GALACTICA

Starbuck is dead? There's gotta be some wort of catch, she can't just die like that... can she?
 

In a show like BSG, death is equivalent to character development. Unless, of course, the deceased was only human, in which case...sayonara.
 

Well, you saw Starbuck grasping the eject lever in her Viper. Obviously she's dead if no one picked her up: the thing we're supposed to wonder about is whether the Heavy Raider is just in her mind or real after all.

Supposedly, Katee Sackhoff will no longer be listed as a series star in the opening credits starting next episode: read into that what you will. There are enough new plot threads there that I'm sure we'll see her again, but maybe not as Galactica's resident hotshot pilot.
 

Could she perhaps be one of the Final Five? Is this who Baltar saw at the temple?
 

D’Anna Biers had a vision of the final five and apologized to one of them. I'm trying to remember if she ever had an altercation with Starbuck. This would explain Starbuck's flying skills. It also seemed like the episode tried to set something up to reveal later, with all the talk of Starbuck's destiny (a veiled reference to her mother's dream about her). I have no idea how the physics of this would work. Bigger "geeks" than me will have to remind me when the first Cylon war happened. I thought they said Kara's mother fought in it, but I might have missed that part. Starbuck as one of the five would create problems for a sensible timeline.
 

Starbuck will be back with the ship of lights and earthings in tow. (Though, not this season)
Great acting by Katee Sackoff and Edward James Olmos. The only complaint I have is that throughout the season we had to suffer through Starbuck being degraded. To me it was not character development but character assassination. Can't wait to see how they turn things upside down in the finale later this season.
 

Long shot, but I think D'Anna recognized Anders. He is one of the final five, not Starbuck. Leoban was talking about a place between death and the afterlife. I don't know if Starbuck punched out at the last second, but I don't think we'll see her for the rest of the season. Maybe the podcast will shed some more light on her fate.
 

Anders...maybe, but he sure liked to blow up skin jobs on Caprica. However he did get a long term contract and with Starbuck out looking for earth his story line is kaput, so it would make sense that he is one of the final five thus giving him a new story line. I would like to see someone more shocking though, like Adama!
 

My belief is that she is one of the five. we haven't seen the last of her
 

Is Katee Sackhoff working on any projects right now? That would explain a temporary absence (and please, God, let it be temporary!). The more I think about it, my vote is definitely on Starbuck as one of the final five. I agree that Anders is a longshot. Think about what you saw right before Starbuck's ship exploded. We saw the same light reflecting on her face as we saw when D'Anna had the vision of the final five. This episode also reminds me of something D'Annna said about the beauty visible between life and death (after her first resurrection). There appears to be an allusion as well to Orphic and Platonic ideas of the afterlife (especially the latter), in which the soul sees visions of beauty in the realm of ideas before being reincarnated (Leoban's talk about the patterns). Platonic cosmology is also cyclical. Obviously the cylons are reincarnated. Could a human consciousness, between life and death, be similarly reincarnated? I suppose I am speculating that the final five cylons could be something like enlightened humans, but that's purely speculation. It would almost certainly require the writers to significantly alter everything I love about Starbuck's character.

I originally thought Adama, as well, but I think he is too obvious.
 

It is established that Leobon is a liar but he does mix truth in his lies from time to time. He did tell Roslin that Adama was a cylon. RDM or Eick said we would have to rethink what determines a cylon (not an exact quote) given that, no one is off the list. They could bring Billy back, Tigh could have pulled out his own eye, Zarek is a maybe, Dualla has always been suspect, and let's not forget Doc Cottle.
 

Fair enough. Nobody is off the list. Adama established Leoban as a liar prior to Starbuck's interrogation of him. So we have to consider the source. And of course we have the lie about Starbuck's kid. So you are right about him being an "established" liar. But a liar is not always a liar. Sometimes a one lie after another after another prepares the way for a greater truth, the enlightenment of the Christian mystic who through a "negative" path attains a higher "positive" knowledge, or like the Zen student who, after being lied to and beaten by his master, achieves his enlightenment (Satori). I'm not trying to pontificate, but the show certainly makes use of religious tropes, so they are worth considering. I stand behind my hypothesis. I think the evidence points to Starbuck. Furthermore, on a purely visceral level, it would have to be a major character in order to sufficiently shock us. We may even get a hint of it in the cliffhanger at the end of this season.
 

I think your right the show does make a lot of religious tropes. I think that here going to use the classic Jesus scenario were Starbuck is some kind of messiah and comes back to life like Jesus after being Enlitghend.
 

I believe that she ejected last minute and the cylon picked her up. Why? A few reasons. One, she was shown fingering the eject button before hand. There would be no reason to show that if she would not use it (unless they want to intentially tease the audience, which the producers are not that obvious about). And two, when Lee finally got visual on starbuck, the shot was from behind his viper (his POV) and in that same shot was the cylon, hence it was also in his view, and therefore NOT in Kara's head.
 

I love Starbuck too, but comparing her to Jesus is disgusting. That said, it is interesting to explore her role as "the charm" of Galactica. She gives the figurine charm to Adama which represents herself, Goddess of the Dawn - Bringing fair winds, the morning star and a fresh start. Hmmmm, sounds like earth talk to me. Go Starback and get that Frakking Cat!
 

I am not sure in which way comparing Starbuck to Jesus is "disgusting." If you mean that making her *that* kind of messiah figure would totally ruin her character, I agree (and that's what I was implying with my last post). We love Starbuck because she almost always self-destructs, whereas with Christ figures you have martyrs who give themselves up for a greater good of some kind. She may come back as something like a prophet, but that would also significantly alter her character. What would be *really* interesting is if she came back as a convert to the cylons, perhaps flying one of the old wing-ships from the first war. It would certainly preserve the basic architecture of Starbuck's character while simultaneously accentuating the moral gray-space the show has tried so hard to preserve. The risk here is that Starbuck's conversion could get preachy (like Matrix 2 & 3), giving us episodes where dialogue, not action, drives the deeper elements of the plot development. But I'm speculating again.
 

This is extremely tangent but, Starbuck if she is anything is a sinner while Jesus patently is not. I do agree that if she came back in a white robe "preaching" with an otherworldly gleam in her eye it would be a disappointment. Starbuck is best when she is smart and self assured but positively human.
 

Starbuck is clearly not dead, they just want us to think so. In the mean time it frees the writers up to kiss more Hollywood liberal butt in the hopes of that elusive Emmy. What better way to completely eliminate those pesky space battles and replace them with rhetoric, than to write out the hot shot pilot for a few episodes. This show was easily one of my favorites a year ago, now its almost unwatchable. I can't believe that even the most liberal of the show's fans is happy with the current season. Its basically become the same as every other boring TV Drama except that this one has spaceships (occasionally).
 

Has anyone given any thought to what stage of development earth might be in when they find it?Would earth's technoloy be more or less superior to what we know of Galactica/Cylons?
 

Battlestar with no Starbuck.... It won't be the same. Final Five maybe, more likly picked up by the rader to tie back to the cylons....
 

In the original show, Starbuck was separated from the rest of the fleet when he crash landed on a deserted planet. He somehow befriended a Cylon. As I remember, the show ended with Starbuck stranded permanently on the planet. The whole story was told in flashback, sorry, I haven't seen the original series in probably 20 years.

It seems like this cliffhanger is somehow inspired by that original storyline. I think Starbuck will be back one way or another.
 

They won't kill her off. She's one of the three main draws of this series and I don't think she pulled a "I want to pursue other acting roles" deal here. The only thing that makes sense based on her Cylon experience is that she's one of the 5. They'll have her coming to in a vat of fluid at the beginning of next season. Any other scenario (pulling the eject button at the last second for example) would be pretty hokey. As for the dude who said this show is getting "liberal" how about you go watch 2 and a half men or Dancing with the Stars. This show is the best thing on TV.
 

Come on folks...lets be the more intelligent fracks that we tend to be and look at the big picture...or maybe I should say the little picture. The little picture that just so happened to pop up in an article in the Chicago Tribune Blogs back in January. It was posted right next to David Eick saying, “I think that one thing the fans have come to expect from the show is, we’ve never really pulled punches when it comes to the question of having main characters becoming injured or changing profoundly or dying. What we’re doing with Kara Thrace is profound and is major, and yet it doesn’t necessarily translate as simply as you might think."


Rapture http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/photos/uncategorized/rapture.jpg

Now, I don't remember Lucy Lawless posing so dramatically. I also don't believe that she is gesturing towards our beloved Starbuck either. I actually think that one of the five looks like a guy. But, take a look at this:

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/photos/uncategorized/kara.jpg

And then look at the second "woman in from the right. The one next to Chief Tyrol (oops did I say that out loud, just a guess). Maybe a stand in, maybe she looks like Kara Thrace, maybe not, maybe purposely there to mislead us. Well, not all of us, maybe. Who knows? It's just my opinion. - A

Link to the article:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2007/01/something_profo.html
 

Links again. Looks as though they were cut off. You might have to piece them together in your browser.

Rapture http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com
/photos/uncategorized
/rapture.jpg

Kara
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com
/photos/uncategorized
/kara.jpg

Article:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/
entertainment_tv/
2007/01/something_profo.html
 

Interesting photo. Let's remember that in the episode we couldn't see their faces. So the possibility remains that these are just some schmucks in robes and have no relation whatsoever to actual characters, especially if you consider that they might have figured out who one or two of the final five might be, but not necessarily all five of the five yet.

And while I agree with the comment poster above who said that the show has shifted from action to "rhetoric" (I would say banal dialogue, lest we start to see speeches from Adama reminiscent of Morpheus in Matrix II), I don't think that the show is beyond redemption. I'm sticking with it for a while longer. I've been worried for some time they jumped shard with New Caprica, but I think the Fonz might have realized what he was doing in mid-flight, and now he's trying real hard to do a course correction. To characterize the show as "liberal?" I'm not sure. Personally terms like that are too loaded to really mean anything (especially when said with a snear like the one I detected in the comment above). The show certainly thrives by creating layers of moral ambiguity, and that is what has made it so good for so long. Remember that not all of the characters supported the suicide bombings in the early part of the season. Did Ty tip off the Cylons about the weapons in the temple in order to rally more support (did he do a bad thing for a greater good, if you can call it that)? We are supposed to ask ourselves what we would do in those situations. What's right and what's wrong. If they can get back to letting the action drive the moral ambiguity, then I think I can the show can be salvaged. If the show lacked this gray space (remember *both* sides are intent on committing genocide), and featured nothing but dashing heroes zooming around the galaxy going boom boom (or zap zap, if you prefer), most of us would get pretty bored pretty fast. So I agree, the show has had some pretty rotten episodes this year. It has been a soap opera. But call me a budding optimist, I'm still a little hopeful.
 

I just read some new spoilers and if they are true then get ready folks, it's gonna be tv shattering!
 

Nielsen's Overnight Ratings Mark New Low for BSG's Maelstrom

The numbers for the Sunday Night episode Maelstrom which showcased "The Death of a Major Character" (Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace) did not draw the ratings bump for which the producers and advertisers had hoped. Instead, the much hyped lead in to the season's finales set only a new low, drawing less than 1.5 million viewers for the first time in the show's running.

The adjusted numbers, which should be available on the SciFi website, will rank it as a 1.1x just slightly below "Woman King" and "A Day in the Life" as the overall least watched episode of them all.

The move to Sunday nights was supposed to breath new life into the series, but the evidence of what has now become a trend seems to have had the opposite effect with the last three episodes ranked as the lowest three episodes; and consecutively so.

There are only three more episodes remaining for the season and wild rumors and spoilers abound. Ron Moore has openly said he will make everyone "Question what it means to be a Cylon". The Chicago Sun Times has corroborated what appears to be several shocking revelations for new Cylons which seem, at least in theory to substantiate even the more radical of the rumors.

Filming for a Fall Season never materialized, although the network did approve a partial fourth season, allowing for 13 new episodes beginning in 2008. With the show's ratings on a virtual nosedive below with back to back 0.9 Nielsen's and 1.2 and 1.1 adjustments for DVD sales and online viewing, some have speculated that the 4th season may be in serious jeopardy.

NBC the parent company has also given the go ahead for a two (2) hour Mini-series, which was rumored to be originally for a Pegasus storyline, then was slated to tide over the fans during the unusually long break: Esentually replacing the defunct Fall Season. Now the backlot whispers are that this 2nd Mini may be used instead to "wrap it all up" if the 4th season ends up canceled after all.

In fandom, they seem as divided as ever: Some hating the death of a major character, some welcoming it with chants of 'good riddance'. The rumors about revelations of the Cylons has also split the base of fans, with many refusing to believe a word and others swearing that such bold moves are the only way to 'save the show'.

They may be. But, one thing is for sure: If the last three episodes do not mark a dramatic rise in ratings, it may not matter what was planned for a season four that never comes.
 

With respect to that picture of the Final Five, I believe one of Moore or Eick is on record as having said they just used stand-in actors for that shot.

So we should not go about comparing chins and noses and thinking about who looks like who. In any case, when you actually watch "Rapture" there is too much light and glare to actually make out much of anything, so no equivalent of that still photo was ever aired.
 

By the way, though as I said before the 'Final five' picture is *not* canon, you can find a much higher-resolution version of it here on the Battlestar Wiki should you wish to go about comparing chins and noses.
 

The spoilers from Television without pity that everyone is raving about aren't exactly compatible with the spoilers to be found from a more reputable source:
http://www.buddytv.com/articles/battlestar-galactica/battlestar-galactica-spoilers-4684.aspx
 

As to the ratings...

Look here at EZTV-

http://www.eztvefnet.org/

Over a million torrent downloads since Sunday which absolutely *destroys* the numbers for 'Heroes' or anything else other than 'Prison break'...so why this huge popularity as a download? I would suggest perhaps it may be because it's more popular abroad than in the U.S, over here in the UK where we're weeks behind on Rupert Murdoch's Sky channel it's ratings are superb despite most of us who love the show having downloaded and watched the episodes months ago (we don't have the season break so it eventualy catches up on TV) so it seems the show may die not because of it's overall lack of popularity but sadly because Banjo strumming hillbilly American conservatives were put off by the politics and lack of explosions and went back to humping their daughters.
 

A bit harsh, but point taken. Do ratings have a way of factoring in DVR recordings? On the west coast the show does not air until 11 that's very late when families are involved. I would wager a great deal of people DVR the show. The criticisms of the show should not be taken personally. We are still watching and still love the show even if we think Helo should be shot for treason.
 

I love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:

www.americanlegends.info

If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.

Thanks,
David
 

This season, the new Battlestar has become your father's Battlestar.

I do not know how else to put it. To say the third season is disappointment would be an understatment. The horrendous plummet in quality of storytelling, writing and character development that has occured in just the past few shows is quickly droping the level of the show to that of the original series. The fact that the look has drifted from a 'semi-rough' look to the overly smooth has also taken much of the life from the show. If BS continues in this nosedive, I do not see the chances of what should be a long running series making it past this season.

I've gotta wonder who is realy at the helm now. All I can say is someone in the production office needs to steal the line from 'Titnanic' and yell "Iceberg right ahead!!"
 

There's no question that Moore squandered the fans' goodwill with this season. Episode after episode of unpleasantness, character devolution, misguided attempts at modern analogies, and just plain illogical and out-of-character plot developments have made this show difficult for even die-hard fans to stay loyal to.

BUT.

I thought this episode was great. If this had been earlier in the season, it might not be going the way it is.

I thought the effects were great. The "atmospheric" viper battles were gorgeous.

Who ever discussed Starbuck's shipwreck episode--I believe that was an episode of Galactica 1980. Anyway, I think they mined that one back in season one when Starbuck was trapped on the planet with the cylon ship.

I also think they're going to make Starbuck one of the final five. However, it makes no sense. These guys are supposed to emerge fully grown from vats, not grow up as children. So if they do go this way, it's possible that Starbuck's "memories" are plants, just like Sharon's were. Which would explain why Lioban and that Oracle (not the same one as on New Caprica?) know so much about her.

Either way, I don't care. This stopped being a pure space fighter show 2 seasons ago.
 

Alright here's my 2 cents.

In short, she ain't dead she did eject and was caught by the Cyclon ship. No way they'd kill the best character. No she's not a Cylon. she's an anti-hero. the Cylons will use this "destiny" to manipulate her.

Second thought, this is all a Cylon war game. They wipe out Caprica and start over, "It happened before it will happen again." If they destroy the population and brainwash the survivors they can do this over and over. War games on a gigantic level...
 

Really stupid move. She was the most rocking TV character since Mulder. At least Chris Carter had the foresight to have Mulder ditched by alien abduction.

Unless there's a Starbuck backup plan, let me write the final two seasons and not waste the Tivo space:

Balthar guilty, Cylons rescue him because he's the mysterious 12th Cylon; uh oh, a nuclear surprise attack lose half the civilian fleet do not pass GO do not collect the algae; Caprica 6 turns good she and Sharon save fleet; Caprica hooks up with widower Sam, they have the 2nd Cylon/Human hybrid baby; Dee and Lee have a kid, Grandpa Bill is joyous; Roslin and Admiral get hitched; find Earth but Cylons already there enslaving humans; huge war lasts entire final season; Microsoft is Cylon HQ and a 1000-year old Bill Gates is the mysterious 13th Cylon, he and Balthar become evil buddies, create nanovirus to make humans into Cylons; Doc Caudill finally develops a nanovirus antidote/vaccine; Gaeta develops his own nanovirus to bring down Gates and Balthar; good guys win the war for Earth; Galactica lands at Boeing Field in Seattle and parks at the Museum of Flight next to the Concorde (and becomes available for party rentals and corporate events); Roslin takes up office in the Space Needle; decides not to run for another term so she and Adama can tour the Cote d'Azur and grow old together; Lee runs for President and wins; Sam becomes founder of the Terran Pyramid League and player-manager of the Tangiers Buccaneers, fittingly winning the inaugural Pyramid Cup; as President Lee presents the trophy, Sam whispers "if only Kara were here" - Lee answers "she is." End of series.

Sigh. I hope no one kills off My Name is Earl. Though My Name is Crabman could be good.
 

In general the episode was well done. However, the whole destiny/mystical portion really sucks some of the life out of it. Plus, I've come to dislike her character so much by this point I'm happy she is gone.
 

Upon Starbuck's return, I am guessing that she will have expelled her demons and she will be likable again.
 

oh no, starbuck can't be dead, she's the best stick in the fleet!
 

Starbuck will return. Katee Sackhoff has nothing else posted on IMDB, which means that she isn't working on anything else. Once an actor is killed off from their show they invariably have another gig line up or already in the pipeline. So now it's just a question of when and how she will return. Is she one of the final five cylons? This is doubtful but possible. The logic is the same as saying Bill Adama is a cylon - if they were cylons the wouldn't have had childhoods on Caprica and also the fact that Bill had two sons would have made the birth of Athena and Helos baby insignificant. One of the truest cliche things in movies and television - unless you get direct visual evidence that the person is dead (you see the body - it is damaged beyond repair and they are human) then they are most likely not dead.
 

I say good riddance to bad rubbish. Starbuck was a loudmouthed, egocentric, selfish, spoiled waste of talent, who caused more problems than she solved. If we have truly seen the last of her then I will be just fine with that. --- I’m writing this as I sob ---. But c’mon, logic would dictate that if Katee Sackoff were truly written off the show then she wouldn’t she have other projects in her pipeline? Take a look at IMDB and you’ll see that right now she has nothing on her plate at all. When they wrote off Kenneth Johnson (Curtis “Lemonhead” Lemansky) from The Shield he already had roles in CSI and Cold Cases lined up. But if you look at Sackoff’s page – nada. If she ain’t working for BSG anymore then I guess she’s going to be doing a whole lotta nothing.