BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: The Final 10

Callie? The final cylon? If she is, that'll be the most anticlimactic twist in the history of television.

Honestly, I'm afraid to watch. I have trouble conceiving a scenario in which this won't be a letdown. The show has been so good that it almost can't get any better. How could any conclusion match the buildup?

That, and season four has been the wobbliest of the whole series. I'm entering into the last part of this with guarded enthusiasm to say the least.

I have similar concerns, but they would be more pronounced if we hadn't seen some shows really stick the landing lately. The Wire, while not as explosive as some may have liked, ended in an entirely appropriate and satisfactory fashion. The Shield surpassed its biggest heights in the last few episodes, and even Harry Potter (shut up) managed to wrap up a huge amount of plot and character without an even slightly loose end. And since Moore has apparently had an end in sight for quite a while, I'm optimistic that we won't be witnessing much floundering from here on out.

I'm expecting this to be pretty terrible. They were shooting the last episode when the mid-season finale aired, so there was no room to learn from their many, many, many, many mistakes last season. They probably had no clue how much they dropped the ball. This is why it's never good to shoot the second and third movies at the same time (see Matrix or Pirates). I liked the Cylon civil war shenanigans, the first few episodes, and the arrival on earth blew my mind, but everything else in between was bad. The season three finale is one of the best hours of television I've ever seen. What happened?

I guess if I haven't made my opinion clear by now, I was very disappointed with season four.

I can't think of anything that's ended better than The Wire or Harry Potter. I never expected David Simon to screw up, but there really wasn't a precedent for not fucking up something like Harry Potter.

While I'd agree that season 4 was comparatively weak, what we're comparing it to was among the strongest work I've ever seen on television. Weak for Galactica is still leagues ahead of just about every science fiction series in TV history. To say that it was actually bad television is (forgive me) hyperbole.

What gives me hope is that fact that for the first time, the show is heading into uncharted territories. The search for earth is (presumably) over and for the first time I can honestly say I don't have a clue where they're going. Which is pretty exciting. And as Schwartz mentions, they've had a while to prepare for this and make it as tight as possible. Though I do hope that the Callie rumor turns out to be false. Because frankly, making Hotdog the final Cylon would cause more of a splash.

EDIT: Agreed, Greg. Apart from episode 8 and some of the weird Baltar/cult stuff, I thought season 4 was fantastic.

I thought Season 4 was fairly weak; then we got the final episode, which made up for the rest.

The final 10 could be awesome or awesomelyl bad.

I just hope they get the final Cylon revealed soon: the final fate of humaity is much more important story wise than who "the final 5 " is.

I'm also now looking forward to the Caprica series after seeing the preview on scifi/com. It actually looks like a real exploration of the Colonial world, note the wink and nod references to events and characters in Galactica that I expected.

The imaginary cat was terrible television taken very seriously.

Edited to add: I guess that was episode 8. I don't remember the majority of last season. It's just a big blur of bland and bad. If your argument is that bad Battlestar is better than Babylon 5, Stargate, Voyager etc. then you're talking to the wrong guy. I don't watch any of the terrible sci-fi shows. The majority of that stuff is aimed at geeks with no standards whatsoever. I would never dream of comparing Battlestar to those shows.

Agreed on all counts. And to consistently expect better than the thoroughly mind-blowing end of Second Season/beginning of Third Season is kind of greedy and unrealistic...but certainly understandable, of course. BSG has spoiled us with some of the greatest television ever produced. It's easy to get addicted to that level of greatness.

Personally, I'm incredibly excited and mostly curious as we enter The Final 10. And even if the destination ends up falling short of our expectations, the journey has been pretty phenomenal.

I actually liked Season 4 just fine. There was some blah in there, just like in the middle of seasons 2 and 3, but the last couple were great and the Callie episode was awesomely cruel. I didn't know they filmed them all at once; I was assuming that the year gap was to allow for more shooting. Hurm.

Babylon 5 had its flaws but to group it with those other two is ridiculous. Galactica is that show's spiritual successor in many respects.

That dead cat episode...ugh. Worst BSG episode ever. Otherwise I've been fine with Season 4.0 for the most part. "Revelations" was really good.

The Final Cylon is not the mystery I'm interested at all. I really really want to know whether this is our Earth or not, or whether this takes place in our universe at all.

I love how those of us who were lambasted for merely questioning the absence of the moon in any of the "Earth" arrival shots from "Revelations" suddenly don't look so crackpotty. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I like Babylon 5 (the middle seasons, anyway) as much as the next guy, but I don't see how you can justify that statement, especially since Galactica is based on a show that predates Babylon 5.

Yeah, that's not true.

After the cool, sunglasses wearing intergalactic lawyer almost murdered Lee because he still imagines his dead cat is alive and well, this show couldn't possibly get much WORSE so I say bring it on.

Seriously, this show has been amazing, but season 4 showed us just how much they could fuck it all up in the home stretch.

Don't fuck up like with Deep Space Nine, Ron.

Yes, because he should have remained perfectly rational while having a nervous breakdown brought on by the murder of the one link he had left to the family that he'd abandoned on Caprica when the bombs started to fall. This episode is massively over-hated, and focusing on the humanization of an enigmatic character as the worst part, as opposed to the glossing over of the legal and political contortions necessary to place Lee as interim president thus making the post of the Vice President pointless and the presidential succession a joke, is fucking stupid.

Dear God. You are an anomaly. That's like saying someone can over-hate cancer. Do me a favor, before you go any further, consider this definition:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indefensible

That's a lot of pointless words you typed there.

It was a bad episode, but i really think people are overreacting to it. Earlier seasons had some fucking TERRIBLE episode - "Sacrifice" and "Black Market" come to mind. They're just overlooked because they were stuck in the middle of huge 20 episode seasons.

I'm not saying it was intended that way, just that with its arc-centric serialised format and regular focus around the shifting policial landscape and military situation and so on, Babylon 5 pioneered a lot of the things Galactica is praised for (things that, from what I understand, the original 70's series never really did). Deep Space 9 did some of that stuff as well, but not to the same extent IMO.

Considering Moore's involvement with both shows I'd say that the latter seasons of DS9 are a more fitting precursor to what he did with BSG.

Question, should i bother tracking down the webisodes? Did they show anything relevant or was it just a marketing stint?

Tati, the Webisodes are all on Youtube. So they didn´t reveal any earthshattering they are a nice appetizer nonetheless. Some nice stuff about Baltar and Gaetar is revealed though that fleshes out a previous story line. The final lines are something I don´t know how and if they will play into the final episodes though. One might do very well without them I guess.

Talking about the final episodes in general I have to agree that it will be a walk on a razor to end the series on the same level that has been established before. While I think that season 4 has some weak stuff, the cat indeed, it flows rather well on DVD in a few sessions. While season 2 might be the best consecute season, season 3 had some really bad stuff in the middle section as well.

I have no idea where they are going from here on though. Speculation is futile since this is no Lost. But I have confidence that they will pull it off. They just have to otherwise it will be a letdown of epic proportions for me. Thanks to one year of waiting.

If you'd told me two years ago that I'd be more excited for the return of Lost than for BSG, I would have chuckled condescendingly at you. But Lost has handily pulled out ahead as the better show.

Like many here I'm clinging to the fact that the last half-season of BSG was impacted by the strike and the next 10 were written afterwards, when the writers were hopefully well-rested and eager to wrap everything up. And that BSG tends to have *amazing* finales.

I still do wonder, though, why Lost managed to ride out the strike with only a couple of subpar episodes in the middle of their best season, whereas BSG suffered a 6- or 7-episode downturn.

I agree 100% with the Prankster. Season 4.0 seemed to offer so much bland filler that I almost abandoned the show all together. I am MUCH more excited for Lost because that show constantly has me thinking from episode to episode. BSG had me thinking during the first and last episode while I was numb from the 8 in between.

However, if Lost can recover from their horrid second season (which is now not so horrid in retrospect) then I have faith that BSG can wow us in the home stretch.

What's weird is that the strike had beneficial effects on Lost. And even before, as the weak point of the series was season 2. With the effective return to form as soon as Jack and the prisoners escaped, it got to the status I held it beforehand, a top tier show.

BSG got a couple of fillers, has some weak points, but the narrative is still strong. I'm also one that likes it a bit less than the first seasons, but fuck me if they still manage not only great finales, but some outstanding episodes there and there. I guess I didn't expect that much of introspection or mystical mumbo jumbo, but it's still good stuff.

Maybe I just like introspection and mystical juju, but I feel like a lot of you are overstating the decline. S4 followed the basic Battlestar (which is really the basic TV season model these days, imo) mold of starting and ending strong with some drag in the middle. I'm not going to defend the Lamkin episode except to say I view it as a run-of-the-mill misfire rather than a total creative blowout that dooms the final batch in the womb.

The Lampkin episode was lousy, but this is still the best science fiction show I've ever seen.

This was the first "drag in the middle" that bored me out of my mind. I reached a point where four episodes had stockpiled on my DVR. Before that, I'd be excited to watch every episode as soon as possible. I drove to watch the first few eps of the season with a friend who had a gigantic TV (back when gas prices were insane). Before this season, I could really defend 95% of the episodes that came before it. Not this time. Maybe my friends and social circle are the only people that felt this way, but everyone I know seemed to be in the same boat.

And that's really a lousy excuse when you get down to it. When the boys at Lost knew they'd have exactly 45 episodes left (not the exact number) it started moving like a bullet train. There's no excuse to twiddle your thumbs when you know you only have 20 episodes left of your entire show. And I'd also argue these were the most self-important filler episodes I've ever seen. I guess that goes with the nature and tone of the show, but give me Expose over any of these episodes any day of the week.

But when you get down to it, it's not like I can or have any desire to make anyone leave the "season four wasn't that bad" camp and jump over to my side. I'm just bitching because I was disappointed. When this show is great it's one of my favorite things out there. But it feels like that's a thing of the past. It's like Sam Jackson in Jackie Brown, "What the fuck happened to you, man? Your ass used to be beautiful."

I'll eat all the crow in the world if I'm wrong. I'd love to be wrong. I'd love for it to wrap up beautifully and surprise the hell out of me. We'll see. I totally feel like a cliche internet nerd right now...

Well, the strike delayed the production so hopefully they had extra time to think through the episodes and eliminate irrelevant plotlines. In that recent interview Moore was given a list of nearly every unexplained plotline and confirmed that all will be answered.

But I agree that season 4 isn't as good as the others, especially not 1 or 2. Not a fan of Baltar's hareem story. Although I think the episode when he confesses to Roslyn is the one of the best episodes ever.

Also, I know characters have to change, and I know she died. but I preferred season 1 and 2 fun lovin' Starbuck to season 4's psycho bitch.

Season 3 is still my favorite. I really don't care if these last ten are good or bad... I'm in for the long haul, and I'm excited. I'll judge the series as a whole when it's done.

I think the best moments in Season 4 were Roslyn's near death experiences, her conversations with the woman dying of cancer, that was some really moving stuff, if this was anything but a sci-fi show, she'd be guaranteed an emmy nomination.

Season 4 suffers the same fate as all the other seasons, strong opening, weak middle and a terrific end of season cliffhanger, although part 1 was kind of subdued.

For me the middle wasn't weak it was flat out just bad. The direction they took Baltar in didn't ring true for me in the slightest. I could almost feel Callis rebelling against making him go down that road; his performance for almost the entire stretch felt forced and hollow and Batlar has always been my favourite of the show.
I'm in the aforementioned boat of being amazed I'm not more amped to see the new stuff when this was my Number One All Time TV Show EVA!!! for the first three seasons. I was more excited to get stuck into Dexter Series 3 to be honest.

Yeah, I can't say I was to pleased with the direction they took him in. Butt there was that one moment that love where he starts to fuck with a Centurion before he gets injured (I also liked the scene where he confesses to Roslin).

I'm not going to argue with you about how the season ended (the last few episodes were competent to very good, and the last shot was a wonder) but I'm not even particularly happy with how this season started. They set things up beautifully at the end of season three and then seemed content to piss all that good will away with meandering plot lines that felt like they were just dragging out revelations. Worse, the middle episodes didn't just drag, they sucked life out of the show and brought the themes into a level of depression that became hard to relate to. I know that the Chief is bummed because it turns out he's a robot AND his once cute, perky wife who magically turned into a shrew got sucked into outer space by another robot, but my god did I not need a whole episode of him glowering and shouting about it. That shit needed to be dramatized better.

I thought the direction they took Baltar's character was interesting only from a thematical standpoint, you have Baltar being set-up as a christ-like figure against the current religious dogma where everyone worships the greek gods and Baltar's words are inspiring where the current religion is failing. I got the feeling Ron was trying to say something about the death of one religion and the birth of a new one and the violence that follows.

Rewatching the finale, and Bill Adama is so obviously the last Cylon.

There are much worse episodes in BSG than Sine Qua Non. I told The Woman King and Dirty Hands are terrible, but I skipped them. But I have seen Black Market, Hero (which is okay in a sense, but fucks with continuity), and Scar.
The 4th season had its share of good, bad, and mediocre episodes. And we really won't know how it turned out altogether until after these final ten episodes.

I don't know what they should have done with the character, it's just what they did do didn't "feel right". I know that's a retarded thing to say maybe but at times I felt that Callis was hating what he was doing he just didn't seem to be knocking it out of the park like he used to. I think after New Caprica Baltar has always worked better for me when he was amongst the Cylons. He seemed to come alive the moment he got onto the Basestar and saw Lawless again.
That aside he enjoyed with the Centurian was one of the few moments I thought felt like the actual dude.

SCAR is one of the best episodes ever.

Slater, how can Bill adam be the final Cylon?? He's in the new series as a kid.
Although I admit they've kinda changed the rules on the Cylons.

For what it's worth, Syfyportal recently listed 5 people who could be the final Cylon, and he wasn't one of them. And they say they have a source who says it definitely is one of those five. Could be bull, but in the past they've been accurate.

Callis admitted as much in an Onion interview. That was the one thing about S4 that bothered, but for all or sakes I'm hoping that the subplot will be dropped.

I don't really think they spent alot of time on it, it seemed to be in the background mostly until they brought it forward in Season 4. I enjoyed that aspect regardless.

Look, there are only four choices that would be dramatic enough to satisfy everyone: Adama, Baltar, Roslin or Starbuck. It HAS to be one of those four, because can you imagine the disappointment if they choose some loser like Callie or Doc Cottle? Fans would fucking burn Ron Moore's house down.

Okay, so it can't be Starbuck, because Deanna says the last Cylon "isn't on the Fleet right now." That means it's either someone dead like Callie, or it's one of the humans on the baseship with them (that means Adama, Roslin, Baltar and Helo).

But most importantly, making it Adama would give CAPRICA a reason to exist. Because there's absolutely *nothing* interesting about a five year old Adama. Nothing. It's the Phantom Menace. Who gives a fuck?

But if CAPRICA becomes the story of the man who invents the first Cylon and tries to pass the kid off as his biological son...well, now the show is actually about something more interesting than "two families have some arguments, then everyone dies sixty years later."

Lee has a line in the beginning of Revelations: "The point of children is to replace their parents." I don't think that's a throwaway line; I think it's the thesis of Moore's next show.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Moore is a retard and it really is Callie. But Adama is the only choice that makes total sense.