Galactica Season 4 (Spoilers Within)

[Alluveal]

So, I thought I'd get this party started. There are two new specials airing Friday. I think you can also watch them online. I watched one tonight: http://video.scifi.com/player/?id=230732

Joss Whedon is a pretty big fan. How cool is that? It's great to see celebs get into this.

Anyway, cannot wait for this season to begin. I'm sick of reality tv.

 

[Recoil]

Jesus people. It seems like each time a show's season is to start, the "discussion" threads start sooner and sooner. This show isn't even on for another two weeks! How about waiting till something actually AIRS before starting a thread on it.

 

[Alluveal]

Because I'm like a little kid, sitting here squealing with glee and clapping my hands as I watch previews and interviews! And I want you to JOIN ME!

 

[Galahad]

Whereas I can't even watch it due to plutocratic xenophobic prejudice.

I'm not sure how best to term that... but it's the idea that blocking even mere promotional material to outsiders of a country based purely on the fear of depleted profit margins.

I would say racist but it's not about ethnicity just international borders.

 

[darth_librarian]

Its just copyright law and distribution deal clauses, nothing to get bothered about. Go check it out on Youtube if you have to see it !!!

 

[admiraldave]

Well, that was a mindfrak. Lovely premiere, but it seemed a little too much moving pieces around, "solving" the last cliffhanger and setting up the next. That said ... well I've been dying for new BSG, and the episode delivered. Still, pretty ships, pretty explosions, very pretty people. I'm happy.

 

[Alluveal]

Big Boom. Big Badda Boom. Nice opening! Glad they saved the big spinny ship, huh. =)

Starbuck. Not sure what's going on with her. My guess is that the new cylons (or the old) have some kind of cloning technology and she's a clone.

Sad the way she told Anders, "If you were a cylon, I'd put a bullet between your eyes." Just broke his heart, you could tell.

Maybe the raiders have changed? Since the trigger went off in Tigh/Tori/Anders and Chief's brains, perhaps that's sent some kind of message or trigger to the other cylons. Now they're looking for the five?

And interesting how 6 told Roslyn, "the final 5 are near." So, the last one is aboard Galactica or in the fleet somewhere.

Speaking of Anders--weird how they scanned him and they withdrew. Something special about him. They would have blown Boomer out of the water.

BUT...

In the preview for next week...

Spoiler for :

6 Was telling Brother C, "We need to stop lobotomizing the raiders." Maybe they're fracking with the raiders too much and they've been altered? Hence why the raider scanned then withdrew?

Baltar is, well, I don't know. I naturally kept thinking of Byron. God, please don't let them start holding hands and singing. The thing that keeps me from losing faith on this character arc is that it IS Baltar. No matter what amount of good he does, he'll always be out for himself alone. I truly believe that.

Colonel Tigh's "hallucination" on the bridge was creepy. Geesh, that was messed up, but very well executed.

That's all I can think of for now. I enjoyed the heck out of it. There IS a lot going on, but I'm down with it. Started off the season running. I know Ron Moore was also a producer/writer for Carnivale and season 1 began slow, then season 2 began very much this way--with a huge bang and it never let up until the end.

They have a lot of ground to cover for this being the last season.

 

[Ranger1]

it was excellent, but based on last year i get the feeling it can only go downhill from here on in.

 

[GKarsEye]

it was excellent, but based on last year i get the feeling it can only go downhill from here on in.

Oh come on, have a little faith. There are basically the same writers all along, right? So 2 good seasons and 1 bad, which means there's a 2-in-3 chance of this season being excellent.

Believe me no one was harsher on season 3 than I, who was ready to call it quits. But time off can do wonders for the creative mind.


Ok, so...

Good episode over all. Starbuck is back and one of only two characters who I really still love (Roselyn is the other), and she's all conflicted and confused and going nuts- as long as that happens this show is still cool.

Also, she has to be the final Cylon. Barring some brilliant twist of fate, it would be the only conclusion that would make any sense- if for the only reason that she was the only human not around when Bob Dylan turned on the secret Cylons. AND she has some big "destiny" AND she somehow found earth and whatnot. The fact that she's the "obvious" choice is probably making most people assume that it's not her, but in this case the "obvious" choice would be the best one.

Baltar sucks, has been sucking for a while now.

 

[Alluveal]

I didn't hate season 3. I rewatched it and I think I got much more out of it the second time. Season 3 began with such a sense of doom and urgency that you wanted things to keep rolling in the same way they did up through Exodus Part 2. Each week, I remember feeling antsy, that I wanted things to "just get there" in a sense. Now that I know how Season 3 ended, I really had a better time of it watching it again. Sure, there are some filler eps that I still could have done without (the whole boxing deal was kind of annoying.) And, the love triangle/quadrangle was still a tad irritating, but less so this time around.

But, there were some really awesome episodes in season 3. The episode where Kat dies is hands down one of my favorites. I'm still licking my wounds on that, though, I'll miss her as a character. I think Hotdog is the only one left from the original nuggets of season 1. The episode where they find the temple of Jupiter was a good one, got my intrigue up again and I believe it was also the episode where Athena had Helo shoot her so she could download on a basestar and retrieve her daughter. Good story arcs within that I somehow didn't appreciate the first time around.

If anything, I would say that parts of season 2 were the worst: Black Market was by far the bottom of the barrel for me as was the episode where Billy died.

But, all in all, I can't say I hated any season, I just found equal good and bad within.

I think it can only get better, truth be told. They know this is their last season and Moore, I believe, will push things along nicely. I hope there are less filler eps and more story-arc. I think there will be as there is much ground to cover in 21 more episodes.

I don't think Starbuck is a cylon. It's too easy, imho. Nothing is ever that easy on Galactica. If you consider the final 5, we know four of them. Each has a pretty interesting role. If they are of the cylon crowd that broke away and chose to help mankind, you have:

Anders: a public sports figure, in the spotlight. He also led the resistance on Caprica.

Chief: he keeps the birds in the air on Galactica. Good tactical position for any cylon out to help mankind. He also made one kick-ass ship (the Blackbird) which beat cylon and human dradis detection.

Tori: right hand to the president. Excellent position.

Tigh: right hand to Adama. Again, excellent position.

The fifth would have to be someone who is also in a very important and vital position--someone who is close to many major powers within the fleet. I rule out the Adama family and Roslyn because I simply don't believe the writers/creators would take such a cheap shot on that one. I rule out Starbuck because I truly believe she is something else. I rule out Cally and Helo because they have reproduced WITH cylons and it's been mentioned that cylons are incapable of reproduction amongst themselves.

Baltar, I don't think it's him because it was pretty much confirmed that he wasn't one by the cylons themselves (and hybrid) in season 3.

That leaves:

Dee
Ellen Tigh
Gaeta
Baltar
Zerrick
Billy
Kat
Doc
Kendra Shaw
Admiral Cain

Minor peeps:
Racetrack
Hotdog
Other nuggets/viper pilots, etc.

Knowing Moore, there will be a way to trace it back from the beginning (much like the whole Valen thing, had we only known or been paying attention, etc.)

Anyway, that's it for now. LOL. Thanks for indulging me on "guess the cylon."

 

[Galahad]

Well there are ways to make an Adama Cylon without it beign cheap. For example... Lee Olben said "Adama is a cylon", yet he tells half truths. so it could be an Adama we don't expect.

We are assuming Admiral Adama's ex didn't make it out of the colonies but that wasn't confirmed was it? Imagine how bad that would mess up Lee and Bill. Especially Lee... and it would explain some of his sylonesque tendencies without him having to be a complete cylon (he imagined himself in a better situation when he was nearing deathg...just like cylons can).

Zach seems unlikely as he was a confirmed kill prior to the war... but maybe he was a copy.

Could be D (please no... I like Kandyce McClure) as a nupually legal Adama.

 

[Alluveal]

Dee would rock as a cylon! =)

She has that cold stare, too, especially when Lee was being a goober. It was chilling to the bone, like she could stop time with that "look."

I like Dee, too. I know many fans don't, but I've always considered her full of heart.

 

[Zarto]

I think there will be as there is much ground to cover in 21 more episodes.

19 more episodes. Season 4 is like previous 2 seasons, 20 episodes long.

the 22-episodes thingy was only technicality, as they didn't own BSG movie rights they had to include Razor to Season 4 for legal reasons. Razor takes production numbers 401-402. That leaves 20 Episodes to the "Real" season 4 itself.

Nice start. I thank Sci Fi for getting to modern age and showing BSG in HD. I really appreciate it when watching it on big screen. I am really exited about this final season.

 

[Chilli]

Those first 5 minutes got me into the show more than I've been in a while - the Thigh psycho moment was just cool.

I didn't care at all for emo!Starbuck in season 3, and she was getting more and more on my nerves. wtf!Starbuck is kind of cool though, and I quite enjoyed that storyline - which, for BSG, is quite a start. I was this close from giving up on the show last year.

I'm with GKE on thinking they're pulling a double twist on us with Starbuck - making that seem so obvious that everyone will think that it can't possibly be that. In any case, though, I almost suspect they actually know what they're doing.

I guess I should catch up on Razor. I couldn't be arsed to watch that when it came out.

 

[Alluveal]

Chillo, Razor was awesome, especially if you enjoyed the Pegasus story arc and admired the evil psychosis of Admiral Cain. =)

Razor was better than some of the strongest episodes on BSG. The lead character, Kendra Shaw rocked it. I think you'll enjoy it.

 

[Chilli]

Caught up on Razor. Not bad ad all.

The Centurions ..

 

[Alluveal]

LOL, yeah. That was awesome, wasn't it?

 

[colonyearth]

In the EW article (at least I think that's where it was) RM stated clearly that Starbuck was NOT a cylon. He also stated that the 5th cylon was not in "the last supper" picture. This seriously narrows it down. One person on the top of my list is Zerrick. Who better than the one actor from the original series, not to mention, who's been subtly nudging and moving things behind the scenes.

One thing is clear and that's that of the four we know of, they have all been very pro-human/anti-cylon. If that pattern holds for the fifth, it could well be Zerrick or perhaps even Lee (though again, the 5th is not supposed to be in "the last supper" and Lee is). My roomie and I sat up late Friday night discussing it. RM can be counted on to do this in a way that we won't most likely see it coming, whoever it is.

This season can't afford to be slow. It's the final push to earth and the end of the series. S4 will be more like S1 in that it will be intense and always keep you off balance.

I recently rewatched most of S3 and realized it was definitely better than people said it was. It was a necessary slow down for some character time; character time that has and will continue to pay off as the series wraps up. It was a 2nd act, which is always slower over all and more character driven. I highly suggest a rewatch. To me it's a lot like S1 of B5 in that we won't realize how much was set up until it's over.

I do know that as soon as it's all over and I can get S4 on disk, I will be doing a complete rewatch of the entire series. Like B5, this show will only grow and become more complex with each viewing.

As for Baltar always looking out for Baltar...I wouldn't count on it. I think his story is more like G'Kar's than you realize. In fact, looking back over the series in my discussion with my roommate, we realized that there are a lot of brilliant allusions to B5.

Here are the people that RM has supposedly ruled out as the 5th cylon: Starbuck, Adama, Roselyn and Baltar. These would be too easy anyway. No...it's someone we don't really suspect. D would be another choice, perhaps...or as many suggested very early on...Gaida (who is also very pro-human/anti-cylon).

I love this series. It is truly one of the best series ever made, much less one of the best SF series. I will miss it terribly when it's over, though I am looking forward to Caprica, which is being described as a sort of West Wing on another planet joined with the morality of creating a slave race in the cylons. Lots of room for exploring even more social and political issues of today and history as a whole.

Watching BGS always makes me wonder what B5 would've been like if JMS had had BSG's budget.

CE

 

[vacantlook]

Ok, for those of you, like me until I googled around, who don't know what CE is referencing when he says "the Last Supper picture", it's this:

 

[Zarto]

In the EW article (at least I think that's where it was) RM stated clearly that Starbuck was NOT a cylon. He also stated that the 5th cylon was not in "the last supper" picture. This seriously narrows it down. One person on the top of my list is Zerrick. Who better than the one actor from the original series, not to mention, who's been subtly nudging and moving things behind the scenes.

Yeah it's either Zerrick or Romo Lampkin. Tough Roslin is seeing dreams with Cylons and reacted oddly at the time they entered Nebula and 4/5 of the final five discovered themselves. Propably just a mindfuck IMHO.

Romo Lampkin is so strange and mysterious person that i hold him up for beign possibly the final Cylon. I know he has been only in couple episodes, but i have feeling we will see more of him.