It wouldn’t be the first time - there was a BSG1980 episode where that exact thing happened. From here:
Maybe there is a military type out there who could give a better read, but the military life details they show seem more TV show like than real. You don’t slug a superior officer and get away with it, no matter how important you are, you don’t salute indoors without a cover, you don’t decide to ignore direct orders like Apollo did negotiating with the terrorists, you don’t drink like Starbuck and the other pilots do, when it appears at least, they are on standby, and why do the Vipers have to land so hot when all they have to do is reverse to slow down and match the Galactica’s speed? Aslo, with the exception of when they are meetings, there seems to be a total lack of paperwork - they don’t even complain about it. Maybe there is a better universe out there after all.
Except that this isn’t the US military.
I don’t remember exactly what my reasoning was last night, I was tired. But something like:
The Cylons lost the fleet. So Boomer sabotages the water tanks. Now the fleet has to find water, and Boomer is the one who finds it. I originally thought the reason Boomer couldn’t “see” that her instruments had located water was because part of her thinks she’s human and wants to help, but her Cylon programming wants her to hurt the fleet.
But what if the real conflict was this dilemma: Do I pretend not to find water, so maybe the fleet falls apart from dehydration? Or, do I find water so the fleet has to stay in one place long enough for Cylons to find them? She was ready to blow herself up until she resolved the dilemma.
Doesn’t seem as inspired a theory today.
I enjoyed the episode, but this is the first one that could have been an episode of Star Trek – something that BSG has been successful at avoiding so far.
–Cliffy
No, you don’t slug someone and get away with it, but remember, Starbuck was already thrown in the brig. They had to let her out because she’s, well, Starbuck, and “the best” at everything. Including insubordination.
Yes, you can and do salute indoors without a cover, when you’re reporting to an officer. You don’t however, salute every time your superior gives you a directive, in the normal course of your job.
As far as Apollo negotiating with terrorists, I can’t defend him too much, but I guess as the officer in charge in the situation, you have to rely on him to make his own decisions. He is, after all, Adama’s son, the CAG, and the President’s advisor. If he can’t make some independent command decisions, nobody can.
As for the Vipers coming in hot, that’s a good question. What do the Vipers have for landing gear? It looks like little metal plates. Even in space, that seems like a bad idea. “The knuckle-draggers’ll spend a week pounding the divots out of the deck.” Yeah, well, if you weren’t landing on little metal plates maybe the knuckle-draggers wouldn’t have to.
Well, I don’t want to be the big naysayer here, but. . .
This show has surprised me – despite several difficulties with it, I think it is a show worthy of watching. Why? I like the drama, the character development, the situation. It doesn’t take much to take what amounts to bubble gum SF (the original) and do something interesting with it – what’s hard is making people like it. IMHO this show suffers from it’s own cliche difficulties and silliness, yet I feel compelled to tape and watch it. (so I’m obsessive/compulsive, so sue me).
However this particular episode (I liked the drama, I liked performances–with some exceptions) I found it practically unwatchable. The annoying jerky camera junk, the disjointed bounce of scenes. And I’m really at a loss, because much as I want to, I can’t bring myself to like Starbuck or the Actress playing her. She has some moments, but her overall choices and those of the writers have left me feeling, “jeez, why does anyone care about or like this person?” She’s Selfish, self-centered, insubordinate, arrogant, the list goes on and on – she’s a horrible person.
I’m also bugged by the stalking blonde bimbot that haunts the good doctor and is following Boomer and Helos is it? around Caprica.
It has many things to offer that Enterprise fails to deliver in terms of quality dramatic writing and performances, but sheesh, it is a terribly flawed show.
FWIW I don’t hate it, but you’d hardly call me a fan, more an interested observer who winces a lot while watching.
I had supposed the landing of the vipers involved a magnetic cature system as a sort of tailhook. A skilled or experienced pilot (or would they be aviators?) would try to hit two of the three landing plates to get a hard landing. Once the vipors are landed an elevator would take the vipor (pilot and all) down to the prep deck. Remember, when you see the pilots get out of their vipors, they are not on the landing deck. After the vipors have been refueled and rearmed, they are then sent to the launch tubes.
Why use the launch tubes? Why not use the Battlestar’s nearly limitless power to get the vipors up to speed, and save the vipors limited fuel? It seems more efficeint to me.
That, and they are cool.
I can’t say this episode worked for me. Mostly, because no one on the ship seems to be acting as though their * entire civilization was just nuked to ashes by klller robots *. From the scenes of celebrating pilots at the beginning (unless that was a flashback?) to the scenes between Starbuck and Adama; I just didn’t buy it. Two weeks after your planet was demolished, I don’t think you’d have to be playing “remember when I sort of killed your son” in order to achieve the necessary character angst.
I sorta agree with this. However, I was under the mistaken impression that the accident at the beginning was a flashback, and it continued into more flashbacks - a technique that would have been interesting. But I also have a hard time buying into everyone on the deck dropping what they were doing to sing a song and spin the 1000-flights pilot around on a dolly for 5 minutes. Maybe if that was back in the flying-museum days. Maybe.
And what, this civilization doesn’t have flight sims?!?
Regarding landing - either the landing decks are high gravity (they have to be generating it somewhere - the ship isn’t spinning), or they’re magnetic (or a bit of both). I don’t have a problem with them coming in hot - Cylons are on their tail after all.
We are seeing the show from the military’s (and some government) point of view, not the civilians. The military has a 24/7 purpose of protecting what is left. They have a routine to follow. I expect things would be much worse on the civilian transports where the people are currently just riding along.
I like this show. It’s the first show (besides sports) that has made me watch any kind of non-premium television (ie. stuff with commercials) since B5. Olmos and McDonnell are very good. I’ve liked Olmos since Miami Vice. Ummm… not that I ever watched Miami Vice. must not admit to watching Miami Vice… must not admit…
Starbuck being the best at everything is getting a little old. The piloting stuff is expected. I don’t think I would have tried to imply that she was a great flight instructor though. Just because she has great natural ability doesn’t mean that she can teach it to others. Still, it’s acceptable. I think the mistake was having her be the sniper. That pushed it too far. As far as the actress playing her, I think she’s fine in the role. The exchange with her and Olmos was very good.
Getting back to Olmos, I have an odd comparison to make. He makes me think of Patrick Stewart. Hang in there with me for a moment so I can explain. The reason I think of the two in the same way is they both have a very commanding presence. They both have flawed appearances, but they are very charismatic. Their voices are the interesting part. Stewart has a nearly perfect voice whereas Olmos has a soft, gravel-ly voice. I think it’s impressive that Olmos can be almost as commanding with so much less. I’m surprised he was never used as a villain in a big Hollywood production.
I seem to recall Starbuck saying they didn’t have flight sims available on board Galactica so they’d have to go out in the real thing right away.
I thought the 1000 flight celebration was present day. I don’t fault them too much for trying to find a moment to celebrate. They’ve had a really sucky and tense couple weeks. Sometimes you take the celebrations wherever you can.
This engineering crew isn’t looking too great. There was the bomb/explosive that fell and exploded at the munitions base in the mini-series, trapping Adama with the human-looking Cylon. Now we have the “drone” missile or whatever that falls on the flight deck and kills a bunch of pilots. Not to mention the deck chief’s relationship with Boomer, who–to the best of his knowledge–is the likeliest suspect in the theft of the demolition caps and the sabatoge of the water supply.
I just hope the writers realize they’ve played out the “munition falls off cart” card and don’t try to use it again.
I liked the drama in this episode. Especially that last scene between Starbuck and Adama. Very intense and well-acted.
I didn’t care for the scenes with the rookies. Very cheesy. Hot Dog? C’mon! As someone else mentioned, that part felt a little too ‘Star Trekkish.’
But humans aren’t like that. You can only go for so long without cracking a smile, making a joke, or celebrating an accomplishment of one of your fellow survivors. If you can’t take joy in the little things, even when Cylons are trying to exterminate you, you might as well save everyone else your share of the water and walk out an airlock right now.
I don’t see any problem with plotlines and such from the original series being used in this version - as long as they don’t go word for word with the dialogue and clean it up some.
And I saw last night on the rerun (missed it Friday) that Glen A. Larsen (creator of the original Battlestar Galactica) is a Consulting Producer. What the frak is that?
“Consulting Producer” is a weird title that could mean many things. It could mean he had one meeting with the current producers and hates everything they’ve decided to do, but his agent negotiated a consulting producer credit for him to “pay” for the meeting. It could mean he’s on the phone or even on the set every day, offering anecdotes, memories or advice from the old show to keep things “Battlestarry.” It could mean he’s a scholar in some obscure branch of physics and gets called once every other month to answer whether or not a spaceship could do a barrel roll while maintaining forward momentum. And pretty much any involvement in between. The only thing it probably does not mean is it does not mean he’s given, invested or handling any money in the process.
I do like the continuity in the plot. I noticed that Apollo still had the marks on his face from getting beaten on the prison ship.
How long before Col. Tigh builds a still? He was quick to ration his liquor, but it won’t last long. Starbuck could take a lesson and start saving those cigars for special occasions. Baltar made a good point when he gave a fine cigar and noted that it was probably the last one anywhere.
As for the bomb shelter on Caprica, I imagine it’s a Cylon attempt to lure in remaining humans. After all, Boomer knows it’s there and so do the other two models that followed Boomer and Helo.
Damn, that could ruin your day. 
That would make sense, if the Vipers were coming in to the landing bay straight-on.
But in this episode, they showed Starbuck guiding the untrained “nugget” onto an approach course above the landing bay, on what looked for all intents and purposes like a glide slope. I even heard the words “call the ball” and “don’t fly the lights” in that exchange, phrases used when making a modern aircraft-carrier landing because of the need for a landing airplane to follow a glide slope.
It just smacked of “Oh, sure, we’ll have the Vipers maneuver like spacecraft when they’re out in the open, but once they come in for a landing they’re going to turn into airplanes because it looks way kewl.”
Yup, that’s how I (finally) figured out it wasn’t another flashback.
I dunno. I have a feeling that the Boomerbot model isn’t ever aware that it’s a Cylon. I’d guess that the bunker is a Cylon plant, but they made it so that Boomerbot & Co. would be able to easily find it.