[Col. Fishguts]

I thought they originated from Kobol ? Earth is called the 13th colony after all.

[aldo_14]

I thought they originated from Kobol ? Earth is called the 13th colony after all.

Yeah, but that doesn't preclude them travelling to Earth from Kobol.  For one thing, they're described as, IIRC, living with the 'Gods' in Kobol; which could be whoever took them there (note; the perception of the Lords of Kobol or whatever they're called would be really only as Gods if it was a primitive earth society; Greek being the obvious one).  Because, how would they know where Earth was, and why would they leave to there (it seems to be pretty bloody distant from the other colonies) unless it had some meaning to them?

Albeit I hope to hell that they don't pull a Galactica 1980 and have it as modern day earth.  IMO that would be utter pish.

[Ace]

I'm sure they will.

However, having Earth as a very technologically advanced society that looks at the Cylons and Colonials as a joint threat would be fun.

Adama: "We've found Earth!"

Cylons: "They found Earth for us, humanity is now doomed!"

*Earth ships open fire and wipe out half of the Colonials before Galactica jumps out. Earth proceeds to trace the Cylon communications and vaporizes the Cylon homeworld with a planet killer.*

[Setekh]

Albeit I hope to hell that they don't pull a Galactica 1980 and have it as modern day earth.  IMO that would be utter pish.

Oh, that was hilarious. "The soldiers of the Galactica have to stop the evils of the present day... frakking Nazis!"

[NGTM-1R]

Albeit I hope to hell that they don't pull a Galactica 1980 and have it as modern day earth.  IMO that would be utter pish.

Plus we'd be, well, pretty ****ed.

[WMCoolmon]

Would be funny if it was the 1800s or somesuch.

Or they arrive, only to find that earth has been destroyed, and travel back in time to save it.

[Janos]

Would be funny if it was the 1800s or somesuch.

Or they arrive, only to find that earth has been destroyed, and travel back in time to save it.

Yeah and WHALES

[Ace]

Or they meet General Jack O'Neill:

Static-y message: "We're the Colonial Fleet, only 44,598 of us are left. The Cylons are hunting us down... you're our only hope..."

*blink blink*

O'Neill: "This concerns me... how?"

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I thought they originated from Kobol ? Earth is called the 13th colony after all.

myth, legend?

Assuming a long enough time has passed between leaving Kobol and BSG there's no reason not to assume that most of it is myth and Kobol was originally colonised from Earth anda number of people, after the scrap there, decided to return to Earth again.
Besides, claiming Kobol as the original homeworld of humanity would fly in the face of scientific knowledge.

[aldo_14]

I thought they originated from Kobol ? Earth is called the 13th colony after all.

myth, legend?

Assuming a long enough time has passed between leaving Kobol and BSG there's no reason not to assume that most of it is myth and Kobol was originally colonised from Earth anda number of people, after the scrap there, decided to return to Earth again.
Besides, claiming Kobol as the original homeworld of humanity would fly in the face of scientific knowledge.

I doubt scientific knowlegde is a concern in a TV world of ftl drive and xenophobic toasters.

[ZylonBane]

Then you don't know much about writing good sci-fi.

It's fine to make up stuff like FTL drives and AIs and all that because they don't specifically contradict known scientific facts (mostly because they wisely don't even try to explain how they work). But it's established scientific FACT that humans originated on Earth, and since Earth is such a central part of the BSG mythology, they can't just make up a racial origin story as if "Earth" was some fictional planet.

Seems pretty straightforward to me-- at some point in the future, humans colonized Kobol from Earth. Some disaster (be it technological, environmental, or even cultural) happpened on Kobol that forced a mini-diaspora, and destroyed most of their historical records.

[aldo_14]

Then you don't know much about writing good sci-fi.

You miss the point; storyline beats science, as it should in a hypothesised past/present/future very far away with a completely open universe and backstory.  All fiction is the suspension of disbelief, after all, and the only question should be what parts of reality you need to include in order to sell that story.

[ZylonBane]

So if the humans (and yes, they are HUMANS) in BSG drank acid and pissed laser beams, you wouldn't have a problem with that?

I repeat, the BSG universe is not completely hypothesised. It incorporates EARTH. Very specifically, by name. Their culture includes specific nontrivial details from Earth culture, like the naming of their colonies after the signs of the zodiac. There can't be any logical doubt that the Earth of BSG legend is the planet we're sitting on right now.

[Ford Prefect]

So if the humans (and yes, they are HUMANS) in BSG drank acid and pissed laser beams, you wouldn't have a problem with that?

Not all discrepancies between fiction and reality are equally silly. Those are silly.

[ZylonBane]

So is disregarding millions of years of fossil record.

[Ford Prefect]

Well, I wouldn't expect them to write something like that into the show. I think everyone's jumping ahead a few steps here.

[BlackDove]

I'm really with Zylon, alternatives to the idea that it's Earth>Kobol>Earth haven't even occured to me.

The question is really though what the year is when they come back to Earth? Considering the technical advancments, since we had to travel to Kobol once... 2500ish perhaps? A bit more, a bit less?

[aldo_14]

So if the humans (and yes, they are HUMANS) in BSG drank acid and pissed laser beams, you wouldn't have a problem with that?

That would depend on how much sense it held within the value of the storyline.  As Ford pointed out, that sort of example is particularly nonsensical as it is formulated to make no sense and have no perceivable value to a storyline.  Anyways, at that point they wouldn't be humans, would they?  Unless they called themselves humans, in which case that'd be not be corresponding to our biological definition of human but that of the storylines' universe (I dunno, like the Culture novels having humans able to change sex at will and soforth, justified by dint of their far future setting).

I repeat, the BSG universe is not completely hypothesised. It incorporates EARTH. Very specifically, by name. Their culture includes specific nontrivial details from Earth culture, like the naming of their colonies after the signs of the zodiac. There can't be any logical doubt that the Earth of BSG legend is the planet we're sitting on right now.

Having a planet named Earth, is seperate from having it as the original home of humanity; for one thing, AFAIK the BSG mythology so far states it as being simply a planet colonised by people from Kobol 2000 years ago.

Not to mention the use of signs of the Zodiac, Greek gods, etc has a symbolical as well as literal meaning.  Like with ties; or do you think it'd be 'scientifically realistic' to expect fashion, in at least 2000 years time, had either retained the likes of ties, suits, etc (left modern/post modern earth), or convergently developed them (leaving Earth at a time when the Greek gods were still worshipped)?

This is not to say that Earth as a homeworld is the least likely explanation, etc, but to point out that the most important aspect is the dramatic one and the value an individual aspect has for the storyline; does it mean more to the viewer to reference the Arrow of Apollo, or the Arrow of Randomogodbloke?  Earth has an inherent meaning as a homeworld, and the signs of the Zodiac have both celestical recognition value, and also a (tenuous?) connection to the foretelling/prophecy aspects of the storyline.  If the show makes Earth have some other meaning than original evolutionary home of humans, I'm happy so long as it makes sense within the story.  Golden rule of storytelling.

And all that from a jokey throwaway comment about toasters.  Phew.

[StratComm]

I'm really with Zylon, alternatives to the idea that it's Earth>Kobol>Earth haven't even occured to me.

The question is really though what the year is when they come back to Earth? Considering the technical advancments, since we had to travel to Kobol once... 2500ish perhaps? A bit more, a bit less?

Much more.  Indications were that Kobol had been abandoned for quite some time.

And of course there's the whole cyclic aspect to the BSG mythos.  If "all of this has happened before, all of this will happen again" is to be any indication, the chain of events leading back to wherever Humanity originated is probably much longer than a simple explanation would allow.

[NGTM-1R]

Plus we'd be, well, pretty ****ed.

I take it back, actually. Nukes are apparently the be-all and end-all still...and we have plenty of nukes about.

Cylon Armada meet US nuclear arsenal.