, I wish I could have seen Anders' story more than heard it.

I think Baltar is a good guess for being Seven/Daniel. And if so, I will renew my speculation that he died in the atomic blast that hit his house and was resurrected before getting on Boomer's raptor.

[Forsythe]

One person hypothesized on the televisionwithoutpity forum that Kara is the daughter of Daniel/Seven. They mentioned how Kara's father was a musician and Daniel was mentioned to be artistic.

If so, then perhaps one of the final 5 (probably Ellen) told Daniel about their journey from Earth, told about the supernova, the temple of the final 5 with that Eye of Jupiter drawing. Perhaps then Daniel had/made Kara and implanted into her brain the drawing?

[Chip]

Hey Forsythe!

I was just watching the second episode of Season 2. In the episode, Starbuck and Helo, back on New Caprica, return to Starbucks apartment. She puts in a CD (their version of a CD) and piano music begins to play. I think it's the same music that plays during all those shots in season 4 of the Cylons on their Basestar. So that would be an interesting way to hint that she's the final Cylon.

Also, Helo says (in reference to the music playing) "That's not you."

And Kara's response is, "It's my dad".

So who knows. But interesting, nonetheless. When do the new episodes start?!? :(

-Chip

[man.D.ble]

I was wrong about the cracks. Damn.

However, about the 13 Tribes and their beginning on Kobol I want to find the history so I can see how everything really played out. In my mind that is.

[Chip]

Evidence that Baltar isn't number Seven. When the Cylons had that virus, didn't they send Baltar to the infected ship to check it out?

If he was number Seven, wouldn't he have been infected?

[Jels]

I'm guessing that Kara is Daniel. We need a gender-bender story arc. And she's an artist, too.

[man.D.ble]

So I am trying to find the lateest ep entitled "Deadlock" online but I cannot find it. Does anyone know where I can watch it without downloading it?

[robbersean]

Usually if I miss an episode, I watch it on Hulu on Saturday.

[Bruin]

That's what I usually do too, but the episode is not up ANYWHERE!

Sad face.

[Chip]

http://www.surfthechannel.com/episode/16/894750.html

(click where it says "Watch This Video")

[BWo]

I just read on the official website of Galactica that all further episodes from "Deadlock" on will be posted 8 days after initial broadcast. Just to be dicks. But you can download it off of itunes if you pay for it.

[smaher78]

Agreed, Forsythe. I think Kara is the first cylon/human hybrid.

Sarah


One person hypothesized on the televisionwithoutpity forum that Kara is the daughter of Daniel/Seven. They mentioned how Kara's father was a musician and Daniel was mentioned to be artistic.

If so, then perhaps one of the final 5 (probably Ellen) told Daniel about their journey from Earth, told about the supernova, the temple of the final 5 with that Eye of Jupiter drawing. Perhaps then Daniel had/made Kara and implanted into her brain the drawing?

[SKSmith]

I just read on the official website of Galactica that all further episodes from "Deadlock" on will be posted 8 days after initial broadcast. Just to be dicks. But you can download it off of itunes if you pay for it.

Douchebaggery! They were popping up on Friday on comcast's boxes and now they are on the 8 day plan. I bet this is Itunes doing!

[robbersean]

So, the piano player was Starbuck's dad. Now the question is, was he there at all, or was he just in Starbuck's head.

I'm even more convinced now then I was that Daniel is Starbuck's Dad.

And Boomer! Wow. That scene where Athena was tied up in a locker while Helo and Boomer got it on was so screwed up.

Poor, poor Tyrol.

Only three more episodes! Gah!

[JRC]

When Kara first sat down next to the piano and they were working on the music? The piano guy played the opening segment to the original Battlestar Galactica theme. I liked that little joke.

Tyrol is my favorite and man, alive... poor bastard. I thought he was going to escape with Boomer and the three of them would live together forever. Oh well.

[Forsythe]

Pretty great episode, though it didn't really answer any questions we had about Starbuck. I think this is an instance where the audience is further ahead than the story and we're frustrated by the slow pace. If we were a dumber audience, we probably would have been surprised by the fact that Starbuck's father taught her Watchtower (Oh my God, is Starbuck's father Daniel?!) But we already guessed that weeks ago. Still, I liked the way they showed us that story line. I kept having questions about this guy she was talking to at the piano. Especially when she was telling him about seeing her body on Earth, his profile made me think it was Leoben. Then I thought perhaps this guy is her dad and he hasn't aged at all (but Saul ages?) and that somehow the writers were gonna pull a "Daniel's actually alive!" kind of stunt. So i liked that they showed that it was all in her head.

It was hard to watch when Boomer was borking Helo while Athena was tied up. Poor Athena. Even though it's impossible for humans for figure out the difference between different bodies of the same model, Helo's going to be in the dog house for not being able to tell that it wasn't Athena.

Boomer's evil again? It seems to me that the writers are really fucking up the Boomer character. She doesn't have a real consistant through-line. Maybe it's because I cannot reconcile the Boomer on Caprica who's in pain about being a Cylon and not a human and on the verge of being boxed, with the Boomer who beats up Athena, has sex with Helo, and then kidnaps Hera.

Also, i wouldn't put it past the writers to pull a fast one on the audience with this whole Hera kidnapping thing. We didn't actually see Hera in that storage unit, so they could pull a she-made-it-appear-that-she-kidnapped-Hera-but-it-was-a-bluff-and-actually-Hera-is-safe-aboard-Galactica-in-the-Agathon's-quarters-closet-that-way-she-could-escape kind of thing.

The Book of Pythia talks about a dying leader... since the Book of Pythia is about the 13th tribe and the 13th tribe were Cylons, then when they talk about a dying leader they could be talking about a Cylon or a more simple machine. Like Galactica herself. Now that she's got Cylon resin in her bones, the ship itself could be the dying leader.

Oh, and once again I thought about the reaction someone who hasn't seen any episodes of BSG might have if they watched this episode. They might think it was a soap opera in space. You're got Anders in a coma. You've got an evil twin beating up her good twin, having sex with her husband, and then kidnapping her child. You've got super good looking women around a bunch of average looking guys (Saul, Adama, Chief, Cottle).

[Chip]

I'd have to go watch Downloaded again to see how they portrayed Boomer as a just-realized Cylon. But she was the lone dissenter among the 8's who wanted to lobotomize the raiders/centurions. And from that point on, they've been consistent with Boomer being pretty much extreme pro-Cylon. So I could see that Boomer pulling a mind-fuck like she did.

As for Hera, I guess she might still be on Galatica, but I doubt it. It seems like that was her plan the whole time, to kidnap Hera. As for why, at first I wasn't sure. Cavil/John clearly wants nothing to do with being human, so why would he want a human/cylon baby? But perhaps he wants to use her to bargain for the final five to rebuild resurrection. That would assume that he knew that Ellen couldn't do it herself, that he wasn't actually going to probe her brain, and orchestrated Boomer "rescuing" Ellen. Complicated. I may just have to watch it play out and see what the writers had in mind. I can't imagine how Tyrol must feel. He got PLAYED in the cruelest way, with that whole "here's where I imagine we would live and the daughter we would have" fantasy.

As for the Starbuck storyline, I started wondering early on if that guy was her father. I just couldn't reconcile it with the fact that she would recognize him if it were actually him. I knew that little drawing Hera gave Kara was going to be significant. I kept listening for clues in the music, but I couldn't pick out the Watchtower theme til he started banging away on the baseline. I thought it was neat that the guy was in her mind. It was an elegant way to let her interact with her dad, even though her dad would be dead (if indeed her dad was Daniel and they killed all the Daniels). In fact, she has all this hatred towards her dad for leaving her, but did he leave, or was he killed in the ol' Daniel Purge of '79?

I am wondering about the food problems from last week. I thought the basestar could produce lots of food. They said they could live on it indefinitely even if they never found a planet to live on.

Also, speaking of planets ot live on, how about that colony that Cavil mentioned, I guess where the five did their research? I bet Anders knows where it is, if he ever wakes up.

I went back and rewatched last week's episode just before this, and every 5 minutes or so, there's a shot of Adama looking at the girders of the ship. It's actually kind of funny how often they keep showing him looking at it. Clearly, she's on her last leg.

I don't know if I'd go the route of the Battlestar being the dying leader. It makes me think of a cartoon ship. I was inspired to create this:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j101/microchip2222/galactica.jpg

[SKSmith]

If any of y'all are bored, I picked up a BSG comic book and it was pretty interesting. Its about the war between Caprica and Saggitaron that led to the creation of the first combat cylons. Its called BSG: Cylon War. Apparently, Saggitaron was like Sparta or something. They were badass soldiers but they also held slaves so Caprica fucks with them to get them to free their slaves so much that Saggitaron attacks Caprican trade ships and a war breaks out. The Capricans take a beating and decide the only way they can win is to up their troop numbers by figuring out how to get their Cylons to fight. The first scientists who created Cylon tech put it in their root commands that they can not hurt people. I won't ruin it for you, but its safe to assume a way is found around this.

The writers got help from Ron Moore so its not like fan fiction poopy or something. Only two issues have come out but it tells a lot about the development of the Centurions and the second issue shows the moment when the first Cylon becomes self-aware and monotheistic. Usually, I find comics,books,etc..that tie to movies or TV series to be crap but this was real neat combined with the last season of BSG.

[Chip]

Oh man, scary when you think what might have been...

http://io9.com/5162127/the-battlestar-galactica-reboot-you-didnt-see

[Bruin]

Oh my! Look at those fancy pharaoh-esque helmets!!

"Come and get me you tin-heads!"


if only Hatch could have gotten the funding....*sigh*

[Chip]

I watch the Last Frakkin Special thing on tv last night. Pretty cool with the interviews. There was a tiny spoiler for the final episode that I caught. They probably didn't even realize it, as it was among a bunch of short fast clips, but I felt it was spoilerish nonetheless. So if you really want to go into the last episode pristine, don't watch the special til after.

[sammy]

The finale runs 2 hours and 11 minutes. Adjust your DVRs accordingly.

[Chip]

The finale runs 2 hours and 11 minutes. Adjust your DVRs accordingly.

That's funny, my DVR can tell when a show is going to run long and adjusts itself. It just knows me so me so well, it...oh my god, it's...no, it can't be! That's impossible, it's--

*static*

[sammy]

Why did you network your DVR! WHY!!!!


(here's some BSG geekery to tide you over: http://darthmojo.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/bsg-vfx-anatomy-of-a-cylon-extras/ )

[hixx]

I am very nervous about tonight! Ahhhhh!

That's all.


Hixx

[sammy]

you're welcome (http://io9.com/5185829/your-new-battlestar-galactica-fan-anthem-is-here)

[Chip]

http://gizmodo.com/5490054/battlestar-galactica-meets-the-beastie-boys-for-sabotage-perfected

Watch the video, then click the link to watch to two videos side-by-side. The shot-for-shot detail is really impressive!