Battlestar Galactica {Spoiler Talk} 25.03.05

[fett527]

And when exactly did Time magazine become an authority on quality TV?

I admit I should have put more emphasis on the TV Guide endorsement.

I am looking forward to this week's episode. So sad it will be the season finale. Did you see the preview? Lee sticking a gun in Tigh's face, Adama ordering Boomer to deliver a nuke into the Cylon Base..ship. Looks awesome!

 

[Fast Learner]

(1) The Cylons can get agents on board human ships. They've done it multiple times.

This assumes, not necessarily correctly, that those agents weren't already in place, that they didn't board the ships from the colonies as they were destroyed. If you want to infiltrate, that's certainly the best way to do it.

Then you just wake your agents when you need them (via radio signals, for example), or you have pre-programmed them to act at certain times.

I don't think it's likely they're putting new Cylons on board. I believe they're already all in place.

 

[Storm Raven]

This assumes, not necessarily correctly, that those agents weren't already in place, that they didn't board the ships from the colonies as they were destroyed. If you want to infiltrate, that's certainly the best way to do it.

A valid point, but one that does not counter anything I said. The Cylons can get agents aboard human ships multiple times.

Then you just wake your agents when you need them (via radio signals, for example), or you have pre-programmed them to act at certain times.

And, since radio signals can work both ways, your agents can tell you where the Galactica and the remaining human controlled ships are located. The point is that, from context, it is pretty clear that the Cylons pretty much know where the humans are most of the time.

 

[Fast Learner]

I don't disagree, per se, but about the note in point 2, about it being a corollary to point 1. The two may not be so directly related.

And we've learned from watching that the humans, anyway, don't seem to have FTL communication*, so the radio signals from Cylons in the human fleet would only be effective when the Cylons caught up again.

*From my memory,anyway.

 

[MaxKaladin]

And we've learned from watching that the humans, anyway, don't seem to have FTL communication

I'm not sure that's true. We get mixed signals, so to speak. They seem to rely a lot on long range FTL scouts that have to return to Galactica to report, but on the other hand we saw a number of instances where people were communicating over long distances without any radio lag. Take the situation were Roslin was trying to order Adama to come protect the civilian fleet as an example. They were able to talk in real time but the context suggests Galactica was pretty far from Colonial One.

Of course, the show could have just been ignoring radio delayl for dramatic purposes. Then again, it could be that the Colonials have a fairly limited range FTL communication system.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Of course, the show could have just been ignoring radio delayl for dramatic purposes.

I think this is likely. The show has an aversion to techno-babble.

 

[Fast Learner]

Agreed that short-range (relatively) FTL radio communication is in place, and that it's probably for dramatic purposes. Longer-range, though, seems not to exist, so my impression -- and heck, this stuff gets "broken" all the time in genre television -- is that a Cylon craft would have to come into "sensor" range in order to send a signal to a sleeper.

Of course, that begs the question of how the "sensors" work, as they seem to receive FTL data, too.

 

[John Crichton]

I thought the answer to this question was kind of obvious. The Cylons don't want to wipe out humanity. They are interested in herding them to some goal or destination. Look at the facts:

(1) The Cylons can get agents on board human ships. They've done it multiple times.
(2) The Cylons, by corollary, seem to know where the humans are on a regular basis.
(3) The Cylon ships are better than human ships, they can jump straight from Caprica to the Galatica's current location.
(4) The Helo-Boomer subplot makes clear that Six and her cohorts are driving Helo in a particular direction, and, if he doesn't take the path they have laid out for him, they will kill him.
(5) The Galactica seems to be being guided as well, given the location that various Cylons have appeared near it.

The Cylons are herding the humans. Apparently Galactica to Cobol (and my guess is Helo to the arrow of Apollo). They need the humans to do something. Perhaps breaking a cycle that has happened before (remember the cyclical nature of history everyone keeps talking about).

Think about this: if Cobol is the place where the humans and Gods lived in peace, who were the Gods? Think about the cyclical nature of history - this has all happened before. Now think who the humans might currently want to live in peace with.

Exactly.

Also, who's to say that there aren't factions of Cylons? We already know there are "weaker" and "stronger" models. We know they can feel like humans (love, jealously). They also seem to like lording over the humans and generally being preachy. They also want to learn more about them and it's terribly obvious. Even from the start of the mini-series (recall 6 killing the baby) it's seemed like one large learning experience or science experiment.

They had been studying humans for years. How they lived, how they reacted to things, how to defeat us. Now they have wiped out enough humans to stick the rest in a relative bottle. And now they watch again while prodding them towards something that they couldn't figure out on their own. They need humans and are vindictive yet facinated by them.

The Cylons may be very advanced but it very well could be that while they are organized, they aren't completely organized. They have enough information and tags on the fleet that they are able to manipulate them in key areas to push them along. The humans still have chances to deviate from this course but they are desperate and not exactly all on the same page (see the previews for tonight's ep).

It is possible that the Cylons have the same weaknesses as their creators.

Personal note: All in all, I really don't know how the second season could be better than the first at this point. I hope they can keep the momentum going...

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

In regards to FTL communication - I can't recall the precise wording of it, but the Cylon Adama met on the weapons storage planet indicated that he was in constant communication with the other Cylons ("they know what I know," etc.). Of course, we don't know how much of that might be bunk.

I'm guessing the Cylons can communicate from pretty far distances. If they can jump all the way to Caprica from the Galactica's current position, they probably can communicate over those same distances - or at least some models can.

Re: the Vipers needing to jump back to Galactica to report - this may be an issue of message security more than technical limitation. Maintaining FTL Radio silence when away from Galactica. Or it could mean that the means of communicating via FTL Radio is large/bulky, and is only available for ships of a certain size.