We watched the final episode of Battlestar Galactica last night, and I’m pissed off. (This was the last of the sci-fi series that we had missed on TV, so we were renting it season by season.)
The seasons up until the last one were wonderful – well-written, mysterious, intricate plotlines that I was expecting to finally tie up into a neat package, and quirky characters with depth and personality. But what the hell happened in the fifth season? I want my money back. (I’ll cut this for anyone who for some odd reason hasn’t watched it all the way through.)
So all of the prophecies and so on were just…what, a mistake? The scriptwriter decided “hey, they were crap, let’s forget about them”?
Starbuck is what, an angel? Jesus Christ.
What the hell was the deal with the Six and the Balthar figure that no one else could see? What were they? God and the Devil? I mean really – what the hell?
So, with humanity winnowed down to an extremely small genepool, everyone decides to all fuck off into the various corners of the world, further narrowing their choices? What about all the needed skills, doctors and so on – how did that work? Wouldn’t you pick a rich, temperate area where everyone could settle where they could scatter into small communities, but still be within travelling distance of each other?
I could kind of understand the starting-without-technology thing, but surely you’d want the metal from the ships, if nothing else? The manufacturing capabilities? The medical technology? But no, it makes sense to send all your resources into the fucking sun, what a grand gesture. Hey, sorry about your kid who needs an MRI, guess she’s out of luck, but hey, we’re all starting fresh.
Fie. Fie on you, I say….Battlestar Galactica, you do indeed vex me greatly.
It was the logical conclusion to the anti-technology viewpoint of the show. From the first episode it was pretty clear that the writers had a dim view of technology. Baltar was a technologist, a smart guy. The Cylons were the result of humanity going too far technologically. Even the new high tech vipers and capital ships allowed exploitation.
Only the low tech vipers and outdated, soon to be retired, Galactica were okay.
From my perspective, I see more and more of this in Hollywood in recent years. It used to be that science was the hero of science fiction. Now more often than not, science is the villain.
Sad really.
so really, the current Greenywood philosophy could not have allowed technology to prevail. Forcing humanity into the arms of mother nature was the only solution.
And by the way. If you think about it. Since it was alluded that Hara was mitochondrial Eve, the mother of all humanity, then she was the only successful female of the human remnant to pass on her genes. Sort of implies the rest failed. Great ending to that set of humans.
I understand what you mean about the anti-technology viewpoint of the show, and that’s a good point – I just thought that the implementation was poor. Even agrarian societies would benefit from having metal for plowshares, etc., and an effective way to hunt beasts. And I just don’t think that you could give up medical care…I couldn’t see people I loved die, knowing that a few years ago we had the ability to cure them.
Hara having a higher purpose was really the only prophecy-related questline they followed. Laura Roslin was supposed to lead her people on the path to Earth, but not actually reach it herself. In the end, she was able to see two of them, Earth-that-was and the final one.
There were other loose ends that irritated me. But you know? I’m only irritated because the first seasons were so damned good. :)
Yeah. I was hooked from the mini-series. I thought the writing was good and took into account real science — no sound in space; even a ship as large as a Battlestar was just a speck against a planet; that sort of thing — But it did seem to get sloppy in the latter seasons. I wonder if the studio’s made changes, or if the writing staff changed.
It was the stupidest ending ever.
And I totally warned you. Glad you agree with me.
Yes, I was royally pissed afte the ending. I spent ages fuming about how ripped off I felt…because I’d really cared about it, and I got cheated in the end.