GWC Re-Watch Frak Party: The Mini-Series
We’re beginning our planned off-season re-watch of the entire “re-imagined” BSG canon today, starting with the mini-series. So why not join us here for the GWC online frak party? There’s room for everyone, though you’ll have to bring your own snacks…
Feel free to jump in at any point with your comments on this week’s episode as the re-watch is by definition spoiler free. We’ll be in and out, but we’ll definitely take a look at your comments before we start next week’s podcast.
See you here all week!
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
Two things of note when Roslin is being given her diagnosis; both out the window.
— Check out the firefly class ship flying by. Maybe Romo actually *is* Badger… 😉
— It’s really hard to tell for sure, but it almost looks like a Battlestar can be seen. Just after the Firefly is seen, a vessel cruises by that looks like the rear end of a Battlestar. I hope not, though, because that would totally shatter some of the awe-factor of the Galactica “dropping in” on New Caprica for me. Personally, I always pictured the Battlestars as being like the Enterprise — massive ships that were built in “dry dock” in space & were never intended to withstand the strain of a planet’s gravitational forces.
Loved the ‘Six Degrees of Kara Thrace’ bit. It seems to me that the challenge would be finding the longest link. Kara to Lee to Dee to Billy? (Bit of a cheat, since Billy was dead before the connection was closed.)
Frak, that was supposd to go in the podcast comments, obviously.
John P: We’re big Firefly fans, too, and always end up pausing the MS during that scene to get a closer look.
It’s funny: Firefly and BSG are so different, but they actually share one common thread — unlike so many other sci-fi series, they have a realistic economy. People often do things they don’t want to do, and not just when the writers wish to convey a moral message. People also do things that don’t benefit them at all simply because they’re flawed people. In my book, this leads to a much more “real” world — a world that inevitably draws me in farther.
Ironic as it is posting this while we’re re-watching the MS, I also can’t help but speculate that BSG will share another point with Firefly: the ending — when it finally comes — won’t be altogether happy. (I don’t mean that it’ll get cancelled early. I mean that the ending will be an end and not a total resolution wrapped up in a tight bow. Anyone who’s seen Serenity knows exactly what I mean.)
Oh the mini, Hi Billy! Hi Doral! Hi Socinus! Hi Boomer! Hi Elosha! Hi Colonial 1 Captain! Hi Boxy! Hi Boxy’s dad who will eventually become Connor!
I know it’s been said a million times, but I love the CGI so much. Everything is so very pretty.
Query: has anyone else read the novilization of the mini, or any of the other BSG novels? I liked it rather a lot as it gave a deeper insight into thoughts and feelings in the scenes I knew so well.
Sorry I am late.
“as the re-watch is by definition spoiler free.”
Either that’s a typo or I’m being obtuse. I’m assuming we’ve all seen the miniseries and anything on it is fair game.
Oh yeah, this reminds me of the story you guys told when Eddie Olmos was at some thing and some a-hole claimed to have the same style flashlight from the Ragnar Anchorage scene. I’m really showing my age with that one. lol
Klucky- I read the second BSG novel “Sagittarius is Bleeding”, or at least the first half. It was decent, went into Laura’s post-cancer cured thoughts and all that jazz. The reason I eventually quit was because of an entire thing about Boxey. It was like “everyone, even Tigh, loves Boxey” and there was a whole Baltar/Boxey friendship craap in it. If you like Boxey, you’ll love the book.
Sean did not know it was april fools???
my approval for roslin is at a high point in the miniseries. she gathers together the survivors and convinces adama to run rather than fight the impossible fight – which makes it murkier to me for her to complain that baltar collaborated, when he was also faced with a completely losing proposition. she also asked about surrendering to the cylons. she seems to feel the most the consequences of her actions (leaving behind the sublight ships)…in retrospect could this be influenced by her diagnosis of cancer and that we later find out she is going to have to fight for her career as well? her humanity is strongest in the mini, and seems to be slowly corrupted by the nature of her holding office as president.
Did anyone notice there was a character named Anders, a pilot I think, very early on in the MS? I mean how common is that name? Is this a coincidence? Or did RDM and Co frak-up?
And how intense is the acting and the colors compared to season 3? They did a hard sell w the mini-series. How could you not love it?
The opening scene w 6 and her “Are you real?” question and kiss is still one of the best moments in tv or movie history becuase they cap it w being blown to bits! Not a bad way to die…
I think that dude might be called Sanders. He was a colonel. I could be totally wrong though and that was a horribly bad joke.
Also weird seeing our old buddy Tigh when both eyes functioning and in place.
13th: it was Anders. I had the captions on. I’m weird for details like that. Captions pick up stuff you’ll never hear.
Well now that I look at it on Battlestar Wiki, there is a “Jolly” Anders. There was a character named Jolly from the original series.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Jolly_%28TOS%29
13th, I think they mean “Spoiler Free” in the sense that we have all seen it already. (If you haven’t, go watch it now!)
Hi guys, some things were made abundantly clear during the miniseries:
1. I knew all along that the launch bay pods retract before a jump, but it really was emphasized during the miniseries. If you didn’t catch it on the miniseries, you’d be forgiven for not picking it up.
2. Laura was REALLY presidential very early on.
3. I picked up on the Anders name in the briefing too. An oversight?
4. The complete lack of tattoos on Starbuck (except the one behind her neck)
5. Tigh’s eyes are really gluttons for punishment…smacked by starbuck in the eye in ep 1. What is it about this guys eyes…?
6. Leoben’s comment at Ragnor station that “sooner or later we must account for the things we have done” (or similar, don’t remember the exact words) are a mirror of Adama’s speech at the decomissioning ceremony. So somehow a cylon heard this phrase, reported it to Leoben somehow and then went to Ragnor…? There’s a bit of a leap there, unfortunately…but then…the cylons had a plan, didn’t they…?
gaf
it’s pretty weird going back after getting to “like” 6 so much and seeing her snap a baby’s neck…guess she really is a bad guy…she looks alot more unhealthy now….anyway..and thin chief…can’t wait for fat lee again…yes, i’ve actually rewatched all the episodes many more times than i’m willing to admit and the Anders thing always sticks in my craw…thought i’d just pop in and say hi…haven’t heard the new podcast yet (been busy renting/watching Firefly – thanks alot, Sean – like I don’t have enough time to watch my beloved Battlestars :), but Badger is awfully cool)…
Looking back on the Mini, I can see why I love The Old Man so much from day one.
Look at when Roslin assumes he’s a techno-phobe. He totally shuts her by showing his moral leadership skills. Love it.
The 13th Cylon: I’ve read both of them, and of the two SIB was the best. As a rabid Gaeta fangirl I love that his nervous twitch is a plot point. Admittedly, I skipped a fair lot of the Boxey nonsense. However, I just realized that the “bifrost” or whatever it was could be how Starbuck gets to/from Earth…
The other one was craap. It only featured Adama, Tigh, and Richard Hatch. And a lot of original characters I still don’t care about.
Regarding Six snapping the baby’s neck – I don’t think that she did it out of malice or any bad intentions. I think it’s more like a kid, still curious and unaware of how far things should / can be pushed / handled. If you see her expression after the baby’s neck was broken – you can see that it is similar to watching a kid instantly realizing that it shouldn’t have done what it just did. I think there was a quick flash of remorse, shock, and than she left the scene.
Arch, I’m sort of with you, but she also was remarking on a baby’s fragility. I think it was more of an experiment on her part, with the full consequences only dawning on her after the fact.
Hi, all — A wondering I had this time around: Can we assume that the Six who snapped the baby’s neck and who slept with Baltar is the same Six who showed up at Baltar’s place during his, ahem, “appointment” to tell him The Bad News? The outfits are different is the only reason I ask, and since the MS has already established multiple copies by that point… I don’t suppose there is any real reason to make it two Sixes, but I did wonder.
Suzanne makes a good point about Laura’s “hypocrisy,” although I suppose she would say, if confronted with this comment, that abandoning those thousands of people was not an active cooperation with the Cylons. But it is the moral equivalent of having a gun to her head, I suppose, especially considering that it saved tens of thousands of lives, just as Lampkin argued that Baltar saved many more lives than he lost by capitulating to the Cylons. Just one more example of why this show is so strong. I can’t think of any other televised sf that does these “cold equations” types of things so well. I don’t think “Star Trek” has any of its iterations, and I say that as a big, unabashed Trekkie. But Trek and BSG are apples and oranges — I can appreciate them both for what they are.
Wait. Are we doing one part of the miniseries a night? I’m lost.
Dude. Found the schedule.
Wasn’t there a podcast this week? >_>
There was, indeed. Why do you ask?
Pike says: >>13th, I think they mean “Spoiler Free†in the sense that we >>have all seen it already. (If you haven’t, go watch it now!)
That’s what we meant – thanks, Pike!
13th – Yes, it was fall of 2004, and the GWC crew attended an event where EJO was speaking on civil rights and other issues. Afterward we were standing in a line to meet him (he waited patiently, way beyond the time they said he had) and the guy behind us had this yellow hand-held flashlight like the one Adama uses to beat down Leoben in the Miniseries. He kept going on about how EJO was so great in that scene and probably wouldn’t make the connection it was a replica of that prop, etc. We tried to distance ourselves a little, then got a moment to meet Mr. Olmos himself. He was very gracious and has quite a presence about him, as you’d expect. He was even wearing a BSG jacket! Very cool.
Dan: I, too, see the major difference between “the man” (Adama) early on and “the man” today. In these early episodes he strikes me as almost like a father to the fleet — giving everyone someone to lean on to get through the most difficult disaster they’ve ever faced. Later on he starts to show more of his own flaws, which makes him a more realistic character, but not necessarily what we all want him to be.
It’s also great to see the normal, half lit, frakked up Kara again. Serene Starbuck really weirds me out.
13th: For the record, the flashlight he had with him wasn’t even the right one. EJO, on the other hand, was amazing. It might be a bit disconcerting to BSG fans to hear him tell a fart joke, but Audra’s right — he has a real power about him. Another thing that would surprise some BSG fans: he’s not that tall — shorter than me, taller than Audra.
You’re definitely an OG, 13th.
Chuck: It’s no surprise that Adama is no longer the father figure to the fleet — he expressly said, in “the one with the boxing match” (sorry, I don’t know the titles!) that he had gotten too close to everyone, especially while on New Caprica. That’s a really interesting position for him to take, but also seems somewhat at odds with the fact that he is clearly just as close to Roslin, if not more so, than he was while she was on New Caprica (unless things change after the trial — but since he already knew she was taking the chamalla again — or at least that the cancer had returned — I can’t see that changing things). Is it different because Roslin is not under his command, he can’t give her orders? But isn’t it just as problematic for the head of the military to be buddy-buddy (again, if not more — although right now I don’t think there *is* more) with the head of the civilian government? After all, she may have to give him orders he doesn’t like (and has, on occasion).
Another great podcast this week! You guys are such fun to listen to and so knowledgeable about the show — I had completely forgotten about Felix in the tube until you guys brought it up. Eagerly looking forward to participating in the rewatch!
I was struck by a few things: First, Cally was not a minor character. Right from the start she’s in there with a lot of screen time. Second, there is a heck of a lot of CGI in the Mini. Third, no third. Fourth, the one scene o’ technobabble (in Colonial One) really stands out as a touch o’ Trek. Fifth, Lee was an angry young man, wasn’t he?
i love the Mini, ive probably watched it more than any of the series episodes and I always wonder about a few things like:
Who Six was talking to after she bids Baltar goodbye in Riverside Walk on Caprica.
Did the Cylons run out of missiles after the Mini as we havent seen a lot of them in the series, the opening shots in 33 were borrowed from the Mini.
Boomer and Helo could have been back in orbit by the time that crowd reached them. and why did every winning number in the lottery have 7 in it.
Where did the stairs in the Galactica corridors dissapear to in the week between the Mini and the series
Love it
ok…finally listened to the podcast..and I haven’t been with you guys since day one, so i hope i’m not bringing up some stuff that’s old hat BUT you *did* open the door for this on the podcast so forgive me for not waiting until the appropriate episode…BUT this has bothered me for freakin’ ever. When Helo and Athena find Kara on Caprica, Athena says something like remembering when Starbuck ate bad oysters and was puking in the head. Right. ok. SO…
1. can i assume that Boomer and Athena existed/were “alive” at the same time?
2. if so, does it mean that the cylon models are connected to eachother and constantly communicate bioelectrically or something?
3. or does it possibly suggest that Athena actually was Boomer and at some point they switched places so that Athena actually shot Adama and Boomer is actually married to Helo?.
(I hope I’m being clear…)
4. Was Athena “created” after Boomer (at some point) “checked in” with Cylon home world? and therefore was pivvy to the oyster story?
5. If they are all connected in some way continuiously/consciously, then is all the stuff about Caprica Six being different or unique somehow crap….
6. Who *was* 6 talking to when she said, what was it? “Wondered when you were gonna get here?” or something like that. Is she “jacked in”?
7. Was the oyster comment the only time this came up? i think so, but my
head is spinning – would love some thoughts….I wonder if it’s like the glowing back thing. poor planning?
“They have a plan”?:
a) they are all connected and all the cylons, all of them are evil including Athena – wouldn’t surprise me a bit
b) am i just overthinking the writing?
also loved the caller idea about the 5 robots and the embryos…i think we’re totally headed for something like that. really explains the music for me. but it would be funny if they all got to earth and “God” said to all of them: This never happened before and it ain’t happenin again ’cause ya’ll are all jacked up. big explosion. fade out….
Chuck..do you really think the system works? our sytem? of “justice”? or were you just talking about the new BSG Justice League? jus wonrin….
um….love the show. love the site. love the other fans. love the podcast. love lawyer Bill. thanks again.
pivvy – that’s funny. sorry for such a long post. wow….
and I don’t think they ran out of missles…they have a plan remember? the attempts to hurt Galactica have been puny like Doral’s suicide bomb and Boomer’s exploding water trick…i think it’s all been to steer the humans…ok, ok..i’m shutting up now….
I’m a new user of this site and I can’t believe what I’ve been missing!
I’ve always avoided fan podcasts for fear they’d be angry debates splitting hairs over plot inconsistencies or over-dissecting scifi technologies.
So imagine how refreshed I was to see this unpretentious, intelligent, funny, mellow yet enthusiastic show. I regret that the first I listened to was #35! 🙁
I’ve actually downloaded all of them and will be doing a marathon this week while at the office. Maybe I should pace myself with the 10 months looming ahead but i’m not so good at pacing.
thanks again!
Stevie Spin
hey there’s a thought; a “re-listen” season of the watercooler podcasts- it could have it’s own site called…Galactica Watercooler Sippee Cup..ah er something…can you people tell I’ve had a weird day?
Hey might as well relisten to the podcasts if rewatching the shows.
it’s kinda interesting to see how opinions and theories develop as the show progresses. I’ve started my marathon and am at podcast 4 now. It’s funny to hear the “casters” trying to squeeze some plot juice from the webisodes and analyzing the season 3 teaser: “Does Kara really have a baby or maybe it’s a dream baby?!”. etc.
Worth a re-listen! (or first listen in my case)
Well the “spoiler free” nonsense leaves me with a daggit’s dump on my face. lol
And to Chuck/ Audra- he really has that larger than life feel on screen, so I can only imagine what he’s like in person. His voice really adds to that. It’s like this loud whisper, very unique. Sometimes I’m just blown away that they were able to get such big actors as Eddie and Mary on the show. Two incredible Academy Award nominated actors. There’s a video floating around with James Callis (Baltar) talking about how he was star struck at first from “Mary McDonnell of Dances with Wolves”. lol He’s quite funny in all the videos I’ve seen of him.
As for the fart joke, well it doesn’t surprise me too much after seeing the Season 3 blooper reel. Hey, algae is gassier than we thought!
Is it foreshadowing when Tigh it looking at the picture of his wife in his bunk, and burns a hole in her eye with his cigar? It struck me as very symbolic.
-D
StevieSpin, yeah, I normally hate these kind of podcasts, but the GWC crew has got it right. Even better, they attract the kind of listeners/posters that keep you coming back.
In fact, I think it should be said for the record. CA&S always give their listeners props (to be frank, I think we usually deserve it) BUT it should also be acknowledged that they have created an enviroment where fans like us feel comfortable. No small feat. They set the tone in their ‘casts, and I’m continually amazed that it (with very few exceptions) seems to hold even in the threads. My hat is off to them.
I’m just starting the Pilot and right away I think most(me included) forget just how long it has been since they have been heard from and according to the beginning text just that has been OVER 40 years. Galactica alone as said a few minutes later is OVER 50 years old so in reality(or the fictional BSG reality) the Cylons could have and probably were developing “skin jobs” years before the Galactica was even built and thats half a century.
When you really think about the time frame it kind of blows your mind and makes your mind race thinking about just when did the first incarnation of the “skin job” leaders begin and in my opinion I think it is probable the “5” were it(well maybe not the 5 directly but the primitive versions of the 5). You also have to realize that in order to not be crippled by the Cylon tech not only did the humans halt technology to a point but in many aspects revert to old tech to stop the Cylons from effecting many areas. It seems to be that it was only in the recent few years past that they started freely ramping up tech as they finally felt the Cylons were gone for good. The point is that the Cylons have about 50 years of wide open technological advancement compared to the Humans who had to gear almost off of there effort to making “Cylon proof” advancements. If the 4 revealed are real Cylons and not writer misdirect then they very well if not had skin jobs well before the armistice and before they left to find a planet of their own.
Sorry I kind of went off in left field and most if not all has probably been posted but I’m new here and while watching the pilot my brain starded cranking:)
Quoth Trak101: >
Yeah, the same thought struck me, but doesn’t Roslin then say something along the lines of, “Whatever it was, I’m glad it worked”? I think maybe RDM was poking a little bit of gentle fun at Trek’s expense by including that one, very glaring bit of “tech-ing the tech.” Although, to be fair, the tech-things from Galactica in the Colonial One have been established by that point, so it isn’t pulling something out of the hat (or the main deflector dish!) that modern Trek so often did. (I think the original series was much less big on technobabble, and folks sometimes forget this. Certainly their successors did.)
How many battlestars were originally in the colonial fleet? I think I heard Doral say in the mini that there was one for each colony, and that the Galactica was Caprica’s flagship. Later, however, someone reports that 30 battlestars have been destroyed and Starbuck (I think) says, “That’s a quarter of the fleet!”
Has anyone else noticed this, did I mishear, or what? I’ve watched it twice now and unless I am really missing something, it seems like a continuity error.
Mike P, Listen again. Doral said that there were “originally” one Battlestar per colony, and that Galactica represented Caprica. Remember that Galactica predates the first war. My assumption is that once the war started, they ramped up production, like the US did after Pearl Harbor.
Pike – Ah! Thank you. That one word makes all the difference — or rather, your interpretation does. I did hear that, but I took “originally” to mean at the beginning and with no changes later on. But your take on it makes perfect sense.
Also, apologies to Trak101 — I am not sure why the text I quoted didn’t show up, but that’s the second time it’s happened. I will make sure it doesn’t happen again.
No appologies needed. I knew what you were talking about.
I’m a huge fan of the show, but have never posted before. That being said I have kept a lot of thoughts bottled up and I have been waiting for a good place to share them. The re-watch concept and forum is excellent for these.
Anyway… I don’t know if it is an intentional plot point in RDM’s scheme or bible, but coincidence plays a huge part of the series. Things happen for a reason, most of which we don’t realize for a story arc or an entire season. Ultimately, one can argue “Devine†intervention, but I really think that someone is pulling the strings for the entire length of the story. Which reinforces the Cylon statements about “all of this has happened beforeâ€.
The reason I point this out now is that when I was re-watching the mini-series I was blown away by the electric generators that Lee finds in Colonial One’s hold. Lee looks puzzled to see them being randomly transported in a ship like CO. We all know that they saved everyone’s’ life on CO by fooling the Cylons, but why were they there. Did someone want Laura to make it? Was Lee surviving just luck or did someone assign him escort in the old Viper for a reason?
I know, a speculation line that no one may want to follow. But it may be interesting to intentionally look for these devices as we continue the re-watch. I’m especially interested to see if any of these could be influenced by those we were introduced to in the season three finally.
Near the end of the mini-series, after the ships jump, there is a scene of Adama in his quarters and Roslin pops in. They chat and start their working relationship. What caught my attention was after the meeting. Adama picks up a paper and on it it states “There are 12 Cylon models.”
Who put that there? And how did they know this early on there were 12 models? I know that Caprica-Six told Baltar there are 12 models before the explosion, but I doubt Baltar would put that there since it would rasie the question “how does Baltar know there are 12?”
Did anyone know/see who left the memo?
in the mini, caprica 6 tells baltar that there are 12 models. i dont remember hearing it from any other character. i am now convinced that baltar left that note. i think he was motivated by his almost “guilt” over his involvement with caprica 6 and his “unwitting” act of treason. this is what he does, after he says he is only on his side, and walks away from head 6.
only baltar and the cylons had the knowledge about how many models there are. boomer does not know yet that she is a cylon, tigh (if he was supposed to be a cylon in the series) would have access, but also did not know. same for the chief. but i am still watching for when adama shares this knowledge with the rest of the top command.
does it strike anyone else that adama figured out awfully quickly that his leoben guide through ragnar is a cylon? leoben’s conversation was fairly loaded, but still to jump to the assumption, however correct, that he is a cylon seemed premature. maybe he had some more knowledge about what the cylons had been up to before the war?
*crickets chirping* all right, guess I’ll wait till the appropriate episode, but when Athena and Kara meet in Caprica – I’d love some discussion on the topic…
The power turned off and was turned back on in the 3rd season finale, this led to the awakening of those 4. It was probably some sort of an event like an EMP to disable whatever it was that was keeping them in sleeper mode. Perhaps the generator on Colonial One was put there by coincidence to awaken the first of the 5 since that’s the only other time I remembering seeing an EMP like event.
Also, perhaps Roslin left the memo about the 12 models.
In re-watching the miniseries, I’m reminded of how much I hated it the first time around. I remember being psyched to see an updated version of a show that I loved as a child and how poor of a job I thought RDM and his crew had done.
My first gripe was the shaky-cam that was supposed to give us a sense of reality. Seeing this done to death a thousand times on every MTV reality show made me automatically tired of it. The second gripe was the “90210 in spacesuits” writing that I felt had dragged Star Trek: The Next Generation down.
I remember walking away from the first half, thinking “who gives a damn?” The show sucks and if I never see it again, it’ll be too soon. I didn’t bother to watch the second half. I was able to walk away and forget it.
About a year later, I saw that BSG was going to be a regular series on the Sci-Fi channel. My girlfriend at the time was way into watching it. I tried to find a way to get out of seeing that garbage again. However, it was Friday night and if I wanted to spend the evening with her, I’d have to suffer through that awful hunk of space trash.
When the episode started, I began reading a book and tried to ignore the television. A little while later, I caught myself peeking up at the screen every few minutes. By the time Lee shot down the Olympic Carrier, I was hooked. I was blown away by how courageous it was to show a hero doing something that terrible for the greater good.
I ran out the next morning to Best Buy and bought the DVD of the miniseries. I re-watched it with a new appreciation and I’ve been a BSG junkie ever since.
P.S. The girl is long gone, but I still have the DVD.
Now back to the topic at hand…
The miniseries is a tough thing to hold up to the canon of the series. Some of the points brought up in this thread (i.e. the convenient EMP generators and Cmr. Adama’s Spidey sense about Leoben) can be attributed to shortcuts taken by the writers. It seems like they tried to pack a lot of story into three hours of screen time. They had to sacrifice some unnecessary explanations to move the story along to the conclusion for which they needed to arrive.
suzanne, I’m with you. Adama’s intuition was a bit odd. There was much made about “The last time anyone saw, the Cylon(s/z) looked like walking chrome toasters.” To make the leap to IDing Leoben seemed a stretch.
In their defense, it was essentially a pilot, which almost always has ideas that are dropped for various reasons *coughboxycough*. It might be that Adama was going to be a much more intuitive person than he ended up being. It might also be that the situation depicted was about as weird in BSG as it would be in real life. Everything goes to shit, local brass hits the armory and… there’s an arms dealer there? Spidey-dradis goes nuts right away. I would have had him suspect a collaborator rather than an actual cylon, but they don’t ask me to write this stuff 🙁 (Plus, that would have tacked on another plot point to get to the realization that they look like us now.)
I think I just saw Anders!!!
Look at 16:40 into the miniseries just when Caprica 6 is about to kill the baby and there is a crowd shot with a person who looks just like Anders!
During the scene with Six and Baltar where she reveals the plan and the bombs start falling… Baltar actually says the line “There must be some way out of here.”
Am I overthinking or could RDM have planted that line 3 years ago?
JohnG: You’re probably over-thinking it, but RDM did mention in the FrakParty Q&A Podcast how he has tried to inject “All Along the Watchtower” into several different series, including Roswell. This example certainly sounds like a play on those lyrics, but it’s doubtful RDM ‘planted’ it, so to speak, given how (almost) arbitrarily the song was added to the season 3 finale.
Newbs, I haven’t heard that RDM ‘cast yet, but it was in the works for a while. Listen to my comment in the next GWC ‘cast.
JohnG – I am an avid “watch the mini series” fan and try to do so every month during the seasons as they progress. I think it gives a different “flavor” to watching the seasons and am delighted that GWC decided to start with this episode on the re-watch. And like you, I immediately caught the coincidence of Baltar’s “there must be some way out of here” in the miniseries with the lastest and greatest when it aired. Many thanks to Newbs for bringing up RDM’s podcast: I had completely missed that!
Notice in Baltar and 6’s interaction where he calls her a synthetic woman. She counters insisting she’s a woman – a concept which is parallel to something Browncoat Bryan alluded to in his call-in on the latest podcast. (Shout back to you, Bryan – it was your idea dude, I just listened! :)) What interests me most is how Adama immediately suspected Leoben of being a Cylon – with the exception of Leoben sweating a small ocean, was it instinct on Adama’s part? Or is there something deeper we’re missing about Adama here?
rebecca, i also noticed the synthetic woman vs. woman terminology that baltar and 6 used.it is ironic that baltar later wants to be a cylon, while 6 aspires to human emotions.
i think adama knows more about the cylons, maybe through some military intelligence, or as some backstory knowledge of how the cylons were originally designed. clearly, if the cylons rebelled in the first war, they had some sort of consciousness, and how this might have evolved must have been at least speculative knowledge. his interaction with leoben was interesting also, because it is what he bases the “this model mixes lies with truth” comment on in flesh and bone. what was the truth (from adama’s point of view) that leoben spoke in this scene? was it leoben’s eerie comment of why do we (humanity) deserve to survive, which mirrors adama’s speech?
overall, the mini really piles on the themes- what is it to be alive, to be human, vs to be a cylon. however, the lines are clearer in the mini, that is that humans seem more human and cylons are the villans…the journey to earth mirrors a journey for each group, cylon and human, to discover just what it means to be human or cylon.
Has anyone else wondered if Leoben at Ragnar always knew he was a Cylon? After the bomb gets loose and explodes, trapping Adama and Leoben on the other side, Leoben looks up at one point while Adama is speaking (is the line even something like, “We’ll find another way out” — ?) and gets this really wierd look on his face. I wondered if Ragnar-Leoben was “triggered” at that moment…?
Baltar’s television screens (we see them when he’s doing the interview) are rectangular. The corners have not been cut!
Mike P: I had that same thought when he first showed up, but I think it’s clear from his conversation with Adama that Leoben knows just who and what he is. His inexperience with humans is why he had such a hard time disguising himself — i.e. his unhuman affectations, his sympathy for the cylons, his deep philosophical musings — helped Adama realize what was going on before it was too late.
Max: Also, the books in Adama’s quarters are “regular” books, too — as opposed to the “corner-cut” law books we have seen recently. I guess they didn’t get around to *all* the details the first time out! 🙂
Mike P: “I guess they didn’t get around to *all* the details the first time out!”
I can’t help it, you set up the pun beautifully: “I guess you could say they ‘cut a few corners’ in the production costs instead.”
Writch, that pun is the reason they started doing that! They kept having to cut corners on production and someone on the series thought that they should just cut all the corners on everything they could.
RDM has said at one point that he’s almost sorry they comitted themselves to that aesthetic. It works great because it distinguishes the culture, but it’s also a PITA. IIRC, there’s at least one guy that just cuts corners on set. They still miss stuff though (things like video monitors and graphics especially.)
The skinjobs’ superhuman strength. Is there an explanation for the skinjobs’ superhuman strength (Leoben lifts Adama off the ground with one hand), Six’s fight with Kara on New Caprica, given that they’re virtually indistiguishable from humans? It seems to me just a conceit that we have to accept, but one without a plausible explanation.
Oh correction: I meant Six’s fight with Kara on Caprica, not New Caprica.
I can’t remember if the Pegasus episodes explained this or not. But I thought Pegasus was a more modern Battlestar. Why was it not susceptible to the anti-networking attacks that the rest of the fleet was in the MS? And why did they have the museum piece vipers like Galactica? Maybe this will all be explained in the movie. It would be cool to see a different version of the Cylon attack from the Pegasus’ viewpoint. I hope there’s a scene of them watching television coverage of Galactica’s decommissioning ceremony with footage taken from the MS.
Ok, the BEST line in the mini-series goes to Tigh! They’re in the CIC and Adama concedes “They have to start having babies”. Tigh looks over to see Billy and Dee talking to one another and quips “Is that an order?” LOL!
In the second listener podcast, someone wonders why the electromagnetic generators (or whatever the tech was) was aboard the Colonial One. Wasn’t that ship simply taking them back to Caprica so the BSG had more room to be made into a museum? I know that probably isn’t explicitly stated, but it seems a likely hypothesis.
okay shoot me I skipped to the end of this … but i have two things I noticed … first how the frack did Adama even suspect that Leoben was a cylon? and second point takes me to Leoben saying that Adama was a cylon … do these two things connect? Adama said that if he were a cylon then we were really screwed … are we really screwed?
For the comments above regarding how Adama “knew” Leoben was a Cylon. I was sure Leoben asked Adama what it was about the cloud surrounding Rangar was essentially toxic to Cylons, I think Adama knew he had to be a Cylon because he kept getting sicker the longer he was there.
Yeah, I’m a little behind in the rewatches. At the very end of the mini-series when the cylons enter the Ragnor armory they’re wondering where the humans went. A Sharon walks in last and says don’t worry we’ll find them. Then one of the sixes replies “By your command”. Was this Sharon in some way in command? Or were the writers just adding a last minute shocker?
Douglas, it’s just a call-back to the original series. The Centurions there would always respond to an order with “By your command.” Don’t read too much into that one.