Battlestar Galactica Finale: Its Not Too Late For a Post Mortem

**Warning! Here there be spoilers**

You might think its too late to dissect Battlestar Galactica, since the final episode aired over a week ago, (Friday, March 20) but considering that Hulu and SciFi only uploaded the two hour finale over the weekend, I don’t care what you think.  The fact is that, I canceled cable and I’ve been at the mercy of the idiots at SciFi (Syfy) who have kept me a week behind for the entirety of the last half of the last season.

I really enjoyed Battlestar Galactica, but there were times when I wasn’t sure I could watch anymore.  There have been points in all the seasons in which I almost gave up, but its the characters that always brought me back. I couldn’t abandon Starbuck, the Adamas, Helo, even the ever narcissistic Baltar.  Those season finales always made it worth the trouble and had a tendency to blow your socks off.

I watched season 1 with my dad.  When we watched close of the first season, we were ready to completely give up on the show.  The fractured nature of having Helo and Athena/Sharon still wandering around on Caprica while the rest of the crew fought the good fight against the Cylons, was starting to wear thin.  Then those last moments when the old man take 2 rounds in the gut — Perfection!  Television brilliance.  I’ve only witnessed a few jaw dropping moments in television and that was certainly one of the best.

Unfortunately, there was nothing so amazing about the series finale and I’m sorry to say I’m left feeling quite a bit underwhelmed.  Although the core characters stories were tied up, I still feel no closure for them.  The stories were TOO neat and tidy for them to be Battlestar.  I understand them “breaking the cycle of violence,”  but it seems like as soon as they found proper Earth the entire cast was lobotomized.

I am left with too many questions.  I know they have the cylon DVD coming out “The Plan” and the prequel series “Caprica” soon to follow but I wonder if they’ll ever tie up all the strings they’ve left dangling.

Did they ever address the issue of The Final Five aging?  Tigh and Ellen are clearly older than the other three.  Obviously Bill Adama has known them both for years so we assume they’ve aged normally.  Did Cavel drop them off in the colonies and then wait a few decades to introduce Tory, Sam, and Galen?

I have a real problem with the way they tied up Starbuck’s storyline as well.  She’s an “angel?” Really?  Since when?  Since Lee watched her viper explode?  Since she crash landed on first Earth?  Since childhood?  She’s been drawing the Eye of Jupiter and playing that song since she was a kid, so are we to assume she was always this “angel” or has she been switched on recently?  She didn’t really do anything very angelic besides do some math and type in some numbers at the right time.  Back lighting someone with obnoxiously bright white neon light doesn’t really sell it.

I could go on for pages about the things I didn’t like about the finale.  It seems the writers wrote themselves into a corner they couldn’t get out of, so at the last minute they tossed some dog shit on paper and ran with it, hoping against all odds the fans wouldn’t notice.  The rumor is that the  SciFi Channel requested many edits this season, so I’ll agree to withhold final judgment until I’ve seen the series finale unedited on DVD.  I’ll give The Plan DVD a shot as well. For now, I’m calling this a lame ending for a great show.  It deserved much better.

(Photo: Promotional shot from SciFi)

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