Battlestar Galactica: The new movie + pre-Season 4 thread

[Werthead]

We'll probably be in for a quiet time now with the next BSG six months away and Season 4 proper not starting until 2008, but what the hell? New thread anyway.

Can you find someway that we can read that without registering for some site?

Huh? It's never asked me to register (although Firefox's pop-up blocker stopped it putting something on the screen, which may be what you're talking about).

The TV movie is causing some extreme confusion. Interpreteing the latest word from RDM reveals that the movie seems to be as follows:

SPOILER: BSG Movie

That the movie will not take place in flashback. It will take place just before the attack and show events on both Galactica and Pegasus. We will see all of the BSG cast. I'm wondering if this means that we see how Anders survived the holocaust and got his resistance force together. When the movie reaches the part where the original Mini-Series began, the story switches to Pegasus and its adventures. Admiral Cain is in it and I think they're waiting for Michelle Forbes' availability before determining when they can shoot the film, but it seems to be pencilled in for later this month, start of next month, after which they'll go straight into filming for Season 4.

[Lord Qyburn]

Anyone who still watches this is a moron, an emo, or clinically insane. There, I said it.

[Kalbear]

I am definitely an emo.

[Werthead]

Can I nab 'clinically insane'?

[Relic]

So, was that actually Starbuck at the end of the episode or what?

And who else liked the zoomout at the end of the episode?

i did...until they centered square on the USA for the final shot. good lord.

[Shryke]

I believe the original intention was to show an upside down Africa, but someone thought that US audiences wouldn't recognize it, so they went with North America in the traditional orientation to REALLY hammer home that "THIS IS EARTH!!!!!!!!!".

[Werthead]

The final shot didn't fit in with the 'reality' of BSG at all. OTOH, the entire last ten minutes felt like a completely different show altogether, with totally different music and that very weird conversation between the Penultimate Four, so in that context it worked.

And it was Starbuck. The real question is that is she back in the flesh or is she now Head-Starbuck? Which would be irritating. Two head-characters are too many as it is (even though we don't see HeadBaltar very often) and I think more would just be being weird for the sake of being weird.

As for America, yeah, RDM said this in the Q&A podcast. They were going to show Africa, then Africa upside down, until he came to his senses and realised that Middle America wouldn't even recognise Africa. I thought he was being cruel, then remembered one of the American news programmes (ABC, IIRC) trawling the streets of New York asking people to point to Iraq on a map and less than half the people getting it right.

[Lord Qyburn]

Fucking bigots.

[Calibandar]

The good folk at Inchoatus have written an essay om the current status of BSG, which is always interesting to read:

http://www.inchoatus.com/Critical%20Essays...ersus%20Art.htm

[oneeye]

I think the prequel movie will rock,

not feeling so confident about season 4 alas

[Werthead]

Vaguely interesting but it's a bit weird (as Inchoatus get when examining films and TV). They list their 'favourite moments' of the show and we're supposed to take note of the fact that none of them are from Season 3. Yet most fans here, on the SF Official Forum, on Beyond the Red Line and on Ragnar Anchorage pretty much mostly agree that Exodus Part 2 is one of the best episodes in the series (if not the best) and the Galactica's atmospheric drop and the Pegasus' taking down two basestars are two of the finest images in the show. So it's a bit strange as an argument to take.

Most of their other arguments do have merits: Sharon's admission there are 8 Cylons in the fleet is never followed up on. The Cylon Detector kind of dropped off the radar in Season 2 (although Baltar telling Tigh that it wasn't working after Boomer was exposed as a Cylon was a good enough wrap-up to the storyline for me). The Penultimate Four is also a worthwhile point, but it's not 'unsupportable' as we haven't seen them try to support it yet, and won't for a year.

Finally, they go on and on about the 'failure' of Lost when the last 7-8 episodes of Lost have pretty much wrenched the storyline back on track and restored some (though not all) of the declined faith in the show. Their comparison to The X-Files is well-taken, but their surreal suggestion that BSG should adopt the 24/Heroes model of single seasons following single storylines and then start over again is nonsensical as they just said that BSG's existing system, wherein 3-4 episode-long arcs are followed sequentially, is inherently flawed. How does changing that to a 20-episode-long arc help?

[Werthead]

Interesting interview with RDM here. A major plot point for Season 4 is revealed though:

SPOILER: BSG

Starbuck is not a Head-Starbuck-style vision thing in Lee's head. That suggests she's really there.

He also reveals that the Pegasus movie is going to have a huge budget which is more than is usually spent on the episodic show. Again, he reiterates that Season 4 could be the last but no final decision has been made yet.

[Lord of Oop North]

The TV Movie sounds great. I can't wait to see the Pegasus and her civilian fleet and watch Cain go all fascist-crazy.

[Kalbear]

Most of their other arguments do have merits: Sharon's admission there are 8 Cylons in the fleet is never followed up on.

Why would it be? We know who the 8 people were: they were D'Annas and Cavils. When they landed on NC, all of them were revealed in time anyway. I don't know why this is an issue; the information became irrelevant and it's not clear whether Boomer was lying anyway.

The Cylon Detector kind of dropped off the radar in Season 2 (although Baltar telling Tigh that it wasn't working after Boomer was exposed as a Cylon was a good enough wrap-up to the storyline for me).

Uh, didn't they kind of use the fuel needed for the detector to blow up Cloud Nine? That seems a good resolution to me.

The Penultimate Four is also a worthwhile point, but it's not 'unsupportable' as we haven't seen them try to support it yet, and won't for a year.

Yeah, it turns a lot of things on their heads, but it doesn't mean it's inherently flawed.

BSG has had a lot of problems in the last year, but none of those are what I'd call an issue.

[Sad King Billy]

A question concerning the last Cylon: is She supposed to be the Cylon God or merely Her High Priest?

[Werthead]

Why would it be? We know who the 8 people were: they were D'Annas and Cavils. When they landed on NC, all of them were revealed in time anyway. I don't know why this is an issue; the information became irrelevant and it's not clear whether Boomer was lying anyway. Uh, didn't they kind of use the fuel needed for the detector to blow up Cloud Nine? That seems a good resolution to me. Yeah, it turns a lot of things on their heads, but it doesn't mean it's inherently flawed.

Well, there was a slight problem with there being eight Cylons in the fleet when only seven models are available to pick.* They would have to double up on someone. D'Anna was in a fairly prominent position so a double of hers would be exposed. Leoben, Doran and Six are known Cylon agents by that point, but perhaps with some hair styling or something they could pass undetected (as Gina did).

* Unless Boomer was subliminally aware - somehow - of the Penultimate Four. That would explain her being drawn to Tyrol and that would also make the count much easier: The Four + Cavill + D'Anna + Boomer + 1 other (probably a Simon).

And, naturally, Boomer could have lied on the spot just to save Tyrol. And it is irrelevant now, thanks to New Caprica.

As for the Cloud Nine, that's a good point but that was months after the Cylon Detector stopped being mentioned. As I said, I thought the Tigh/Baltar scene in Season 2, Ep 4 actually cleared up the whole Detector storyline quite nicely.

[Kalbear]

Well, there was a slight problem with there being eight Cylons in the fleet when only seven models are available to pick.* They would have to double up on someone. D'Anna was in a fairly prominent position so a double of hers would be exposed. Leoben, Doran and Six are known Cylon agents by that point, but perhaps with some hair styling or something they could pass undetected (as Gina did).

I figured on multiple Cavils. Really, it wouldn't be that hard for another cylon to hide somewhere and be low profile. Even if they looked like Six.

Anyway, I always figured it was some Cavils, Simons and maybe some other model, just hiding out and playing for time. And that assumes, once again, that Boomer was actually telling the truth.

[Werthead]

Agreed. I only said Simon as at that point we hadn't seen a Simon amongst the fleet (we never did, actually, until New Caprica) so it would be logical one would be placed there.

[Brude]

I finally just watched the last two episodes of the season - had them on DVR all this time, finally got to them.

Anyway, the last episode was a serious mind-fuck. I'm trying to reconcile the whole "we don't talk about the other five" comment by one of the Sixes and us now learning who 4 of these 5 are. (Also, do we know if the last one is a male or female?)

My pet theory of the moment is that there was a sort of schism between the 7 and 5 - it's quite possible the 5 are working to protect the humans and so infiltrated some of their own to help them. Looking at what all of these four have done so far and it's hard to imagine them as total sleepers the way Boomer was. She started switching into 'evil' Cylon mode right away. There's something very different about these 4 and even with their newfound revelation about themselves, they seem to have no inclination to do anything but fight for the humans.

Trying to figure out how Tigh could be a Cylon is a bit difficult. I mean, he's been around a LONG time - Adama's known him for, what, 20 years? I suppose if the Cylons first started making the fleshy models that long ago he could have been vat-grown way back when and infiltrated into society that early. I don't know. Of all of them he's the hardest to swallow/believe for so many reasons. I hope it gets explained.

[Brude]

The final "cylon" has to be Starbuck.

It would go a long way to explaining why she's such a physical specimin not just in terms of looks but that she's the best at everything she does physically, better than most men, even.