July 16, 2007
GWC Podcast #54
Sean’s on vacation this week, but we caught him for a little bit before he fled out the door to spends some time on the beach. We hope this short update’ll tide you over until we can all wade into the rest of the great calls and concepts from this week.
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
Happy Birthday Sean!
Don’t worry I am not going to sing.
Happy Birthday to Sean! May a Playboy Playmate spank you as many times as you have years!
Then send her to me!
Happy Birthday, Sean! *think Frosty the snowman” I am not singing either. 🙂
Battlestar Minisodes are coming! http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=2&id=42453&type=0
Happy B-day Sean.
So what is the news on Battlestar Galactica:Razor? Any early stuff about it out besides the thing on Eureka? I don’t have cable so i can’t watch it.
Minnesotia Actual
Good ‘cast. I definately think Cavil knows more than the others of the seven. Remember right before D’anna was boxed she said she had seen the five, and Cavil was more interested in getting her boxed than in anything he might learn from her.
Happy B-Day, Sean.
Happy B-day Sean!!
I have a business trip coming up later this week, so I’m saving the podcast for the drive. In the meantime: Happy birthday, Sean! Enjoy the vacation. Gods know I could use one right now!
Happy birthday Sean!
I liked the discussion at the end of the podcast about what the great philosopher Hewy Lewis (of “The News”) called the “Power of Love.” 🙂
I think love and the inability to feel love is a major theme in the show especially as it relates to the main differences between Cylon and Human.
The big question remains: why does Athena act differently than Boomer? Will their fates ultimately be the same (i.e. to betray the humans)? (They have both been in loving relationships and have had many deep long-term friendships among humans and yet each have had different reactions and different outcomes.)
I think the main difference is psychological: Boomer thought she was something she was not (human) and when she began to suspect she was a Cylon we saw her in a vulnerable condition (and attempt suicide). This was also the time when her “sleeper programming” kicked in and she shot Adama.
Athena has always known who she was and has apparently decided to put aside whatever Cylon programming might control her actions. The apparent loss of Hera was her traumatic moment but her reaction (as she tells Adama in “Occupation”) was to eventually move away from anger and to forgive herself.
This might be the thing that differentiates them but I’d like to hear what others think before I make up my mind or decide whether Athena is “the real deal.”
Happy Birthday Sean! Have a good one!
Happy birthday to Sean!
I could have read my original summary and sent the audio in for a slew of intercuts. That could have really been interesting. It could have been bizarre too.
As to who was CAG where, Apollo was never CAG for Pegasus. The order went, if memory serves based on all currently aired episodes: Stinger, Starbuck, back to Stinger some time around the events of Scar, Captain Marcia “Showboat” Case temporarily during the brief tenure of Commander Garner as Garner threw Stinger in the brig, back to Stinger presumably, and then who knows who was CAG from that point until Apollo crashed the Pegasus into a Basestar.
Galactica was even more complicated. All I can say is that Starbuck does not become CAG there until after the events of The Captain’s Hand and prior to that the CAG was for the most part Apollo except for when George “Catman” Birch took over during the split fleet and when Kat was temporarily in charge during the incident at the start of Resurrection Ship, Part 1. Following the end of the second season it appears Kat takes up duty as CAG which then become Apollo’s duties after he gets demoted back to being a Major for crashing Pegasus against orders. Kat is temporarily elevated back to CAG while she is on her deathbed as somewhat of a posthumous honor with command returning to Apollo until The Son Also Rises when Helo becomes CAG. When Tigh was relieved as XO during Baltar’s trial it was unclear whether or not Helo was simultaneouslly CAG and XO which means I can only guess that (cough, cough, cough) RACETRACK was possibly acting de facto as CAG during the blackout and the fighter launch at the end of The Episode That Must Not Be Named.
I can only presume I’ll have more to say later but this is good enough as a start point.
Can’t wait for the TOE podcast!
How rude of me….sorry…Happy Day-o-Birth Sean!
Happy Birthday Sean!
I find it interesting that Brother Cavil is the only of the ‘Significant Seven’ to have any inkling of their true nature of the ‘Final Five’, because he appears to be the only one of the Seven that is not religious. In fact he is openly hostile to the religious beliefs of the other Cylons. Could this mean that there is actually a more mundane explanation for who the Revealed Four are? Or has he just been faking knowledge of the Final Five and trying to dissuade the other cylons from learning their nature precisely because he is hostile to the others spiritual beliefs?
Phil
Happy Birthday, Sean! Hope you enjoyed your beach vacay.
C/S/A- Billy can be in this (though I don’t think he will be). He doesn’t die until late in Season 2.5. Roslin’s already cured of her cancer by the time that goes down. Speaking of him, the reason he was killed off was because he wasn’t under contract and could leave at any moment for another show and as a result, the writers couldn’t do any arcs with him so they killed him off while they had a chance to end the story cleanly.
I REALLY hope they get him, Kat, and (most importantly) Ellen Tigh back in some form for the TV movie. Maybe they could use stock footage, in honor of ’78 BSG.
And happy birthday, Sean! Mine happens to be on Tuesday. Oh the humanity!
Here you go, Sean. Happy Birthday!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN8c-NmV6tA
Happy Birthday Sean!
From what I remember, Lee took command of the Pegasus in “The Captain’s Hand.” Billy was already dead by that point.
Audra – you mentioned the Sci-Fi museum in Seattle. I am going to Seattle in August for a wedding, and have convinced my travelling companions that the Sci-Fi museum is a must see. Getting up close to an old school centurion? A childhood dream come true (ever since I was six).
Chuck – I love the “Half Baked” reference. I used to work for this crazy, crazy man and there were five employees in the office. One I liked, and the rest I, well, didn’t. So when I quit, the whole “frak you, frak you, frak you, you’re cool, and frak you I’m out!” worked oh so perfectly.
Melissa: Thanks for catching it. I always end up arguing with people who think it hails from “Coming To America.” Nope. “Half Baked” was first. 🙂
re: Sci-Fi Museum. You should most definitely attend. And for those in your group who aren’t interested, there’s always the Rock museum on the same grounds. You, however, should see both. They’re a good time, though the Sci-Fi museum is one-of-a-kind.
Well since this is also Transformers Watercooler, I finally saw it today with my little cousin. I thought it was pretty fun and I don’t think he blinked the entire time. It was definitely worth $15, if any of you are on the fence about seeing it. Though I will say that I was slightly bummed out on the way home when the semis and trucks I passed didn’t transform and fight each other. Hopefully Micheal Bay and Co. will sign on for the sequels that have been green lit and do a good job with them.
Happy birthday, Sean!
Not to be a pest or anything, but …. is there no on-line frak party for “Fragged” this week? 🙁
Hey guys-
Will be listening to the ‘cast tomorrow on my road trip to DC. I’ll make sure to cause all sorts of trouble then.
Just wanted to remind the DC-region BSG fans (you know who you are) that I’ll be in town from tomorrow evening till July 30 and will be performing with my group, the Great Noise Ensemble, at the Hirshhorn Museum this Friday night from 9:30-10:30 (Hirshhorn After Hours, an event which lasts from 8:00 till midnight. If you decide to come–Pike, I’m looking at you–we can actually chat afterwards over some fine libation) and at the second annual Capital Fringe Festival on July 27 (7:00 p.m.), 27 (9:00 p.m.) and 29 (12:00 noon).
Anyway, if you guys are interested (or at least you, Pike), I’d love to hang, even if it’s just for a little while.
Damn Armando, I’m going to try. The problem is the MARC/AMTRAK schedules…
OK, Chuck, give my email to Armando, so we don’t busy up this forum.
Pike-
Where are you coming from? I thought you were in the Maryland suburbs. Anyway, the email account I use on this forum is not one I check terribly often but I’ll make sure to keep checking it over the next few days. Or…drop me a line at olibelmusic@verizon.net.
I’ve gotta make a comment about the discussion on the podcast about the nature of the Sharon cylon. It just so happens that Dave from mass is friend of mine and we had an extensive argument about this a few weeks ago.
I think that she actually is loyal to the Fleet and Adama in particular. Look how distraught she was in “Downloaded” in her scene with Six. She has no reason to continue to “pretend” to be human. But she’s throwing things and breaking stuff, and still using naval terms like “Ive got some band aids in the head”
As far has her chilling “Maybe you don’t [deserve to live]” comment to Adama, I see that more as a challenge to Adama to remember what it is that he is fighting for. You have to HAVE humanity before Humanity is worthy of survival. This is why Cain deserved her fate. Deserving to live is contingent n how you live your life, is what I think she was saying.
Her character herself has also been one who craves belonging. Original Boomer never seemed to fit in with the others on New Caprica, and She resents the baby because Athena essentially stole her life. A life that she loved and misses.
Dramaticly, I think she serves an interesting role as a side changer. A character who demonstrates growth and change over time. And I personally think it’s way more interesting to have a character that is TRULY loyal to the Fleet and has REALLY has changed sides, but has that tension of “but maybe not” that she has to always swim upstream against. To have her suddenly betray everyone again just seems so…I dunno…obvious.
Minnesotia Actual
Dang…a whiff of “Razor”, mini-sodes, Transformers, and Sean’s birthday. Everything happens when I’m gone.
My picks for Cylon designations:
Significant Seven
Final Five
Fab Four
The Final One
Not fancy, but everyone seems to use them already. We could try ATT&T for the Fab Four, though.
ATT&T
LMAO
Minnesotia,
You make a great point about Sharon. Boomer is obviously conflicted, torn and very, very angry (actually, Athena must be as well. As Grace Park said recently, “you know she’s sitting on a ton of rage”) about the turn her life has taken. I have a feeling that she will end up playing a major role once again before all is said and done.
As for Athena, although I’m inclined to trust her more than Sean, Audra and Chuck, I have to say I see where their mistrust is coming from. Someone, I forget who, brought this up in the podcast (thanks for keeping at least 55 minutes of my eight hour drive interesting, by the way) that perhaps Athena, and the entire “Sharon” model (8, is it?) is programmed in such a way that she is encouraged to feel love and, thus, is able to override, as it were, her protocols and switch sides at will, based on loyalty and love. Six, whether the “Head” or “Caprica” variety, constantly refers to that model as always having been weak…”but one doesn’t question God’s will.” It is this capacity for love and loyalty to people outside of the Cylon community that I think she is referring to when she speaks of Sharon’s weakness. Keep in mind, also, that while her hooking up with Helo was part of a mission, she betrayed that mission when she ran away with him and helped him and Starbuck leave Caprica. The cylons had built a cabin with, as Doral says (back when Doral was more mysterious and, in my view, more threatening than he is now), “all the comforts” for them to settle down in and have the baby (one wonders what would’ve happened to Helo AFTER the baby was born in that scenario). Rather than fulfilling her mission in this way, she ran with Helo and faced persecution, isolation and ostracism (ostracization?) by her own people for his and their baby’s sake. That counts for a hell of a lot in my book.
Bionic Woman news:
-Katee Sackhoff is officially on for 6 episodes during the first season (including the pilot). Contract negotiations got so bad that she was going to walk away from it and they slapped a last minute deal together just last night (allegedly).
-This is a few days old, but Isiah Washington is also going to be a recurring actor on the show. I think it’s good that they got a controversial guy, since there’s no such thing as bad publicity, especially for a show like this.
Sean,
I keep trying to do that sheep noise, and failing miserably (I have a lot of lonely downtime). You are a pillar of talent.
AKron, are you from the (330)? I am.
Car stereo’s been broken for three weeks, and that’s where I listen to the podcasts. Frakk me, am I behind.
Stroogie,
Trust me, the sheep noise is not something that will make you “the man” at parties or advance your career in any way. All in all it only signifies you as that weird sheep guy over there. 😉
Aberforth???
Welcome to the ‘Cooler, Melissa in NY and dxf!