# Battlestar Galactica 4.13 - "Sometimes a Great Notion" (spoilers aplenty) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601 "2009-01-16T15:28:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/221 "2009-01-22T18:18:20Z")
In 33 (or whatever it was), they fight several hundred exhausting, ship-destroying, ammunition-depleting fights, and only manage to lose a few vipers, and, really, they still have plenty of bullets. The Galactica was hit with an ATOM BOMB. Glowing spines. Where do the Centurions keep the bullets for those machine guns in their hands? The general, standard SF assumption that space ships can just turn around and go back the way they came, ignoring large amounds of physical laws like inertia and gravity and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/222 "2009-01-22T18:27:03Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > The general, standard SF assumption that space ships can just turn around and go back the way they came, ignoring large amounds of physical laws like inertia and gravity and stuff. Eh? Which spaceship just turned around and went back the way it came? They’ve been remarkably good at making the ships that we can see moving look like they’re following inertia. (the fleet, of course, we usually see as the reference frame, and so apparently not moving). Reminds me: we damn well had _better_ get at least another spacefight out of what is left of this series!! It has been too long, and that was one of the best parts of the initial season. Last one we had, Blanders had to go ruin by Cyloneying the Raiders away. A big ol’ space kerfluffle with Vipers + allied Raiders against Cavil’s lobotomized Raiders is required. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/223 "2009-01-22T18:56:48Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I don’t think her Colonial beacon, her remains, or the remains of her ship would be around after 2,000 years. The wooden guitar neck seemed to do okay, as well as Dee’s rubber ball. Also those jacks were neatly gathered in one place in the sand, rather than being scattered hither and yon. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/224 "2009-01-22T19:36:18Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > The Galactica was hit with an ATOM BOMB. And? You do understand that ATOM BOMB doesn’t equal “complete and total annihilation”, right? Especially in space. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/225 "2009-01-22T19:45:01Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > And? You do understand that ATOM BOMB doesn’t equal “complete and total annihilation”, right? Especially in space. > > -Joe At the point of impact, given that they showed the missile detonating when it hit the Galactica, that seems to be [exactly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nuclear_explosions) what it means. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/226 "2009-01-22T20:10:55Z")
They have also made a point to show in at least one episode that they are manufacturing new bullets and such. Bullets are really not difficult to make. Glowing spines, on the other hand, was pretty stupid and has been admitted to be something the creators would rather forget ever happened. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/227 "2009-02-07T04:06:28Z")
Haha. Line up for some “told you so” lovin’ on the left, please (re Ellen Tigh). ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/228 "2009-02-21T00:53:18Z")
Forgive me for coming late to the party: I missed the January episodes and early-February episodes, began watching them this week, and am catching up on these threads along with the episodes. Has anyone else pointed out the homages to _Planet of the Apes_ in “Revelations” and “Sometimes a Great Notion”? Bad enough that we were all half-expecting the camera to pan from the desolated New York skyline to the bent and broken Statue of Liberty. But it gets better: Starbuck: Harbinger of Death Sacred Scrolls, _Planet of the Apes_: > [@](#): > > Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil’s pawn. Alone among God’s primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother’s land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him, for he is the harbinger of death. Omniscient narrator, _Beneath the Planet of the Apes_: > [@](#): > > Beware the beast, man, for he is the harbinger of doom. And as Starbuck heads into the high grass where she will find her wrecked Viper, Leoben warns her that “you may not like what you find”: > [@](#): > > **George Taylor:** A planet where apes evolved from men? There’s got to be an answer. > > **Dr. Zaius:** Don’t look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601/229 "2009-02-21T02:42:56Z")
> [@brianmelendez](#): > > Forgive me for coming late to the party: I missed the January episodes and early-February episodes, began watching them this week, and am catching up on these threads along with the episodes. > > Has anyone else pointed out the homages to _Planet of the Apes_ in “Revelations” and “Sometimes a Great Notion”? Bad enough that we were all half-expecting the camera to pan from the desolated New York skyline to the bent and broken Statue of Liberty. But it gets better: > > Starbuck: Harbinger of Death > Sacred Scrolls, _Planet of the Apes_: > Omniscient narrator, _Beneath the Planet of the Apes_: > > And as Starbuck heads into the high grass where she will find her wrecked Viper, Leoben warns her that “you may not like what you find”: Oh, I don’t think any card carrying Doper saw it without thinking “You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-4-13-sometimes-a-great-notion-spoilers-aplenty/481601.md?page=11)