Battlestar Galactica 2/25/05 SPOILERS!

[Wormwood]

The Starbuck doing everything thing doesn't bug me so much once you realize that there's only 50,000 people in the whole fleet. There just isn't much to choose from. And Starbuck is off active duty anyway, so she's not taking anything away from flight patrols, etc.

Good point.

I'm just sensitive to the Data/Seven of Nine effect.

 

[Truth Seeker]

I'm surprised no one else had started this thread

:\ Sorry...my job site had a flood. Will be back to posting the setup threads, next friday. But anyway, that was one heck of a mind trip. In the end, the whole experience, made Starbuck revisited her faith. Just incredible.

Now the Pres, has doubts about Amada.

Boomer #2 is a Cylon

Boomer #1 is becoming too human?

Baltar is a man caught in the traps, and he is surviving by pure luck.

Model 6 in the fleet, was surprised, to find out, that Boomer #2 is a Cylon, don't believe me, review the tape or disk, and watch that scene again. She didn't know at all.

 

[Krieg]

The Starbuck doing everything thing doesn't bug me so much once you realize that there's only 50,000 people in the whole fleet. There just isn't much to choose from. And Starbuck is off active duty anyway, so she's not taking anything away from flight patrols, etc.

The "she's the best sniper in the fleet" bit was still so far beyond lame to not even be funny.

 

[Falanor]

The "she's the best sniper in the fleet" bit was still so far beyond lame to not even be funny.

Actually if you think about it, pilots might be some of the best shots around, requirement for great eye sight, ability to hit targets moving at incredible speeds, etc. As far as her being the best interrogator, I don't think that's what they were going for, I think its more along the lines that they have her on inactive duty and Adama trusts her a great deal to do what he wants her to do. Tigh might have just ended up shooting the damn Cylon, much less try to get philosophical with it. Gaeta doesn't really strike me as a character that is ruthless enough to be good at torture/interrogation. Though it would have been interesting to see Lee go at the thing, though him being the second best pilot (I still think he and Starbuck might be tied for the position) and still on active duty he has other things he must perform before spending all of his active duty interrogating some prisoner.

I remember a mention someplace of the colonists worshipping the Greek Pantheon, but there had really been no mention of it until this episode.

It was in the Hatch episode that I first recall them mentioning the Greek thing, Hatch's character tells Lee that he must be a special man to be named after a Lord of Kobol reffering to Apollo as a god and son of Zeus.

 

[Krieg]

Actually if you think about it, pilots might be some of the best shots around, requirement for great eye sight, ability to hit targets moving at incredible speeds, etc.

They're not.

The skillsets do not directly translate.

Furthermore the skills held by snipers are very specialized and not generally practiced by competent marksman. There are very few HOGs out there.

As I mentioned a lot of it has to do with the limitations of how TV shows are done so I understand why it was done. From a professional standpoint it just really tears at the suspension of disbelief.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Amen, Krieg. Hitting a target from an aircraft will a fire control <> stalking and hitting a target with a precision firearm.

Enjoyed the episode, but I'd like to get out of everyone's heads for an eposide, launch some Vipers, and smoke some Cylons.

Was this the first time Earth has been mentioned? I though that Earth wasn't going to play a part in this version of the series. But from the Cylon's ramblings, I guess we're going to see the Kobol episode from the original series, and Earth will become an element ...

 

[Wormwood]

Was this the first time Earth has been mentioned?.

Actually, it was mentioned in Adama's locker-room speech in the Mini Series. He informs the everyone that he knows the location of Earth (informatiojn known only to the President and the most senior military officials).

Thereafter, Earth is a symbol of hope.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

The "she's the best sniper in the fleet" bit was still so far beyond lame to not even be funny.

I don't think that's what was said.

What was said (I think) is she's the best shot in the fleet. Again - there's not much competition. It's quite likely there is absolutely no one with sniper training in the entire fleet - there are only a couple dozen pilots! They took the "best shot", and gave her a sniper rifle because she was all they had.

Of course, its also because there's a dramatic value to having her be the one with the rifle.

How many trained snipers are there in the US military? Divide the population of the US by that number - and is the number less than 50,000? I'm guessing not.

 

[drothgery]

How many trained snipers are there in the US military? Divide the population of the US by that number - and is the number less than 50,000? I'm guessing not.

It's definitely not; I have no idea how many trained snipers there are in the US military, but I'd guess less than 6000 (about the number you'd need to assume one in a random group of 50,000 Americans). Of course, the present-day US military is quite small for a major military power with a population that the US has (a little less than 300 million).

EDIT: My guess was quite wrong, suprisingly (see below); over 8,000 trained snipers in 1.5 million-man armed force is quite a bit more than I would have guessed.

 

[Krieg]

What was said (I think) is she's the best shot in the fleet. Again - there's not much competition. It's quite likely there is absolutely no one with sniper training in the entire fleet - there are only a couple dozen pilots! They took the "best shot", and gave her a sniper rifle because she was all they had.

Take every pilot/aviator in the AF & Navy and a random group of fifty Marines.

If your life was dependent on an individual putting a round on target, on which group would you be willing to bet your life on?

Of course, its also because there's a dramatic value to having her be the one with the rifle.

No it is because she one of the primary characters and the focus is going to be on her (and Boomer, Adama x2, Gaius, the Chief etc) regardless of the situation.

There is no need to go to ridiculous lengths to justify the decision to feature Kara, it is nothing more than a result of the limitations of TV.

How many trained snipers are there in the US military? Divide the population of the US by that number - and is the number less than 50,000? I'm guessing not.

Irrelevant analogy. The real question would be how many snipers there are on the USS Nimitz right now.

We are not talking about a random sampling of humanity here, the presence of several thousand military personnel greatly skews the statistics.