SciFi Surplus Podcast #050
June 24, 2008
Topics: Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, Dark Knight, Christian Bale, Spider-man, G.I. Joe
Thank you for taking your valuable time to listen to us. This is show number 50 on the feed June 24th, 2008. The Council of Great Relevance will be “A Focus on Babylon 5.” In the news is a Terminator-Dark Knight connection, aSpider-man 4 release date, and some sequel speculation about G.I. Joe. We’ll also be going in-depth about Battlestar Galactica with spoilers.
Casey: SciFi Surplus is presented by the University of Phallox. Distance education with a focus on the personal touch. Every enrolled student receives a free data implant designed for their species. Some of the most popular programs of study include Archaic Media, and Android Diagnostics and Repair. The University of Phallox. Download your future today!
Casey: You can make contact with SciFi Surplus using the Temporal Temps Hotline by calling 801-938-5525. Our Skype username is “scifisurplus.” For all of this information again or send and email go to scifisurplus.com and click “talk to us.”
Casey: I’m Casey and joining me on the show today is:
Randy
John
Jess
Jeromy
Now that the introductions are out of the way, Let’s get our geek on!
Anti-witness News
Jeromy: Ain’t it Cool News is saying a teaser trailer for Terminator: Salvation will be attached to The Dark Knight. The actual content of the trailer is still up in the air but Christian Bale is expected to be quite visible in it. The Dark Knight also stars Bale and hits theaters this summer on Friday, July 18th, 2008.
Jeromy: Next year’s G.I. Joe movie is setting up for a sequel before it even begins. This speculation is based entirely on the new title for the film, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, and the fact that the recently leaked script makes it clear that this is only the beginning of the story.
Casey: Let’s take a minute to give our sponsor some time. The University of Phallox has been helping people reach their vocational goals for nearly a millenium. Did you know that you don’t have to go to an Academy to get the skills you need to work on a starship. There are many possibilites. Engineering Assistant, Security, Ram-scoop Operations Tech, Catering Assistant, and Janitorial Staff. Learning is easy when all you have to do is download the information to your free data implant. While you’re sleeping, you’re gaining valuable skills and on the job training. The University of Phallox. Download your future today!
Casey: Comedian, Writer, and Actor, George Carlin has passed away. Carlin was a big part of Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure and Kevin Smith’s Dogma. He’s was known most for his Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV comedy routine. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5 to 4 that it was indecent but not obscene. Carlin was a wordsmith and an observer of the human condition. He used comedy to entertain but society has gained so much more from his wisdom. Carlin was 71.
Jeromy: Spider-man 4 has a tentative release date despite not having a script, star, or director. Neither Actor Tobey McGuire and director Sam Raimi have contracts for another Spidey flick. The proposed release is for May 2011 a very busy month for big movies. Also schedule are “The First Avenger: Captain America,” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2.”
The Council of Great Relevance - Focus on Babylon 5
It was the dawn of the third age of mankind – ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream, given form. Its goal: to prevent another war, by creating a place where humans and aliens can work out their differences peacefully. It can be a dangerous place, but it’s our last best hope for peace.
This was how the story of the last Babylon Station began in 1993. 15 years later we reminisce about a television series that used many themes, realistic physics and gigantic story arcs to convey messages of hope, despair, love, and loss.
- The use of religion was paramount to understanding the alien species on Babylon 5. The Centauri and Narn had a long history of war due in part to their religious differences.
- Visions and dreams were used extensively as prophetic story devices, and season one was even subtitled “Signs and Portents.”
- War is used as a common theme throughout the B5-verse. We have the Shadow War, the occupation of the Narn Homeworld yby the Centauri, and of course the civil war with the divison of the Earth Allicance planets and the Babylon station
- One unique thing about B5 was the writing. J. Michael Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes, including all of season three and season four. This enabled him to create and tie-up gigantic story arcs that were unique to this series.
- The show was greatly affected by the threat of cancellation, and was actually cancelled between seasons 4 and 5. This made season 4’s ending feel rushed and used up many of the story lines that would have been used in a fifth season.
- B5 was filmed in 16:9 aspect so as to prepare for HD even though it was several years away.
- Pitch to John - There was much controversy at the time that DS9 and B5 were copied off of one another. 15 years later, how do we see this statement?
- Casey: B5 was a set-builder’s dream or nightmare. I’m referring to how many different kinds of doors they have on the station.
Voicemail: Dan, Portland, Flagrant Praise
Voicemail: Thomas, Seattle, BSG New Initiate, Props to Steph
Casey: We have made it abundantly clear that you should be caught up on your Battlestar Galactica. We are just dying to talk about the happenings of the Colonial Survivors and the Cylons. Galactica is now at the half-way point of its final season. The 10 final episodes will air sometime early in 2009 but we are ready to irresponsibly speculate on where the story should go and ultimately where it could end.
- Cylons and Humans seem to now be working together.
- Casey: If Galactica were over, I would be happy. Earth was the destination they set out for and they found it.
- We have no idea if there is any life on Earth but surely someone lead them there.
Casey: Make sure you watch the 1927 silent film “Metropolis.” We need all your email and feedback about it no later than Sunday June 29th. We’re going to talk about it on the ‘cast that hits the feed Tuesday, July 1st 2008. We want this to be a cooperative effort that includes you so send us voicemail, email, or post in the forum at the facebook group. In the U.S., the temporal temps hot-line is (801) 938-5525. I’m sorry but it costs too much money for me to get a phone number that spells out something cool.
Casey: Thanks go out to John, Jess, Randy, and Jeromy. Great job everyone! If you like SciFi Surplus and you’d like to help out, please take the time to make a donation at SciFi Surplus dot com. Even a dollar or two helps. We want to keep this ‘cast on the feed as long as possible and we need your support. Just find “Support SciFi Surplus” on our website. For everyone here, I’m Casey and we’ll talk to you next time!
June 25th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
As always, great show guys. I discovered the podcasts a few months ago and I guess you could say that I am a lurker in that I have been listening and only recently took the time to make comments or contribute to the cost of running the site. BTW I made my donation under my Paypal account name, middlemansales. I never allowed myself to get involved in the Babylon 5 series, so a good deal of this episode was lost on me. I was hoping to hear more comments about Battlestar Galactica and speculation on where the series is going. I agree with the observation that the pacing of the series was particularly bad, with entire episodes devoted to side stories about Starbuck’s decent into insanity and Lee’s seeming eternal exit from Galactica and his military position to transition into a political career, but then to have the humans and cylons form a more stable truce, find earth and showing what they found all in the last few minutes of the last episode for this year. As a viewer of the series I felt a bit screwed by the rush to a resolution - especially since that resolution is a false one because there are 10 more episodes scheduled for next year. I was surprised when no one voiced my take on the ending, which I thought was quite obvious to anyone who has watched the series and become familiar with some of the previous plot twists of the past. I’m busting to mention it, but I don’t know if this is the right place because if my assumption turns out to be correct it would be a major spoiler and unlike the episode itself, this comments section doesn’t have a SPOILER ALERT warning. I don’t want to overstep my bounds. But I will repeat, the part about them arriving at earth and what they found contained some clues which I believe would be obvious to anyone familiar with the tricks the writers have played in the past.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
It’s not a spoiler if it’s just speculation. SPILL IT!!
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one annoyed with the pacing on the show. So I’m not just a miserable naysayer!
Also glad to hear you mention the TRICKS, I wish I had brought that up- showing Tigh shooting Adama or the President being told she’s a Cylon is TOTAL B.S. and a dramatic cheat. More lazy, unimaginative writing from this allegedly smart show.
In the long (and unfair) interim until Galactica returns you might want to give B5 a try. I’m not a fan, and I might not start with the first few episodes as it took a while for the show to find itself, but I have to say, the Shadow War shows what empty drama this Cylon stuff really is. The climax of the Shadow War sent chills down my spine.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:57 am
Hello all,
I have a bit of speculation of my own. I am of the opinion, that this has happen before because.
Years ago, the humans makers of the ever-helpful cylon robots. Left for earth on mass as a political or religious migration for the a Promised Land. The humans left behind carried on and built a society with cylons as workers. Over the years the cylons became sentient and a war took place. The war was not the one we witnessed in the razor or the exodus from the 12 colonies. But a quite coop the humans were wiped out.
Over the years the cylons created a religion of their own with humans and cylons mixed to create a machine religious utopian ideal of equality. But there were no human to share this with.
Then they need to make this ideal manifest. They need to find the humans who left years ago, the only ones left. They sent out cylon warriors to find earth a wholly grail for the cylon Auther and Knights to quests for.
When they did not return their myths were integrated in the cylon religion and a new plan was required.
Who better to find the humans than the humans. They recreated the colonies populated with cylon/human hybrids that were unaware of there cylon half. Allowed the colonies to thrive. Then gave them a reason to find the humans….. War!
Or not. What do you think?
Darren
June 26th, 2008 at 5:56 am
My speculation is simple - the dead planet the Galactica Fleet and Cylons landed on is not earth. I’m basing this on three things:
1. The makers have said that the series would end when the colonists found earth and it has been announced that there will be at least ten more episodes in 2009. Although they left it open as to whether the series would end with them setting foot on earth, or some time may pass between the discovery of earth and the final resolution, I doubt they can wring ten more episodes out of that radioactive cinder the cast was left standing on at the end of the most recent episode.
2. The fifth of the final five Cylons is not among the Cylons, of course, nor is he/she among the Galactica Fleet - when #3 (Diana) arrived safely on Galactica she said that there were only four of the final five among the colonists. This means that the fifth and final Cylon must either be bopping around on the dead planet, or they are going to have to go somewhere else to find him/her.
3. At the end of the third season when Starbuck flew up along side Lee in her mysteriously cherry viper and announced that she had been to earth, the image of a brilliant blue earth with fluffy white clouds and a clear view of Florida and the rest of the Eastern Seaboard filled the screen before the camera pulled back and zoomed back in on Starbuck and Lee lightyears away. However, when the Galactica Fleet and Cylon base ship arrived in orbit above the planet everyone assumed was earth, there was no moon visible in orbit and only a thin crescent of the horizon of the planet could be seen. A small, indistinguishable piece of coastline could be glimpsed through the visible clouds, but not enough to distinguish whether or not it belonged to any of earth’s familiar continents. The rest of the planet was covered in darkness, making it impossible to see any recognizable features to confirm that they were indeed orbiting the planet earth. All they said was that the star configurations matched their target, but nothing was said or shown to confirm that it was earth - it was only the planet targeted by the mystery viper.
As I recall, the Galactica Fleet arrived at a similar red herring bogus earth in one of the first episodes of the original series. The landscape was complete with pyramids identical to the real pyramids of Giza in Egypt and a Great Sphinx, but the face of the Sphinx was obscured by shadows just like the planet that the fleet arrived at in the new series. I can’t recall how, but by the end of that episode they determined that it was not earth, but another lost colony abandoned by their ancestors on their way to the twelve colonies.
I’m betting that after a sufficient time for overly dramatic self-destructive fits of rage by Adama and the rest of the main characters stretching out over the first and perhaps second episodes in 2009, someone will have a vision that will be confirmed by a previously overlooked passage in the colonist’s Holy Scripture, or perhaps the ruins won’t match up with the maps of earth in that book Lee was looking at in the last episode, or something else will bring them to the conclusion that the bombed-out planet is not earth and the fleet will head out again, either in cooperation or competition with the Cylons, chasing some new clue pointing the way to the real earth and the final Cylon.
Of course I could be totally wrong.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Wow! That’s a lot to think about guys.
I’ll be pondering this one for quite a while. Thank you for the donation, Tommygun264.