My theory on Earth

[Lady Snow]

One of the great things about the show is that it sets up a whole lot of false assumptions.

The most recent one: Earth = Pythia's "promised land."

Pythia, in that very first mention of her prophecy by Elosha (S1, "Hand of God"), does not say Earth. At all. The scripture is very vague, and Roslin (and by extension, WE) projected Earth onto the "new homeland."

Roslin could still die before reaching their new homeland. No one ever said it had to be Earth.

[P-90_177]

Spoiler:

No, I'm pretty sure it's Earth. It would be a total cheat if it turned out to be some "imposter" Earth or something absurd like that. They have cars and that was the Brooklyn Bridge right? It's gotta be Earth. So that just means that Roslyn is *not* the dying leader in the prophecy. Simple as that.

you're right about the cars part. though it has been stated that it's definately not new york.

[Rail'k]

Damn i was expecting them showing up in modern earth just like in the original and arriving to deal with the chaos that would ensue when the fleet suddenly appeared in orbit of the planet. but Noooooooo they had to land on a post apocalyptic earth how lame is that not very interesting i found it very very disappointing it feels like they where trying to make a political statement an i find that political statements tend to ruin shows. Sci-fi is meant to stimulate the imagination and most viewers don’t want to see something that makes a statement like eventually we are going to destroy ourselves it is just way to depressing. even for BSG standards.

[FrakAttack]

My theory is cylon technology is Earth technology. And Kobol was colonized by Earth.

That's what I thought. Evil machines destroyed Earth just like Caprica, etc., and a few human survivors fled and their descendants settled the Colonies, forgot their past and re-built the evil machines, lather, rinse, repeat and you have the "happened before/again" thing. Hell, maybe it's been going back and forth like that for millenia. And the Fifth could be an evolved form of the machine that started the Earth war that remained behind, making it the father/creator or One True God of the Cylons.
Only problem is, none of that explains the "new" Viper that Starbuck flew back, unless the Fifth rebuilt or repaired it somehow, suggesting that it may be a benevolent force. Maybe the Fifth has been all alone for centuries on Earth living in a kind of immortality, has come to regret what it and it's Cylon offspring have done, and has somehow orchestrated the human race's return to Earth along with the now mortal Cylons so that they can try to live together as equals. And the music that the Four keep hearing is a beacon from the Fifth that's calling them all home.
I think the Fifth finally realized that the Cylons had to become mortal in order to be truly equal with the humans and that was the only way to ultimately find peace.

[P-90_177]

Damn i was expecting them showing up in modern earth just like in the original and arriving to deal with the chaos that would ensue when the fleet suddenly appeared in orbit of the planet. but Noooooooo they had to land on a post apocalyptic earth how lame is that not very interesting i found it very very disappointing it feels like they where trying to make a political statement an i find that political statements tend to ruin shows. Sci-fi is meant to stimulate the imagination and most viewers don’t want to see something that makes a statement like eventually we are going to destroy ourselves it is just way to depressing. even for BSG standards.

I thought this was the BEST way to do it. I would have ben hugely disapointed if they'd found a modern day earth, or even a future earth with their own ships and stuff. I would have been incredibly disappointed in RDM.

[Trek_Girl42]

I thought this was the BEST way to do it. I would have ben hugely disapointed if they'd found a modern day earth, or even a future earth with their own ships and stuff. I would have been incredibly disappointed in RDM.

A future earth with tons of technology would have been stupid. Battlestar is about the lack of, or very basic technology, rather than the presence of it, even the cylons don't have anything particularly fancy! Introduce high tech humans into the equation and yuck.

Same if they appeared in modern day. I have no idea why or how to explain it, but that would take away the realism of the show. And yes, I know how weird that sounds.

[P-90_177]

A future earth with tons of technology would have been stupid. Battlestar is about the lack of, or very basic technology, rather than the presence of it, even the cylons don't have anything particularly fancy! Introduce high tech humans into the equation and yuck.

Same if they appeared in modern day. I have no idea why or how to explain it, but that would take away the realism of the show. And yes, I know how weird that sounds.

Doesn't sound weird to me. I think the same.

[Starbuck]

A future earth with tons of technology would have been stupid. Battlestar is about the lack of, or very basic technology, rather than the presence of it, even the cylons don't have anything particularly fancy! Introduce high tech humans into the equation and yuck.

Same if they appeared in modern day. I have no idea why or how to explain it, but that would take away the realism of the show. And yes, I know how weird that sounds.

I agree. This is why I had no idea WHAT to expect come the day they actually found earth. I knew if they made it modern day it would be like 'oh. yay. *is sarcastic*' Therefore them arriving on a devestated and clearly dead planet was I found a really good plot turn for the show. I knew the writers wouldn't let us down. It shall be interesting to see where they go from here on. I really still have no idea what to expect, but Im starting to realise that the fifths revelation and importance to the story is going to be a hell of a lot bigger and meaningful than most of us think.

[apollo123]

I don't know if anyones came up with the same idea as to the finding of Earth as I have and i don't know if this should be posted somewere else but here goes.

My idea on Earth is that it is uninhabited by any human life when the colonials reach there, They have a short lead on the cylon fleet and begin exploring the planet in the time they have left. Knowing that they can't defeat the cylon fleet following them they hatch a plan to use the Cylon virus to destroy the cylon race but obviosly need to attack them first.

The colonials infect the cylons somehow either using another captured cylon or Athena opts for the suicide mission, Galactica performs the raid on the cylon fleet a few jumps from Earth and the attack is succesful. But it will take time to spread throughout the entire cylon fleet and galactica will have to withstand the final desperate actions of the cylons. The cylon fleet jumps into Earth orbit and begins destroying the fleet. Eventually they begin to destroy galactica and disable Galacticas sunlight engines sending it into a degrading orbit Gaius Baltar manages to escape from what ever ship its on before its destroyed. And Caprica six makes it off the cylon base ship uninfected (Somehow) the fleets are both destroyed on due to virus/ extreme decent. This leaves only 2 survivors Baltar and Six (Adam and Eve) then the 2 get down to it and the Earthlings are born cylon-human hybrid race with a large god complex.

If you're trying to come with a scenerio in which Baltar and Six are the Adam and Eve of the human race, e.g. we the viewing audience, this doesn't work. The Earth that they arrive at is clearly the Earth of our future, not of our past. There are destroyed bridges and overturned cars, for example. Furthermore, our history is not consistent with a race that evolved from 2 people rebuilding a pre-populated world after a global disaster.

[apollo123]

Damn i was expecting them showing up in modern earth just like in the original and arriving to deal with the chaos that would ensue when the fleet suddenly appeared in orbit of the planet. but Noooooooo they had to land on a post apocalyptic earth how lame is that not very interesting i found it very very disappointing it feels like they where trying to make a political statement an i find that political statements tend to ruin shows. Sci-fi is meant to stimulate the imagination and most viewers don’t want to see something that makes a statement like eventually we are going to destroy ourselves it is just way to depressing. even for BSG standards.

If you don't like political statements, I don't understand why you're watching this show. That aside, there could be other explanations for the destruction of Earth. I still think that Starbuck is somehow responsible since she is the "harbinger of death".

[Jeffala]

but Noooooooo they had to land on a post apocalyptic earth how lame is that not very interesting i found it very very disappointing it feels like they where trying to make a political statement an i find that political statements tend to ruin shows.

What statement do you believe that they're trying to make? I inferred nothing from it other than the fact that the planet had been decimated by some unknown cause.

If you don't like political statements, I don't understand why you're watching this show. That aside, there could be other explanations for the destruction of Earth. I still think that Starbuck is somehow responsible since she is the "harbinger of death".

Perhaps when Starbuck went wherever she went while she was gone for two months, she went back in time and wound up at Earth--a still advanced Earth, mind you, where they rubbed some "brand new" cream on her Viper--and when she was returned to the present and to Galactica's location, it caused some sort of cataclysm on Earth and destroyed civilization there.

It's a (major) stretch but it would fulfill the prophecy of her being the harbinger of death.

[Mongoletsi]

... Eventually they begin to destroy galactica and disable Galacticas sunlight engines sending it into a degrading orbit Gaius Baltar manages to escape from what ever ship its on before its destroyed. And Caprica six makes it off the cylon base ship uninfected (Somehow) the fleets are both destroyed on due to virus/ extreme decent. This leaves only 2 survivors Baltar and Six (Adam and Eve) then the 2 get down to it and the Earthlings are born cylon-human hybrid race with a large god complex.

This isn't a "theory", it's just what you'd like to see happen Sadly it wouldn't work anyway; you need a much large gene pool in order for a species to survive.

Anyway my objection to the above is mainly that The Rest of The Cylons only have a vague idea where Earth is - they're lacking the Final Five and the superspookyviper to guide them there, so I don't think they would be able to reach Earth. That said, they obviously will as there's 10 episodes left

[Mongoletsi]

You know Adam & Eve alone wouldn't have had a large enough genetic diversity to create a sustainable population? Neither would Baltar & Six; especially a population that will apparently rise to 6,700,000,000 people.

Note to self; read other people's replys before posting

Mate, don't upset the fundaMENTALists, a whole load of them do actually believe, word for word, the biblical creation story...

http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm

Ooops sorry! Wrong meeting!

[Mongoletsi]

Damn i was expecting them showing up in modern earth just like in the original

Which was totally crap, convoluted, contrived, etc.

but Noooooooo they had to land on a post apocalyptic earth how lame is that

Not at all mate. Just anothed reminder of humanity's ability to constantly frak each other and itself up, repeatedly. I guess a lot of folk find it more interesting than a contrived arrival right "now". Hahaha I saw Galaxy Quest a few weeks back - total (respectful) pisstake of the Sci-Fi genre. It makes the point far more succinctly than I!

Sci-fi is meant to stimulate the imagination and most viewers don’t want to see something that makes a statement like eventually we are going to destroy ourselves it is just way to depressing. even for BSG standards.

"most viewers"? You should be pleased to know that a lot of BSG viewers aren't hardned Sci-Fi nuts, and appreciate the storytelling, rather than the geek stuff. I got into SG-1 as my sis liked it and it was actually quite amusing; used to cringe at some of the cheesy Sci-Fi staples though. Apart from that I'm not really into this kinda thing, but for some reason can't get enough of BSG. I've got even less "geeky" friends into it too. Sorry if us lesser mortals have invaded your territory

Perhaps (allow me to disappear up my own arse for a moment) that's why I get so vexxed with a lot of posts here. While I regard a lot of the "theories" as baseless "wish lists" of fans, maybe there's something to it? It seems Sci-Fi fans have a much closer relationship with the show itself than other genres. It's very obvious indeed that the BSG writers and whatnot come on these boards. So maybe I just don't understand why/how folk can put forward some rather illogical theories which obviously just reflect the way they want the story to go.

Me? I like BSG constantly surprising us.

Btw, RDM has definitely said that they never reach Earth, I seem to recall. Going back to the question; is this actually Earth, or just another waypoint?

[Mongoletsi]

Furthermore, our history is not consistent with a race that evolved from 2 people

Tell that to the Kansas school board