When Sharon shoots Adama altar says that she was an “early” test and it had been refined since then. Later talking to the Cylons he gives some indication that there never was a test. But we saw the results over his shoulder, we know the test worked, it showed red, it detected Sharon.
Anders wasn’t with the fleet. We don’t know how many other people got tested. Remember the test took 11 hours and couldn’t be done in parallel, the initial estimate to test the entire fleet was in the decades, he became president about 6 months after detecting Sharon. So even if he actually kept doing the tests (a pretty big assumption, if it’s not going to get him laid Baltar isn’t terribly interested in it, and that test was never going to get him any) at most he got a couple hundred done out of 50,000 people. And we don’t know the results, Blatar made it pretty clear the test wasn’t going to find any Cylons, which increases the possibility that he didn’t actually do any tests. I can see Baltar making the test out of scientific curiosity but once he actually found a Cylon and lied about the results there’s no reason for him to do any more tests, it worked, curiosity has been satisfied, time to move on.
Right. So, there really was a test (and he lied about Sharon), except there wasn't. Clear as mud.
Anders wasn’t with the fleet. We don’t know how many other people got tested. Remember the test took 11 hours and couldn’t be done in parallel,
True. But I do believe he tested all of the key Galactica crew at the very least. This should have picked up Tigh and Tyrol. Unless it was a fake. Which it was (according to some episodes but not others). Um that about settles that. (?)
I can see Baltar making the test out of scientific curiosity but once he actually found a Cylon and lied about the results there’s no reason for him to do any more tests, it worked, curiosity has been satisfied, time to move on.
You paint a plausible scenario but the fact remains that in context, there's simply no way he didn't test the second-in-command (Tigh) and yet somehow tested...Sharon, some random shuttle pilot. (I'll stipulate that maybe he never got to Tyrol.) In fact I think the test of Tigh was explicitly shown, or at least its results, though I'm not positive. But anyway so according to your explanation, the test worked, but he decided to lie about any positives. This means that Baltar tested Tigh, saw the positive result, then lied about it.
Fine, but here's the problem with that: in the most recent ep, Baltar was surprised to discover that Tigh was a Cylon. According to your attempt at a clarifying explanation, Baltar should have known this all along (and acted accordingly). So, contradiction.
The other possibility is that the "Final Five Cylons" are simple not testable (by Baltar's test) of course. But this gets us right back to: why not? What's their biological difference exactly? And why were these "Final" five, including Tigh who is apparently the oldest of them all but also Tory who is not, made with different biology than the other Cylons?
The answer of course to all of this is "because the writers thought it would be good TV". And that's it.