Battlestar Galactica - Final Season Catch-All (SPOILERS)

Rat Boy wrote:

Whole lotta info straight from the horses mouths.

Nice link. The fact that the episode was filmed during that first uncertain week of the strike really explains a lot of the emotional undertones you can feel when you watch it.

It also explains the tonal shift that rabbit discussed.

I walked in on the show just as Dualla got back from saying goodnight to Lee. I still can't get that last image out of my head.

Reaper81 wrote:

It also explains the tonal shift that rabbit discussed.

And the occasional clank with the dialogue. The actors had to make it work, even if it didn't, because there was no one down in the writer's room to call in for a re-write or sign off on improv'ed changes.

Conjecture:
I'm betting on shades of the matrix reasoning. The cyclical angle. Humans invent Cylons. Cylons kill humans. Cylons become human. Humans invent cylons. Cylons kill humans. What's the quote? This is all happened before, and it'll happened again. I'm betting the mystical is a red herring, and that a bunch of this I programmed into the base DNA of the cyclons/humans allowing for the final 5 to be reborn every now and then.

Atomicvideohead wrote:

Conjecture:
I'm betting on shades of the matrix reasoning. The cyclical angle. Humans invent Cylons. Cylons kill humans. Cylons become human. Humans invent cylons. Cylons kill humans. What's the quote? This is all happened before, and it'll happened again. I'm betting the mystical is a red herring, and that a bunch of this I programmed into the base DNA of the cyclons/humans allowing for the final 5 to be reborn every now and then.

That's makes sense. Now all we need is a guy in a white suit named the Architect.

Rat Boy wrote:

Whole lotta info straight from the horses mouths.

I don't even want to look. I go into black out mode regarding BSG - it jsut makes it much better to read after the fact and still be able to experience what the writes and directors are aiming at as it is intended.

that being said - if Starbucks resurrection and such has something to do with time travel and black holes I will be sorely dis appointed.

Didn't she have her eggs snatch in a very early episode
On a side tangent - Dualla is a very attractive girl - a shame we'll not see her again on the show simply for the pure aesthetics if nothing else.

e989 wrote:

Didn't she have her eggs snatch in a very early episode
On a side tangent - Dualla is a very attractive girl - a shame we'll not see her again on the show simply for the pure aesthetics if nothing else.

Seek out bad Canadian television. Dualla is all over it. Especially anything shot in Vancouver or Victoria.

Just saw that Apple is giving away free downloads of the last series of webisodes (all 10 eps) in both HD or SD format.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...

I haven't seen a single episode of BG yet, but I've been meaning to try and get into it... the DVD sets are too damn expensive for me to buy, so hopefully I can borrow them or find some kind of deal at some point.

I enjoyed the episode. The loss of the beautiful D does sadden me though.

Do we know if Sci-Fi will air all the remaining episodes with no breaks? If so, then sorry ladies, I always have a date on Friday nights...not that any of you care or are reading this...

SommerMatt wrote:

Just saw that Apple is giving away free downloads of the last series of webisodes (all 10 eps) in both HD or SD format.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...

I haven't seen a single episode of BG yet, but I've been meaning to try and get into it... the DVD sets are too damn expensive for me to buy, so hopefully I can borrow them or find some kind of deal at some point.

I guess you could always NetFlix the entire series or rent them. Too bad you don't live near me or else I'd let you borrow Seasons 1 through 3 that I have box sets for including Razor.

Also on the Matrix cycle comment I believe that's probably closer to the case. That old cylon on the lost bay ship in Razor saying that "All this happened before and it will all happen again." and also that Starbuck is the bringer of destruction meaning that as soon as Starbuck (the person) is born then that signals the end of humans and starts the war. Maybe Starbuck, or at least her soul, truly is the mark of Armageddon and is only reborn once every 2000 years.

e989 wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Whole lotta info straight from the horses mouths.

I don't even want to look. I go into black out mode regarding BSG - it jsut makes it much better to read after the fact and still be able to experience what the writes and directors are aiming at as it is intended.

that being said - if Starbucks resurrection and such has something to do with time travel and black holes I will be sorely dis appointed.

Didn't she have her eggs snatch in a very early episode
On a side tangent - Dualla is a very attractive girl - a shame we'll not see her again on the show simply for the pure aesthetics if nothing else.

I'm not convinced that we won't see her again. After all, Starbuck was resurrected there despite apparently not being one of the 5.

BSG has long suffered from "writer's clunk." Some of the early stuff was really taut and well-written, but often I feel like the writers are flailing, trying to get their (usually good) ideas into dialogue. The Adama/Tigh scene was embarrassing — and the acting so far over the top as to make me and mrs. lostlobster laugh out loud.

That said, I own all of it on DVD and am hanging on every poorly-written word, waiting to find out the end of the story — which has been a good one.

lostlobster wrote:

BSG has long suffered from "writer's clunk." Some of the early stuff was really taut and well-written, but often I feel like the writers are flailing, trying to get their (usually good) ideas into dialogue. The Adama/Tigh scene was embarrassing — and the acting so far over the top as to make me and mrs. lostlobster laugh out loud.

That said, I own all of it on DVD and am hanging on every poorly-written word, waiting to find out the end of the story — which has been a good one.

I thought Adama's "main vein" line was brilliant!

Barab wrote:
lostlobster wrote:

BSG has long suffered from "writer's clunk." Some of the early stuff was really taut and well-written, but often I feel like the writers are flailing, trying to get their (usually good) ideas into dialogue. The Adama/Tigh scene was embarrassing — and the acting so far over the top as to make me and mrs. lostlobster laugh out loud.

That said, I own all of it on DVD and am hanging on every poorly-written word, waiting to find out the end of the story — which has been a good one.

I thought Adama's "main vein" line was brilliant!

Countered by Tigh's always awesome, "Shut yer FRAKKIN' MOUTH!"

NSMike wrote:
Barab wrote:
lostlobster wrote:

BSG has long suffered from "writer's clunk." Some of the early stuff was really taut and well-written, but often I feel like the writers are flailing, trying to get their (usually good) ideas into dialogue. The Adama/Tigh scene was embarrassing — and the acting so far over the top as to make me and mrs. lostlobster laugh out loud.

That said, I own all of it on DVD and am hanging on every poorly-written word, waiting to find out the end of the story — which has been a good one.

I thought Adama's "main vein" line was brilliant!

Countered by Tigh's always awesome, "Shut yer FRAKKIN' MOUTH!"

I enjoyed that whole scene. It didn't feel hammy at all and the writing didn't feel clanky at all.

The stuff that really didn't work for me was the stuff between Starbuck and Lee, which, in looking back at the series, has never worked because there is zero chemistry between those two, and when the writers have tried to force a chemistry in there they both come out looking like the world's biggest douchebags.

And I couldn't figured out for the life of me why everyone has now pretty much forgotten about Baltar. To the point that they stuck him on an away team.

Oh, and Anders ... cannot act his way out of a wet condom. He cannot out act a rigid side of beef. Every time he's on screen I picture him putting, "DUDE!" at the end of every line. For instance when he picks up the guitar neck, and says "I played this song for a woman." I could've sworn he said, "I TOTALLY played this song for a woman, DUDE!"

I watched the enhanced episode of Somtimes a great notion and got to warn you all that it has a spoiler to a few questions that are not answered yet in the series. Some are assumed, or implied in the series but not definately answered.

So I'm still clueless about Starbuck and her new viper.

It might help if you knew this episode was a bastard child of the Writers' Strike:

Ron D Moore wrote:

the strike was called, that episode was the only script we had written so that script would be shot. I flew up to Vancouver, gathered the whole cast and crew together in the CIC [set] and said, “OK, this is where we are. There’s a strike. I’m on strike. The other writers are on a picket line right now, I’m flying back to join them. There’s not going to be any more script pages. The show is entrusted to you. Just make the very best one that you can. I hope you get as much overtime as you can.” My producer almost had a heart attack.

It's not the normal way these shows are made, the production crew gets the script and asks for changes and clarifications. That didn't happen here. The episode had some rough edges. However, the performances do have a raw feel to them, which is perfect for the subject matter.

I bet that, as the season goes on and we have more answers, we'll look back and find this one of the better episodes in the whole series.

EDIT: I was reminded of the Voyager episode Night.

souldaddy wrote:

I bet that, as the season goes on and we have more answers, we'll look back and find this one of the better episodes in the whole series.

I already feel it was one of the best, i loved it.

Barab wrote:
souldaddy wrote:

I bet that, as the season goes on and we have more answers, we'll look back and find this one of the better episodes in the whole series.

I already feel it was one of the best, i loved it.

Whatever our opinions on where the show is going, I think we can all agree this was one brave hour of television.

Since we switched threads again I'll point out these sites:

You will know the truth - Now that we know who the fifth is it's not really the same but the thread the site links to discuss it pretty much nailed Ellen.

For some spoilerish (because you see people that are coming back as well as pics from the sets of the last scenes) movies you can watch these videos of the final days of shooting on the series.

e989 wrote:

that being said - if Starbucks resurrection and such has something to do with time travel and black holes I will be sorely dis appointed.

I think Ron Moore came out at one point and said that particular science fiction story mechanic was NOT something he was interested in using in Battlestar, ever. That, and aliens.

Man that was a dark episode though. The one, unbroken shot of Adama asking a crewman for his sidearm and walking all the way to Tigh's quarters, where you see the disheartened in the background as he makes his trek, was fantastic. Lee and Dualla's interaction in this episode was actually the first time that the relationship worked for me. Before this episode, the relationship between the two always felt forced and not genuine, but this episode turned their relationship around for me. I certainly did not see her putting a bullet through her head.

Great link Ratboy! I'll agree with rabbit: some of the dialogue felt a little clunky at times, but the actors carried it out extremely well: I loved the scene where Adama has a gun pointed to his head and he's just saying 'Do it do it do it!' - powerful stuff!

Can't wait to see more!

Really bad ad placement. (Pretty big episode spoiler if you haven't seen it yet)

Stick around until the singing begins if you don't know the song.

NSMike wrote:

Really bad ad placement. (Pretty big episode spoiler if you haven't seen it yet)

Stick around until the singing begins if you don't know the song.

Oh GOD! That is actually quite funny LOL!

I just got a chance to catch this episode yesterday and man what an episode. I really didn't think they were going to reveal so much in it. I thought it was going to take until the last few episodes before anything really happened. And what happened to D I so did not see coming. My mouth was on the floor. The great thing about this show is they will do just about anything and do just about anything to the characters even the main people. This makes the show so fun to watch cause you literally never know what to expect. I really hope all the episodes are aired back to back because I am really tired of waiting to see what is going to happen.

I don't know. Part of me wants to call shenanigans on it.

A few odd questions that come to mind...

First off, what was Kara (pre-death)? I think, personally, she was human, and manipulated by something.

Now, what is the resurrected Kara? I don't know, but one theory that comes to mind is, she's a next-generation (or old generation, depending on how you look at it) hybrid. Her return was marked with a need to find earth. In addition to that, each time they jumped, she reacted. The only other character we've seen do that is a hybrid. And she didn't hear music like the other cylons.

It's far-fetched, but it's basically the only explanation that keeps her out of the Cylon dodecagate.

EDIT:

Also, just listening to the enhanced episode, and Ron's explanation of where the 13th tribe Cylons came from is pretty interesting, and makes pretty good sense. It doesn't seem too spoilerish, but it could be, so I'll leave it unexplained for you folks who are not interested in knowing.

NSMike wrote:

Really bad ad placement. (Pretty big episode spoiler if you haven't seen it yet)

Stick around until the singing begins if you don't know the song.

Wow. That was really really bad and really really FUNNY!
It was almost as if it was planned.

NSMike wrote:

Really bad ad placement. (Pretty big episode spoiler if you haven't seen it yet)

Stick around until the singing begins if you don't know the song.

That was a REAL - L.O.L. moment

NSMike wrote:

Also, just listening to the enhanced episode, and Ron's explanation of where the 13th tribe Cylons came from is pretty interesting, and makes pretty good sense. It doesn't seem too spoilerish, but it could be, so I'll leave it unexplained for you folks who are not interested in knowing.

Yeah you're right it isn't too bad, but after hearing what he says it took some of the fun out of guessing just what the frak is going on. Mainly cause all of my ideas were way off when it came to the 13th tribe, and the human/cylon relations.

spoiler from the enhanced episode[/url]][color=white]This fundamental idea that once upon a time there were was a place called Kobol, the gods and men lived together. Man on kobol stole fire from the gods, that fire was the knowledge of life, how to create life, they created their own cylons. That creation and the destruction of their paradise was the end of kobol.

Twelve colonies, twelve tribes went that way, and the 13th tribe, 13th tribe of cylons went the other way, and they found and settled a planet that they called Earth, and at some point, the people on Earth, the cylons on Earth, repeated the pattern and destroyed themseleves as well. This feeds into the overall “all this has happened before and will happen again” mythology of the show.

[/color]

RDM has a list of his favorite episodes (on the iTS), I think it's a great recap of the show's best moments:

33 - RDM: "First episode of the first season and still one of our best. I like the non-traditional structure of the piece and the way it just plunges the audience into a tense situation."
Act of Contrition - RDM: "Kara's confession to Adama that she was responsible for Zak's death is a powerful and devastating moment, with standout performances by Eddie and Katee. The flashback's structure built around Kara's ejection and her memories of meeting Adama opened new doors for the series in terms of narrative structure."
Flesh and Bone - RDM: "A tough-to-watch episode, this one delves into philosophy, religion and morality without ever losing the underlying tension of the piece."
The Hand of God - RDM: "The best flat-out action story we ever did with a nice father/son story at its heart."
Pegasus - RDM: "Tremendous performances by Michelle Forbes as Admiral Caine and Tricia Helfer as Gina make this a great chapter. I love the design of the Pegasus herself and the way Adama gives up command of his fleet with such grace."
Downloaded - RDM: "Seeing the story from the Cylon point of view opened the story in a new way and challenged our assumptions about heroes and villians in the Galactica Universe."
Lay Down Your Burdens Part 1 & Part 2 - RDM: "The best of our cliffhangers. The personal and political collide when Laura decides to steal the election, and the leap ahead a year in time remains one of my favorite moments in the entire series."
Occupation / Precipice - RDM: "The occupation of New Caprica by the Cylons was wonderfully realized by the entire production team. Seeing our characters struggle with the morality of the resistance while the audience struggles to understand the lives they led in the intervening year make for a rich brew of story and character."
Exodus Part 1 & Part 2 - RDM: "The final escape from New Caprica is breathless from start to finish and the final reunion of Adama and Tigh aboard the Galactica is both satisfying and heartbreaking all at once."
Unfinished Business - RDM: "I found the interplay between the boxing tournament and the memories of life back on New Caprica to be both moving and poetic. The lion's share of credit goes to Director Bob Young's sinsitivity to character emotion and his instinct for the strong bones of the story."

Funny that the 6 episode run from the end of Season 2 leading into Season 3 are all present and unbroken. I agree, its the best extended part of the show.