Series Too much navel gazing
The biggest weakness (and paradoxically, the biggest strength) on Ron Moore's BSG is that the plot takes a backseat to "real" life. This is less science fiction (touted as REVOLUTIONARY at the time), or an allegory for terrorism (see: Moore's Bible for the show) as a kind of documentary, like the Sopranos was at times As such, characters don't develop so much as grow at a slow pace. The best thing you can say for BSG is that it's an actor's paradise. Nobody is who they seem, and personalities shift according to whom is talking to whom.
The trouble is that this unfocused approach leaves a lot of threads dangling. We learn more about the day-to-day bureaucracy of running a shoestring government in space than we ever do about the Cylons, their culture, or their goals. This was a major sticking point for me, especially given Moore's vision of the Cylons as unfinished humans, wearing J. Crew outfits and lounging around in ships that resemble weird Manhattan restaurants. Our antagonists are simply spoiled brats; a destructive child race, like humans. The final episode ends on a hopeful(?) note, but Moore can't resist hinting in the last frame that the futility will continue.
Not exactly a new theme, and I'm not certain that BSG has shed any more light on man's folly. It certainly hasn't gifted us with a ton of memorable characters, outside of Adama and Roslin and Tigh (and maybe Tyrol, barely). The documentary style gives us people who are so multifaceted and neurotic that I can never get a clear focus on them. What is their journey, outside of being pawns of some invisible intelligence?
Series Daybreak: An Admirable Failure
March 2014: I watched the 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica. Considered to be the greatest sci-fi show of its generation, and possibly all-time, I consider the programme as a whole to be a “good” show. However, no episode of any show left me more divided than the final part of the big finale, “Daybreak”.
Yes, it makes narrative sense and there was foreshadowing. But this was really stupid and raised a whole bunch of unanswered questions that could have easily been avoided with a few rewrites. The anti-technology message also comes off as hypocritical when it was technology that got the Galactica this far in the first place!
I call this an “admirable failure.” Admirable in its ambitions and attempt to make the series feel complete, but a failure in its execution and pretense.
I actually have no problem with the whole “A Wizard Did It” cop-out. The entire show implicated the existence of a wizard and the idea nobody was in control. Also, be it known I am not an overly religious person, but do not have a problem with religion or religious elements in fiction.
It’s okay if the Wizard takes them somewhere, but I thought it best if they go to the Cylon Earth, where they would give the planet and their race a second chance.
Also, Gaius Baltar needed to die. He started this whole mess. He should have received divine punishment like Orestes or Sisyphus. I would have killed him in the shootout.
One of the themes of the show is that nobody wins in war. The humans and Cylons, good and bad, both suffered too much to carry on. To show this would have been much appreciated.
I ask really for an explanation of what happened to Starbuck. I know why she came back, but I need to know how. I’m not a completionist. I’m okay with some mystery. But this is something that needed to be explained! A simple passing line like “I guess I really was an angel” or “Our Lord works in mysterious ways” would have sufficed!
It should not have been such a simple ending. There should have been conflict and internal turmoil. You could have even kept the ancient aliens in, blatantly even. Just show how nobody wins in war. Make them hav to work a little harder to earn that Earth!
'Taken from a post on my Tumblr and trimmed to meet 400 words.