Oh…and yeah…um…I picked up the word “before” at a 2 for 1 sale, and had to use em both in that first sentence before they spoiled. Yup. Uh-huh. I meant to do that. It wasn’t really sloppy and careless or anything. 
So who here is with me: The BSG writers created a most splendiferous cliffhanger at the end of last season, so filled with danger and suspense that, unfortunately, there’s no plausible way to get out of it. Lacking that, they’re resigned to some pure goofyness to move the narrative along. I have to think most of what we’ve noticed about this season’s episodes has not completely escaped those writing these scripts. They simply must be aware of these glaring inconsistencies and plot holes. Right? It’s for the sake of economy whilst they move on to bigger and better things, right? Right??? Please tell me I must be right.
If I’m not mistaken, part of the Pegasus backstory was that they were on the ground when the Cylons attacked Caprica, and blind-jumped out…or at least jumped out from on the ground. So it’s possible.
I’m not sure if the Scorpion Shipyards are on the ground. I always assumed they were in orbit around Scorpion, actually, though I don’t think it’s ever made explicit.
I thought they were in a “space doc” or other orbiting type of repair facility… never got the impression they were on the ground.
The raptors have always been shown getting to orbit prior to jump… getting away from the galactica, etc… so my thoughts are that they have a better chance jumping in low (given the appropriate coordinates) but need a bit more room for jumping out… so, to get Galactica low… just send in a raptor first to make sure there’s no mountains in the way.
That’s sort of how I look at the cancer-curing-cylon-baby-blood thing in “Epiphanies.” At the time, it was pretty dumb (though there’s lots of other good stuff in the episode that makes it watchable). In retrospect, it’s obvious that they knew it was dumb but that it was something they had to plow through regardless to get to the rest of the season. “Guys, we have to deal with the cancer. We don’t really have a great solution to the plot problem. Just make it as not-painful as possible, and pack the episode with other material so the dumb stuff doesn’t stick out too much. They’ll forget about it and forgive us when we get to the part where Roslin tries to steal the election.” So in my mind there’s a precedent for some narrative hokum, devices used to gloss over the tough transitions in order to deliver the really good stuff that makes us keep tuning in every week.
I listened to Moore’s commentary today on the episode. What is his reference to “the reason the basestars were called away”? He mentions that the Cylons were “doing something else at the location” rather than messing with the humans.
Could be that something big and bad is pressing the Cylons elsewhere…the Borgshadow8472berzerkeralienpredators…
Gods I hope you’re right. I think Mary McDonnell is great, and I would have been very sad to see her go. The show would be missing a great deal without her, but I get the sneaky suspicion the original plan was to have her die of cancer. However, it’s obvious losing her would have had its merits, in terms of continuity and poignancy. At some point I figure RDM & Co. decided they just couldn’t let that happen, for the sake of the series, ratings, etc. and instead the narrative arc suffered. It was a major, major shift in direction, I’m guessing, given her mystical, prophesied role (which, quite oddly, no one seems to give a frak about anymore). OK, I let them get away with it, because I love the Roslin character, and I’d indeed find the show poorer without McDonnell’s great acting. But the story line is going to be in tatters if they keep this sort of stuff up.
From the opening of this episode – the extremely, extremely long series of recaps – I knew that they were in trouble with their narrative. They’d tried to cram too many things into this episode that weren’t going to be wholly explained in the episode. That’s just bad writing, IMO.
So, after they finished up those looooong recapping flashbacks, for them to segue into a scene that retconned the ending of the previous episode was no surprise, to me. However, I do think that this retcon was planned – we’d noticed at the end of the last episode, the gunfire while Cally was running away wasn’t the Centurion autofire.
I just think they took a cheap way out of the predicament they’d set up. And they really did move on to better things. We’d’ve been howling for blood had Roslyn and Zarek turned up dead.
… even worse had all the Internet speculation that Roslyn in the season previews was just another figment in Baltar’s head, to explain her presence after her apparent death…
Battlestars aren’t atmospheric. As others have stated, they were at a spaceyard undergoing repairs. So I doubt you can jump any ship from ground level.
Cavil’s discussion about how each download was more painful than the one before makes me suspect there could be a physical limit to them - that at some point, after enough deaths, the meatbags really will become as mortal as the humans. Possible future plot point?
Moore makes a vague reference to that in the pod cast.
Regarding the apparent frailness of the Cylons in melee … the original impact of the cylon attack was that the Battlestar fleet, Viper Mk VII’s and other Colonial Fleet assets were fracked up by their virally-addled control systems.
Remove that advantage, and you’ve got something closer to the first Cyclon War.
I think Cavil’s revelation should be important. Humanoid Cylons shouldn’t be able to put a gun to their head every time they get an unsightly nose-hair. New body!
Uh-uh. It must be tougher than that.
I’m curious about knee-capped D’Anna in the Cylon data-center. Will she choose to live life with two bum knees, or off herself and get a fresh body? Where do they draw the line between “I can live with these injuries” and Bang! Re-download.
Cavil wasn’t thrilled about carving out his own throat.
Then Leoben must be in AGONY. Starbuck’s been offing him on a regular basis!
I think Leoben said it had only been three times in 4 months. I was disappointed at the low number - I would have thought Starbuck would manage to kill him at least once a week.
A week? Hell, Cylons have to sleep evrery night, don’t they? 
Given the nonchallant attitude she showed while she ate her steak led me to believe that either she’d gone 'round the bend or that she’d done this so many times that it was hard to think of new ways to send him back to download-land.
I remember him saying that the one we saw was the fifth time… and I’m also guessing that strictly hand to hand leoben has the advantage…