# I've just started watching Battlestar Galactica (newer version). **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 9, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307 "2012-02-09T13:42:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/1 "2012-02-09T13:42:57Z")
I never watched the original series. I just assumed at the time that it was a Star Wars ripoff. I had no reason to get excited when it returned. I really like this show! I’m almost through season two. Can I look forward to better & better, or will it jump an intergalactic shark? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/2 "2012-02-09T13:45:31Z")
I’m in the minority, but I think it maintains quality all the way through and has the best series finale of all time, right up there with Babylon 5’s. Most think it declines some after season 2 or so and a lot of people dislike season 4 quite a bit, but I think those folks are just plain wrong. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/3 "2012-02-09T13:45:58Z")
Get ready for massive disappointment and heartbreak. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/4 "2012-02-09T14:00:36Z")
Quit now, while there is still time. A horrible, contrived, ran-out-of-making-shit-up ending. Man, I loved it, too. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/5 "2012-02-09T14:01:53Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > I’m almost through season two. Can I look forward to better & better, or will it jump an intergalactic shark? The end of season 2 and start of season 3 is frakking amazing, mid way into season 3 the show feels a little like its meandering. Season four suffers the same problem of feeling aimless, and the big reveal and the pregnancy made me :rolleyes:. The resolution of Tom Zarek’s storyline was something I looked forward too, but they handled it clumsily(it should have been much murkier who was right and wrong). The show never goes off the rails but it did feel like they did not know what to do at some point, but its only noticeable because of how amazingly good the earlier stuff was. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/6 "2012-02-09T14:02:16Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I’m in the minority, but I think it maintains quality all the way through and has the best series finale of all time, right up there with Babylon 5’s. > > Most think it declines some after season 2 or so and a lot of people dislike season 4 quite a bit, but I think those folks are just plain wrong. 🙂 I agree completely. Viewers should just bear in mind that the show is very much a fantasy series under a thin veneer of science fiction, and that ultimately, the characters are more important than the plot. If you remember that, you’ll be fine. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/7 "2012-02-09T14:04:54Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Get ready for massive disappointment and heartbreak. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Quit now, while there is still time. > A horrible, contrived, ran-out-of-making-shit-up ending. Bummer! I have to admit that I enjoyed the final two seasons of Buffy. Does this mean I might get satisfaction? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/8 "2012-02-09T14:13:15Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Viewers should just bear in mind that the show is very much a fantasy series under a thin veneer of science fiction, Horse puckey, my friend, horse puckey. It began as excellent science fiction, no noise in space, projectile weapons. It became fantasy when Ron Moore wrote himself into a corner, the ass. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/9 "2012-02-09T14:13:37Z")
The last two seasons have some good episodes, but the finale just stinks. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/10 "2012-02-09T14:19:42Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > I have to admit that I enjoyed the final two seasons of Buffy. Does this mean I might get satisfaction? > > 🙂 I have no idea. I never watched an episode of Buffy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/11 "2012-02-09T14:23:41Z")
I watched season 1 & 2 and gave up. It was interesting see it remade, but I didn’t care for what they actually did with it. But then I also didn’t like **Firefly** or **Star Trek 2009**. Since then the [del]SyFy[/del] Sci-Fi community has stripped me of my pointy ear rank & barred me from all conventions until 2061. ---
**Author:** ![Chipacabra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Chipacabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chipacabra)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/12 "2012-02-09T14:34:01Z")
There’s definitely some treading water, plotwise, around the middle of the run, where you can really tell they’re making it up as they go and are just padding events until the end of the season. The series finale is extremely divisive, and will probably color your opinion of the rest of the series retroactively, one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/13 "2012-02-09T14:40:53Z")
I’m gonna take a xanax. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/14 "2012-02-09T14:44:54Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Horse puckey, my friend, horse puckey. > > It began as excellent science fiction, no noise in space, projectile weapons. You were misled by mere gloss and aesthetic. At its core, _Galactica_ was conceived around the very best hyper-syncretist ancient astronaut woo-woo the '70s had to offer. It’s in its DNA. The reboot remained stalwartly faithful to that, they just presented it better. Come on, though - the conceit of the show is that practically every religious and mystical tradition on Earth is a distant echo of the history of the rag-tag fleet, no matter how absurd or contradictory. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/15 "2012-02-09T14:47:55Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Horse puckey, my friend, horse puckey. > > It began as excellent science fiction, no noise in space, projectile weapons. It became fantasy when Ron Moore wrote himself into a corner, the ass. That’s not science fiction, that’s just science. For a society that had space travel for millennia, BSG had remarkably little advanced technology. Except for the FTL and AI - the workings of which were never explained - it was essentially 2005 America in Space, right down to Starbuck’s HumVee. Furthermore, technology never played any part in the plots, in the sense that a no story was ever resolved through the use of some “reverse the polarity” contrivance or obscure law of physics. OTOH, the show had angels and gods, visions and prophecies, magic arrows and mystical temples, all from the very start. Now, I’d be the first to claim that SF and fantasy are both essentially the same genre, just at different ends of the “Science” vs. “Magic” scale. I’m just saying that if you put Star Trek towards the SF end, and Star Wars toward the Fantasy end, BSG is much closer to the latter - and probably on the other side. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/16 "2012-02-09T14:54:50Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > You were misled by mere gloss and aesthetic. At its core, _Galactica_ was conceived around the very best hyper-syncretist ancient astronaut woo-woo the '70s had to offer. It’s in its DNA. > > The reboot remained stalwartly faithful to that, they just presented it better. Come on, though - the conceit of the show is that practically every religious and mystical tradition on Earth is a distant echo of the history of the rag-tag fleet, no matter how absurd or contradictory. Well I think thats unfair, this isn’t a documentary we’re talking about. The sense I got was that the religious names being the same was a kind of “echo”, I definitely got the vibe that robot rebellions and synthetic but organic humans had been happening for a long, long, long, long time in a cyclical fashion. Its safe to assume every single “human” on the show were just past synthetics that had forgotten their origins and were going to go on to create synthetic humans themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/17 "2012-02-09T14:56:23Z")
I liked it a lot. As others have said, the series finale draws strong opinions; it really angered/disappointed some people. I was happy with it, but to each their own. I also think that season 3(?) gets very dull and drawn out, as they take a long break from the ‘main’ plot, and the story stagnates (IMHO). If you end up feeling as I do, bare with it, because they return to the story again afterwards. (Not to say that there isn’t some great stuff that happens in that season, but something about it was just bland to me). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/18 "2012-02-09T14:59:12Z")
I thought all of _Buffy_ was great (until Joss went off the rails in Season 8) and I thought _BSG_ was great too. Until, as noted above, Moore wrote himself into a corner and gave us the single most idiotic and unsatisfying series ending ever. It made the _Dallas_ reset (“It was all a dream!”) seem like Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/19 "2012-02-09T14:59:20Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > That’s not science fiction, that’s just science. We are edging up to spoilers, so I’ll back off about BSG. 🙂 Science fiction doesn’t and in my opinion shouldn’t include fantasy. Having FTL made it science fiction. Star Trek had religion, the parallel Rome thing, and the aliens who were thought to be Greek gods, but that didn’t make it fantasy. Conan the Barbarian is fantasy. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is fantasy. Firefly was science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307/20 "2012-02-09T15:06:42Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Science fiction doesn’t and in my opinion shouldn’t include fantasy. Having FTL made it science fiction. Star Trek had religion, the parallel Rome thing, and the aliens who were thought to be Greek gods, but that didn’t make it fantasy. Conan the Barbarian is fantasy. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is fantasy. Firefly was science fiction. What about Star Wars? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-just-started-watching-battlestar-galactica-newer-version/612307.md?page=2)