Battlestar Galactica: Current Episode (No Spoilers!)

[Calcoran]

Thanks Phoenix. I was aware of the "scenario" reason for having him come up with this idea, but I'm always happier when some "real" reason can back up the "scenario" needs . I can live with him being an "out of the box" thinker type, all right. I would have trusted Starbuck to do come up with this kind of idea though.

Oh, and what's with Dee and Apollo, do you think it was him making a move toward Dee, her making aforesaid move, him just enjoying the situation without afterthoughts, her doing the same? This had me puzzled for few seconds ...

[Jem'hadar]

I missed a couple of episodes of the 2nd season but have seen most of them & have seen the last 2. I understand the next episode is the season finale & involved the return of Commander Cain & the Battlestar Pegasus.

My question(s) though is whether we will ever get an explanation of why the cylons are trying to extinguish humanity, why some of them look like humans & seem to behave like humans, why do they believe in God, why are some of them sympathetic towards humans, & what's the cylon's ultimate plan for the remaining humans?

I hope it doesn't become like X-Files where the question is always out there & they never answer it.

[Calcoran]

Hey, that's not topic compliant by at least two and a half days! I didn't want to read about another battlestar or whatnot . Come back in 3 days time and we'll discuss it all you wish .

That said, I'd be surprised if this was the EOS episode, 13 episodes were already a bit short for a whole season, I can't imagine why they would want to shorten it even more .

[Evan van Eyk]

I understand the next episode is the season finale.

I thought it was just a "summer finale" I think that is the term on the sci-fi page. I thought they would just do a break an return later the year, hopefully a month or so... But who knows - all I know is that it was not called season finale.

My question(s) though is whether we will ever get an explanation of why the cylons are trying to extinguish humanity,

That explanation is given at the end of the miniseries/ pilot. They are following Galactica because they fear humanity. I think it is even mentioned in the first season when we see the different models talking on Kobol. Some of them actually thought about letting humanity get away but the Cylons simply fear that they would come back to destroy them.
And I think it is number 6 who explains that they attacked in the first place because they felt not save and that it was their turn to be "ruling". Humanity is imperfect and aggressive - so the Cylons just made the first move. Of course they have a completely different set of ethics, which becomes quite apparent when 6 kills that baby.

why some of them look like humans & seem to behave like humans,

They are some kind of clone creation and were fabricated for infiltration. The Cylons planned the attack very well forward - Number 6 had infiltrated Baltar's department for 2 years. Of course robots would have had no chance of infiltration, they had to come up with something else. And the best infiltrators are those that do not know they are infiltrators like Sharon at the beginning of Season 1. She seems to be activated by signal or maybe image or whatever and when finished with her tasks does not know anything about it.

why do they believe in God,

I guess it has something to do with them trying to seperate from humanity. Humanity's gods are quite human, they can actually die ( Athena's tomb ). The Cylons would not want to share something with the flawed humanity, I think. Where that belief came from remains open, though, although it is hard to believe that a group of "toasters" could come up with a faith.

why are some of them sympathetic towards humans,

I think those that thought about letting the refugees get away just shy away from the thought of following them for years and years just to destroy 50000 of them. The only actual sympathetic Cylon is Sharon II. But I think that is more something about loving Helo. And since that keeps her from going back to her own kin, she has to stay with the humans and therefore helps them to survive.

what's the cylon's ultimate plan for the remaining humans?

According to the end of the miniseries it is complete extinction. the Cylons regard even the smallest number of humans as dangerous and therefore each and everyone of them is to be destroyed.


Well hope that helped

[Calcoran]

This is a good summary of season 1 (+ miniseries), Evan. However, since we've had the chance of having a 2nd season, I think there's more to it than just this. Procreation seems to be a very important part of the Cylons' plan. I think Sharon says something about it in "The Farm". Cylons do not feel complete without full reproductive capability AFAIR, because this makes them somehow still humanity's children, and killing their parents is not the thing that'll make them adult. Procreation should. The reasoning may seem flawed ... but it's probably because my memory is a bit fuzzy on the details .

[Tobian]

I think that the point of the human looking Cylons is far more than just the infiltration plan, they are activelly trying to improve themselves, evolve themselves and eventually superced their machine forebears. it very much reminds me of the Replicator plotline of Season 7 Stargate: They improved themselves and something unexpected happened. I almost suspect that the invasion began when they first created the human-like Cylons, moreso than the other way round: though it could be a chicken and egg scenario

The Cylon's agenda is allot more complicated than it first appears: Yes they do want to completelly irradicate Humans, but they are also trying to get out of them exactly what they lack: Understanding, and of course the irony is they that Humans can't give them that They have built computers the size of cities and explored the depths of thought and logical conclusion: even down to studying the prophecies of the past, and found amazing resonance; So they have come to the conclusion that their is a single god who created the universe, and realise they are an intergral part of the story: They cannot destroy humanity untill they become it and supercede it: But the irony is in by taking on their qualities, they have opened themselves up to the same flaws it has; So by trying to understand themselves and the universe they found the answer is allot more complicated than it first appeared. The human Cylons enabled them to conquor Humanity in such a swift strike, but they also will probably be it's undoing, as an embedded agent has two personalities, their deep one and their front one, and when they both come to the front, they fight!

The big question is: How much of what has happened was designed and how much was a flaw in their logic? Was the escape of a band of humans an inexorable part of their plan, and did they intend for their agents to fail to create their end goal, or are they trying to adapt to a plan which shifts because of unexpected changes.. That could be interesting to see, and yes I am so looking forward to season 2, damn Sky 1

[Calcoran]

Tobian! What are you doing here!?!

You haven't seen season 2 yet! You're going to be all spoiled! Get out of here quickly!

[Tobian]

Hehe it's ok, I'm being selective about what I'm reading: Besides the heading is no spoilers

[Calcoran]

Yeah, well, I didn't know how to formulate it. Maybe I should have written "No future spoiler"? Or "Only current spoilers allowed"?

[JALU3]

SPOILER WARNING

















Here is a simple solution that could have been taken that would have avoided the entire season finally.

The President could have demoted the Admiral, and promoted Commander Adama. This is completely within her right as the President.

And is it just me, or they potraying the crew of the new battlestar as the worst possible, hard nosed, depiction of a military organization that could be? Where as the Galacticas crew seems like a softer version of what a military organization can be? Was this done on purpose? Was it necessary?

[Captain Blake]

SPOILER WARNING

Opinion on Spoilers, so Go Away if you've not seen it







It might be meant as a warning parable, "take care when fighting monsters, lest ye become one" kind of thing.


The crew of the Pegasus are more pirates, and less military. They' seem to be kept in line by iron discipline, and released like attack dogs, rather than people doing their best in a bad situation.

Of cource, we can't have the Pegasus and Admiral Cain be too sympathetic, because they're going to have to go away in a few episodes. So it might have been layed on a little thick.

but actually, I thought it was pretty neat.

Alex

[Tricky]

Possible Spolier type stuff::













I watched the ep. and kept thinking; 'Ok, they are battle hardened. And, from a military perspective, Adama has made bunches of bad calls (Lee is a mutineer, prez supported mutiny, various rule/law infractions by various people).'

But then I started to see that everything wasn't so 'straight and narrow' on the Peg.: summary execution of a senior staff member, physical abuse of a prisoner to extract information, repeated physical abuse/rape of prisoner for the crew's pleasure. Oh, and the Adml. doesn't seem to like the idea that the Civilian authority still exists.

On the classic ep., the Peg. is wiped out taking on a base star, it's pilots taken aboard Galactica.
So, how do you think this Pegasus will go down?

Oh, and WHAT is that other ship? I figured that Starbuck getting pics of it would be the last scene of the episode. ("Thats no ship....it's a Cylon Battlestar!" or something.)

[Jem'hadar]

Thanks to those who supplied answers to my questions about the series.

However, some of the answers appeared to be speculation, based on events that occurred in the show, but speculation nonetheless.

Although the Cylons have stated an intention to eradicate all humans, it also seems they are keeping tabs on the refugees & studying them. To me, it seems the Cylons are able to find & destroy the fleet at any time but are refraining from doing so. Maybe b/c they want to experiment w/ them? The real reason seems unclear & has not been stated.

Also, is the Cylon woman that Baltar sees just his imagination or is it really a chip implanted in his brain? Can the Cylons communicate w/ Baltar through this chip if that's what it is?

I'm very curious to see how the situation w/ Cain will be resolved. Will the 2 Battlestars actually fire upon their fellow humans? Can they afford a civil war when all of humanity is faced w/ extinction?

It's amazing how quickly things degenerated b/t Galactica's crew & Pegasus' crew. Unbelievable really. I realize their ships were run differently, but I can't believe that the Pegasus crew would have acted so arrogantly & disdainfully towards Galactica crew. They're all part of one fleet after all & they should have been glad to have some allies in the war against the Cylons. And although Cain was portrayed as a strict disciplinarian, I can't believe even she would have tried to execute those 2 Galactica crewmen so quickly. There wasn't any evidence of a trial or that the accused got counsel. Why did she risk tearing the fleet apart just to execute 2 men? Why didn't she let Adama handle the case since the "crime" occurred on his vessel?

And how did the Pegasus interrogators get access to Galactica's prisoner? Where were the Galactica prison guards? Why were the Pegasus interrogators left alone w/ the Cylon prisoner? And how did they leave the Galactica w/ 2 Galactica crewmen under arrest? Is ship security on Galactica that bad?

[Calcoran]

First, what I thought of episode 10: Simply put, I loved it. My only gripe was the age of the admiral. How realistic do you think is an admiral less than 40 years old?

Now onto Jem'Hadar's post. I think the admiral acted that way in order to ensure that the BSG crew returns to more militaristic and strict rules like the ones on the BSP, as quickly as possible. And probably she wanted to execute Helo and Tyrol because she wanted to make an example of them, just like she did with her late Xo. She probably thought that loyalty only went one way, that is to say up the hierarchical ladder. She probably wasn't prepared for Adama's loyalty to his crew. And I think the BSP crew had access to Boomer because the admiral ordered it, and because Adama felt compelled to obey those orders.

One other thing. I was rather surprised by the reaction of the cylons to torture. After all, they are no stranger to pain, be it physical or moral. What Kara did in season 1 to one of the Cylons was quite borderline, and could be considered torture in a way, but the Cylon did not seem to mind. 6 and another one did beat Boomer quite heavily to make her capture by the robotical Cylons believable. After being shot by Helo, Boomer herself seemed to handle pain pretty well, all things considered (she seemed more affected by the fact that he did shoot her than by the pysical pain). So why did Baltar's dream 6 break down like this when she saw what torture had made to her ... errr ... sister? All right, we still have no idea whether she is a Cylon chip, a hallucination, or something more mystical. But what about the 6 that had been tortured? Possibly she was a dormant cylon, like late Galactica Boomer was? This could explain her catatonic state ... and what about Boomer. The BSP crew tried to rape her, agreed, but still, she has gone through much worse, hasn't she? So why does she look so shocked? Maybe this was all just to show how barbaric the BSP crew had become, but I'd rather if there was some better, non-scenario-driven explanation ...

[Calcoran]

Had some time to think about it some more. Cylons, at least the humanoid ones, seem to be a bit obsessed by the problem of procreation. That and obliterating Mankind, which might prove a bit antagonistic ... anyway. So ... maybe thats because making/having children is so important to them that rape has such an impact on them. All right, this is a bit sick, I'll just stop pondering about it, shall I?