monkey see, monkey do serves as a personal blog and creative outlet for
battlestar just two months away
i still fully support the writers strike, but i’ve been anxiously awaiting the next installment of battlestar reimagined. and i’m crossing my fingers very tightly that when they find earth, it won’t be 1980 again.
here’s a new trailer now airing for the show
some thoughts on the 12th cyclon below the fold. warning: spoiler potential if you’re not current with the series.
there is not much spoiler info generally available but the conversation has continued on who is the 12th cylon; including some hints from the cast in interviews. i generally expect it to be one of the five remaining main characters who are still human. a large portion of the main characters in the show are cylons or newly discovered ‘final’ cylons.
a large hint was offered when entertainment weekly ran a last supper style picture of the cast, with hints added to the image. fans have deduced that the main remaining human lead characters are not cylons. nothing is set in stone really, but those five are lee, admiral adama, roslin, kara, and baltar. i thought the last cylon would be one of them. it has to be someone major right? but the four we just learned about were all in supporting roles. and the fleet that finds earth can’t really be lead primarily by cylons, so perhaps it makes sense that the main human characters really must be entirely human for the epic to make sense.
there are not many other supporting humans that have a central part of the story, it must be one of them right? they include: gaeta, agathon, dualla, and zarek. i’m not counting cally, dr. cottle, or seelix because they seem too minor to play such a central part. my number one pick right now is gaeta, because he’s always in the center of the action in a supportive yet crucial position of power, and his character has not been developed yet really. he’s a blank slate. he could even be a copy of the original scientist who created the cylons. i would expect no less from the final cyclon; something historic and central to the cylon story.
ok, another argument why the final cylon could not be one of the five human leaders, that would call into question the entire trajectory and basis for the show. they’re on a quest to find the promised land, leading humanity to salvation. if one is really a cylon, then that undermines the basis of the story. then that means that the cylons were leading humanity somewhere else, not to salvation, to some degree at least. and that would be a betrayal i fear to the audience at a deeply emotional level. we must still end up at some sort of salvation, the audience does not have the stomach i believe for an unresolved story where humanity is left in perpetual limbo. so therefore, we must have a promised land, leaders taking us there, and that’s unshakeable. but perhaps, like the new four cylon models, someone just “flips a switch” and they realize they’re the last cylon. that might seem quite odd though, to have a major character who has been participating in the greek epic odyssey suddenly discover they were not really leading humanity in that epic sense.
if it’s not gaeta though, my second choice would be dualla: also a supportive character in a key, central command and control position. and her marriage to lee adama and earlier interest in billy seems consistent with cylon sleeper agents intuitively getting into key positions connected to people with authority.
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1. February 2008 at 12:25 pm :
This is post meditation? It does read like you’ve thought about it a lot.
1. February 2008 at 5:25 pm :
heh, yes i’m a little over anxious for the start of the season. and for the end of the season later this year - after the writer’s strike is over. can’t wait to see how they tie up the open plot lines.
1. February 2008 at 8:23 pm :
Wow, we like the same show! This is really the only show I watch regularly now (unless I decide to give LOST another shot), when is the new series starting?
2. February 2008 at 7:46 am :
But American Gladiators is back on, what about that?!
I watch The Office ocassionally, it’s extraordinary.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=excBsIv_3xI
4. February 2008 at 11:06 am :
I continue to hold out hope for the “two races of cylons” theory… in my theory (which I haven’t really seen championed elsewhere, though I readily admit I don’t really spend time trolling BSG discussion boards), this second race of cylons is either ambiguously supportive of the human effort to find Earth, or these other cylons are specifically interested in helping the humans defeat the “evil” cylons (more appropriately, “mis-guided cylons”, in moral terms) and find Earth… which I much prefer.
In this scenario, I don’t think it would be inappropriate at all for someone like Admiral Adama to be a Cylon, since the race of Cylons of which he would be a part is actually aligned with the humans.
Plus, I really, really dig morally ambiguous characters with unclear motives. It makes them much more “real” to me.
4. February 2008 at 12:12 pm :
i’m with you on the divided cylons, that’s consistent with six’s comment “we don’t talk about them” as if to imply “they” were a dirty word. but odd that they wouldn’t know what they looked like if there had been some sort of split or schism earlier in their history.
when the final four of five discovered they were cylons, it didn’t seem to include any additional instructions as far as we can tell. they just “know who they are” now with a switch being thrown. how odd! they know they are cylons but that’s it. it’s like suddenly finding out you’re adopted after all these years.
but that’s extra odd. and in an interview with ron he suggested that they discovered their identity because of the location in space that they entered, next to the ionian nebula. i guess that could be anything, could be consistent with the split cylon theory which i really like.
but even if the final five are not from a different faction, i wouldn’t be surprised if the original seven start to split themselves — under the weight of their moral conflict. like the religious and the non-religious among them might divide, similar to the earlier disagreements caused by the celebrity six and eight. this was hinted at early in last season when d’anna complains that consensus is getting harder and harder for them. and then she goes rogue. i bet leoban will try to get d’anna turned back on, to bolster his religious agenda. or if four of the final five communicate with the cylon then they’ll suddenly want to know what d’anna knows. could be interesting playing things out like that.
4. February 2008 at 2:24 pm :
To: Yuinen
Show starts on April 4th in the US and Canada as far as I can tell, though there will be to 30 minute short warm ups that might include some plot elements showing a week before that…
25. February 2008 at 11:24 pm :
i had no idea you were a galactica fan! having no tv i am dependent on netflix and i think i am a whole series behind but for a while i watched episode after episode back to back and was lamentably hooked. actually it’s just like ‘real’ life–you get lamentably hooked until and unless you step back and think, woooo, what exactly am i getting so damn hooked on, this is fiction. (or at least, some of it is.) anyway yes, definitely i see a cylon split.
25. February 2008 at 11:27 pm :
Wait a minute, MJ says Obama is a Cylon? Wow. What about Hilary? WE NEED TO KNOW. Nadar is definitely a Cylon.
27. February 2008 at 10:46 am :
hee hee. yes, very much like real life i agree.