June 14, 2008
GWC Podcast #104
We witness the end of 2008 BSG. Highlights: we discuss Earth, draw some comparisons to the multiple-cycle nature of the Matrix, talk about Adama’s breakdown, love Lee’s take-charge decision making, wonder who’s really President, speculate on the final cylon, and look really hard for the Statue of Liberty on the desolate beach. Note: We recorded a bit early this week, so some of your calls came after we recorded — so we’re doing another Revelations ‘cast next week to fit them in.
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
It was totally suppose to be ellis island, or at least that’s the wibe I got from it.
Dude, next time don’t put so many damn spoilers in your post. Fortunately I had seen the episode, but others may have not yet being that it’s less than 24 hours since the air date.
Starbuck was standing in the ruins of that temple that they had the diagram for. You can tell from the collapsed roof.
Hi Mike B.
Should you really be reading a fansite if you haven’t actually watched the episode.
I myself avoid everything until after I watch the episodes.
Just a thought.
Amen Debsa, amen. Sounds like common sense to me…
It’s been obvious, and Ron Moore has admitted it, that BSG throws out omages to other movies.
In the case of ‘Revelations,’ the whole ‘Planet of the Apes’ ending has been speculated about for years. As for Starbuck running through the corridors, I’ve seen it in other naval war movies, and the ‘Right Stuff’ analogy works, too.
As for the signal to Earth, that’s right out of ‘On The Beach’ where the submarine went back to the U.S. based on a transmitter that was left on. A Coke bottle caught in a curtain string was tapping gibberish into the Key.
The ships lining up together around the planet reminded me of ‘2010’ and there was a little ‘Aliens’ in the atmospheric entry scene.
The big continuity whole, and I’ll have to re-watch the show, again, was why D’Anna all of a sudden started executing colonials. At one point, everyone is in agreement for her to search the fleet for the Four, then all of a sudden she’s killing people after returning to the Basestar. When did Lee ever not give in to her demands.
A smaller continuity hole is the rearming of the basestar. If it was damaged in battle, it ostensibly would have expended it’s capital weapons, too. The ship may be able to regenerate itself, but where would it get the fissionable material for nukes?
luved this episode.
1. D’anna “already in contact with the final 4” remember her stating there were 4, repeat 4 in the fleet…(then i thought is the final five with them already? who is it…is it really baltar/roz/helo hell-No!)
2. tory…still sucking with her sneeky-cowardly move “i gotta take the president her medicine” what a slick piece of work she is! she’s been underhanded from the beginning, remember it was HER idea to throw the presidential race!
3.i agree w/sarasota …suddenly d’anna airlocks a hostage WTFrak!
4, and lee steppin up to the plate (i thought we had an agreement!) and then again after daddy-adama loses his frakin mind
5. also thought that was an awkward edit, first adama is throwing a fit, hoist a bottle to his lips then next scene lee is picking him off the floor–very awkward. but yes understood his unraveling (but didn’t he recover quite nicely) and lee switching places w/dad in the “Pull your self together soldier” (shades of Terminator and Aliens)
6. loved the look of surprise on starbuck when she learns anders is a cylon, and chief is my number one fan…i cannot wait til he finds the truth about tory. maybe the big knife in the last supper picture is for her.
7. baltar rose to the occasion with his speech to d’anna
8. and the Planet of the Apes cliff hanger…very nice touch. tory the slut still trying to go after anders who’s following starbuck. and caprica6 walking over to tigh, really nice movements there…i’ll have to watch this many times to see the pairings.
9. adama coming back to himself after roseline coo’s him on and reminds him what they started is coming to an end.
and my number 10 reason.
tigh saul…what a real badass …luv that walk away from anders & chief to walkin into adama’s office and fessin’ up to being a cylon, not letting “Bill” turn away from it, but know that he know’s this is what he is and it’s true…then in the airlock turning to lool at Lee and saying “what are you waiting for..DO IT!”
yeah and can he take a punch!
yep best episode EVER!!!
Hey guys,
My quick two cents here. As a big history/WWII buff, the impression I got from the look of the ruined Earth architecture is that it was a reference to the bomb ravaged Hiroshima. (Especially that arch shaped structure that reminded me of the famous dome).
Wait wait wait… did I read that correctly – that was the LAST episode of 2008? Please tell me that is not accurate…
I’m with John, it looked just like the ruins of the drawings from the Book of Pithea. Which made me doubt it is Earth, or at least our Earth.
Jesse, sorry but that’s a fact. It doesn’t pick up until first quarter 09.
John, it’s much closer to the water than in the drawing. Also, the bridge isn’t in the drawing.
Re: Short-lived Presidents of the US.
I’m listening to #104 while working. Sean’s instincts were right — it was William Henry Harrison. I could Google this, but I’ll cite to The Simpsons. Lisa’s class (I think) did a salute to the lesser known Presidents — “There’s Taylor, there’s Tyler, there’s Fillmore and there’s Hayes. There’s William Henry Harrison — I died in 30 days!…”
My theory of everything…
Think Cylon God is the Christian God. Earth has been the apocalypse (plague, pestilence, nuclear war, etc). The is the end and beginning of the cycle. “Life boats” go out into the galaxy populating the 12 colonies for thousands of years. The Cylons (and earth beacon) are created as servants that will one day lead the colonists back home after earth is habitable again (by which time humanity has lost it’s history). They become polytheistic during that time.
Arriving back on earth thousands of years later, they discover that the Cylon scriptures are in fact true, that all this has happened before.
You could go off in an interesting step further than this, if you look at it from a Cylon point of view. If Skin-Jobs are viewed like Angels (eternal life) then the death of the resurrection ship was like the banishment from Heaven. Accompanying and ferrying mankind back home after their time on Earth brings them back to the point of having eternal life. But turning on man (because of anger and jealousy) casts them out of favor again. In many ways, their story through the cycle would mirror that of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
That’s a heavily religious story path for a scifi director, but at this point, it’s the best theory I’ve got…
I would advise to check out a book called The Fall of Chronopolis by Barrington J Bayley.
The hybrid and the cycles are eerily familiar to the insane computer and what happens to souls in this book.
I like Tim H’s reading. I haven’t fully digested or processed it, but I like it. I’d add that, from my point of view, “one true god” isn’t synonymous with “Christian God.” But semantics aside, it’s a nice, elegant explanation.
Kinda unrelated note: Local church, the sermon board out front says, “Prayer is the ultimate wi-fi.” With Cylons, is that literally true?
Well, I’m sticking with my idea that Starbuck is standing in the ruins of Aurora’s temple, especially because the diagram scene was part of the “last time on BSG” scene snippets before the show starts, to purposefully remind us.
Also, has anyone discussed the idea of the Hub being destroyed? I have a real problem with this and I suspect it’s a faux pax of the series writers. You see, one main hub that controls all the other resurrection hubs? No way. In our world and in the BSG world redundancy exists in high technology. The Cylons themselves are an example of redundancy so I find it hard to believe that they would have all their eggs in one basket.
I have more quesations and comments. First, I don’t have time to read all the blog entries and listen to all the previous podcasts, so please forgive me if some of the following has been hashed over. First, what in a skin-job makes them Cylon? Nanotechnology? A Sharon plugged in her wrist to Gallactica’s systems, yet the humans can’t figure out what makes a Cylon a Cylon?
Next, has anyone noticed that the Bay ships are shaped like a fragment of the DNA double helix?
Do we suspect that the Final Five left earth in the 1960s or 70s, hence the “All Along the Watchtower” signal?
And how did Tigh get Caprica Six pregnant? They’re both Cylons!
Are skin jobs unique and created in a lab or did the Cylons kidnap these people years ago and begin cloning them?
realized there was a typo in my theory that changed what I meant… should have read “Think of the Cylon God like the Christian God”. Would agree with dxf that it’s not specifically the same one. Just that the time on earth during each cycle could represent humanity, and the journey to space and back is the story of the angels (Remembering angels in real theology are not the pure-good creatures that Hallmark makes them out to be).
Baltar continues to play the role of a messiah figure. It may seem strange, but many such figures in many religions are reformed sinners. Think of the religious people you know in life, often the ones who found it later in life have the strongest beliefs. Gaius’ recent speeches to both Roslin and Dianna show his strong value for life and peace.
I don’t know that any of this serves as a clear explanation for the show, but I see it as a story inspired by classical religion and mythology more than anything else.