BSG: Season 4

[Manatra]

Originally Posted by FulorianC

Good. Then maybe you can explain why they're not sitting around having coffee all day, and Galactica is breaking down, and they use guns instead of lasers, which was just a moment ago the source of praise for the 'realism' of their backstory/universe?

Ronald Moore is keenly aware of the fact that they haven't explained much of the technology on the show, as he has touched on it in some of his podcasts. His reasoning for not explaining much of the technology behind what makes the sci-fi elements of BSG tick is simply because the explanation they could provide would be inferior to the explanation that the viewer has built in their mind. Then again, you seem like someone that needs to be spoonfed everything.

[Frax]

Originally Posted by FulorianC

Good. Then maybe you can explain why they're not sitting around having coffee all day, and Galactica is breaking down, and they use guns instead of lasers, which was just a moment ago the source of praise for the 'realism' of their backstory/universe?

You convinced yourself you can't enjoy the show without it being 100% grounded in reality or something... The Lifetime channel is thataway --->

[Pizoi]

Originally Posted by FulorianC

Good. Then maybe you can explain why they're not sitting around having coffee all day, and Galactica is breaking down, and they use guns instead of lasers, which was just a moment ago the source of praise for the 'realism' of their backstory/universe?

How about you just fuck off with your tears and go watch Gossip Girls or something. I bet that show has a lot more realism.

Seriously, nobody cares.

[FulorianC]

Jesus fucking christ, you people are defensive. It's worth discussing.

[Pren]

Originally Posted by FulorianC

Jesus fucking christ, you people are defensive. It's worth discussing.

I imagine the writers constructed a model detailing the cost:benefit ratio of spending time and effort on technobable development versus the amount of people who truly give a shit.

[x1hundredregrets]

Originally Posted by Pren

I imagine the writers constructed a model detailing the cost:benefit ratio of spending time and effort on technobable development versus the amount of people who truly give a shit.

Count me in as someone who doesn't give a shit. They've discovered something about gravity or physics that allows FTL and artificial gravity, but they're still using firearms. Does not seem like a huge stretch to me. Uneven scientific progress is realistic.

[spronk]

Yeah I prefer the "we don't explain tech" philosophy of BSG to the "holy fuck thats a lot of technobabble" in Star Trek. Stringing together a bunch of big words does not make for a good explanation, or have you forgotten what happens when you vent the plasma relays in the dilithum chamber and bypass the secondary systems to overload the warp field generator in the phase coil inducers creating a temporal rift in the deflector array?

Every freaking episode had some meaningless technobabble like that, and I always wondered how they managed to say it without busting out laughing. Stargate/Atlantis suffered heavily from this too in many (most?) episodes.

[Snugglebear]

C'mon guys, The Next Generation had Stephen Hawking on one episode. Some of the stuff they did was grounded in reality. Like a particle that creates gravity (a graviton?) which I assume allowed them to have gravity on the ship. There was also an episode where Riker falls in love with a tranny, that was scientific.

[Mist]

No one has ever come up with even a basic concept or idea for more effective, efficient infantry weapon. (Please don't say lasers.) We don't technically know that they're not accelerated magnetically or electrically discharged, which are about the only two workable ideas for improved projectile weapons.

One of the whole hooks to BSG is that there's only two technologies in the show that are really beyond our current science, FTL travel and artificial humanoids, and one of those we're not even sure of the true nature of. Skinjobs are by nature purely biological, they just have some ability to interface directly with machines and upload their consciousness, but other than that, they're basically human, which probably has a lot to do with the ending of the show.

[Frax]

RDM has stated before that some of the technology on the show is grounded in reality. Such as the rail gun technology that Galactica uses for its big guns.

If you watch any sci-fi show with expectations of clinging to reality, you are not buying into the entire fact that the show is science fiction.

[Meppe]

Count me in as another one of the people who don't give a shit about the techno babble. On to more pressing concerns; previous episode was as awesome as I had hoped it would be. Really looking forward to these final episodes.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Ending with Gaeta and Zarek almost made me hard. So much hate for those two characters.

[Araxen]

I"m surprised the "bad" cyclons didn't show up at the end while Galatica has no FTL capabilities just to add an oh shit moment. I could give the fuck less about Ellen...always hated the character.

This week's episode was bad ass though.

[Zeste]

Originally Posted by FulorianC

Jesus fucking christ, you people are defensive. It's worth discussing.

Allegory.

You're basically saying "Man, I saw a play tonight, but it was so fake, the characters could totally see the audience, but they acted like there was some invisible fourth wall there!"

[Kuriin]

Originally Posted by Arative

I do think though that the Galatica falling apart is a clear metaphor for humanity falling apart. I've read other messages boards where people have put forth the theory that the Galatica is the dying leader, leading humanity to the promise land but never getting there. I don't buy into the theory though.

Damn...that is a good theory.

[Torrid]

Originally Posted by Snugglebear

Wat

Well, not to derail the thread but my point was that Adama's pardoning of mutinous soldiers is hardly unprecedented or unusual. Washington ended several mutinies and ordered hundreds of executions, although he ended up pardoning most of them. One mutiny having been ended by forcing the mutinous soldiers to shoot the ring leaders. I believe in another execution, he pardoned a dozen or so to be hanged at the last minute except for one.

I thought the last two episodes were pretty good and not entirely unrealistic, really. Nobody is going to start up another rebellion after that mess -- especially since Adama now knows who to keep an eye on. (and execute) They pardoned some pretty severe shit in previous episodes. It makes sense to me because smaller communities generally don't handle situations in a cut and dry "by the book" sort of way as much and tend to look at things more emotionally.