This post was published more than a few years ago (on 2009-03-22) and may contain inaccurate technical information, outmoded thoughts, or cringe takes. Proceed at your own risk.
I just wanted to get down my thoughts on the finale of Battlestar Galactica while they’re fresh in my head. Keep in mind that my mind is like a sieve, and I’ve likely forgotten critical points presented earlier in the series, and I may need to be gently reminded by your thoughtful comments.
There will be MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE FINALE IN THIS POST, so please do be aware of that before moving on. Spoilers begin after the jump.
Yeah, the thing is… Moore covered all of this ground on Deep Space Nine. It’s nigh impossible for me not to compare the two series, because they do hit so many of the same points. And my overall reaction (though I did enjoy BSG) is that DS9 is the superior show. The mystical elements there were presented in what I think is the perfect way for such things on an SF show: you could choose to believe they were the gods of the Bajoran people, or you could choose to see them as powerful aliens who lived in the wormhole. It was a nice spin on the old “any science advanced enough will appear to be magic” situation. I was expecting something similar from BSG, and did not get it.
Overall, I think they pulled out of what was a very disappointing last season-and-a-half, and these final 10 really worked for me better than the show had since mid-season 3. I had some problems with it as well (most notably the whole earth thing being an apparent rip from Douglas Adams), but I enjoyed it for the most part. Oh, and you’re dead on about the very end being extremely heavy handed. I expected Head Six and Head Baltar to turn to the camera and say something directly to us. Ugh.
Final analysis: a good ride, but not a keeper. Not quite good enough to stay on the DVD shelf, I’m afraid.
Yeah, DS9 was very different from the other series. The characters were flawed, sometimes just plain ugly… and since the station was, well, stationary, they had to deal with the repercussions of various conflicts instead of just riding off into the sunset each week.
That’s interesting — I never really finished watching DS9. I think I left after a couple of seasons and came back for single episodes here and there (including the finale), but never really felt compelled to watch it on a weekly basis the way I did with BSG. I think a lot of that has to do with the way the characters were presented.
As much as I love Star Trek — as I was introduced to it at a very early age, and it really sparked my love of science and science fiction — the characters in BSG seemed more real, more human. People I could relate to in a way that I can never fully relate to the “conflict only comes from outside” edict of the Star Trek universe.
Of course, maybe DS9 expanded to include more of the deeply flawed characterizations that I find so compelling — I never watched the whole series, so I’ll readily admit I could have missed something significant.