BattleStar Galactica:Season 3.5--3/25/07--Arc 20 (Season Conclusion)

[The Grumpy Celt]

Let's call him Bender from now on.

I donna know. For one thing, Tigh has not stolen anything. For another, that would make Admiral Adama Fry. And make President Roslyn into Leela. And Cottle into Zoidberg. And the Battlestar would be the Planet Express Ship. And Gaeta would be Hermes. And Baltar Professor Farnsworth. And Lee would be the Professor's annoying clone-kid. And Head Six would be Mom...

Heh.

Anyway, I'm gonna rock back on my heels are reserve judgments on many things until next year. Until then, I.m not convinced of anything. Except I like that song.

 

[sckeener]

If the 4 revealed are Cylons and they are unique, I wonder why they don't remember and what woke them up.

What if they volunteered to have their minds wiped until the triggering event happened, one of them dying. Starbuck returning could be that triggering event.

Still I find it a scary thought to be unique and not remembering who or what I am. They had no guarantees that they would not be discovered during their self induced amnesia.

 

[RaZZer99]

Abigail Nussbaum comes close to my feeling on this.

This season feels like it is descending into the same level as 24 and Lost. Where the show comes close to surrealism and fans know it just isn't supposed to make sense anymore. Worldbuilding is pratically a mess of incoherence half-completed ideas. I mean, I don't know what cylons are anymore. My affection for this series has been slowly waning this entire season. Like Abigail, this episode broke me as well.

I read Abigail's article and it came off as just whining about not understanding the full implications of Crossroads. Well duh, its a cliffhanger. You aren't suppose to understand the greater implications and meanings yet. It is when the story doesn't bother to explain its twists in a timely and logical manner that it fails in this regard. There have been plenty of hints along the way that BSG is more than just colonials and the 7 skinjobs. The final five have always been presented as something special, and until they explain what is so special about them, then I don't see how you can make the judgement that the world they created is inconsistent. There are greater powers at work than just humans and robots which has been hinted and shown since season 1.

I think that listening to podcasts and following production notes while also watching a show has a tendency to kill some of the magic. People expect the writers to have every detail of the show worked out and plotted in advanced from start to finish, but just isn't how the writing process works, especially in a TV medium where there are a whole host of factors the writers can not control (actor availability, budget, screen time, getting cancelled or renewed, etc.)

I can only speak of Lost, but BSG doesn't share that's show's problems which is mainly the ever so slow pace of the show. Lost is a show that supposedly has interesting central mystery that is far too little to spread across 5 full seasons. So the producers in an effort to make the story last throw far too many questions out than they answer. If Lost was plotted more like BSG, then the Oceanic survivors would have found, opened, and explore the hatch plus discovered why the plane crashed by the end of season 1 (and then Jack would have surrendered on their behalf to the Others and accept their new robotic overloads by the end of the season 2 )

 

[rgard]

I think it's neither. It was implied in one interview that the upcoming Pegasus series or Caprica series might deal with the last hidden cylon.

Hi, I missed references to the Pegasus and Caprica series...do you have any links for these?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Sir Brennen]

Hi, I missed references to the Pegasus and Caprica series...do you have any links for these?

The reference to Pegasus is going to be via flashbacks in a two hour movie slated for this fall before the regular season begins next January. It is suppose to have some bearing on the upcoming season's events.

The spin-off series Caprica is all but dead

Linky

 

[rgard]

The reference to Pegasus is going to be via flashbacks in a two hour movie slated for this fall before the regular season begins next January. It is suppose to have some bearing on the upcoming season's events.

The spin-off series Caprica is all but dead

Linky

Thanks Sir Brennen!

 

[Mallus]

Abigail Nussbaum comes close to my feeling on this.

Is the name of her site ("Asking the Wrong Questions") supposed to be, you know, ironical? Here's a few observations about her observations...

1) I was troubled by her notion that fictional creations, and the creative process itself, should be treated as sacrosanct. Personally, I think Dirk Benedict popping up and claiming to be God is brilliant (though I am glad Moore was talked out of it). At the very least it demonstrates a healthy sort of playfulness and attitude toward the work. Unless of course you're fond of the portentous, overdetermined, and, you know, dull.

And creative types begin things without knowing the meaning or the ending all the time. She knows this, right?

2) Why does the Dylan song bother her so much? What makes that different from names like "William Adama" or "Laura Roslin", or the natty suit and tie Lee wore to court, or any of other places where the details of the shows universe overlap the our own?

Discussing why the song provoked such a different response would have been interesting. Claiming the song somehow damages the integrity of the shows invented universe makes her sound like a twit.

3) Why does the inanity of Cylon biology bother her so much? This is a show where humans can build FTL drives(!) small enough to fit into minivans, which indulges in spacebattle porn whenever they can afford to, and sports a God-obsessed sex-bomb robot who may be an angel of God. It's not exactly the kind of science fiction that cares about the science. You know, at all.

And Sharon sticking fiber-optic cable in her arm was a visual metaphor pointing to the ambivalence --and special anxiety-- of identity in the BSG universe, not scientific extrapolation or worldbuilding. It can also be seen as just another example of the portrayal of the Cylons as alien in the middle of showing the audience that they're just like us.

4) What are Cylons? They're people. And probably vice-versa. It's a time-honored SF trope, the Other that isn't really Other after all. Why get hung up the molecular biology of Cylon blood (in a show not about science) when the narrative function of the Cylon race (in a show that often operates as several different flavors of allegory) is staring you right in the face?

5) Her distinction between naturalist/fantastic fiction is awful.

6) Her definition of surrealism is worse. If she's going to dismiss it, at least describe its aims properly.

7) Which is moot anyway, since BSG isn't surreal, unless you're using surreal to mean something it doesn't. She had the right idea earlier when she used the term 'metafictional gag', which would be fair, though she'd still need to explain how the song is categorically different from the other 'real world' details.

8) She "imagines that the process (of making Surrealist stuff) must be largely intuitive". You don't say... News flash, a lot of the creative process is intuitive. Really, am I missing her irony?

Hey, I'm starting to realize what that blogger was up to... this was fun...

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I agree with Mallus, but I feel a need to babble…

Most of what passes for science fiction is little more than science fantasy, and that includes Star wars, Star trek and BSG. A key difference between BSG and Star Trek is that BSG does away with the technobabble, by and large. They get down to why they are there – telling a story of people in some extraordinary situations – and don’t fall into a traps of needing to create some incomprehensible exposition to justify calling it science fiction.

Personally, I think Dirk Benedict popping up and claiming to be God is brilliant…

I also think have Dirk Benedict pop up could be good, but I had wanted an episode where he squared off with Katie Sackhoff/Starbuck in the same way their was an episode where Richard Hatch squared off with Jamie Bamber/Apollo. Given recent developments, that may not be possible.

And the possibility of a scene between Hatch and Benedict encountering each other while playing these new characters was enough to make my toes curl.

2) Why does the Dylan song bother her so much?

I find the song strangely apropos for the show, but then I liked it anyway.

4) What are Cylons? They're people

I also though the scene in the coffee shop, in the episode Downloaded was perfect. They Cylons go to a great deal to remove human, talk about how they are not humans and are better than humans but then promptly start frequenting the local (ahem) Starbucks. For all the fuss and bother and denials on both sides, they Pinocchio trying hard to be a real boy.

The spin-off series Caprica is all but dead

Pity about the Caprica series. Perhaps it did not have enough razalmahtazal for the channel.

If the 4 revealed are Cylons and they are unique, I wonder why they don't remember and what woke them up.

I remain skeptical about that… Moore said Kara was dead and now she’s back. Both can probably accurately say they never lied, per ce, but they were certainly deceptive. So I am reserving judgment on the nature of the return of Starbuck and the others being Cylons. For one thing, people have known Tigh has been around for years and years.

Though if Tigh is indeed a Cylon, I am betting the Battlestar Potempkin that William Adama is the last of the Final Five.

 

[TanisFrey]

If Tye is a Cyclon is explains Lucy Lawless character statment in the Temple od Five when she saw the faces of the finel five cyclons and said "I sooo sorry." Too bad that the other cyclons boxed her before she could tell them.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

If Tye is a Cyclon is explains Lucy Lawless character statment in the Temple od Five when she saw the faces of the finel five cyclons and said "I sooo sorry." Too bad that the other cyclons boxed her before she could tell them.

I think she was actually apologizing to Anders, since Anders is the one the she directly did harm to on Old Caprica. She indirectly did harm to Tigh, and I can't remember her having much interaction at all Tigh.