Numerology

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The Re-imagined Series shares a humorous and sometimes mysterious affinity in placing numbers with popular-culture cross-references or inside jokes in episode content. Fans of the series can also exhibit a tremendous capacity to identify and place perhaps too great a significance upon certain numerological patterns.

3

The apartment number of Saul Tigh's old apartment is 3 (Scattered).
Gaeta lines up three soap dishes when he gets his inspiration to network Galactica's computers (Scattered).

12

There are 12 Colonies which match the 12 zodiac symbols.
There are 12 models of humanoid Cylons at the time of the series.
According to President Roslin there are 12 snakes encircling her press podium when she has one of her first chamalla-induced visions. This vision was predicted by the prophet Pythia, stating: "And the Lords anointed a leader to guide the caravan of the heavens to their new homeland. And unto the leader, they gave a vision of serpents, numbering two and ten, as a sign of things to come" (The Hand of God).
There are 12 Vipers that participate on the direct assault in the Battle for the Tylium Asteroid. Pythia's prophecy also mentioned that the humans would be led by "serpents numbering two and ten."
There were 12 battlestars constructed on the onset of the Cylon War (Miniseries).
There are 12 days between the first time Helo and Caprica-Valerii make love and when she becomes visibly pregnant.
There are twelve thoracic vertebrae in the human spine, which glow during sexual intercourse on humanoid Cylons.
Gaeta tells Tigh that it would take 12 hours for Galactica's computer to generate the Fleet's jump coordinates from Kobol (Scattered).
The number 12 is visible (albeit upside-down) on a fuzzy die in Starbuck's locker on Pegasus (Resurrection Ship, Part II).
In the wake of civil disruptions by the Sons of Ares and the Cult of Baltar, President Roslin issues an executive order limiting the number of people allowed to assemble in any given place to 12 or less. This order is later overturned (Escape Velocity).
In "Faith", the Raptor departs the Demetrius with 14:40 left. 144 is the square of 12, the number of Cylon models and of the original colonies of Kobol.

13

There are 13 Colonies - the Twelve Colonies, plus the thirteenth Colony, Earth.
There are 13 episodes in the first season of the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica."
- This is the standard number of episodes in the first 'trial' season of many new shows; 52 weeks a year/4 = 13 weeks a "season" that they air episodes.
13 pilots are killed by the communication drone accident in "Act of Contrition".
The Circle executes 13 people for being Cylon collaborators in the episode of the same name.
There were 13 Humanoid Cylon models before the death of Number Seven.

33

33 is the number of minutes between Cylon attacks in the episode "33".
33 is the largest printed number on the Radio Magnetic Indicator.
Wallace Gray has an educational program on page 33 of his mission statement (Colonial Day).
The Homeric Hymns are 33 verses to various characters from Greek mythology, a few of which are also Lords of Kobol.
33 people are killed when Duck suicide-bombs the New Caprica Police graduation (Occupation).

From RDM's blog: Why 33 minutes?

"The truth is, there's no real answer. It's just a random number that felt right when I came up with the idea that our people were under continuous, relentless attack since the end of the pilot. I wanted it to be a short interval, just long enough for them to grab a bite to eat, jump in the shower and maybe try to catch a catnap before dragging themselves back to their duty stations and begin the whole tedious, terrifying ordeal all over again.

"A deeper truth is, I was never interested in coming up with an explanation for Why? Never. I mean, I suppose I could've come up with a sufficiently important-sounding bit of technobabble that would've made sense (you see, the Cylon double-talk sensors tracking the Olympic Carrier's nonsense drive signature needed 15 minutes to relay the made-up data wave through the pretend continuum, then the Cylon navigational hyper silly system needed another 10 minutes to recalculate the flux capacitor, etc.) but what would that have really added to the drama? How does explaining that 33 minute interval help our understanding of Laura's terrible moment of decision, or bring us to any greater knowledge of Dualla's search for her missing family and friends, or yield insight into Baltar's morally shattered psyche?

"It doesn't, of course. The answer, however artfully it may (or may not) have been crafted can only subtract from the experience we have in watching the episode. Not knowing the how's or why's of the Cylon attack puts us in the same seat as the characters we're watching. They're in the dark, and we're in the dark. The relentless attack is unfathomable in its origin and unstoppable in its execution. It's mortality coming at you on a loop. If you only had 33 minutes before the next time you could die, what would you do? And what about the time after that? And the time after that? At a certain point, you stop caring about why it's happening, all you know is that it is happening, and it's happening to you.

"So the mystery of 33 will be permanent on this show. No explanation, not even the attempt. Let it just be a number that seemed like an eternity for five long days on the battlestar Galactica."

42

There are 42 people in front of Secretary of Education Laura Roslin in line of succession for the presidency of the Twelve Colonies. "42" is the infamous "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything"...of course, no one knows what the Question is, so out of context as a result, "42" is meaningless. The "42" joke is from Douglas Adams's masterpiece, the five book The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy (yes, five book "Trilogy"). Another helpful axiom from the books is that when traveling around different planets through space, it's always best to "Know where your towel is" - which is considered a serious blunder to forget - a mistake which Lee Adama has nearly made on several occasions.

The license plate number of Starbuck's truck on Caprica is "FB 42 E3" (Valley of Darkness).

47

This is the last lottery number held by a lucky refugee on Caprica, who is rescued by Lt. Sharon Valerii during an emergency stop on the colony during the initial Cylon Attack. Dr. Gaius Baltar appears to momentarily consider using the number for himself as the older woman could not read her number (her forgetfulness leads her to neglect her glasses on top of her head). But Baltar is frightened out of the idea when Karl Agathon recognizes him, and Baltar fears arrest for treason.

Sharon Valerii, as her stint as Boomer, the Raptor pilot, flies 47 missions in her Raptor (Flight of the Phoenix).

The fighter tail number of Raymond Lai's old Mark II Viper, later piloted by Kara Thrace, is number 8547 (Miniseries).

Romo Lampkin and Lee Adama go through 47 names of candidates in their search for interim president before Lampkin identifies Adama as being the person best suited for the position (Sine Qua Non).

In the brief cease-fire during the Battle of The Colony, Lee Adama states that 4 Vipers have been destroyed, and Starbuck states that 7 Raptors have been lost (Daybreak).

The number 47 was a very common in-joke on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Writer Joe Menosky, a Pomoma College alumni, originated this joke based on a humorous "47 Society" at the college. He and other writers placed the number as many times as possible throughout the series in technobabble, props, and visual references. The TV spy drama Alias took the "47" joke to almost-epic proportions by placing very obvious references to the number in most of its episodes over its 5-year run.

The "47" joke has become the numerical counterpart to the audio clip known as the "Wilhelm Scream" that's added to many, many movies as an in-joke between directors and sound editors since the early 1950s. Recent movies that use the Scream include Ratatouille and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

893893

Zarek's repetitive prisoner number, 893893, is a multiple of 47: 893893 = 893 * 1001 = 19 * 47 * 1001.

1701

This is part of the registry number of the famous USS Enterprise of the Star Trek TV and movie series. In the Miniseries, Colonial One rescues a passenger liner named "Gemenon Liner 1701." This is an inside nod to RDM's work in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" TV series.

Humorously, a model of the starship Enterprise (from the original Star Trek television series) appears at the conclusion of the Miniseries at the start of the service for the dead. As a result of stock footage, Enterprise appears in the opening credits of every season 1 episode.

The number 1701 crops up again in the fourth season. One of the gathering places that the Final Four pick to discuss their ever-changing situation is Weapons Locker 1701D, which bears the registrations number of the USS Enterprise (NCC 1701-D) from Star Trek: The Next Generation (The Ties That Bind).

The Battle of the Ionian Nebula resulted in the deaths of 1,701 Colonials (based on the survivor count). Again, this is an inside nod to Ron Moore's and other BSG casts' work in the Star Trek television franchise.