Sometimes a Great Notion (16 Jan. 2009)

Scouting the planet reveals that there is no life except plants. The destruction occurred about 2,000 years earlier. Among the ruins, skeletons and wrecks of a different kind of Centurions ... See full summary »

Director:

Michael Nankin

Writers:

Ronald D. Moore (developer), David Weddle,

Stars:

Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
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
Grace Park	...	Lt. Sharon 'Athena' Agathon
Michael Hogan	...	Colonel Saul Tigh
Aaron Douglas	...	Chief Galen Tyrol
Tahmoh Penikett	...	Captain Karl 'Helo' Agathon
Michael Trucco	...	Ensign Samuel Anders
Alessandro Juliani	...	Lt. Felix Gaeta
Kandyse McClure	...	Lt. Anastasia Dualla
Lucy Lawless	...	D'Anna Biers
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Leoben Conoy

Storyline

Scouting the planet reveals that there is no life except plants. The destruction occurred about 2,000 years earlier. Among the ruins, skeletons and wrecks of a different kind of Centurions are found. But closer examination of the skeletons reveals they are Cylon! Could the 13th Tribe really have been all Cylons? Chief Tyrol, Colonel Tigh, Sam Anders and Tory remember living on the planet and dying there. How did they get to the colonies? Starbuck finds a piece of her Viper, and despite Leoben's warnings, starts to look for the cockpit... Roslin loses her faith in the Scrolls of Pythia. Apollo and Dualla seem to get back together, but he needs to figure out what to tell to the people of the Fleet... A tragedy prompts Adama to confront Saul.

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Plot Keywords:

suicide

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

16 January 2009 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

David Eick Productions, R&D TV

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title is a reference to the folk song 'Goodnight, Irene': "Sometimes I live in the country / Sometimes I live in the town / Sometimes I have a great notion / To jump In the river and drown". This lyric has also inspired the title of the Ken Kesey novel 'Sometimes a Great Notion'.

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Goofs

Right after Dee shoots herself, Felix (who's in the hallway) reacts, and, as he approaches their quarters, the shadow of his (real, healthy!) leg is visible on the floor - even though it's digitally removed.

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Crazy Credits

No title sequence for the episode

User Reviews

Confused like some others

I agree with the comments of some others in that it feels like the writers have lost their way with season's 3 and 4 of this series.

What was a nicely paced and well based plot for seasons 1+2 has now morphed into something almost directionless.

Some questions from this episode include the finding that the bones buried on 'Earth' are cyclon? What are cyclon bones, and how are they different from human bones for any of the human cyclon models? The whole plot backbone of cyclons being machines seems to be getting lost, and there is little left to distinguish them from humans.

Furthermore, time seems to be running out for answering so many of the other teething questions - the backgrounds of the final five in relation to their lives on Earth, Starbuck's role in 'leading everyone to their doom', the role of the new cyclon/human child (how it was born in the first place when cyclons are not human is another question), why the cylon's attacked the 12 colonies in the first place, the outcome of the inter-cyclon war, some closure on gauis baltar and his strange place amongst both humans and cyclons... etc etc. the list goes on.

I know more episodes after this one have been released, and I have yet to see them, but I fail to see how so many loose ends can be tied up without the quality of the overall story suffering.