Talk:Anastasia Dualla/Archive 1

Sooooo...anybody else completely stumped as to how this whole wiki thing is going to go now? Rocky8311 22:20, 10 March 2006 (CST)

Meaning what exactly?--The Merovingian 22:22, 10 March 2006 (CST)

Well, just how everything's been turned on its head and it's hard to know what the characters' roles are now. And we're not going to know exactly what happened in the finale until we're able to determine it from the next season's episodes. Mostly, I was just shellshocked when I wrote that and I CANNOT believe they're hanging us out to dry until October. Rocky8311 01:11, 11 March 2006 (CST)

XO of Pegasus

The relevant info from Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II (podcast) (Act 6, yet to be transcribed):
Eick: Now we never talked about this, but is she the XO here? Do we think she's become the Tigh of the Pegasus?
Moore: I think she has. I think that's something that happened in the year off and I think that essentially so many people left Galactica and Pegasus that they really are on skeleton crews and, y'know, somebody like Dualla that went to Pegasus to be with Lee, presumably, and we'll deal more with— we have episodes that deal more with the circumstances of that in season three, and how that happened and why, but the idea was she essentially went over there and more people kept leaving and leaving, and Lee made her the XO.

I think this is pretty clear, given the source, so we can probably get rid of "presumed" from the succession box. I do want to point out that she'd pretty much have to be a captain or higher to be in the XO position (Captain Aaron Kelly filled in as XO while Tigh was in command). For Dualla to go from PO2 (E-5) to Captain (O-4) in a year would demand both a very fast series of promotions, and a very high rate of attrition within the officer ranks. I don't think it's completely implausible, but it's hard to imagine that Pegasus didn't have a single officer left with any command competence. It's also probably not good military practice to have one's significant other in a directly subordinate position, but Dualla's strong willed enough (c.f. Home, Part I) that it's probably not a huge problem. --Peter Farago 16:56, 24 March 2006 (CST)

Yeah. That is pretty clear that we can get rid of presumed. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 17:21, 24 March 2006 (CST)

If normal military protocol were still being strictly followed, you'd be right about the promotions and the relationship issues. However, this is no longer a remotely normal situation. One of the interesting differences between Original Series protocol and RDM Series protocol is that the Original Series treated battlestars like fiefdoms, and it was perfectly normal for Adama and Cain to have their children serving with them; like a feudal lord, Adama was both a military and a civilian leader (he was on the Quorom at the same time as being Commander of Galactica). At the outset, the RDM Series was modeling Colonial military protocol on US protocol -- strict separation of military and civilian concerns, and civilian control of the military, even in extremis. That disciplined, constitutional and republican (small 'r' deliberate) approach now appears to be breaking down because it's increasingly impractical to enforce.--Uncle Mikey 11:35, 25 March 2006 (CST)

Still, isn't it odd that Bill Adama had at least two officers serving under him (Tigh and Helo) while Lee had to promote an enlisted crewman to be his XO? I would think the most appropriate way to distribute personnel would have been for Bill to loan Helo to Lee. --Peter Farago 12:25, 25 March 2006 (CST)

Alot can happen in a year. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 12:32, 25 March 2006 (CST)

I haven't seen the eps yet (insert usual excuses here) but my impression was that Tigh went planetside. Really, of the people we know are officers, there aren't very many left (except on the technicality that all pilots, however green, are officers). Which is one of the things that's going to make S3 interesting -- all the old relationships are really totally jumbled up, now, and a lot of the people Adama had come to depend upon are no longer available to him. Setting aside the rest of the fleet for the moment, Adama has taken Galactica out to sea (as it were) without his senior CPO, who was also the best mechanic and manager of mechanics available (Tyrol), along with at least some of the flight deck crew; without trusted bridge officers like Tigh and Gaeta; and without trusted pilots like Thrace and his son (albeit the latter for different reasons). Unless there was some degree of conscription/coercion involved (not my impression), he's left with a purely voluntary corps who are still on board not because of their skills or specialties, but because of their scepticism in the viability of New Caprica and/or their dedication to the idea that New Caprica still needs a defence.--Uncle Mikey 12:43, 25 March 2006 (CST)

Tigh only went planetside during the scenes we saw, so he was with the fleet for a full year before then. I'm not trying to have an argument about the merits of the writing, which I don't think are in question; I'm just pointing out that it's a little bit weird. --Peter Farago 12:47, 25 March 2006 (CST

OK, then I agree, it's a little odd. Since we're apparently going to get at least some of the gaps filled in, hopefully we'll get to see the thought process behind the staffing decisions.--Uncle Mikey 12:51, 25 March 2006 (CST)

I think that given the evidence yes, Dualla is the "highest ranking officer under Apollo on Pegasus" and, thus, "technically" the XO, but I mean, she's the XO of a "skeleton crew"...I mean on Star Trek TNG, Doctor Crusher commanded the ship during "Descent, Part II" when there was a skeleton crew on board. --->For practical matters, in terms of the XO of Pegasus link bar at the bottom, yeaaaaaahh it's fuzzy, but, mulling it over, technically yeah she is the XO even though it's not such a big deal. But yeah. I'm all for leaving her in the XO succession link bar. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 22:16, 25 March 2006 (CST)

Not trying to be combative, but using Trek as an example or counter-example of anything regarding military protocol is a bad idea. Considering that the production staff could not itself agree whether Starfleet was or was not a military organisation in the first place (Roddenberry was adamant that it was not), Trek's grasp of how real militaries historically have worked was extremely slippery. It could get away with a lot simply by saying, "This is the shiny happy future. Things change!" Galactica can get away with some similar slipperyness because this isn't "our" culture, but enough effort has been made to make it cognate with our culture that there are limits to what they can do and not have "bullshit" called. That said, having Dee as XO, even if merely by default, doesn't exceed those limits, but only because of the deliberate one-year gap that leaves room for all sorts of explanations.--Uncle Mikey 08:07, 26 March 2006 (CST)

Well yeah; sorry about that; Starfleet is more of an exploratory corps...but I digress. My point was just that it's not a big shocker that she's the XO when it's a skeleton crew...but yeah I guess that would make her the XO. Doesn't matter. Ok. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 20:03, 26 March 2006 (CST)

Rank

Merv, what was your source when you updated her rank to "Lieutenant"? --Peter Farago 14:26, 9 April 2006 (CDT)