Frakkin Toasters!!!

[tubadave]

Maybe I've missed a thread somewhere, but did anyone else watch Battlestar Galactica as it returned for its final 10 episodes last night? Anyone? Bueller?

Surely I'm not the only one.

I demand lively BSG discussion. (Don't forget the spoiler tags.)

[silverscreenselect]

I just finished watching it tonight (taped it yesterday).

Spoiler

I have to say that they picked the person I would least have guessed as the last Cylon, seeing as how Mrs. Tigh has been dead for two seasons now. I'm curious to see just how they wind up on the "real" earth.

Great start to the season.

[tubadave]

I just finished watching it tonight (taped it yesterday).

Spoiler

I have to say that they picked the person I would least have guessed as the last Cylon, seeing as how Mrs. Tigh has been dead for two seasons now. I'm curious to see just how they wind up on the "real" earth.

Great start to the season.

Agreed, it was a terrific episode.

Spoiler

Finding that "Earth" had been fully of Cylons was a nice touch, but the real shock of the night for me was when Dualla killed herself. Didn't see that one coming.

[tanstaafl2]

I just finished watching it tonight (taped it yesterday).

Spoiler

I have to say that they picked the person I would least have guessed as the last Cylon, seeing as how Mrs. Tigh has been dead for two seasons now. I'm curious to see just how they wind up on the "real" earth.

Great start to the season.

Agreed, it was a terrific episode.

Spoiler

Finding that "Earth" had been fully of Cylons was a nice touch, but the real shock of the night for me was when Dualla killed herself. Didn't see that one coming.

Spoiler

I must confess I have not yet fully grasped what significance that plot point has. Perhaps it has one, we shall see.

Or maybe they are trimming payroll...

Overall a decent episode. But they have a lot left to do in just 9 more episodes and not have it seemed contrived and/or forced.

[tanstaafl2]

Kind of a slow episode last night given they only have 8 more left to go...

Spoiler

Seems like Felix and Zarik could gotten the revolution off to a little faster start...

[tanstaafl2]

After a relatively slow episode 2 weeks ago last week was one of the better ones and has me looking forward to the episode tonight. Surprised there has been no discussion here unless I just missed it.

Spoiler

Obviously no way Adama gets flushed out the airlock (unless a raptor is there to scoop him up immediately and zip him off to the basestar). If Saul decides to jump on the grenade to save Adama (one speculated option for the cliffhangar to be resolved tonight) then that is one of the five secret toasters out of the mix. Will that finally bring Ellen, the long awaited fifth cyclon, back to the show? Not many episodes left to get it wrapped up.

Unless they plan to leave us hanging off the cliff again and try to go the Stargate route with straight to DVD movies to drag the story out further. Now that would be more annoying than a surprise skin job showing up!

[tanstaafl2]

Also, anybody heard much of the new Battlestar franchise called "Caprica" that will begin following the conclusion of BG? Apparently set in the colonies 50 years ago when the cylons are first being created. Although most of what I have read sounds like it will be more of a space soap opera than BG ever was. More like "Dallas" in space. That would not be a good thing...

That is getting kicked off as a DVD movie but presumably the movie will also eventually be on the Sci Fi channel to set up the series which is supposed to start in 2010.

Caprica

[silverscreenselect]

After a relatively slow episode 2 weeks ago last week was one of the better ones and has me looking forward to the episode tonight. Surprised there has been no discussion here unless I just missed it.

Spoiler

Obviously no way Adama gets flushed out the airlock (unless a raptor is there to scoop him up immediately and zip him off to the basestar). If Saul decides to jump on the grenade to save Adama (one speculated option for the cliffhangar to be resolved tonight) then that is one of the five secret toasters out of the mix. Will that finally bring Ellen, the long awaited fifth cyclon, back to the show? Not many episodes left to get it wrapped up.

Unless they plan to leave us hanging off the cliff again and try to go the Stargate route with straight to DVD movies to drag the story out further. Now that would be more annoying than a surprise skin job showing up!

Spoiler

When Tigh and the other cylons were on "earth," they seemed to have a collective flashback where they remembered where they were when the big one hit years earlier. Obviously, those older versions of themselves got vaporized, but that would make me believe that Tigh (if he really does get fried this week) will turn up again in some regenerated form. Perhaps the key for these other cylons is that they wind up regenerating as babies and not as full grown adults who are all the same age. Certainly Tigh would have had to have grown older over the years, since Adama and he go back 30 years or so. And maybe the difference between the other four and Ellen is that there's only one of her at a time but she regenerates fully grown?

[tanstaafl2]

After a relatively slow episode 2 weeks ago last week was one of the better ones and has me looking forward to the episode tonight. Surprised there has been no discussion here unless I just missed it.

Spoiler

Obviously no way Adama gets flushed out the airlock (unless a raptor is there to scoop him up immediately and zip him off to the basestar). If Saul decides to jump on the grenade to save Adama (one speculated option for the cliffhangar to be resolved tonight) then that is one of the five secret toasters out of the mix. Will that finally bring Ellen, the long awaited fifth cyclon, back to the show? Not many episodes left to get it wrapped up.

Unless they plan to leave us hanging off the cliff again and try to go the Stargate route with straight to DVD movies to drag the story out further. Now that would be more annoying than a surprise skin job showing up!

Spoiler

When Tigh and the other cylons were on "earth," they seemed to have a collective flashback where they remembered where they were when the big one hit years earlier. Obviously, those older versions of themselves got vaporized, but that would make me believe that Tigh (if he really does get fried this week) will turn up again in some regenerated form. Perhaps the key for these other cylons is that they wind up regenerating as babies and not as full grown adults who are all the same age. Certainly Tigh would have had to have grown older over the years, since Adama and he go back 30 years or so. And maybe the difference between the other four and Ellen is that there's only one of her at a time but she regenerates fully grown?

Spoiler

Yeah, the whole earth thing still puzzles me a bit. The cylons have only been around for 50 some years as I understand it and were still fairly rudimentary at the beginning. Obviously the adapted quickly to get Tigh with Adama so early on (unless there was a real Tigh before and the current skin job simply took the real Tigh's place right before the attacks, which to me seems more plausible. In as much as any of this is plausible...). Were the ones on earth a different breed of cylons from the one the colonists made or has it been less than 50 years since the earth was nuked?

I had thought that series of net based shorts associated with Razor, and featuring a younger William Adama, were in some way showing the development of the skin jobs. But none of that storyline has ever been brought up again as far as I can tell.

If the regeneration capacity is gone can Tigh regenerate at all? Presuming he in fact dies as you note. Ellen "died" when the regeneration ship still existed so there might still be a spare copy of her lying about. Of course as you say since these are "special" skin jobs the past rules may not apply to them at all.

And it also remains to be seen if they are going to risk wandering back into the minefield of the "gods" versus the "one true god" before the series comes to a close as they have dabbled with in the past.

[tanstaafl2]

Unless they plan to leave us hanging off the cliff again and try to go the Stargate route with straight to DVD movies to drag the story out further. Now that would be more annoying than a surprise skin job showing up!

I should note that there are plans for a post BSG movie with some of the current cast. It will be set in the early days of the attack on Caprica and will tell the story of the attack from the perspective of the Cylons. But this looks like it will show up on Sci Fi at some point and not be a straight to DVD movie.

[15QuestionsAway]

I'm not sure whether this merits spoiler tags, since I'm just following on from everyone else's thoughts, but I'll be safe:

Spoiler

Obviously no way Adama gets flushed out the airlock (unless a raptor is there to scoop him up immediately and zip him off to the basestar). If Saul decides to jump on the grenade to save Adama (one speculated option for the cliffhanger to be resolved tonight) then that is one of the five secret toasters out of the mix. Will that finally bring Ellen, the long awaited fifth cylon, back to the show? Not many episodes left to get it wrapped up.

Unless they plan to leave us hanging off the cliff again and try to go the Stargate route with straight to DVD movies to drag the story out further. Now that would be more annoying than a surprise skin job showing up!

There will be one Razor-style DVD follow-up, called "The Plan". It doesn't follow on from the end of the series - it's more Cylon backstory from before/after the attack on the Colonies. Nothing else is planned. Many of the actors and writers associated with BSG are raving about the ending of the series, and how it is a natural conclusion.

When Tigh and the other cylons were on "earth," they seemed to have a collective flashback where they remembered where they were when the big one hit years earlier. Obviously, those older versions of themselves got vaporized, but that would make me believe that Tigh (if he really does get fried this week) will turn up again in some regenerated form. Perhaps the key for these other cylons is that they wind up regenerating as babies and not as full grown adults who are all the same age. Certainly Tigh would have had to have grown older over the years, since Adama and he go back 30 years or so. And maybe the difference between the other four and Ellen is that there's only one of her at a time but she regenerates fully grown?

My money's on an alternative Earth-origin regeneration system. I love BSG, but one of the big holes for me is the idea of the Hub. Why don't the Cylons have a backup regeneration plan or build another? One possible answer is the Hub (and resurrection) technology was discovered rather than created by the (Colonial-origin) Cylons. Or someone intervened in Cylon development to create the resurrection ability.

Yeah, the whole earth thing still puzzles me a bit. The cylons have only been around for 50 some years as I understand it and were still fairly rudimentary at the beginning. Obviously the adapted quickly to get Tigh with Adama so early on (unless there was a real Tigh before and the current skin job simply took the real Tigh's place right before the attacks, which to me seems more plausible. In as much as any of this is plausible...). Were the ones on earth a different breed of cylons from the one the colonists made or has it been less than 50 years since the earth was nuked?

I had thought that series of net based shorts associated with Razor, and featuring a younger William Adama, were in some way showing the development of the skin jobs. But none of that storyline has ever been brought up again as far as I can tell.

If the regeneration capacity is gone can Tigh regenerate at all? Presuming he in fact dies as you note. Ellen "died" when the regeneration ship still existed so there might still be a spare copy of her lying about. Of course as you say since these are "special" skin jobs the past rules may not apply to them at all.

And it also remains to be seen if they are going to risk wandering back into the minefield of the "gods" versus the "one true god" before the series comes to a close as they have dabbled with in the past.

Based on the various references on the show, I'm convinced the Earth we see is set somewhere in the years 6500-7000. From this season's (4.5) first episode, 2000 years have passed since Earth was nuked. I've been thinking since the season 3 finale (Revelations) that Earth was dead. It was clear that it was Earth from the view of North America, but there were no lights.

If I remember right, after analyzing what they found on Earth, the Galactica crew and their Cylon allies believed that the 13th tribe that fled Kobol were Cylons. Perhaps they overran the indigenous humans (us). Or perhaps Earth developed its own Cylons that overran them.

In any case, I think the Colonials developed their own Cylons, which then developed their own skinjobs as shown in Razor. The question as I see it is how (and perhaps from where) did the resurrection technology appear. Perhaps that's where the fates of the final five and significant seven Cylons intersected. And that would be a convenient place to examine the one/many god(s) story.

I know we'll be seeing Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh) somewhere along the line in the rest of the series. I'm hoping it's not just in flashbacks. If Tigh is actually "killed", I'm sure we'll start to learn more about the origins of the final five Cylons.

[15QuestionsAway]

Also, anybody heard much of the new Battlestar franchise called "Caprica" that will begin following the conclusion of BG? Apparently set in the colonies 50 years ago when the cylons are first being created. Although most of what I have read sounds like it will be more of a space soap opera than BG ever was. More like "Dallas" in space. That would not be a good thing...

That is getting kicked off as a DVD movie but presumably the movie will also eventually be on the Sci Fi channel to set up the series which is supposed to start in 2010.

Caprica

I've read the first half of Caprica's script, and I'm not that excited. It does seem to me to be "Dallas" or "Dynasty" in space. Instead of oil, it's set in the world of robotics and artificial intelligence. Throw in a bit of Star Trek TNG's holodeck, and you get the idea.

I do like that Sci-Fi's going to release it on DVD first in what's basically a director's cut. It will be out in the beginning of April, after BSG ends. I'll definitely pick up a copy, and I'll keep an open mind until I see it.

[silverscreenselect]

Spoiler

Tigh is still alive (I thought it strange that they would announce the death of a major character as a throway line during a preview of the next week's show anyway). Zarek and Gada (sp?) aren't. And it looks like Ellen is being reborn as an adult the old fashioned Cylon way....

I am curious to see how they are going to explain exactly how the final four/five work so that there's only one at a time of them and they age "normally" while the other seven don't.

[tubadave]

Spoiler

Tigh is still alive (I thought it strange that they would announce the death of a major character as a throway line during a preview of the next week's show anyway). Zarek and Gada (sp?) aren't. And it looks like Ellen is being reborn as an adult the old fashioned Cylon way....

I am curious to see how they are going to explain exactly how the final four/five work so that there's only one at a time of them and they age "normally" while the other seven don't.

Spoiler

An excellent episode last night, IMHO, despite the fact that most of it seemed a little predictable to me (i.e. Zarek walked out after talking to the Quorum, and I turned to the friend watching with me and asked him, "How long until Zarek gets rid the Quorum?" Two seconds later, Zarek tells the guards to shoot them.) I wasn't terribly surprised by much of anything that happened, other than Gaeta saying, "It stopped" at the end, which was a nice touch of irony.

There's definitely a lot left to explain.....thinking back, I'm curious to know how the Cylons knew that there were 12 models of skin jobs, but had no idea who the last 5 were until recently.

[tanstaafl2]

Spoiler

Tigh is still alive (I thought it strange that they would announce the death of a major character as a throway line during a preview of the next week's show anyway). Zarek and Gada (sp?) aren't. And it looks like Ellen is being reborn as an adult the old fashioned Cylon way....

I am curious to see how they are going to explain exactly how the final four/five work so that there's only one at a time of them and they age "normally" while the other seven don't.

Spoiler

An excellent episode last night, IMHO, despite the fact that most of it seemed a little predictable to me (i.e. Zarek walked out after talking to the Quorum, and I turned to the friend watching with me and asked him, "How long until Zarek gets rid the Quorum?" Two seconds later, Zarek tells the guards to shoot them.) I wasn't terribly surprised by much of anything that happened, other than Gaeta saying, "It stopped" at the end, which was a nice touch of irony.

There's definitely a lot left to explain.....thinking back, I'm curious to know how the Cylons knew that there were 12 models of skin jobs, but had no idea who the last 5 were until recently.

Spoiler

Must be that secret sect of cylon priests that we haven't heard anything about yet that created them. Maybe they are from the 13th tribe that consisted of the ancient cylons who lived on Earth before it blew up since the five all seem to have memories of it...