Last night Aneeta and I had a very strange marathon; the last three eps of Battlestar Galactica and then Baz’s Australia.  It was an interesting juxtaposition to say the least.  Oh, the options I have available, this may turn out to be a blog marathon weekend itself, unless of course, I can draw comparison between the two and make it one super post.  Unlikely.

In order to pump the most relevant spoilers into my post, I choose Battlestar.

DEFAULT SPOILER DISCLAIMER FOR BATTLE STAR GALACTICA

I am not going to full-on recap and take you through the workings of the entire episode(s) because, presumably you have seen the finale and that is why you are continuing to read on.  That, or you’re stupid and therefore you deserve to be a bit lost.  Due to the fact that I am a bit behind on my viewing, it has given others plenty of time to ruminate on the series ending and give their typo-riddled opinions about it.  Mostly fans seems to take umbrage with how the series wrapped up, calling it cliche, overused and a tad cheesey, therefore, I have decided to focus our attention on the ending.

To get you caught up to where I’ll be:  Being the sentimental and over attached man that he is, Admiral Bill Adama decides to take his Babystar Galactica on one last suicide mission to retrieve Hera, which was stolen by the schitzo-Boomer, and because or beloved core of characters will follow him wherever he may lead, our nearest and dearest line up behind him, including the very wobbly Laura Roslin.  Then a very loud and confusing space battle happens, ¹ some strange glowy people and a inspirational speech by Gaius Baltar occur, ultimately leading Kara Thrace to make a strange connection to the musical notes she has arbitrarily assigned numbers to, sending the Battlestar to random coordinates in space.   As it turns out, this is near a planet that has continents that look astoundingly similar to the ones we have come accustomed to outside of TV Land.  The 30,000 odd suvivors decide to take up residence there, leaving their ultra-advanced ways of the past in their, well, past, and take up with the aborigines and cavemen.  You with me?  Excellent.

I suppose the question that needs to be posed is this; how else would you expect this series to the end?  From the very beginning, I’m talking episode 1 here, the fleet has been searching for a planet that they can call home, free from the murderous cylons and gluttonous sins of their bretheren.  Four years later, that happened.  Well done, Bill.  Halfway through the final season, the fleet finds the thirteenth colony’s “Earth.”  It was a wasteland, a wasteland destroyed by the very people Adama and his people sought after.  They found Earth, but it wasn’t their Earth, it was someone elses.  The first three seasons set up the idea that the fleet had to find the Earth, then the fourth season determined that they couldn’t just find any old Earth, they needed their own Earth.  Luckily, they ultimately got it.

It gets tricky here, because we have to ask the show to be self aware enough to consider how us as an audience fit in.  We’re willing to accept intergalactic space jumping, sentient robots and life on other planets, but the second they collide with a world that actually exists, we have trouble. It has to be done in a way that’s walks a delicate balance; satisfy the characters, satisfy the audience.  It’s intense.  The fact that they landed on our (the viewers) planet and helped to eventually form the human race at we know is actually quite clever.  The fact that they decided to stay primative opposed to advance as they were was explained quite nicely by Bill Adama when he said, “Never underestimate people’s need for a blank slate.”  It actually fits.  Of course, they could have made it more clever if they went onto heavily imply that they were to form the Greek mythology, thus simultaneously satisfying the religious aspect of the series, but the powers that be didn’t ask me.

It comes back to the question, how else would you expect the series to end?  If you ask me, and since you’re here, I’ll assume you did, there are a limited amount of possibilities.  Considering in the first episode (and in the opening credit sequences to follow) it was said that the fleet was looking for a home called Earth, certain ending scenarios jump out.

• They don’t find it.  After all the bloody skirmishes, dwindling supplies, and rotting battlestars, the remainder of human civilization whither out until nothing is left.
• They find “Earth” and it’s smack dab in the middle of our current day, posing the “aliens are coming!” scenario we see in apocolypse movies for the current resident Earthlings.
• They find “Earth” and it’s a wasteland, destroyed by it’s past inhabitants, leaving the planet empty for the fleet to live on (or, alternatively, not live on because of the said wasteland.)
• They find “Earth,” and it’s the dawn of time, therefore the fleet gets to create a civilization that will become the civilization we know, just with a slightly alternative history.

The first option is probably the least expected, but probably the least fulfilling ultimately.  Think Quantum Leap x 38,000.  The second option poses a lot of logistic questions and highlights a lot of fundamental problems with the show.  How come the society formed lightyears away speaks English?  Dresses like us?  Have any ammenity we can imagine?  Smoke cigarettes?  How are they just like Humans from Earth?  The only way I think this possibly could work is if they made the Earthlings seem to be the aliens  – but that’s a bit complicated, and hard to make 100% clear and that’s why this one probably wouldn’t work.  And it would be a bit cheesy.  Not to mention, all the wars that tend to break out when suspicious UFO’s land on the planet.  Stupid humans.

The third scenario the series explored only to prove that it too was unsatisfying.  Being second after mankind only leaves for sloppy seconds.  The fleet would have to accept all the baggage the Earthings left behind.  Ultimately a bit meh.

So, that leaves the forth and final scenario.  The fleet stumbles onto a new beginning and is able to intertwine with our familiar history, making a fairly satisfying and complete story ending.  To some degree it can almost answer any question of the show  – the ones scenario two could not — including similarities in language, customs, religions, etc.  Ultimately, it excuses all these “weaknesses of the premise” are not actually weaknesses because the show creator says that they are nothing but our orgin story.  It should be looked at as well planned, not a cheap  and easy out.  It also makes it more relatable to the views because it becomes a history that’s commonly shared opposed to being thrown into new one and being asked to accept it.  Think about it a while, this ending works.

My biggest problem with the finale, other than the death of Laura Roslin (sob) was the whole Kara Thrace deal.  WTF was that?  For four seasons, Battlestar Galactica  was based on a certain realism rooted in plausibility.  Yes, it had it’s faith aspects and so-called supernatural elements, but in the sense that it could always be chalked up to human nature or science or something tangible.  It can be argued that even though Roslin thought she was destined to lead her people to the promise land, it could easily have been a self-fulfilled prophecy based on certain parallels that existed between her and a particular mythology.  Nowhere in the show’s premise did it say that there could be ghost or a spirit or figment wondering around leading people to certain jump coordinates.  It just doesn’t fly, it’s way to jarring.  Way to go, stupid Kara.

Another problem I found was in the “vision” Gaius and Six.  Why in the “flash foward” did their acting suddenly degrade into community theatre melodrama?  After 150,000 years, did they just forget how to have a conversation without emphasizing every word?

In conclusion, I’d call it a winner.  The show was at it’s ultimate in the first two seasons, but after New Caprica happened, the show lost  a lot of it’s urgency and therefore fissled a bit.   That said, it was still pretty good television, and the finale held a lot of  water.  There were a lot of threads seeded from the very beginning that paid off in the end (opposed to being seeded a few episodes before and being paid off nanoseconds later) and  overall had a lot of sophisticated storytelling elements.  I think it will be a while before a show this strong comes along again — though I hope it does.

Stay tuned for my thrilling review of Australia. It’ll knock your socks off….surely.

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