Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Something I learned from Galactica.

If you hear Bob Dylan in your head, you're a Cylon.

What. The. Fuck.

Any of you who have a song stuck in your head today, you're probably an artificial lifeform.

This is all the writers could come up with? Hearing songs in your head is how you find out? Very mystical and unexplained and stupid.

None of the four thought to tell anyone in authority to lock them up in case they pull a Sleeper Agent Boomer assassination. Sure, I've got a problem, but I can handle it. This is not Step #1 on the 12-Step Program.

None of the four ever noticed any super Cylon strength before? How about the GLOWING SPINES for gods' sake? "Oh honey, I love it when you're on top WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

Was it Tyrol (or should I call him 1? 2? 4? 7?) who said, "That means we're..." Let me finish that sentence: Nuts? Crazy? Loony? Massly hypnotized? Fucked up in the brain pan?

Shocho's Helpful Guide to Songs in Your Head
--Bob Dylan: You're a toaster.
--Tom Waits: Coffee grinder.
--Sex Pistols: Wood chipper.
--Patsy Cline: Crazy. Crazy for feeling so lonely.
--Bread: You're just lame.

12 comments:

Mkae said...

Yeah, talk about taking you out of the story. It's one thing to hear popular music on Smallville. On Galactica? WTF?

Anonymous said...

I'm stunned by the number of people who've had the same reaction as you. It seems totally wrongheaded to me. Here's why: The music's presumably coming from Earth, right? It has to be - there's no Bob Dylan in the galactic fleet. And that places the time of the show as, y'know, after the 1960's on Earth. Now, how far away from Earth are they? Has the music traveled that distance? At the speed of light, presumably? So when they arrive on Earth what time period will they find?

The music only seems strange, and deliberately so of course; I believe Moore is serious enough about his creation that the seeming illogic of contemporary popcult-in-space is only the setup for a bang in Season Four.

Also: if you've downloaded the episode, listen to the audio of Kara speaking. To my ears it's not all coming through Lee's intercom; her opening line seems to be right in his head. I'm not bothered about being wrong on that but if my impression is right then Kara's not so much back...

Shocho said...

It's NOT THE SONG. It's the fact that if I hear music in my head, that means I'm a Cylon.

I have no complaints with the song, despite my jesting. It's that fact that somebody would say, "Hey, do you hear that song too? Must mean we're Cylons."

That's a ridiculous and illogical leap in my book.

Shocho said...

I read this somewhere:

"you heard it here first.... these are not the four cylons... they're infected with a cylon virus, spread sexually... which means certain other characters are cylons."

Hmm. I would have totally bought into that if the poster had used caps.

TMac said...

Moore said in a recent interview that those 4 are Cylons. He also said he'll eventually get around to revealing the 5th one.

erika said...

what about show tunes?

Mkae said...

Of course! Apple is the Imperious Leader spreading Cylon viruses through iTunes!

Diabolical!!!

Only Bill Gates can save us now.

TheGirard said...

only if Bill Gates were elected President.


I think the Shocho might implode at that point.

Mkae said...

Sorry wax, but there is NOTHING to indicate that the music was coming from Earth. I agree with shocho that the four of them assuming they were Cylons was a huge leap. If Moore really did support such a plot twist in his blog, then I have even less respect for them than I would have. Right now, you could spend the next 10 months (don't even get me started on that one) wondering if they really were. If he's basically giving away story that far in advance, on top of the ridiculous music, then it just makes this season the low point it has been.

Aussie-Askew said...

My later musings on the episode settled on "They *think* they are Cylons. That doesn't make em Cylons like we know Cylons."

And to make them not self-aware, I imagine things like superstrength et al can be programmed out/not provided. The best sleeper is one who doesn;t know they are a sleeper.

One has to imagine that the standard human-cylons we have been seeing for the last 3 seasons are not v1.0. These new 4 could be early versions, different models, or as simple as "programmed humans"?

What did buy me was we are pretty sure Cylons don't age... so how long has Adama known Tighe?

There are also theories that the Cylons need the humans to get them to earth, or that the Cylons were created by the previous gods of earth to help get them there (or something).

The show has built up enough good will with me that I am willing to give them this one and let them amaze me. Kind of thinking though that we may only have 1 more season?

DrHeimlich said...

Still say you can't think of an example where you thought something was stupid that someone else thought was cool? This is it. :-)

I think you've got the causal relationship of all this bass ackwards. You're saying, "because you hear music in your head, you must be a Cylon." What if it's "because you're a Cylon, you hear music in your head?"

We already know from earlier in the season that Cylons have controlled visual hallucinations to place themselves in alternate environments. It's not a stretch to imagine they have audio hallucinations as well. And here we have four Cylons who didn't know they WERE Cylons until just this moment. So the whole "hearing and seeing other things" thing might not be working right for them yet. It might not even work the same as it does for the others anyway -- these are four of the "Final Five," who we've been told repeatedly don't work the same way as the rest.

Perhaps the manifestation of the music in their heads is not what triggered their awareness. I think it's more likely some OTHER factor "switched them on," and the very first manifestation of their new awareness was the audio hallucinations.

Shocho said...

Good points all. I will be there to find out, absolutely. :)