Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome

[Skylon]

The Valkyrie bothers me like it does Vympel because it just seems lazy. The series so far has not spared expense to give us looks for different support ships, heavy cruisers, and even a new model of a Raptor. There's no reason why they couldn't have come up with a new (older looking) design of battlestar for the war that was smaller like the Valkyrie. In nBSG's flashback, it did feel as if the Valkyrie was a newer design.

Was it the same CGI model of the Valkyrie from the series? Because the quick look we got in B&C it looked the same as Galactica. Again, way too quick a look unless someone has a screen cap, but it could be this Valkyrie was of the Galactica-type, and was destroyed or decommissioned later.

[Ahriman238]

Yeah, I guess I confused the simulator with the real thing. My bad.

The war lasted for ten years, didn't it? Maybe the first battlestars were initially designed to be primitive and were then slowly upgraded throughout the war as the Colonials became more confident in their security. If that ends up biting them in the ass in B&C, it would explain Adama's almost pathological aversion to networking the Galactica's computers ever again.

Correct, at the time of this mini-series the war has been on for a decade, which puts it two years before the flashbacks in 'Razor.'

[CaptJodan]

Was it the same CGI model of the Valkyrie from the series? Because the quick look we got in B&C it looked the same as Galactica. Again, way too quick a look unless someone has a screen cap, but it could be this Valkyrie was of the Galactica-type, and was destroyed or decommissioned later.

The best view I can see is at 8:50 (sorry, no screen caps). There IS a Galactica style Battlestar there, but I think there's also a Valkyrie style in the middle of the fleet.

I could live with it better if it was an older version and renamed a ship after that one (though honestly they didn't need to use a name they've already used previously). It doesn't sit well that Valkyrie is almost as old (or as old) as Galactica.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I tihnk it's interesting the mix of mythologies shown. I mean, BSG alwasy had a Greek-based mythos, Zeus, Apollo, Athena etc. and that was fine until you introduce the Mercury-class battlestar and Jupiter. And then we add in Valkyrie, Loki and Osiris to boot. So you have ships named after figures from four different mythologies; Greek, Roman, Norse and Egyptian.

[Galvatron]

oBSG had a mix as well, although not as much. Then again, it did only run for one season.

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Mytho ... references

Prior to the show going off the rails, I was certain that the thirteen tribes were originally transplanted to Kobol from ancient Earth (along with their myriad religions) and never knew it.

[amigocabal]

oBSG had a mix as well, although not as much. Then again, it did only run for one season.

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Mytho ... references

Prior to the show going off the rails, I was certain that the thirteen tribes were originally transplanted to Kobol from ancient Earth (along with their myriad religions) and never knew it.

In either show, did the colonials ever study the DNA of Earthly life?

[Batman]

Well if memory serves nBSG ended up on ancient Earth so pretty much all our mythology comes from them, anyway. No reason they should be limited to a particular one.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well if memory serves nBSG ended up on ancient Earth so pretty much all our mythology comes from them, anyway. No reason they should be limited to a particular one.

True. Maybe all the different mythologies are just different Colonie's names for the same "gods."

As for studyign the DNA of Earthly life, towards the very end of the finale (shudder) Baltar states that the humans strolling aroudn the plains are "compatible" with the Colonials. Cue snarky remarks about Baltar wanting to get laid.

[Guardsman Bass]

The latest two episodes are out. Interesting stuff - we see some of the byproducts of the Cylons messing around with cyborgs.

It also reinforced my belief that the CGI tends to look better when you segregate the parts with real people/things from the CGI segments. The scenes with the real characters next to the CGI raptor looked the worst, while the space battle looked pretty cool.

[J Ryan]

I've always been under the assumption, that a Battlestar was the name of a type of warship that was the main core of a fleet and one of the largest types of Colonial ship. However if the Osiris is also a Battlestar (as seen on the patches they wear) whilst having 5% of the crew of a Galactica type, it seems that Battlestar is simply a catch all name for a Colonial war ship.

[Skylon]

I've always been under the assumption, that a Battlestar was the name of a type of warship that was the main core of a fleet and one of the largest types of Colonial ship. However if the Osiris is also a Battlestar (as seen on the patches they wear) whilst having 5% of the crew of a Galactica type, it seems that Battlestar is simply a catch all name for a Colonial war ship.

I didn't get a close look at the patch and it had the same basic design as other Colonial ships, but unless it said "Battlestar" on it, I'd just assume it continues what we already know. Colonial ship patches are the same except for the name of the ship.

[J Ryan]

I've always been under the assumption, that a Battlestar was the name of a type of warship that was the main core of a fleet and one of the largest types of Colonial ship. However if the Osiris is also a Battlestar (as seen on the patches they wear) whilst having 5% of the crew of a Galactica type, it seems that Battlestar is simply a catch all name for a Colonial war ship.

I didn't get a close look at the patch and it had the same basic design as other Colonial ships, but unless it said "Battlestar" on it, I'd just assume it continues what we already know. Colonial ship patches are the same except for the name of the ship.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Given that this is part of a "ghost fleet" is it possible that the crew are survivors from an earlier Battlestar Osiris?

Certainly though "Battlestar" is not a catch-all term, we have Adam referring to the Heavy Cruiser Loki, which frankly looked somewhat more powerful than Osiris does.

Also, Osiris' bridge officer who mans the FTL controls must be an ancestor of Captain Kelly, and I would swear I've seen that Sunshine pilot in the regular series as well.

[Ahriman238]

I'm more curious as to how that large snake-thing survives on an ice-world, even if it's a prototype skinjob, it sure looks too reptilian to be within a thousand miles of an icy biome.

[Batman]

Just because it looks reptilian doesn't mean it has to be reptilian, This is SciFi afterall. Besides, the damn beast is a cyborg-for all we know, the mechanical parts include heating.
And the overuse of Frak is beginning to seriously get on my nerves.

[gigabytelord]

And the overuse of Frak is beginning to seriously get on my nerves.

I've said fuck way more times than that on several different occasions, and I most certainly didn't have a robotic killing machine shooting at me at the time, or a wing man who's balls just fell off and he decided to say "frack this, I'm outa here" (paraphrasing of course).

Also, is it just me or do the military ships in BSG seem to be insanely tough?

[Stark]

I think he's finally realised made-up swear words being used seriously is terrible. I just hope he doesn't look back over past nBSG threads and realise the inevitable.

And I think it's fairer to say nBSG weapons are just really weak. The 'flash and blast' school of petrol bombs.

[Ahriman238]

Just because it looks reptilian doesn't mean it has to be reptilian, This is SciFi afterall. Besides, the damn beast is a cyborg-for all we know, the mechanical parts include heating.
And the overuse of Frak is beginning to seriously get on my nerves.

Accepted. But I still say it looks way too reptilian for it's environment.

Yeah, we go from loud noise blooping out the swears to just saying frak. Either way, a lot of profanity which isn't unheard of in a desperate military situation.

[gigabytelord]

I think he's finally realised made-up swear words being used seriously is terrible. I just hope he doesn't look back over past nBSG threads and realise the inevitable.

And I think it's fairer to say nBSG weapons are just really weak. The 'flash and blast' school of petrol bombs.

Really weak compared to what? Other sci-fi weapons systems? There were several scenes where the missiles the Basestar was launching punched clean through the hull of the Osiris, venting atmosphere and causing secondary explosions, yet the Osiris kept on working...

So I would agree that BSG weapons are weak, against other sci-fi universes.

[Stark]

Yeah, and there was that time the Galactica was being pummelled at close range by dozens of missiles from capital ships and each one went off like a molotov, leaving a 'fire' decal behind and creating drama through wobbly cameras.

They used a nuke once too. That doesn't mean that most of the time they're throwing anything better than petrol bombs. You can't jump from 'ship gets hit a lot' to 'ship has lots of hitpoints' if the weapons its being hit with are just crap. In science fiction shows with powerful weapons, things are often destroyed in a single hit from parity weapons. Not appropriate for a show about a single ship.

[Batman]

Remember that this is a show were KT range nukes are a big deal. That says a lot about their conventional firepower and what ship resilience to that means.
And as someone who uses 'Valendamned' on a regular basis I am indeed not in a position to criticize others for using made-up swear words.
And wether or not the frequent use of swearwords in such situations is to be expected (which I agree is highly probable) 'Frak' is just lame.
You don't want to have your characters use swear words, don't have them use swear words. But then, we're talking about the US. People being killed by the gazillions is okay, this is afterall a war series, but somebody saying 'Fuck' or 'Shit' is somehow a no go.

[gigabytelord]

Yeah, and there was that time the Galactica was being pummelled at close range by dozens of missiles from capital ships and each one went off like a molotov, leaving a 'fire' decal behind and creating drama through wobbly cameras.

I lol'd

Yeah but that can be said for pretty much any sci-fi show, I remember seeing some absolutely terrible wobbly camera scenes from star trek/gate complete with the "everyone is now drunk" moments, and as for as I'm concerned nBSG was comparatively light in that area.

They used a nuke once too. That doesn't mean that most of the time they're throwing anything better than petrol bombs. You can't jump from 'ship gets hit a lot' to 'ship has lots of hitpoints' if the weapons its being hit with are just crap. In science fiction shows with powerful weapons, things are often destroyed in a single hit from parity weapons. Not appropriate for a show about a single ship.

Very true, somehow I don't think a reboot about the base star that one shot the Galactica during the battle at Ragnar(sp?) Anchorage, would have lasted very long...

[the atom]

They used a nuke once too. That doesn't mean that most of the time they're throwing anything better than petrol bombs.

Yes it does? What kind of terrible logic is that? If we're talking about spaceships that can apparently tank nuclear ordinance directly against the hull (I hope I don't need to remind everyone that this is still serious business) and walk away with a little buckled plating and a few causalities, then it follows that the guns and missiles regularly used blast other ships have a little more of a pop then your standard fare sci-fi petrol bombs.

[Stark]

So you're saying when a single weapon does serious internal damage, and dozens of another weapon make orange flashes, that in some way the second inherits the power of the first? I thought it meant that the regular missiles were way weaker than 15kt nukes. Silly me!

I mean its fine and dandy because nBSG is 'realistic' whatever that means, but typical cylon missiles are not fit for purpose, because they suck turds at actually killing battlestars. It blew me away when they were just pinging off missile after missile at Galactica instead of just using their actual ship-killer missiles (which I'm sure there's a brilliant plot excuse for). It makes it doubly embarrassing because by contrast basestars pop like zits. I don't really see this as great evidence that the Galactica is amazingly tough. In particular, aren't similar or better ships regularly destroyed, even without being surrounded at point blank range by superior numbers?

It's ALMOST as if there was a narrative imperative for the Galactica to always survive and a huge screaming fanbase who loved watching orange flashes of futility spark outside the ship.

[Galvatron]

Maybe the ship-killer missiles are too easily taken out by a battlestar's flak barrier. That'd mean they're effective against hacked and disabled ships, not so much against a ship that can defend itself.

And didn't the cylons use 50 megaton nukes against the colonies themselves?