I’m sure they realized that something was very, very wrong soon after jumping into orbit. If they were expecting any kind of human civilization approaching or exceeding their own they notice the lack of radio signals or any sort of planetary defence system. And depending on how bad a shape Earth is in they’d starting wondering “Why isn’t any of the land green?”. Several hours probally passed before they actually landed. How long would it for the ruins of a city hit with a nuclear bomb to be safe enough for them to walk around without protective gear?
Ack. I thought Cottle was drafted in as a civilian surgeon. Never mind the crackpot.
Well, if one could posit that the Final Fifth is the one orchestrating the affair, would there be anything against guessing that he or she is on a fleet with the rest of Earth’s survivors? I’m mostly guessing this since Kara came back with a brand new-old Viper, which such a fleet would have.
No, has Galactica’s CMO prior to the attacks and holds the rank of Major in the Colonial Fleet’s Medical Corps. Are you thinking of that doctor from the Woman King that turned out to be murdering Sagitarrians?
The more I cogitate on it, the more I’m convinced that:
1. The Fifth isn’t in the Fleet. 2. The fifth isn’t with the Cylons. 3. The fifth is named “John.”
Want to know why? Watch War of the Gods, Parts 1 & 2, then Experiment in Terra.
I don’t think that’s Earth. Why?
- No identifiable landforms from the image.
- Luna wasn’t depicted. A moon the size of ours is iconic, one would think, for a planet the size of Earth.
- No #3 that I could think of now. I think that there’s going to be something that they will experience which would point out where they are at isn’t_the- final destination.
- There’s 10 more shows left in the series. How far can they take a story where they’re on some barren rock?
I agree. We heard Gaeta say that the constellations match, but from previous threads we know that only localises it to several light years. We didn’t see the moon, and we didn’t see any identifiable land masses.
I don’t know if there were crucifixes clearly shown or not, but that doesn’t make it Earth. It may, however, make it a colony of Earth that has been wiped out.
As far as the final Cylon goes, I’m still waiting for Dirk Benedict to make his grand entrance.
Silenus brought up the TOS episode Experiment in Terra. Wasn’t Terra originally itself originally intended to be a colony of Earth? They used Earth units (instead of centon, yahren, etc) and I recall a scene at a Terran grave with a crucifixe. Could RDM be recycling that idea from TOS?
Just how Earth history fit in with that of Kobol/ the Twelve Colonies was never reconciled in the original show, and <Gac>80 completely ignored the issue. My understanding was that the Terrans were descendents of stragglers from the thirteenth tribe on the way to Earth. So they were from Kobol but not from Earth or the Twelve Colonies.
There just are not enough episodes left of BSG for that to have been anyplace but Earth. There is too much to resolve of the backstory, and the new Colonial-Cylon alliance, to throw in a red herring planet, too.
Also, I would think that the city depicted should have been obvious to everyone who remembers Caprica City. They have landed in Vancouver. duh. 
I think that the devastation occurred only decades ago (… about three decades ago, actually). Much longer and the rad counter wouldn’t have been relevant, and with all those “what if humans all disappeared” programs on recently, it is fairly common knowledge that there wouldn’t have even been that much left.
And I really don’t see them going with this having been something humans did to themselves. The theme they’ve been playing up this season is that the humans and Cylons need each other, and if they don’t “it will all happen again.” Lee touched on that point again in this episode. It is more relevant to the storyline if Earth got nuked because the Earthlings and Cylons couldn’t coexist, than if Earth got nuked because humans can’t coexist.
I think it is Earth.
Mainly because I think they really have enough material to work with. They really haven’t revealed anything. I personally think that a lot of the pieces of the story are going to revolve around what is discovered on Earth.
I can see a lot of cool things happening. I sort of anticipate a situation like on Caprica where there are roving bands of survivors, but with a special Earthican twist. Hey, maybe they could go into some sort of Fallout II territory!
Plus we haven’t seen the last of Cavil and his crew.
I seriously think they are on Earth. I don’t think the lack of the moon really means much. I also think the lack of recognizable landmarks is done on purpose. Who knows how far into the future it could be?
Or the past.
There could have also been a catastrophic climate shift, the icecaps completely melted, flooding a large amount of coastline, that would change the look of the landscape, maybe a polar inversion as well, maybe a few major earthquakes as well, just to mix things up…
It looks like the Nuking took place a while ago, as the plants on the ruins appeared dead
A smaller question: which one of the hostages did D’Anna space? (Obviously not one of the regular characters.) Even given that the humans had to make an agreement, it’s hard to see letting that go. I would have really wanted to pop a cap in D’Anna’s non-resurrecting ass.
Not unless Bob Dylan’s career is something else that “has happened before”. (Actually, considering the sort of mythic vibe “All Along the Watchtower” has always had, who know?)
I think with 11 hours of Episodes left there is plenty of time left for any thing at all to still happen.
11 Episodes ago (Crossroads 2): Tigh, Anders, Tyrol and Tory Foster (until then a very minor Character) all were hearing — or hallucinating — a strange song aboard the Galactica. Roslin, meanwhile, was recovering in the ship’s infirmary after her first major cancer treatment. There, she experiences another vision of the opera house through which she, Athena and Six pursue the toddler Hera. Lee takes the Stand at Baltar’s trial and Kara Thrace and her magic Viper re-appear to Battle the suddenly appeared (then united) Cylon fleet.
Equivalent story time from that to this story is left in this Series (cheating that a bit because one of those episodes was the 2 hour Hour Razor, so same Episode count but probably 1 less hour) but the main point is plenty of time is left to tie up those loose ends
Hate to rain on anyones parade, but word is RDM said at the Arclight screening that they were indeed on Earth.
On the gripping hand, word also is SciFi has ordered two more hours of BSG, and the final episode is 3 hours.
9 fracking months…
The Overweight Lady ain’t sung yet.
Perhaps she and Baltar will roll off Reichenbach Falls in each other’s arms. 
Here’s a comparison of the modern-day Brooklyn Bridge. Count me disappointed… I thought it was required that all sci-fi earth bases were around San Francisco. Starfleet HQ, the Transamerica Pyramid on the Death Star…
I am so going to give Ron Moore an Atomic Wedgie at Comic-Con next month! Just on GP. Then, if 9 months from now it turns out he was just frakking with us, I’m gonna hunt him down and give him a Melvin the poets will be talking about generations from now.
No, no, no. We melt down all those DVDs I’ve made of BG, crucify him upside down and pour the molten plastic into his nose.
Perhaps it’s a personal thing. Maybe we can share.