So. I am finally getting around to re-writing the Galactica finale review that got eaten by the mist monsters of cyberspace.
Thanks to those who have waited patiently . . . and to the reader who keeps sending emails that just say “bsg finale analysis?” Polite. Succinct. I like that.
So here goes . . .
The reimagined series of Battlestar Galactica ended with a 3-hour finale called Daybreak. In case you’ve forgotten what happened in it,
For those who (still) haven’t seen it, I’ll put the spoilers below the fold. But let’s answer the first, more general question here: Love it or hate it?
Mmmmmmmm . . . neither.
I certainly didn’t hate it, but I didn’t find myself thinking it was the best possible ending, either. I put it in the “Basically liked it but had some stupid parts” category.
So I wasn’t disappointed. I wanted to come out basically liking the ending, and I did. I don’t expect shows to wow me in the final episode with a “Best. Episode. Evah!” experience. That’s too much to ask. The Best Episode Evah is statistically far more likely to come before the series finale, so I don’t go into the ending with my hopes set too high.
I just want them to tell an engaging story that answers the series’ major questions, ties up the major loose ends, and gives me a sense of closure and satisfaction.
I thought the BGS finale did that, with a few blemishes that I’ll talk about.
To give you a sense of how I think this finale compared to other sci-fi finales, I guess I’d rank them this way (series that got cancelled and didn’t have a proper finale, I won’t cover):
Star Trek: Deep Space 9: * * * * of 5 stars (fire cave sequence needed to be better and Sisko should have become a prophet, per the plan)
Babylon 5: * * * 1/2 (nice closure, but not the series’ best/most exciting, which wasn’t what I was looking for; get to see the main characters 20 years later in their lives; Sheridan’s final goodbye to Delenn, etc.)
Battlestar Galactica: * * * 1/2 (better than B5 in some ways, but also marred by stupid stuff, making them about equal)
Star Trek: Next Generation: * * * (okay; didn’t wow me; didn’t deserve the Hugo it got; felt like an ordinaryish 2-hour episode; drama hampered by the fact that there was no overarching series goal to be resolved, so they had to come up with the fakey “you’re still on trial” thing in an attempt to provide one; it’s such a pity that–although there was still a lot of good Next Gen to come–the series technically jumped the shark with “the best of both worlds” (
2nd3rd season cliffhanger (thanks for the correction!); Picard becomes a borg); that really should have been one of the feature films)Star Trek: Voyager: * * (no post-climax cooling off period; very important for this kind of story; we need to see the returnees starting their new lives and enjoying (or not) the home they’ve struggled so long to get to, not just sighting the planet in the distance; also BTW, this is where the bottom of the barrel starts; if your series finale scored lower than this, you really have something to be ashamed of, no matter how good it was in its heyday–or even one episode before)
Stargate SG-1: * 1/2 (ihh. that was an ending? sit around for a long time and hit the reset button? it wasn’t unending, it was uninteresting as a finale)
Star Trek: Enterprise: * (horrible! abominable! never do this! the holodeck thing was bad enough, but the worthless death of a major character was insane! this episode was so bad that the producers deserve to be doomed to a sisyphean ordeal of constantly struggling to get new sci-fi shows on the air only to have them swiftly cancelled and . . . oh, wait.)
The X-Files: * (gaaahhh! unbelievably bad writing in the final episode! the whole mulder-on-trial thing was a disaster! and that franchise-killing movie you followed it up with was horrible, too! LISTEN, CHRIS CARTER!: BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL WHAT YOU NEED TO DO A THIRD MOVIE IN 2012, TELL US THE STORY OF THE ALIEN INVASION THE SERIES WAS LEADING UP TO, AND THEN PUT THE FRANCHISE DOWN AND BACK AWAY SLOWLY, KEEPING YOUR HANDS IN SIGHT AT ALL TIMES!)
Hrm.
Okay, I have more on this to say than will make a comfortably sized post, so up next will be things I liked about the finale, then things I didn’t like.
In the mean time, why don’t y’all argue about the relative merits of series finales like the ones above? (That’s the whole point of rankings–to quantify an opinion for purposes of discussion, after all.)
Correction on Next Generation – “Best of Both Worlds, Part I” was the cliffhanger ending to the THIRD season. (and it was also the first season-ending cliffhanger in Trek history, but I’m sure you knew that 😉 )
I definitely agree with you on Voyager, by the way. Saving their arrival at Earth for the VERY LAST SHOT OF THE SERIES was a cheat. I know there’s been an attempt to tie up “loose ends” in the Voyager novels, but (a) I have yet to get around to reading those and (b) Trek novels aren’t considered canon.
I actually liked the SG1 Finale because the idea was that the story went on, but our viewing of it had ended. Since they were continuing the SG universe that choice made sense. Though, I suppose if SGA and SGU and the SG1 movies did not happen, then I would have seen no point in the Finale.
I liked the BSG finale maybe a half star or so better than you, but I do agree it was somewhat flawed. I especially like Cavil going out in a blaze of nihilistic dispair; it made the episode for me. Though the last line of the episode also perplexed me since Head-6 and Head-Baltar called God God and Him for the whole series.
I’m not sure “jumped the shark” means what you think it means. Shark jumping refers to a point at which a series ceases to be watchable; TNG didn’t jump the shark after “Best of Both Worlds,” it simply didn’t outdo that performance. Seasons 4/5/6/7 were almost universally better than seasons 1/2, and many good performances lie in those seasons, but BoBW set a standard that didn’t get met again. I would actually mark BoBW as a taking off point for the series, not a downturn.
So, a word about SG1. Chop off the last few, Jack-less, Ori-filled seasons, and you’re left with the two-parter “Moebius” as a finale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moebius_%28Stargate_SG-1%29 in case you’ve forgotten). It works much better as a series finale, if you ask me, and gets … I dunno, a lot of stars. I don’t know how many, but I recommend considering it the finale and ignoring the Ori crap.
The best endings are in animated cartoons. The Justice League series by Bruce Timm hit the ball out of the park with Star-Crossed and Divided We Fall.
As for science fiction, the best series finalies might be the Dr. Who endings. Look at the last one where David Tennent’s Doctor regenerated. You guys are too short-term. There have been fifty years of relatively sophisticated science fiction series (I am ignoring Rocky Jones, etc, from the 1950’s). The best ending was, possibly from a little-watched series on FOX called, Nowhere Man, back in 1997. How many people even remember the Logan’s Run series, with an episode written by Harlen Ellison?
The Chicken
Enterprise’s ending, particularly the death of what’s-his-name, was horrible. But then, I had major objections to almost every aspect of that show, so it would have taken a miracle for them to come up with an ending I would have liked (I liked to joke that Archer inadvertently started the Dominion by telling the changelings they needed to assert themselves more).
DS9’s ending was a bit of a cop out, but I forgive it because it is the best Star Trek series.
I liked B5’s ending a lot, particularly the fact that not everything got wrapped up, and there were still problems and battles to be had in the future. (Too bad Crusade and other projects went nowhere.)
BSG’s finale was not perfect by any means, but I find that the feeling I am left with isn’t tied up with any nitpicks or disappointments, but overwhelming sadness for everything that was lost.
FWIW, here’s how the man who coined the term “jumping the shark” defined it:
“It’s a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on…it’s all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it ‘Jumping the Shark.'”
By that definition, “jumping the shark” could be the peak itself, or, more in keeping with the context and spirit of the definition than the exact letter, a key anticlimactic moment signaling that the peak is well in the past.
I don’t think it’s necessary to stipulate that the show becomes unwatchable. One might argue that with a strict or narrow jump-the-shark moment there is no more point in watching, or at least reduced point. A show that has jumped the shark in this strict or narrow sense has outstayed its welcome, gone past its sell-by date.
In that strict or narrow sense, I don’t think I would say TNG ever jumped the shark. They continued to produce good and vital episodes and interesting situations in the later seasons, pretty much up until the end. Jimmy seems to be using “jumping the shark” in a broader sense, more or less meaning “post peak.”
Deo Gratis! It’s here!
I half agree with your take on DS9. The fire cave sequence was WAAAYYY to derivative of Kirk’s battle with Gary Mitchell, and the Prophets could’ve done more to perpare Sisko for his battle with Dukat, like having his mom possess him or something. However, I have a soft spot for keeping families together, so I was glad that he could come back. I also loved the wrap up of the Dominion War and Odo’s story. I loved the “The Way You Look Tonight” montage, but it also contained my other big problem with the episode. Worf’s reminiscing rang hollow since they couldn’t/wouldn’t use Terry Ferrell’s footage.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks All Good Things (TNG finale) was overrated. Not bad, just not the classic people seem to think it is. It may be that it looks better compared to the rest of season 7, which had some of the worst clunkers since 1 and 2 (the Enterprise had a baby?!?!?)
CJ–Couldn’t. They wanted to focus Worf’s flashbacks on the Worf/Jadzia/Ezri relationship, but they couldn’t get the rights to use footage of Terry Ferrell.
I hated, hated, hated the BSG finale. But I think the whole show really started to fall apart in season 2. It could never live up to the wonder that was the mini-series.
The TNG finale was at least as good as the DS9 one, IMHO. It was certainly one of the best episodes of the entire series, up there with Best of Both Worlds.
I dug out a note I sent to someone regarding a poem they shared. I compared some of the feelings in the poem to the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica. I excerpt my reflection below.
“I found – when reading this – that I was entering into that great melancholy of agnosticism/mysticism of not knowing; yet clinging to the only one worth trusting in the midst of not knowing.
“This was evoked most recently a few months back in the final episodes of the latest incarnation of Battlestar Galactica. In them, they tried to embrace both a world of billions of years and planets and evolution and coincidence and violence and our ultimate smallness, with a world of mystery and meaning and destiny and an ultimate end and cause (God) to whom it and we all matter. It was both depressing and inspiring – an invitation – if you will – into, well, I’ve already used the word – Mystery. And a mystery that only the author of all mystery can transform such a dark bottomless well from becoming a place of despair, to an adventure of everlasting refreshment and discovery.”
I agree with Chrysologus. The mini was superb. I enjoyed the series up until the escape from New Caprica, which I considered the show’s best single episode. The show’s quality declined after that and never really recovered.
My vote for worst sci-fi finale ever goes to the last episode of “Quantum Leap”. If you saw it, you know what I mean.
They wanted to focus Worf’s flashbacks on the Worf/Jadzia/Ezri relationship, but they couldn’t get the rights to use footage of Terry Ferrell.
Gotta love those copyright laws. Seriously, how does not allowing an important character to be in the finale advance the cause of science, technology, or the arts?
In any case, the ending of SG-1 was a last minute thing. Remember, the producers were expecting to be cancelled starting with season five. They kept getting renewed at the last minute. They had several big, climactic final episodes (roughly one for each season after season five). It was the Sci-fi channel that decided to pull the plug at the last minute of the tenth season (ironically, after the hilarious send-up of episode 200 about being cancelled). Robert Cooper had a short time to produce the script. He knew he could not tie up so complicated a story line as the Ori story, so he decided to do a character piece. As a somber remeniscence of the personalities of the main characters, it suceeds fairly well. It is depressing, granted, but it was a meditation on what might have been. The whole point was when Daniel said, at the end, “There’s never enough time.”
I would give it 2 1/2 stars, perhaps 3. Where else will you get to see a science geek play the cello?
Star Trek Voyager was a very contrived ending. Star Trek TNG was servicible. All three Star Trek series relied on displacement in either time or space for their last episodes. This is an easy way to hook the audience. Something more subtle might have been nice.
I can leave or take the X-Files ending. It did end with Mulder holding a cross.
I think everyone agrees that Quantum Leap was a very unsatisfying ending. So was the ending to Sliders.
The Chicken
I enjoyed the ending of TNG. I thought it was a pretty good episode, and pretty memorable, too. I always loved the Q episodes anyhow. I understand the idea that the “trial is still ongoing” thing was a little contrived, but I wouldn’t say it was as bad as perhaps Jimmy thinks, the reason being because the series was, as a whole, really about the “human condition” – much more so than any of the other Star Trek series. The first episode focused on the goodness of humanity through the lens of the trial, and so it does make sense on some level to me to return to that theme for the final one. Even if the trial wasn’t an explicit part of any of the other episodes in between first and last – and was indeed the farthest thing from anybody’s minds – nevertheless that underlying theme of “what does it mean to be human?” was present.
Consequently, I actually think that Star Trek Nemesis, for all its faults, does serve as a very nice closure to the series (a closure which the powers that be ruined with the franchise reboot, btw, in the 4 part comic backstory). In the first episode, we meet Data, one of the show’s central characters, as he is trying to whistle, at which point he talks about his goal to be more human. Now if there were any one obvious theme throughout the series, it was Data’s growth in trying to be more and more human, and he throughout the years represented in an explicit way the implicit theme of the series (what does it mean to be human?). I found it a very fitting ending to have Data get to “complete” that journey towards being human by sacrificing himself, experiencing death, and leaving behind a legacy in B4 just as we do in our children.
I found it a very fitting ending to have Data get to “complete” that journey towards being human by sacrificing himself, experiencing death, and leaving behind a legacy in B4 just as we do in our children.
Just to nitpick:
Actually, Data was satifying Asimov’s First Law of Robotics:
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
I’m not sure it is right to say that he completed his journey to becoming human. He still could not, even in potentia, mate with a human female and produce human children having his DNA. Also, the alternate, earlier Data, was not his offspring, but a precursor.
The less said about the new, improved, alternate universe of Star Trek, the better, from my perspective, but everyone knows I am not a fan of what they did.
The Chicken
Chicken,
No, I don’t think that Data became human. He’s an android, and he can’t do that. No matter what anyone did or what happened to him, he could never have a soul, for example.
It’s in a type of analogous way that he “became human.” He spent the entire series trying to become “more human,” realizing he could never fully be human. In dying and leaving a legacy behind, he ultimately was able to… well, to do two “intangible” things which humans do (as opposed to things like whistling, eating, having a cat, etc.). They were two “in the spirit of what makes a person human” (from a poetic, non-theological standpoint).
Like I said, he’s an android. He can’t be human. He was just able to do things like a human. His legacy in B4 was not akin to a biological legacy, but a passing on of himself. Actually, it’s much more human than if he had created a child or something: raccoons can make biological children, but only humans can pass ideas, personality, etc. That Data did this was symbolized by B4 whistling “blue skies” at the end of the movie.
Now, to nitpick your nitpick: what evidence is there that Data ever had to follow Asimov’s law?
Dear Shane,
Data has Positronic brain, which is straight out of Asimov’s robot series. The idea was specifically referenced in one of the early episodes and if I recall correctly, Asimiov’s name is mentioned. Also, Data has been shown consistently to obey those laws. If not explicitly mentioned, they are in the background and it is assumed that sci-fi readers will recognize them.
Wikipedia, at the bottom of the article on robotics in TV/Film, agrees with me.
The Chicken
Actually, the article you cited says this:
“While Data routinely references his “ethical subroutines”, indicating some sort of moral guide, it is unclear whether Data is explicitly bound by the Three Laws. For example, the episode “Clues” explored Data’s capacity to lie to the crew in order to protect them from aliens, and the episode “The Most Toys” explored Data’s supposed inability to murder in cold blood.”
I know it’s not sci-fi…but the series finale to ‘Newhart’ is the best finale to any series ever.
A note to The Masked Chicken – ‘The End of Time’ 2-parter with David Tennant was very good. The ending to Part One blew me away (much in the same way the end of the episode “Utopia” did during Season 2), and the wrap up in Part 2 was very satisfying.
Shane – Quote the entire two paragraphs of the Wikipedia article. The first one substantially agrees with what I said about Asimov’s Laws. Obviously, they could not use Asimov’s Laws exactly without violating copyright. Also, Asimov’s Laws do allow for lying. See his famous short stroy entitled, Liar.
Still, I do see that the writers might have been trying to make your point. Brent Spinner asked to be written out of the series.
I haven’t seen the new Doctor, yet.
The Chicken
Chicken,
I only quoted the second part of the paragraph because you had already said what was contained in the first part. I didn’t intend to misrepresent it or whatnot. Apologies if it came across that way.
I just don’t personally see any need to apply the laws to Data. Just because he’s a famous or even seminal science fiction writer, that doesn’t mean that everything that comes after him has to follow what he set down. Unless a story or series specifically says that those laws (or any other conventions, for that matter) apply to its characters, I just don’t see any reason at all to assume they apply.
I guess that’s jut my opinion, but really I don’t see why Ron Moore, for example, is bound by Issac Asimov anymore than Disney is bound by the Brothers Grimm.
Actually the more that I think about it, the more I’m certain that the series is rife with contradictions to these laws anyways where it comes to Data.
In any case, another thing to keep in mind about him is that there is the age factor. It’s OK when Patrick Stewart or Michael Dorn age, but Data is supposed to be an android. Eventually, you have to get rid of him because he just looks older and doesn’t fit with the character anymore. I think that had a lot to do with it as well.