The Science of Battlestar Galactica Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Foreword

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction

  PART ONE - LIFE HERE BEGAN OUT THERE

  CHAPTER 1 - Are You Alive?

  CHAPTER 2 - The Cylons: Man or Machine?

  Humanoid Cylons

  Raider Cylons

  Centurions

  CHAPTER 3 - Are We Creating Our Own Cylons?

  CHAPTER 4 - Cylon Intelligence and the Society of Mind

  CHAPTER 5 - How Can Cylons Download Their Memories?

  CHAPTER 6 - A Dialogue between a Smartass Fanboy and a Real Scientist, viz: The ...

  CHAPTER 7 - Colonial + Cylon + Natives = Human?

  CHAPTER 8 - The Colonial Pharmacopeia

  Bittamucin

  Morpha

  Moxipan

  Stims

  Serisone

  Interrogation Drugs

  Anti-Radiation Medication

  Bloodstopper

  PART TWO - THE PHYSICS OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

  CHAPTER 9 - Energy Matters

  CHAPTER 10 - E = mc

  CHAPTER 11 - Special Relativity

  Time Dilation

  Lorentz Contraction

  CHAPTER 12 - General Relativity and Real Gravity (or the Lack Thereof)

  CHAPTER 13 - The Wonderful World of Radiation

  CHAPTER 14 - The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, or How the Cylons Can Reoccupy ...

  PART THREE - THE TWELVE COLONIES AND THE REST OF SPACE

  CHAPTER 15 - Our Galaxy

  CHAPTER 16 - A Star Is Born

  CHAPTER 17 - The Many Different Types of Planets

  Planets

  Satellites

  CHAPTER 18 - Black Holes

  CHAPTER 19 - There’s No Sound in Space, and No Color, Either

  CHAPTER 20 - Water

  PART FOUR - BATTLESTAR TECH

  CHAPTER 21 - The Rocket’s Blue Glare: Sublight Propulsion

  CHAPTER 22 - Faster Than Light: Galactica’s Jump Drive

  Teleportation

  Hyperspace

  Wormholes

  Space Warp

  CHAPTER 23 - Artificial Gravity

  CHAPTER 24 - Navigation

  Defining a Coordinate System or Reference Frame

  Where Are We?

  CHAPTER 25 - Battlestars, Vipers, and Raptors

  Vipers

  Raptors

  CHAPTER 26 - Toasters and Jam: The Complexities of Electronic Warfare

  Electronic Detection

  Electronic Countermeasures

  Electronic Counter-Countermeasures

  ELINT and SIGINT

  CHAPTER 27 - How Did the Cylons Infiltrate the Colonial Computer Infrastructure?

  CHAPTER 28 - So Where Are They?

  AFTERWORD

  NOTES

  CREDITS

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  INDEX

  Copyright © 2011 by Universal City Studios Productions LLLP. All Rights Reserved. Battlestar Galactica © Universal Network Television LLC. Licensed by NBC Universal Television Consumer Products Group. All Rights Reserved.

  Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

  Published simultaneously in Canada

  Credits appear on page 293.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

  Di Justo, Patrick, date.

  The science of Battlestar Galactica / Patrick Di Justo, Kevin Grazier.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-0-470-39909-5 (pbk.); ISBN 978-0-470-88202-3 (ebk);

  ISBN 978-0-470-88203-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-88204-7 (ebk)

  1. Technology-Popular works. 2. Science-Popular works. 3. Astronomy-Popular works. 4. Science fiction, American. 5. Battlestar Galactica (Television program : 1978-1979) 6. Battlestar Galactica (Television program : 2003) 7. Battlestar Galactica (Television program : 2004-2009) I. Grazier, Kevin Robert, date. II. Title.

  T47.D54 2010

  600-dc22

  2010018485

  For my mother and the memory of my father

  —P. D.

  To everybody who made

  Battlestar Galactica a reality

  —K. G.

  FOREWORD

  “I’m going to tell the best possible story, and I don’t care how many geeks I have to offend to get it done.”

  This sentiment, in various incarnations, is frequently expressed by television writers. What they mean is that they’re willing to ignore science, the what-would-really-happen, in order to tell the most compelling story. And, honestly, that makes sense. A TV writer’s job is to entertain, after all. It’s 30 Rock, not Igneous Rocks. And it is certainly true that the tension in your real-time nail-biter of a detective drama might dissipate somewhat during that realistically long wait while the lab patiently sequences DNA. Settling on a less-than-dramatic story just so that the tiny percentage of viewers who know the science aren’t tempted to throw things—it just doesn’t seem like a winning strategy.

  But the two priorities do not have to lie in opposition to each other. At Battlestar Galactica (also referred to in this book as Battlestar, Galactica, and BSG), writers were not allowed to jettison science for the sake of story. Other than in specific instances of intentionally inexplicable phenomena, science was respected. In this way, Battlestar Galactica resembled the classic tradition of science fiction novels, which didn’t see science as a hindrance to the story but as a springboard.

  The first episode of Battlestar that I cowrote was called “The Passage,” and it was all about a risky mission in which pilots escort an instrument-blind fleet through a high-radiation space phenomenon called a “globular
cluster.” The mission was complex in terms of tactics as well as science, a tough one-two punch. My initial instinct was to simplify the mission, the dangers, the science—to simplify something—because I simply couldn’t believe that the fragile tension of a forty-two-minute story could bear for seven of those minutes to be exposition. I wasn’t convinced that it would work, in fact, until I saw the completed episode. The meticulous set-up of the strategy and dangers rings true because it is true. At least, it is true to the extent that I captured what I was being educated about during the writing process. (Did you know there’s a difference between radiation and radioactivity? Oh, well, that’s just me that didn’t know, then.)

  The sentiment of story over science with which I started this piece still echoed in my ears, even after “The Passage,” and there was a period during which I had to learn the lesson repeatedly. When I needed something to malfunction on a Raptor, I was surprised to find that I actually had to investigate which of the Raptor’s functions were controlled by which mechanisms and where they were located. When I needed to describe the effects of death in a vacuum, I needed to resist rumor (“Your lungs pop out of your nose!”) and find out what really happens. (Your lungs don’t pop out of your nose or anywhere else interesting.) And don’t get me started on “single-event upsets.”

  Sometimes we writers ignored the advice we were given—either because there is a limit on the stretchiness of a teleplay to accommodate explanation, or because we really were dealing with a situation that intentionally defied explanation, or just because of limits on our time and skill. But we really tried, and the truism of story versus science seemed less true every time I tested it. In fact, it starts to seem absurd. Truth, generally defined as “emotional truth,” is a huge part of what makes a good story. Is it so surprising that other kinds of truth would also support, not undermine, the same goal? As the child of a chemist, I’m startled it took me so long to realize it.

  The man supplying the Battlestar writers with our technical and scientific information was Kevin Grazier. In the time that I was writing for the show he personally advised me on: algae, globular clusters, fuel processing, Raptor thrust and steering mechanisms, CO2 scrubbers, the effects of a vacuum on a human body, SEUs, hypoxia, hypothermia, constellations, the distances of space, Jumping, and a lot of things I’ve already forgotten. If the Cylon base ship toilet in one of my first drafts had survived to a production draft, I suspect we would’ve had a talk about it, too. (I saw it as a sort of living pulsing suction-cup-shaped protuberance.)

  The point of Battlestar Galactica was not, ultimately, science. It was a show about the human condition, hope, and moral grayness. But science didn’t distract us from telling the stories we wanted to tell. It helped us. And Kevin helped us get the science right. So enjoy this volume—if Kevin says it’s true, it must be so.

  So Say We All!

  Jane Espenson

  Co-executive Producer

  Los Angeles

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Kevin says: Common wisdom holds that everybody who works in Hollywood does so because they caught their “big break.” For mine I would like to thank Bryan Fuller for “pitching” me as science advisor to Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore. On a related note, I can’t thank Ron enough for taking a leap of faith and giving this longtime sci-fi nerd the opportunity and the honor to work on the best show on television, especially after what was likely the shortest job interview in recorded history. I’d also like to thank Patrick Di Justo, Giles Anderson, and Connie Santisteban for including me in this project in midstream. Thank you to executive producer David Eick and the cast and crew—in particular the writing staff—of Battlestar Galactica. Not only did their efforts make this book possible, but everyone was a joy to work with over the span of four they-went-far-too-quickly seasons. Finally, I’d like to thank Kendra “Not Shaw” Penny for all her sacrifices that made my contribution to this book possible. So Say We All!

  Patrick says: I’d like to thank our Wiley (and wily) editor, Connie Santisteban, who safely shepherded this project through the times when we were under Cylon attack; my agent, Giles Anderson, who convinced me to write this proposal as an exercise and then turned it into a book; the folks at Wired magazine, including but not limited to Chris Baker, Rob Capps, Erik Malinowski, Joanna Pearlstein, Adam Rogers, and Nick Thompson; everyone in the Facebook group “The Science of Battlestar Galactica”; the BSG-Park Slope triumvirate: Erica Blitz (aka “ProgGrrl”) of the fansite Galactica Sitrep, superfan and Daily Show writer Rob Kutner, and BSG guest star John Hodgman; my fellow Brooklyn BSG panelists: John Brooks, Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Shane Froebel, and Laura Lee Gulledge; book guru Ellie Lang; Megan Kingery of Science House; pop culture writer Racheline Maltese; the wonderfully supportive people of The WELL’s and conferences; and my siblings Andy Di Justo and Melissa Perdock.

  This book could not have been completed without Emily Gertz. During the writing of this book, Emily made sure I ate, made sure I slept, stuck with me in the emergency room when my zeal to produce this book put me there, and on occasion would remind me to repeat to myself it’s just a show—I should really just relax.

  INTRODUCTION

  Moore’s Law

  It has been called the best show on television, and as real as science fiction gets. It has dealt with issues of religious freedom, basic human rights, patriotism, terrorism, genetic engineering, and the ultimate science fiction question: What does it mean to be human?

  The show is Battlestar Galactica, a twenty-first-century reimagining of the classic 1970s television series with the same basic story-line: humanity inhabits twelve different planets, known as the Twelve Colonies. The ancient birthplace of their species, a planet called Kobol, is a distant memory. Some fifty years prior to the beginning of the series, Colonial scientists created a race of robots they called Cylons, who eventually attained sentience and rebelled against their creators. After a long and bloody war, which ended in a stalemate/ cease-fire, the Cylons withdrew, presumably to find a planet to call their own. Eventually the robots evolved from purely mechanical creatures into biologically engineered creatures nearly indistinguishable from the Colonials themselves.

  At the beginning of the miniseries, these humanoid Cylons insinuate themselves stealthily into Colonial culture, circumvent the defenses of the Twelve Colonies, and wipe out almost all of humanity. The only humans who are spared are a handful on the various planets who are able to escape and those fortunate enough to be on spacecraft during the attack: roughly fifty thousand humans on sixty vessels. This Rag Tag Fleet has only the aging battlestar Galactica for protection. Now in need of a home, they decide to search for the semimythical planet Earth, with the Cylons in relentless pursuit.

  The new Battlestar Galactica (BSG to its fans) eschews the meaningless whiz-bang shoot-’em-ups of the earlier show,a choosing to focus instead on character development and conflict, both internal and external. Sometimes the characters are so developed that it becomes difficult to tell exactly who the good guys are. The executive producer David Eick has said that “We’re not doing our jobs if, at least once a week, the viewer doesn’t ask, ‘Am I rooting for the wrong team? ’ ”

  A case in point comes in the third-season episode “Precipice.” Colonel Saul Tigh, a career military officer in the Colonial Fleet, is trapped on New Caprica, a barely habitable planet the Colonists are calling home. The Cylons have occupied the planet, and Tigh has become a full-fledged resistance fighter/terrorist against the occupation government. When another character questions Tigh’s use of terror against civilians, Tigh tells him exactly where things stand: “Which side are we on? We’re on the side of the demons, Chief. We are evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.” We, the audience, found ourselves supporting Tigh, silently advocating the same tactics we condemned when the Cylons used them only a few episodes befo
re. b

  Many of the elements of the show have parallels to real life: Caprica, the most advanced planet of the Twelve Colonies, represents America. c

  Lee Adama, Admiral William Adama, and Kara "Starbuck" Thrace.

  Cylon models Eight and Six with scientist Gaius Baltar (middle).

  The Cylons are fundamentalist religious terrorists.d The Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies invokes memories of 9/11.e The swearing-in of President Roslin is filmed in the same manner as that of President Johnson following JFK’s assassination in Dallas.f The list goes on and on. We understand that this same story of the clash of civilizations could be told—and is being told every day on the nightly news—without the trappings of space flight and robots. For that reason, Battlestar Galactica has also been called a science fiction show without science.

  Ron Moore is on the record as saying that when he worked on the various Star Trek TV series, the intense level of Roddenberrian technolove for the Starship Enterprise actually hindered story development when the immense level of background information established that the Enterprise worked in a certain way that contradicted the story they wanted to tell. As Moore famously complained in the January 2000 issue of the magazine Cinescape about Star Trek Voyager:In the premise this ship was going to have problems. It wasn’t going to have unlimited sources of energy. It wasn’t going to have all the doodads of the Enterprise. It was going to be rougher, fending for themselves more, having to trade to get supplies that they want. That didn’t happen. It doesn’t happen at all, and it’s a lie to the audience. I think the audience intuitively knows when something is true and something is not true. Voyager is not true. If it were true, the ship would not look spic-and-span every week, after all these battles it goes through. How many times has the bridge been destroyed? How many shuttlecrafts have vanished, and another one just comes out of the oven? That kind of bullshitting the audience I think takes its toll. At some point the audience stops taking it seriously, because they know that this is not really the way this would happen. These people wouldn’t act like this.