Guns of Battlestar Galactica - CZ-52!!

[Newton]

They use FN Five Sevens as the basis for the officer's sidearm and Beretta Storms as the basis for the infantry rifles.

The under barrel attachments on the Five Sevens may look like laser/light attachments but they are in fact a single shot secondary weapon with armor piercing capabilities. They were shown being used in that role during an episode when the Cylons managed to get on board Galactica, in fact they played a key role because only a few of the large caliber "special" rounds were available in the armory.

 

[KriegHund]

However, just recently I think I saw SG-1 move to the HK little PDW and 223 rifles. Wonder if companies try to get sci-fi shows to product place their guns? Like Bud in movies.

Thats the MP-7. Cool gun, T'ealc likes to use two at once, ive noticed. I dont like em as much as the P-90's and frankly consider them less effective aside from the flaw in the p-90's magazine.

http://www.hkpro.com/pdw

Although that 4.6mm has better armor piercing capabilities than the 5.7. And the 40 rnd mag capabiltiey somewhat makes up for the P-90's 50 rnds. It is also smaller, and due to the bolt sytem (as opposed to the strange P90 bolt system) that is an advantage too.

So they put wood grips on the FN 57? And that cylon-killer UBA idea is cool

 

[stolivar]

kool

definately a CZ 52 and a makarov.


steve

 

[Dr.Rob]

The other small handgun was an Intratec CAT-9, not a C.O.P. it's been used several times on BG.

http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976658884.htm

Galactica has even mentioned calibers... as Adama was shot with a 9mm.

It's a cool show, though i usually have to wait until Monday to watch it.

 

[Crosshair]

Engage Geek mode.

I really like the series, but it seems to me that in the situation they are in they are still "oversupplied" for a society that lacks replicators (Star trek technology). I would think they would have run out of some spares by now. They also seem to have a huge supply of food, clothes, ammo, etc. At least having a basic replicator system would make the series better and believeable. (Like how Voyager never ran out of shuttlecraft. )

It would "Explain away" why they never seems to run out of some things. Then they could talk about how their replicators are at full capacity and they need to reuse as much as possible until the replacements are completed. Then that would explain away the over abundance of ammo since it is easier to replicate ammo components than small arms. Heck, they could show civilians working to load ammo and put together guns for the military. They could still talk about being short on items without the audience wondering when they ARE going to run out.

Some replicators in Sci-Fi are very slow (Not instant like Star Trek) and take several hours to comlete a single item. If they had "slow" replicators the characters would still be pressured to reuse old parts (And keep the "seat of your pants" improvisation and adaptation that so many of us like in this show.) because it takes so long and so many resourses to make a new part, yet spares would still be available if needed.

Just my rambelings.

 

[KriegHund]

Actually they have their own MFG for ammo, as shown in the episode where the pro-cylon peace people sabatoge the rounds.

And in another episode the vipers had to protect a mining operation.

Food wouldnt be that difficult if you had an entire biodome-ish ship.

Remember, they only have 50,000 (49,524 or something liek that?) people to support. Thats less than an average big city.

 

[HankB]

BSG uses modern day "Earth" type guns because putting together something else would cost more money.

Same reason the Cylons look like us - it's cheaper to use an actor/actress than it is to use CG or animatronics of robotic enemies.

And there are only a limited number of Cylon-human look alikes - fewer actors/actresses to pay.

People wear glasses, formal attire includes things like suits and ties that wouldn't look out of place in any business office today . . . OF COURSE styles will be the same as on Earth after thousands of years of separation . . . when you have a limited budget.

And theres's a reason they use so many flashbacks - sometimes, the SAME flashback is used repeatedly in the same episode. It saves money over shooting more footage.

Limited budgets tend to crimp a movie's style . . . unfortunately, when the limited budgets extend to the writing/plot/storyline, you don't end up with a "Firefly" or a "Babylon 5" or even a "Stargate SG-1," you end up with a BSG.

 

[Coronach]

Actually, the producers stated that the reason they chose current-look things (clothes, sets, props, etc) is to evoke a certain feel from the audience (they did the same thing with revenue-neutral things like names and the organizational structure of their military). Classic sci-fi takes an escapist theme, and the more otherworldly you can make everything the easier it is to achieve that disconnect between the show and reality. BSG deliberately did this the other way around; they're doing everything possible to make the viewer relate to the show, down to giving the actors real-world names, believable costumes, a military that is very recognizable, sets that look like they were lifted off of a navy warship, fighters that look futuristic but are handled like real aircraft, etc etc etc. This was done deliberately, and not for revenue reasons. I bet that if you added it up, it is a heck of a lot more expensive to do it this way than it is to give everyone a jumpsuit and a dustbuster a la Star Trek.

Even making the Cylons look like humans was not done for monetary savings, but for the plot elements made possible by the choice (conspiracy, espionage, assassinations, etc). Note, again, that in an age of terrorism, this is something very familiar to the viewer. You'll note that they still have the machine Cylons, which appear from time to time and blow stuff up. They're well-done CGI and probably not cheap.

As to the choice between Stargate, Babylon 5 and BSG, I'd choose BSG every time. It's better written, directed, acted and produced. As to Firefly, well...I think we all admit that its loss was a tragedy.

Mike

 

[HankB]

Well, then I take it the cost savings of the producer's stated choices are just a lucky side effect of feeding their creative inspirations.

My own preference is for Babylon 5, though I agree with your comments about BSG's superiority . . . except in the areas of writing, directing, acting, and production.

 

[SteveS]

As to the choice between Stargate, Babylon 5 and BSG, I'd choose BSG every time. It's better written, directed, acted and produced. As to Firefly, well...I think we all admit that its loss was a tragedy.

I agree. The writing and acting on BSG is, IMO, better than Stargate and Babylon 5. I especially liked the return of the Pegasus. As for Firefly, I hated to see it go.

 

[cls12vg30]

BSG is just about my favorite show right now, up there with 24, and my favorite Scifi show ever, except for Firefly.

I love how they still use projectile weapons and other low-tech stuff, it helps to avoid the meaningless technobabble that Star Trek used to use to explain away plot holes.

In Friday's episode, the gun that Apollo took and then stupidly surrendered was definitely a CZ-52, it looked to me like the part of the barrel visible through the port was chromed, never seen that before. The terrorist leader's Makarov was either Russian or East German, I think, judging from the look of the safety, and it had the fixed rear sight, so if it was Russian it was a military model, not commercial. The machine pistol used was a Czech Vz.61 Skorpion. These guys really seem to like their ComBloc weapons.
The pistols that Starbuck used in the first shootout looked like Vector CP-1's to me.

Anybody else notice that Apollo and Billy both seemed to be shot in the right side of the chest, but Apollo stayed conscious and lived, while Billy was dead before he hit the floor, eyes still wide open? I don't think a right-side chest shot would kill someone like that, especially since I think he got hit with a round from the Skorpion, which fires .32ACP!

And I also noticed that Apollo was threatening to shoot the one terrorist in the back of the head with a CZ52 with the hammer down.....

Here's a pic of the terrorist leader lady with her Mak, is it me or his her finger BEHIND the trigger?:

 

[Coronach]

Well, then I take it the cost savings of the producer's stated choices are just a lucky side effect of feeding their creative inspirations.

Yes, but, as I said, if you look at how they do production on the show, there is no cost savings from much of what they do. BSG's sets and props are almost certainly more expensive than the comparable sets on any of the Star Trek spinoffs, Stargate and Babylon 5. Sure, they manage to keep down costs by having actors portray Cylons, but they did that in the original series, too, by putting extras in robot suits...that would probably be even cheaper than having actors in lieu of CGI.

Mike

 

[otomik]

in that sabotage plotline, looked like the vipers (raptors? whatever starfighters) used 20mm M50 type ammunition. I also enjoy the fact that both sides use nukes a lot (defying the hollywoodism of nukes always being worthless and plain evil, exemplified in Independence Day). Maybe we can get back to the Heinlein world of powered armor troopers hopping from bughole to bughole stuffing nukes down like so much boiling water down ant hives.

 

[cls12vg30]

After the fiasco of the last time, I don't think anyone's going to be rushing to make "Starship Troopers" again.

 

[mini14jac]

OK, somebody answer this one for me.
At the end of the first season, or beginning of the second, there was a scene where the President's guards all pulled their guns.
(She was about to be arrested or assassinated or something.)
They looked like small, CCW-style 9mm guns.
Same episode had an assassin with the same small gun in a briefcase.

Anybody remember what the gun was?

I'm kinda proud of my "gun ID" ability, but I couldn't place that one.

 

[HankB]

BSG's sets and props are almost certainly more expensive than the comparable sets on any of the Star Trek spinoffs, Stargate and Babylon 5.

Actually, this comment reminds me of something Dolly Parton once said in reference to her hair . . . "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap."

 

[Igloodude]

The new Galactica also uses old military hardened phones on the ship. I believe the idea was that the ship itself was outmoded and about to retire, sort of like an Iowa-class battleship...but it turned out to be sturdier than the newer ones.

Yeah, the comm box that you see on Galactica looks like it was pulled directly from the 1970s era frigate I served on, probably without even changing the labels. And someone that served on US Navy warships (probably a carrier) is assisting with the show, because there's a very definite and specific CIC vibe in Galactica's command center.

 

[Manedwolf]

People wear glasses, formal attire includes things like suits and ties that wouldn't look out of place in any business office today . . . OF COURSE styles will be the same as on Earth after thousands of years of separation . . . when you have a limited budget.

The guns, I can see, form follows function.

But the neckties? That'd take a heck of a lot of convergent evolution of fashion. Neckties came from cravats, and those originally came from the idea of a thick cloth tied around your neck to keep an opponent in battle from slicing your neck or chopping off your head.

 

[otomik]

But the neckties? That'd take a heck of a lot of convergent evolution of fashion. Neckties came from cravats, and those originally came from the idea of a thick cloth tied around your neck to keep an opponent in battle from slicing your neck or chopping off your head.

Obviously a lot of fashion and gun design and whatnot are influenced by our ancestral memories/premortal memories/immortal thetans. Scientologists maintain that the design of the DC-8 jet airliner is strongly influenced by the design of a slave ship from some galactic empire. BSG was created with a lot of LDS influences and mormons believe in a premortal existence with a faraway spiritual homeworld called kolob or kobol or something like that. I personally think it's pretty cool that people mention God on BSG once in a while, Star Trek was unwaveringly condescending to religion.

 

[Coronach]

I'm not sure where they are going with the theology; the humans are polytheistic and the Cylons are monotheistic. There's a lot of potential for either slamming or affirming the role of religion in society, and so far they have not gone either way, they're just tantalizing the viewer with hints of What This All Means.

As to the names and clothing 'evolving' into things resembling modern culture, you're missing the point. they're not trying to pretend that it is normal or reasonable to assume that there is any rational explanaition for the existence of a group of people on the other side of the Galaxy, who conveniently look like modern homo sapiens, conveniently speak modern american english, dress similar to what we do, have a military structure like we do, have names like we do and use weapons like we do. If they were trying to be rational about it, the show would be incomprehensible because everyone would look and act radically different than real-life people and no one would speak english. While this might make it on French TV, it won't fly here. So they're asking the viewer to suspend disbelief and just go with it in toto, in the same manner that we routinely ignore the fact that aliens and foreigners all speak english in films.

Where it will all come crashing down is if they actually do find earth, in anything approaching the current time. I can pretend that people named "Will" and "Lee" light years away are having a drama on an aircraft carrier in space, but when they encounter people from the modern world, it just won't work.

"Hey, your name is Lee? Mine is too! Hey, wait- we both speak english? Dude? What the HECK?"

See? It won't work.

Mike

 

[Coronach]

Oh, and "Kobol" is from the original 1970s series, and was a joke on the computer language COBOL. I'm unaware of any overt LDS references in the show.

Mike

 

[Jammer Six]

And someone that served on US Navy warships (probably a carrier) is assisting with the show, because there's a very definite and specific CIC vibe in Galactica's command center.

Nope.

Not even close.

Unless you want to name a carrier that has a Colonel as an XO, a service in which subordinates drop hand salutes before they are returned, or in which commanding officers or NCOIC's issue commands to troops in ranks without first assuming the position of attention, or a service that renders honors from some half-baked position that involves standing at a slack slouch with your feet pointing all higglety-pigglty.

Battlestar is one of the best shows on TV, hands down.

It also bears the least resemblence to any current or former United States military service.

There are no U.S. veterans advising that writing staff, unless they are being ignored.

The only conclusion I've drawn from the fact that such a lazy portrayal exists is that Drill Sergeant Olguin must have finally died.

 

[jerkface11]

I like the way the cylons are religious extremists now. They're religious nuts who use suicide bombers and want to destroy civilization. How many tv shows have a bad guy like that? As for apalo trying to shoot someone with a CZ 52 that wasn't cocked maybe CZ 52's from kobol are DAO.

 

[Coronach]

Unless you want to name a carrier that has a Colonel as an XO, a service in which subordinates drop hand salutes before they are returned, or in which commanding officers or NCOIC's issue commands to troops in ranks without first assuming the position of attention, or a service that renders honors from some half-baked position that involves standing at a slack slouch with your feet pointing all higglety-pigglty.

The only thing in that with a logical explanaition is the Colonel bit; they kept the rank structure from the original series: Commander --> Colonel -->Captain -->dunno what...lieutenant? Something like that. Yes, it makes no sense in the context of modern military, but they wanted Col. Tigh to be a colonel, even if he is too drunk to remember the fact.

Mike

 

[asiparks]

Funnily enough they did reach earth in the 3rd of the original movies. And you're right it didn't work. At all. Jolly japes involving surprised biker gang types and flying motorcycles. Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict wisely steered well clear of it...

edited to add "Conquest of the Earth" was the title and apparently only the united kindom and a few other inconsequential countries were subjected to this jolly romp. see here for info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactica_1980