I’m going to take that as either fanservice, or as a tease to fans (since he didn’t actually shoot Cally). That character seems to be either loathed (for her abysmal acting skills) or lusted after (for… well, for those who like that type, I guess) in equal measure by fans.
The Colonies apparently had spaceflight continuously from the time of the exodus from Kobol. It’s been stated that they deliberately regressed in some technologies during or after the Cylon Wars (hence the retro tech). In fact, the Cylon Wars were fought between the Colonies, which are each on different planets.
So I think they speak the same language, and that is Kobolian. The main problem with the sacred scrolls seems to be interpreting them, not translating them. And we haven’t heard any other languages at all. (thus neatly sidestepping the “how are they all speaking the same language” question that plagues many a scifi show)
The CAG is pretty much on the same level as an aircraft carrier’s captain in our Navy; we’ve no reason to think it is otherwise for the Colonial fleet. On Galactica’s side, it’d be pretty much Adama, Tigh, and Lee as the ranking officers. Of course, Galactica seems to be missing quite a few of its normal officer compliment (e.g., no chief engineer as the Pegasus had).
The real question would be, why didn’t the Pegasus CAG get tapped after whatshisname the XO got capped?
Well, it did seem that the tylium ship lacked the resources to provide such a haven. I think that was part of the problem, the workers didn’t have a place for downtime (Who’s delivering that knuckle-dragger bathtub gin to the tylium ship?) and didn’t have the chance to actually get off the ship.
I liked the class divide, but it was a little tough to believe that there are rich and poor colonies. It just seems with their level of technology, some of the ‘farming planet’ issues would have been taken care of.
[geeky nitpick]I noticed 2 instances of singular “god” statements by our heros in this episode. One by the President. That particular mistake should be gone by now.[/gn]
Edited To Add (my first edit…neat)
Cain demoted the original CAG. I guess Starbuck didn’t hold onto that promotion after Cain’s death.
I just realized something else that doesn’t make any sense. Tyrol claims that the refinery workers haven’t had a day off since the attack on the 12 Colonies. Um, the Fleet was at New Caprica for a year and they though it would be their permanent home. So why didn’t any workers settle on New Caprica (especially since their Tylium needs would go way down) ? Did Baltar not allow them to settle? If Baltar was essentially keeping them in servitude while everyone else was allowed to settle why the hell is his book so popular? :dubious:
If I had to guess (do we know what the refinery ship looks like from the outside?) I would bet that the refinery was a ship that was absolutely NOT allowed to land on the planet. That’s one of the ships you keep in orbit and ready to jump at a moment’s notice.
And, out of curiosity, did he specify “on the 12 colonies”? That’s kind of what I remember too, but my brain might have filled that in, if you know what I mean. He might have meant the attack on New Caprica.
No, it doesn’t make any sense. The refinery has to work 24/7 or there won’t be enough tylium for the fleet to jump more than once or twice, but the fleet didn’t do any jumping for a year while in orbit around NC, so they’d only have needed enough tylium to keep the lights on and they should have enough stored, refined tylium for a year’s worth of jumping if they ran 24/7 for a year.
Also, the workers on the tylium refinery taked about Tyrol as their union leader on NC so they must have been on NC working on something else. Considering that everyone was still living in tents after a year I can’t imagine what the frak they were working on non-stop without a day off.
They pump tylium fuel into Vipers by the gallon, like gas. Apparently it takes a lot of this stuff to fly around at sublight speeds. But it can’t take very much tylium to FTL because in 33 they made over 200 consecutive jumps every 33 minutes. Obviously, a little tylium goes a long way if all you’re doing is FTL jumping.
Overall I gave this ep a B+. I thought it had some great scenes and although it didn’t necessarily move along the “big story” it was one of the better stand alones.
I didn’t have that much of a problem with Baltar trying to turn himself into a “man of the people”. If nothing else, self preservation is his MO. What else does he have to do in prison other than figure out a way to get some kind of support, even if he’s appealing to the lesser educated, “non-elite” branch of the populace. He knows his goose is cooked if he doesn’t. Adama and Roslin have their detractors–every leader in power does–so he tapped into that. The people might not be for Baltar but they can turn against Roslin. It can only help him in the long run.
As for his place of birth being “public record”, I can certainly buy that he buried all this info somehow on Caprica in order to be accepted by the Caprican elite. Perfect example of why they shouldn’t be delaying his trial, Baltar is always figuring out ways to weasel out of whatever predicament he has found himself in.
Gaius is definitely my favorite character and I think he is what makes this show so compelling.
Those could have been very short jumps. At the beginning of the exodus it’s possible that everyone was completely full and one reason fuel became so essential (to the point that they launched an attack on a Cylon installation while on the run).
One refinery ship can produce X fuel. Who knows how much of a net gain they got while on New Caprica? Maybe a little, maybe a lot. However, they are now down to two jumps.
Maybe the jumps from inside atmosphere really take it out of you? Fact of the matter is that the writers know how it works (or are allowed to make it up as they go as long as they don’t contradict themselves too mightily) and you don’t. Trying to nitpick it seems pretty silly to me.
I took this to mean that the workers were also working on New Caprica. The refineriy workers were manual labor, so that’s the kind of stuff they were doing on NC. Remember that Chief was calling for a workers strike the very day the cylons arrived. You’ll notice that Roslin and her folks weren’t doing dirty jobs, they were teaching kids and smoking pot with the Admiral.
For that matter, that’s a reasonable explaination for why they are so stretched thin on that ship and why tylium levels got so low. Perhaps not everyone who went to NC from this ship made it back, and that affects productivity. The skeleton crew aboard the tylium ship during the settlement may be more or less what’s left, hence the long work days and no time off.
levdrakon, I’m not going to tell anyone how to watch any show, and sometimes finding stuff like this is part of the fun, but trying to nit pick how much tylium it takes to do what is looking a little too closely, don’t you think? Perhaps the big FTL ships use a different ‘octane’ level of fuel, kind of like deisel, or maybe the FTL drives are like ‘electric’ compnents of the ships that get their power from burning fuel, like a car’s GPS system. Isn’t there a thousand different Sci-fish, non fan-wank explainations for this stuff? I know the writers (annoyingly) seem to not care about some pretty important things (Final five cylons, anyone? Why are they numbered the way they are?) but this seems like holding the show to a crazy standard.
But that’s just my humble opinion on the subject. Please keep watching and commenting, because I really like these BSG threads.
? Did Baltar not allow them to settle? If Baltar was essentially keeping them in servitude while everyone else was allowed to settle why the hell is his book so popular? :dubious: