So, where were we when last we met? Oh yes, gunfight in the CIC while multiple nukes streaked toward the Cylon base and the Galactica. Let’s go from there.
BOOM! Multiple nuclear impacts on the Cylon base and it’s chaos. Cavil decides that he’s not going to be taken alive and eats a bullet. With the rest of the bad Cylons disposed of and the Cylon base exploding all around them, Adama feels now is a good time to pull out of the base and get out of there. Due to the damage to the ship from the explosion, Starbuck is the only one near the FTL. When asked where to jump to, Adama tells her to jump anywhere that isn’t where they are.
She is then struck by a notion. Earlier in the season, she had assigned numbers to the notes of the Cylon battle song, aka “All Along the Watchtower”. She then types those numbers into the FTL and hits enter. The Galactica then jumps to those coordinates and all is not well. It looks like that place will become their home, since the Galactica starts to buck and all but breaks apart. We are then treated with probably the best shot in the history of the show.
We pan from the Galactica to a surface that looks distinctly like the Moon and suddenly see, as plain as day, Earth. Or, in this case, our version of Earth. Holy shit, they found Earth!!!! Wait a minute; I thought Earth was a barren, post-apocalyptic wasteland. Well, you see, it seems as if the Earth they originally found was their original home planet, while this Earth is much like it, yet completely different. Thoroughly confused yet? Good.
Anyway, Adama sends a Raptor to the rendezvous point that “Admiral” Hoshi led the Colonial fleet and brought them back to this new and improved Earth, now free of nuclear waste. So, they land and survey the territory. Looks as if the people are extremely primitive, traveling in packs by foot with spears. Anyway, this is now home. And here endth the show. Wait, what do you mean there’s more? Oh crap, we still have 20 minutes left.
To wrap things up, the Centurions are cut loose to go wherever they want while Adama slaves the whole fleet to the Galactica and has Sam fly it all into the Sun. You see, Lee decides that technology is bad and they should live in the wide-open expanse of the land, and not be encumbered by massive cities and whatnot. They plan to move people to all corners of the Earth and populate the planet and breed prejudice against machines.
We catch up on some of the survivors. Tyrol is going to go to a cold, lonely island up north so he can be alone with himself. Helo (oh my God, he’s alive!) and Athena are walking (him with a cane) with Hera. Six and Baltar decide to go start a farm together.
We go down to the plains and see Adama and Roslin watching the wild life. Roslin looks like she’s going to die at any minute. I think Adama notices this too since he asks if she would like a closer look. He carries her into the Raptor and says goodbye to both Lee and Starbuck.
Starbuck then tells Lee that she will be leaving shortly too. He goes into some long rant about something or other and turns around and she’s disappeared (probably couldn’t take is babbling anymore). So, I’m still trying to figure out what she actually was. There are just too many possibilities. Of course, Ronald Moore said in an interview that he wasn’t sure either. I’m not sure if I should be pissed off about that or not.
In the Raptor, as they are flying over the wildlife, Roslin silently passes away. Adama pretty much loses it and slips his wedding ring onto her hand. At this point, myself and Seamus (some 300 miles away) both realize our respective living rooms are a tad dusty. Anyway, Adama finds a place to land and goes about to build the perfect log cabin that they had talked about on New Caprica.
We then close in on little Hera and the ground she is walking on. Then, we flash-forward 150,000 years and see writer/executive producer Ronald Moore reading a newspaper and here the news the a body of a girl was found in Africa and is about 150,000 years old, the oldest body ever found. Then the apparitions of Baltar and Six start to talk about how far mankind has come but yet look to be on the same path as previously (it’s all happened before, it’ll all happen again). They feel that man can still save itself, as they haven’t gone down the road yet. We close in on a TV screen in a store window that shows us all the great things being done with robots while we hear a more modern version of “All Along the Watchtower”. We then see them both walking together and blending into the crowd of people walking the streets. Fade to black.
I know that there are so many people who want to beat the crap out of this ending. In fact, if they had ended it with when they first landed on Earth and we found out it was our Earth, just thousands of years in the past; I would have been cool with that. The problem is the tacked on ending felt, well, tacked on.
It seemed like an unnecessary finish and wanted to tie the whole thing up in a neat little package. The best part of this show was the fact that it flew off in all directions and kept you guessing. The minute they saw Earth, I knew all was well and the journey had been about something. They had not only found home, but their second chance. A way to save humanity and not fall into the same trappings that destroyed them in the first place.
The very end with Baltar and Six was overkill as they shoved religion down our throats (but seriously, the show had religious overtones throughout). That said, I liked the fact that we saw just how mankind had evolved and that, while on the same road as others, we still have our freewill in all this. That, combined with a little luck, will mean we won’t befall the same fate as our “ancestors”.
One of the best moments in the whole series was when they found Earth. Moore suckered us all at the end of last season by giving us the barren wasteland of Earth. Shock and awe was pretty much my reaction. It all makes sense now. They were searching for their Earth and, in the end, found a new version of it. Sweet wrap-up to the series.
Seamus, while less than enthralled, enjoyed the finale. He thought the space battle was the best in the series. I will debate that it finishes second to the battle of Galactica and Pegasus against the Basestars above New Caprica in “Crossroads”. He thought the ending was crap and didn’t need to be there. Even invoked the finale of Star Trek Voyager to make his argument. The Duchess, on the other hand, felt the final moments were too preachy. Seriously, I can’t debate her on that.
Here’s the thing, the finale did what the show always did. He pushed the envelope, stayed true to itself, and caused a lot of people to start talking. That’s what the show was always about to me, and that’s why it was great. I think my major gripe was the fact that the show had to end and with such a thin plot point. You want to have a final Cylon/human showdown, I’m all for it, but it shouldn’t be over one little girl. So, I give it 4 out of 5 stars, and eagerly await Caprica and the TV movie The Plan.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Battlestar Galactica Finale Review - Part 1
Man, it’s been a long time, but I needed to find something to write about. When the series finale of one of the best sci-fi shows ever gets aired, that’s a recipe for an entry. For those of you who have been living in a cave with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears for the past few weeks, the finale of Battlestar Galactica aired last Friday and I’m going to run it down for you.
To start off, I wanted to see three things. I wanted to get an explanation as to why Baltar sees Six in his head, what the hell is up with Starbuck, and I wanted to see Daniel get unboxed by the Cylons and have it turn out to be Dirk Benedict. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
So the show starts up where we left off, people picking sides on who is going to risk life and limb to rescue a little girl from a near impenetrable Cylon fortress. No offense, but are you seriously going to risk humanity for one Cylon/human hybrid? I guess the answer is yes since Adama promotes Hoshi to Admiral (seriously, Hoshi?!?!) and takes off. The plan is simple. Jump to the one spot that jumping is allowed and open fire. In order to survive past five minutes, Sam is going to use some weird Cylon trick to stop the guns from firing by confusing the hybrids or something. I was a little lost at that point.
So, the Galactica jumps in and all hell breaks loose. Point blank slugfest between the Galactica and the Cylon base. Raptors launch to the other side of the base to land and penetrate the base. After what seems like forever, Sam uses his mumbo-jumbo to silence the Cylon guns. Galactica launches its fighters and then rams the base, as yet another entry into the base to rescue Hera. This kid better shit gold or something for all the trouble they are going to.
Inside the Cylon base (I need a nickname for this thing, like Fortress Toaster or something), Boomer has finally snapped and has absconded with Hera, as a way to make up for kidnapping her, cracking her mom upside the head, banging her dad, nearly crippling Galactica, and handing Hera over for experimentation. Yeah, all is forgiven. Anyway, she finds the rescue team, hands the kid over, we get a cool flashback to Boomer’s early days as a pilot, and Athena riddles her with bullets.
Finally, the Cylons have had enough and start to storm the Galactica. Now, Baltar and Six are hunkered down in one of the corridors as some line defense against this eventuality, and we get to see the good doctor waving a gun around. While sitting there, we learn that Six also sees an apparition, except it’s of Baltar. Talk about freaky.
Anyway, the rescue crew brings Hera aboard and Helo immediately gets shot in the leg. He tells his wife to let him bleed out and protect their kid. Of course, she doesn’t listen and the kid just takes off. Once they figure out that Hera is gone, they fall back letting Helo to die, on the floor of the Galactica (or so we think).
Then, it what seems like destiny (since we’ve seen the Opera House dream enough times), Baltar and Six find the kid and take her to the CIC, while Athena and Roslin chase them down. This is the point that Cavil shows up and puts the gun to Hera’s head and wants to take her back.
The Final 5 (minus Sam who is catatonic in a pool of goo) make a deal. They get Hera back and they give the Cylons the secret to resurrection. In order to do this, Chief, Saul, Ellen, and Tory all need to dip their hands in the goo that Sam is in, since all five need to put the information together. Now here’s the thing, when doing this, you get to see into the mind of the other four.
Instead of getting some Cinemax After Dark by seeing the various misdeeds of Ellen, we get to see Tory killing the Chief’s wife. Oops. He doesn’t take it lightly and decides to strangle Tory. God bless him. However, this cuts off the download of resurrection to the Cylons and they get mildly annoyed.
Cavil does his best Admiral Ackbar impression by screaming “It’s a trap” and the gun fire starts up again in the CIC. It’s around this time that we remember the Raptor that got tagged earlier. Earlier, a raptor had been flying outside the Cylon base and had armed their nukes before something crashed through the windshield and killed them all. Well, gravity took hold and the pilots hand accidently hit the launch button and the nukes went streaking toward the base.
And just for fun, I’m ending this there. Why? Because I’m tired of typing and I don’t want this to be some massive entry. So tomorrow I’ll come back and fill you in on the end of the battle and what happens next. Plus, my own analysis, with guest quotes from Seamus and the Duchess. It’s fun for the whole family. Until tomorrow.
To start off, I wanted to see three things. I wanted to get an explanation as to why Baltar sees Six in his head, what the hell is up with Starbuck, and I wanted to see Daniel get unboxed by the Cylons and have it turn out to be Dirk Benedict. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
So the show starts up where we left off, people picking sides on who is going to risk life and limb to rescue a little girl from a near impenetrable Cylon fortress. No offense, but are you seriously going to risk humanity for one Cylon/human hybrid? I guess the answer is yes since Adama promotes Hoshi to Admiral (seriously, Hoshi?!?!) and takes off. The plan is simple. Jump to the one spot that jumping is allowed and open fire. In order to survive past five minutes, Sam is going to use some weird Cylon trick to stop the guns from firing by confusing the hybrids or something. I was a little lost at that point.
So, the Galactica jumps in and all hell breaks loose. Point blank slugfest between the Galactica and the Cylon base. Raptors launch to the other side of the base to land and penetrate the base. After what seems like forever, Sam uses his mumbo-jumbo to silence the Cylon guns. Galactica launches its fighters and then rams the base, as yet another entry into the base to rescue Hera. This kid better shit gold or something for all the trouble they are going to.
Inside the Cylon base (I need a nickname for this thing, like Fortress Toaster or something), Boomer has finally snapped and has absconded with Hera, as a way to make up for kidnapping her, cracking her mom upside the head, banging her dad, nearly crippling Galactica, and handing Hera over for experimentation. Yeah, all is forgiven. Anyway, she finds the rescue team, hands the kid over, we get a cool flashback to Boomer’s early days as a pilot, and Athena riddles her with bullets.
Finally, the Cylons have had enough and start to storm the Galactica. Now, Baltar and Six are hunkered down in one of the corridors as some line defense against this eventuality, and we get to see the good doctor waving a gun around. While sitting there, we learn that Six also sees an apparition, except it’s of Baltar. Talk about freaky.
Anyway, the rescue crew brings Hera aboard and Helo immediately gets shot in the leg. He tells his wife to let him bleed out and protect their kid. Of course, she doesn’t listen and the kid just takes off. Once they figure out that Hera is gone, they fall back letting Helo to die, on the floor of the Galactica (or so we think).
Then, it what seems like destiny (since we’ve seen the Opera House dream enough times), Baltar and Six find the kid and take her to the CIC, while Athena and Roslin chase them down. This is the point that Cavil shows up and puts the gun to Hera’s head and wants to take her back.
The Final 5 (minus Sam who is catatonic in a pool of goo) make a deal. They get Hera back and they give the Cylons the secret to resurrection. In order to do this, Chief, Saul, Ellen, and Tory all need to dip their hands in the goo that Sam is in, since all five need to put the information together. Now here’s the thing, when doing this, you get to see into the mind of the other four.
Instead of getting some Cinemax After Dark by seeing the various misdeeds of Ellen, we get to see Tory killing the Chief’s wife. Oops. He doesn’t take it lightly and decides to strangle Tory. God bless him. However, this cuts off the download of resurrection to the Cylons and they get mildly annoyed.
Cavil does his best Admiral Ackbar impression by screaming “It’s a trap” and the gun fire starts up again in the CIC. It’s around this time that we remember the Raptor that got tagged earlier. Earlier, a raptor had been flying outside the Cylon base and had armed their nukes before something crashed through the windshield and killed them all. Well, gravity took hold and the pilots hand accidently hit the launch button and the nukes went streaking toward the base.
And just for fun, I’m ending this there. Why? Because I’m tired of typing and I don’t want this to be some massive entry. So tomorrow I’ll come back and fill you in on the end of the battle and what happens next. Plus, my own analysis, with guest quotes from Seamus and the Duchess. It’s fun for the whole family. Until tomorrow.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Random TV Thoughts
Here are some random TV thoughts I’ve had over the past week.
1) Does ABC’s Wednesday night line-up have a fascination with the 1970’s? I mean, you have Life on Mars on at 10, and now the gang from Lost has finally stopped hopping through time….in the 1970’s. Wouldn’t the clothes, Carter, and Watergate make us all want to pretend the 70’s never happened?
2) Speaking of ABC, I give up already!!! You’ve beaten me down with enough ads for Castle that I’m willing the check it out but only if you stop running the ads. I mean, that’s how you got me into Life on Mars (not too bad, as long as you lobotomize yourself so you forget the British version). How about you start showing me ads for Cupid, because I want to see that.
3) The Duchess was randomly flipping through the channels this weekend and she came across some The Soup rip-off called The Dish on some obscure cable channel I can’t remember. After about a second, I busted out with “Holy Crap, that’s Topanga Lawrence!” With Cory Matthews showing up in Chuck and Rider Strong popping up in an episode of Bones, it seems like the kids from Boy Meets World are finally taking the world by storm. All we need is that kid who played Minkus to pop up in an episode of NCIS and all will be right with the world.
4) Speaking of Duchess related channel surfing, she came across the show 17 Kids and Counting, about a family that doesn’t believe in birth control or naming a kid without the letter J. Anyway, one of the kids was getting married to some skirt and they said that they were “saving themselves for marriage”. You know what, I was glad. I think more kids should at least wait until a long lasting committed relationship before jumping into bed. Then they dropped the bomb.
You see, they aren’t only waiting until they get married for sex, but also to kiss. No, seriously. These two kids haven’t even kissed one another. They feel it will be more meaningful if they wait until they are married. Huh? So, I turned to the Duchess and asked her how she would have felt if I told her I didn’t want to kiss her until after we were married. Sketchy, strange, and a little off-putting would have been her thoughts (and who could blame her). I’m still flabbergasted by this. I just can’t wrap my head around it.
5) Reaper premiered this week, well ahead of when they actually announced it would premiere. It’s like the Head of Programming at the CW used to work for FOX. Anyway, at the end of the episode, when the Devil is waiting for Sam to leave his job, he’s sitting there on his Trans-Am and “You’re the Best” by Joe Esposito is blaring from the stereo.
For those of you not “in the know”, that is the song that is playing during the All-Valley Karate Tournament montage in “Karate Kid”. Also, it’s a quintessential 80’s song. I was starting to get pumped, and then I remembered the part when Daniel beat Dutch. There is no way Dutch loses to Daniel. That completely ruined the movie.
1) Does ABC’s Wednesday night line-up have a fascination with the 1970’s? I mean, you have Life on Mars on at 10, and now the gang from Lost has finally stopped hopping through time….in the 1970’s. Wouldn’t the clothes, Carter, and Watergate make us all want to pretend the 70’s never happened?
2) Speaking of ABC, I give up already!!! You’ve beaten me down with enough ads for Castle that I’m willing the check it out but only if you stop running the ads. I mean, that’s how you got me into Life on Mars (not too bad, as long as you lobotomize yourself so you forget the British version). How about you start showing me ads for Cupid, because I want to see that.
3) The Duchess was randomly flipping through the channels this weekend and she came across some The Soup rip-off called The Dish on some obscure cable channel I can’t remember. After about a second, I busted out with “Holy Crap, that’s Topanga Lawrence!” With Cory Matthews showing up in Chuck and Rider Strong popping up in an episode of Bones, it seems like the kids from Boy Meets World are finally taking the world by storm. All we need is that kid who played Minkus to pop up in an episode of NCIS and all will be right with the world.
4) Speaking of Duchess related channel surfing, she came across the show 17 Kids and Counting, about a family that doesn’t believe in birth control or naming a kid without the letter J. Anyway, one of the kids was getting married to some skirt and they said that they were “saving themselves for marriage”. You know what, I was glad. I think more kids should at least wait until a long lasting committed relationship before jumping into bed. Then they dropped the bomb.
You see, they aren’t only waiting until they get married for sex, but also to kiss. No, seriously. These two kids haven’t even kissed one another. They feel it will be more meaningful if they wait until they are married. Huh? So, I turned to the Duchess and asked her how she would have felt if I told her I didn’t want to kiss her until after we were married. Sketchy, strange, and a little off-putting would have been her thoughts (and who could blame her). I’m still flabbergasted by this. I just can’t wrap my head around it.
5) Reaper premiered this week, well ahead of when they actually announced it would premiere. It’s like the Head of Programming at the CW used to work for FOX. Anyway, at the end of the episode, when the Devil is waiting for Sam to leave his job, he’s sitting there on his Trans-Am and “You’re the Best” by Joe Esposito is blaring from the stereo.
For those of you not “in the know”, that is the song that is playing during the All-Valley Karate Tournament montage in “Karate Kid”. Also, it’s a quintessential 80’s song. I was starting to get pumped, and then I remembered the part when Daniel beat Dutch. There is no way Dutch loses to Daniel. That completely ruined the movie.
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