Its a movie! Its all about the story! Galactica and Star Wars have "fighter planes" purely so that the narrative can have "Heros" and "Loose Cannons". Could Kara Thrace have had her mysterious journey if she was in a 100-crew missile cruiser? Could farm-boy-done-good take out the death star in even the millenium falcon - and would we care? And then there is Galactica itself: the lost ship, the fortress in the wilderness. I'm sure my literary friends could tell me the specific term for the narrative role it plays the way I can tell you which Design Pattern accept(foo) belongs too. I saw Ron Moore's GDC talk and nothing in Galactica was by accident except Boomer being a Cylon.
