Battlestar Galactica Final Season Thread

[n0wak]

  Wrestlevania said:

it was done purely to cement the viewer's dislike for and distrust of Zarek if you ask me -- and as a mechanism for Gaeta to begin his process of regret.

That, and the fact that Roslin/Adama are now, basically, in power without any of the civilian checks and balances that they once had. Without a government, they're basically dictators. It'll be interesting what they do with this. But then there might not even be enough time (what's it? 5 episodes left?) to develop this. Who knows.

I'm glad the series is ending. If it was pushed to a fifth season, it'd have just fallen apart.

[Roderick]

6 episodes remaining, which is enough time for the creators to come up with an explosively good, sufficiently epic arc to end the show.

I am always a huge fan of series that end, because they tend to have a point.

[n0wak]

OMG

  Reveal hidden contents

[DanJW]

Is that lamkin and his cylon cat in a previous incarnation?

[brkl]

John freaking Hodgman. So odd to see him in this after watching The Daily Show for years. Great episode, I though.

[DanJW]

Well... that answers pretty much most things. It all seems so straightforward now.

Only mysteries remaining that I can think of:

• what is 'god'
  
• how is the future predictable?
  
• Who what is head Six/Head Baltar/ other head people.?
  

(I'm still betting on residual connective programming in all living things to answer all of them)

Oh, and: what happened to Starbuck?

[n0wak]

  DanJW said:

Oh, and: what happened to Starbuck?

Don't forget also the fate of "Daniel": the "artist" cylon that was wiped out by John. There's talk on the TV Club thread for this episode that seems to lean towards the fact that Starbuck is actually half-cylon. Her father, it's pointed out, was supposed to be an "artist". It's an interesting idea. Seems to make sense in the context of the show. The first hybrid, so to speak.

Also: duh. Hadn't realized that Cavil's side of the cylons is all men (save for Boomer). Without a resurrection ship, it would be kinda hard to reproduce...

The episode was kinda weird though. A little TOO much exposition.

[toblix]

Okay, let's say I'm looking for some television series to start watching from the beginning? Would you recommend this one? Could you guys who love Battlestar Galactica perhaps name some other favorite shows of yours, so I can see if we're into the same thing?

[Nachimir]

  brkl said:

John freaking Hodgman.

My thoughts exactly.

n0wak, your idea about Kara seems very plausible.

Also, some very, very strange relationship stuff is about to happen around Saul Tigh. Well, already is.

[Marek]

  n0wak said:

There's talk on the TV Club thread for this episode that seems to lean towards the fact that Starbuck is actually half-cylon.

A plausible plotline but that would make Hera suddenly very insignificant. If there was already a half-cylon, why does everyone care so much about Hera?

I thought Hogdman was a nice cameo but also very distracting. I don't see him as being part of the BSG universe and we've never seen him in sickbay before, so it was kinda weird.

A ridiculous amount of exposition this week... it's a really horrible way of getting it all out there, but at the same time I'm glad so many loose ends are getting tied up.

[brkl]

They said he was in another ship and had to be sent for. It's a big fleet, they need more doctors than Galactica's sick bay can hold.

[Nachimir]

  Marek said:

I thought Hogdman was a nice cameo but also very distracting.

Agreed; "Holy shit that's John Hodgman" definitely took away from the drama around Anders head injury for me.

[Roderick]

My god, all I could think was 'Hodgman you funny tit, get off the set!'. Wasn't the strongest of cameo's, since Hodgman is by definition hilarious. Maybe they wanted some lightheartedness in all the surgical drama?

The exposition may have been a bit foot-in-mouth, but it was nonetheless very pleasing to hear it all explained. And lo and behold, Cavil was in the know all this time! The mastermind behind the Cylon hatred. Can't wait for the remaining episodes!

After Battlestar, what other sci-fi show will fill the gap? There's gotta be something after this we can all watch together here.

[DanJW]

My cylon god, Ellen really got stuck right back in with the conniving and Tigh manipulation didn't she? I felt really sorry for Caprica Six

Also I just remembered something cool about last week; Anders speech problems and secret-knowledge-spouting made him sound eerily like the cylon hybrids...

Also in the latest episode are a couple of almost throwaway remarks that could be hints: Starbuck says that seeing the Tighs reunited was "like watching my parents kiss" - adds weight to the 'child of a cylon' theory (maybe she is Hera travelled back in time!!!!111111).

Secondly when Sol mentioned making up the cylon god Ellen replied "we didn't make up anything" - further suggesting that the cylon god is an actual entity that we will see explained.

Gosh there's not many episodes left are there? I guess there will be one big showdown versus Caville, one big reveal of the hidden machinations driving the whole thing, and then one big new-home-planet-get. Possibly all at once.

[brkl]

  DanJW said:

Secondly when Sol mentioned making up the cylon god Ellen replied "we didn't make up anything" - further suggesting that the cylon god is an actual entity that we will see explained.

That refers to the god coming from the Centurions, which has been mentioned earlier. Whether it's an actual entity, I don't know.

Really liked this episode too. More events, less exposition. It's all good.

[Jake]

I dislike that it's not on Hulu or scifi.com yet. Boo I say.

[brkl]

Those legal methods wouldn't work for me anyway

[Wrestlevania]

I'm going to watch it to the end, but my sense of apathy towards BSG is burgeoning.

It's probably because I'm stupid. I can't follow, nor understand - or really - care about all this faceted dialogue. I can't recall what very specific event or fragment of past discussion many of the Cylon characters are referring to most of the time.

It's like watching something through double-thickness glass and I'm not enjoying it anymore. I'm even fed up with Gaius' now; he seems to have been reduced to constant snot-nosed babbling for far too long.

[Nachimir]

For once I was liking the Gaius plot in this episode.

I find it kind of interesting that Gaius was reduced to corpulent cult leader, and now has an antagonist and is exercising his political muscle again. Not sure exactly what they're planning with the guns or what will kick off, but I expect more massacres in the corridors.

I'm also pleased to see his crackpot visions of Caprica 6 return. He keeps speaking the lines she feeds him and they work, but he never seems particularly sure why.

The baby dying just after Ellen gave that rousing speech about Tigh loving 6 was pretty well done. I can't work out if she's mental or if there really is something wierd going on with social bonds and reproduction there. The show was trying very hard to suggest a connection between Ellen and Tigh getting it on and 6 having a miscarriage before knowing.

[n0wak]

  Nachimir said:

The baby dying just after Ellen gave that rousing speech about Tigh loving 6 was pretty well done. I can't work out if she's mental or if there really is something wierd going on with social bonds and reproduction there. The show was trying very hard to suggest a connection between Ellen and Tigh getting it on and 6 having a miscarriage before knowing.

I think they sure as hell tried their damned hardest to get across the point that the lack of love is what led to Liam's death. What I got out of it was the idea that cylons can reproduce but only if they feel "love" or whatever it is programmed to be like. I guess it seems like decent programming. Even if Cavil had female cylons on board, he wouldn't be able to reproduce since he's a douche. Wish some humans were programmed this way.

Still, I feel like there's potential for a really, really corny "love conquers all" ending here.

[DanJW]

Yeah it's a bit odd. It also seems that cylons are programmed to reproduce only in monogamous relationships - I mean it's clear to me that Sol Tigh loves both Caprica and Ellen, but he's only allowed to love Caprica exclusively if she's to have the baby.

A bit troubling to me personally, given the complexity of human relationships.

[Nachimir]

I'm going to fucking hate it if that's the end. "Love conquers all" is some seriously naive and harmful crap to be spreading around. More like "Love means Tigh couldn't keep his willy in his pants even if it was stapled to his philanderous thigh"*

I kind of like the idea that Tigh shagging around might be what started all of this strife in the first place though

* I totally stole that turn of phrase from Charlie Brooker.

[Ginger]

  toblix said:

Okay, let's say I'm looking for some television series to start watching from the beginning? Would you recommend this one? Could you guys who love Battlestar Galactica perhaps name some other favorite shows of yours, so I can see if we're into the same thing?

Someone in the department (who is very fat and therefore a trusted source of sci-fi knowledge) said that they were doing a prequel series on the first cylon war next (this has probably been said before on these forums, if so sorry)

As for watching this, yes the pilot and the first 2 series are some of the best tv sci-fi I've seen, an awesome mix of politics, sci-fi, mysticism, the 3rd series seems to split most people and bits of the 3rd and 4th were universally seen as meh. But overall well worth a watch.

[Wrestlevania]

Bloody hell, this episode was amazing!

Just the right amount of exposure and intrigue, without relying on very specific fragments of long-past conversations. Starbuck is interesting again.

[n0wak]

SPOILERS

http://airplanelandingfield.org/bsg/BSG%20SpaceTimeline.jpg