PIC s2e1 “The Star Gazer”
I love BSG, I just really hate that they went with magic/religiousness to resolve the plot. It’s a stain on an otherwise stellar show.
It was probably always going to go that way - the original series was so full of Mormon theology, that the new remake was always going to have religious undertones to it.
Still, they could have toned down the “Starbuck is space Jesus” thing a bit.
I think my problem with it is that it just transplanted the regular nonsensical ad hoc deity that works in mysterious ways into anotherwise realistic SF drama. That’s extremely unsatisfying to create a machina whole cloth and still need to Deus ex your way out.
Yeah, agreed. All that groundwork of gritty and brutal politics, war, ethics, survival, difficult choices etc touched on a lot of contemporary issues at the time, then all seems a bit wasted by Space Jesusing the end of it.
what I appreciated about the ending is that you had two competing religions throughout the show and at different points different prophecies come true, making it unclear who’s “right.” and then you get to the end and it turns out no one had any idea what was going on, they (and us as viewers) were all being taken for a ride. religion is based on faith, but in the world of BSG you have this unknowable godhead who you can’t even conceptualize in order to have faith in. the “it doesn’t like to be called that” line at the end is so good because it shows just how far off base everyone was in the show, and by extension real life. you’re wrong to even anthromorphize it by referring to it as a person. that’s (neo)platonism!
granted i don’t think any of that was intentional. they definitely tried to pull a deus ex machina because they had set up a bunch of questions that they couldn’t answer. but what is ultimately a cowardly finale accidentally ends up saying something very profound
You might enjoy this
BSG will forever be a love/dislike thing for me. I loved the show and I disliked where it went. It still gets a semi-pass from me though because circumstances were rough at the time.
It suffered a lot because of a writer’s strike. I 100% am on the side of the writers for striking, but the strike caused a lot of shows that could have gone well to flop, Heroes was another. It also gave rise to more reality tv since they don’t need a script. I feel like BSG could have been significantly better if not for the strike.
The crazy unexplained shit with Starbuck exploding, then finding her body, then disappearing in a field. So frustrating.
Spirituality was explicitly part of the plot from day one. They never hid that. Your personal materialist views don’t change that fact.
So say we all
Out of all the Star Trek shows PIC represents your happy place? You truly are one of a kind.
I meant Trek in general. The quote I used happened to be from PIC. It sits lower on the totem pole.
First season was okay. Second season was, holy shit was some hot garbage. I skipped to the end and couldn’t even finish it, and normally Q is my favorite. I’m hoping the third season redeems it.
Season 3 is the most polished, but also chokes with hyper nostalgic pandering. Sadly every season has major issues for me.
i remember tentatively liking the first half of S3, which went away in an instant the second Somehow The Borg Returned
Picard S1 was pretty ass. I couldn’t watch Picard S2. So far, 3 episodes into S3 and it’s not terrible.
Thanks, I couldn’t do more than like 2 of S2, I’ll give S3 a try.
I think trek works better on episodic (monster of the week) format than serial (season long plot arcs) format (I’m pulling terms out of my ass I’m sure there are real ones) but I enjoyed the story they told.
I mean it’s trek. It was never high fiction, it’s always been enjoyable. We just didn’t get any courtroom episodes because the damn format didn’t allow for it apparently.
Battlestar Galactica was too much soap opera for me. I don’t want “Game of Thrones in space” out of my sci-fi.
I love the miniseries (aka the first two episodes) so much, especially as a deep Star Trek fan. Watching Ronald D Moore break all the rules he had to follow in the franchise is damned exhilirating.
Also, what do you mean be “soap opera”? Game of Thrones isn’t really a soap opera, though I think “Game of Thrones in space” is sort-of-kind-of fair in that it did take politics seriously and realistically.
The plot is primarily driven by drama from interpersonal conflict, which I just do not find interesting
But that is just character driven plot, not soap opera.
Not to say those shows literally are soap operas, but they share major qualities that I dislike out of soap operas.
I get that. I’d still differentiate, because in soap opera, these conflicts are more caricatures, driven to the extreme. In BSG they are mostly understandable, sometimes even relatable and grounded in experiences you could make in real life.
Average hard SF fan.
I mean, one of if not the best shows of the last decade (imho) was The Expanse, a character driven, very hard sci fi show.
I love the Expanse and I love the characters, and I love their development, but it is very much a plot driven show.
No, the story progresses because of the characters’ actions and decisions. The story begins because Holden decides to go against his captain’s orders and logs the distress call. Joe Miller decides to continue his investigations beyond the necessary. We do have a McGuffin, we so have some events characters reakt to, but many events might have taken place differently or not at all depending on character choices.
IIRC, the writer’s strike did some damage to it. After they leave New Caprica, the show really loses its direction and gets weird.
what do you hear?
Grab your gun and bring in the cat.
I’m currently watching Katee Sackhoff’s first watch on YouTube. It’s super funny.
