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

[Mr. Patient]

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.

Right, which is why I originally thought his testimony was really out of character. Perhaps under a cross-examination, he'd demonstrate the personal integrity that led him to do these things (and, to cite another example, blow the whistle on the vote fraud), and admit that he did not personally witness Baltar signing the document (IIRC). Not very many people can convincingly lie when asked a direct question.

 

[Fast Learner]

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

Very, very, very much so.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I think the four are definitely Cylons (the "on switch moment" I thikn is too clear to be a mistake), and I think #5 is Kara.

But I thikn they are "good" Cylons, and next season they and their giant fleet will lead the humans to temporary refuge. Meanwhile Baltar, six, and the child walk a path to a third destiny.

And I think the beings of light are a red herring. There's enough complexity in the story, and enough options, without introducing a third force.

 

[Sir Brennen]

One interesting thing to note, the four cylons revealed were all leaders in the insurgency on New Caprica. Seems like they may be there specifically to counter the seven other models, doing so even when they did not realize who they were.

Ron Moore said in one of the interviews I read online that it may be a while before we know who exactly the 5th is. Many people are assuming Starbuck. I think it would be interesting if it turns out to be Gaeta, given his role in the insurgency and hatred of Baltar, who *has* been helping the cylons, after all.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Ron Moore said in one of the interviews I read online that it may be a while before we know who exactly the 5th is.

It might be Adama senior after all. That way they could explain their long friendship, both having troubled marriages, the way Adama overlooks Tigh's problems, that they can vouch for each other during the First Cylon War and so on. By now we know other Cylons can have children - Tyrol did - so Adama could have as well. And Leoban said "Adama is a Cylon" way back when. Despite that, Adama is still the one we least suspect... which makes him very likely.

 

[andargor]

About the ships going offline all at once, wasn't that an effect of Count Iblis?

From the Wikipedia entry:

(...) several mysteries surround him - he is very elusive about his background, speaking only vaguely about being pursued by "enemies", he objects to having medical scans taken of him, and when he walks on the bridge nearby instruments go off-line.

But there also this mention at the bottom:

Count Iblis is not part of the 2003 remake of Battlestar Galactica. Although rumours continue to circulate within fan circles about possible roles Iblis could play, producer Ronald D. Moore, states that it is doubtful given the new theological format that he created for the reimagined show.

So, kind of conflicting messages about the ships of light being in or out of the picture, so to speak.

 

[Steel_Wind]

About the ships going offline all at once, wasn't that an effect of Count Iblis?

Iblis made equipment in his immediate vicinity - we're talking a 5 meter radius - stop working properly. That would differ from, say, a 2km radius by a factor of 400 or so (or by volume, ~50,000 )

Wee over the top for Iblis I think - but in a stretch, sure

Could be these "Beings of Light" - and could be a virus triggered by one of the Tighlons, too.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I think the four are definitely Cylons (the "on switch moment" I thikn is too clear to be a mistake), and I think #5 is Kara.

But I thikn they are "good" Cylons, and next season they and their giant fleet will lead the humans to temporary refuge. Meanwhile Baltar, six, and the child walk a path to a third destiny.

Of course, it could be that these Final Five pseudo Cylons are not "Cylons" at all, but the remnants of the "proto-Cylons" who left Kobol for Earth.

There they stood to guard it and keep it safe until humanity returned. And when they die - that's where their consciousness downloads to...

And that's how Kara ended up on Earth. She's one of Isaac Asimov's guardian androids.

Meh. Doesn't explain the Viper at all though.

I can't say as I was a fan of this whole courtroom drama piece. It was too over the top and unbelievable. I'm a lawyer - it was insulting.

I'm guessing if I was a BSG writer and proposed turned a jet fighter pilot into a ASC film editor and exec producer with 12 minutes of training and "pondering what it means to be a film editor" for all of three craps while sitting on the can, RDM and David Eick might be a little insulted by the notion too.

That said, the final 12 minutes was pretty good, and Saul Tigh's incredulous "woooooah" when he walked into the room as the fourth Cylon was my favorite moment from the series. Michael Hogan owned that scene.

"Dead bolt that frrrakin hatch!"

 

[satori01]

Couldn't Cylon be the old name of those that worship the god that must not be named? Were the 5 priests of that god Cylons...in the mechanical sense...even back in the days of Kobol?
I hope the mystery is deeper than that.

Characterization wise...the show is losing me. I've found most of the drama queen interactions this season to be insipid. Overall it has felt sophomoric, the writing and the acting are trying to convey these grand themes, these gut wrenching moments of 'real life' and it falls short, way to short.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Couldn't Cylon be the old name of those that worship the god that must not be named? Were the 5 priests of that god Cylons...in the mechanical sense...even back in the days of Kobol?
I hope the mystery is deeper than that.

Characterization wise...the show is losing me. I've found most of the drama queen interactions this season to be insipid. Overall it has felt sophomoric, the writing and the acting are trying to convey these grand themes, these gut wrenching moments of 'real life' and it falls short, way to short.

Honestly? The series was fine this year up to the end of Ep 5:Collaborators. At that point, the series was as good as it had ever been.

But the problem was Iraq war parallels and that not sitting too well with a lot of American fans. America's not much for self-criticism during a war - and that's a fact. The show bled audience and lost half their viewers over the run of those first five episodes.

It was a continuous claw back to try and keep the show alive. We got insipid one-offs as they abandoned the mythos episodes in an attempt to attract new viewers throughout the second half of Season three.

There are a couple of good and and a couple of bad one-offs up until Eye of Jupiter and Rapture.

Eye of Jupiter plot aside, the show then spirals into pretty much awful SF television for the rest of the season as the series circles the bowl until the final 12 minutes of Crossroads Part2.

What did we get instead of Cylons and Mythos - and god forbid - story development? We got a Lee Adama and Starbuck love quadrangle. It stank.

It's ratings. Had they not gone down and had they gone up, we would have got a LOT more mythos episodes in the final half of the season and things would have gone better, if not positively swimmingly.

The jump to Sunday adds a lot of viewers back and a few one-offs attract enough eyeballs to get a season renewal.

Then, after Starbuck is killed in a brash publicity stunt wtf not moment by RDM, BSG jumps the shark.

Contrast this with Heroes. Heroes stumbles a bit out of the gate, ratings wise but it's not bad. NBC thinks as long as people see it - they'll be hooked. NBC then gambles and re-runs eps 1-4 on a Sunday night in prime time, and carries on with ep 5 the next day. The show takes off - ratings zoom up and the show never looks back.

Script wise with Heroes we get the pure opposite of BSG. No one-offs. Pure story the whole way through. And they even avoid the Lost nonsense and reveal large plot elements to the viewer as well. The viewer is there for the story and it develops.

In Heroes you get story plus character development and it works; In BSG, you get this ratings backtrack and they desperately move away from story + character dev. Instead, they sidetrack to pure character dev in multiple one-offs and the season largely tanks after a promising beginning.

Sad.