Full thoughts on Battlestar Galactica finale: nice ideas, terrible finish

The more I think about the end of Battlestar Galactica, the more I have to applaud Ron Moore and his team for providing an ending, but the more I really want to slap them as well. Rarely has a finale tried so hard to hit all the emotional beats for characters but fail so dismally at plot resolution.
(Tons of spoilers ahead – but my initial thoughts are here)


Adama wasn’t kidding when he said they were running low on spare parts and wanted everything used as a weapon against the Cylons

To be completely fair to the writing team at BSG, they had a lot of balls in the air to juggle for this finale – but they put them there and should have had an idea how to catch them. The show wasn’t cancelled prematurely or anything, they knew this was the end game.
And as important as it is for the characters to have their story arcs ended in a decent fashion, the plot has to be wrapped up as well.
Now it’s fair to say that with TV shows these days, you can’t please everyone, but here’s the stonkers that stuck out in my mind over all of this:

LEE ADAMA:
I’ve said it before, I’m saying it again. Tool. He decides that everyone should dump all their tech kit to blend in better and end the cycle of violence?

First off, if I had an illness, I’d be well peeved – well, I’d be dead – at Lee having decided (and yes, others agreed and I’ll come back to that) to dump all the tech.

Secondly, doesn’t he remember what happened at New Caprica? They were left alone for a year (and I know they say that ‘the Cylons may come back, it’s a chance we have to take’ but that seems a very strange attitude after five years of trying to stay alive no matter what).

Thirdly, did the concept of evolution not occur to him? I know he says the technology has got ahead of the people (and I’m sure the millions of people who had co-existed fine with technology might have had something to say about that) but what made him think getting rid of the technology would help out there? How do you learn to respect something that isn’t there? Did they leave post-its for 150,000 years in the future: “DON’T MAKE ROBOTS> THEY CAN BE BAD.”
(And why did the Cylons request Lee to be on the BSG – see the webisodes – if they didn’t have a plan?)

Also:

HERA: “THE LAST HOPE OF HUMANITY AND CYLONS”
OK, the Cylons were struggling to breed, but the humans weren’t having any problems. So what made her so important to them?
On the note of breeding, didn’t it seem a tad convenient to retcon the other two half-human/cybrids into being either dead or not halfbreeds?

THE PEOPLE OF EARTH (this Earth and the original inhabitants):
Now, I’m a parent. I have a daughter and I am sure I will dread the inevitable partners she brings home one day. But at least I am sure they will be able to talk. The 35,000 survivors here are off to breed – and that part is pointed out – with a pre-verbal society. How are they going to pull that off without forcing themselves on this society (ditto for other resources)? Are we suddenly going for love at first sight? That gets a bit messy when you start thinking about it. It’s either that or they all just bred themselves, which means one line died out – the planet’s population or the BSGers.

And also while speaking about the people of this Earth, this is a race that had evolved without any connection to the Cylon/BSG human fighting – and then they all turn up and (if breeding) infect us with their DNA – which makes them fight. For all we know, if they had stayed out of our gene pool, we could have been a lot better than them. Thanks guys!

THE CYLON PLAN:

Will write masterplans for oil, lubricant, Resurrection Ships

Aye, right. I know Ron Moore was never a fan of this part of the show’s opener. Now we know why: odds are there never was one (so it will be interesting to see what backtracking is done in The Plan TV film coming soon)

STARBUCK:
You call that a satisfying ending? Come on! There’s no explanation for the previous corpse or how she got back with a new ship and body? If that was all God’s work, couldn’t he have just created a new planet for them all to live on? Why put them through the suffering?

GOD:
Yes, this was a show with a heavy concept of God/Gods. I just think that a lot of people expected a more SF resolution than was provided. Or not as the case may be…I still think any God that lets his creations suffer is a pretty poor God in my opinion (though if you want to break the fourth wall and go all metatextual about how we were the creator and how we wanted them to suffer, feel free…)

DID MANKIND DESERVE TO SURVIVE?
This was something Bill Adama wrestled with during the show but it was dumped at the end, so really he could have just Junta’d the whole thing and flown about, just like the Pegasus.

CYLONS:

Where did my cardboard sign go?

Where were all of Cavil’s baseships that had been referenced? They are still out there. Why did Cavil kill himself – they had most of the Resurrection Ship (and Ellen had been the one who made the breakthroughs) so there was still a chance they could have developed it – after all there was a thought that the other Cylons (the ones freed at the end) would be able to upgrade.

I’ve never known so many races happy to give up advantageous technology – shelter, weapons/protection, medicine and that little thing called immortality – in a hurry.

GALEN KILLING HIS WIFE’S MURDERER:
Damn if this didn’t actually get to me. I’m reminded of writer Andy Diggle once pointing out that 28 Weeks Later is a film where everything goes to shit basically through everyone acting like proper human beings.
Galen killing his wife’s murderer falls into the same category – his reaction is perfectly understandable, but if he hadn’t the cycle of violence could have stopped right there. He could have taken one for the team.
In fact, someone should have stopped him. The show often had people choose a small number to die so more people could live (in fact Galen was ordered to do so in the miniseries) – and in this case it would have been one death for the greater good (and he could have killed the murderer later anyway).
So Galen’s a bloody idiot for not seeing the bigger picture. But he did found Scotland so there is that. But was he a Celtic or Rangers fan? 🙂

I must admit one cute thought I heard – from the American writer and journalist Paul F Pogue – was that he was waiting to discover that the baseship hybrids were actually behind it all, trying to work out a way to get the species to live together. So the holocaust at the start, the travels, why the superior-tech Cylons couldn’t get the last 50,000 humans, why The Plan seemed to change – it was all the planning of the hybrids trying to sort stuff out. That has a certain elegance to it and would have been a fantastic nod to Iain M Banks‘ Culture (and anyone wanting to see a book which is basically Hybrids emailing each other should check out Excession – a fantastic book).

Overall, it was a finale with some great acting moments, but the plot was poor. And I know, some of it is deliberate, some of it isn’t and ultimately it was a good show, but I’m reminded of Animal Man meeting Grant Morrison in Animal Man 26 – “Where we come from, we expect plot resolution and stories to be well told.”

Yes, and now we know what’s missing between Tigh and Adama – not Ellen, but the script