In brief: Galactica is more than happily surprised when the Battlestar Pegasus shows up. Too bad Adama didn�t order the FTL jump when he had the chance. Long story short, fleet command is taken from Adama by Admiral Cain, who outranks him. She also apparently doesn�t really care to respect the civillian government as evidenced by her snubbing of President Roslin. At first Cain is all, �Oh, everything is cool� � then she�s all, �We�re going to reassign people!� I.E.: Starbuck and Apollo to Pegasus. Later, after Helo and Tyrol intervene when a Pegasus officer tries to rape Sharon Mk II � killing that fat windbag in the process � she moves quickly to bring them back to her ship where she arranges their executions. Adama is really not happy about this and orders his Marines to suit up and head over to Pegasus with a full Viper escort. Cain responds by launching her own, newer, Vipers: she�s got a lot more. That�s where the episode ends. Son of a bitch! January, get here now!
Here�s one big thing I don�t get � a big deal has been made in the way Galactica avoided the Cylon attack. See, the Cylons had access to the Colonial Defense Ministry and were able to sneak �sleeper viruses� into the computer programs that aid the operation of starships and fighters. This is demonstrated early in the miniseries when most of Galactica�s Viper Mark VIIs, preparing to engage Cylon fighters, suddenly experience complete system failure and are promptly destroyed. Aiding in Galactica�s survival were the many older Mark II fighters in her museum exhibit: fueled and armed, the Cylon fighters were unable to activate the sleeper virus and cause them to power down. Yet here we�ve got the Pegasus, and a ton of Mark VIIs in operating condition � I�m presuming that at some point some member of Pegasus� crew deduced what was causing the massive reports of losses and wiped the computer memory of the ship and her fighters. Still, it seems odd that the ship could survive even one encounter with the Cylons after their blind FTL jump.
Is there a decent member of the Pegasus� crew? They all seem like a bunch of stuck up shitbags. I take that back � Fisk seems like a good guy, and a few of the pilots seem okay too, even the CAG (though he�s certainly got an ass-streak). Lt. Thorn certainly doesn�t get any points in my book � I think I know why he enjoys raping Cylonsit�s probably the only way he can get his tiny pecker serviced. I bet his off-duty passions include coercing young female enlisted crew into fucking him. Piece. Of. Shit. I wish he could have suffered a bit, though.
I should explain that Pegasus also had a Cylon aboard � one of the Six models, although we don�t know in what capacity � crewmember? Part of the retrofit team? In any case, it is eventually aluded to that she was used to sexually pleasure the male crewmembers. When Baltar sees her, she looks quite unlike the glamerous Six we�ve all come to know and fear.
There really is quite a contrast between these two ships � most noticeable is the technology level. The Pegasus has sliding doors! I also notice they like to keep their officers and enlisted folk segregated in the CIC. I don�t like the Pegasus � I like the atmosphere of Galactica, what with her manual doors, pressure valves, and un-Star Trek like interior. (According to the video blog of David Eick, many of the Pegasus sets were recycled from a FOX pilot that never made it into production: a remake of Lost in Space).
Chills. Chills at seeing Adama march through Galactica�s corridors on his way to CIC to resolve the situation with Tyrol and Helo. I suppose if Cain was bothering to respect the office of the president, Adama could�ve made an appeal to Roslin to intervene. Regardless, the episode ends with one hell of a cliffhanger: a ton of Pegasus� Viper Mark VIIs, and a handful of Galactica�s Mark IIs, squaring off. Eep!
**
Sci-Fi did an original series Battlestar Galactica marathon a few weeks ago. One of the episodes was �Living Legend�, where Lloyd Bridges played Commander Cain of the Battlestar Pegasus. The end of the episode, Cain committed his ship to a near suicidal run on a Cylon force so that the Galactica and the fleet could escape. Most of Pegasus� fighters were evacuated to Galactica.
So, here�s my predicition for the conclusion: no shots are fired between Vipers for whatever reason � Cylons show up, pilots on both sides are reluctant to fire on each other, Cain heeds her XO�s advice, et al. Helo and Tyrol may well be executed. Apollo, Tyler, and Starbuck return from their mission with info on the mysterious Cylon ship: a joint attack is launched, and Pegasus is heavily damaged. Cain evacuates her fighters to Galactica, which rejoins the fleet, while Pegasus stays and fights to buy the survivors of humanity enough time to escape.
WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
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posted
I wish they had done more shots of Peggy. She appeared to me to be about half again the size of Galactica and probably three times the gross tonnage. She also reminded me more of the original Galactica from certain view.
Cain's story smells. According to her story, the crew was about to disembark and they were about to go through some type of SLEP. My understanding of the way these things occur in our navy, the ship would have allready flown her air group off ship and most non-essential things would have already been offloaded. She said they had already taken a number of nukes and two other BS had been taken out in that first salvo. I don't see how they could possibly get the ship back up and have the powerplant brought online for an FTL jump before they had swallowed a couple of Cylon Nuclear Lozenges. Even more so given the virus. So, what REALLY happened?
Galactica raided a depot, If Cain and the Peggy were running all these constant running battles, where was she getting fuel & ammo? If I were the Cylons and knew there was a rogue BS raiding my supply lines and bases wouldn't they provide sufficient escort to make a raid infeasible?
Cain seemed to have no consideration for the civilian fleet which should have been her first priority. Did I also detect an air of contempt for Adama? Sort of a "Why did you run rather than go kamikaze on the cylons?" mentality.
Did anyone get a better view of the "Special Ship" the Cylons were building? I have a suspician that it is a dummy ship being proffered as bait for what the Cylons know is an aggressive commander. What better way to deal with the problem. Lure in the Peggy and off her once and for all.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
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posted
It should be noted that the episode was much longer than usual, and from the commentary the stuff cut included a longer, more detailed interview with Cain about how exactly they survived.
Also, I don't think that big secret Cylon ship was being built. It was just there, a part of the fleet (which, incidentally, I guess we now know was what the Cylons were talking about back in "Final Cut.").
Baltar finally tells Six to do something, rather than the other way around.
Survivors: 49,605.
(This was a great, if unpleasant, episode, but did the Pegasus crew really need to be 100% jerks? Surely things would have turned out the same if it was only, say, 50%? I guess the other mechanic wasn't obviously a jerk. And granted, the Pegasus has no doubt seen vastly different circumstances. Still.)
Anyway, uh, wow.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Is it my imagination, or are the women of this show getting the brunt of the physical abuse?
As for Cain, I think she's long since cracked under the pressure. I wouldn't be surprised if the bit about her blowing her old XO's head off is true.
I noticed in a few scenes they purposely did the opposite as was done in the old "Living Legend" episode. Adama being all for a joint strike and willingly handing over command to Cain spring to mind.
Very brave episode content, especially given the charges of mistreating prisoners that have been leveled at the US & Allied Forces in the last few years. Speaking of which, notice how this time it was the chief who kept his head and Helo was the one kicking off...then when they got to the cell it was the chief who went all Hulk and smashed the Lt's head in...something he obviously didn't intend to be fatal since he visibly sagged when the Marine declared the rapist son-of-a-bitch dead. Nice subtle acting there.
posted
Holy shit, this was one hell of an episode to end the first half of the season on. Even more than the shooting of Adama (because we knew that he would almost certainly survive), this is the kind of thing where we have very little idea of just how the situations will be resolved. Kudos to the writers for that!
I've started listening to Ron Moore's podcast, and he commented that the episode ran 15 minutes too long. Hopefully part of what was cut was some scenes making it clear that not everyone on the Pegasus was a complete jackass (other than the crew chief). IMO the CAG just might not be a jackass -- not only was swatting Starbuck down perfectly deserved and was perfectly in line with military operations, but from the perspective of a man who's taking on new pilots who apparently have major problems with the chain of command, it makes perfect sense that he'd want Apollo to start out slow as a Raptor pilot, get the feel for the new method of operating.
Anyway, to the real meat of the story... their "special" Cylon interrogation methods. Not cool at all. Dramatically, I agree that it was a good development, and I also agree that it's probably something that nutball Humans would do in that kind of situation, but... emotionally, that whole sequence as I and my friends slowly realized just how twisted the Pegasus crew was regarding Cylon prisoners, it was hitting WAY below the belt.
(It also made for a very awkward after-show discussion, considering that a couple of female friends were watching the show with me at the time...)
Honestly? My initial reaction after the end of the show was thinking that the Cylons may just actually be justified in trying to wipe out Humanity. I thought that Adama was horrible for putting the gun to Sharon's head last week, to "explain" why she ended up helping them out (when I'm convinced she was helping anyway). But now.... ugh. I hate to think about it.
As far as explaining how the Pegasus escaped... the podcast explained that the ship's networks had all been shut down for the overhaul, so that explained why the battlestar itself escaped. And since that shipyard was apparently not one of the very first targets (and the lack of a computer shutdown on the Pegasus probably helped them figure out what the Cylons were doing), they might've gotten just a bit of time to get a few reports before they bugged out. But I agree that I don't understand why all the Vipers weren't offloaded before such a long period of deactivation.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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posted
Given the survivor count, it looks like the Pegasus has 1752 people aboard. And, given Cain's comment about the over 700 dead in the initial attack, the normal crew must be close to 2500. Do we know how big Galactica's crew would be under normal circumstances?
"Oh, and what was up with the synth music at the very beginning? Bad choice."
The whole score was a bit over the top. Normally, I don't even notice that a TV show or movie has music. This episode, it was like it was the main feature.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I think I read or heard somewhere that Galactica's normal crew complement -- if the ship was fully staffed with officers, crew, Marines & a full air wing -- is several thousand. This in keeping with Ron Moore's vision of an aircraft carrier in space -- the real aircraft carriers have crews ranging up to 6,000, I think. I also think I read somewhere -- maybe it was the miniseries audio commentary -- that Galactica only had 2,000 crew aboard during the Cylon attack.
posted
I'm sure Pegasus will turn out to have sveral dirty secrets, and probably several Cylon infiltrators. If they're not all Cylons, that is. But already being able to identify six of the models kinda puts a crimp in the twelve-model rule.
Cain is almost certainly a loony. And it's taken as read that they know the Colonies have been destroyed, yet they didn't stick around long enough to confirm that. So although they've had to undergo a long period of uncertainty regarding their families back home, really they haven't had to go through the grief process that the Fleet has. So we can't use that as an excuse for the high nutjob quotient in her command. So what the hell are all these types doing in the Colonial Fleet at all, let alone her command? They're all assholes, the replacement XO's a drink-sodden yes-man, and exactly what possible information can be gleaned by having their torturer rape a Cylon?! Presumably the fat fuck volunteered for the role of Cylon Intelligence Officer as an excuse to indulge his predilections. But the Thorn Method obviously left their original test subject catatonic, so why's she letting him go off and try again?! There has to be more going on. . .
So we have to wait nearly 4 months until they start the show again? Weird. And what televisual gems will SciFi be proferring to their viewership in exchange? Some show cancelled from another network - for surely they would be remiss in their duties if they didn't provide the world with more Dead Like Me?
I wonder if there really are only twelve Cylon models. Who is to say that isn't misinformation? I mean, who could've put that note in Adama's quarters? The most likely candidate is a Cylon member of the crew, and who is to say they're being honest? Think of it! The crew thinks there are twelve Cylon models -- they identify all twelve, and boom, models thirteen through fifteen are free to operate in the clear.
posted
Anyone got a screengrab of the Pegasus? I hear the ship is quite a lot larger than Galactica....
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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Oh, that is SO sweet. I am totally envious about the lack of Galactica on Canadian channels. Been avoiding other methods of getting this show in favor of the box sets (Season 1 just came out, right?) but this makes me want to cheat a little.
In many respects, her bulk and complete armor plating make Pegasus look much like the original Galactica... Now we know a bit more what Galactica could have been like in her prime, before they started stripping her armor off. Bigger, bulkier, less sleek. I wonder if her pods retract as well - guessing so?
Anyone have caps of the interiors, especially the CIC, perchance?
posted
As I recall from a while back, it was Number Six herself who said that there were twelve models of Cylon, back during her big exposition scene just before the attack began during the miniseries. And Ron Moore said in one of his podcasts that he'd always intended that Baltar was the one who left Adama the note, but never followed up on that -- probably because that method of revealing information to the rest of the crew was too cheesy and melodramatic.
quote:Originally posted by Lee: the replacement XO's a drink-sodden yes-man
Well, Tigh is a drink-sodden no-man, so what's exactly the difference there?
quote:So we have to wait nearly 4 months until they start the show again? Weird. And what televisual gems will SciFi be proferring to their viewership in exchange? Some show cancelled from another network - for surely they would be remiss in their duties if they didn't provide the world with more Dead Like Me?
Well, historically, SciFi has apparently tried to boost its viewership by focusing on broadcasting its heavy hitters during the networks' off-seasons (especially the summer). But that's becoming less and less of a need, because a lot of people are already moving to cable, and the cable networks get a lot more attention than they used to.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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