Betrayal of the often compelling and incisive scripts of the previous seasons. Now everything has to be sentimental pap fit for a 12-year old? Embarrassing. All the plot lines revealed to be crap.

If the pilot was anything like the final, I’d have never watched the damn thing.

Incredibly disappointing for an ongoing work that showed so much promise and innovation.

(So Say We All)

God Bless and Flame Away…

Firstly, if you don’t want to read the whole thing here, is my biggest gotcha. I was able to set it aside while I watched the series to focus on the story, but in light of the ending, I’m letting it bug me again, haha. How could they SERIOUSLY have not been able to detect cylon from human? They have sensing devices like ultrasound, mri, etc. If there was something inside them to transmit their concicousness through space, why couldn’t they see it? If it was biological in origin, there’s no way it would have looked like a regular human brain. Of course this would have completely changed the mystery of the story, probably for the worst?

Many others have made excellent comments here (Jeff for example).

I’d also agree that it was the 2nd half of season 4, after they found dead Earth-1, where it started really losing it. I was expecting every episode to start pulling it all together towards the big finale. That never happened. At all.

It was as if, like so many movies it seems, they decided that they wanted to try to do a WOW ending and then had to write the rest of it all around it. Deciding that it was 150,000 years ago instead of far in our future for example, doomed a great deal many things. Suddenly you have to explain (or in the case of many things NOT explain) how there were no artifacts of high technology around, how an alien species could mate with these natives, how the elements of their culture (mythologies, etc) made it through 150,000 years with nothing but oral tradition, why there were so many similar things like domesticated cats on the ships. If they had not taken it into the past, many of these things could be answered rationally.

Hell, don’t even try to connect to it our universe at all!!! In that case all of these “similar things” are just story constructs that we can understand. Maybe those aren’t really humans, cats, Greek gods, etc, but representations of a completely alien species in terms that we can understand (and for a vastly lower makeup/costume/set budget…

Sigh. I feel like I was let down by an old friend.

Harriot went on to produce further maps from 1610 to 1613. Not all of these are dated, but they show an increasing level of detail. By 1613 he had created two maps of the whole Moon, with many identifiable features such as lunar craters that crucially …

It is true that during the past 150 000 years human race was in no danger of building sentient robots bent on nuclear genocide, but that is a moot point. The last 150 000 years were a period of barbarism, savagery, ignorance and pointless bloodshed. (And in many ways, the world is still like that, but that is not caused by technology.)

In the past 150 000 years people did not fear genocidal robots because they were too busy fearing other humans. Even if someone was not in danger of being raped/enslaved/murdered/robbed/brutally exploited by his fellow human beings, his life was still harsh. A typical individual spent a lot of time trying to feed himself (death from starvation was common), trying to survive in harsh, unforgiving environment and undetaking backbreaking work every day (work that put enormous strain on already malnurished body and caused premature aging and death). And if you got sick or injured, God help you. (Actually, he won’t. According to RM abandoning technology was part of his plan.) The medicine was primitive in the extreme and the “doctors” often inflicted more harm than the affliction they were trying to remedy.

I do admit that introduction of advanced technology and evolution from agrarian to modern techno society created new serious problems that not that long ago would have been impossible and inconceivable. However, when you look at things globally and taking everything into account, our lives are much better than they were centuries ago.

The Colonials (especially ordinary civilians) had to endure poor living conditions, deprivations, stress and conflict. However, a typical Colonial civilian still had it better than a stone age hunter/gatherer or medieval farmer. And now, that they found a resource rich habitable planet and the Cylons were no longer a problem, their lives were going to improve immeasurabely. Granted, some technological regression would have occurred anyway due to the fact that some knowledge was lost (all those who knew how it works died) or because they lacked industrial base to maintain it (spare parts would run out and there was no way to manufacture more). Still, even regressing to 19th or early 20th century level of technology would have been vastly preferable to throwing your technology into the sun and going back to stone age.

As if it was not enough, the very last scene shows a robot convention with All Along the Watchtower playing in the background. The intention is (I believe) to show us that we are on the verge of creating our own Cylons. Which means that the suffering through so many billions of people went through in the past 150 000 years was for nothing. RM is saying that we allowed technology to run rampant and soon we will pay the price in the form of sentient, genocidal robots armed with nukes.

The problem is not with technology but with ignorance created through the decision to abandon technology. The knowledge about Cylons, the 12 Colonies and the whole holocaust did not survived. It is not even a myth. We have no written records from 150 000 years ago. We have no oral stories. All we have is some bones that archeologists dug up. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

In the end, Lee’s decision accomplished nothing except cause a lot of suffering and delay the creation of new Cylons by 150 000 years.

But I do not blame Lee because he is a fictional character that does not exist in the real world and never did. We shouldn’t be angry at him. It is like being angry at Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

I am angry at the writers. Something tells me that this is lazy writing again. They could not come up with a good conclusion, so they made up this “technology is a problem, so let’s all go back to our stone age roots because everyone knows that no one has a better life than a caveman” stupid ending. Well, at least we got some sort of conclusion. With Starbuck they could come up with no good explanation (because they started to think about explaining her resurrection months after it was filmed, instead of giving it some thought BEFORE they decided to film her return) so they eventually decided to give no explanation at all and came up with the whole “she is what you want her to be even though during the whole of seaons 4 we’ve been promising some sort of definite answer” ending.

Abandoning technology is retarded and goes against everything we’ve seen in the past 4 seasons, but at least it is a conclusion of sorts. It is better to have a badly thought out, retarded conclusion than no conclusion at all.

Biggest problems:
1. Extremely unlikely outcome that the colonials would give up all their technologies and go native. You try forcing urban. modern, non-spacefaring Americans to live off the land for more than a week — you’d get a total revolt.
2. Literal deus ex machina conclusion.
3. Starbuck storyline.

Yawn. I regret I invested so much time in watching the series.

True, but a TV series is not real life. One of the advantages of BSG is that it was a fictional universe created by human writers, and therefore they could have provided answers. In real life, not only we don?t know the real nature of God and his plan, but we can?t be sure if God exists, and if he does, if he really does have a plan. In BSG world (especially in season 4 and the final episode) there is absolutely no doubt that God exists and he has a plan of sorts, but we are told absolutely nothing about it. The BSG writers never hesitated to tackle hot issues, go against political correctness and to make some people angry. Did they suddenly feel afraid of offending religious people? Did they suddenly became born again Christians? No. The answer is that the lack of answers was caused by lazy writing.

I want to elaborate on what I mean by ?lazy writing?. I don?t mean to say that the writers themselves are lazy people or that they spend only an hour per day writing and the rest partying, or something like that. I?m sure that they are hard working people (even overworked). What I mean by lazy writing is that they put in stuff and did not think about explaining it.

I read blogs, comments and interviews with RM. I remember what he had to say about Starbuck?s resurrection. He says that he decided not to explain the mystery of her resurrection because he wanted her to be whatever we the fans want her to be. If some of us want to think of her as being a Daniel?s daughter who was resurrected on Cyclon Earth by an abandoned space station, that?s fine. If we want to think about her being brought back by God, that is fine too. If we want her to be one of the Beings of Light from the original series who assumed her identity, that is fine too.

Ok. So this is what RM wanted. But if you read his interviews and comments, you will read that this was not the original idea. In fact, there was no original idea. The writers decided to resurrect Starbuck, but when they put that in the script and then they filmed it, they had no idea who or what she was and how did she came back. They thought that her returning with a new Viper to the tune of All Along the Watchtower was cool, so they put it in. There is nothing wrong with first coming up with scenes and ideas and then later coming up with explanations behind them, but at some point you have to sit down and think it over. The writers (RM says so directly) started to think about how to explain resurrected Starbuck long after her return was filmed and aired. And when they did start to think about, they could not come up with a satisfactory answer, so eventually they decided not to explain it at all.

Had RM planned from the very beginning not to explain Starbuck?s resurrection, I could have respected his choice. I would not agree with it, but on some level I would respect his decision. But this is not the case. RM did not plan making Starbuck into an enigma without an answer from day one. He put her there because it appeared to him as the cool thing to do. Then he didn?t bother to think about an explanation. Then he did thought about it but could come up with nothing interesting. So he finally decided to come up with nothing and left us with the whole ?Starbuck is what you want her to be.?

All the while the whole ?Let?s find an explanation for Starbuck. Ooops. We can?t. So let?s leave it without an answer? thing was going on in the writers? room, we the audience have been watching season 4 hoping to get an answer and seeing that some sort of mystery was unfolding. And in the end we got no answer.

This is what I meant by lazy writing. I used Starbuck as an example, but there are many, many other examples. The writers made everything up as they went along without any planning or forethought whatsoever. Very often they introduced stuff and sat down to explain or develop it long after it was filmed and aired. And when they did sit down to explain it, they realized that they can?t come up with a good answer, so they either presented us with last minute, half-assed explanations (Hera?s super important purpose is to pump out as many babies as possible so that we can be her descendants. The Opera House vision introduced and repeated since season 1 was about moving Hera from one room to another. The fleet gives up on technology and decides to enjoy the life of a stone age because Lee Adama said so.) or no explanation at all. (Starbuck is what you want her to be. God exists and he was behind it all but we won?t tell you what he or at the very least what he wants. All Along the Watchtower is a magical song that travels through the ages and many people compose it for a reason we won?t explain. Etc.)

The Colonials abandoned they’re entire civilization into the sun, all their technology… but what doesnt make complete sense is that maybe a few days before arriving on Earth the (congress? of) Captains are bickering over who would get what from Galactica. Now it seems to me that them, as well as any number of the other 30,000 odd citizens of the fleet would not be so quick to abandon everything they have fought so long and hard to hold on to. After so many years on the run from the Cylons, I don’t think that everyone would be like…”Oh so Adama and Lampkin think we should go native here? Oh yea sounds great let me just ditch my entire life and start over with my zero survive-in-the-wild instincts.”

And with the other Cylons still out in the Galaxy the only line of defense left is the Free Red Cylons and their basestar…against renegade Caville’s, Doran’s, Simons, and gods know who else. Maybe there was another surviving fleet, maybe that fleet Cain plundered was found by another lucky surviving Battlestar or any FTL military vessel and they travelled through space to find a new world.

The higher power notion just bugs me, it lacks vision. He means that there was more going on than anyone could figure out, or want to try to figure out, how to explain and decided to just throw it out as god did it.

If you see how things had played humanity on Kobol did something and they had an exodus to the Colonies. Then man created the Cylons, who revolted and warred with man until the left for greener pastures, and the final five. Here in lies my unnoticed claim…”all this has happened before, and all this will happen again” but it didnt happen the way it did before, kind of. I may be losing some of you…

The 5 came from their Cylon destroyed Clyon world, allied with the toasters and then created the humanoid Cylons…. Man did not cause its end, its exodus, or its arrival on Earth. God or gods didnt even have anything to do with that. The 5 did, they created their race, they are completely at fault for EVERYTHING, except their creation. Although I am pretty sure its safe to say the Kobol Cylon’s are to blame again. So man is not the ones who are designed to destroy themselves, their creations are. Man made Cylon, Cylon made Cylon, Cylon kills Man, Man and Cylon breed, Cylon traits carry on to continue in the halfbreed humanity and its lust for war. Thank you Cylons. And yea the Colonies did have war, but we don’t know enough to say if the war was fought with Cylon Centurions as soldiers or men, we don’t know what the wars were over, we don’t know a fraking thing.

The other things I wanted to comment on is that I agree with half of the populous here. RDM, my man, did foul up on the end of season 4 and the finale. We were owed more explainations. I would have settled for the arrival to Earth and then cut, but I wanted more explainations about Daniel, Starbuck, Hera, the other Cylons *who all could not have been at the Colony*, Baltar and Six’s “angels”, and the Baltar monotheistic religion/cult/crazies.

Daniel, wow thanks mention something then never mention it again. “Yes, we do have ice cream, and no I won’t tell you what flavors,” way to dangle a new line of story in our faces. “Let’s see what perfection looks like,” the line that made it…. Caville right there noted that we as viewers were entitled to see Daniel.

Starbuck’s death and resurrection…with a Viper as well. Well that makes 0 sense. I have nothing, it just was fraking stupid to throw that in there with no support to it. I figured for awhile, MAYBE the 5 had another satellite or ship in orbit that could resurrect, or even other Cylon’s, but that was a stretch. But she gave us nothing, no facts, no proof, just a disappearing act and that a god had something to do with it/everything.

Adama and Roslin….ok I was satisfied how they ended. Bill was alone, and not in the sense of alone, but he had lost Carolanne, he had lost his old girl…and long before Sam took her for a walk on the sun….but Galactica was dead after the mutiny. Bill had nothing left, he stayed with the only woman he had left, even if it was just her grave.

Tyrol, thats fine I like his ending of going off to some remote island. He had had enough too, he lost Sharon, he lost Cally, he lost Nicky, and he had nothing left to keep his faith in humanity. He was done and he just wanted to be left alone.

Baltar and Caprica….well all i can say is damn Caprica can handle the lose of love quick. Baltar, well I have always liked his character because its intricate. So they ended good too.

Hera…shes mido-eve….come on, thats a petty stretch at best. I don’t believe in that mido-eve crap anyways, to say all women on Earth are of HER blood line….well shit, Eve was the biggest slut of them all if she managed to be the only woman known to existance that everyone can trace back to.

What about the bodies, structures, CLOTHING, and anything else these people left behind? They were dressed modern, they had zippers and buttons, and velcro, and plastic…and archeologists only find Hera? No other human or Cylon or their stuff? Doubt it.

The rest of the Cylons….we didnt see any basestars at the Colony and we all know they had several more basestars out there. As well as outposts and everything. So what? The red Centurions went off to explore the universe? Or go blow their brethren to hell?

There is just way too much that was left to the fans, too much. We can handle one or two important things being open, but when you have everything….EVERYTHING….thats just sad quick finish writing. I love to write, and I never leave long drawn out plot lines open like that. I give subtle closure myself, but closure at least.

The Plan and Caprica had better cover something that will seal the breaches in the hull of the plot.

But I will stick with this, BSG has been the best fraking show I have ever come to be addicted to.

LAST WORD! bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!!!!!! (maniacal laughter continues unabated for 150,000 years…)