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Old December 27th, 2006, 03:52 AM   #6
Emerys
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Damocles makes a very cogent point on asking 'why?' Lets face it, despite a very nice baisc storyline we all enjoy and one of the biggest special effects budgets ever seen, they prodicers didnt spend a thin dime on anyone who knew beans about science - particularly astronomy. I cringed every time they said they were going to hop over to the next galaxy, etc etc. I was about 10 at the time and I knew better. Astonomy students get paid less than back alley musicians and starving artists - while continuity issues can creep up in the very best productions, this was easy stuff and no one in Hollywood seemed the least concerned with bringing that element of reality to our suspension of disbelief. They spent millions on special effects. They probably could have gotten an astronomy buff for the price of a good meal. Thats an observation more than a complaint (ok, a bit of both) - the point being that some of the writers tended to let continuity slip pretty glaringly.

As for the original question, I'm perfectly willing to accept that being considered a 'colonial' was part and parcel of their cultural identity. The exodus have been a milestone in their cultural being, and the differences that were presented in the colonies (Ok, the Gemonese and Scorpians were only really picked out, but we have to suspect there were differences unique to the cultures of each world) could reinforce that sense that they were subsets of a greater whole.

As for a timeline, lets go with what we know. The Cylon war is 1000 yahren old, so we have to presume the Colonies were fully operational entites; since the capacity to explore and wage organized warfare is pretty complex on that scale, lets say a minimum of 2000.

Humans on Earth were building pyramids 4000 years ago. Lets throw into the mix the idea that these are gutted remains, or cultural relics (the idea that the pyramid is the right shape for a building handed down from great grandad) and tack on 1-2000 years for humanity to arrive here, spread over the planet and have some sort of disaster that caused the colony to not quite fail, but for colonial civilization to be lost.

That puts the exodus and the creation of the colonies at about 6000 years ago as a minimum, and 7 as a maximum. Any differences between a yahren and a year also need to be factored in. One presumes a Kobol year (presuming they adopted a standard time or date system) and an Earth year might be about the same. Similar planet would be formed in a similar way, similar day cycle, distance from the sun, etc - so a similar year - but it would not be exact. Add or subtract a 10-30 days in a planetary rotation period and over 7000 years you have a fair margin of error.
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