The Bob Dylan Connection

Source: Buddy TV

For a few minutes I was with the rest of the Battlestar Galactica fans in asking ‘What the hell is with the Dylan tune?’ Now, I think I can safely say I have come up with what is the most reasonable explanation for it, maybe. It’s kind of a crazy theory, but crazy times call for crazy thinking, and Batttlestar Galactica fans could use some sort of an explanation. Right?

So my idea goes a little like this: remember the probe that was found that emitted some sort of radiation harmful only to Cylons? Whose probe was that? The Cylons would have recognized it, no? So this was significant since they also were careful not to give any indication that the probe had come from Earth, which would have been too much information for sure.

One thing about the final five is their identities are a mystery even to the Cylons themselves. They are not just another model, they are revered entities with their own agenda. Is their agenda the same as the Cylons that we have come to despise, yet pity from time to time? Or, do these Cylons in fact harbor some of the original ideals of their masters? Are they the keepers of the ‘perfect form’, beings designed to further exploration?

So here comes my what if. Ron Moore indicated he chose ‘All Along the Watchtower’ for a specific reason. What if the reason was not the lyrics of the song, but when the song was published. The end sequences of Galactica showed us briefly that the rag tag fleet indeed does exist within the same galaxy as our good old planet Earth, and while the sequence was too quick for us to even get a general idea of how far away they were, you definitely got the feeling that they were close.

Okay, get on with the theory already. What if the song is being broadcast from a probe, a probe designed to fall into an orbit around a world, sample the radio frequencies, and then transmit them continuously in a band only receivable to Cylon hardware; in particular, final five Cylon hardware. Let’s remember that Athena and Six showed no signs of having received the signal.

This makes sense because the Cylons were probably looking for Earth a lot longer than the humans. If the final five were working with a secret agenda, they could have launched these probes far in advance of the Caprica war. In case hostility erupted betweens the humans and the Cylon’s, the final five would be designed to hide themselves and their agenda since they are not hell bent on revenge as the metallic and clone variety.

So if it is a beacon, and we assume the final five are the only ones that can receive it, and the signal is a radio wave, and (this is the big leap) we assume the show is taking place in present day, the significance of the song would not be its contents, but when it was first broadcast, which was in 1967. This would mean that the humans, and the Cylons, are a mere forty-light years from Earth.

- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer