I was okay with Starbuck being able to fly the ship by figuring out which muscles to yank and which nerve ganglia to poke

Firstly, I think it's a miracle that yanking and poking didn't get her killed. Secondly, how long would that take? Could you climb into a whale and work out how to make it swim, much less jump into hyperspace (work with me here)? The whole "no need for discrete controls" is the point -- it's not that it ended up having designed discrete controls. It's that it might as well have.

...suddenly having a vision of some tiny bug leaping around my brain.

Oh, wait, that was smell I just poked. Not useful. Lessee, how about -- whoops, uncontrolled rage! Let's try, um, okay, that was memories of sex. Where the hell is this woman's muscle control center??

In my brain it would be "Wait, this makes her punch people too? What about ... okay, now she's sitting down at a computer. How do you make this thing WALK????"

I think mine would be "Why the hell does this thing need 500 separate commands for doodling?!?"

Could you climb into a whale and work out how to make it swim, much less jump into hyperspace (work with me here)?

A whale does not have any mechanical parts, the ship did. Sure the inside is squishy and biological, but the outside, and the controls themselves, are mechanical. That means there has to be some method of turning biological impulses into mechanical output, so I still have no problems with her finding the points where the two parts join, and using those to make the ship fly.

Firstly, I think it's a miracle that yanking and poking didn't get her killed. Secondly, how long would that take?

::makes hand-wavy motion::

The whole "no need for discrete controls" is the point --

If the ship were entirely biological, I would agree with you, but since there's mechanical parts, I don't. Mechanical parts need discrete controls, whether the biological pilot part is a person, or just a big brainy-thing taking up the entire inside.

OK, you all got past the part that I got stuck on, it seems, which was, "That's just really gross and squishy, and I wish I weren't eating right now. Ew. Enough with slurpy sound effects. Again, I say, 'Ew.'"

I've got mechanical parts too, Sean. I'm assuming, however, that thing has a nervous system (I'm not aware that pulling on muscles makes them work -- I'm open to education). Mechanics makes me speak, for instance, or walk -- I can't imagine how to climb inside my tummy and pull my puppet strings. I can't imagine any reason that should be not only human readable, but human decipherable in a high stress situation by a non biologist.

Again -- I don't think that wotsername should have been able to fly the Prometheus. Starbuck and the Raider is even further afield.

I've got mechanical parts too, Sean.

Well, whatever. I don't see how your mechanial parts are even remotely analogous to flight control surfaces and thrusters, but obviously you do.

I only meant to say I had no problem with it.

Finally saw Friday's BSG...I liked it, but that was more disbelief than I like to suspend on a regular basis.

Either the ship was supposed to have had a pilot (which it pretty clearly didn't), or it shouldn't have had frelling handles to make it fly (and cutting off its air supply and brain should have killed it). (And not everything biological needs oxygen. In fact, most things don't. Something designed by robots to survive in deep space? Almost certainly shouldn't have. But whatever.)

I'd have been much happier if they'd had Starbuck poking it with wires and running current to various parts of the brain to see what did what. I mean, I still would have had some issues with her being able to fly it that well, but I could have gotten past it.

And not everything biological needs oxygen. In fact, most things don't. Something designed by robots to survive in deep space? Almost certainly shouldn't have. But whatever.

This actually gave me more pause than figuring out how to make it fly by poking it.