Rewatching Season One on DVD, Things you notice differently…

I’m just about all the way though rewatching Season 1, watching most of the episodes for about the 3rd or 4th time, in some cases even the 5th or 6th time.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the replay value of the Season 1 DVDs! You notice different things when you allow yourself to focus on the minor plot threads and follow specific storylines by watching four to six episodes in a day instead of between weekends. Here are some of my more recent observations:

In the first episode where we see Helo and Sharon enter a city, Helo remarks that he feels like he’s in a “movie.” I had forgotten that the Colonials have “movies.” So here is a list of ways individuals entertain themselves when they’re off duty (which are similar to present day Earth):

Similarities to Earth:

1. Movies
2. Books (murder mysteries, trashy romance, and high-brow literature)
3. Television (albeit chamfered in the corners)
4. Music (jazz, swing, muzak, and classic piano, presumably cello)
5. Opera (and the orchestra that goes with it?)
6. Dancing
7. Cards
8. Pyramid (close to basketball)
9. Talk Wireless (close to talk radio)
10. Star gazing
11. Painting
12. Museums

The Colonials also have several animal equivalents:

1. Cats
2. Dogs (Billy said he lost a dog in a deleted scene, NOT a “daggit”)
3. Horses (Kara even tells the raider at one point to “giddyap” and the “barn” Helo and Sharon stayed in looked like horse stables to me)
4. Goats
5. Chickens

If their polytheistic theology is anything like Greek mythology, then one would presume that they are also familiar with sheep and cows.

At some point you have to decide if all these animals originally evolved on Earth or Kobol. Kobol would be a bit of a stretch, but not impossibly so. Baltar said in “Water” that the RTF had to consume several tons of meat each week. Where are they getting all this meat from? Is there some sort of “farm” barge we haven’t seen yet?

So far we know that Colonials eat/drink:

1. Noodles
2. Salad
3. Chicken Pie
4. Ambrosia (wine)
5. Meatballs
6. Licorice

Did I forget any?

The Cylon’s Flawed Plan

There were also certain things about the Cylons I noticed that I hadn’t really paid attention to before:

The first conversation we see between two Cylons (apart from the final shot in the mini-series) is Shelly and Doral walking on a roof in Caprica City. Doral makes it clear in this very short scene that the Cylons believe that humanity would have destroyed itself anyway, that the whole Cylon invasion was simply a way to bring the grand experiment of Human civilization to its inevitable climax. Doral clearly thinks that Humanity deserved its fate, that Humanity “had it coming,” so to speak. (Plus it always seems like Doral has seniority over the other models in scenes with multiple Cylons. Is he one of the earlier Humaniform models? Or am I just projecting?).

Shelly counters Doral’s statement with the idea that the Cylons owe their heritage (at least in part) to Human civilization, and suggests that the Cylons are Humanity’s “children.” Also, in the mini-series, Six tells Baltar the “Humanity’s children are coming home today.” I had forgotten how much the Cylons clearly believe that the Colonies are rightfully theirs, that they think of the Colonies as their true home, despite the teaser at the beginning of the min-series that says the Cylons went in search of “a world of their own” after the armistice was signed.

Also, I think Doral’s suggestion that sometimes “children have to kill their parents” in order to grow up is central to their overall psychology/culture/Plan. They acknowledge that Humans created them, but Leoben insists (repeatedly) that it was God who gave them souls, that God realized he had made a mistake and decided to start over, decided to wipe the slate clean and start things fresh, much like the deluge story in Genesis 6. But also in Greek mythology, Zeus killed his own father, Chronos, in order to establish mount Olumpus. If one assumes that the Colonials have a similar mythos, the idea of committing patricide in the name of societal progress might not have been an idea originated by the Cylons, but one they borrowed form Colonial culture/scripture.

Despite the Shelly/Six team-up in “Six Degrees of Separation,” I don’t think anything that happens on Galactica is in accordance with the Cylon’s grand “Plan.” Clearly they expected to be crush humanity in one fell swoop, including Galactica, but Baltar discovered the transponder in the CIC and saved everybody’s bacon. I’m beginning to think that Six’s religious belief is actually stronger than most of her fellow Cylon’s and that she’s really in love with the poor sap and is more interested in keeping Baltar alive than sticking with the Cylon Plan. I could be wrong. We’ll have to wait and see if she becomes jealous of Gina.

RDM and Tricia Helfer have indicated that Gina will have a crisis of faith, which I can’t wait to see! If you had been tortured/gang raped for your beliefs/actions, wouldn’t you have a hard time rationalizing your suffering as part of God’s plan? Wouldn’t anybody? The book of Job, for instance, deals with the subject extensively, but it’s one thing to admire Job’s faith, it’s quite another thing to actually endure suffering beyond endurance similar to Job’s and still come to the same conclusions about God’s essential goodness that Job did. I don’t know if RDM is up to the task of tackling these sorts of thorny theological issues, but I can’t wait to see him try (and I’ll be very disappointed if he DOESN’T go there.)

It’s also clearer to me now why the Cylons allowed their Basestar to be blown up at the end of KLGpt2. They knew that if they sent the Basestar in pursuit of the RTF, the fleet would simply jump away like it always did. But if they reprogrammed Sharon/Boomer to assassinate Adama, they figured they could take a stab at the heart of the fleet and obviously thought is was worth the sacrifice of an entire Basestar. I think “reactivating” Sharon was an act of desperation on the Cylon’s part, that it was a spur of the moment decision, the seizing of an opportunity, that the Cylons have a “flexible” Plan that adapts to circumstances. Colonial scriptures (“This has all happened before and this will all happen again”) seem a stark contrast in fatalism by comparison.

On the other hand, Six’s conversations with Baltar on Kobol make it clear that the Cylons do have a fatalistic view of mankind, that Human civilization is doomed to fail no matter where it’s tried. Clearly they think they’ve found a better/superior way of life. I’m still hoping that we’ll eventually have an episode entirely from the Cylon’s point of view. Right now it seems that the Cylons hold Humanity to a fairly straight-forward double standard. Do the Cylons believe they are without sin? Do they believe that they are incapable of evil, that they can do no wrong?

Doral acknowledges (to her face!) that Shelly has jealousy issues. And how do they explain Sharon’s behavior? Will they have to admit to themselves that sometimes Cylons go “bad,” or more importantly, will they ever understand the full consequences of “free will?” I’m anxious to find out what stage of development Cylon society is in. Do they have a fully realized culture, or are they just making it up as they go along? Inquiring minds want to know.

Other things I paid more attention to:

Better foreshadowing than I thought

I always wondered how Boomer knew about what was going on in Baltar’s lab when she went to get herself tested in “Litmus.” Turns out she and Crashdown were sitting at the card table when Gaeta practically spilled the beans in response to Crashdown’s question about the Cylon Detector project in “Act of Contrition” two episodes earlier. This is why BSG is such a great show, because it rewards you for paying attention to every little detail (not always, but for the most part it does, - oh, and if they never reveal who killed Valance in “Colonial Day," I will be seriously pissed!).

I always thought Starbuck writing her name with gaffer’s tape on the underside of the Cylon raider was a bit of a stretch, but they actually show her using the wide yellow tape to bandage her knee up earlier in the episode. It goes by quickly, but the foreshadowing IS there (again, if you’re paying attention)!

Also, I noticed that Starbuck finding the raider was a direct answer to prayer as she walked over the hill, much like Baltar’s direct answer to prayer in “Six Degrees of Seperation” and “Hand of God. If you’re a devout secularist, I suppose you could write off all these “miracles” off as coincidences, but I think it’s important to note that BOTH Kara and Baltar do NOT think these “coincidences” hold up under scrutiny, that they BOTH assume that some higher power is looking out for them. This is why I’m very curious about why Sharon told Kara back on Caprica that she had a “Destiny.” Do the Cylons really think Kara is playing a role in God’s plan, or do they merely hope that the Colonial’s “misguided” theology neatly dovetails with their own nefarious schemes? (And always remember that Six told Baltar that God isn’t on anyone’s ‘side!’) This whole “Kara’s Desitiny” sub-plot had better have a huge payoff down the road, or I’m liable to stick BSG on the same shelf as Earth: Final Confict, - a show that never kept its promises. RDM wouldn’t do that to us, would he?

Well that’s about all I have for now. I’d be interested to hear any other insights people might have gleaned upon repeat viewing!

Just a wee bit excited about this show, aren't we?

Animals: Rats and pigeons were seen on Caprica. Birds were heard on Kobol.

Vehicles: You didn't mention vehicles. At least one is seen in the flashback with Zach. And then there is the Cylon hover-tank that is after Sharon and Helo.

Mythology and the Plan: You might wish to read about the Ages of Man and the Flood of Deucalion. I'm not sure it there is any relevance, but it is similar to the mythology you brought up. The Trojan War could be the miniseries (well, actually the start was the First Cylon War, then the fake retreat for 40 years, then the Trojan Horse in the form of Baltar's program - or the Trojan Horse could have been a baby Sharon left in the ruins of an explosion on Troy that killed every man, woman, and child.)

Reprogrammed Sharon: I don't think Sharon was reprogrammed on the basestar. In a deleted scene from episode 1x12, Sharon is in a trance-like state practicing drawing her gun from behind her back; Boxey walks in on her and she snaps out of it and is in shock because she has awoken to find herself pointing a gun at Boxey. So she was already programmed then and the program was already actively working on the mission. I don't think she even needed to be "activated" at that point.

Crashdown: Crashdown's first words were about Cylons looking like people, and he just kept bringing this stuff up in Sharon's presence. It is suspicious.

Internal Six: If you watch with the assumption that Baltar is bonkers, it will probably really strike you how likely this is. Internal Six just seems to be voicing Baltar's own paranoia. This is especially striking in the miniseries and first couple of episodes. In 33, consider that Amarok may have been trying to reveal Sharon, not Baltar.

Colors: Do humanocylons wear different colors to denote different roles? Do internal Six's colors mean anything? This is something to examine when rewatching.

Outstanding mysteries:

- Who killed Valence?
- Whom was Six meeting on Caprica in the miniseries?
- How are the Cylons tracking the fleet?
- What exactly are these "transponders"?
- What is the Plan?
- What are humanocylons?
- What is internal Six?
- Who is the dying leader?
- Where are they getting all the noodles?

This post has been edited by MHall on Mon 24 Oct 05, 8:23

Noodles!

In relation to the transponders, why was 6 carrying one in her briefcase in the miniseries, unless they aid in the transfer of the conciousness on death?

Crashdown and Jammer are culprits in the "lets emphasise the human/cylon" stakes. Note how Jammer was stating that it's everyone for himself now, just the ethos cylons would want to spread...

Another mystery, who or what was Shelly Godfrey? And where did she get her glasses from...

I'm curious if that one will be explained to us eventually too

I think the transponders are Cylon-manufactured and hence fairly low tech. If there is a nearly magical device involved in soul transfer, then there is probably just one on the Resurrection Ship, not a standard issue item for every Cylon infiltrator.

I used to argue that the transponders scanned the individual, either periodically or at the time or death. However, then I realized this would make the transponders high tech, and that it wasn't really necessary. The transponders really just have to transmit a single bit of information, "my humanocylon is dead." Okay, maybe 16 bits of information would be better, "Humanocylon #666 is dead."

THEORY: When transponders are brought in range of each other, they transmit this simple information about which Humanocylons are dead. Eventually the information makes it way to a Raider or Basestar, and from there to the Resurrection Ship. There, this "bit" of information causes the chrome toasters to restore the humanocylon from an old backup copy. Then it looks to the humanocylons like they have soul transfer, as when a Cylon dies, a copy of him would appear with all the same memories, minus a few towards the end. But likely only the chrome toasters know the truth that soul transfer is a hoax - that it's soul copying instead.

13. Newsletters (Email? Mentioned in one of the episodes)
14. Frakking

The card game is Triad - which was originally called Pyramid in TOS w/Triad being the physical sport.

I don't think it would have been a bit of a stretch. If life as the Colonials know it began on Kobol, it stands to reason that they would have exported as much of their livestock as they could when they fled.

There's a Botanical Cruiser - of the same type as we saw in the Miniseries that the little girl Kami was on - that has what appears to be 15 "botanical pods" attached to it. Each pod might be 100m across - just guesstimatin'.

One could assume that there's at least one more "AgroShip" in the RTF to help make up for any additional food requirements. It's also possible that several of the ships have set up hydroponics in whatever deck space they could find.

Green beans ("Flesh & Blood"), some sort of bread (same, plus "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down"), cookies (Miniseries - Boomer hands one to Boxey) and I want to say I saw someone eating a apple in one episode, but am going by memory so discount it.

Oh, and they have Jack Daniels, Black Lable (I think it was) - check out the scene in "Colonial Day" where Tom Zarek is behind the bar.

I just bought my season one box set with mini-series. I'm looking forward to rewatching all the episodes. I think I'll do it on my computer so I can capture some of my favorite scenes.