The Re-imagined Series shares a humorous and sometimes mysterious affinity in placing numbers with popular-culture cross-references or inside jokes in episode content. Fans of the series can also exhibit a tremendous capacity to identify and place perhaps too great a significance upon certain numerological patterns.
There are 12 Colonies that match the 12 zodiac symbols.
There are 12 models of humanoid Cylons at the time of the series.
According to President Roslin there are 12 snakes encircling her press podium when she has one of her first chamalla-induced visions. This vision was predicted by the prophet Pythia, stating: "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" (TRS: "The Hand of God").
There are 12 Vipers that participate on the direct assault in the Battle for the Tylium Asteroid. Pythia's prophecy also mentioned that the humans would be led by "serpents numbering two and ten."
There are twelve thoracic vertebrae in the human spine, which glow during sexual intercourse on humanoid Cylons.
Gaeta tells Tigh that it would take 12 hours for Galactica's computer to generate the Fleet's jump coordinates from Kobol(TRS: "Scattered").
The number 12 is visible (albeit upside-down) on a fuzzy die in Starbuck's locker on Pegasus(TRS: "Resurrection Ship, Part II").
In the wake of civil disruptions by the Sons of Ares and the Cult of Baltar, President Roslin issues an executive order limiting the number of people allowed to assemble in any given place to 12 or less. This order is later overturned (TRS: "Escape Velocity").
A Raptor departs Demetrius with 14:40 left. 144 is the square of 12, the number of Cylon models and of the original colonies of Kobol(TRS: "Faith").
"The truth is, there's no real answer. It's just a random number that felt right when I came up with the idea that our people were under continuous, relentless attack since the end of the pilot. I wanted it to be a short interval, just long enough for them to grab a bite to eat, jump in the shower and maybe try to catch a catnap before dragging themselves back to their duty stations and begin the whole tedious, terrifying ordeal all over again.
"A deeper truth is, I was never interested in coming up with an explanation for Why? Never. I mean, I suppose I could've come up with a sufficiently important-sounding bit of technobabble that would've made sense (you see, the Cylon double-talk sensors tracking the Olympic Carrier's nonsense drive signature needed 15 minutes to relay the made-up data wave through the pretend continuum, then the Cylon navigational hyper silly system needed another 10 minutes to recalculate the flux capacitor, etc.) but what would that have really added to the drama? How does explaining that 33 minute interval help our understanding of Laura's terrible moment of decision, or bring us to any greater knowledge of Dualla's search for her missing family and friends, or yield insight into Baltar's morally shattered psyche?
"It doesn't, of course. The answer, however artfully it may (or may not) have been crafted can only subtract from the experience we have in watching the episode. Not knowing the how's or why's of the Cylon attack puts us in the same seat as the characters we're watching. They're in the dark, and we're in the dark. The relentless attack is unfathomable in its origin and unstoppable in its execution. It's mortality coming at you on a loop. If you only had 33 minutes before the next time you could die, what would you do? And what about the time after that? And the time after that? At a certain point, you stop caring about why it's happening, all you know is that it is happening, and it's happening to you.
"So the mystery of 33 will be permanent on this show. No explanation, not even the attempt. Let it just be a number that seemed like an eternity for five long days on the battlestarGalactica."
The number 42 is the infamous "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.[1]
However, it has also been mentioned that the then current American President, having 42 previous presidents, was the reasoning for Roslin's number in succession. [citation needed]
The license plate number of Starbuck's truck on Caprica is "FB 42 E3" (TRS: "Valley of Darkness").
Usage of the number 47 had been a very common in-joke on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Writer Joe Menosky, a Pomoma College alumni, originated this joke based on a humorous "47 Society" from his alma mater. Menosky, along with other writers and production crew, arranged numerous placements of the number throughout the series via dialogue (often ensconced in technobabble), props, and visual references. The TV spy drama Alias took the "47" joke to almost-epic proportions by placing very obvious references to the number in most of its episodes over its 5-year run.
The "47" joke has become the numerical counterpart to the audio clip known as the "Wilhelm Scream" that's added to numerous movies as an in-joke between directors and sound editors since the early 1950s.
This is the last lottery number held by a lucky refugee on Caprica, who is rescued by Lt. Sharon Valerii during an emergency stop on the colony following the commencement of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Dr. Gaius Baltar appears to momentarily consider using the number for himself as the older woman could not read her number (her forgetfulness leads her to neglect her glasses on top of her head), before being called out by Karl Agathon. Agathon spares the woman from Baltar's machinations as he relinquishes his seat on the Raptor for the famous scientist (TRS: "Miniseries, Night 1").
Romo Lampkin and Lee Adama go through 47 candidates in their search for interim president before Lampkin identifies Adama as being the person best suited for the position (TRS: "Sine Qua Non").
In the brief cease-fire during the Battle of The Colony, Lee Adama states that 4 Vipers have been destroyed, and Starbuck states that 7 Raptors have been lost (TRS: "Daybreak").
1701 is part of the registry number for Star Trek's numerous U.S.S. Enterprise, and thus widely associated with the ship and franchise itself. This number itself is believed to be a nod to the 1956 science fiction classic Forbidden Planet, notably where the helmsman aboard the C-57D informs the crew that the ship will "reach D.C. [deceleration commencement] point at 17:01."
↑Another helpful axiom from Hitchhiker's Guide is that when traveling around different planets through space, it's always best to "Know where your towel is"―where forgetting one is considered a serious blunder―a mistake which Lee Adama has nearly made on several occasions.
Re-imagined Series definition: in military parlance, directive to continue the attack; otherwise used to refer to journalists (TRS: "Maelstrom")
Re-imagined Series definition: the process of using the FTL engines to make an near-instantaneous apparent faster-than-light transport of a ship from one point in space to another
