So that’s what “clearing the guns” is. Seemed strange that they would be wasting ammunition when they have very limited supplies. Still, it was too predictible. From what we’ve seen before, it wouldn’t have been out-of-place for the gun explosion to have occured during a quick skirmish with some Raiders at the beginning of the episode. Plus the thing with Starbuck’s window was weird. Why would she keep giving the cracked window nervous glances when she had a spacesuit on?
Anyone hear the podcast yet? I think it was the equivalent of the modern “check guns” to be sure they would fire when you met the bad guys. Seems unusual to fire it all off befire you land.
Maybe she was afraid that explosive decompression would suck her cigars out of the cockpit. Or her.
Now that, colonists, is a Freudian slip.
Just for the Record guys, when the shows primary antagonist is a frakload of toasters you are going to get alot of “Deus ex Machina” endings, I mean we are talking about alot of machines here.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Especially religious toasters.
No, Cervaise is wrong, there. They were just starting their patrol: Cat was bitching at Starbuck for being twenty minutes late. (And where was Starbuck for those twenty minutes? Cat implies that she was screwing around with someone, but she hasn’t slept with anyone since before she went back to Caprica. What’s up with that?) I think it was a routine, pre-parol weapons test, to make sure the guns worked. And it’s obvious why they have to do that, as the results of the test clearly show, although they clearly didn’t expect sabotage.
Also, her spacesuit may be airtight, but it’s not bulletproof. If her canopy blows in an explosive decompression, something could very easily tear it. And even besides that, she’s in outer-freakin’-space. The only enviroment more hostile to human life than outer-space is the center of the Sun. Being out there in that tiny little fighter has got to be unerving enough by itself, without having to watch tiny little bits of it fall off while you’re trying to land.
As for the events of the episode, I remember at the end of the first season, when they killed the “original” Boomer, how disappointed I was that they took the easy way out of resolving the relationship between her and Tyrol. But of course, it was just to set-up the freaky triangle between New Boomer, Tyrol, and Helo, which is even better drama. So magic anti-cancer baby seems like a cop-out now is probably going to lead to even more fracked up things in the future. The Cylons chief weapon has always been the computer virus: now they’ve got Cylon blood running through the veins of the President of the Colonies. Who knows where they’ll go with that? Maybe she’ll get her very own invisible Cylon. Not like she doesn’t have prior experience with hallucinations.
I also thought the terrorists were a good touch. Of course it’s not a rational position. It’s not supposed to be. Take a population of several hundred, maybe a few billion people. Kill all of them, except for about fifty thousand or so. Take those fifty K people, and cram them into every available faster-than-light spaceship available, without regard as to wether they make good passenger vessels. Shoot them out into space, and then spend the next six months doing your best to kill them. You’re looking at the mother of all post-traumatic stress disorders. For the most part, we only ever see Galactica, which still has military discipline, and Colonial One, which has the (relative) comforts of power. The rest of the civilian fleet has got to be a madhouse by now.
Sorry, should have been more clear.
You, the viewer, are operating with more complete information the the people floating along in the fleet. They don’t necessarily know that the Clyons won’t make peace - after all, they did 40 years ago. They don’t know that there’s a pregnant captive meatbag Cylon in the brig. They don’t know Adama’s reason for imprisoning Roslin. YOU do.
So you can’t expect the various civilians packed into their ships to make decisions without major mis-assumptions.
Cleophus - yes, it would have been weird, because as far as we know the Galactica is currently safe from the Cylons. They don’t know where the Galactica is. Throwing in a fight for the hell of it, just to reveal the sabotage, would be kind of crappy writing. Kind of like other (Trek) shows where Character X invents a brand new device (to be forgotten after this episode) to provide that particular episodes maguffin. I’d prefer they stay away from that.
carnivorousplant - it’s also possible that if her whole canopy went explosive decompression may have caused some shards of glass to rip her suit or something. Besides, even if you’re “probably” safe…
…and I see that Miller covered most of this. But since I went through the trouble of typing it, you toaster-loving frakkers will read it, and you’ll love it!
-Joe
Oh kind of like…say…a stealth fighter. 
Also, the 80s miniseries V: The Final Battle called. It want’s it’s human/alien hybrid super-baby back.
I’ll second they were letting off a quick burst to make sure they worked. Dumping your ordinance before landing, especially when there is no resuply, seems dumb.
Because
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that wind screen is basically what prevented that piece of shrapnel from embedding into her HEAD
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you really don’t want your cockpit to explosively decompress, spacesuit or not.
Good point. And I’ll give you that one if:
- They don’t build another one
- They don’t give us an explanation as to why they haven’t or can’t build another one.
My preferred mode would be for them to build another one and, then, have the Cylons destroy it because now they know what to look for. But I’d setting for a throwaway line about “dang, we’re out of carbon composites and we need all of our current output for [fill in reason here]”.
-Joe
[QUOTE=msmith537]
I’ll second they were letting off a quick burst to make sure they worked. Dumping your ordinance before landing, especially when there is no resuply, seems dumb.
[QUOTE]
While the raw materials are of limited supply, they were making new ordnance in the scene when they arrested the sabateur.
Been known to happen.
The “routine weapons check at start of patrol” explanation makes more sense. Thanks.
That could be fun. Be a good excuse to bring back Callum Keith Rennie, the actor who has been playing Leoben. I’d prefer it to be a one-shot type of thing, maybe a way of dealing with Roslin’s realizations about Baltar, and giving her insight into what’s got him so frakked up, as opposed to an ongoing piece of schtick, but the idea has promise.
Definitely. Knowing what we know about the story, the peace-terrorist position makes no sense; but the civilians, no doubt, have very little of this information themselves. It’s not surprising at all that people would be wigging out. Sure, it could have been set up better, but it’s not implausible in the least.
In a Freudian ship, no less. 
I’m new to these threads, as I only started watching BSG a little more than a week ago, but I’m up to the newest episode (2.13) and have a question.
But first, let me say that once again the Dope and you Dopers pointed me to some truly great entertainment. Whn I heard of the resurrection of BSG, I blew it off, thinking that the remake of an already cheesy show from the late 70’s(by Glen A Larson) wasn’t worth my time. It was only when I realized that the weekly threads started generating a lot of traffic that I realized that there was something interesting going on.
But skimming through some, but not all, of these threads, it seems to me that you’re all working on the assumption that Baltar is human, and that’s not what I’ve been thinking all along.
Gina 6 shielded him from the blast in the pilot, but let’s face it, considering the damage to the house, the way the glass just vaporized, there’s no way he could have survived, her shielding him or not. When he showed up among the survivors outside the Raptor, my immediate thought was “Oh goody - Cylon plant.” This would explain his constant interaction with #6 (wonky software, corrupt download).
Has it been firmly established that Baltar is human?
And what’s the concensus about Boomer? Was there ever a human Boomer serving on Galactica?
Why have him tortured/loved by another Cylon?
I suppose it would be an interesting plot device, but it just seems to complicated.
My worst fear is that BG will jump the shark by having major characters be exposed as Cylons.
It does seem unlikely that Baltar could have survived the nuke, but it is a TV show, and a show with the occasional Five Minute Cancer Cure, Alien Baby or Unwireless Network Hack.
As I listen to the podcast here at work (first time I’ve listened to one - I like noise while I’m multitasking) I have to say:
HA HA MOTHERFUCKING HA!
My original HeadSix/GinaSix WAS what they were indicating onscreen. However, Moore decided that Baltar was less interesting without HeadSix, so brought ber back.
HA!
-Joe, HA!
It could be that the higher ups among the Cylon sympathizers do know that Gina is a Cylon. That would also be a reason why they believe peace is possible. (This one isn’t so bad and she’s fracking really hot!) Then again, it might just be the Clark Kent thing like others have said.
Continuing the podcast, Moore says that, yes, “it’s a push” and he’s not happy with the Gina appearance thing. He even says that it’s a “Clark Kent” moment.
So…there you go.
-Joe
That would make for an amazing twist, but I think at least two things rule it out. For one, Baltar was a well-known celebrity on Caprica before the war, one with a high security clearance. So he couldn’t just be planted like the others; a cylon-Baltar would have had to replace an existing Baltar.
Second reason is that HeadSix refers to Boomer’s pop-tart as her and Gaius’ baby. Even if it’s not really their kid, HeadSix wishes it was. Delusional or not, HeadSix wants to breed with a human, not another Cylon…for lack of a better term, the Six model has a serious need for a real man, and has ever since the first five minutes of the miniseries. Even if it’s not really their kid, HeadSix wishes it was, suggesting that she’s under the impression that Baltar is not a toaster.
Baltar is the most verifiable human in the fleet, except for the Adamas and Starbuck.
Still, it would make for a helluva season ender. It would explain why a Cylon lives in his head…his programming or his connection to the source is fouled. My number one pick for a hidden Cylon in the fleet is Dualla. Comes from wherever, was estranged from her family, and is the only other hot chick in the show except for Six and Boomer. She reeks of droid.
Even though I rated this epidode a bit low, someone lent me the first season of ‘24’ this weekend. Gahh. Makes you appreciate even a lukewarm episode of BSG.
Yeah, my assumption is that most of the terrorists assume their leader is the guy Adama had in the brig. They don’t know Gina even exsists. Brig-guy, on the other hand, and a select few others, know exactly what she is.
About the Cylon cancer cure. If you think about it, this really didn’t come entirely out of left fielf. The Cylons nuked Caprica, and it’s been established that humans need a regular supply of anti-rad medications to survive there. But the Cylons clearly intend to re-occupy the planet, and there are lots of human models walking around down there. Either they plan to take regular anti-radiation supplements for the rest of their lives while they’re down there, or something in Cylon physiology makes them immune to the effects of the radiation, which could extend to some agent in their blood retarding tumor growth. Heck, it might have been part of the original design concept, with the long-term intent of nuking Caprica until they’re the only people who can safely live there.
'Course, now I’m wondering how long it will take before someone realizes that Baltar’s vaunted Cylon detection system is no more complex than checking to make sure everyone actually has a blood type. Do you really need a nuclear warhead for that? Seems unlikely. Until further notice, I’m fanwanking this with the assumption that the lack of blood type is a side-effect of being a hybrid, and that the full-blooded Cylons can’t be detected in this fashion.
Nah, no way he’s a Cylon. If he were, they wouldn’t have needed Six to sleep with him to get access to the defence net.
Cylons are a lot stronger and tougher than humans, though. I think it’s possible she could have absorbed enough of the blast to allow Baltar to survive.
I’m pretty sure not. There’s no evidence that the Cylons can produce replicas of specific humans, and there are so few individual human models that it doesn’t make sense to waste one on duplicating such a minor, unimportant person as a raptor pilot on a soon-to-be decommissioned Battlestar.
Gotta be - otherwise we start developing plot holes bigger than…something really big.
I totally doubt that Doc Cottle has never run a blood test on PreggoBoomer. I think he’d have noticed the lack of a blood type pretty quickly.
Besides, I’m sure people in the Colonial Military had blood tests as part of physicals, if for no other reason than to know their blood type if they were to need a transfusion.
It’s gotta be a hybrid-specific thing.
And, after finishing the podcast, one other thing. Moore goes on and on about GinaSix and her glasses and ponytail. Basically, he says, “Sometimes you have something on paper, look at the final version, and say ‘What the fuck was I thinking?’ Sometimes you just convince yourself it’s going to work…”
So, he knows it really doesn’t.
-Joe
I thought I heard Baltar explain that the Pop Tart had no antigens or blood type, not that that was true of every Cylon, least of all the factory-made ones. It does come equipped with the factory-option Spine Light, however. We’ll have to wait and see if it has a lizard tongue like the “V” brat too, or has other magical powers like the Harsesis Child on “Stargate SG-1”.
Not only that, but maybe we will get Tricia Helfer in some hot twin-on-twin catfight action after all.