Battlestar Wiki:Official Communiques

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Intro, survivor count for Crossroads, Part I

The latest episode, "Crossroads, Part I", did not have an intro movie (time constraints?), nor did it show a survivor count. I personally don't care much about the intro movie (since we get back actual episode content), but there are a lot of die-hard fans here eager to know the survivor count. What was the count for Crossroads, Part I? Is Part II going to have an intro and a survivor count? Have you abolished the intro movie altogether? --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 09:15, 21 March 2007 (CDT)

The survivor count was on the board during the trial. Ausir 18:54, 23 March 2007 (CDT)

No, the number of people who escaped New Caprica was on the board. "Crossroads" takes place 2 to 3 months later. --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 09:37, 24 March 2007 (CDT)

Number of Season Four episodes

I realize this was only just announced, and you may not know or be able to comment, but there seems to be confusion over what exactly the 22 episode season order entails. Alongside this announcement, there is confirmation of the made for TV movie, which Sci-Fi is describing as "a special two-hour extended episode." The thing that people are unsure of is whether the movie counts toward the 22 episode count. Will the movie count as two episodes, and then Season Four proper will be the standard 20 episode? Alpha5099 17:39, 22 March 2007 (CDT)

I don't know how SciFi is going to label the "seasons" but the 22 episodes are broken down as such: 2 for the "Special Extended Episode." We come back to where season three left off at episode #3 and do a cliff-hanger at episode 12. Then we have 10 more to bring the series to its resolution. That adds up to 22. - Ngarenn 21:56, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Faster-Than-Light Stuff

Hi there. We know that Ron Moore's goal for the show, as stated in his Naturalistic science fiction essay, was not to use incredulous science for the show, for instance, faster-than-light travel. We have a little debate if that applied to faster-than-light communications. Several instances appeared where Cylon downloading and communications may move faster than light. We understand that "FTL" travel is apparent-FTL through the wormhole theory, but has there been a change to how writers handle, say, communications between Cylons at long range (like between one basestar to the infected one in "Torn"). Did Boomer's consciousness go to a Resurrection Ship and then to Caprica, or traveled farther, relayed, or some other process? If you like, you can see the extended debate in the Talk:Faster-than-light communication article to note our confusion. If true-FTL does not exist anywhere in the Re-imagined universe, we'll just tack it up to a continuity error that, I feel at least, is for cinematic purposes so a story doesn't get all overly technical or complicated. Thanks. --Spencerian 18:07, 23 March 2007 (CDT)

Let me ask me more precise question: how do the Cylons manage to appear at the Fleet's previous position less than 12 hours after it jumped away? The Fleet must be making multi-lightyear jumps, since their destination (the Ionian nebula) is thousands of lightyears away. Does the radiation signature from the Daru Mozu travel faster than light? The radiation signature from the Cloud 9 blast did travel at lightspeed. Do the Cylons have some other way of tracking the Fleet? Or is it simply a continuity error? --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 03:48, 25 March 2007 (CDT)

Note that we can't be sure the Cylons really traced them with the radiation signature. That is only what Six suggested they "might have done." Six might even be lying -- not about the signature's presence, but about how usable it is for tracking -- to cover up the real tracking method. But most of all, the Cylon fleet at Ionia didn't track them there using the radiation signature because the Mining ship was off elsewhere as a decoy.

Now that said, since an FTL radiation signature seems unlikely, this would imply that if used, the radiation signature somehow allows the Cylons to track where a ship has jumped from its origination point. ie. that somehow the mining ship radiated its target jump coordinates. It's never said, but the colonials clearly believe it is not possible to tell where a ship jumped to, but the only ways to track a jumping ship would be either that, or an FTL transmission from the destination.--Bradtem 18:05, 23 April 2007 (CDT)

The radiation signature is definitely a buy. Our Tech guy, Kevin Grazier (who put the cameras on Cassini) came up with a more accurate explanation (after all, space is chock full of radiation and FTL emanations would get lost in the clutter), but because radiation sounded simpler, that's what ended up in the show. Originally, the sick ship in Torn was detected by scouts sent by the main unit of the Cylon fleet and the message relayed back to them when the scouts returned. I'm not sure if that bit of legwork remained in the final cut. Finally, there might still be Cylon agents in the colonial fleet, tracking devices left on the ships from New Caprica - the Cylons aren't going to give up all their technological secrets that easily, especially regarding the transmission of the massive amounts of data involved in the resurrection process -- Ngarenn 22:06, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Identity of the Final Five

Out of curosity, how long have you guys known who the final five are? I know Ron Moore's made comments that indicate that these were more recent decisions, but I was just curious at what point did you guys decide on who were going to be Cylons, and what really went into that decision. Thanks! ColonelKevin 16:55, 27 March 2007 (CDT)

Four of the five were recent. If memory serves, the fifth (which may change) we've been kicking around since about the end of Season One. -- Ngarenn 22:08, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Production numbers

There is a question about the actual production numbers behind the series. For instance, there is some information on the internet where the production numbers differ. For instance, some are formatted like ("T2701") -- an alleged production number for "Occupation" -- while others are formatted as 03001 (or even 301). Just wanted to know what exactly the actual "production number" should look like. Thanks Bradley! -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate} 08:58, 28 March 2007 (CDT)

I believe that the T27nn numbers are internal Warner Bros. numbers for the Comcast tapes that they made and fed to Comcast. I believe the 030nn numbers correspond to the production office assignments to the episodes, i.e., where 03019 is the production number for 'Crossroads, Part 2'. Thanks for helping in clearing this up.Vidiot 01:11, 29 March 2007 (CDT)

Sorry, I don't have that answer. Here we see them as "Season 4/ Episode 5 /405 / 04005. The other numbers arrive from a mysterious source. And the financial paperwork tends to have numbers that are altogether different. Let me know what you find out. -- Ngarenn 22:11, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Thank you for your efforts! Interesting how an episode can have so many different numbers though... Gotta love paperwork! -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate - Sanctuary Wiki — New} 19:26, 16 June 2007 (CDT)

Xeno vs Zeno Fenner (Dirty Hands)

Currently we have him as "Xeno", but the SciFi website lists him as "Zeno". Do you know which version is correct? --Serenity 11:07, 28 March 2007 (CDT)

The shooting script has him listed as Xeno Fenner. Any changes beyond that are news to me. -- Ngarenn 22:13, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Cylon numbers

Although we've been flooded with Cylon identities lately (we now know 11 of the 12 models), we still know only four numbers (Three, Five, Six and Eight). Could you enlighten us as to the numbers of the other seven known Cylons? If you can't tell us that, can you at least tell us whether these numbers will be revealed in Season Four? It would also be interesting to know if the one remaining Cylon is indeed Number One, as we suspected. Thanks in advance. --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 11:24, 29 March 2007 (CDT)

We have deliberately not nailed those numbers down. - Ngarenn 22:15, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Centurions and the final five

We already know Centurions are hard-coded not to hurt the Significant Seven. Does the same go for the final five? --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 11:51, 29 March 2007 (CDT)

We've seen em shoot at Anders, so I'd say no. --BklynBruzer 19:44, 8 April 2007 (CDT)

They've also shot at Athena, though in neither case have they hit the target Cylon. Also, it hasn't been stated that they are hard-coded to not hurt the Seven (unless ordered, as by Three), only that they aren't sentient enough to rebel against them. -- Noneofyourbusiness 21:34, 8 April 2007 (CDT)

Alright, rephrase: do the Centurions 'know' the final five? Would they take orders from them? Or are they just as ignorant as the Seven? --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 04:17, 9 April 2007 (CDT)

Well it seems logical that the Seven programmed the Centurions, so I don't think the Centurions would know what the Seven don't. --BklynBruzer 09:11, 9 April 2007 (CDT)

To be fair that's actually quite the assumption; the Significant Seven don't know who programmed them, so I don't think it's a stretch to consider that they don't know who did the base program of the Centurions either. There's enough to go either way with it, so I think the question given here is a valid one. ColonelKevin 15:54, 10 April 2007 (CDT)

Actually that's a good point. for some reason I assumed the Seven programmed the rest. --BklynBruzer 18:44, 10 April 2007 (CDT)

This thread has pretty much covered everything we've decided to let slip. -- Ngarenn 22:17, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Adama/Tigh Meeting

Hello, Mr. Thompson. Given the recent revelations about Tigh a lot of people have become interested on when he met Adama, but when we look back we have 2 conflicting sources. So I was wondering if you could maybe tell us which is considered to be the real one? Without revealing anything of course.

Now, we saw them meet in the flashbacks in “Scattered”, which are mentioned in the podcast [1] to be 20 years before the miniseries, and this also seems to fit with how they look and such.

However, in “Torn” Adama says he has known Tigh for 30 years, and though admittedly it’s now technically 22-23 years after their official meeting, “30” is still a long way. It’s quite possible that Adama was dramatizing for the purpose of connecting to Tigh, but either way it creates doubt.

So my question was, is the timeline we were originally presented the official one or is it different? --Sauron18 16:18, 8 April 2007 (CDT)

Adama is exaggerating for effect. - Ngarenn 22:20, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Awesome, thank you for taking the time :) --Sauron18 00:23, 16 June 2007 (CDT)

Spelling of carom and meaning of DRADIS

There has been some debate recently as to how carom is spelled. Some say carom, some karam, and some charagm. The subtitles spell it as carom, are they right? How do the scripts spell it? --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 02:32, 16 April 2007 (CDT)

And for that matter, do you have consistent meaning of "DRADIS"? We currently have "Direction, RAnge and DIStance" which fits with recon photography, but is somewhat redundant. Someone suggested "Direction, Right Ascension and DISstance" which would fit as well. --Serenity 06:46, 16 April 2007 (CDT)

I thought DRADIS meant "Direction and RADial DIStance," which would make perfect sense.

--123home123 03:25, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

Carom is, well, carom. Not sure about dradis, but since you know what it does... - Ngarenn 22:22, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Roslin and the Admiral

Following on from the discussion at Talk:Humanoid Cylon speculation... in the frak party podcast, RDM said that he decided against Mary and Edward being in the four revealed Cylons because it would take something away from the series. Does this mean that unequivocally the Admiral and Roslin are not the final Cylon? --SSH 04:32, 26 April 2007 (CDT)

Nothing's unequivocal until you see it on the screen. - Ngarenn 22:23, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Gun Nomenclature-revisited

In a previous article there seemed to be a writing staff debate on what the various types of capital and Viper guns were...some people on the staff appeared to prefer railguns and some chemical weapons. You can plausibly have both in the setting, here's how and why.

The only needed science is that real world railguns can theoretically acheive higher muzzle velocities than chemical weapons, but the electrical power sources for a rail gun are very large and heavy. So:

-Vipers and Raiders would carry chemically propelled rounds b/c they cannot mount the necessary power supplies. Also, they do not need the higher muzzle velocities of railguns - Vipers have higher closing velocities on their targets...ie. the Viper's drives provide aprt of the shell's velocity.

-Battlestar batteries - These vessels fight at low velocities relative to other cap ships. Also, they carry thicker armor. Hence, they need higher velocity shells to damage similarly armored targets. Also, BSG's are large enough to carry large power supplies.

Your art staff needn't worry either, actual railguns produce visible muzzle flash due to the vaporization of portions of the round Auburn railgun firing

Hope this helps...assuming the debate is still going on. Feld 19:04, 28 April 2007 (CDT)

Out of curiosity, is this debate still going on? --Feld 11:48, 8 September 2007 (CDT)

What is "Razor"?

Dear Mr. Thompson, the first S4 casting information has surfaced. The sheets say #401/402 "Razor" will feature Young Helena (Cain?) and Helena's father, among others. Could you please clarify whether this information refers to the TV movie about the Pegasus or to the genuine S4 premiere? -- Pedda 17:20, 3 May 2007 (CDT)

According to this is safe to say that Razor is TV Movie about Pegasus. --Deus 15:12, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

Aah, I just love your scoops. :-) --Pedda 15:30, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

Thanks, but unfortunately this one is not mine... It was found by Countess Persephone at Ragnar Anchorage.--Deus 16:21, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

What I find interesting is that they are casting the role of the Hybrid (probably a Basestar CPU Hybrid, but it could be something else), meaning it may be someone other than Tiffany Lyndall-Knight. -- Noneofyourbusiness 11:50, 20 May 2007 (CDT)

OK, I'd say that this confirms the Razor title... --Deus 19:04, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

Even the Sci Fi Channel can err, and has. That same article shows character names, and most of them are incorrectly spelled. Such information has changed at the last minute before, and trying to "lock" it down before the episode is advertised on-screen is likely to burn us. Right now, the movie article has a redirect link with this title, so for now we'll just leave things as-is for the article. --Spencerian 23:14, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

The Season 4 Premiere is Episode #3 - but Razor will reveal something that will affect what happens in Season 4 - Ngarenn 22:26, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Season 4 First Episode Title

The same source cited above by Pedda also names "He That Believath In Me" as the title for the first Season 4 episode. Is this name correct? Is the misspelling intentional? TIA. --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 09:10, 21 May 2007 (CDT)

No, we don't spell quite that badly. - Ngarenn 22:27, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Do you mean that "He That Believeth In Me" is the correct title? --Catrope^{(Talk to me or e-mail me)} 09:08, 16 June 2007 (CDT)

Radio/"Wireless" interference effect?

Hi. I am curious in how this effect was produced, namely the effect heard in various scenes such as the Galactica communicating with its fighters as well as the wireless stand off dialog between Adama and Cain. Due to the rather offside nature of this question, I am aware that it is unlikely to find a guide of such, but I do seek ways in producing this somewhat interesting effect for things like fanmade game mods - for this effect does provide a very indepth feeling of using "antique" tech. I am referring to that double tone disorted voice during speech over commlines. Thank you for any hints, links, advicce. I "apollo"gize ;) for the unusual question - I hope it is not too far out what I am asking. On the side note, I must say being a writer for BSG must be fun, wish I could something alike. --Lork 06:05, 31 May 2007 (CDT)

It's a great question, one that the sound and post guys have proudly explained to me -- they actually transmit the dialogue over a wireless and record the result from the receiver. The static, though controllable, is the real deal. And yes, writing for Battlestar is the best job in the world. - Ngarenn 22:31, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

It's the distortion from transmission using single-sideband modulation. FM and AM don't produce that sort of distortion. Ham radio guys know all about it. I'm not sure it can be faked for a game mod but you may be able to get some hams to help you out. Mward 08:35, 17 June 2007 (CDT)

Well, technically SSBM is a special case of AM. The most simple way to get a single-sideband is passing an amplitude modulated signal through a bandpass and thus removing one of the duplicated sidebands. --Serenity 08:47, 17 June 2007 (CDT)

I wasn't attempting to explain it, just identify it. I figured the original poster could look it up. Doing that sort of conversion in a computer won't result in the distortion you hear on the show. That's caused by being slightly off-frequency or fiddling with the tuner while transmitting or receiving. As far as communications go, it's not very hard to tune a radio and so the effect on the series is kind of out of place. I doubt you could chalk it up to relativistic doppler effect since most of the time the 2 ships transmitting aren't moving at appreciable fractions of light speed away or towards eachother. However, I will say as a fan, the cinematic effect is really cool and adds to the air of techy spaciness the show has. Mward 09:31, 17 June 2007 (CDT)

Many thanks! Lork 13:35, 24 June 2007 (CDT)

Battlestar Night Flight/(Era)smus

Due to the discussions along Talk:Night Flight and this Sci Fi thread (New battlestar name discovered), I'm rather surprised no one bothered confirming this just yet: In the episode, Home, Part I, two battlestars are mentioned in Adama's paperwork

The battlestar's name on a personnel file.

: Night Flight and the other, through analysis, to be Erasmus. Do you know if Erasmus is correct and if you know of any other information concerning these choices (quite frankly Night Flight reminds me too much of Knight Rider). DrWho42 23:14, 17 June 2007 (CDT)

The Art Department, who comes up with all this stuff, is very creative. Wait till you see the magazine about paragliding on Scorpia - Ngarenn 23:26, 17 June 2007 (CDT)

I had been hoping the Night Flight thing was a Led Zeppelin reference. Oh well :) --BklynBruzer 23:28, 17 June 2007 (CDT)

Cybernetic Living Organism

Hello, Mr. Thompson, we wanted to ask you a question regarding the meaning of the word "Cylon".

When we began getting reports and such about the proposed spin-off "Caprica", amongst them was the news that we would learn what the word "Cylon" meant by the end of the pilot. Amongst this information we got a partial name, and then later on more was revealed: "Cybernetic Living Organism". However, we do not know if it is truly the one you, the writers, intend to use, or if it was just a rumor. Is "Cybernetic Living Organism" the canonical origin behind the word "Cylon", or was this just a rumor/old version?

Thank you for your time. --Sauron18 15:02, 6 July 2007 (CDT)

The Battlestar Concordance from the original series doesn't document the etymology. Ron D. Moore's "Caprica," has a character coin the term, saying, "A cybernetic life-form node, a Cylon." But as "Caprica" has yet to go before cameras, there is yet no "official" version. - Ngarenn 13:39, 20 September 2007 (CDT)

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

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

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

Re-imagined Series definition: term used in conjunction with a DRADIS contact read; analogous to the term "mark"

Re-imagined Series definition: "Direction, Range, and Distance", Colonial equivalent of radar or lidar

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

Re-imagined Series definition: Colonial equivalent of radio