Battlestar Galactica's Premise is Stupid

[zarus tathra]

I just realized that the entire premise of the show (the new one) is illogical.

The idea behind the show is that 95% of humanity is wiped out by this race of robots called the Cylons, and they're forced to teleport around space trying to flee the Cylons. At one point, they decide that the only way to survive is to make it back to Earth.

Thing is, even if they make it back to Earth, they'll get wiped the fuck out by the Cylons. If the Cylons can practically exterminate them when they number in the billions and are spread out over 12 planets, they could easily destroy the human race if they were all concentrated on Earth, which the Cylons would totally expect them to flee to if they have any intelligence at all. Their only real hope is to either

1. Keep moving around the universe building up resources and living in space, never staying in one place long enough to get caught by the evil robots

or

2. Build up enough nukes to one day wipe out all the Cylon base stars.

Settling down will never work so long as the Cylons exist, because the Cylons want them dead and they are powerful.

[Insult to Rocks]

Do they have a plan or anything that will give them an edge? Is Commander Shepard leading them or something?

[zarus tathra]

No, they're pretty much fucked from day one and they have to have some bullshit about "god" and "forgiveness" to make it all work.

[Insult to Rocks]

Oh boy, that sounds unbelievably dumb. And unless they made the Cylons, how they justify Gods' existence with a new form of sentient life? I've always hated that in sci-fi; if you are going to introduce aliens, don't have the humans keep their belief in a god who only created them and nobody else!

[zarus tathra]

95% of sci-fi is about trying to preserve old cultural forms in the face of new technology.

[GSOgymrat]

I guess I thought the surviving humans believed the lost tribe that went to Earth might have technologies and resources equal to or exceeding their own.

[Hydra009]

I just realized that the entire premise of the show (the new one) is illogical.

The idea behind the show is that 95% of humanity is wiped out by this race of robots called the Cylons, and they're forced to teleport around space trying to flee the Cylons. At one point, they decide that the only way to survive is to make it back to Earth.

They're not going "back" to Earth - they've never been there.  It's a fabled lost colony that most of them don't even really believe exists.  And yeah, that's stupid, but crew morale was so terrible that promising them some sort of refuge made some sort of sense at the time.  Might as well shoot big.

And yeah, their only real options are to constantly run or counterattack, they have mixed results with both.

At the opening of the series, the Cylons have control of the ruins of the 12 colonies, a large fleet, superior technology and manufacturing capabilities, and even a measure of immortality.  Pretty long odds for the humans, one would think.

[mykcob4]

I just realized that the entire premise of the show (the new one) is illogical.

The idea behind the show is that 95% of humanity is wiped out by this race of robots called the Cylons, and they're forced to teleport around space trying to flee the Cylons. At one point, they decide that the only way to survive is to make it back to Earth.

Thing is, even if they make it back to Earth, they'll get wiped the fuck out by the Cylons. If the Cylons can practically exterminate them when they number in the billions and are spread out over 12 planets, they could easily destroy the human race if they were all concentrated on Earth, which the Cylons would totally expect them to flee to if they have any intelligence at all. Their only real hope is to either

1. Keep moving around the universe building up resources and living in space, never staying in one place long enough to get caught by the evil robots

or

2. Build up enough nukes to one day wipe out all the Cylon base stars.

Settling down will never work so long as the Cylons exist, because the Cylons want them dead and they are powerful.

Battalestar Gallactic is the bible story of Moses if you didn't realise it, so yes it is completely illogical.
Anyone sophisticated enough to make human like robots could easily develope devices that could not only track humans and their spacecraft but also shut down all life resources. Thus killing the humans in one fell swoop with no risk. Cylons don't need air, food, water, tempature control. They don't even need gravity. All cylons need is a reliable and sustainable energy source. It's their only weakness. I use to laugh watching the original show during the fighter dog fights. How could a humn process information fast enough to defeat a computer? Especially when their own fighters were computer assisted. That just didn't make any sense.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Which Battlestar Galactica are we talking about?

[Insult to Rocks]

Sooooo, where did the Cylons come from? Why are they so advanced? Why do they want to kill all humans? Excuse my ignorance of Battlestar lore. Also, how do you lose track of Earth? Where they from a totally independent colony, ungoverned by Earth? Did Earth get abandoned? And if they have barely heard of it, how do they know how to get there, let alone survive there? Or do they not, and this is just a long shot suicide-mission type situation?

[Hydra009]

Oh boy, that sounds unbelievably dumb. And unless they made the Cylons, how they justify Gods' existence with a new form of sentient life? I've always hated that in sci-fi; if you are going to introduce aliens, don't have the humans keep their belief in a god who only created them and nobody else!

Theists don't automatically abandon their beliefs in the face of new developments.  Things would be so much simpler if they did.

And the Cylons are not technically aliens, but sentient artificial life.  Or toasters, for short.   :P

[Hydra009]

Sooooo, where did the Cylons come from?

They were originally constructed within the 12 colonies.

Why are they so advanced?

The reason their surprise attack was so effective is that they breached the Colonial ships computer networks and crippled the fleet right as they were under attack.  Any surviving ships, like Battlestar Galactica, only survived because their computer hardware was woefully obsolete.

Why do they want to kill all humans?

Revenge for their previous enslavement, mostly.

Excuse my ignorance of Battlestar lore.

//http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Cylons_%28RDM%29
//http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Earth_%28RDM%29

Go forth and be ignorant no more.

[Insult to Rocks]

Well that's.... disappointingly generic. At least Mass Effect had the main robot villains be something other than the "revolting slaves" archetype. I kinda wish I didn't ask, as it seems like Galactica has nothing really unique to offer. I mean, sure there is the religious parallels, but the audience that would appeal to doesn't seem the type to be interested in sci-fi epics. Is there anything really compelling about the show, like good characterization or something? I only ask because I've heard about Galactica for years, but never seen it, and would rather not be disappointed the way I was with Star Trek.

[Hydra009]

Well that's.... disappointingly generic. At least Mass Effect had the main robot villains be something other than the "revolting slaves" archetype. I kinda wish I didn't ask, as it seems like Galactica has nothing really unique to offer. I mean, sure there is the religious parallels, but the audience that would appeal to doesn't seem the type to be interested in sci-fi epics. Is there anything really compelling about the show, like good characterization or something? I only ask because I've heard about Galactica for years, but never seen it, and would rather not be disappointed the way I was with Star Trek.

It had really good characters (believable people with their own strengths and flaws) thrust into a perpetually bleak, doomed setting.  You really start to grow attached to at least a couple of the characters and start tuning in just to see if they get to stay alive -or stay human- this week or not (a formula that Walking Dead and Game of Thrones also put to good use)

It covers religion, atheism, politics, war (especially wartime ethics), all the questions that the prospect of sentient machines brings to the table, and it also delves a lot into the nature of humanity.  It's a space opera that's really light on the technobabble and really heavy on drama.

It also had a number of parallels to what were current events at the time.  (The Cylons were thinly-veiled Christian fundamentalists, who were waxing in power at the time and gave us secular-minded folks quite a scare)

The writing in the first three seasons was pretty good, imo.  And the music was phenomenal.  And when it first aired, there was a real dearth of good sci-fi on the air and it filled the void nicely.

I strongly recommend both the re-imagined series (including Razor and The Plan) and Caprica.

[Plu]

Well that's.... disappointingly generic.

Keep in mind the original movie is from 1978 and about as old as Star Wars, so some things that are generic now might've been more original back when it first came out.