Category: Battlestar Galactica

The Battlestar Galactica Season 3 episode finally came... and now the long long long (way too long) wait for season 4 begins. I'll go into more of the bigger questions I have about the finale a little later, but for now I thought I'd throw up my general thoughts on it.

Season 3 in general has been a bit of a step backwards for Battlestar Galactica. The first 5 or 6 episodes of season 3 were just as good as anything that has been on television in history (the EXODUS episodes I still maintain were the all time greatest episodes in television history). But after the Exodus the show stated to sputter a little bit.

The show has still been great... but not as great as we've come to expect over the past 15 or so episodes. So what on earth could they do with the season finale to keep my juices pumping for season 4? Well... THEY FRACKING DID IT!!!! I LOVED it!

First of all, the way the trial of Giaus Baltar was portrayed was excellent. No, you couldn't get away with that shit in a REAL court on earth... but that wasn't a real court and it wasn't earth. I appreciate the show kept that in mind, and it made for damn good television. Apolo's speech on the stand echoed EVERYTHING I had been thinking since the start of the trial, and I was glad to see all those points brought up.

But let's move on the the cliff hanger shall we? I think we all knew that when Starbuck bought it, that it would turn out she was a Cylon. No big surprises there... but Tigh? The Chief? Anders? Tory? Are you SERIOUS?!?!?!

I guess The Chief should hit us as THAT big of a Surprise. He suspected he was a Cylon once, he was the one who was drawn to the temple... so I guess that all makes sense.

Still... these are questions I'll go more into later... for now I just wanted to give my general thoughts. And my general thoughts on the season 3 finale is "IT was FRACKING AMAZING!" Can't wait for season 4!

if i can draw your attention to a wonderful article from www.darkhorizons.com

**** SPOILERS AHEAD for those who haven't seen this Sunday's third season finale of "Battlestar Galactica" ****

Well the season is over til January 2008 (not including the upcoming Fall mini-series), but some of the crew have talked about the finale's revelations, what they mean and what could be in store next.

First up, the return of Starbuck (Katie Sackhoff). Producer Ron Moore won't confirm or deny if she is a vision, but he has confirmed she is signed and will be back next season. However her apparent death three weeks ago was followed up with in interviews in which she begrudgingly admitted she's now out seeking other work. Was it all a ruse?

Moore explains to TV Week that "We were trying to walk a very fine line. She was very careful how she phrased it. We wanted people to feel the loss. We didn't want to put Katie in the position of lying to people. She did look for other work and is getting other work -- just other work that won't interfere with her "Battlestar" commitments."

Those who think the twist with Tigh, Tyrol, Anders and Tori being four of the final five Cylons is more than it seems? Doesn't seem so. Moore tells the Post Gazette that "These are four of the final five, which puts them in a separate category from everybody else...They are fundamentally different Cylons... There are reasons for that I can't really get into. We'll be playing out those plot lines for quite a while."

They plan to explore the impact of the other half-Cylon baby - Tyrol & Cally's child. Don't expect any simple answers though regarding the four - "A lot of the specifics of the back story of how this came about will reveal itself over the course of the next season"

Despite Kara's re-appearance she is NOT the fifth Cylon it seems. Moore says he thinks we will meet the last Cylon model next season. He also adds that the vision D'Anna had mid-season (where she apologised to one of the final five whom she recognised) will get more exploration - "We're developing a storyline dealing with D'Anna and what she saw and who she was talking to. We haven't talked to [Lucy Lawless] about it and she was just cast in a pilot, which makes it tricky. But it's something we would like to look at."

The mini-series will feature the whole cast, and "There is a tie from these episodes into the events in season four. ... It's an opportunity to set up something for the fourth season that had not been told to the audience and that the characters themselves hadn't realized, and then go into the fourth season".

Will the fourth season be the last? "I think the series has a built-in ending. The series is about the search for Earth and when the time comes, I fully expect we will resolve that one way or another." Moore says the story is now definitely in its third act and has "two chapters" left to it. Thus the decision will be how far to stretch those two chapters.

"It will come up in this fourth season kind of quickly where we'll have to decide whether this is the last season. The network has made it clear they will take their cues from us if we say we're ready to end the show. David Eick and I have conversations about that and we're pretty close to a decision" he adds.

Finally "Caprica", the spin-off series, is 'back in development' with the pilot not being picked up. Is It over then? "No one is saying it's over, but we're also not going forward at this moment."

should make for a more interesting season 4, like as you said, Season 3 started out wonderfully but dropped below its own standards in the middle.

I agree totally, the end of the 3rd season was kind of lagging, but the finale was amazing. Tigh,Chief, Anders, & Tory's reaction was so classic, and so well acted. Tigh as a character has really come along way from the drunk we met a couple years ago. Truely amazing.

Also another thing to note, with the Chief being a Cylon, that makes his daughter the secon hybrid to be born.

Seeing Starbuck totally rocked.

~JG

Just some thoughts.

As soon as Starbuck blew up, I figured the only way for her to come back was if she was a Cylon, (which had me uber-pissed, by the way).
But after seeing the S3 finale, I'm not so sure anymore. What if that vortex thing really was a portal that took her to earth (with her Viper). If she really did bite it (and is a Cylon), where'd she get that Viper from?!

All I know is that there's something bigger going on (with all the visions and prophecies) than just Cylon/Human relations...like who the frack is the Six in the red dress? If she's Cylon (which I don't think she is), then who's the other Baltar who appears to Caprica Six??? This show blows my mind...

Ah, so Starbuck's not a Cylon....phew!

Season 3 cliff-hanger was best ep of the year. This year was a little soft.

Starbuck is not a cylon, buti think she is a cylon/human hybrid, like Sharon's daughter

that would help me reconcile the seemingly useless "I have dreams of killing myself" episode. But Cheif Tyrol has turned in to one my favorite characters on the show.

Even if a few episodes of this season were character based they were still pretty good. I never seen up to now an episode to find boring or anything. Considering there will be a movie this fall and season 4 return in January, if they're able to keep surprising us like this should they go on after season 4? I hate to see a show go away but I guess they're still making money out of it, having a break let's them recharge their batteries and come with fresh new episodes.

Did anyone else feel betrayed ? I felt somehow like i was betrayed by all them secailly the Cheif and Sam, who i really grew to like.

I'm sorry but crossroads wasn't even a patch on Exodus. The pacing was way off and while I loved seeing Bamber and Callis in those court scenes they totally rushed the ending. As for the final 'four'. That seemed tacked on at the end. Nothing's been hinted at the whole of the first three seasons now we're expected to accept they're all Cylons, albeit different versions.

I don't even see how that works with Tigh as he's old enough to have taken place in the first Cylon war, before they even developed the human looking models. Was there a Tigh and has he been replaced? Is this the same with the others? Are they all based on actual people or do they exist purely as Cylons from the start. If the latter is true then do the Cylon sleeper agents age?

Apart from the creators admitting Earth exists I don't think this beats either the first or second season cliffhangers for that 'Holy Fuck' moment. We all knew the Cylons would appear at the end and the same can be said for Kara after her sudden and confusing death.

There is something diffrent with the Final Five, they might even have a different agenda than the other seven

Kara Thrace isn't the fifth member of the final five, that would be a little too easy. If you paid attention to what was happening, particularity Rosalin's visions that involved Sharon, Caprica Six, and Hera, then it becomes clear who the fifth member of the final five really is. Remember that Caprica Six was quite surprised when Rosalin confronted her about it.

Besides, it makes Three's last comment in the temple of the five that much better if you put those pieces together.

i still maintain that the boxing episode was the best of this season and possibly the best episode of any show this season.

I do agree that the middle part of Season 3 dragged compared to previous seasons but it was bookended by excellent episodes and even the stand alone ones were great character studies and like Skaught I love, love, love Unfinished Business (and no, it's not just cos I'm a Kara/Lee shipper).

As for the revelation of the four new cylons, I think it's been established that they're a different breed from the seven we already know of (didn't Six tell Gaius that they didn't talk about the seven?).

I think their agenda is more in line in saving humanity (Tigh has fought against the cylons in 2 wars, and all of them were major resistance players on New Caprica).

The Chief's acceptance of being a Cylon is something he's been grappling with since season 1 but it would explain how he found he found the Temple on the algae planet (oooh music cues!)

My main disappointment in season 3 leading up to Crossroads was that they didn't spend enough time on New Caprica but Lee's monologue really hit home about everyone's feelings on the place - they may have escaped but the wounds are still there.

This also means that Chief Tyrol's baby is also a 1/2 cylon/human baby... just like HERA! this was a mind frak of an episode no question.

At first I expected Starbuck to be a cylon with being blown up and all that 'being lead to the place between life and death' and such, but that seemed too easy. From a meta view point its a bad idea at this point after being sooooo slow to reveal cylons to suddenly just give us all 5 with a season to go. I think there is a big surprise left with that last spot. I'm not sure who to expect.

I felt the third season cliffhanger was contrived. Unlike the previous seasons which earned their drama by building up events to a crescendo, this season pulled elements willy nilly, out of the air.

If you listen to the BSG podcasts for the third season Ron Moore scrapped a major story arc for the third season at the eleventh hour. The end result was that he had to retool the episodes between the New Carpica Exodus and the Baltar trial.

The final two episodes lacked tension because it became quickly obvious that the proceedings of the trial were thrown out the window to allow Baltar to get off scot free. Knowing that the real interest was with the '4' and that story arc was undercooked and frustrating in its scant screen time.

An object lesson for those interested in TV production. Moore's decision undermined the tension from the Exodus, created a string of predictable and ultimately wasteful stand alone episodes, culminating in the underwhelming Starbuck demise. It also took away all the dramatic inertia of the events of what happened on New Caprica. Witness Tigh's confession as to his wife's fate at the trial. How much more powerful would that episode have been if no stand alone episodes had aired?

I await Season 4 eagerly but more on the merit of the previous two seasons than what happened in the last half of season 3.

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