Battlestar Galactica.

Discussion in 'Whatever' started by Roger, Oct 6, 2006.

  1. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    I just rewatched the episode. Let's see if I've got it all straight:

    2,000 years ago, on Kobol, there are 12 tribes of humans and a 13th tribe of humanoid Cylons (who may or may not have been created by the humans.) There's some kind of schism and everybody splits town. The 12 tribes find habitable worlds and form the 12 Colonies (Caprica, Tauron, Virgon, etc.).

    The 13th heads back towards Earth. Before reaching it, along the way they leave a contaminated satellite and make a brief stop on the Algae Planet, where they build the Temple of Hopes and pray to their One True God. Along the way they also ditch their resurrection technology when they discover that they can procreate on their own.

    Soon after settling Earth, they create mechanical Centurions to serve as workers, but eventually they rebel, resulting in war. Five scientists (Saul, Ellen, Tory, Sam, and Galen) see the writing on the wall, or are warned via divine powers, and re-create the resurrection machinery on a ship orbiting Earth.

    The war between the humanoid Cylons and Centurions goes nuclear and everyone dies. The five scientists are reborn on their ship, and embark on a journey at sublight speeds to the 12 colonies, to warn them against the dangers of creating mechanical Centurions to serve as slaves.

    Too late. By the time their slowboat reaches the 12 colonies, the humans there are already at war with their own mechanical Centurions. The Centurions are already trying to become humanoid to emulate the living God they believe in, but aside from creating the Hybrids they are unsuccessful.

    The scientists strike a deal with the Centurions: we'll make you humanoid like us, to emulate the living God that you worship, as long as you stop waging war against the humans. The Centurions agree, and the first Cylon-Human war ends.

    The first new-generation humanoid Cylon, John (Cavil) is developed by the scientists, as well as the resurrection network. Seven more models are created, for a total of eight. John becomes jealous of Model #7, named Daniel, so he destroys all copies of it and the means to make more copies.

    John eventually rebels against his creators. He tricks the five scientists into a situation where he suffocates them, and then makes them resurrect in new bodies with altered memories. One by one, over the course of decades, he inserts them into human society, thinking that life in the 12 Colonies will teach them that humans are worth exterminating.

    The first one is Saul, who has a military record fabricated for him and ends up serving on a freighter with Bill Adama, 20 years after the First Cylon-Human war. 20 years after that, when the Second Cylon-Human war begins, and John finds out that all five of the brainwashed scientists have survived it, he inserts copies of himself into different factions of the survivors to make their lives even more hellish.

    To go along with this, he alters the memories of the other six humanoid Cylons and the Centurions so that they can't remember or recognize the scientists, but he leaves in the knowledge that they exist, and that they shouldn't be thought about or researched.

    On top of all this, there is apparently a God out there, whispering things in the ears of the Hybrids, providing divine revelations to D'Anna, Roslyn, Baltar, and Caprica Six, providing signposts for people to get to and from Earth, Kobol, and the Twelve Colonies, broadcasting All Along The Watchtower, rigging fleet-wide power failures, and whatever supernatural apparatus duplicated Starbuck and her Viper, right down to the dog tags and wedding ring.

    What a mess.
     
  2. Dean

    Dean Prototype

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Yeah. It's almost as if the writers and producers ditched the successful "provide excellent drama with occasional surprising twists while subtly commenting on ethical issues of the present day" formula for the X-Files/LOST "make such a mess of your mythos that you lose sight of what made the show great when it was great" forumula. At least this one seems to be leading towards some sort of resolution of mythos. I dunno, it feels like they're rushing to resolve all the wrong things, having taken some possibly wrong turns along the way. In my opinion the first use of "All Along the Watchtower" was a major warning sign that things were going askew at exactly the wrong time. It was uncomfortably contrived.

    I'm still enjoying the show and still have good things to say about it, but frankly haven't been able to follow (or care about) the increasingly labyrinthine historical/mythological elements with the clarity that you provided, Roger.
     
  3. atease

    atease Super Deformed

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    I completely gave up on this show. It's terrible now.

    I'll get along just fine with my happy memories of past episodes.
     
  4. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Dean, that's a really good analysis, it is more of a mystery show now, like Lost, rather than the 9/11 allegory about characters making hard moral choices, as it was in Season 1-3. I'm still enjoying it, though, and I will watch it until the end.
     
  5. mondocoyote

    mondocoyote Comment King

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    I gave up near the end of the last season, but started again for this final season. It's really picked up. To be honest I prefer Space with explosions and fighting over 'hard moral choices' and chatting, which is what the last season seemed to be about.
     
  6. datadub

    datadub S7 Royalty

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Thanks for that re-cap Roger.
    I just watched the most recent episode but it made my head hurt trying to figure out what was going on.
    I guess they decided to wrap it up without loose ends but man its going to be a hard row to hoe...

    So I wonder what the odds of the Final five surviving the war AND all being on Galactica.

    Still its overall an amazing show - probably the best re-boot ever!
     
  7. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    There's a show on SciFi you might like called "Stargate."
     
  8. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Anyone excited for the finale, or just "meh" like me?

    According to Ron Moore in the latest podcast commentary, Daniel has nothing to do with Starbuck, nor will Daniel be a part of the finale. He saw a lot of speculation among fans on the internet and wanted to put it to rest. Daniel may have something to do with the upcoming Caprica series (as Moore hinted in a previous podcast) but as far as BSG is concerned, Daniel only exists as a fix to explain why the writers named Boomer/Athena "Type 8," and leaving an empty slot for "Type 7."
     
  9. Dean

    Dean Prototype

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    It's hard to be excited because even at this late hour, tease-games are still being played with the audience regarding relatively recent developments while older issues seem to have been abandoned. It's hard to see how all these loose ends will be wrapped up. I'm guessing that many won't be ... they'll just be left as mysteries for the fans to interpret or come up with their own explanations of.

    Did anyone else get the feeling that the flashbacks to Caprica in the most recent episode were a bit of an advertisement for (pardon me, a segue to) "Caprica?" Was it really all that helpful as regards "current" events to know that Roslyn had to contend with a personal tragedy all those years ago? Maybe. Dealing with loss is a consistent theme, however I would have preferred more business regarding existing threads. The time for back-story has passed.

    I'm not "meh" about the finale, neither do I have enough confidence at this point to be excited. Thing is, I don't know if I'm caught up in a brilliant labyrinth, or a train wreck. Towards the end of other good series that came to an end (Soporanos, The Shield) I never questioned why I was still watching.

    I sort of feel that way about LOST at this point too. Is this a hopeless mess, or just an as-yet-unfinished work of brilliance?

    "End of the race / Kara Thrace" doesn't sound so good, but we'll see... ;)
     
  10. Zaaier

    Zaaier Line of Credit

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    I still have not seen a single second of the 4th season...
     
  11. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Don't read this thread!
     
  12. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Overall, I liked the finale and was able to overlook Sam And His Magic Bathtub. I'll have to watch it again but I don't see any point to the flashbacks.

    There was a local cable commercial for this during the show. I think I have something new to watch now that Galactica's over:

    http://www.dickcraigsrocknroll.com/
     
  13. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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  14. meczilla

    meczilla Addicted

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Chief Tyrol had my favorite moment in the finale.
     
  15. Dean

    Dean Prototype

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Excellent article, and fascinating to learn about the UN panel.

    When the original BSG of the '70s was current, even as a kid I recognized some elements of Mormon mythology oddly mixed into the series' mythos (e.g. the references to "Kobol" ... in LDS belief, God lives "on or near the star Kolob" ... Mormons have their own ideas about the 12 tribes, etc.) but the idea of Baltar as a Joseph Smith/Brigham Young figure ... hadn't considered that at all, but it's an interesting thought.

    I also liked the finale very much. The final episode packs a wallop in the first half, then in the second provides a more pastoral series of resolutions, and then after a "false ending," brings the whole thing home and leaves you with some of the classic science fiction issues to think about. Very, very well done. I was surprised to find myself saddened by the goodbyes ... didn't think I still cared that much. I thought the Bill Adama/Roslyn and Lee Adama/Starbuck final scenes were downright moving. And yeah, Tyrol learning what he needed to know and then doing something about it was awesome. Despite all those doubtful things I'd been feeling as the show's tributaries as it reached the end, I'm definitely left feeling that it redeemed itself fully.

    "Magic bathtub" hahahaha :lol:

    I'm glad the series with class instead of dragging on forever, but I'm sorry to see it go. It was a great ride.
     
  16. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    After rewatching it, I'm satisfied with where the characters end up (except for Starbuck turning out to be Gandalf the White), I'm not satisfied with the resolution of the story.

    I think they should have titled the finale, "Gee, It's A Good Thing Sam Got Shot In The Head!"

    Slashdot discussion:

    http://entertainment.slashdot.org/artic ... 5&from=rss
     
  17. silver_lining_man

    silver_lining_man Mini Boss

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    i pulled this out and dusted it off.
    i have not read any of the posts due to the fact that i've just recently jumped into the series with netflix and am on episode 2 of season 2, so i didn't want to risk reading spoilers.
    but, i wanted to say:
    tricia helfer looks a lot like gary busey.
     
  18. bob242

    bob242 Toy Prince

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    [​IMG]

    Which in turn makes his spine glow....
     
  19. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
  20. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    SPOILERS

    Overall, thumbs down. While it has some cool stuff in it and a wisp of an interesting theme, it's very choppy and doesn't feel very substantial. When Babylon 5 was picked up for its final season by TNT, Straczynski tried something similar by making a TV movie out of mostly stock footage. While it was a fun B5 geek out, it was a Frankenstein's Monster of a story that just didn't feel right. The Plan is the same way.

    Little things that I enjoyed:

    - Two different types of civilian Raptors!
    - Nudity, including EJO's wife!
    - Jacknifing base stars!
    - Socinus!
    - The DVD easter egg (see Darth Mojo's blog)!

    There's also a weird deleted scene where Cavil sells the idea of working with the cylons to Anders' resistance group, Boomer and Caprica Six (the newly crowned "war heroes") show up offering an olive branch and things go badly. Not sure how this was going to work into the grand scheme of things.

    The worst thing about this movie was one of the worst things about the final season of Galactica: the idea that Cavil has been the mustache-twirling villain behind the scenes, and here he's clearly shown as the boss of the other Cylons. He even gets to say stuff like, "I'm going to wipe out humanity once and for all." Ugh.

    To add insult to injury, they add a classic "Mary Sue" to the story in the form of EJO's wife's character (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue if you don't know what I'm talking about) who not only figures out that someone is pulling the strings of the various Cylon agents, but she also gets to make out with a major character under a Raptor.

    While I yelled at the screen at first when that apple was offered to Cavil (enough with the goddamn Christan symbolism!), the scene was salvaged when the little kid was knifed. It wouldn't be Galactica without the murder of little children. Yay.

    I did like the symmetry of the Simon/Cavil story arcs on Galactica and Caprica, one becoming sympathetic while the other's hatred of humanity grew. They're more human than they realize. Of course, Caprica Cavil apparently gets boxed, so there's no lasting effect.

    So many other unanswered questions. So Kara never met the Simon that was in Anders' group? Ellen never mentioned that she was boozing it up with Cavil on Picon before the attack? And what happened to the "standard pleasure model" Six?

    Also, there's a near complete absence of Mary McDonnell from the scenes, most notably the one where the Cavils meet in the brig. Maybe they didn't pay her enough for reuse of her footage?

    I feel like I have to say something nice now after all this bitching. I really liked the attack on the colonies, narrated in disjointed prose by the Hybrid. Cool shot of one of the colonies definitely inspired by the Terminator films.

    Anyway, watch it, you know you want to.
     
  21. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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  22. blakewest

    blakewest Post Pimp

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    I'm not crying about this. It's like they had all the pieces of an interesting story, and then decided to dump them in a bucket and piss on them. The editing has been terrible. The doleful incidental music they play whenever the Graystones are on screen makes me want to poke out my eardrums.

    Things I'll miss:

    Group marriage
    Terrorists
    Taurons
     
  23. Roger

    Roger Vintage

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    Galactica: Blood and Chrome concluded on YouTube today. Anyone like it?
     
  24. toothaction

    toothaction Team Tsubu Staff Member

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    Battlestar Galactica.
    I've had some trouble making it through the first installment, but I imagine I'll be forcing myself to press on. The jury is still out but the forecast is looking bleak.
     
  25. gatiio

    gatiio Post Pimp

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    Battlestar Galactica.

    Havent seen it, was it ever promising?

    I did enjoy BSG a lot back way when, until they crashed that ship. Literally.
     

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