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Originally Posted by antelope526
The distances traveled do not make sense based on the technology they possessed in the show. TOS, based on their technology would have never covered more than 1 light years distance.
I simply ignore the entire issue as poor science writing. They had no faster than light capability and they did travel extreme distances anyway.
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I disagree. I will say that some of the writing and (particularly) direction choices are "bad" science, but if you change your view of the universe, much of it starts to come together in a rather interesting fashion...almost as if it was actually planned that way.
You say that “The distances traveled do not make sense based on the technology they possessed in the show”. My question to you is: What technology is that?
There is an incredibly wide spectrum of tech levels demonstrated in the show. At the high end we see variable pressure energy fields, mastery of gravity (which is huge), mastery of light, mastery of plasmas, and mastery of some other form of FTL particle/wave (they do have interstellar communications that seem to be in real-time). At the low end we see CRT-style displays, analogue gauges, LED digital readouts, analogue recording devices, wired communications, and riveted construction techniques.
Why the disparity? The real answer is that the producers wanted a certain “look” for the show, but also wanted to use certain existing technologies to make everything look “high-tech” for the late 70’s.
In dramatic terms, however, this can be explained in another way that makes perfect sense: If you are involved in an interstellar war, particularly one that has lasted for 1000 years, it is logical to build to the LOWEST possible tech level to get the job done. This makes supply and repairs on distant worlds much easier. This also explains why certain vessels (Rising Star, for instance) look a bit more “high-tech” than the Galactica. They are civilian ships that aren’t necessarily constrained by such logic.
The universe is a very odd place, one we actually know very little about (What is dark matter? What is dark energy? They make up upwards of 90% of the universe, and we know almost nothing about them). If you make the assumption that the universe the Colonial’s know is very different from the one we know, then it becomes easier to look for answers about how things happen in the Galactica milieu.
Just some thoughts...
JJR
