Thoughts Following a Battlestar Galactica Marathon
There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. That they may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens…
More than four years ago I began watching the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. I purchased the miniseries on DVD and downloaded the episodes of the first season as they were broadcast in the UK. I quickly became engrossed and told everyone I could that it was the best show on TV.
There were a few things that got me excited. First, the individual episodes were excellent. The miniseries was well executed, but the show demonstrated its potential with the first episode of the first season, 33. The despair and desperation were palpable, and the fate of the remaining few members of the human race hung on every decision. That set the tone for the first season, and nearly all the of twelve additional episodes followed suit.
The second compelling aspect of the series was that each episode drove the story and the characters forward. This wasn’t your typical TV show where no matter what happened during an episode by the end everything was back to normal. On BSG, if a ship was lost, if a person died, they were gone. This meant that there were consequences to the hard decisions the characters were making that would have reverberations later.
Finally, there was a sense that not only did the Cylons have a plan (as the text before each episode insisted) but that Ron Moore (the guy running the show) did as well. It seemed that for once in US television somebody had sat down and planned out a show from start to finish and was now executing on that plan.
As the second season followed firmly in the footsteps of the first I began to wonder if BSG wasn’t just the best show on TV at the time, but had the potential to be one of the best shows ever. My wife, who refused to watch my “nerd show” seemed mildly amused that I thought she might actually enjoy it.
Admittedly, there were a few episodes in the first two season that didn’t meet the lofty expectations that I had for the show. In the first season episode 10 or 11, which focused almost entirely on politics, seemed one dimensional. Oddly, my sister saw that episode having never seen any others and declared that the show was great. Three episodes in season two seemed like filler, addressing a side story without really moving things forward.
But the consistent excellence of the show was amazing to me. Four so-so episodes out of thirty-three is a great batting average.
I had high hopes for season three, which were dashed as the series somehow became a strange imitation of earlier science fiction shows, in which there was a space problem of the week, which the characters solved, and things returned to normal. I remember watching “Unfinished Business” (3-09) in an airport terminal on my laptop and being so disappointed in it that I quit halfway through and stopped watching entirely.
It was clear to me that the three things that made the series excellent in my mind were no longer present. The decisions didn’t seem to matter, the episodes hit the reset button weekly, and it seemed that suddenly neither Ron Moore nor the Cylons had any sort of plan.
I decided that I would wait to hear if the series ended well before investing any more time it in.
Once it concluded the reports I heard were positive, so I figured that I’d try to squeeze them in this summer.
Then my sister-in-law showed up one day and asked if I had ever seen Battlestar Galactica. I replied that I had seen most of it and that it started off really well and then lost its way. She said that she had been told that it was really good and she wanted to see it. This was enough to convince my wife, who had ignored my efforts during seasons 1 and 2 to get her to watch it, and we sat down to watch my DVD of the miniseries.
Soon my wife and I were watching between one and four (!) episodes a day and an unintentional marathon of sorts was underway. We powered through season three, which was just as frustrating as I had remembered. Season four was a definite improvement though not a return to form. If the entire series had the potential to be a masterpiece, season three smashed that notion to bits. Season four could only pick up the pieces. There was no way to restore what had been lost, because the idea of a plot that had been planned from the start such the the entire series functioned as a whole was blown to bits.
So season four attempted to wrap up the story well. This worked out about as well as it could given that they had been winging it all along with each revelation proving somewhat unsatisfying upon further inspection. We learned the Cylon clones, but not really the origin of the 13th tribe Cylons, other than that they came from Kobol. Which means that it was Cylons (not humans) that left the beacon that got all the Cylons sick? We found out what the mission of the final five had been, though I’m trying to figure out what the value of resurrection would have been to the Cylon War era centurions who, as machines, could simply back themselves up when they woke up each day. We saw Ellen Tigh become a serene, intelligent person, only to revert to her normal insanity in the next episode. We found out that John (Number One) had been behind the invasion of the twelve colonies for reasons that still are not entirely clear. We also learned that he had turned against his creators, the final five, and made them lead lives of human suffering while he destroyed the society he had put them in. It isn’t clear if their improbable survival was part of his plan or not. Did he mean to chase them across the galaxy just to prolong their suffering? Was he toying with the fleet all along? Whose idea was it to attempt to create Cylon/human hybrids? What was the deal with the baby that Tigh and Caprica were going to have? What was the point of Athena, Caprica, and Roslin having their shared vision over and over? It wasn’t as if they would have acted any differently without it or as if Caprica and Baltar were going to do any harm to Hera. We saw Starbuck lead everyone to Earth, only to have that be somewhat pointless since it had been rendered uninhabitable. Then she was able to lead them to another habitable planet (our Earth) because… um… because her father was the original Bob Dylan (and possibly the artistic Cylon model Daniel) and came up with a wacky version of All Along the Watchtower? Clearly Ron Moore wanted Hera to be mitochondrial Eve, but that causes problems too. This implies that all modern females are descendants of Hera (and Athena too, right?), which likely means that all the settlements died off, and probably the tribespeople as well. Only Hera’s children thrived. Plus the decision to abandon technology was a poorly thought out one. The root cause of the cycle wasn’t technology but slavery. You would have thought that they would have left our planet with a strong taboo against slavery, not technology. Adama’s admonition to share the best of their culture while leaving the rest behind seems to have come to naught as writing, agriculture, and even history seem not to have survived. Finally, why send Galactica into the sun? Why not leave it out in the asteroid belt, waiting to be discovered (a la 2001) and store a detailed history of what happened on it, in order to prevent the cycle. Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it, right?
After that last paragraph one would think that I hated season four and the finale. Actually I found season four to be entertaining and I liked the finale a lot. While the holes that were left are frustrating, the finale provided appropriate endings for all the characters. President Roslin finally fulfilled her role and then died (I thought it was a cop-out when she didn’t die earlier). Adama defeated the Cylons (somewhat accidentally) and got the fleet to earth. Chief Tyrol settled Scotland. Baltar became a farmer and found out what Head Six was. Romo Lampkin seems to have become a leader of sorts. Anders got to make the perfect shot, with an assist from gravity. Lee and Starbuck each found a measure of peace. This was the best that could be hoped for given that problems of the plot. In the end the show returned a bit to the ideas of the original series: life here began out there, that Starbuck had taken a ride on the Ship of Lights, and that they found Earth. If nothing else it ended much better than things did in 1980.
Good stuff, John. It was, on the whole, one of the best television series ever, and definitely the best science fiction series ever. I appreciate the perspective.
Comment by Supergenius — June 29, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
I agree with your assessments John. I spent a lot of time ripping on the show at the end there and had very low expectations for the finale. Those low expectations ended up being a boon to me though because the finale outstripped them by so much it left me with an overall positive impression of the series again.
But I have to admit that nothing bugs me more than writers who are clearly winging it in a sci-fi series. That is why I gave up on Heroes and why I never invested in Lost — I couldn’t get past the feeling that the writers were making crap up as they went.
Comment by Geoff J — June 29, 2009 @ 5:19 pm
I agree with all your criticisms except one (and for me the finale did not redeem the series).
You state that
That all females are descendants of Hera does not mean that only Hera’s children thrived. Children who married Hera’s offspring also thrived (and the same could be said of anybody whose descendants married Hera’s descendants).
Comment by Last Lemming — June 29, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
It is the best sci-fi show since Babylon 5, and the best one produced by the Sci-Fi Channel.
Comment by Dan — June 29, 2009 @ 6:18 pm
Dan, you suck.
Comment by Supergenius — June 29, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
And this time it’s not because you love musicals Dan…
Comment by Geoff J — June 29, 2009 @ 6:49 pm
huh?
Comment by Dan — June 29, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
Last Lemming,
I worded my statement concerning Hera and her offspring carefully. Think about the settlements on the various continents. In order for Hera to be mother of all, at some point her children would have to arrive and conquer or intermarry in such a way that all the existing females were either killed or only had sons.
Another possibility is that if each settlement had one or more Sharons and they were eventually able to have children then it would appear that everyone had mitochondria from Hera when in fact it was the Sharon clones that were the source.
Comment by a random John — June 29, 2009 @ 9:21 pm
Further comments meant to tease Dan will be considered off topic and dealt with harshly.
Comment by a random John — June 29, 2009 @ 9:23 pm
Geoff J,
There are times when winging it is ok. If you’re doing something like the original Star Trek or Star Trek: The Next Generation then it doesn’t really matter. You encounter the strange thing of the week, deal with the problem it presents, and move on.
The problem comes when the goal is to do a show that tells a complete story. For example, can you imagine how Lord of the Rings might have turned out if Tolkien had written published the first book with no concept of how the third one ended? It would have been a disaster and we wouldn’t know about it because we’d never have heard of it.
Instead he not only set the story in a world that he had spent much of his life creating an entire mythology for, but he spent ten years on the work as a whole before publishing it.
I really feel that as great as BSG was, it was also a lost opportunity. They needed to have done the groundwork beforehand by laying out the structure of the whole story and what was going to be accomplished in each season. Instead it feels like perhaps the only thing that was planned in advance was that they would find our Earth 150,000 years ago. The plan needed a lot more meat on it than that.
Comment by a random John — June 29, 2009 @ 10:46 pm
Don’t wory Dan I love musicals too. We should have a whole thread just to show our love for them. Back on subject, I liked the way the show ended and consider it some of the best television ever. I also liked the damning of technology because I to for see it as a downfall of humanity.(She says as she types an internet post on her fancy schmancy smart phone noting the irony the whole time.)
Comment by Rose Tyler — June 29, 2009 @ 10:49 pm
I agree arJ — winging it works great in series that aren’t like BSG, Lost, and Heroes.
Comment by Geoff J — June 30, 2009 @ 12:05 am
BSG is forever more successful than Heroes. Lost has emerged the most consistent of any of those three. But when it was good, BSG was very good. Perhaps the best.
Comment by Supergenius — June 30, 2009 @ 8:34 am
And Dan, you [are my most favoritest blogger evar].
Comment by Supergenius — June 30, 2009 @ 8:34 am
I’m guessing [nobody] has more power on this blog than arj. [supergenius will] be “dealt with harshly.”
Comment by Dan — June 30, 2009 @ 9:01 am
Rose Tyler,
Could you explain why technology is the downfall of humanity both in the real world and in the BSG story? It seems to me that the real culprit is enslavement and not recognizing the rights of other sentient beings.
Comment by a random John — June 30, 2009 @ 9:19 am
thanks for putting a smile on my face arj. And back on the subject, I felt exactly the same way about BSG. It was a particular headscratcher that they abandoned their spaceships when the Cylons weren’t all destroyed and still a threat to them. That just didn’t make sense. But it was a great show overall.
Comment by Dan — June 30, 2009 @ 9:19 am
Dan,
I would have thought that the experience on New Caprica, where the Cylons showed up a year later after everyone had let their guard down and Lee had taken to stuffing a pillow in his shirt would have taught them to keep their guard up. But maybe they figured that the Galactica was pretty useless at that point anyhow.
Even then I would think that it would make some sense to keep the ships around and then in two or three generations send them off in various directions to colonize other worlds, if the survival of the human/Cylon race was the goal.
Comment by a random John — June 30, 2009 @ 9:24 am
And it took 150,000 years to get to modern day life? From a very technologically advanced group that colonizes this planet? Surely they didn’t give up their knowledge on farming and city planning. But then again, this group had, for the several years from when their civilization was destroyed to the time when they reached real Earth, not been that especially quick at attempting to procreate and repopulate their people. I mean, surely they would have done all in their power to save the women, and make sure no woman was a fighter, her precious life threatened with death.
Comment by Dan — June 30, 2009 @ 9:34 am
Man, that paragraph going over the finale makes me remember how much it really, really, really pissed me off. It made zero sense in terms of the whole. I’ll watch that special this fall to see if it is any better but I don’t hold up hope. Maybe seeing it all from the Cylon POV will explain something.
Comment by Clark — June 30, 2009 @ 9:46 am
BTW – I agree with Steve that when BSG was good it was among the best. I still think Lost is better, even compared to those first two seasons of BSG. But when BSG lost it the flaws were legion…
Comment by Clark — June 30, 2009 @ 9:47 am
I tried watching BG and had trouble getting into the story. But I’ll give it another try …
Comment by danithew — June 30, 2009 @ 9:48 am
Well there’s your problem danithew. You watched BG. You need to watch BSG.
As far as my contribution to this conversation, I totally agree with Clark in comment #20 and 95% of what Dan said in #17 and #19.
Comment by Ivan Wolfe — June 30, 2009 @ 10:14 am
danithew,
watch the miniseries and the immediately watch the first two episodes of season one. If you don’t want to watch it after that your taste in TV is felgercarb.
Comment by a random John — June 30, 2009 @ 10:35 am
Clark,
There is no way they can retrofit in some sort of explanation from the Cylon POV that will make it make sense. They clearly didn’t have a long term plan that they were all aware of since John was pulling the strings. John’s plan was a petty and deeply evil attempt to show his “parents” up. Perhaps the moral calculus becomes skewed when you are basically immortal, but killing off an entire civilization that hadn’t done anything to you personally just to experiment on your parents is pretty sick.
The best they’ll be able to do is show in more detail how the Cylons infiltrated human society and then perhaps make up more after the fact answers that will be less satisfying than what we got in the last few episodes.
Comment by a random John — June 30, 2009 @ 10:58 am
The thing that scares me about technology is our reliance on it. If and when it fails us I’m afraid we may never recover. Hopefuly our technology won’t turn on us and hunt us down but it’s still very dangerous. The more we push science and technology the closer we get to creating things we shouldn’t. It’s the old notion just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Look at BSG, if Gallatica hadn’t been there waiting to be a museuam all humanity would have been lost. The Cylons disabled all their fancy technology. If that relic hadn’t been there along with something else that was considered a relic, Bill Adama, they would have been lost. Maybe the problem lies more with us then the actual technology. We can’t leave well enough alone. We’ll never be satisfied. So starting from scratch, rebooting our ambitions, sounds sane to me. Of course being humans we are damned to repeat our mistakes rather then learn from them.
Comment by Rose Tyler — June 30, 2009 @ 11:21 am
John what bugged me is that back in season 3 they had that segment with Adama and Tigh that suggested his “spy” raid into Cylon space may have precipitated events. That whole subplot is dropped and makes zero sense with the ending.
Comment by Clark — June 30, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
Clark,
I was going to mention the Hero episode with Bulldog as an example of why season three sucked, but I figured I didn’t need to go into detail to prove that.
Comment by a random John — June 30, 2009 @ 12:08 pm
As a whole, I think BSG was a great series, the first two seasons were superior, but the last ones weren’t horrible by any means. My main irritation was the who’s sleeping with who aspect. I think they spent way too much time on that.
Comment by Ian Cook — June 30, 2009 @ 2:20 pm
This is the reason I have come to prefer Babylon 5. Even though it couldn’t touch BSG in many ways, but it told a complete story. Its problems were more technical, based on its relatively poor budget, but it had a real beginning, middle, and end, and the end was in sight from the beginning.
Comment by CS Eric — June 30, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Ian,
at least they all got a lot of sleep…
Comment by a random John — June 30, 2009 @ 4:00 pm