That first part could, I think, still refer to the Colonials, for example; one notes that none of the Final Five were present (I don’t think) at the battle that saw the First Hybrid destroyed. Moreover, the First Hybrid was identified with the experimentations of the Colonian Centurions in the “Razor Flashbacks.”

Applying that “world not their own” bit to the Colonials could make for some interesting speculation…although they very notion of a colony implies a people settling that which is not their native land/world.

As to the last remark you make…that’s a good hypothesis. I’ll have to give it more thought.

I’m an engineer by major, and a theologian by hobby/interest/minor (if I had been allowed to declare a minor, that is). It’s rare for me to find a show that gives the theological parts of my mind such a workout, but BSG has been consistently surprising in this way.

Do you think the 13th Tribe traveled to “Earth” via jumpdrive or at sub-luminal speeds? That would really mess with the timeline. I can kind of see the 13th Tribe eschewing resurrection technology if they’d figured out how to procreate, but I can’t see them forgetting jumpdrive technology.

There was an interesting point made on BSG Wiki about this:

It makes logical sense that, after a cataclysmic event and exodus the technology of a given people would take a significant step backwards, since the ships would eventually run out of power, and it would be a long time before they would be able to re-create the same technology. And given the challenge of surviving in the early years after such an event, it also makes sense that, after the original travelers died out, much of their knowledge and memory would be lost, save in written texts, which, to their less technologically advanced descendants, would mean little. It also makes sense that, when the technology of that people advanced to the point were they could create artificial intelligence that they would use it to ease their own burdens, thus creating an intelligent slave race that would eventually rebel if treated badly. That would probably happen even if all technology hadn’t been lost, as seen from the miniseries, Baltar is questioning why they aren’t allowed to make artificial intelligences and the newer battlestars have networked computers. People would always eventually come back to the thought that they could create a race of slave machines.

It’s that first (bolded) point that’s really key, I think, and in a sense we kind of see hints of it emerging again in the series. Tyrol just told Adama not to jump Galactica for “a while,” until he has time to repair the ship. We can probably assume that the other ships are also suffering degradation, especially those ones that have sustained combat damage as well. There’s also the matter of tylium; what if there’s no deposits thereof anywhere within range of whatever planet the Colonials end up arriving at?

Those various factors would spell an effective end to FTL technology, potentially for a few centuries; technology which is not used, and is not immediately useful to the survival of any established colony is technology which will be discarded.

The same could be said of the Thirteenth Tribe; they may have used FTL to get to cinder-Earth, but who is to say that they were able — or willing — to preserve the technology once they arrived there? Deliberately forgetting technology seems unreasonable…but what if cinder-Earth was a bitch to get settled on in the first place? Perhaps the forgetfulness was involuntary?

The only potential snag there is the implied back-and-forthing that went on between Earth and Kobol; if the Thirteenth Tribe did have FTL, they obviously hadn’t forgotten about it some 400 years after their landing (the forgetfulness came later still)…and if they didn’t, Kobol has to be really darn close (relatively speaking) to cinder-Earth.

One also notes that toward the end of the novel, the captain of the submarine which makes that voyage, rather than see his ship rot in a harbour after he dies, opts to scuttle his boat in international waters. Ron Moore, in the podcasts, keeps noting that the damage to Galactica will have wider implications later on in the show; one wonders if perhaps there is not some hint to be derived here as to what the ship’s ultimate fate may be?

Beaches are so far seeming to be important — the Five’s memories started to return on a beach on the cinder planet, that same beach sent Dualla over the edge, there were photos of a beach in Dualla’s locker, John Cavil and Ellen used to walk on a beach with Daniel…

…made me think of this. Notice the number and sexes of people on the book cover.

Check it out here:
http://www.tvtyrant.com/?p=231

Submit here:
http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_3837.html

At last, they have come for me. I feel their lives, their destinies spilling out before me. The denial of the one true path, played out on a world not their own, will end soon enough.

Unless this is a deliberate misdirection, the “they” in the first sentence refers to the “their” in the second sentence. It refers to a group refusing the “one true path,” which I take to mean belief in the One True God of the Centurions. This would mean he’s referring to the 13th Tribe who we now know were polytheistic like the Colonials. It makes more sense that the First Hybrid would have some connection to the 13th Tribe of Cylons rather than to Colonial humans.

Soon there will be four, glorious in awakening, struggling with the knowledge of their true selves. The pain of revelation bringing new clarity. And in the midst of confusion, he will find her. Enemies brought together by impossible longing. Enemies now joined as one. The way forward at once unthinkable, yet inevitable. And the fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering.

This obviously refers to the Fab Four discovering their true natures. The “he will find her” bit I initially thought referred to Tigh finding Ellen, but now I think it refers to Tigh, Six, and their son. Their son represents the once unthinkable way forward in the joining of the 13th Tribe Cylons and the skinjobs. Hera is the product of a skinjob and a human, so that’s different, but we do have the potential for a kind of Adam and Eve.

I can see them all. The seven, now six, self-described machines who believe themselves without sin. But in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching agony of one splintering into many.

The “seven now six” bugs me since we know that there are indeed eight. Not only have the skinjobs not lost one, they’ve gained one, but the rest of that seems to refer to the skinjobs splitting apart once they learn what John Cavil has done.

And then, they will join the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning.

I really do think that Starbuck is this angel. With the Galactica on its last legs as well as other Fleet ships that must surely be in the same situation, I think they’ll settle a blue planet nearby that we will recognize as Earth, but that they will name “Earth” just like the 13th Tribe did on the cinder planet.

What if part of the problem in this universe is that the 13th Tribe did not worship their creator, The One Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken/One True God? Instead they worshiped the Lords of Kobol, who are the gods and creators of the Colonial humans? This relates back to “[T]he denial of the one true path, played out on a world not their own, will end soon enough.”

Do you think the 13th Tribe traveled to “Earth” via jumpdrive or at sub-luminal speeds? That would really mess with the timeline. I can kind of see the 13th Tribe eschewing resurrection technology if they’d figured out how to procreate, but I can’t see them forgetting jumpdrive technology.

BTW, your own post on “No Exit” was fantastic and I’m still processing my response.