"Battlestar Galactica" Deadlock (2009)

Director:

Robert M. Young

Writers:

Ronald D. Moore (developer)
Jane Espenson (written by)

TV Series:

"Battlestar Galactica" (2004)

Original Air Date:

20 February 2009 (Season 4, Episode 16)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Chief Tyrol has started repairs on Galactica using Cylon quasi-living resin. A Six gets into a fight with humans...

Plot Keywords:

Cylon | Space | Guilt | Robot | Refugee

Cast

Edward James Olmos	...	Admiral William Adama
Mary McDonnell	...	President Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff	...	Captain Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace
Jamie Bamber	...	Lee Adama
James Callis	...	Dr. Gaius Baltar
Tricia Helfer	...	Number Six / Caprica
Grace Park	...	Lt. Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii
Michael Hogan	...	Colonel Saul Tigh
Aaron Douglas	...	Chief Galen Tyrol
Michael Trucco	...	Ensign Samuel Anders
Kate Vernon	...	Ellen Tigh
Donnelly Rhodes	...	Dr. Cottle
Rekha Sharma	...	Tory Foster
Roark Critchlow	...	Slick
Bodie Olmos	...	Lt. Brendan 'Hot Dog' Costanza

Company:

David Eick Productions

Trivia:

According to Ronald D. Moore's commentary (podcast/DVD), the original title for this episode was "A Drowning Woman". The title would have referred to Galactica herself, as the ship is being rescued from "death".

Quotes:

Ellen Tigh: Talk to her. Tell her you love her. It's what she needs. It's what the baby needs.
Colonel Saul Tigh: [to an unconscious Caprica] Caprica, listen. I love you. All right? Can you hear me?
[to Ellen]
Colonel Saul Tigh: This is nonsense.
Ellen Tigh: Saul...
Colonel Saul Tigh: She knows it! I don't need to say it. I shouldn't need to say it to anyone. Isn't it enough that I feel it?
Ellen Tigh: Just tell her...
Colonel Saul Tigh: I feel it! For her. For you. For Liam. Shouldn't need to spout the words; I feel it less with words. Just let me Gods-damn feel it and I'll fill the frakkin' room.

So the moral of the story (if there is one) is..

..if there future is a future for mankind in the (non-BSG) real world, that future is either:

(a) Simply that all the races on Earth (Chinese, Caucasian, Maori, black, aboriginal,.....)need to get it on and have kids, and that children of same race parents should slowly? become a thing of the past.

(b1) A future with the children born of a union between humans and genetically modified humans. Most humans are already becoming GM'd from all the GM crops and synthetic stuff in our diet, aspartame, melamine etc...

(b2) it could even mean a future where each child is born of one elite pure parent (royal blood lines) and one commoner (most of us).

(c) simply that meddling with nature is bad. GM babies won't make it..

There is another completely different hidden meaning scenario I call (d) based on Sumerian clay tablets.

(d) Some analysts of Sumerian clay tablets (dating back to at least 6000 years ago I believe), most notably Zacharia Sitchin, claim that these tablets illustrate the history and origin of humanity. The claim is that long ago humans were literally created as a slave race. They made hybrids (in a lab at first) using DNA of Earth primates together with their own DNA. These early test tube babies failed. It was only by using one of their own females to carry the child that it was born unimpaired. Sitchin's interpretation also ascertains that some of the male 'ET's' were stricken by the beauty of the hybrid women and had children with them. So! is the death of the cylon baby Liam a reference to the early failed pregnancies outlined in Zacharia Sitchins version of things? Who knows?

I base this on the words of the colonel in the scene with the argument between the cylons in the med ward (around 30:00) "Pure human doesn't work, pure cylon doesn't work.."

If there is any hidden meaning in BSG, I think (c) and (d) are the strongest possibilities. With (d), there is a lot of evidence IMO. Firstly, there is lots of innuendo and code speak that seems to point to (d) even obvious stuff like Bill Adama's speech at Galactica's decommissioning: "Humanity is a flawed creation...People still murder one another for petty jealousy and greed" Indeed this quote is reiterated later in the episode where Galactica and Pegasus take on the 3 base stars.

Anyway, when I first read Zacharia Sitchin's interpretation of the tablets, I was shocked of course. The possibility that human life is really a creation is profound. For a few months I was quite depressed at the possibility that I'm the legacy of genetic engineering. But I got over it. It could be a trick the ET's or God played to make us strive to create something better than ourselves, because that's what humans do now. Some scientists are pushing ahead with genetic engineering of humans. There's lots more evidence. This revamped BSG comes at a time when creationism is seen as a viable educational alternative to Darwin's evolution in the American classroom. Also, human DNA is a mystery. It doesn't look like what evolved ape DNA should theoretically look like at all! so maybe we're not evolved apes. Many human beings feel they are confused, torn, "in 2 minds". This in itself may be further evidence.

I believe it would be some task to condition most humans to ACCEPT that they are the legacy of genetic engineering. It would have to done slowly in a sequence of increasingly profound revelations. Something like this:

At first: Cylons suck <--> being a test tube baby sucks Later: humans created Cylons <--> ET's created us (we're the cylons?) ->we cr.. Cylons aren't all bad <--> humans aren't all bad Cylons are divided <--> we're divided In some ways, cylons are better than humans <--> in some ways we're better than the Et's

Anyway, I could write for hours but that's my 3 cents.