Final Thoughts – Battlestar Galactica

Last week I said I’d be here for the finale and while Dean beat me to the punch on making a post about the episode, I want to wrap up my long-running series with a front page post. I pray you’ll excuse this indulgence.

Spoilers are contained below…

I think the show went out in much the same way it presented humanity: Noble if imperfect.

I believe there were missteps in the way it presented the narrative. I believe some of the flashback sequences interrupted moments of great drama in exchange for very little revelation. I believe many of the flashback scenes could have been cut and the episode would have been tighter for it and they’d have made an interesting addition to the DVD cut.

Flashbacks are a tricky beast and the only show I can think of that does them well is Lost. Also, I found them to be a bit of a writer’s cheat on Ron Moore’s part. For example, we have the scene in the finale where Boomer hands Hera over to Athena and she tells Athena to tell Adama that she kept her promise. I’m asking myself, “What promise?”

Then we get a flashback of Tigh and Adama talking to Boomer when she’s a rookie on Galactica. Thing is, it took me a moment to realize it was Boomer and not Athena. That moment removed me from the drama. And it existed only to provide context for Boomer’s promise. I didn’t know about any promise because no promise had ever been made up until this point. We needed a flashback to fill in for a gap that could have been avoided altogether by simply letting Boomer’s choice to return Hera to stand on its own.

So, structurally and narratively, my biggest complaint about the episode are the flashbacks.

I thought the action scenes were well constructed and beautiful. The effects shots, like always, are jaw dropping.

The revelation of Head Six, Head Baltar, and Starbuck as angels was very interesting. It would have been nice to get some information as to why God (yes, I know it doesn’t like to be called that) chose one of its angels to come in the flesh while two others stayed invisible to everyone else. I’ve noticed some cries of deux ex machina but in a show that deals as heavily as it does in prophecy and spirituality it seems a bit hollow to be a stick in the mud about that. In the Battlestar Galactica universe (and our own by extension depending upon your point of view) God is a real being that has an active influence upon the setting. It seems a bit strange to be willing to acknowledge that there is a God, it has agents active in the world trying to carry out its will, but it’s all really the writer covering up for his shortcomings. What, we can’t have stories that feature an active god now? Or is it simply deux ex machina when the story does something you don’t think it should? Reminds me of all those cries of “jumping the shark” a few years back.

Really, can’t a show simply do something you don’t like, something that isn’t for you, without there being something intrinsically wrong with the property itself?

If I hear “deux ex machina” or “jumping the shark” one more time from someone that cannot admit that all media produced doesn’t have to conform to their sensibilities, I’m gonna stab them in the face with a spork.

Anyway…

I am confused about one thing relating to Starbuck though. Over and over again we’re told that Starbuck will lead humanity to its end. That didn’t seem to occur unless I missed something. Did I miss something?

Then there’s everyone in the fleet deciding to chuck all their ships into the sun. This doesn’t bother me in the least. Think about all the stuff these people have seen in the past few years, the fulfillment of prophecy, catastrophe after catastrophe escaped, the odds of them surviving at all, and the lessons learned and, yeah, I think more than a few of them would be willing to, as Adama said, wipe the slate clean. I believe the implication being that not just the main characters have grown, but the men and women of the fleet have grown as well.

Speaking of main characters, I’d like to have seen one of them die. And Roslin doesn’t count. We knew she was going to die. One of the great things about Battlestar Galactica was its ability to keep the audience on edge because it made us believe anyone could go at any moment. I would have liked to have seen that in effect at the end. Yes, the Chief offed Tory but, really, did anyone care? She was borderline a villain anyway.

About Roslin. I’ve long made it known that both Adama and Roslin are my favorite characters. So, appropriately, I shed tears when the end finally came for her. I think that’s the third time this program brought tears to my eyes. The first was when Baltar encounters Gina on the Pegasus, and the second was when Dee killed herself.

It may seem like I get choked up, if not weep like a girl, a lot but I approach television, movies, and books differently than I suspect most people do. In fact, I know I do. To put it plainly, the writer doesn’t have to work to get me emotionally invested. If I’ve decided to put down $8 for a movie, whatever for a book, or 1 hour for a television program, I’m going to do whatever it is I have to do to get everything I can out of it. And for me, it’s not demanding the writer to drag me kicking and screaming the entire way. It’s saying to the writer, “Dude, I’m here. Bags are packed. Where we goin’?”

So, moments that break the heart of a character are very well likely to get me choked up too.

And this brings me to the flash forward of 150,000 years and the, what some people are calling, anti-technology and anti-science message of the episode (if not the show). I think if you want to see that the show certainly gives you the tools to do so. However, I believe it hearkens back to Lee’s statement, “Our brains have always outraced our hearts, our science charges ahead, our souls lag behind.” The show acknowledges that man is both mind and soul and too often one leads the other when both should be pulling mankind forward with yoke shared.

Head Six observes our own commercialism and decadence and I believe it’s not an inaccurate observation. All powers fall. The United States is not immune to this simple fact of history. But history also teaches us that powers as strong as the U.S., powers that cannot be defeated militarily, will therefore fall from within. No one wants to think of their generation as the generation which will tip the scales but shouldn’t the question be examined? Shouldn’t the trend be fought will all vigilance?

Or will we, as most will do, simply say, “You’re being irrational. People have always said their generation is the most corrupt,” and then pass the problem on to the next? Thing is, eventually, the question will get passed on to a decadent generation and they too will look at us and pass the warning along because, surely, it could not be them. And then it’s too late.

At what point do we stop and address what we can when we can?

Battlestar Galactica was always about stopping the cycle. If we don’t stop for a moment and look at ourselves soberly, why should the next guy?

I was going to spend some time on episodic storytelling vs. novel-like (Babylon 5) storytelling but it doesn’t seem as important now so I’ll close as I began.

The finale, the entire show, was as it said humanity is: Noble but imperfect.