Customer Reviews

Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

While I would give the series as a whole (and each individual season preceding this) 5 stars, I feel compelled to drop this final chapter to 4 stars. Battlestar Galactica is a brilliant, gutsy show, and the risks it took are part of the reason we fans got so intense about it over the years. It was called the most subversive show in television history by Rolling Stone magazine, and, given the plot-lines about terrorism and insurgency at the height of the Iraq War, I think that's a fair assessment. The final season (4.0 and 4.5) become more about the internal mythology of the show, and this is where a few problems sneak in. As shows like Lost demonstrate, it's easier to set up mysteries than to resolve them. Battlestar resolves many of the plot-lines brilliantly (I love the choice of the final cylon in particular; and one character's suicide is truly haunting), but others leave me wanting. Starbuck, one of the best characters in this all-around extraordinary cast, gets muddled. I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so I'll just say that the resolution of the mystery surrounding her character is not satisfactorily handled. Ron Moore's decision to leave her conclusion ambiguous is, in my opinion, a glaring error.

The series finale is naturally the focus of this set, and I must say I've had mixed feelings about it since it aired. On the one hand, it was an intense, emotional experience, never boring for a moment, and brought nearly every character and plotline to a conclusion. However, I think it may have over-reached, beating us over the head with its "message." Battlestar Galactica was often a reflection of ourselves and our world, but never before had it been didactic, as it is in its final scene.

With another movie on its way and a prequel series for next year, Battlestar Galactica isn't over yet, but this is the end of the story as begun in the 2003 miniseries. It's been a remarkable journey and absolutely essential viewing for sci-fi and non-sci-fi fans alike.

Warning! Spoiler alert! The following review contains very signficant spoilers, including several regarding the final episode of the series. If you wish to remain spoiler free, do NOT read the following review.

In the words of the immortal Butthead, forewarned is . . . uh . . . something.

I am astonished that the finale of BSG is proving to be controversial. I watched the final episode with a sense of excitement, delight, and deep gratitude. I found it moving and appropriate to the series as a whole. I would rank it with the best series finales that I have ever seen, alongside BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and SIX FEET UNDER. In particular I found the final 20 or so minutes to be especially gratifying, as we see the final 38,000 some odd survivors of the long journey from the 12 Colonies to New Earth finally find their new home. Did everything end precisely as I wanted? Of course not. But what is important is that it ended the way that Ron Moore clearly intended it to end. I had long suspected that one of the first things that had been conceived was the role of Hera (or someone like Hera) in the overall scheme of things. That she would indeed prove to be "The Shape of Things to Come" was something of which I was confident, and I found the role ascribed to her -- essentially the DNA mother of our own humanity -- as both powerful and fulfilling of the great importance assigned to her. [And Ron Moore's brief cameo as the gent reading the magazine about what is obviously Hera's remains was similar to J. Michael Straczynski's cameo at the end of BABYLON 5.]

The 2008-2009 television season has seen the ending of a string of truly great series. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, THE SHIELD, and THE WIRE managed to end on their own terms, with their overall arcs ended on their own schedule. Other equally great series like PUSHING DAISIES were stopped in mid-stride. That a show as great as PUSHING DAISIES could be cancelled makes me all the more grateful that some shows like BSG manage to make it all the way to the end. My own television viewing will now be greatly diminished by the end of BSG. No show of the past five years has so consistently obsessed me. It wasn't always as consistent as I would have liked. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is a far steadier, more consistently brilliant show, but while it has never had anywhere near as many as weak episodes as BSG, neither has it ever reached BSG's best moments. Never, ever have I had a series (with the exception of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) at its best so completely shock and amaze me. No other show (except BUFFY) has managed to astonish me so frequently. And it did this by almost never recycling stories seen on other series. BSG not only never recycled stories from other shows, but never recycled its own stories. Any stunning plot twist, once used, was never used again.

Rarely do series redefine their genre, but BSG has done more to alter what one can do on a television Sci-fi series than any since STAR TREK first debuted in the late sixties. No future serious series in the genre can ignore the achievements of BSG. They might decide not to take up the challenge that BSG has laid down, but even that is a way of acknowledging the new standards it has laid down. Series like STARGATE SG-1 now seem oddly simplistic in comparison. Ron Moore stated in his initial mission statement that his goal was to completely redefine TV Sci-fi and in this he was supremely successful. It is impossible to overstate the importance of BSG in taking TV Sci-fi to the next level. Many have noted that it was the first important Sci-fi series that was made for adults rather than teens, but it is also the first that was directed to thinking adults instead of only Sci-fi geeks. BSG expanded the audience of those interested in Sci-fi, with thousands of people who had previously been determined not to watch any show in the genre obsessed with the fate of those on Galactica. And it has also been a huge hit with academics and intellectuals. The only television series that has received as much attention from academics has been BUFFY, and the only show to attract as much attention from nonacademic intellectuals has been BUFFY and THE SOPRANOS. Who would have thought a show based on the passionately maligned 1978 series (a show that has a small but dedicated cadre of fans, but which is otherwise attacked by TV critics and serious Sci-fi fans and writers as one of the worst series in TV history) could have ascended to such heights?

I have started rewatching the series from the very beginning in light of the series finale and I am amazed at how good it all feels knowing how it will end. The series finale of BSG fit the rest of the series so perfectly that it managed retroactively to make the rest even better. I frankly have long suspected that Ron Moore is a big, fat liar. He has often stated things that were not true or at least were only partially true. I think he had a great deal of the overall story planned from near the beginning. I believe he had many of the main arc details in mind from the beginning. I do think that he left a lot of room for alternation and development, but I believe he knew from the time of the miniseries that he intended to have the remnants of the human race align with the Cylons to become the genetic ancestors of our own human race. One of the first moments in BSG of note was when Caprica Six looked at an infant with amazement, shortly before she broke its neck (an act that is one of the most effective mission statements I've ever seen -- after that, you knew the show was capable of anything). And the crucial moment came when President Laura Roslin stressed to Commander Adama that it was crucial that they leave that part of the galaxy to find a new home where the survivors could "start having babies." Early in the first episode of Season One Head Six asks Gaius Baltar if he would like to have a child. We then soon learn of the mission of the other Sharon on Caprica to try and make Helo fall in love with her and get her pregnant. In retrospect, we see that "The Plan" was to perpetuate the Cylon race by biological reproduction.

Similarly, from early on the show was concerned with ever deepening religious themes, as God (though Head Baltar in the finale tells Head Six that he doesn't care for that name) directed the fate of both Cylons and humans to their eventual fate. Even Starbuck is shown to be an instrument of God, as she is sent back to the fleet after her death in order to help them find their way to their new home. Until the finale we had no idea precisely how deep this idea that God had a plan for them truly was, but as the series comes to an end we realize that Head Six's words to Baltar in the first regular season episode were absolutely true: this all was God's plan. To what degree this God coincides with a Christian or Muslim or Jewish god is very much open to debate, but that it unceasingly is at the core of BSG cannot now be questioned.

BSG begins with the question -- put forward by Bill Adama as he participates in Galactica's decommissioning ceremony -- whether humanity had a right to survive. The answer to this is delayed for the length of the series, as we see the fleet undergo a series of trials. The parallels with the account in Exodus of the Children of Israel departing from Egypt to the Promised Land increase as the series nears its end. Just as the Children of Israel undergo a series of temptations, so do the members of the fate. Likewise, the fleet's Moses, Laura Roslin, is allowed to see the promised land but not enter (she dies as Adama finds the spot upon which to build the cabin she longed for). That humanity has earned the right to survive comes as the crew of Galactica undertakes the ship's final mission, the rescue of the Human-Cylon hybrid child Hera, whose DNA becomes the foundation of a new humanity.

So, the show's many rich and deep themes are successfully and beautifully resolved at the end. Those who found the ending unsatisfying seem not to recognize this. But I'm baffled. What more can one ask of a series than to resolve successfully all its major themes?

While I loved the end of the series, I can understand some of the uneasiness some felt. In order to break the cycle ("All of this has happened before; all of this will happen again") of death and destruction, Lee Adama persuades the survivors to embrace a nontechnological culture. I understand this on a poetic level even as I question it on a psychological level. And like many I found the departure of Starbuck, one of the great iconic characters in the history of TV (it is funny now to remember how upset some were that Starbuck was going to be played by a girl), both too sudden and less than satisfying. But this is nitpicking and should be recognized as such. To carp on something that wasn't quite done to one's satisfaction while ignoring the massive number of things that were done so exceptionally well is petty.

Sadly the end of BSG signals the disbanding of one of the most wonderful and largest casts in the history of television. Only LOST can match BSG in the size and richness of its cast of characters. I'm going to miss Adama, Laura Roslin, Lee, Kara, Sharon (in whatever form), Helo, Hera, Tigh, Tyrol, Baltar, all of the Sixes, Dee, Ellen, Duck, Kat, Billy, Tory, Anders, Racetrack, Cally, Doc Cottle, Jake, Elosha, Sgt. Mathis, Captain Kelly, Zarek, Gaeta, Seelix, Hotdog, Romo Lampkin and all the others (all the way down to the tattooed Asian guy who never had a line of dialogue and whose main function seemed to be to keep Galactica's card games going) -- not to mention the Cavils, Dorals, D'Annas, Simons, and Leobens. And I'm going to miss Galactica itself. For five years this show has been one of the great presences in my life. I won't be saying goodbye easily.

We do have the BSG prequel CAPRICA to look forward to next month (the pilot film is being released on DVD in April and will go to series in January 2010) and the film BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE PLAN appears in the fall. The latter will almost certainly resolve one of the final remaining mysteries of BSG: who Caprica Six saw in the miniseries and uttered the words, "I've been expecting you." So, while I'm heartbroken that this great series is leaving us, its departure is eased by the new series and the upcoming film. And I am intensely grateful that such a great series ended so marvelouslyl. I believe that those who are complaining about the finale are way off base and I also believe that as they rewatch the series and reassess the finale in light of that they'll recognize what a brilliant ending it was.

It's all over. Bummer.

BSG in it's latest iteration carried those poor survivors a heck of a lot farther than the original series (there are still die-hard fans of the original series out there, who absolutely HATE this series, but theirs is a minority, I believe).

For a series that had only three well-known actors surrounded by fresh new Canadian, Australian, English and American actors, The talent pool they were taken from is rich indeed, and it showed in their performances. I believe we will be seeing much more of these young people in the future. Of course, they wouldn't be as good without quality writing and directing, either. This series had it all! For once, the network heads decided to let BSG run WITHOUT too much network interference, which ALWAYS destroys the show in question.

I have to give kudos to Edward J. Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Dean Stockwell and all those relative unknowns they acted beside, and the Writers and Directors, as well as the crew for bringing such a quality program to Network TV. Now, I may be just a little bit biased, but I have to say that BSG was (is?) the best show I have seen in the 55+ years I've been exposed to TV. The fact that we have a drama in space turns off some folk, but believe me when I say that I would rather watch a GREAT space drama than a crappy show on Earth that is predictable and boring, with performances on par with a 7th grade reading class!

With all the extras and websites devoted to this series out there, including SciFi Channel, the storyline is now complete, but boy, was it ever difficult to predict what was going to happen next! In four years of predictions, I was right only ONCE, and that came at the end! Ron Moore and David Eick are the next wave in QUALITY storytelling. There seems to be TWO new series coming soon on SciFi Channel that are tie-ins to BSG. One is called "Caprica", and the other is "Battlestar Galactica, The Plan". I believe that these two new series will tie up most, if not all (hopefully)of the plot holes and apparent dead ends seen in the new BSG series. If Ron Moore and David Eick have a hand in them, I'll be watching!

My hope is that "Hollyweird" finally gives breathing room for those forward thinking folk like Moore and Eick, and other Writers and Directors who are well past the "status quo" of Hollywood storytelling, which has grown old, fat, and not without the ubiquitous olfactory signal to let you know how bad what you're watching REALLY is!

BSG broke the mold, so all you Hollyweird knuckleheads are on notice!

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Don't read it if you have not watched the final season.

IT ALSO CONTAINS CYNICISM BORN OF CRUSHED EXPECTATIONS. If you don't like cynicism in general, take a pass.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE READING REVIEWS FROM PEOPLE YOU DISAGREE WITH (assuming you loved the ending) skip it entirely.

TO ALL OTHERS: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

TO THOSE WHO AGREE THAT THE SHOW ENDED IN DISASTER: my heart goes out to you. It really does.

Remember the first season of Battlestar? When the Cylons were truly menacing? Inhuman enough to snap a baby's neck, resolved enough to nuke countless worlds into oblivion, and coldly calculating enough to track the Galactica across vast swathes of space, showing up with robotic precision exactly every 33 minutes? Remember how compellingly frightening they were, an antagonist that was easy to hate, to fear, to even dread? I remember watching that first season and being immeasurably impressed with the quality of the show, with the compelling characters, with the sci-fi elements, with everything that was Other about the Cylons, and the promise of a show that entered the spiritual and hard science fiction realms with deft ease. I remember the promise of the show: the potential to be THE BEST science fiction tv show ever created.

4 years later, is that what those who fell in love with the show received? Did the promise of Battlestar come to fruition? Tragically the answer is no. Not just no but NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Over a few seasons the show progressed away from excellence and originality and toward a banality and insignificance epitomized by the conclusion--if you can call it that since many things were never properly concluded. Cylons became humans, humans became Cylons, and all that made them distinct and interesting as parallels of one another or opposite sides of a spectrum, or beautifully constructed antagonists was lost in the process. I'm reminded of a story of the worst trade in baseball history in which a minor league team traded all of its players to another team for all of their players. The other team was their arch rivals, and it left all of their fans unsure if they should be cheering for the players that they had come to love, or for their team which was now comprised of players they had loved to hate...

Essentially this is what Batlestar delivered, a blurring of the lines to the point of causing this viewer to ask, "who cares?" Honestly, who cares if the humans/Cylons/humans/hybrids survive? Haven't they all just become the same thing anyway? Who cares about Cavel and his petty obsessional sadism? Who cares about Adama and all his rage over Saul or Kara, or anyone else for that matter? There is nothing left to care about except individual characters 'tempest in a tea cup' emotional outbursts and petty infighting. The show lost its way in Season III and never recovered--you can only care about your protagonists in the light of their antagonists, and when those two things stop being distinct, the wheels fall off. This is a concept known to storytellers of all generations, and it amazes this viewer that the writers could get this so painfully, ineptly wrong.

And to add insult to injury, all that was built into most of the characters that we DID care deeply about, all that made Kara Thrace who she is and was, all the questions about what it meant that she returned, that she came back from the dead, the implications of that were all swept away in probably the single most unfulfilling moment in the show. Why did she paint the future as a child and as an adult? Why did she return from death? How does she find the real location of earth using a song that her father taught her and that Anders is able to help decode? What does it all mean? We never get to know because... Kara vanishes. Poof. End of line.

The fleet finds Earth, and what do they decide to do? Destroy all their ships and technology? Please. I hope they all realized they now get to be subsistence dirt farmers without the aid of modern tools (or even ancient tools since I doubt that useful things like animal husbandry, crop cultivation and specialization, basic meteorology, navigation, and a whole host of other essentials to even ancient civilizations are skill sets of a space faring race that has just spent a few years scurrying across the galaxy). I hope the massive number of thugs that resided on some of the ships were all good boys and girls and turned in their fire arms or we all know how this will end. Honestly the idea that you can get 30,000+ people to 100% to agree on ANYTHING is just stupid and especially something that catastrophically life changing. Did anyone bother to keep a still or two, because it not there are going to be some VERY unhappy residents. Like Saul. Or his godawful wife.

The 30,000+ survivors of humanity's near total destruction also decide that separating into small groups and each taking a continent is a good plan? I guess being isolated from larger society in the confines of a ship convinced them that what they really wanted once the war was over was to stay separated? Adama so much so that he decides to live the life of a hermit, ignoring the first chance he's had to spend quality time with his son Lee?

Is this really what these guys were fighting so hard to survive for? Giving up all they knew and spending several hundred thousand years living lives that Hobbes might describe as "nasty, brutish, and short"? All their culture, society, inventions, science, history, all swept away in a reactionary decision that was never even explained in the show? The engineers and scientist and teachers and historians and even the priests/priestesses told to drop everything and pursue survival (a full time job absent any real technology)?

New Earth turns out to be our Earth. We get a preachy message about robots and climate change. We learn that Hera is the mitochondrial mother of all the humans (in fact hybrids) that presently live on Earth. She was so important, so essential, so... disappointing? Does this cheap cop-out please anyone? Because if it does, I want to hear what your theories were when you were watching the show for the first time. Why was Hera so important? What about the prophecies about her, the shared vision of Kara, The President, Athena, etc... Were any of your theories that she would prove to be the mitochondrial mother of all humanity? I would be willing to bet that ANY of the things you thought up would have been a better resolution that what we were offered. Because it JUST DIDN'T MAKE SENSE. We were led to believe over 4 seasons that she was ESSENTIAL and VERY IMPORTANT and in-fact a lynch-pin around which anchored the show. Instead she became a silly foot note strapped on as the show breathed its last shuddering breaths and collapsed in on itself.

BSG is over. All our time and energy spent watching it, talking about it, thinking about it.

We feel, what exactly? Elated at the brilliance of the answers to the show's myriad questions? Fired up because against all odds the fleet made it to Earth? Introspective as we consider the profoundness of show's deeper subtexts?

Or are we wishing for that gun Cavel used to off himself so we can end the painful headache we've developed from asking the same question over and over and over again?

Why. Why did it have to end like this?

Remember when?

SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN ALL OF DAYBREAK!

I can picture Ron Moore in a round table discussion with his writers after the end of their strike allowed for a full final season of BSG.
"There must be some kind of way out of here," he probably muttered to David Eick, referring to the trap they set for themselves by rushing to finish the series in a dignified fashion at the end of 4.0. I'm sure the fear that there would be no further episodes pushed the team to find a degree of closure in finding Earth in a hurry and by writing things like Mr. Gaeta's line, "known constellations are a match." Combine that with referring to actual names for the constellations (i.e. Sagittarius instead of Sagittarion) as their "ancient names" in the tomb of Athena in Season 2, killing off your heroine without a concrete plan to explain her return, and pigeonholing the writers into finding a planet to call Earth at the series end, and the result of trying to end the show a second time without the plan that guided Mr. Moore thus far may as well include Fonzie water-skiing.

These abundant, but individually forgivable issues turn into major plot holes when the second Earth, our Earth that we are standing on now, is not the one they were referring to all along. They chose to show that the second Earth was truly ours with our continents, and even our Times Square... but apparently our real constellations are something of a paradox as both planets wouldn't have the same view of them. The names of the colonials' ancient constellations of the past somehow was to spring up again to become terms from our ancient past rather than their modernized versions of the words. By placing them 150,000 years in the past, we guarantee that absolutely no one from the fleet will successfully teach mankind living on Earth anything about civilization, language, or culture, as the sloppy time-line is set about 100,000 years too early for that to be a possibility. Not even Hera/mitochondrial Eve gets a happy ending as her life ended quite young according to National Geographic. Most of the continents that the 30,000 spaceship-dwelling survivors would have dispersed between were devoid of humans or protection, yet they chose to leave every trace of their technology and conveniences on a collision course with the Sun. If it is not the logic or minutiae of these incongruous events that should give a viewer pause, than it is the abandonment of the ultra-realistic characters' personalities and souls that should concern us.

Admiral Adama chose to leave his only surviving family member behind for good after spending the last 4 years trying to keep him close; his son is left alone to "explore" the globe on foot after his soul-mate turns out to be no different than Harvey the pooka, vanishing into thin air. The soul of the fleet, Kara Thrace is abandoned by Mr. Moore just before she can have an appreciable end to her story. No version of the word "frak" can define how uninspired and cheap the story becomes when arbitrary snap decisions must be used to determine the fate of an entire story that has already ended once. Albeit the first go at finding Earth left us with empty stomachs, but at least it retained a semblance of dignity for the exceptional staff that tirelessly worked on BSG for almost 5 years.

Let me make this clear: I love Battlestar Galactica. It had an incredible run, which included countless moments of brilliance and art from its amazing actors, inspired directors, and visionary writers. Unfortunately, as BSG has told us on numerous occasions through its plot lines, those visionaries can be wrong; can let us down. Ultimately, it is up to us to carry on and decide what makes sense for ourselves rather than listening to those who would rather drop the ball at the finish line rather than following Starbuck's mantra of "fight 'em until we can't." I challenge any and all fans to rewrite Daybreak, or alternatively the entire of Season 4.5 so that we may find a more logical, fitting, and challenging end to what may be one of the greatest television shows in recent history until its final moments. So say we all.

That, at least, seems to be the general tenor of the final season, especially the last double episode. This final season is a mixture of the excellent and the corny (details would amount to spoilers, so I'll say no more than that), and this especially is true of the double episode, which also features a rather nice twist. In addition, given that the Earth seekers all had European-type names assured that the search for Earth could have only ended in one of two ways, it was nice to get both.

I could have wished for a better ending, and a better resolution (and in some cases any resolution at all) of some of the outstanding questions, but overall the standard was high, and, I thought, always entertaining. I remember the old series, with Lorne Greene flouncing around portentously in a cloak. I always thought that there was a good story fighting to get out. Ron Moore got it out. I'll miss BSG.

Probably the greatest sendoff of the best television series ever made. It was dead nuts perfect and equally subversive and offensive to almost every dogmatic viewpoint a person can hold.

In the end, I think if there is one glaring message in BSG it's that "people make mistakes" - no one has all the answers and usually the most grief is caused when you hold on to your prejudices and hatred and are inflexible with your worldview and cannot change or adapt to the circumstances around you.

In season 4.5 the enemies become friends, the friends become enemies and both those who "do not believe" and those who "believe" both have their faith's tested to the breaking point.

I love that this show isn't afraid to stick it to both religion and atheism at the same time - understand that those who are very "sure" of their beliefs will walk away from this grumbling but in my opinion it's one of the most beautiful metaphors for faith, war, hatred, and bigotry ever written. It's as if Moore channeled a little bit of Tolkien and realized that it's always best to paint broader metaphors than it is to be absolutely definitive and allegorical.

When it's good, it's goooooooood.
When it's bad, it's ugly.

I never discovered this series until 3 weeks ago, and the reason I stayed away was the title: it was so geeky-sci-fi-stereotype-laden that I cringed and never got past the cover. However, upon hearing that Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) unequivocally declared "Battlestar Galactica" as the BEST show on TV, I decided to check it out.

From the first 3 hr miniseries, I was obsessed. I fell in love with the dialogue, which was inspired. It's smart without being "clever" and real without being boring. The characters took a bit more time, but it wasn't long before I was thinking that Starbuck was one of the most grippingly worthwhile characters I have ever seen on TV--she maintains a real presence in my mind to this day. I couldn't quite put my finger on WHY it was so compelling to me at first--all I know is that I spent every free minute zooming through so that I finished it all in under 2 weeks. I was even a little depressed at the end because I knew there was no show I could go to next that would satisfy. (SPOILER ALERT!)

However.

The way Kara Thrace/Starbuck was put out to pasture at the end is the single most unsatisfactory element in my entire viewership of Battlestar Galactica. Yes, I understand that she was an angel whose destiny was to lead her fleet to present-day Earth. Yes, I understand that her relationship to Lee started out as ill-fated. Yes, I even understand (from what Ron Moore has said in several interviews) that her death was the one thing she had been running away from and would, therefore, be the one thing that she needed to conquer in order to be that great hero that she truly is. BUT. The fact that the writers felt the need to have her return as an angel, REGARDLESS OF THE REASONS FOR IT, was an underhanded thing to do. It was their having their cake and eating it too. They got to capitalize on Starbuck's overwhelming popularity, a popularity that's commanded by her LIVING, NON-ANGEL persona, and forced us to accept a deliberately unsatisfactory ending for her as payment for bringing her back. It's like Ayn Rand's second-raters holding the John Galts of the world hostage by their very own integrity. When did this become a writer-vs-viewer rivalry? Did the writers feel the need to outstrip their previous creative geniuses by zeroing in on the one area that they KNEW to be inviolate, and then proceeding to violate it? Was it really the overarching story that required her fake-death-return-but-not-real-return, or was it a case of being too clever for their own good? I honestly feel that it was a case of "let's kill her off" first and buyer's remorse later--and only after, when the episodes had already aired, does the writers' integrity kick in and they give the only dignified ending they could with the corner they'd painted themselves into. I think Ron Moore's stated claim of needing to kill off Starbuck to have her conquer her one overriding fear is also disingenuous; if you look at her progress through the series, you might observe that the one overriding fear she has is of trusting in her love for Lee and going for it. It makes sense when you layer it with her abusive mother's effect on her--more than the fear of death or "being forgotten". So, an ending where Lee and Kara get to be together in a real, human-human way would NOT be the syrupy ending that maybe Ron Moore disdained to associate his relentlessly dark series with: it would be Kara conquering that one overriding fear to fully be that hero.

I just had to get that off my chest. All the other trifling inconsistencies and unanswered questions--they come with the territory. This was damage done at the soul--the one thing that stuck in my craw.

My petition is this, should it ever reach the eyes or ears of the show's creators: if you ever see the truth in my words, would you pledge to remake the end of the show to reflect those changes?

Susan Chung

Wow! What can I say. I just started to watch this season and it left me without words. The actors, producers, and all the cast and crew did a very good job this last season.
That's the most amasing season of BSG, and I thank everyone involved on the production because you really gave us great emotions and goose bumps in every episode.
I love this season, and I am so sad it is the last one.

The absolute best television has to offer it's ever-gazing couch-potatoes.. I have never been more happy and heart-broken @ the same time.. @ least not with a tv show.. It broke so many boundaries.. and genres.. The story was enthralling.. dramatic, epic, nerve-wrecking & melancholic.. It encompasses past, present & future.. It's a post-apocalyptic militaristic cyberpunk space-opera testing the morality and logic of an age of fear.. and whether the human race deserves to survive.. I have never cared for characters in a story as much as I care for the characters of BSG.. Each character evolves and grows so much from beginning to end... Some of them discover who they really are.. Others can never go back to who they were.. The story ends so epically tragic, yet with a complete sense of closure.. and peace..

I feel like one of the only fans who really appreciated the way the differences between human and cylon were slowly peeled away in the "soap opera' episodes that make up most of season 4.5.. The show has always been about the characters.. The cg'd space battles have always been top notch but that's not why you're watching.. The show has never been a flashy or glamorous everyday space-chase saga.. with sexy aliens and tazer gunz.. It's not star trek/wars.. It set out from the start.. dirty, raw and spartan.. but above all.. melodramatic.. Had the last season been all battle scenes and explosions.. I dont think BSG would have the same emotional resonance that it has.. The characters have always done more soul searching then space traveling.. It's always been an adventure of exhaustion.. not exhilaration.. Their journey into the universe ends within themselves.. and that's how it needed to end..

The negative reviews just irk me really.. I think, for those disappointed in the spiritual aspects of the shows finale.. It's important to remember this show has often been centered around faith.. They spent almost the entire series, putting all their hopes and dreams into the prophesies of a 2000 yr old religion(imagine that). All the negative reviews spend a lot of time on the 'god' aspect.. but the show was never been subtle about religion.. NEVER.. So what were people expecting??.. Had they given us some finite explanation for everything.. it would have taken away from one of the major focal points of BSG.. faith.

Some think that the 'god aspect' was a cheap way to finish the story. I just don't agree.

Best show ever... BSG will be missed..