Thoughts on Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Finale

[roadriverrail]

Battlestar Galactica (BSG) is a show that, since its inception, has made me realize what a brilliant writer Ronald Moore is. On top of that, it also made me realize why the Star Trek franchise is doomed. That tale, however, is for another day

Comments

[kid_j]

Ronald Moore is amazing. I agree with you that this is perhaps the best writing a sci fi television show has had up to now. I did like his spin on DS9 and lord only hopes that if they ever do re-vamp Star Trek and bring it back on the air again that he will be part of it.

Your points of concern are well founded but unwarranted. I will tell you why...

The fast fowarding a year is more of a story prop for the third season. As writers they most likely did this to spice things up a bit and advance the story in general. Granted there are times when BSG has lagged a great deal and little or no advancement in storyline was achieved. This was mostly in the first season but I can see why they needed to get the interpersonal relationships between the characters worked out.

Now...yes its always rough for the fans to be left wondering WTF? for the time that has lapsed but its still very cool the way they pulled it off with the cut scenes changing over time to the present. That was beautifuly done and left me with a disturbed feeling of things having just gone to shit. Which is prob the point he was trying to get across with a bit of cinematography mixed in. We needed to see that this plan by Baltar was the wrong choice and by fast fowarding we get to see it in great detail.

Now I agree that the planet based aspect of the show would blow. The scenes with Helo on Caprica were tiresome at best...definitely ran for too long on that motif. Still there is Galatica and crew now "truly alone" which is much more like the original show and ups the ante of danger. Also the fact that the humans are going to be subjected to Cylon occupation/torture and whatnot means we get to see more CYLONS!!! REAL CYLONS in all their clunking glory!!! I want more robots!!!

The Dean Stockwell character was awesome!!! I cant believe you left him out of your re-cap!!! :) I hope Adama does get rid of his stand and deliver mustache more because it hides his facial expressions which I feel are the key components of his acting skills. Oh and starbuck with long hair does look like trailer trash but you know its only temporary.

As for BSG on NBC...I disagree with you on it being a good thing for them to go there. NBC is more conservitive with its shows. The writers/producers attitude may feel pressured by execs to tone down some of the racial/religious/and just flat out fucked up situations that go down on the show. The HD is the only reason why I would go for this...right now the sci fi BSG i get is NOT in High Def...do you get it in high def??? Comcast Sci Fi channel for me is regular broadcast. Also I think that its great that the SCI FI channel has this highly rated show on its network since that will encourage other writers/producers to come to Sci Fi and bring their works to life. Sci Fi channel has some credibility now. Lets keep it up!

[roadriverrail]

Advancing the plot quickly and trying to get back on pace are noble goals. Let's face it, though, that there was a LOT of plot that was simply thrown out and it simply wasn't appropriate. For example...how did Baltar ruin the economy? How did Tyrol end up a unionist and agitator? Where did Adama's moustache come from? Yeah. The last one was a joke. Seriously, it seems like Baltar somehow became an incompetent tyrant who, for reasons I can't fathom, evaded assassination. That's relevant. The fleet was a stressed but functional society. Understanding their societal breakdown was important. If Moore felt that all of that was so important, he didn't have to have the ballot stuffing conspiracy plot arc. That time could have been better spent with Baltar running everything into the ground.

Now, granted, there's a skeleton crew fleet out there with no training and a major rescue on their hands, which will be interesting. Surely there will be a human insurrection arc that will be interesting, and Moore writes decent insurrectionist characters. Direct Cylon occupation is going to mean getting to understand Cylon society and religion better. And yes...more robots. A fair and interesting question to ask is what the Cylons plan to do. Genocide doesn't seem on their minds or they'd have just bombarded New Caprica. Most importantly...are they going to find the baby?

I just still think the setup to these is weak.

As for your concerns about NBC being too conservative, I don't think it'll be an issue. It's fundamentally a show about humans against machines, so the racial question isn't going to raise hackles. The religious issue couldn't possibly be more germane to viewers. As for "fucked up stuff", there has been surprisingly little when you really think about it. NYPD Blue has had worse.

Fundamentally, it's my understanding that Universal/NBC owns SciFi. Given this, SciFi has nothing to compete for. Basic cable is always a niche market.

As for BSG in HD, it's on the UHD channel, but only as reruns.