In fact, going by the series finale, Ron Moore is the sci-fi equivalent of a creationist. God is in every gap. Every unexplained detail can be explained by the fact that God says so. In theology, there's an argument somewhere in there. But in screenwriting such deus ex machina punting is letting writer's block substitute as demiurge.
Now let me be clear when I say that I actually like the idea of turning to religion and, for want of a better word, the supernatural. But it still needs to make sense. [...] Ron Moore [...] thinks letting actors explore their characters and work out morality tales [...] makes for more compelling television. I think that what made the first couple seasons so great is that he was able to contain or restrain this tendency within the larger storyline. Once that blew up, the show squandered its greatness.
I thought the first two seasons of BSG were great. I didn't particularly like the third, but I figured the writers' strike had caused a lot of problems, and I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I watched this season without much enthusiasm. The only thing that kept me going was that I wanted to see how they would wrap everything up. Let's just say I was unsatisfied with the Starbuck explanation. She should have been a replicant created by the last great computer left on the old Earth, who had to sacrifice his own power source to save Starbuck's soul with some sort of human cloning mechanism. Work in some of that old-time prophesy to connect it back to the Colonial Gods. The musical stuff was fine, but that could have been the computer's universal programming language. Everybody together: "I'd like to teach the world to sing..."
It's totally crazy to think that you can get thousands of people to return to the stone age in search of a better way of life. Maybe Ron Moore is channeling Al Gore and the Global Warming alarmists, but I'm not buying it. Would it have been so difficult to let a few hippies follow Apollo in going native while the rest of them conquered some unpopulated continent? Then maybe their ship could have accidently exploded leaving only a handful of Colonials to mix with the proto-humans. Similar result, but with a slightly more tragic and understandable ending.
Oh yeah, the Chief should have been shot by a Cylon when he choked the other one during the resurrection technology seance. It didn't make sense for him to survive and become the first King of Scotland or whatever.
1 comment:
Hiya! Stumbled across your blog... long time no see! :-)
I completely agree. The early seasons were much better. The fat Apollo season was awful I thought (whichever season that was). I regained interest after that but it's been kinda' so-so leading up to the end. I did kind of like the link between Hera and mitochondrial Eve though, minus the 2 minutes of robot dancing at the end of the episode.
Hope this finds you and yours well.
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