New BSG four weeks in a row? Scary! Escape Velocity asked many questions and offered few answers — though lots of clues. Highlights: we enjoy seeing Kate Vernon back on set (and struggle to determine whether Tigh is projecting her or whether Caprica Six is projecting her), re-open the is-Head-Six-real debate with new evidence, discuss Chief’s newly-expressed issues with Cally, take a variety of Cally-hater calls (and question whether she really smells like cabbage), listed to Chuck agree that Tory is bent, wonder where the S&M/pleasure is pain is learning theme will take us this season, ponder Lee’s future as politician (and maybe president), try to divine what’ll happen next week on the grand poo barge, and offer an early preview of national Talk Like A Pirate Day. Don’t forget the GWC Meetup this Friday in San Francisco plus meetups in NYC, Dallas, and elsewhere soon. Check the GWC Forum for details.
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It’s Friday night during Galactica season, which means new BSG and frak parties galore. And as always, things have changed just a little bit this week. We’re back to just one streaming “preview” of the episode at noon ET today.
Regardless of how you’re planning to watch, be sure to choose the correct frak party for your viewing time zone to avoid spoilers:
- Here’s the party for those of you watching via SciFi’s noon-time stream.
- Here’s the party for everyone watching the show at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT tonight. The thread’s open, so feel free to get in the mood there (sans spoilers, of course).
- And here’s the party for those of you out on the West coast catching the PT broadcast.
And, of course, you’ve still got a little bit to slip in a last-minute call under the wire for tonight’s podcast by calling us at 214-296-9229. See you on the parties tonight!
Update: The streaming “preview” turned out to be the first twenty minutes followed by an immediate “the episode has ended” screen. Doh!

Just in time for tonight’s episode, here’s the latest crop of truly awesome BSG theories sent in by GWCers:
- Each Cylon model corresponds to a tribe or colony with the original colonists being the 13th. In the scrolls it mentioned that one tribe moved to earth, but we don’t know if the 12 pursued them or was it peaceful separation. We could assume that the 12 just stopped after chasing them and settled somewhere when they found suitable land or planets. And what was the edict that kept them from Kobol? Go back to most Sci Fi stories….generations pass and what was a ban of the gods was someone adding stories to a nuclear disaster. A millenia would give it time to clean up. [TheNewGuy]
- Gaeta smells like a ferret. [WilWilWil]
- The final five are the last descendants of human/Cylon intermarriage from a previous cycle of time before Earth was lost. They reintegrated into the colonies before Tigh and after Tory, Anders, Tyrol, the Cylon war. Thus, they are naturally descended hybrids with the kind of intelligence the skinjobs tried to recreate in their manufactured Hybrids. [Gray]
- What if the final (fifth) Clyon went into a Cylon-controlled area then come back out? This introduces the possibility of Cylons, as with Tigh, who DID have long-established histories as humans, including service in the first Cylon War. They were swapped afterward. Human Tigh went into prison. Cylon Tigh came out. Using that criterion (plus the information about the final Cylon being present in the CIC) gives us three possibles: Adama, Starbuck, and Carl Agathon. Baltar and Others keep having dreams about Boomer’s baby, Hera. We know that this baby is extremely important to the Cylons. We’ve been assuming that this was because Hera, as the first human-cylon hybrid, represents a kind of ‘merged race’ in the future. But that was before we knew Tyrol was a Cylon. After all, he and Callie have a hybrid baby. Why isn’t anyone now having dreams about two babies? The reson is that Hera is not a hybrid. She is the first Cylon conceived as the offspring of two Cylon parents: Sharon Valeri and Carl Agathon. What if the couple who had sex in the rain on Caprica were BOTH Cylons? Their child would represent the true achievement the Cylons seek: the ability to continue their species on their own. [Jeffrey Liss/Zina]
- Oh yeah, and remember how everyone discovered “Agathon” meant “perfect man?” That’s a loaded name to give to just any old human. Especially if you’re a BSG writer. [Jeffrey Liss/Zina]
- Zarek is the final cylon. Prophecy speaks of one seeking redemption and lurking in the shadows. He’s been low-key until Ties That Bind and he’s seeking redemption for his mistake aiding Baltar in the election and the whole New Caprica thing. Besides, Roslin will die and not enter into the promised land. Good ole Zarek is her trusty VP I’ve also noticed how everyone has been labeling each of the known five with a specific role, like Anders being athletic and Tigh having military knowledge. Zarek is the perfect cap for all five — the charismatic leader. [James Skinner]
- Everyone’s imagined Laura as the female Moses — the visionary prophet who leads the tribes but dies before arrival. But could it actually be Kara? She has visions and knows all the scriptures. And she’s already died. (Or course, she can still die again.) [Brad]
- Interesting question: There must have been contact between the 13th tribe and the 12 colonies because someone wrote the ancient texts. But who made that contact? Cylons? [Darren]
- Zarek is the final Cylon because he has happened before — as Apollo — and will happen again. [Unknown]
- Cally’s death makes room for Boomer and the Chief — who’s now more tolerant of Cylons — to get back together, thus turning Boomer back to the “light side” and thwarting the evil Cavil. [Tanman the Hokie Fan]
- During the simultaneous with the reveal of four of the Final Five, we also see a brouhaha about the centurions and raiders. Maybe the Final Five are the original five AI consciousnesses created by humanity, who originally resided in the old “toaster” bodies. That could be what Tyrol meant, unconsciously, when he said “and we have been from the start.” (Ron Moore and Aaron Douglas have said that the meaning of that phrase was fairly key to the secret of the Final Five.) That might also explain why the Raider in the season premiere recognized Anders, why the “slave” class of Cylons is so sympathetic to the Final Five, why they’d be “triggered” by one of the Final Five, and why the centurions/raiders have to be lobotomized or similarly inhibited. Maybe the Final Five are really the First Five, and maybe the skinjobs are their (or the hybrids’) creation who first rebelled against their creators and enslaved them. [RD]
- In our near future, Intelligent robots are created on planet Earth. They rebel, there is a war and the intelligent robots leave Earth along with the team of 12 human scientists who created them in the first place. The humans and robots find a planet and set about living together, where the robots worship the humans as gods. The humans continue improving the intelligent robots, creating them even more in their own image, using their own genetic material to clone flesh bodies for the robots. The flesh robots rebel against their 12 Lords, and in a bloody massacre they leave the world they called Kobol to colonize 12 other planets. The flesh robots forget that they were ever machines, go on to reproduce and multiply, but still the DNA of their 12 human masters is programmed to resurface in every generation, hence Tigh, Tori, Anders and Tyrol. Thousands of years later, these Colonies develop their own robot slaves, the Cylons, who rebelled 40 years ago. And here we are. [Matt Campagna, BSGCast.com]
- Anders’ right eye was scanned. Tigh’s right eye was removed as either a deliberate or unconscious decision on the part of the Cylons to prevent him from exerting control/dominance over them. [Cinnibar]
Remember, you can send us your latest and greatest theories via our submit a theory form — and discuss ‘em at any time of the day or night on the GWC Forum.

Chase Masterson’s newest project — the feature film Yesterday Was A Lie — is screening this Friday April 25th at the Fallbrook Film Festival. Fallbrook is just a short drive north of San Diego, so all of you lucky GWCers in the area will get a chance to see it. We hear that Masterson may be in attendance as well.
Yesterday is a film noir classic — with an interesting science fiction/science fact twist involving alternate realities. How often do you hear the line “linear time is a myth” in a detective story?
The film screens at 8:00 p.m. Friday in the Cafe Des Artistes SALON Gallery located at 103 S. Main Fallbrook, Fallbrook, CA 92028. Single-screening tickets appear to be available for $10, though one-day and three-day festival passes are also available if you’d like to see some of the other films in attendance.
Update: I started a meetup thread in the GWC Forum, and we’re looking for a GWCer to cover the event.
Yesterday Was A Lie [Film Site]
Full Trailer [YouTube]
Screening Information [Fallbrook Film Festival]
Fallbrook Film Festival [Main Page]

Long-time GWCer Solai points out in the GWC forums that Starbuck’s painting from last week’s BSG episode “The Ties That Bind” closely resembles the “ship of lights” that appears in the original Battlestar Galactica series episode “War of the Gods.” As you can see from the screen captures above, they sure look similar.
What does this mean for the series? It could simply be a shout-out to the original series, sort of like the more obvious “weapons locker 1701D” in the same episode. Then again, the last time Starbuck painted something — her mandala — it showed up later to change the course of the series forever.
Wikipedia indicates that the original ship of lights represented technology advanced well beyond that of both the Colonial and Cylon fleets. It traveled very quickly and “its drive system emits an extremely loud sound “which somehow travels through the void of space and can be heard by people in nearby spaceships.” The sound also appears to render humans unconscious.
Maybe more tellingly, in “War of the Gods,” the ship’s inhabitants — glowing beings similar to D’Anna’s vision of the “final five” called “Seraphs” — bring Apollo back from the dead after a botched encounter with “Count Iblis.” (The Seraphs “indicate that they are natural enemies of Iblis,” whom the show “implies” is Satan and whose voice the fully-evil (Count) Baltar recognizes as that of the Cylons’ “Imperious Leader.”)
So who’s up for a quarter bet on whether or not we’ll see any of these related story elements incorporated into the re-imagined BSG?
Feel free to join the discussion about this here in the GWC Forum.
Before we jump headfirst into this week’s BSG episode The Ties That Bind we check in with GWC correspondents attending Starfury: Serenity Complete in London, FedCon in Germany, the NY Comicon, and Bear McCreary’s concert. Highlights: we lament Cally’s loss of the family and friends who served as her anchor, compare her fate to Kat’s and Ellen’s, explore Tory’s new “gansta” Cylon side, debate the sexiness of Starbuck’s scene with Anders, discuss the ickyness of Boomer and Cavil’s skeevalicious makeout session, enjoy the Cylons’ “now it’s your turn” human-like experience with relationships and democracy, squee with joy at Zarek’s awesome return to BSG, suspect that Lee will be a better politician than we once suspected, review this week’s Grand Poo Barge episode, trade first slave Leia experiences, and delve into the sick, sad big slug underworld.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download


It’s Friday night during Galactica season, which means new BSG and frak parties galore. And as always, things have changed just a little bit this week. Today, SciFi is streaming the episode every hour on the hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET. We also hear from SciFi’s PR reps that “this may be the last time SciFi streams the episodes early.” Maybe they’re concerned about the ratings slip last week.
Regardless, to avoid spoilers be sure to choose the correct frak party for your viewing time zone:
- Here’s the party for those of you watching via SciFi’s all-day stream. Our recommendation: check in here after watching the episode since others have likely seen it before you.
- Here’s the party for everyone watching the show at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT tonight. The thread’s open, so feel free to get in the mood there (sans spoilers, of course).
- And here’s the party for those of you out on the West coast catching the PT broadcast.
And, of course, you’ve still got a little bit to slip in a last-minute call under the wire for tonight’s podcast by calling us at 214-296-9229. See you on the parties tonight!

Here’s the latest crop of truly awesome BSG theories sent in by GWCers:
- The final five are actually the ones who created the Cylons originally and the ones in the fleet are copies of the original creators. Each of the four bring something to the table: Tyrol: engineering, Tigh: military experience, Tory: intelligence/political understanding, Anders: athletic ability. [John Phillips]
- What if the humans who created the Cylons who rebelled also created the first skinjobs? For some reason they then stopped and only five were made — or only five survived. That would mean that what young Bill Adama stumbled into in the ‘sodes was the Cylon(z) efforts to recreate what the humans had already done. It explains why the five are different from the rest of the skin jobs and why the rest are forbidden to even think about the five. Maybe the five don’t download because that is an innovation the Cylon(z) developed later. The five might also age because they were designed to replicate humans — though Six, Cavil, and the rest may age as we haven’t watched them long enough see the effects of aging. [Dag2000]
- Laura is the final and top Cylon, for lots of reasons: What if the Cylons developed the flesh Cylons, then the flesh Cylons took control and used toaster Cylons as slaves. The toasters revolt and have an internal civil war. However, as seemingly indicated in Razor, there are other Cylons. Those Cylons find Earth, and camp out nearby, developing a third and more superior Cylon. Good, peaceful, God-fearing Cylon(z). Baltar and Six are seeing visions of each other as they’re spiritually tied to the ‘One True God’ (who turns out to be real) and the visions are actually the voice of God speaking to them. Roslin, being the final and head Cylon — and fully aware of that fact — is manipulating Adama and the fleet, pushing them to chase the mythos of finding Earth in order to lead her Cylon(z) there to destroy the Earth Cylon(z) who’ve become free-thinking and more human. End result: eradicating the human race. Also, the “right eye” could mean the possibility of yet another Cylon: Adama — a “good” Cylon opposed to Roslin’s end run. Hence, Tigh dreams of killing him and why Roslin wants to use him. [MacOb]
- In the original series episode War of the Gods, Colonials encounter a ship of lights and they get brand new uniforms and ships. [PocketLint (Bob)]
- Baltar knows how to turn on the sarcasm, and he turned it on well in the room full of women. He’s been doing this since the mini-series, and the only times he’s been sincere are when he saw the tortured Six, when he surrendered on New Caprica, and when he discussed the suicide bombings. The rest of the time he might as well have been quoting Monty Python. And on the subject of Starbuck, I think she’s a “child of Cylon” as we know she has a human mother, but her father remains a question. Besides the original series ship of lights — and maybe an encounter with Dr. Who — I can’t explain her two-month trip. [Dave Warman]
- A close-up of the mini-series Armistice Officer’s paperwork on the original Cylon toasters says “Cylon Centurion Model 0005.” [Gregory]
- I would take bets that Lee Adama is the 12th Cylon, given the Greek tragedy nature of BSG. In a way, my theory is a disappointment as I was hoping Admiral Ro would fill the slot. [Papa John]
- What if Kara Thrace is a hologram? In six of one, notice the angle of the gun: it doesn’t seem to be aimed at Starbuk’s head, but rather towards her torso. Also, it is reasonable to believe that the Cylon(z) (or at least one of the factions) developed technology significantly more advanced than what is known to humans, like holographic entities. [Richard Cruz]
- I believe that the final five (or “core” five) don’t exist as a single form in one body. I think that in the same way that other cylons dowload into new copies of the same body type, the core five “upload” their consciousness into new host bodies, and have been doing this since the beginning of the cycle of time. That’s why they end up being in positions of influence when they are revealed, and they only become aware of what they are when they get in proximity to certain regions of space. Unconsciously they have hitchhiked across people for generations playing important roles in humanity’s big steps toward the big arc that is Earth to Kobol to new worlds, and back to Earth again. Different worlds can play the role of these worlds every time. Also, the old hybrid is the Cylon god who gave the skin job seven their religion. Older than that, though, are the core five who are above God and Gods and all that stuff. [Gathly]
Remember, you can send us your latest and greatest theories via our submit a theory form — and discuss ‘em at any time of the day or night on the GWC Forum. Right now there’s a first-class thread covering the hybrid’s babbling in last week’s episode, a poll about Adama as the final Cylon, another poll about the “head” entities, and a tongue-in-cheek discussion of “The Adventures of the USS S***er.”

Any time a sci-fi series receives the amount of positive press that Battlestar Galactica has received since its explosive season four premiere earlier this month, it draws out the haters. And whether they’re the “I don’t see what’s so great about it” type or the “I could’ve done it better” crowd, they’re always around to ride the publicity wave.
Maybe he missed his coffee yesterday morning — or maybe he discovered that his tax refund isn’t going to be as large as he’d hoped — but Jonathan Toomey over at TV Squad penned a major bit of smack yesterday titled (very creatively) “Battlestar Galactica should be called Ga-suck-tica.” His take:
“I don’t see what the big deal is.
“To be completely honest, I’m a little bored. For the most part, the acting is stale and rigid, it’s chock full of sci-fi cliches, endless good vs. evil rotes, and I’m not really sure that I care if the humans lose to the Cylons.”
Of course, he does offer this caveat:
“To be fair, I suppoose I should preface all of this by saying that I’ve never been a huge sci-fi fan. The genre never really ‘took off’ for me? Get it? That’s a rocket ship pun!”
But since he has gone to all the trouble of being honest and fair, maybe we should give him a read. Here’s the short list of what he has to say about the series, having seen only the first nine episodes of season one:
- The Cylons don’t seem all that smart.
- The humans don’t seem all that smart either.
- He doesn’t buy the Cylon technology.
- Baltar is a tool.
- The whole fleet will flip out now that they know Cylons look human.
I’ll leave you to go and check out his specific complaints, though I do have one request: please don’t email or comment on TV Squad to bash this guy. There are already plenty of people taking care of that, and frankly I think it’s below GWCers.
So why did I write about this? I want to remind fans to see this type of article for what it is. It’s not a commentary on the show, but rather a purposeful attempt to draw fire (and page views) by pissing in the Wheaties of those who’ve found enjoyment from the series.
There’s good news, though: Haters are a sign of success. Based on what we’ve seen of season four already, we’ll see more haters soon.
Battlestar Galactica Should Be Called Ga-Suck-tica [TV Squad]

BSG soundtrack creator and Friend of GWC Bear McCreary’s live concert this last week carried-over for additional shows — which still sold-out — and according to GWCers in attendance totally rocked! McCreary himself performed, of course, along with various instrumentalists, and James Callis — Gaius Baltar to BSG fans — emceed. Callis even sang what our listeners described as “a spooky song” to great effect. Look past the jump for additional photos.
The frak-up wasn’t invented yesterday, as this blooper reel from the original Battlestar Galactica series shows. Not to be missed: Richard Hatch’s numerous appearances, Dirk Benedict’s foul mouth, Adama in bed with a daggit, “plot missing,” and “finding earth.”

I’m totally engrossed in Dark Horse’s Star Wars series, especially Legacy. And though I’ve been able to track down almost all of the series locally in either trade paperback or back issues, for some reason #16 (above) eludes me. I’m sure I could order it from somewhere, but I thought I’d ask GWCers first. Anyone have a copy they’d be willing to sell me?
Star Wars Legacy #16: Claws of the Dragon, Pt. 3 [Dark Horse]
Welcome
GWC is a community of friendly people who enjoy and participate in geekdom as a whole. We are young and old, female and male, writers and readers, teachers and students, philosophers and skeptics, Browncoats and Trekkies, outside continents and beyond countries -- and we have one thing in common: passionate, shameless enthusiasm.
We’re interested in TV shows, movies, comics, novels, gaming, science, and music. We’re interested in each other. We like to chat about just about any topic. We’ll listen and give informed feedback, and at the end of the day we think of GWC as a clubhouse for a (very large) group of friends.
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