A Human Masterpiece: In Defense of Battlestar Galactica’s Ending
By Brian Thompson
When all the guns stopped blazing and the nukes started flying, Battlestar Galactica’s final episode lost its grip on reality. It also found a human peace it had been lumbering toward over the last four years–one we all knew was coming but none of us expected. There’s been a lot of criticism of the last ten or so hours of TV’s greatest science fiction show. The pace was too slow. The tone was too dark. The finale punctuated an epic story with a literal deus ex machina, as the last remains of humanity were saved only by divine intervention. It’s a testament to the emotional investment BSG earned from its viewers over the years that so many hearts could be broken at the end. To be so violently disappointed, one has to have been violently committed at some point. It’s understandable to be upset with the finale, but it’s also indefensible. Battlestar Galactica ended with a planetload of mysticism and gobbledygook, but in the process, it earned its status as a storytelling masterpiece.
There are two kinds of Galactica fans: the “who”s and the “why”s. And there’s no better way to demonstrate the distinction than with one of the show’s many central mysteries. Once the final four Cylons were revealed at the end of season three, the identity of the fifth became the driving question of season four. Many couldn’t stop debating who the final Cylon would be. My money was on Hotdog, if only because I figured no one would expect it. And when I found out John Hodgman would be guest starring in the last half of the season, I hoped like hell he’d be the fifth. Especially if it turned out he really was a PC. But, of course, Ellen Tigh got the gig, and the disappointment started to roll in. Apparently people wanted the final Cylon to be a more central character like Roslin or Adama or Starbuck. These were the “who” fans. Personally, I was much more interested in why there even was a final Cylon. It didn’t matter to me who that character was, but why she existed in the first place. What role do the final Cylons play, and why are they different from the others?
Every mystery posed by BSG created another two sets of questions. How did Starbuck come back to life, and why did she come back to life? How is Baltar seeing this ghostly Six, and why is he seeing this ghostly Six? Who built that ancient temple, and why did the temple point to the eye of Jupiter? I’ll admit that the answers to the “who” and “how” questions offered at the end of the series aren’t particularly satisfying for those invested in them. Basically, “God” and “because God can do some crazy magic” are what we’re left with, and that’s infuriating to many people. But the answers to the “why”s are so intriguing and sublime and hold such an uncomfortable mirror to humanity that I can’t help but be overjoyed with the finale–mumbo jumbo and all.
Battlestar Galactica is not Star Trek. When Star Trek dealt with religion and spirituality at all, it was always in scientific terms. The gods of Bajor turned out to be aliens living in a wormhole. God himself was just a mean old man on a barren planet at the center of the galaxy. (And just what does he need with a starship?) But in the universe of BSG, God is real. And not only is He real, he’s also a seemingly omnipotent being able to guide humans over generations with subtle signs and wonders. For a show so focused on humanity that there are no aliens in sight and even our robot enemies look exactly like us, throwing God into the mix might seem to lift BSG off the gritty ground it’s been firmly footed upon for so long. It might feel like a dash of fantasy in a world seemingly built to be the opposite of fantasy.
But the thing is, there is no humanity without God. No, that’s not some endorsement of creationism. I don’t believe in God at all–not even in some kind of wishy-washy “he’s whatever we want him to be” or “he is all things” kind of way. I believe we are all biological processes loosely held together by electrical attractions, and when we die there’s nothing more for us. And it’s exactly because of this lack of faith that I think there’s nothing more human than the concept of God. If you trace humanity’s religious history, you discover a timeline of our own self-awareness. In the beginning, the gods were the answers to scientific questions we couldn’t otherwise fathom. Why does the sun rise? Why do the crops grow? In time, the gods became our lawbringers. They were harsh and wise, but also sometimes petty and cruel. They were a reflection of a society based only around survival. When we advanced, we had the luxury of self-reflection, and we didn’t like what we saw. Our God became an ideal. A warrior king who helped us conquer, and then a benevolent dictator. And then a source of unending love. God became both a reflection of our better natures and a prediction of our potential.
And so it was on Battlestar Galactica. The desperate humans clinging to their pantheon, trying to survive. The calm and certain Cylons and their One True God, who is the way and the light and doesn’t suffer imperfect pagans gladly. Then, there were the Cylon rebels–the ones who examined themselves and turned their God into a loving inclusionist, just like they wanted to be themselves. But in the end, neither humans or Cylons were right about God.
We aren’t given many concrete answers, but it seems that the BSG God is a sort of amoral force. He or it has a personality (according to the “Baltar” angel, it doesn’t like being called “God” even), but it also doesn’t intervene directly in human affairs. Until, that is, humanity is at its very end–crippled and helpless. And then it sows the seeds that allow humanity to continue anew–maybe getting it right the next time. Only, we don’t know what “right” is or why such a being would even be so interested in us.
Not only is it okay that we’re not given every answer to every question, it’s also preferable. To me, the weakest moments in Galactica’s final season were the scenes of the four Cylons gathered around Anders’ bed as he goes on long, expository rants about the history of their kind. Not only was it clunky and rushed, it was also a case of giving the fans what they want instead of what they need. I wanted to see the characters figure out these details, not be lectured to. As much as it satiated my curiosity about plot, it took away from the organic process of telling these people’s stories.
And jarring as it might have seemed, the revelation at the end of the series completed each character’s journey in a way that simply couldn’t (and shouldn’t) be done with some sort of technical explanation or mindblowing twist. The signs and omens and prophecies and coincidences that littered the entire series all pointed to the reality of God, and guess what? God is real after all. Simple, yes. Cheap, maybe. But powerful and resonant in a way that’s both inevitable and brave. It may not have been what you wanted, but it’s what the story needed. God brought both of the Adamas a hard-earned peace, Roslin meaning, Starbuck purpose, Baltar redemption, and everyone else a new life free from the burden of repetition. Battlestar Galactica is a grand biblical story, but told on a uniquely human level that makes it rise above simple heavy-handed allegory. In a flashback towards the very end, we learn that Baltar gave Caprica Six access to the human defense grids as an act of love. An act of love, an act of unimaginable destruction, and ultimately an act of salvation. This God is complex and ambivalent as all hell. He’s a lot like people that way.
Yes, there were flaws in Battlestar Galactica’s last few hours. It was a shame to cut from such massive and gorgeous space battles to the standard TV running and gunning through endless redressed corridors. Ron Moore’s cameo at the end really jerked me out of the show, and the less said about the dancing robots the better. The story really ended with the fadeout on Adama sitting next to Roslin’s grave, and I can’t ask for a better closer than that.
But the flash forward 150,000 did offer more questions I’m glad to have. Part of the joy of watching Battlestar Galactica over the years has been in mulling over the truth behind this world, these characters, and this story. To be given new questions is a sort of gift, and the best of all is one I mentioned earlier. What does “getting it right” mean when it comes to human civilization? Lee Adama believed that giving up technology would refocus humanity on spiritual growth and stop the cycle of destruction at the hands of their own creations. Apparently, he convinced the other broken and battered members of the fleet to believe the same thing. But anyone with even a passing knowledge of the last 150,000 years knows things haven’t quite worked out as well as Lee hoped. Silly as it was, the montage of modern-day robots at the very end wasn’t meant to show us how technology is evil. The message of BSG isn’t that simple. There’s nothing inherently dangerous about technology, but there might be a danger in humanity creating life in our own image. Especially since (as this Galactica God reflects), our image is colored with darkness and light and everything in between.
But we’re also left with an answer. From the beginning, Battlestar Galactica has been asking us not only how we survive catastrophe but whether we deserve to survive at all. In the course of keeping society together, characters like Lee Adama and Laura Roslin had to make terrible, oppressive, and even murderous decisions. From trying to rig an election to destroying a ship full of innocent civilians, these wonderfully flawed and unrelentingly human characters constantly failed to justify their existence while simultaneously protecting that existence literally with their lives. Ultimately, these characters make a choice to commit an act of supreme heroism, risking their lives and their ship to save a little girl. And just before their destruction, they’re rescued by a higher power acting through an angel who doesn’t even know she’s anything other than human–just like that higher power has done before and will do again. And why? Because we’re humans. We deserve to survive not because we will eventually build a society that reflects our best natures, but because we will always strive to.
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About The Amateur Scientist: Brian Thompson is a professor of amateur science at a major imaginary university and a regular blogger at CHUD. He has been able to read and write for over seventeen years.
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Wow, I'm sort of stunned. I totally didn't expect to see your defence of God (As the epitome of secular humanism) on here, and I'm pleasantly surprised by that since the general reaction to religious content on this site runs from condesencion to muted anger. I agree with you (Though I do believe in God). Even if God doesn't exist, it's a very big universe and the assumption that *everything* out there must be immediately understandable to us, or is capable of immediately interacting with us has always seemed not only silly, but a dramatic cheat. I like that there was some inscrutability in this. I didn't really like the second half of the finale, however, in which everyone suddenly acts completely out of character all the time, and 38,000 people agree to become homeless hippies after spending X number of years trying to avoid that.
I didn't articulate that well enough. I guess what I was trying to say with the "God" comment was that arguing that people can't believe in nor talk about God in science fiction is kind of like arguing that you can't have Gay people in science fiction, or that there will be no black people in the future, or whatever. Does that make sense?
I love that you brought up DS9's wormhole aliens/Prophets in your article. That's often what I use (cause I'm a nerd) to describe how I think about God. The scientifically-minded on that show called them the "Wormhole aliens", the Bajorans called them The Prophets and worshipped them as Gods. The question wasn't "Do they exist?" The question was "What do we call them?" That's how I see God. Something got this Universe going. Religious people call it God. Non-believers are waiting to see exactly what it is so they can give it a scientific-sounding name.
And I agree with you about your thoughts on BSG. A lot of people I know didn't like the ending because of its spiritual bent. But that spirituality was there from the first episode. The whole WORLD of the show was spiritual and magical and included prophecies that were proved right. It's as though many fans of the show chose to ignore all that in the hopes that it would be proved wrong in the end. But that's no way to watch a show! I didn't watch Lord of the Rings expecting that there weren't ACTUALLY going to be any such thing as Hobbits and Elves just because I think hobbits and elves are stupid. I accepted the world as written, and using the logic of that world, I enjoyed the story. For some reason, when religion comes up, a lot of people can't seem to be able to do that…
I really enjoyed the finale.
One of the things I liked most about the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica was that it virtually never relied on the technobabble common in most modern science fiction TV. It was about the characters and not the tech.
And from the very beginning, the show was filled with religion, spirituality, prophecy, visions, oracles, gods, God, angels, etc. Let's not forget this was the show with a bunch of robots who, for the most part, followed a monotheistic religion and believed in "God."
And it was filled with events and things that could never really explained away as lucky accidents or coincidence. Example: the Galactica just happened to arrived at the Algae Planet right before it's sun went nova which pointed the way to the part of their journey?
Obviously, they were being nudged along. Pointed in the right direction. Call it destiny, God, divine intervention or whatever you want. But it was obviously there. From the beginning. Regardless of whether the characters believed in it or not. And some of them clearly didn't.
And yet, so many viewers seem surprised and shocked that, in the end, "God" did it. As if it that came out of nowhere and was just pulled out of a hat and thrown in at the last minute to tie up some loose ends.
I get the feeling that many thought that in the end, "God" would turn out to be something else. Something more substantial or science-based. Something that could be easily explained away.
Which would be the weaker ending? The "God did it" ending that had been building up since the mini-series or trying to explain it all away in the final 2-3 hours with a bunch of sci-fi tech talk? Something the show never really did in it's entire run.
And of course, the beauty of it all is that the God who doesn't like to be called that, is never really explained or proven to be divine or supernatural. We don't know what "God" was any more than we know what the Lords of Kobol were. Or what the angels were.
Maybe they were divine? Maybe not? Does it really matter?
It's up to the viewer to decide.
(If you've read any of the recent interviews from RDM regarding the finale, it's pretty clear that they are not saying that "God" is supposed to be supernatural. It's something ambiguous. I don't think the writers or RDM really even know what "God" is supposed to be. Read it here: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Battlestar-Galacticas... )
And as to this overall story being an issue of "intelligent design" or Creationism… well, that's kind of funny to me. Because the original Battlestar was inspired by the book "Chariots of the Gods" from back in the late '60s. Pop pseudoscience at it's best.
The finale is not meant to be an endorsement of intelligent design. It's an obvious resolution to the story arc of the series. This is humanity (and Cylons) making the same mistakes, over and over again. And each time they make those mistakes, they are given a chance start again. To get another chance to get it right. They are given a chance to reset/reboot.
Look, there were enough subtle hints that the destroyed Earth they found was not our Earth. And since our Earth was shown at the end of Season 3, there was no question they would get there/here. The questions was when they would arrive and how the Colonials and Cylons would interact with us. (Thankfully we didn't have a repeat of Galactica 1980.)
So the finale basically keeps the spirit of the "life here began out there" concept of the original Galactica series. And it keeps with the new Galactica's concept of the cyclical nature of humanity.
There is absolutely nothing surprising about how the show ended.
That was really well put. Thank you!
Also, when Baltar is bargaining with Cavil for Hera, he says as much. That he doesn't know what "God" is, but that something made all this happen, and you can call it what you want.
Thanks.
Yes, I got the impression that exchange between Baltar and Cavil was supposed to sort of explain the ambiguous nature of "God" and these "angels." The uncertainty of what they were and what they were doing but the certainty that they were there and they were doing something to guide humanity and the Cylons.
One other thing… humanity abandoning their technology. I think people are missing the obvious. Humanity was simply tired. Imagine surviving a holocaust that was essentially of your own making. And then being locked up inside a bunch spacecraft for years, being pursued by robots, always looking over your shoulder, and watching what was left of humanity getting picked off in an unending conflict.
Their population had dwindled. The number of ships had dwindled and what was left was falling apart.
And then, the Cylon threat, finally seemed over. And the Galactica, their only real and true means of protection was nothing but a blasted hulk. And there were only a handful of ships left. They really didn't have much left.
Remember a few episodes back when they were giving away the last tube of Felgercarb tooth paste? Their creature comforts were dwindling.
That was it. This was their last chance. They were looking for a home and they finally found it.
And just how long was their technology going to last? Do you think they were really going to be able to scrounge enough from what was left from that rag tag fleet to start New New Caprica? And make it last? (Because New Caprica really worked well for them.)
No, I think humanity was simply exhausted. They wanted to live again under an open sky and not be attached to a few remaining technological creature comforts that wouldn't have lasted and would not have guaranteed their survival.
It's not like they were saying that technology was evil. It was more an issue of them not needing it to be human. Not needing it to live. They were really trying to break with the past and start over. Truly start over.
The majority of religious content reacted to around here is in the context of politics.
No, it doesn't. Reading this comment, it sounds like you're putting sexuality and ethnicity on the same plane as a belief system.
Nothing surprising, except for the ham-fisted way of showing Starbuck was an "Angel."
The entire series dealt with people on the verge of death/extinction, and how they responded to that – whether it was through substance abuse, personal recklessness, accepting or rejecting of "God's Plan." At no point were there any solid answers given as to who was right and who was wrong, it was a question posed to the audience, and we got the chance to watch fairly well-written characters struggle or ignore questions of faith and spirtuality.
Until BSG turned into an episode of "Touched By an Angel" in the final scenes.
Ham-fisted, obvious, and not in keeping at all with the supposed complexity of the show.
A much more elegant way for that scene to go would have been for Starbuck to announce that she was done, give Apollo a hug, and walk off into the horizon. After all, Gaelin decided he was done, and went walkabout on his own, so there was precedence. As she gets further and further away, a little flash of light, and then she's gone. Was it magical? Did the sun glint off of something and we just lost sight of her? Did she just spontaneously combust?
It's open to interpretation. And way more elegant.
Oh yes, and the fact that the writers or RDM don't even know what "God" is supposed to be in the fictional universe they created is just piss-poor writing.
How can a writer expect to convince an audience of the truth or non-truth of their story, if they don't know it themselves?
Except all that steel sure could have been turned into some great shelter. The ultimate mobile home.
I disagree with the idea that there's no humanity without God. I'd say there's no humanity without progress or no humanity without curiosity. Or even there's no god without humanity. It's our natural state to create and build and search for explanations. As you pointed out, the earliest gods served to explain what humans didn't understand – that was a human construct, as were the holy books that came later. Even if we assume that they were divinely inspired, they are still the work of man and what we know of god comes from that. So, the way we perceive him is a human construct.
One final thought…
Imagine the finale without the epilogue attached. By epilogue, I mean beginning with Hera, walking alone and then the camera passing over the various landscapes until we flash forward 150,000 years into the future to contemporary New York City.
If the epilogue is not there, what is the purpose of Hera? What is her destiny? She was supposed to be destined for something special but without the epilogue she is nothing but a Human/Cylon curiosity that many people and Cylons gave their lives to save. Her destiny is not clear.
But the flash forward tells us what that destiny is. Hera is Mitochondrial Eve. So every living human on the planet has Mitochondrial DNA in them from Hera. Hera, the human/Cylon hybrid is essentially the "mother" of all humans on our Earth. (Not the Colonials, Cylons or aboriginal humans we saw.)
So, in a certain way, Hera was the entire point of Battlestar Galactica. The Cylon attack on the Colonies set into a sequence of events that created Hera and got her to our Earth creating the new human race. Actually, I guess you could go back even earlier to the time on Kobol and say that the whole point of the exodus from Kobol was building towards Hera.
Now, I know some have complained about the finale having too many endings. You can argue about the execution but I think that flash forward was essential to answering one of the biggest questions posed by the show. What was the point of Hera? Question answered.
Wow. I only watched the last 4 eps last night and I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it all. I enjoyed reading your article because it does set out many of my feelings about it.
There was never going to be an ending that satisfied everyone, and, on the whole, I really enjoyed it, was moved by it and continue to be irritated by the things that I felt weren't done the way I wanted them to be done. And that shows that it was great television – it moved feelings for most people that have watched it.
There is a difference between having faith that God exists and having proof that he does. Spirituality is not the problem; literally having God use his intermediaries to step in and direct the actions of people was. If the plot was driven by different people and their different faiths determining (in part) how they would act, that would be fine. If the plot depends on Angels TELLING people how to act, it's less about individual will and more about determinism, which is a cold fish of a story device. There's just no way to warm to that sort of thinking.
It also robs characters of agency; if we cannot believe that these characters make their own mistakes and have their own triumphs, then we cannot relate to them. (Because we the audience understand personal faith influencing a decision but do not–usually–have direct lines to God that will inform us as to what to do.) Part of what BSG always did very well was making characters responsible for their choices. Adama chose to lie to people to keep their spirits up about Earth; all the consequences of having that lie exposed fall on his shoulders–things like the mutiny are, ultimately, his fault as much as anything else. By having Angels step in, you prevent that chain of response/consequence that determines morality. I can't believe that that is a more compelling way of telling a story.
This is an amazingly written review…much better than the NyTimes review…where it was clear the writer never watched the show before that week.
I have to say that though the God question looks pretty important to the show in hindsight, I wasn't hung up on it while watching the show or even in the finale. I just looked at this as two warring civilizations who finally found a way to coexist when they found their Eden (for lack of a better word).
I'd agree with you except that I don't think anything about the reality of angels and God in BSG robbed anyone of free will. To use Baltar as just one example, he chose to redeem himself, and the nudging he received from his Head Six didn't force him into that position. The opera house wasn't so much a prophecy as a marker. Whether or not Baltar and the Head Six had seen that vision, they would have picked up Hera and carried her into the CIC. The fact that the vision lined up with reality in that moment only served to solidify for Baltar what he'd been pretending to believe since being carried away into his groupie cult–namely, that God is real, but God isn't love. Regardless, the choice to try and stop the killing and reason with Cavill was his and his alone. As was his choice to join Galactica on a suicide mission.
I think the whole point, ultimately, is that we do have free will. We have a choice in determining the course of human history, which is exactly what Apollo tries to exercise in the end.
Aside from perhaps bringing Starbuck back to life, there's not a moment in the entire series where the actions of God trumped the will of the characters.
Agreed. I didn't mean that there wouldn't be humanity if God didn't come first. I only meant that since God and gods have been a human construct since at least the beginning of recorded history, you can't have a serious study of humanity without looking at religions and what they say about us. Sort of like how you can't seriously study Shakespeare without knowing a least a little bit about the Bible. You just won't get all the references.
I read a different meaning into that particular paragraph. Thanks for clarifying.
I've actually been working ona fic where Baltar feels pretty much exactly that, that God might nudge, but it's up to each person as to whether they will follow, stumble, or stand against that nudging. And Baltar pretty much *said* that, too, in the scene with Cavil — that what would ultimately happen was up to them, the humans and cylons, in the end, and no one else, not Angels or even God. The conversation between the Angels at the end confirmed it; they were discussing whether or not the system would ever turn out differently, suggesting that whether or not it would was up to the people in it, not God, that all God could do was set things in motion and see what happens this time.
As for the Opera house, I think that was history repeating itself, not prophecy.
Here Here! I loved the Day Break! If you didn't expect god to play some role, you must have not been watching the show cuz there really wasn't another great explanation for the weird shit that happened! Also, I loved the robots at the end(though i seem to be in the minority).
Well, both of those are choices, obviously. I mean, I was born a straight Baptist, but I choose to be a gay Jew. The parties are just better.
But, you can't eat bacon. Or does eating other kinds of meats make up for that?
I'm sorry. Was that inappropriate?
Thank you, pinkraygun. I totally agree with you. I get everything Brian is saying, but I just felt let down by the ending. I'm fine with God being real and Kara pulling a Gandlaf, but it just felt cheap to me when she just blinked out of existence.
That was both appropriate and awesome.
"Until BSG turned into an episode of 'Touched By an Angel' in the final scenes."
I've never watched "Touched By An Angel" but I'm fairly certain Della Reese's angel was nothing like Head Six.
"Oh yes, and the fact that the writers or RDM don't even know what 'God' is supposed to be in the fictional universe they created is just piss-poor writing."
Why is defining what "God" is important to the show?
The "truth" of the story is that something unseen is guiding the events and characters in the story of Battlestar Galactica. The characters at no time have direct contact with this unseen thing/being/whatever. They call it "God" but what "God" is never explained. All we, as the audience, really know for certain is that it's there and it doesn't like to be called "God."
Does it matter this "God" is some kind of eternal, supernatural, divine being? An advanced alien? George Burns or Morgan Freeman?
It's just not important to the story because the story is not about God (or the gods.) It doesn't need to be explained or defined.
Another thing to consider was, what were the Lords of Kobol? They did appear to have existed at some point and the Colonials worshiped them as gods but the same questions about "God" can be asked of them. What were they? What were they doing with humanity? And so on.
But again, it's not really important to the show. The show isn't about the Lord of Kobol.
Galactica was about people. And one of things we as people have, are issues based on faith, religion, and spirituality. Belief vs. non-belief, one belief system vs. a different belief system, monotheism, polytheism, and so on. And those are parts of the show.
One thing that I took from the finale, and the series as a whole, was the issue of what, we as people do, with the things we don't understand. Those things that are beyond our comprehension. We sometimes deify them. We attribute supernatural or divine explanations to things. That line of dialog in the finale about how "God" didn't like to be called that sort of drove that home.
We don't know what God is in Galactica but we see how the characters, the Cylons in particular, think of this… well, whatever "God" is. They deify it. We don't know what the Lords of Kobol were (or are) but we see how the humans worship them. While the Cylons don't seem to doubt their existence but don't see them as divine or gods.
Which is right? Which is wrong? What if they're both right? Or both wrong? Does it matter?
"Why is defining what "God" is important to the show?"
Umm, because that's a writer's JOB? To define the parameters of a piece of fiction, and then set the characters in motion within that fictional world?
"Galactica was about people."
Except for when it wasn't. For a show that was ostensibly about people, Angels and In-Heads and Robots certainly seemed to fill out the final scenes.
"Which is right? Which is wrong? What if they're both right? Or both wrong? Does it matter?"
The SECOND a character physically vanished off the screen, with no explanation other than supernatural, we were TOLD what was right and what was wrong. That the unbelievers were wrong. Admiral Adama was mistaken in his belief that the prophecies were a myth. There were no more questions within the BSG story. There is no longer any room for doubt.
So yeah, it did matter.
Apparently the original plan was to have Baltar wake up in bed with Bob Newhart. Now that would have been something!
"Umm, because that's a writer's JOB? To define the parameters of a piece of fiction, and then set the characters in motion within that fictional world?"
"The SECOND a character physically vanished off the screen, with no explanation other than supernatural, we were TOLD what was right and what was wrong. That the unbelievers were wrong. Admiral Adama was mistaken in his belief that the prophecies were a myth. There were no more questions within the BSG story. There is no longer any room for doubt.
So yeah, it did matter."
See, this is where I feel like you need to define exactly what you're arguing about a little better.
Head Six and Head Baltar have been angels all along. But for a while, there was mystery – are they hallucinations? Are they cylon programming? Why is it that only these two characters can see them? Why do they look like these two characters and not like anyone else? They would appear and go *poof* ALL THE TIME. They would appear with new, snazzy clothes, then go *poof* (so why not arrive with a brand spanking new viper if Head Six gets new dresses?) For four seasons, the device of angels going *poof*, which you seem so annoyed by, WAS BEING SET UP. Now, it turns out that Starbuck, ever since she died, came back as an angel to fulfill Kara Thrace's mission of leading humanity to Earth. Then, using the convention that was being used for FOUR SEASONS by H. 6 and H. Baltar, SHE WENT POOF.
You proposed a more "elegant" ending in which Kara walks off into the sunset, "leaving it up to the audience" to decide if she was an angel or not. You know what? No. Open-ended endings and "leaving it up to the audience" isn't the only path to effective writing, you know. In fact, I often see THAT as a cop-out meaning that the writer was too afraid to make a choice and trust their audience. Believe it or not, sometimes writers want to say things. Sometimes, they want to assert a point or make a definite choice. And in the end, this choice DOES give some parameters for God in this series in that this is apparently a God that has used angels to communicate with and guide people. We don't know what God IS, but we know how God WORKS in the world of BSG. And at the end of it all, the writers wanted us to be sure of the fact that, in this world, angels exist. What human beings do with the knowledge imparted by these angels is, as always, their choice.
You've been calling shennanigans on "bad writing", when really, I think you just don't like the answer they've given you. And that's fine. You can think it's a stupid answer. But you can't call it bad or ineffective writing just because you would RATHER that had not been the answer. In the world of this show, as has been set up from the first episode, angels walk the earth and guide people. Hate that all you want, but it wasn't out of left field, and it wasn't poorly executed from a dramatic writing standpoint.
Baltar should totally wear more sweaters.
"Head Six and Head Baltar have been angels all along."
"In the world of this show, as has been set up from the first episode, angels walk the earth and guide people."
You're 100% wrong. Head Six claimed to be an angel of god. She also claimed to be a manifestation of Baltar's own guilt, some sort of transmission, and a hallucination. There was never a definitive answer given as to what she was. And it's not like the answer was given at any point later than the final episode – Earlier this season, when Starbuck returned, Baltar even asked if she was a hallucination come to drive him mad, too.
I don't remember Baltar having to make any similar declarations of what he was or was not – I assume that the what of In-Head Baltar was covered by the audiences experience with the Six.
There was no answer given, it was open ended. There was mystery, it could have been any, none or some combination of all things. At NO point in the entire series did we have a physical character go *poof*. In-Head's popped in and out of scene all the time, but they were visible to, at most, a single individual. Starbuck was not only visible to the entire fleet, she was able to touch and be touched, and she got herself a shiny new Viper to boot. If Six and Baltar (in-head) are Angels, then Starbuck was something else.
A constant hallmark of bad storytelling is when something not established in the world of the story is suddenly introduced in the last act as the resolution to the story. If they intended Starbuck to be an angel, then they damn well better establish that possibility much earlier than the final three hours of the show. But they couldn't, because according to Ron Moore's own words (can't remember if it was an interview or a podcast), he himself didn't know WHAT she was when she reappeared after her death. If the mastermind of the show is pulling it out of his ass as he goes along, then yes, that's bad writing.
Before the series finale, I was considering going back and re-watching the entire series as a single piece. Since thought provoking, philosophical questions were thrown out the window at the very end in exchange for LITERAL mysticism, I no longer have the need to ever see this show again.
"I think you just don't like the answer they've given you."
All over the internet, I see this again and again (read through the BSG Finale thread on AICN, for example). My arguments are based on the show creator's own words and the evidence of what was presented to me on the screen. The Pro-Angel brigade relies on attempts at mind-reading and presuming to know what those dissatisfied with Starbuck-Go-Poof as a satisfactory ending are REALLY dissatisfied with, and what they REALLY believe. You don't know, and you shouldn't presume to know.
The the In-Head "angels" and robots were there from the very beginning. They were in the pilot mini-series and throughout the show's run. Why would they suddenly not be in the final episode?
Also, the writer's job is to tell a story. And they did. And in this case "God" is defined as… undefined. It's not lazy. It's a creative choice. This is from an old interview from RDM:
Q: In "Galactica 1980," we actually meet the "Imperious Commander" of the Cylons who turns out to be the Devil in the guise of a humanoid. Will we ever meet the maker of the Cylons in this version?
A: I think if we ever found an answer to why the Cylons have a god or who the god is–you know, the guy steps out from behind the curtain–I think you'd be disappointed. They're in an interesting place in that their faith is as legitimate as the human faith. Human beings have souls given by the gods, and Cylons have a soul given by their one true god and that has to be just as valid. That means there is a plan for their soul and something for them after they die too. It's a fundamental element of their faith.
The whole interview is here: http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Movies/200...
I think too many people wanted the finale to really pull the curtain back and show us the Wizard (in this case Galactica's "God") was not what the Cylons (or Colonials) thought he was. As if in the last couple hours, some viewers wanted it all explained away with no possibility of a supernatural explanation.
No you silly Cylons, your "God" is really… what? John de Lancie as "Q" from The Q Continuum on loan from "Star Trek? Or maybe The Architect from The Matrix movies? Maybe it's aliens in the Ship of Lights from the original Galactica?
I shudder at the thought of such an ending.
On one side we have a human civilization, significantly much more technologically advanced than our own, following a polytheistic religion. On the other side in a race of sentient, artificially intelligent lifeforms with a monotheistic belief system.
And throughout the entire series there was something going on that could not be explained. Visions and prophecies. Events happening that don't seem to be lucky accidents or coincidences. Things that seem to be miraculous.
Some of the characters think it's divine. some skeptics turn into believers. Some losing their faith along the way. Some are undecided. And some think it's a bunch of frakkin' crap.
But the thing is, in the end, we, like the characters, really are able to decide for ourselves what we think "God" was. Since we aren't pigeon holed with an explanation, it's up to us the viewers to decide.
And I'm OK with that.
Anyway, the great mystery of Galactica was not the miraculous or "God" but where did all of corners trimmed off of every piece of paper or photograph go.
"The SECOND a character physically vanished off the screen, with no explanation other than supernatural, we were TOLD what was right and what was wrong."
I disagree. The second Starbuck vanished off the screen, she vanished off the screen. It's as simple as that. By saying it's supernatural, well that's an interpretation and not an explanation. Just because we don't know what happened or how doesn't mean the explanation is supernatural. Nor does it make the "God" of Galactica supernatural or divine.
Again, this up to the characters, and the viewers, to decide. But our decision is essentially opinion because we truly don't know.
"You're 100% wrong. Head Six claimed to be an angel of god. She also claimed to be a manifestation of Baltar's own guilt, some sort of transmission, and a hallucination. There was never a definitive answer given as to what she was. And it's not like the answer was given at any point later than the final episode – Earlier this season, when Starbuck returned, Baltar even asked if she was a hallucination come to drive him mad, too."
Well, we definitely interpreted that character very differently. Because what you saw as not giving a definitive answer, I saw as her telling him the truth at first (she's an angel of God), and then, when he wouldn't believe that, because he's a scientist and a skeptic, she gave him rationales for her being there that he WOULD believe so that he would allow her to continue visiting him. I saw the other explanations as how she allowed him to rationalize her presence to himself, because he was too important to the grand plan to just allow to be left to his own devices.
"There was no answer given, it was open ended. There was mystery, it could have been any, none or some combination of all things. At NO point in the entire series did we have a physical character go *poof*. In-Head's popped in and out of scene all the time, but they were visible to, at most, a single individual. Starbuck was not only visible to the entire fleet, she was able to touch and be touched, and she got herself a shiny new Viper to boot. If Six and Baltar (in-head) are Angels, then Starbuck was something else."
I had been thinking about that, and what I saw in the show is that Head Six and Head Baltar appeared in those forms to just those two people because they were the forms those two loved most. (funny then that Baltar saw both Six and HIMSELF! His love for Six seconded only by his love of Baltar!) Starbuck, meanwhile, was important and meant something to the people of Galactica. It makes sense that everyone was able to see her, because she mattered to Galactica. Head Six and Head Baltar touched the human/cylon counterparts that could see them all the time. Hence all the sexytimes. Even if it's only that the Angels can make those that can see them think and feel that they are being touched, that's enough, and that's what we saw. It goes to follow that if Starbuck is the same as H6 and HBaltar, then she would touch and be touched by as many people as can see her. And she'd be seen by as many people as care about her, which is everyone on Galactica.
"But they couldn't, because according to Ron Moore's own words (can't remember if it was an interview or a podcast), he himself didn't know WHAT she was when she reappeared after her death. If the mastermind of the show is pulling it out of his ass as he goes along, then yes, that's bad writing."
You keep bringing up what Ron Moore said about his process, but at the end of the day that doesn't matter. Good writing is coming up with something good and plausible that – even if it didn't start out that way – could conceivably come from what was set up. Whether your ending is planned from the beginning, or whether you write your way to your ending doesn't matter. Good writers do both, and just because you don't have your ending planned from the beginning doesn't mean you're pulling it out of your ass. Especially on TV. It's only a recent phenomenon that people see entire TV series as a single work, thanks to DVD. What matters is the ending, and how it fits into the beginning and middle. And can it be explained logically within the context of the world that's been set up. And what I'm saying is that in the case of BSG, it can. As for setting up Starbuck – I think that's exactly what they were doing when they were peeling away the possibilities of what she WASN'T. For a while after she returned, it seemed "obvious" that she'd be a cylon. But she couldn't be, because of X,Y, and Z. A hybrid? Nope. By eliminating what she couldn't be, they were setting up the only thing she COULD be. The same as Head Six and Head Baltar.
"My arguments are based on the show creator's own words and the evidence of what was presented to me on the screen. The Pro-Angel brigade relies on attempts at mind-reading and presuming to know what those dissatisfied with Starbuck-Go-Poof as a satisfactory ending are REALLY dissatisfied with, and what they REALLY believe. You don't know, and you shouldn't presume to know."
I didn't mean to offend, and if I did I'm sorry. However, I'm not talking to The Internet, I'm talking to you. And as I HAVE spoken to you outside the confines of this website, I DO know a little about how you feel about spirituality and religion, and I didn't think it inappropriate to address it in this context. I know we disagree on these issues, which is why I wanted to talk to you about this episode specifically! Because debate is fun!
And I guess I would just not base my feelings on a story based on what the writer said about their process. As I said in my other comment, all that matters is the finished product. I don't care how they got there, as long as I can look at the whole work and see that, from beginning to end, it made sense to me. All I'm saying is that BSG did, and that if you look at the series in its entirety you can see where lots of things pointed in the direction of this ending. Even if it wasn't originally planned that way, the foundation that had been set up was used effectively in the end.
"Before the series finale, I was considering going back and re-watching the entire series as a single piece. Since thought provoking, philosophical questions were thrown out the window at the very end in exchange for LITERAL mysticism, I no longer have the need to ever see this show again."
I think this might be another reason why our reactions to the show were so different. I watched BSG on DVD in a two-month "marathon." I didn't have a year between seasons to mull over what I thought it would or should be. I didn't spend a week between each episode developing my own theories. I took the story as it came at me in one lump sum, and the ending, to me, jived with what I'd just spent two months watching. Maybe I'd feel differently if I'd watched it in real time. But I'd recommend (after you cool down a bit!) watching the show in its entirety again, just to see if that changes your perception of it. It might not, but it's not as though there weren't plenty of episodes you liked, or you wouldn't have been watching it at all. So, it wouldn't be a total loss.
"And I guess I would just not base my feelings on a story based on what the writer said about their process. As I said in my other comment, all that matters is the finished product. I don't care how they got there, as long as I can look at the whole work and see that, from beginning to end, it made sense to me. All I'm saying is that BSG did, and that if you look at the series in its entirety you can see where lots of things pointed in the direction of this ending. Even if it wasn't originally planned that way, the foundation that had been set up was used effectively in the end."
Agreed. The process is irrelevant. Yes, RDM and the writers made the show up as they went. We're talking a mini-series and 4 seasons of weekly, episodic television. Of course there were different ideas kicked around. Drafts and rewrites. And ideas that were dropped or didn't pan out the way expected.
Fat Apollo anyone? That went nowhere fast and was abandoned.
Or the original ending of the finale which was supposed to be battle between the Galactica and a pissed off Ellen who had sided with Cavil because she was pissed Tigh got Caprica prgenant. That was dropped for not being epic enough.
And so on and so on.
Yeah, sometime the writers write themselves into corners or come up with some stinkers. But the only thing that is important is what we see on the episode itself.
You really seem to have a problem with this "literal mysticism" as you've described it. But as I've said before, just because it doesn't have an explanation doesn't mean it's mystical, supernatural or divine.
As I've said previously, in a nutshell, one thing Galactica is about, is religion and spirituality and how we interpret what we don't, or can't understand. The Cylons and (some) humans see "God" as divine but that doesn't make it so. In fact, in various appearances, Head Baltar seems very scornful and disdainful of how the Cylons view "God." As if they have it all wrong. (I'm thinking this was back in the episode "Downloaded.")
Starbuck was not an "angel." RDM has said so in interviews. She was literally a resurrected human. And true, there is we didn't see other physical characters just vanish and there was no explanation for this.
But let's not act like Starbuck had a mundane life and there was nothing "miraculous" or odd about her life. Then, in the final few minutes of the finale, she just did something completely weird.
I do seem to recall an episode where she flew her Viper into a storm on a gas giant, that looked like a mandala like that she had been painting all of her life, and died when her Viper was crushed and exploded. And then she showed up months later, countless light years away in a pristine version of her Viper with tales of Earth. And then found the damaged Cylon base ship. And then her Viper pointed the way to Earth. And then she found another Earth using a song made popular by our Bob Dylan and Jim Hendrix.
So when just up and vanished… well, that was like one of the least impressive things she did, really.
And when she said her farewell to Anders and he responded with "See you on the other side." I knew that somehow she wasn't going to be a part of the continuing story of the surviving humans. Didn't expect her to just vanish but I smiled when she did.
Let's be honest, there was no way that in the finale, the writers were going to pull something out of thin air that explained it all away. There was always going to be an ending that, in some way, could be interpreted by the characters, and we the viewers, as "supernatural.' But once again, just because it could be interpreted that way doesn't make it so.
And that is the beauty of ambiguity in story telling. It can be what you, the viewer, want it to be.
You're saying that it is definitely supernatural and silly as a result.
I am saying that it could be seen as supernatural but that maybe it's not. Because, as Arthur C Clark's third law of prediction states: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
How do we know that "God" isn't some being (or beings) that is just really advanced in its development or technology? Something that the Colonials and Cylons just interpret as divine because that can't see it any other way.
Or maybe "God" in Galactica really is just supernatural and divine. Maybe
the Cylons and humans had it right all along.
Works for me in either case. Anyway, it's just a TV show. And a very good TV show at that. At least I thought so.
Or perhaps this was just all a dream of the original Starbuck (Dirk Benedict)?
Be that as it clearly is, you've pretty strongly implied that religion has no business in SF in multiple places on the site, right? You personally find it uncomfortable and inappropriate? That's the sense I've gotten from lurking around here
You're talking me to litterally, which is entirely my own fault. Put it another way: If you read SF from the 50s, you wouldn't even be aware black people existed. Likewise, I'd be very surprised if a gay character turns up as a gay character in literary sf prior to the late 60s. These people were omitted simply because they were considered undesirable, regardless of their actual merits. Saying you can't have believers in science fiction is pretty much saying the same thing – they're undesirable to you, so omit them. All are cases of literary ethnic (or intelectual) cleansing.
Since nobody else seems to have mentioned it, I think I'll point out that the original 1970s Galactica was created by Glenn A. Larson, who is (among other things) a Mormon bishop. While his primary interest in making the series was simply to make money, he intended from the outset for the show to be kind of a gateway drug in to Mormonism.
Thus humanity arose on "Kobol," which is a lazy anagram for "Kolob," The planet Mormons believe God came from, and people are 'sealed' rather than married 'cuz that's how they do it in Mormon marriages – use the same words, even. And the Seraphs claim to have evolved from humans, or something like it, which is what Mormonism says about angels. (Not to mention the Seraph is the singular form of "Seraphim."
With this in mind, it seems odd to me to complain about too much religion in the show, since it was implicitly there in the original show as well, and even more obvious. (Remember when Apollo met the devil?) Remember when Apollo (or was it Starbuck?) was brought back from the dead? Lots of hokey religious stuff. So complaining about a vastly watered down version of that in the show that just ended is a little bit like remaking Star Wars and complaining about "All this damn crap about the force that just takes me out of the stoy!"
I actually like how they ended it and honestly it ended better than the orginal battlestar (i,e, it was starbuck's dream). Plus they had a lot of stuff to explain and were alluding to all season (it wasn't just "ok whats the easiest way to finish the series). The premise of the show was machines becoming humanized, so religion fits a lot in that.
Huh??? The original Galactica did not end as Starbuck's dream. They found Earth too. Starbuck was stranded on a desert planet.
yea Llama is right, but I think in a battlestar special someone said that also and I was like what are you talking about. Is that where you got the info too? I love how technically some of the people on Earth in the future were part machine and trying to make smarter AIs when they are really machines in a sense.