BattleStar Galactica:Season 3.5--3/25/07--Arc 20 (Season Conclusion)

[Mr. Patient]

As you will note from RD Moore's interview on this subject (link to above) - the four revealed Cylons are most definitely "full" cylons. They just happen to be fundamentally different from the seven known models. The five are unique - and they don't quite work the same way or play by the same rules.

Yep, read that after I posted. Obviously, we won't know how well it works as a story until next year, but right now I find that information very disappointing.

 

[Mr. Patient]

Yeah, but everyone knows she loves Baltar, so her testimony in his defense on that matter wouldn't have been worth much. To the contrary, really, if I was Badger I sure as heck wouldn't want a Cylon coming to the defense of my client.

Considering they offered no defense at all except for Lee's grand speech, I can't imagine how it would have been any worse. Caprica Six, Baltar, and Gaeta are the only people aboard the fleet who could actually testify to Baltar's willingness to collaborate, and all three would actually be exculpatory, if they told the truth (I think it was a disservice to Gaeta's character to have him lie like that, but that's neither here nor there). Roslin and Tigh's testimony was just theater, with zero relevance to anyone's guilt.

There were compelling moments in the trial, to be sure (Lee's speech, mainly), but at no point did the prosecution or the defense actually seem to be presenting a case, nor were the judges really trying one. It was simply a plot device.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Is it Starbuck or is it Baltar?

I think it pretty much has to be Starbuck. How else could she have survived? Of course I ask that knowing that it could have been the ship of lights or some other prior unseen force.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Considering they offered no defense at all except for Lee's grand speech, I can't imagine how it would have been any worse. Caprica Six, Baltar, and Gaeta are the only people aboard the fleet who could actually testify to Baltar's willingness to collaborate, and all three would actually be exculpatory, if they told the truth (I think it was a disservice to Gaeta's character to have him lie like that, but that's neither here nor there).

The defense *did* present a defense of Baltar... he was stupid and made mistakes Seriously, Lampkin's opening argument (in part I) and Lee's ending speech (which I still don't get why it wasn't just a closing argument... maybe played up for the drama of him possibly testifying against his father?) were really about the questionable and unjust premise for having the trial *at all*. I thought it was done well enough.

And Felix's perjury? He had tried to kill Baltar in his cell when he knew he was on camera! ("It's no secret this man tried to stab me through the neck -- and you missed! Butterfingers!" ) Felix has been made very bitter by the pressures of being the mole on New Caprica and then nearly being executed as a traitor once back on board Galactica. He's not the same character we knew last season, but his transformation has been understandable and not neccessarily out of character.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Great episode. I enjoyed it. A good resolution to Baltar's case, and a great cliffhanger for a new season.
We have a lot of material to speculate and theorize about, but will it sustain us until next year?

I liked the music - it was (as so often) different from what we usually hear in Sci-Fi shows. (And I liked the return of the opera house music)


And on a totally unrelated note and as a unqualified statement: Rekha Sharma is hot.

 

[Mark CMG]

Tyrol, Tigh, Tory, and Sam Anders. I don't think they are actually Cylons, myself, but they think they are.

I believe it. I think they are "good" cylons. Ones that do not hate humanity.

The Final Cylon, the Fifth has been deliberately left open by last night's events. Fundamentally, the viewer is left with a choice:

Is it Starbuck or is it Baltar?

I think it is Roslin.

And on a totally unrelated note and as a unqualified statement: Rekha Sharma is hot.

It needed to be said.

 

[Mr. Patient]

The defense *did* present a defense of Baltar... he was stupid and made mistakes Seriously, Lampkin's opening argument (in part I) and Lee's ending speech (which I still don't get why it wasn't just a closing argument... maybe played up for the drama of him possibly testifying against his father?) were really about the questionable and unjust premise for having the trial *at all*. I thought it was done well enough.

I agree with you that as dramatic devices, the opening and sort-of-closing statements were effective and interesting. But I think the whole thing was sloppily-written as an actual trial. I'm not watching the show as a legal drama, so it's not the end of the world, but it was really quite amateurish.

And Felix's perjury? He had tried to kill Baltar in his cell when he knew he was on camera!

Fair enough. I'd actually forgotten about that. Still, he probably would have wilted on the cross-examination .

 

[Kobold Avenger]

If the music did come from radio waves, then it's likely it took a 1000 years to get there to the Ionian Nebula...

Now if Tigh's a cylon, then he's a self-destructive alcoholic robot. Then perhaps he's related to a certain Mexican made alcoholic robot from the 31st century who works for a courier company from New New York...

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Still, he probably would have wilted on the cross-examination .

I doubt it. He did not break under the Cylons but at personal risk helped the resistance. When Tight, Kara and Tyrol were about to blow him out an air lock, he refused to beg for his life.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

If the music did come from radio waves, then it's likely it took a 1000 years to get there to the Ionian Nebula...

Which nebula is closest to Earth anyway? That was the curious thing about seeing the Apollo Landing in the first series and maybe a radio signal here, the way it more or less fixes the ship at a particular distance from the Earth.