Battlestar Galactica 1.11 — "Colonial Day" (do not taunt happy fun spoiler)

Cafe Society
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Note the episode number. My previous threads were off by one; the last one, “The Hand of God,” should have been 1.10. Oops.

Spoiler policy: Put whatever you want in the spoiler box, but provide a label so we know what sort of thing to expect before we highlight it. “Spoiler for this week’s episode,” “spoiler for next week’s episode,” “speculation about season finale,” or whatever. Like this:

"Okay, so, I thought it was really amazingly cool when

spoiler for name of Galactica’s commanderBill Adamahit that guy with the cricket bat and his nose fell off!"

Okay, on with the questions:

Are they still at the fuel depot? Last time they stopped for supplies, gathering water, they were there for at least three episodes. Is loading fuel faster?

How is testing with the Cylon detector proceeding? Any more Cylon sleepers turn up? And given the debate Adama and Roslin had about who was going to be first, will they be at all curious when they get to Boomer and she says, “Oh, I did that a while ago”?

Are Roslin’s visions for real? Is the prophecy legit? What the frak is this about?

Along those lines, how many vipers are they down to? Does this continue to be significant in terms of Roslin’s apparently fore-ordained mission?

Tigh’s uberskank wife Ellen wasn’t around last week; will she reappear this time? What role does she play in the overall arc? Is Tigh back to diving into the bottle?

Is Starbuck going to be a command officer for a while, or is she going to get a chance to get back in the cockpit before the end of the season?

Is Caprica Boomer puking because she’s been skipping her radiation meds or because Helo is a fertile, fertile fellow?

Is Number Six on Caprica getting tired of Boomer? (By the way, do we know what model number the Kevin Spacey lookin’ dude is?)

Progress with their captured Cylon Raider? Have they figured out how to make it do its FTL jump yet? If it’s true that they need to treat it like an animal, can they make more by properly massaging the control stick, if you know what I mean? (Cue Tom Green cameo.)

Is Tyrol any closer to figuring out how to deal with his mixed feelings about Boomer?

Any more developments on the prison ship? (Based on the preview, referencing Roslin’s competition in the election, I presume the answer to this is “yes.”)

Master-at-Arms Hadrian hasn’t been seen since Adama busted her chops in the tribunal. Significant?

Will it ever be made more specific who exactly all those reporters are working for, or reporting their news to?

We’ve had a couple of rather amazing moments of bonding between Cmdr Adama and Lee. Is this going to have a big payoff, or will it just be a slow build? Will the Adamarama continue?

(I just wanted to say “Adamarama.”)

There are thirteen episodes in the first season, yes? If so, that means two more after this, and either a big premature finale (producers playing safe, not assuming a renewal) or a skull-cracking cliffhanger (rolling the hard six).

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I seem to be in the minority, but I like the fact that we are only getting the Helo/Boomer story in small increments. It always leaves me wanting more, and that’s a good thing.

However, I do hope that we get a better picture of where things are heading in many of the plot threads that are currently dangling in the wind.

The most important ones (among others mentioned in the OP):

Helo/Caprica Boomer

Baltar/Six

Tyrol/Galactica Boomer

Roslin’s dreams

Hopefully, these last three episodes will give us some answers. Don’t get me wrong–I don’t want them to wrap everything up nicely and neatly. Surely they’ll save some of this stuff for season 2. But I don’t want to be strung along too long on everything until I start to lose interest.

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That would be CNN - the Cylon News Network :stuck_out_tongue:

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I was going to suggest the Galatica News Network, but GNN just sounds too… medical. :slight_smile:

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My guesses:

Are they still at the fuel depot? Last time they stopped for supplies, gathering water, they were there for at least three episodes. Is loading fuel faster?
They probably can’t stay there that long. The cylons are likely to start wondering why their base hasn’t made contact after a while and send out scouts.

How is testing with the Cylon detector proceeding? Any more Cylon sleepers turn up? And given the debate Adama and Roslin had about who was going to be first, will they be at all curious when they get to Boomer and she says, “Oh, I did that a while ago”?
No idea how it’s going. But they’ve got to start wondering why no one tests positive after a while.

Are Roslin’s visions for real? Is the prophecy legit? What the frak is this about?
My guess is they’re real, but I’m really hoping I’m wrong (I don’t like premonition/prophecy stuff–the snakes were kind of cool though).

Along those lines, how many vipers are they down to? Does this continue to be significant in terms of Roslin’s apparently fore-ordained mission?
Apparently there’s a viper tracking log on the Sci Fi Web site, but I haven’t checked it out.

Tigh’s uberskank wife Ellen wasn’t around last week; will she reappear this time? What role does she play in the overall arc? Is Tigh back to diving into the bottle?
She’s likely to come back. She’s definitely going to be an ongoing character, and with only a few episodes left ,she’s gotta’ get more screen time soon. I wonder if something is going to happen between her and Baltar.

Is Starbuck going to be a command officer for a while, or is she going to get a chance to get back in the cockpit before the end of the season?
She’s going to cure the president’s cancer and invent a new fuel source if they don’t get her into a viper soon!

Is Caprica Boomer puking because she’s been skipping her radiation meds or because Helo is a fertile, fertile fellow?
Helo knocked her up good!
*
Is Number Six on Caprica getting tired of Boomer? (By the way, do we know what model number the Kevin Spacey lookin’ dude is?)*
Probably. I’m getting tired of Boomer!

Progress with their captured Cylon Raider? Have they figured out how to make it do its FTL jump yet? If it’s true that they need to treat it like an animal, can they make more by properly massaging the control stick, if you know what I mean? (Cue Tom Green cameo.)
I predict only Starbuck will be able to fly it.

Is Tyrol any closer to figuring out how to deal with his mixed feelings about Boomer?
I think he’s over her.

Any more developments on the prison ship? (Based on the preview, referencing Roslin’s competition in the election, I presume the answer to this is “yes.”)
I think the previews gave this away.

Master-at-Arms Hadrian hasn’t been seen since Adama busted her chops in the tribunal. Significant?
I suspect she’s a minor character who won’t be seen again this season. There are too many things to resolve with the major characters.

Will it ever be made more specific who exactly all those reporters are working for, or reporting their news to?
They’re probably all people like me who realize they can add nothing of value to the fleet other than holding up a microphone. (I was wondering this the other day–just what would I do if I made it onto a FTL ship? I doubt they need many marketing managers!)

We’ve had a couple of rather amazing moments of bonding between Cmdr Adama and Lee. Is this going to have a big payoff, or will it just be a slow build? Will the Adamarama continue?
This will probably continue into next season. There’s a lot to wrap up in a short time and the bonding thing seems like it would take more than an episode or two to resolve.

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Nice cliffhanger ending on Caprica…

[spoiler]Helo finally spies another BoomerBot and puts 2 and 2 together, takes off running, “Our” BoomerBot seems truly devistated by this, looks like the “act like a human” Sleeper programming was too succesful

previews of next week’s ep shows “our” BoomerBot suicidal…

so, it looks like some cylons can exceed their programming…[/spoiler]

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Good episode this time. I especially liked the fight in the bar. It looked a lot more like the real bar-fights I’ve seen than the usual overly done depictions I’m used to.

Interesting shot with Starbuck talking about the imperfectly realised horizon on the Cloud 9s biodome thingy. By pointing out the ships poor special effects she’s pointing out the series’ great special effects, see?

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Wow! Great episode!

The political intrigue was good, but everything seemed kind of rushed. I think they should have stretched this one out into two episodes.

Hatch is doing a good job as Zarek. He’s very charismatic and looks sincere, but there’s that dark undercurrent. I look forward to the future episode where they hold the presidential election.

Baltar was great! Sleeping during the quorum and trying to look up the reporter’s skirt was funny, but I was laughing out loud after Roslin left him in the bathroom and then the stall opens and the reporter steps out with her hair all disheveled.

I wonder how this will affect Baltar’s Cylon detector program? Will he remain on Galactica? I guess it would make the most sense for him to stay on a different ship than the President.

The shit has hit the fan back on Caprica! I should have seen that coming, but I didn’t–it caught me quite by surprise. Can’t wait to see what happens there next week.

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He scares me and I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because he could make just about anything sound like a good idea.

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In regards to the Cylon detector, didn’t six say something a couple episodes ago like “everybody passes these days”, to which Balthar responded “It’s so much easier this way”.

I sure hope Ellen doesn’t put too many damn fool ideas into Tigh’s head…

Did Ellen kill that gun briefcase guy? I doubt it but Zarek did give her a significant look not too long after he told the president that he didn’t do it. I assume she gave away the location at least, and that she got that info from Tigh. I might have missed something, though.

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Just a thought.

The line “I shaved extra close in preperation of getting slapped by you” sounds familar. Actually, I could swear it’s a Bogart line, but I can’t remember the movie(Maltese Falcon?).

Also, Either Ellen is a cylon or the President’s office is bugged(and I’m suprised that nobody mentioned this possibility).

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Don’t worry. There will be a special place for you on the “B” Ark.

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Forgot to actually make my point, which was… If Balthar is green-lighting every detector sample anyway, than it doesn’t matter how much detecting time he misses.

And a follow-up. Why was I rooting for Balthar to win the VP? He’s proven far more despicable than Zarek, IMO. Zarek, at some level, believes in some greater good. Balthar believes in Balthar.

Besides, if the cylon’s god wants Balthar in, then I definitely don’t. Yet I felt like I was supposed to be rooting for him to win, and I guess I did. Huh.

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A poster on another board attributes it to the movie Patton.

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I want to know how Six knew whatshername wasn’t wearing underwear. Baltar’s head was on the table, and presumably he hadn’t noticed. Wouldn’t Six have had to see that through Baltar’s eyes? I can’t believe a letch like Baltar would have missed that, sitting right across from him.

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Yep, Patton allegedly said that to Montgomery while celebrating the capture of Messina. Patton got to Messina first and the quote refers to the rivalry between the generals.

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Great episode, loved the political intrigue stuff!
Some nitpicks:
Was anyone else horrified by the revelation that a space-faring race of humans plays cheesy Muzak in their starship’s restrooms? :stuck_out_tongue:

Where are the televisions? Everyone was listening to the news over the radio (or “talking wireless” as they quaintly called it). I could’ve sworn that press conferences with the president in previous episodes had reporters holding minicams of some sort; why no video of such an important politcal convention? The only thing I can think of is that broadcasting video to the whole fleet would require a level of power which might be detectable by the Cylons. But then…why were the delegates on the Cloud9 denied video of the events taking place on their own ship?

Didn’t the fleet just recently go through a serious water crisis? And yet, they were able to keep such a superfluous garden and lawn alive on the Cloud9?

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The Galactica can recycle its water with something like almost 100% efficiency, I’d assume a ship like Cloud 9 could do the same. It wasn’t every ship in the fleet that was out of water, just the ships without recyclers. They probably just turned off the sprinklers until the crisis was over.

My question is what are they doing for food, and why hasn’t cloud 9 been converted to crops?

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I wondered this also, but to have crops you need farmers, and seeds, and equipment, and I am guessing that the grass seed and lawn mowers the cloud 9 is likely to have aren’t going to cut it, so to speak. I also wonder if they wouldn’t leave the ship as the paradise it is, so they have somewhere to maybe retreat to and get a little R&R. Maybe keep it as a morale booster.

I also wonder what they are doing for day-to-day living type stuff. Are they converting those passenger liners to flying apartment buildings? Do they have flying factories making spares? What about supplies?

Interesting political subplot starting to develop, forshadowing the coming presidential elections. I suspect Roslin is a little more politically adept than she is credited with.

Anyone else catch that in the dance at the end, Galactica Boomer was dancing with (I forget his name, the guy on the bridge) and then Tyrol swings into view dancing with someone else, both apparently enjoying themselves.

Again, I highly recommend the commentary by Ron Moore that they post every week on Sci-Fi’s website. I watch the show, then re-watch with the commentary. This week he explained about the journalist situation and somewhat the “whats everyone doing” questions raised here last week. (Are you a doper Ron? if so, give us a sign.)

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Gaita, Lt Gaita, damn I hate when I brain fart.