Battlestar Wiki - User contributions [en]

Baltar as Cylon speculation

2006-09-07T04:24:02Z

2kt: /* Baltar as an "Agent of God" */

:''This extended speculation thread appears all but disproven with the airing of the episode "[[Downloaded]]." To go directly to what may be the final arguments toward Baltar as a Cylon, see the last section of this subarticle. This is continuing from [[Cylon agent speculation#Gaius Baltar?|Cylon agent speculation]].''

For '''[[Gaius Baltar]]''' to survive the destruction of Caprica was no small matter, especially considering he was in the wake a nuclear shock wave and that the body of Six that he knew was apparently destroyed in trying to protect his in the events of the [[Miniseries]].

A nuclear blast's shock wave is substantial (not unlike that from a [[Wikipedia:Pyroclastic_flow|pyroclastic cloud]]). The shock wave would contain rocks, glass, metal, and other large debris that would bludgeon, pierce and lacerate human tissue with ease and at terrific speeds (at maximum, 1200 KPH, or 745 MPH). Such a debris-filled shock wave would obliterate Baltar's home and easily annihilate Six's body, which at those speeds would provide essentially no protection to Baltar's. (For comparison, note that, despite his superior strength, the head of the first [[Leoben Conoy]] copy encountered was bludgeoned by Commander Adama with a flashlight, and many other Cylon agent copies have been shot or killed as easily as a human.) However, it has to be kept in mind that the blast wave had dissipated greatly by the time it had reached Baltar's house some 26 seconds after the detonation that almost blinded him, probably no more than hurricane force, a wind speed of 74 mph. There are testimonies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, two Japanese cities that were struck with nuclear bombs at the end of World War II, being in buildings and even in trams quite close to the epicentre and coming out of the ordeal surprisingly unharmed save for a few scratches.

Even if Baltar survived momentarily from Six's protection, either the remains of his home would have collapsed over him, likely trapping him if not killing him, or he and Six's body would also be carried away by the shock wave for some distance.

Six has had two years to gather plenty of Baltar's genetic material. Could the Baltar on ''Galactica'' be now, in fact, a Cylon agent?

==Why a Copy?==

Information from RDM indicate that, at the start of season 2, there are ''eight'' Cylon operatives that appear in the fleet. A Baltar copy would also have made matters very, very easy for the Cylons in their work to infiltrate the Colonial defences and would be easily dropped in place to escape or happen to appear on a ship of the nascent Fleet. Such clones may also explain the 'fake' recording from [[Shelly Godfrey]] of Baltar compromising Colonial computer systems in a latter Season 1 episode. Perhaps it was the Cylons who doctored what was, in reality, a legitimate recording of a Baltar copy.

One notable question would be ''why'' Six has spent so much time talking to Baltar and then thrown herself in front of the blast if she'd intended for him to die? If Baltar was already a Cylon agent, his consciousness from that moment would be thrown into a waking duplicate, already disheveled and scraped, where Baltar would merely think he was blown clear to safety where he could run to escape attacks with other survivors. Also, since Baltar appeared to be key in many Cylon plans, they would want to ensure that Baltar would reach any remaining humans to spy for them, and having only one copy might risk the success of such plans. Further, it is the ''psyche'' of Baltar that the Cylons may treasure most; few others in the Colonies may have the level of intelligence, arrogance, and neurosis that Baltar has that could prove as easily exploitable. The guise of the great Baltar gives the Cylons a huge natural tactical advantage in that he is well known and allowed access to almost any critical battlestar location. Baltar's slick-as-oil personality aids him with better finesse and stronger charisma than any Cylon agent personality yet seen.

==The Baltar-as-Father Argument==

Six has stated her desire to have a child with Baltar. Cylon agent couplings have failed to result in offspring prior to that point ([[The Farm]]). If Baltar and Six were both Cylon agent, it is likely that offspring would either be impossible or at least exceptionally unlikely. This point gives evidence against the Baltar-as-Cylon theory, but Six has repeatedly made it clear that she considers the hybrid human-cylon baby that Sharon is carrying to be "our" (as she puts it) baby. "Our" may in fact be inclusive of all cylons, which may just include Baltar.

In "[[Home, Part II]]", Six indicates that Baltar's and Six's child will be born in the isolation cage built for the [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)|''Galactica'' copy of Sharon Valerii]]. The reality turned out different: The Caprica version of Valerii, pregnant by [[Karl Agathon|Helo]], now occupies the cage by the end of that episode, and Six indicates that it is in fact '''Valerii's''' child that will become Baltar's. This gives some weight to the Baltar-as-Cylon theory since Baltar becoming a father by surrogate circumvents the need for him to do so naturally. While Caprica-Valerii shows that a female Cylon agent could conceive, no information is yet available on whether male Cylon agents could sire a child with human females. However, earlier in the first season, in "[[33]]", Six asked Baltar if he wanted to procreate with her, and at this point she may have meant an actual child of Baltar's. "Home, Part II" occurred much later in the timeline, and it is possible that the Cylons and Number Six had to alter their plans during this time. Number Six did mention in "Home, Part II" that she didn't consider Sharon "worthy" of bearing one of "God's new children" (the Cylon agents). Perhaps Sharon was not originally planned to be the first mother of a hybrid baby at all, and Number Six was going to have a child with the (necessarily human) Baltar, but had to shift plans when Boomer became pregnant first.

==Inside Baltar's Head==

Baltar's brain scan in "[[Home, Part II]]" confirms that the virtual Six that only Baltar can see is '''not''' an actual ''artificial'' device in his brain. This leaves a number of possibilities, of which the strongest are:

# Baltar has a device elsewhere in his body. We're not given information on whether ''all'' of Baltar's body was scanned, or just his head.
# A portion of Baltar's body ''is'' the "chip" but fashioned in a way by the Cylons that is medically indistinguishable from a regular body part and may also function normally (say, a pituitary gland)
# Baltar's body is artificial, with his personality (complete with neuroses) placed in a Cylon agent construct. While Baltar's psyche itself may not be that of a Cylon, the addition of the virtual Six component compliments the arrangement for the Cylon's purposes.

Possibility #3 is interesting in that, based on Baltar's own research on the Six copy known as [[Gina]], Baltar's personality and guilt would continue to plague him either in Cylon agent or human form. But, if Baltar were reconstructed as a Cylon, the virtual Six aids Baltar by being, in effect, the conscience and "guardian angel" she claims to be, keeping his neuroses and guilt over the genocide from driving him completely insane--for now.

==But Cylons aren't human clones==

As Cylons aren't copies of humans, this would suggest either of two possibilities for Baltar: first, that he survived the blast and escaped, or second, that Baltar was a Cylon all along, even on Caprica.

The idea of Baltar being originally a Cylon has problems, however. If Baltar were a Cylon, it would be redundant and unnecessary for Number Six to "choose him" for her mission (unless the Cylons preferred Baltar to remain a "sleeper" throughout his mission to give "plausible deniability" in his mind as well as allow him to do what his personality is likely to do). Furthermore, from a story perspective, the idea of Baltar being a Cylon very much goes against the idea of Baltar as a traitor betraying humanity to the Cylons—as well as the idea of Baltar's relationship with Six being a true human/Cylon pairing. It should be noted, however, that Ron D. Moore's "Gaius Baltar" differs significantly from the [[Baltar (TOS)|"Baltar" of the Original Series]]. The Baltar of the Original Series was a true turncoat with megalomaniacal tendencies; Gaius, on the other hand, is not power-hungry but is driven by a strong sense of self, albeit to the exclusion and ignorance of the needs of everyone else.

Gaius is often treated by Six as a human--ultimately the only human who will be allowed to survive by the Cylons. But the human models of Cylon also behave with classically human qualities (not all of them perfect or utopian) and seem to see each other in varying emotions (admiration and contempt are prevalent when Six speaks of the pregnant Caprica Valerii). So, at the least, Gaius is treated with no less respect than any other Cylon agent by his virtual Six. If we assume Gaius is indeed human, Six's interaction with Baltar (given the hostilities of the Cylons) borders on admiration. Although we can't necessarily use Six's emotions as a ''de facto'' gauge of Baltar's genuine humanity, it does lend to the mystery.

The storyline possibilities do change somewhat if Baltar has ''always'' been a Cylon. Note that Baltar has never spoken of his family or other friends (other than President [[Richard Adar|Adar]]), strongly suggesting Baltar has been a "loner." If Baltar's parentage (or offspring--he is rather promiscuous) cannot be confirmed (as has been done with Commander Adama, also on this list, then the laws of physics (nuclear shock wave damage to human tissue) as well as the laws of procreation (Cylons can't quite procreate as humans do) continue to leave open the possibility that Baltar is model of Cylon, however reduced the odds are now, based on Moore's new information.

=="Downloaded" all but disproves speculation==

The episode "[[Downloaded]]" contains revelations that make it extremely unlikely the Baltar is a Cylon. In dialogues with each other, numerous Cylon characters distinctly refer to Baltar as human. Although it is possible that they might keep the information from Baltar, the nature of the Cylon thought collective would seem to make no sense to keep it a secret to each other. In addition, this episode introduced the unique idea of a Number Six copy with a virtual ''Baltar'' in her head. Through Six, Baltar pushes for the Cylons to be more human; for example, letting [[Samuel Anders]] go free despite his destruction of a building and many other Cylon agents. If Baltar were a Cylon, the events in the episode would make little sense.

With this episode's end, the remaining tenuous thread to the now-remote likelihood of Baltar as a Cylon involves the manner of Baltar and Caprica-Six's relationship as opposed to [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)|Boomer]] and Chief [[Galen Tyrol]]. If we suppose as a certainty that both Baltar and Tyrol are human, then why does Baltar find himself with a virtual Six after she dies, while Tyrol does not find a virtual Boomer walking about after Boomer's death? Both humans find themselves denying their love, only to recant their claim later. What makes the Baltar-Six arrangement so strikingly different? Why, at all, have these virtual Six and Baltar incarnations appeared in the first place? If Baltar were a Cylon (albeit a model unknown to any other Cylon, which would stretch the plausibility of the nature of their collective thought process per "Downloaded"), would the love between two Cylons cause a "feedback loop" of emotion to spill over between the two Cylons, creating the virtual consciousnesses? Or, assuming that Baltar is fully human, if Cylons revive (medically) a dead human (as Baltar should be, given the destruction of his home and everything in it ''except him''), would such a revival cause the virtual consciousnesses to emerge? In contrast, Tyrol has not died (although he suffers a near-death by Dr. Baltar's hand in "[[Resistance (episode)|Resistance]]") which may support this weaker, but faintly plausible concept of Baltar's true nature.

==Baltar as an "Agent of God"==
Baltar's actions when forced by his virtual Six to repent and worship the Cylon version of [[God]] leaves several significant questions as to the nature of both the virtual Six and Baltar's nature.

In the episode, "[[The Hand of God]]", Baltar makes an educated guess at the specific target to be destroyed on the [[tylium]] refinery without knowing any significant data on the site. Baltar only receives encouragement from his virtual Six to trust in her belief. In "[[Six Degrees of Separation]]," viewers see a stricken and nearly-criminally exposed Baltar repent to the virtual Six just as Lt. Gaeta arrives to confirm his innocence. In the same episode, the virtual Six disappears in anger just as the [[Shelly Godfrey]] copy arrives (with a suggestion that the virtual Six ''knew'' (or summoned) the Godfrey model to arrive. The Godfrey model disappears just as the virtual Six returns as Baltar is repenting.

The episode "[[Downloaded]]" strongly suggests that the virtual copies of [[Caprica Six]] and Baltar that [[Cylon-Related Hallucinations|haunt their opposite interests]] seem to be psychological remnants of the pair's intensive emotional connection. But what if there is more to this than psychology? Episode events surrounding the [[Sacred Scrolls]] and Laura Roslin's quest for the [[Tomb of Athena]] confirm that the Colonials have a spiritual or prophetic element that has guided them to the data that now places them in a true general path to Earth. What forces are driving Baltar beyond his own egotism? What is the nature of the virtual Six and Baltar? Neither Baltar nor Caprica Six know why they appear, and both virtual beings appear to have knowledge beyond that of what the living being they haunt should know. If Baltar is being influenced by the Cylon God (or some cybernetic influence known by neither Cylon or Colonial), there suggests a new thread to the Baltar-as-Cylon speculation that goes beyond the mere creation of a Baltar model. However, in the podcast Ron Moore speaks of the virtual Baltar as simply a hallucination, while interviews and podcasts Moore consistently states that the origin of the virtual Six is supposed to be deliberately vague.

[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Cylons]]
[[Category:RDM]]

Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance

2006-09-07T04:00:38Z

2kt: /* Episode 2 */

:''This page covers the webisode series titled "The Resistance", which follows the exploits of the [[New Caprica Resistance]]. For other meanings, see "[[Resistance]]".''

{{Episode Data
| image=Webisode Resistance - 1.jpg
| title=Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance
| series=[[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|the Re-imagined Series]]
| season=3
| episode=0
| guests=
| writer=[[Bradley Thompson]] <br/> [[David Weddle]]
| story=
| director=[[Wayne Rose]]
| production=
| rating=
| US airdate= 2006-09-05 through 2006-10-05
| UK airdate= Not yet available in the UK
| dvd=
| population=
| prev=[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]
| next=[[Occupation]]
}}

== Overview ==
'''''Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance''''' will be web-based series that claims to fill in the gaps between [[season 2 (2005-06)|season two]] and [[Season 3 (2006-07)|three]] of the [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|re-imagined series]]. The series is a limited-run series that will last 10 episodes. <ref name="ignnews">[http://tv.ign.com/articles/709/709633p1.html IGN: TV Online: Battlestar Galactica Webseries Announced, May 22, 2006]</ref>

The webisode series is written by veteran BSG writers [[Bradley Thompson]] and [[David Weddle]], and directed by [[Wayne Rose]]. The entire series is about 25 minutes long in total, and divided into 10 episodes.

When [[Battlestar Wiki:Official Communiques/Archive03#Webisode series|BattlestarWiki asked Bradley Thompson]] about the webisode series, he said:

:"It's true that David Weddle and I wrote the webisodes. Ron Moore and David Eick assigned them to us during the production of Exodus. The ten short segments combine to tell one story, which takes place during the Cylon Occupation that ended Season 2. The webisodes plant seeds that come to fruition in Season 3. They were all directed by Wayne Rose, the veteran director who's been doing 2nd Unit and 1stAD work for the series. The original title of the story was "Crossroads." The running lengths will vary with what's necessary to tell each segment of the story. The first cut I saw of all ten ran about 25 minutes. The run plan we were told was that they'd put up one a week as a countdown to the season premiere -- but SciFi may have other ideas on that by now."

=== Contract Disputes and Production Delays===

According to Bradley Thompson, the webisodes were originally meant to be aired once a week, for the 10 weeks preceding the Season 3 premiere on October 6th. This would have resulted in the webisodes premiering in mid-August. However, their release was delayed due to a labor dispute between the Writer's Guild of America and NBC/Universal regarding extra pay for the writers doing the webisodes.

In August 2006, news began to leak out that the release of the webisodes would be delayed, though they were essentially finished at the time. NBC-Universal did not want to pay the writing team for webisodes content, holding that they were not actually covered under Guild contract, and were technically just promotional material. The ''Battlestar Galactica'' writing team embraced the new story opportunity, but other NBC-Universal series such as ''The Office'' felt that webisodes were nothing but extra filler they were being forced to crank out. According to Thompson, the writing team was given extra pay for vaguely described "extra work", but no long-term resolution was ever reached. The WGA is concerned about the long-term implications of online content: writers are not specifically compensated for their work on them, and NBC/Uni might argue that they have no claim on redistribution profits if they try to classify it as "promotional" material. In any event, by August 2006 the negotiations between the WGA and NBC/Uni broke down, and the WGA ordered all series producing webisodes (such as ''Battlestar Galactica'' and ''The Office'') to refuse to physically deliver the webisodes to NBC/Uni for distribution online. NBC/Universal, who produces both shows, has filed a complaint with National Labor Relations Board, claiming that this writing is included in the current WGA contract and urging the NLRB to make the series release the material.

However, several weeks later the finished webisodes were handed over to NBC/Uni. The first of ten webisodes is due to be released on Tuesday, September 5, 2006, and subsequent installments are scheduled for every Tuesday and Thursday until the Season 3 premiere on October 6, 2006.

== Summary ==
===Episode 1===

* Starts on the 67<sup>th</sup> day after [[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]

Tyrol and Tigh organize the budding resistance movement on Cylon-occupied New Caprica, but they find recruiting new soldiers is becoming dangerous and difficult. The Cylons have instituted a curfew. Violators go to jail, which is the first thing the Cylons built on [[New Caprica]]. New Capricans are shot on the spot if weapons are found in their tents. A stash of weapons belonging to [[Longo]] was confiscated by the Cylons, but the resistance was able to retrieve some of them which were hidden underneath his latrine. The Cylons are also setting up a [[New Caprica Police|human police force]] to take over for the [[Cylon Centurion]]s, who are doing most of the police work.

*[[Nicki Clyne]] as [[Cally Henderson Tyrol|Cally]]
*[[Aaron Douglas]] as [[Galen Tyrol]]
*[[Christian Tessier]] as [[Tucker Clellan]] ("Duck")
*[[Dominic Zamprogna]] as [[Jammer]]
*[[Michael Hogan]] as [[Saul Tigh]]
*[[imdb:nm0391820|Emily Holmes]] as [[Nora Clellan]]

===Episode 2===
* Half as long as Weblog 1

===Episode 3===
===Episode 4===
===Episode 5===
===Episode 6===
===Episode 7===
===Episode 8===
===Episode 9===
===Episode 10===

== Questions ==

== Analysis ==

== Notes ==
*The original title of the webisode series was "Crossroads"
*Currently, attempting to view the webisodes from outside of the USA will either present you with a frozen video player stating "Your video will begin playing after a brief advertisement" in the case of the webisode splash page currently on scifi.com, or a message stating "We're sorry, but the clip selected isn't available from your location. Please select another clip" if the user opens the video on Sci Fi's Pulse website. Users outside of America will have to wait until a DVD release, television broadcast, or some other means becomes available to view them.

== Noteworthy Dialogue ==

== Official Statements ==

"Nora is played by Emily Holmes. Longo is spelled the way you have it." -- contents of September 5, 2006 message from [[Bradley Thompson]]

== Guest Stars ==

== References ==
<div style="font-size:85%"><references/></div>

{{episode list (RDM season 3)}}

[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Behind the Scenes]]
[[Category:RDM]]
[[Category:Episode Guide (RDM)|*]]
[[Category:Episodes written by Bradley Thompson]]
[[Category:Episodes written by David Weddle]]