At least when they are marathons of Battlestar Galactica.  Not so sure about "normal" ones. 

One of the more interesting things going on during this marathon is that the SciFi channel decided to do a viewer poll while the aired the entire third season of Battlestar Galactica, back-to-back.  People could either get online to vote in this poll, or use their cellphones to text in their responses.  Being the cheap little bastard I am, I definitely opted for the first choice.  Regardless, I figured I would go ahead and give you the questions here, as well as my answers and rationale, just for the fun of it.  Bear in mind that my answers may bear absolutely nothing in common with the multiple-choice answers provided by the SciFi channel... some of them I just consider far too constricting, or the right answer, but wrong explanation.  Before we embark upon this journey, however, a small gripe - what is it with television stations thinking I give a flying damn what people think of the show?  Or their opinions on certain matters?  Now, I admit, a lot of the time I do.  However, when I watch the show, I want to watch the bloody show, not have a fifth of the screen taken up by the blatherings of some nidgets.  G4TV started it with the Star Trek 2.0 and ST:tNG 2.0, and now SciFi is doing it with the BSG marathon...  Really gets on my nerves, serves no purpose, and gets in the way of me enjoying my damned show.  Stop it, already! 

As for the questions, first off, we have the one from the "Collaborators" episode:  What do you think should be done with the collaborators?  For those of you who do not remember the specific details, the question is referring to those humans who decided to work with the Cylons occupying New Caprica, whether it was by joining their "police force", or feeding them information, or other such activities.  The options the SciFi channel provide are "Execute them for the safety of the fleet," "Give them a fair trial by jury," and "Pardon them to reunite the human race."  Again, if you are unfamiliar with the turn of events, President Roslyn decided to pursue the last course of action, granting a blanket pardon to anyone and everyone who worked for or with the Cylons... unfortunately a little late for a few people, but still a nice gesture.  What would I do?  I strongly believe in the rule of law, and due process, and all of that related jazz, but I believe I would probably follow the same course of action.  It would be remarkably hard for me to ignore the actions committed by some of those people - I could probably forgive, but I would never, ever forget - but in the interest of keeping the fleet together, keeping our numbers high (a real consideration for the human fleet at this point), and preventing undue strife, I would probably pardon them as well.  A trial would provide justice, but it would take time, it would bring up old memories that should likely be forgotten, and the justice it would dole out would probably be better supplanted by forcing those individuals to live with themselves... and their guilt. 

The second question is drawn from "Torn":  "Who do you think will win the race to Earth?"  The provided answers are, "The Cylons," "The crew of the Galactica," and "Neither - Earth is a myth."  I confess that the last answer does hold a certain attraction for me...  all of the evidence, stories, and metaphors provided in the Scroll of Pithia do seem to be coming to pass, or at least the popular interpretation of all of those does...  But it would be a wonderfully annoying story quirk for both forces to be trying their damnest to find Earth and get there first... only to fail miserably after finding out it does not exist, and never did.  However, my honest answer is that the Cylons will probably find it first.  Superior processing power, superior numbers, superior knowledge of the Scroll (as well as other aspects of the human pantheistic religion), superior (if somewhat dogmatic) faith, no need for rest, no real death...  Oh, and Gaius Balthar, the consumate bastard, to boot.  All of their advantages are just too numerous, and too substantial to ignore.  Granted, the humans have been finding and understanding the breadcrumbs left by the mythical Thirteenth Tribe faster than the Cylons, but once they get the information, it does not take long for the chromedomes to catch up.  The real question is what is going to happen when whoever gets there first, does so.  Will it be the Earth we know now, a more advanced society, or an empty Eden, with no signs of what happened to the Tribe?  Of course, the additional question is why the Cylons, after taking over all Twelve Colonies, spontaneously decided that Earth was going to be their new home...  Granted, nuclear wastelands are far from being the most hospitable, but that hardly seemed to slow them down considerably. 

Moving on to the fourth question, related to the episode "Measure of Salvation":  "Would you order the use of biological weapons to wipe out the Cylons?"  The answers the boob-tube provided were, "Yes, it's either us or them," "No, it's akin to genocide," and "I would put it to a vote."  Alrighty, we will tackle these answers starting with the last, and moving forward.  First, the current human arrangement, when related to this question, is not a democracy, or even a republic.  Yes, the humans do have a government, with its duly elected representatives and the like, complete with its own Constitution-analogue and everything.  That has nothing to do with what is a military decision.  Exterminating the enemy is always a military decision - the very fact that the question came up indicates that diplomacy has already failed, and badly at that.  Second, while the term "genocide" has been grossly, grossly misused in the past, mostly to promote one political stance over another, I give the SciFi channel webmasters credit in using it properly this time around.  That said, the only thing that saves them, however, is "akin to".  Genocide requires the existence of an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group, and the Cylons arguably possess none of those.  To boot, it could easily be argued that Cylons, in fact, are not alive as we know it now...  the whole inability to propagate, as well as the fact that they never really die except in certain situations kind of eliminates that possibility.  As you can probably figure from that statement, I do not find the Cylons to be humans, either, which makes the genocide argument even more difficult.  Machines are machines, even if they happen to be bipedal, humanoid, and comprised of organic cogs, and destroying them by means of a virus is not really any different than doing so to your computer.  So, as should be obvious, my answer to this question would be, "Yes, without a moment's hesitation."  The Cylons have proben themselves to be immense threats to the continued existence of the human species time and time and time again, and show no signs of slowing in the forseeable future - in fact, it seems like they are trying to step it up.  Yes, there were two notable exceptions to that rule, but the percentages in that case would be so remarkably low...  And are you willing to pay the immense cost, in terms of human lives, to figure out which Cylon can be trusted, and which cannot?  The humans only have so many people, and a numbers game will always result in their loss - time to level out the field. 

And now for the lastion question, as framed by the "Hero" episode:  "Should Adama feel guilty about the attack on the Colonies?"  The answers include "Yes, his actions provoked the Cylons," "No, he was just following orders," and "Maybe - but for every action there is a measure of doubt."  Well, first off, I positively despite "maybe", fence-sitting answers, so that eliminates that one right off the bat, and we all know that eliminating one answer always makes multiple-choice questions easier.  Except for this one, because the SciFi channel screwed up.  My answer to the question, in short, is "No," and that is it.  None of this nonsensical excuse-by-reason-of-orders, none of this "provocation" nonsense... none of that.  As the Nuremberg trials demonstrated, orders are absolutely no excuse to execute an order you know to be wrong, especially for someone as high-ranking, experienced, and ethically/morally-minded as Commander Adama.  Additionally, while the Cylons probably are not alive by our understanding of the concept, they have demonstrated, by means of the Turing tests inherent in any human's interactions with a Cylon, conscious, sentient thought.  Assuming that postulate, the thought that they are still responsible and accountable for their own actions follows logically, so no matter the provocation, they are still at fault for their actions, and their subsequent decision to invade and destroy the Colonies.  Now, my rationale for why he should feel no guilt?  He made the appropriate decision at the time, both in the case of taking the mission (the humans needed the information), as well as when deciding to shoot down his own man.  And while his mission may, very well, have provoked the Cylons, that does not lay the blame upon his shoulders, nor does it make logical sense.  A single ship poking at their borders would not normally be sufficient reason for them to completely destroy their human counterparts, I would believe - in all likelihood, they had already planned out their assault, and the wheels were in motion... the scout mission simply provided a handy excuse, and starting point. 

So there you have it... my two cents, or credits, or however you want to look at it.  But wait, there's more!  Throughout the marathon, they have been showing preview commercials for the next season, and if you want to avoid some undue (and atrociously spoiling) spoilers, I would suggest that you do not read the rest of this post.  Either way, just remember that the new half-season starts on the 21st, a Sunday, at 10pm EST.  A new night, and a new time, so change your schedule (or TiVo, in my case, which automatically figured it out) to fit accordingly.  And before you run off entirely, this post was trackposted to Right Wing Nation, just for the giggles of it, as well as Stop the ACLU, in an attempt to get them to watch something other than 24.