Battlestar Galactica

:pawel:

So I saw the end. Spoilers follow...[spoiler]But I have mixed feelings about it. I want to like it, but I can't get around the fact that the writers could've done a better job because I was expecting another emotional wallop like the mini-finale of Revelations, but the big finale was surprisingly very subdued. Appropriate you might say that it stays clear from the clichéd endings we've already seen many times. There are also many unanswered questions. What was the role of Hera in all of this? What's up with Starbuck being an angel and disappearing? Why the hell did Cavil commit suicide? While I liked wrapping up the storylines of many minor characters, others were ignored! It didn't leave me cold, but it didn't stun me either. I seriously don't know what to think... [/spoiler]

Many people have their difficulties with the ending. Personally, I found it to be frakkin´ brilliant.

[spoiler]Cavil kills himself because the death of one of FF means there will be no resurrection technology, and he realizes that he will die anyway, and since he feels his body is a fucked up piece of crap anyway, he ends his existence in style. ^^ Hera, basically, gave Starbuck the coordinates to Earth, and with giving Cylon and Kobol-Human DNA to mankind, she became our ancestal mother. Starbuck? Yeah, what´s up with her? Honestly, I really, really prefer that she just dissappered and we´ll never know what she was exactly. How STUPID would it have been if she´d have grown wings and went away into the golden sky with them?[/spoiler]Honestly, I´m quite happy they didn´t take us by our hand and explained each and everything to us, because, basically, we know enough to be quite happy. [spoiler]Obviously, there IS a god. And somehow, he found it funny to show humans and cylons how frakked up they were to burst themselves into the oblivion again and again, that he finally came up with a plan to get them work together for a change. To find a new home for everyone who was willing to coexist. And to screw the frakin´rest. For me, that´s what all the unsolved riddles are about.[/spoiler]The rest is a brilliant show about human mind and condition, abour morals and ethics and how it all goes to hell when hell breaks loose. [spoiler]And the finale was enourmously satisfying for me. I loved the falshbacks revealing more about our main casts past, I LOVED the final battle, and I certainly adored the final act. Moore had balls to throw us this metaphysic shit into the face and say, that´s it, folks. Live with it. And since he did that from Season 1, don´t say we didn´t get a warning. ^^[/spoiler]

Well when it was revealed it was [spoiler]Ellen[/spoiler], I basically said: No way, it cannot be that one! I was thinking it would be [spoiler]Starbuck, since she found her dead body on that grim planet. Later it dawned on me that Ellen was the final Cylon anyway.[/spoiler]

So I was wrong.

But was I wrong in assuming you were rightly thinking I was wrong?

Sky 2 seem to be showing it from the start, from December 7. No miniseries to go before it though - and I didn't watch it on the Sci-fi Channel recently.

I'm in the process of watching the featurettes on the S4 DVD box and some of them are very cool. It makes me wanna be a part of the production, as all the nice people talking about the show seem to have had the best time of their lives making it. I can imagine that even the least responsible team member must feel some sort of insane satisfaction to have been part of such a glorious show.

I watched the 'Who the frak is Bear McCreary' doc today and it was very entertaining. Hollywood should make more of this sort of behind-the-scenes mockumentaries that are obviously played but fun nonetheless. I also liked the witty BSG storyline summary on one of the other discs.

All in all S4 provides the most value for money out of all the boxes on the extras aspect, and it's a great rollercoaster season to boot.

BSG: The Plan has been receiving mixed reviews.
Just curious who's seen it here and what are your thoughts?

"The Plan"? What's that? Another spin-off series?

As someone who's not totally into this the way you are (and who is too lazy to google around), do these films take place AFTER the end or at various points INSIDE the series' timeframe?

Well, both movies focus on a specific character; they have a main story that happens at a certain point in the BSG timeline, but both have many flashback scenes which tell what happened to the movie-specific character up to the point in time where they meet the main story.

The Plan´s very short main story happens during "2.20 - Lay Down Your Burdens (Part 2)"; basically, it is not more than a conversation between two Cylon characters before something specific happens to them at the end of the movie. The flashbacks show what these two characters (and some other important characters in relation to the main characters) experienced between the destruction of the colonies and the time up to 2.20. However, the events in this movie and certain explanations would spoil everyone´s fun who has not seen episode "4.15 - No Exit". So while this movie definitely happens during 2.20, I would wait watching it until after 4.15. On a repeated viewing of the complete series, however, I would always watch it directly after 2.20, or even stop 2.20 when the specific conversation happens and watch The Plan before the rest of 2.20 to really put it into the correct frame. The Plan can be described shortly as "The Cylon´s view" of the given timeframe.

Razor is different in so far that it introduces a new character whose fate and backstory is fully explored in this movie while showing certain aspects of the whole storyline that were, so far, unknown, too. The main story is much longer this time and happens directly after "2.17 - The Captain´s Hand". It tells the story of this character, again in flashbacks, from the colonies´ destruction up to 2.17, but we get some glimpses from the First Cylon War as well, through the eyes of two other characters. Although we get to see and learn about some stuff that won´t come up until later episodes, this time, there is no problem whatsoever to watch the movie right here, after 2.17, where it belongs. The Plan can be described shortly as "The Pegasus´ view" of the given timeframe.

Caprica will show the events that lead to the creation of the Cylons in the Twelve Colonies and the First Cylon War.

I hope this helps.

Yes. Thank you Ralph.
I've seen it now. Although I had to adjust to a different pace here (short scenes jumping from one aspect of the story to the other) I found overall that I liked it.
I liked seeing Cavil's character's motive explained in more detail. I also thought it was great to see more of Simon in this story too.
Most of the special effects were great (except for two very quick and nasty shots).
And McCreary's music was good as always.
I can certainly understand some people not liking The Plan. But I enjoyed it on the most part.

Oh, I hope you didn´t feel spoiled in any way. I tried to concentrate on the overall frame, not on the details of the story. You´re still in for a lot of surprises, I think.

He, he...no, no, I wasn't being sarcastic. I liked your details!

The teasing of [spoiler]the harbinger of death[/spoiler]; and perhaps if someone would be so stupid to watch it before Pegasus..