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The Incident and The End

SPOILERS but whatever

It's worth rewatching The Incident (season 5 finale) after seeing season 6. It really is a good bookend with The End. (There are structures, language and incidents that fit really well from The Incident to The End.) Although I think actually you could argue quite convincingly that The Incident actually is a better end than The End.

That being said, it's clear in The Incident (which I hadn't seen before) that they are setting up an alternate timeline where the plane never crashes... so it's not all that surprising that people assumed sideways-2004 was exactly that. Which means basically the entire structure of sideways-2004 in season 6 was deliberately misleading. (I had assumed sideways-2004 was hinted, not explicitly described in season 5.)

So I can see people being mad when they go in the last few minutes "you know this thing that we constructed in season 5 and gave every indication of resulting in season 6? yeah, that was a long con".

Labels: lost, television

posted by Richard at 22:21 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

American theo-science-fiction

SPOILERS for lots of TV shows.

American television SF has an odd attribute, which is that it always seems to turn into messianic theo-fiction, rather than SF. This is pretty strange considering the core audience is very science and not so much religious, and traditional written SF is generally all science, no religion. The lead character always starts out as a scientific person, a sceptic, and (in a very unusual situation for SF) ends up a believer, trusting in Faith.

* Quantum Leap - he's some kind of saint figure being jumped around time by ?God?
* TNG - Picard starts out a man of science, ends up trusting in his faith in himself in the finale, fighting evil (Q, an evil-ish godlike figure)
* DS9 - Sisko starts out a sceptic, ends up as the messiah fighting evil
* X Files - Scully starts out a sceptic, ends up a Believer fighting the bad guys
* Babylon 5 - Jeffrey Sinclair ends up some kinda messiah. John Sheridan is ALSO a messiah.
* BSG - starts all science-y, ends with Baltar as some kinda messiah and Starbuck as an angel
* Lost - Jack starts out a sceptic, ends up as the messiah fighting evil

I could go on, but you get the idea. All American TV SF turns into theo-fiction. Are there any recent counter-examples?

It's also interesting that the shows have infinite forgiveness. Baltar is a total tool, responsible for the deaths of billions, but he gets to live on in the end. Ben Linus is a weak scheming murderous man, but he gets to work for "god" in the end anyway.

Labels: television

posted by Richard at 20:17 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

fixing Lost

This is actually an easy fix.
(ROT 13)

Gur ceboyrz vf gurl unir gurve gjb sna tebhcf:
* gur crbcyr jub pner nobhg gur vfynaq zlfgrevrf, gur cybg nep crbcyr
* gur crbcyr jub pner nobhg gur punenpgref, gur punenpgre nep crbcyr

Gurve reebe jnf va gelvat gb fvzhygnarbhfyl pybfr gur cybg nep (gur vfynaq fgbel) naq gur punenpgre nep (gur 2004 fvqrjnlf yvzob).

Guvf vf na rnfl sna rqvg svk.
Frcnengr gur 2004 fvqrjnlf fprarf sebz gur vfynaq fprarf.

Erqb frnfba 6 nf sbyybjf:
* nyy vfynaq fprarf svefg, raqvat jvgu pybfrhc ba Wnpx'f pybfrq rlr
FUBPX! Wnpx qvrf zvq-frnfba!
* Nyy 2004 fprarf va gur frpbaq unys bs gur frnfba, NSGRE Wnpx vf qrnq.
Gura lbh'er nyy... jung gur urpx? Wnpx vf qrnq? Jung vf guvf ernyvgl? Bu... vg'f uvz qrnq.

Gb qb n shyy pyrnahc, n srj vzcbegnag gjrnxf:
* ERZBIR nal fprarf vafvqr gur pnir bs tbyqra yvtug. Fubjvat gur fghcvq Qenva bs Yvsr whfg purncrarq gur ragver guvat naq znqr vg nyy n ovg evqvphybhf. Zhpu orggre gb unir gurz tb qbja vagb ???? naq qb ????. Jr pna vzntvar zhpu pbbyre guvatf guna gurl fubjrq. Fbzrgvzrf vg'f orggre ABG gb fubj.
* ZBIR gur pybfvat vzntrf bs gur jerpxntr ba gur ornpu (juvpu ehvarq gur pyrna, fghaavat fubg bs qrnq Wnpx) gb gur ORTVAAVAT bs gung rcvfbqr (znlor zbir NYY gur pybfvat perqvgf gb gur ortvaavat). Guvf znxrf Wnpx'f qrngu rcvfbqr qvssrerag sebz nal bgure - naq lbh'er nyy "jerpxntr ba gur ornpu? jung gur urpx?" naq gura ur qvrf va svany fgnex vzntr ng gur raq, snqr gb oynpx (fubj gur Ybfg ybtb). Guvf bcravat vzntrel bs gur penfu nyfb whfg fyvtugyl penpxf bcra gur cbffvovyvgl (juvpu V xabj gur jevgref qba'g yvxr, ohg juvpu vf fgvyy n irel tbbq bar) gung gur vfynaq jnf chetngbel naq gurl nyy qvrq va gur cynar penfu

Fb svefg unys bs frnfba: avpr pybfher bs vfynaq nep, tbyqra yvtug jungrire, znlor vg jnf erny, znlor abg.

Frpbaq unys bs frnfba: jung gur urpx? Wnpx qrnq? 2004? Nygreangr gvzryvar?
* ERZBIR nyy vagrevbe fprarf bs gur puhepu. Fbzrgvzrf vg'f orggre ABG gb fubj. Ab zber ynzr vagreqrabzvangvbany nypbir. Ab zber Puevfgvna "Gur Nepuvgrpg" Furcureq rkcynvavat rirelguvat. Ab zber "guvf vf vagreqrabzvangvbany ohg vg ybbxf n ybg yvxr n Puevfgvna puhepu jvgu crjf naq natryf" erhavba. Ab zber "jul gurfr cnegvphyne crbcyr? jul thl sebz svefg frnfba jub qvrq jura gur cynar sryy?".
* Gb trg n avpr fgebat raqvat, lbh ergnva Ora bhgfvqr. Znlor QEBC gur #1, #2 qvnybthr gung vf gurer gb erzbir nzovthvgl. (Bar zvtug nyfb nfx, jul vfa'g Fnlvq bhgfvqr? Ur jnf cerggl xvyyl.) Univat whfg Ora bhgfvqr yrnirf gur cbffvovyvgl gung ur jnf arire erny.
* Lbh fubj Wnpx tbvat hc gur fgrcf, ohg abguvat zber, gura lbh NQQ na rkgrevbe ivrj bs gur puhepu, jvgu tbyqra yvtug fcvyyvat sebz vgf jvaqbjf naq qbbef.

Gur (bgure) raq.

Fb gura lbh pybfr gur punenpgre nep.


Fgbel orpbzrf:
* Wnpx bcraf rlr, fghss unccraf ba vfynaq (znlor chetngbel), Wnpx pybfrf rlr, qrnq
* Punenpgref erhavgr va jung znl or na nygreangr havirefr, be znl or n jnvgvat ebbz sbe urnira... fghss unccraf... tbyqra yvtug, gur raq

Guvf vf n avpr pyrna pyrne pybfher bs obgu nepf. Vg vf nyfb uryyn fhecevfvat orpnhfr Wnpx qvrf va gur ZVQQYR bs gur frnfba, abg ng gur raq. Vg yrnirf guvatf bcra-raqrq sbe ybgf bs sna vagrecergngvba naq qrongr.

Vg svkrf:
* ehaavat gur fgbevrf va cnenyyry jnf pbashfvat naq pbzcyrgryl zhqqyrq gur raqvat - crbcyr (vapyhqvat zr, gur AL Gvzrf erivrjre, naq bguref V'ir gnyxrq gb) zbfgyl ernq gur raqvat (cnegvphyneyl gur pybfvat fubgf bs jerpxntr) nf zrnavat gung gur vfynaq jnf chetngbel naq gurl nyy qvrq, ohg ol univat vg nygreangr jvgu fvqrjnlf-2004 vg znqr vg nyy frrz zrnavatyrff, yvxr, gurl qvq fghss ohg gurl nyy jrer qrnq naljnl, jul obgure, fvk lrnef jnfgrq.
* ehaavat gur fgbevrf va cnenyyry zrnaf gung vafgrnq bs gjb pyrna pybfherf lbh trg bar ovt zhqqyrq pybfher gung ehvaf OBGU gur vfynaq nep NAQ gur fvqrjnlf-2004 nep, gur zrffntr vf: jr jnfgrq lbhe gvzr ba gur vfynaq, Wnpx vf qrnq naljnl naq vg jnf nyy vapbzcerurafvoyr cbvagyrff tnzrf, naq jr jnfgrq lbhe gvzr va fvqrjnlf-2004 juvpu jnf nyy whfg n pbafgehpg gb trg gurz gb svther bhg gurl jrer nyernql sernxvat qrnq nyernql
* gur "jr jvyy sbepr lbhe haqrefgnaqvat" qvqnpgvp fgbelgryyvat bs "gur vfynaq jnf qrsvavgryl erny, naq Wnpx qvrq ba gur vfynaq, naq gura n ohapu zber crbcyr qrsvavgryl yvirq n ohapu zber gvzr, gura gurl nyy zrg va jung jnf qrsvavgryl cer-urnira/chetngbel". Fbzrgvzrf vg'f orggre abg gb unir qrsvavgr nafjref.

Gur bayl fprar/rssrpg lbh npghnyyl unir gb perngr vf tbyqra yvtug fgernzvat sebz gur puhepu va na rkgrevbe ivrj. Rirelguvat ryfr vf whfg erzbivat fprarf (fbzrgvzrf vg vf orggre abg gb fubj guvatf) naq erneenatvat fprarf.

Labels: lost, television

posted by Richard at 19:51 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Lost timeline

ROT13 for your spoiler-protection pleasure

Vs lbh unira'g orra sbyybjvat gur fubj, vg pna or uneq gb haqrefgnaq gur gvzryvar.
V bayl cnvq nggragvba gb frnfba 1 naq zbfg bs frnfba 6, nygubhtu V guvax V jngpurq fbzr bs frnfba 2. Guvf vf va yvfg bs rcvfbqrf/frnfbaf, abg shyy puebabybtvpny.

Naljnl nf orfg V pna haqrefgnaq:

2004 - gurl penfu ba gur vfynaq
Qrprzore 2004 - fbzr crbcyr (Bprnavp Fvk) rfpncr

(V jbhyq unir gubhtug guvf jnf bire n fcna bs frireny lrnef, ohg abg nppbeqvat gb gur Ybfgcrqvn gvzryvar.)

2007 - Bprnavp Fvk ergheaf gb gur vfynaq

[inevbhf gvzrf] - n ohapu bs whzcvat nebhaq guebhtu gvzr

1977 - qrgbangr ahpyrne obzo, jubfr BAYL RSSRPG vf gb fgbc gur gvzr whzcf naq fgvpx RIRELBAR jub jnf whzcvat (rirelbar sebz gur penfu be bgurejvfr neevirq fvapr 2004?) onpx va...

2007 - cerfhznoyl gurl neevir onpx ng fbzr cbvag nsgre gurl qvfnccrnerq ba gurve gvzr whzcf
fgvyy 2007 - Fha naq Wva qvr, Qrfzbaq qvrf (jr nffhzr), Wnpx xvyyf gur Zna va Oynpx (Fzbxr Zbafgre) naq gura qvrf. UBJRIRE rirelbar jr qba'g frr qvr, yvxr Xngr naq Pynver sylvat njnl, be Uheyrl naq Ora fgnlvat gb thneq gur vfynaq - gurl nccneragyl nyy pbagvahr gb yvir gurve yvirf bhg hagvy va gur shyyarff bs gvzr, gurl cnff njnl.

=====

ABG BA GVZRYVAR - yvzob / chetngbel / vagreqrabzvangvbany jnvgvat ebbz (nygubhtu n cerggl Puevfgvna ybbxvat bar) - va "vzntvanel" 2004 (gur lrne gur fubj fgnegrq, gur penfu lrne) rirelbar tbrf guebhtu na rynobengr funqbj cynl bs erqvfpbirevat bar nabgure, nygubhtu vg unf na bqq frafr bs Wnpx "neevivat yngr" gb gur cnegl rira gubhtu ur qvrq fbeg bs cneg-jnl guebhtu - fbzr crbcyr qvrq rneyvre nsgre gur penfu, bguref nebhaq gur gvzr bs Wnpx, naq bguref cerfhznoyl zhpu yngre. Vg znl or gung Wnpx fvzcyl "neevirf yngr" gb ernyvfvat ur'f qrnq orpnhfr ur'f nyy engvbany naq jungabg.

=====

V guvax whfg nf ernfbanoyr n gvzryvar vf:

2004 - cynar penfurf naq rirelbar qvrf
2004 (vfynaq) - rirelbar jbexf guebhtu vffhrf va chetngbel - jura gurl fhpprrq, gurl "qvr"
(inevbhf qngrf ba naq bss gur vfynaq) - zber sernxl-qrnxl chetngbel fghss
2007 (vfynaq) - Wnpx svanyyl trgf uvf chetngbel eriryngvba fhpprff naq "qvrf"

2004 (vzntvanel) - cbvagyrff cbfg-chetngbel erhavba ebbz

Abj vg jbhyq or vagrerfgvat vs gur jnvgvat ebbz va gur puhepu bayl vapyhqrq crbcyr sebz gur cynar. (Guvf jbhyq zrna rirelguvat ba gur vfynaq jnf vzntvanel.) Ora orvat bhgfvqr vf n tbbq fgrc.

Va gur puhepu
* Puevfgvna Furcureq (avpr gbhpu - V nyfb qvqa'g trg guvf hagvy Xngr abgvprq vg)
* Wnpx
* Xngr
* Fnjlre
* Fnlvq
* Fnlvq'f vfynaq tveysevraq
* jungfuvfanzr vfynaq tveysevraq'f oebgure
* Uheyrl
* Uheyrl'f vfynaq tveysevraq
* gur uboovg onaq thl
* Pynver
* Pynver'f onol Nneba??
* Ybpxr
* Ebfr
* Ebfr'f uhfonaq
* Fha
* Wva


* Qrfzbaq [ceboyrz - Qrfzbaq vf bayl sebz gur vfynaq]
* Qrfzbaq'f jvsr Craal [ceboyrz - bayl sebz Qrfzbaq'f onpxfgbel - V qba'g xabj vs fur rire rira trgf gb gur vfynaq]
* Whyvrggr [nyfb vfynaq bayl V guvax] (Fnjlre'f tveysevraq)


Fb hz nyfb
- V thrff Ybpxr trgf ab ybir vagrerfg fvapr jungfureanzr hz Uryra? jnf bayl sebz gur vzntvanel yvzob 2004
- jul vf ubg tvey'f oebgure gurer nybar? jul vf ur gurer ng nyy? ubj jnf ur nybat sbe nal bs gur wbhearl, ur qvrq jura n cynar sryy ba uvz va gur svefg frnfba (juvpu jnf, va snvearff, bar bs gur fgebatrfg vaqvpngbef sbe gur chetngbel gurbel)

===

Gur zber V guvax nobhg vg, gur ragver 2004 "fubeg pba" yvzob "fvqrjnlf" havirefr vf gbgnyyl cbvagyrff. Vg npghnyyl fhofgnagvnyyl jrnxraf gur fgbel, juvyr jnfgvat rirelbar'f gvzr.

Lbh trg n orggre fgbel jvgu rvgure:
1. vg jnf nyy erny, fgneg jvgu Wnpx'f bcra rlr, raq jvgu Wnpx'f pybfrq rlr
2. gurl nyy qvrq naq gur vfynaq jnf chetngbel, fgneg jvgu Wnpx'f bcra rlr, raq jvgu Wnpx'f pybfrq rlr

Rvgure bs gubfr vf n fgbel nep - gur svefg bar znxrf abg zhpu frafr - vg'f onfvpnyyl "n ohapu bs jrveq fghss unccrarq ba guvf sernxl vfynaq". Gur frpbaq vf n zhpu fgebatre fgbel. Lbh qvr, lbh rkcrevrapr jrveq chetngbel fghss, naq ubcrshyyl jbex bhg lbhe yvsr vffhrf, naq gura... gur raq.

Vg'f hasbeghangr orpnhfr V ernyyl yvxrq gur fvqrjnlf havirefr nf n jnl gb yrg gur npgbef naq punenpgref unir bar svany punapr gb fubj gurve fghss naq nf n avpr trfgher gb gur snaf gb oevat onpx fbzr cerivbhf pnfg zrzoref (vg'f abg pyrne ubj pnershyyl gur pnfg zrzoref jrer pubfra be vg jnf "erzrzore jura lbh jrer ba bhe fubj, qb lbh jnag gb pbzr onpx sbe n juvyr?"). V yvxrq gung zhpu orggre guna OFT juvpu jnf fhccbfrqyl na raqvat "nyy nobhg gur punenpgref" ohg juvpu tnir gurz oevrs onpxfgbel gung jrnxrarq gurve punenpgref naq qvqa'g tvir gur npgbef n tbbq svanyr.

Npghnyyl rira vs gurl'q whfg raqrq gur fvqrjnlf havirefr jvgu rnpu fvqr trggvat n oevrs tyvzcfr bs gur bgure, "jung zvtug unir orra", gung fgvyy jbhyq unir orra orggre guna guvf "un un, fvqrjnlf-2004 jnf nyy n qernz" raqvat. Fher lrnu, gur zrffntr vf vg'f nyy nobhg gur wbhearl, naq nyy gung znggref va gur raq vf ybir. Ohg gur jnl gur raqvat jnf pbafgehpgrq, vg jnf whfg jrnx. Yvxr gur OFT raqvat, vg onfvpnyyl whfg fnlf "jryy gung jnf nyy zrnavatyrff, gurl'er nyy qrnq, Tbq qvq vg".

Labels: lost, television

posted by Richard at 20:05 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Lost finale predictions

ROT13-ed for theoretical spoilers.

Gur fubj unf orra gelvat gb ybbc guvatf onpx gb gur ortvaavat, n ybtvpny jnl gb tvir n frafr bs pybfher.

* V cerqvpg Ybpxr naq Qrfzbaq jvyy raq hc onpx ng jungrire erznvaf bs gur Ungpu, naq Qrfzbaq jvyy hfr gur rdhvczrag sebz Jvqzber gb qrgbangr fbzr xvaq bs vfynaq-jvqr znffvir ryrpgebzntargvp rirag. Ybpxr jvyy npghnyyl uryc uvz (be ng yrnfg abg fgbc uvz) fvapr ur oryvrirf guvf jvyy qrfgebl gur vfynaq. (Gur rirag vf cerfhznoyl nyfb fhccbfrq gb qrfgebl Ybpxr, vg'f abg pyrne gb zr ubj ur jvyy gel gb nibvq guvf.)
* Gur rirag jvyy pnhfr gur pbafpvbhfarffrf bs gur crbcyr va gur fvqrjnlf ernyvgl gb pebff-bire sbe n gvzr jvgu gubfr ba gur vfynaq. Vg'f cbffvoyr gung Wnpx (jub nf n tbq jvyy abg pebff bire?) jvyy, qhevat guvf gvzr, xvyy gur pebffrq-bire erny Ybpxr, jub jvyy or xvyynoyr nf ur'f ab ybatre gur fzbxr zbafgre. Cbffvoyl gur fzbxr zbafgre raqf hc "genccrq" (be ng yrnfg ybfg, vs lbh jvyy) va gur fvqrjnlf ernyvgl.
* Gurer ner n srj cbffvovyvgvrf sbe gur fvatyr sebmra raqvat fubg. V guvax vg vf irel yvxryl gb or n pybfrhc bs Wnpx'f rlr, gb zveebe gur irel svefg fubg va gur frevrf.
- zl cersrerapr: va Wnpx'f rlr lbh frr gur tbyqra yvtug syvpxre naq gura qvr (cerfhznoyl zrnavat nyy bs uhznavgl jvyy qvr)
- nabgure bcgvba: pybfvat fubg vf tbyqra yvtug ersyrpgrq va Wnpx'f rlr
- nabgure bcgvba: obgu rlrf, bar fubjvat gur tbyqra yvtug, gur bgure fubjvat vg rkgvathvfurq
- nabgure bcgvba: Wnpx'f rlr pybfvat nf ur qvrf/vfynaq vf qrfgeblrq
- nabgure bcgvba: Wnpx'f rlr pybfvat nf ur tbrf gb fyrrc ba gur svefg qnl bs uvf hcpbzvat rgreavgl bs thneqvat gur vfynaq

Gur pebffbire orgjrra gur vfynaq naq fvqrjnlf havirefr vf n ovt ryrzrag bs gur svanyr (gur jevgref unir nyernql fnvq guvf) ohg V'z abg fher jung erfhygf vg jvyy unir, bgure guna rirelbar frrvat gur yvirf gurl pbhyq unir unq naq (cebonoyl) erny-Ybpxr qlvat.

V qba'g guvax, bgure guna frrvat fbzr punenpgre fgbelyvarf pbzr gb jenc-hc cbvagf, jr'er tbvat gb frr zhpu va gur jnl bs arj eriryngvbaf bs zlfgrevrf fbyirq - rffragvnyyl gur rcvfbqr jvgu PW nf gur Rnegu Zbgure jnf gur ovt "nafjre" rcvfbqr.

Labels: lost, television

posted by Richard at 13:24 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Caprica sucks

While I'm in a TV mode.
Tried the Caprica pilot. meh.

The inevitable issues list:
* Greco-Roman polytheistic religions don't have the concept of personal redemption through good acts. You can make sacrifices to the gods, but it's basically up to their whims whether they listen or not. Thus the head of the Athenian girls-and-one-boy school would never have said "love your enemies", the Romans had no such concept and it would have been alien for anyone to articulate it, it would have been a huge red flag for the inspector guy. Athena is a fricking huntress. "Slay your prey" would be a more accurate belief statement.
* I don't like ANY of these nearly-almost setups:
** the "Christian girls school" that is the Athenian academy thing
** the "Sicilian crime mob" that is the Halaa from Tauren
** the "discrimination against black people" that is the discrimination against the Tauren
** the one god monotheism that is way too soon and too obvious
** the "look it's Baltar without the sleeping around" of Greystone and his house on the water and his genius inventing of everything
** the "sort of FBI guy" that is the investigating terrorism guy
* I don't like it's all teens. Who cares about teens? Teens have a single North American narrative: weak confused rebel s3x drinking angry clueless blah blah blah.
- That TV show has been made a bazillion times.
- "birth control!" - this is her big finish in insulting her parents? seriously? in a Greco-Roman society? Greco-Romans could give a f*ck about t33ns using birth control. proper (that is, socially appropriate that brings status advancement) marriage is important to G-R society. What you do with your hoo-hah, not so much.
* I don't like that their tech is more advanced than we see on the Pegasus
* I don't like that Joseph Adama is a crook

It's also pretty clear how the whole retcon goes.

*** SPOILER OILER OILER SPOILER ****




Angry teen robot girl turns all her dad's killer robots into monotheistic terrorists and gets her revenge on the adults for... well, being adults. Adama something redemption something discrimination something opposing Greystone and loses. The end. That's the entire plot arc.

Labels: caprica, review, television

posted by Richard at 21:22 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

TNG key

Andy Kaplan-Myrth asked about key ST:TNG episodes, ones that move the plotlines along, introduce new characters etc.

I didn't exactly answer his question, this is a blend of important episodes and ones that are just good.

It was a bit of a challenge since I don't particularly like TNG (in order, I like TOS, DS9, TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, with a pretty big gap between DS9 and TNG). I have nevertheless seen all of the episodes multiple times.

There were other good ones, in general any ones where it was mostly Picard or Data had a better chance of succeeding. The sun and moon one where Data was a bunch of characters was cool. The Moriarty ones were not bad too, as much as I hate the holodeck, particularly the ?second? one where he came back very angry and made holodecks within holodecks. But those don't particularly move the story forward.

It also revealed an unexpected trend: a lot of strong episodes from the 5th season. Perhaps that's when they finally hit their stride.

UPDATE 2010-02-07: After some quick playing around with search terms, I found that Memory Alpha has a list of Story Arcs across all of Star Trek. ENDUPDATE

Chronological / Stardatical:

Q and the introduction of the Borg - Q-Who (2x16)
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Q_Who_%28episode%29


Alternate universe with Enterprise-C - Yesterday's Enterprise (3x15)
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Yesterday%27s_Enterprise_%28episode%29

Picard used by the Borg to attack the Federation - formative episode for his attitude towards the Borg and also formative for DS9 as Capt. Sisko's wife is killed in the Borg attack (3x26, 4x01)
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Best_of_Both_Worlds_%28episode%29

First Contact (4x15) - a good first contact episode
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/First_Contact_%28episode%29

SEASON 5

Darmok - interesting idea of aliens who communicate only in metaphor (5x02) - also first episode with Ashley Judd
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Darmok_%28episode%29

Ensign Ro (5x03) - I think this is the introduction of the Bajorans and Cardassians, it's definitely the introduction of Ro Laren
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Ensign_Ro_%28episode%29

The Game (5x06) - second episode with Ashley Judd - a rare episode in which Will Wheaton actually has something to do
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Game_%28episode%29

Spock strives to bring the Romulans back onto the path of peace and eventual reunification with Vulcan - Unification I & II (5x07, 5x08)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_%28TNG_episode%29
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Unification

I, Borg (5x23) - humanisation of the Borg to some extent, moral dilemma for Picard, introduces character of Hugh
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/I_Borg_%28episode%29

Picard lives an entire alternate lifetime on an alien planet in a matter of minutes - The Inner Light (5x25) - generally the TNG episode with the highest rating from fans in various surveys and rankings
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Inner_Light_%28episode%29

END SEASON 5

Picard tortured by Cardassian (Gul Madred) - Chain of Command Part II (6x11)
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Chain_of_Command,_Part_II_%28episode%29

Tapestry (6x15) - an unexpected backstory / alternative history of Picard's life
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Tapestry_%28episode%29


Series Finale - All Good Things (7x25, 7x26)
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/All_Good_Things..._%28episode%29


There are lots of lists of top episodes, e.g.
Entertainment Weekly - Top 10 TNG Episodes
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20057754,00.html

Labels: st:tng, Star Trek, television

posted by Richard at 18:03 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

an anti-appreciation of the BSG ending

I thought Brad Templeton had already had his final word on this topic, but he did a wrap-up post last month:

Battlestar's "Daybreak:" The worst ending in the history of on-screen science fiction

As you know if you've been reading this blog, I agree with most of what he says, although I would have been more willing to accept a past scenario (even though that creates some problems) whereas he really wanted it to be a future scenario.

Labels: battlestar galactica, television

posted by Richard at 16:33 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

BSG finale: answer to a question we didn't ask

Author's note: I am placing this ending (the "In Conclusion" piece) in the Creative Commons
Battlestar Galactica Alternative Ending by Richard Akerman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.
Do with it as you wish, within those constraints.

In further re-processing the finale, I realised it has brilliance in a way.

In the finale, Ron Moore answers the question: What would it mean, if god were real, if religion were true?

Unfortunately, for at least a segment of the fan base, that's not the question we were asking,
and I think it's a pretty long stretch to say that's the question the show was asking.

But I can see, if you're currently religious (like swathes of America, but unlike most of Canada and Western Europe) you could have read this as the question.

The question as I read it and as I think most in the non-religious west read it was: What does it mean to be human?

So what Ron gave us would have been, in its way, genius, if it had been an alternate ending, a surprise one-hour "side B", B-Ark special, AFTER the real ending that answered the "What does it mean to be human?" question.

That being said, if you read Ron's "alternate" finale in this way, it actually ends up in my opinion being scathingly anti-religion.

Think about the answers he gave, if the question is "What would it mean if god were real".
As worked out through
1 if the Old Testament Judeo-Christian-Muslim One God were true
2 if the Classic capricious Greco-Roman-Nordic gods who play dice with fate were true
3 if reincarnation were true

1 Old Testament
* God would destroy unbelievers
- as the billions in the colonies were swept away, for believing in the wrong gods

* God would destroy sinners
- as the billions in the colonies were swept away, for being a capitalist, spiritually corrupt society

* God would reward His Prophets
- as Gaius and Caprica Six are rewarded, and as Not-Kira-Nerys is rewarded by her boatride to see her relatives, after death

* God would test his disciples with suffering
- as in the Bible Job was tested, so the entire fleet was tested, Gaius was tested (attempting to kill himself to save the child), as the believing Cylons were tested having their numbers (literally and figuratively) destroyed by Cavil, just as Not-Kira-Nerys suffered in death

* God would lead the Ark to the Promised Land
- but not without 40 years / 4 years of wandering in the desert / space first

* it would mean that your life is in a way, meaningless. Only faith is rewarded. The only thing you can do is BELIEVE and BELIEVE and BELIEVE. The net is down - behind the scenes God can play everyone like puppets and pawns, but you have to BELIEVE he is doing it all for some PURPOSE.

* it would mean in one interpretation that your life is to be spent in poverty, shunning iconography, not pursuing scientific knowledge and culture, being a simple faith-filled farmer. Keep in mind there are many threads of religious belief that hold this to be true in our own real world today.
- when you see this played out on screen, it exposes what a horrific world that would actually be - nothing but the shirt on your back, endless lifetimes of suffering, no medicine, no art, no space travel, all because God wants us all to stay in a state of spiritually pure primitivism - this ending is an arrow right into the heart of Christian and Muslim fundamentalists who, mostly living at the pinnacle of civilization, claim this is the God and the life they actually want (while not living that way themselves)

Ultimately Moore is making a profoundly anti-religious statement: if this is what you believe, in the modern world, these are the implications: a God who from our perspective is cruel and mysterious, killing with apparent arbitrariness, giving us a life full of suffering and ignorance, changing the rules at whim, and probably going to kill us all again when He decides it isn't going according to Plan.

If this IS the true world, I think a lot of atheists would indeed be inclined to follow Doubting Cavil and say Frak This, and bang.
This world of a (from a human perspective) capricious (hmm Capric-ious) and cruel god is one a lot of us don't want to live in.

When David Plotz set out to read the Old Testament, his conclusion (as I understand it) was that God was a Right Bastard, and that in fact the only characters who redeem themselves in the Testament are the humans.

See e.g. Is God Evil?

In other words, this is basically an upraised finger from Moore, not against science, but to monotheistic religious fundamentalists, saying "if this is what you really believe, this is what it would actually mean in practice".

2 The Gods including The Fates

Classic religion has Fate as a strong element, indeed The Fates embody this, weaving out the stories of our lives. Not-Kira-Nerys articulated this view of the Colonies religion, scorning the view that Jupiter casts everyone's lot in life, picking our fates out at random, one to be happy and successful, one to suffer, all arbitrary and unstoppable.

(To which President Roslin said, "that's just a metaphor" - oh if only Moore had listened to her for the show's conclusion.)

What Moore is saying in this case is that Roman Polytheism sucked too - on the plus side, you get to do whatever the Frak you want, because there's no Christian concepts of Shame and Guilt, the gods don't care what you do, and you might as well just wander through life, since the hand of fate controls your destiny anyway.

Moore showed how abritrary, pointless and cruel this religious tradition can be when the literal dead hand of fate (Racetrack's dead hand) tumbles to hit the "launch nukes" button, and when Kara discovers her whole life of struggle was basically so she could enter some numbers into an FTL control and then disappear with a poof!

No reward, no free will - if this were the true world, many of us would follow Dualla and say "what's the point then?" and off ourselves.

3 Reincarnation

What if you really go through cycle after cycle, either numbered-Cylon style, remembering everything but in many cases (like Cavil) not changing one damn bit (or even getting worse) through each cycle?

Imagine being fated to live over and over and over again, forever. That's a kind of hell all in itself.

Or in Final Five style, you show up not remembering your past, screw up your life again, briefly discover you're doomed to repeat it when you die and Know All, and then have to start ALL OVER AGAIN, forever.

In that case, like D'Anna you might just say, fuck it, I'm just going to stay alone on this radioactive wasteland and die already.

In Conclusion

IF the show had been framed this way from the beginning, it would have been a good conclusion.
But I don't think the show was. I think the conclusion that would have been faithful to the spirit of the show would have been the exact opposite. For example I would have found it quite satisfactory to have my years of invested fan analysis rewarded with something like an actual ending "A", the real ending.

In order to do this, you can leave 4x19 and the first hour of 4x20 basically intact, just cutting out the (terrible) flashbackstories of Tigh/Ellen/Bill Adama and Roslin and Lee's "god is a pigeon" flashback. The Kara-Zak-Lee flashbacks stay and are actually critical to the reimagined ending. You might also insert a teaser "One Will Be Revealed" text at the beginning of 4x20. The big chunk of work is you need to completely reshoot the ending 45 minutes to an hour, starting just when Baltar and Six arrive in the CIC with Hera.

It goes like this:

On Kobol, there was a 14th tribe that went its separate way that did unify the Cylon and Human sides. (If you wish, you can consider "14th tribe" equivalent to "Lords of Kobol", but it's not necessary.) They have had 3500 years to develop very advanced technology and spiritual enlightenment. Although they did not cause any of the wars (Earth 1 or the Colonies) they did intervene in the small ways they could - using Cylon projection technology to send the Five visions and music, helping them to reconstruct the "organic memory transfer" resurrection tech that the 14th tribe had preserved and advanced after the fall of Kobol and beginning them on a long path to the Colonies and beyond.

Resurrection technology is based on a profound understanding of the nature of the universe, the discovery that there are underlying harmonies, a song in the mathematics and physics that underlies our reality, and that we all "read out" into that underlying song when we die - so that if you're careful and "listening" you can seize the moment to read that new harmony back in to a new body and continue.

The 14th tribe also intervened so that when Zak Adama, Cylon (model 7 Daniel) died,
he was resurrected in an old abandoned Resurrection Ship (or a specially constructed ship, a Ship of Light if you like) near Earth 1. He waited and cherished his love for Kara.

The 14th tribe transported Kara's crushed ship to Earth 1 orbit.
When Kara crashed on Earth 1, she was resurrected by Zak, he built her a new ship (hence the two month delay), he jiggered with her memories and sent her on her way. He waits for her to reach Earth 2, whereupon her memories will come back and she can come back and get him.

The 14th tribe also sent those harmonies to Kara's father, and helped shaped her destiny so that the song would lead them all to a new and beautiful home, full of life.

They sent Cylon projections and visions that can (since they are very advanced) even reach humans like Kara, Baltar, and Roslin, trying to help guide Baltar and Caprica Six to some kind of salvation, after their terrible sin (succeeding to a large extent with Six, rather more unconvincingly so with Baltar).

Hera was the symbol and the carrier of the possibility of united Cylon-Humanity that the 14th embody.
One of Six and Baltar's most important roles, guided by the 14th tribe, was to bring Hera safely to the Opera House, which turns out to be the CIC, the literal "Theater of War" against which so much of the drama of the past four years has played out.

Baltar and Six's other role is to make the case, based on their rediscovered love for one another, for final peace between man and machine, an argument based on love while the visions look on silently approving, but NOT an appeal based on faith at all, Baltar doesn't say "I see angels", he says "I have found love and redemption, finally, and so should all of man and machine".

They make the Great Bargain, Cavil says "I'm a machine of my word", the Cylons get resurrection tech again, Galen restrains himself and forgives Tori. The Colony is NOT destroyed by the hand of fate.

Sam says to Kara - "I can hear it now, the music, it's perfection... I know the answer you've been seeking Kara, you've had it in you all along" - and together they work out the coordinates to Earth 2 and Sam jumps them there.

They land on Earth 2 and Kara has her Second Revelation, of Zak Adama.

Cut and a raptor with Kara and perhaps at least Ellen & Saul but preferably all Four (out of the First/Final Five) jumps to Earth 1 and retrieves Zak Adama - oh joy for Ellen, her beloved 7 lives! and D'anna - return to Earth 2 for incredibly complex homecoming and tragedy - Kara loves Zak AND Lee AND Sam, but Sam is dying and Zak is back... so Kara and Lee can still never be together - stunning reunion for the Adamas as well, brother and son reborn and a Cylon all along. Roslin meets Zak, says "My gods, Adama is a Cylon" and then we have a painful but poignant end of her life, sitting on a hill with Bill, looking at the wonder of the profusion of life, finally back on solid ground she can let go.

Robotic Cylons are freed - each person, man and machine has a choice of the future they choose

Sam asks not to be resurrected but instead takes a new, hybrid Galactica-Baseship reconstruction to explore the universe and listen to the music of the spheres - perhaps Cavil takes inspiration from this and plugs himself in with Sam on Galactica-Baseship, exploring as the machine he always wanted to be.

Some leave to live space lives or seek out other worlds, some stay, humans and Cylons both.

Jump forward five years later - Adama at Roslin's grave atop a hill, talking to her as he does every morning, telling her there is a feast of celebration. Camera pulls back so that we see he is on a hill by her grave, his cabin is nearby, it overlooks a tidy Romanesque village, surrounded by neat fields (and some landed spacecraft) where humans, numbered Cylons and a few robotic Cylons (including some old-style classic Cylons) work side by side - cut to Galen, the town blacksmith working side-by-side with a robotic blacksmith - Galen heads out into the town centre where a long table is laid out and they're all preparing for a meal - Tigh has his eye back, clearly having decided it was worth another round of resurrection in order to see with both eyes again -

OPTIONAL SCENE
Saul and Ellen are looking on as a little boy runs after what is probably Hera - the boy runs to be swept up by Kara, with Zak beside her - Bill Adama arrives and embraces Zak - Lee shows up and they all head to the table together - together, the Five, the numbered Cylons and humans united together through Kara and Zak's son.
END OPTIONAL SCENE

pan along all the happy familiar faces, human and Cylon alike, as children run about... pan up to the sky and the stars, cue traditional (original series) music...

OPTIONAL ENDING TEXT
"Earth, Tigris-Euphrates river valley, c. 10000 BC" or
"Earth, Island of Atlantis, 10000 years ago" or (my preference) simply

"There are those who believe..."
END OPTIONAL TEXT

Fade to black.

Labels: battlestar galactica, television

posted by Richard at 07:08 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

BSG: we're all going to die, so just give up

SPOILO-RAMA

Fiction can be about a lot of different things.

It can be about the characters, it can be about the setting, it can be about the journey, it can be about the mystery, it can be about a message, it can be people and setting just as props supporting entertainment & humour, or it can be in visual media just about how it looks. The only thing different in science fiction is that it can also be about technology.

The big complaint against classic science fiction is that it was, in fact, more about the technology, or about the setting, than it was about the characters.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was a classic technology-driven show, all ray guns and tractor beams and particles and fields. (Which would have been ok, had it been about actual science and actual space, instead of just made-up gibberish about polarised tetrions.)

Deep Space Nine was a more character and plot driven show.

Where things can go wrong is when you start one way, and end another.
For example, The Matrix series starts out with some incredible ideas and visuals, cleanly executed plot, heroism and triumph,

and then in the 2nd and 3rd turns into a bunch of gibberish with people having underground raves, pointless special effects, and a nihilistic "all this has happened before" explanation by The Architect (hmm, sound familiar?)

Oceans 13 you think you're trying to follow a particular plot, and then at the end it's, oh audience members we were just showing you the con, suckers, thanks for paying for our vacation in Europe.

Battlestar was clearly and deliberately not about the technology, it was about the characters, the mysteries, and preserving the last surviving remnants of civilization.

Now *some* people watched it just for pure entertainment. For them an ending with "a bunch of stuff blows up and god did it" is fine.

For those of us following the story arc, the mysteries, and the survival of civilization though, Ron Moore pulls the rug out from under us.

The only thing I can figure is he had the vision of modern-day earth as his grand finale, and then he had to get rid of all the inconvenient truth of BSG in order to do his nice clean break with the past.

Why do they have to throw away all of their technology?
A: Because modern Earth doesn't have any of it

Why do they all have to (effectively) commit suicide?
A: Because nothing remains of their civilization in modern Earth

In essence, in order to tell his preachy final story about Fear the Japanese Robots!
Ron Moore had to KILL EVERY CHARACTER POINTLESSLY.

* Those characters you've been following? Essentially they all end up as different versions of Cavil, saying "Frak!" and blowing their heads off, like Dualla did earlier on when a pocketwatch made her think "well, this was all a waste of time".
* Those mysteries you've been following? Err, a wizard did it, whatever.
* The last remnants of civilization? Err, civilization sucked, let's throw it all away and all die of disease, starvation, and murder by rather more skillful native populations.
* 35,000 surviving humans, having beat impossible odds? Ah fuck em, there are already humans on the planet, so the colonists should all just go off in some tiny unsustainable scattered groups and die already.
* Faster than light technology, space travel? Yeah we better toss that in the garbage too, err I mean the sun.

The only ones who come out of it well are the (presumably) immortal killer robots. They get to keep all the technology and explore the universe.

The humans? Fuck em.

Which gets you all nice and tidy to Live from New York, this was all pointless, thanks for the mitochondrial memories, the end. PS fear the robots.

So in order to get to this final few minutes of badly written, preachy, junk,
you have to turn the ENTIRE PAST FOUR YEARS from a noble, character-driven adventure,
to an exercise in nihilism.

From a message of imperfect humans striving for survival against impossible odds to: fuck it, fate determines everything anyway, civilization is terrible, you might as well just say Frak and blow your head off suicidal nihilism.

Thanks Ron Moore.
You suck.

Labels: battlestar galactica, rant, television

posted by Richard at 07:13 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

BSG: rational civilization sucks

SPOILERS

So BSG finale had two failings:

1) deus ex machina solution to all plot mysteries - ok fine, you can't be bothered resolving the plot points, whatever

2) Much more serious and disturbing to me, in the last two hours, a bizarre direction inconsistent with the entire theme of the show: all of a sudden it goes anti-science, anti-technology, anti-civilization

The message of BSG up to 4x20 was quite simple: the world is a dirty, real, flawed place. The war between Cylons and humans is because both sides have flaws of character and imagination. Technology is just a tool that you use.

Then I was reading Television Without Pity and thinking about this strange emphasis in the flashbacks to drinking and various sorts of debauchery, with people behaving out of character - and I saw the message, which is quite clear once you look for it: civilization itself, the modern technological world, is sinful, twisted, unclean, cruel.

Similarly, for committing the sin of being a doctor guy, and doing science stuff on Hera, and saying mathematics things, Simon gets his neck snapped. Doesn't he know that Hera is about faith and impulse and visions and prophecy and god's plan? How dare he be all rational.

Baltar's sin becomes not destroying the world through narcissism, his sin is that he was a scientist instead of a farmer. After four years of trying to hold together a technological civilization, the solution, the redemption is: fade away, abandon technology. The technology itself becomes the sin.

Redemption is: god is playing dice with the universe anyway, just accept fate, why bother with rational thought, god rewards only faith.

THIS IS COMPLETELY INCONSISTENT WITH THE PREVIOUS FOUR YEARS OF THE SHOW.

It is anti-science and anti-civilization, and I think it is reprehensible.

Do you know what life is like without the "terrible debauchery" of modern civilization? It's not some noble savage bullsh-t. It's a bunch of dirty people starving, dying of disease, spending lives in pain and ignorance and brutalizing each other unbelievably.

Civilization is good.

Ron Moore, I can't believe you changed the message of the show at the end from "we're all just flawed people in a gritty world" to "fear the Japanese robots". That's insulting. That's just plain wrong. Maybe you should try living with the clothes on your back on some island somewhere and see how awesomely redemptive the starvation, disease, loneliness and deprivation is.

Enlightenment does not come from suffering in ignorance.

Enlightenment IS civilization.

How dare you make the end of Battlestar a platform to suggest otherwise, inconsistent with the values of the previous four seasons.

Labels: battlestar galactica, rant, television

posted by Richard at 23:48 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

fighting the spoilers

In order for me to watch BSG (or any show) in my preferred mode, which is to have no idea what's coming, so that I can be surprised (a concept which apparently no longer exists),

I have to
* avoid all the commercials on Space which advertise what's going to happen
* avoid the f-ing pre-show blast on Space slotted right before BSG which advertises what's going to happen
* avoid the in-show montage which shows what's going to happen
* avoid the post-show ad/montage which shows what's going to happen next week

Yeah, real-time TV is great. Between the ads and the popup boxes and whatever all damn things, it's clear that it's designed for attention spans that are miniscule.

sigh

Labels: rant, television

posted by Richard at 23:01 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

The Big Bang Theory Season 1

Just finished the season (17 episodes).
I love this show so much.

In episode 16, where Sheldon goes to the computer store to buy a gift for Leonard and is comparing 802.11n wireless routers



and then he ends up advising all the other shoppers on what to buy...

this happens to me when I'm buying computer stuff in Staples.
Honest to god.

My friend even thought up a name for it, I can't remember what it was exactly, something like microsales or nanosales.

Labels: review, tbbt, television, the big bang theory

posted by Richard at 20:22 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Galactica 4x10

That was about as good a mid-climax to this madness as was possible.
Kara's magic Viper, it was obvious it was going to have the info in its nav, but it was as good a way as any to have the final 4 lead the way to Earth without knowing the way themselves.

Kara running through the ship was ridiculous though.
What, she couldn't have picked up a phone?

Also the Admiral's meltdown was a bit over the top.

We seem to have ended up at some variant of my scenario from my posting Kara's Destiny from April: "Alternate Galactica-universe Earth. Earth is already centuries or millenia into the recovery after a total apocalypse."

Well, the total apocalypse part anyway.

As you may have noticed, only FOUR heard the radio call... Deanna said only four were in the fleet... because

TWELVE CYLON MODELS
SEVEN ARE KNOWN
FOUR LIVED IN SECRET
ONE WILL BE REVEALED

ZAK ADAMA IS A CYLON

It's pretty clear that someone is orchestrating human-Cylon peace.

The final Cylon and the Plan remain to be revealed.

In case you haven't heard, the final chapter, starting with episode 11, probably won't start unrolling until January 2009.

And yes I was wrong about President's aide and Tigh. I still don't see how Tigh can be a Cylon.

Labels: battlestar galactica, review, television

posted by Richard at 23:00 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

the rocket fishing rod? wtf?

So I'm watching TV and this thing comes on

http://www.rocketfishingrod.com/

It's a fishing rod, except instead of the old reliable "use your arms" approach to casting, it has the "use a plastic piece of cr-p (that will soon fall apart) to shoot the line a foot into the air" approach.

These are the end days.

Labels: consumerism, television

posted by Richard at 11:54 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Battlestar Season 4.0 ends at 10

They're ending the season at episode 10?
Are you fucking kidding me?

Space is advertising "Season Finale" on TV for this Friday.
On the website, they're calling it the "Spring Finale".
SciFi is calling it "Mid-Season Finale".

MIDSEASON FINALE?
What the fuck is that?

The remaining 10 episodes will air... we don't know when.
Anyone have any info?

Labels: battlestar galactica, television

posted by Richard at 20:23 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Galactica 4x09

Now that was a good episode.

Labels: battlestar galactica, review, television

posted by Richard at 23:01 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Galactica 4x07, 4x08

Hmm.

They are in a tough place, trying to wrap up a story that is ending on more metaphysics than hard SF. Galostica.

Some lameness with the red shirt girl - look it's a Raptor with Athena, Sam, Starbuck, and... woman you've never seen before. Any bets on how long she lives... yeah, about 10 minutes.

Everyone is losing it.
Cylons killing Cylons, Cylon babies, plus everyone is the throes of various delusions.

Just check it out, people having delusions, visions, prophecies or otherwise deranged:
- XO Tigh
- Starbuck
- Six
- Athena
- Leoben
- Hybrid
- President Roslyn
- Hera
- Kira Nerys (the dying woman - ok technically Nana Visitor) - yeah it took me almost the entire episode to parse out her identity - I was like... hmm... she seems familiar... that voice...
- Baltar

All of 4x08 seemed lame, particularly the badly written and cat-heavy subplot about President Adama.

It seems like they're trying to position everyone in the right places for cool stuff to happen, but they don't quite know how to get them all there.

Jump!

Labels: battlestar galactica, review, television

posted by Richard at 10:41 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Galactica 4x06

I told you they were just basestars.

So Deanna (3) is going to tell them about the Final Five... who are going to give you the home of the 13th.

Direct transcription:

Thus will it come to pass.

A dying leader will know the truth of the Opera House.

The missing 3 will give you the 5
who have come from the home of the 13th.

You are the harbinger of death Kara Thrace.
You will lead them all to their end.

END OF LINE

We are to assume that it's the President who is going to know the truth,
but it could be anyone in a leadership position.

UPDATE: Also I don't see why "the missing 3" couldn't be either of
- the three "secret Galactica Cylons" who aren't in attendance: Galen, Tigh and President's Aide girl
- the three warring Cylons: Cavil, Simon and Aaron
ENDUPDATE

Now, the home of the 13th.
12 tribes.
12 Cylon models.
Hmm.

Presumably the easy interpretation, as provided by Six, is "home of the 13th" = Earth.

A rather improbable alternative is it is the home base / home planet of the 13th Cylon, the Cylon Creator, the Architect.

Most likely scenario is as described in my April 28, 2008 posting on Zak Adama is a Cylon

The more perfect union theory is something like: the first five Cylons have a plan to rebuild an integrated, peaceful society from the ashes of the split societies, unifying man and machine. They possibly went ahead to Earth, just in the last 50 years or so, stopping at the Temple of Jupiter along the way to rejigger it to reveal the Final Five, taking advantage of the existing mythology.

Zak Adama is a Cylon - who is the puppet master?

The only added element is that possibly they are all already dead, and in purgatory, making their way to Earth / Heaven / Judgment Day.

Kara is in this scenario leading them to their end, to their final judgment.
What comes after the end? The afterlife.

This is the idea that when people die suddenly and unexpectedly, they don't quite know they're dead, they continue playing out their lives until they resolve major issues and realise they're actually already gone.

Purgatory has been popular lately, being both a first-season scenario for Lost, and a scenario for Life on Mars.

Most likely however is that the 13th tribe Earth is, as mentioned before, "one big happy Cylon-Human-Jebus holy trinity" and Kara is leading the human race to its end as a unique, dominant species.

Zak Adama as a Cylon awaiting Starbuck on Earth/Afterlife fits in perfectly with either scenario.

As a sidebar, with the Boomers marching their way to Death's Door, almost ALL television is about death now, whether it's fantasies of being rescued from any possible disease (House) or fantasies of justice after death (CSI).

Labels: battlestar galactica, review, television

posted by Richard at 06:22 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Galactica 4x05

About what I expected. There's only so long the Demetrius storyline can be drawn out.

It's all going to end in one big happy Cylon-Human-Jebus holy trinity.

I knew they were going to start bringing in the Hybrid angle even more.
The Hybrids are God's Prophets. It's possible they've been the ones running the entire show.

I think the artists have done a good job driving the screencap people crazy.
I'm sure there will be lots more from this ep.

Anyway, I don't buy this "Kara's painting Ships of Light" thing.
I think they're supposed to be three stylized stars. Unless what she thought were stars were actually three ships. I saw three ships come sailing in...

At most they look like white Basestars.
Maybe the Good Cylons drive white Basestars?

PS Zak Adama is a Cylon

Labels: battlestar galactica, review, television

posted by Richard at 00:43 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)