I'm a little confused why they couldn't find another source of volunteers in the most recent episode, among the rest of the populace of the fleet. I was a little confused why Starbuck took the shot on a guy who had just ordered his men to lower his weapons... until I realized that this guy is not going away, and there will be plenty of time for us to learn that these two have some kind of history. Anyone want to take bets on whether he killed her parents? She was actually angry at having missed the shot, and it didn't look like simple professional pride to me.
The elections thing makes sense, I suppose... but doesn't anyone watching think that maybe a state of emergency is actually warranted in this case? I've forgotten, what's their eventual goal here? In the miniseries, Adama said they were going to Earth, right? The commanders of Battlestars were given the coordinates of Earth... Did he say how long it would take to get there? How long do they think this emergency will last? I'm not sure what the expectations are in the fleet at this point...
Maybe someone should put together a Lurker's Guide to Battlestar Galactica. It deserves it.
B5, DS9, Firefly, and now BSG. The pantheon of modern sci-fi television.
And now I can face the long wait for Serenity in September...
Comments
They said it was hard and dangerous work that they didn't want to ask civillians to do. And they needed a thousand people - over two percent of their total population. That's a lot of volunteers to expect, of a group that hasn't yet absorbed that their comfortable lives are over. (This is an explanation, not a justification, and it suggests that questions of ethics are not going to be ignored in this series.)
why Starbuck took the shot...
She was also too far away to hear what was going on. Also, if snipering is anything like my imagination of it, her attention was focused on him and only him, and she had no idea what was happening elsewhere and so didn't know he'd ordered his people to lower his weapons. (Think how easy it is to get absorbed in a computer game and not notice anything else going on around you.)
Your answer could also have some truth to it - we've seen that people have some very strong feelings about this guy.
doesn't anyone watching think that maybe a state of emergency is actually warranted in this case?
Absolutely. That's why it's not appropriate to have elections now. But the crisis won't last forever, and eventually democracy must return.
In the miniseries, Adama said they were going to Earth, right? The commanders of Battlestars were given the coordinates of Earth...
And then he admitted (to Roslin) he was lying.
Maybe someone should put together a Lurker's Guide to Battlestar Galactica...
Tempting... but no. Are the creators talking to the public at all (as JMS did)?
"Will you ever find Earth?"
The answer given is, approximately, "Of course not."
Not that any of it matters; sounds like we'll be getting elections sooner than that. I wonder when we'll start seeing more of the civilian leadership in prominent roles, so we get a feel for what the campaign will be like.