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Science in the Re-imagined Series

2006-05-26T21:54:01Z

Jherico: /* Artificial Gravity */ incorrect wikipedia link

The [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|Re-imagined Series]] thrives on its concentration on its story and the characters that develop it, rather than attempting to awe its audience and drive the story by futuristic technology. Nevertheless, ''Battlestar Galactica'' is still a science-fiction program. Its writers may choose to adhere with Einsteinian, Euclidian and Newtonian principles as we know them here on the real-world Earth when ships, characters, and events require a particular physical result in, say, a space battle, in a medical complication, or when travelling from place to place.

This article summarizes or notes information about scientific objects and events in the [[Miniseries]] and regular series and attempts to draw more information, cite problems or contraditions, or conclusions of the scientiic principles revealed as part of the series' plot. In short, this article analyzes ''Battlestar Galactica's'' "[[technobabble]]" and determines how much of it is accurate, interesting, or just plain made-up.

===Why Gaeta Will Never be "Spock"===

The writers intentionally avoid characters discussing any super-technical particulars in depth in the Regular Series. This is logical in that, if the characters ''know'' that they can or cannot reach a particular location (they can see their own displays), there's no practical reason for the characters to discuss it amongst themselves (and therefore to us); it would be meaningless dialogue in a show that is heavily supported by the personalities of the characters (and is limited in time to tell viewers a story). The iracible Colonel [[Saul Tigh|Tigh]] would look at Lieutenant [[Felix Gaeta|Gaeta]] as if he grew a third eye in his forehead if Gaeta started to spout off the precise distances and time necessary for ''Galactica'' to travel from place to place. Talking about such minutae in ''BSG'' is just not in character.

Still, the show gives us clues about the solar system of the [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)|Twelve Colonies]] to note some interesting facts.

==Distances and Speeds in the Mini-Series==

* '''''Battlestar ''Galactica'' was approximately 335,540,340 miles from one of the Colonies, ostensibly [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica|Caprica]], at the start of the [[Miniseries]].'''''

:To reach this number, we needed clues from [[Billy Keikeya]], onboard ''[[Colonial Heavy 798]]'', enroute to the battlestar for its decommissioning ceremony. In the Miniseries, Keikeya tells [[Laura Roslin]] that he had sent a copy of her ceremony speech to President [[Richard Adar|Adar]] for review, but warns that there is a time delay of 30 minutes between ''Galactica'' and Adar's actual location, which is [[Epiphanies|confirmed]] as Caprica City, the apparent seat of the Colonial [[Government]] {{ref|Jack}}.

:We know that ''Battlestar Galactica's'' universe sticks to the same speed of light constant as real-world Earth (and the universe, of course): 186,282 miles per second. If President Adar sent a [[wireless]] message from Caprica to ''Galactica'' in an attempt to correct Roslin's speech, how long would it take the message to get there? Billy gives this answer: 30 minutes. This gives the answer we need if we use the equation that ''distance=speed x time'':

:::(3 x 10^8 m/s) ''(the speed of light)'' x 1800 s ''(30 minutes * 60 seconds/minute)'' = 5.4 x 10^11 meters ''or'' '''335, 500, 000 miles'''

:Simplfied, the wireless message travels over 335.5 million miles in 30 minutes to ''Galactica.'' This is approximately 3.5 astronomical units, or three times the distance between our Earth and our sun.

* '''''Colonial Heavy 798'' is travelling at a sublight speed of over 61,000,000 miles per hour to get to ''Galactica'' for the decommissioning ceremony.'''''

:Right after Billy Keikeya's conversation to Laura Roslin on her speech, we overhear the captain of ''Colonial Heavy 798'' on the public address intercom of the [[Intersun|starliner]], telling the passengers how long their trip to ''Galactica'' will take: 5.5 hours. Assuming that the starliner has just left the neighboring space of Caprica and has reached its cruising speed, and given that we know ''Galactica's'' distance from Caprica, we can determine ''Colonial Heavy 798's'' cruising speed with the same formula as above, now adjusted to calculate speed:

:::5.4 x 10^11 meters ''(the distance in meters)'' / 19800 ''(5.5 hours x 3600 seconds/hour)'' =
:::2.7 x 10^7 meters/sec, ''or'' '''61, 000, 000 MPH'''

:While ''Colonial Heavy 798'' is making a very serious clip across space at 61, 000, 000 miles per hour on its [[sublight]] engines, this is only approximately 11 percent of the speed of light, so passenger liners do well in getting from place to place, or colony to colony. To give a real-world comparison, ''Colonial Heavy 798'' could fly from our sun to the Earth in about 90 minutes. The light from the sun takes only 8 minutes to arrive on the Earth's surface.

:Given the velocities involved, extremely high accelerations must be used to attain them in reasonable (useable) time frames involved for in-system transportation. Such G forces would kill any humans involved unless some means of dampening them were employed. Given that the technology to perform space-folding FTL jumps is also available, the technology to manipulate gravity would lie in the same area.

* '''''Colonial Heavy 798'' and it's passengers would ''lose'' about 1 minute and 19 seconds during their trip to Caprica (relative to the time observed on Caprica), if they had completed their trip as planned, due to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation Time dilation].'''''
:T = T0 / sqrt(1 - v^2/c^2)
::*T0 = 5.5 hours. (as observed by Colonial Heavy 798)
::*d = 335,540,340 miles.
::*v = d/T (as observed by Caprica)
::*c = 670,616,624.4 mph
::*'''T = 5.52 hours. (1:19 longer observed on Caprica)'''
:Of course, this assumes that Colonial Heavy 798 took the same path to Caprica that it's transmission would take. This isn't likely, for various reasons, so the distance is off ''a little''.

==Artificial Gravity==

''(Much of this topic is derived from information in an article on the subject on [[Wikipedia:Artificial gravity|Wikipedia]]. Not all of ''Battlestar Wiki's'' contributors are rocket scientists.)''

Of course, it's very practical for humans, who evolved in gravity, to have it aboard their ships. Cinematically, it also makes it much easier to keep production costs down by not having to simulate weightlessness.

That doesn't mean we can let the [[Colonial Fleet]] get away with just having artificial gravity without some explanation, especially given [[Ronald D. Moore|Ron D. Moore]]'s [[Naturalistic science fiction|realistic science fiction]] principles of his show. From a science fiction perspective, this has always been the hardest "technology" to explain away in a show. Most shows don't even bother unless the temporary loss of artificial gravity would make a good plot complication.

From what our scientists have theorized here on the real-world Earth, you can generate gravity from several ideas:

* ''Rotation of the spacecraft'' to generate centrifugal forces within a spacecraft.
:Remember the playground merry-go-rounds of your youth? Same principle. In fact, one of the [[The Fleet (RDM)|Fleet]]'s ships uses this form of artificial gravity when it feels like it: the [[Space Park]]. Viewers can get a good view of this ship in motion when the Fleet leaves [[Ragnar Anchorage]] in the Miniseries.
* ''Keeping the ship at constant acceleration'', with the crew standing in the opposite direction of acceleration.
:Same principle that every astronaut experiences as their rocket launches into space and accelerates. In this principle, you won't take your hands off the throttle, keeping the ship's engines on at all times.
* ''Place something with a lot of mass'' within your ship.
:This isn't artificial gravity, but the real thing. But there is the matter of the energies required to move your ship, the large gravity well that wants to attract other objects into your ship's general direction, and the shape of your ship. Gravity just '''works''', pulling from every direction, so you would need a round ship to keep from strange changes in gravity aboard a ship. Worst of all, the amount of fuel needed to move a ship with a local mass concentration would be really, really high.
* ''Use tidal forces''.
:Stretch a tether with a small mass between a large gravity source and the ship you want. Cheap, fuel-free, and reliable. There's the matter of actually being able to travel somewhere besides planetary orbit without losing gravity, however.
* ''Fake gravity by using another classic force, magnetism''.
:The big term for this is [[Wikipedia:Diamagnetism|diamagnetism]], or, more specificially for this application, ''diamagnetic levitation''. Based on the technologies we've seen in the Re-imagined Series (such as their use of magnetism for landing and launching Vipers){{ref|vipers}}, this principle has the most viability, but it also fraught with huge problems in application.
:''Everything'' has a magnetic attraction, but most objects (a human body included) has so little magnetism that we don't really think about it. This principle could be used to force ''everything'' in a particular direction. But, first off, using magnets together usually makes objects ''float'' between them, not drop, so you have to figure out how to angle things for the proper effect. Scientists here on Earth have actually [http://www.hfml.science.ru.nl/levitate.html levitated a frog at a force of 1''g'' ] (Earth's gravity), but it took a massive amount of cryogenically frozen hardware to do it, and that was using the magnet to push ''away'' from Earth's gravity, not push the object ''down''. Also, high magnetic field concentrations [http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/~jrs/safety/magnetic.html are probably not very healthy]] in the long term.

If the writers have to dive back into the old fictionalized bag of tricks, you could consider these fanciful notions for keeping your deck crews on the deck:

* ''Use rotational gravity.''
:This variation of centrifugal gravity generation has been done in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (the crew compartment inside the ''Discovery'' spun) and the venerable TV show "[[Wikipedia:Babylon 5|Babylon 5]]" (the cylindrical space station spun on its longitudinal axis).

* ''Simulate gravity with force fields.''
:The central spaceship in the TV show "[[Wikipedia:Andromeda|Andromeda]]" uses "gravity generators". The "Star Trek" saga has a similar idea. This concept seems also to be a slap in the face of realistic SF concepts since it's a completely fanciful concept with no basis in scientific plausibilty at present.

* ''Spacetime manipulation.''
:The ability to do [[FTL|Faster Than Light travel]] indicates the Colonials have the advanced technology to manipulate the fabric of spacetime. This same ability might be harnessed to provide artificial gravitation. However, the connection between the use of ''Galactica's'' FTL drives (which are inactive until "spun up") makes this idea inconsistent with story elements where the FTL drives must be prepped before using. Also, this idea is also fanciful in its basis in known scientific fact or theory.

So, there are no definitive answers to the issue of what comes up and must come down in ''Battlestar'', and the concept of artificial gravity in the show has yet to be explained anytime soon by the writers. Maybe a Raptor will lose their gravity on a mission one day in an episode, and the writers will have to have the characters [[Frak|curse]] about the issue.

===What about the flight pods on ''[[Pegasus (RDM)|Pegasus]]''?===

Unlike ''Galactica's'', each flight pod on the advanced battlestar ''Pegasus'' are divided along its length into two landing bays. In "[[The Captain's Hand]]," viewers see Vipers inverting (relative to the battlestar) and landing on the bays "upside down." Is artificial gravity to be credited with this?

The answer is more likely magnetism. Vipers are launched with a magnetic catapult, and (as seen in "[[The Hand of God]]") can magnetically mate using their landing skids to a metal surface (in this case, the interior of a freighter). Like gravity, magnetism works in any direction, and takes little to maintain. Confirming this idea is a scene from the [[miniseries]]. As ''[[Colonial Heavy 798]]'' lands in ''Galactica's'' port flight pod to offload passengers for the decommissioning ceremony, we see two spacesuited figures working on the deck. The two crewmembers are floating, suggesting that artificial gravity is ''not'' in use. Reinforcing this are the [[Combat landing|combat landings]] done by Vipers. The fighters bounce very noticeably at high speeds but, unlike a rock skipping across a pond, the Viper bounces less ballistically, suggesting that magnetism, a weaker force than gravity, is at work. How the Vipers get from the upside-down flight deck to the right-side-up [[hangar deck]], however, has yet to be seen.

==Light-speed Travel==

The good news is that, from a theoretical point of view, the Re-imagined Series has this covered well by the use of ''wormhole'' theory, instead of grandiose methods such as in "Star Trek", through the use of fantastic energies. For more detail on how '''Jumps''' work and how the Colonial's manner of apparent faster-than-light travel differs from the more fanciful non-Einsteinian "warp drive" technology in "Star Trek", see the article on [[FTL|Faster Than Light travel.]]

===Why Didn't ''Colonial Heavy 798'' simply Jump to ''Galactica''?===

In the Miniseries, the starliner known as ''Colonial Heavy 798'' casually traveled 5.5 hours at sublight speeds to get to battlestar ''Galactica.'' Why did the starliner take its sweet time? Why didn't they simply Jump to ''Galactica'' to save time?

There are several possibilities.

* '''Discomfort.''' [[FTL]] travel is a very disconcerting sensation to most humans. Even trained military staff such as [[Cally]] hated the sensation caused by wormhole travel. And, if the Colonies are full of lawyers as the real-world Earth is, think of the litigation created by people who aren't prepared for Jumping, and sue the starliners. Starliners would rather not Jump if they can help it, and probably explicitly warn travelers when they book a Jumping flight.
* '''Scheduling.''' ''Galactica's'' decommissioning ceremonies were for a specific time and date. While [[Intersun]] could have created an FTL flight, passengers still need time (mentally or physically) to prepare for their trip. As humans without instantaneous travel ability, we may not realize that such travel may create issues of logistics for passengers (many who are late or procrastinate) who actually ''anticipate'' that they will get 5 hours to plan for their event, or to just sleep.
* '''Flight rules or protocol.''' It may be against Colonial flight protocols for any non-military vessel to Jump to the adjoining space of a Colonial Fleet vessel. This makes the most sense because ships such as battlestars are ''always'' on the lookout for a sudden appearance of any ship that approaches them; they ''are'' a warship, after all. An incident where Vipers are scrambled from a battlestar after a civilian ship Jumps too closely would be like a Lear Jet flying too closely to a United States aircraft carrier. If ''Colonial Heavy 798'' were to Jump straight to the battlestar, all kinds of alarms would go off in [[CIC]] until the battlestar could verify the incoming vessel was friendly. And, given that [[Tom Zarek|terrorism existed]] in the Colonies, even a "friendly" vessel may not be necessarily be a "friendly" (remember the events of September 11, 2001, where passenger airliners were used in the attack).
* '''Expense.''' The ships of the escaping survivors that make up ''Galactica's'' civilian Fleet use FTL travel frequently because they have to. There's little discussion of the economy or frequency of using FTL regularly before the Colonies were attacked.
* '''Distance.''' There may be a minimum distance where using [[FTL]] can be considered practical. As seen in "[[Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down]]," a (supposedly) damaged Raider is capable of making random Jumps in such close proximity to each other that the [[CAP]] is able to intercept it again in a matter of seconds. The key point is that ships cannot perform many Jumps in rapid succession; they need to take time to calculate a new Jump and power up their FTL drive engines (while vessels on ''Star Trek'' are capable of going to "warp" speed instantly). During this time lag, a ship might be able to close the distance to its required destination simply by using its normal [[Sublight Propulsion|sublight]] engines. For example, during the [[Battle of the Resurrection Ship]], most of the Cylon fleet's Raiders are lured away from their fleet, but they didn't Jump back to defend against the Colonials when the ruse is discovered. A likely explanation is that it would have actually taken ''less'' time to cover this distance at sublight than it would to perform Jump calculations for several minutes, then Jump.

===Why hasn't ''Galactica'' Jumped in over 20 years?===

Before the attack, ''Galactica'' herself hadn't jumped for over 20 years, according to [[Saul Tigh]] in the Miniseries. Aside from the general reasons for not Jumping about (see above), ''Galactica'' may have been a special case:

* ''Galactica'' was among the oldest ships in the Colonial Fleet. In comparison to its modern sister battlestars, ''Galactica's'' unrefitted status may have made it woefully poor for modern battlestar training. Some Colonial Fleet staff may have also felt that ''Galactica's'' age and lack of advanced Colonial technology had deemed it unspaceworthy for regular Jumping (as Saul Tigh appeared to believe, training notwithstanding).

* It's also likely that ''Galactica'' was also an historic vessel that few Colonial government politicians would care to lose to an FTL accident if they were defense spending proponents. Therefore, ''Galactica'' may have been practically "dry-docked" around the vicinity of Caprica, still commissioned and regularly manned, but not considered an effective warship on normal patrol. Presumably, when the costs of running ''Galactica'' as a regular warship became too high, the idea of formally dry-docking the ship in orbit around Caprica is considered. The United States has a counterpart to what ''Galactica'' might have been or was to become: the [http://www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/ USS ''Constitution''--"Old Ironsides."]

==The Tylium Question==

[[Tylium]] is a curious substance in the universe where the Twelve Colonies resides. Used by both Colonials and their foes, tylium has the properties of a mineral or fossil fuel in as that the substance is mined and refined. Like some fossil fuels, tylium isn't useable until refined. While the ore can't be detonated, its precursor (similar to refined crude oil before its refinement into gasoline and other products) is very explosive. The fuel itself isn't as explosive as precursor, however.

So, is tylium a made-up substance or would it have a counterpart or comparative substance to the elements we know of here on the real-world Earth?

One speculation is that tylium can possibly be similar to Helium-3{{ref|helium3}}. Helium-3 is a primordial component in the Earth's crust, is deposited via solar wind on moons and asteroids. But, while helium-3 has potention as an energy source, the amount of energy needed to ignite it (fusion) would be more than the energy it would expel for use as an energy by-product.

There is a problem with this speculation in that helium-3 is a gas, not a mineral or solid element. A tylium counterpart should be a solid, non-radioactive, and likely non-organic substance. Coal would fit the tylium concept were it not a fossil fuel, which would suggest that life forms existed and died on the celestial bodies where the substance is mined. Perhaps another element from the Periodic Table could be a counterpart of tylium.

==The Cancer Cure of Laura Roslin==

''This section was originally written from a layman's perspective. As such, the information in this section is speculative and with little professional background. Battlestar Wikipedians with more experience and training in biology, medical science, and genetics are strongly encouraged to correct and expand on this section.''

The episode "[[Epiphanies]]" showed dying President [[Laura Roslin]] receiving the fetal blood from [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Sharon Valerii's]] and [[Karl Agathon|Helo's]] child, which dramatically annihilated the [[Wikipedia:Cancer|breast cancer]] and its subsequent metastasis (spreading) that almost kills Roslin.

The believability of this event is low given that viewers have seen, from the first moment we meet the character of Laura Roslin, that cancer in the Twelve Colonies is just as dire as it is on the real-world Earth.

Killing cancer cells is not inherently a problem in treatment. But killing cancer growths without damaging healthy tissue is the larger issue. As cancer spreads and grows, it infests itself in healthy tissue where surgery is made impossible (brain cancer is commonly inoperable because of the likelihood of damage to critical areas of the brain). Likewise, chemotherapy is less invasive, but can also leave nasty changes to body chemistry and highly undesireable side effects. Roslin mentions that her mother also had breast cancer that she had treated with [[diloxin]] therapy, which appears to be a form of chemotherapy. Roslin declined this treatment in favor of [[Chamalla]] extract, a treatment that led to [[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I|interesting side effects]], but ultimately failed in slowing or stopping her cancer (as Dr. [[Cottle]] predicted).

The cancer cure seen in "Epiphanies" appeared to accomplish the following abilities:

*Destroyed all cancerous and pre-cancerous cells in the bloodstream (to prevent relapsing)
*Destroyed all cancer cells in organ tissue while repairing damage to organs with tumors or other infection
*Differentiated between the host's healthy cells and the cancerous cells
*Be effective with a relatively small dose, since fetal blood volume is low and cannot be taken in large amounts
*Left few or no immediate side-effects

There could be some logic to the use of the Cylon hybrid fetal blood, but this requires some stretching of the imagination and perhaps some genetic work.

*Earth science has confirmed that [[Wikipedia:Stem cells|stem cells]], undifferentiated cells found in fetal tissue that change into any needed organ or body part, can be used to aid in cellular repair. (''According to the podcast for this episode, this was, in fact, ''the'' agent of the cure. However, Moore believed the explanation would be too much [[technobabble]] for audiences and had the explanation truncated.'')
* Moore's use of fetal stem cells appears to support early research, but with a new twist. According to [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5195551 new research], fetal stem cells from the placentas of babies (born or not) leak into the body of a mother and appear to act as specialized "protectors" that can repair or lessen the effects of damaged tissues or disease. The presence of these cells can be for years, and is compounded by the number of pregnancies of the mother.
*Earth science has also confirmed that the human immune system mounts a response to cancer, which can lead to the regression of tumors. People with compromised immunity, such as those infected with HIV, suffer from malignancies that are uncommon in the general population. Some cancer researchers have speculated that improving the immune response could provide a cure for cancer possessing all of the above features.
*Earth science has found that several viruses are capable of rapidly infecting and killing cancerous cells while lacking the same infectivity of healthy cells. Experiments have been conducted in which mice which were deliberately given massive tumors were rapidly cured by direct infections of the tumors by viral agents that did not harm any healthy tissues. In terms of the show, perhaps the cylon-hybrid cells are capable of mimicing these abilities.
*Despite their appearance, [[Cylon agent|humanoid Cylon agents]] are not human, but created. Perhaps in their creation, Cylons designed the humanoid bodies to fight off or identify genetic malfunctions immediately, or may be created without any of the historic genetic abnormalities found in humans that could trigger cancer or other diseases.

==Cylon Genetics==

The exact technical nature of the humanoid Cylon models is unknown. Apparently, they are the result of incredibly advanced bio-mechanical engineering. A great deal of technical insight into the humanoid Cylons, and more specifically, the Cylon-Human Hybrid fetus, was going to be revealed in “[[Epiphanies]]”. However, according to Ron D. Moore’s podcast for this episode, almost all of these were cut, to the point that in the final edit Baltar is left saying that the “blood” of the hybrid is “special”. Many fans thought this explanation was a little too abrupt. RDM explained that he was afraid that viewers would react to a longer, more detailed explanation as [[technobabble]], and edited the material out as a result. This doesn’t mean that this material is ‘’incorrect’’; nothing Baltar says in the aired episode would be contradicted by further elaboration, as Baltar’s comments that the blood is an “amalgam”, etc. are so vague that further information wouldn’t contradict it. These scenes will probably become available in the Season 2.5 DVD box set.

However, several shots of Baltar going through notes on the genetic structure of the Hybrid’s DNA, etc. can be seen in promo commercials for this episode. Although no screencaps exist for this, careful analysis has yielded several new insights. [[image:Uracil.png|thumb|right|Uracil]]

Baltar is seen looking at this base of a nucleotide which belongs to the Cylon-Human Hybrid: The [[Wikipedia:nucleobase|nucleobase]] he examines is recognizable as [[Wikipedia:Uracil|Uracil]] (which is actually used in mRNA, not DNA):

This would seem to support the notion that the humanoid Cylons are indeed carbon-based, as opposed to silicon-based. However, just as the human body contains the metal Calcium but is not calcium-based, the Cylons incorporate silicon (as noted in the vague reference to "[[Silica Pathways|silica pathways]]") into their physiology, but appear to be carbon-based. In fact, since silicon does not share the organic nature that enables carbon to form the building blocks of life (silicon can't make as many molecular bonds as carbon), it would be practically impossible for most of a Cylon's body to be anything ''but'' a carbon-based life form. Else, the pregnancy between [[Helo]] and [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Sharon Valerii]] would be physically impossible, even if "love" was needed to make it happen. Certain kinds of radiation have adverse effects on Cylon technology (as shown on Ragnar Anchorage), but this appears to be based on the tissue-level structure of silica pathways, not their underlying cellular basis.

==The Problems of Colonization==

The harsh conditions in [[New Caprica City]] illustrate the difficulties of establishing a colony on a new planet, let alone one that is as inhospitable as [[New Caprica]]. These difficulties are greatly amplified by the small size of the surviving human population.

A small founding population is prone to the effects of inbreeding, but the historical example on Earth indicates that, with the proper regulation of consanguineous marriages, it should not be a problem for a city larger than a few hundred people{{ref|Birdsell}}. The population on New Caprica was drawn from the full [[Twelve Colonies]] so its initial genetic diversity should be high.

The more serious problem is that the population bottleneck suffered by the humans has also resulted in a knowledge bottleneck. Moreover, the survivors appear not to represent a full cross-section of Colonial society. Military personnel are clearly overrepresented. [[Gaius Baltar]] appears to be the only surviving scientist of any note, and [[Cottle|Dr. Cottle]] the only physician. In an advanced country on Earth, a population of 50,000 would have at least 100 doctors and roughly the same number of doctoral scientists and engineers. Although the ''Galactica'' may have digital libraries embodying the knowledge of Colonial society, the population will also need to develop knowledge specific to their new home, and small size of the population does not allow for a high degree of specialization.

These factors are not specific to New Caprica. They will apply wherever the human population settles, assuming it does not find the [[Thirteenth Colony]] with its existing population base or merge with the [[Cylon]] population by surrendering. There is a reason it took ''Homo sapiens'' on Earth over 100,000 years to grow from a population of 50,000 to a global technological civilization: population size is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for economic development, because it allows for division of labor{{ref|Hodges}}. The Colonials may be able to leapfrog because of their existing knowledge and skills, but judging from the [[History of the Twelve Colonies]], it took the tribes leaving Kobol roughly 2,000 years to develop into an advanced civilization. One can argue that it would take the surviving human population an equivalent length of time to do the same---perhaps longer, given that their exodus was unplanned.

The humans will have to develop agriculture, industry, and infrastructure almost from scratch. In the time it takes them to do so, there will be a slow erosion of knowledge, as the original population with its memories of the Twelve Colonies dies off. It is quite likely that economic development would regress before it improves. Indeed, after less than two years, the humans have already exhausted their supply of medicines and have developed no way to manufacture more.

==Sources==
#{{note|Jack}} President Adar's office on Caprica was confirmed the second-season episode "[[Epiphanies]]". Reinforcing this information, Roslin speaks by [[wireless]] to "Jack", a fellow secretary or government official. Jack tells Laura of the devastation of his location and Adar's speculated whereabouts and actions. Given that wireless transmission ranges in real-time conversation would limit Roslin to be able to speak only with Caprica (the nearest colony), Jack must be on Caprica, likely in Caprica City.
#{{note|vipers}} In the [[Miniseries]], viewers see a preflight checkout and launch of the fighters. For launch, the [[Launch tubes|launch tube]] uses a magnetic catapult ("magcat") to hurl the Viper out. On landing, either magnetism or some blend of artificial gravity pulls Vipers to rest on the deck of the [[Flight pod|flight pod]]. This force appears to be just strong enough; note the bouncing that the fighters do as their landing skids hit the landing deck while they retreat to ''Galactica'' as it prepares to Jump from Ragnar Anchorage at the conclusion of the Miniseries.
#{{note|helium3}} See [[Wikipedia:Helium-3|Wikipedia's article on Helium-3]] and [http://www.asi.org/adb/02/09/he3-intro.html this article] by a private firm on the concept.
#{{note|Birdsell}} See "Biological Dimensions of Small Human Founding Populations" by J.B. Birdsell in ''Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience''. University of California Press, 1985.
#{{note|Hodges}} See "The Division of Labor and Interstellar Migration" by William A. Hodges in ''Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience''. University of California Press, 1985.

==See Also==
*[[Naturalistic science fiction]]
*[[FTL]]
*[[Sublight Propulsion]]

[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Technology]]
[[Category:Terminology]]
[[Category:RDM]]

Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II

2006-03-11T09:42:19Z

Jherico: /* Questions */

{{Episode Data|
Image = [[Image:Burdens2.jpg|300px]]
| Title= Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II
| Series= [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|The Re-imagined Series]]
| Season= [[Season 2 (2005-06)|2]]
| Episode= 20
| Guests= [[Richard Hatch]] ([[Tom Zarek]])<br>[[Kate Vernon]] ([[Ellen Tigh]])<br>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001777/ Dean Stockwell] ([[Cavil|Brother Cavil]])
| Writer=[[IMDB:nm1093194|Anne Cofell Saunders]], [[IMDB:nm0894156|Mark Verheiden]]
| Story=
| Director=[[Michael Rymer]]
| Production=
| Rating=
| US Airdate= March 10, 2006
| UK Airdate=
| DVD=
| Population= 49,550
| Prev= [[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I]]
| Next= TBA
}}

== Overview ==

: ''Everything turns on its head as the survivors vote for a new president -- and vote for their fate.''

== Summary ==

===On Caprica===

*[[Kara Thrace|Starbuck]], the marines, and the [[resistance (movement)|resistance]] continue to take fire from Cylon centurions and artillery. They make their way up a hill, and hold their position.
*The Cylons hold fire, and Sharon remarks that the Cylons will attempt to capture them with non-lethal weapons, such as gas.
*Eighteen hours later, they emerge to find that the Cylons have disappeared. [[Cavil]] -- who suddenly appears behind them -- announces that the Cylons have left the Twelve Colonies and that humanity was spared.

===In the Fleet===

*[[Cally]] is cleared back to work by [[Cottle|Dr. Cottle]], despite having her jaw wired shut (which elicits a sexist observation from the doctor). [[Tyrol|Chief Tyrol]] visits her, apologizing for the attack. Cally forgives him, saying that she's always cared for him.

*[[Gaius Baltar|Dr. Baltar]] continues to gain in the polls. On ''[[Colonial One]]'', Tory mentions there's always a victory plan. [[Laura Roslin|Roslin]] later calls a private meeting with Dr. Baltar, asking to deliver a joint statement of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_%28verb%29 tabling] the issue of colonization until after the election, which Baltar rejects.

*[[Kara Thrace|Starbuck]] returns to ''[[Galactica (RDM)|Galactica]]'', with the resistance fighters, much to the delight of Admiral Adama. She mentions the fact that the Cylons have left Caprica, and a man appearing to be Brother Cavill confirms it. He also says he has a message, but is attacked by Chief Tyrol, claiming he's a Cylon. Both Cavill and Caprica-Sharon are escorted to the brig under marine guard.

*The other Cavill (from last episode) is also taken to the brig, claiming he's not a Cylon, but changes his tune upon seeing his "brother", as he calls him. Both Cavills then talk about the fact that the “war heroes” (Caprica Six & ''Galactica''-Sharon) have talked about how the attack of the colonies and the pursuit of the fleet were mistakes. They were told to relay the message that man and Cylon will go their separate ways. Both Roslin and Admiral Adama are less than trusting regarding the message.

*Election Day has arrived and Baltar has an apparent five thousand-vote lead over Roslin with only a few ships left. On ''Colonial One'', Tory makes a call to ''Galactica'', putting a plan into action.

*Amazingly, Roslin initially appears to have retained the presidency. While most are celebrating, Lt. Gaeta makes a starting discovery regarding the votes, and informs the Admiral that Col. Tigh may be involved in a conspiracy to throw the election.

*Admiral Adama confronts Roslin regarding the conspiracy, saying he has a confession to rig the vote. Roslin admits her involvement and Adama is disappointed.

*Baltar is informed of his nomination as President. He's less than pleased, vowing to have full investigation in time. President-elect Baltar then orders a course for “New Caprica”.

*[[Gaius Baltar]] is sworn in as the new President of the Twelve Colonies, and orders the immediate colonization of New Caprica.

*''[[Cloud 9]]'' is destroyed by a nuclear blast, Gina being present before the explosion; in addition to the ''Cloud 9'', at least two other ships are destroyed in the blast. Admiral Adama reports to the president that this may be a Cylon attack, but Baltar ignores him and presses forward with colonization.

===One Year Later===

*[[Felix Gaeta|Mr. Gaeta]] is reporting to the President regarding a Union issue aboard Colonial One, now down on the planet. Baltar is upset, saying there have been no Cylon attacks but the people still complain. He has regressed, turning to alcohol, medication, and womanizing.

*Admiral Adama, now donning a mustache, is walking around a near-empty Galactica, the ship falling into disarray. Over half of the crew has moved down to the planet, and they are running on such a skeleton crew that they barely have enough pilots to fly training missions, much less a good CAP. Adama has a discussion with Tigh about going down to the planet, which Tigh reluctantly agrees to.

*[[Samuel Anders|Anders]], now Kara’s husband, is sick. Dr. Cottle is saying he can’t do much for him, saying there’s no medication available.

*Kara runs into the Tighs as [[Tyrol]], now a union boss, is making a speech to begin a strike, a pregnant Cally by his side. Saul mentions that there should be some medicine aboard Pegasus.

*Kara calls Lee aboard Pegasus to requesting medication. Lee's gained a lot of weight in the past year. Dualla is now an officer, serving by Lee Adama's side in Pegasus' CIC. Before Lee can reply, Dualla catches something on [[DRADIS]].

*A fleet of [[Cylon]] [[Basestar (RDM)|basestar]]s arrive in orbit around New Caprica. The Adamas are having a discussion about what to do, when [[Helo]] asks if alert fighters should be launched. Admiral Adama keeps them in as the defense fleet jumps away.

*Mr. Gaeta informs the President of the Cylon approach. Later, before his assembled staff, copies of Number 5, 8, and 6 approach the President. The Cylons declare that as long as there’s no resistance, no harm will come. President Baltar declares surrender on behalf of the colonists, and as Cylon armies occupy the planet, Kara vows to resist.

== Questions ==

*What "number" is Cavill?
*Where did the defense fleet jump to?
**Likely a prearranged rendezvous point, similar to that of the miniseries.
*Where is Caprica-Sharon?
**Most likely, still in ''Galactica'''s brig. This is probably why Helo is still aboard ship, having taken a CIC officer's position.
**In the podcast, Ron Moore vaguely hinted that they hadn't forgotten about Sharon, but that we'd have to "wait and see". Apparently, several of the early season 3 episodes will have flashbacks dealing with events that took place in the year that passed.
*What happened to Zarek?
*Why is Leoben looking for Starbuck, specifically?
** Could it be the same [[Leoben Conoy]] that Starbuck interrogated in "[[Flesh and Bone]]"?
*** As seen with ''Galactica''-Sharon, it is distinctly possible that that particular Leoben was lying when he said he'd actually die and not download.
*Did the Cavils lie about the pursuit of humanity being a mistake? Or were they telling the truth?
** If they were telling the truth, perhaps not all Cylons are readily able to admit and rectify their mistakes as the Cavils believed.
*Why has the population (until Tyrol's recent union speech) accepted Baltar's imperious rule? People were hardly so passive under Roslin. Indeed, Adama executed a military coup over a rather less important issue than giving a nuclear weapon to a Cylon agent.
**Admiral Adama wasn't conclusive as to how the weapon got on board Cloud Nine.
***Baltar pointed out there have been no attacks since he took office. Under Roslin the attacks were common. Perhaps for a year the people decided they preferred the safety Baltar gave them to their liberties.
*Are the Six and Eight that Baltar surrendered to [[Caprica-Six]] and [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)|''Galactica''-Sharon]]?
**Judging from Six's reaction to Baltar, almost definately.
*Where did the Cylon fleets go, after they left the Twelve Colonies? Cavil was deliberatly vague when asked if they simply returned to the [[Cylon homeworld]].
*How many people died in the Cloud Nine explosion?
*When Gina-Six was instantly vaporized due to being only two feet from a nuclear detonation, did she still transmit her consciousness? Was she even capable of transmitting considering that any internal hardware responsible for this task would have been instantly destroyed?
**They have already established that with the [[Resurrection Ship]] destroyed, Cylon in the fleet that are killed will ''actually'' die. Gina expressed suicidal impulses as early as "[[Resurrection Ship, Part I]]".
*Given Roslin's memories of Baltar with Six, why didn't Admiral Adama suspect Baltar of handing over the nuke to the cylons? If he did suspect him, why not act on it?
**He had no real proof.
*Did the events of "One Year Later" actually happen, or were they a dream or vision sequence given to Baltar?
**Although Baltar has had elaborate visions in the past, this vision left Baltar's point of view several times, addressing issues such as the marriage of Kara to Sam Anders and Adama's friendship with Tigh that are of little knowledge or importance to Baltar.
***Ron D. Moore has stated in interviews that the first 4-5 episodes of season 3 will deal with the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, and unless a vast swath of episodes is going to be a dream sequence, all of these "one year later" events ''really'' happen.
*Why was it so easy for Adama to hide the collusion of the rigged election from the press, and why were there no consequences?
**So far as we know, Adama, Tigh, Gaeta, Dualla, Dualla's two associates, Tory, and Roslin are the only people that knew; 6 are military personnel, 4 of whom would be implicated, and the other 2 were directly involved civilians. All are strongly motivated to conceal the information.
* Why would it take the Cylons over one year to find New Caprica, alerted by the nuclear detonation prior to the inhabitation of the planet?
**It was stated in the previous episode that the interference from the gas cloud surrounding it would hide the planet fairly well. The Cylons were slightly over a light year away, according to the Number Five. Searching something as large as the gas cloud likely is for a planet or fleet is, given the sensor range limitations, quite impressive to accomplish in months, even with general directional information from a light-year out.
***Actually with the Cylon base 1 light year away, it would take 1 year for the nuke to show up on the Cylon sensors. Short of some FTL communication system, that's the only way the Cylons would have been able to detect the planet. Since the fleet is all in within non-FTL distances, all the FTL devices, if any exist would likely have been destroyed or disabled.
*If the Cylons really left the Twelve Colonies, leaving behind a nuked-out wasteland, what happened to all of the human captives in the [[Farms]]?

== Analysis ==
*Baltar's arrogance seems to have led to corrupt rule during his year on New Caprica—he replaces Roslin's modest desk with a larger, elaborate one, replaces the population count whiteboard with a portrait of himself, and keeps a harem aboard the landed Colonial One.
*After a whole year, everyone is still living in tents. There is a vital shortage of medicine, the military is of no use, and labor conditions are apparently intolerable. Baltar's administration is apparently as incompetent as Roslin feared.
*Tyrol's union speech alludes to Mario Savio's address during the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964.
*It's ironic that the obligations of duty keep Lee Adama aboard Pegasus while everyone else goes planetside—he is a reserve officer, and promised to build his pilots a bar as soon as they found a habitable planet.
*Ron Moore has once again decided to play with viewer's expectations; in the podcast for "[[Resurrection Ship, Part II]]" Moore commented on how everyone assumed that ''Pegasus'' would be destroyed by the end of the episode, and thus he thought it would be a good twist to keep ''Pegasus'' alive as another ship in the Fleet. Here, many viewers assumed that the nuke that Baltar gave to Gina in "[[Epiphanies]]" would be used to destroy ''Pegasus'' this time, but it wasn't.
*29 people died between this episode and the preceding one? One or two Raptors were lost, and some Marines died on Caprica, but that doesn't seem high enough.
**Is it possible they took out all of the people who left in the raptors because they were not apart of the fleet at the end of the previous episode?
***They didn't remove Starbuck from the count when she left for Caprica at the beginning of Season 2.
*It seems odd that no mention was made of the casualties on the return from Caprica, just jubilant celebration?

== Notes ==
* '''According to Ron Moore's podcast, although Scifi Channel was willing to air this episode as a 90-minute special, it had to be heavily edited down for international distribution; outside of the United States, viewers will only see a 1 hour version of the episode, which Moore regards as "almost incomprehensible".''' Many plot threads, such as the entire Cally/Tyrol subplot, were completely removed from the one hour version.
* Ron Moore's podcast for episode 13, [[Epiphanies]], states that the Nuke given to Gina will come back in this episode, to the benefit of the Cylons.
*In RDM's podcast for the previous episode, he said that in early drafts of this special 90 minute long episode, the writers actually tried to make it a 2 hour special, but this was soon dropped (these times are including commercials).
*The election board appears to have a definative list of the names of all of the ships in [[The Fleet (RDM)]]. Not all of them are clearly visible, but this would seem to indicate that the writers do have an actual list that they get new ship names from. Ship names visible on the chart are: Demetrius, Diomedes, Embla Brokk, Enkidu, Epheme, Galactica, Gideon, Gemenon Traveller, Greenleaf, Monarch, Odysseus, Pegasus, Persephone, Prometheus, Swordfish
*The framed photo of President Roslin and [[Billy Keikeya]] was still on her desk during the election.
*When Roslin "won" the rigged election results, Roslin received 24,265 votes, while Baltar recieved 22,266. This means that the elligible voters in the Fleet number 46,531. In the podcast, RDM explains that he quickly came up with these numbers, to try to reflect roughly how many survivors are below the voting age.
*Toward the end of the episode, President Baltar refers to a government body called the "People's Council". This may be the proportionally elected lower house mentioned in by RDM in his [http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/archives/2005/01/index.html#a000016 blog post] on January 30, 2005.
*[[Hera]] is seen on New Caprica in the same white cradle that Baltar had a vision of her being in in "[[Scattered]]", etc. According to RDM's podcast it's actually the exact same cradle.

== Noteworthy Dialogue ==
*''The Cylons occupy New Caprica:''
:'''Tyrol:''' "What do we do now, Captain?"
:'''Starbuck:''' "Same thing we always do. Fight them until we can't."

*''Trying to bring order to a Union meeting:''
:'''Tyrol:''' Everyone, please be quiet.
:'''Cally:''' Hey! Shut the frak up! (''crowd quiets down'')

== Official Statements ==

From the official site (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/):
When Baltar wins the vote, Roslin considers stealing the election because she believes he is a Cylon collaborator.

== Statistics ==

=== Guest Stars ===
*[[Richard Hatch]] as [[Tom Zarek]]
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001777/ Dean Stockwell] as [[Cavil|Brother Cavil]]
*[[Michael Trucco]] as [[Samuel Anders]]
*[[Kate Vernon]] as [[Ellen Tigh]]
*[http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0722413/ Donnelly Rhodes] as Dr. [[Cottle]]
*[[Callum Keith Rennie]] as [[Leoben Conoy]]
*[[Matthew Bennett]] as [[Aaron Doral]]
*Rekha Sharma as [[Tory Foster]]
*[http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0443286/ David Kaye] as [[James McManus]]

=== Writing & Direction ===


=== Production Notes ===

*Series 2 (2005 / 2006)
*Production Number: 2.20
*Airdate Order: 20 (of 20)

=== First Run Air Dates & Releases ===

*UK Airdate: Date
*US Airdate: Date
*DVD Release (UK): Date
*DVD Release (US): Date
*[[Wikipedia:Nielsen Rating|Nielsen Rating]]: X.X million households, XXX share

{{Episode List}}

[[Category: A to Z]]
[[Category: RDM]]
[[Category:Episodes written by Anne Cofell Saunders]]
[[Category:Episodes written by Mark Verheiden]]
[[Category:Episodes directed by Michael Rymer]]