Battlestar Galactica: Final Season (SPOILERS)

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A system of cells interlinked
His wife begged him to finalize Kara, but he wouldn't. He wanted to leave her story hanging in some ways, with her connected to something we can't fully understand; something divine. He realizes it was a risky choice and that not everyone would like it.

Listen to the podcast that covers the finale. He makes it pretty clear that they set up the characters, started the story, and let it develop on its own. He did NOT have this ending set until early in the 4th season's creative process.

Yeah, they made it up as they went. But say.... ALL fiction is made up as you go!
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Okay, yet another reason to love The Onion. This is hilarious:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news...medium=twitter

Obama Depressed, Distant Since 'Battlestar Galactica' Series Finale

WASHINGTON—According to sources in the White House, President Barack Obama has been uncharacteristically distant and withdrawn ever since last month's two-hour series finale of Battlestar Galactica.

"The president seems to be someplace else lately," said one high-level official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Yesterday we were all being briefed on the encroachment of Iranian drone planes into Iraq, when he just looked up from the table and blurted out, 'What am I supposed to watch on Fridays at 10 p.m. now? Numb3rs?'"

"I haven't seen him this upset since Admiral Adama realized that Earth was actually an uninhabitable wasteland," the official continued. "Or at least that's what he told me. I don't actually watch the show. It's not really my thing."

Since the end of the series, Obama has reportedly brushed off key budgetary decisions, ignored his wife and children, and neglected his daily workouts, claiming that he no longer cares if he lets himself go "just like Lee did before the rescue on New Caprica."

In addition, sources confirmed that instead of meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday, the depressed president sat alone in the Oval Office, scouring Internet message boards for posts by other fans about the series conclusion.

Hoping to cheer himself up, Obama also decided to re-watch the extended director's cut of "Unfinished Business," a season three episode he once described as "bringing the Starbuck-Apollo relationship to a head in the best possible way."

Revisiting the series, however, has only made the president more miserable. After a staffer suggested he bring DVDs of the show along on a recent policy trip to Denver, Obama reportedly muttered under his breath, "What's the point? It's over."

"We were going over his schedule when he sighed and asked if I watched Battlestar," said a White House secretary, whom Obama used to playfully call "Billy." "I told him I was planning on it because my sister's a big fan, but he just stared out the window the whole time."

"I also noticed he took down his Battlestar Galactica season 4.5 poster," she added.

Obama watched the finale just as he had every previous episode, alone in the White House screening room with the volume turned all the way up. Sources said he emerged exhilarated and told several aides that the show's writers "wrapped things up the best they could, though the very end was a little much."

The commander in chief also bragged that he "totally called" the fact that "All Along The Watch Tower" would be used as the jump coordinates for the FTL drive.

Despite his initial excitement, by Monday morning the absence of the hour-long Sci-Fi program had begun to affect the president.

"I'm a little concerned," first lady Michelle Obama was overheard saying at a fundraising event Tuesday. "When Firefly was canceled, he walked around like a zombie for a week, and Serenity was the only thing that snapped him out of it. Last night he said he felt like he had just discovered David Axelrod was one of the Final Five, whatever that means."

A devoted fan of the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica, Obama was initially hesitant to watch the new series, saying he was upset to learn that hotshot pilot Starbuck would be played by a woman. However, during a particularly slow week in the U.S. Senate, Obama decided to rent the first season from Netflix.

Aides said Obama "blew through" season one in a weekend, then purchased season 2.0 from a local Best Buy, and, in order to catch up in time for season three, downloaded the majority of season 2.5 from iTunes.

"When we spoke last month, he said season three was his least favorite because some of the episodes with Helo and the Sagittarons—and pretty much anything that involved Cally—were boring and didn't advance the plot," Afghan president Hamid Karzai said. "But I told him that when you watch it all on DVD, and you don't have to wait a whole week for a new show, those peripheral episodes actually add new color to the already established world."

Added Karzai, "Lately, though, it seems like he'd rather talk about the resurgence of Taliban warlords in Kandahar than the show."

During an emergency press conference on Wednesday, Obama addressed his recent detachment, as well as various other matters facing the United States.

"Our nation finds itself in uncharted territory in the deep emptiness of space," Obama announced. "The Old Girl has limited supplies, no allies, and now, no hope. I never said this would be an easy journey. Yet I promise you this: There is a place where there is no war and no economic turmoil. It is where, according to the Sacred Scrolls handed down to us by the Lords of Kobol, the thirteenth tribe traveled over three thousand years ago. That place is called Earth. Not the other Earth. This Earth. It's complicated. Anyway, I plan to take us there."

Added Obama, "So say we all! So say we all! So say we all!"



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Okay, more funniness.

Do any of you guys watch CSI? If you do, and you have OnDemand or can find it online, watch this past Thursday's episode (from April 16). It's hilarious for anyone who knows anything about Star Trek and trekkies in general...but that's not the best part.

During one particular scene, our buddy Ron Moore (and it looked like Athena was there too) has a one-line cameo shot. I thought I saw other sci-fi creative types in several crowd scenes too. And the actress who plays Ellen has a role too!

I'm just laughing my butt off -- this episode's hilarious even if we weren't seeing all these sci-fi types in various roles.

Have a look, and have fun.



Just finished the show, well reached the limit as Jimi started and the robots were on Tv. I think the final outcome was far simpler than what read in here. Almost funny how overthought some of it is on retrospect lol. Anyway, i've never read too deeply into the show to the extent of y'all but still enjoyed. Thought it was fair send off, was a bit hesistant when it started all guns blazing and the budget didn't really hold up to it.
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Hey hey. This thread died awhile back, but it's been through the Resurrection Ship, so it's alive again.

Anyway, Mike (Sedai) made some BSG reference on Facebook, I made a wise crack about the ending, and he said he was "still surprised" I didn't like it. So I volunteered to bump this thread, saying that I've distilled my complaint down into a single sentence. It is by no means exhaustive or all-encompassing, but I think it explains the single most inane thing the finale asks of us. It is:

In order for the series finale to make sense, you have to believe that God created a dead clone and dumped it on New Caprica.

That's pretty much it. There's no reason for Starbuck to find a duplicate of herself in that Viper except that it gave off a signal, which in turn led them to the planet. No character that I can remember has the ability to do this, and no explanation is offered, beyond nebulous references to a God-like figure. So, we're left to believe that God decided to clone Starbuck and her Viper and dump the corpse on the planet.

Does anyone really believe that a story which must resort to using an event like this to make sense is well-written, or well thought-out? If someone was writing this story and came to you with that ending, and asked your opinion, what would you say to them?



A system of cells interlinked
Well... that isn't a clone, but Starbuck herself. Angelic Starbuck vanished when her task was complete, yes?

"I know this to be true, because angels walk among us - I have seen them."

Or something like that - Gaius Baltar said it in the finale.



Ah yes. Okay, so how about this 2.0 version of the sentence?

In order for the series finale to make sense, you have to believe that God dumped a dead body on New Caprica and then sent its ghost/angel back to the ship.



A system of cells interlinked
Exactly. And why did he do this?

The Lord works in mysterious ways!

I mean, if I can buy general Thade popping in and out of a time storm to build Monkey Washington, I can certainly reconcile the end of Galactica as a divine event.



Hehe. The timing of you defending both, er, inventive endings within a few days of one another, and me grousing about them, was not lost on me.

I'm not the first person to make this joke, but how we can have a more perfect example of Deus Ex Machina than a show in which God literally comes down and does things inside machines?

By the way, I know I'm not 100% consistent on this point. I can think of examples I'm willing to excuse, though I do have some reasons for the exceptions.



A system of cells interlinked
Oh man, that's gold. In fact, the entire series could be a case study on Deus Ex Machina in a literal sense.

I think it's tough with a show of this nature, even for those of you that are hard core believers. Any show that makes the possible error of centering their narratives too much around big reveals runs the risk of alienating all but the most die-hard viewers when they get to the reveal. Lost and BSG come immediately to mind.



This is true. I will note, however, that I was much less disappointed with Lost. Still significantly, no doubt, but I felt Lost simply didn't answer many things, which I think I prefer to BSG answering them in an implausible (to me) way. In other words, I definitely want answers (and the creators of both shows are being wildly disingenuous when you pretend the show wasn't largely about the mysteries), but if they're not going to be any good, maintaining some mysteries is the next best thing.



The Adventure Starts Here!
Now that I've matured (cough cough), I still find the BSG ending (the whole ending, not just Kara's story arc) far more satisfying than the ending of Lost, which still pisses me off.

I've rewatched both series lately, back to back as I do work at my desk over the past few weeks, and the BSG ending holds up far better. The only part that still has me miffed is Kara's ending/explanation, which still seems lame and held together with string and chewing gum.

The Lost ending -- which was obviously more thought out -- has NO excuse for its lamety lame lameness. It's still cheesy and it still belittles everything the characters went through on the show by wrapping it all up with a neat little "They all go to heaven!" bow.

And I'm a Christian and I tend to LIKE "They all go to heaven!" bows!



I quite liked the Lost ending, thought it was a far more emotional, innovative and intriguing ending than BSG. If you didn't like it and the glowing light malarky, my justification to it all was the Island Light was the same Light behind the doors they open at the end.



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I just didn't like how the flash-sideways were a troll.
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Yeah, can't argue that was a bit of a dud move but once you know what they are and watch again, it's not such a bug to bare. And also a nice way to see dead characters return



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I thought I'd feel that way upon rewatching all of Lost back-to-back, but I didn't. When I got to the end, it still felt cheesy. And the flash-sideways stuff felt cheesier, since I knew it wasn't mortal life.

Oh sure, it was emotional -- but from a storytelling standpoint, it wasn't satisfying to me.

I find the BSG ending 99.9% satisfying (I had been saying at the time that we had BETTER see them settle on Earth), with only the Kara thing being annoying. The bit at the very end with Baltar and Head Six was a tiny bit annoying but not overly so and held up better on the second viewing.