RDM can't keep his Eights straight!

Television, Movies Games and Books BSG-2003
#1

In case you’ve been confused at times which Eight is which, you’re in good company. On his podcast for “Deadlock”, Ronald D. Moore muses how it’s good to have Boomer back in the fleet, since she was such an integral character early on. After all, he says, the miniseries ended with her face, saying “By your command.”

Wrong, Ron! That wasn’t Boomer. Boomer was aboard the Galactica, having left the space station a long time ago after leaving Doral there. The Eight who comes as part of the Doral rescue party was just another Eight!

#2

David, welcome to the Forums. Interesting catch. You of course are absolutely right and I think it is a sign of how much the show has developed since the mini-series. At the end of the mini a Cylon was a Cylon was a Cylon with no individuality. All of the Leobens were interchangeable, all the of the Sixes were exactly the same (save Head Six, but that is a different story).

Not to claim that I know what is going on in RDMs mind, but that is my educated guess. The reason that reveal at the end of the mini was powerful wasn’t because it was an Eight, it was because it was Boomer. If someone can grab a cap to support this, but I am 95% sure she was even in a flightsuit.

So, not to be an apologist, but I can certainly understand this slip. Either way it is a valid observation.

#3

I don’t think it was a slip. The “Grace Park Cylons” didn’t have another designation at that point. Furthermore, the reason it was a shock was OMGWTFBBQ BOOMER IS A CYLON! So, yeah, it’s “Boomer” even if it’s not Boomer.

Boomer? I hardly knew her!

Although that’s not really a problem when it comes to Eights…

#4

I thought he was wrong as well. Not that I can blame him, but I think it speaks volumes about having dozens of identical characters when even the executive producer forgets which is which.

#5

Yes, he does sometimes get confused. I think in this last podcast RDM referred to Tigh’s pregnancy…

#6

You know, a thot occurs to me…RDM could have been right, it was Boomer. Remember at this point all the details had not been hammered out about what Cylons could do. Remember Shelly Godfrey? (aka Librarian Six) she turns a corner and magically disappears, never to be seen again. In RDM’s mind that very well could have been the actual Boomer stepping into Ragnar having performed her magical Cylon disappearing trick.

…but yeah, we are probably close or beyond overthinking this.

#7

You know what? Now that I think about it, it was Athena.

#8

No, I think your thinking’s all wrong. I’m pretty sure I think it was the third one from the left that greeted Boomer on the baseship when she was dropping off the nuke. The evidence is all there on the screen, really…

#9

No, no NO!!! You’re all WRONG! It clearly was Backyard BBQ Eight. They were setting up the “Face of the Enemy” webisodes all the way back at the end of the mini.

GAWD!

#10

I’m with Pike. I always assumed it was Athena. I do recall her being in a flight suit, so it wasn’t just a random, sweater-wearing Eight. Of course, at the time, she wasn’t named Athena. She was still pretty much a Boomer impersonator, and was called Boomer by Helo when she hooked up with him on old Caprica. So RDM could be technically correct. The best kind of correct.

ETA: Also, they didn’t come up with the Athena/Helo storyline until after the miniseries, when they got the green light for the series proper. So Athena didn’t even exist in the writers’ imagination at the time. They may very well have intended that to be Boomer. It still makes more sense that it’s Athena, though, or at least another Eight.

I need to go make dinner…

#11

I don’t know about you guys, but I always just recalled her as being… hot. i mean, that’s all there was to it. right?

ps. im watching transformers right now, first time!

#12

Yeah - technically it wasn’t Boomer but the point as that it revealed that Boomer was a cylon. So I think that’s what he meant.

#13

Battlestar Wiki entry/bio of Boomer, including info on other prominent 8s:

http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Sharon_Valerii

#14

Yah, I caught that.

Yes, and isn’t it fun!

Yes, yes that’s what I thought. It was Athena, before she became “Athena.”

Hey, DavidFromMontreal, welcome to the Forum.

#15

I think her name was Plot Device. :stuck_out_tongue: As has already been pointed out, it was a reveal deliberately made to show that Boomer was a Cylon. Who knows how much has changed in the last 6 years, but perhaps at the time it was conceived that all Cylon model duplicates were interchangeable. It wasn’t until season 2 when we saw human-form Cylons living on Caprica that we learned while they looked the same, they certainly all didn’t behave the same.

So, in that sense it was Boomer because at the time they were all Boomer. It wasn’t until the concept of duplicate individuality was shown that we learned different versions of the same model could behave differently. So I pose a question (I don’t know the answer, I’m looking for more speculation), was the Leoben that Adama left to die in the mini the same one that Kara tortured and spaced?

#16

Yes, In the miniseries Boomer hadn’t been differentiated yet. But Ron Moore said this in his podcast for Deadlock, the latest episode, not in his miniseries commentary. He was saying something like, “I’m glad Boomer is back on Galactica, we haven’t been able to give her much screen time since Season 1, but she’s a huge part of the show since the miniseries, after all the miniseries ends with her saying ‘By your command.’”

He said this during Season 4.5 – by this time, it’s pretty clear there’s only one Boomer, and that ain’t her! By the time he SAID the line, the concept of Eights had been pretty effectively promulgated…

(My theory is it’s the Eight who called Athena a traitor but then warned her to keep away because she was dying of the cylon virus. I recognize her combination of Cylon-jingoism and concern for others.)

#17

I’m pretty sure that Sci-Fi is the only genre that has an entire series of books called “nit-pickers’ guides.”

Share and enjoy.

#18

Exactly, things have changed, even by his standards yet he called an Eight that clearly wasn’t Boomer, Boomer. The whole idea of Cylon “society” and “individuality” wasn’t introduced until much later.

He’s saying that he thinks of that particular moment a Boomer moment. I’m betting it’s because it related back to the characterization of her, it was a pivotal moment in the shows mythology that concerned her specifically and she was an important character for the whole first season.