I think we are now in need of some other topic like… maybe how the Cylons and humans are getting more alike such as killing our own.
You don’t want my suggestions for a forum topic… everytime I get to that place I think of ‘poor’ Helo and his overabundance of Athena-age.
‘So… your an #8 … and your an #8 … and your an #8 … and you’ve all downloaded Athena’s memories?’
<bakka-chikka-bow-wow>
Perhaps this means I’m skeevy.
See you did like my topic Cylons and Humans can be skeevy. 
I would like Helo to be a Cylon. A mess of Helos would be nice.
Thinking about Helo’s moral dilemma being surrounded by acres of Hot Number 8’s who all want a sweaty piece of their sister-8’s man, all’s I gots to say is…that poor, poor, lucky bastard.
I guess I wasn’t implying that all people of color were depicted as religious, I just had noticed that the first two religious fundamentalist characters happened to be Black (in a show that otherwise didn’t have a large number of Black characters at the time).
Otherwise, I agree that BSG has been great at overturning and not conforming to stereotypes especially when it comes to gender. I also agree with the previous poster that the ethnic make up of the secondary characters probably has most to do with the actor pool of Vancouver compared to Los Angeles and New York. Overall, I’d say the show also does a very good job at including a diverse array of ethnicities in the cast, which quite frankly probably hasn’t been seen to such a degree in sci-fi since the original Star Trek.
“Helo Agathon, for betraying our trust, and following Roslyn’s order to give up D’anna, we sentence you to… death by snu-snu”
Very nice. Thank you for asking. 
I think we can assume that Roslin is supposed to be the mother figure (presumably in her capacity as “mother” of humanity). So who’s the maiden in this Hecate trinity? Starbuck? A maiden? That’s certainly stretching it…
um, no he didn’t.
is that the aid/advice is coming from source outside of the typical social sphere of the main character. Often in (American) productions this can be symbolically indicated by portraying the characters as coming from different ethnic backgrounds. As we know little about the different ‘ethnicities’ of the BSG universe the casting directors may have consciously or subconsciously fell back on the old standby as presenting Elosha as a different American ethnicity than Laura, because in the story it was clearly novel for Laura to seek counseling from a religious leader. I don’t particularly find anything wrong with this because Elosha was depicted as a strong, intelligent and honorable character. The ironic thing is that the dual characterizations (with in the same story arc) that I was slight less comfortable with was that of Sarah, the very religious Geminese representative to the Quorum of 12, and the security guard overseeing Laura’s captivity, who was also Gemenese and the first person to seek spiritual comfort from Laura. Both of these characters were certainly less fleshed out than Elosha and served either as the stand in for the irrational religious elements of the fleet that Laura has to deal with or to demonstrate the power that seeing her as the dying leader could have on religious Colonials. In essence the only purpose of these characters were to ‘be religous’. The funny thing is I would suspect that color didn’t have a role in the casting of these characters, and it just unfortunate that it happened to match with a previously established stereotype of Black people being depicted as more religious/spiritual in American film. There’s no obvious solution here, because both actors did fine jobs with the characters they were given and it would be silly to deny them speaking parts because of the color of their skin. Fortunately it was subsequently established that there is no association with strong religiosity and skin color in the BSG universe.
In fact, it seems like the white characters are by far the most religious, if not necessarily clergy per se: Roslin, Emily, Baltar, even Six.
If anything, the underrepresentation of gay characters (and complete lack thereof before Razor) seems significant. It’s been assumed by many that Gaeta is gay, but it’s never been addressed onscreen (except for a funny outtake on the DVD). This might be driven more by the politics of TV than an intentional omission, but it’s all the more glaring considering how multicultural the cast as a whole is.
I think that’s a valid point. We often become so hypersensitive to insults and slights against minorities that we begin to see them everywhere.
Isn’t it nice that we can come together on common ground? 
Oops, I guess I meant FBC… :o
Yes yes yes yes yes.
I was so happy in Razor to see Gina and Cain… and then Quiznos had to ruin the moment.
Gaeta needs some loving! Especially now that he’s um missing one of his legs - and that might be my first IYKWIM.
To start out I’m going to be evil :eek: and indulge in a bit of tokenism… we see lots more racial diversity in the women than in the men. Yeah now with the expansion of the pilot corps we have a few more black men in the background, but where are the East Asian men? The South Asian men? Hispanic men whose last name isn’t Olmos? Really, Hispanic actors of any sex whose last name isn’t Olmos? Native peoples? Pacific Islanders?
I’m not doing this to be negative about the show - I love the show. But it’s interesting to see the world they have created and compare it to our own. I think BSG does a better job than a lot of other shows in having people of different backgrounds coexist together - though given general residential patterns in the US, that’s pretty unrealistic as well.
Re: people looking for offense when it’s not there and people saying they don’t see race. Awareness is key. There’s a reason Stephen Colbert “doesn’t see race.” It’s true that in situations one might not consciously notice it, but that doesn’t mean that one doesn’t notice it unconsciously or engage in other cultural practices that are cued by race. And for me at least, that’s why I find these kinds of interchanges of ideas and opinions to be so fascinating - it makes me re-question my own assumptions about characters and their race/gender/class within BSG as well as how it relates to my own lived experience of those categories. So yay for that.
(Sorry for continuing with the race thing… I know some would prefer other, perhaps lighter? themes…)
So Helo and Eight… Helo’s definitely a one-Eight guy. I mean, I don’t see him cheating on Athena ever, and if Athena were to die before him, I don’t think he’d shack up with another Eight. I base my rationale on his repulsion towards twinset-Eight a.k.a. mock-Athena masseuse (is that the right word?).
Lets take an inventory :
Salty-dog attitude (which he was getting before he lost the leg - look at his interaction Starbuckoid after she returned, before the whole poo-barge came about) - check
Gnarly bad boy looks (unshaven, soul glo with an overlay of bed head) - check
War wound (well d’uh) - check
Siren-like singing (he’s even got ole’ Airlaurokla Roslyn thinking about it) - check
…
Soon as he’s out of the sickbay, he’ll be going through the ladeez of the fleet like a hot knife through butter.
Heck forget that… there’s probably not one of the nurses he hasn’t ran the Cylon detector on already (IYKWIM - glowing back… errr… nope… congratulations, I can confirm you are not a Cylon).
bow-chikka
I shall take a halfway house, and have the light topic, but not be as gutter as I’m capable (see my last post)
Even if he is… consider this, hypothetically…
Athena - proper Athena… gets either bundled into an arms locker (if you’re thinking nice), or dumped out the nearest Viper-tube (if you’re more on the Tori end of the spectrum) by the Athenette(s).
As long as the Athenette(s) use their noodle, he’s not going to be any the wiser.
Not that I think that would happen (bah!) because as soon as the athenette(s) upload Athena’s memories, and (it seems) mental state (i.e. being in love with Helo), they suddenly get the same moral compass type malarky that Athena has, and resist their urges.
So basically… it looks like Tai-Chi is all we get, and none of the hot bow-chikka action.
bah.
Which leads me to something else I wonder… Brother Caville, Skeevy McSkeeve that he is, seems to be really implying either #8’s are weakminded and easily find themselves falling for people, whether the right people (Helo, Chief), or the wrong ones (bleugh Caville - 'aww man that’s not right - GalaxyQuest)…
Does he mean that as a trait of the #8s generally, or just Boomer?
Agree with you point here, but just to keep the census accurate there was also Kat played by Hispanic actor and Chuckles who was an East Asian male. But the fact that I can only find a few additions supports your point.
Very well said!
So you see there is at least one hot ethnic dude…
I give you Salty, the background acting Pilot who has been around since season one!
He’s said he was in the mini-series, but I haven’t seen confirmation that he made it past editing.
Anyone?
Ok, you got me back to the “race” issue. I see when people are of a specific so called race but do not make any assumptions to go with it. I teach many Hispanic students. Their cultures however can be very different depending on what country their family history is from. So when I say I do not see race it is more like I notice that someone looks like, but I do not base anything on that. I prefer to learn about them as an individual with a cultural background that I need to learn more about. I have black students who have never left the state to one who has an English accent. So I do my best to see a person with an ethnic background and a family not a color or large group. (getting off soap box)
I say more hot ethnic dudes. 
applaud I teach a lot about Hispanic (read: Spanish, US Latino, Latin America in all its variety) culture to non-Hispanic students, so it’s awesome that you take those differences into account. Ah, for all the times I’ve been asked if I speak Mexican…
I just wanted to clarify that when I talk about “not seeing race” I’m not talking about your case, which appears to me that you do see it but you have wider definitions of what it means to be “hispanic” or “black” or “asian” or whatever than the common cultural stereotypes. Though I apologize if I have in any way misrepresented you.
uuuUUUUuuuu!
Audra: “She got Ghost-of-Christmas-Futured just in time.” I love it! A new Dickensian verb. How awesome is that!
Another great podcast, as always. Perhaps someone has already said this (again, I haven’t read the frakking 17 previous pages – wow!), but while I am still enjoying BSG – it is certainly still among the best shows on TV – I think the pacing of some of the recent major events (Tigh’s impregnating the Six; Adama deciding to wait for Roslin) seems rushed. I thought the Demetrius arc was really well-paced, but some of the turns since then seem like the creative team is trying to “force it in” befor the clock runs out on season 4. Oh, well. I am definitely committed to seeing it through to the end of the ride!