Battlestar Galactica 4.22 - "Daybreak (part two)" (spoilers)

[silenus]

MY ONLY REGRET IS THAT LEE LIVED

I did expect there to be a much higher body count. Things were really headed that way, then Moore pulled back at the last minute and gave us an up-beat ending.

[dread pirate jimbo]

Something Tracey said to me while we were watching the show which was awesome and probably a conscious decision on the part of Moore et al (and thoroughly awesome): "Look! They finally put a guy in a bath tub on the bridge!" And it even plays out the same way as Douglas Adams' account of human history! Perhaps we all should have recognized that bit of forshadowing...

[rivulus]

What evidence is there that they abandoned all but what they could carry?

There's Lee's speech, there's the scenes of major characters walking off into the wild with only the clothes on their backs...Helo, Athena, and Hera had a stick. Baltar & Caprica had nothing visible. Don't think Tigh and Ellen did, either. Don't remember anybody flying around in a raptor much other than Adama.

I see some people going off to have private conversations or going off to explore the area. Have you ever set up camp and then gone off to explore? The Agathons were out for a walk -- and later Hera even has her dad's stick, so how's he supposed to walk? I don't see how that translates into them trekking some distance to settle on their own with only the clothes on their backs. Baltar and Caprica could have been scouting around, checking out that patch of arable land over the ridge there. No evidence that they were heading to settle there permanently with only the stuff they were carrying.

As far as the Raptors go, they specifically say that people were going to be transported to different locations. I see an orderly line of people walking, possibly heading to a Raptor for transport. I have never flown in a puddle jumper headed on a wilderness excursion while carrying all my stuff in hand. Maybe a camera and some little personal items. The rest is packed in duffel bags or cargo containers on the plane. And with good reason: things fly better when someone who knows what they're doing packs the luggage. So, why would the settlers be running around hauling all their stuff, when it has to be packed away anyway?

[featherlou]

Something Tracey said to me while we were watching the show which was awesome and probably a conscious decision on the part of Moore et al (and thoroughly awesome): "Look! They finally put a guy in a bath tub on the bridge!" And it even plays out the same way as Douglas Adams' account of human history! Perhaps we all should have recognized that bit of forshadowing...

Forshadowing, complete ripping-off - tomayto, potahto. :mrgreen:

[Chimera]

"Look! They finally put a guy in a bath tub on the bridge!"

Yes, but DO people want fire that can be fitted nasaly?

At least they didn't intentionally crash on the Earth, and the mice are only slightly less pissed than the last go-around.

[featherlou]

But have you noticed how clean our phones are, and all the great hairstyles?

[drewbert]

And what about this "wheel" thingy? Sounds terribly exciting.

[RobuSensei]

So...anybody here ever read "And All the Stars a Stage," by James Blish?

The beginning was totally different, of course, but the ending...shares some major thematic material.

(I actually have only seen the first season and a half of BSG; living in rural Japan I have to wait for the DVDs to arrive at the local rental place.)

[Glazer]

So...anybody here ever read "And All the Stars a Stage," by James Blish?

The beginning was totally different, of course, but the ending...shares some major thematic material.

(I actually have only seen the first season and a half of BSG; living in rural Japan I have to wait for the DVDs to arrive at the local rental place.)

You can watch the last season on HULU,com

[RobuSensei]

You can watch the last season on HULU,com

No I can't. I'm in Japan.

[CornerCase]

I'm trying to put into words what is satisfying and unsatisfying about the ending. The entire series has been about the characters, their motivations, and what they do when presented with ... life. The ending didn't have enough of the characters dealing with the end - it had exposition about the characters dealing with the end and then exposition about the characters affects in the world.

Adama has a bittersweet ending that was 98% complete. He committed to Roslin, married her, and buried her. What was missing was that I wanted to see what his next commitment was. He will build their cabin, but will he stay alone or continue to lead the colonists way to surviving?

Lee and Kara were incomplete. Lee expounded about exploring but wasn't doing it. Kara didn't even expound herself - she just said she was complete. I almost wish Lee's final shot would be him climbing a great mountain in a blizzard, loving it, and talking to a Head-Kara (we know because she's standing without a coat in that blizzard). They speak about moving on and yet are still together. They speak about fulfilling their dreams and doing it on their own terms. Lee keeps climbing and the shot tracks back and shows him in a beautiful wilderness.

Galen just expounds about leaving people and going north. I would rather have seen him trudge over a hill in the highlands and see a baeutiful valley to the right and a cozy village to the left and have him pause as we wonder which way he'll go. Does he want to be alone or try one more time to give a new people a chance? No one has to mention "northern lands", just fly him to an area recognizable to Scotsmen and let the scenery inform the audience.

The others just walking away, where we assume they went on to have some life is less satisfying than seeing them create a final choice. Tigh and Ellen should have setup a campsite. Tigh is commanding a group of farmers. Ellen is lounging in a chair and pulls Tigh down to sit. They laugh and Ellen hands Tigh a drink from the makeshift still next to them.

Baltar should have some people listening to him talk about farming. Someone talks the yoke of a makeshift plow to follow his instructions and he gently, under the others protest, takes the plow and shows them how to do it instead of relying on others to do the work.

Some scenes like this would be more in keeping with having the characters show us their future and make it rather than espouse it.

The epilogue was great as far as a plot ending. It just jarred me away from the character's ending. I loved the robots and the All Along The Watchtower end for the plot. But, besides being less than 150K years later, it should include this (plagarised from James Hogan's Gentle Giant's series): A student runs up excitedly to an archaeologist. he holds out a tarnished and worn pair of Adama's admiral rank pins, a recognizable portion of Laura's glasses' rims, and something we should have been setup to recognize as Kara's dog tags. He says he found them in the umpty-thousand year old soil of the dig. The archaeologist looks, pauses, and throws them away disgustedly on the similar pile of nonsensical junk on the table. He tells the student that these stupid jokes of placing modern things in the dig has got to stop and if he finds who did it he's gonna shoot 'em into space. Thus ends the series showing Adama and Laura's eternal love and Kara's wish to be remembered both fulflled and lost.

[Hellestal]

I like a lot of that, CornerCase. Adama's end was perfect for me, and Head Starbuck would've been a better end only if they'd figured out a way to disappear her differently, maybe her disappearing in her Viper mysteriously just like she arrived. But the general idea, of actually showing them in their new lives for a moment or two, instead of having them just talk about what they're doing, is exactly the right touch.

However, I don't think that by itself would ever be enough for me to forget the weirdness. If we're going to have a miracle Earth Junior with another North America, then let's be up front about that. Have the characters be astounded by the fact. Don't just face the camera toward Africa when the fleet's in orbit. If there's gonna be magic, then they should acknowledge that magic instead of ignoring it. Mysticism is easier to accept if the characters respond honestly to their situation.

[featherlou]

I was thinking about this, and I was wondering how it would have gone if they had come to earth and it had been our modern day earth. Interesting!

[CornerCase]

Cousin Oliver could make some neat flying motorcycles for Starbuck and The Final Five of the Apocalypse. They could descend and wipe out humanity and start over near that boggy swamp just south of Croydon.