I think the Centurions are supposed to be completely inorganic. They also don’t seem to be all that intelligent. It’s hard to see how the humanoid Cylons could have evolved from them if the orininal Centurions were no smarter. Maybe there were other models that were smart enough to rebel and seek to change themselves. Of course, I suppose it’s possible the current line of bullet-heads have been dumbed down, and the original Centurions might be the ancestors of not only their intellectually-devolved present iteration, but the skinjobs as well.
They had a post up earlier this week about an upgrade; I think they were moving to a new server. They said they were supposed to be back up before this weeks episode but it looks like that didn’t happen…
Awright. May as well just ask and get it over with. What is the deal with the satellite/probe/whatever carrying the virus, and apparently from Earth? Why? How? This Lion’s Head nebula has got to be hundreds, if not thousands of light years from Earth. If we lack FTL technology (last time I checked, we definitely weren’t “jumping” anywhere), it would have to take at least hundreds-of-thousands, probably millions of years to get out there from Earth. It seems very much like the probe was planted there, maybe in transit from Kobol to Earth (or the other way around). Was the virus simply an accidental contaminant that somehow survived the rays emanating from the nebula (and the neutron stars within it)? Was the probe deliberately laden with virus? Why are Cylons so susceptible to it? Is that an accident, or by design? If the latter, who did the designing?
I mean, I know where this is going. Now the fleeing humans have a weapon that could wipe out their adversaries. That’s great. But, uh, what an accidental find, huh?
Well, that’s keeping me interested, anyway.
I hate to be the one who has to say it, but…
…does Gias Baltar have to choke a bitch?
What are you talking about? Never mind, I don’t want to know.
I wondered whether there is some subtle symbolism here. Admiral Adama disowns Lieutenant Thrace from her role as daughter-figure. In the same episode, Lieutenant Sharon Agathon assumes the name of Adama’s daughter from BSG:TOS.
I was also struck by the role reversal between Starbuck, the undisciplined rebel, and Tigh, the apostle of military order and hierarchy.
To save his own hide? He’d choke anybody.
There is some symbolism to the name, but it’s obviously not from the original series (except as a shoutout to the fans). It’s hidden back in Season 1, when Lee first meets Zarek.
Zarek mentions that “Apollo is the son of the father of the gods,” and implies that Adama = Zeus, father of the gods. Keep in mind that callsigns are given to the pilots, not chosen by them. So Apollo got his because his father was Adama, like unto a god (and because Jamie Bamber has that Greek god body, probably).
So, Sharon Agathon has been named by the other pilots after the daughter of the father of the gods – its an indication that the pilots know how close she’s grown to Adama. It’s also an important indication that she’s been accepted by the pilots as one of their own.
The characters just keep getting more complex and more interesting, don’t they? That’s what I love most about it - it isn’t tradtional space-opera good vs. evil SF, like the old series; it’s possible to believe real humans would act the way they do in those situations. Adama’s use of the pistol in the Tigh-Starbuck scene was writing above the level of anything else I’ve seen on TV in years, for instance.
I do have a little trouble accepting that “Athena” would be fully accepted by all of the pilots as one of them, though. They can’t know that she won’t be taken over somehow by Cylon Central in the heat of battle. There have to be a few who still just can’t make themselves trust her.
The Pegasus people seem to be off-screen entirely. But the writers have left themselves an out, there were so many humans killed on NC that any absences can be explained by it.
Good to see Kara’s gone and Starbuck’s back, anyway. And Tigh will get hold of himself somehow; he’s too important a character and Hogan’s too good an actor to lose.
Any chance we’ll ever see Imperious Leader?
I think Ron Moore should don one of the old tin suits for that role. 
A couple of blatantly obvious point:
It appears that going into ‘Jump’ causes the Hybrid to orgasm.
I think that Ron changed Boomer’s name to ‘Athena’ so we’d have a new, non-confusing name to use in these threads…
Nice to know he’s thinking of us.
I can’t find any close up images of it, but did that probe/beacon thing look rusty? Or maybe like it had been subjected high heat and melted a little? In any case, lightly coated with some kind of gunk? Anybody found a picture of it anywhere?
Howdy. Took the day off work Friday after a ridiculously stressful eleven straight days without a break. I thought Thursday about logging in the next morning to start the thread as usual but Friday was full of blissful sleep and no responsibilities.
I liked this episode quite a bit, though the cliched elements are, I agree, a bit distracting. The Cylon tubgirl (and aren’t y’all grateful for that bit of terminology) is designed a little too Giger-y, true; her jabbering is rather reminiscent of Minority Report; the fake realities projected by the Cylons are awful damn Matrix-y; and so on and so forth. However, none of this really bothered me, because while it seems like RDM grabbed a bunch of off-the-shelf parts to flesh out the Cylon world, it’s in service of a unique and particular worldview, i.e. a specific culture, with a specific angle on their reality and a specific long-term objective, one we haven’t, as far as I know, quite seen before. I’m giving them a pass so far, but I’ll agree it was rather a lot to swallow at once and they need to get back to the story of the unique universe after a fairly lumpy bit of generic exposition if they’re going to make all of this work.
A good bit we shouldn’t overlook: Baltar confronting Six about the remaining models he hasn’t seen. This is a pretty clear acknowledgement by RDM et al. that they’re listening to the viewers, paying attention to the issues that concern us, and allowing the characters to ask the same smart questions we’re asking one another (unlike, say, Lost, wherein the characters seem utterly unconcerned about anything that is not trying to (a) kill and/or eat them or (b) have sex with them). It’s a small nod in our direction: “Yes, we know you’re troubled by this apparent oversight, but we’ve already thought about it, so just hang on a little longer and you’ll see what this is about.” That’s mildly reassuring.
And, along those lines, that probe they found? Whoa. Are they tipping their hand here a bit? Are they letting us know that they do, after all, have a clear idea of what-all is going on? Of the relationship between the Colonies and Earth, especially with regard to the time frame? “All of this has happened before, all of this will happen again…” Are the Colonies echoing, to some degree, a major historical and developmental path of (ahem) Earth-That-Was? Is this probe defensive, planted along the Road To Earth so anyone following the Scriptures back will stumble across it, like a mine? Or just some random bit of junk that happens to be infectious and dangerous? This seems pretty major, worldwise. There will clearly be more about this.
And of course, it almost goes without saying, the stuff back on Galactica is amazing. As I’ve said in previous threads, I think I would absolutely hate Tigh if I knew him in real life, but that doesn’t prevent me from identifying with and agonizing for him in the context of this story. The Adama-Tigh-Kara scene: pure dynamite, thrilling and heartbreaking at the same time. Oh, and nice to see Gaeta rediscovering himself a bit, too. Basically I’m just seconding what everybody else has already said on these points.
And the Athena thing made me laugh out loud. Great way to remind us that this Sharon is not the same one as the Boomer Sharon while tossing in a nice little shout-out to the original series. Very clever.
The point is that they don’t KNOW, do they?
You can live forever. Till the end of time. How many chances are you going to take with something that might be able to truly kill you?
-Joe
Six seemed pretty annoyd at the questions on it. I think that of the remaining five models, most have been boxed or discontinued or something along those lines.
Seems to be a sensitive subject.
Oh, and I agree on the Hybrid - definitely not one of the twelve.
-Joe
Unless, of course, you’re looking at things completely backwards.
Seems pretty obvious to me that the probe (let’s call it “the beacon”) was left behind by the 13th Tribe on their way TO Earth.
Say, as a way to help the other twelve tribes find them someday?
As for the virus…I guess we’ll see, won’t we?
-Joe
It’s interesting that they call tank girl a “hybrid”. A hybrid of what, exactly? Hera is very literally a hybrid. What’s jacuzzi babe? I mean, sure, she’s a bit “hybridized” with the Basestar, but far as I can tell, she, it, the pair, are 100% Cylon, and connected simply by hoses, which still leaves them rather distinct entities in many respects.
Also, if she’s not one of the “twelve models”, what’s she supposed to be? A limited-edition special? Why does she need a humanoid form at all? What’s swimming in the tank going to do for her but give her a bad case of prune-fingers? Why not have the Basestar brain be a big meatball like the two Raider (heavy and conventional) brains we’ve seen thus far? To me I would have said she was a humanoid model they considered amply suited to low-level control of Basestar operations and navigation while the current Basestars were under development, and accepted madness as a sacrifice for the good of the collective. But if she’s not one of the “twelve archetypes”, how do we catagorize her? Why does she look for all the world like a humanoid Cylon who they decided would make a good Basestar brain as an afterthought?
Don’t ask me. I’m just saying she’s not one of the twelve because she doesn’t get a vote, even though without the Hybrids it seems that the Cylons would be dead in the water.
-Joe
I believe he was paying homage to another well-respected genius.
Now this is getting real geeky, but I’ll forge ahead - the pilot who suggested “Athena” was Hot Dog, who is played by Bodie Olmos, Edward Olmos’ son. Ed, of course, plays the part of Adama Sr.