Moore's Galactica, what exactly was number 6?

[JesterFace]

If I'm ever going to revisit this series I must ask.... I haven't watched this series in a long, long time but I don't remember was it ever really explained what was Number 6 in Gaius Baltar's head? Hallucination? Fantasy? Was Baltar insane? Was Baltar high? Apparently none of those, so what exactly?

If it was never really explained, as I remember it, that is just weak. ”Yeah, we have this character that has been around for years, we don't really know what it is.... Except eyecandy”.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Zoe Graystone from Caprica is the Cylon God.

Head Six is an Angel of the Cylon God.

 

[Reverend]

For all it's positives, the show had a habit of introducing concepts without any clear idea what they were really about, or where they're going with it, and all mostly just because they seemed cool and mysterious. As a result, there's a bunch of stuff that just defies any kind of logical reasoning. Like Lost basically, but a little less obnoxious about it.

So Head Six, Head Baltar, Undeaded Kara are indeed all agents of an unseen higher power...no not the Cylon God; the BSG writers room. Don't look for explanations beyond that, as that way lies madness.

 

[The Wormhole]

Head Six and Head Baltar were meant to be angels.

 

[FreezeC77]

Head Six and Head Baltar were meant to be angels.

I think that was certainly the implication given their final scene in far future of Earth.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Dei ex machina. Except they were not resolving the plot, more like driving it.

 

[Reverend]

Head Six and Head Baltar were meant to be angels.

"Meant" implies intent. They were not "meant" to be angels because when Head Six was first introduced they didn't know and hadn't decided what she was; no intent there beyond the superficial. They just thought it'd be cool and mysterious.
They were decided to be Angels. There's a difference.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Hallucination? Fantasy? Was Baltar insane? Was Baltar high? Apparently none of those, so what exactly?

Yes.

 

[JesterFace]

As I've understood the nuGalactica was more written as they went along, not well thought out.
They just thought of something and "hey, this could be cool, lets go" and no worries how it might affect the series.

If there's no explanation for headsix at all....
I'm losing interest about the rewatch.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I remember waiting for the big payout in the finale that never happened. Then I bought the BRD's and scrubbed through all the commentaries for all the episodes. In the end, the answer was something to the effect of, "We just threw random shit against the wall to see what sounded cool". That seemed to apply to everything and anything having to do with any semblance of a "Plan", both in the writers' room and amongst the Cylons. Needless to say, I was a bit perturbed. It was excellently written (IMO) as a character analysis piece, but the larger high-concept ideas that they dabbled with and actively alluded to were rarely addressed.

I remember how the reference to "He who should not be named" in the Book of Pythia (mentioned by Roslyn in a scene with Adama) damn near broke the internet with theories about the return of Count Iblis as a new bad guy to taunt the Colonials, which would necessarily demand the return of the Seraphs/Beings of Light. Nothing ever happened with any of that.

Did I mention that I was perturbed?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Head six and the return of Starbuck etc were intervention by a higher power (aka the writers). It's all as logical as magical MacGuffins allow. It was typical of a lot of drama around at that time period - Alias, Heroes, Carnivale, Lost, Millennium, X-Files , etc.

 

[JD]

As I've understood the nuGalactica was more written as they went along, not well thought out.
They just thought of something and "hey, this could be cool, lets go" and no worries how it might affect the series.

If there's no explanation for headsix at all....
I'm losing interest about the rewatch.

There was an explanation, her and Head Baltar were angels. We saw them on modern day Earth in the last scene, so they weren't just in Six and Baltar's heads. Now whether that was a good explanation is up to us to decide. I was a bit underwhelmed by it myself.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Head Six was an angel, she says so in '33' but Baltar dismissed it because he didn't believe in the supernatural yet.

 

[arch101]

I rather enjoyed that not everything was explained. Not everything in reality is explained either.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If I'm ever going to revisit this series I must ask.... I haven't watched this series in a long, long time but I don't remember was it ever really explained what was Number 6 in Gaius Baltar's head? Hallucination? Fantasy? Was Baltar insane? Was Baltar high? Apparently none of those, so what exactly?

If it was never really explained, as I remember it, that is just weak. ”Yeah, we have this character that has been around for years, we don't really know what it is.... Except eyecandy”.

She was an angel sent by God to lead mankind to its end.

 

[The Wormhole]

As I've understood the nuGalactica was more written as they went along, not well thought out.
They just thought of something and "hey, this could be cool, lets go" and no worries how it might affect the series.

Despite it being in the show's opening narration since day 1, there was no Cylon Plan. Indeed, Ron Moore literally tossed in "And they have a plan" into the narration at the last minute thinking it made the show sound more interesting.

 

[137th Gebirg]

To make matters even more wonky, they felt the need to make a separate TV movie, entitled "The Plan", to show what they were apparently really up to. A kind of sanctioned retcon. Usually that doesn't happen until after the series has ended and a subsequent series had to clean up some loose ends on what came before to make what comes after work in a new continuity.

Unless you're Disco.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

She was an angel sent by God to lead mankind to its end.

That was Starbuck, no?

 

[137th Gebirg]

I don't think anyone really knows for sure. Including the show-runners.

Head canon is king here. They're who/whatever you want them to be. Angels, demons, constructs, hallucinations, pan-dimensional beings... There was so much left unanswered, any concept could be valid, really.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

That was Starbuck, no?

No, Starbuck had a special destiny to die and transsubstantiate into an angel to lead them to new Earth. But she didn't know she was even dead until they found her remains.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

No, Starbuck had a special destiny to die and transsubstantiate into an angel to lead them to new Earth. But she didn't know she was even dead until they found her remains.

But the whole leading mankind "to it's end" was her thing.