Survivor Count

[The Nubs]

I always forget to pay attention to this but does the survivor count change every episode. We know that people are born and die in the series but do they change the count at the start of the show. I'm sorry if this is an old topic but I always forget to write down the number.

[Serenity]

Yes. Sometimes they even factor in people who die in the teaser. Sometimes it works well, sometimes the changes are suspiciously low (after "Valley of Darkness" and "Resurrection Ship, Part II"), and sometimes there are abnormally high jumps. Depends

Detailed tracking:
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Survivor_count

[JDS]

I think it's pretty cool, really, but a little disappointing that we've never really had any net gain except when Pegasus showed up.

You'd think a bunch of people cooped up in spaceships for a year or two would get bored or horny or something and start cranking out little Colonials sooner or later!

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

Well, as we've seen in the BSG universe, there are religious considerations. Hell, there might even be STDs to consider as well.

It's kinda sad that they never tackled that aspect of the series in depth, other than the throwaway lines in the miniseries and Roslin's (initially misguided) abortion stance before decreeing that it was illegal to get one.

I would have told Rya Kibby to go frak herself. If she didn't want the kid, then someone else could've had the frakker. They did find someone for Hera after all.

[JDS]

I would have told Rya Kibby to go frak herself. If she didn't want the kid, then someone else could've had the frakker. They did find someone for Hera after all.Yeah, gotta agree with you there. I'm about as pro-abortion as they come (screw "pro-choice", I'm "In Favor of Killing Babies"), but when 99.9999% of humanity has just been wiped out, the population is the number one concern, and you want that number HIGHER. I don't see why Cottle would just go on contentedly throwing away the next generation of Colonials.

[Serenity]

There are a handful of births here and there. Just no larger increases, which might be more realistic.

[The Nubs]

I would think that due to the situation that they are in that the death rate would be higher than the birth rate. I'm sure there are many civilans in the fleet that were hurt during the attacks and occupation that are just slowly dying off. I'm also sure that some just give up on occasion due the overall stress of what has happened to them. What would be an interesting episode if they addressed that issue. How to decrease the overall deathrate and mental suffering the the civilians have gone through in hopes of increasing the number of survivors.

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

Actually, the touched upon this in "33", when Billy is revising the survivor count and Laura is concerned about how they've lost so many.

[Protostar]

Yeah, gotta agree with you there. I'm about as pro-abortion as they come (screw "pro-choice", I'm "In Favor of Killing Babies"), but when 99.9999% of humanity has just been wiped out, the population is the number one concern, and you want that number HIGHER. I don't see why Cottle would just go on contentedly throwing away the next generation of Colonials.

I think it has something to do with the fact that if a woman is determined to have an abortion, she will find someway to get it done, be it through a doctor or her own means. As a doctor, her health is Cottle's number one concern (and should be) and we all know what usually happens when women attempt to abort a child they donot want out of desperation. Forcing a woman to carry a child she does not want, is a heavy burden to place on her. I think it should continue the way it has always been done: the women who wish to get pregnant do so and the ones who do get pregnant and donot want the child get an abortion. IMO the abortion ban would only serve to cause tension in the fleet, which would lead to even more violence and deaths, something the Colonials donot need right now.

[Aset]

Wouldn't the better long term option be providing effective birth control?

[OrionFour]

Actually, the touched upon this in "33", when Billy is revising the survivor count and Laura is concerned about how they've lost so many.

And in "The Captain's Hand" where Baltar tells Roslin that at humanity's present course, the human race would be extinct in 18 years.

[Joe Beaudoin Jr.]

And in "The Captain's Hand" where Baltar tells Roslin that at humanity's present course, the human race would be extinct in 18 years.

All the more reason to not allow Cottle to perform the abortion on Rya.

[JDS]

I think it has something to do with the fact that if a woman is determined to have an abortion, she will find someway to get it done, be it through a doctor or her own means. As a doctor, her health is Cottle's number one concern (and should be) and we all know what usually happens when women attempt to abort a child they donot want out of desperation. Forcing a woman to carry a child she does not want, is a heavy burden to place on her. I think it should continue the way it has always been done: the women who wish to get pregnant do so and the ones who do get pregnant and donot want the child get an abortion. IMO the abortion ban would only serve to cause tension in the fleet, which would lead to even more violence and deaths, something the Colonials donot need right now.Normally all of that would be true, but I think that logic really starts to break down when humanity as a species is dying out. Whereas no woman today NEEDS to bear any children, the Colonials are depending on the woman to have enough children to continue the existence of mankind.

[alpha5099]

Perhaps one of the reasons for the lower than expected birthrate is the fleet's demographics. We don't really know what sort of cross-section of humanity survived. Perhaps, for whatever reason, the kinds of people who were out and about in space when everyone else was getting nuked were not likely to have many children. Perhaps the average age of the fleet is very high (which might explain Baltar's estimate that it would only take 18 years for everyone to die), and the majority of the young, likely-to-be-having-children people are in the military, fighting, too busy to make babies.