A topic for the discussion of Farscape, Smallville, and Due South. Beware possible invasions of Stargate, Highlander, or pretty much any other "genre" show that captures our fancy. Expect Adult Content and discussion of the Big Gay Sex.
Whitefont all unaired in the U.S. ep discussion, identifying it as such, and including the show and ep title in blackfont.
Blackfont is allowed after the show has aired on the east coast.
This is NOT a general TV discussion thread.
Large warships also have more than one place where the ship can be conned. Usually one is from damage control (deep inside the ship) and another is from the steering room (where the rudders are controlled). Control has to be transferred from one place to another.
During a Japanese air attack on a US fleet, a bomb hit the battleship South Dakota. The damage was slight, but there was confusion and someone transferred the conn from the bridge to damage control. Something went wrong, and the ship had no one controlling the helm for about a minute (while it was in a turn). So the carrier Enterprise, while fighting off the Japanese air attack, had to also make emergency maneuvers to avoid colliding with the South Dakota.
I'm such a Navy geek, huh?
edit to fix battleship name
eta²: Part of the confusion on the South Dakota might have been the result of the captain getting hit in the neck by a piece of bomb shrapnel, causing him to almost bleed to death.
Also, when the Cylons boarded the Galactica, they went to damage control, where they could override the controls in the CIC. There was also an episoded of
ST TOS
where a crazy guy took over damage control, leaving the bridge crew helpless while the Enterprise was in a rapidly decaying orbit.
That happened so often I always wondered why the captain didn't have an override implanted so he could retake control no matter which of the ship's nerve centers was currently suborned by the turncoat/alien invader/drugged-out hippies of the week.
A couple years ago I toured the USS Hornet (a WWII-era carrier - Moore has talked about touring this ship as well). Carriers have a separate "bridge" where flight operations, moving aircraft about, etc. are directed. The main bridge where the ship is conned would be above that. And there's a separate admiral's bridge (only used when the ship is also the flagship) that (I think) is above the main bridge.
There are actually two different commands on board a carrier (and sometimes three). The Captain commands the ship itself, and the CAG commands the air group (which is an independent unit), so you need a bridge for each of them. The third possible command is if an admiral is on board, in which case the ship becomes his flag ship. Admirals command task forces, even if the task force is only one ship (one famous example of this is the Bismarck, after Adm. Lütjens detached the Prinz Eugen from his force of two). There will still be a Captain. The Admiral's job is to tell the Captain where he wants the ship to go, and the Captain's job is to make sure it gets there. The CAG is also under the Admiral's command, separate from the Captain.
If a Captain winds up temporarily commanding a task force, he's given the courtesy rank of Commodore.
In the real US Navy, Commander is a rank, but also a title. It's confusing.
I think you're thinking of "Captain," which is both a rank and a title in the USN.
BSG mixes all sorts of Army and Navy ranks. Full Colonels in the US outrank Commanders. Another thing about carrier Captains in the USN. By federal law they must all be ex-naval aviators (and usually ex-CAGs).
BSG mixes all sorts of Army and Navy ranks.
Appropriately, I think -- we wouldn't want it to be an exact replica of an existing Earth military system.
Appropriately, I think -- we wouldn't want it to be an exact replica of an existing Earth military system.
I suspect it's more likely because the writers of the original BSG series had no clue.
I suspect it's more likely because the writers of the original BSG series had no clue.
But to make up for it, they had '70s hair! And togas.
From the NYT piece a while back:
And so he called Moore and asked him if he was interested in bringing a second big spaceship show back to life. Moore knew the original ''Battlestar,'' and after talking to Eick, he watched Larson's original three-hour pilot again. It surprised him. Here was a deeply somber story about a civilization that had basically endured genocide, and for the first hour it was elegantly told and strangely affecting. ''They were trying,'' he told me. ''It took a hard left turn to insanity when they reached the casino planet, but they were really trying.''
Ah, yes - the casino planet....
I really liked that Roslin had the current population written on her whiteboard. I think it was in the Previouslies.
