Kevin's Watch

Yeah, it's pretty dumb that a civilisation capable of interstellar travel would have no history records to speak of. See my "making it up as they went along" comment.

"Made it up as they went along" doesn't bother me too much. There has to be a certain level of this for any story, or they'll never get off the ground. You can't write every single detail ahead of time. And it's quite clear that they had the ending planned already, because it depended upon details carefully set up throughout each season.

What I'm bothered by more are the choices that are made for no other reason than to mess with the viewers. Like Kara Thrace dying. There is absolutely nothing about her character arc or the overall story that couldn't have been achieved by her doing exactly what she did without dying and coming back. She could have still come to believe in her destiny, could have still gone into the maelstrom, still gone to earth, still came back with an unlikely story, still saw visions of her dad playing piano, still remembered the song, and still punched in the right coordinates to find earth II. Nothing about being "born again" made any of those things possible. The only thing it added was a little bit of melodrama and audience tension. We got the question, "What am I?" which was never answered. And we got to feel sad for her dying ... which was then promptly undermined.

It was almost as bad as John Locke, but not quite. At least she still got to be Starbuck, instead of turning into the Big Bad Guy.

Yeah, I find the whole "final 5 cylons" thing to be the same way. They got to the end of season two, they'd only shown 7 cylon models, and they decided to turn it into a plot point, but mainly they just used it as a way to make more drama in the whole "I'm married to a cylon"/"I'm a cylon who hates cylons" mode that they used a little too often.

Zarathustra wrote:
What I'm bothered by more are the choices that are made for no other reason than to mess with the viewers. Like Kara Thrace dying. There is absolutely nothing about her character arc or the overall story that couldn't have been achieved by her doing exactly what she did without dying and coming back. She could have still come to believe in her destiny, could have still gone into the maelstrom, still gone to earth, still came back with an unlikely story, still saw visions of her dad playing piano, still remembered the song, and still punched in the right coordinates to find earth II. Nothing about being "born again" made any of those things possible. The only thing it added was a little bit of melodrama and audience tension. We got the question, "What am I?" which was never answered. And we got to feel sad for her dying ... which was then promptly undermined.

All of that. I was never completely satisfied with the ending, or a lot of the last season. I guess I wanted a more scientific explanation for what happened to Starbuck. Never been much for all the mystic/spiritual stuff. They'd been doing such a good job with her character essentially... growing up, then what the hell? It's still my all-time favorite TV series, but there are a lot of things I would have done differently in the final season. One thing in particular.

I believe the pattern went like this: The people of Kobol created androids. The colonies went their separate ways, the androids named their planet "Earth" discovered they could breed and eventually made themselves robot servants... who turned against them until they wiped each other out. Except for the 5 who, guided by the extra-dimensional "Don't-call-me-God" through people they saw in their heads, had recreated the resurrection technology and went off heading for the other 12 colonies, intending to give them the message "Do not make your machines sentient! It can only end in death!"

Episodes 1 and 2 of Blood and Chrome are out. It seemed a little cheesy at first and screamed 'webisode,' but I ended up enjoying both episodes.

One thing kind of stuck out for me, though. Did I miss the part in the series that showed co-ed showers? Seemed more Starship Troopers than BSG to me. And the editing of the profanity seemed both pointless and clunky (pun intended).

They had co-ed bathrooms on BSG. Not as sexy as it sounds, I'd imagine. I can't decide which is worse: ladies sitting next to me while I poop, or me sitting next to ladies while they poop. I can't believe this actually saves much space.

In related news:

www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention/post ... ica-reboot

dlbpharmd wrote:In related news:

www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention/post ... ica-reboot

That's from last year, and Singer is working on on the next XMen movie, so, it's gonna be a long time before that Galactica movie surfaces, if it ever does. It's been off and on so many times, I won't really think much about it until it actually gets off the round

7 episodes left in my massive re-watchingnessivity....athon.

Verbosity to follow.

But it's much, much better the second full time around.

We enjoyed it the 2nd time around, getting our youngest son into on this trip. But when we tried it a 3rd time, it wasn't as impressive. We didn't get past the first episode.

The show has great characters. But after seeing what Fringe could do with three characters (basically) , I realize there's an intimacy and focus that's missing in the wide canvas upon which BSG paints its epic vision. I still love it for what it is, and the ending bothers me far less than it bothers others (or even myself, originally), but Fringe has kicked it down a notch in my favorites list.

The show's been off the air for 4 years, so I'm not spoiler tagging anything. If you haven't watched the series, don't read this.



The first time I watched it, I remember being unhappy with most of the 4th season, and big swaths of season 3. Not this time. In fact, it's a shame that all four seasons were truncated, as I feel like there's a lot of texture that's glossed over....Character moments that would lend more humanity to the story. An example of this is the "before the fall" Anders flashback. That simple 3 minute flashback makes Sam so much more human. I wish there was more of it.

I paid particular attention to Kara this time, because I was befuddled by what exactly she was. I came up with a theory - which it turns out is not unique - that she either was or was chosen by the Beings of Light from the original series. This would explain her perfect white Viper. There was an unaired episode of Galactica 80 which had Starbuck as one of the BoL after his judgment in "The Return of Starbuck". I thought this was a really cool tie-in (if it was intentional), and then I got depressed because I was such a geek for coming up with this.

Thankfully when I Googled it, I found out that this had been discussed on the BSG forums, so at least I wasn't alone.

At any rate, I wish there'd been some more fleshing-out of that, had it been intentional.

I was also, once again, blown away with the awesomeness that is Karl Agathon. For a character that was never intended to last past the miniseries, he is the moral center of the show.....He's the human that makes humanity worth saving.

Love the series even more now. I think this is one that'll get revisited periodically, as there's just so much to it.

Never be depressed about your geek rating!

It was always nice to come here after a new episode and find a discussion going. Speculation was half the fun, even though most of my theories were waaay off. Heck, I will still argue that Cain should have been one of the Final Five.

I wasn't a huge fan of Galactica 80, so I can't really offer an opinion on that theory. I'm not satisfied with the (lack of) explanation of what Starbuck was. Perhaps it's time for my re-watchingnessivity....athon too.

We got The Plan on Blu-ray, but got bored with it. I suppose it's something you should watch right after BSG, intead of months later.

Also, did anyone like Blood and Chrome? I've seen it for sell on DVD, but I can't stand to watch standard def anymore. I'll get it when it's out on BD, I suppose.

Sorus wrote:Never be depressed about your geek rating!

It was always nice to come here after a new episode and find a discussion going. Speculation was half the fun, even though most of my theories were waaay off. Heck, I will still argue that Cain should have been one of the Final Five.

I wasn't a huge fan of Galactica 80, so I can't really offer an opinion on that theory. I'm not satisfied with the (lack of) explanation of what Starbuck was. Perhaps it's time for my re-watchingnessivity....athon too.

Oh, Galactica 80 was horrible. TRoS was an excellent episode though, and I liked the Beings of Light from the original Galactica. I'm filling in the dots though when I'm tying Kara to the BoL. That may never have been Ron Moore's intention, but dammit it works for me.

Zar, The Plan fills in a few holes and sort of tells the story from the Cylon's point of view. It's an interesting companion piece, but not necessary. Caprica was brilliant, and I'm still terribly disappointed that it was cancelled. I enjoyed Blood and Chrome, and I would have liked to have seen where it led.

This week is the 10th anniversary of the pilot episode of BSG, and in recognition, I offer this hilarious Portlandia sketch.

I was a late-comer to Battlestar Galactica. I don't know why I never watched it when it was originally aired, just didn't. I've only watched the "reimagined" series, not the original. Overall, I enjoyed it, it dealt with some difficult issues, but I share some of the quibbles mentioned upthread. Also, the ending was very anticlimactic, in my opinion, just lame. Still I'd like to re-watch it some time.

Yeah I agree MsMary the end episodes were disappointing.. I loved the series but it was rushed to its conclusion and I was hoping for a more satisfying wrap up. Did they get cancelled early.. I dont know but it seemed like it.

From what I've read online, it seems like they sort of lost their way partway in with the story line and plotting. Still an excellent series, in my opinion, and well worth watching.

percent agree. I loved it too. Definitely stays a fave.