I’ve blogged previously about the issue of food on Battlestar Galactica: specifically, where are they getting it? With some 40,000 odd people on the Colonial Fleet, that’s quite a few mouths to feed. Previously I speculated that perhaps they were growing food and raising cattle or poultry on some of the civilian ships. Last night’s episode, The Passage, touched on the food issue. The food on the Colonial Fleet became contaminated, and unless they found food soon, the entire fleet would soon starve. They do find food on a planet, sort of: they find edible algae on a planet beyond a star cluster. It has to be put through their “food processing” machine before its edible.
Based on the episode, does the fleet, after all, harvest food from planets? And if that’s the case, wouldn’t planets that support food edible by humans – particularly plant food, which would produce oxygen – support human life? Which slingshots us back to the question I posed previously: if they’ve passed all of these planets that could support human life, why didn’t they set up shop there? I suppose they might have passed them up simply from fear of the Cylons finding them. As I recall, New Caprica was in a place where (supposedly) the Cylons would never find them. That turned out real well…
Another question that comes up based on last night’s episode is this: if they’re harvesting edible plants from planets for their food source, does that mean the entire fleet is vegetarian? Okay, everyone: tonight’s dinner is cooked algae! Tomorrow’s dinner will be steamed algae. The next night will be….
Technorati Tags: battlestar, bsg
Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Scifi
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Heh, I suppose their food processing machine can make stuff like veggie burgers?
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I’d rather starve.
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Hey, maybe their equipment is advanced. On the other hand, maybe the people on the show make a “We can go to the moon” type complaint.
“We can jump at speeds faster than light, but we can’t make a decent chicken sandwich out of algae!”
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“Maybe their equipment is advanced.”
That’s exactly what I want to know about.
I want to know the explanation for how they’re producing decent food out of algae. Unfortunately the episode never made so much as a mention of the actual process. I guess it’s back to waiting for another episode about food on BSG. -
I think that for whatever reason it was more of a primordial planet, with volcanos and rocks and everything, and just slime covered rocks and pools of bubbling goo.
Sounds yummy!
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Frankly, the best food prep in all of speculative fiction is on The Jetsons, of course. Ask Jane Jetson, I’m sure she’ll cop to having the easiest kitchen in all of “the future.”
I’m currently watching the beginning of Season Three, so I’ve been thinking about what made Lee’s cheeks (all of them) get round and rosy lately.
Transfats in the future? Dependence on simple carbs?
Was there a Weight Watchers meeting to attend on Cloud Nine that doesn’t exist anymore?
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Battlestar Fan: sorry for taking forever to get back to you! Indeed, it sounds so appetizing…
Joe B.: I’ve got some very fuzzy memories of The Jetsons bumping around in my head, but it’s been a while, and when I was a kid I didn’t care much for the show. How does Jane’s kitchen work?
Regarding Lee’s weight: that comes out later in the series, I believe. Essentially he got lazy as he went up the ranks and stopped exercising / taking care of himself.
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