Talk:Galactica (TRS)/Archive 1

Nice Work!

I enjoy reading about the new Galactica starship and look forward to more details as the series progresses...and to adding my own edits, too.

Keep up the good work on this page.

On behalf of the rest of the team, thanks! This wiki has grown a lot from the work of a few hundred people and a lot of readers! Spencerian 22:44, 13 October 2005 (EDT)

I am here, I make the edits. There was little choice in the matter. --Ricimer, October 13, 2005

Formatting Question

When formatting the "full name" of Galactica is it:

• ...the Battlestar Galactica
• ...the Battlestar Galactica

or

• ...the battlestar Galactica?

It seems to me that it should be the second.

"Galactica" or "the battlestar Galactica"; never "the Galactica". Battleship and aircraft carrier are not proper nouns, so battlestar isn't either. See Battlestar wiki:Standards and Conventions#Ships. --Peter Farago 20:56, 17 October 2005 (EDT)

Tallies

FYI, I'm working on a fairly major revamp of these, using MASON and Joe's source page idea. --Peter Farago 20:59, 17 October 2005 (EDT)

Why does it state that Galactica had 2 squadrons of MKVII's on board the ship at the begining of the series? This would be a big inconsistancy with what we saw in the miniseries.

At the decommisioning ceremony we see one squadron of vipers led by Apollo doing a flyby. This squadron leaves the ship for Caprica after the ceremony and is rerouted to engage the cylons.

When Starbuck is released from the brig she reports 20 pilots available but no vipers. Adama then orders the MKII's in the museum pressed into service.

The squadron of MKVII's led by 'Ripper' is then destroyed by the cylon virus.

IF there were 2 squadrons of MKVII's on the ship, where is that second squadron during all of this? It didn't launch with Ripper's squadron and it wasn't available for Starbuck and the other stranded pilots to use. (They didn't know the MKVII's were useless until after the first squadron was destroyed.)

It's more likely that the MKVII's we see at Ragnor and later in the series are made up from homeless vipers that were carried to Ragnor with Roslin's fleet, plus a few spares put together from storage aboard Galactica.

There are clearly twenty vipers on screen in Ripper's squadron. Galactica is then able to sortie a combined squadron of (roughly) 40 Mk. VIIs and Mk. IIs. This makes perfect sense if Galactica has two squadrons of Mk. VIIs based in its active (port) flight pod, and one squadron of Mk. IIs in the museum (starboard) flight pod.

As for pilots, presumably the ones with ships had something better to do than be "climbing the walls down here". It's fairly typical for a military operation to have more pilots than craft in any case, so that's not an issue. --Peter Farago 18:47, 4 December 2005 (EST)

Well if there was another squadron of MVII's available at the time Starbuck mentions the 20 odd pilots in the ready room, where is that second squadron? If they are sortied after Ripper's mission, they would have been destroyed by the virus. If they're in the tubes waiting for a mission, why didn't they sortie to defend the ship?

This second squadron is never seen onscreen or mentioned in dialogue in the miniseries. It's more likely it didn't exist and the later MKVII's are refugees. Those vipers are at least seen on screen once, and later in the series its mentioned that there are some pilots from other battlestars flying off Galactica. (Crashdown is described as a refugee from "Triton", for example.)

Crashdown was a Raptor pilot; Raptors have FTL and could go to another system, but I don't think Vipers could easily escape to Ragnar that well (unless, like Apollo, they landed on a nearby Civilian ship with Jump engines then escaped aboard that, but that seems unlikely).--Ricimer 17:50, 7 December 2005 (EST)

Didn't Doral say during the flyby at the museum that it was performed by the last Galactica squadron. Since this was the squadron led by Ripper, it pretty much precludes a second squadron. Also, there could have been several Mk VIIs in storage, for spares or down for repairs. Maybe there were extra Mk IIs stored in the starboard hanger. --Talos 17:57, 7 December 2005 (EST)

It is likely that they were unservicable and awaited transfer to a dock after Galactica was officially decomissioned. Also, on the off chance that I might be right, there may have been Vipers on other ships that survived as well. (For instance, there may have been a few were stragglers from earlier engagements, or even patrols that didn't see action during the assault on the Colonies that happened upon Roslin's fleet prior to Ragnar.) Just a thought or three... -- Joe Beaudoin 19:33, 7 December 2005 (EST)

It would be informative to get an actual headcount during the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage. I have the launch scene about 2/3 analyzed, and will probably be able to finish it next week, but the video quality of my recording isn't perfect. I'll let you know what I come up with, in any case. --Peter Farago 20:33, 7 December 2005 (EST)

Oh, one more thing - In the mini, Adama says "I seem to remember an entire squadron of fighters down in the starboard hangar deck yesterday". If there were two squadrons of Mk. IIs, he would've said so. Again, two squadrons of Mk. VIIs (one destroyed) and one squadron of Mk. IIs fits the on-screen evidence nicely. --Peter Farago 17:48, 8 December 2005 (EST)

The only problem with that is that the second squadron doesn't seem to show up until the battle at Ragnor. What was it doing all this time? If the count of MKVII's is under 20, it makes sense that the MKVII's at Ragnor were made up of a small group of spares that were put together onboard Galactica along with whatever refugees were picked up by Roslin's fleet. We know for sure that there were at least three MKVII's with that fleet that were shown onscreen.--Dallan007

Didn't Starbuck's lines in that scene imply that there were no operational fighters. I believe it was something along the lines of "pilots you got, but Vipers..." I think the Mk VIIs they have were straglers the RTFF picked up before they jumped to Ragnar. These could have been on patrol or something and met up with Colonial One et al. --Talos 00:03, 9 December 2005 (EST)

Maybe the Mk. VII wing wasn't sortied before Ragnar because the systems had to be stripped of Baltar's CNP. There are far too many Mk. VIIs in the Ragnar battle to be anything less than a full wing, though. I'll have a real tally up as soon as I can. --Peter Farago 01:38, 9 December 2005 (EST)

They didn't know about the CNP weakness yet. The purging didn't happen until they were at Ragnar, after the first sortie. Remember, it was the same time as Doral was accused of being a Cylon. --Talos 07:09, 9 December 2005 (EST)

Perhaps, before the first sortie, Gaeta had the remaining Mark VIIs grounded as a precaution since he hears of the malfunctions from Dualla before the fight and makes the association with the CNP (he's bright that way). Or, yes, the Mark VIIs were gathered up in Roslin's search (most probable since Galactica should launch everything they had in sortie 1, and they would rather send Mark VII's than the museum pieces). --Spencerian 13:10, 9 December 2005 (EST)

The squadron ready room would seem to imply a 20-ship squadron. There are 24 seats in the ready room, 20 pilots plus a few seats for guests like Apollo. Boomer and Helo were flying with the last Mk VII squadron so it would make sense that they would be there in the mini. --Talos 12:27, 13 December 2005 (EST)

Redundancy

Fleet Details

Designation: warship, battlestar type, original battlestar class (class name unknown).

Deployment: Formerly an element of the 75th Battlestar Group (BSG 75)

Current Status: One of two remaining Colonial military units. Galactica is commanded by William Adama.

Fleet Details Comments

The only piece of information in that block which is not mentioned before it is the membership is BSG 75; this was an oversight. I'll add mention of it in the paragraph before. The remainder is redundant and shockingly poor in formatting. --CalculatinAvatar 16:09, 19 April 2006 (CDT)

Since you've been around and not commented, Merovingian, I'll pull it. --CalculatinAvatar 01:26, 20 April 2006 (CDT)

I was busy. It's not redundant, and I am restoring it. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 12:46, 20 April 2006 (CDT)

What information does it contain that is not elsewhere in this article? --CalculatinAvatar 13:55, 20 April 2006 (CDT)

Boxes provide quick and easy referrence. I mean, we wouldn't have a box listing ship class and armaments by that logic. It's fun, and makes it clearer. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 14:24, 20 April 2006 (CDT)

That's not a box. The info box made for the purpose does mention the designation and CO. The BSG 75 thing is at best a curiosity utterly unworthy of quick reference, not that I agree that randomly ordered sentence fragments are actually easier to skim. --CalculatinAvatar 14:36, 20 April 2006 (CDT)

Seemed pretty redundant to me. --Peter Farago 17:57, 20 April 2006 (CDT)

I still want to delete this. It taunts me in my dreams ...well, not quite, but I don't like it. --CalculatinAvatar^(C-T) 22:36, 17 May 2006 (CDT)

Turrets

An example of one of Galactica's large projectile weapons.

Galactica's defenses include an array of twenty-four large turret mounted, dual-role twin-cannons, and a multitude of smaller turret mounted twin-guns located between the Galactica's "ribs", along the flight pods. Together, these provide the Galactica with a flak field that acts as a defense perimeter against incoming hostiles (Miniseries, "Scattered"). In addition, the large cannons represent Galactica's main anti-capital ship weapon, and have been shown to be quite effective against targets like Basestars ("Resurrection Ship, Part II").

Turrets Comments

I don't mind the picture, though I don't think it adds much. It could be tied to the page simply as an illustration of "Armament" per the title of the larger section. The composition of the turret armament is discussed on the page for the type. The details on the positioning are slightly incorrect, anyway. That they produce flak is obvious; that the large guns are effective against basestars could be assumed, and, if it must be mentioned, should be mentioned on the page for the type. --CalculatinAvatar 16:09, 19 April 2006 (CDT)

Agree. Galactica type battlestar should host details relevant to the ship class in general. Galactica (RDM) should host information only pertinent to the individual battlestar in question. --Peter Farago 19:46, 19 April 2006 (CDT)

Battlestar Group

See talk on Pegasus page

Improvements for featured article status

I think that we should make the following minor changes before declaring this a featured article:

• Remove "Fleet Details" section, as this merely duplicates information available in the ship infobox
• Reconsider the implementation of the "running tallies" section. My objection is mainly based on the fact that the current setup precludes the use of footnotes in this article, and is probably more information than the average user is interested in. I personally feel that we should break each tally into a separate article and link it from the appropriate summary in the equipment section.
• If, however, we decide keep the running tallies on this page, a simple retitle of the section to "Sources and Rationalle" is necessary. Also, we should seriously consider moving over to the <ref> tag system, although doing so may make the editing process more cumbersome (with the running tallies scattered throughout the body of the text). --Peter Farago 17:25, 8 June 2006 (CDT)

Item 1

As for #2 (a or b)... I don't have a strong feeling either way. It does seem to overwhelm the bottom, and any other footnootes would get drowned out. I guess I'd lean towards them becoming subarticles (of either Galactica (RDM) or of their respective topic (Viper (RDM), Raptor, etc)), or maybe to the front of their respective topics (on the main of Viper (RDM) and Raptor). I'll defer to others on this one, though. Also... could the article stand to have perhaps one more external shot of Galactica? For an article about her, she doesn't get much visibility (outside the small shot in the data box and the gallery down below). --Steelviper 13:21, 9 June 2006 (CDT)

I agree with SteelViper on #2: if you just move it to another article, but keep a link to the tallies section at the bottom, I have no strong feelings on such a change. (BTW, what do you mean "Rationalle"?). --->However, I have to disagree on "Fleet details": I agree that saying its "designation" and "current status" is already in the box, however, the box doesn't mention what Battlestar Group it (nor does this justify changing the box template, because only this article and Pegasus would have such info): I'm going to change it back to a compromise position and tell me what you think. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 14:04, 9 June 2006 (CDT)

On second thought, nevermind: it already says enough about BSG info in the introductory paragraph. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 14:06, 9 June 2006 (CDT)

That's the EXACT same progression I went through. "Hey, that isn't in the... oh. There it is." --Steelviper 14:07, 9 June 2006 (CDT)

I've tried breaking out the Raptor and Viper tallies into their own articles. Let me know what you think; it's easy to revert if people don't like it. --Peter Farago 13:35, 10 June 2006 (CDT)

I didn't see anything wrong with the breakout; I was severely dismayed by the self-argumentative tone in one section of the article (now revised). I've also made significant concision and adjustments as well as adding more links to material that should give the article more ooompf. I may review this again as I'm sure more things here just didn't sit right with me. --Spencerian 20:27, 10 June 2006 (CDT)

What's left todo on this before "FA" status? Also... any thoughts on my picture thought above? (Another external shot of "Big G" somewhere else on this page?) --Steelviper 12:32, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

External shots should be of Galactica doing something recognizably "Galactica-ish", to contrast with the beauty shots in Galactica type battlestar. --Peter Farago 12:38, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

Agreed. I've also gone through the article again and given the language more polish and super-conventionized it. I'm happy with the text, but fresh photos of the Big G moving about would be neat. --Spencerian 12:54, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

Looking through the "screenshots" category, I wasn't impressed by the selection. I hit Galacticastation for some examples and looked at the mini since I figured they'd feature her prominently there. I found top view, side viper, and side Fleet. Of the three, "side Fleet" is my favorite, but that's a fairly small sample. --Steelviper 12:59, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

They're all pretty nice. We could sprinkle them throughout the article for flavor. --Peter Farago 13:15, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

I would love to see "side Fleet" on the pictureless The Fleet (RDM) article. --Spencerian 13:33, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

Should I go ahead and upload the Galacticastation versions (576x320), or should we have one of our resident screen capture artists grab something higher quality (DVD or High-def)? --Steelviper 13:23, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

Upload the ones you've got, and put a notice on Requested Images for higher quality versions. --Peter Farago 18:20, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

Internal links to:

top view

side viper

side fleet

They're prepped and ready to be added to the gumbo that is the wiki (though they could probably use better tagging, but being from Galacticastation I'm not sure of the original signal source). --Steelviper 07:53, 13 June 2006 (CDT)

Side viper and top view added. I added them as non-thumbnails in an effort for them to be less intrusive. I left out "side fleet" as that got added to the Fleet (RDM), but it could be added if somebody wants to make room. We should be careful not to overdo it. --Steelviper 14:10, 13 June 2006 (CDT)

I changed them to thumbs because I think it looks cleaner having a clear delineation between text and image. Revert if you wish and we can talk about it. I also added some kind of place-holder captions, which might be improved upon by someone who has a clearer idea of the purpose of the images are (other than look: a space boat). --Day ^{(Talk - Admin)} 23:55, 13 June 2006 (CDT)

I added appropriate captions to the thumbs. I'm normally a non-thumb guy as I think we overuse it for pictures where the context is already present and so further captioning is unnecessary, nor do I see the bordering as needed. However, the thumbs here don't detract, so there you go. --Spencerian 09:13, 14 June 2006 (CDT)

So is this good to go for "FA"? --Steelviper 10:25, 14 June 2006 (CDT)

I think the article's come a long way; yes, I believe it's ready. --Spencerian 10:32, 14 June 2006 (CDT)

What do you guys think of the orthos I added to the bottom. (Thanks Mercifull, I forgot to add back in the bottom one.) --Talos 17:30, 14 June 2006 (CDT)

That Starship Modeler booger on the 2nd image annoys me since it wasn't their image in the first place. I'd rather get rid of it or get a clean one (it appears to be merely cropped from the first, anyway). --Spencerian 10:13, 15 June 2006 (CDT)

Re-imagined Series definition: technology enabling travel across distances faster than the speed of light would permit, see: FTL

Re-imagined Series definition: operating system on military and civilian ships exploited by the Cylons ^{(TRS: "Miniseries, Night 1")}

Re-imagined Series definition: abbreviation of tally-ho; the sighting of an enemy target, such as a craft, landmark, or position ^{(TRS: "The Hand of God", "Scattered", "Maelstrom")}

Re-imagined Series definition: Battlestar Group ^{(TRS: "Water")}. It also doubles as an acronym for the television series itself.

Re-imagined Series definition: Commanding Officer; e.g. William Adama

Re-imagined Series definition: Battlestar Group ^{(TRS: "Water")}. It also doubles as an acronym for the television series itself.

Re-imagined Series definition: nickname for Galactica