Like I said, they should have been able to patch it from outside.
But what is the airlock for? Why not dock on of the ships that uses it?
Unless it’s just there to space Cylons from…not that that is a bad thing…
I would guess it was due to them getting careless.
If you think about it, if you figured it was actually hazardous danger would you have both a child’s parents in it together?
-Joe
That was the Chief’s call, so that he and Cally could work together “like the old days”… It wasnt major danger until the Chief fracked up the repair (how does a repair end up worse than the original problem?)
That’s another little nit-pick I have about the military aspect of the show. Everyone in the military has to have a dependent care plan for the kids. If both parents are on active duty then Adama must be running a pretty shoddy ship for two parents to be standing there about to die and only then shout out who they want to take care of their child.
[fanwankinglikeamotherfrak]
Didn’t they leave the military to get married on New Caprica? Things been kinda hectic since they deassed the planet. Maybe they haven’t gotten around to catching up on all the paperwork yet…
[/fanwankinglikeamotherfrak]
These points were addressed.
There was not enough time for someone to suit up and seal the leak from outside (Adama mentions this).
The mechanical override had also been damaged in the New Caprica attack and so wasn’t working (Apollo mentions this).
The accident was caused from battle damage in the New Caprica attack (Tyrol mentions this).
The repair crew who “fixed” the leak were regarded as incompetent (Cally mentions this).
Also, Galactica has never had a chief engineer; they’ve been understaffed from the beginning, since they were to be decomissioned – that’s why it’s always Tyrol, and NCO, dealing with these things.
The only engineers we’ve seen were the chief engineer of the Pegasus – who was made Commander, then essentially killed himself so Apollo could take command in “The Captain’s Hand.” And the civvie flight engineer who’d been kidnapped by Caine, and briefly reassigned over Galactica’s flight deck; we haven’t seen him since, so he probably got back into civvie life, or died on New Caprica.
There was no engineer there because they don’t have someone competent as an engineer. Just like they don’t have someone competent as a marksman, or someone competent as an interrogator, or someone competent as a lawyer (apparently). It is deliberately written that way, so that the main characters have a reason to be there, week after week. That’s why it was Athena, Apollo, and Starbuck doing the rescue, even though “the CAG’s job is 24-7.”
Either that, or Adama assigned them because he thought the rescue might have required emergency sniper-fire and lawyering. (e.g., “Tyrol banged his head, he’d’ve sued, but fortunately we had Lee there to make him sign a waiver. And I sent Starbuck in so she could take out Cally in case she was going to make it out alive; that girl was just frakkin’ annoying.”)
Ever seen someone not do a good job putting the lug nuts back on a car’s wheel? 
-Joe
And most real militaries tend no to let fathers and sons or husbands and wives serve on the same ship. Or have children and families onboard at all. The Colonials have suffered apocalypse. They (the Colonials) are making this up as they go along. And the Tyrols did select godsparents for Nick, Ellen and Saul Tigh (Tigh mentioned this on New Caprica). However Ellen died and Tigh is clearly not fit to be a single father (not that theyd’ve make great parents together).
Why would Tigh be a bad daddy? Maybe having a kid would be just what he needs to kick the bottle.
alphaboi, does the fleet have the luxury of not having family members serve on the same ships at this point?
Tigh is a mess, psychologically and emotional, moreso than ever since New Caprica. He’d be a lousy dad, and having a kid to kick booze is not only a terrible idea but more often than not, doesn’t work. Can only freakin’ imagine what a horror show Ellen would have been as a mom, too. That said, Tigh is my favorite character on the show. Love that guy.
But… I thought that everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads! Am I just misled?
Not really. Sure they could stick Cally on a civilian ship, but they need her on Galactica. My point is the whatever regulations the Colonial Fleet had to deal with spouses, dependants, etc have been thrown out the window long ago.
And use up fuel in visits from Tyrol.
I finally watched this last night. (Been extremely busy, only now catching up on the TiVo.)
First off, while it wasn’t the greatest episode ever, I watched it back to back with the new Lost (the one with Jack and his tattoo flashback), so compared to that turgid waste of time, BSG actually seemed pretty good. I don’t know if I would have responded differently had I watched BSG by itself on Sunday night without a crappy Lost in juxtaposition.
Second, I thought the airlock story was written kind of clumsily, but I didn’t mind so much because it was obviously a maguffin: the whole thing was an exploration of Adama’s character, and the crisis was manufactured in order to give Adama something to be steely and strong about while at the same time we can see what’s eating him up inside. In other words, it’s not important what broke on the airlock, or how the rescue was carried out; the important bit is seeing Adama, standing behind the glass, literally and figuratively at the controls, and his crew looking to him for guidance and support. That was the intent, anyway; I don’t know that they got all the way there.
Third, I agree that Cally’s character has become markedly less interesting over time. I think it’s a combination of inadequate writing and a sulky (and limited) actress who’s not pleased with her character’s direction. I mean, you’re a cute chick with a decent fan following on a gritty action-adventure show, and the writers decide to get you married and pregnant, so in all of your scenes from that point forward, either you’ll have a baby in your arms or you’ll be talking about the baby? Pretty boring stuff for an actor. Cally was pretty good in the stuff on Kobol, where Crashdown was asking her to play an infantryman, but lately, it feels like the actress has checked out a bit. It seems to me that the performer is a bit sulky and resentful about what she’s being asked to do, and that attitude is making Cally seem sulky and resentful, which makes us in the audience not particularly like her, because who wants to see somebody sulking? Anyway, that’s just my take on it. If that’s the case, I’m a little surprised she seems to have made it alive into the hyperbaric chamber; it would have been an excellent opportunity to wax her.
Finally, I want to point out the writer’s name on this episode: Mark Verheiden. I’m an obsessive reader of credits, and I’ve noticed that Verheiden is responsible for the scripts of some of the show’s least successful installments, including “Black Market.” Listen carefully to his dialogue, in this episode and others; the characters are speaking pretty much right on the nose, telling each other what they’re feeling, instead of pursuing objectives and leaving the emotional stuff as subtext. It saps the story of drama and narrative thrust, because we’re listening to people talk about what’s happening instead of watching them do things to drive the plot. It’s gotten to the point that I cringe when I see Verheiden’s name up front. Comparatively, scripts by Weddle & Thompson feel like masterpieces of dramatic energy.
I give it a B for intention, C+ for execution.