Mar21 |
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The end of ‘Battlestar Galactica’
I’ve just watched the finale of Battlestar Galactica, and I’m a little bummed. Bummed, because there’s no more story to be wrung from characters and a setting I’ve followed slightly obsessively over the last few years. And bummed, because the finale did a lot of things right — but also a couple of things so wrong, so at odds with the series’ long-term storytelling logic, that it feels a bit compromised. I’ll dispense with the full-blown recap. You can find that here. What the finale did right: The final battle between the BSG crew and the cylons, of course. Yes, this show was always about more than explosions and the space fights, but it never transcended the thrill of a computer-generated dogfight. We got all we could’ve wished for in the final faceoff — including a twist ending to the battle that illustrated, once again, that good intentions can be sent devastatingly awry for the most benign of reasons. That’s Battlestar for you, a reminder that it’s always easy to frak things up. What went wrong: Angels. Turns out that Baltar’s Head Six and Caprica’s Head Baltar that we saw throughout the series were neither delusions, nor were they communications sent through an implant. They were angels. And Kara Thrace, who had apparently died, only to return to help guide Galactica to Earth? Well, she was probably an angel too. Good gods. Talk about your deus ex machina. One of the things that made BSG so refreshing after the various Star Trek series had exhausted themselves creatively was its merciless storytelling logic. Creator Ron Moore had vowed to stay away from an “alien of the week” show model — there never were aliens — and he eschewed other conventions like time travel. Galactica was, within the admittedly expanded boundaries of science fiction, relatively real. Its universe was our universe, only with better technology. And to paraphrase Chekov (the Russian playright, not the Enterprise navigator): If you saw a gun in the first act (metaphorically speaking) you knew it would be used in the third act. Probably on a character you’d grown to love over two or three or four seasons. So to find out that Galactica’s entire voyage — the series — was steered by angels literally sent from God … well, that seems to fly in the face of the series’ own adherence to realism. MacWorld’s Jason Snell points out to me, via Twitter, that the show has long talked about the existence of a Cylon God who has a plan. True enough. But as in real life, the actual evidence for such a god was ambiguous, to say the least. And there was plenty of reason, as in real life, to believe that the frequent mentions of God served as justifications for patently self-serving acts. Understand, I’m not saying there’s no such thing as angels. I’m not saying there isn’t a God who has a plan. I’m saying I don’t know. Nobody does, really, and while I don’t begrudge anybody whose faith leads them to such a belief, the truth is that faith is, well, a leap. We’re never presented in real life with actual angels who explain that they’ve been working with you to achieve God’s plan for the human race. Where we discern the presence of angels in our life, it’s always as inference, not a revelation. We’re left to guess at and hope for the existence of ethereal guardians. In the finale, though, the ambiguity of real life was made insultingly literal. Galactica was usually much, much better than that. I’ve said before that Battlestar Galactica is one of the better meditations on post-9/11 America that existed in popular culture. The finale doesn’t change that for me — at least, not yet. More than many shows, Galactica was about the ending: The crew had to search for a new home, and when they’d found it we’d know the show was over. And that’s what happened. But the series departed from its own ground rules to get us the final step of the way. That’s a disappointing way to end such a great show. UPDATE: I just figured out what ELSE bugged me about the finale. The final scene features Angel Six and Angel Baltar in modern day New York looking over the shoulder of series creator Ron Moore — and isn’t that a telling cameo? — to read that the remains of humanity’s first ancestor from 150,000 years ago (a Galactica survivor) had been found. They chat about the “real” meaning of the news and what humanity’s future has in store. The camera pulls back on the two walking down a New York Street, holding secrets about the world that passerby will never know. In fact, the scene looked almost exactly like the final scene of Men in Black. Seriously. I can’t find online video of the BSG finale to post here, but trust me when I say it doesn’t look that different from this: |
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Warning: Spoilers ahead.
And in that vein, I’ll point out this blog posting from ChristWire.org, titled: “Crybaby Atheists Upset Over Battlestar Galactica Series Finale”:
“Cry those tears, atheists, because Battlestar Galactica was one of the most popular fiction shows of all time, and yet even it — a show that sinned by encouraging premarital fornication and alluding to there being more than one God — admitted that in the end, it’s all about God. In the beginning, God. And for all time, God.
“The show was also good in that it showed the dangers of robotics, which as we speak Jap scientists are meticulously crafting to become our love slaves and working class. This is immoral and as Battlestar Galactica showed, will lead to the downfall of mankind.”
JOEL AGAIN: (Sigh.)
Anyway, my objection isn’t so much to BSG being religious, per se. I’m no crybaby atheist. (And I’m pretty sure the God referenced in the series finale wasn’t specifically Christian; in fact, BSG has a pretty significant Mormon tie-in.) I just thought that a series that normally handled complicated subjects with some nuance became ham-fisted in the finale.
Angels? Really? Not Gods? The pagan faith of the entire human race was a farce but the patriarchal faith of the Cylons was more real to you? Seriously? I say Goddess Caprica and God Baltar (however flawed their real counterparts may have been.) And I bet there were more. So say we all.
ok sorry…not you “you” specifically…I know…just a general you…’you all’.
great review. you eloquently expressed exactly what i thought as well. the finale just wasn’t worthy of what was one of the best tv dramas in recent history. and the bob dylan? wtf? so much wrong.
Men in Black’s ending was similer to BSG for 5 seconds, that part where they’re in central park, sure, but plenty of movies and shows end like that. The entire zooming out thing that made the ending of Men in Black memorable was not in BSG at all, and I think you might mislead readers to thinking that it was an exact copy, when it is similar, but both had vast differences.
Admittedly, I’m a Christian, so the entire “God had a plan” didn’t bother me. It was a theme throughout the series, one that was almost dropped in the beginning of this season.
I was rather upset with the portrayal of atheists as ‘evil’ though. I hated that the atheist cylons were portrayed as being uncompassionate, even though I’m a Christian. I have many atheist friends, and they, above all else, were upset with the presentation of Athiests in the last episode more than the use of God.
Well, I’m kind of an atheist too. Or better yet.. I believe in no god and in all of them at the same time. I belive there is something higher, like a god, bud I don’t believe any of the religions portray it correctly. And that is what seems to me is shown in the series. God is love… God is being good to one another. At no point has it occurred to me, that Cavil and his cylons were supposed to be portraying atheists. I mean… None of the lead characters except for Baltar believed in the one true god either. Only across the whole show all of them have come to believe in “something” up there. There was no bible, no nothing to it. And Cavil was simply misguided and inhumane and for me that was the only reason why the bad cylons were bad – they didn’t love. Morover… I don’t remember Cavil actually saying there is no god. He just wanted to be an eternally living machine and wanted to explore the universe. By the way…The citation that Joel posted here was one of the worst short-sighted nonsenses I’ve read in a long time… Wow, now I looked at the christwire.org website and I tell you, so much hatespeech and self-righteousness I haven’t seen in a long time… Would you actually believe that these people actually think it’s great when natural disasters happen…? And they think they’re going to end up in heaven for that.. Funny…
I got very irritated at the unnecessary religion thrown in at the end. I even shouted RUBBISH! (well…something stronger actually…ahem) at the TV. I really wanted something intelligent to explain Kara’s re-birth, Baltar’s inner-6, and a whole lot of other mysteries…and didn’t get it.
there was a glimmer of hope, though…at the very end, Caprica Six says something about “God’s Plan” and Baltar replies that “you know he doesn’t like being called that” with a momentary devilish look…which kinda relieved things and made it appear that the “God” they talked of was most definitely not the God that some people choose to believe in here on Earth. Well, on reflection, the “God” of BSG was capricious and played with people, so actually, maybe he is very like the God that people choose to believe in here on Earth!
I’m gonna stick with the “powerful alien” line (along the lines of Star Trek’s omnipotent Q) if I may….it’s more satisfying or, should I say, less unsatisfying. Or I could go with the Inner-6 and Inner-Baltar being immortal proto-humans with an extremely advanced technology. Just not God, OK. I mean…God?
Oh my frakking goodnes where do I begin??
I HATED the ending, like Will I also did NOT understand the rebirth of Kara Thrace, and why did they have to kill her off I mean she needed to LIVE so she could FINALLY be with Lee cause now he’s all alone *sob sob GRRRR sniff sniff*, I thought Cylon’s being “Machines” wouldn’t die (even with there resurrection ship not being near or blown up or whatever), I HATED the fact that Ellen Tigh was the ‘fith’ she was a stupid cylon creator, I frakking HATE Boomer the frakking traitor that cylon machine is, I’m glad the Chief killed Tory she’s was a B!tch, Sad how the president died cause like Lee the Admiral is now all alooone *Boooo*
I’m extremely sad that BSG is now over after all I guess it’s my fault I watched season four (part one and two) in two nights but it’s hard watching one season then putting it down for the next night or week, I’m sooo glad I saw them DVD and not as a TV series cause it would of driven me BSG CRAZY. I was a ‘crybaby’ when Starbuck died she was my favorite *siigh* also a crybaby in other parts but season 4.
Well I’m done ichting about the dissapointing ending of BSG well not done I’m just over it, I don’t know where to start let alone finish but I better stop there.
BTW excellent blog
Unlike everyone here I did like the finale of Battlestar Galactica. I didn’t even focus on the whole “angels, and God” reference at all, like everyone else. I honestly don’t understand why it’s such a big deal. The whole story was about how humans created life, and then basically thought that the cylons would just “be” machines. Do as they say because they were created by man. Of course this whole series is reference to Gods and God, yes, because let’s face it, how else could you explain it all??? Aliens, please that ship has been sailed so many times it’s aggravating to sit and watch it. Of course you guys couldn’t just watch it to enjoy it because of “your” point of views, and how you feel about ‘God, Gods” or whatever. See that’s what is wrong with us as a human race, we have to be right about everything. You can”t accept someone else views because they aren’t yours, and let face it your already set in your ways. So of course you’ll nit pick about it even though in the beginning it plainly starts off with the Gods of Caprica being mentioned. AND if you think about it logically the people from Caprica, in a way, represent the Romans for their belief in the Gods. This entire series was trying to point to our existence on this earth was from the Capricians. And that those “alien” sitings perhaps are the cylons. I mean it tries to explain how ancient civilizations, that were afar advance were that way. Think about the logical things, not the religious aspects.
Like Caprica 6 said. “This has happened before and it will happen again.” Or will it?.