1.13: Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2

[Dave]

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Cylon raiders shoot down a Raptor from the Galactica over Kobol.

[RangerOne SG13 SOR]

GOBSMACKED...absolutley GOBSMACKED!!!

Will post again when I have caught my breath!!



Ranger

[Rik_the_Riff]

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I HATE cliffhanger endings.

Ahem.

Wow.

I remember thinking about 5 minutes from the end that this was the magical tie-up of the series; there was just time for Starbuck to take the arrow back, the Boomers to both kill themselves (one out of love, the other from fear of herself), Adama, Apollo and Roslin to reconcile and so on.

Then, rules change.

Nine months and counting until we find out what's happened. We should have a sweepstake going (just in case, here's mine; Adama's dead, Galactica Boomer shoots herself, there's only room for 2 in the captured raider so Helo stays behind again, Apollo frees Roslin when they come back with the arrow, and Starbuck finds the way to Earth. Baltar starts believing the Cylon religion, and as for the whatever-it-was No.6 showed him, I suspect God might know what it is.... but not me.)

God, it's a long way to September...

Just a thought,

Rik

[Dave]

A little plot summary, feel free to add...

When Adama realises that Roslin encouraged Starbuck to take the Cylon Raider back home, he demands that she step down. It was a military decision, his to take, which she agreed to. She refuses, so he sends Tigh and Apollo to arrest her. When it comes down to the line, Apollo decides that he cannot arrest her - democracy cannot fail because the President made a bad decision - Apollo is arrested for Mutiny and the President is taken anyway.

Starbuck makes it back to Caprica and finds the Delphi Museum and the Arrow of Apollo. A No.6 is waiting for her and they fight. Eventually they fall into a hole down to the lower floor, Starbuck landing on top of No.6. Starbuck is rescued by Helo. Meanwhile Boomer(Caprica) has told Helo she is pregnant. Starbuck sees Boomer, immediately realises she is a Cylon and shoots. Helo begs her not too as she is pregnant.

The Raptor from the Galactica that was shot down over Kobol managed to land. The survivors decide to hide out, while Baltar is lead away by No.6 to fulfill his destiny and discovers... well I thought it was a baby Cylon!

Boomer(Galactica) takes another Raptor to the Cylon Base ship, with the plan to launch a nuke into the shuttle bay. Instead, the weapon will not launch so she takes the craft inside and lands, unloading it manually. There she meets with tens of identical Boomers and knows for the first time for sure that she is a Cylon herself. Back on Galactica she shoots Adama twice in the chest...

I was a little surprised that this did not have more closure, but instead ended with these multipul cliffhangers that it did. Though I guess that is a good thing, as it means that they are confident of a second Season:

From Sci-Fi Wire

Ronald D. Moore, creator and executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that he's already mapping out season two just as the first season begins its 13-episode run on Jan. 14. "The network has asked for backup scripts for the second season, so we're working on six scripts right now with the writing staff," Moore said in an interview at the TV networks' winter press tour in Universal City, Calif. "I'm deep into what the second season would be. The first season ends on ... multiple cliffhangers, ... and so it's a lot of resolving those cliffhangers."

Moore added, "Most of the things that we're doing in season two were at least begun in season one. A lot of the religious things that happened in the show in terms of the colonies and in terms of the Cylons. I think probably the big opportunity in season two that we didn't get in season one is to open up the Cylon world a little more. To see more of other Cylons. See how the society functions a little bit more. And give a sense of what that community is all about."

The first 13 episodes of Galactica, which have already wrapped production, pick up almost immediately where the 2003 miniseries left off. The ragtag fleet of human survivors, led by President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) and Cmdr. Adama (Edward James Olmos), are trying to hold things together while continuing to flee the Cylon menace. Moore said he's pleased with how the first season ended up. "The overall arc has to do with the relationship between Adama and Laura Roslin, the sort of transition of both of them from what you think is going to be their roles of the military hawk and the civilian dove. And starting to realize that actually ... she's a harder-line character than he is, and that he is the son, not of a long line of military men, but the son of a civil ... liberties attorney. And that he's actually very reticent to be her policeman, as he says in one of the episodes. And that by the end of the season, their conflict would come to a head."

Moore added that he felt that Galactica ended up having a lot to say about the current state of affairs in the real world. "The show is of its time," he said. "It is a show that is about people dealing in a post-apocalyptic world and dealing with the fallout from that and dealing with issues of war and peace and terrorism and security and freedom. And it's set in a military world. So no matter what we did, in a certain sense, it was bound to resonate. And just as we got further into the show, it just became apparent that that was something that the show was comfortable doing and that I wanted to do. I wanted to comment on things that were going on around us. I wanted the show to be thought-provoking. I wanted the show to provoke people. I wanted the show to make people think about the world that they live in."

My thoughts:

I find it hard to believe that Adama will die, but he was badly wounded. But Battlestar Galactica without Adama???

Did the other Boomer/Sharons do 'something' to Boomer/Sharon when they met her? Like passing a computer virus?

How many babies are there in this? Are they all half-human cylon babies?

Is the Arrow a religious symbol, or is it a piece of ancient technology that can be unlocked and used?

[RangerOne SG13 SOR]

Right, after a quick rewatch

Talk about a rollercoaster!!

Excellent tension with the Adama v Roslin plot, her belief in the scrolls making her abandon her duties on a gamble. Her influence of Starbuck showed Roslin was near enough on the lines of a Dictator (self use of the military) over riding the military command. I was not happy with Lee Apollo suddenly turning, becuase the stand off was very much about democracy but he failed to see that his father was upholding it be removing Roslin (who had become very polarised over the last few episodes)

Cylon occupied Caprica.
Again good stuff but I dont see where No6 stopping Starbuck fits in (the cycle, everything happens for a reason etc) Unless the Cylons do not have the full picture and fear the Fleet escaping to Earth. Sharon also spoke with Helo about their child and how it will bring them closer to God, now this is mentioned time and time again but we still do not know what it means. The Cylons have found something or seen something to set this in motion, we need to find out just what the hell is going on with the Cylon relgious plot.

Baltar on Kobol, No6 lead him to the dome ruins where she showed to him his future with her (birth of their daughter) she also spoke his his role as leader and protector to this new generation. Is this linked to Baltar becoming president? Did you notice that when the scene returned to the ruins Baltar was actually missing? Where did he go?

Boomer on the BaseStar, I expected her to stay in last act of defiance against her Cylon masters and blow up the nuke but I guess the programming was just too strong. They also sacrificed the Basestar, (maybe to get Boomer close to Adama when he will be most off guard)

Her last act was to shoot Adama (dam I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that!!) Did you see her come round after to see what she had done!!

So in the end we had an imprisoned President, a dieing or dead Cmdr of the Fleet, The CAG under arrest, Starbuck with the Arrow on Caprica, Baltar missing and the crew of the Raptor stranded.

It is a long wait until Series 2!!


Ranger

[Rik_the_Riff]

One point I have worked out (the rest is probably coming, but I'll probably have to do a 2- or 3-day marathon to sort it);

Did anyone else have a close look at the ruins which Baltar and No.6 went into? There was like a golden something-that-looked-vaguely-globe-like on it. I think that might be a mount for the Arrow, which, when combined with some alignment of suns and stars (think Stonehenge) will point the direction to earth. Also, when Baltar stepped forwards into the vision-temple-thingy, I think he stepped further than the edge of the platform he was standing on; could he have 'ascended' (sorry, SG-1 fans!) somehow?

Just a thought,

Rik

[ray gower]

Don't think the sun and stars palava works, we are talking of events hundreds of years ago. With the way star systems whirl around even if everything else lines up, the arrow still won't point anywhere.

For followers of the original, it has been interesting to see how the series has achieved much the same end as the original BG.

[Brit Chick]

I just KNEW Caprcia Boomer was Pregnant, I'm pretty sure I posed that in an earlier ep thread - when she was being sick - wondering if just possibly Helio had got her pregnant.

And talk about cliff hangers - altho we must believe that Adama can't die because there is no way they'd take that actor/character from the lineup.

I'm agreeing with the theory that No 6 was showing Baltar a human/cylon baby, possibly theirs - and there could be loads more. After all there are so many No 6's and they seem to be interchangable, all with the same memories, so in his time Baltar could have made quite a few of them pregnant.

[Rik_the_Riff]

I'm not sure I agree with the Baltar-and-Number-6-Baby theory. It seems a little obvious, and if there's one thing this series isn't, it's obvious. The Cylon-human-halfbreed role is fulfilled by Boomer and Helo's baby. This is Something Else.

And Ray, if we're going to have messiahs and Gods at work, why not have the stars line up perfectly at exactly the right moment? Could the mount for the arrow actually be a giant astronomy-machine which, when the arrow is inserted, will *find* Earth?

Just a thought,

Rik

[Dave]

Originally posted by Rik_the_Riff
And Ray, if we're going to have messiahs and Gods at work, why not have the stars line up perfectly at exactly the right moment? Could the mount for the arrow actually be a giant astronomy-machine which, when the arrow is inserted, will *find* Earth?

That's a good theory. I was wondering myself, whether real Greek myths and legends could give us any clue.

Apollo was the Sun god, which is appropriate. I found out that when someone died suddenly, he was said to have been struck down by one of Apollo's arrows. Homer's epic of the Trojan War begins with Apollo causing a plague by raining arrows down upon the Greek camp. He struck down the two sons of Niobe with a single arrow. He was tricked into shooting an arrow at the head of Orion the hunter, and the lover of his sister, Diana. Orion died and became a constellation. Out of the malice of Cupid, Apollo is made by one arrow fall in love with the nymph Daphne, while she is made to enschew love altogether.

We aren't sure exactly where they are in space. But assuming they are within the Milky Way, then the postions of the stars does not change that much unless you travel a long, long way. If we went to Alpha Centauri, the constellations would look exactly the same, Orion would still be identical, there would only be one single difference: Cassiopeia would have an extra star making it a \/\/\ instead of a \/\/. That star would be the Sun.

[warstarcerberus]

great posts dave the new show has many neat things missing in tos and a lot more drama. a thought,--- in my faverite episode of tos [or at least one of the top five!!]the long patrol star buck gets caught with a ship full of ambrosa and tells the officer that he is from the cyriuos galaxcy also the fleet left there home and went in too a new galaxcy [forget all the mind spins going on in my head about how far apart the galaxcys are in real life just thought i,d thow this at you ] lol and keep on a rockin haha ps does the pegasus show up ?. id love to see what a newer battlestar looks like later just finsed watching 1980 off my freinds tvo will report on it soonyour freind in yawahs love warstarcerberus and the lost13th fleet of man

[Dave]

I can't recall that about the Sirius Galaxy, though I'm sure you are correct. The thing is that this modern version of the show has more hard science and we have already seen them making small insignificant 'jumps' in space towards Earth, so I can't see them going extra-galactic unless they meet some kind of 'Star Trek' space anomaly like a wormhole. I hope that they don't!

As for the more modern Battlestars: I think it was a mistake to introduce that ship in TOS. It was a way of getting some conflict between Adama and the rival Commander, but in the new series we already have plenty of conflict. In the (new) mini-series IIRC all the more modern Battlestars were said to have been destroyed. The Cylons used some kind of trojan horse virus with the indirect help of Baltar to take control of their computer systems.