Thinking back, I hated the end of that episode. You went from the ultimate in hope - the Galactica & baseship aren’t going to war, they aren’t going to kill Tigh, Tyrol, & Anders, they think they know the way to Earth, Adama’s come out of his funk - and those hopes are immediately crushed. If that had been the end of the series, I doubt I’d ever be able to watch it again. It would have been an unsatisfying ending to a great series. I know they had to stick with what they had to work with, but I don’t think I’d ever watch the series again if it had ended there.
FWIW, I attended a session with Edward James Olmos at Dragon*Con last year and he never in any way suggested that “Revelations” was intended to be the series finale. IIRC, they actually had several episodes beyond that already written which they were able to film, just without getting rewrites.
They took a hiatus in shooting after filming Revelations (though I believe I saw on one of the video blogs that they also filmed the ruined beach scenes for the next episode at the same time, since they had the sets up). If the strike had gone on long enough, it’s possible they never would have finished filming the remaining episodes.
I think it would have closed the series on a far stronger, darker note, note to Hollywood, not all programs have to have “happy” endings, it’s pollyanna-ish and stupid to have a series like BSG, that has a very dark, bleak undertone and tack on a “happy ending”
It would have certainly had a more satisfying ending than that stupid “Kara is an ‘angel’ and we’re all Cylon/Human hybrids” ending that was the actual ending
that said, the actual ending wasn’t overly bad, just resolve the Kara/Head-Six/Head-Baltar thingy without resorting to the Magical Sky Fairy crap and I would have found the real ending more palatable
and as long as I’m wishing here, I wish that Baltar never got assimilated by all that god-bothering crap, he should have remained a scientist
The phrase “in the event that” indicates an intent different from what the OP seemed to me to be saying. Nevertheless, I am content to stand corrected.
Sorry. What I meant was that RDM had apparently (re-)written “Revelations” to be able to function as a series finale, in the event that the WGA strike had gone on for years and as a result, no further episodes were ever filmed or broadcast.
I believe the re-write of “Revelations” called for it to stop at the scene where the fleet enters orbit around Earth, in order for it to serve as the series finale. Therefore all of the depressing discoveries once they land would not have been part of it as a series finale. When they learned it would only be a season finale, they added the extra stuff back in.
If the series had ended with Revelations it would have felt like an abrupt ending without resolving too many open questions – what’s the back story of the Final Five, who’s the 5th Cylon, what’s Kara all about, what’s the deal with the Head characters, what’s the relevance of the Opera House visions, how will Bill and Laura go forward without an ultimate goal … just too many loose ends to feel any satisfaction after investing over four years in the series. I thought that the finale was brilliant, including the resolution of Kara. When you think about it, the explanation for Kara’s miraculous return from the dead (with a pristine viper that gives out a special signal for finding Earth) had to be the one that was used, and was consistent with the BSG mythos.
I think a more interesting question here is what would RDM & Co. have done had they gotten fifth or even sixth seasons like they originally expected, unlike the four they got canx at?
