Talk:Timeline (RDM)/Archive1

Archive - Between July 28th, 2005 and December 11th, 2005

DO NOT EDIT OR POST REPLIES TO THIS PAGE. THIS PAGE IS AN ARCHIVE. This page is an archive. Do not edit the contents of this page. Please direct any additional comments to the current talk page. Post replies to the main talk page, copying the section you are replying to if necessary. (See Battlestar Wiki:How to archive a talk page.) Please add new archives to Archive 02. Thank you. Peter Farago 03:45, 26 December 2006 (CST)

Caprica Boomer's conception and morning sickness

Only twelve days between Caprica Boomer's conception and morning sickness? That put's it at the fourth week, which is pretty much before she notices she is late. Sounds like a possible plot hole. Perhaps the caprica segments were not at the same time as the main fleet episodes or Cylon physilology makes them super sensitive to morning sickness. --Shemnon 18:35, 28 Jul 2005 (EDT)

In fact, the times used here are taken from the captions introducing the Caprica sections in each episode, so a discrepancy is not possible. I too find the interval implausibly short, but that's just how it is, I guess. --Peter Farago 03:18, 29 Jul 2005 (EDT)

Home II

Roslin might not live to see Earth; although I don't have a recording of the episode, I thought she just said that she would "lead" them to Earth before her death. And since Roslin was responsible for finding the path to Earth (the starmaps in the Tomb of Athena) it might be argued that she's already 'led' them on the right path to Earth...Kuralyov 17:56, 27 August 2005 (EDT)

Re: Home, Part II: I realize that it's been difficult to firmly establish dates during this season, and anticipate that it will only get worse now that the main Kobol's Last Gleaming – Home arc is complete and the story resumes a more episodic feel. As a result, it would be helpful to justify any timeline estimates on the relevant episode's Notes section, as I have done for Resistance and The Farm. --Peter Farago 18:13, 27 August 2005 (EDT)

Saul and Bill vs. The Evil Cylons

So wait... The Cylon War started when William Adama was, roughly, ten and Saul Tigh was being born? It then went on for about 10 years, thus ending shortly after Adama would have been able to be in the military (assuming both that he wouldn't lie about his age to get in and that the Colonial Fleet has similar age-restrictions to the US Army--both pure speculation) and when Tigh was 10ish. This is my understanding from reading the time-line. I've frankly not paid much attention to when they mention these things on-screen. However, if this is true, then how did the ten-year-old Tigh learn about Cylon boarding party tactics after the Armistice? I have the (perhaps mistaken) impression that both Tigh and Adama are veterans of the Cylon War, but this timeline doesn't seem to allow for that. What's going on here? Am I daft? This is entirely possible. --Day 04:03, 10 September 2005 (EDT)

Untangling Season 2

After their meticulous efforts at keeping track of the timeline during the first season, TPTB have apparently started slacking off this season. A clear timeline is an important resource, however, so let's start untangling things.

• Scattered, Valley of Darkness and Fragged all clearly take place within the same 24-36 hours, on Day 51.

• Resistance takes place over two days, and begins on day 53 at the earliest. Apollo asks Dualla how his father is doing "today", implying that it is at least the second time he has done so. His first chance would have been the morning of Day 52, putting the earliest possible date of this episode at Day 53.

• Begins: Day 53
• Ends: Day 54 (earliest possible)

At the end of the episode, Roslin escapes and Bill Adama wakes up. In "The Farm", Gaeta states that Roslin's escape took place "last week". This is very vague, and means only that "The Farm" begins more than one day after "Resistance", or else Gaeta would have said "yesterday". In a scene cut from beginning of The Farm (during Roslin's arrival on Kimba Huta), Roslin makes a stronger statement - that it's been an "entire week" since her escape from Galactica. This allows us to constrain the date of this episode fairly well, by substracting a seven day period from the well established possible date range for The Farm:

• Ends Day 55 (latest, if Tigh were in command for 11 days (the longest probable time period))
• Ends Day 57 (latest, if Tigh were in command for 13 days (the longest possible time period))

I thus consider Days 53-54 to be most likely range. This assumption is important, as "Flight of the Phoenix" must be calculated based on the day of Cally's arrest.

• The Farm begins with Adama resuming command. According to D'Anna Biers in "Final Cut", Tigh was in command for "over a week". I take this to mean 8-11 days, since if it had been 12 or more, she probably would have said "almost two weeks". That puts the beginning of this episode at day 59 (earliest) or day 62 (latest).

• Begins: Day 59 (earliest) (Kobol's Last Gleaming Part I (Day 51) + 8 days)
• Begins: Day 62 (latest probable) (+11 days)
• Begins: Day 64 (latest possible) (+13 days)

Roslin, as noted above, clarifies further in a cut scene, implying that this episode takes place exactly seven days after "Resistance". Working off of my estimate above, I therefore suggest that the most probable start date for this episode is Day 61, which puts Tigh in command for a 10 day period.

This also means that Adama spent seven days between resuming consciousness and resuming command. Given the extent of his injuries, this is entirely plausible.

• Home, Part I begins immediately after the end of "The Farm".

• Final Cut takes place 10 days after the last Cylon contact. Since there were none since Valley of Darkness (Day 51), unless we count the Roslin Faction's skirmish on Kobol, and the episode clearly takes place much later than day 61, we must assume there has been a Cylon contact at some point after "Home, Part II", and that it's been more than ten days since then.

• Flight of the Phoenix features Cally's release from the brig. Since Bill Adama was being lenient when he sentenced her (in The Farm, some time after she would've been initially imprisoned), we may assume he granted her time served. If she killed Boomer on the evening of day 54, her first day in the brig would have been completed on the evening of day 55, her 30th on the evening of day 84. Her welcome-back party was probably that very night.

• Begins: Day 84 (earliest, if "Resistance" ended on day 54)
• Begins: Day 87 (latest possible, if Tigh was in command for 13 days, and thus Resistance ended on Day 57)

As per "Resistance", we assume Day 84 here.

The duration of the episode is difficult to determine. We can probably put an upper limit on it based on the progress of Roslin's disease in the following episodes, but in his podcast, RDM notes that the timeline was kept deliberately vague for dramatic purposes:

The true timeline of how long it would really take Tyrol to actually build one of these things from scratch would probably be much - it would be weeks, realistically. But you'd rather tell the story in one package. You'd rather tell the story, hold the viewer in the moment of the scene, make them invest themselves in the effort and pay it off. And so you can fudge the timeline, you can kind of skate by it. There's no definitive statement in the episode of how long this is all taking. It's kept purposely vague. It's not - there's no, like, y'know, clock going on. No one's mentioning a passage of time really since he started working on the viper. You could probably find cryptic references here and there that might nail it down to a specific timeline - maybe.

• Although interpreting Moore's comments may not be wise, his notion that the Blackbird would take at least "weeks" to complete is probably plausible. Thus we can guess that the episode ends at the earliest 14 days later.
• Ends: Day 98 (if "Resistance" ended on day 54)
• Ends: Day 99 (if Tigh was in command for 11 days, and thus Resistance ended on Day 55)
• Ends: Day 101 (if Tigh was in command for 13 days, and thus Resistance ended on Day 57)

An upper limit on the end date of this episode is provided by the start of "Pegasus". When more information is available we will probably want to expand the date range as generously as possible, given the lengthy construction task in depicts.

• Pegasus is very difficult to date because of the trouble with the duration of "Flight of the Phoenix". All that can be said for certain is that, since Roslin is still on her feet, it can't possibly be more than 30 days after that episode begins, and probably no more than 20. Conceivably, "Pegasus" could have begun the very day "Flight of the Phoenix" ended, with the christening ceremony and Roslin's appearance on Galactica bookmarking the same visit. Otherwise, there were probably several days or more between her visits.
  • This is a slightly difficult reading, if only because of Adama's line "Well, Madam President, you picked a hell of a day for a visit" - she didn't pick the day for her visit in "Flight of the Phoenix", the deck crew did.

• Resurrection Ship, Part I is explicitly stated to take place six months after the fall of the twelve colonies. This badly contradicts earlier information, and there is no plausible place to insert the missing two month period, since Roslin's prognosis is updated before Cally is released from the brig in "Flight of the Phoenix". The episode itself does not appear to span more than a day.

• Resurrection Ship, Part II resumes immediately from the end of Part I, and appears to span about two and a half days.

In the episode "Epiphanies", which begins on day 189, Gaius Baltar notes that it has been "weeks" since he last saw his internal six. That puts her last appearance in this episode no later than day 175.

• Epiphanies should take place very near the end of the life span projected for Roslin in "Flight of the Phoenix". Hopefully more information will be available to date later episodes from that point, but if not, it's probably the last episode that will be dateable with any degree of certainty. For now, we can state that at the latest, the episode begins:

• Begins: Day 114 (if "Resistance" ended on day 54)
• Begins: Day 115 (if Tigh was in command for 11 days, and thus Resistance ended on Day 55)
• Begins: Day 117 (if Tigh was in command for 13 days, and thus Resistance ended on Day 57)

However, it now appears that Cain's "six month" statement will be adhered to in future episodes. Promotional photographs from the episode indicate that Boomer is showing visibly, which is more consistant with a five-month pregnancy than the three-month pregnancy accounted for above. (Boomer was impregnated between Day 24 and Day 36 in the first season.)

Unless you go with the "Cylons have accelerated pregnancies" argument, which is admittedly something of a cop-out. --Redwall 20:09, 14 January 2006 (EST)

The episode explicitly states that it takes place on Day 189 post-holocaust. The missing two months cannot be accounted for, and must be written off as a continuity error.

I don't think it is so much as a continuity error as that things are not as bunched together as it seems. Hunter2005 01:02, 25 December 2006 (CST)

• In Black Market, Fisk's assasination takes place "a matter of weeks" after Cain's. Phelan is killed two days later. Apollo's debriefing probably takes place the next day after that.

• Scar opens on Majahual's 29th day of mining operations. During this time period, the fleet has split up so that Galactica may guard mining operations while Pegasus shepherds the fleet and provides a less static target. The big question here is, could "Black Market" have taken place during this 29-day span?
  • Evidence in favor: The distance from Admiral Adama's oversight would hvae afforded Jack Fisk ample opportunity to become embroiled with the Black Market.
  • Evidence against: Both Pegasus and Galactica are both seen with the Fleet at the beginning of "Black Market". This means that either the fleet had yet to split up, Majahual had returned to the Fleet with Galactica, or that Majahual had been left behind in the asteroid field, defenseless.
    • Counterpoint: It may have been necessary for the mining ships involved in the project to offload ore at refinery ship Daru Mozu before returning to mining activities. In this case, Galactica could have been escorting a mining ship back to the fleet during "Black Market".
  • Evidence against: In the midst of Scar's attacks during the mining operation, Lee Adama would have been a poor choice to lead the investigation into Fisk's murder, since his skills as CAG were in greater demand with the Viper squadrons.

So, could "Epiphanies" have as well?

• Evidence in favor: Thrace spends most of her time in "Epiphanies" onboard Galactica. The mining operations give her an excuse to be on Galactica despite her nominal position as CAG of Pegasus.
• Evidence against: Roslin spent what were very nearly her last days in Galactica's infirmary. If Galactica had been in a combat situation at the time, this would not have been a good choice.

• Not much information is available to pin down the date of Sacrifice.

• The Captain's Hand gives us two clues as to its date:
  • It has been "almost a month" since Lee Adama was wounded in "Sacrifice".
  • Baltar's initial projection of the fleet's population trends took place "over seven months ago". This was before the arrival of Pegasus, since he has to factor the crew of that ship in afterwards.
    • Note that this quite explicitly contradicts information given on the date of the presidential election given throughout the first season (seven months from "Bastille Day", six moths from "Colonial Day") - clearly, the election should already have taken place by now.

• Galactica-Valerii's resurrection in Downloaded takes place ten weeks after her death in "Resistance", which was firmly dated to be absolutely no later than Day 57, and probably no later than Day 54, above. That would put "Downloaded" at around Day 124, which explicitly contradicts almost every other piece of timeline information provided since "Resurrection Ship, Part I".
  • Hera's birth apparently takes place nine months after the destruction of the twelve colonies, setting the date at roughly Day 270. This makes her birth about a month premature (Valerii was impregnated sometime between Day 24 and Day 36). This is at least in line with the post-"Resurrection Ship" timeline.
  • Is it possible that the scenes on Cylon-ocupied Caprica and in The Fleet do not take place concurrently?
    • Downloaded denotes both Caprica and Galactica as "present day". --Redwall
    • They've pretty much established that we're at "Month 9". 10 weeks ago? A month passed between "Sacrifice" and "Captain's Hand", another during Scar, and at least two before that; that would put her death in the Cain Trilogy! --->This is a goof!--The Merovingian 23:16, 24 February 2006 (EST)
  • Number Three states that Thrace was on Caprica "a couple of weeks ago". It's not entirely clear how long "The Farm" lasted, but it was clearly many months ago - Galactica-Valerii wasn't even showing in that episode, and she gives birth here.

• Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I gives us many clues.
  • Zarek states that the people of the fleet have been "cooped up in metal boxes for nine months".
  • Tyrol has been having nightmares for two weeks.
  • The episode opens on the first day of the presidential debates. James MacManus tells us that Baltar declared his candidacy a month ago, and that the polls will open in two weeks.
  • Simultaneously, Apollo remarks that the raptor pilots will be missing five days of debate. This would seem to indicate that he expects their return within that time span.
  • Roslin, Foster, Baltar and Zarek are seen reading coverage of the debates the following morning.
  • Immediately afterwards, we see the Raptor team check in and make their first jump.
  • A series of events take place whose timeline is somewhat indeterminate.
  • We then see Starbuck's team prepping for their final jump. This is intercut with the final presidential debate, during which MacManus states that the polls are set to open in three days.

So, we can conclude the following:

• Day 240: "The Captain's Hand" ends with Baltar's announcement of candidacy.
• Day 270: Opening debate.
• Day 271: Candidates review media coverage, Raptors depart for Caprica.
• Day 281: Final debate. Raptors arrive at Caprica.
• Day 284: Polls open (projected).

Comments: Apollo's "five day" comment is confusing, since the Raptor team was apparently only halfway there by LDYB1 + 5, and at their rate of travel couldn't be expected to return until LDYB1 + 22 days.

If the Raptors were only making ten jumps, as Gaeta tells us, this means that they were only making one jump per day. Although we've never seen raptors operating at such a long range before, it still seems like a slower rate than one would expect.

Summary of Known Information:

• KLG, pt. II, Scattered, Valley of Darkness, Fragged - Day 51
• The Farm: Duration unknown. Begins 8-13 days after KLG, pt. II (probably no more than 11)
• Resistance: Covers 2 days. Ends 7 days before The Farm.
• Flight of the Phoenix: Duration is at least 14 days. Begins 30 days after Resistance.
• Resurrection Ship, Part II: Six's last appearance is at least 14 days before the beginning of "Epiphanies".
• Epiphanies: Should begin less than 30 days after Flight of the Phoenix.
• Epiphanies: Begins Day 189
• Black Market: Begins less than 60 days after Cain's assasination.
• The Captain's Hand: Thrace was assigned to Pegasus before Adama, but not by long - she was only on board for four days prior to the Battle of the Binary Star System.
• The Captain's Hand: Begins after Thrace's assignment, and "almost a month" after "Sacrifice". Probably between 21 and 29 days.
• The Captain's Hand: Baltar's comment about population statistics is at least 7.5 months (225 days) post-attack.
• Downloaded: Begins nine months post-holocaust (270 days). This is the most likely of several conflicting pieces of information.
• Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1: Begins 30 days after the end of "The Captain's Hand."
• Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1: One day later, Zarek states that it's about nine-months post-holocaust.
• Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1: Ends 11 days after the first debates.

More to come. --Peter Farago 01:39, 11 December 2005 (EST)

How You Can Help

I need thoughts on the following:

• How many days was Kara Thrace at the Farm on Caprica?
• How many days do both parts of "Home" span?

Further cleanup

Firstly, I'm thinking that "Epiphanies" will take place exactly 30 days after "Flight of the Phoenix" (getting it down to the wire, last possible moment to save Roslin, etc). However, I used to think "Flight of the Phoenix" happened on day 86, now it's been moved to day 89 (I don't understand the reasoning), and FotP's date is based on Cally's arrest at the end of "Resistance", however recently the deleted scenes revealed the "The Farm" takes place one week after "Fragged". I'm not adept enough at this to sort it all out, maybe someone else can. --Ricimer 10:58, 10 December 2005 (EST)

Which scene? --Peter Farago 16:33, 10 December 2005 (EST)

During the Roslin halucination scene in "Resistance", I believe; she says that the Quorum has been unsure of whether to support her or not for "a week now". Granted, it was a dream sequence, but I think it accurately reflects what the tone of the episode was.--Ricimer 22:07, 10 December 2005 (EST)

Oh, you meant The Farm, which wasn't a hallucination. That's helpful. --Peter Farago 01:01, 11 December 2005 (EST)

Re-imagined Series definition: the senior pilot on a battlestar

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