Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Well, at least that’s one serialized show I can check off my “to watch” list. Battlestar Galactica is done. Was it worth it? Was the finale all it was cracked up to be?

I’ve read some of the responses online and it seems there are quite a few pissed of BSG fans out there, notably for the angelic “deux ex machina” aspect of the ending. I can’t say I was disappointed in the finale, but I do feel there were a few things that could have been done better. (And hey, it could have been much, much worse.)

First off, I don’t mind that Baltar and Caprica Six’s mental alter egos were “angels” so much – but I still would have preferred this explanation to have something more to do with the Cylon technique of projection. And why those two? It’s not like Caprica Six and Baltar were given information from Head Six or Head Baltar that significantly changed the destinies of everyone.

But as for Starbuck – her being an angel or ghost was pretty damn lame. I fully expected her existence to be explained by some sort of left-over Resurrection ship orbiting Old Earth somewhere. So no, rather than using this much more interesting and plausible explanation, we find out she’s just a ghost – who happens to be confused and needs hints from Hera of all people – and who can physically fly physical ghost ships. Lame, lame, lame.

And of course, this all begs the question – if God is going to use ghost Starbucks and visions of Caprica Six to push forward His Great Godly Agenda, why let the holocaust of the Colonies happen in the first place?

And why was there any need to seed New Earth with Cylon/Human Hybrid blood in the form of Hera? Why not just send an angel down to the tribes and teach them some language skills?

Better yet – send a big black monolith down there ala 2001 and let that do the job.

I was glad, however, that we did finally have some sort of tie-in to our Earth. And going 150,000 years back into the past was just as good as any tie-in possible.

Question: Are they leaving the door open for a modern-day Galactica spin-off, where the Centurions return to New Earth and terrorize us humans? Possible. If that happens, can we have Head Six and Head Baltar (the angels) come back? Because at least those two are interesting.

Missed: I would have liked to see the return of Lucy Lawless as Deanna. And I would have liked more resolution between Starbuck and Leoben (Number Two). Leoben was always prophesizing things…and he was always so captivating to watch. He was definitely underutilized this last season.

At any rate, I’m not entirely disappointed – at least we had a happy ending of sorts. After watching that grim, dark show for so many years, I was glad that there was at least some sort of hopeful resolution. I’m semi-satisfied, but that’s only partially because I didn’t have huge hopes for the ending.

Now, if Lost gives us some lame loose ending like that one, I will be super pissed. Can you imagine? What if we find out that the Lost island is really just run by supernatural beings, and Richard Alpert is Satan. Ugh!

But this is all just a reminder that sometimes the question is more compelling than the answer.

I give the finale a B+.

March 21st, 2009 | Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Lost | Category: Television | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL