Tag Archives: Battlestar Galactica

Fannish Ramblings

An “Impossible to Get” Guest

I managed to slip off to a con recently and ran into one of those “impossible to get” guests, but with a twist — this one wants to come to cons, for the fun of it as much as anything else.

The guest in question, and I was more than a little surprised to run into him (even more so that he wanted to talk to me!) was Lorne Greene. He wasn’t on the con’s official guest list, instead, he was there as an attendee. From talking to him, he’s interested in getting onto the convention circuit but first wanted to check out the scene in-person. (He went full-out on it too, going so far as to show up with a reasonable facsimile of his “padded-robe” uniform from the original BSG.) He’d like to start coming to cons this year and gave me a card with all the appropriate contact information.

Talking to a friend about this encounter a short time later, we agreed that it was pretty cool someone of his stature actually wants to go to cons — so many of the well-known stars price themselves out of range. I was particularly surprised though since I thought he’d passed away about 20-25 years ago.

And that’s when I woke up.

Sure, booking Lorne Greene presents a few more challenges than most guests, but the good news is that he wants to be there.

Now if I could just remember that phone number….

Fandom

What Happened to Starbuck?

Last night I finally got a chance to watch the final episode of Battlestar Galactica. I’d been wondering how they were going to wrap up all the loose ends (such as “How did Starbuck get to Earth and back?” “Is Baltar a cylon?”), and wanted to watch it when I wouldn’t be distracted by the 70 million other thing going on in my life.

I was pleasantly surprised by it. They wrapped up the storyline in such a way that it was OK to have loose ends. It’s rare to see Science Fiction explaining miracles as miracles and just letting it go at that. Trying to wrap up all the loose ends and explain everything in a two-hour episode would have seem forced. I liked this.

And if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to watch the credits for the final cartoon. Ronald Moore and David Eick finally end up on even terms.

Commentary, Fandom

How Will It End?

1 Comment

Battlestar Galactica ended last week. The final episode isn’t available on Hulu yet — so I haven’t seen past Daybreak part I — but I’m left wondering about a massive knot of loose threads. (How did Kara get resurrected? What’s with Baltar’s visions? Are they representatives of a third type of cylons?)

I expect they’re going to rescue Hera and defeat the “bad” cylons. And I strongly suspect the Galactica will be destroyed in the process. But doing all that in a satisfactory way, and finding a place for humanity to live (even if it’s just going back to the colonies) — all in a single hour….

That’s really tough to swallow.

I can’t help thinking they’re either setting up for a (made for TV) movie, or else the final scene will be Zack stepping out of the shower and the last four years have all been Kara’s dream.

Fandom, Miscellany

Galactica meets the U.N.

I’ve been watching the final season of Battlestar Galactica on Hulu. I’m a week or two behind right now*, but when I saw a Washington Post article about a Battlestar Galactica event at the United Nations, I decided to risk the potential for spoilers and dive right in.

Along with obligatory praise between the BSG people and the UN representatives, the article (and the UN event) also delved into some of the real-world ethical concerns the show raised. (e.g. Waterboarding a cylon as a proxy for a suspected terrorist.) I was also quite amused by the mention that Edward James Olmos apparently had a tendency to refer to the character of Admiral Adama in the first person.

All in all, it’s probably one of the best bits of news coverage I’ve seen for a Science Fiction related event.

*The last episode I saw was the one where it turns out Ellen Tigh is an utter bitch regardless of whether she’s a human or a cylon.

Commentary, Fandom

By Google’s Command

I’m a bit embarrassed I hadn’t noticed this before.

The icon for Google’s new Chrome web browser features a sort of beach-ball thing with a circle in the middle. It looks a little like a robotic eye.

Chrome eye.

They’ve included that eye in the logo on the download page.

Chrome eye.

On the new Battlestar Galactica, the human-appearing cylons are frequently referred to as “skin jobs.” The more classically robotic centurions are occasionally referred to as “chrome jobs.” These so called “chrome jobs” have only one eye.

One eye. Robotic. Chrome.

Do you suppose Google is being run by Cylons?

Fandom

Who’s in charge?

Thanks to my NetFlix subscription, I’m finally caught up with Battlestar Galatactica though the end of Season Four. Starbuck has seemingly returned from the dead, Baltar’s trial has ended and four of the “Final Five” cylon models have been revealed. That last is particularly interesting since it seems as though they’ve all decided to stand with their human friends.

I’ve already had the misfortune of overhearing someone talking about the identity of model 12 and seeing as how this is the show’s final season anyhow, it’s going to be difficult to avoid hearing any more details, so I think I’ll be following this final season via SciFi’s episode streams.

One thing I find interesting though (and if you haven’t watched Season Four yet, this would be a good time to visit another part of the site) is the identity of the fleet’s president.

At the time of the Exodus from New Caprica, Baltar was the legal President, but was presumed dead or captured. Tom Zarek assumed the presidency, named Laura Roslin as his Vice President, and then stepped down in order that she could be President in return for being named as her Vice President.

When Baltar was captured along with the model 6 known as Caprica, he was charged with treason and put on trial. But (and here’s the part where if you haven’t seen the end of Season Four, you really might want to consider visiting another part of the site) thanks to Apollo’s moving speech, Baltar was acquitted. He’s now a free man.

So here’s the thing, Baltar was acquitted. The tribunal found him not guilty. Tom Zarek was only made President because of Baltar’s assumed death/capture. So Baltar’s not dead, he’s “escaped” from captivity, and he’s been cleared of all charges.

So shouldn’t Baltar be returned to the Presidency? (Acting President Roslin would then be returned to the Vice Presidental role she took over from Tom Zarek.)

Did Zarek’s accession to the presidency mean he was replacing Baltar? Or was he only an acting President? Sounds like an opening for more intrigue. 🙂