BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: Season 2A Part 10; NSCR/9.23.2005. Mid-Season Ending

[Volaran]

I haven't seen the thread yet, and this may be a bit off topic.

A friend was asking why an Admiral, a flag officer would be in charge of a Battlestar. Is it possible this is normal? I'm no expert on military ranks, but it seems like they use army ranking up to the point of Colonel, then go on to Commander and Admiral. Is Commander perhaps the lowest flag rank, like Commodore is in some navies? If there were only twelve battlestars, originally, it seems like it would make sense for flag officers to command them.

Any thoughts, or am I crazy?

 

[wingsandsword]

Wow, just wow.

An unanswered question, how did Pegasus and its flight compliment avoid the CNP virus that destroyed the entire Colonial fleet? It was setting in for an overhaul, perhaps it was being implimented then?

Well, we know the details of the Cylon fleet that is following Galactica. Two Base Stars, about a dozen support ships, and some mysterious super-ship. Personally, I suspect the super-ship might be a colonization ship, for when the Galactica finds Earth, the Cylons want to land. Or as was noted, it could be a factory ship to keep rebuilding the Cylon fleet, or some form of super-base-star that might even be a flagship of the entire Cylon race.

I would ask why the President wouldn't just relieve Cain of command (or immediately pardon Tyrol and Helo), as the President, but she probably doesn't know she can do that, but Cain appears to not recognize her as the legitimate President (as she noted that Cain wasn't returning her calls, and seemed openly dubious of her status). At best it would give legal weight to Adamas actions, but as has been shown before, Adama is willing to disregard the law to do what he thinks is right, for better or worse.

They did a good job at making the Pegasus crew look more inhuman, heartless and outright evil than the Cylons, and that's pretty tall task. If most of the Colonial fleet was like Pegasus, we should be cheering for the "More human than human" Cylons.

Cain is a bloodthirsty *****: she shot her own XO in the CIC (instead of relieving him of his position), and her own marines have shot 7 crewmen since the Cylon Holocaust. They are already losing well more than one crewman a month just from being executed, that is utterly insane. Since the Pegasus has fewer crew than Galactica (only around 1000) and Galactica was already on a skeleton crew, how long could this even hold up before they were running out of qualified crew?

In its own way, this really is a dark mirror of the Original Series episode that inspired it "The Living Legend", where Galactica finds Pegasus and the two Battlestar crews and commanders don't mix well. However, instead of teaming up to take on a major Cylon base, they end up with guns pointed at each other.

It's pretty crystal clear that Cain isn't going to last (if nothing else, the dramatic structure of the show and her billing as a guest star indicate that). Whether she gets fragged by her own officers, shot by Pegasus-6 or Boomer. When Original Series Cain was believed dead (the end made it ambiguous if Pegasus was destroyed or made an FTL jump at the last moment), it was a moment of sorrow. When Admiral Cain dies, it will be a moment of relief.

It is possible that Cain could die, but Pegasus survive (or most of its crew and craft compliment at least) and its crew and equipment be integrated with Galactica. Definitely be a little harsh to blend the two highly disparate groups, but it would provide a nice answer to the low Viper supply, and if it survived a second Battlestar could make for some interesting combat options (being able to have one Battlestar escort the fleet, while the other harries the Cylons). In original Galactica, when they encountered the Pegasus it was a chance to bring on new crew and a way to introduce new cast members, but nobody (except the engineer) from Pegasus seemed like anybody who would fit in on the show.

 

[Lord Wyrm]

I haven't seen the thread yet, and this may be a bit off topic.

A friend was asking why an Admiral, a flag officer would be in charge of a Battlestar. Is it possible this is normal? I'm no expert on military ranks, but it seems like they use army ranking up to the point of Colonel, then go on to Commander and Admiral. Is Commander perhaps the lowest flag rank, like Commodore is in some navies? If there were only twelve battlestars, originally, it seems like it would make sense for flag officers to command them.

Any thoughts, or am I crazy?

Let's remember Galactica is an older ship, hence a lower ranking officer as the Captain is not unusual. Adama is only two grades lower than the Admiral so thats not far off. Also Adama is an older individual and they usually get the good assignments.

Somewhat more on topic: Is it possible to launch oneselfinto a sugar based coma and wakeup January 1st?

 

[Eosin the Red]

Wow, man. Just wow..... Them is some barbaric SOBs. We have seen torture of a cylon before and he just sat there and took it... How much would it take to break 6 like they did?

 

[Truth Seeker]

Let's remember Galactica is an older ship, hence a lower ranking officer as the Captain is not unusual. Adama is only two grades lower than the Admiral so thats not far off. Also Adama is an older individual and they usually get the good assignments.

Somewhat more on topic: Is it possible to launch oneselfinto a sugar based coma and wakeup January 1st?

Hmmmm, just, just *looking at the hiberation chamber*

 

[wingsandsword]

Let's remember Galactica is an older ship, hence a lower ranking officer as the Captain is not unusual. Adama is only two grades lower than the Admiral so thats not far off. Also Adama is an older individual and they usually get the good assignments.

I'm listening to the podcast commentary now, there was a cut scene where it says that Admiral is one grade directly above Commander. Commander is apparently equivalent to Commodore or one-star Rear Admiral, while Admiral refers to the higher flag ranks.

Apparently the episode, as originally intended, ran 15 minutes over, and they almost made it into a 90 minute episode but it was just a little too short, so they trimmed what they could to get the slightly elongated broadcast cut, and that the 2nd Season DVD will have the extended 75 minute cut of the episode.

In answering to my own query, the podcast makes it clear (it was explained in a cut scene) that Pegasus survived the CNP problem because most of its computers were offline for the refit, and since it survived the first strike and the blind jump, they were able to figure out that the CNP was a trap and disable it.

There was also a cut scene where apparently the fleet was refusing to resupply Pegasus since Pegasus was not providing aid to the fleet, where Roslin confronts Cain and demands Pegasus provide aid to the fleet, where Cain outright says that she doesn't recognize her as president and thus not her presidential orders, as far as she's concerned the civilian government doesn't exist anymore and she's the sole goverment of the human race.

In the uncut version, there was even more tension between the crews as they mixed.

They almost made the engineer a Scotty homage, but decided not to. James Doohan died when the episode was under production, and having the Pegasus having an engineer who was a pseudo-Scottish mechanical genius almost made it to screen as a tribute.

Cains style of command (or at least certain specific quirks) was apparently inspired by a certain real-world political figure known for being abusive to subordinates.

Yes, Starbuck's flight in the stealth fighter will apparently be key in what happens in part 2.

 

[Lord Wyrm]

there was a cut scene where it says that Admiral is one grade directly above Commander. Commander is apparently equivalent to Commodore or one-star Rear Admiral, while Admiral refers to the higher flag ranks.

Sorry, my comment was based on the Naval Ranks of the US. I'm kinda rusty on them as well, though I know my AF ranks real good.

 

[sensate]

Well that is an interesting interogation technique.

It is called rape and I think to call it just interesting is too flippant for such a violent act. Why don't you try imagining it happening to your mother or your sister and then tell us how interesting you think it is.

 

[John Crichton]

It is called rape and I think to call it just interesting is too flippant for such a violent act. Why don't you try imagining it happening to your mother or your sister and then tell us how interesting you think it is.

Or we could all just remember that this is a show, not real and hope that those terrible things NEVER happen to any of our loved ones or anyone that we will ever meet.

 

[John Crichton]

Good ep. I certainly had my fist in the position of defiance when the "to be continued" flashed across the bottom of my screen. I've respected this series from the start, which was unexpected. I've always enjoyed the dark tone that it kept. I've always felt that in order to experience incredible highs, we must do the same for the lows and the good programs do that. They don't cheese out and try to manufacture rage, joy or anything in between out of nothing.

As that relates to this episode - there was a nice sheen of resentment over the whole thing. Both Adama and Roslin have become comfortable in their current roles and from an outsider's view things may look lax and sloppy (which they were). Even with the joyful moments, the upbeat music and the cheering on deck a pall hung over the whole thing. And add to it, no character named Cain has ever (okay, maybe not ever - I haven't watched and read everything but you get the notion) been on the up and up within this genre. Cain's demeanor was never kind or sympathetic and not for one minute did I believe that she wouldn't or didn't execute an officer who defied her orders. Adama and his are in for a world of hurt.

Pegasus-Six is an interesting twist. She was obviously brutalized in every way possible, I don't think we need to get into details. When Sci-Fi ran the "Adult Material Alert!" before that segment it was quite obvious that we were going to see something sexual in nature. They showed just enough to make you hate the interrogator even more and to route for the would-be rescuers. The interaction with Baltar is something I'm looking forward to. But not as much as...

Starbuck! Just can't keep the girl down. She was wrong to talk up the way she did in the briefing but it's her way so I can't fault her for that. I would have thrown her off the mission as well. The right move would have been to somehow bring up the record of her brilliant attack plan against the mining base in S1. Oh well, she's not a scalpel, she's a sledgehammer. I'm really looking forward to seeing her in the cockpit again after a very long time off.