In Search of the One True God

Frak travels far and wide in search of the One True God!

Actually, Frak recently accompanied Spacepug into Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal, Quebec. Frak didn’t say if the experience brought him any closer in his search for the Cylon god, but then again he doesn’t say much. Spacepug however, found herself reluctant for the first time to photograph a Cylon in public. Sacrilege? Not sure, tried to be discreet and took the shot anyway. With religion and the debate between monotheism and polytheism becoming so prominent on BSG these days, figured it was called for.

Coffee with the President

by spacepug

A dozen 13th Colonists took advantage of the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada and met up for an event we called Coffee with the President. To get us in an appropriately BSG mood, we chose Starbucks as the location. Of course, the version of President Roslin we had in attendance was only two inches tall and made of plastic, but we were still pretty excited to have her with us!

Unfortunately, Laura remained tight-lipped about the shooting location for her dream sequence from “Flesh & Bone” where she runs through the woods and meets up with Leoben, before he gets sucked away through the trees. After a few forays into North Vancouver’s mountains, we think we’re close to finding the location in Capilano Park. We just need to find a section of the trail with more ferns…However, armed with maps and a photo-loaded iPod, we’re heading out again this weekend. Who knows what we’ll find?

Wish us luck!

Episode Review: “Faith”

Well, file this review under the header of “better late than never”. Sorry for anyone who came looking for this review earlier in the week, but it’s been a busy one, and well, I think there was a lot of tough emotional stuff in this episode to try and process that may have made it difficult to squeeze into stolen moments of writing time this week.

Frakkin’ Cliffhanger! Season Ender Party

Of course we’re having a party!

The 13^th Colony will be following up on our very successful Season 4 Premiere Frak Party (I have yet to find a bigger gathering of fans for that night anywhere, so kudos to us!), by hosting the Frakkin’ Cliffhanger! Season Ender Party on June 13th.

13^th Colony….Friday the 13^th….Earth is definitely the place to be!

Specifically, Eighties Restaurant in North Vancouver, BC, where once again a whole bunch of Battlestar Galactica fans will gather about 5:30 pm in order to eat, get beverages in hand and otherwise settle in for the broadcast on Space Channel at 7pm.

It’ll be a party, but on the other hand, it’ll feel a bit like a wake.

Not only will we be watching the last new episode scheduled for 2008, but we will also be reflecting on the end of Battlestar Galactica’s time in Vancouver, as the series is expected to wrap up production in our city a couple of weeks after the mid-season finale.

And YOU KNOW they’re going to leave us hanging, don’t you? Hence the name of the party. It’s going to be one helluva cliffhanger and I’m betting at least one person in the crowd will scream when “to be continued” comes up on screen.

If you want to join us, please head over to the 13th Colony’s meetup site to sign up and RSVP. We look forward to meeting you!

We’re nice people, us 13th Colonists, despite what you might have heard from those pesky Cylons…

BSG Visual FX Mojo

by spacepug

Most of the 13th Colonists (I’m speaking of the Vancouver BSG Fan Club variety) already have an idea of how much I love “the old guys.” I carried my old style Cylon Centurion mini-mate with me to nearly all of our events for the first year of the club, until his arms would no longer stay in their sockets. Now they’re stuck in permanently thanks to powerful glue, but the old guy sits on the shelf, as much a museum piece as the antique we saw destined for the Galactica museum at the beginning of the miniseries.

So imagine my thrill when I came across this blog by Darth Mojo, a member of the VFX team for the new Battlestar Galactica. He describes the process of re-creating and updating the old style Cylons for Razor, with anecdotes and pictures from designer Pierre Drolet.

Their results were certainly amazing. When our crowd gathered to watch Razor, they let out an incredible cheer when they saw and heard the old-style Centurions. You just know when something turns out that RIGHT, that true geek love went into the making of it. Thanks very much for sharing, Darth Mojo.

BSG fans have to check out his insider’s story about winning the Visual Effects Emmy last year. And if you’re a fan of Babylon 5, there’s some interesting behind-the-scenes tales from that show as well. Worth adding to your daily blog rounds.

Hacking the Head Cases

More theorizing from Spacepug, with much help from Peter

Season Four has introduced us to some new twists to the Head versions of Six and Baltar. In Six of One we saw Gaius meet Head!Gaius for the first time, and in Escape Velocity we may or may not have seen Head!Six physically lift up Baltar as though he were a rag doll, for everyone to see. Conveniently however, none of the other characters in the scene appeared to notice.

One of the ideas put forth at our “What the Frak?!” discussion a few weeks ago by 13^th Colonist, Peter, is that someone has hacked into the Cylon resurrection system and that the Head versions (as well as the Leoben who appeared to Kara in Maelstrom) are manifestations of ‘The Hacker.’ The key element of the theory is that humans who die can be uploaded into the resurrection system and become Cylon. That would of course mean that Baltar really did die in the house on Caprica despite the Six shielding him with her body, and that Kara really did die when her Viper exploded. The lines between Cylon and Human are only becoming blurry and Baltar and Kara may be the key to eradicating that line completely. With a little help from Hera and Nicholas, I would add.

So who is the Hacker? Peter says “the Hacker is the last cylon model, who is not walking around like the 4-Cylons, but has transcended physical form.” Real, but not visible. Interesting he said that before Escape Velocity aired…

I’m currently listening to the Ron Moore podcast for Six of One and he does say that the Head versions will be explained eventually. He went on to add that he considers the scene between the two Baltars to have been an indulgence on his part and a mistake in terms of storytelling, but promises it won’t damage the context of what the Head versions are and how they work.

Episode Review: “The Road Less Travelled”

by Millari

Well, this episode was an interesting experience, because on the one hand, it did feel a bit like an episode whose major purpose was to set up a lot of things. Yet, it also did have some really intensely satisfying emotional moments for me as well. So shall we get right to it?