June 17, 2007
GWC Podcast #48
What an awesome episode this week’s re-watch schedule brought us! We gush about Hand of God and take some more listener calls. Highlights: we talk about Hand of God’s incredible viper action, discuss Starbuck’s personal growth, compare Pythia to Revelations (and wonder why Roslin doesn’t know more about it), call Caprica the “Coruscant”of BSG (and Aerelon BSG’s “Tatooine”), mourn Chuckles’ death, love on this episode’s sweet scoring, admire the accuracy and depth of Lee and Adama’s father/son “moment,” wonder what kind of beer they’re drinking in the celebration, and consider the goal of the “head faction.”
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
re: “Rick”: Elosha was doing the Rick role in this scene but she also is there talking about Pythia as the resident expert. She has the credibility to discuss the religius stuff way more than the others who did not study the stuff as much. The religious mysticsm is more credible coming from her than say 6 or even Tyrol whose parent was a religious figure.
re: in defense of Audra the non-religious individual. I too was raised w/o religion or Bible study and would not have known jack about Revelations except for references to The Omen movie series. [I’m a horror movie nut] I didn’t know any details about Revelations until I studied it a bit after the David Koresh/Waco incident. So here is proof that Audra was not raised in a cult per the last podcast. She was indeed raised by secular wolves who only had 3 TV channels.
Those bottles look like BSG champagne bottles. In our reality they look like cheesy flavored wine bottles from the kind of company who need a pretty bottle to sell cheap wine.
re: frak: I have used it since 78 as a way to swear where I wasn’t allowed. What I miss was “felgercarb” which was essentially bullsh!t. They could have had fun using both words. Why was one of them left out? That’s a bunch of craaaaap!
Timbuck Says:
“re: frak: I have used it since 78 as a way to swear where I wasn’t allowed. What I miss was “felgercarb†”
I agree I miss that word too plus it seems the old BSG had a lot more words that were not earth base like there times where different then us.
…and thanks goodness they didn’t carry all those other words into this iteration of BSG. What with the “centons”, and “yarns”, and what not. I do remember “felgercarb” but don’t miss it as much (or at all) and frankly, pretty glad that they didn’t keep that either.
In regards to Baltar’s location in the opera house – I’m pretty sure he was in the building. When Six and him looked up, the Five were standing on the upper mezzanine level “looking” (I guess) back down at them. You can see the ceiling above them. When Hera was scooped up by Six in front of the door; that was the door that led into the actual theater. I thought that the bright light beyond the door was the same light that seem to surround the stage area.
The Star Trek Nitpickers’ Guild called “Rick” characters “cabbageheads.” A cabbagehead is basically a character who knows nothing about anything the other characters are talking about–just like the audience–so that they can ask the questions the audience is asking. But sometimes, boy, are those questions dumb. ie: In the ST:TNG episode, “Disaster” (you know, where Picard’s stuck in the turbolift with the kids, Troi’s in command, and Worf delivers Keiko’s baby), Troi actually has to ask Ro what she means when she says there’s a danger of a warp core breach. Ro says, “The ship will explode,” with this wide-eyed incredulous look on her face like she can’t believe she’s answering to this fool…Cabbagehead.
Architect Says:
June 18th, 2007 at 8:54 am
“…and thanks goodness they didn’t carry all those other words into this iteration of BSG. What with the “centonsâ€, and “yarnsâ€,
”
I guess this where I would agree to disagree since I liked the yarns it always made me think they are different yet the same to us. especially since you think even here on earth lets say America and the UK we use different words for different things.. Small stuff like saying Bloke in the UK.. just my 2 cents…
Stroogie – Great! Cabbageheads is exactly what we were talking about. They’re particularly bad in the Next Generation. I can’t remember which ep it was, but there was an enormous alien baby that looked like a stingray attached to the ship, draining power as sustenance. Geordi and his hologram girlfriend figured out how to send some kind of pulse back through it that would make it “taste bad.” In this case, Geordi was the Cabbagehead, giving us all the analogy to explain the situation: “Sour the milk!”
We’ve just had a baby alpaca here so the still yet-to-be-named cria has been dominating time. I also have to fly to conference later this week. Thank you, though, for a fabulous podcast!
Great cast again. I loved the Red vs. Blue quote. Yet another awesome show that’s ending. (If you haven’t seen it, go to machinima.com and check out the first couple episodes. They’re around ten minutes long per show, so they’re quick downloads.)
Trivia, “Frack” was the word in the original series. RDM changed it to “frak” because he felt it should be a four letter word.
Which reminds me. In the middle of season three I did a post to the effect that I was starting to use ‘frak’ for real, and not in a counscious ironic way. I don’t think anybody else admitted to doing the same. How about now, anyone else using it?
Also, I had assumed that Opera House Baltar was Head Baltar (he is clean shaven.)
Hello everyone,
I just finished listening to all of the podcast and I want to comment about what was said on RDM and the Soprano’s.
First, I have watched Soprano’s from the beginning of it and have seen every episode. I have often thought about the similarities of the two shows, especially when I heard RDM say in one of his podcasts that he thought that the Soprano’s was the best show on TV.
So after I was done searching for my remote thinking my cable had gone out, and done realizing that the blackness, the silence, and not being given any ending except to wonder what happened was the end of the Soprano’s I became very nervous. Because I was then hoping that BSG wouldn’t end like that. Then I hear what you said RDM put in his blog, and now I am thinking that is what is going to happen.
I can almost see the ending now, the few of the main cast that survive the season are in CIC, they have one jump to Earth; and just as you hear the jump order given the screen goes black. This is the perfect ending for RDM, this way he doesn’t have to deal with any of the Galactica 1980 issues. He does not have to answer is it the past, is it the future, how Earth fights off the Cylons or anything…just have it go black.
I could go on and on, on how I don’t think the ending of the Soprano’s was a great ending, that it was a simple as this. If there is no movie Tony dies, and if there is a movie he lives. But this is not Soprano’s watercooler.
I posted before that I hope RDM doesn’t start killing off characters just for the sake if it like what happened on the Soprano’s, and now I think that may just be what we are in for; to be tailed off with a ending that doesn’t resolve anything.
Great podcast.
I haven’t been to church in a while but as for Revelations’ placement, I believe it’s the last book of the New Testament? Or somewhere around there.
And I just always assumed Roslin’s ignorance was due to something like yall worked out, where Caprica was a major metropololitan area where religion was perhaps claimed nominally but practiced less than fervently.
And I agree that there’s something to the theory that religion takes root in rural areas and holds firmer.
Also, regarding Baltar’s self- imagined sainthood, there’s a hilarious fan icon that I saw somewhere where Baltar asks, “Am I an instrument of God? or just a tool?”
I have been known to use the word frak. Definitely. I use frick and frak interchangeably because the F word itself is a little strong for the surrounds I usually find myself in.
The “Joseph Adama” lighter blindness always irked me too! Thanks for saying something.
Audra- I too love the way Starbuck just sucks it up and is like, “Here’s the plan.” Something I was kind of lamenting today is the way we just don’t see a lot of Starbuck-in-the-cockpit action like we did in the mini and S1. I miss badass Starbuck.
Timbuck and shrekjdr,
I too miss “felgercarbâ€, but am not sure it would have felt well with the new series. Maybe felgrcraaaaaaap†would have worked better.
I am also glad that all of the words were not brought to the new BSG, but I do miss “Centon.†I don’t like it being used replace the word minute, but I would have liked to have heard it somewhere.
I just thought about this, there was mention on the podcast about how Lee had the old style viper and other times he has the newer one. If you recall, some of the viper footage was take from unused footage from the miniseries when he saved Colonial One from the missile. He was flying his old viper as part of the retirement/decommissioning ceremony. So to use the footage they had to give him the old viper in that episode.
The newer viper he flies is the viper he brought with him from before the first attack.
Cavatar Says: …Maybe felgrcraaaaaaap†would have worked better..
Oh yea that word is much better but only the XO could say it!
shrekjdr…
Well someone is better than noone.
You might watch too much BSG if:
* You use “frak” in every day speech.
* Your friends use “frak” in every day speech, and they don’t even watch the show.
* You say, “Oh my gods.”
* You knew next to nothing about Bob Dylan until the end of the third season, and now you think he’s one of the coolest musicians on the planet.
And on the Bible front, Gray had it right. “Revelations” is the last book of the New Testament. It was written by the apostle John when he was in exile on the island of Patmos, and records his vision of Christ, who gave him a sneak peek at the end of the world. I was waiting for someone else to fill in this information so I didn’t sound like a geek, but I guess I’m the only non-heathen here. 😉
P.S. Gray, I believe the character of Elliot on “Scrubs” also uses “frick” as her personal expletive. And yeah, I’ve used that one in public, too.
Just a sec… if you were pulling 6g’s and your 40lb leg weighted 240lbs. wouldn’t it be all that much easier to floor the throttle? I think the issue is whether or not your knee could take that pressure.
With the way that religious prophecy drove season 1 and the beginning of season 2 it’s interesting to consider just who is truly religious and who is not. There seems to be only 1 religion widely accepted among the colonies. Also interesting to note that Baltar was taught about Pythia in History, and not some sort of religious studies class. Personal faith seems to be a very “don’t ask don’t tell” kind of thing aboard Galactica. Starbuck is faithful. It seems that Adama and Lee are not. Adama merely uses religion as a tool for control when he needs it. Rosalin is initially non-faithful, finds validity in religion later, but then after the events on Kobol also seems to relegate religion to being nothing more than a political tool.
Ironically it seems that the most religously faithful people in BSG are the Cylons. However the religion they follow is parallel to, but seperate from that of the colonists, and though seperate they do seem to be connected. That whole “Your God told my God to tell me to tell you that Hera is still alive” still throws me for a loop. Even in the web episodes the resistance hid guns in the temple because it was a place that the Cylons respected and wouldn’t violate.. untill they found guns there and mowed everybody down.
hey Stroogie thats me
Alpaca herder- yuo dhould name your baby alpaca Boxy
thad be cool
Alpaca – Name her Hera! Name her Hera! 😉
Stroogie – It’s funny you mention friends using “frak” who don’t even watch the show. Someone I got into the show in my creative writing class used it in one of his sci-fi stories, and now the whole class is using it!
There should be a poll for the new Alpaca’s name. I’m going with “Muffie.”
I have not heard “Frak” over here. I wonder if they use it in the french version of BSG, I listen to the original english broadcast. “Fraque” perhaps?
I have, however, used “Cylon Transponder”. I work in an elementary school and when teachers and kids point to the wireless routers we installed on the ceiling and ask me “What is that?” I answer “Cylon Transponder”. I do explain correctly that they are used to network the computers together. Hopefully someone will go shopping with that information.
Like Gray mentioned I miss badass pilot Starbuck. I’m hoping she is not going to come back as some ghost or a Ghandi like figure. Starbuck viper action during 4th season please.
just popped in to say hi to everybody – I’m still catching up on podcasts! I had 4 seperate re-watches going there with different groups and it was all too much. Now I’m down to two. phew! Just wanted to say (if it hasn’t been said) I think it would be sooo awesome if season 4 (and the whole show) ended with a revert to animation and we find out that Bender asked the Professor to whip out the What-if machine and posed the question: “What if there were a ga-gillion copies of me and 11 of my closest friends and we finally got to kill all the humans?” Ok, not awesome, but maybe funny. And it would turn out that it was actually the return of Futurama. BSG ends, Futurama begins. All of this has happened before…anyway….
BoxyTheBoxed — Not so much.
Audra — Thought about using Hera. Didn’t work.
Pike — Muffie? That’s a new one. Alpacas do not nearly look like daggits at all.
Actually I think the proposed name that is sticking best right now is Starbuck. The alpaca baby has white, almost blonde fleece. The baby is also a speed demon who is just as tough as our boy alpaca Dewey who happens to be named after the famous library guy. Discussion continues, though.
As I have a little more free time as I am stalling putting together my conference PowerPoint slides I will speak to a few things from the podcast. First, Revelation is found at the end of the New Testament. That book is chock-full of things to unpack from every angle. I don’t think Pythia would as much correspond with Revelation as it would correspond more with the Old Testament books of Exodus and Leviticus that tell the tale of Moses and his crew trekking toward the land to become Israel. The original BSG was sometimes termed in critical literature as “Mormons in Space” with many elements of LDS theology working its way into the storyline. RDM is apparently Roman Catholic so that presents a different bias to the text that effectuates an appropriation of something different that molds it into something new.
Of course, there will be at least one expert in Revelation at the conference later this week. I am sure I could ask him his thoughts about how BSG and Revelation may or may not correspond. My view, for what it is worth, discounts a correspondence like that. Old Testament tales, yes. New Testament…not quite.
Stroogie-
Thanks for the bible check. I knew it was somewhere in there, so all those years of Sunday school were not in vain. Or, sorry Lord, they weren’t in vain anyway I guess.
And yes, I kind of adopted frick from Elliot. Though nobody can say it quite so powerfully as she.
Luc-
From our mouths to Ron Moore’s ears. No Gandhi Starbuck. My heart can’t take it.
Thanks Stroogie and Alpaca Herder and others who’ve filled us (me) in on Revelations. Despite some schooling, my knowledge of the Bible is spotty. I greatly appreciate your willingness to explain these things.
First time poster, so I just have to say: Awesome podcasts!! They crack me up every time! You (and all the people who post) are the best!
Anyway, about Sharon throwing up, I think she has been pregnant for 13 days. The ‘glowing back’ sex takes place in ‘Six Degrees of Separation’, presumably on day 24. The throwing up in ‘Hand of God’ is presumably on day 37. According to ‘the internet’ (yes, a dodgy source indeed) morning sickness starts in the first month of pregnancy (and peeks at 5-7 weeks). So Sharon throwing up at day 13 of her pregnancy seems (very) early, but not impossible to me…
Actually, throwing up because of the pregnancy makes more sense than throwing up because of radiation sickness. After all, we see Sharon taking anti-radiation meds and the Cylons might not need them anyway…
Yeah, I think she throws up because of the pregnancy.
Anyway, in finding this info I stumbled upon a thread in the Battlestar Wiki where Bradley Thompson (!!) had answered fan questions. I’m not sure whether you consider the answers as spoilers, but here is the link: http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/BW:OC
Keep up the good work!
As a person from Kansas I thought the whole Star_Wars comment pretty funny.
Another good podcast and I was hoping you would add more than two MSTK commentary, (four) would be better.
Chuck, Adura & Sean as always you rock with the podcast.
I think the worry about Ron Moore’s Sopranos comments are blown out of proportion. Sopranos was a slice of real life with no one clear story arc. Galactica is a story with one large arc. They were searching for earth in the pilot. It is much more akin to classical literature like the Odyssey. To tell such a story without an ending is crazy, and it won’t happen. And it would be a strange to copy the Sopranos ending only a year after it happened. I know he liked it, but I can’t imagine he liked it enough to abandon an end that he has been aiming at for 3 seasons.
Man, I don’t start listening to the podcast till Tuesday and I miss out on 28 posts! Sheesh!
Anyway, I wanted to comment on the Pythia/Revelation parallel (and at the risk of offending Stroogie, no one really knows who wrote the book of Revelation. The author identifies himself as “John,” but nowhere in the text does it suggest that this is the same John who hung around with Jesus. Just my two cents). I actually think that a closer parallel to our religious literature might be with the books of Isaiah or Daniel, both of which include prophecies of the end of the world (which are often mixed together in the popular imagination with images from Revelation, which takes a lot of its inspiration from Daniel and other apocalyptic literature from the turn of the era), but mix it in with history (Daniel) or prophecies about other nations and more hopeful events (Isaiah). These are passages that to most people would be far more obscure than a lot of the stuff in Revelation (which is pretty obscure anyway, since a lot of the language is symbollic since it was written around a time of heavy Christian persecution and, thus, its author needed a way to get his point across without being obvious about it) and would not immediately jump to mind.
Actually, the whole Bible is full of passages like that strewn around its various books, which most people don’t realize. If the “sacred scrolls” work the same way, this could explain why Roslin and others don’t know that the earth prophecies are in Pythia. It could be that, like most of us assume that if something references the end of the world in the Bible it must be in Revelation, that everything that references the path to Earth in their scriptures (or their equivalent of the end of the world), would be in whatever book in their scriptures addresses that (if they have one. After all, Revelation almost didn’t make it into the Bible. Wouldn’t THAT have made for a much different book and a much different world history?)
Although…I wonder if the parallel to Revelation is the correct one. I’ve always thought that the more apt parallel here was to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) and the book of Exodus in particular. After all, Moses is a dying leader who leads his people to the promised land but cannot enter it himself, just like Roslin. There are 12 tribes of Israel and 12 tribes of Colonials; and the Colonials are returning, by trying to reunite with a lost, mythical 13th tribe (and there’s a parallel in Judaism to this, although I don’t think it’s biblical and I can’t remember where I have heard this) could be said to tie in to the Israelites in the biblical story essentially going back to a land that had been theirs originally (in Genesis, Canaan was where Abraham and his descendants settled after he left Ur) and was now inhabited by their more distant relatives (although the bible never deigns to admit this, since God commands Moses and his followers to, essentially, wipe out EVERYONE in the promised land).
(And for the record: I was not raised in a cult. I grew up Catholic and was very religious as a child and young adult. Since then, research into the Bible and especially new testament and historical Jesus quests have been something of a hobby of mine, off and on.)
Oh–and I do use “frak” all the time. So much, in fact, that my wife has asked me not to use it around our daughter, since, well, she could eventually figure out what I’m using it to mean anyway.
D’oh!
(That’s another TV-generated word I use a lot.)
Armando, I remember reading an interpretation of Revelations as ‘history disguised as prophecy.’ The funny thing is, as far as I can tell, history *is* prophecy in the BSG ‘verse.
Heh, there’s another TV loanword: ‘verse’ for a (usually fictional) world or universe.
Armando…you beat me to the punch there on “Revelations.†My understanding that there are many who now think the John who wrote it was really commenting on the Roman Empire…but I COULD BE VERY WRONG so please don’t hold my feet to the flame to much on this one.
Since we are all talking about the use of “frak,†I should add that I have used it a few times at work but I have never heard anyone else in the real world say it. I would be very cool if in a few years “frak†becomes common place.
On the subject of endings for TV shows, I may have said this before and it may have no bearing whatsoever on BSG (cough!Maelstromcough!). Call me a TV purist if you will, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with expecting a hell of a lot out of a finale when it’s a planned one and not just an unexpected cancellation.
I think the term shock value is an oxymoron.I understand that writers want to do the creative thing and they don’t want to feel beholden to the audience in terms of what they feel they can show, but come on. Like someone upthread said, the common arc for this show is the search for earth and the survival of humanity. I have faith that they’ll give us the answers.
Unlike, Sean, I sincerely hope we find out the majority of things they’ve left open so far. What the Hell is Six, for instance. Though I respect Sean’s thinking that it might be cool to have some stuff unanswered.
As long as Starbuck’s not Gandhi and the characters don’t end up in jail a la Seinfeld, I’ll be happy.
Gray…very well put. I would like to add, that as much as I respect the ones personal artwork. I have written a few things for myself privately, (I can’t spell to save my life, I only use one form of the word “there†and I don’t know a comma from a semi-colon without my spell/grammar check so who knows how well I have written anything) so I can understand how I would feel if a bunch of strangers were to try and tell me how to write something. However I have no fan base following my work, or playing for my living.
It would be nice for writers (such as RDM here) to remember they have this creative outlet because of fans like us who tune in to watch there work every week. If BGS finds Earth with a huge curve ball and if almost all of our questions are left unanswered I will view it as a sort of “slap in the face†from RDM.
They do have the right to end the show as they see fit, but I also feel they have some responsibility to there fans also. For without the fans, there would be no show.
On the subject of ‘the end’,
I don’t think BSG will end with just a black screen or something. RDM says in his blog that he liked the ending of the Sopranos, but he also says ‘I wish I’d thought of it first’. There is no way he would copy the end of the Sopranos and that’d be that. (Plus, how UNcool would that be?!).
On the other hand, I also think that some things will not be revealed. They will not go back and explain all the stuff that happened in season 1-3. (Plus, how UNcool would that be?!)
My theory is that of the 22 episodes, we’ll spend the two episodes on the Pegasus and then at least 5 episodes on the ‘quest for earth’, on who or what is Starbuck now, and on the 4 of the Final Five and their ‘struggle to deal with it’. Then we’ll work up to a mid-season cliffhanger.
The last 10 episodes will deal with finding earth and what happens then.
And yes, with this being the final season, the gloves come off!! or err.. even further off, I guess… Anyway, I can’t wait!
If you’re looking for a classic happy end that explains everything, look for another TV show! This is Battlestar Galactica!
re:Cavatar
Doesn’t that depend on which questions are answered and which questions are unanswered?
What questions do you feel should be answered? What are the essential questions for you?
For me, that would be things like:
* How does BSG relate to our time?
* What happens when they find earth?
* What happens to the rag tag fleet?
* What happens to the cylons (both the 7 and the 5)?
* How can Tigh be a cylon?
However, questions I personally don’t really need the answer to:
* What exactly is Six?
* What exactly is Starbuck?
* How exactly were the original cylons created?
* How can religion be ‘real’ in this universe?
That’s just my personal opinion though.
How do you guys feel about this?
FinalOne…
Hmm that is a very good question, and I will admit I never considered which ones I want and don’t want to see answered.
First let me say I would want to see them all answered…lol. But that would likely not be good writing I admit.
The biggest thing for me is to see them find Earth, and to see what happens when they get there. I suppose that would cover, how they are received, how does it relate to our time, and how much of the rag tag fleet makes it there.
Everything else for me personally doesn’t really matter as much. I will feel robbed if we are not shown them getting to Earth. The other questions, like what head six is. Perhaps that one is better left a mystery.
“It would be nice for writers (such as RDM here) to remember they have this creative outlet because of fans like us who tune in to watch there work every week. ”
This is funny, but I was JUST thinking about this…sort of (I really should get some work done today instead of procrastinating on here. Damn you!!!!). Anyway, I’ve been reading on a particular Dutch composer whom I admire. Back in the 60s and 70s he, along with a group of other composers, basically redefined the way music is subsidized in Holland by founding all these ensembles and writing music for them which addressed social issues and the class struggle inherent in the traditional divisions between musical audiences (these guys wrote “classical” music for non-classical-i.e. jazz and pop-musicians and played it in non-traditional venues like factories, political demonstrations, etc.). It worked and the government now subsidizes most, if not all of this kind of work (the same is generally true throughout Europe). This is very, very different from working as a composer and musician (and I suppose the same is probably true of writers, artists, dancers, etc.) in the U.S. where most of your support comes from the private sector (good luck getting an NEA grant if you’re a small organization, let alone an individual!). In Europe, if a musician doesn’t get an audience it’s all right, because the government continues to subsidize his/her work. In the U.S., if you don’t get an audience, you’re dead in the water (yet people still manage to work as artists. Go figure!).
Which, I suppose, is a very long-winded, tangential way of saying the same thing as Cavatar says in the quote above. Or maybe not. I don’t know. I haven’t had enough ice cream yet. 😉
FinalOne…
I don’t read the RDM blogs I admit, so the info on what he said I have second and third hand. However you said he was sorry he didn’t think of it first. That is to say, if he did think of it before David Chase; BSG might have ended like that. In fact I feel there would have been a good chance of it.
Now he may not copy it exactly, but that is not to say he won’t mimic it slightly with his own personal twist.
Also I know the podcasts would teach us that you cannot fully trust what RDM says. However I do feel that RDM is enamored with the work of David Chase on the Soprano’s; right now that scares me.
Oh, I remembered what I wanted to comment on in the first place before I started writing about artist’s responsibilities…AGAIN:
I think Jamie Bamber, back in the “roundtable” RDM podcast last winter, made a great comment about how the show has lost some of its mystery in season 3 because we know more about the Cylons than we did in season 1 and pre-“Downloaded” season 2. I think there’s something to be said for that and it may be the main reason why season 3 didn’t feel as “intense” as the first. At the same time, I think it’s a nice way of developing a story arc and I have a very strong feeling that, ultimately, Cylons and humans will end up living together.
Or maybe it’ll all be a hallucination inside a supercomputer here on earth as it’s being turned off for the final time before being dismantled for scrap metal. 😉
Armando…
I would love to make a living as an author, even a very bad one if my work was paid for by the government. However living in Chicago I don’t think that is going to happen.
I just want to add, that I do feel that writers who just have stories sitting on a shelf or a hard drive in there own home written in there spare time have to answer to no one. But when you are on TV, paid for my advertisers due to viewer ship, or other means; then the game changes a bit.
I do think we are saying the same thing here.
Armando, et al:
With respect to apocryphal and apocalyptic sacred writings and how they relate to the BSG-verse, there was a bit of TOS trivia that clung to my memory when I was traipsing through the BSG-wiki (kinda like burrs on socks). Anyway, it said that the creator (or writer) of TOS was a Mormon and that much of the Lost Tribe and Greco-Egypto references hark from the Latter Day Saint mythosphere.
That actually explained a lot to me when it came to how there was an arc Great Journey of the Lost Tribe, etc. from TOS. Since BSG-reimagined is progeny, it stands to reason that much of the mythos is necessarily inherited even if differently spun.
Dixi.
FinalOne Says:
However, questions I personally don’t really need the answer to:
* What exactly is Six?
* What exactly is Starbuck?
* How exactly were the original cylons created?
* How can religion be ‘real’ in this universe?
hey great list I would agree with all the list except one. I want to know How exactly were the original cylons created? only because of the final 4 cyclons and why are they different.. but if maybe with explaning how the final 4 are different I wont care either…
While thinking on the question some more, I do suppose I would want an explanation of that is exactly meant by “This has all happened before and it will all happen again.â€
Re: Cavatar. Yes! Me too! I guess that’ll come in when they explain how BSG relates to our time. I think that is one of the most pressing questions to be answered at the end of the show. Didn’t Bear McCreary say that his version of ‘All along the watchtower’ was supposed to be different from the Hendrix version to indicate that BSG was related to our time, but different? Or something like that?
I know, that leaves all kinds of possiibilities open, but still it indicates that they are going to answer this question..
Or at least I hope so….
FinalOne…
I thought RDM said that he felt some things repeat themselves… meaning that multiple cultures could create the same thing even without contact with each other. He could be using that song just as a tease.
I wanted to add that I do think the layout you gave of what the next season will look like seems very likely.
Armando–Not offended at all. There were an awful lot of Johns in the New Testament times (I guess there are now, too), but from what I can tell, John the Apostle was everyone’s best guess, so I went with that. You and everyone else are right that BSG has more in common with Old Testament/Moses/Exodus stories and prophecies than NT, though. I think Chuck was just picking a book at random to illustrate the point that not everyone, even educated people, knew everything about the Sacred Scrolls.
Final One–I stumbled across that section in Battlestarwiki with Bradley Thompson a couple days ago too. Though I don’t have the exact link, I remember one comment he made that while the writers had only recently come up with the identities of the Fab Four, they had known for a while who the Final Fifth was, as far back as the first season. It is, of course, subject to change, he said.
Audra–What level Creative Writing do you teach? Is it a high school class or college? How young are these minds that you’re exposing to frak and craaaaap… 🙂
Cavatar writes: “I just want to add, that I do feel that writers who just have stories sitting on a shelf or a hard drive in there own home written in there spare time have to answer to no one. But when you are on TV, paid for my advertisers due to viewer ship, or other means; then the game changes a bit.
I do think we are saying the same thing here. ”
You know, I go back and forth on this. I’m a self-published composer without a recording contract, but at the same time, I write music for people who ask for it and I run my own ensemble with a growing following, which means I have to think about my audience on one end, and on the other I’d rather have total control over my work. In the end, it all comes down to a compromise.
As to how this affects my feeling on how BSG should end: I really think that as long as it’s a credible ending that is true to the series, whatever they choose to do with it is fine by me. I don’t want it all to have ended up being a dream or some sort of gimmick like that which wouldn’t fit the show (like it all turns out to be Baltar, having realized that Caprica Six is a Cylon, weighing the repercussions of letting her help him on the defense mainframe project or something like that, thus negating the entire last five years of the series/miniseries. THAT would suck).
Writch,
That’s true: Glen Larson is a Mormon and a lot of his imagery in the original series is based on LDS theology. There’s a pretty decent article about this floating around on the net somewhere.
Stroogie,
I think Chuck is full of it….NAAAAH! I totally think you’re right on that, of course. I just had to throw in a little bit of what I know about this stuff. It’s not every day one can talk about the finer points of religion and religious history on a forum where it doesn’t involve flinging mud or ducking from someone flinging mud at your post. 🙂
And yes, Audra, what level do you teach? By the way, Chuck and Sean, in her defense, having taught both high school and college, I can tell you that sometimes all it takes to teach someone is simply to stay one lesson ahead of your students. It’s sad, but oh so true!
Going back to the Sopranos’ final episode, I wouldn’t say there’s no clear end. If you follow closely the clues given by David Chase in different interviews, Tony remembering in the previous episode him and Bobby talking about when they would die and if they would ever see it coming… it seems to me that the NJ mob boss is kinda killed when it all fade to black. Or it us, the audience without seeing it coming, being whacked?
It could also be that after being killed, Tony Soprano wakes up in a pod of goo surrounded by Six, D’anna and Sharon…
Hey, lets not forget “Humped”. As in “Captain….we’re humped!!”
Havn’t listened to the podcast yet for this week, but I love the episode. I love the Vipers, man. Too bad about Chuckles tho 🙁
Minnesotia Actual
I haven’t watched the Soparanos since season three-ish, so I didn’t have a lot invested in it. I was curious about the reaction to the end, and I came across this post that makes it seem like an actual artistic decision, and less of the cop-out I thought it was at first.
http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/1406/1/
I’ve since found the final scene online, and I’m partly convinced by this analysis. How does it seem to those of you who have been watching this year?
Stroogie/All: I didn’t pick Revelations at random. I was just thinking that it seemed odd that Roslin didn’t even know what Pythia was. I chose Revelations as an example of a book of the Bible that’s made its way into popular culture and is thus popularly known as containing “predictions” about the future. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if any particular person I met didn’t know much about the actual content of Revelations — I don’t! — but it would surprise me if they’d never heard the name at all (i.e. “What’s a Revelations?”).
It certainly wasn’t my intention to pick on anyone who’s not religious. I’m not, and have said so in a number of podcasts. In fact, one of my favorite moments is when Roslin is dying and Adama makes his speech to the crew, asking those who believe to pray and those who don’t to “join him” in keeping her in their thoughts. That’s religious tolerance you don’t see much here in Texas.
Anyway, I’ve been really busy with work, but I’ve been reading all the posts here — great discussions, many of which’ll have to make their way into next week’s podcast!
Stroogie and Armando: I teach English at a community college, though when I referred to my “creative writing class” where everyone has started using “frak,” I actually meant a grad class I’m taking, hehe. I could probably use “frak” in classes I teach if it was truly relevant, but I haven’t done so yet. You have to maintain some level of sanity or the kids today won’t buy in… 😉
Hey Chuck, didn’t mean to sound like I was insulting your thought process. You have a point; like Timbuck said in the first post, a lot of people have a general idea of what Revelations is because of movies like The Omen, etc. I also liked Adama’s moment in “Epiphanies”; besides just being a powerful speech, it’s good to see the religious tolerance going both ways. Adama is an admitted atheist (at least, EJO admits Adama’s athiest; I can’t remember if the good Commander has stated as much on screen, even though it seems apparent that he is), but he never seems bothered by others’ belief. Except that time he slammed the clipboard.
Armando: thanks back atchya for the lack of mud slinging.
Meanwhile, I’m waiting for The Sopranos discs 1-3 to come thru Netflix. Gotta see what all the fuss is about.
I’ll back Audra up also on the bit about not knowing much about the Book of Revelation (actually not “Revelations”, to be specific). I’ve been raised in a Christian family and go to church most every week, but after listening to the podcast, I’ll admit I don’t know a whole lot about it. Sure, it’s the story of the end of times and all, but I can’t name too many specifics. Prechers don’t do many sermons on it and quite frankly, a lot of the stuff in it is very bizarre and strange (a lion with eyeballs covering it), so I tune it out.
And in response to Sean and his king snakes- After watching “Hand of God” and seeing the snake, I finally watched “Snakes on a Plane” that I had from Netflix. They both used the king snakes, but everyone knows that “red touches black, it’s okay Jack”. It’s funny that I wasn’t the only one to notice it. In that movie, someone yells out “frak”, which is amusing.
Chuck Says:
June 19th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Stroogie/All: I didn’t pick Revelations at random
….
I was thinking how Roslin didn’t know about this religious text when Baltar said of course I read it in 2nd grade…. Maybe there society is a lot like ours where Church and state is separate and since Caprica as said in the Podcast is very city like and not a lot on religion the schooling roslin had for teaching would not cover any of those subjects. So she wasn’t aware of those scrolls and maybe never read those or if she did it was so long ago she didn’t remember?
Hey Stroogie,
If religious tolerance is good for Admiral Adama, it’s good enough for me. 😉
By the way, enjoy the Sopranos 1-3. I wasn’t really into the show while it was still on. My wife (well, at the time she was still just my girlfriend) got really into it when it first came on and so I watched a few episodes with her (much like she watches BSG with me), especially after I got her, gradually, each DVD set as gifts. Recently, with all of the hooplah surrounding the end of the series, we decided to start watching the entire run from the beginning and I must say, I’ve been really blown (away…you forgot to say away again) by the writing in this series. I can see why Ron Moore thinks it may be the best drama in television history (I’m not sure I’d go THAT far, but it’s pretty close. I certainly see how if it hadn’t come along, we wouldn’t have BSG now).
Hi folks.
I wouldn’t be surprised if RDM was just frakking with us with his Sopranos comment, although I didn’t see the show or read his blog, so I might be talking out of my ass, as you spell it on your side of the pond. But he must be sensitive to the fact that people have potentially huge expectations of the end of Season 4, and maybe he was just trying to deflate these by making us think he might leave us hanging. It’s always better to exceed expectations, after all, and if you can somehow lower them then it becomes easier.
I personally wouldn’t mind to be left with a bit of a cliffhanger, as long as something is revealed. I’d really like to know when they’re going to arrive in the context of Earth history, and seeing Galactica descending on an Earth that is obviously archaic, present-day, or futuristic in one form or another would deliver this, although this could of course raise as many questions as it answers.
Perhaps a reconnaissance team will head down to the planet’s surface only to be greeted by multiple versions of Tigh, Anders, the Chief and Tori, who welcome them and arrange an audience with their leader, who turns out to be a version of Baltar, sitting in an oversized chair and waited on by a bevvy of sixes and threes. Dorrell will be making the coffee of course.
But then I do like the suggestion made in a post on the last discussion, that the final words of Season 4 will be “Are you alive?” This sort of seems too good an opportunity to miss. Getting off-topic a bit, I’ve just rewatched Downloades, and was struck by the fact that these are the words of the Dorrell who rescues Six and Eight from the rubble of the building that Anders blew up. They look at each other and say,”yes, we’re alive”, and repeat it with something verging on euphoria. The message is clearly that by falling in love and questioning the Cylon plan they’ve discovered free will, which is what makes them really alive, and indeed essentially human. I now realise that this is what causes the change in the Cylon plan with respect to humanity, and drives the Cylons to try and live together with humans (originally I thought the final five might have something to do with it). While the other Cylon models go along with Six and Eight in this new touchy-feely approach to human-management, there are obviously disagreements, and this is where the Cylon plan changes, and becomes a bit of a mess. The Cylon-human interactions of Seasons 3 and 4 are/will be largely a product of this one moment, when Six and Eight decide they are alive, and that things have to change.
Bit of a tangential ramble, but I watched this last night and am still thinking about it (as if Saturday night’s Doctor Who wasn’t enough – Oh my gods, I’ve become a fully paid-up geek!).
NB
For the sake of the appearance of brevity this is in a separate post…
Questions I’d like answered in Season 4:
1. How does the Galactica timeline relate to Earth History, and what is the nature of the relationship between Earth, Cobol and the 12 colonies?
2. How did Baltar survive his apartment being destroyed back on Caprica (did he survive, and if not, well, what’s going on with him)?
3. What is the mechanism via which Baltar experiences Head 6, and 6 experiences head Baltar?
4. What was Baltar playing at when he gave the nuke to Gina? (Enough Baltar – ed.)
5. How do the final 5 fit into the grand scheme of things?
6. Who is the 5th of the final five?
7. What’s going on with Starbuck, and what was she doing on Earth?
8. What happened to the Sharon/Eight we saw in Downloaded (the one who shot Adama and who didn’t want to reintegrate into Cylon society)? Her role as a Cylon subversive seems to have been largely or entirely forgotten about in Season 3, with Six being left to fill this role on her own.
8. What happens to the corners that are cut off official documents (and various other items including furniture)…..?
9. Can you rent Baltar’s apartment (presumably it’s in Vancouver somewhere)? My girlfriend wants to book it for a holiday.
Right, time to do some work now – I have to earn a living.
Cheers folks.
Ok, a few random thoughts…
RE: G-force… I’m 6’2′, 230lbs. so at 6g, I’d be 1380 pounds (!) for at least a few seconds. So imagine Starbuck is, let’s say, 150lbs. Accelerating at 6gs she’d be pushed back into her seat and feel like she weighs 900 lbs! Any foot pedals she has to deal with will also be pushing back towards her at 6x whatever their mass may be. She’d need the strength to move her own leg (40lbs x 6) with enough force to overcome 6gs and enough force to move a pedal (n x 6). Seems to me that needing to use 300lbs of force, just to push a pedal, would not be out of the question. But I’m no physicist…
In fact, (Audra) I was a community college English teacher for several years
And I have a degree in Creative Writing. Go figure.
And another thing… Regarding books o’ sacred texts… What if Pythia is one of the obscure books of the Sacred Scrolls? Even well-educated folks could be ignorant of it’s contents… Think about it, what percentage of everyday city-folk can name all the books in the Bible? What if Pythia is like Philemon or Ezra? Few but the really devout (or those who want people to think they’re really devout) can think of those books off hand, let alone tell you what’s in them.
That’s it for now. I may have additional rambles later……
Yes, after all, Baltar is a genius… allegedly. So it’s no surprise that he knows of the Book of Pithia.
Okay, I know this is going to sound stupid, but suppose we have this ending?
Galactica and the RTF jump into Earth orbit. The “Evil” Cylons are chasing the RTF and start blowing up the civvies. Galactica makes it to Earth orbit and slug it out with the Basestars. The basestars hit Galactica and Galactica goes screaming into Earth’s atmo (yep, another fictional reference), and crashes sending up a huge volume of dust and ash, causing the Ice Age. The Cylons come down afterward and begin the human race as we know it. So, perhaps BSG would take place prior to the “Dawn of Man”.
Ta-Da. And no onion rings.
As for me, I use frak all the time now. Even in arguments with my wife. “Oh, yeah???? Well, FRAK YOU!!!” And I use it in combos as well… you know, “motherfraker” (beats saying “motherfather”), “you sorry-ass frakker”, “I’m gonna kick your frakking ass”, or my Callie favorite, “You frakking, frakked up [whatever]”.
I still say the best way to piss off as many people as possible, and thus make Sean happy, is to include the 70’s version of the show. “All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again”.
And as far as using “frak”, well, only in the car.
Wow Browncoat_Bryan, that’s such a cool idea… I don’t think they’ll do it but it would be pretty cool AND it would piss people off (’cause that’s pretty cool as well, IMHO).
Re: Nick B. Really? You really want to know all that stuff about Baltar in previous episodes? Personally, I think the writers just went: Hmm, we want Baltar to survive, okay, let’s say Six’s body protects him, that makes superficial sense, good enough. I don’t think there is a big mystery behind it or something. But it does leave them the opening to decide Baltar is a cylon after all, or something like that. And why did Baltar give Gina the atomic bomb? Err, because his ego was hurt, he was pissed off and he was being unreasonable?
So do you believe there is a big mystery going on? Do you have a theory on Baltar you want to share here?
Errr… okay, I guess I’m a really big nerd, because I use ‘frak’ and ‘gods’ all the time in everyday life, usually when swearing to myself.. Most people just ignore it (okay I AM a nerd), but some people go ‘do you watch BSG too?’ and I think it’s pretty cool when that happens..
FinalOne – yes, I do want to know all that stuff about Baltar. Surely there’s no way he could have survived that blast, and that kind of bugs me. And as some people have suggested, head 6 seems to have advance knowledge of stuff, and know things that Baltar can’t (that’s my impression, but I guess it’s arguable), so I’m not sure about her being merely an expression of Baltar’s subconscious. So what is the nature of their “relationship”. I have sneaking suspicion that there might be some key role for Baltar in the grand scheme of the BSG ‘verse, that will be revealed in Season 4. I sort of think it might be a waste of a character if there isn’t, as the Baltar character is such great value. He sort of seems under-used just languishing in the brig, and even during the trial he played second fiddle to Lampkin and Lee. I won’t be devastated if nothing major happens with his character, but I think it would be fun to see a Baltar revelation shake things up a bit, and I’d still like to see him find his conscience and his courage, and redeem himself.
As for giving Gina the nuke, yes, I thought of all those reasons (also, maybe he just wanted a way to get into her affections and hence her bed), but it somehow didn’t hang together for me. Maybe I had difficulty accepting that even he could be that stupid (OK, I guess that’s not necessarily out of character).
As for Baltar theories, nothing really except for a suspicion that he might not just be the regular, eccentric, horny genius that he is on the face of it.
I’m going to make it my mission to use “Frak” in public before the week’s out.
Sitting in Las Vegas at the moment waiting for the next set of flights to get to conference, I have a moment to bring up hopefully a couple things.
Armando wrote:
“That’s true: Glen Larson is a Mormon and a lot of his imagery in the original series is based on LDS theology. There’s a pretty decent article about this floating around on the net somewhere. ”
I thought Orson Scott Card was the one who brought up the term “Mormons in Space” as a description of the original BSG.
As to the discussion raised by others about the RDM comment on the Sopranos ending…
The best thing that I have seen put forward is that the story of the Sopranos is told from Tony’s point of view. Everything in the show was told from Tony’s point of view. Just as much as Saul Tigh was Ellen Tigh’s world everything seen in the Sopranos was Tony’s world. The blackout was best put as Tony’s world fading out if he died from getting whacked.
I am rather unsure how that could be done in BSG without everything being told from Ellen’s point of view.
As to Trak101 bringing up Philemon and more:
Philemon is just way too short and way too narrowly focused. To fit within an English teacher’s view perhaps, contrasting Philemon and Revelation would be akin to contrasting a short story and a novel. Pythia sure seemed to me like it was not a “short book” but rather a full-featured gospel.
Outside the Gospels and Revelation, the books of the New Testament are arranged according to length from longest to shortest. I don’t know if we could hold up Pythia as a full analog to any Book of the New Testament. As said by myself and others it looks like Pythia would correspond most to Exodus in the Old Testament.
As to the everyday city folk naming the books of the Bible, look to American Samoa. That is one part of US sovereignty where that would probably be possible.
Browncoat_Bryan bringing up an idea of a crash by Galactica into Earth causing an Ice Age:
Didn’t Doctor Who do that already during the Peter Davidson era? I believe the companion that wound up causing the Ice Age in that serial was named Adric.
Hey this is my first post on GWC but been listening to the podcast through season 3. You guys are great, keep up the good work. I love this episode, it is one of my all time favs. Viper action is always good. Baltar is the best, he is truely an instrument of god. And the scene where Starbuck winks at Tigh during the mission planning is hot!!!!!!!!
Welcome scorch99, TimH, FinalOne, and The 31st Cylon!
Great podcast and interesting posts, all…
Most pressing questions I would like answered:
– What is the nature of the new Starbuck?
– How can Tigh be a Cylon and how are those 4 different from the rest?
– What is to become of Baltar, what does this cult want with him?
There are so many other questions to answer, but they can take their time and use up 20 episodes wisely.
I’m sure they will find Earth by the end, but I dont care to find out at which time in history. I’d be just as happy to find it unpopulated and let the viewers speculate as to why. Ultimatly, I’m more curious to find out how the Cylons will be dealt with. I cant imagine them settling on Earth and just hoping that the Cylons never find them.
So on the discussion of the shared “dream” – something I have been thinking about:
We know Roslin, Hera, Six and Athena all had the dream. Baltar was in the dream, but did he actually have the dream? I don’t remember saying that he did….so this has me leaning toward Roslin as the final Cylon….but I waver on who is the final one all the time.
The Alpaca Herder – Re:Philemon… All we’ve heard out of Pythia is the account of their Exodus”, if you will, out of Kobol. And that’s it. It may very well be that Pythia is a small book, a booklet, of the Sacred Scrolls…
FWIW, Orson Scott Card is a Mormon too..
For an ending to the show, I’m not worried that RDM will pull a Sopranos… Let’s give him some credit. I, personally, just want to be surprised…
THEN RDM should reimagine The Man from Atlantis 😉
I’d like to see a re-imagining of Mork and Mindy, where Mork is a shape-shifting alien on a recon mission as part of a massive invasion force and Mindy is the hapless everywoman he inadvertently falls in love with and, in the process, learns to love humanity and work with them to thwart his people’s plans.
But maybe in this version the alien could be a woman and the human a man?
You know, I was trying to be funny…but that doesn’t sound so bad. TV work, here I come!
So, “V” meets “Enemy Mine?”
Y’know, that doesn’t sound bad at all.
Just a thought on the force required for the Viper control pedals…perhaps they require the force they do as a safety feature. If the controls were fly-by-wire then it might be easy for a pilot to cause the Viper to make a super high G turn and cause themselves to blackout or die, but by requiring more force for a bigger G turn, this prevents such accidents. (Then again, I suppose the fly-by-wire system could have preset limits for turns, but I agree with ya’ll that they probably want a reliable mechanical linkage to limit damage by anti-electronic weapons.)
So, “V†meets “Enemy Mine?â€
Y’know, that doesn’t sound bad at all.
“”””
Just remember, I came up with it first. So I will require royalties. 🙂
Nick/Final One, as long as we’re all trying to prove how nerdy we are:
You might watch too much BSG if (part 2):
Your friend is borrowing your DVDs, so you go to Blockbuster to rent Season 1 disc 4 so you can keep up with the rewatch. The cute clerk gushes and says it’s such a great show, and you’re too dazzled to think to ask her out.
I’m gonna go lift weights or something now to feel more masculine.
Consider yourself lucky, I have yet to come accross a video rental store who has the season DVDs.
I’ll wait till it’s all over and buy whatever box set they come up with.
Somebody mentioned preachers not preaching on Revelation much. I did one summer for a sermon series (though not from a fundamentalist, literalistic p.o.v.), and I must say, if Pythia *is* really anything like Revelation, I can see why the Colonials shy away! 🙂
And as for morning sickness — my wife and I are expecting our second now. Both pregnancies, she has started feeling sick virtually the moment the home pregnancy test turned positive, and it ain’t just in her head! So I feel for poor Sharon and have no trouble believing she is experiencing morning sickness (which, for my wife, was 24 hr sickness the whole first trimester… again, both times…) Poor Sharon!
Another first-time poster here. I only discovered the podcast a month ago, while looking for the equivalent of BSG methadone to tide me over this LONG hiatus. And boy, did I hit the jackpot with Galactica Watercooler! Your intelligent and witty banter never ceases to impress, and reminds me so much of conversations I’d have with friends back in Austin, TX. (Your podcast has also become a kind of methadone for them as well, as I finish up the last 6 months of a 2-year fellowship in Germany, where the reimagined BSG remains sadly unknown, despite my best efforts to spread the gospel of Pythia here.)
Anyway, if there were any lingering doubts that I hadn’t found THE best BSG-themed podcast (and one of the best podcasts period), they were erased this week when Audra brought up “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor. I couldn’t believe my ears and went positively giddy with glee–I LOVE this story! Just so you know, Audra, you are not alone. Ever since I read that story in college, I can’t see a hayloft without thinking of Hulga and her stolen leg.
“And as for morning sickness — my wife and I are expecting our second now. Both pregnancies, she has started feeling sick virtually the moment the home pregnancy test turned positive, and it ain’t just in her head! So I feel for poor Sharon and have no trouble believing she is experiencing morning sickness (which, for my wife, was 24 hr sickness the whole first trimester… again, both times…) Poor Sharon! ”
Congratulations, Mike! My wife and I are also expecting our second. I wanted to comment on morning sickness as well since I thought it was one of those things that could happen within days, but my wife has been lucky enough, I suppose, that neither time she’s been pregnant she’s had morning sickness. So the Armando household cannot speak from experience in this case.
But hey-at least our spouses aren’t pregnant AND fleeing the cylons in a radioactive wasteland. Thank God for small favors, I guess!
“But hey-at least our spouses aren’t pregnant AND fleeing the cylons in a radioactive wasteland. ”
Man, I hate when that happens!
Armando — Yes, and also neither of our wives are Cylon collaborators… so thank the Lords of Kobol for small favors, no? 🙂
Switching to this week’s rewatch episode (“Colonial Day”), I felt SO bad for Sharon when Helo found out the truth — I am stunned at how her emotional arc just went totally past me the first time I watched season one. I guess we are meant to identify with Helo, but I really now have a greater appreciation for Sharon as a character.
Jason, welcome to GWC. I thought Audra’s invocation of Flannery O’Connor was awesome, too. I had a religion professor in college who introduced us to her work (Flannery’s, not Audra’s ). Audra, do you remember the story “Revelation”? I think that is just about my favorite O’Connor. “One of these days I’m a-gonna wear a CROWN…” ! 🙂
Mike P sez: “Audra, do you remember the story “Revelationâ€? ”
I thought it was clear from the last podcast that she didn’t know ANYTHING about “Revelation”…. oh wait, that’s “Revelations” (I get them confused).
“There but by the Mary Grace of God go Eye…”
Not sure if you are making a joke or not there, writch, but — as someone above pointed out — the name of the biblical book is “Revelation,” singular. (Same as Flannery O’Connor’s story, I believe.) The whole “Revelations” thing is really one of my pet peeves and, frankly, drove me crazy during that whole section of the podcast (as awesome and as cool as Chuck, Sean, and Audra are! — 🙂
Mike P: Twas a joke indeed… forgot my emoticon, I guess.
I thought the bad pun quoted at the end would spill the beans.
And I’m impressed that you’ve domesticated Revelations into a pet… to me, its remains a feral peeve. (That too, was in jest.)
dixi.
While we’re doing bad puns, and on the subject of whether Pythia can be compared with Revelation, and whether it’s a long or a short gospel, perhaps this particular BSG gospel is somewhat like Revelation or Exodus, only it’s pithier, geddit?
I’m sorry, it’s been a long week. Someone throw me out of an airlock…
Jason – Yay! Someone appreciated what I was getting at. “Good Country People” is my favorite O’Connor story.
And Mike P. – I also love the story “Revelation.” I can’t get enough of those grotesque characters we love/hate. (Also, sorry we kept botching the name of the biblical text.)
And it’s TRUE! People never go into haylofts to do anything socially acceptable, hehe. Except hide from Cylons, I guess.
Seriously, Flannery O’Connor references are always cool.