How many survivors are in the fleet?

In "Greeting From Earth," Apollo indicates that there are 6000 people in the fleet. This seems to be very low to me. If each of the 220 ships of the fleet carried 150 survivors, that would total 33,000 people! This is merely an assumption of course. Some of the ships could carry more or less than 150 passengers. I have not even included the Galactica which could conceivably carry 3000 people. This would raise the total survivors to 36,000 Colonials. In "The Living Legend," Kane sends all non-essential personnel to the Galactica before his attack on the two Cylon baseships. This could total 2500 people, assuming that it takes a minimum of 500 people to run a battlestar. The grand total, by my rough reckoning, is 38,500 people in the fleet. This is a staggering number of people to feed and care for. I think that Apollo, in a passionate moment, spoke mistakenly. What are your thoughts? How many people do you think survived the destruction of the Colonies?

[michaelfaries]

We're forgetting the extremely popular Colonial harvest celebrations/festivities aboard the agro ships during the events of "The Magnificient Warriors." And when the Cylons swooped in and destroyed one of them, there were heavy, HEAVY losses.

All kidding aside, that's a good question, Bijou88. The original series definitely lacked of a solid writer's bible, as Jim Carlson and Terry McDonnell have commented. Sometimes things were made up or simply winged, due to lack of specific background info. One of my favorites was the naming of the Battle of Molecay, similarly named after the Hawaiian island of the same name (Molokai), as mentioned in "The Living Legend."

According to what I've heard, Mr. Larson was vacationing in the Hawaiian Islands at the time the script was coming together. Coincidence?

Michael
:colwar: