The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica has been nothing if not a hell of a ride.
Veteran writer Ron Moore went about creating a fully-realised universe, one that ? surprisingly ? dragged viewers in through its realism and character development as much as its thought-provoking stories.
Alert: Spoilers ahead, stop reading now if you care about that sort of thing. The finale created its fair share of debate as fans debated the merits of exactly how the plots were resolved in the last three hours and thirty-some minutes. The final battle was great. The final episode?
Well, it certainly has some points against it. It's not that the episode was complete shit. In fact, it was pretty damn good. There was a great battle, old-school against new-school Cylon action, and a couple of horrible characters getting their comeuppance. And Baltar?s character development turned out to be incredibly satisfying.
There were, however, a few WTF moments. Things that make you think the writers handed their computers over to their 12-year-old children while they went to the pub for a pint. In no particular order, our Battlestar Galatica WTFs:
1. Starbuck.
The show spent half a season convincing us Starbuck?s return from the dead was real and legitimate. An entire first-season subplot had Starbuck as a victim of DNA-harvesting by the Cylons, who can grow flesh bodies. When she found her burned corpse, none of us were surprised. When she disappeared into thin air, it was a kick in the face.
2. Cavil?s Suicide. Dean Stockwell?s explanation ? that Cavil would realise the jig was up and he was doomed to mortality after the Chief kills Tori ? still doesn't explain his sudden decision to completely quit his crusade against the Colonies. Perhaps the most unsatisfying demise of a villain since Darth Maul.
3. Going Native. With a fleet of starving and sick people you're going to send your only working hospital into the sun? If they thought Zarek and Gaeta were mutinous, we can only imagine what the other Colonials thought of this braindead decision.
4. Deus Ex Machina. Since the show heavily features both God and machines, maybe this one was just too tempting for the writers to pass up, but it still comes across as incredibly lazy. We can buy the musical notes being jump coordinates. But saving the day through a random asteroid hitting a ship that just happens to be pointing its nukes conveniently at the Colony, causing said nukes to fire and knock the Colony into a black hole? Come on.
5. We Can Breed With Them. We know this is supposed to be a nod to a divine plan, but since the show focused so heavily on plausible, scientific explanations for the mundane ? even if fate has played a role ? it does itself a disservice by explaining away that the human fleet can simply interbreed with the native Earth population.
6. All You Need Is Love. Hey, remember back when Cylons could only have human-Cylon babies if they Loved Each Other? What happened to that little plot point?
7. 150,000 Years Later. This entire sequence was superfluous. It was a coda for people too dense to get the rather obvious points made earlier in the episode. In fact, if the episode ended with Adama sitting on the hill where he buried Laura Roslyn, that would have been fine ? all the other things could have been overlooked.
8. Late-Story Character Development. Imagine what a different play Hamlet would be if Shakespeare waited until the final duel with Laertes to flesh out Hamlet's daddy issues. You?d spend the first four acts wondering why he was such a whiny child. You know, kind of like we spent the first four seasons wondering why Baltar was such a whiny child.
9. Not With A Bang. Laura Roslyn deserved a better death than keeling over in the cockpit of a raptor while on a wildlife safari with the Admiral. At least some last words or something.
10. They Have A Plan. The Cylons may have had a plan, but it was clear from a lot of the loose plot ends that the writers didn't. It's totally OK that they didn't know where they were going to end up when they started, and the writers did what any good writer would do ? gave themselves enough hooks to do what they wanted. The Temple of Athena and the constellations as they appear from our Earth. The DNA harvesting. Starbuck?s painting. The list of unresolved plots goes on. And it's fair that they weren't all resolved. But when taken as a whole, the lack of resolution of so many makes the writing look sloppy.
BSG isn't over. There's still The Plan miniseries, which will explain exactly what the Cylon plan was. And its spin-off, Caprica, is starting to leak scenes all over the Internet, promising a thought-provoking look at artificial intelligence and playing God.
Any who knows, there's always a DVD release where they can post the alternative ending: that the cast of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles show up, explain that Caprica Six will evolve into Skynet and get to kicking some more ass.
It couldn't be a worse ending anyway.
[story by Jason Mical]
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Eric says
They’d developed Baltar’s daddy/home/identity issues during his imprisonment in season 3. He had a big monologue about how he was a from a farming family, had a yorkshire accent, yadda yadda and how he’d run as far as he could away from his original identity.
Ian says
A few points I could make:
2. With Tori dead he no longer had any chance of resurrection. Without that he had no purpose so better to take his own life than let the humans take it with no chance of him gaining anything from it.
3. I would agree that it’s a big suspension of disbelief but I think it’s consistent. The whole show has been about humans facing the consequences of their use of technology. Having to flee their creation to get to Earth, just to find out it had been nuked. Technology didn’t get them anywhere.
4. The whole point of the Deus Ex Machina is that it’s the unexpected appearance of a god-like solution to the problem. The whole show has been about God, so as another reviewer pointed out, you can hardly claim it’s unexpected.
6. When did they ever suggest otherwise? Hera was the only human/cylon hybrid and she was born out of love. Presumably any humans who breed with Cylons also did so out of love and once there was a generation of hybrids they would be able to breed with each other because they weren’t fully Cylon
9. Roslin didn’t really need any last words. Her story was wrapped up in terms of prophecy and emotionally. Giving her some last words would have just been trite.
I loved the episode, with the exception of the robots in the coda. Just too visually jarring and a little twee.
Glen Larson says
Don’t forget Apollo, the fleets best fighter pilot, abandoning the fleet to pursue a savvy career in politics, as they’re being hunting into extinction for a race of killer robots and cyborgs. Yeah… gritty & realistic. *whatever*
Glen Larson says
Also, don’t forget Rosalyn’s cancer being cured by the magic cylon hybrid baby juice!
Ted says
The nukes were not conveniently aimed at the colony. I am sure that their targets were already programmed ahead of time, as evidenced by each nuke curving along it’s own course and hitting in different places.
Bionetic says
I have to agree, there were some major WTF’s. I also kinda felt the whole storyline revolving around angels was a big ripoff. Don’t get me wrong, I love angels. The CW show Supernatural has been doing some great work developing plots around them. The movie ‘Knowing’ had an interesting portrayal of the idea of angels as agents of the Lord. But BSG kinda screwed the pooch on there rendition. Their attempt to be subtle was TOO subtle to the point that the whole theme seemed mundane and trite too say the least. The idea that Baltar’s visions of Head-Caprica, Caprica Six’s Head Baltar, and Starbuck were all just angel was too superficial for me. I understand the common interpretation is that they were angels, but I wish they explained it alittle better or maybe they could have used better plot devices to weave this explanation in. In the beginning the show did a great job when they made their own BSG, but it seems that they strayed too far off the beaten path. I honestly think making a modern version of the original BSG’s ending, including the ship of light and a modern version of earth would have made a much better ending.
rich says
I don’t mind negative opinions about the final, but I am a little sick of people stating negative opinions as facts or implying the writers “were lazy” or didn’t know what they were doing. There are many interviews over the internet by the writers stating they had the resolution they wanted and they thought long and hard about the final. It was not slap dash and thrown together. The fact that some people didn’t like the ending is your opinion, it is not a fact.
So to rebut the review above:
1. Starbuck- probably the most legitimate critisism and is why it is first in this review. Ron Moore stated he left the ending to her ambiguous on purpose. Some liked it, some didn’t. Their was no rational explanation for her other than being a cylon that would be consistent. Once we learned she wasn’t a cylon, a devine explanation was the only other one left.
2. Cavil- he was going to die anyway, so its a tomato/ta-mat-o criticism. He would have been killed by the colonials anyway.
3. Going native- the ending tied into the story that they were our ancestors. We don’t have the technology, so where did it go? They were sick of what their technology brought them and wanted a fresh start. It does require some suspension of disbelief that hey would all choose this, but it is consistent with the story.
4.Deues ex machina- I’m sorry to say this to the critics, but what show were you watching the last six years? “god has a plan” laura’s visions, her visions while jumping, Baltar healing a child, were any of you paying attetion to you know, the show? The entire show has been about god and religion. I’m sorry to those that thought it was star trek part 6.
5. we can breed with them – yes, so? That was the point. Adama asked what were the odds that two human species would evolve on separate planets.
6.All you need is love- maybe they all fell in love. Your assuming something not shown.
7. 150000 years later- yeah, I kinda agree it was a little cute. The point that we have to be careful with technology was made, and this was again underlining it, but it was an add on at the end of the story, like an epilogue. If you don’t like it, it didn’t affect the story, so ignore it.
8. Late character developement- again a matter of style. I liked it, some didn’t. It showed the beginnings of these characters to contrast with the end.
9.Nt with a bang- Big disagreement. Her death scene was the best part of the final. If you don’t like it, what can I say?
10. They have a plan- they did, to kill the human race.
Avy says
I couldn’t agree more with:
“If the episode ended with Adama sitting on the hill where he buried Laura Roslyn, that would have been fine
Xavier says
Since it’s a fictional piece, we can only go with what the writers have stated or implied along the way as to whether they conveyed the story and meanings they wanted to. There has been acknowledgment that some elements were not clearly received or communicated to viewers, such as the corrupted cylon model Daniel not being Starbuck’s father yet was perceived by many as a possibility after exploring that plot near the end of the series. Interpretations vary on not clearly defined points. And satisfaction or dissatisfaction is an individual response that I can only claim my own. I was neutral on the ending (liked the 1st half but became detached on the 2nd), yet I rate the entire series as great despite not caring about or for the end and agreeing on a number of the WTF points. To each their own.
Shan says
Small problem with the constellations.
The hologram left behind showing the Earth’s constellations *as they are now* was already thousands of years old when the Colonials found it.
We eventually find out the Colonials existed about 150,000 years in our past.
I don’t anything even remotely resembling our present day constellations were around then.
I’m not expecting the show to be 100% accurate in terms of science but I found this far too lazy. Especially since I thought this and other numerous small clues were setting us up to have the show end in our far future (and which still directly contradict the ending we got).
nick says
150,000 years is nothing in the cosmic scale, the night sky was probably not much different than it is today.
himal says
150,000 is long enough for stellar drift to have rendered the shapes of almost all of the constellations unrecognisable. Bear in mind that the majority of the visible stars that make up the constellations are relatively close to us, thus their motion is pronounced even over several millennia.
Free piece of astronomy software called Celestia lets you fast-foward or rewind time. 150,000 years ago, it all looks way off.
Cyrus Prime says
I think that what WAS a good show was irreparably damaged by the 2007-2008 writer’s strike.
It’s like having a wonderful steak dinner meal prepared by a professional chef who walks away only to be replaced by a guy who wants to know how much motor oil you want on your pancake salad.