Bit of a downer, really. Started feeling it as soon as they established they'd found "our" prehistoric Earth - that we all knew what was going to happen, because, well, it has.
And, right to the end I was expecting something awful to happen to Hera, like a lion was suddenly going to leap on her!
The end also sets up the prequel series Caprica quite neatly, by drawing the parallels of a technologically-advanced civilisation starting to experiement with cybernetics and AI.
Nice cameo from Ronald D. Moore, too.
Now I'll go and read Galactica: Variants and see how apoplectic that blogger is. . !
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I was expecting the original Starbuck to appear saying he's been stuck on 'Earth' since "The Return of Starbuck" episode.
In the end, it was somewhat anti-climatic to me as everything tied up more or less but there was just something... off. I can't put my finger on it right now though.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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Perhaps the podcast should just be Lucy Lawless saying "A wizard did it!" over and over.
I agree, something feels off. Maybe some things don't need to be explained, they just are. But whereas you can shrug off Kara2's return to whence she came, the way in which such a conflicted and rudderless character who'd muddled through her destiny to enter those jump coordinates all of a sudden is all "My time here is done" doesn't sit right.
So, no ships of light, no real explanations, just a suggestion that maybe if people remember the mistakes of the past, they'll try to do something different, but people always forget. Or just ignore it all. Mankind's ultimate doom is the Frankenstein complex.
Adama, Apollo, HotDog, the Chief, Saul and Ellen, Romo, the Doc, Leoben, Gaius and Six, Helo and Athena, they lived their lives out in pastoral bliss in a prehistoric Earth, and their children, or those children's children (or some further iteration thereof) become ignorant cavemen. Great.
quote: Adama, Apollo, HotDog, the Chief, Saul and Ellen, Romo, the Doc, Leoben, Gaius and Six, Helo and Athena, they lived their lives out in pastoral bliss in a prehistoric Earth, and their children, or those children's children (or some further iteration thereof) become ignorant cavemen. Great.
That or they laid the seeds of the earliest civilisation. All the way through the pre-historic Earth stuff I kept wanting someone to name one of the settlements Atlantis...but that's probably being too cute.
What intrigued me most, oddly enough, was what Harvey Baltar said at the end: "it doesn't like that name."
Oh and since we haven't been wiped out yet, the Centurions are still out there.
All in all, I was very satisfied, easily the best finale since "Sleeping in Light".
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I thought it was fantastic, although towards the end it felt a bit like LotR. There were four or five times where it looked like that was it and then suddenly there was another set of scenes. The shot of Adama on the hillside next to Roslin's grave would have been a fine finish in my opinion.
I liked the spirit of the final scenes in NY, but I didn't like how they were filmed. Ending an episode that had almost movie quality production values with stock video of Japanese robots just seemed wrong. And I wouldn't begrudge RDM having a cameo in his show before the end, but it was a bit in your face.
Most of the storylines were tied up to my satisfaction, although what the frak Starbuck was could've been explained more. I don't mind a bit of ambiguity, but it's almost like they weren't sure what she was, so they just said "let's leave it up to the audience to figure out" and if we don't know either, then we're left feeling a bit thick. Yeah, she probably is just an angel, but why wasn't she aware of that fact like Harveys are? And we still don't really know how her body ended up on Earth.
I laughed a bit when Adama said they were sending the ships into the sun. They must have autopilots, so making Anders fly them basically boils down to murdering a disabled guy because Adama wants to live in a shack. And I read that the Colony eventually fell into the black hole (deleted scene), but they had baseships there too. For all the Colonials knew, the Colony Cylons could have come back.
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I liked how the centurions were given control of the baseship and one them was using the water controls. I always thought skinjobs could only use them. And Johnny, they may have autopilots, but can they be programmed to jump automatically? I think I recall someone making a comment about the ships making a jump into the sun. Although, the Fleet did appear to be traveling toward the Sun at impulse.
Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:I liked the spirit of the final scenes in NY, but I didn't like how they were filmed. Ending an episode that had almost movie quality production values with stock video of Japanese robots just seemed wrong.
I had a completely different take on those scenes. I felt those scenes with Asimo, the female Japanese "android," etc. were basically a warning that humanity is starting to progress toward the point where we're going to create our own Cylons, and the cycle will continue. It gave me chills, actually, when I watched them.
quote:Most of the storylines were tied up to my satisfaction, although what the frak Starbuck was could've been explained more. I don't mind a bit of ambiguity, but it's almost like they weren't sure what she was, so they just said "let's leave it up to the audience to figure out" and if we don't know either, then we're left feeling a bit thick. Yeah, she probably is just an angel, but why wasn't she aware of that fact like Harveys are? And we still don't really know how her body ended up on Earth.
I'm not quite sure I understand why so many people don't get what Starbuck was, because I got it immediately, at least IMHO. She isn't an angel. She's a Christ figure.
Jesus Christ was born, found out that his father was much more that what he thought, realized he had a destiny, had the 12 apostles follow him, died, was resurrected, and ascended to Heaven after fulfilling his destiny. Kara Thrace was born, realized she had a destiny, died, was resurrected, found out that her father was much more than what she thought, led the survivors of the 12 colonies to their new home, and ascended to (fill in the blank) after fulfilling her destiny. The sequence isn't the same, but the parallels are certainly there.(BTW, I was brought up Catholic, but I'm now an atheist)
quote:I laughed a bit when Adama said they were sending the ships into the sun. They must have autopilots, so making Anders fly them basically boils down to murdering a disabled guy because Adama wants to live in a shack.
Although I understand the need story-wise for the fleet to disappear, I think it would have worked better had Anders actually been the one who said he wanted to do it, and Adama went along with his request. That would have foreshadowed Anders's comment "See you on the other side," as if he knew that Starbuck would be going bye-bye soon and wanted to be with her wherever they ended up (Heaven, for lack of a better analogy). Of course, for all we know, that's what happened.
quote:And I read that the Colony eventually fell into the black hole (deleted scene), but they had baseships there too. For all the Colonials knew, the Colony Cylons could have come back.
From over a million light-years distance? And the fact that the colony Cylons didn't know where Galactica jumped? Highly unlikely they'd ever see those Cylons again. To quote the late Douglas Adams, "Space is big. Really big."
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Wow. Years ago I said that this series would flake out and become crap. Now all I can say from reading these posts is: "I told you so!"
Hundreds of hours of my life: saved by not watching this series!
Buddy, you SO missed out. Best. Series. Ever.
Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Wow. Years ago I said that this series would flake out and become crap. Now all I can say from reading these posts is: "I told you so!"
Hundreds of hours of my life: saved by not watching this series!
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Don't you see Jason, notions of "crap" and "not crap" are human creations, God is beyond "crap" and "not crap".
Registered: Feb 2005
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Was there any real point to any of the Caprica flashbacks?
Gaius Baltar found his elderly father a bit of a drag. But the main reason he was so into Caprica Six wasn't the fact that she LET him into her, but because she got his dad a good rest home. So what?
Laura Roslin lost her entire family in a car crash, and moped until a one-night stand with an ex-student inexplicably persuaded her to enter politics. So what?
Despite spending his entire life in the Colonial military (and going to extreme lengths to get back in after they mustered him out), William Adama considered a civilian job until he decided he didn't like the questions they asked in the interview. So what?
Saul Tigh likewise considered becoming a civilian but chose his military life and his friend over his wife's desires. Cedric Daniels? Er, I mean, so what?
Boomer felt she owed Adama after his pep talk got her through becoming a full Raptor pilot on Galactica. So why not just not shoot him that time?
Lee Adama and Kara Thrace's mutual attraction pre-dated Zack's death. So what? And Lee got buzzed by a pigeon. So what what what?
OK, all the above were "there but for the grace of God" scenarios. But what are we to take from them? That God preferred these people avoid their likely alternate fates (extinction in the fall of the Colonies) and muddle through in the vain hope that this time, through their actions, all that has happened before WON'T happen again? And the entities responsible might just start to worry, 150,000 years later, that maybe they were expectuing too much?
Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it, it certainly has had all sorts of emotional effects on me. I can remember where I was when I saw the Miniseries. I can remember initially deciding back when season 1 began I wasn't going to watch - this was just before my daughter was born and I happened to see a bit of "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" on Sky and it put me off! I can remember later being persuaded to watch by you guys. I can remember how each bit of peril faced by Hera would make me rush into my baby's bedroom to make sure she was alright. I can remember going to bed in near-shock after the way four of the Five were revealed. BSG has been a part of my life for nearly six years. I'll miss it.
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I think the flashbacks were just meant to show how all our characters ended up on the path that lead them to their end, none of which had even a hint of manifest destiny but were instead seaming meaningless, or even trivial events that happen to us all. If any one of those pieces hadn't fallen just so, then things would have turned out very differently. To me the most interesting one was Baltars because without his unwitting help I'm sure the Cylons would have found another way into the defence mainframe, but when the inevitable attack came Baltar himself wouldn't have become the person that he did, if he managed to survive at all and without him in the mix thing would have gone very differently. As for the pigeon, not that I usually like to read in metaphor where there is probably none, I rather thought the pigeon was Kara. A stray bird that gets traps indoors and flutters about until it hurts itself, leaving a trail of destruction with Lee Adama chasing it all the way. That or it was a symbol of Lee's sense of unfulfilled...
quote:Originally posted by Mars Needs Women: Don't you see Jason, notions of "crap" and "not crap" are human creations, God is beyond "crap" and "not crap".
You know it doesn't like that word! Or am I thinking of the Knights of Ni?
quote:Originally posted by Dukhat: I had a completely different take on those scenes. I felt those scenes with Asimo, the female Japanese "android," etc. were basically a warning that humanity is starting to progress toward the point where we're going to create our own Cylons, and the cycle will continue. It gave me chills, actually, when I watched them.
Oh, I understood why they were showing our advances towards AI and I liked the idea of posing the question of whether the cycle would happen again with us. I just didn't think stock footage was necessarily the best way to do it. It almost looked as if they'd run out of budget in the last five minutes of the show.
quote:From over a million light-years distance? And the fact that the colony Cylons didn't know where Galactica jumped? Highly unlikely they'd ever see those Cylons again. To quote the late Douglas Adams, "Space is big. Really big."
I didn't catch the line about them being a million light years away, but the Cylon's found New Caprica by accident and that was in a nebula that concealed it. Admittedly, they detected the nuke, but still, if I was a Colonial I wouldn't want to take the chance again. Even if it's not a realistic possibility that they'd be attacked again, it would still be worth have some form of defense in case they were.
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