Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series): Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"[[Creating Life|The Cylons were created by man.]] [[Turned Against Their Masters|They rebelled.]] [[Mechanical Evolution|They evolved.]] [[They Look Like Us Now|They look - and feel - human.]] [[Tomato in the Mirror|Some are programmed to believe they are human.]] [[Cloning Blues|There are many copies.]] And they have [[Evil Plan|a plan.]]"''|'''Opening title card''', season one of ''Battlestar Galactica (2004 series)''}}

 

 

The 2000s series picks up forty years after the end of the first war between the humans and Cylons, in this continuity sentient machines created as soldiers by the human race. As the story begins, the Cylons, now led by a group of [[Artificial Human|artificial humans]], launch a surprise nuclear attack that obliterates almost the entire human race. Like the original series, the survivors form a fleet led by ''Galactica'' in search of the lost thirteenth colony, Earth, with the subversion that whether Earth even exists or not is completely unknown to the fleet. Religious symbolism and revelation play a great role in the new series, as the fleet follow signs and omens that may lead them to Earth while wondering whether or not they're just wasting their time. The polytheistic religion of the humans, based on classical Greek/Roman mythology, also comes into conflict with the monotheistic, vaguely Christian faith of the humanoid Cylons, with the occasional dropped hint that both groups are receiving revelation from the same source.

 

 

The newer series avoided some obvious space opera cliches (such as [[Fashions Never Change|Space Clothes]], [[Teleporters and Transporters]], [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better|Lasers]], even communicators).

There is also a browser-based spaceflight action MMO based on the series, ''[[Battlestar Galactica Online]]'', set in an AU where a jump accident pre-New Caprica sends both Colonials and Cylons into uncharted space filled with the leftovers of mysterious precursors.

 

* [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us|All Your Basestar Are Belong To Us]]: "Valley of Darkness" (plus [[The Mutiny]] arc)

* [[Always Save the Girl]]: "You Can't Go Home Again", "Sine Qua Non".

* [[Unfriendly Fire]]: "Fragged"

 

{{tropelist}}

== Tropes A-D ==

* [[Adam and Eve Plot]]: Helo and Athena have some parallels when they conceive Hera, the first (known) Cylon/Human Hybrid, after the Fall of Caprica.

* [[Affably Evil]]: The Cavils, at least during their early appearances. As the series progresses they become more evil and less affable.

* [[All Just a Dream]] / [[Ship Tease]]: Baltar is {{spoiler|forgiven for his treason and Roslin expresses her desire for him.}}

* [[Almost-Lethal Weapons]]: A major character in the season one finale takes two bullets to the chest at close range and lives. A minor season four character is shot once by the same weapon at longer range and dies in a minute or so.

* [[Author Appeal]]: A ''lot'' of people smoke, with lip-smacking enjoyment, on this show. Listening to one of the podcast commentary tracks with Ronald D. Moore will make it readily apparent why.

* [[Author Filibuster]]: All of this has happened before, and will happen ''to us'' if we aren't careful with our technology.

** Cylons, of course,

* [[Backstory]]: Quite a lot.

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: In "Exodus Part II", when the Pegasus comes diving in to save the Galactica from no less than four baseships.

* [[Big Damn Gunship]]: Given the nature (and title) of the show, this effect is frequent, but particularly notable in season three's "Exodus - Part 2", in which both the Galactica and the Pegasus have almost back to back BDG moments.

** "Black Market" also strays into BLAM territory, though it averts this by killing off a minor (but significant) character and paving the way for a major plot turn later.

* [[Bloodless Carnage]]: Averted; people get covered in blood after the slightest of injuries, most notably the characters on Kobol who are still bloody in the 3rd episode of the 2nd season from an accident in the previous season's finale.

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Boomer. Things just take a downward turn for her in the first season and the series ''keeps running with it'' until the inevitable snap.

** Most of the cast gets this treatment, actually, with prime examples being Duala, Gaeta, and Tyrol.

* [[Broken Pedestal]]: The Final Five, depicted in visions as glowing angelic beings in long flowing robes and held up as gods by the other <s>eight</s> <s>seven</s> six Cylons, turn out to be the five most screwed up, petty, petulant, disorderly, malcontent, self-centred and, ironically, ''human'' characters in the whole series.

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: Starbuck habitually indulges in self-destructive and disrespectful behaviour that would get her kicked out of any real-world military. Among other things she misses her scheduled flight due to heavy drinking and punches her executive officer.

* [[Dead All Along]]: {{spoiler|Starbuck as of Season 4.}}

* [[Dead Line News]]: In the miniseries, when the bombs go off.

{{quote|"Gods! His ego is shriveled up like a dried raisin!"}}

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Baltar. Cavil as the villainous example.

* [[Gender Flip]]: Starbuck, Boomer, and Cain were males in the original, females in this one.

* [[General Ripper]]: Admiral Cain.

* [[Genre Savvy|Genre Savvy:]] in Season 2 episode The Farm. Sam Anders admits "We really don’t know what the hell were doing. A lot of our tactics and stuff we just saw in the movies. We could use some professional advice."

* [[Gilligan Cut]]: A moment condenses to "Do you think he'll use the religious side against me?" (cut) "We've got to keep using the religion card."

* [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]: The justification Cylons use in their quest to exterminate all human life.

** [[Hypocrite|Though, the Cylons are bastards as well.]]

* [[Humiliation Conga]]: {{spoiler|Cavil}}, most deservedly, experiences this throughout Season Four and "The Plan".

* [[Hyperspeed Ambush]]: [[The Battlestar]] {{spoiler|''Pegasus''}} pulls this on a fleet of Cylon Base Stars, pummeling one with its [[More Dakka|numerous gun batteries]] when the Cylons were distracted {{spoiler|by beating the tar out of the helpless ''Galactica''.}}

* [[Hypocritical Humour]]: D'Anna prepares to execute Anders:

{{quote|"Humans don't have the respect for life we do."}}

 

== Tropes I-L ==

** Adama also gets a haircut at the same time (it was noticeably longer in the back before he shaved the mustache), but that part isn't treated to a [[Montage]] like the mustache is.

** The season 2 finale includes a fast-forward one year. {{spoiler|The Cylons have invaded}} New Caprica and Starbuck {{spoiler|has married Anders}}. In this time, her usually-short hair has grown surprisingly long. During the first several episodes of season 3, {{spoiler|Adama saves everyone and Starbuck escapes from Leoben's apartment}}. As a result of her ordeal on New Caprica, Starbuck is experiencing something of an emotional and mental crisis, and after a harsh confrontation with Adama, she hacks her hair short with a knife.

* [[Incredibly Obvious Bug]]

** Justified/Lampshaded as being [[Hidden in Plain Sight]]; everyone just assumed that it was something that was supposed to be there as part of the museum and ignored it, until Baltar asked what it was.

*** Actually in Season 2's "Epiphanies" they show clearly that there are manufacturing and processing ships in the fleet where civillians are building ammunition out of raw materials. Their supply of nukes remains limited (6 as of the series premiere, but goes up once Pegasus arrives).

* [[Info Dump]]: Five episodes prior to the finale, in an attempt to resolve most of the [[Kudzu Plot]].

* [[Interrupted Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Cally attempts to send herself (and her baby son) out of the airlock when she finds out that Tyrol is a Cylon. Tory discovers her as she's doing the deed, stops the airlock, and kindly talks Cally out of it. And then inverts it horribly by taking the child away and forcing Cally out the airlock alone.}}

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Helo/Sharon, Baltar/Six, {{spoiler|Anders/Starbuck}}, {{spoiler|Tyrol/Cally}}, {{spoiler|Starbuck/Lee, assuming "angel" is a different species...}}.

* [[The Missing Faction]]: The Thirteenth Tribe from both versions.

* [[Mission Control]]: Dualla and Gaeta, pretty much.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Dear Lord, this series has it down to an art form. Best when done intentionally, as in season 4.5 when {{spoiler|a happy Dualla rekindles the romance with her ex-husband, has an uplifting talk with her friend, then ''puts a gun to her head and commits suicide''.}}

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Six.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: {{spoiler|the second Earth.}}

** And don't get me started with Kobol...

* [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]]: One million light-years, the alleged distance from the Colonies to Earth, is well outside the Milky Way. In fact, it's about 40% of the way to our nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.

** The science advisor weighed in: Adama was using hyperbole.

* [[Stock Footage]]: Footage of the Viper launches and landings.

* [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]: One proposed explanation for the "angels" and "God" <ref>You know it doesn't like to be called that...</ref>

* [[Sure Why Not]]: After stumbling across a fanfic that teased with the idea of a Helo/Racetrack pairing, the actress portraying the Raptor pilot decided to incorporate the unrequited feelings for Helo and the jealousy towards his wife into her character's backstory.

* [[Surprise Incest]]: {{spoiler|Cavil and Ellen}}. She doesn't know at the time, but he does and is even aware {{spoiler|the Cavil model was shaped in the image of her father and that she saw Cavil as a son}}.

* [[Survivalist Stash]]: Helo and "Boomer" find one on Caprica.

* [[Sympathetic POV]]: This gets used ''a lot'', especially with the Cylons and with Gaeta when he {{spoiler|spearheads a failed mutiny. He's ultimately executed for this role, but he's far more sympathetic than his co-conspirator Zarek, and the viewers get the sense that he was trying to do what he thought was the right thing.}}

* [[Techno Babble]]: Military jargon more than SFisms. Lampshaded when Tigh accuses Baltar of "weaselly technobabble". An accurate accusation, as Baltar's first "Cylon detection method" was entirely made up. There is deliberate avoidance on the writers' part of "this works because of the Cylon hypersilly system" and so on.

* [[Theme Naming]]: Completely unintentional, but: {{spoiler|The names of the Final Five all have prominent T sounds in them: Saul and Ellen ''T''igh, Galen ''T''yrol, ''T''ory Foster, and Samuel ''T''. Anders}}.

* [[There Is Another]]: As in the original series, the battlestar Pegasus is discovered. {{spoiler|The reunion [[Tyrant Takes the Helm|wasn't *quite* as happy as you might imagine]]...}}

 

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[[Category:Canadian Series]]

[[Category:Science Fiction Series]]

[[Category:Sci Fi Channel]]

[[Category:Hugo Award]]

[[Category:Military Science Fiction]]

[[Category:TV Series]]