Editing Podcast:Exodus, Part II

We had some internal questions about the technical feasibility of ''Galactica'' jumping into the atmosphere and falling through the- falling like a rock through this. You could argue it either way. It's all s- it's science fiction so who knows what ''Galactica''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s made of and the structure integrity, etc., etc. My logic was, "Look. If ''Galactica'' can take hit from a nuke, and keep on moving, which we established in the [[miniseries]]. If it can take a nuke and still be ok on some level, this is a tough motherfuckin' machine." So that means if it- I can buy that it has enough structural integrity to fall through that atmosphere. It couldn't maneuver. It can't fly. That's not what it's designed to do. But I bought the idea that it could hang together long enough to just fall straight down and then launch its Vipers and then get the hell out of there.

This shot. Now this doesn't quite sell the story point enough 'cause we only had one visual effects shot to sell this with. The idea was after they jumped out to the atmosphere, they jump up above, and they really only jumped into pretty low orbit again, and they're, like, clawing for altitude all the way up.

Ok. Now this, I think, is a key moment. This tells me a lot about William Adama. When he knows that the end is here and he really is facing that moment, there's a moment in every person's life, or at least in every character's life, when they face death. Truly face it and truly believe that they're gonna die. How do they react? And when you answer that question you have said something fundamental about that character and who they are and what they're about. And when William Adama's answer, when he felt he's really going to die, what did he do? He stopped. He looked around to the men around him, and he said, "Gentlemen, it's been an honor." And that to me defines that character. You can't redefine the character. You can't have him face that situation and react differently again. He can face a different situation. He can have other people in jeopardy. There's situations in which he would continue to fight. But in that circumstance, when everything fell apart, he just turned to the men around him and said, "It's been an honor," and accepted it. And went out- was going to go out in a quiet way, instead of raging against the light. And I thought that that's an interesting choice. It's not the traditional way that a key- a hero reacts to these circumstances and that's really what attracted me to it. And I think as a writer you fit, especially in a tv show,  you have to choose. You have to make choices and live with them. And that's a choice. That is a choice about who Adama is and when you take a character to that place and you answer that question you've now, like, rounded out the definition of that character in a very fundamental way. [[Kara Thrace|Kara]]'s answer in a similar situation would not be the same.

And I love this. This feeling of- this is, not quite, but this is sort of [[Wikipedia:Death of Adolf Hitler|Hitler in the bunker]]. It's the Russians are out there. We're losing. We're not gonna make it. What do we do? If you commit suicide on some level. And they're gonna nuke the city. And that there's a place for [[Gaius Baltar|Baltar]]. I mean, that was a key question. How could Baltar escape with them? Well, he's only gonna escape with them if they want him to. And that there was a sense of, yeah, well you could call it loyalty. You could call it recognition of their own shortcomings. [[Cylons (RDM)|Cylons]] are learning and changing and they have different points of view on things than they did at the beginning. The fact that they're willing for Baltar to come with them now says alot. I love that the [[Felix Gaeta|Gaeta]] beat, with the gun.