Number Six (Battlestar Galactica) Puns

I am talking about the reimagined Battlestar Galactica that began in 2003. This does contain some spoilers for the current three seasons of Westworld and all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica. I will try to keep things as vague as I can, though.

On the surface, the shows are very different. Westworld, of course, has this super high-def western-cyberpunk aesthetic in conjunction with a seemingly evergreen world in a not-so-distant future, increasingly framed as less of a straightforward plot and more of a nonlinear retelling of historical events. BSG is primarily set in the blackness of space and much more straightforward, dealing with the gritty and grainy military and socio-political elements of what seems to be a far-flung future in which a small enclave of devastated humans fight for survival against their technologically superior, almost ethereal AI enemies.

But having recently watched both shows again, I was astounded by the similarities. Many things that happen in Battlestar Galactica also happen in Westworld, just at a different pace and within a different context.

I feel that if you want an idea of where Westworld might be going with some of its themes and narrative choices, Battlestar Galactica would be the show to look at.

• First off, both shows are "reimagined" versions of well-known intellectual property, Michael Crichton's original Westworld movie and the original Battlestar Galactica TV series from the late '70s. However, the new versions strived to take the unique high concepts of the source material, strip away (most) of the campiness, and offer a grittier, more modern and nuanced takes on these franchises.
• Both stories are centered around a generation-spanning conflict between humans in a highly advanced future society and their machine creations who became self-aware and turned on their masters. The stakes are much higher from the start in BSG -- with the Cylons returning decades after the first war and decimating the human race -- while Westworld feels more like the slow-burn origin story of the world of BSG.
• Both shows are meant to be quite topical, and mix topical subject matter with philosophical commentary. With BSG and it being a post-9/11 series focused on an escalating war, there are a lot of bold allusions to the War on Terror among other pivotal events in human history. Westworld is a bit more psychological, focused instead on the increasing codification of mankind, to the point t

I've been nerding out on ME voice acting credits (just found out that Aria T'Loak is Carrie Ann Moss and I lost it) and I just LOVE that Bailey is Colonel Tigh and EDI is Number Six. If I were to pick a series analogous to ME it would have to be BG, and the characters they both played in BG made their ME characters all the more fitting.

Any other surprising voice acting crossovers in the series that made you feel all the feels?

"You're talking about a little over 38,000 people, the entire human race, with nothing but the clothes on their backs and some provisions..." Commander William Adama to his son, Lee.

The Galactica fleet's decision to abandon technology and start civilization over from scratch was almost certainly the result of overconfidence brought on by victory in the Cylon Wars, and was a disastrous miscalculation that almost certainly led to a very quick downfall.

It's impossible to overstate how difficult it is to set up new colonies in an unfamiliar environment without technology. Historically, the formula is simple: keep on shipping people to new colonies faster than they can die off until that settlement reaches a tipping point and becomes sustainable. History is full of failed efforts to reach such a tipping point. Both Vikings and Spanish failed to colonize North America's East Coast despite repeated efforts to do so, and England's early attempts met with failure as well. Jamestown had a horrific fatality rate before its eventual success. For the Galactica fleet, not only would reinforcements would never arrive, but Galactica's colonists may have been at a distinct disadvantage to more primitive settlers.

All supplies the Galactica colonists owned requiring technology to manufacture were absolutely irreplaceable. This includes all medicine, weapons and clothing. Galactica settlers would only have access to whatever books and personal knowledge they took with them. The survival skills possessed by the military personnel of Galactica would certainly be a large benefit, but these survival skills would not extend to large-scale agricultural production in an alien environment, to say nothing of textile weaving, construction and tool manufacture. This is an absolutely heroic undertaking. All databases in the Galactica's fleet needed to assist with this would be destroyed in Earth's sun along with the fleet's entire manufacturing capacity.

Galactica command made the decision to split the fleet up into seperate settlements across Earth "to spread the people out as much as possible to give them the best possibility of survival." While the number of settlements is never specified, Adama points to three places on Earth as he says this, in Africa, Australia and central Asia. The final survivor count given in the series by Commander Adama is 38,000. Assuming population was divided up roughly evenly, as fleet craft ran out of fuel, these three colonies of rou

The last book was delivered today, and I have the next two days off.

I am about to start reading, but I am reminded of an episode of Battlestar where Adama is reading to Roslin.
He stops before he finishes the book and remarks how he did not want it to end. And I feel the same way. Not sure if I will stop early enough to not finish it, But Ty, Daniel, thanks for a great ride. I have throughly enjoyed the series and I can not wait to see how it wraps up!!

https://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Edward-James-Olmos/dp/B0036EH3U2?ref=dlx_deals_gd_dcl_tlt_14_3332c29d_dt_sl15_5b&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFZMjY1M1lRWkpRM08mZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA2MDUwNDhERlNSTDUxT0xLMiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzYzODQ2M1RJS1U2VU02MkZRRiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2diX21haW5fc3VwcGxlJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[ Warning: Massive BSG Spoilers ]

In the 2000's BSG series, it is revealed that organics creating machines, (and then fighting those machines) is an ancient, repeating, cycle. They find planets with dead species that have also fallen victim to this cycle, as they struggle with their own creations.

Characters like Starbuck are killed, but then reborn, and ascend. There is a very spiritual aspect to the story and some things remain a bit vague.

At the end of the show, the characters reach a planet that is inhabited by native humans, and they settle there; destroying their technology to end the cycle.

This is revealed to be our normal Earth, and BSG took place in the ancient past.

The last shots of the series show Baltar & "Number Six" (who wears an iconic red dress) as they watch humanity from above, in some sort of ethereal forms. The timeline fast forwards to modern times and shows the introduction and creation of robots. The cycle begins again.

This is where the events of The Matrix movies pick-up. Almost exactly at the same time period & tech of the late 90s / early 2000s.

This cycle of organics vs machines is also demonstrated and explained in The Matrix franchise; with the Matrix already having gone through several reboots with several versions of "The One".

One of these previous reboots was simply the classic BSG series; which accounts for the differences and allows the two series to be connected. The cycles/reboots could just be much longer than many of us have assumed.

In the modern BSG, Number Six was a program who eventually takes residence in Baltar's mind, similar to how Agent Smith can assimilate programs and even enter the minds of real people.

• [ BSG image, for flavor ]

We even see a program appear in The Matrix, who is a woman in a dred dress that distracts Neo. At the very least this could be a nod to another program like Number Six, who like other programs, survived the transition between verisons of The Matrix. OR (better yet) what we see between BSG & The Matrix never actually had a reboot, and was just The Machines setting-up humanity to "try again from scratch".

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#[Other Part of this Theory ](https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/pmz1cn/the_terminator_franchise_leads_into_the_matrix/?utm_mediu

I have an extra copy of Battlestar Galactica Deadlock for whoever wants it, giveaway will close in a day :)

good luck!

Edit: The winner has been chosen, congratulations u/bandion1! Thank you everyone for participating.

I’ve been putting this off for almost 20 years. I’ve always known I’d love this show, but it’s just never been the right time to start it. A fantastic show is just better when it’s started a few seasons ago and you can binge it, so this is nice…a fantastic escape from whatever I’m trying not to deal with lol.

Seems a tiny bit dated, but really enjoying it so far.

I'm starting my Christmas shopping and am also on the hunt for ornaments. I would love to add a Galactica to add to my tree. But what comes up when I search BSG on sites like Etsy? The Office merch. Tons and tons of Office merch. All because of that one stupid quote. I seriously hate it.

http://37.187.18.191/tv/BSG%20Battlestar%20Galactica%20720p%20Complete%202003-2012%20Extras%20Subs/