Battlestar Galactica: Season 4 Thread

[Werthead]

A week and a bit to go, but there may be fun ahead.

The rumoured mid-season cliffhanger has been 'spoiled', but it sounds like a foiler if I ever heard one:

SPOILER: BSG

Starbuck finds the wreckage of a Viper with - yikes! - her own body in it. She burns it to hide the evidence.

However this sounds BS as RDM said in an interview in [i]TV Guide[/i] that Starbuck is definitely not a Cylon, and neither is Adama, Lee or Roslin.

[HokieStone]

Well, I just got season 3 in the mail today...so I got some work to do in order to be ready for season 4. Actually, I know it won't happen...I'll be DVRing S4 until I finish S3.

[Wouter]

[quote name='Blanc de Wert '79' post='1289605' date='Mar 26 2008, 23.46']The rumoured mid-season cliffhanger has been 'spoiled', but it sounds like a foiler if I ever heard one:

SPOILER: BSG

Starbuck finds the wreckage of a Viper with - yikes! - her own body in it. She burns it to hide the evidence.

[/quote]
The same rumour has also circulated, but with a Raptor mentioned instead of a Viper. I also think this is an intentional foiler.

I'm worried how Moore and co are going to resolve the discrepancies between the FF and the seven though; a Cylon should be a cybernetic/artificial organism, not just some mystical reborn soul or something (then they really are not Cylons at all). Caprica-Six seems to indicate the FF "work the same" as the seven, though, so hopefully she is correct.

[Wouter]

New Roslin promo: [url="http://youtube.com/watch?v=9BEk9iMiKrk"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=9BEk9iMiKrk[/url]

Check out the locations where she is (allthough visions may be involved in the middle location, I suppose). That last one is really surprising, and there are marines visible in the background.

And another interesting teaser: [url="http://youtube.com/watch?v=T7AU3GdwVHs"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=T7AU3GdwVHs[/url]
"no one is asking anyone to forget, but we have to look to the future".

[haLobEnder]

I realize this is the season 4 thread but I just gotta' say it: after buying season 3 on DVD and getting about half-way through, I realize that it's really not as bad as I originally thought it was. I remember really hating episodes like 'Unfinished Business' when it originally aired, but upon rewatch I actually kinda', sorta' enjoyed it. I still haven't watched 'The Woman King' or anything to do with Baltar's trial, so I guess my opinion could still change, but right now I deem it the AFFC of BSG (and I quite enjoyed AFFC :P)

Regarding the spoiler/foiler:

SPOILER: BSG Season 4 + Razor

Moore said Starbuck isn't a Cylon? What is she then?

I thought the whole point of BSG: Razor was that it revealed that Starbuck couldn't be trusted. Hopefully there's still a purpose in Razor instead of it turning out to be one giant red herring.

[Crow's Eye]

[quote name='hALo BEndeR' post='1293305' date='Mar 29 2008, 20.35']I realize this is the season 4 thread but I just gotta' say it: after buying season 3 on DVD and getting about half-way through, I realize that it's really not as bad as I originally thought it was. I remember really hating episodes like 'Unfinished Business' when it originally aired, but upon rewatch I actually kinda', sorta' enjoyed it. I still haven't watched 'The Woman King' or anything to do with Baltar's trial, so I guess my opinion could still change, but right now I deem it the AFFC of BSG (and I quite enjoyed AFFC :P)[/quote]

I've found the same thing. I haven't reached the mid-season point yet, but the episodes aren't nearly as bad as I had thought. But then again, they're still a long way from the level of season 1 and 2.0. But I don't think anything will make me think the likes of the Woman King, Hero and the Adama's wife episode are anything but utter crap.

[Bronn Stone]

This is more a Season 3 comment, but the other thread closed before I finished watching the DVDs. I didn't go through all the spoiler text, but I was wondering if anyone else thought it was really stupid that they discover this magical virus that kills Cylons and doesn't harm humans and then didn't use it as the perfect Cylon detector.

The episode in question hinged on whether the humans should inflict a genocide on the Cylons, but I can't imagine anyone objecting to passing the virus around the human fleet and seeing who survived. Yet they never try.

As it turns out, the super-speshal Five could well have been immune, but there is/was no way for Adama/Roslin to know that.

[Lord of Oop North]

[quote name='Bronn Stone' post='1293380' date='Mar 29 2008, 22.33']This is more a Season 3 comment, but the other thread closed before I finished watching the DVDs. I didn't go through all the spoiler text, but I was wondering if anyone else thought it was really stupid that they discover this magical virus that kills Cylons and doesn't harm humans and then didn't use it as the perfect Cylon detector.

The episode in question hinged on whether the humans should inflict a genocide on the Cylons, but I can't imagine anyone objecting to passing the virus around the human fleet and seeing who survived. Yet they never try.

As it turns out, the super-speshal Five could well have been immune, but there is/was no way for Adama/Roslin to know that.[/quote]

Yea, that really pissed me off. I was hoping there would be an arc with the human genocide of the Cylons within the Fleet. It would have been very interesting.

For those of you that have the Season 3 DVDs, did they add any of the extra material that was cut for TV?

[Wouter]

The humans know what the seven look like; they encountered all of them daily on New Caprica. No need to use a virus to identify them. They don't know about the 5 (well, Adama himself might have an inkling because of the note in the miniseries, but Roslin doesn't know), and those may be immune tot he virus - or not.

As for whether Starbuck can be trusted, not really IMO, but that's because she's so mentally unstable at times (and she's quite often drunk as well), not because of what was said in Razor. I suspect that this sort-of prophecy may turn out to be correct, but not in the way that seems obvious (creative interpretation of "end", for example). And the one who said it may also have been lying, as far as we know.

[Werthead]

[quote]For those of you that have the Season 3 DVDs, did they add any of the extra material that was cut for TV?[/quote]

Not the Saggitarron stuff, as they only filmed that for three or four episodes before cutting it out, then removing it from the script stage of the other episodes (seriously, more than anything this is what I think fucked up Season 3).

AFAIK the only major additions are to [i]Unfinished Business[/i], which is 20 minutes longer with all the things restored about why Starbuck and Tigh are now friends and that kind of stuff. Plus there's the Resistance webisodes with extra material added, I believe.

This is on the Region 1 DVD, btw. On Region 2 we got jack and shit.

[haLobEnder]

[quote name='Mandy' post='1293675' date='Mar 30 2008, 10.20']I haven't seen Razor. Do I need to see it before I watch the next season? Anybody have a summary for me since I don't feel like paying money to see it?

Also, anyone have an actual date for the US new season start??[/quote]

I seriously doubt Razor adds very much to the S4 arch at this point. I'll leave the synopsis thing up to someone more qualified, but it doesn't take place between S3 and S4 so you should be OK. It's essentually about what life was like on the Pegasus before it met up with Galactica.

[Werthead]

[quote name='Mandy' post='1293675' date='Mar 30 2008, 16.20']I haven't seen Razor. Do I need to see it before I watch the next season? Anybody have a summary for me since I don't feel like paying money to see it?

Also, anyone have an actual date for the US new season start??[/quote]

Friday. As in this Friday, the 4th :) As in, the Friday that is actually a Saturday. Ahem.

Razor summary:

The 'present day' stuff is set between [i]The Captain's Hand[/i] and [i]Downloaded[/i] in Season 2. Lee Adama has assumed command of [i]Pegasus[/i] and appoints Lt. Kendra Shaw to be his XO. Shaw was a favourite of Cain's and Lee wants to build bridges with the crew, who think he only ended up in command thanks to daddy's favour (great line from Shaw about Adama giving Lee the keys to a shiny new battlestar). Shaw turns out to be a hardass martinet who gets the job done but doesn't give a toss about whose feelings she squashes along the way. She and Starbuck particularly don't get on. Anyway, a survery team goes missing and Adama sends [i]Pegasus[/i] after them. Surprisingly, [i]Pegasus[/i] comes under attack from some old-school Cylon Raiders from the First Cylon War. Athena (who isn't Athena by this point but you know who I mean ;) ) reports that a group of old Cylons called the Guardians broke away from the rest of the race after the armistice and now guard the First Hybrid, the results of the first Cylon experiments in taking on a humanoid appearance.

[i]Pegasus[/i] goes after the First Hybrid's command ship and engages its fighters whilst Starbuck and Kendra lead a boarding party to place a nuke on board. They rescue the missing survey team and Starbuck pulls out after Kendra is wounded. Kendra takes the nuke and confronts the Hybrid. The Hybrid then says the following:

[quote]"Soon there will be four, glorious in awakening, struggling with the knowledge of their true selves, the pain of that revelation, bringing true clarity. And amidst confusion, he will find her... Enemies brought together by the apostle, enemies now joined as one. The way forward, once impenetrable, yet inevitable. And the fifth, though still in the shadow yet clawing for the light, hungry for redemption, that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering. I can see them all, the seven, now six self-described machines who believe themselves without sin. But in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching, the agony of the one splintering into many. And then they will join in the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning.

Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end, she is the herald of the apocalypse, the harbinger of death; they must not follow her."[/quote]

This is pretty much all the stuff that ties into Season 4. Kendra tries to warn [i]Pegasus[/i] but her comms are being jammed. She then detonates the nuke and vapourises herself, the command ship, the First Hybrid and what's left of the Guardians.

Flashbacks reveal that Adama was on the [i]Galactica[/i] when it and three other battlestars ambushed several Cylon basestars at a remote ice planet. During the battle (in which we see the battlestar [i]Columbia[/i] get blown to pieces quite impressively) Adama is shot down and stumbles across the Hybrid's command ship. He sees the results of the experiments on humans to create humanoid-model Cylons (thus explaining how he knew that Leoben was a Cylon in the mini series). Shortly after the command ship leaves, the Cylons agree to the armistice and the war ends. At exactly the same moment the Cylons are assaulting Tauron and the young Cain is about to be shot dead by a Centurion when they receive the order to pull out.

The much more extensive flashback sequence follows Kendra as a rookie assigned to [i]Pegasus[/i] on the day of the attack. Cain takes the piss out of her a lot but Kendra pulls it together when the Cylons assault the Scorpio Fleet Shipyards and is able to jump the ship to safety. We see Cain unravel as her XO disobeys a direct order and she shoots him in the face, and then when it is revealed that her lover, Gina, is a Cylon agent.

Think that covers about everything ;)

[HokieStone]

So I'm halfway or so through season 3 now...I just finished the big "boxing match" episode. One thing that's really jumped out at me - do the writers have any clue about military ranks? The rank structure seems to be a mix of American Army, Air Force and Marines (Lieutenant up to Colonel) and then switch to Navy ranks (Commander and then Admiral). In any case, the things that have popped out at me - how in the world did Helo and Dualla become XOs of the Galactica and Pegasus, respectively? That's quite a jump for a guy that was a RIO and a communications officer.

The other weird rank thing that jumped out was in the episode "Hero" where the lost pilot returns. Adama (and Tigh, for that matter) greets him like an old friend. The guy calls Adama by his first name, "Bill". And yet they refer to him as "Lieutenant Novacek". I doubt a Lieutenant would be given the stealth mission he was on, and I know a LT wouldn't be on a first-name basis with an Admiral (or even a Commander, which was Adama's rank when he left on his mission).

Minor nitpick stuff, I guess...but it's been bugging me as I work my way through the 3rd season. Well, that and Adama smoking weed in the flashbacks of the boxing episode...just seemed out of his character.

[Lord of Oop North]

Hokiestone,

Why do the ranks of a fictional space navy have to correspond to modern military usage?

[Werthead]

They inherited the rank structure from the 1970s [b]BSG[/b], which was not known for its consistency in such matters ;)

[Jaxom 1974]

Idle question regarding the four recently revealed cylons: Do the cylons themselves (not those four, the others, the Sixes and Boomers of the world et al) not know what all their models look like...? Trying to figure that one out...

[Paddy]

[quote name='Jaxom 1974' post='1294506' date='Mar 31 2008, 14.26']Idle question regarding the four recently revealed cylons: Do the cylons themselves (not those four, the others, the Sixes and Boomers of the world et al) not know what all their models look like...? Trying to figure that one out...[/quote]
I'm pretty sure they dont, seeing as how important the temple of the five was and how awed the Number Three was when it saw who the final Five were.

[Sad King Billy]

[quote name='Cocomaan' post='1294517' date='Mar 31 2008, 14.38']Best episode of season three (besides the first 4) was the one written by Adama, and its name is escaping me right now. Brilliant, brilliant writing. Brought me back to the first season.[/quote]
[i][b]Taking a Break from All Your Worries;


[/b][/i]Where they pull a hallucinogenic interrogation technique out of their arse... (where else can it come from?)[i][b] [/b][/i]

[Sad King Billy]

[quote name='Cocomaan' post='1294647' date='Mar 31 2008, 15.53']Don't see how that's any greater leap in logic than:
- virus infecting Cylons
- People who fought cylons being cylons
- People who died coming back to life
- ect[/quote]
It ain't. Just means that they've got a big arse...

[Guest Domaine Raidneé]

I actually watched the recaps on Sci Fi. They completely avoided most of the total garbage that's gone on for the last couple of seasons. Trial? What trial? It's like none of it ever happened. The plot arc that's presented is just the cylons attacked the colonies; the Galactica (a battleship about to be decommissioned) fled, they decided to search for earth; they found a planet that could support human life and settled there until the cylons discovered them; Starbuck and Lee married other people; the fleet returned and rescued everyone; Starbuck died and returns and tells everyone she knows the way to earth.

From the commentary, it's pretty clear that

SPOILER: potential spoiler from Revealed

that Starbuck [i]did[/i] really die, but is also somehow really back. It also seems like she's [i]not[/i] a Cylon.

Don't know how that could be, but there it is.