The bsg season 3 finale (spoilers)

[speaker-to-trolls]

OK, I recently saw the final episode of battlestar galactica, or nbsg as I guess it's called on the internet. Great episode, I thought, highlights were Apollos defence speach and the whole end sequence with their cover of All Along the Watchtower in the background. However, one thing left me deeply confused; During Baltars trial the prosecutions calls Roslin to the stand to testify that Baltar ordered her death, at which Apollo dramatically commits himself to the defences cause by calling her on the fact she's been taking krazy kamala as medication. Why does this matter? Surely there are only two possibilities here, first is that she's called because she was an eye witness, in which case "the defence calls Tom Zarek/Sam Anders/Cally Tyrol to the stand" would give them the exact same testimony, or she has some kind of presidential document which proves that Baltar gave the order, in which case they could just bring that in and wave it at the judges.

Why exactly was Roslins testimony so crucial?

[Todeswind]

For the same reason that episode to episode the colonial's guns' ability to shoot and kill centurions varies drastically. Because it worked for the plot of that episode.

Anyhow once you've discredited the messiah who is going to lead you to the land of milk, honey, and an absence of killer robots it ought not to bee too hard to discredit just about anyone.

[DaveJB]

OK, I recently saw the final episode of battlestar galactica, or nbsg as I guess it's called on the internet. Great episode, I thought, highlights were Apollos defence speach and the whole end sequence with their cover of All Along the Watchtower in the background. However, one thing left me deeply confused; During Baltars trial the prosecutions calls Roslin to the stand to testify that Baltar ordered her death, at which Apollo dramatically commits himself to the defences cause by calling her on the fact she's been taking krazy kamala as medication. Why does this matter? Surely there are only two possibilities here, first is that she's called because she was an eye witness, in which case "the defence calls Tom Zarek/Sam Anders/Cally Tyrol to the stand" would give them the exact same testimony, or she has some kind of presidential document which proves that Baltar gave the order, in which case they could just bring that in and wave it at the judges.

Why exactly was Roslins testimony so crucial?

Getting the beloved president and saviour of the Twelve Colonies to testify against a weak Cyclon collaborator that was (directly or otherwise) responsible for the deaths of thousands of colonists was designed for its emotional impact on the judges, nothing more. They had already pulled the trick of getting one of Baltar's former staffmembers to testify against him when they bought out Gaeta (and Zarek was probably still distrusted by many), and the defence could have easily shot down any statement by Anders by pointing out his role in the resistance.

Likely, they were also relying on Lampkin/Adama Jr. not to pull the low blow of forcing her to reveal that her critical realisations about Baltar had come when she was under the influence of a drug known to cause hallucinations.