What I’ve been up to and some final BSG thoughts
Image via WikipediaWell, it’s good to be back. I’ve been fairly busy recently, which means I’ve been neglecting this blog. What have I been up to? Well, two things really:
1) I’m the webmaster for a new site that is really just getting going (I’d say it’s in beta stage, at the moment). It’s called Lifefoc.us, and it’s a personal improvement website. If you’re interested in achieving more success in your personal or professional lives, you may want to check this out. Have you ever been to an Anthony Robbins type seminar? What happens at an event like that is that you often get super charged up with their feel good messages. You come out of them feeling like you can take on the world. The problem, though, is that you have to leave the seminar at some point and actually take action on your own. I believe this is why most people fail when they try and make a positive change in their life. You want to do it, but where’s the support and encouragement? This is what this website will be, a like minded of community of people helping each other. I’m pretty excited about it.
2) I’m also working on a new, fitness oriented website. I’m making progress on it, but it’s far from complete. I’ll have more to say about this in the future.
Anyway, I just want to wrap up a few loose ends concerning Battlestar Galactica. In an earlier post, I mentioned that Tricia Helfer had mentioned that the final episode of BSG (which they’ve already filmed) will make people want to re-watch the miniseries. Well, I did this, but I didn’t really see anything that jumped out to me. The only thing that I noticed (and it’s a small, most likely irrelevant detail) is that when Starbuck was replaced in the Galactica ceremonial flyby, she was replaced by a Lt. Anders. Coincidence? Most likely, but it’s the only thing that stood out to me that others haven’t commented on.
Another great theory I read on someone’s blog, although I can’t find it now, is that Earth is more like Heaven to the colonials. In order to get to it, you have to die. Starbuck had to die to see Earth, and Roslin is always close to death, which is why she has visions of it. When Starbuck saw earth, she described it as green with trees. That’s not quite what we saw, is it? Remember when Roslin’s’ fellow cancer patient friend (played by Deep Space Nine’s Nana Vistor) died, and they had to cross a river to reach a verdant field? Didn’t that seem very Earth like to you? The final script (reportedly) reduced Edward James Olmos to tears. Could it be that both he and Roslin die, and reach Earth together? That sounds like a Galactica thing to do. I guess we’ll find out in January.
Some Random Thoughts on Battlestar Galactica: Revelations
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I was just thinking about the Battlestar Galactica midseason ending again, and I had a few more random thoughts. Here they are:
At the end of the episode, Earth has apparently gone through some kind of nuclear holocaust. The question is, how long ago did this happen? I’m thinking this catastrophe happened relatively recently. The reason for this? There are still buildings standing. I once saw a Discovery channel type show which talked about what would happen to the Earth if the people on it suddenly vanished. How long would the buildings last? The answer is, not that long. In less than a thousand years (or yaren, if you prefer), most of our modern buildings would be completely gone, weathered by the elements into dust. And that’s assuming the buildings were in tip top shape to begin with (IE, they hadn’t been hit by an atom bomb). So, I’m going to make a guesstimate and say that whatever happened to Earth (assuming it is Earth) the latest it could have happened would be 200 years in the past. However, looking at the final scene again, doesn’t it look a little like nuclear winter to you? I’m not sure how they did it, but is it possible that the other Cylons somehow got to this planet first, and nuked it? I don’t know, but this feels like a Galactica thing to do …
Another thing I’m been thinking about is the prophecies of Pythia. Remember this dialog from the first season?
Roslin: I’ve been taking chamalla for a medical condition.
Elosha: So what have you seen?
Roslin: It started out as dreams of the Cylon that we had executed but I had the dreams before we captured him. The images were…
Elosha: Prescient?
Roslin: Uncanny. And now I’m seeing things while I’m awake.
Elosha: What kind of things?
Roslin: Snakes, there were snakes crawling all over my podium during the press conference.
Elosha: How many?
Roslin: About a dozen.
Elosha: You’re kidding me, right? You read Pythia and now you’re having me o°©n.
Roslin: No. Who is Pythia?
Elosha: One of the oracles, in the sacred scrolls. 3,600 years ago, Pythia wrote about the exile and the rebirth of a human race. And the lords anointed a leader to guide the caravan of the heavens to their new homeland and unto the leader they gave a vision of serpents, numbering two and ten, as a sign of things to come.
Roslin: Pythia wrote that?
Elosha: She also wrote that the leader suffered a wasting disease and would not live to enter the new land. But you’re not dying… are you?
Now, let’s assume that Roslin is the dying leader, and that the new land is Earth. If this prophecy is to be believed, Roslin cannot reach Earth. From the final scene then, either a) Roslin is not the dying leader (remember what Tori said to her “what else are you wrong about?) b) this planet is not Earth ( This could be correct, but it would be a cheap trick on the writer’s part) or c) the colonials think they are looking for Earth, that it is the promised land, but really, they’re looking for something else …
Here’s some more prophecy, this time from one of the Hybrids …
“Soon there will be four, glorious in awakening, struggling with the knowledge of their true selves, the pain of that revelation, bringing true clarity. And amidst confusion, he will find her… Enemies brought together by the apostle, enemies now joined as one. The way forward, once impenetrable, yet inevitable. And the fifth, though still in the shadow yet clawing for the light, hungry for redemption, that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering. I can see them all, the seven, now six self-described machines who believe themselves without sin. But in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching, the agony of the one splintering into many. And then they will join in the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning.”
What strikes me most about this passage is how much it seems to point to Baltar as being the final 5 Cylon. Is there any character on the show who is seeking redemption more than Baltar? Especially since he has found religion and is worshipping the one God? There have been a few times that Baltar suspected he was a Cylon, and even voiced those thoughts. The writers almost seem to be setting up Baltar as a Christ like figure. Might he have to die to absolve us of our sins, not to mention his own? Now, the question is, wouldn’t D’Anna out Baltar right away? Perhaps she knows that Baltar hasn’t been activated yet? Remember when the final 5 were revealed to D’Anna, she apologized to him/her “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” When Baltar was on the Basestar, didn’t she threaten to blow him out an airlock at one point? As well, D’Anna did take Baltar’s opinion pretty seriously when the whole hostage crisis was going on …
Another fantastic theory that I’ve just read here is that Boomer is the final five Cylon. Boomer is looking for redemption too, as much or more that Baltar is. It also nicely explains why there is no Cylon model 7 ….
Battlestar Galactica Revelations – What the FRAK is going on?
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Apollo
It’s a colonial locator signal – and no other wireless in the fleet is picking this up?
Starbuck
Gaeta’s confirmed it. The channel is empty except for this Viper. It’s got to be a signal from Earth
Apollo
You’re reaching Kara.
Starbuck
Common Lee, add it up. I vanish into a storm and ride this Viper to Earth. Coming back I get a vision that leads me to the BaseShip. Its hybrid tells me that the final five Cylons have been to Earth but we need the missing 3, D’Anna, to bring them out into the open.
Apollo
And now we’re starting to get messages from the beyond.
Starbuck
You heard the signal. The final Cylons led me to it. If it’s Earth, they’ve given us the home of the 13th tribe just the way the hybrid said it would happen. Like it or not Lee, something is orchestrating this for a purpose.
Apollo
A higher power?
Starbuck
Call it whatever you want, but it seems to what us to find Earth with the Cylons.
Written above is some dialog from the “midseason final” (Damn you Sci Fi Channel! Damn you all to hell! Wait until Jan 2009! Frak You!) of Battlestar Galactica. This little scene is probably the most important piece of dialog from the entire series as far as trying to figure out what exactly is going on. What? You say that you haven’t seen the “midseason final” (Damn you Sci Fi Channel! Damn you all to hell! Wait until Jan 2009! Frak You!) episode “Revelations” yet? If you haven’t, watch it now. I’ll wait …
La de da de da. Dooby dooby do ….
Ok, you’ve watched it? Good. So, in the final scene, the colonials and the rebel Cylons reach Earth. What’s more, they land on it (didn’t see that coming!) However, horror of horrors, the big blue marble isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As Adama runs his fingers through the apparently radioactive soil, the camera pans to show us a desolate landscape. There was a thriving civilization here at one point. However, it has gone through some kind of holocaust, and is now a smoking ruin. No one looks happy. We came all this way for this? Any guesses as to what the Frak is going on? Well, I’m willing to take a stab at it. However, if you’re going to solve any mystery, the first thing you need is clues (that’s what I learned from Scooby Doo, anyway). Let’s look at some, first by piecing together some of the history of the colonies.
Significant Battlestar History Before Cylon Holocaust (BCH)
- The human race originates on Kobol. Human beings live side by side with their gods, known as the Lords of Kobol
- One of the Lords of Kobol, known as the “jealous god” turns on the other 12. The jealous god is cast out, or flees Kobol, on a Starship called the Galleon. There is mention of something called “The Blaze”, which sounds like some kind of Nuclear Warfare.
- 4000 BCH – a group of humans leaves for Earth. Perhaps they are followers of this jealous god?
- 4000 BCH – The Temple of Five is constructed on the Algae planet. It is constructed by five priests who belong to a heretical colonial sect who worships “He whose name must not be spoken”. Although this sounds like Voldemort, it is most likely the “Jealous God”. The fact that there are five Cylons and five priests is not a coincidence, I’d wager.
- 2000 BCH – The rest of Humanity leaves Kobol and founds the 12 colonies
- 55 years BCH – Colonials create Cylons to perform heavy labour
- 52 years BCH – Cylon Revolt begins.
- 42 years BCH – Cylon / Colonial war ends
Now, consider the following events and questions from the series that we have seen so far …
- something saved or recreated Starbuck. Something made her brand new Viper
- something knew how to create a colonial distress beacon, and have it only picked up by that Viper
- Why don’t the Cylons create more than 12 Cylon models? Why can’t they create a new Hub? - The answer (I suspect) is because the Cylons didn’t make the Hub, and they didn’t create the human Cylons. Something else did.
- Saul Tigh met Adama approx. 30 years BCH. Is it possible that a he could be created and then just inserted into human society as a man in his late 30’s? When he joined the colonial fleet, they don’t do background checks? They wouldn’t realize that this guy joining them has no history for the previous 30 years? Adama said that he has watched Tigh age. This means that Tigh started life as a baby, and has otherwise lived a normal human life. However, Saul Tigh is more than 60 years old. He predates the colonial creation of the Cylons by at least 5 years.
- Where did the Cylons get their one god religion from? How do the hybrids come by their prophecy?
- The final five Cylons have all been to Earth? How is this possible?
As of this writing, the final episode of Battlestar is being filmed, and will wrap on June 30. (So why is Sci Fi Channel waiting until January 2009 to show them! That’s a mystery I want solved. Frak!) Here are some thoughts from the cast and crew:
- Ron Moore has hinted that Leoben’s line “all this has happened before and will happen again”, which he spoke in the mini-series is significant.
- Tricia Helfer has stated that reading the final episode was like “a punch in the gut”. Also, it will make fans want to re-watch the original mini-series.
- The song “All Along the Watchtower” is meant to remind viewers that “Battlestar Galactica” takes place in a world that parallels our own. The song played on the show isn’t the Jimi Hendrix or the Bob Dylan version, but an original “Battlestar-ized” cover — performed by, among others, the guitarist from Oingo Boingo. As the show’s composer Bear McCreary put it on his blog, it’s not that Bob Dylan exists in the world of “Battlestar,” but that the idea of Bob Dylan does. Might this not indicate that the Earth the colonials find is not our Earth, but a parallel Earth with its own unique history?
- Both Edward James Olmos and Aaron Douglas cried when they read the final script. Mary McDonnell felt a rush of adrenaline. (I’m just putting in this last point to indicate that the final episode is good. It doesn’t look like Galactica will suffer an Enterprise like fate)
Ok, reading all of this, what can we piece together? Ready for some wild speculation and crazy theories? Well, ready or not, here they come!
The Lords of Kobol were an advanced race of aliens (although most likely still humanoid in nature), perhaps the last of their kind. The “Jealous God” wanted to have followers that would only worship him. This is why he was jealous, he was jealous of the other gods. A war broke out, and the “Jealous God” fled Kobol, and a significant number of humans followed him. The most important of the Jealous God’s followers were 5 human priests. These are the priests that set up the Temple of the Five on the Algae planet. When the Jealous God and his followers reached Earth, their religion obviously became monistic in nature. At some point Earth developed intelligent machines, similar to the Cylons, thousands of years before the 12 colonials did. They may have done this even before the colonials left Kobol. At any rate the Earthlings machines turned on their creators in the same way that the Cylons eventually did to the colonials. This resulted in the destruction of Earth (it has all happened before, and it will all happen again). However, the Jealous God remained in some form. Perhaps he realized that any advanced race is at some point going to develop a machine so advanced that it really is a new form of life ( like the Cylons). When this happens, the race that creates it is in a great deal of danger. How to get the two races to live together, so that both may prosper? Perhaps out of a sense of guilt for what happened to his Earth followers, the Jealous God decides to “help’ the colonials. It creates the final five Cylons based on its five loyal priests (who set up the temple of the five on the Algae Planet) and inserts them into Colonial society. It finds the Cylons and creates for them the Human Cylons and the Hub. Its goal is to keep both races alive long enough to realize that they must work together to survive, rather than wipe each other out. It wants to bring both races together so that they realize they have to work together to survive. It constantly interferes in both human and Cylon affairs to make this happen. The means of doing this? Recreating Earth. Rebuilding it. With Earth reborn and populated with humans and human Cylons, intermarrying and breeding, the differences between the two races will vanish. The Jealous God will have recreated the planet the he/she/it had originally created in his own image.
Obviously, this theory is full of educated guesses on my part. Still, I think it holds together somewhat. I’m still interested in Tricia Helfer’s comment about re-watching the original series. I think I’m going to do that now and see what I can learn. Why not? I’ve got 8 Fraken months to wait to see if any of my theories are correct! Damn you Sci Fi channel!
Galactica, the Fifth Cylon, and more!
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When it comes right down to it, I don’t really watch that much television. However, one show I do watch religiously is Battlestar Galactica. In fact, if it wasn’t for this show, I could see cancelling my cable altogether. If you don’t mind, I’ve been thinking a little bit about it, and I think I’m going to use this post to geek out a little bit. If you watch Battlestar, you may find this interesting. If you don’t, well, you should watch it! It’s the best show on television!
My first thought on the show concerns the revelation that Colonel Tigh had apparently impregnated one of the sixes. Now, this shouldn’t be possible, as it has already been established in the show that the Cylons can’t reproduce sexually. My thinking on this is that the reason the Cylons can’t reproduce is because they essentially can’t die. Till this point in the show (at least until the Hub was destroyed) they are essentially immortal. As far as mother nature is concerned (or God, for that matter), why would you grant the great gift of life to a race that doesn’t need it? Perhaps in the Battlestar theology, the price of the Cylons immortality is that they are not truly alive. Death walks with life. You can’t have one without the other.
Now, what is unique about Tigh and the other 4 ‘hidden’ Cylons is that they are unique. If they die, as far as we know, that’s it. That’s why god, or nature, has granted them the gift to create life. There are some rules of nature you just can’t break, no matter how much you learn or how advanced you are. The price for Cylon immortality may well be that they are not truly alive. This may also be why, now that the Hub is destroyed, that the other Cylons will be able to reproduce sexually. This is just a guess on my part, but I think it’s a possibility. Get ready for a Cylon baby boom!
My other thought is on the identity of the unknown fifth Cylon. When the four were revealed, they all met up in that room on the Galactica. Why didn’t the fifth Cylon show up? I suspect it was because he or she couldn’t. He or she wasn’t on the Galactica. Whoever the fifth Cylon is, he or she is someone who is not regularly on the Galactica. The top two candidates in my book are Starbuck (who was presumed dead at that point) or Tom Zarek (the original Apollo ) . The other thing I like about these two choices is that they all have a name that starts with a T. Consider:
Tigh
Tyrol
Samuel T Anders
Tori
I think Tom Zarek or Kara Thrace fits in nicely here. Of course, the whole T thing could just be a mind Frak played on by the producers. Time will tell … (although not until 2009! FRAK!)
PS On an entirely different note, Aaron Abber has just put out a free report entitled 101 Ways to Grab More Blog Subscribers,
. If this interests you, you should definitely check it out. As you already know, I am already a member of Aaron’s FREE mentoring group, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. You may also want to subscribe to his newsletter, which you can get to by clicking on the little graphic on the upper left of this blog.
Acne Solution Tips is live!(although not done) + more Galactica
Ok, first things first. Today I started to put up my newest site, based on niche inspector, at www.acne-solution-tips.com. The site is not finished yet by any means. However, if you take a look at it, you can you can get an idea of where I’m going with it. To create the site, I’m using a program called Xsite Pro. Xsite Pro is a great program that is designed with internet marketers in mind. I’ll have more to say about this program in a future post.
In my last post, I put forward some theories on what might be going on in Battlestar Galactica. I then received a comment from Sungoddess, explaining why my ideas were nuts and that I must be some kind of knucklehead (ok, she didn’t say that, but that’s what it felt like, lol). Now, I may very well be a knucklehead from time to time, but I think I’m on to something here with this third force. If you’re a BSG fan, you can read my reply to her at her blog here (I see she hasn’t replied yet to MY post on her website, lol).
Tomorrow, I’m hoping to mostly finish the acne-solution-tips website. Plus, I have an evil idea that may really help with it’s promotion. Stay tuned to learn what it is!
To our Success,
- Dave
Battlestar Galactica! (and a minor internet update …)
Last night I watched the 2nd episode this season of Battlestar Galactica. Is this a great show or what? Although it is a critical darling, it really deserves a wider audience than it’s gotten. I wonder if the Sci Fi channel had been doing a bit more with promotions using pictures like the above, it might have helped it get a wider audience. Who knows? Still, the retro picture above works for me J
On the other hand, maybe it’s a good thing that the show is ending now after 4 seasons. Galactica has a definite ending (finding Earth) and as the writer’s know when this is, they should be able to create some really tight shows. It won’t run the risk of what happened to “Lost” for awhile, where the various story arcs just meander all over the place.
Last nights episode was great. I loved seeing the inner workings of how the Cylons run things and how they perceive events. For example, the fact that the Cylon Raiders were basically thinking for themselves and not following orders. Further, that one of the remedy’s for this, proposed by the Dean Stockwell Cylon (His name escapes me. I’m a geek, but not an uber geek), was to basically lobotomize them. As Dean said, “I’m just the mechanic, fixing the engine” (or something like that). Do you see the irony here? He’s basically treating his own race like machines. It would seem that all pigs are not created equal in Cylon land.
The fact that the Raiders ceased their attack (in episode one) when one of the raiders realized that one of the five remaining “hidden” Cylons was on Galactica raises some interesting questions. One of them being just who built these human Cylons? How could they not know? The humans build the Cylons say 40 years ago. They then go off by themselves and get these 12 human Cylons made. However, the Cylons we see don’t know who 5 of them are. How can this be? Here’s a guess. Maybe there’s another alien race we have not even seen yet who have influenced the Cylons in some way. Perhaps these aliens created the human Cylons for some reason, but also planted the “hidden five” among the colonials. Maybe this third force has some grand plan for both races? This could also explain why the Cylons themselves don’t create more versions of themselves than just 12. They can’t do it by themselves. Moreover, this is why there so obsessed with biological reproduction to begin with.
Yikes, my mind is really wandering here. Another thought is that the fact the Cylon Raiders called off the attack upon scanning the hidden Cylon (Anders) helps us narrow down just who that 5th Cylon might be. It can’t be a pilot. So, cross Apollo and Starbuck off your list for possibly being the 5th Cylon. During any Colonial – Cylon fight, but especially during the big first attack in season one, the Cylons were always scanning the humans to shut their ships down. If they found the fifth hidden Cylon then, wouldn’t they have stopped the attack then? Just a thought.
Ok, enough about Galactica.
As far as the acne solution site goes, I registered a domain name today (www.acne-solution-tips.com) and I wrote a new article that I’ll use as the landing page for the site. Tomorrow, I should have a crude version of the website up, at least in some form. That’s it for now!
So Say We All,
- Dave