Didn’t see a thread for tonight’s episode, so I figured I’d get it started.
Does Boomer continue to maintain her charade?
Do Starbuck and Baltar bang like bunnies? And does Number Six watch?
Where is Tigh getting his whisky?
Do Adama and President Roslin come to an understanding, or keep butting heads and move farther apart? And how does Apollo maintain the balance between them?
Have the prisoners finished extracting the water? And have they solved their food problem yet?
What’s going on back on Caprica?
How long will it be before Adama’s suspicions about Baltar’s instability and untrustworthiness come to full flower?
So many questions. And yeah, I know you UK dopers know the answers already, so shut up.
(If you told me five years ago there’d be a remake of Galactica airing, and that I’d be panting and slavering for each new episode, I would have laughed in your face. Er, I mean, five yahrens ago. Heh.)
Heh. Sorry, Cervaise, but looks like the ep answered none of your questions, save a bit about what’s happening down on Caprica.
Most notable fact gleaned from the episode: hey, an alien civilization in a parallel universe and another time drives Hummers too!
Gotta say this ep dragged a bit, but I continue to enjoy the emotional intensity (especially compared to the original series) and the devotion to military detail. Not that I’VE ever served on one, but the writers seem to have spent considerable time researching US military flight (and specifically Navy carrier) ops.
Also curious where those Cylon fighters are supposed to have come from. Why so few, and where is their base ship? Smells a bit of Deus ex machina done just to advance the story, frankly.
Yeah, it does smell like that, but I’m hopeful because it’s a two-parter. So far, the series is pretty good and I’m hopeful that they wouldn’t resort to that so soon.
Good question. We know Cylon Raiders have FTL, so I suppose since they no longer have a transponder of some sort among the fleet, they’ve had to send out lots of little squadrons of Cylons all over the place hoping to pick them up. Space is pretty vast, though. Guess they got really lucky.
However, upon locating the fleet, wouldn’t those Raiders immediately FTL jump back to their Basestar, or at least signal their Basestar? If they signaled their Basestar, then I guess they have at most 33 minutes before it shows up? Surely these Raiders didn’t think they could take out the fleet without backup?
Answer: no. Someone said something about “while water operations continue.” Plus they were still by the system which allowed Starbuck to fall into a planet. So, one question answered.
I performed an experiment tonight. I TiVo’d Enterprise and waited until I could watch it immediately back-to-back with Galactica following.
I agree that this was not their best episode so far; might even be the weakest of the four. I agree that they’d better have a better explanation for the Cylons showing up than “plot convenience.” And really, Enterprise was pretty good on its own scale.
But man, the thing is, Galactica is just in another league. Seen immediately back to back, the contrast is stunning.
That scene between Adama and Starbuck: Man. Enterprisewishes it had a conflict that rich.
I better stop; I don’t mean to provoke a flamefest between dueling fans (and you know those are gonna heat up pretty soon, if they aren’t already).
But can you tell I’m a total convert?
It may take them 33 minutes, or a large part of that, to recharge their flux capacitors for another jump. Meanwhile, the raiders might have thought they could get a lucky shot off against a less-than-diligent Galactica while they were there - if not for the training exercise, there would have been no Vipers to stop them. Or maybe they want to torment the humans into madness, slowly, before killing them?
Good drama, good backstory, good scene of Adama wanting to dismiss or even kill Starbuck but having to choke it down because only she can do a job that needs doing. I like it, I like it.
What’s the deal with the Civil Defense shelter on Caprica? Real, or a Cylon plant to help Helo find La Resistance?
levdrakon, help me out, I haven’t had my coffee. Are you thinking the Boomer Beacon is normally too low-powered to reach the basestar unless it’s amplified by water?
Anyone else thinking that Starbuck and the Cylon raider pilot are about to re-enact scenes from “Enemy Mine” down there on the ice planet Hoth?
I’m guessing the cylons have some way of transmitting signals FTL, and that’s how they kept tracking the fleet in 33. So the raiders may have been able to signal their base star at the same time they were attacking the humans.
The episode did drag in places, but it picked up by the end. When the “to be continued” words came on my screen I was shocked that the entire hour was over!
I loved the second scene between Adama and Starbuck. I was really impressed with the look of controlled anger on Olmos’ face. It wasn’t the overdone anger face you sometimes see. He really looked like someone whose facial muscles are getting tense but he’s trying to maintain an even expression. Nicely done! Also, the show did a really good job of showing the background behind the situation and the feelings both characters were dealing with. That scene was emotionally draining to watch! I really felt for Starbuck when he said “get out while you can still walk” (or something along those lines) even though I think she deserved it.
There were lots of little things I liked as well. For example, water still seemed to be precious. In the first scene with Adama and Starbuck, he pours two (rather small) glasses of water, and they look at it greedily then enjoy drinking it like it was a rare scotch or something. Also, when they showed the trainees starting their first flight, some of the vipers appeared to be a bit wobbly as if the pilots were over correcting their movements and, well, being “new” at it. In addition, I liked the bewildered look on the deck cheif when he was saying “I’ve had accidents before, but no deaths.” He looked just like someone still in shock and a bit of denial over what just happened.
One question: did I see correctly that the landing docks have two entrances? It looked like when the trainee was attempting a landing and they waived her off that she flew out the other side. Did I see that correctly? (And I guess this is a second question–do they call trainees “nuggets” in any of the services or is that a BG thing?)
A couple things I don’t love so much (though they don’t really bother me all that much)…
I’m getting a bit tired of Starbuck being the best of the best of the best. She’s the best pilot they have, and now she’s the best pilot Adama has ever seen. She’s the best shot. She’s the best octagonal card pocker player (maybe 2nd to Baltar). Now she’s also the best flight instructor.
Also, I hope the president’s cancer isn’t cured by some miracle alternative treatment. That’s just too easy. This show is better than that.
Actually, I think it’s just that the Raiders are mindless drones. See target, go kill target. No thoughts of self-preservation, or tactical retreat against a superior enemy.
Nope, because I don’t think there are Raider pilots. I think Raiders themselves are a Cylon model.
Sort of. There aren’t two entrances, there’s an entrance and an exit if you miss your landing - just like on a real aircraft carrier. I thought it was a great little detail.
Yes, they’re tubes with a door at each end. The launching catapults (railguns?) seem to have their own opening. That’s another thing to love - the mundane technology details are all plausible, including the Vipers’ maneuvering. I’m willing forgive the barometric altimeter in space, and its rapidly spooling *higher * during Starbuck’s descent onto Hoth.
Mainly, like most of the humans, she’s the only of the only at this point. And she isn’t necessarily the best at everything, she just acts like it, like any stereotypical fighter jock in Hollywood. Or Vancouver, whichever.
Depnds on the show’s ratings and how they affect Mary McDonnell’s contract demands. SciFi Channel does have a finite budget.
Yeah, this group, mostly, has some serious acting chops. Olmos in particular has been particularly impressive.
Oh, and judging from the scene involving Madame President and her doctor, someone associated with the show clearly wanted to get a pointed dig in at jaded MDs who treat their patients like pieces of meat. OK, maybe he’s had to deal with a crushing, round the clock workload, and a lack of suitable equipment, but yoicks, was he being an asshole.
Well, just thinking about it now, and I get the aircraft carrier metaphor they’ve using here, but if the Vipers can land via a runway-like deck (which I presume has some sort of artificial gravity system, as otherwise they might just as well land on the ceiling as the deck), seems like they could take off that way too, so what’s the need for the launch tubes? Aside from “they’re one of the kewlest things from the original series”, that is.
Oh dear, look at me. I’m turning into a fanboy. I’ll shut up now.
Right. I noted in at least one cockpit shot that they have an artificial horizon gauge, too. Yet I missed completely the altimeter going the wrong way. Chalk it up to willing suspension of disbelief, I guess.
I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout launchin’ no spaceships, Miss Scarlett!
But if I were to WAG based on a loooong sci-fi fandom, I’d speculate that the launch tubes flick the Vipers out into space at least a few feet away from the ship before the Vipers power up fully. Having firey engines of death light up inside a spaceship seems like a bad idea. While they might be needed sometimes, like on landings, such things are most likely to go kablooey when you start them up, so doing so outside the physical structure of the ship seems like the way to go.
'Sides, they’re cool. Almost as cool as the photon torpedo loaders in Enterprise - do they still show those? I hate the show, but I loved me a photon torpedo loader the first few times I tried to watch it. Thwack, shunk, schick, whizz!
Yup. If you watch the launch tubes, you can see a catapult system on the bottom of the tube just like on an aircraft carrier. Basically, they use the launch tubes to get the Vipers out of the ship and up to speed before they power up their main thrusters.
Regarding the FTL drive, I may be wrong but it seems to me like FTL drives come in two versions: a short-range only version, compact enough to mount in a ship the size of a Raptor or Cylon raider, good for skipping about within a system. And a long-range version, with light-years range but bulky enough and requiring so much power that only larger ships can support one. Remember that in the pilot movie, the Cylon raiders that attacked the refugee fleet were presumably already in that system.
I would presume that the Cylon patrol was carried to that system by a base star and left there to scout for humans. I don’t know if they could signal their base star FTL, but I would suppose they don’t have the range to jump interstellar distances on their own. The previews for the next episode did hint that every moment spent looking for Starbuck was putting the fleet at risk since that Cylon patrol will be missed eventually.
That is an interesting plot line to me – I am not sure what that is all about & it was totally unexpected & I have no idea what is going to happen.
So I am a big fan boy. And so having said that, I will act like one : In the previous two episodes since the attack Baltar has been just about schizophrenic: jumpy, agited, and totally unable to pass as normal – at times shouting out like a guy with Tourette’s syndrome. Next thing we know he is playing cards and in fact it is Starbuck who is wigging out, “the weird one” in this group - something is ringing a bit false in the character development there.
Almost as cool as the photon torpedo loaders in Enterprise - do they still show those? I hate the show, but I loved me a photon torpedo loader the first few times I tried to watch it. Thwack, shunk, schick, whizz!