# New Battlestar Galactica series in January **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 23, 2004, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307 "2004-12-23T08:20:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/241 "2005-01-20T02:04:42Z")
Re: Lack of sleep If plotting a jump was labor intensive, wouldn’t the Galactica need to help plot the civilian ship’s jumps? Even if it were only mildly laborious, would civilian ships likely carry enough crew to run twenty four hours a day? Re: Distance between OC and the fleet/ between the jumped Cylons and the fleet Anther possible explanation is that after jumping, the ships floor it in some predetermined direction. As long as the Base Star’s STL speed doesn’t dwarf the Galactica’s, thirty-three minutes could give the fleet enough space to maneuver, and enough space such that the OC would have to catch up if it showed up a bit late. Re: the note I listened to some of the audio commentary on the miniseries DVD. The producers/ directors initially thought it was Baltar who left the note. But when the cast/ crew asked the same question (who left it?) they realized they had another plot opportunity – so consider it an open question. I soooo much wanted to hate this show before the miniseries came out, but was left in a state of continual awe. It is wonderful is it to have a show – a _new_ show – airing each week that doesn’t have multiple cringe-points. Thank you SciFi! … So say we all![sup]\*[/sup] [sup]\*[/sup] Another bit from the DVD commentary - that whole speech was basically ad libbed. When the directors came to get Olmos for the scene, he was discussing military/ religious relationships throughout history and didn’t think the scene as they had written would work. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/242 "2005-01-20T02:09:26Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Only two episodes in, and already it’s can’t-miss television. More importanly, will it still be so in twenty episodes? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MaddyStrut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@MaddyStrut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaddyStrut)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/243 "2005-01-20T02:16:38Z")
Thanks **Cervaise**! I had forgotten about the Ragnor scene. I agree that it’s can’t miss television for me at this point. There’s so much I like. Like you, I like the fundamental problems that they deal with. I also like that they have to make tough decisions and then carry them out. They can’t just reverse the polarity on the phase inverter neutron shield harmonics and avoid the tough choice. (Not to diss Star Trek or anything because I like that too–but this is neat to see for a change.) ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/244 "2005-01-20T06:42:02Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > I’m loving this show so far also. How long has it been since we had a science fiction show that took itself really seriously? And didn’t fuck it up? Four years? Going on five? :Sigh: How quickly we [forget](http://www.scifispace.com/html/firefly.php). _:Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand…:_ ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/245 "2005-01-20T07:01:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Water should be really, really easy to come by. Heck, in our solar system, there’s vast quantites just floating around at the farthest edge, in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud (theoretically, of course). According to our leading theories of system formation, more systems than not should have similar phenomena. Wouldn’t you need some pretty specialized equipment to extract liquid water from a comet in zero gravity? It doesn’t seem too likely that anyone in the convoy happened to have the right tools on hand for that, so the problem becomes not just finding water, but finding it in a form the Galactica can use. ---
**Author:** ![Galanthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Galanthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galanthus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/246 "2005-01-20T09:40:55Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Wouldn’t you need some pretty specialized equipment to extract liquid water from a comet in zero gravity? It doesn’t seem too likely that anyone in the convoy happened to have the right tools on hand for that, so the problem becomes not just finding water, but finding it in a form the Galactica can use. That’s how I rationalise this one too, also perhaps water that’s not hopelessly contamininated with ammonia, salts and organics … ---
**Author:** ![Hustle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@Hustle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hustle)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/247 "2005-01-20T11:21:13Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > More importanly, will it still be so in twenty episodes? 🙂 The first season only has 13 episodes, and after watching the first dozen that have aired on Sky One I’d say it has definitely maintained it’s high quality. Episode 12 is particularly juicy with a great cliffhanger I have to wait till Monday to see resolved in the season finale. A whole _week_! Bastards. [sub](The good kind.)[/sub] > [@](#): > > Sci Fi Channel’s two-hour debut of original series Battlestar Galactica on Jan. 14 delivered 3.1 million viewers 2-plus (a 2.6 household rating), making it the highest-rated program on ad-supported cable that night, the network announced Tuesday. > > The first installment of Battlestar was the second highest-rated series premiere in the network’s history behind Stargate Atlantis last summer That seems to be some good news from [mediaweek.com](http://www.mediaweek.com/mediaweek/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000767259), and since it’s not on Fox, the “We cut short, you decry” policy they have for shows I enjoy won’t apply. It’s like they have my TV bugged or something. Bastards. [sub](The bad kind.)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/248 "2005-01-20T14:00:23Z")
> [@Hustle](#): > > “We cut short, you decry” Tee hee. Who is doing the space effects for this show? I’d be terribly surprised if it isn’t the same house that did them for Firefly – the cinema verite in space (with snap zoom action!) is exactly the same as the space shots in that show. (Except the sound, more’s the pity.) –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Hustle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@Hustle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hustle)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/249 "2005-01-20T14:56:10Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Who is doing the space effects for this show? I’d be terribly surprised if it isn’t the same house that did them for Firefly – the cinema verite in space (with snap zoom action!) is exactly the same as the space shots in that show. (Except the sound, more’s the pity.) You are correct, sir. Good eye. I checked the credits and it’s a company called [Zoic](http://www.zoicstudios.com). Seems they are also responsible for Buffy and Angel, and will be doing the Serenity movie as well. Should be interesting to see what they can do on the big screen. Despite their tendency to spell Galactica with two L’s half the time, I am impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/250 "2005-01-20T15:35:41Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > [sup]\*[/sup] Another bit from the DVD commentary - that whole speech was basically ad libbed. When the directors came to get Olmos for the scene, he was discussing military/ religious relationships throughout history and didn’t think the scene as they had written would work. I had no idea. That’s pretty cool. Thanks for the info! ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/251 "2005-01-20T16:43:35Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Actually, the food quantities Baltar was describing seemed sort of high to me, in general. Does anybody still have the episode like on TiVo or something? Can we get a rundown on exactly what he said they would need? I’d like to crunch the numbers a bit, but unfortunately I forgot that I wanted to nitpick this and deleted the show. I may still have it saved, but I did a back of the envelope calculation during the show, and the amounts seemed OK to me. IIRC, it was around 100 tons each of meat, fruit, vegetables, 200 tons of grain, per week. Given 50,000 people, that’s about 2 kg of meat, 2kg of fruit, 2kg of veggies, and 4kg of grain. Maybe a little high, but certainly accurate to an order of magnitude. The real question is why is their scientific genius doing the kind of work any military supply officer can do in his sleep? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/252 "2005-01-20T18:25:34Z")
Maybe there weren’t any supply officers on board? The crew was pretty ragtag even before the attack. The ship was being opened as a museum. How much need did they have of, well, a lot of billets at that point? The civilian ships were not normally out long enough to need onboard supply officers, either. ---
**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 20, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/253 "2005-01-20T18:39:59Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > How quickly we [forget](http://www.scifispace.com/html/firefly.php). A couple of months ago I invited a bunch of friends over to re-watch the whole series (or in a couple cases watch for the first time), starting last week as a lead-in to the film release in April. The movie got moved; I decided to play the series anyway (hey, any excuse to put something up on my big front-projection screen for friends). We saw the pilot ep last Sunday and will be watching “Train Job” this Sunday. So: Forget nuthin’. 🙂 _Battlestar Galactica_ isn’t that good yet, but it’s far and away the best SF on television right now. (I’m considering _Lost_ fantasy at the moment, unless that glimpse of the space colony in the comic book turns out to be significant.) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/254 "2005-01-20T19:14:21Z")
Ya know, the Galactica crew is probably subsisting on leftover cold cuts from the decommissioning ceremony, perhaps with some greasy burgers from the museum coffee shop, and the civilians even on Colonial One are surviving on little bags of pretzels from the drinks cart. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/255 "2005-01-20T20:15:16Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > So: Forget nuthin’. 🙂 > > _Battlestar Galactica_ isn’t that good yet, but it’s far and away the best SF on television right now. (I’m considering _Lost_ fantasy at the moment, unless that glimpse of the space colony in the comic book turns out to be significant.) I agree that BG has the potential to at least rival _ **Firefly** _, as far as stories and plots go; they have a long way to go to rival their dialogue. Character are still up in the air; too new to tell yet. But as BG has been the best to come along in a while (I kind of liked _The 4400_, too) I’m being way open minded and giving it several chances. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/256 "2005-01-20T20:18:17Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > I agree that BG has the potential to at least rival Firefly. But as Kennedy fans should remember chappaquiddick, we must remember the glowing spine. FTW is that all about? Now _that_ ought to show up on a physical exam. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/257 "2005-01-20T20:45:22Z")
Yep, this screening job doesn’t take tankloads of whatever chemical Baltar said. All they have to do is have sex with every surviving purported human, and shoot the ones who glow in the dark. If that’s already the plot of a porn flick, I don’t want to know. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/258 "2005-01-21T00:50:51Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Maybe there weren’t any supply officers on board? The crew was pretty ragtag even before the attack. The ship was being opened as a museum. How much need did they have of, well, a lot of billets at that point? The civilian ships were not normally out long enough to need onboard supply officers, either. I’m not sure how it is in the Navy, which I assume is close to what a space military would be, but in the US Army, any soldier in the rank of E-5 or above should be able to calculate food & water requirements for x number of people, over x amount of time (or at least they’ve received training on it). So Baltar probably didn’t need to be briefing that particular bit of info. Interesting though. Where are they going to get their food? Are they going to find it out there somewhere, or are they going to have to sneak back to the colonies for it? I found this from a site about the USS [Midway](http://www.midwaysailor.com/midway/specifications.html). [QUOTE] [ul][li]Total crew: 4,500+[/li][li]Gallons of fresh water produced daily: 240,000[/li][li]Meals served daily: 13,000[/ul][/li] Daily food requirements: [ul][li]Vegetables: 5,000 lbs.[/li][li]Meat: 4,500 lbs.[/li][li]Dry provisions: 20,000 lbs.[/li][li]Potatoes: 3,000 lbs.[/ul][/li][/QUOTE] Maybe someone can play with those numbers and see how close Baltar’s were. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/259 "2005-01-21T02:07:11Z")
I doubt very much that Baltar gathered those numbers… more likely, he was designated to receive reports from all the ships on numbers of people and food needs, he simply compiled them, and recited them at the high-level briefing. As for the Midway numbers… I worked it out to 7.2 pounds of “provisions” per day. That’s about 50 lbs of “provisions” per week. The other figures given in this thread for Baltar, in kilograms, work out to about 10 kg per week of “provisions”, or… about 22 lbs a week. In other words, the _Galactica_ figures are about _half_ those for the _USS Midway_. Even allowing for less physical exertion and not everyone being at military fitness and caloric requirements, and a real strong incentive to let nothing go to waste, that’s quite a difference Nor does that take into account water needs. Unless I’ve really screwed up the math, which is always a possibility. Or the figures for the _Midway_ or the _Galactica_ are really off. Also, thinking about the “provisioning needs” of my family, I’d say food consumption is closer to 2-3 lbs a day, not 7. Anyone else want to take a crack at it? ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307/260 "2005-01-21T15:46:50Z")
On US Navy ships, personnal water use was figured to be 10 gal per person per day. But that took into account cooking and cleaning uses in addition to showers and drinking (not just drinking water - coffee, tea part of that.) Just some info to go along with the food numbers from above. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-battlestar-galactica-series-in-january/281307.md?page=14)