Battlestar Galactica: Finale
I usually leave the BSG recaps to Boztopia and I guess I still will, but I will give my impressions of the finale, behind a cut of course as even without a recap there obviously will be spoilers...
First, let me state up fron that I enjoyed it. I had low expectations going into the finale, and those expectations were met as far as the "reveal" goes, and probably mildly exceded as far as general entertainment value goes.
I think the closest analogy to an ending I can think of on short notice, is Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The ending to that multi-volume was certainly acceptable - it fit even - and as much as the reader (or certainly at least I) would have loved more answers, the problem is that when writers build up too much, you get to the point where nothing they could actually write would be up to the hype, so sometimes its better to remain mysterious.
I think the Dark Tower is another good comparison as well in that the material was not a rigid, linear story. In Dark Tower, the seven volumes spanned the course of King's writing career, and it is quite apparent that he changed directions mid-stream, and that if had finished the books years ago when he first started them we would have seen a vastly different ending. King in fact revised the first volume of his omnibus, The Gunslinger, to better fit the ultimate ending. I expect BSG will essentially be doing the same with the telemovie "The Plan" which will effectively revisit the start of the story and I expect insert some careful revisions to better match the final continuity.
The same is true with BSG. I have in response to other commentaries by Boztopia made the unfavorable comparison to Twin Peaks, a really good story that David Lynch ran into the ground by capriciously just making shit up as he goes along. While Ron Moore isn't that bad, and his writing on BSG is still exponentially better, there is a little of that at work.
Before watching the finale, Secret_Ouife and I watched "Battlestar Galactica: The Last Frakkin' Special" this was pretty much admitted to by Moore. While the concept of the Final Five had already been inserted into the show, Moore had no plan for them, least of all to take several major "human" characters and make them Cylons. He was writing the Season 3 finale episode, that was ending with the trial of Baltar, and decided that just wasn't enough of a punch. The idea of making major characters into the final five was made up only at that point for the shock value. The same can be said for the characters they chose. Tigh was picked just because he would be the biggest shocker. Tyrol was picked because up until that point he had been the most blue-collar, "every man" type. Anders was picked because of the coincidences of him having survived on Caprica and being in two resistence movements. Tory was picked because her character was until then under developed. Baltar and Starbuck were excluded as they were "too obvious" and wouldn't have the impact he wanted, while Bill Adama was excluded because making him a Cylon would cause too many continuity problems and take away a bit too much from the show. Ellen was picked as the fifth literally because they had no better ideas, and thought it was cool that since she was already dead, no one would see it coming.
What does that mean? It means everything about what leads up to their reveal was purely luck and revisionist writing. So the interactions between say Cavil and the Tigh's on New Caprica had nothing to do with their true relationship, because that relationship didn't exist when those scripts were written. I think so much of the show in the fourth season had to be re-tooled to fit the Final Five concept, that it kind of led the show off course.
Now, back to the Finale itself... In The Last Frakkin' Special, Ron Moore revealed his "concept" for the Finale. He said he was being kept up at night trying to figure out how to end the story, when it finally hit him in shower, "To hell with the plot, BSG has always been about the characters!" And that is what he did. He wrote a really interesting story that allowed for the characters to be showcased, get their final spotlight, and have their stories come to a close. This was, however, at the expense of there being a big "reveal." The Finale has very little in the way of actual answers to questions. You just kind of have to take it on faith. Which is of course a major theme of the episode, so its not awful.
Going into this thing, in order to be truly satisfied, I wanted explicit answers to a lot of things, particularly what really happened on Kobol, Head 6 and what that was about, Kara Thrace, the song, the shared dream/visions of the Opera House, Hera's significance, what happened on Earth. Ironically, I got all of those, although just not in the manner I wanted.
There is basically one answer to all of those things, and that is God. No, seriously. OK, here's where the spoilers come in:
What really happened on Kobol? No new information, but the assumed answer that "humans" started there, built Cylons, had a civil war, and fled to the Colonies was basically confirmed.
Head Six and Head Baltar? They are Angels. But these are not Roma Downey/Michael Landon Angels, they are traditional old school Old Testament/Jewish scripture style Angels who can destroy civilizations as easily as they can be helpful. Why did they appear to the mortal Baltar and Six, respectively? Not touched on. God moves in mysterious ways.
Kara Thrace (and the song)? God, again. While not explicitly stated, the obvious implication is she was returned to the fleet to deliver humanity to Earth. Or I should say, Earth 2. With the Galactica about to fall into the Black Hole, it is up to Kara Thrace to jump the ship, although she has no coordinates. Or does she? The song turns out to numerically translate to the jump coordinates for the planet we now call Earth. They choose to name it Earth since as Adama puts it, "Earth is a dream, which we fought for. This is Earth." Once her divine mission is up, she's gone. She warns Lee that she can feel her time is done, and the second he takes his eyes off of her, she vanishes.
The Opera House? OK they did a better job here than expected at least for style but light on substance, but I still would have loved more detail. This "dream" plays itself out exactly, leading to Baltar and Six bringing Hera to the CIC where most of the major characters have clustered, including the Final Five. It is a good scene, but what is left out is why the overlay of the Opera House? My own personal theory is that the climax of the Kobol conflict probably came to its conclusion in the Opera House, with essentially the same players (albeit with different faces), but there was no confirmation of that or any Kobol details to be had.
Hera's significance? The Colonials and the Cylons reach "our" Earth approximately 150,000 years ago. The "native humans" are still in a very basic development state (pre-verbal). They decide to abandon all technology, and the entire Fleet is remote piloted by Anders into the Sun. The Cylons give the Basestar to the Centurions who are freed to go their own way. The humans and Cylons basically join the native proto-humans on Earth. Hera? She is Mitochondrial Eve. The matrilineal most recent common ancestor for all of humanity. So we, the Homo Sapiens of Earth, are actually a blended race of our proto-ancestors, as well as the Kobol strain of humanity and the Cylons. So humanity did "evolve" on Earth, we just had extra-terrestrial DNA added to our mix. Thus, Hera is the future of humanity.
What happened on the original Earth? Left unsaid, but the general assumption is confirmed. The Cylons, like the Kobol humans before them and the Colonies, developed into decadence, technology ran amok, and the society fell.
So flash forward 150,000 years to present day NYC, and the Angel Baltar and Angel Six wonder if our modern society is headed for the same fate. Cue montage of toy robots and the like. Angel Six is optimistic, Angel Baltar slightly less so.
Finis.
Now, the main issue I have with basically making the entirety of the reveal being "God" is that it effectively makes BSG a kick-ass, compelling, Sci-Fi version of a Bible Story. No, really. It is Noah's Ark meets Moses meets the Fall of Jerusalem, etc. And the single most important theme we are left with is the perennial religious classic of "Free Will vs. Predestination."
"All this has happened before and will happen again."
Angels.
Kara Thrace seemingly haven been chosen since birth for this role, to die and be ressurected to lead the people to their destiny.
It is a religious piece.
First, let me state up fron that I enjoyed it. I had low expectations going into the finale, and those expectations were met as far as the "reveal" goes, and probably mildly exceded as far as general entertainment value goes.
I think the closest analogy to an ending I can think of on short notice, is Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The ending to that multi-volume was certainly acceptable - it fit even - and as much as the reader (or certainly at least I) would have loved more answers, the problem is that when writers build up too much, you get to the point where nothing they could actually write would be up to the hype, so sometimes its better to remain mysterious.
I think the Dark Tower is another good comparison as well in that the material was not a rigid, linear story. In Dark Tower, the seven volumes spanned the course of King's writing career, and it is quite apparent that he changed directions mid-stream, and that if had finished the books years ago when he first started them we would have seen a vastly different ending. King in fact revised the first volume of his omnibus, The Gunslinger, to better fit the ultimate ending. I expect BSG will essentially be doing the same with the telemovie "The Plan" which will effectively revisit the start of the story and I expect insert some careful revisions to better match the final continuity.
The same is true with BSG. I have in response to other commentaries by Boztopia made the unfavorable comparison to Twin Peaks, a really good story that David Lynch ran into the ground by capriciously just making shit up as he goes along. While Ron Moore isn't that bad, and his writing on BSG is still exponentially better, there is a little of that at work.
Before watching the finale, Secret_Ouife and I watched "Battlestar Galactica: The Last Frakkin' Special" this was pretty much admitted to by Moore. While the concept of the Final Five had already been inserted into the show, Moore had no plan for them, least of all to take several major "human" characters and make them Cylons. He was writing the Season 3 finale episode, that was ending with the trial of Baltar, and decided that just wasn't enough of a punch. The idea of making major characters into the final five was made up only at that point for the shock value. The same can be said for the characters they chose. Tigh was picked just because he would be the biggest shocker. Tyrol was picked because up until that point he had been the most blue-collar, "every man" type. Anders was picked because of the coincidences of him having survived on Caprica and being in two resistence movements. Tory was picked because her character was until then under developed. Baltar and Starbuck were excluded as they were "too obvious" and wouldn't have the impact he wanted, while Bill Adama was excluded because making him a Cylon would cause too many continuity problems and take away a bit too much from the show. Ellen was picked as the fifth literally because they had no better ideas, and thought it was cool that since she was already dead, no one would see it coming.
What does that mean? It means everything about what leads up to their reveal was purely luck and revisionist writing. So the interactions between say Cavil and the Tigh's on New Caprica had nothing to do with their true relationship, because that relationship didn't exist when those scripts were written. I think so much of the show in the fourth season had to be re-tooled to fit the Final Five concept, that it kind of led the show off course.
Now, back to the Finale itself... In The Last Frakkin' Special, Ron Moore revealed his "concept" for the Finale. He said he was being kept up at night trying to figure out how to end the story, when it finally hit him in shower, "To hell with the plot, BSG has always been about the characters!" And that is what he did. He wrote a really interesting story that allowed for the characters to be showcased, get their final spotlight, and have their stories come to a close. This was, however, at the expense of there being a big "reveal." The Finale has very little in the way of actual answers to questions. You just kind of have to take it on faith. Which is of course a major theme of the episode, so its not awful.
Going into this thing, in order to be truly satisfied, I wanted explicit answers to a lot of things, particularly what really happened on Kobol, Head 6 and what that was about, Kara Thrace, the song, the shared dream/visions of the Opera House, Hera's significance, what happened on Earth. Ironically, I got all of those, although just not in the manner I wanted.
There is basically one answer to all of those things, and that is God. No, seriously. OK, here's where the spoilers come in:
What really happened on Kobol? No new information, but the assumed answer that "humans" started there, built Cylons, had a civil war, and fled to the Colonies was basically confirmed.
Head Six and Head Baltar? They are Angels. But these are not Roma Downey/Michael Landon Angels, they are traditional old school Old Testament/Jewish scripture style Angels who can destroy civilizations as easily as they can be helpful. Why did they appear to the mortal Baltar and Six, respectively? Not touched on. God moves in mysterious ways.
Kara Thrace (and the song)? God, again. While not explicitly stated, the obvious implication is she was returned to the fleet to deliver humanity to Earth. Or I should say, Earth 2. With the Galactica about to fall into the Black Hole, it is up to Kara Thrace to jump the ship, although she has no coordinates. Or does she? The song turns out to numerically translate to the jump coordinates for the planet we now call Earth. They choose to name it Earth since as Adama puts it, "Earth is a dream, which we fought for. This is Earth." Once her divine mission is up, she's gone. She warns Lee that she can feel her time is done, and the second he takes his eyes off of her, she vanishes.
The Opera House? OK they did a better job here than expected at least for style but light on substance, but I still would have loved more detail. This "dream" plays itself out exactly, leading to Baltar and Six bringing Hera to the CIC where most of the major characters have clustered, including the Final Five. It is a good scene, but what is left out is why the overlay of the Opera House? My own personal theory is that the climax of the Kobol conflict probably came to its conclusion in the Opera House, with essentially the same players (albeit with different faces), but there was no confirmation of that or any Kobol details to be had.
Hera's significance? The Colonials and the Cylons reach "our" Earth approximately 150,000 years ago. The "native humans" are still in a very basic development state (pre-verbal). They decide to abandon all technology, and the entire Fleet is remote piloted by Anders into the Sun. The Cylons give the Basestar to the Centurions who are freed to go their own way. The humans and Cylons basically join the native proto-humans on Earth. Hera? She is Mitochondrial Eve. The matrilineal most recent common ancestor for all of humanity. So we, the Homo Sapiens of Earth, are actually a blended race of our proto-ancestors, as well as the Kobol strain of humanity and the Cylons. So humanity did "evolve" on Earth, we just had extra-terrestrial DNA added to our mix. Thus, Hera is the future of humanity.
What happened on the original Earth? Left unsaid, but the general assumption is confirmed. The Cylons, like the Kobol humans before them and the Colonies, developed into decadence, technology ran amok, and the society fell.
So flash forward 150,000 years to present day NYC, and the Angel Baltar and Angel Six wonder if our modern society is headed for the same fate. Cue montage of toy robots and the like. Angel Six is optimistic, Angel Baltar slightly less so.
Finis.
Now, the main issue I have with basically making the entirety of the reveal being "God" is that it effectively makes BSG a kick-ass, compelling, Sci-Fi version of a Bible Story. No, really. It is Noah's Ark meets Moses meets the Fall of Jerusalem, etc. And the single most important theme we are left with is the perennial religious classic of "Free Will vs. Predestination."
"All this has happened before and will happen again."
Angels.
Kara Thrace seemingly haven been chosen since birth for this role, to die and be ressurected to lead the people to their destiny.
It is a religious piece.