Battlestar Galactica 33 Television 

Five Thoughts on Battlestar Galactica‘s “33”

By | June 10th, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence…’” Is this a pretentious quotation by Friedrich Nietzsche? Oh yes, it sure is. Will I attempt to connect this quotation to the episode “33” in the first season of Battlestar Galactica? Oh yes, I will. Get ready, time is not on our side.

1. Is time a man made construct?

We only have so much time here on Earth, or in the world of Battlestar Galactica, there is only so much time to evade the Cylons and head to the prophesied promised land of Earth. This first episode of the first season begins with time ticking away, on a Viper, on Galactica, on Colonial One. For 5 days the Cylons have been attacking the convoy of human ships for a total of 237 times, or every 33 minutes, which leads to a total 130.35 hours without sleep. (I did not check these numbers to see if they match up. I’m just trusting the writers here.) This sets up a different sort of battle between human and machine. How long can the drive to survive sustain the crew of the Galactica, of Colonial One, of the Viper pilots? The Cylons are machines. As far as we know, they don’t need to sleep, or eat. Is time meaningless to them as their consciousness never dies; in theory, this would make them immortal, as long as there is always another body to transfer to when the present host is destroyed. The Cylons are a man made construct, as is time, but to the Cylons, time does not matter.

2. A numbers game

This episode, entitled “33,” stresses how tight the numbers are for the humans. They’re being attacked every 33 minutes; there are 49, 998 humans left in the universe; there are 61 cases of nervous exhaustion, the Commander and the XO are sleeping in 10 minute increments. The list goes on. In times of war, it’s all about the numbers. Gaius Baltar and Six provide us with exposition in this episode, one major element being that another ship, the Olympic Carrier, carries a scientist who wants to speak to President Roslin about how the Cylons breached Caprica’s defenses. Baltar and Six assume this information will implicate Baltar. After one of the 33 minute jumps, the Olympic Carrier does not make it. Roslin’s count of living souls is down to 47, 972. Six believes it is the work of God – more on that later – and Baltar believes he is saved.

But, not so fast, the Olympic Carrier reappears, almost an hour after the Cylons’ last attack. Adama is suspicious. The action of this entire episode moves quickly – it’s all about not having enough time – and despite getting in touch with the Olympic Carrier, eventually communications are cut and we’re led to believe the ship has been infiltrated by Cylons…and a nuke. Adama and Roslin are on the same page here, and order Apollo, Starbuck, and the rest of the Vipers to destroy the Carrier. They do just that. We’re never sure if the Olympic is full of human civilians or not, but morality is murky when at war. Twenty four hours pass, and the Cylons do not return. Roslin’s Chief of Staff, Billy informs her that she needs to change her board, her survivor board, because one child has been born, a boy, on the Rising Star. She changes the count – to 47, 973 – and smiles.

3. God vs. A Man of Science

We saw bits and pieces of Caprica Six and her viewpoint on God in the miniseries, and this episode helps to expand her views. First, Six tells Baltar she wants to have his child, which just leads to even more questions about human/Cylon compatibility, but we’ll get to that in a later episode. She tells Baltar that God believes in children. When the Olympic Carrier does not make the jump with the rest of the fleet, Baltar believes it is a random event, a serendipitous event, as he puts it. Fortunately, John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale do not show up. Six believes there is a connection, that it was fate, or divine intervention that saved Baltar from accusations of collusion with the enemy. Baltar straight up tells Six there is no God, or Gods. Six will not have her faith questioned. This is when we see her at her most adamant.

Continued below

This encounter sets up major themes of the series concerning faith, science, and varying religious beliefs. This is simply another example of how ambitious this show continues to be, post-miniseries. Once the Olympic Carrier reappears, Six insists Baltar must repent for his sins, for denying God. He repents. The Carrier is destroyed. The fact that Six is simply a figment of Baltar’s imagination gets me every time I try to consider this situation. Is he questioning his own beliefs here? As a man of science? Or is he simply projecting what he already knows about Six, a women he had a close and intimate relationship with on Caprica? Is Baltar experiencing a mental break after suffering a traumatic event? These are some questions we can attempt to answer as we venture through this series.

4. Do they have a plan?

The (amazing) opening credits (that I love) tell us the Cylons have a plan. This episode supports that claim based solely on their ability to track the fleet’s movements. Cylons now occupy Caprica. Karl ‘Helo’ Agathon has been on Caprica for 6 days after giving up his seat on Boomer’s Raptor to Gaius Baltar. Helo is being chased by original model Cylons – big, clunking, metal, machine Cylons. He’s suffering from radiation poisoning. He sees a Six. He’s distracted, and he’s captured. Six asks Helo if he’s alive; a question she’s asked before. She kisses him, tells him she’s a friend, and she’s shot in the back…by Boomer.

We know Boomer is a Cylon; Helo does not know Boomer is a Cylon. As far as we know, Galactica Boomer does not know she’s a Cylon. Another Six shows up with an original model and they watch Helo and Boomer run away. Together. There appears to be a plan. This is another example of the thoughtful and well-planned writing of this show. The Cylons have a plan, and so do the writers, at least for now. As an audience, we’ve been let in on so many secrets the characters are not privy to. If I was teaching my classes, I would say – dramatic irony! We feel we know more than Helo, than Boomer, than the entire crew of the Galactica. It sucks us in – if only to wait for the realization of the characters as they come to terms with the secrets that must be revealed.

5. Overall thoughts on the episode

This episode can stand alone. The events of the miniseries add to our understanding of the situation and how it came to be, but overall, you don’t need to have seen it to feel the impact of “33.” It’s an excellent example of storytelling. The writers start us off right in the middle of the action, and it’s non-stop until the resolution. Earlier, I mentioned how the miniseries asks a lot of us, but begins giving us a sense of the world being created. Frack. This world building is amazing, and it continues. Did I start saying frack in 2003? Maybe. Did my brother make fun of me for it? Definitely. But this is just another example of how pervasive the world building in Battlestar can be. It seeps into your everyday life. Or maybe that was just me. Maybe I’ll start using frack again.

But back to that Nietzsche quotation. Are there only so many patterns in the universe, only so many pieces of matter, so that we are meant to live the same life over and over again? Will the Cylons attack over and over again to the point where humans will be unable to fend them off, leading them to their ultimate demise? Will humans always win, but after enormous losses? Do humans always create their own destruction, as they have through the creation of the Cylons? Can humans find meaning in their lives within the context of eternity? And are the Cylons simply the embodiment of this whole idea? Will they have to live their lives “innumerable times more?” In some sense, humans have found a way to be immortal, they created the Cylons and their consciousness never dies. They will live their lives “innumerable times more.”


//TAGS | 2018 Summer TV Binge | Battlestar Galactica

Liz Farrell

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