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

[Diamond Cross]

I thinkm the power outage was just an effect of the nebula itself, not by other means.

Also, in the very beginning Six said that there were Cylons in so deep that they didn'[t know they were Cylons.

 

[satori01]

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.

The first 5 episodes had plot, when the show has plot, the silliness of the characters is mitigated.... when the show becomes focused on 'Human Drama' the weaknesses really shine.

Interesting theory on the loss of viewership. Did the ratings decline in Canada and the UK as well as the US? If ratings as a whole declined in all 3 nations, it shoots a hole in your theory.

In some ways the gamble that BSG took with New Caprica was flawed.
I like change, and while I was ambivalent about the planet at first, it grew on me. The whole reason for my liking the show in the first place was it took risks, was gritty, and on an elemental level I like the pretty light shows when the Battlestars and Basestars fight

Of course all of the 'change' that went on was reversed. Pegasus was sacrificed, Roslyn became President again, everyone returned to their own ranks. Moore introduced all of this change, and then brought it back again thinking the journey would be worth it, and it wasnt.

Star Trek style TV is dead. Episodes can not exist in a vacuum, the show needs to breathe and change. You are a 100% correct on why Heroes is working and BSG just is not right now.

 

[DonTadow]

This episode blended the entire series nicely, especially those last 15 minutes. I don't like waiting a year between seasons.

 

[Wormwood]

The only thing I don't like is the creeping suspicion that they're just making stuff up as they go along.

I mean, am I honestly supposed to believe that those four characters were *intended* to be Cylons any time before January of this year?

 

[wingsandsword]

The only thing I don't like is the creeping suspicion that they're just making stuff up as they go along.

I mean, am I honestly supposed to believe that those four characters were *intended* to be Cylons any time before January of this year?

Well, Tyrol has been suspicious that he was really a Cylon since the second season, including having recurring dreams about it. The only reason he stopped suspecting it is he was talked out of it by Cavil, with the line that is amusing in retrospect about "I'm a Cylon and I've never seen you at the meetings". Also, Tyrol being one of the Final Five makes sense since he had an uncanny sense for knowing where the Temple of Five was on the Algae Planet.

RDM said that the "final five" are fundamentally different than the other Cylons, including that they are unique and don't have copies. I think the "final five" aren't bioengineered and cloned machines ready to download, they are "Cylons" in that they are children of the Cylon god like the Cylons, but not physically "Cylon" and their bodies are human, they came first (since we know Tigh dates back to the original Cylon war, he was a kid when the first robot Cylons were rolling off the assembly line), and have a completely different goal (protect humans from the rest of the Cylons? Ensure that the prophecy proceeds as it must by balancing the Humans and the Cylons?) The song they were hearing was like a signal from their god, just like Roslin's visions are a sign from hers. They may well have been born to human parents and be biologically human, but divine intervention makes them "Cylons" in that they are affiliated with the Cylon god instead of the normal pantheon of the Lords of Kobol

I've long said that I think the Cylon God is a fallen or renegade member of the Lords of Kobol, as was implied in a cut scene from Home, Part II. The Temple of Five, built millennia ago by worshippers of the Lords of Kobol but apparently being sacred to the Cylons and dealing with the Final Five, just plays into that.

 

[Mr. Patient]

The only thing I don't like is the creeping suspicion that they're just making stuff up as they go along.

I mean, am I honestly supposed to believe that those four characters were *intended* to be Cylons any time before January of this year?

Apparently not:

R: When did you decide to make these four characters Cylons and how much did you have to go back and check to make sure that fit with things we already knew about these four characters?

RM: It was something I came up with this season as I worked toward the finale. The conceptual framework in which these guys are Cylons, it all sort of works once we laid down their individual back stories.

 

[Volaran]

I can see potential uses for it, even if it was not planned before the season finale was conceived.

Back when Baltar had poisoned Tyrol in front of 'Boomer' in an effort to get her to admit the number of other Cylons left in the fleet, she finally said "Five". At the time, D'anna and Cavil had not been discovered, and Anders had not yet joined the fleet, so as far as we know, that would be accurate.

Also, it was a Cavil who talked the Chief out of the idea that he was a Cylon, and Ron Moore has mentioned in one of the podcasts the Cavils seem to know more than the other 'known' Cylons.

I think that a lot of seeds are there for many of the characters to potentially be Cylons, and these are simply the ones the writers chose to go with. In addition to fan-speculation on events that can now be cast in a new light, I look forward to what the writers will now retroactively consider forshadowing, and therefore run with.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Well, Tyrol has been suspicious that he was really a Cylon since the second season, including having recurring dreams about it. The only reason he stopped suspecting it is he was talked out of it by Cavil, with the line that is amusing in retrospect about "I'm a Cylon and I've never seen you at the meetings". Also, Tyrol being one of the Final Five makes sense since he had an uncanny sense for knowing where the Temple of Five was on the Algae Planet.

RDM said that the "final five" are fundamentally different than the other Cylons, including that they are unique and don't have copies. I think the "final five" aren't bioengineered and cloned machines ready to download, they are "Cylons" in that they are children of the Cylon god like the Cylons, but not physically "Cylon" and their bodies are human, they came first (since we know Tigh dates back to the original Cylon war, he was a kid when the first robot Cylons were rolling off the assembly line), and have a completely different goal (protect humans from the rest of the Cylons? Ensure that the prophecy proceeds as it must by balancing the Humans and the Cylons?) The song they were hearing was like a signal from their god, just like Roslin's visions are a sign from hers. They may well have been born to human parents and be biologically human, but divine intervention makes them "Cylons" in that they are affiliated with the Cylon god instead of the normal pantheon of the Lords of Kobol

I've long said that I think the Cylon God is a fallen or renegade member of the Lords of Kobol, as was implied in a cut scene from Home, Part II. The Temple of Five, built millennia ago by worshippers of the Lords of Kobol but apparently being sacred to the Cylons and dealing with the Final Five, just plays into that.

I'm trying to reconcile the fact that the cylons were created by humans, and there was a war only 40 years ago with them, in which there were no humanform cylons with the "final five" somehow seeming to be millennia old...

I think Tyrol, Tighe, Anders and Tory are all descendants of an older group of cylon-human hybrids from a previous cycle of cylon creation, or perhaps the ancient cylons created the humans and the humans broke away from their creators and founded the 12 worlds. They developed their own religion, but remnants of worship of the god of their creators remained in things like the Temple of Five.

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

Back when Baltar had poisoned Tyrol in front of 'Boomer' in an effort to get her to admit the number of other Cylons left in the fleet, she finally said "Five". At the time, D'anna and Cavil had not been discovered, and Anders had not yet joined the fleet, so as far as we know, that would be accurate.

IIRC 'Boomer' said eight not "Five". I don't have time to watch the DVD right now to confirm that but I might do that tonight.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Some hints that both Tyrol and Anders were cylons, was that both of them recovered quickly from injuries. Tyrol recovered after being spaced for a few seconds, long before Cally did. Anders recovered easily from a broken arm within two weeks after falling off a viper, they also implied he was also perhaps the best pyramid player out of a team that otherwise sucked.