One issue that seems to me was an underlying problem throughout the series was the question of how many Cylons there were. Especially in the beginning, it seemed that there might be tens of thousands of humanoid cylons and perhaps millions of centurions, raiders, etc. By the end, it seemed as it there was hardly more than a handful of 2368s and the 145s and their centurions were wiped out by the destruction of the Colony. Somehow it seems like there should have been a lot more of them.
(It’s sort of the opposite problem of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where vampires were so common you’d think that there wouldn’t have been enough humans to feed them all.)
Another thing with the finale – I liked the Balter-Caprica Six resolution, but I would have liked some information on how the Tigh-Caprica Six relationship was resolved. I wouldn’t like to think that they just went cold turkey and were no longer important to each other.
There were. Most of Cylondom was engaged full-time in repopulating the Twelve Colony planets. The group that was chasing the humans was just a small task force, apparently of volunteers with their own agendas. The 145’s on the task force were specifically the human-haters, while the 2368’s were the religious zealots. But most of each model had more important matters to attend to.
The destruction of the Resurrection Hub left the Twelve Colony Cylons mortal and with no idea what to do about it. Perhaps Cavil told them what was happening, perhaps not, but I don’t think a “Meanwhile, back on Caprica” scene showing them panicking would have added much.
They weren’t, really. Tigh was just using her as an Ellen-substitute, Caprica was more interested in the wonder of motherhood, and at the end they both had their real loves to live with.
That seems harsh, particularly insofar as it seems very dismissive of the possibility that Tigh did actually fall in love with Caprica, which the writers certainly did their best to convey. I don’t disagree with you that there was a good deal of emotional transference on some level (the writers certainly seem to have intended that as well), but to write the entire thing off like that is going a little too far, IMHO.
There were apparently deleted scenes a few episodes back, covering the aftermath of Caprica and Saul, with Caprica moving out of Saul’s quarters. All we’re left with of that in the aired version is Baltar’s otherwise-inexplicable offer to help her out if she needs someplace to stay.
I’m thinking there may be lots of deleted scenes that should clear some confusing stuff up, actually.
There’s no time loop - although I agree that closeness to the singularity throwing Galactica to early Earth would have made the genetic similarity make more sense. But if it time travelled, the rest of the fleet couldn’t have jumped to it’s coordinates.
Kara A’s destroyed ship was transported to Earth, we see the wreckage and body. Kara C is some kind of cleaned up copy of her and her ship. Kara B is just Kara A;s remains transported to Earth. There’s only 2 Kara+ships, not 3.
Adama I wasn’t pleased with. I don’t see why he would want to live in exile. Same thing for Tyrol. I’m also experiencing some dissonance with the whole Tyrol killing Tory thing. Before that, it seemed like the humans and Cavil’s cylons had come to a truce and stopped the cycle of violence. But then Tyrol screwed it up! But that led to them finding new Earth, a kind of reward.
Roslin was fine, other than that it kind of messes with the ‘dying leader won’t make it to Earth’ prophecy, but I guess Galactica itself could be considered the ‘dying leader’.
Apollo, Kara, Helo, Athena, Saul and Ellen were all great. Hera was an interesting choice as was Anders. They both had resolutions I didn’t expect and that were not mind blowing but were clever.
Baltar and Six were great. Thought the return to farming was a nice touch for Baltar as well as his redemption and the way the Opera House vision worked out.
Reason within the BSG universe or reason in terms of the plot? Within the universe, they were doing experiments with humans because they were unable to reproduce naturally. That they happened to have taken one of Kara’s ovaries was just a convenient truth when Leoben took her hostage to use in his ploy. In plot terms, in played into both the Cylon reproduction problems and also the Kara Leoben stuff.
My take on this was that God believes in free will and only meddles enough to give the BSGers a second chance. I think the reason the fleet didn’t make it to new Earth earlier is because it was necessary for Cavil’s cylons to be destroyed first.
Her main goal seemed to be to increase his power and influence. But I think it’s clear at the end that how she presented herself and her various temptations were not to be taken at face value. After all she tells Gaius that his initial choice of leaving BSG with his harem is the correct one, but then he decides to stay with BSG and that leads into the opera house vision which turns out to be the correct one. It seems it was important for him to be able to make certain choices for himself regardless of what she was telling him. It did seem also at other points in the series that some of her suggestions were tests, to see what Baltar was willing and unwilling to do.
I think “harbinger of death” and “lead to it’s end” were meant to seem to be related for plot tension but actually refer to two different things in the end. Being “death” = the series of battles that follow Kara’s reappearance (hub battle, mutiny, colony battle), but “end” equals final destination of humans.
Earth is basically a paradise. A lot of our technology is basically compensation for over population. If you had a whole planet to settle where you wanted, I think you’d quickly “go native” and not bother with a lot of things previously thought essential.
The post resurrection final five bodies aren’t necessarily the same biologically as their original bodies. Or their Cavil bodies. The general evidence seems to show that regular humanoid cylons don’t age, but the final five in their most recent bodies do age. It would seem that in particular, Ellen and Tigh were their current age when they died on old Earth, were made younger when Cavil introduced them into the fleet, and then aged appropriately. Then Ellen was killed and resurrected again, at what seems to be her current age. I don’t think they put a lot of thought into this, but instead just did whatever was plot and actor’s-actual-age convenient.
She’s the most recent common matrilineal ancestor of all humans. That means that 1) there can still be a common ancestor to all humans that’s less recent (at least in the real mitochondrial eve) and 2) there can still be a common ancestor for some humans. After all, your mom is a common ancestor for both you and your siblings. Tyrol could still be an ancestor for some group of humans.
Tying her with mitochondrial eve was a cool idea. It implies that her specialness was in her mitochondrial DNA, which typically is only passed on through the mother. The real ME though is just a genetic concept - though there was a real ME, it is very doubtful that we will find the actual remains or if we did identify them. Moore seems to have combined the idea of ME with that of Lucy, a famous Australopithecus skeleton that got a lot of media buzz.
I don’t think God had anything to do with the 15 billion people dying. I think God in BSG believes in free will, and only meddles enough to give everyone a second chance when all else fails.
I think Moore was combining ME and Lucy for plot convenience at the expense of science.
I think Hera’s unusual birth circumstances as a hybrid make it possible that her mitochondrial inheritance came from both parents as a special circumstance and therefore Athena is not a candidate for ME.
Kara coming back was followed by a cylon civil war, a battle at the resurrection hub, a mutiny on the BSG, and the destruction of the entire huge Cylon colony with half of all the cylon humanoid models and the breaking of the BSG. I think that’s a lot of death and destruction, personally.
I beg to differ. Unless both eyes have the same prescription, you need to wear your glasses when using binoculars.
That, and seeing as how I’ve seen Mary McDonnell wearing glasses in interviews, I’m going to imagine that she actually knows what its like to wear glasses.
Oh, I think he would have for as long as it took to actually construct it. Once he was back to full-unkillability, he would have been back. And he would have been unstoppable.
I absolutely hated the ending and this come from a guy that recently left the closet: I finally confessed that I love Voyager.
I loved the idea of this series. Humanity on the run, no technobabble, every episode bargaining the future of the human race, etc.
And then it got mystical. Instead of “reversing the polarity of the washing machine” they started having visions and listening to Bob Dylan. I prefer technobabble, at least it’s consistent.
I continued watching the series and occasionally there were great episodes when they got back to the basics: hot chicks, explosions and hot chicks (in that order).
But the finale was disappointing:
Why are they even rescuing the girl? If anything happens to Galactica, humanity is defenseless or, worst, is defended solely by a basestar.
So the cylons wiped out most of humanity because God politely ordered them to and then, they just want to bargain?
Kara Thrace got fat.
Renouncing technology? Ha! Last year I went by horse to the mountains (4000 meters) and a storm caught up with us. I almost had to sleep in a barn and I tell you I wasn´t very happy about it. Luckily, the rain stopped and I slept in a nice bed. No medicine, no commodities and no porno: death is a better alternative.
It’s not that - I’m glad they killed off Cavil and destroyed the colony, and got to Earth. I like the ending. I just think there’s some dissonance with regards to the “breaking the cycle” thing. Previously, the humans and the rebel cylons were on the brink of destruction due to mistrust, but Adama brokered cooperation and the reward was finding Earth1. This time, Balter was brokering cooperation to end the cycle of violence but Tyrol screwed it up and everything went to frak. But they still got the reward of Earth2, which was much better than Earth1. Maybe the lesson here is that Cavil was unredeemable. After all, if not for the need to kill off Cavil, the fleet could have been led by the angels to Earth2 in the first place.
Galactica was already being dismantled; it was one it’s last legs. Hera was obviously special physiologically, and beyond that there were various prophecies/visions about her. It was a volunteer mission but so many volunteered for basically religious reasons. And hey it worked.
No that was Cavil’s doing led by his particular psychological problems.
Galactica was falling apart anyway. Rather than strip it for parts, take it on a suicide run. Maybe not the best strategic choice on the surface, but I felt that they positioned it well as an emotional one. After all this time what is the point of running when people keep dying and the fleet is falling into an unsustainable state. Make the all or nothing bet, and if you die trying at least you tried.
I think they also explained how free will played into it. “God” did not order them to destroy the colonies (but on the other hand set events in motion that ensured that any survivors could repeat the cycle, hopefully wiser. Also, in terms of negotiating…Cavill was not in exactly an advantageous position…
Yeah, but I can see how it played into the theme/point they wanted to make. I like the idea that the tech was not sustainable…move on an establish a sustainable if uncomfortable condition. I’m sure Saul kept some fermenting yeast. They could have addressed some aspects of this better, though.
3,5: Are you watching a 4:3 aspect ratio stretched to 16:9?
Head Leoben (in “Maelstrom”) is open for debate. Near the very end just before her Viper imploded there was a camera shot that clearly showed his raider from a third person POV, not just Kara’s Viper cockpit, which was also framed in the shot.
He also seemed to be aware of how those events unfolded when he was with her when she found her crashed Viper on Earth 1.
I beg to rediffer. I’ve had different prescriptions for each eye for 30+ years, astigmatism, and shingle damage to one eye. Besides not being able to get the correct focal length with glasses, I have enjoyed wonderfully clear vision with any binoculars only without glasses.
[/Hi,Jack]
mEve is by definition the most recent common female ancestor. As long as Athena didn’t have any other girls that went on to have living ancestors through the female line then Hera would still be mEve. And in any case, mEve is a designation that changes depending on who’s alive now. Athena could have been mEve right up until some random old lady died yesterday, at which point Hera would be mEve.
