Nina's Known Universe

Reimagined BSG "33" Season 1, Episode 1 Commentary...Looking Back

Original US Airdate: January 14, 2005




***These articles are full of Spoilers from the entire series to date as aired in the USA...Continue At Your Own Risk--Moreover, the format assumes the reader has seen all of the episodes and specials aired through the first half of season 4, up to and including “Revelations”...

^Borrowed material is duly credited^



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Re Watch This Episode Here

Read the Intro First
Read the "Miniseries" Commentary Here




^Time Line^

^Day 6: Galactica pursued by the Cylons for six days. The ship Olympic Carrier is destroyed (33).



^Day 7: First new child born on the Rising Star. {During this same time frame the Pegasus encounters a fleet of 15 civilian ships, including Scylla which is later revealed on the episode Resurrection Ship, Part I}.






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Imperial Commentary


257 consecutive jumps, 33 minutes apart, spanning the last 130.35 hours, or just over 5 days. The cylons are somehow tracking the fleet and manage to jump to their location every 33 minutes – exactly. The continual jumping has the civilian ships falling into disrepair, FTL drives are starting to malfunction, and no one is getting any rest due to the demands on personnel to keep supplies moving during the 20-25 minutes between jumps. The military is really putting in the overtime here, with pilots being prescribed Stims to stay awake for longer shifts.



It was revealed subtly in another episode that the Colonials also use a 24 hour day and a 365 day year just as we do on Earth. This is revealed in the episode, Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down, when Baltar tells virtual six approximately how long it will take to test every person in the fleet for Cylon blood. The lovely folks on the ^BSG Wiki^ site were kind enough to do the math for us.



Focusing on how quickly things change when the pressure is on, we see Baltar, an Atheist at the start of the show, slowly come to accept the possibility that Head Six speaks the truth. As each conversation with Head Six transpires, he begins to comply or heed her advice much more quickly including a tearful promise to repent for his sins seconds before Roslin agrees that the Olympic Carrier should be destroyed. He is clearly Sincere at this moment of vulnerability though his resolve in keeping that promise, up until Season 4, end of Season 3, was noticeably lacking. Perhaps the surest sign that he really is Human is in fact his knack for self-centered self-preservation.



Interesting are head Sixes comments, which seem in hindsight to be the most truthful comments of any character, painting her as the primary Clue Dropper in the series. Also of note is that Head Six speaks of God while Head Baltar {who won’t be introduced until late in season 2’s episode, Downloaded) speaks of selfish human nature. He states to Caprica Six in the Brig season 3, sometime after The Eye of Jupiter, that the trick to being human, is caring about only yourself.



She had told Baltar of the Sleeper Cylons, and then moments later we see a copy of Sharon at Ragnar Anchorage during the final scene of the Miniseries. Then in this episode she told him, “If you are going to survive, the Olympic Carrier must be destroyed. All of the sixes, include V-6 are shaping up to be the facilitators, manipulators of the 12 archetypes.



On the other hand, the Sharon’s, who at first glance are the joiners, the – we just want to fit in and be accepted - are in a way more the seductress, having seduced both the Chief and Helo, and it would seem that Boomer seduced a Cavil as well in season 4. In some ways the Eights remind me of the Orion Slave Girls, pretending to be submissive, or as Deanna said, distracted by shiny things, only to find out too late that they were just using their talents to exert influence.



This is not to suggest that the eights are evil, or even aware of the power they possess, it is just something to keep in mind. It may even be a “girl next door” sort of program that makes everyone see the Sharon’s {including the other cylons} as their little sister, in need of looking after and unable to think for themselves. However, Boomer and Athena have disproved this idea by being quite capable of thinking for themselves, of course they are the exception, with Athena showing even more independence than Boomer as the series progresses.



Roslin’s tune or rather tone, goes thru a change or two in this episode as well. At first, being sweetly accommodating to whoever was at her desk at the start of the episode, to agreeing to the destruction of the Olympic Carrier. Roslin’s first signs of true vulnerability, of wearing down, came while she was on the line with Cmdr. Adama, when she offers him her thanks to the entire crew of Galactica and her voice crackles as she chokes back tears. She breaks down again at the end after Billy advises her that a baby was born on the Rising Star. Billy seems so happy and full of hope when compared to the sour puss that replaced him in later seasons.



What a tough call that would be to make. No doubt some thought it was wrong to destroy that ship…but it was on a collision course with Galactica. Hindsight being 20/20, some may wonder why they didn’t just jump away and then jump again with the fleet leaving the Olympic Carrier behind. Perhaps there was not time to spin up the FTL before the vessel collided with Galactica or it was intended to be a parallel situation to the events transpiring on board the Pegasus at this time, yet still unknown to the Galactica. The timeline indicates that the Pegasus was stripping down the civilian vessels at the same.



One Battlestar Cmdr forced to destroy a civilian ship to ensure the survival of the rest of fleet, while another Battlestar Cmdr pillages her own people then leaves to die, so that she may continue to quench her thirst for revenge. Both acts result in the lost of civilian lives. One act we find more palatable as it was justifiable under the circumstances. Unless they could have jumped leaving the OC behind, I really didn’t see that they had any choice but to destroy that ship.



Episode notes from Wiki indicate that scenes were cut which showed some signs of movement on board the ship. Still the complete lack of communication, had there been anyone able to respond, they could have mooned the Vipers if nothing else, just to say hey, we are still here and trying to fix the problem.



Kara and Lee had a little moment while she chastised him on letting her not take her stims. It was so funny because she was telling him how to handle her. In addition, the look on Tyrol’s face was classic. Later these two have the dubious honor of being on the CAP when the order to destroy the Olympic Carrier came through. Lee continued to struggle with the decision.



Roslin’s gratitude toward Adama and his crew was also perhaps the clearest turning point in Cmdr. Adama’s attitude toward her as The President, in addition to acknowledging her role as his superior. At first snapping at her that his plan to divide the fleet was a military decision – to later in the episode waiting to order the Olympic Carrier destroyed until she gave the green light. Adama actually softened a great deal in this episode, not just toward Roslin, but also to his crew. After Tigh chastised everyone over the Olympic Carrier being left behind, Cmdr. Adama reminded Tigh that its one thing to push the crew, but its another to break them.



Weather or not Dr. Amorak on board the Olympic Carrier actually had information about Baltar or the Cylons, we may never know. What we do know is that Dr. Baltar knew him and feared what he may or may not know in regard to Baltars involvement with the Cylons. Head Six also knows about him. Just as Shelley Godfrey claimed to know him as well.



Shelly Godfrey, who will be along in a future episode called Six Degrees of Separation, was a Cylon Six claiming to be Dr. Amorak’s assistant who mysteriously vanishes into thin air at the end of the episode. She either air locked herself, was really a solid manifestation of Head Six and simply went virtual again, or she managed to hide in disguise within the fleet, undetected, possibly escaping while on New Caprica or perhaps being killed on Cloud Nine. See the thread I started about Hera for another possible answer.



In regard to the actual message from the doctor, it could also be that the entire message was staged by the Cylons. Assuming the cylons had taken control of the Olympic Carrier one jump earlier, all that they had to do was not jump, off load all the people to a BaseStar, then jump to Galactica and ram into her with an empty ship on cruise control. Alternatively, the passengers may have been dead or drugged.



Meanwhile down on Caprica, Helo is still wounded from the Raptor hull breach that penetrated his leg at the end of the Mini, he is also suffering from radiation sickness, and is being pursued by centurions. He soon gets captured and wakes to find a hot blonde Six standing over him. She says “Are you alive?” Which either makes her the newly resurrected Six from the Armistice Station or “This has all happened before” simply meant they were going to recycle dialogue, or a third possibility is that most of the cylons had never seen a human so it could just be a greeting of sorts. My guess is that she was the resurrected copy of Armistice Six.



She then kisses Helo just like the six kissed the guy on the Armistice Station but was immediately shot in the back by the 2nd Sharon, the Athena copy and Hera’s future mother. Sharon #2 tells Helo she came back for him and they run off together at the end of the episode.





Despite RDMs insistence that the #33 was just pulled from his hat, this episode is riddled with the number 3, 12 and multiples of 3 and 12. From the exactly 300 people the initial count was off by to the base number of several plot numbers including the final count after adding the 1 baby. A base number is derived by adding together all the digits of a multi digit number until you have a single digit number.



· 33 minutes, 3+3=6.
· 237 jumps, 2+3+7=12, 1+2=3
· 130.35 hours, 1+3+0+3+5=12, 1+2=3
· 50,298 initial survivor count, 5+0+2+9+8=24, 2+4=6
· 47,973 final survivor count, 4+7+9+7+3=30, 3+0=3
· 300 souls as a correction, 3+0+0=3



…What if {and this is from season 4} what if the missing 3 that the hybrid mentioned wasn’t the missing 3 model, but the missing 3 hundred…?? No doubt a huge stretch but with this show, I no longer find anything to be impossible. No matter how improbable. Other numbers in this episode had a base number of 13 or 4. 13 could be meaningful, and 4 x 3 is 12. In all likelihood these numbers are simple coincidences based on the power of suggestion. The writers may just have 12s on the brain and are subconsciously or intentionally planting them throughout the show to give the fans something to do.



Thanks for reading.

~99



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^Additional Notes copied from BattlestarWiki.org regarding this episode - full text available here:



At first glance, there appears to be an error with Billy Keikeya's math with the survivor count. The episode starts with the count being 50,298. He informs Roslin this is in error by 300 = 49,998 survivors.



When the Olympic Carrier is destroyed (1,345 people), he reduces the total to 47,972 – that’s a reduction of 2026, or 681 people more than listed on the Carrier. However, in deleted scenes from this episode, Keikeya is actually reducing the survivor count additional times set between the beginning of the episode and the destruction of the Olympic Carrier. These other deaths just occur off-screen.



The 681 adjustments made during deleted scenes, 6+8+1=15, 1+5=6. Even Crashdown’s former ship insignia for the Triton is Battlestar Group 39 = 12 = 3. The original count for ships in the fleet was 60 but that number was changed after the series was green lighted.





Note on "Lest We Forget" From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog:



"It's probably been asked before, but I'm curious as to whom[sic] is in the picture in the Viper Pilot's briefing room, facing away from the camera . . . the one the pilots, including Commander Adama, touch when they enter and leave? This is touching, and is a wonderful human element to the story. So who is it?"



There was a scene cut from "33" where we saw Laura Roslin being given her copy of the photo along with a card that said it was taken on the roof of the capitol building on Aerelon during the attack. The photo was inspired by the famous shot of the fire-fighters raising the flag at Ground Zero that became iconic. I thought the Colonies would have their own version of this -- a snapshot taken in the moment that becomes a symbol of the day they can never forget and of all they had lost.



The photo itself is of a soldier falling to his knees (possibly shot or simply overcome by emotion) as he stands on the rooftop overlooking the devastation of his city, while the Colonial flag waves at the edge of frame. The inscription below the photo on Laura's plaque reads, "Lest We Forget" in itself a reference to the inscription on the watch presented to John Wayne's character in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon."



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In the next episode, Water, Galactica loses over 60% of her water reserves due to sabotage, forcing the Fleet into a crisis and Commander Adama to seek a new supply.



As fate would have it, there just happens to be a big chunk of ice floating in an asteroid field – just around the next solar system. They just have to find enough strong backs to mine it. It’s sure a good thing they didn’t airlock all those prisoners…



Thank you for reading,

~99



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