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.

figuring out how to make it fly by poking it.

Even poking, I might have been okay with. It was the fact that (a) the controls worked with the thing's brain hacked out, and (b), the controls looked suspiciously like Viper controls covered in spaghetti sauce. If the ship flies itself, then it shouldn't have any manual controls. Everything should be electrical impulses. No pulling or grabbing of any kind should have worked.

t sits alone in the "it worked for me" corner

I did a lot of mental hand waving. I don't expect logic from this show anymore than I do from SG-1. This ain't Farscape or Babylon 5.

Starbuck: "Every flying machine has four basic flying controls: power, pitch, yaw, and roll. Where are yours?"

Also, she ripped out the robot brain when she first got in there, so she was probably grabbing and trying the various "wires" that had been attached to it, for a start.