The Case For "Hero"

[genji2000]

I've decided to simply erase Hero from my version of canonicity. Shouldn't be a problem unless they bring back Novacek's Raider :)

Pretty crap episode, anyway. Although seeing battlestar Valkyrie was nice.

You don't have a version of the canon. The canon is the canon. :) You can delete it from your collection though.

I'd like to make a case for Hero. It was entertaining enough for a single-episoder, especially in comparison with Black Market, and it made an important statement. In the same way that Adama lied about Earth at the end of the Miniseries, Hero reminded us that to be a leader is to be compromised - at the time that Adama was reminded in the flesh of his difficult decision to down Bulldog, he has to accept a medal, not for himself, but for the people, his people and the president's.

More importantly than that, Hero revealed the single-most important piece of information in relation to the war: mankind started it. The military (potentially deliberately, in order to provoke the Cylon into a retaliation, maybe because of defence spending cuts, or in order to rekindle the war because a frightened population is easier to govern) ran a mission to break the armistice. The Cylons saw it. They realised the peace was over, that mankind is a warmongering, bloodthirsty race, and that he could never allow the Cylons to live in peace, and so they retaliated. Sure, it was unlucky for the colonies that the Cylons were so good at war that their retaliation virtually wiped out mankind in just a few hours, but you can't blame the Cylons for that. The humans just bit off more than they could chew.

It was thanks to Hero that the record was set straight.

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

My problem with "Hero" wasn't so much the continuity thing... Yes, that is the most glaring thing about it, if you've paid meticulous attention to the timeline, but there are so many problems with the general story itself that are ignored.

A few things come to mind:


Daniel Novachek. Why would the Cylons keep him on ice? Surely they would have tried to experiment on him with their baby making scheme and all. (And maybe they did, but it didn't stick.)
How the hell could he have jumped the Raider? Yes, Kara was able to jump all the way back to Caprica, but they had installed a computer to do it. (And after Galactica's crew were able to watch a Raider jump in and out of the Fleet before hand.)
Adama knows by now that the Colonials didn't really start the war. The Cylons do not go through the trouble to look human just to play nice. He even knows that the Cylons were experimenting on humans from "Razor"; he knew about the Guardians at this point, and he was reminded of it over a year before hand.

As for the claim that the Cylons reacted to the Admiralty's war mongering...

I find that ludicrous. As Roslin tells Adama, there are a thousand things the Colonials did during the 40 years that probably provoked the war.

Further, this neither explains the Cylons plan to make babies with humanity nor the amount of war matériel they've clearly amassed. It does not cover the humanoid Cylon's infiltration of the Colonies, and why they laid the ground work at least 2 or so years beforehand for an assault.

It does not explain why the Cylons chose to take human form. Further, it doesn't take into account why the Final Five are in the Fleet, and have histories that appear to predate the end of the Cylon Civil War (in the form of Tigh).

The story itself is a first season episode. Not something for the third season. The retread is not needed that late in the game. The episode is a result of the creative personnel behind the series desperately trying to regain some semblance of control after they've fallen asleep at the wheel.

On that merit alone, "Hero" should stand excised from the Galactica canon.

[The Nubs]

For the most part Hero is a filler episode. Although some parts are tied to and may have meaning in the bigger picture the episode could probably be done without. However, I do not have a problem with this at all if it happens once a season or so. At times I think shows need to have something that is just a stand alone episode that doesn't always play into the bigger picture or be full of action and/or drama tied to the series. It is the same concept I have with shows like House, Bones, any CSI. You know for the most part that they are going to have an issue, struggle with issue and then solve issue. Granted, the episode may be good, but it gets boring real quick. On the flip side a show like Lost is always answering a question with a new question. I think BSG has done a good job of not falling into either pitfall from an overall perspective. I for one watch all of the shows mentioned above and like all of them. But I think the reasons I mentioned is why some shows of that nature start to lose viewers overtime. So, on a grand scheme I could do without Hero, but it wasn't all that bad. It was an attempt to build some depth to a character and if it failed to strike a chord with the fans then it missed its mark. You can't bat 1000% all the time and the writers are the same way.

[ThPrime]

David Eick recorded a new Hero commentary for the season three DVD set. He answers many of popular questions about this episode including 'Did Adama start the war?' Perhaps the biggest revelation is that he was saddled with the writing task of "Tigh earning his way out of his room." Before Hero, Tigh was still self imprisoned inside his room spiraling downward in a extended mean drunk bender. By episode's end Tigh was to return to duty to setup for subsequent episodes. David Eick wrote a standalone to accomplish that goal. His solution: because only Adama and Tigh have history with Novacek, only Tigh can save Adama from the Cylon version of a Manchurian Candidate, Novacek brain washed into a sleeper agent.

How the hell could he have jumped the Raider? Yes, Kara was able to jump all the way back to Caprica, but they had installed a computer to do it. (And after Galactica's crew were able to watch a Raider jump in and out of the Fleet before hand.)

The answer is found on the cutting room floor:

"How'd you find us Danny?

It wasn't easy. You're not going to believe this..."

And a reasonably plausible explanation follows, in part mirroring how Kara got her Raider back to Galactica in You Can't Go Home Again. All of this exposition was cut from the episode. Then a shocker about Novacek is revealed. It's one of the best deleted scenes from season three. There's another scene emphasizing that the Threes deliberately allowed Novacek to escape the baseship.

About the shocker:
Adama has to tell Novacek the bad news. Since Danny was captured before the Cylon attack on the Colonies, he knows absolutely nothing about the genocidal attack or that Galactica is the sole surviving Battlestar. He has to deal with this horrific realization and the grief and despair that follows throughout the episode. It is a substantial absent reason behind his destablized sweaty paranoid behavior.

It's a pity that more of the episode as planned never made it to broadcast.

[Martyr of the Cause]

Deleted scenes from Hero explain how he jumped the Raider. He found the jump "muscle" and went through coordinates making jumps until he found the right one. Of course, since he was released by the Cylons, they made sure the right coordinates were in the recent jump list.

"Hero" was definitely a filler episode, and as they go, could have been worse.

[genji2000]

Before Hero, Tigh was still self imprisoned inside his room spiraling downward in a extended mean drunk bender. By episode's end Tigh was to return to duty to setup for subsequent episodes. David Eick wrote a standalone to accomplish that goal. His solution: because only Adama and Tigh have history with Novacek, only Tigh can save Adama from the Cylon version of a Manchurian Candidate, Novacek brain washed into a sleeper agent.


I'd forgotten about that too. That's why Hero's placing in Season Three is critical and why it's a crucial part of the canon.

Regarding the Cylons' retaliation to the Admiralty's war mongering:


...this neither explains the Cylons plan to make babies with humanity nor the amount of war matériel they've clearly amassed. It does not cover the humanoid Cylon's infiltration of the Colonies, and why they laid the ground work at least 2 or so years beforehand for an assault.

It does not explain why the Cylons chose to take human form. Further, it doesn't take into account why the Final Five are in the Fleet, and have histories that appear to predate the end of the Cylon Civil War (in the form of Tigh).

Cylons need to procreate, it's god's commandment. They can't do it by themselves.

They amassed such a huge arsenal as a defence, and they utilised it as a defence when the colonials broke the armistice.

Two years before what? Before the assault on the colonies or before the colonial military sent a fighter plane across the line?

It won't explain why the Cylons chose to take human form (possibly this is in order to procreate) nor why the F5 are in the fleet. It has nothing to do with that. That will be revealed as Season Four unfolds and we learn the nature of the F5.

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

ThPrime, I do remember the deleted scenes. I agree that they've filled in the questions...

However, I'm sorry, but it really breaks suspension of disbelief that Danny was able to find the muscles of the Cylon raider that programmed jump coordinates AND jumped. Particularly when he ripped out the Cylons brain (he had to, otherwise he wouldn't have fit) which would contain the information necessary to compute any jump.

I can buy Novachek coming back from the dead and Tigh being the only one to stop Bulldog from killing Adama. I can buy Novachek just now finding out that the Cylons obliterated the Colonies and going bugfrak. Yeah, I'm fine with that, but the stuff about Adama being responsible for the Cylon attacks is just felgercarb... That type of self-reflective doubting would be a great season one, or even an early season 2, episode. Actually, that would have made an awesome season two episode where Adama, still mentally recovering from being shot, doubting whether or not the Colonials instigated the attacks would have been far better... Anyway, the doubting crap belongs before New Caprica.

Also, I hate to break it to you genji, but the Cylons are war mongers. Why else would they have continued to follow the Fleet as they did? Their goal was to obliterate humanity. Has been from the start... and they stopped themselves from doing so only because of Caprica and Boomer. Which lead to New Caprica.

Also, lest we forget what Three said to Baltar when Baltar tells the Cylons they should leave. (I think it was in either "Precipice" or "Exodus, Part I"... I'll check later. Too busy to check now.)

[ThPrime]

Yeah, I'm fine with that, but the stuff about Adama being responsible for the Cylon attacks is just felgercarb... That type of self-reflective doubting would be a great season one, or even an early season 2, episode. Actually, that would have made an awesome season two episode where Adama, still mentally recovering from being shot, doubting whether or not the Colonials instigated the attacks would have been far better... Anyway, the doubting crap belongs before New Caprica.

No argument there, I agree. Expanded and followed through with, Hero would have made a great season one episode. I posted before; Hero was a very well received episode by the online fanbase when it first aired. There wasn't any immediate furor about the continuity problem. But fans realized the issues of the Valkyrie years, Adama violating the armistice and Novacek would never be spoken of again.

[genji2000]

Can I just say - I didn't post this as a new thread; it was just a response to comments on another thread that wanted to excise Hero from 'the canon'. If the Writers wrote it, the actors acted it, the crew shot it, and the studio released it, then it's canon.

...it really breaks suspension of disbelief that Danny was able to find the muscles of the Cylon raider that programmed jump coordinates AND jumped...

In comparison with the Season Two timeline deficiencies? It's a minor gaff that can be fanwanked. The Cylons wanted Bulldog to return to the fleet - why couldn't they have modified/simplified a Raider to enable him to use it?

...the stuff about Adama being responsible for the Cylon attacks is just felgercarb...

Like I said, I wasn't looking to make a big deal of this issue, and I haven't said Adama was responsible. I used the term they used in the episode - the Admiralty was responsible - the military, or mankind generally.

...That type of self-reflective doubting would be a great season one, or even an early season 2, episode.

Why? Why couldn't the cumulative effect of being shot by a Cylon agent, abandoning the population of New Caprica when the Cylons showed up, seeing the effects of the New Caprica experience on the people, and specifically his crew and officers, learning about The Circle executing more humans, etc. etc., spark that doubt? Everybody's different. We know Adama's not a machine, but he is a high-ranking officer in the military and adherence to protocols and rules along with the suppression of human feelings like doubt, fear and guilt can be what helps a military man get to the top of his profession. Who's to say when doubt and guilt kicks in in a man?

...I hate to break it to you genji, but the Cylons are war mongers. Why else would they have continued to follow the Fleet as they did? Their goal was to obliterate humanity. Has been from the start... and they stopped themselves from doing so only because of Caprica and Boomer. Which lead to New Caprica.

Yes, and this is why I didn't post this as a new thread proclaiming by belief that the Cylons are innocent victims. The Cylons were created by man. Of course they're warmongers. They're held up to mankind as a mirror and reflect his own soul. One of the threads of the show is that humanity should question its right to survival and the Cylons exist to ask that question, by reducing the human population to less than 50,000. Both Cylon and mankind are learning as the series unfolds.

I'm not saying that I categorically believe that the Cylons didn't realise they couldn't win the first war, and didn't sign the armistice treaty with the intent of retreating, planning and returning to wipe out mankind. I'm just saying there is doubt, as Adama expresses, and it's possible that if the colonial military hadn't broken the armistice, the forty years might have become eighty years, or a thousand years. I remember the Three's words to Baltar in Exodus part 2 when he says they should leave. Here they are:

"What would you do if we really just left you here? You'd live out your lives in peace and never trouble yourself with thoughts of us again? Or would you read your children stories of the Cylon? The mechanical slaves who once did your bidding only to turn against you. Killers who committed genocide against your race. The occupiers of the city until we just ran away. Would you tell them to tell the story to their children, and to their children's children, and nurse a dream of vengeance down through the years so that one day they could just go out to the stars and hunt the Cylon once more?"

That is what mankind does. My point is that the Cylons are better at it, and that they had just cause to attack the colonies because of the nature of mankind, which they knew very well. The forty-years' peace wasn't peace - it was a limited cold war. The humans sent spy planes across the line (is that into neutral territory or Cylon territory? I've never been sure of that); the Cylons placed humanoid spies in human society.

The warmongering, bloodthirsty nature of mankind, from a Cylon's perspective, needs to be restricted. Initially that meant genocide, but following Boomer's and Caprica Six's conversion of the Cylon mindset (as a whole), the Cylons tried to live alongside mankind. The Cylons are growing and learning throughout the series.

Does that make any sense? It's very early here and I'm late getting ready for work so this is a bit rushed.

Deleted scenes from Hero explain how he jumped the Raider. He found the jump "muscle" and went through coordinates making jumps until he found the right one. Of course, since he was released by the Cylons, they made sure the right coordinates were in the recent jump list.

"Hero" was definitely a filler episode, and as they go, could have been worse.

Sorry - I missed this post. So the explanation for Bulldog's control of the Raider isn't even fanwanking.