In every end there is also a beginnning? lol, appropriate T.S. Eliot reference yet again.
Ugh. I got through about 30 minutes of the BSG: The Plan leak before I turned it off in disgust. For the record: it has nothing to do with petty ship quarrels. I mean - fuck, you guys, THIS SHOW BASICALLY TOLD ME MY SHIP WAS AN END ALL, BE-ALL. I honestly don't give two fucks about the resolution of Kara/Lee, in the long run (not that I don't have opinions, but I don't care enough for this to be the sole reason for liking this show). This is the problem, sometimes: sometimes, we (and I am willing to include myself in this) fail to see fundamental storytelling errors, in favor of "!!!! THEY MADE OUT." (A caveat I make to point out that, wow, THERE ARE TOTALLY SOME THINGS where I can't say this about my own self.)
And Battlestar Galactica/BSG: The Plan commits the greatest of errors. It was everything I feared it would be the moment the project was announced. But I didn't hate it what I saw (statement above not withstanding). But I also didn't like it. And - I guess what I'm saying is, I think I'm finally ready talk about My Issues With Battlestar. This appears to be everything I wanted the series finale of Battlestar Galactica to be! You should be (un?)surprised to learn this is not actually a good thing.
*lights a cigarette; reclines on couch*
On the one hand, I want throw down everything and declare, "AJFHASKJFHAKSFHAKJHFASHFAJHSAFHASJFHA YOU STUPID IDIOTS. That was the explanation I demanded from the series finale! Instead you gave me that crap I actually watched, paused for a few months, and now are dancing going around, 'sike, here is part 2. Or Part 4. Whatever! BE GRATEFUL!'"
On the other hand, it exists and my fandom brain immediately says, "!!!! CANON. FULL STOP. SAME THING. THIS IS GREAT. IT ANSWERS QUESTION. HOMG AWESOME."
Inevitably, my third-handed (I am awesome, and have three) Englishmajor hand, who loves storytelling, goes, "Dude, no. I am sorry. This is awful."
Look, I get it. Television does not exist in an artistic vacuum - clearly. That sentence alone could probably be fodder for a 75+ page thesis on the nature of tv and the fourth wall vs. dramatic theater and the fourth wall (I DO HAVE REAL NOTES, PLEASE DON'T STEAL). As much as I love a good Sepinwalling of a Mad Men episode, I recognize that narratives told on television are more akin to Dickens serials (i.e., people waiting anxiously on the dock for the arrival of a new volume, sending the author letters pleading not to kill Little Nell in Curiosity Shop) than, say, Dostoyevsky. There are, all told, umpteen amount of outside influences on the story that ends up getting told - RATINGS, and NETWORK SUPPORT, and POTENTIAL SPINOFF POTENTIAL... not to mention things extraordinary, like the 07/08 Writer's Strike. I literally cannot imagine what it must be like to be a writer, on tv, who has this perfectly realized idea in their head... and then loads of other dudes who have no idea what that means telling them, "Yeah, but could you also include this? Great." As something vaguely resembling a writer, I can at least recognize how horribly intrusive those voices must be.
The problem with BSG, I feel, is that it was kind of GOOD. There is a lot of self-deprication in the scifi genre ("set phasers to stun" "it's a trap"... um, essentially liking Farscape at all), but let's face it: Season 1, the first half of Season 2, and the New Caprica of Season 3 were DAMNED AWESOME PIECES OF TELEVISION. Not scifi tv; TELEVISION. Story. Narrative. 9 times out of 10, it succeeded in being a show that Star Trek and Farscape never could be: people stranded in an impossible situation (oh, by the way, that situation is robotic holocaust). It's the reason I adored BSG. It's the reasons I didn't care that it was "dark" or "depressing" (really? that's a thing?). In those highlighted moments, it was a story about characters.
In short, I have no idea if it's actually fair to ascribe this blame to the writers, given what I can only imagine is unbelievable pressure from network execs and the dangling of a spinoff arc and, well, money:
From a pure story perspective, if you start your series with a every-episode prologue that your primary antagonist ~has a plan~, you should definitely resolve that by series end. You should NOT vaguely do it, set up some hints, and then release a spin-off after the fact that's weirdly technical canon but possibly ignored by a currently engaged audience, in which you explain ~what you actually meant~. Guys, no joke, that is lazy as fucking anything. I'm not SAYING I would have not have enjoyed this! Please, explore my BSG tag. YOU WILL FIND THIS TO BE UNTRUE.
I guess what I'm arguing is, I like that this exists (CLEARLY; I ADORE THESE FICTIONAL PEOPLE), but I hate that it HAS to exist. You know?
It makes me realize that I wanted the series finale to be, "So A --> B --> C --> ... Z," which is plausible and awesome. And then, months later, The Plan explains how C went to Z.
Instead, the finale went from A to Z, and said, "STAY TUNED!!! BUY OUR DVD!!!"
Seriously? Lame.
I liked the Cylons. I felt like their issues were sidelined and more sidelined as the seasons went on, until they became a cardboard Bad Guy. All of this "spinoff" "explanation"? Um, call me naive, but considering that prologue you fed me for two seasons, I sort of wanted this... years ago. Sure, you are validating me now. Sure, I should probably grateful. Guess what, I'm not: all it makes me think about it how you TOTALLY DROPPED THE BALL BEFORE. You dropped the ball, panicked, and when the network gave you this out, you took it instead of resolving those short-comings in the finale, LIKE PROPER WRITERS.
In other words, I shouldn't need a text after the fact to understand fundamental qualities of the original texts. It's lazy. And frankly, insulting, because I can so see you sitting in a room, telling yourself, "Those crazy obsessed scifi fans! THEY'LL HANG ON OUR EVERY WORD, CURRENT EXPLANATION BE DAMNED, BECAUSE THEY GO TO CONVENTIONS AND ARE WEIRD, AND THEY DON'T MATTER BECAUSE AT THE END OF THE DAY WE ARE ~ARTIST~." Guys, you can't make yourselves Trek canon. Please, allow yourself to pay homage to how long Trek canon has cultivated itself. Please, allow yourselves to realize that simply believing you are writing ~something great~ does not make it so.
Because actually, at some point, no matter which world I choose to identify myself which, I am inevitably punching you in the face and calling you on your shit, dudes.
And Battlestar Galactica/BSG: The Plan commits the greatest of errors. It was everything I feared it would be the moment the project was announced. But I didn't hate it what I saw (statement above not withstanding). But I also didn't like it. And - I guess what I'm saying is, I think I'm finally ready talk about My Issues With Battlestar. This appears to be everything I wanted the series finale of Battlestar Galactica to be! You should be (un?)surprised to learn this is not actually a good thing.
*lights a cigarette; reclines on couch*
On the one hand, I want throw down everything and declare, "AJFHASKJFHAKSFHAKJHFASHFAJHSAFHASJFHA YOU STUPID IDIOTS. That was the explanation I demanded from the series finale! Instead you gave me that crap I actually watched, paused for a few months, and now are dancing going around, 'sike, here is part 2. Or Part 4. Whatever! BE GRATEFUL!'"
On the other hand, it exists and my fandom brain immediately says, "!!!! CANON. FULL STOP. SAME THING. THIS IS GREAT. IT ANSWERS QUESTION. HOMG AWESOME."
Inevitably, my third-handed (I am awesome, and have three) Englishmajor hand, who loves storytelling, goes, "Dude, no. I am sorry. This is awful."
Look, I get it. Television does not exist in an artistic vacuum - clearly. That sentence alone could probably be fodder for a 75+ page thesis on the nature of tv and the fourth wall vs. dramatic theater and the fourth wall (I DO HAVE REAL NOTES, PLEASE DON'T STEAL). As much as I love a good Sepinwalling of a Mad Men episode, I recognize that narratives told on television are more akin to Dickens serials (i.e., people waiting anxiously on the dock for the arrival of a new volume, sending the author letters pleading not to kill Little Nell in Curiosity Shop) than, say, Dostoyevsky. There are, all told, umpteen amount of outside influences on the story that ends up getting told - RATINGS, and NETWORK SUPPORT, and POTENTIAL SPINOFF POTENTIAL... not to mention things extraordinary, like the 07/08 Writer's Strike. I literally cannot imagine what it must be like to be a writer, on tv, who has this perfectly realized idea in their head... and then loads of other dudes who have no idea what that means telling them, "Yeah, but could you also include this? Great." As something vaguely resembling a writer, I can at least recognize how horribly intrusive those voices must be.
The problem with BSG, I feel, is that it was kind of GOOD. There is a lot of self-deprication in the scifi genre ("set phasers to stun" "it's a trap"... um, essentially liking Farscape at all), but let's face it: Season 1, the first half of Season 2, and the New Caprica of Season 3 were DAMNED AWESOME PIECES OF TELEVISION. Not scifi tv; TELEVISION. Story. Narrative. 9 times out of 10, it succeeded in being a show that Star Trek and Farscape never could be: people stranded in an impossible situation (oh, by the way, that situation is robotic holocaust). It's the reason I adored BSG. It's the reasons I didn't care that it was "dark" or "depressing" (really? that's a thing?). In those highlighted moments, it was a story about characters.
In short, I have no idea if it's actually fair to ascribe this blame to the writers, given what I can only imagine is unbelievable pressure from network execs and the dangling of a spinoff arc and, well, money:
From a pure story perspective, if you start your series with a every-episode prologue that your primary antagonist ~has a plan~, you should definitely resolve that by series end. You should NOT vaguely do it, set up some hints, and then release a spin-off after the fact that's weirdly technical canon but possibly ignored by a currently engaged audience, in which you explain ~what you actually meant~. Guys, no joke, that is lazy as fucking anything. I'm not SAYING I would have not have enjoyed this! Please, explore my BSG tag. YOU WILL FIND THIS TO BE UNTRUE.
I guess what I'm arguing is, I like that this exists (CLEARLY; I ADORE THESE FICTIONAL PEOPLE), but I hate that it HAS to exist. You know?
It makes me realize that I wanted the series finale to be, "So A --> B --> C --> ... Z," which is plausible and awesome. And then, months later, The Plan explains how C went to Z.
Instead, the finale went from A to Z, and said, "STAY TUNED!!! BUY OUR DVD!!!"
Seriously? Lame.
I liked the Cylons. I felt like their issues were sidelined and more sidelined as the seasons went on, until they became a cardboard Bad Guy. All of this "spinoff" "explanation"? Um, call me naive, but considering that prologue you fed me for two seasons, I sort of wanted this... years ago. Sure, you are validating me now. Sure, I should probably grateful. Guess what, I'm not: all it makes me think about it how you TOTALLY DROPPED THE BALL BEFORE. You dropped the ball, panicked, and when the network gave you this out, you took it instead of resolving those short-comings in the finale, LIKE PROPER WRITERS.
In other words, I shouldn't need a text after the fact to understand fundamental qualities of the original texts. It's lazy. And frankly, insulting, because I can so see you sitting in a room, telling yourself, "Those crazy obsessed scifi fans! THEY'LL HANG ON OUR EVERY WORD, CURRENT EXPLANATION BE DAMNED, BECAUSE THEY GO TO CONVENTIONS AND ARE WEIRD, AND THEY DON'T MATTER BECAUSE AT THE END OF THE DAY WE ARE ~ARTIST~." Guys, you can't make yourselves Trek canon. Please, allow yourself to pay homage to how long Trek canon has cultivated itself. Please, allow yourselves to realize that simply believing you are writing ~something great~ does not make it so.
Because actually, at some point, no matter which world I choose to identify myself which, I am inevitably punching you in the face and calling you on your shit, dudes.