So I feel compelled to bring up the Galactica armor plating issue again. I had believed for the longest time that Galactica was missing alot of its armor plating which had been removed for the the decommisioning and what not. Then there were differing opinions back and forth and when we saw the 1st minisode the Galactica was still missing the armor plating even back then and so people just said it was because it wasnt missing in the first place and thats how it was suppose to be. Well I was just about ready to follow suit and go with the crowd until I saw minisode #3 and caught a glimps of the Battlestar Columbia with full armor plating.
The battlestar wiki admits for what ever reason that the Colombia “has more armour plating than Galactica, much of which is concentrated over the flight pods”. So Im trying to figure out now if Galactica was just left less protected than her sister ship(s) or if the production crew were just too lazy or cheap to add some plating on the 3D production model of Galactica. What do you guys think?
there’s gotta be a reason. they put so much money into the minisodes, i can’t beleive they could not render a fully plated galactica. hopefully they will explain it in a good way.
Maybe Galactica was came off of the line in the middle of the war and was pushed into service. Just a thought.
Good eye!
But I have to wonder why they need armor in the BSG universe when RDM allowed the writers to strike Galactica with a nuclear bomb (unarmored apparently) with relatively little damage.
Well these Battlestars apperantly have inner armor covered by a ribbed skeleton bracing and then covered again with outer armor. So Galactica no doubt had its inner armor intact when it was hit by the nuke but some outer armor likely would have prevented alot of the damage taken in certain areas. Pegasus (fully armored) took several nuke hits and suffered what seems to be less damage than what Galactica took from one.
Damn. Good eye.
I was always under the impression that the Bucket had full armor. I suspect that they were going for a visual distinction rather than an illustration of what full armor looks like.
Also, I was under the impression that the water reserves were part of the armor system on the Galactica, which is why they are right against the surface of the ship (and also why a nearly 100% efficient ship has so damn much of it.) Not sure if I heard or deduced that, though.
iGhost…very interesting ideas. I have a couple of counter-arguments:
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You would never start removing armor or armaments prior to a decommissioning. I am aware of a cut scene from the mini in which during the ceremony they launched all of the Galacticas ammunition into space as a symbol that it was no longer a fighting ship. Up until the ceremony the Galactica was part of the fleet and battle ready, after the ceremony she was a large tanker getting ready to be made into razor blades (no pun intended)
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I can’t give you an exact count of nuke hits…but I know offhand that the Galactica has taken several over the course of the series, so I am not sure your comparison of Peggy v. Bucket nuke hits and armor holds up
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Thinking further about the prior point…if they Peggy had better armor, why wouldn’t they have used her in the fight for New Caprica versus the Galactica? Wouldn’t you send the ship in with better armor?
I commend your eye and attention to detail and would love to hear more.
Good counter-arguments Solai. Alot of this is deduction and speculation of course, so I guess we just have to figure out what best fits with this discussion. I did read that the cut scene where they launched ammo into space came from a draft of the script which mentioned that the armor had also infact been removed. Now I have NOT read this myself so it is purely circumstantial at this point. However much in the way that it makes no sense to remove armor prior to a decommisioning, it also makes no sense to jetison perfectly good munitions into space either.
Now as far as the comparison for nuke hits, I was mainly refering to how Galactica has taken hits over the series, but never several all at once like the Pegasus has. So I was estimating that Pegasus seemed to be able to stay more operational under multiple nuke hits at once than Galactica could from only one hit. And as far as which ship to take back to new caprica, we may need to look deeper than simply the best ship for the job. I dont think we can say for sure that Adama knew or even had a good idea that he would really come back from that mission. I think he felt he had to take HIS ship into that fight no matter the outcome, and I think he may have recognized that Pagasus could sustain the fleet longer as they continued on their way to Earth if he didnt return. But thats just my opinion of course. Thanks for the input guys, this is a fun discussion.
iGhost, I have to agree with you on the reasons why the Bucket was the one to come back for the New Caprica exodus… it makes sense that Pegasus, being the ‘better’ ship, stay behind with the part of the RTF that had the best chance of surviving.
Now, one of the things that struck me from the beginning of season 4 is how much damage Galactica has suffered. Between the various nuclear attacks over the course of the series, and that badass drop into atmo that the Old Man pulled as part of the Exodus operation, the ol’ trusty Bucket is most definitely showing signs of serious wear, particularly this past season. I seem to remember someone (possibly Tigh) mention that Galactica needs a good six weeks (or was it months) in dry dock in order to get her back into fighting form. I wonder just how much more punishment the old girl can take?
Why am I suddenly getting a sense of foreboding that we may actually be putting together a picture of season 4?
First we need to know if Galactica is actually missing any of her armor. What we’ve seen of her so far in Razor seems to show her exactly as she is at the start of Cylon War 2. I think we have to assume Galactica actually has all of her armor.
A possible explanation for Columbia’s extra armor could be that she is a later version of the class and had been given increased armor. Another explanation is the exact opposite. Maybe Galactica is the newer ship and has had armor applied only to vital areas to reduce cost and build time due to the increased demand for ships.
I always thought they had removed the armor too, and was very disappointed to see otherwise in the ‘sode. Maybe it was just so the less gifted would recognize the old girl. I also thought the armor might be ablative, i.e. reactive somehow to whatever hits it. This could explain why large parts of it were removed before decom. Whatever it was I think they should have plated the old girl in whatever that frackin’ window is made of, the front one is still intact after New Caprica!!!
You may be right and then again you may be wrong. We cant assume Galactica has always had the amount of armor she has had when we have seen her shown on TV. We are getting only glimpses of her total history. Now I will admit seeing her in the 1st war with the same armor does weigh heavily against my agrument but it is still not definitive. There are many possible explainations, I will admit that and you raise some good ones Doc.
Columbia could have gone thru a refit…
Or it could be something similar to how they painted ships during WWI to throw off visual sighting. Perhaps the exterior plating is decorative or DRADIS reflective to deceive the Cylons into misidentifying her for at least a few critical moments at the beginning of an engagement.
Thinking about this more, we have never seen two identical Battlestars and I’m not sure if we have solid evidence of Battlestar “classes”.
We know the colonies are quirky with their obsession over cutting off corners and other perhaps superstitious actions.
Perhaps it is just a quirk of the colonies that while Battlestars follow some general guides, each one is custom built and unique.
From a military perspective, it would mean its hard for the enemy to know exactly the weakness of each Battlestar since they would each be distinct.
From a superstition perspective, perhaps they are afraid that something bad happening to one Battlestar could “infect” the others of her class. Or perhaps one colony believes the smoother look will ward off bad things better.
A little daunting a thread to jump into on my first post, but…
I see the Battlestars in the same way I see Aircraft Carriers. In general, they are similar, but, as each is built, they incorporate new technology. So, the USS Nimitz is visually similar to the USS G.H.W. Bush, but the Bush has uprated technology and systems. Eventually, the Nimitz will be fitted with (if not already have) the uprated systems, but they are rather different boats. The Nimitz class has been built over 30 years, so they evolve even from where they began.
So, to correlate. Each Battlestar is unique unto itself, unless they were built in a similar timeframe. And one could assume that they were built over a large span of time. So the armor may merely be a boat specific customization that may or may not have been considered a succesful modification. (Probably not, considering Columbia’s fate)