Battlestar G. Thread

Off Topic
21

[quote]Patrick Williams wrote:
If you base your ideas of the nature of violence in Iraq on what you get from infotainment, don’t be so quick to assume that BG draws an accurate parallel.

I’ve seen plenty of it first-hand. Nearly all suicide bombers here are attacking other Iraqi civilians. A better parallel would be Capricans and Geminons bombing each other for territory and control of the government. I haven’t seen any of 3.0 yet, so I’m basing my ideas on the previous posts.

Does it seem like they are making veiled commentary on the US in Iraq, or just writing current events into the series?

I have the DVDs from BG 1.0,2.0,2.5 and it’s the only series I bothered to watch over here. I actually really like the series. I just hope they don’t try to politicize it, thus ruining a good thing.[/quote]

I do not think they are making any specific commentary on the war in Iraq.

22

[quote]Patrick Williams wrote:
If you base your ideas of the nature of violence in Iraq on what you get from infotainment, don’t be so quick to assume that BG draws an accurate parallel.

I’ve seen plenty of it first-hand. Nearly all suicide bombers here are attacking other Iraqi civilians. A better parallel would be Capricans and Geminons bombing each other for territory and control of the government. I haven’t seen any of 3.0 yet, so I’m basing my ideas on the previous posts.
[/quote]

I don’t want to spoil it for you by revealing too much of the plot, but there are suicide bombings in which other humans are the primary target, and at one point a bombing is discussed in which most of the victims would be expected to be innocent humans. Not sectarian in the Sunni/Shia sense, but definitely actions against those who are perceived to be working with the occupation, which does sound similar to what I’ve heard has been occuring.

Candidly, I don’t really know, except that if it’s commentary, I’m not sure what point they’re making except that nobody wins when everybody loses.

[quote]
I have the DVDs from BG 1.0,2.0,2.5 and it’s the only series I bothered to watch over here. I actually really like the series. I just hope they don’t try to politicize it, thus ruining a good thing.[/quote]
Truthfully, I have strong feelings about the Iraq conflict (probably less strong than yours though) and I’ve found myself watching it for what it is and not as a reflection on current events.

Still, if you’re living it, even if the way they’re handling it doesn’t bother you, it may just be too close to the bone for a while. If you’re interested in getting a taste of how they’re handling it, the scifi.com website has 10 short webisodes that give you vignettes of what’s going on in the occupation before the events of the season opener.

May you be home in time to get caught up soon.

23

[quote]marza wrote:
SPOILER ALERT - if you haven’t seen the season premier you might want to skip this.

pbody03 wrote:
Yup, the premier was great. Better than I expected. They’ve kicked it up a notch. Should be a great season, so many headgames now. Is Starbuck a cylon? I bet she’s questioning that herself now.

That wouldn’t make sense to me - if she were a cylon, they wouldn’t need to work this hard to get her to cooperate - they could just have one of her duplicates walk in the door. Also, if she’s one of them, why do they need to get this individual Starbuck to cooperate?

Someone I was watching it with thought she was. I didn’t, but like Boomer was struggling with her true identity as a Cyclon, I’m sure that Starbuck was having similar thoughts when she was presented with the kid, that and she might be thinking she was losing it.

I was wondering how she would handle the kid, considering the opening scene, I was kinda hoping that she’d just walk over and dispose of the kid. I suppose that woulda been too much but it would be fitting. If the writing stays at this level it should be another great season.

I do think the kid might be a cylon, though.

The kid is a hybrid( for lack of a better term), or so she and we are told, but why would she belive the Cylon? Is she now pretending to care about the kid and fool the Cylon by holding her “man’s” hand in the hospital room?

  1. We haven’t seen all the models and it would totally make sense to have a couple of kid versions - talk about disarming suspicion.

We don’t know that we’ve seen all the models, we assume we have, could there be a Starbuck, Adama?

  1. The accident was very convenient. Ok, yes real children do fall down if you turn your back for a second - but not usually when there’s a reason for them to do so. In the last season, we saw one of the cylons injure herself to gain the trust of someone else (I believe it was the #6 they call Caprica trying to get through to the resurrected Boomer).
    Agreed

  2. What looks like it may be her recovery is very convenient too - just as Starbuck is starting to turn to what’s his name for comfort, oh joy, the little darling is starting to open her eyes. Could be just the plot creaking a bit, but could
    definitely be a cylon.
    Is she playing the cylon?

I too love the fat Lee Adama - just one of the great little details that goes into the writing. I’d read it was a fat suit, but since we saw him in a towel is that possible?\

Yup, I noticed other little “tells” as well.
[/quote]

All in all lots for us to think about. Best line in the premier; Boomer to Adama" How do you know you can really trust me?“, Adama " I don’t, that’s what trust is”.

24

[quote]Drew0786 wrote:
Everyone needs to get over Apollo’s weight. He’s just bulking. [/quote]

LOL, don’t think he’s doin a good job cuz it mostly looks like fat.

25

[quote]pbody03 wrote:
marza wrote:
SPOILER ALERT - if you haven’t seen the season premier you might want to skip this.

I do think the kid might be a cylon, though.

The kid is a hybrid( for lack of a better term), or so she and we are told, but why would she belive the Cylon? Is she now pretending to care about the kid and fool the Cylon by holding her “man’s” hand in the hospital room?
[/quote]
I hadn’t thought that Starbuck might be “playing” them, but that’s certainly possible.

At the beginning, we’re told there are 12 models. Boomer, Six, the Lucy Lawless Character, the Media guy, the scruffy guy, the Doctor at the farm, the Priest. Even if I’ve forgotten one or two, there have to be other models we haven’t seen to bring it up to 12. So, it’s certainly possible that the kid isn’t a hybrid, but one of the cylon models we haven’t seen yet. I really hope Adama isn’t a cylon, and presumably he’d know if Lee were one. Unless there’s some plot twist that Lee went off to live w/ his grandparents for many years and his own parents didn’t recognize him when he came back, but I think that would be a stretch.

[snip]

[quote]
All in all lots for us to think about. Best line in the premier; Boomer to Adama" How do you know you can really trust me?“, Adama " I don’t, that’s what trust is”.[/quote]

That was great. Especially since there’s that moment when she thinks he means that he doesn’t entirely trust her and then says the other half.

I don’t have cable (I’d only get it to watch the scifi channel anyway), so I watched the whole thing on the treadmill at my gym. Well worth it.

26

This show rules. I will be watching it for the first time this season.

27

[quote]nolecat wrote:
…And lets not forget Adama’s kick ass mustache. The mark of a true leader!

[/quote]

He just needs to grow the beard now so he can channel Chuck Norris. Once he’s done that, he can roundhouse kick just one of the cylons and all of them will short-circuit.

28

[quote]marza and Zap wrote:

Their posts.
[/quote]

Thanks guys. Appreciate it.

29

Just to let everyone know on scifi.com there are 10 mini episodes (about 5 min each) bridging season 2 and 3. The focus is on the resistance. I watched them and it explained who Nora was & why Duck was willing to be a suicide bomber.

30

Boomer (Grace Park) is smoking hot… Fell off the BG wagon after the first few episodes (despite Tricia Helfer’s insane bod) & now I have to grab some episodes off the 'net or buy the DVD compilation to catch up…

31

[quote]jaybvee wrote:
Boomer (Grace Park) is smoking hot… Fell off the BG wagon after the first few episodes (despite Tricia Helfer’s insane bod) & now I have to grab some episodes off the 'net or buy the DVD compilation to catch up…[/quote]

I have a big thing for Starbuck. I don’t know what it is about her! Tough chick maybe?

As for the previous posts about the political nature…I don’t think they are making a definitive liberal (or conservative) commentary on the Iraqi war. The writers know that would lose a lot of viewers.

32

[quote]nolecat wrote:
As for the previous posts about the political nature…I don’t think they are making a definitive liberal (or conservative) commentary on the Iraqi war. The writers know that would lose a lot of viewers.
[/quote]

The BG reimagining has, from the beginning, been a deliberate commentary on conflict between civilizations with deep, seemingly irreconcilable theological and philosophical differences.

Issues such as torture, dehumanization, executive authority, and the influence of religion on statecraft have been incorporated from the beginning. While there are heroes in the series, they are also thoroughly human; they make mistakes, and they make poor decisions from a limited set of available options.

33

[quote]nephorm wrote:
nolecat wrote:
As for the previous posts about the political nature…I don’t think they are making a definitive liberal (or conservative) commentary on the Iraqi war. The writers know that would lose a lot of viewers.

The BG reimagining has, from the beginning, been a deliberate commentary on conflict between civilizations with deep, seemingly irreconcilable theological and philosophical differences.

Issues such as torture, dehumanization, executive authority, and the influence of religion on statecraft have been incorporated from the beginning. While there are heroes in the series, they are also thoroughly human; they make mistakes, and they make poor decisions from a limited set of available options.[/quote]

Yeah, there really are no clear cut good guys. Kind of like “The Shield” in outerspace…OK, maybe not that bad!

One of the best episodes was when Adama appointed an investigative committee for the security failure…and the committee came after him.

Good point about having limited options to base their decisions on. Hard to be ethical sometimes when it isn’t an option.

34

Making us wait until October was sinister.

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
I do not think they are making any specific commentary on the war in Iraq.
[/quote]
I got more of a Bosnia vibe from the New Caprica stuff. The collaborators look exactly like the soldiers from Behind Enemy Lines. Also, Vancouver looks like Eastern Europe.

35

[quote]nephorm wrote:
The BG reimagining has, from the beginning, been a deliberate commentary on conflict between civilizations with deep, seemingly irreconcilable theological and philosophical differences.

Issues such as torture, dehumanization, executive authority, and the influence of religion on statecraft have been incorporated from the beginning. While there are heroes in the series, they are also thoroughly human; they make mistakes, and they make poor decisions from a limited set of available options.[/quote]

All of which, may I add, make it an excellent television series. This is how I spend my Friday nights.

36

[quote]
The BG reimagining has, from the beginning, been a deliberate commentary on conflict between civilizations with deep, seemingly irreconcilable theological and philosophical differences.

Issues such as torture, dehumanization, executive authority, and the influence of religion on statecraft have been incorporated from the beginning. While there are heroes in the series, they are also thoroughly human; they make mistakes, and they make poor decisions from a limited set of available options.[/quote]

I think it goes even deeper than that. Calling into question what exactly is the human experiance. Anyways the show is amazing, and its a perfect balance for a friday night considering the amount of bar hopping I do after it’s over.

37

[quote]nolecat wrote:
…And lets not forget Adama’s kick ass mustache. The mark of a true leader!
[/quote]

Yes, the Adamastache. They need to do a Rocky-inspired musical montage of Lee getting in shape and his dad shaving off his moustache. The whole thing could be set to Chaz Jankel - Number One. That would be beyond badass. :wink:

38

I like the parallels to real life. The constant tension between the military leadership and civilan government, safety vs personal liberty and so forth. These are tough issues w/o easy answers and the show touches on these w/o being too preachy. Heck they even talked about abortion.

My only gripe is that the show is almost too dark. The cylons have humanity so outgunned and the humans are constantly fighting amongst themselves, seems like they’d never survive.

39

[quote]nephorm wrote:
nolecat wrote:
As for the previous posts about the political nature…I don’t think they are making a definitive liberal (or conservative) commentary on the Iraqi war. The writers know that would lose a lot of viewers.

The BG reimagining has, from the beginning, been a deliberate commentary on conflict between civilizations with deep, seemingly irreconcilable theological and philosophical differences.

Issues such as torture, dehumanization, executive authority, and the influence of religion on statecraft have been incorporated from the beginning. While there are heroes in the series, they are also thoroughly human; they make mistakes, and they make poor decisions from a limited set of available options.[/quote]

Great point. That’s one aspect of this show that appeals to me. That and Tricia Helfer. And Grace Park. And Katie Sackhoff. And Lucy Lawless. Hell, even Mary McDonnell…why not?

40

I am only halfway through series 2 so I can’t read this thread because it might give away too much stuff, dammit.

When it was first on TV it didn’t inspire me one bit.

Then I started watching a few episodes half-heartedly and started getting into it.

Then I hired it and watched it from the start and was hooked.

I don’t find the people in it particularly attractive although I can see they are using that to draw people in to watching it.

The story is pretty interesting. Of course you have to suspend belief on some issues but they are not too far out there.

I used to watch the original when it was on TV so it is interesting to see what they did to change it around.

I definetely think it is worth watching from the beginning.

If games companies had a brain they would make an epic computer game out of it. I don’t think the general public realises that a quality game based on BSG could make a billion dollars - it is a huge industry full of numbnuts who get it wrong time and time again, when billions are at stake. This series has so many opportunities for a game franchise it ain’t funny.