I've been chewing for a day or two on Daybreak Part 2 and Battlestar Galactica in general as an artistic endeavor.
While some of you may have watched me mercilessly gush praise over the program I have to admit that while the series finale left me highly entertained and emotionally heartbroken I did have some disappointment with the direction they took it.
For a program that rooted itself so deeply in the science half of "science fiction" I was genuinely perplexed and let down by the amount of hocus pocus spiritualism in the final half of the two hour conclusion.
I'll be the first to admit that it's nearly an insurmountable task to take a 5 year build up and wind it up over the course of a couple of weeks to everyone's satisfaction.
In light of that, I did feel that Daybreak did indeed live up to the standards of writing and production that we've become accustomed from Galactica.
It's simply a philosophical difference I have with the Ron Moore and the writing staff on this.
I'm going to take on Daybreak piece by piece and character by character to break down the triumphs and disappointments.
o The Final Assault.
The writers did excellent work bringing the series to its conclusion.
The characters and events had been slowly building toward a real sense of finality ever since the mid-season finale and the discovery of what we now know was the "original" Earth.
There was little left for them to accomplish other than survival.
One of the shining moments in Daybreak Part 1 for me was Adama's realization that the only right thing to do was to mount the high risk rescue effort of Hera.
Seeing her picture on the wall as the Galactica is being torn down for scrap and suddenly realizing that she was the only thing left that either the colonials or their Cylon allies had left marked the final and most important leap for the character of Bill Adama.
Hera really wasn't the last best hope for mankind and the Cylons, she was a vitally important symbol of the unity of the two races.
Knowing that the aged Battlestar had nothing left and using it as a club to clobber the Cylon colony in a suicide run was absolutely a fitting end for the ship that the show is named after.
Reminiscent of the brilliant and exciting rescue of the colonials from New Caprica using the Pegasus, the assault on the Cylon colony was an inspired sequence and absolutely one of the most spectacular action set pieces in the show's run.
While using the Galactica as battering ram was a brilliant stroke, I believe that the writers took the low road in the conclusion by missing an opportunity that had been set up several episodes ago.
The nukes being fired at the heart of the Cylon colony by the hand of the dead colonial pilot was a bit contrived and completely unnecessary.
They established already that doing an FTL jump in or near another ship was a devastatingly destructive to the ship ship staying put.
In fact, the only reason Galactica was now in the shape she was in was because Boomer executed an FTL jump too close, tearing out part of her hull and causing massive damage.
When everything fell apart in the Galactica CIC and Adama realized they had to jump the hell out of there, the FTL jump should have torn the heart of the Cylon colony to shreds.
Was the silly "dead hand" pushing the nuke button necessary at all? However, this was an amazing sequence and this minor quibble with how it ended is certainly not enough to take away from the brilliance of the entire sequence both conceptually and visually.
As a side note, two very nice nuances of the battle were seeing the "classic" Cylon centurions being pulled out of mothballs to fight for Cavil's side and I was taken aback (in a good way) to see the standard model centurions help lead the assault on the colony.
I don't know why, but just seeing Centurions taking commands from humans just kind of blew me away and gave much more of a visual symbol of the collaboration between Cylon and Human.
Uber-awesome.
o The Pre-Holocaust Flashbacks.
I believe that it was this element that made the entire Daybreak story work so well.
By weaving these glimpses back in time we get to see the pivotal events in the lives of the bulk of our main characters.
In each of these cases we see the moment that sealed the destiny of all of them.
The weakest of these segments was the Lee and Kara story, which seemed clunky and least relevant.
But even these flashbacks gave us some great insights into both characters through the course of their candid post-dinner conversation.
The whole "Frakkin Bird" in Lee's house and the symbolism with Kara just kind of left me cold, though.
On the other hand, the Baltar/Six segment and the Adama/Tigh pieces were fantastic.
Though it's been touched upon before, we finally really get to see why Ellen Tigh always harbored resentment for Bill Adama.
We know from the course of the original series that it was only because of Adama that Tigh was still in the service.
Obviously if Adama hadn't had made that life-changing decision not to retire into a civilian career, Tigh and Ellen would have perished in a drunken stupor on Caprica.
Overall, it all played into the thing that Ron Moore emphasized as the most important aspect of the show going into it's finale: it's the characters.
Everything else notwithstanding, we're here for the characters.
o Boomer's Story.
While the Cylon model 8's have been the poster girls for PMS for the past 4 seasons, Boomer has been one of the most mis-treated characters.
I've been somewhat surprised that they re-integrated her into the story this season in as important of a role as they have.
They did give Boomer a fitting send off, however.
It's hard to feel too much sympathy knowing what we now know even watching her get the third degree from an intoxicated Tigh and Adama for her crappy landing skills.
Though probably unnecessary to explain her change of heart, it was a nice touch to the story to see the real reason for her to "pay back" the the old man.
Since Boomer really was one of the key pieces of the initial story, we get satisfactory closure.
o Galen and Tory's Story.
Over the past few episodes I've actually had some reservations about where they had been going-in other words pretty much nowhere-with Tory's story.
Of the final five, she's the one that seemed to embrace her Cylon heritage with a vengeance and bring us one of the first truly shocking moments of season 4 by flushing Galen's wife out of the airlock.
I was going to be a bit disappointed if that incident faded.
Ultimately, what happened between Tory and Galen was extremely personal and a fitting end to the traitorous Cylon wench, but it was also the key to the end of the Human-Cylon war.
By snapping Tory's neck, the Resurrection secret is gone forever.
I'm not sure having Galen go off by himself to start Scotland rang all that true, but he was really too screwed up in the head by the end to have any real prospects anyway.
The closure for these two was fitting, and as much as I hate needless violence, the snapping sound of Tory's neck was oh-so satisfying.
o Saul and Ellen's Story.
There's not really much to say about these two alcoholic misfits.
I'm still not entirely clear whether pre-resurrection Ellen was aware of her Cylon nature, but I assume she wasn't like the rest of the final five.
In season one, the stormy marriage of these two really didn't seem to be a match made in heaven, but it was a nice turn around to bring this back and turn them into Galactica's Cylon soul-mates.
I imagine that their first course of business after building a small cabin will be to create Earth's first moonshine still.
o Anders and the Agathons Story.
I have to admit, Even though I was hardcore into Galactica, I spent most of season 2 and a lot of season 3 not really caring much about Anders and Helo, and quite frankly half the time I couldn't have told you which was which in a line up.
In a sense, I felt that for being such a key component of the conclusion of the saga, that they never really did give Anders his due and through the pre-holocaust flashbacks gave him the development that he never really got.
It was satisfactory.
As Anders over the past few weeks has gone from being a character to basically just another piece of ship machinery we at least bring back some human element to his story before driving his rear end into the sun.
As far as Sharon and Helo, I'm completely indifferent.
Helo has always pretty much been a whopping bore for me.
Sharon's been a great character at times.
Her chats with Adama in the early seasons were thoughtful and insightful.
She's really the first of the Cylon 8's to come around to understanding humanity.
In essence, her story is the mirror image of Boomer's.
I pretty much felt that Helo and Sharon were basically plot tools rather than characters in the final season.
They existed simply as a necessary extension to Hera's saga.
Quite frankly, Helo's emotional outbursts hadn't twisted my emotional meter at all.
I understand his sense of loss, but quite frankly in his outburst with Adama a couple of weeks ago begging to go out on an idiotic suicide search mission I was just rooting for Olmos to haul off and lay him out cold to shut him the frak up.
o Kara Thrace's Story.
In my non-professional opinion, the conclusion to Kara Thrace's saga in the finale is one of the big betrayals of the fans by the writers.
All this build up to have her be a ghost this entire time? What the frak? So what does this all mean? First, she blew up.
Somehow her burnt corpse and viper ends up on "Earth.
" How it got there we have no idea.
Then, she returns as a ghost.
Okay.
And apparently she has a ghost ship as well.
I have no problem with mystery and paranormal elements to the story, but this really was a waste of our time.
On top of this, Lee's reaction when she vanishes was tantamount to "just another day at the office.
" The conclusion and revelation of Kara Thrace's true nature at the end was about as satisfying as a 16 week course in astrophysics where all 600 pages of the textbook has the words "Goddidit" written 100 times over.
It was really the icing on the cake of where this finale did the fans, or at least me as a fan, wrong.
Had I been Ron Moore in the writer's room and someone had suggested that they spend a season with Kara Thrace walking around as a ghost I would have fired them on the spot.
o The Opera House, Baltar and Caprica Six.
The Opera House allusions and the connection to the finale stretched my skepticism to the limit.
However, I did find it all rather satisfying and I was able to accept and enjoy it.
Baltar's insanity since the New Caprica debacle has been a constant source of irritation for me and I feel that they've really allowed the character to meander aimlessly through season 4.
His final speech to Cavil in the Galactica CIC, or as we now know, The Opera House, was poignant and appropriate.
Basically, it was kind of the balance for fans that prefer not to have overt religion mixed in with their sci-fi.
Whatever the characters may think at this point, there obviously was some grander plan involved in this mess.
For me, until the revelation of Ellen as the final Cylon, it seemed to me that the final Cylon was going to be that final guiding influence toward the conclusion of this story.
Quite frankly though, if I had invested 5 years of my life into a saga that was going to end with the final solution being "God has a plan" I could have saved a ton of time and money by just going to church or reading a couple of propaganda books on Intelligent Design.
In the end, we're never really quite sure what this is all supposed to mean.
So what are Head Six and Head Baltar? Are they angels? Demons? Time Travelers? Who the frak knows.
Accepting that they were some hand of a divine creator is the ultimate cop out, though.
I don't mind the pushing of mysticism too much.
Connecting all these characters via this recurring dream of the Opera House and the vision of the final five was okay, but for crying out loud, there is pretty strong reason that I invested hundreds of hours in Galactica in the last few years and spent absolutely zero seconds watching Touched By an Angel or Highway to Heaven.
This is one case where if the explanation had been it was all the plan of the midi-chlorians, I could have swallowed that with less pain.
o Bill Adama and Laura Roslin.
I had been dreading this conclusion for a long time now.
First, I hate when unnecessary or detrimental romantic relationships are thrown into television shows.
Those that enjoy those types of things are generally referred to in a condescending manner as "shippers" in the internet community.
This is why I found myself horrified in season 4 when I became one.
Galactica had built Roslin and Adama's relationship so slowly and so skillfully over the run of the series that it just felt right.
Of course, it makes it all the more tragic that these two had finally found each other with Roslin's illness and impending demise always looming.
We all knew that it was coming in the finale, and Roslin's final moments were as painful as any moment in television drama I've ever experienced.
It was handled with skill and care and it all felt just right.
This is the best possible outcome for the character of Adama we could have expected.
Anything else would just not have rung true.
I can't remember, nor do I expect ever to be as moved as much by a moment in a television program as I was by this.
Even revisiting it by writing about it brings that twinge of sadness for these fictional characters, and I still have to continue to lobby for Mary McDonnell and the Emmy-worthy work she's done since the show began and particularly in this final half of season 4.
With all the outstanding work that's been achieved by the cast of this program over the years, it was Olmos and McDonnell that elevated this show from great drama to outstanding art over it's run.
o The "Decision" of the Colonials and Cylons to Start from Scratch.
I have a lot of problems with this piece of the plot.
I suppose in it's most simplistic philosophical essence, this was the logical conclusion to the story of "breaking the cycle," but it really doesn't make much sense as the final moments of the program 150,000 years later proves.
Now that we have these two civilizations that have this entire mess fresh in their heads, do you think that it's more likely that having technology at hand knowing the danger they can create with that technology is going to be better or removing all the technology and let the lessons learned from it slowly fade into memory before they reach a new technological era again? The final moments of the program kind of answered that.
On top of everything else, didn't the other thousands of Cylons and Humans get to have any say in this decision? They made an off-hand mention of disposing of the "creature comforts.
" I think that's just kind of silly.
What about medical technology? Do you want to be the first colonist to die of an easily cured malady or disease because your leaders decided to toss all technology into the sun? In addition, I have some other issues with the timetables as well.
In the real world, humans weren't using language and had no sophisticated form of culture or society 80,000 years ago.
In far less than 80,000 years we went from something akin to what the colonials and Cylons saw on Earth when they got there to where we are now and where Earth was in the flashforward ending of Daybreak.
Now we've introduced 30,000 plus humans and who knows how many Cylons into the civilization and genetic pool with scientific knowledge and it takes them 150,000 years to evolve the society to where we are today? Twice as long to evolve than it really did when you're starting with a base of tech saavy people mixing with us? I think this was just sloppy research by the writer's staff.
My other minor beef with this is that we finally give Romo Lampkin his due by making him president only to have Adama decide that they'll just destroy any semblance of organized and civilized society.
Maybe Lampkin's ultimate fate is to domesticate the household cat rather than be the leader of the world.
I feel that this whole facet of the end of the story was the easy decision for the writers without putting much thought into it.
From a fan standpoint, it did initially seem to make some sort of philosophical sense, but as soon as you start thinking it through logically and from a story structure standpoint of the characters' destinies, it just kind of leaves you feeling cold and unsatisfied.
So as I evaluate the finale I do in some sense feel robbed of a real resolution by Ron Moore playing the "God" card in the end.
It didn't feel right and it felt like a cheap way out.
I was almost expecting Kirk Cameron to emerge from the woods holding a banana by the end of the story (Google Kirk Cameron and Banana or hunt it up on YouTube to see some astonishingly ignorant logic if you don't understand the reference).
Even with my philosophical and logical problems with Daybreak, I can't walk away too distraught over this.
For the most part, the finale was an awesome spectacle giving us by far one of the greatest space battles we've seen in the series run if not seen in the history of television sci-fi.
We also got some powerfully emotional moments and some wonderful closure on some of the characters we've grown very close to over the years.
I'm going to give Ron Moore and the team a huge pass on the things I really feel cheated by at this point.
Above all else, I do feel that he's given me personally some of the greatest entertainment I've had in years.
Galactica has been a far out sci-fi program that was gritty and dark while giving us characters and situations that we could relate to and understand.
In the end, it was the "human" element so to speak that made this all work.
I am going to miss this show.
If I there is no other reason to applaud the work that's been done on it since the premier, I would have to say that this is the finest example of a program going out on top that I've ever seen.
So say we all.