Damn good as I expected.

Early predicition, Saul's wife doesn't survive the season.

I thought about the episode a little more, and I wonder: does anyone else but me think the kid's a Cylon? Think about it.

1) She's a little too old for the chronology to be right; she looks like she's about at least two or three (she was singing to herself, yammering on) but Starbuck only visited the farm less than two years ago, including time for the occupation. Leoban said they needed time to fertilize her egg and bring it to term in a surrogate, so shouldn't the kid be much younger, like one-ish?

2) The timing is rather convienent: as soon as Leoban gets frustrated with trying to convince Kara to join him in his bed, he whips out the "we already got a kid" card. Why didn't he mention her earlier, as part of his initial ploy to get her to love him?

3) The kid fell down the stairs as soon as Kara went into the bathroom, even though she was neither near the stairs when Kara went in, nor looking like she was contemplating going near the stairs.

4) The kid opened her eyes the moment Kara asked for Leoban's forgiveness - again, very convienent timing, considering that she was apparently in a coma or something.

5) She also looked very, very similar to the little girl in Black Market, who, if I remember correctly, the hooker with the heart of gold had saved from the child prostitution ring (but wasn't her biological mother).

Here's my theory: The kid's a Cylon. But she's obviously not a child in the way that the Cylons want children; she's Cylon through and through, which means she is a perpetual child and can never age. Maybe she was the first Cylon attempt to make kids, I don't know. Anyway, she threw herself down the flight of stairs in a plot with Leoban to get Kara to love him (and her).

Yes, it's a crackpot theory. But I stand by my crackpot theories, thank you very much!

I think you guys are onto something there.

Excellent opener. Can you imagine how vanilla this show might be if it were on a major network? Inhabiting the outer rings of the cable network really allows them to delve into some pretty touchy subjects.

Viva la resistance!

We don't actually know that she has any human blood in her. They say that they took Kara's ovary - and maybe they even did - but there's no guarantee that the child had anything to do with the birthing farms. She could be one of the five Cylon models we haven't been properly introduced to yet.

Also, Billy is a Cylon, dammit.

That was great. They really know how to write. After the end of last season I didnt think I'd ever have sympathy for Baltar again, but they managed to get a little, brief moment of sympathy... and quite a shock. The cylon-on-cylon violence is really building. I wonder if we could see some kind of cylon civil war while humanity quietly backs away.

I could see the kid being cylon. I wasnt really buying it. It also blows the whole 'all you need is love' theory if she really is half-human.

The shock was the shooting of Cap 6 to convince Baltar to sign.

Wow, I just watched the show... It met all my expectations and more...

However, am I the only one that thinks that Saul is playing the dumb puppet roll for the cylons? They released him so that the more human-unfriendly cylons (the priests) could have a reason to finally enforce marshell law. Gosh darn it!

Also, I have a feeling that the "execution" is staged. Though... wait how many cylon models? 12 right? And we have only seen what 6? Could the ex-president and balter's running mate actually be cylon and they just don't know about it?

You know one thing I thought was interesting from the premiere is that, hatred brings out the worst in both cylon and human. I wonder if we will ever see human-cylon alliance (more open minded) vs human-cylon axis(full of hatred).

It's actually not a fat suit anymore. It's all Jamie Bamber now.

Fat Suit that will come off as the season progresses.

Here is a link from me local paper. I was suprised to see it get this kind of press

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/1006galactica.html

Holy crap, what a great show.

Personally, and pardon me for thrusting this thread into P&C territory, I love the fact that this show is willing to be bald-faced about making realistically morally-ambiguous parallels with the Iraq War situtation. Is it just me, or is this a pretty ballsy turn for the show to be taking?

Either way, I think it is a challenging, gritty show, and I can't wait for the rest of the season.

Saul made it very clear that he'd been tortured. According to him, the Cylons had plucked out his eye and made him look at it; he described it as - ew - looking "like a hardboiled egg".

Instead, it was Baltar who, in his 'discussion' with Roslin, refused to admit that the Cylons had tortured anyone. Personally, I think he genuinely doesn't know, or, at the very least, refuses to accept that information as fact.

Nuts! I don't have cable, and have been buying the episodes on iTunes. Anyone hear if they decided to stop selling them that way? I haven't seen it on the store yet.

I think it's a case of something smaller (taking current event themes and placing them in one's fantasy world setting to heighten the impact and "realism") being mistaken for something bigger (the whole shebang being a metaphor for a current event, like the US occupation)

Some quotes:

I think it's a very US-centric view to see these things and automatically come to the conclusion that it relates directly to the US. Carly Simon might write, "you're so vain - you probably think this show is about you". Certainly, current events involving the US bring these things into more recent memory, but I think it's stretching to take it anywhere beyond that.

Why, is my question? What in the world would that bring him: a sense of martyrdom among the resistance? Pardon me, but if that's the case, it's completely out of character for Tigh and I seriously doubt he'd resort to that type of tactic in order to get more people to fight against the Cylons.

Anyway, excellent season premiere. BSG didn't shy away in regards to heavy issues in the past, it sure as hell isn't doing so now. The part where Kara stabbed Leoben was fantasticly well done! The look on his face, the 'I'll see you soon' was just classic. Very dark and heavy, but thank god there were a few humorous moments here and there (like Sharon saying to Anders 'I'm happy to see you, it's been a while' and his response 'Yeah, well I see you every day'). And I just love Brother Cavil!

I see your point, but I disagree. I'm sure to an extent I am reading into it, but if you consider:
a) they used the term "Provisional Authority" to describe the Cylon occupying force
b) the police were forced to conceal their identities for fear of retribution
c) the insurgents used their temples to hide weapons because they knew the Cylons were sensitive to that
d) the Cylons insistence that they were there to enlighten the "benighted" humans and to spread their religion
e) the overall religious elements
f) the use of explosive belts
g the fact that the writers do in fact live in the era of the Iraq War and not that of Vichy France.

I'm not arguing that the show is an allegory, or really anything more than incredibly observant. But I don't believe for a second that the writers have some sort of pure historical objectivity when they address these issues. We aren't dealing with moral ambiguity in Vichy France right now, but we are starting to cope with it in Iraq, where we've been told that everything is black & white, good vs. evil. I just can't believe that it wouldn't color their writing.