Thoughts on Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.

I suspect Starbuck is your go-to-girl when you need to staff a sure-death-for-anyone-else mission. Also, Adama knows she's a big girl who can figure things out for herself (she's taught pilots, led missions, conducted important interrogations, and that's just during the series so far) so figuring out the exit strategy could be safely left up to her.

By pointing out that it's risky? I just watched it again, and didn't get the impression that they expected it to be a cakewalk.

I can think of a lot of ways to engineer someone's death that are safer (to the assassin) than walking up to the victim in public and shooting her in the head. Like, bombs or poison or a tragic fork-wielding accident at a private dinner. (Which would be so cool!!)

As you say, it's a dramatic line on which to end an episode. But it's a drama I don't respect, if it's a line not supported by the show's own established infrastructure of logic.

And that goes double when both short-term and long-term planning seem to be absent.

As with so much on Galactica, they simply don't have time to set up a decent strategy. You can't really poison somebody unless you're intimate with them or you're willing to kill a lot of other people. Bombs on a spaceship? REALLY not a good idea. That leaves person-to-person assassination, and a shot to the head is the most likely to succeed.

You're not interested in a fork-wielding accident??

Bombs were a part of the plot of the introductory miniseries, IIRC. Of course, because they were wielded by the bad guys, they failed in their objective.

Also, neither Adama nor Cain is interested in keeping their assassination plan a secret once it's done -- bombs (tiny, space-safe ones!) and poisoning are the route they'd go if they were after plausable deniability, but they're not. They want their positions to be known, and instantly.

Fork-wielding accidents fail to strike the right note of terror, I fear.

I haven't seen the mini-series. I should probably watch it to get a better grasp on the backstory.

Well, with killing Adama, it likely wouldn't resolve the issue. Tigh may well not fall in line as she'd like, and would be better dealt with immediately, and so on down the line. If Adama heard the "shot him in the head" story, it may well be for the symbolism, and, as Jessica said, the obviousness of the action.

Fork-wielding accidents fail to strike the right note of terror, I fear.

Spoken like someone who has never been gagged with a spoon.

They want their positions to be known, and instantly.

Well, but when Rafik al-Hariri was assassinated (via car bomb), who didn't know it was Syria what done it? And yet, it was done in such a way that the person doing the assassination didn't get caught (although his bosses suffered some unexpected and unwanted consequences).

Well, with killing Adama, it likely wouldn't resolve the issue. Tigh may well not fall in line as she'd like

I seriously doubt her plans include letting Tigh keep his job, whether he falls in line or not.

And yet, it was done in such a way that the person doing the assassination didn't get caught

But how does that apply here? The whole point is for the assassins to "get caught" -- Starbuck shooting Cain lets everyone know that (a) Cain is now dead and (b) Adama is in charge. It's simple and direct and to the point. Ditto Cain's marines on Galactica.