I think you’re making too many assumptions about the glowing. Bioluminescence of multiple enzymes secreted from organs combining and reacting, fireflies don’t directly have stuff that glows in them, they don’t even have stuff in them that combines to glow, they have organs that secrete stuff that combines to glow. So your test wouldn’t even work on a firefly, add to that the fact that we don’t know if the humans even know about the glowing spine thing. People knew about fireflies because the saw them glow, then they dissected them and eventually figured out why, if I gave dead fireflies to somebody that didn’t know what they were or what made them interesting it’s highly unlikely they’d figure out about the glow unless they got really lucky and squeezed the right two organs in the right way and the stuff inside them combined. If you don’t know HOW a critter is glowing you can’t test for IF they can glow. How do you look for glowing stuff in the spine if you don’t know how they glow?
Who the hell knows how they do it. Eventually you just have to accept that it’s fiction. Remember air tanks don’t really explode like in Jaws either, but it works in the movie so you move on. If you’re going to start getting obsessed at that level on things it’s best you just stop experiencing fiction. Nobody gets from point A to point B in LA as quickly as they do in 24, nobody moves around the planet as quickly as they did in Alias, mobsters don’t off each other at half the rate they do in Godfather, every story has SOMETHING that separates it from reality. That’s just how it goes, eventually you’ve just got to say “it’s part of the story”. How do Cylons download? Who give a $#!+ it’s in the story, deal.
And actually I don’t WANT them to explain those little craps. Story points, like how long has Tigh been a Cylon, should be explained, tech points shouldn’t. When you explain tech points you wind up with lame crap like midichlorians, do you want a midichlorians explanation?
If things mesh all the way through the story then there’s no reason to continue telling the story. Part of the point of having mysteries in a story is to give the viewer a reason to watch the next episode. It’s part of the difference between an arc story and episodic TV. You’re demanding episodic TV, all mysteries solved by the end of each episode, no dangling questions, no reason from this week to watch next week. Arc stories don’t work like that, arc stories leave those dangling ends, so that even if the teaser commercial for next week doesn’t interest you the possibility of solved mysteries will get you to tune in anyway.
I’m not saying it’s OK to be inconsistent, because BSG isn’t anyway, I’m saying if you don’t sense 10 years worth of pre-thought behind BSG it’s because it’s not there. Heck even JMS has never come close to telling another story as tight as B5, and we know he can, but he’s never told another story that was kicking around his brain for 10 years either.
Yes I disagree, for one thing I have yet to find ANYTHING that truly doesn’t mesh. I see some dangling questions, which is the point of this kind of TV writing. So far every one of your complaints has either been wrong or just been a part of dealing with fiction. You might not want to make it seem like that’s the only kind of story you like, but your complaints demonstrate that really is the only kind of story you like. Which is fine, like whatever kind of story you want, but it’s clear that your complaints really boil down to BSG isn’t your type of story. None of claimed inconsistencies exist, you just don’t like having mysteries open when there’s story left to tell.
Ok. Well, humans don't. And Cylons evidently do, or something like it. So something about their biology is pretty different. In saying this I'm not "assuming" anything in particular about the mechanism except that the result is (evidently) a glowin' spine. Cylons have a fricking glowing spine and humans don't. They don't have glowing spine, they don't have glowing stuff near their spine, they don't have organs that secrete stuff that combines to glow near their spine, none of it. This is a not-very-subtle biological difference and thus (whatever the precise mechanism) ought to be usable for making a distinction between Cylons and humans.
Why are you even arguing this point? I doubt you actually disagree.
add to that the fact that we don’t know if the humans even know about the glowing spine thing.
Aha. I expected that explanation to come up. But in that case my next question will just be: why not?
Cuz humans haven't really delved all that much into Cylon biology. Right? (Even leaving aside the fact that numerous humans have had sex with Cylons now without, according to your story here, ever noticing it.) I guess humans kinda sweepingly concluded, or Doc Cottle said offhandedly early on, or something, that Cylons and humans were indistinguishable, and that was that. No one got curious. No one asked questions. No one said gee I wonder what's under the hood. There was the short time period of the (supposedly) failed Baltar test, but since then no one's really been all that curious. If you're going to try to tell me that humans haven't looked at Cylon biology enough to learn about the glowing spine, that is.
So maybe you're right that humans haven't based a test on the glowing spine for the simple reason that they don't even know about it. But that would only make them stupider and even more unbelievably incurious in my book. In other words, it would remain a 'believability' strike against BSG's writing, just for a different reason.
If you don’t know HOW a critter is glowing you can’t test for IF they can glow. How do you look for glowing stuff in the spine if you don’t know how they glow?
Well at the very least to even get to that point, you have to dissect the critter and poke around in him and try to figure out what makes him tick. In the process you'd encounter organs and chemicals that are at least somewhat dissimilar from what humans have. Unless you're really trying to claim here that it's physically possible for Cylons to be both indistinguishable from humans on all but the molecular level and have spines that can freaking glow. But I don't think that's believable and this constitutes my complaint.
Eventually you just have to accept that it’s fiction.
Um, it's not that I "don't accept" that it's fiction. It's that the fictionality of it is too jarringly obvious sometimes. And this is not a good property of science fiction, which is by its very nature speculative. What you're really saying is that it's on some level okay to be unbelievable/implausible 'because it's fiction'. But by saying that you're no longer even arguing with me.
Remember air tanks don’t really explode like in Jaws either, but it works in the movie so you move on.
If the things I'm talking about 'worked' in BSG then I'd move on as well. My point is precisely that they don't 'work'. Remember, I'm totally able to let slide things such as walking gun-toting robots with a pointless sliding red eye, giant starships, etc etc etc. It's because sci-fi asks you to suspend your disbelief to such a great extent to begin with, that getting the world consistent and believable (on its own terms) is so important. BSG, for all its merits, has faltered in this regard.
And actually I don’t WANT them to explain those little craps. Story points, like how long has Tigh been a Cylon, should be explained, tech points shouldn’t.
I don't nec. want them to 'explain' it either. But I do want to be able to tell myself that an explanation is possible. For many of the things I'm talking about, I don't think a true explanation is logically possible.
If things mesh all the way through the story then there’s no reason to continue telling the story.
I don't really agree with this kind of thing. In fact it's a weird thing to say (try repeating it back to yourself).
Part of the point of having mysteries in a story is to give the viewer a reason to watch the next episode.
'Mysteries' and 'unexplainable, unresolved inconsistencies and fantastical notions' are not one and the same. It's not as if this is an Inspector Poirot story and I'm complaining that they haven't revealed the murderer on page 1. This is a speculative fiction story (that purports to show a rich, alternate universe populated by faraway humans) and my complaints are about technological nonsense, humans who don't behave in believable ways, etc. It's not as if the glowing spine is a 'mystery' in BSG. The glowing spine is just an unexplained thing that makes no sense (and which was thrown in there 'because it would be cool', most likely) in BSG. Not. the. same. thing.
You’re demanding episodic TV, all mysteries solved by the end of each episode, no dangling questions, no reason from this week to watch next week.
No, I'm really not. And you're asserting two things here that I really disagree with, (1) that stuff like the glowing spine constitutes some sort of 'mystery', and (2) the main reason to watch serial drama is to learn what the solutions to the previous week's 'mysteries' are. Becuase you're implying that without 'mysteries' there would be 'no reason' to keep watching. But this leaves out a whole host of other reasons, including characterization, interesting themes, action, adventure, heroism, tragedy etc etc. Many of the most successful dramas involve very few 'mysteries' as such. You really can't be saying that the whole point of watching serials is merely to go from one 'mystery' to the next.
I’m saying if you don’t sense 10 years worth of pre-thought behind BSG it’s because it’s not there.
Indeed.
You might not want to make it seem like that’s the only kind of story you like, but your complaints demonstrate that really is the only kind of story you like.
No they don't. Again, one of my favorite shows of all time was Deadwood and I do not perceive Deadwood to have been pre-thought-out. Are you just ignoring the part where I said that?
Which is fine, like whatever kind of story you want, but it’s clear that your complaints really boil down to BSG isn’t your type of story.
Well, wait. I still watch. And I loved it the first two seasons. How does that add up to "not my type of story"? It's not my type of story yet I somehow loved it the first two seasons? Huh?
Again, I'm just disappointed in it.
None of claimed inconsistencies exist,
None. None! There are NO inconsistencies whatsoever in BSG. NONE! Got it.
I doubt you really believe that so I'll chalk that up to hyperbole.