Battlestar Galactica

[Blotus]

What was once, to me, the best show in television lost that honor somewhere during the third season. While I was very satisfied with the ending, it did feel like a bit of a struggle to get there. As a whole, it is definitely one of my favorites. I wish now that I could go back and experience the entire show again.

So where does BSG rank in the history of Sci Fi TV shows? And what legacy does it leave behind?

[Imakeholesinu]

What was once, to me, the best show in television lost that honor somewhere during the third season. While I was very satisfied with the ending, it did feel like a bit of a struggle to get there. As a whole, it is definitely one of my favorites. I wish now that I could go back and experience the entire show again.

So where does BSG rank in the history of Sci Fi TV shows? And what legacy does it leave behind?

Top 10 Sci-Fi series

1) Star Trek: TNG
2) Star Trek: DS9
3) Farscape
4) Battlestar Galactica
5) X-Files
6) Babylon 5
7) Firefly
Star Trek: Voyager
9) Highlander: The Series
10) Space: Above and Beyond

It doesn't leave that great of a legacy. Caprica seems kind of pointless now. I don't know how Sci-Fi or SyFy will replace it with another Space oriented science fiction series (and please don't tell me they are putting all their eggs in Stargate Universe basket or I will find you and cut you.)

Battlestar was damaged goods after the 2nd half of the 2nd season and it did fall into what I call the 3rd season slump ( I'm in the middle of rescue me's 3rd season and I can't wait to get out of it.) It picked up, but long long breaks and the writers strike didn't really help. The series really didn't have anywhere to go but season 4 I've felt kinda used. Here was a series that wasn't so Space Opera-ish in the first 2 seasons, a series that tugged at everything different about a sci-fi series, it was rough, it wasn't clean, it was raw. Season 3 squandered it. Season 4 tried to pick up the pieces and the finale was the happily ever after.

The finale I really didn't have a problem with, reason being is that it closed just about every loop-hole it needed to. It doesn't beg for more, there shouldn't be a continuation just let it be.

Special mention for Jericho, I've seen only a few episodes but it was good.

[Fea]

I last episode kind of reminded me of why I like it so much in the first place. For me, the third and forth seasons lost a lot of the energy that was in the first two. I still enjoyed watching it but it didn't hold exactly the same amount of appeal. They tied it up pretty well though.

I feel like watching season 1 again.

[SineSwiper]

FULL SEASON SPOILERS HERE!

To me, I was kinda disappointed when I was watching the behind the scenes special, and they are talking about their writing process. Here is yet another show that writes by the seat of their pants and doesn't plan anything out. They wrote in the final four like THAT episode. It's not like they knew about this from day one. That sort of story writing tends to have continuity problems.

For example, their "wild card" cylon, the Indian chick, ended up being a character with no depth and a confusing personality. She was a minor character, yet she was one of the five. They didn't delve into her past at all. In the end, they didn't know what to do with her, so they just killed her off. A sorry excuse for plot direction, and this is a why you plan this shit out ahead of time.

Another thing, what the hell happened to Galen's kid? Here's one of the fabled "important" half-Cylon/Human hybrids, and you don't even see him after his wife is killed. Galen gets so depressed about the distrust that he experienced that he goes to Greenland all alone, without even his own kid. Again, lack of planning, coming from making shit up on the fly.

The angels? Oh, they were just angels. No explanation. Another cop out. Another plot element gone to waste. Oh, and Starbuck was an angel, but we just kinda wrote that in at the last minute.

JMS planned the story out with Babylon 5. He knew what the fuck was going on everywhere from the first episode. Sure, the guy wasn't the best dialogue writer, but the overall story arc made it a kickass series.

Overall, I guess I was pleased with the ending. In a way, I thought it wrapped up everything too cleanly. Or to put it in a different way, there was no build up for a lot of things. It was like they wasted all of that fourth season to put in every surprise in the final two hours. It reminded me of Farscapes rushed ending, but that was because the assholes at Sci-Fi (or Fox or whoever) didn't bother renewing the last season. (God, that would have been even more fantastic if the whole last episode with the black hole was actually fleshed out into a season.) BSG didn't have an excuse.

[Shrinweck]

Didn't Galen's supposed kid end up being fathered by someone else? (Edit: Yeah it was Hot Dog's kid.)

I found the ending to be extremely lazy. Too much religion and not enough explanation in some places. I liked the idea of the ending but bits and pieces of it just don't sit well with me. I also absolutely hated the last few minutes

[Fea]

Didn't Galen's supposed kid end up being fathered by someone else?

Yup. Hotdog did the nasty with Galen's wife.

I was disappointed with Starbuck's ending. She just disappears? Wasn't she supposed to be the harbinger of death? What happened with that?

[Zeus]

I was just able to watch the finale tonight (had family over all weekend) so I'll post my impressions below along with thoughts of the entire series. Spoilers ahead.

In Season 4 they revealed that Hot Dog did the midnight motion with Callie so that kid wasn't a hybrid after all. And after they killed off Caprica 6 and Thai's kid, the only one that was of any importance was Hera.

Like many, I felt that the first two seasons were quite strong and the show faltered a bit in the second half of the third season (can anyone really deny that there was filler from about ep 12 to 17?). The fourth season was a mixed bag. There was a lot of good stuff going on but the inclusion of the flashbacks kinda messed a bit with the flow. Everyone and their mother was expecting - almost demanding - this huge buildup and epic war. And I think that's a bit of the issues many had with the show. The first two seasons were quite intense and fast moving. There was a constant struggle and war going on.

Then, after they left New Caprica, the tone seemed to change a bit. No longer were they constantly on the run, fighting the Cylons at every turn. They starting building up the whole background story, the "artsy" stuff a helluva lot more. It went from being a sci-fi show with strong characters to a character show with sci-fi elements. Made for a much better ending and, ultimately, will make it a better show in the end IMO. On rewatches we'll probably appreciate it more but there was definite change of gears during Season 3.

As for the actual finale itself, I was satisfied with it. I would have preferred a faster pace for the last few eps (why the hell they couldn't have spent some earlier episodes building up the background story escapes me; but at least the flashbacks added to the show rather than destroying it like in Lost) but I liked the more toned-down feel of the climax. I know everyone wanted this huge-ass battle with all this shit going on, but I thought they really tied in the Opera House thing really well (Sine, they didn't fly by the seat of their pants completely; you can tell they had an idea of what the ending was going to be with the whole Opera House thing which has been around since Season 2). The strength of this show was the characters and they focused on that in the finale. That's why they had a 35+ minute denouement to the show. They tried to do a Lord of the Rings-style epic ending and I think it as done well. Not a Six Feet-level ending but certainly not the disappointment of the Seinfeld ending either (watched that this weekend as well).

If there's anything I would have liked for them to do better is to pace the second half of season 3 better and maybe have started the flashbacks that tied to the ending a bit earlier. They likely didn't know exactly where they were going until after the first half of season 4 was going and the pacing was off a bit near the end as a result.

Another thing I loved is how they tied it into the original '78 series too. It wasn't a remake but more of a future generation. The fact that the old centurions were fighting for Kabal against the new ones that sided with the alliance was awesome. I just finished downloading the '78 and '80 series' and I think we'll watch those ones next.

[Imakeholesinu]

Didn't Galen's supposed kid end up being fathered by someone else?

Yup. Hotdog did the nasty with Galen's wife.

I was disappointed with Starbuck's ending. She just disappears? Wasn't she supposed to be the harbinger of death? What happened with that?

EXACTLY! I kept thinking that she would have to face off against Lee or something.

Although they did do a kind of homage to the old series as Starbuck did disappear without a trace at the end.

[Zeus]

Starbuck's harbinger of death thing probably referred to the fact that the humans and cylons as we know them were wiped out when they decided to start over and fry all of their ships in the sun. They got there thanks to Starbuck's co-ordinates after all. Then they became a part of the new human race on New Earth and ceased to exist as we knew them.

[Imakeholesinu]

Starbuck's harbinger of death thing probably referred to the fact that the humans and cylons as we know them were wiped out when they decided to start over and fry all of their ships in the sun. They got there thanks to Starbuck's co-ordinates after all. Then they became a part of the new human race on New Earth and ceased to exist as we knew them.

I think that's a weak cop-out.

[Zeus]

yeah, but it could also be that the prophecy died with her "death" as well

[Imakeholesinu]

yeah, but it could also be that the prophecy died with her "death" as well

That's even weaker I think.

Also, if the planet they finally got to was Earth, then what was the planet that was nuked into oblivion? Did they even say it was earth or are we all just to assume that it was called that?

[SineSwiper]

Starbuck's harbinger of death thing probably referred to the fact that the humans and cylons as we know them were wiped out when they decided to start over and fry all of their ships in the sun. They got there thanks to Starbuck's co-ordinates after all. Then they became a part of the new human race on New Earth and ceased to exist as we knew them.

I think that's a weak cop-out.

This is what happens when situations like this happen in the writer's room:

1: "So, they'll call her the Harbinger of Death!"
2: "But, what does that mean?"
1: "I don't know. Nobody knows. That's part of the mystery."
2: "You do realize that we have to figure this shit out later on."
1: "Fuck that...it'll be many months from now. We'll figure it out by then."

[Zeus]

yeah, but it could also be that the prophecy died with her "death" as well

That's even weaker I think.

Also, if the planet they finally got to was Earth, then what was the planet that was nuked into oblivion? Did they even say it was earth or are we all just to assume that it was called that?

They named the last planet they found Earth (I refer to it as New Earth) after the Earth from their prophecies that was destroyed. "Earth was an idea" not a planet as Adama said.

[Eric]

So I watched all 4 seasons this month. Including the finale, nice little send off, though yeah I agree with most of the complaints.