January 31, 2009
GWC Podcast #148
Think things can’t get crazier in BSG 4.5? Witness The Oath. Joined this week by Michael Trucco, we take in the Starbuck and Adama badassery (and compare Starbuck’s hangar bay arrival to Mal’s at the end of the Firefly pilot), lament Seelix and Racetrack’s misguided betrayals, suffer the loss of reason as Zarek releases his inner snake once and for all, note Adamlin’s too-little-too-late attempt to take up their leadership roles, discuss who’s betraying their oath (read: almost everyone), delve into the (possibly endless) cycle of revenge, wonder what final-cylon Ellen will have to say about Tigh meeting a grenade, and hear an awesome live report from the Phoenix Comicon. Note: Look for a call show mid-week where we’ll respond to all the wonderful listener calls that we couldn’t fit in this ‘cast!
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
I have an idea: Adama should let any of the civie fleet refuse the cylon jump drives that want to, get them installed on the galactica and then, when Cavil arrives, just jump away and the morons that refused the drives can fend for themselves. That seems fair, no?
Why Gaeta’s coup doesn’t have a leg to stand on:
1. He failed to secure ALL communications systems on the ship.
2. He does not have qualified supporters manning all key command stations.
3. He failed to to secure all points of egress, thus allowed key opposition figures to escape.
4. He does not have a communication plan! He doesn’t know what to say to the other ship captains or the civilians in the fleet.
5. He has no way to prevent coup supporters from using the coup as an opportunity to rape, pillage, revenge killing, etc. This will not help rally those undecided to his cause.
6. He needed to kill Adama and Tigh immediately. Now he has two pissed off old men with guns ready for a reckoning.
7. He sent no one to capture or kill key leaders likely to oppose the coup: Roslin, L. Adama, Tyrol, or Thrace. The two pissed off old men now have the “harbinger of death” on their side, and she is frakking angry!
8. He did nothing to either get Baltar on his side or at least keep Baltar and neutral. Baltar out of self-preservation will support Roslin & Adama.
9. He did not read the book “Coup Planning for Dummies” by Thomas Zarack, even after being offered an autographed 1st edition.
10. To be an effective peg-legged leader, he needed to find a parrot and learn to say “Arrg!” at the end of every sentence!
After earth, nobody cares anymore. They’ve lost hope. So it’s perfectly understandable that they would be so sloppy and that someone like Gaeta of all people – a man that normally would never amount to anything more than a door matt – get the better of them. And poor Gaeta is going to die. You just know it. In a way, it’s not really his fault. Someone like him is never supposed to endure as much as he has. Nobody is, really. But after it all, it seems like he’s still running around with illusions in his head, and people who can’t let go of illusions are dangerous for everyone when they get pushed too far.
As for Rosalyn, well… she’s just self-righteous by nature. Even in her complete failure to assume proper leadership out of selfishness, there was still a strong element of righteous indignation to it. And now she’s on a basestar feeling all righteous as usual. And pissy.
I think it should be funny to see what happens next. Perhaps the entire leadership will destroy itself along with most or all of the military assets in the fleet.
Also, what’s going on with cavil? I’m getting a little impatient about that.
Mike L. – RDM pointed out that the Galactica is very understaffed. It was understaffed when they fled Caprica and it’s worse now. So, Gaeta the best he could with those that he had.
Guys, guys, guys.
There are, what, 38,000 human beings left in the universe (less after Oath, thanks, Gae[coughasshole]ta). Adama is the guy responsible for getting them to a habitable planet where they can start over.
Their chances are increased to the nth degree by installing the Cylon hardware.
But! They’re not going anywhere without fuel.
Tillium is fuel.
Zarek orchestrated the disappearance of the tillium ship.
Zarek did so to hold Adama and the fleet hostage to whatever he wanted to do.
Zarek did know where the tillium ship was.
Zarek allowed himself to be blackmailed back by Adama for “evidence” of Zarek’s illegal activities.
Sure, Adama may have called his bluff, but Zarek didn’t know that. Adama told him he had evidence, and Zarek believed him. Which means that Zarek knew there COULD be evidence. Which means he has been doing some or all of what Adama accused him of.
Resolved: Adama was entirely justified in his actions.
Also, guys, gotta say: Putting Roslyn’s actions or lack thereof on a par with Baltar’s? Are you kidding me? Baltar was the proximate cause of the Cylong destruction of the 12 colonies, and too many times to count he was also the proximate cause of the destruction of the surviving fraction of humanity. You want to talk collaborator? It’s Baltar’s middle name.
PS — Starbuck ROCKS.
Wow, nice analysis Storyknife.
I concur. STARBUCK TOTALLY ROCKS.
I thought it was more than ironic that Gaeta accused Adama of treason and collaboration and all that craaaaaap when Gaeta was just trying to make up for his OWN collaboration (unwitting, but still…).
Amazing episode huh? It’s almost unbelievable how fantastic the writing and acting are!!!!
OMGods, Mike L, “Coup Planning for Dummies”….HILARIOUS. I love it!
By the way, thank you so much for the Michael Trucco and Nikki Clyne interviews. What a treat to get to peer inside their characters. And they’re both so dang interesting and charming as real people, too. 🙂
Thanks to Audra for throwing the Adama/Roslin relationship a small bone in this podcast. And thanks to Sean for not eviscerating Roslin too much this time around. She’s a fascinating character, and I’m often bummed-out by your podcast which contains so little Roslin love, but this time, it wasn’t too terrible. Thanks! BTW, though I don’t share your opinions regarding Roslin, I respect them!