Let us start by giving thanks to God, or the Gods, or a mysterious force, or a chick in a red dress, or Starbuck, for the fact that Battlestar Galactica got an end. A proper end. An end that was planned for at least a year in advance. An end that was vaguely satisfying. An end with a robot montage. There are so many shows out there that have deserved something like this and failed to get it. (The ending, that is, not necessarily a robot montage.)

But the downside to getting an ending like this is that people will expect big things. Luckily, from the beginning, it’s clear that ‘Daybreak’ is breaking the mould of the previous episodes a little bit. Once upon a time we used to get flashbacks of the crew’s life on Caprica; now, for one night only, they’re back with a vengeance.¹ Roslyn, Tigh, Adama, Ellen, Boomer, Lee, Kara, Gaius — it’s like being reunited with old friends to see them as they used to be; free of responsibility, of the terrible weight of human history and survival. After quite a while of being continually alienated from our favourite characters, I was pleased that season four, and ‘Daybreak’ in particular, really pay them some attention again.²

But Battlestar isn’t just characters; it’s the epic story of humans and cylons, of history repeating horribly, of apocalypse and rebirth. And if you were watching to find out what happens, and to make sense of the twists and turns of the last four years, you’ll probably be severely pissed off. If there’s something inexplicable that happened in Battlestar Galactica, and it hadn’t been explained to you by the start of ‘Daybreak’, chances are that it turns out that the answer is “God is real and made it happen.” This has annoyed many, many people, either because they don’t like the idea of God very much, or because they don’t like loose ends very much, or both.

Personally, it all made me realise that a while back I stopped thinking of the show as a proper show where interconnected events happen logically, and began thinking of it as a blurry mess where random stuff happens, and good characters occasionally get to be cool. Which is unfortunate, really. I loaned the original miniseries to a friend the other day and as I sat through his interesting speculations on who the Six inside Gaius’ head was, I couldn’t help feeling a little bit betrayed by ‘Daybreak’. The show has altered and evolved since those days, but even if you see the Angels as a consistent conclusion, it still completely kills it for anyone who was interested in what the Angels actually wanted, since the answer is “for everything to happen exactly like you saw it happen, just because.”³ It seems horrifyingly pathetic for two species to realise that they’ve been manipulated by unknowable entities beyond their comprehension, and to meekly accept that they probably know best. As far as attitudes to omniprescent puppet masters go, I prefer “Get the hell out of our galaxy.”

So; it’s best not to think about plot, as we probably all realised a while back. Some of the individual moments, however, are excellent. I’ve spent paragraphs railing against the angels, but the reaction of Gaius and Caprica Six when they realise that they’re both seeing visions is priceless. Similarly, Tori’s awkward last moments as she suddenly realises that her secrets are about to be less secret were hilarious. I like a show that isn’t afraid to play key dramatic moments for comedy. Roslyn’s tragic experience on Caprica and the contrast with her determination to help even on death’s door was quite affecting, especially from a character I couldn’t stand only half a season ago. Perhaps one of the finest characters on television ever, Gaius Baltar, finally comes good; cheesy, perhaps, but oddly satisfying. And poor Admiral Adama’s emotional rollercoaster continues, as he goes from some impressive shouting and decision making in the first part to a somewhat less austere point involving vomit and a gutter in his flashbacks. As ever, Edward James Olmos is nothing short of amazing, and he finishes in fine, tear-jerking form as he finally gets his cabin with Roslyn on new Earth.⁴

Oh yeah, Earth. What can you say, except that it was probably done slightly better by Douglas Adams? It still works pretty well though, and provides some absolutely gorgeous imagery for the show to go out on. Like the plot, some of it is a little wooly, specifically Lee’s rather brave settlement plans. Throughout the series, the main characters have had trouble convincing the fleet to go along with their crazy yet heroic notions; perhaps Zarek really did them a favour, as since the rebellion and the execution of their democratically elected leaders, they really do seem to have fallen into line. Tell them to throw away their ships; they will. Tell them to start new lives relying on skills they most likely never had after living in metal boxes for years; they will. It’s all a cute idea, so I’m not completely against it, but it all seems a little like mass suicide.

I seem to have become critical again. Truly it was said that everything has happened before, and everything will happen again.

So let me say something else nice to round things up. I liked Battlestar Galactica, and even at the end, I don’t feel like it chased the pigeon. Or, if it did, it did it ages ago and I’m over it. It didn’t end as the same show it promised to be, and that makes a big part of me sad, because I really wouldn’t mind seeing the end of that show, too. But at the end I could still enjoy it for the religious space-soap it had become. And I’m not so much of an ingrate that I can’t appreciate actually having a decent show wrapped up after a decent run, with the ending that the writers wanted. That’s not something that happens every day, you know.

1. Well, two nights. But that doesn’t sound as good. ↩
2. Although some of the flashbacks are a bit rubbish. In particular, I don’t see the point of having a flashback to Boomer one day saying “I owe you one” to Adama. Of course she owes him one! She shot him in the frakking chest! ↩
3. Looking at it rationally, if the Angels really wanted to take the fleet to Earth, then they must be the sort of superbeings who have really peculiar rules about how and when they can influence humans, because fuck me, that’s one seriously convoluted way to do it. ↩
4. I was quite glad the series didn’t end here, partly because I kind of like the crazy flash forward with Hallucination Angel Six and Gaius, but mostly because I was gathering some manly tears and didn’t want everyone I was watching with to turn around and notice. ↩

This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Monday, April 6th, 2009. It concerns such pressing issues as Battlestar Galactica, tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.