May 6, 2007
GWC Podcast #42
Today we’re taking a little time to catch up on the re-watch, discussing Bastille Day and Act of Contrition — episodes that shine the light inside two main characters, giving us a much deeper view of who they are. Highlights: we talk about meeting Zarek for the first time, postulate about his direction in season four, break down everyone’s favorite scene between Adama and Starbuck, and contemplate a caller’s idea that Cylon(z) only show free will after experiencing love. Oh yeah, and I admit defeat in last week’s reader poll, coughing up a quarter to Sean.
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
Man am I tired tonight…thx guys. Now I can chillax.
Watching Helo and 8 makes me wonder once again: Where is Helo’s karma going to get paid off? Not only does he does he sabotage what may have been humanity’s sole chance for survival, but in season 1, he falls prey to Cylon trickery, fighting AGAINST his fellow crew members to escort Boomer to Galactica so she can kill Adama.
It doesn’t matter if Boomer was telling the truth when she told Helo she loves him bla bla bla. She is a programmed machine, and no matter what the writers say, artificial intelligence can’t delete its own programming.
And just a couple thoughts on Helo’s later actions, while I’m on the subject. If the humans never find a place to settle, they’ll die off. They’re running out of Vipers, pilots, and people in general. If they do find a home, the Cylons will know. So the only way to survive is to either convince the Cylons to stop trying to kill them all, or to kill all the Cylons. The Cylons supposedly tried to make peace on New Caprica, but Helo went along with Adama’s plan to attack them. The Cylons consist only of the crews of the Basestars, which engage in battle with the fleet. The virus would only have attacked Cylon “soldiers,” because all Cylons are soldiers.
Baltar T
http://www.scifigenre.com/itemDetail.aspx?sid=QWSPYV0L0S2TKNV&nItemID=39129
Ty-the-Giant: still prefer my Vader tee-shirt. (But to be frank, I don’t want Gaius “I-have-a-million-STD’s” Baltar anywhere near my breasts).
I’ve always wondered how cylons like Athena and Caprica and bitch/moan/complain about how humanity doesn’t treat them like people when cylons don’t treat cylons like people. They override the free will of other members of their own society. They never gave Boomer a choice. They never cared how she felt; she was just a tool to be utilized. How am I supposed to see them one way when their own actions reveal they don’t even see themselves that way!
Hey guys, great podcast but I’ve found a little error in one of the things you said. You mentioned Chuckles getting killed by Scar but Chuckles was not killed in that episode (215), Chuckles was killed much earlier in episode 110 “Hand of God” while assaulting the cylon fuel depot.
Thanks very much for the entertainment guys.
Hiya all – grrreat podcast again. Just a thought about Kara/Starbuck’s names – Does anyone think that crediting Katee Sackhoff only as Starbuck at the end of Crossroads Pt.2 has significance? Maybe Kara Thrace is/was her human (maybe mortal) name, but ‘Starbuck’ is her essence or immortal self? Too far?
As always, I’m late on the podcast (sorry). But I had to comment on the comments:
I think we’re being awefully hard on the cylons. (Gods! Am I really saying that?) It’s way too easy to write them off as mere artificial intelligence when we really have no idea, yet, what they are and what it means to be a cylon. Hell, I don’t even think the cylons themselves know what it means. And now with the final four/five in play, who are supposed to make us question what a cylon is (at least according to David Eick), their identity is even blurrier than it was at the series’ outset.
And while revisiting the older episodes has made me a little more skeptical about whether or not Sharon/Athena can be trusted, I’m still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I forget which episode it was on, but as soon as she reports to Six and Doral that she and Helo had had sex they offer her and Helo a cabin in the woods with “all the comforts.” Obviously this was meant for the cylons to be able to observe the experiment of bringing about a cylon/human child and was part of Sharon/Athena’s original mission. She, however, chose to run, changing the plan and essentially turning her back on her own people (which was only made official when she was sworn in as a fleet officer in season three). The cylons had hoped that love was the missing component in their quest for procreation, but they didn’t expect (because they certainly don’t understand love) what it would mean for the individual(s) experiencing it. Sharon chose to leave everything she was for Helo because of this, thus forcing the cylons to revise and change their plan.
Hence why I still think she can be trusted, even if carefully.
Not quite the exact quote
“Name me another Scientist/Rock Star/” etc…
Buckaroo Banzai anyone?
Godsdamnit Dalek Kent. I was just going to post that.
As a kid, Buckaroo Banzai was my favorite movie.
I’m starting to agree with you that Gaius is evil, however I really sympathize with him because of one scene, in Lay Down your Burdens Part Two when Gina tells him that she won’t go down to New Caprica. Gaius was devastated and said that it was their chance to be together. After she killed herself on Cloud Nine he fell into a state of depression which he was in during the entire stay on New Caprica and did not come out of until the Cylons invaded. This is why I can’t really blame him for New Caprica, he lost just as much there as anyone. I agree he is amoral, but I feel really bad for him.
That’s the thing about Baltar, Ashley. He’s the villain of the piece, but he’s a human villain with whom we, the audience, can sympathize and not a charicature.
Maybe he IS cooler than Darth Vader! (GASP!) (Well, he certainly is as a literary/dramaturgical character.)
Among things talked about in the podcast is things we now see in a different light now that we rewatch the old episodes. Then you went to talk about six killing other Cylons. Hers was ther first “cylon on cylon” violence when she killed Deanna in order to defend Anders. Why she would do this made no sense to me at the time but now in looking back…. Anders is one of the final 5. If he was killed at that point then he would download and be revealed as a cylon before his time. Does six know more than the others? Or perhaps some cylons posess subconscious knowledge about the final 5 that cause them to act in certain ways.
Also.. Vader is definately cooler than Baltar. Check out the Vader hot air balloon:
http://starwars.com/community/event/celebration/news20070417b.html
That thing is very cool.
Now imagine a giant floating Baltar head…. Not cool.
Quick comment on your reference to Pythia as the ONLY book in the BG bible. Revelations is the ONLY book in the Christian Bible that deals with the future. If this were done in real world, the only book we’d hear referenced would be Revelations while it is clearly not the only book.
Mission_Critical – Thanks for the correction! We have bad memories sometimes. But we still show a lotta love for the show. 🙂
Jaelstruth – I think Chuck was just kidding about that, since the book of Pythia is the only one we remembered actually being mentioned by name. Good point, though, about the Bible- it would be interesting if we viewed it only in terms of Revelations.
My last comment got lost in cyberspace! D’oh!
Anyway, I was saying that, sadly, it seems as though sometimes certain people treat the bible as though it did, indeed, only contained the book of Revelation. Still, since the Christian bible includes the Jewish Tanakh, Revelation is not the only book that deals with predictions of the future. The second half of the book of Daniel not only deals with predictions of the future, it also provided the author of Revelation with a structural/literary model for his/her own book. There are also a number of passages in the book of Isaiah (and, arguably, in the writings of Paul and in the gospel of Matthew) that deal with predictions of the future. But, I suppose that Revelation is, indeed, the only book solely devoted to such matters.
Now, I don’t know about a Baltar hot air balloon, but I doubt he has a brother as funny as Darth’s less charismatic younger brother, Chad, a manager at a small grocery store. (If you guys haven’t caught the Chad Vader: Dayshift Manager shorts on YouTube, you need to!) 😉
Audra/Armando, that actually raises an interesting question: How many book are there to their ‘bible?’ I’ve always assumed it was in the range of ours, but what if it’s only a few?
Perhaps it’s like a military memo. One book to tell you what you’re going to need to know, one book to tell you what you need to know, and one book to tell you what you needed to know.
Armando, I think we all can agree that Gaius is cooler than (Chad) Vader.
Man, Pike, if OUR bible worked that way religion would be a much, much simpler game! 🙂
I’ve wondered also about the colonial scriptures and what they’re like. Obviously they can’t really dwell too much on this topic on the show, but it would be nice to get a sense of how many scrolls there are, whether there are varying “denominations” or even different religions within the colonial culture (we’ve seen that there are degrees of commitment, from the fanatic asceticism of the Sagitarons and the fundamentalist zeal of the Geminon to the agnosticism/atheism of the Capricans-or at least Adama, Billy, Baltar and other “intellectuals”).
Now, give good old Chad a break. He’s having a tough time, what with being demoted, losing his job and not being able to get a girl. heh-heh
To go off on a superficial note…
Lee is best outside of a suit!!! (Preferably outside of a flight suit even). The suit, while well-cut, does not present as pleasing a profile as other ensembles we have seen Jaime Bamber in. Beside, the entire point of beefcake, like cheesecake is to see the subject as close to nude as possible!