Brad Ideas - Endings for the characters - Comments

Leoben

Mercy — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:39:45 -0700

BSG didn't forget about Leoben's storyline - the actor who plays Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie) left for Los Angeles to do Californication, making himself unavailable for BSG. If what Sackoff told EW in an interview is true, she was disappointed at the lack of Kara/Leoben resolution. Leoben will be in 'The Plan' this fall though.

Boggled

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:47:54 -0700

I've mentioned Blake's 7 and Buddhism in here enough times myself but even I'm scratching my head over that comment. I'm sure it's saying something. I'm just not sure what.

Blake 7

Alvin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:04:15 -0700

What's with your obsession with Blake 7?

Daniel

Lisa — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:26:05 -0700

Supposedly he doesn't really come up again until Caprica.

The final 5 had messengers too

brad — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:37:34 -0700

The final 5 saw head people 2,000 years ago. Those were not Daniel.

My understanding is that Daniel was just a way to explain the numbering gap, and does not show up again, but we’ll see.

What?

Daniel7Baltar7Kara — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:13:15 -0700

Does that even mean anything?

That is just not possible.

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:15:03 -0700

That is just not possible. Much like Blake's 7 the politics involved are on much too high a scale to do this. “A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.” In much the same way Ron Moore wrote the script and followed his Buddhist beliefs.

Cylon God

Daniel7Baltar7Kara — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:32:00 -0700

There is no Cylon God. It is Daniel. The reason the Cylons believe he is god is because he is now inside their tech, so he has sort or become a part of all Cylons. God is the only way to express what he is, even though he really isn't a God. Kara and Baltar will both end up being Cylons, or the first memory transfer humans. This is why they experience virtual people. The virtual people are actually Daniel communicating with Baltar and Kara and working to save the human race, because Daniel wants to please Ellen. Or at least that is the only way I can see they reconcile the Virtual people and god without actually having an omniscient presence.

Saturn Award Nominations

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:26:00 -0700

Battlestar Galactica has been nominated 4 times for the 35th Saturn Awards.

Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Best Actor in Television: EDWARD JAMES OLMOS
Best Actress in Television: MARY MCDONNELL
Best Supporting Actress in Television: KATEE SACKHOFF

Golly. So has Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Best Network Television Series: TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES
Best Actress in Television: LENA HEADEY
Best Supporting Actor in Television: THOMAS DEKKER
Best Supporting Actress in Television: SUMMER GLAU

Personally, I'm enjoying Terminator more. It suffered equally from the writers strike, and its story is more coherent and the characters are more engaging. It's just my kneejerk view but I've found the acting has greater range than BSG's scream in your face on trick pony wall sliding.

Great Chariot

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:11:12 -0700

Different people watch different things for different reasons. You take what works and filter the rest out. My comment is no different to what Brad said at the top even if it is a little more sharply put. Since the show went off the rails I've been enjoying Brad's analysis and the conversation more. I'm just riding it out to see what the end is. It's just a vehicle. There will be other shows. Life goes on.

Ok

JrzRob — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:11:24 -0700

Ok, your OPINION is asinine. How exactly does a person watch a show while they hate virtually all the characters that matter, and hate many of the storylines?

Oh wait, it's not all bad though, that scene where Adama demands the gun as he's on his way to try getting Saul to shoot him, the way that extra handed it over was just simply award winning stuff! The drama as he reached out his hand, and offered it to Adama sent chills down my spine. It was the best scene since the pilot... You know the scene, where that mother of the infant the Six killed was talking to that person, well that person was robbed of an Emmy.

It's not all bad... Just the major characters and the major story plots.

I agree w/John

Duell — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:14:53 -0700

I'm riding it out at this point. I'll settle for righteous and rightful ends to the characters' journeys--I've been desperately hoping for interesting, show-not-tell answers to the Big Questions, but I fear those will be rushed, slipshod, and unsatisfactory.
Hopes for the characters:

Roslin and Adama die ramming Galactica into something big and shiny.
Starbuck dies in some way that points the Fleet forward to some final destination.
Lee becomes President. I'm surprised to see such dismissal of that particular storyline--I've loved Lee's progression more than any other character's, and I'm glad at the end to find him as my second-favorite character (second to Tyrol, who's been the show's best ever since he crashed on Kobol.)
Baltar...I suppose takes on a role as liaison between the races, and Hera's guardianship, after--
Helo and Athena die getting their girl back.
So does Boomer, after a last scene perhaps with--
Tyrol, who survives and hopefully gets the happy life he deserves as much as anyone.
The Tighs--will die. Saul probably goes down with Galactica, Ellen trying to take down Cavil.
Anders: I'm with Brad, he'll die piloting Galactica to its glorious end.
Cavil: I hope the Centurions get him.
Caprica: God knows. It's pretty clear she won't end up with Baltar, so perhaps she dies inciting some Centurions.

Fasion

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:16:56 -0700

Great FX and a stellar cast is definately 1970's disaster movie territory.

The phrase "It's so crazy it's gotta work" and Doug McClure are back in fashion.

Looking forward to Daybreak AKA Journey to the Centre of the Earthquake prone and Meteorite peppered Colony Unstoppable Lava Zone.

Thoughts on the end of it all

John — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:17:22 -0700

Love the show and I have invested a lot of time in watching it ( I watch very little tv as a rule ). That being said I have to say that although this is a morality play about a great deal of issues, they have all been done before. What makes BSG the show it is imo is writing, action and characters. Taking that morality play and placing it in a backdrop of BSG is what makes this unique in sci fi television. Of course the sci fi element makes it awesome for a geek like me.

As we all look back to 2003 (holy crap!) and take in the journey I can honestly say that if I was to see S4 only I would rate this a cheap space opera with a great cast. S1 and S2 are the pinnacle and then they lost their way. The too numerous to mention plot lines and subplots, minor characters, shipping bullshit, retconning etc have made the end a trainwreck. I really do see how the writers were fumbling to find a way to stretch S4 to March/09 once they found out they were given the stamp to finish it.

So, I love it and I just want it to end. I want to know what happens and care less about how that happens.

Nice post.

Alvin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:11:47 -0700

I just wanted to say that this was a great post, and mirrors my feelings to a great degree, especially the first half with regards to the problems with season 4.5 and what you would have done differently. Thanks for putting it down more articulately than I could have.

Endings for the characters

brad — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:16:03 -0700

We’ve had lots of debate about the big stuff coming in the ending, such as whether they come to a new planet, and whether it’s real Earth in the future or in the past. While I’ve written plenty on that, and will write more later, today let’s consider the endings that must come for the characters. They don’t have a lot of time to do it all in.

The general ending was painted out by the first Hybrid like this:

At last, they’ve come for me. I feel their lives, their destinies spilling out before me. The denial of the one true path, played out on a world not their own, will end soon enough. Soon there will be four, glorious in awakening, struggling with the knowledge of their true selves. The pain of revelation bringing new clarity and in the midst of confusion, he will find her. Enemies brought together by impossible longing. Enemies now joined as one. The way forward at once unthinkable, yet inevitable. And the fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering. I can see them all. The seven, now six, self-described machines who believe themselves without sin. But in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching agony of the one splintering into many. And then, they will join at the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning.

Baltar

The one I’m most concerned for is Baltar. Baltar was the star of the show in the first two seasons, certainly if combined with head six. But he’s really faded in season 4. There have been episodes where he has not even appeared, and where he has, it’s been as this insincere cult leader half unsure if his religious conversion is fake.

Baltar begins terrified of the others finding out he let Six into the network. But you can’t really blame him for that, who would suspect that she was a Cylon? His real sins come in the coverup and the way he lets head six manipulate him. As he falls down, it always seemed that at some point he would get a chance at redemption. Sure, Roslin forgave him for the thing that wasn’t truly his fault. So now, in the ending, he should find real redemption or alternately death. Death would not be that satisfying at this point. The guns he collected 2 weeks ago make it look like a violent confrontation is coming. But I still want a proper ending for Baltar, because of the older Season 1-2 Baltar.

Laura

She’s been dying for 2 seasons. No shortage of coverage for her fate. Instead it will be part of one of the remaining big reveals “the truth of the opera house.”

Sam and Galactica

I now think Sam’s fate is tied not to Kara or the Five, but to Galactica. Hera projected a scene of her playing with models in the CIC, crashing Galactica into a few base ships. But who will be at the helm? I suspect Sam, not Adama. Adama has said goodbye to the ship, is ready to give it a sendoff, using it as a weapon. All this Cylon organic goop plot has to end somewhere, and this is where, I suspect.

Bill

Bill’s the most admirable human on the show (in spite of his mutinies, insurrections and more) and while he might well survive, I think his story is pretty much already over when he leaves Galactica. Somebody else will lead the fleet by the end of the show, even if Bill’s still alive.

Lee

Frankly, I don’t care much about Lee now. He’s never made sense in this political role. Even before, he just wasn’t a character I cared about the fate of. Too pompous in his way.

Starbuck

So her finale is another of the big finales — the revelation of her destiny. The sides all come together joined on the wings of an angel. She’s the new leader, perhaps. But how does her personal story end? Her husband dies, if I am right. I am not thrilled if that means she ends up with Lee. I hope to see more to her story than just the story of her destiny. “I’ve had it up to here with destiny,” as Bill says. Making your own destiny is more interesting.

Head Six

Head Six is, in a way, one of the most interesting characters. Sexy, smart, manipulative, and extremely mysterious. You had me at those xylophone notes. Is she just a mouthpiece for the one true god, or does she have her own mind? Or will she be the personification of the one true god, if the OTG actually enters the story as a speaking character?

Caprica Six

She’s become a plot device of late, her baby created and killed at writer’s whims. She is in the Opera House, so she plays a role, but about her, I don’t care a lot.

Boomer & Athena

Boomer also used to be interesting. She’s also been a plot device, until she cried giving over Hera. So expect both redemption and death for her. As for Athena, I never saw her as more than a different way to get Grace Park on screen. Her journey took place in Season 1-2 and has been uninteresting for some time. As mother of Hera, expect a plot finale for her, if not a personal one.

Saul

I think Saul is everybody’s favourite character now. He’s the real marriage of human and Cylon. If he gets his memory back, I hope he stays the same, with memories of his Cylon days but fully devoted to humanity, much more so than Athena. But Saul also said that the five are responsible for the genocide, and have to pay. That doesn’t bode well. Though I think it bodes less well for…

Ellen

Aside from Sam, I suspect Ellen might be the other of the five to pay the price for how their efforts turned out. She hungers for redemption that will only come in the pain of terrible suffering, we’re told. But something else in me wonders if it isn’t death she’s due for. A lot of her millions of children will die in the battle that’s coming.

Galen

I expected Galen to be a leader of the reconciliation that’s coming between all Cylons and the humans. Yes, the Simons and Dorals at least will join with the Rebels, or so the first Hybrid predicted. Don’t know about the Cavils. While his strange willingness to leave the fleet still bothers me, he’s the member of the F5 that you can identify with. Boomer may betray Cavil for him before she dies.

Helo

Another character who I’ve ceased to care a lot about. His role will be father of Hera.

Tory

I don’t care. Probably death.

Other Cylons

Has Leoben just left the radar screen after deciding he was wrong about Starbuck? Cavil appears headed for death, but if they can pull a redemption for him it would be impressive. They now have no character more in need of it.

Characters

I have to say I don’t think the fourth season, as much as people say it’s been about character, has done well by the characters. I care about many of them much less than I did before. The new Baltar, the new Lee, bleh. The 5 who were revealed as Cylons became less interesting as characters when we learned their memories were all faked. Only Sam became more interesting because he has his real memories and has become a pathetic figure with his shooting.

But who knows, in 3 hours we might see some more to impress us. We have to get all these character stories, and resolve the big questions of the OTG, Starbuck, Galactica, Hera & the Opera House, the head characters and the fate of humanity at the promised land (possibly including real Earth.)

Other notes:

That jovian planet that Boomer passed mid-way looked a lot like Jupiter to many people, and in fact Orion is in the background (but it’s been everywhere.) For the true geek, however, the gas giant is bigger than Orion, filling 30 degrees of sky. Jupiter’s only that big when much closer to it than any of its spherical, cratered moons. I think the graphics dept. just wanted to paint a pretty picture.
In addition, the fleet also had Earth stars behind it, which means that several jumps later (Hera is undrugged and uncrated) they should not be present. And it’s 12 more jumps to the Colony from there. In reality, an interstellar course would have zero probability of getting close to a star system, let alone a planet. Space is really, really, really empty.
For some reason the Colony which is a movable ship, is on a frozen sea under a purple sky on some planet. Not sure why. There are two other Cylon base ship type structures behind the mountains too. This may be the Cylon homeworld.