Did Battlestar Galactica Have The Worst Ending In Science Fiction History?

We ’ve all had our problem with Battlestar Galactica ’s weird solar flair - out of an conclusion , but was it actually the worst end in the history of science fiction ? That ’s what Usenet luminary and Electronic Frontier Foundation Chairman Brad Templeton is arrogate .

Oh , and there will be despoiler for “ Daybreak Parts 2 and 3 ” in this mail , in case you ’re still waiting for the DVD before look out it .

Templeton ’s mega essaymore specifically tars “ morning ” as “ the worst terminate in the history of on - screen scientific discipline fiction . ” And he has understandably thought about this for months , hoard a docket of evidence that the BSG - boosters will have a hard prison term refuting . And he admit that part of the intellect why the ending seems so spoiled to him is that this was such a grotesque serial , for so much of its run — this would n’t have felt near as much like a disappointment otherwise .

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I ’m not going to essay to sum up Templeton ’s whole argument here — it ’s really worth going and reading the whole affair properly — but he wee-wee a few really groovy point that I have n’t see anywhere else . First of all , BSG is not just a blank opera , it ’s a mystery , and the solution to all of the show ’s brain-teaser is one of the chief attractions of the final episode . The fact that the answer run to be either “ God ” or “ because we said so ” was , to be honest , a fleck disappointing . And because Ronald D. Moore determine to build the last two seasons around “ big whodunit ” alternatively of character - driven plot line , you ca n’t excuse his failure to make up off those mystery story by say the show is really all about the type .

The other problem with God turning out to have been such a vast force in the show ’s tale arc , Templeton notes , is the Ghostbusters linguistic rule : “ If someone asks you if you are a god , you say yes ! ” ( And the corollary is that gods , at least in science fable , normally bend out to be mistaken . ) Templeton has a huge , thoroughgoing list of all the plot contrivances and coincidence that end up being place at God ’s doorway , including everything Head Six format during the row of the series , and it ’s quite an telling list . It ’s fine to have a Supreme Being set the taradiddle ’s events in motion and cause worry for our heroes , but not quite so not bad for God(s ) to swoop in and work out all our problems at the closing of the story .

There ’s also the always - tenuous human relationship between science fable and our reality — not to advert between science fiction and science . And once you face at the science of “ Daybreak , ” it does start to depend a bit dodgy . There ’s the fact that Galactica ’s human being and the cave hoi polloi of prehistoric Earth are capable to crossbreed , for one thing . And then there ’s Ron Moore ’s total mistaking of who Mitochondrial Eve actually was and why she ’s significant — she ’s not the most mutual recent antecedent for all humans , who crop up much afterward . But turning Hera into Mitochrondrial Eve means that the show has to take station 150,000 twelvemonth ago , or about 100,000 twelvemonth before humans started to develop any kind of engineering science . And that , in bit , means the Colonial fleet left perfectly no marker whatsoever .

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Templeton also has trouble with the “ collective unconsciousness ” idea that all of the stuff we see in the series , from Bob Dylan ’s “ All Along The Watchtower ” through to the clothes and ring our poor boy practice , somehow permeate down through our patrimonial computer storage so that we could reinvent it all today . And the frostiness of the cliche of “ ancient astronauts ” visiting our naive ancestors .

( A side note : Katee Sackhoff has saidthere ’s a stemma of dialog she refused to say in the final installment . After she puts in the line to the magic song and jumps the fleet to Earth , President Roslin inquire , “ Where have you take us ? ” And in Moore ’s script , she was supposed to respond : “ Somewhere … all along the watchtower . ” But she and Mary McDonnell kept giggle when they induce to that line , so it terminate up get veer . Thank good . )

Here ’s what I always come back to when I think about the BSG finale , though — I feel as though Moore put us on notice with the final sequence of season three . When we first encounter the mysterious Bob Dylan Cylon signal , and four completely random characters plough out to be Cylons , and Starbuck comes back from the dead , the show is basically hoisting a giant augury sound out “ You Are Now Leaving Storytelling logical system . Please Drive Safely . ” And anyone who stick with the show for its last season after that really ca n’t complain , because we were punctually warn .

Lesdilley