The series finale of Battlestar Galactica (BSG) has come and gone. The fact that I’m going to talk about it means this article may contain SPOILERS for the seriously time-delayed viewer.
I’m sad. BSG was my favorite show and I really enjoyed writing about it and exchanging thoughts with all of you. Depending on your expectations and philosophies, the series finale either thrilled you or flat-lined your experience. For some, it did both.
Going into the finale I already had my conjectures and was looking for answers. We were told repeatedly that we would “know the truth.” Yet we were left hanging with non-answers when all was said and done. Between the network setting us up for “knowing the truth” and Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore planning on an ambiguous ending, we the viewers were caught in the middle of a writer’s vision and a newtwork advertising ploy.
When I wrote a post reviewing the finale of Battlestar Galactica, some of the reader comments ranged from fantastic perspectives to rather pragmatic thoughts, and the resulting conversation was pretty engaging. The finale had massive potential to confound and dissuade viewers but what I found it did is leave some viewers feeling empty.
I wanted to see if I could clear up or clarify some points, and to further that end I dug up some interesting things from the interviews various publications conducted with Ronald D. Moore in the last few years. Let’s get on with looking at those tidbits.
Our Promised Ending
Back in 2007, Ronald D. Moore indicated that Battlestar Galactica had a built-in ending. He said they made a promise to the audience of finding Earth and the creative staff was duty-bound to deliver.
Personally, I felt that the finale’s approach (finding a random planet and having Admiral Adama call it Earth because that “was the dream they were chasing,“) seemed to fulfill that purpose. Yet it felt fluffy. They had already found Earth and it was charred. The dream was (literally) fried. Try a new name!
This was so-so. I can live with this.
Daniel And The Rabbit Hole
The extra Cylon, Daniel, turned out to be a rabbit hole.
The intent behind the Daniel model was to create a polar opposite to Cavil. Instead, they drew us into another line of curiosity as we started wondering about Daniel.
I was definitely pulled into the premise of a Daniel model. Even to the point of noticing that there’s a Daniel in the prequel, Caprica. What gives people? So much energy was put into the final 5 that this Daniel model just seemed to be an extension of the premise of there being mystery Cylons.
Having a polar opposite to Cavil might have worked if they were in conflict with each other for our viewing pleasure. Cripes, that might have given us another Cylon to root for.
Quit doing that to us, Mr. Moore. Oh wait, the show is over. In that case: I didn’t like this rabbit hole.
Other Rabbit Holes?
One other rabbit hole Moore admitted to was in a scene where Head Six physically lifted Baltar off the ground. I was completely sucked in by that scene (It happened, I believe, back in April of ‘08), and I waited for this new contingency to develop.
But, it seems that it was some oops on the part of the show’s creators and they never wanted to go anywhere with it.
So why the heck show us something like that? Why are we getting these few, but HUGE mistakes from this seasoned staff of creators?
I didn’t like being led on and that was exactly what that was.
Not Holes, But Loose Strings
Egads, loose strings? Whole coils of rope is more like it!
Other Battlestar story details that were left dangling in the wind:
Why Roslin was in mental projections with the Cylons. Why Roslin almost fainted when 4 of the final 5 became self aware of themselves. Why didn’t they give Roslin more of Hera’s blood? Sheesh, if I dwell on this, the list would go on and on (and I do add a couple later on).
I didn’t enjoy not having answers when I was told I was going to. Plain and simple.
What Happened To The Colony?
In case you’re wondering, everyone (Cavils, Simons and Dorals) on board the colony ship died.
At least that’s what Moore’s intent was. He wrote it so that when Racetrack hit the Colony ship with his nukes, the Colony ship gets knocked out of its precipitous orbital location near the singularity and the Colony ship gets pulled down into the black hole. SWEET!
But that scene was cut from the episode. Who was that editor? This feels like another rank amateur mistake on what could have been a piece of serious closure to that part of the show.
I’m not happy left having to scour for interviews to learn these things.
Cavil Offing Himself
Cavil offing himself was Dean Stockwell’s Idea.
Originally, Moore had Col Tigh and Cavil fighting. The scuffle was going to end with with Tigh throwing Cavil over the railing in the CIC and Cavil would die. Stockwell talked to Moore and said that he felt it more in line with the character if he took this escapist route out of the situation. Moore okayed that.
I would have liked to have seen Tigh kick someone’s ass… But that’s just me. Cavil’s method of situation extraction was, to some extent, perfect for him. Kudos to Stockwell.
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