r/BSG • u/WarpNacelle6295 • 3d ago
Baltar’s Profession
What did Dr. Baltar do before the Cylon Attack? He clearly has a doctorate, but not in a specific field that I remember. One episode, he’s an expert on technology (which is supposedly why he worked for the Defense Department). The next he’s doing experimental medicine.
Seems like he falls into an old-fashioned “scientist man” trope where he’s knowledgeable in all fields necessary to the plot.
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u/ProfN42 3d ago
Before the colonies were attacked he was the most brilliant computer programmer among billions of humans. He'd be known primarily in his niche area of software design (not counting his grandstanding celebrity-chasing), and if he tried to bloviate outside that narrow specialization, other scientists would roll their eyes and consider him a crank.
After the attack, there are less than 50k humans left alive. So, a small-mediumish town. Only, instead of that small town's most accomplished academic mind being the local high school science teacher who has a Master's in Physics... instead the town's got basically a Stephen Hawking type figure. 😆
It's no surprise that Roslin and other leaders - smart and capable people but not familiar with academic work - would quickly forget Baltar was a specialized expert, and would start leaning on him for help in generalized areas outside his true expertise - and Baltar, eager to feather his nest and divert suspicion, is hardly going to be the one to correct their layperson error. This is why he was able to fob off his bullshit Cylon Detector. There was simply no one capable of, & self confident enough to gainsay him.
Thus: "computer guy, trust him with the defense net" becomes "smart guy, trust him with anything and everything". 🤦 the Cylons were very smart to target him for suborning.
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u/Decent_Cow 3d ago
The weird thing for me is, despite even Baltar himself being skeptical of his ability to build a Cylon detector, he actually did build one. It wasn't bullshit. It worked on Boomer. How exactly did he manage that? It seems way outside of his core area of expertise.
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u/jednorog 3d ago
Presumably with divine inspiration
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u/Nimelennar 3d ago
That is, literally, the case.
You can see the moment in the scene where he goes from "I am coming up with a bullshit reason why I need the nuke because Head Six told me to get one" to "hold on, replicating the radiation environment from Ragnar Anchorage and subjecting blood samples to it actually should produce a measurable difference between human and Cylon samples."
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u/Sebacles 3d ago
i dunno why you think people who have specialised knowledge would be retarded in other areas. Super Smart people are often very knowledgeable in a number of areas. One of the smartest guys i ever knew seemed to know everything about everything. The cylon detector was not just a biological issue it was a computer/engineering issue (which is his specialisation) . So he just needed the require biological knowledge. Honestly It's like you haven't met any actual geniuses.
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u/madfrooples 3d ago
Seemed like his biggest gig was going on the news and being a celebrity scientist like Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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u/EldestPort 3d ago
I definitely think he's got a bit of the Doctor Bashir kind of intelligence about him (and I wonder if the writers took a little inspiration from Bashir) but obviously Bashir's intelligence was not entirely 'natural'.
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u/mromutt 3d ago
I wonder if you could say his wasn't completely natural either. If you remember caprica 6 and angel 6 both were surprised about his mind and how he could do things like them, like the "day dreaming" projection. It insinuated that colonial humans didn't or couldn't do that. Which obviously they didn't plan the ending anywhere near that far ahead but did line up pretty perfectly and tied a nice bow on it lol.
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u/RadVarken 3d ago
Or perhaps it shows that Cylons are not that much more advanced that the smartest humans.
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u/ButterscotchPast4812 3d ago
I wouldn't be surprised if they were inspired by Bashir. RDM was a writer/producer on DS9.
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u/Beneficial-Boat-2035 3d ago
He starts off as the resident Science Man ™️ that helps science the plot along as required.
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken 3d ago
I got the impression that in addition to be famous for being smart he was a highly paid consultant for whomever could afford him. (Which is likelywhy he had access to the defense mainframe.)
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u/zodiac6300 3d ago
He’s a polymath presented as super-genius computer guy and business guy with an interest and aptitude for many things. He could have been Tony Stark, however his humble background makes him insecure and needing constant validation. He’d have been better served to stay on the farm.
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u/Business_Bathroom501 3d ago
He got to the farm, eventually... 😂
But in fact this is the one thing I can watch the finale for every single time. His origin reveal playing out and Caprica Six being lovely to his dad, it shows just how much she loved him already back then and how compromised she had become, in the best possible way. It also explains the scene with the baby.
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u/PirateQM 3d ago
Exactly. It’s what TV writers call ensemble compression or character consolidation. When Starbuck suddenly becomes the fleet's top sharpshooter in Bastille Day, or when Baltar acts as a one-man science department, it stretches suspension of disbelief, but it’s a very necessary narrative efficiency. If Battlestar Galactica introduced a brand-new, hyper-specific specialist every time a plot hurdle popped up (a dedicated virologist for one week, a Marine sniper for the next), the cast would bloat instantly, pacing would crawl, and viewers wouldn't care about the outcome. A trope is a trope for a reason: keeping the plot focused around your key actors keeps the emotional stakes high. We care about the mission because we're already invested in them, even if it means Starbuck is inexplicably a top-tier marksman on top of being an elite pilot.
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u/Additional_Suit6275 3d ago
Worth throwing in here that an expert on cylons who happens to also be pretty bright in general isn’t an unreasonable person to trust to do broader data science or Cylon relevant biology work once your labor pool is reduced to 50,000 people. It’s not unbelievable that there would be zero people in the fleet who possessed a “the world will end if you are wrong” level of expertise in areas like cylon “biology” or tillium refinement. And Baltar expressly doesn’t know what the hell he is doing in either field. Luck and a gentle judge from head 6 gets him over the finish line.
Meanwhile, “you are in the circle so tell us how much food and water the fleet needs” just makes sense.
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u/TheRealestBiz 3d ago
Baltar is supposed to be a polymath-level genius. Pretty sure he isn’t limited to just being good at his specific profession.
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u/Festivefire 3d ago
I'd assume his doctorate is in something like computer science or network technology considering he supposedly had a big role in the CNP development.
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u/CptKeyes123 3d ago
I think he lied about his biology expertise, but that he knows a little of it. Biology might come in with high tech Colonial stuff considering how much the Cylons stole. Where the Cylons were ahead, the Colonials might have been catching up. So its possible they were developing star trek style bio neural gel packs.
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u/AnnieBruce 3d ago
His primary degree is probably computer science, though he's got bachelors and likely masters degree level knowledge in other fields. Some of this is likely a formal degree, some might be just reading books or attending conferences for fun.
Actual specialists in those other fields would probably make him look like an idiot though. Knowing a lot of information about a secondary or tertiary field or whatever is relatively easy, just read more biology books than comic books and all that comic lore gets replaced with biology. But just like not every comics reader could be a good comics writer, knowing a lot about biology doesn't make you any good at actual biology work. But he's still probably one of the most capable biologists the fleet has, not a whole lot of academic types made it out of the colonies. IT's not that he's the best that got him high end science jobs, he's just all they have.
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u/Odin_3406 3d ago
This is why I tell people to start with the Mini Series. Computer Scientist, leader in the field.
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u/onthefence928 3d ago
His experimental medicine but was probably more like a powerful analysis computer that looked for anomalies in blood samples and the equipment that scanned the blood was some sort of off the shelf device from the medical bay
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u/ZippyDan 3d ago edited 3d ago
Baltar was a multi-domain genius, and the BSG Series Bible discusses his academic career before the show in brief. He was completing multiple college degrees as a teenager.
A doctorate in just two broad fields - e.g. artificial intelligence and bio-engineering - would reasonably cover most of his skills in the show, including computer science, Cylon detectors, and medicine.
He likely held two or three doctorates and even more bachelor-level degrees.
I discuss all of this and more in this comment.
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u/treecutter34 3d ago
If I remember correctly, he was a minor celebrity who worked for the defense department in computer defenses. I thought they blended Neil Degrasse- Tyson and Elon Musk.
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u/Terrible_Bee_6876 3d ago
He seems like he was some kind of Neil DeGrasse Tyson type, a person who may be scientifically accomplished but who is better known as a public science communicator / insufferable prick
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u/Optimal_Grape_1025 3d ago
He's a tv scientist. Which just means he knows whatever they need him to know
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u/StopBootlicking 2d ago
I think his closest analog is Neil deGrasse Tyson - a man who poses as a scientist, thanks to a science-adjacent job and a doctorate, but whose real job is to be a celebrity.
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u/ZippyDan 1d ago
Nah. Neil is a really smart dude - smarter than Musk who is the other comparison people make - who is able to speak on other subjects with reasonable intelligence because he is smart. But he has also been caught making many inaccurate statements in fields outside his expertise.
Within his area of expertise, Neil - unlike Musk again - is an expert, and he can speak with authority in that field; but he doesn't rise to the level of "genius", even within his field. He is unlikely to ever make any major discoveries or contribute any major new understandings to his field, even though he is an expert, in part because he has devoted so much of his time to being a public communicator and celebrity.
In contrast, Baltar is an actual genius in multiple fields that he has studied. He has the capacity to invent new solutions and broaden the understanding of experts with his chosen fields.
He is much more comparable to a Tesla, Einstein, or Hawking in terms of genius, but in multiple fields. He is somewhere below those names in terms of any one field, but his genius is a multi-domain - and he is way above Neil in terms of absolute intelligence.
In addition to being smart, he has also embraced a celebrity role. But he became famous because he was a genius (like Einstein) - not just because he was smart and a good speaker or charismatic (like Neil).
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u/StopBootlicking 1d ago
There's no evidence that Baltar is a genius, other than Baltar's own claims to genius.
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u/ZippyDan 1d ago edited 1d ago
"No evidence" other than:
- Writing the CNP program - with Six's help, but even by her admission. Besides, the next point proves that he could understand the work she did, and so possessed an extremely high level of proficiency in Computer Science.
- Tracking down the malicious code within the CNP program - with only a few hours of study, Baltar was able to locate where Six injected the virus into the CNP program.
- Building a working Cylon detector - yeah, Angel Six gave him a hint about where to start, but Baltar invented the process and then prototyped and built out a machine, and the code necessary to run it, that could test biological samples and detect Cylom cells.
- Analyzing and identifying novel features of Cylon fetal blood, which allowed him to successfully predict its healing effects for Roslin's cancer.
- Analyzing and identifying the archeological remains of the 13th Tribe as Cylon.
- Analyzing and identifying Starbuck's blood as a DNA match for Starbuck.
I don't know how easy it is to extract a useful DNA sample or how easy it is to use whatever DNA sequencer they have on Galactica, but the fact that he can so easily and quickly operate these machines and achieve professional results in so many fields indicates his reputation as a genius is valid.
Everyone in the show treats him as a widely-known genius, starting with the TV show he appears on as a guest expert in the Miniseries. The impression as a viewer of the show from the way the writers chose to portray others characters' reactions to Baltar's reputation, is that he was accepted as a genius. Reading the BSG Series Bible, which was meant to be a guide for the writers in terms of each character's backstory, indicates that they were starting from an assumption that he was a genius - it wasn't just an act or the false pretense of celebrity. The Series Bible isn't strictly canon, but barring any direct contradictions in the story I consider it canon.
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u/IvanBliminse86 2d ago
If I were trying to justify his diverse expertise I would say he was a Polymath working for a corrupt government prior to the fall. Even before the Exodus he was widely considered the single greatest expert on the Cylon threat in the twelve colonies. Additionally, he wasn't just some coder working in his basement, he was doing high-level research for the Colonial Ministry of Defense. At a certain level computer and systems research starts becoming less about lines of code and starts becoming more and more interdisciplinary. I would say that his main expertise would be in Advanced Systems Architecture which would cover everything from computer networking to neural networking to genetics to astrophysics. He's using a single skillset and applying it to diverse fields instead of a disparate toolset applied randomly.
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u/thepeoplessgt 3d ago
A real world version of Baltar would be Elon Musk without the money. If the Cylon apocalypse didn’t happen, Baltar would be on his way to becoming a billionaire in the Twelve Colonies. I believe he was pushing to update Colonial technology back to pre-Cylon War levels and beyond.
Baltar is the go-to talking head for Colonial cable news.
Baltar has a doctorate in the Colonial version of computer technology. He has enough money to own a computer tech company. Baltar doesn’t invent any new tech. He just hires smart talent to do that for him.
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u/ZippyDan 3d ago edited 3d ago
Please don't compare Baltar - an actual genius who accidentally did great harm to humanity through indiscretion and irresponsibility fed by a massive ego - to the charlatan Elon Musk - a man of above average intelligence who is not even close to genius levels, and who has intentionally harmed humanity over and over again.
Maybe you mean Baltar is what we were all fooled into believing Elon Musk was 15 years ago.
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u/thepeoplessgt 3d ago
You are correct! Elon Musk fooled us all until he came out as MAGA.
Elon Musk would be more like OG series Baltar. He would have worked with the Cylons without being seduced by Six.
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u/Greenmantle22 3d ago
Baltar also wasn’t a drug addict in a stupid hat, and he certainly had a much nicer home than some autist’s shack in the desert.
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u/This-Breadfruit-1958 3d ago
No. I think he was just like a Musk, with personal limos and the lakeside mansion. He made his fortune from his defense contracts with the Colonial government. He was a widely recognized personality making TV appearances on AI and technology. Maybe he wasn’t a trillionaire, but he was pretty well off.
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u/thepeoplessgt 3d ago
I think Baltar was regressing into a Musk. Remember how he spiraled in New Caprica. Again, no Cylon attack then Baltar gets richer off the defense contract. He also continues to indulge in too much alcohol and women.
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u/ZippyDan 1d ago
Baltar has forgotten more than Musk ever knew.
The fundamental difference between Musk and Baltar is that Baltar is actually a generational genius with a genius-level understanding of multiple fields of science.
Meanwhile, Musk is just a businessman with maybe above-average levels of intelligence that can speak semi-coherently on numerous topics and impress the average human, but is not anywhere near a genius and could never actually invent anything or develop a technical or scientific solution to a problem from scratch.
In other words, he is smart enough to understand when smart people explain concepts to him, but he could never teach an actual expert something that they didn't already know.
He has also been caught numerous times trying to sound smart in a particular field - and he does to average people - while sounding completely non-sensical to actual experts in the field.
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u/ZippyDan 1d ago
I'm talking about how Musk and Baltar compare in terms of intelligence, not in terms of fame.
- In terms of wealth, Musk is worth anywhere between 500,000,000,000 USD and 1,000,000,000,000 USD.
Baltar was likely a multi-millionaire, maybe worth 10,000,000.
They aren't even in the same ball-park.- In terms of fame, Musk is world-renowned because of his wealth and influence.
Baltar was just a popular commentator on specific topics. Some have compared him to Neil deGrasse Tyson in this thread, and I think that's a much more accurate comparison in terms of celebrity.- In terms of intelligence, Musk is just a smart businessman. He isn't dumb by any means, and he can speak with some intelligence on many scientific and engineering topics, but he is not an expert or inventor or researcher. He isn't the one actually achieving new technological break-throughs or scientific understanding: he is only guiding and funding the teams of scientists and researchers that do so.
Baltar, in contrast, is an actual genius. He is at least two "levels" above Musk. Musk has understanding, but he does not have scientific expertise. Baltar is beyond an expert: he is a multi-domain genius across multiple scientific and engineering fields.
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u/Decent_Cow 3d ago
Prior to the war, he was a computer scientist of some variety working on systems for the Colonial Ministry of Defense. He is also suggested to be an expert on AI in the miniseries. I don't know if his expertise in biological science is ever fully explained.