Battlestar Galactica Series Finale Review

There was only ever one place for this story to end…

Earth.

After weeks of scrutinizing plotpoints, raising questions, pulling hair out, theorizing, and essentially dreading the end of my favorite television series, I let go…and watched BSG the way I used to when I fell in love with it: in delight, awe, admiration, and gratitude for the storytellers who are responsible for a renaissance of science fiction in my life and in the lives of many others.

For two hours tonight I was a part of something so…human.

Joseph Campbell wrote that images of myth are “reflections of the spiritual potentialities of every one of us”, and by absorbing these stories and contemplating these images, we can evoke their powers in our own lives.

Why do you think fans obsess like they do? From twelve-year-old fanboys to middle-aged geeks, we need good stories to help us come to terms with the world, to harmonize our lives in this reality. We need to tell stories, understand stories, cope with death, contemplate mysteries, and find out who we are. Myths are clues to the experience of life.

J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, George R.R. Martin, Stan Lee, Robert Anton Wilson, and Ronald D. Moore: these are some of my teachers. (Along with everyone I ever played D&D with).

And for anyone reading this and thinking I’m getting a little too far out for a BSG review, I’d like to remind you that I write a blog called “Achieve Nerdvana”, mkay?

If you’re wringing your hands over Starbuck’s disappearance, Daniel’s identity, All Along the Watch Tower, angels, or the cylons’ long awaited “plan”, that’s cool. But I’m not gonna. Because this series finale was a feast for the eyes (mad props to VFX nerds and production team!), the ears (da Bear!), and the ole ticker (actors! directors! writers!). 

So since this myth (like all the best ones) is about characters not plot points, that’s how I’m going to approach this farewell review.

GAIUS BALTAR

Baltar has been my favorite character since the miniseries for a few reasons: 1) James Callis is brilliant; 2) The scenes between him and Head Six always seemed to be the best written, directed, and most important; 3) He’s so frakkin’ human.

Although he felt like a fringe character at times this season, my hopes that he would step up and fulfill the long promised destiny in the series finale were satisfied. Many have argued that his religious guru phase was insignificant considering he didn’t really believe what he was spouting, but when I look back at those earlier scenes of him speaking to his followers, I see authenticity. Baltar may undercut this sincerity with his selfish ways when “the God Mic” is off, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t buying in to what he was saying. Gaius started on this path four years ago, the first time his Head Six angel spoke of the one true god.

To see him make his act of contrition and stay with the Galactica, to play out the opera house vision (what the frak moment: the opera house was the CIC, lol?), and to deliver a message of unity at the absolute pivotal moment made me smile…our little boy’s all grown up.

And so mankind found itself in his hands: Gaius, the man who always seemed to talk his way out of anything to save his own skin, is once again talking his way out to save the skin of humanity — but this time it’s not about him. The spiritual journey that he has been on since Six showed up on Caprica has led to this defining moment: convincing the most bellicose, truculent being in the cosmos (Cavil) that “there’s another force at work here.”

And his moment at the end, when he was overcome with emotion as he spoke about farming: soooooo brilliant. James Callis, please come back to American television soon.

Was there any other character that grew that much over the course of the series? Or whose story was as fascinating to watch?

LEE ADAMA

My other favorite character.

Jamie Bamber is another fine actor who has shined all series long at conveying complex, nuanced feelings (and lots of heartache — like the Greek god Apollo, his love life was a mess). When I found out he was British I was blown away. Had me fooled. In scenes with Kara and Adama he was a master of biting his tongue — you can see his frustration with trying to deal with two extreme personalities that are not operating on his more logical and idealisitic wavelength.

Despite the circumstances around him — the weakness of the fleet’s government, the heartbreak from seeing Kara with Anders, the pressure of being the Admiral’s son, and of course, the threat of extinction — Lee navigated through calamity after calamity with a steady hand and showed himself a much better leader than any other character on the show. Unlike Roslin and Adama, he listened to those he chose to lead — he even gave Baltar five minutes when no one else would.

If there’s any character ready to build the foundation of a new human society and culture on their new planet, it’s Apollo.

STARBUCK

This was a big goosebump moment for me: When Bear McCreary’s version of All Along the Watchtower cranked up as Kara entered the coordinates into the FDL drive. Yeah!!!

No character has caused more consternation this season than Starbuck (and in interviews, even Katee Sackhoff expressed confusion and frustation with how to play the character this season). Was she a cylon? A hybrid? Was Daniel her father?

I was very pleased with the idea that she was an angel (like Head Six and Head Baltar), only an angel everyone could see. It can be argued that it was a convenient plot device, but to me it felt right. There are times in everyone’s life (and in mankind’s history) when certain people rise to an occasion and play a role so unscripted and important — a teacher, family member, national figure, or total stranger — that we literally refer to them as “godsends”. So it turns out Kara Thrace was not the “Harbinger of Death”, she was the fleet’s godsend, and when her work was done: Poof! She’s gone. Just like Keyser Soze.

MADAME PRESIDENT

Let me just get this out of the way right now: I feel very strongly (like many others do) that BSG’s team of storytellers, from top to bottom, has been unfairly overlooked by industry awards because it’s called Battlestar Galactica. (Not that they really need them, right? Can any other show boast about a Peabody and the United Nations?) There is a lot of really, really good acting.

But Mary McDonnell… holy frak, you are so frakkin’ brilliant. The frailty, strength, determination, gratitude, vulnerability, and ultimate surrender were all played so pitch perfectly — it was an incredibly moving and virtuoso performance. You deserve an Emmy in every frakkin’ category, as far as I’m concerned.

My favorite part in the whole episode was when she thanked Doc Cottle for keeping her alive — it was so true, so sincere, so human — Cottle (and me) were both completely blown away from that beautiful act of gratitude. Talk about a mythological hint at how to experience life.

Purely awesome.

THE OLD MAN

Okay. I’ve given Adama a lot of shit for being a washed up drunk not fit to lead a crew at McDonald’s, let alone the Galactica. And let’s be honest, seeing him barf all over himself in this episode wasn’t helping his cause in my mind. Lee summed it up nicely at his dinner with Kara and Zak: “If you’re not with him in that tiny little bubble, you might as well not exist”.

After all the drinking, crying, fighting, and bad decision making, somehow the Old Man kept the fleet (and the ship) together long enough to find Earth. Guess I can’t argue with results…

WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO EARTH

A place where humans live, and are starting to face (maybe not enough) our own likely self-destruction. Honestly, we really don’t need evil robots to handle that.

This series has addressed many relevant issues such as human rights, religion, civil liberties, and terrorism. To see it address the issue of robotics and artificial intelligence head on in the final moments was a nice touch, and I hope we’ll see more of it in Caprica.

I was very relieved to hear Head Six express a positive, idealistic view of the future of human-cyborg relations. It seemed to me not a warning of imminent human enslavement by robot overlords (you know, the usual fearmongering) — but a brief pause, as if to say, “We are here at this moment. Let’s think about how we do this. It does not have to end bad, you know.”

These are just a few of the immediate “reflections” I’ve absorbed from this last foray into one of the great modern myths.

Really, it’s a miracle this story was ever put on television. So I offer my heartfelt thanks to all those who made it happen.

… More, please?

Nar Williams is the host of Science of the Movies on the Science Channel, which premieres in May. He’s the Geek-in-Chief of the Achieve Nerdvana blog, where he writes about sci-fi, sci-tech, and geek culture. He also co-hosts the weekly video podcast Nerdbunker. Follow Nar on Twitter.