Battlestar Galactica

[grumbler]

Hell, TNG had one of the best shows about the implications of omnipotence ever.

Which episode are you referring to?

It is one in which they find only two survivors (man and woman) on a tiny surviving splinter of land on a planet that has been ravaged by an alien bombardment from space, and weird shit happens when they try to investigate where the aliens came from.

[Neil]

Hell, TNG had one of the best shows about the implications of omnipotence ever.

Which episode are you referring to?

It is one in which they find only two survivors (man and woman) on a tiny surviving splinter of land on a planet that has been ravaged by an alien bombardment from space, and weird shit happens when they try to investigate where the aliens came from.

Yeah, that one was good.

[Queequeg]

The Adama-Roslin relationship is really, really great.  One of the best things about the show. 

[garbon]

Just watched The Plan. It was weird watching the show without Roslin.  Liked the gratuitous penis shot though.

[Queequeg]

I have to say; I think the show has really come back, if not to Season 2 levels, then to season 1 levels.  The mutiny and integration of Rebel Cylon and Human forces is really interesting. 

[viper37]

I have to say; I think the show has really come back, if not to Season 2 levels, then to season 1 levels.  The mutiny and integration of Rebel Cylon and Human forces is really interesting. 

You need your head examined.

[viper37]

I revise my statement about Admiral Caine.
She really is a psycho.

[Agelastus]

I revise my statement about Admiral Caine.
She really is a psycho.

I agree, of course, but what caused you to revise your opinion?

[viper37]

I revise my statement about Admiral Caine.
She really is a psycho.

I agree, of course, but what caused you to revise your opinion?

I got the Blu-Ray of the series, and I'm rewatching it. I'm currently watching Razor.  It's clear to me now that she was a psychopath before the Colonies were bombed, she was just "in control" so to speak, and the near anihilation of the human race pushed her over the edge.  It ain't simply post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some events were mixed up in my head   I thought she killed her XO after discovering the Cylon.  Clearly, she didn't even need that.

[Siege]

What? Who said that the 12 colonies were in the same system?

That's impossible.

I always assumed they were in 12 diferent systems, next to each other.

[Siege]

What would an actual space battle look like?  I always imagined it would have way more in common with Jutland than Midway, all extremely long-range ordinance and guessing where the enemy is/will be. 

It will be long-range missiles, "smart" missiles, with nuclear warheads, launched from a collection of vessels that will likely resemble current generation submarines, as oppoused to surface vessels or aircraft. Point defense systems will likely be lasers instead of bullets, even though bullets are cheaper, because of speed to target and because bullets would continue to fly indefinitively beyond their targetting range due to inertia, which could be a problem in large formations of spaceships.

I think fighters and carriers will be limited to orbital operations and planetary assaults. There is no point whatsoever in using fighters in deep space. Because of inertia, they would not have a speed or manouverability advantage over larger spacecraft, but would be far more limited in firepower and defenses.

But then, back in the 19th century, future aircraft was thought of as resembling naval vessels, with an open deck on top. We are probably making the same mistake today with spacecraft. The reality of space will dictate their shapes and sizes, and they will likely not ressemble anything we know today.

[Darth Wagtaros]

What would an actual space battle look like?  I always imagined it would have way more in common with Jutland than Midway, all extremely long-range ordinance and guessing where the enemy is/will be. 

It will be long-range missiles, "smart" missiles, with nuclear warheads, launched from a collection of vessels that will likely resemble current generation submarines, as oppoused to surface vessels or aircraft. Point defense systems will likely be lasers instead of bullets, even though bullets are cheaper, because of speed to target and because bullets would continue to fly indefinitively beyond their targetting range due to inertia, which could be a problem in large formations of spaceships.

I think fighters and carriers will be limited to orbital operations and planetary assaults. There is no point whatsoever in using fighters in deep space. Because of inertia, they would not have a speed or manouverability advantage over larger spacecraft, but would be far more limited in firepower and defenses.

But then, back in the 19th century, future aircraft was thought of as resembling naval vessels, with an open deck on top. We are probably making the same mistake today with spacecraft. The reality of space will dictate their shapes and sizes, and they will likely not ressemble anything we know today.

Or giant aircraft carriers that can launch Veritech fighters.

[viper37]

What? Who said that the 12 colonies were in the same system?

the producers said so.  It was the same in the original show.

It's not impossible, just highly unlikely.

[Agelastus]

What? Who said that the 12 colonies were in the same system?

That's impossible.

I always assumed they were in 12 diferent systems, next to each other.

Triple star system with twelve inhabitable planets (judging from on-screen info of the original series - Tigh gesturing at a starmap showing the location of three groups of Cylon basestars launching at all "outer planets".) This particular concept seems to have been taken on board by the revival team after the outrage on the Battlestar Galactica boards over their original concept of the twelve Colonies all sharing one world.

The outrage over the new show was funny; I posted a "live with it" message on a board that I'd ignored for a few years and ended up getting the fourth degree from people who thought I was a sock puppet of a known agent provocateur.

As for the odds of such a system? I'd say they are low, but not impossible. I'd guess some of the worlds would have to be double planets, and the stars would have to be orbiting quite a way from each other (no doubt explaining the prevalence of civilian FTL - some ships with it, some ships without. Presumably cost over speed considerations since all the Colonies are reachable by STL ships in a not-to-unreasonable amount of time.) There's nothing in canon that contradicts the possibility that some of the worlds were terraformed, having not originally been habitable, if you cannot believe that a system would have twelve natural inhabitable worlds.

[jimmy olsen]

Double Binary System

This map is awesome, however the original
population #s were retarded. Now they were
never actually consistent in the show either
throwing around 20 billion and 50 billion on
different occasions (would it kill the writers to at
least keep the values close?). So the original total
on this map of 28.55 billion was fine, but it
reduced Libran and Aquaria to virtually
uninhabited planets with tiny outposts of 2.1
million and 25,000 people respectively. 

The original map can be found here.
http://io9.com/#!5742034/a-detailed-map-of-
battlestar-galacticas-twelve-colonies

Here's mine.

By timmay11 at 2011-03-16