[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

Right, that's it - I'm bringing the foot down now people, it's coming down, it's planted, it's down - the foot has spoken! It's my thread and I'm banning anyone who uses the term 'shipping' when not related to anything nautical from now on!

This link's something Becky, in particular, will like. Magazine scans of the parents of the colonial fleet

Something else that's been bugging me recently: the ranks of people in Battlestar. Now, this first came to my attention in Babylon 5 because I wanted to know if Sinclair out ranked Sheridan or vice versa. In B5 they seem to be adopting the Navy system, where in Stargate it's clearly the Air Force. However, in BSG, Adama is a Commander, right? Cain is an Admiral, both Navy, but Tigh is a Colonel? Eh? The rank just doesn't exist in the Navy so is this related to them being on an Aircraft carrier type ship? What are Starbuck and Apollo?

And what the heck does CAG stand for while we're at it?

Yours, bemused and in need of geeky answers,
Cap Black

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

quote:

  And what the heck does CAG stand for while we're at it?

quote:

  And what the heck does CAG stand for while we're at it?

quote:



Military The Colonial military appears to be organized much the same in the original and the remake. From the comparatively small amount of onscreen evidence, a Battlestar is apparently meant to be the lead vessel in a battle group which normally consists of many smaller vessels. This is spelled out in more detail in the remake, which explicitly places the Galactica as one of two or three battlestars of a battle group. We hear of both a Colonial Fleet, and Colonial Marines; however, we meet very few of the latter, as Galactica only had a small Marine contingent on board due its impending decommissioning at the time of the attack Officers in the Colonial Fleet are given ranks resembling ranks presently used in both armies and navies. Ronald D. Moore outlined the rank structure in a blog entry in February of 2005. The rank structure for Colonial Fleet officers is as follows for officers:

• Ensign
• Junior Lieutenant
• Lieutenant
• Captain
• Major
• Lt. Colonel*
• Colonel
• Commander
• Admiral

For enlisted crewmen, ranks are thus:

• Recruit
• Deckhand
• Specialist
• Petty Officer (second class)
• Petty Officer (first class)
• Chief Petty Officer

The Colonial Marines have a different rank structure; Private, Corporal, Sergeant, etc. Their officer rank structure has not been shown, although it is unknown whether any Marine officers have even survived (when we see Marines on the show, they are usually led by Fleet officers such as Apollo, Starbuck, or Tigh). The commanding and executive officers of the Galactica are a Commander and Colonel, respectively, and have been since before the destruction of the colonies. Dr. Cottle holds the rank of Major. There are a few senior officers with the rank of Captain as well as several lieutenants, though apparently besides Dr. Cottle there are few Majors on the ship. The second season introduced Admiral Helena Cain (played by Michelle Forbes), in command of the Battlestar Pegasus.

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

So, will anyone else be staring at the clock today? It's a bit like 33. Only in reverse.

Pegasus will definitely be rewatched tonight, to get me back into the rythm of the show.

I'm gonna spoiler the next bit just in case:

Right, the episode is called Resurrection Ship (I think that's released information but still) - now, can anyone think what this might refer to? Might it be that big ship that Starbuck's off to investigate? Now, I'm really hoping that we get to see a little bit of the insides of the ship (even if the Galactica crew don't), it might reveal a bit more about the Cylon levels of technology and organisational structure. And I like to know about this sort of thing.

Resurrection does kinda confirm my suspicions (is it possible to gamble on TV show plot twists? I imagine so, I might make a few quid from spoiler sites from stuff I don't actually watch!) that it's something to do with the Cylon reproductive process. I wonder if there are cloned bodies on board, yet also it might sort of 'beam' the Cylon conciousness from one body to the other. Callum Keith Rennie's character (was that Leoben?) seemed scared that he was too far away for his couciousness to be transferred, so perhaps that explains why this ship needs to be mobile, rather than a facility at a base. It's a bit like a mobile phone tower!

If it's in range, they might be searching for Gina and therefore she might commit suicide in order to escape. It's another dark development for the show, but I could easily see it happening.

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

Hmmmn, anyone else found that the file for 2.11 is a bit small - only 270Mb? I'm getting SG-1 first and waiting for confirmation. 

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

The quality is not noticeably worse.

Review when I've finished watching the Bill Adama power hour

.....Well now I have!

2.11. Resurrection Ship

Wow it's like it's never been away.

Didn't realise the Blackbird had an FTL drive, makes me wonder why they can't put them in regular Vipers.

Lords of Kobol that opening was tense. It was about 8 minutes before the credits.

I'm having issues of scale with the Resurrection Ship itself, (oh and yeah I was right with my prediction - yay for me ) clearly we could see copies of Six and yet it's supposed to be far larger than a Basestar, which presumably dwarfs a Battlestar? Nice design though.

Loved the line near the start:
'I am sure that Pegasus would prevail in any fight'
'I wouldn't count on it'
Gotta love that Bill Adama.

Interesting conversation with Adama and Pres. Hmmmnnnn - foreshadowing perhaps? Tricia Helfer does a pretty good Starbuck I wonder if she imitate Mary McDonnell as well?

Captain Thrace will be changing her callsign to 'Corleone' after this one. When that to be continued kicked in I thought we were only half way through the episode (well, I suppose we were, but you know what I mean) it just flies. Cool thing about this cliffhanger is that it won't be resolved until the end of the next episode. Now - will they actually manage to destroy the Res Ship?

I liked that they gave us a bit of solid info - the Cylons do have a homeworld and the ship is something of a signal amplifier.

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

quote:

ORIGINAL: Beckymonster

Guys?!  Stupid question, but one has to ask these things...  What happens as of Tuesday when the new series FINALLY restarts on Sky?

Do we discuss that in the 'old' thread...  if we can find it again?

Again - got to ask!  Hope everyone had a good Christmas/New Year!

Happy New Year, Becky!

Er, well obviously this thread is for people operating at the American speed (60Hz - ooh sorry old SNES joke there ), but  I guess people rewatching it on Sky would go in the other thread. Just be careful about giving away spoilers and so on. You're perfectly welcome to discuss older content here though - I don't know, what's the general view? Me I can't wait to tell people Cally shoots Boomer.


Edit: to make this clear for this particular thread.

Right, this is for discussing anything that has been broadcast on the sci fi channel in the States. When you're offering your thoughts about a previous episode simply just highlight it at the top of the post then people who are browsing who haven't seen it can duly avoid it for the time being.

Any information that I would describe as 'advanced spoilers' ie it hasn't been broadcast yet - and has been leaked by other means can you please colour the text in appropriately to force it to be highlighted.

As for any Sky viewers - as I said feel free to discuss whatever you like here too, there might be some aspects that you notice watching it a second time that have a relevance to scifi channel speed.

I think that about covers it, cheers.

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Black

quote:

ORIGINAL: Beckymonster

Guys?!  Stupid question, but one has to ask these things...  What happens as of Tuesday when the new series FINALLY restarts on Sky?

Do we discuss that in the 'old' thread...  if we can find it again?

Again - got to ask!  Hope everyone had a good Christmas/New Year!

Happy New Year, Becky!

Er, well obviously this thread is for people operating at the American speed (60Hz - ooh sorry old SNES joke there ), but  I guess people rewatching it on Sky would go in the other thread. Just be careful about giving away spoilers and so on. You're perfectly welcome to discuss older content here though - I don't know, what's the general view? Me I can't wait to tell people Cally shoots Boomer.

Moore's podcast is worth a listen. Also you can apparently download the ep off iTunes now - anyone tried it?

It's funny that opening reminded me a lot of what I didn't like about DS9 - Moore always brought them up to a point where there was going to be a big space battle then bottled it. Fortunately this time it worked. I want to see those Basestars break into pieces though. I wish they'd keep the cameras still in space though, makes my eyes hurt - I mean in close combat it's fine, but they did a crash zoom on the Pegasus at one point and I'm like 'why'? . They did do a good job of differentiating the Vipers in the 'battle' though.

quote:


I'm starting to warn to Admiral Cain. Don't get me wrong, she is one unstable crazy bitch but i like the way she made Starbuck the CAG recognising her ability to get things done. I also like the way that Adama is realising he's going to have to be just as cold as Cain is to see the job through.

Michelle Forbes rocks. Get her a show of her own. She's sooo just using Starbuck though. I'll bet a tenner that Starbuck doesn't end up shooting Cain, I'm not sure wether Apollo would be on the bridge in the aftermath of the operation, but I think it would be more likely if Lee takes the shot. I loved the way that Adama specified shooting her in the head, like 'trust me you can take two in the chest and still survive'. Oh here's one; it was Boomer's mission to kill Adama right? What if they do a nice little parallel with that and Gina was on board the Pegasus to do just the same thing. Presumably she was part of the crew in some capacity with the intention of taking out Cain?

Agree that Fisk (the Peg XO) will be reluctant to act against Adama though. Tigh was increasingly cool in this ep - he even credit to Starbuck near the start. At one point I almost expected him to tip his drink away too. Thinking in televisual terms, keeping Fisk on wouldn't be a smart move, so I'm gonna say that Tigh blows him away.
I was also correct about Gina wanting to commit suicide, perhaps I should start spread betting on BSG. Can't see Baltar helping her to do that.

quote:


My predictions is that the Pegasus XO is going to side with Galactica. He's seemed very reluctant with Cain's orders and is obviously rather haunted with what they've done in the past such as stripping the civilian ships. I wouldn't be suprised if a lot of Pegasus's crew came to Galactica with the Pegasus most likely being destroyed in the forthcoming op.....of course these are just my guesses. Can't wait for next week.

I loved the way they had a little model of the Res ship made quickly to display on the tactical board . I wouldn't have thought the Galactica had much room for the Pegaus crew, Pegasus is a significantly bigger ship - I wouldn't exactly feel too sorry for them if they go up in smoke.

I've been looking at that ship frame by frame ( geek - moi?) and the silos containg the clones were much smaller than I originally thought. Still doesn't make much senes why they would clearly be visible from the outside - Six could have identified the ship just as easily from the overall strucutre. Also - why did Six recognise it where Boomer didn't? Is each ship different depending upon who is cloned inside it? Is it one ship per model?

quote:


It's been a long time since I watched a TV show and not been able to go straight to the next episode on the DVD. However one of the best things about watching TV the way it was meant to be watched is discussing it with others. Since many of my friends are of the uneducated view that Sci-Fi is "sad" and "for geeks", you can expect to see a lot more of me on these boards, instead of Joypad where I usually hibernate

Personally I've always thought it was very narrow minded to disregard anything because of its genre. There are good and bad in any genre; for each West Wing threre's a Commander In Chief, for each of the millions of repetitive procedural cop shows (the helpful guy from the start did it!) there's The Wire, for all the cheap sci fi shows there's Battlestar. Also Trip, we've got a general scifi thread if you want to wax lyrical there [/shameless plug for my own thread] it's been quiet there recently. Be warned the last page is utter nonsense though. Helo will be made to pay!

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

quote:


It's funny that opening reminded me a lot of what I didn't like about DS9 - Moore always brought them up to a point where there was going to be a big space battle then bottled it.

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

quote:

ORIGINAL: Timon

quote:


It's funny that opening reminded me a lot of what I didn't like about DS9 - Moore always brought them up to a point where there was going to be a big space battle then bottled it.

Come on! DS9 was the best Trek series. Paralleling most of the WWII/Cold War moments throughout the 20th Century and then topping the last two series with an all out war.

My only gripe was the battles in the series finale were all rehashed shots from previous battles....but they were still cool!

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Black

I'll back you up, Becky. With a number of  Minbari cruisers, as many of the Drazi as we can lay our hands on, the odd Narn dreadnought and the entire White Star fleet.  I was watching a bit of Shadow Dancing just the other day actually;

-That's a lot of ships.
-That's a bloody lot of ships.
-Oh well, who want to live forever?
-Er, I do actually! But what the hell!

Cw-ome on!

quote:

Back on topic.....if I may 'big up' Ron Moore for a moment or two. He seems to be a fine example of a writer who has ascended to the role of show front runner, which is in contrast to what happened with the Trek franchise, where the producers started to have a go at the writing (perhaps Mr. Cooper is guilty of something similar). He manages to be both very open about the show without giving too much away on the podcasts. Top bloke.

What can I say - you're welcome! Been watching Farscape recently perchance?

Just to reiterate to everyone, there's no need to invisiotext anything here that's been broadcast, Sky people have their own thread,  if people don't know what 'Season 2 (downloaders)' means and stumble into it by accident then I'm sorry, but they should be paying more attention. Probably a good idea to mark at the top of each post that you're discussing events of a particular episode though, just in case people want advise on
where to download it and so on.

Edit: added this.

quote:


cazzakim:
Hey all,
Boy am i very slow on this - but have only just got into BSG - it is so good!!!
Had cousins round from america and basically spent the whole christmas time watching series 1 and first bit of series 2!!!
And wow!!!
Now i want more!!!! I do not have sky at my uni halls, so how do i watch the new american ones please?
Many thanks for any help.

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

quote:


Beckymonster:
Doc Cottle rocks.  He's gruff old bastard but his heart is in the right place.  And he's not afraid to show it neither.   

He's the sarc with a heart. I'm copyrighting that.
I think I've mentioned it before, but I want to see a sarcasm content between Cottle and a certain Dr. Greg House. That would be electric TV.

quote:

Beckymonster:
Boomer's a cylon but don't they have the Geneva Convention in space (or something like it?!)

Doesn't matter if they don't - it's morally reprehensible. It's interesting that most of us (I gather) treat the Cylons as life, where the Galactica crew in general don't. I think that's changing gradually.
    Moore's got some interesting comments on that on the podcast. It's actually referring to Gina, but it's the same topic.
Six does have some long legs, but to be honest I was still ga ga over Cally and a little smudge of dirt she had tastefully applied to one cheek. Wow can that girl pull off a bright orange overalls and light oil combo. She can spool up my turbo any time.

More 2.11. specifics:

I'll be interested to see what they do with the Chief after this. His little chat with Helo was close to the end of the Boomer storyline for him. I guess it'll be a bit of confidence rebuilding. Perhaps he'll bond with the new aeronautical enginner chap from Pegasus and they'll develop the Blackbird into an impressive fleet of Cylon busting snub fighters.

I loved how realistic the Chief, Helo and Apollo were in that scene, you get the impression that everyone knows everyone else in this show and that's great, even if they don't always get along there's a depth and background there that most shows with a cast this big (in fact a lot smaller) would struggle to replicate.

[color=#F1F1F1]text[/color]

quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Black
Doesn't matter if they don't - it's morally reprehensible. It's interesting that most of us (I gather) treat the Cylons as life, where the Galactica crew in general don't. I think that's changing gradually.
   Moore's got some interesting comments on that on the podcast. It's actually referring to Gina, but it's the same topic.

Though Cain has still got to die.  Did anyone else pick up on Adama's instructions to Starbuck - bar the shot placement...  remind you of anything?!   

quote:


Six does have some long legs, but to be honest I was still ga ga over Cally and a little smudge of dirt she had tastefully applied to one cheek. Wow can that girl pull off a bright orange overalls and light oil combo. She can spool up my turbo any time.

Hush you else I'll start up about the arm porn!  It must be a Vancouver thingee - Helo was looking rather yummy I thought

How long 'til Saturday?!