nBSG Season 3 (massive spoilers, duh)

[Destructionator XV]

I can sum it up in 'oh my fraking gods'.

How outstanding. I have to say though, I'm not sure who the bad guys on the planet are. I am sympathetic to the Cylons - they do seem to be helping in some ways, but the humans are being jerked around. And poor Baltar. I do feel sorry for him. He might be in the worst position of them all.

And the ending: holy frak. Zarek had better not be dead.

[LadyTevar]

Ok... Massive Spoilers:

Kara's killed this cylon 5 times in 4 months... and now she meets her 'daughter' from where they stole her ovary in The Farm

Ellen is once again a stupid frakkin' bitch.

Lee Adama has gotten "SOFT and FAT!" as his father points out painfully.

The 'old man' decides to split the fleet: Lee takes the Pegasus and the fleet to find Earth, while the Galatica goes back for the colonists. But first, he wants to put an agent on the ground: the newly reinstated Lt. Boomer.

Chief is running the insurgents, along with Tigh... but his wife Callie's the one that gets captured and detained by the NCP "New Caprica Security Police" -- a group of humans being trained as the security force for New Caprica... but so far forced to hide their faces because the humans think of them as traitors. Roslyn and Zarek are also detained.

Baltar is WAAAAAY over his head... and is forced not just to see 'Caprica Six' shot, but nearly gets shot himself as the Cylons force him to sign a death warrant for all detainees.

One of the NCP -- callsign Jammer -- is feeling the pressure. He manages to get Callie away from the detainees, just as a Centurian firing squad marches in. Zarek tries to pull Roslyn into the back of the crowd, Callie runs...

Boomer lands and meets with the insurgants, but to keep Tigh from being killed, Ellen has told the cylons where the meet will be, and there's a Centurian trap sprang....

... and it ends in gunfire.

[Mayabird]

Kara was in her own personal hell. Taken from her husband and locked in an apartment with a man who just comes right back from the dead after being killed. Then he has to show up with a child supposedly made from her stolen ovary.

That kid is not right. Notice how conveniently she gets injured just as Kara walks away? Notice how conveniently she opens her eyes after Kara prays for her? Did anyone else notice how she was looking at Kara holding Leobin's hand, and not her mommy? Creeps me out. Also, she's significantly more developed than Sharon and Helo's baby.

There was a fangirl scream in the room when Lee was walking around all fat and soft.

That's Lt. Agathon now. Sharon Agathon. Everybody's married.

For a moment, I sympathized with Ellen Tigh, since I thought she was trying to help Tigh. Then she screws them all over again. Frak her.

Vice President Zarek has been in jail for four months for refusing to collaberate with the Cylons. Say what you will about the man, but at least he has some principles and will stick with them, unlike a certain increasingly greasy President.

I do like the image of Anders and Tyrol having male-bonding moments over explosives. Also Cavill's sarcastic finger quoting every time the Cylon god gets invoked.

Poor Gaeta.

I think I've missed a few observations, but I'm going on memory about a two hour show. I'll probably post more later.

[Stofsk]

The civilian fleet is down to 2,000 people.

I don't think the Centurions were the ones who opened fire at the end. The guns don't sound like Centurion machine guns (more like automatic rifles). Either the insurgency is there, or the NCP turned on the Cylons, OR the insurgency had infiltrated the NCP. According to the 'next week' preview segment, Roslin survives - presumably.

The 'preview' suggests that some major things are in store and one of the most intriguing developments is the potential discovery of the Cylon homeworld. The dilemma being do the Battlestars commit genocide on their enemies?

Honestly, the Tyrol/Gaeta thing was silly. Tyrol must have shit for brains if he couldn't fucking tell Gaeta was his 'source' in the Colonial Government. Not to mention Jammer being an NCP. (you'd think Duck would've told them about that, before he did the whole "allah ackbar!" thing; even if Duck didn't, the fact Jammer was offering anemic rationalisations to Tyrol after his fucking wife was abducted in the middle of the night should have clued him in)

[frigidmagi]

The dilemma being do the Battlestars commit genocide on their enemies?

Do we nuke the center of the group of the people who have A: Committed Genocide on 12 worlds B: Set up rape camps for our surviving women C: Chased us into unknown space, trying to kill the few ragged scraps of a civilization we got D: Having captured a huge part of our leftover population, set up a brutal occupication?

Huh... FUCK YES YOU MORONS, THEY'RE TRYING TO DRIVE US INTO EXTINCTION! Fuck all the pretty words, they killed over 90% of the human specis in a sneak attack in a time of peace. They have violated treaties, laws of war and common human decenty and gone to the dark ages. I say if that's how they want to play, then let's fucking play.

Nuke the damn planet until glows, blow it the fuck apart if we can. No Mercy to the merciless!

And the Cyclons or anyone else complains?

You Reap What You Sow.

[Stofsk]

I disagree with the tactics Tigh is employing. I think Tigh, to use an analogy, sees himself as a hammer, and every problem would be a nail. I don't think an armed insurgency is the way to go here: destroying a Centurion doesn't matter because they're machines that can be replaced, and as for bombing the skinjobs, that's not going to do much good when a resurrection facility/ship is in the area. Starbuck has gone through how many Leobens? Push the Cylons far enough and they'll just nuke New Caprica and call it a day, after all what's another 30K humans when they've already taken out the 12 colonies? Tigh resorting to suicide bombing when the human population is so low is a disaster waiting to happen. Tigh should be co-ordinating with Galactica to plan the rescue and take off, which is going to be a hard challenge but I don't see what bombing launch pads and power stations have to do with that (especially when those activities cause the Cylons to round up 200 people to execute).

Out of universe, Moore wants to make a comment on the war in Iraq and the insurgency over there. Which explains the actions of Tigh. EDIT: I should say that's one of the influences. There's an obvious "Nazi occupation/Vichy France/French Resistance theme" going on as well.

I'd guess someone like Zarek would probably advocate a similar approach he employed in "Bastille Day", namely use passive aggression against the Cylons. Small wonder then that he was shoved into detention for the whole time New Caprica has been under occupation.

[LadyTevar]

Several people have commented on SDnet that the gunfire doesn't sound like Centurian gunfire.

Someone mentioned that in the Podcast, Moore admits he was going more for Vichy instead of Iraq. But he points out that insurrections have happened throughout history, even back to the Roman times (Masada, anyone?). Iraq is just the one on everyone's minds right now.

Tigh is a hammer. He stated his goal bluntly and plainly. "To keep the Cylon's attention on the anthill they stirred up so they don't see the OldMan when he arrives"

Someone on SDnet put down what gains the two suicide bombings get them.

Duck's death:
a) The Cylons can't protect their own.
b) Collaborators will die
c) We can be anyone, anywhere.

The Power Station bombing:
a) The Cylon's can't find us or stop us.
b) They can't protect the infrastructure.

Even the mentioned Market Bombing would have had a meaning: The Cylons can't protect you.
I'm just glad they didn't do that one. That would have been WAAAAAY over the line.

[Mayabird]

On the suicide bombings, I'm surprised no one mentioned in the show that the human race has a rather limited genepool left, and they really don't need to be killing off young, healthy people if they can help it.

[Stofsk]

On the suicide bombings, I'm surprised no one mentioned in the show that the human race has a rather limited genepool left, and they really don't need to be killing off young, healthy people if they can help it.

That's exactly why Tigh and his bullshit tactics is going to cause more grief than anything else. I hope they point this out.

EDIT: Thought just occured to me. All that time spent out in deep space might present some health concerns towards human reproductive capabilities. After all, radiation exposure can lead to sterility, as well as mutations and deformities.

Hopefully this means colonial ships have some good radiation shielding. Battlestars can survive proximity hits from nukes - Galactica did in the miniseries, albeit taking heavy damage, Pegasus took more hits and seemed to get off better. But that doesn't address the civilian fleet who carry the vast majority of people.

[frigidmagi]

On a military level I don't like suicide bombing. It's a waste of personnale for little to no gain. Even if one of these suceeds, you're down a trooper who could have used for so much else.

On another level... When was the last time a campaign of suicide bombing worked? It hasn't brought Israel to it's knees yet, it caused the US to invade Aghanistan and bitch smack the holy hell out of Al Qeeada, it hasn't caused the surrender of any European power, hell it hasn't even really shaken the House of Saud.

Even the Japanese campaign of suicide bombing which was much bigger and complex in scope did little more then really annoy the fuck out of the USN. In the battle of Okinawa it barely slowed the invasion forces down.

Effective resistence movements (the Polish Home Army for example) avoided such acts and concenrated on more traditional gureillia operations. If Tigh wants to be an effective terrorist instead of a gureillia, instead of HAMAS, he should use the IRA model.

Nitram and I are routinely thankful to the Deities of our different beliefs that Osama and others have not studied IRA operations.

[Destructionator XV]

Oh frak, that was amazing. No one dead, which is cool, and omg next week, it is going to be awesome.

[Stofsk]

Man this episode just flew. It fucking flew. Didn't feel like 40 minutes at all. Can't wait until next week.

However, it appears the exodus is going to happen sooner rather than later. I had thought they'd stretch it out for the whole season, or half a season. But doesn't look that way.

[Cpl Kendall]

Man this episode just flew. It fucking flew. Didn't feel like 40 minutes at all. Can't wait until next week.

However, it appears the exodus is going to happen sooner rather than later. I had thought they'd stretch it out for the whole season, or half a season. But doesn't look that way.

The Space Channel website lists the Exodus Part I and II and then the next episode is Collaborators. Which is described as being in the wake of the exodus of New Caprica.

[Mayabird]

Okay, picky little thing.

At the end of the last episode when Cally was running away, she was clearly running through a forest to escape. It looked like she rolled down the hill and then ran into some nearby trees at the bottom. Now, she's just running over some gravel hills far from trees. What the frak?

[Destructionator XV]

Battlestar Pegasus

[Mayabird]

HOLY FRAK!

Farewell, Pegasus.

Good riddence to Ellen Tigh. Also, the mustache.


I thought for a moment that Kara had gone soft, but then Starbuck came back and stabbed Leobin. But then Casey was just a kidnapped child, scared and confused.

Umm, give me a few minutes.

EDIT: Okay, back.

The Drop. Galactica screaming into the atmosphere, dropping the fighters, then flash and BOOM! as the flaming atmosphere rushes into the vacuum gap of Galactica. Wow.

[Destructionator XV]

OK, that was awesome. The Galactica going down to the planet, the opening teaser faked me out. I was half expecting her to crash and burn, but no, we get what might have been the most amazing airdrop jump wind I have ever seen.

Pity losing the Pegasus, I'll miss that beautiful ship, and she kicked ass. Even in death, she took down two basestars, and her forward guns ate that one basestar before they had any idea.

WTF is going on with Baltar? His character is one of the most interesting IMO, I really wonder what will happen there.

And next week: wow, it looks awesome too.

This would be an opportunity to reset button, but given all the quality thus far, I have faith in the writers. We will see a broken Galactica and a even more broken fleet.

Doctor Who then nBSG. That is just about the best television for which anyone can ask.

[LadyTevar]

For those of you too young to remember: oBSG Pegasus also took on three Basestars saving/covering the Galatica's ass. Baltar chickened out and had his BaseStar drop back behind the others, but the Pegasus flew between the other two and the three of them vanished in a huge explosion.

oBSG Adama tried to give a hope of the Pegasus just 'running silent', that Kaine found a way to get the Pegasus out alive.

No such hope here ... but I like the results FAR better!

[Destructionator XV]

battlestar porn

And youtube is just crawling with awesome battle clips. This show doesn't do outright massive battles super-often, but it never disappoints.

I wish it was friday every day.

[LadyTevar]

Ok.. I have a new background for my desktop.

SDnet's starting to call that the "Adama Manuever", and I've asked if anyone can figure out how far up the Galactica was when she jumped. We know she started at "99,000, falling like a rock" (feet?meters? Helo doesn't say) But, based on that picture and knowing she's about 5km long ... how far up is she for the jump out?

[Destructionator XV]

We know she started at "99,000, falling like a rock" (feet?meters? Helo doesn't say)

I think it is probably feet. Meters would be really high, and falling in the time we saw I don't think would bring it low enough to see like that, but I haven't run the numbers yet.

But, based on that picture and knowing she's about 5km long ... how far up is she for the jump out?

... Galactica is 5,000 metres long? The number I saw was something more like a mile long based on the original series, but I would think that would remain the same). Also with her crew being about 3,000 (EDIT: actually, it should be closer to 5000 is what the intarwebs are telling me, just Galactica is undermanned), 5km just seems way too big.

EDIT: Also from my intarweb searching, the battlestar wiki agrees with my size guess of being about a mile long: they say it is 4640 feet (1414m) long.

[LadyTevar]

My apologies. I must have misread the 4640 ft as 4640 meters. :sad:

But that just means she was even closer to hitting the ground when she jumped. Can we get an estimate from the building across from Tigh and Chief? In the scene-capture, it looks like the Galatica and that building are the same size (which we know they aren't). Isn't there a way to make a guess of how far away an object is based on the size comparison to a closer object?

[frigidmagi]

, but I would think that would remain the same). Also with her crew being about 3,000 (EDIT: actually, it should be closer to 5000 is what the intarwebs are telling me, just Galactica is undermanned), 5km just seems way too big.

Doesn't it make sense that Galactica is undermanned? It was about to be decommissioned before the Cyclon attack after all.

[Mayabird]

Ok.. I have a new background for my desktop.

SDnet's starting to call that the "Adama Manuever", and I've asked if anyone can figure out how far up the Galactica was when she jumped. We know she started at "99,000, falling like a rock" (feet?meters? Helo doesn't say) But, based on that picture and knowing she's about 5km long ... how far up is she for the jump out?

I think Galactica started higher up than 99,000. They jumped in and started falling, then a couple seconds later Kelly said that they were at 99,000. Since New Caprica seems to have a g value close to ours, I could count the seconds Galactica is falling and figure out quickly how high the ship had to start and how close they got.

EDIT: It would be an approximation, though, because I can't be sure that the entire scene flipping back and forth is in real time or not. There may be some overlap.

Adama Manuever: Picard, eat your heart out.

[Destructionator XV]

After seeing some of the crap done by these humans, I wish there were Daleks in this universe. Exterminate them all. Except Bill Adama and Felix Gaeta, and even Baltar looks good compared to some of these other assholes.