GALACTICA

I think Tigh would refuse. He self admitedly made a mess of things commanding the Galactica.

Besides Apollo had commanded underfire, proving himself as a leader, Adama had to bring the Pegasus under control.

The Abortion theme did bring home the message about the luxuries of freedom we enjoy. About how we constantly have to strive to keep the stablity to maintain them.
 

Um... no offense but the main reason that Roslyn banned abortion was because the human race was not reproducing enough. That within a number of years the race would die out. Call me what you want but given the circumstances I don't think she is wrong in this case.
 

It is also rather disturbing that you would vote for Baltar, the person who is responsible for billions of people dying and who continues to collaborate with those who wish to wipe out humanity.

Baltar might protect your freedoms, but at the same time he will turn you over to the Cylons. And based on what the Cylons were doing to females in the Hospital on Caprica, I find it odd you choose to side with them. Did those women have a "choice" to be there? To have their uteruses removed? But you go ahead and choose Baltar knowing exactly what he is and who he collaborates with.

This ship is leaving the fleet...
 

Some of us do not see abortion as a freedom. That child has had no choice to live. We have some freedoms because we live lives of plenty. Some freedoms have been put on hold during every war that we have known. That hold is temporary. Roslyn put the ban on the black market because it was hurting people who were in need and not getting it. Humanity in this show is facing extintion. Reproduction must happen. Some freedoms must be put on hold.
 

Nice blog.

I'm with you - if this series has shown us anything that the original didn't, it's that Baltar is not an outright villain, and (besides his oversize ego) is actually one of the more compassionate characters. It's telling that the first shot of season one was of Baltar's closed eyes. It's beginning to irk me that now it's obvious he's sliding down the slop, everyone's so eager to shove him out the airlock.

1) He didn't betray humanity in order to let the Cylons access the mainframes. His penis did. Big difference.

2) He's the only character that's shown any kind of compassion towards the Cylon prisoners - enemies or not, they still deserve to be treated with dignity. Look at how Starbuck and Roslin have treated them. How you treat your enemies says a lot.

3) Following from the last, does no one remember the incredible emotion between him and Gina in the Pegasus brig? He genuinely helped a broken woman come back from a dark place. Even though what he ended up doing was freeing an enemy agent, he didn't do it out of malice - but again, compassion.

Ok, I'll grant that he pretty much tortured C-Sharon by pretending the Chief was about to die (in order to find out how many other Cylons were aboard the fleet), and he gave the 'peaceniks' a nuke - both things that don't count in his favour. But both instances resulted from the incredibly poor manner in which he was treated by his peers. Surely they could treat a man who saved their collective asses so many times (particularly one with such a fragile ego) with a shred of respect?

But if humanity is supposed to 'deserve to survive', they'd do much better in the hands of a compassionate (but not treacherous) Baltar than a cold, manipulative politician like Roslin. Since she 'recovered' I've had nothing but contempt for her actions and have lost all compassion for the character.

On another note, hooray for the second Commander Adama! Can we please start calling him Apollo again to avoid confusion? :)
 

To Anonymous,

I must admit I am shocked at your response. Like some holocaust denier you simply rationalized away a massive tragedy.

In BSG, Baltar is responsible for the deaths of billions of people. He continues to work against humans for his own self interests. You know this to be true and yet you praise him for the fact he was kind to a Cylon because she looked like a chick he had been screwing.

Oh I forgot, you think if his penis tells him to do something, like let billions of people die, well... that is just fine by you. With that kind of logic you would be willing to forgive rapists and pedophiles because their "penis told them to do it".

I know this is just a TV show but are you this logically flawed in real life scenarios too? Do you think Stalin was a good guy because he industrialized Russia? Or Mao was a good guy because he unified a country? Sure you could say those things but you would be ignoring all those people who died under their regimes.
 

>1) He didn't betray humanity in order to let the Cylons access the mainframes. His penis did. Big difference.

Excuse me but does that mean men can't think? Baltar did what he did to gain personal pleasure. Everything he does is about gaining personal power and pleasure. He is at best amoral http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=amoral or at worst evil http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=evil

Only posted anonmously because I don't feel like creating another 'persona' on the web.
 

Dude, calm down - it's just a TV show.

Baltar was tricked into doing what he did. He didn't do it because he was a crazed loony (though he is in his own way) or some crackpot dictator that hates humanity. Despite his automatic reaction for blame shifting, he did (and does continue to) feel remorseful about it. Believe it or not, that doesn't make him 'amoral'.
 

Actually I am neither upset over the tv show nor at you. I am really upset at how easy it is for people in a modern society to rationalize themselves into a coffin.
 

I am also a Baltar fan. I can't help but thinking that the cyclon's will evently be shown as the "good guys". I never saw the orginal so I'm coming into this show completly open. From what I have seen are humans being stubid, acting horrible, drinking all the time, treating people badly, and just not being nice people. Now the cyclons right off the bat kill a ton of people, but the truth is they have not actually shown anything about how that happened or even why. So lets leave that for a second. Once that first attack starts its a normal war situation. You saw both sides torture people.
 

By giving sympathy to Baltar and the Cylons, are you saying the Cylons are human? Does a machine deserve the rights of a human? I have never seen anybody root for the machines in the Terminator movies. Its like saying to Saddam Hussein, "It's ok that you slaughtered all those people. We understand you had your reasons. We will have compassion on you and just let you go. Oh, and by the way, you can have your country back."

To all you Baltar sympathizers. I think that we forget that he was probably not supposed to let Six mess around in the defense mainframe to begin with. Cylon or not Baltar let her see information that she was not supposed to see.

Yes, it is just a show. But, no show on television is more relevant to today's current events than this one. It should be discussed. I guarantee if a nuke went off in the U.S. we would hold the person responsible no matter if the person knowingly did it or not. We definately would not be considering him for President.
 

Trevor said:
I guarantee if a nuke went off in the U.S. we would hold the person responsible no matter if the person knowingly did it or not. We definately would not be considering him for President.

Unless you are Amiri Baraka, Ward Churchill or any of their ilk. They would blame it on the Jews and elect the real perpetrator as Dictator for Life.
 

D.M., sad but true.
 

We still have no clear picture of what happened in the begining. I think the show hasn't really explained the first attack, or what caused it. I still mantain that at any point we might find out it was the humans who caused the war.
 

Anonymous,

I think when the Cylons showed up at that meeting on that space station in the very first episode it was an indication that they were planning an attack. Given that they never showed up before and that they blew the station up... seems to indicate they had something planned all along.

They also seem to have been working on getting information out of Baltar for some time now right?

It seems real obvious who started it. If Ronald Moore tries to tie it on the humans... it would just be another nonsensical loophole in this series...
 

First, there really isn't anyway Tigh could command a ship again after his disasterous run. Secondly, it is not anti-capitalism to cut down a black market. After all, in our society you can't steal merchandise and then sell them yourself, which is what these people were doing. That's not anti-capitalism, that's anti-crime.

wallwriting
 

Capitalism and black-marketeering are indeed two different things.

For that matter, it hasn't been fully explained how the Galactica and civilian fleet economy actually works. There are only roughly 50,000 humans. How much personal wealth is allowed? How much wealth can be in existence now? What gives "money" its value now that the Caprica Mint is vaporized? Closer to home, do Galactica officers and enlisted even get paid wages, or did the military service turn into indentured servitude after the Cylon attack? I'm not saying that isn't a practical necessity, I'm just wondering about where all the crew gets the money to spend at those bars and nightclubs we keep seeing.

I mean, OK, people had some credits tucked away for a rainy day that survived the FTL jumps, but it is clear from the time that the Galactica survey teams struggled to find water that some system of rationing is in place, particularly for basic food and medicine needs. I would even guess that the current system must operate close to something like socialism or very crude capitalism.

And this leads to the following: if it is operating under those restrictive conditions, then a black market is even worse than its matured-capitalism counterpart. A black market doesn't create wealth, it deprives it unlawfully from another legitimate source, either by stealing a bona fide material good or illegally duplicating it, usually with much inferior quality to the detriment of consumers. Black markets thrive when the free market has enough redistributable wealth as a base to feed off of; but I just can't see how it's possible that the Fleet has that much wealth floating around.

And I can't understand why Apollo would tell Roslyn that a black market is necessary. The Fleet black market is probably pilfering from alloted ration sources and existing supply lines; if it were shut down, his hooker-girlfriend would have probably had the medicine for her sick child that Apollo had to go buy under the table in the first place. No, Apollo must stick to flying Vipers and leave the economics to others.
 

I would see Tigh moving to Secretary of Defense. Of course season 3 will bring Tigh and Starbuck close. They both try to kill themsleves, so they have that in common.

if you want something wild imagine in the middle of Season 4.. Baltar has left the fleet and is exposed. He is walking around a cylon basestar and is taken into "God's" room.

"God" says something.. Baltar freaks out...

God .. is President Adar .. Adar let the sheilds down and left Baltar to think he did it.

braxtonperry.blogspot.com
 

If they were really creative, they would go back to the sliced basestar in "the Captain's Hand" from leaving New Caprica.

Strip it to the core. Steal nukes, metal and raiders (and gut them).

Then seal the breach and turn both halves into warships. It would be like flight of the Phoenix.

Now you have four Battlestars and you can use the halfs of the basestars to launch lots of nukes and ram the other basestars.

Then take some tin cans and make clyons that kill cylons. Reprogram them to hate any cylon wanting to kill a human. Then give them great security software.