(with spoilers, if you haven't seen it)
But the further away I am from the final episodes the more I'm with this guy, Brad: Battlestar's "Daybreak:" The worst ending in the history of on-screen science fiction.
It's a long essay. Here's my shorter version.
By "worst", he means disappointing. I definitely agree. Ron Moore had set the bar so much higher than anyone expected, and thus had such a very long way to fall. The ending for V may have been crap, for example, but the whole show was kind-of-crap, so no problem. But Moore set out with some very ambitious goals and succeeded in a glorious way--until the end--when he completely contradicts the basic principles and characters that he set out to create. (For those of you who've read Pullman's Dark Materials I'd say the same thing applies [but worse])
Evidently Moore started the show with a manifesto that included the following tenets:
1. Keep the science real.
2. Avoid SF cliches (time travel, god-like powers)
3. Focus on strong, real characters, no stereotypes.
4. Focus on realism.
He shat on all of those ideas and others, especially during the all-important, explain-it-all-ending.
3. Focus on strong, real characters, no stereotypes.
4. Focus on realism.
He shat on all of those ideas and others, especially during the all-important, explain-it-all-ending.
1. The science was bad, and just plain silly. Mitochondrial eve is a theoretical woman who gave us our mitochondria (first calculated by Hawaii's Dr. Cann, who made me grind up a bird once). Plenty of other women were alive at the time and making babies, but the point is that all males who passed on their genes at some point made babies with Hera/Eve or one of Hera's female ancestors, thus spreading her mitochondria. She's hardly the saviors of the human race. More like a galactic slut. And if she had died someone else would have taken her place. Not a big deal except that sooo much of the story was focussed on Hera as being the key to everything... and this is what Moore meant?!? Great.
2. It's obvious who he wanted us to see as being behind the curtain & pulling the strings. Even if he just HAD to do it, there were so many ways he could have done it better! At the very least, change Baltar's last words from "he" to "it", or "she", or "they" or something! How hard is that?!?
3. Complicated characters became simple agents doing "God's plan". Everyone who's spacey is an angel. The leader of a whole separate cylon faction ends his reign by shooting himself in the head. Apollo just wants to go exploring. And Moore said this about the ending: "it's the characters, stupid." Really? Huh.
4. Realism? Right. The second half was phoned in and a brainless way to tie up major characters and loose plot lines with one big, unrealistic bow. I will punch anyone in the face who says that the decision to leave all technology behind makes any fracking sense whatsoever. It is ridiculous. It contradicts everything they were fighting for during the entire run of the show. It points the finger at technology as the cause of all our ills instead of the human condition. Moore did it was because he couldn't leave any technology behind for realism's sake. He thought that having a parallel universe wasn't real enough, and finding the Galactica in modern-day Earth would be too jarring. Wow. Thanks. A whole population of space-faring people agree with one man's stupid idea to hunt with sticks for the rest of their life. That's much more realistic.
Anyway, that's my (+/- Brad's) two cents. I don't think we've ever actually discussed the ending in any detail... I'd be curious as to what you guys think about it now that we've all had some time to let it simmer.
