Comments on: Carnival of Battlestar/Vastly less brief Battlestar Galactica thoughts

By: Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat

Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:01:21 +0000

A man, a Plan, a canal, Adama

So the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica debuts this Friday night. Sort of: They did that weird SciFi/Syfy double-dip where they released the “uncut” pilot on DVD first and show it on TV months later. That’s what they did for…

By: jeffk

jeffk — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:17:10 +0000

Agreed, that episode was kind of a disaster, though I did like “Hub” and her run of webisodes. She’s done some really good stuff with Buffy/Angel/Firefly, Gilmore Girls (my girlfriend made me!) and a few others, so for me, she’s earned a mulligan or two.

Are you anti-Whedon in general, or did you just never get into his shows? Buffy in particular was phenomenal, especially once they got the first season out of the way. I watching it a few years ago on DVD, and it really holds up well. Still not sure about Dollhouse, though.

By: Sean T. Collins

Sean T. Collins — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:39:27 +0000

I don’t watch Joss Whedon shows so I don’t know about any of that, but her final BSG episode was one of the most dire in the series’ history and, due to its proximity to the finale, nearly screwed the pooch for the final season, that’s how bad it was at handing key plot points and character developments.

By: jeffk

jeffk — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:37:44 +0000

Is the “boo” for Jane Espenson in general or just her BSG episodes? She’s written some pretty great shows (particularly in the Buffy and Angel days).

By: Rickey Purdin

Rickey Purdin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:18:30 +0000

…also, Sam just reminded me that we finished the Wire and BSG within one month. High five.

By: Rickey Purdin

Rickey Purdin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:12:43 +0000

Sam and I literally just finished watching, came to the computer and read this post.

I gotta say I’m a little peeved at the show-makers for no real answer to Starbuck’s situation past dying and coming back. Separately (or maybe not?) I’m also slightly peeved there’s no further explanation of Daniel. But, just as I was content to the level of goosebumps at the final scenes of Twin Peaks and how THAT show marked many answers undeliverable, the whole of BSG is much much stronger than those few missing parts, and so I’m happy.

I’m here now cause my contact solution spilled out in my suitcase during a trip to Oklahoma and destroyed your copies, which I was bringing home with me during the break to try and check out, leading me to have to buy you a NEW copy and leaving me with your saline-drenched leftover. So, thanks. It’s prolly the best accident I ever had.

And, geez, this post is stellar, man. That larger idea behind the two civilizations just fading away is genius. I giggled when I saw the clips of robots (where can I buy one?) and my first thought when the show was done was, “Is ‘God’ the devil?” so I’m sure lots of stuff went over my head.

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:03:21 +0000

Like I said in your brief thoughts, the part that didn’t ring true for me was the final fate of Starbuck. I don’t buy that she’s an angel, because she doesn’t behave like the other angels that the show has presented to us, so it seems to be violating the show’s own internal rules. Plus, as one of the show’s best characters, I wanted her to have a happier ending than just “I’m satisfied, I’m going to fade into nothing.” Certainly almost every other character had a happier ending.

One thought I had a bit after watching it that might make me reevaluate my feelings on Kara’s resolution a bit…

If we have explicit confirmation that there is a God, does Anders’ final line “I’ll see you on the other side,” give us semi-explicit confirmation that there is an afterlife? Because Kara being reunited with Anders in a place where she has some degree of peace with herself and can actually achieve happiness is a much nicer ending for her than what we got.

Mo Ryan’s interview with Ron Moore that you link to is really particularly fascinating, and what he says about fate vs. free will really throws the entire series into a different light for me. For every time the hand of god reached out and helped move our characters towards this happy ending, there were a thousand times they could have chosen differently and destroyed themselves. The more I think about it, the more I think the influence of the Divine and the way it was used is a really elegant piece of storytelling.

And finally, which sequel would you want to see, if you had to see one? For me, I’d want to see Baseship Red Stripe: The further adventures of a crew of suddenly purposeless Monotheistic sentient machines as they wander the Universe for reasons yet unknown. I like to think that they’re off searching for the God whose existence they helped spread the word of…