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So in the end of season three I think, when Thrace comes back and says 'I found Earth', the ending zooms out of the galaxy, zooms back in, and I could have sworn I saw Florida, the continental United States, and the gulf of Mexico, all while hearing 'I found Earth and I will take you there'. So when they finally get to the (nuked out) fake-Earth, that is presumably the planet.

So, why does fake-Earth have a Florida and Mexico? (We know the final-Earth was found because in the end when they arrive, we clearly see Africa and Arabia).

Praxis
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Spacey
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    Can you provide screen shots of the "fake" Earth with eventual Earth continents? – Jack B Nimble Aug 27 '12 at 22:44
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    @JackBNimble I cant rip images off my DVD, no. But anyone who has watched the series will know. – Spacey Aug 27 '12 at 22:52
  • Alternative theory I had in mind, but I'm not posting it as an answer because it's kinda contradicted by Head Baltar and Head Caprica: The jump coordinates that Starbuck input were actually through time, and those are the same two Earths. Hera is supposed to become mitochondrial Eve, and was born of a human and a Cylon, so all her descendants will be part Cylon... It almost matches up. The problem is when the aforementioned "angels" pop up in the future and say something like "Maybe they'll get it right this time..". – Izkata Aug 28 '12 at 23:03

8 Answers8

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I don't think the expectation is that old Earth actually had the same continental layout as "our" Earth; when the fleet arrived in orbit around our Earth they did surveys of the land masses and did not give an indication that the shapes were recognizable.

I suspect that image was just used because it was a convenient way to show that Earth was "real" in the Galactica universe, without too much thought about the implications. It may also have been just a "teaser", implying that they would eventually reach our Earth, but not necessarily meaning that it was the same place Kara had located. Note that Kara does, in fact, eventually lead the colonists to that second Earth, so it still fits thematically, there was just a detour in the middle.

I'm not sure if the plan to have two Earths was planned from the start or not, so it's also possible that the original plan was for Kara to lead them to our Earth, but RDM decided to extended the story by making it the wrong Earth.

KutuluMike
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  • Hmm, I suppose... the thing is, she was very confident in saying she had found the 'Earth', and that she was going to take everyone there - so more than likely she truly thought the fake-Earth was Earth, and she indeed took them there eventually. I cannot imagine why the writers would have overlayed an image of the 'our' Earth on what Kara was saying, if they didnt intend for us to think she was talking about fake-Earth. – Spacey Aug 27 '12 at 23:40
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    out-of-universe, if I had to guess, the writers had nothing to do with what image was shown there; that would have been the SFX people in post-production filling in the images, and they may have just figured "huh, we need a picture of an earth-like planet. I have one of those!" – KutuluMike Aug 28 '12 at 00:01
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Given (as far as I know) it's not answered in the series but we do have strong indication of the intent given the existance of angels and a plan of "God", my suspicion has been that the first Earth was the original, while the second Earth was created in the first Earth's image specifically for the fleet's remnants. Doubly so given they were lead there by Starbuck.

Community
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dlanod
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    Interesting theory... a complete planetary clone... – Spacey Aug 27 '12 at 23:41
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    This is an interesting theory; the timing is suspect: the second earth must have been ~4 billion years old by the time the fleet landed there, given how far along primitive humans were. That would have been a hell of a lot of foresight on the part of whoever created it :) Of course, it's well within the capability of "God" so it could still be valid... – KutuluMike Aug 28 '12 at 00:03
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    The Magratheans built it! :) – Dima Aug 28 '12 at 13:27
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At the end of Season 3 they do show our planet, "New Earth", but Thrace hadn't been to this planet. She had been to "Original Earth" and that is where she initially leads the fleet, and subsequently finds her dead self. "Original Earth" is the planet the 13th tribe settled on and where the "Final Five" originated from.

The reasons for showing "New Earth" at the end of S3 are likely just to amp up the excitement among viewers. Given the combination of seeing our world and "All Along The Watchtower" song there was rampant speculation that the BSG fleet would arrive at "New Earth" in the 20th/21st century.

I think Moore did it for theatrics and hype for the final season.

Jonathan Miller
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    Yeah, I thought they might come into 'our' (modern) Earth and drop from teh sky at some point. Even in the final episode when they showed them approaching Earth after they jumped in, I thought everyone was going to scramble fighter-jets, since I had assumed it was our modern age. – Spacey Aug 28 '12 at 16:03
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    @Mohammad and then Lee and Starbuck could descend to Earth riding flying motorcycles while trying to secretly bootstrap Earth technology so that there'd be a tech base to resist Brother Cavil and his Cylons? – cjc Aug 28 '12 at 18:36
  • @cjc I think you've found your calling! ;-) – Spacey Aug 28 '12 at 18:41
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Is it possible when Kara inputted the musical numbers, making that final jump and being the fact that they were sitting directly in close range of a black hole, they did in fact jump through that singularity and went back in time to the same Earth as the one that was nuked in the future?

Shane
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There's no indication that the first Earth is what we see at the end of Season 3. We only assumed that it was the same. But the show is very careful to never clearly show the actual continents of the Earth found in Revelations. So the Earth we see at the end of Crossroads in New Earth/Earth 2/our Earth.

Fenris
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  • But the question was why original-Earth appeared to have similar continents to final-Earth. The assumption that it was the same was made because of the similarity of appearance. – DavidW Jun 21 '21 at 18:13
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Let's not forget the song that switched the final 5 on was All Along the Watchtower, which was definitely from our Earth, and that lead them to the nuked Earth.

Tony
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  • Could you add some more details? This answer is good, but as it stands may not get as many upvotes as it deserves because it lacks sources. – Adamant Jun 02 '16 at 06:32
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    This answer is actually wrong and does not deserve upvotes. The song originated on the original Earth; Anders performed it there, 2,000 years before the colonials reached New Earth. You have it backwards! – Lightness Races in Orbit Jul 10 '16 at 12:35
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I would just throw in the old BSG planet Terra. I would guess in this alternate BSG the Galactica did not intervene in the all out Nuke strike by the two apposing forces. The Easter Alliance launched a nuclear strike and the Nationalist responded in kind. WW3 doomed the planet Terra but the original BSG saved the planet with the help of the "star gods" you know the guy who plays in the original Knight Rider as Devin Miles. Just a thought to tie in both of the BSG's.

Sparkomatic75
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    I think the question is looking for an answer from within the 2004 series universe. – Null Jul 10 '16 at 03:21
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There is nothing that states the planet we see in the closing CGI sequence has to be the same one that Kara visited.

Call it New Earth. Foreshadowing, regardless of where Kara had been.

Problem solved.

Lightness Races in Orbit
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