Not more important. Maybe just as important. Or maybe less important, but something that still needed to be done. The key point is that NO ONE was getting any sleep. Anyone who would replace them would be just as exhausted. And Gaeta, in fact, was very much necessary. He’s probably the smartest guy left in the fleet, and one of the few who could calculate the jumps. Galactica hadn’t jumped for a long, and I can’t imagine there were that many people on the ship who could do it.
I hate to point this out: Take 1000 random people. *** How many have enough brains to deal with advanced math?*** Most folk would be hard pressed to give correct change from a twenty, let alone calculate how to get 57 ships light minutes away and have them show up within a solar system of each other.
I’m now convinced you can’t answer my point so you have resorted to some sort of general attempt at a blowoff.
Every member of the fleet had someone on board who could calculated FTL jumps, as they were all FTL capable ships. It can’t be that rare of a skill. It seems to me monumentally improbable that there was no spare FTL calculating capacity. It also seems to me monumentally improbable that all 5000 were occupied so full time they couldn’t shuffle around enough to give relief to absolutely key people. If you want to go with that, good for you. But it seemed so improbable to me that it pulled me out of the story. And Mrs P the same, independently. When two people - who are actually enjoying a show overall - independently start scoffing at the screen because an aspect seems so silly, I think it is telling.
No, we’ve realized you are just going to reject every single point we’ve made, so it’s kinda pointless.
Sure. I made a very clear point to Kaio with specific factual suggestions and his response pointed out nothing factually wrong. He was, in all seriousness, suggesting that a spaceship that can move and fight and make FTL jumps within hours of needing to do so is a “stationary museum”. I mean let’s take the word “stationary” for a start. Precisely what sort of “stationary” museum has fully operating main engines running, and is moving? Please tell me that you don’t agree that BG was stationary. Please.
Perhaps we’re coming at this from two different sets of assumptions. For me,
stationary != derelict
decommissioned != stripped down
The miniseries sets up the story that the ship is being decommissioned and turned into a museum. Crew and dignitaries are still coming and going. Clearly, the ship is still functional (life support, propulsion, supplies) to support the remaining crew and visiting folks for the decommission ceremony. Even later, what ever staff will be operating the museum will need many of those systems.
However, The implication to me (and perhaps only to me) that a decommissioned, soon-to-be-museum ship would be out of date on certain systems, have been stripped of some materials and would not have a full complement of crew. That is my starting presumption for the show based on the set up. Nothing I saw in the miniseries or first episode disavowed me of the premise. It didn’t need to be explicit, for me, because that was my baseline assumption.
Perhaps you are watching the early part of the show with a different baseline assumption and are looking for evidence to change that premise. Others of us, or at least me, were starting with a different set of assumptions and don’t need that evidence. We would need evidence to prove it was some other scenario than a minimally functional, understaffed, out of date almost-former battlestar.
It wasn’t decommissioned. Try again.
Honestly, I think some of you seem to need to take a long hard look at why it is you are having to twist and exaggerate to make your points, and think about whether maybe your position on this point is as strong as you seem to think it is. Just a thought.
I am really not trying to be douchey, but there’s a reason that most people’s reaction to “This is stupid, they should have had plenty of crew for multiple shifts” is, “Er, have you actually watched the show?” It’s so implicit that Galactica is understaffed and out of date that I am sort of having trouble understanding how anyone could miss it, especially after having it explained (with evidence from dialogue even!) by multiple people. Unless you’re just the type of person who really hates to be wrong, in which case, ok, that’s cool, I’ve been there myself on occasion. But this is a very strange nitpick to get hung up on. Galactica’s unpreparedness is a main theme of the entire series. They didn’t just “retcon” it into the first episode. (Can you even retcon something in the first episode? I thought that by definition you sort of couldn’t.)
Excuse me, I’m not trying to twist anything.“Try again”? Stop being so rude, please. It’s possible to disagree in good faith. Perhaps decommissioned isn’t exactly the proper term- it’s being turned into a museum and is not longer active. I think the point comes across just fine.
And just because I’m in the mood…
[quote=]
In the Hangar Bay, Chief Tyrol and his crew salute Adama and present him with a Mark II Viper. “I haven’t seen one of these in about twenty years… Oh my God, where did you find her?” “Rusting out in a salvage yard on Sagatarian. We had hoped the Commander would allow her to participate in the decommisioning ceremony… We’ve restored the engines, patched the guidance system, replaced much of the flight control. She’s fueled, armed, ready for launch, sir.” Prosna presents Adama with a picture he found in the fleet archives of Adama and his two boys, posing in front of a Mark II. “Thank you all. It’s an honor.”
[/quote]
From here: http://www.battlestargalactica.com/newguide.htm Miniseries part 1, summary.
FWIW, I haven’t done any due diligence to ensure that the material on this site is accurate.
You guys act like we were talking about Star Trek. 
decommissioned: to remove (as a ship or nuclear power plant) from active service.
For all we know they were going to turn the Galactica into a fully functional museum ship like the USS Constitution.
I think you are the one who is being thick and irrational here. I mean the entire MAIN THEME of the series is that the under equipped, obsolete Galactica with it’s inexperienced and understaffed crew and semi-retired captain are suddenly thrust into the position where they are the only thing that stands between humanity and extinction.
I know that the ship was about to be decommissioned but there is a big difference between about to be decommissioned and decommisioned. **IvoryTowerDenizen *your point would be far more powerful if it was the latter but it wasn’t: it was the former. You just aren’t going to get around the fact that “understaffed” doesn’t mean "so understaffed that we can’t replace even two people (out of 2000, mind) whose thinking power is absolutely crucial after 100+hrs straight on duty."
And furthermore, they did have enough staff for watches:
So they had more than one watch. Duella didn’t have to be awake the whole time. It just fitted the script to make her be.
*I just checked the transcript and it was 2000 not 5000, not that it makes much difference in the context of needing an extra two
You’re calling me thick and irrational (what does resorting to calling me names say?) but take a breath and read what you just typed. You seem, in all seriousness, to be saying that my point of view about the state of BG at the time of the incident in question is wrong because of what “they were going to” do. You may be right. So what?
You are saying that they didn’t have two (count them, two) extra staff out of 2000 to replace absolutely crucial flight deck roles after 100 hours, because at some later time the ship was going to be turned in to a fully function museum. Does anything about your contention seem odd to you? Do you actually think your conclusion follows from your premise?
…the colonies are gone. Billions of people are dead. The Battlestar is the last hope for humanity. Thats an awful lot of pressure. Could you sleep?
There were actually several back up officers that could have taken Duella’s post. There was Wedge: who was Deulla’s replacement on the second shift, who was killed in the initial flight from Cylon occupied space. Biggs could have taken the post, but he was also a qualified flight officer and they needed every pilot they could get. There were fires down on C deck, Jessie had experience fighting fires on Caprica so she was seconded into the fire crew.
Of course I made all of that up, but that is what my imagination did when I heard that Duella had been awake for 100+ hours. I’m not entirely sure why you want to overthink this: the reason why Battlestar was such a fantastic show was because they didn’t beat you over the head with the obvious. Why do you need to be told exactly why there was noone to replace Duella?
Well, apparently yes! And it doesn’t seem odd at all, and yes, his conclusion follows from his premise. Got any evidence to show otherwise?
In any case, in the pilot ep, we see that the Galactica is in the process of being decommissioned. They have converted one of the hangar pods into a gift shop (can’t stress that part enough), there’s a guy giving guided tours of the ship, they are in the process of adding equipment to the ship to help her serve her new purpose as an educational institution (to the point where crewmembers aren’t even willing or inclined to investigate unfamiliar equipment in their own work centers).
Oh, let’s discuss the crew, since I mentioned it: As mentioned above, the acknowledged best pilot aboard Galactica is an insubordinate alcoholic. The ship’s XO is a raging alcoholic who is seen striking one of his subordinates. One of the other ship’s officers is reportedly such a shaky pilot that they have to send out repair crews to hammer out the divots she puts in the flight deck on landing. Oh, and we see her boinking one of her subordinates, which isn’t typically indicative of a quality officer. Remember: Even Captain Kirk, with his reputation, never seemed to consider tapping Yeoman Rand.
Adama has his own various issues you’ll learn about later on in the show, incidentally.
Oh, and then the Cylons attack, and everything really goes pear-shaped. 
Galactica loses a sizable formation of what we assume to be their first-string pilots, flying front-line fighters. They get taken out without firing a single shot in anger or defense (not counting the decoy drone). There are other pilots, but from what we see, they are inexperienced, and on top of that, they are flying the equivilant of F-4 Phantom static displays hastily put into operating condition using whatever spare parts, duck tape fixes, and improvisation they can come up with. Short of these too-new pilots in too-old fighters, the Galactica is shown to have literally no other defenses other than her armor plating, the bulk of her ammo presumably having been offloaded earlier in preparation of her decommissioning.
I really have no explanation for where Galactica is keeping all that ammo over the course of the show. I guess the Colonials have mastered FTL and Hammerspace.
They get some more ammo, and I think even some more of the new fighters (isn’t Apollo flying one of the newer Vipers in “33”?), but by the time that episode takes place, their problem doesn’t seem to be a lack of shift workers (they do mention working at least parts of the crew in cycles), but just an absolutely punishing ops tempo. I’m in the military. I’m not a rifleman by trade, nor a fighter pilot (just another support troop), but the thought of having to react to an incoming attack, even if it’s just putting on a helmet and hiding under my desk, every 33 minutes for any extended period of time just… makes me tired all over.
As for why only the one guy plotting the jumps, it’s because they don’t know who might be a Cylon, and he’s one of the few people in on the secret so far. They don’t want to spread the responsibility around and risk having one of them be a Cylon. Adama trusts him, so he’s the guy who runs the jumps. Maybe not the smartest move in hindsight, but hey, humans make mistakes.
Wow - and I thought Oakminister could suck the fun out of a BSG thread…
Did I suck out the fun? I hope not. Hold on, I’m sure there’s a switch here somewhere labeled “Suck/Blow”…
Nope, I definitely wasn’t referring to that great recap.
I don’t think he was referring to you. 