I want two hours of my life back, no make that I want every hour I wasted on this over hyped soap opera. You might as well canvel Caprica now because after Battlestar's horrible, throw it against the wall and see if it sticks, (make that stink) I don't know anyone who will even bother. The wriyers should be ashamed of themselves.

With all those who keep saying the show ended stupid, yes, there were some things they should have done a little more explaining. But, that leaves it open in many aspects for a sequel or another movie or another special, as it pertains to them and their first year or years on the planet.
Besides, the original idea of the show was, "Some believe life down here began up there.". And, with historic markers they used, it COULD be that is how we got to where we are, and explain how some things here on earth came to be...the pyramids, easter island, etc.
I loved the show, and the ending and will sorely miss it. There will never be another show that could take it's place in my book.
Goodbye BSG. You'll be missed.

o.k. where to begin? as a lot of people have, I watched this show religously for it's entire run and was looking forward excitedly to the finale. I enjoyed it emensly right up until they landed on "our Earth" then the show I loved Melted away and left a hollow shell behind. Adama orders evey remaining member of the human race to abandon their ships and take refuge on a primative planet, refuses the proposal of building a city, ( they missed the chance to explain the Atlantis myth ther me thinks ) The mortal enemy that destryed the colonies join them and turn their ship over to the centurians and noone bats an eyelid, a son allows his father to fly off into the sunset with a dying ex-president knowing he won't return, and just accepts it!! and then Starbuck just vanishes into air. what the frack was that all about? and to cap it all off everybody just walks into the wilderness hand in hand, then hey presto, it's 150,000 years later and its a sunny 21st century day, and it was all Gods will. what a croc.
I belive this show could have run a lot longer, i'm sad it ended when it did, but the ending they provided was worse than if they had just faded to black.

The gist of my reaction:

For a show that long (and rightfully) has prided itself on presenting issue mashups which insist that you think without quite telling you what to think to stoop to the level of a sequence which too much reads as a blunt statement struck me as somewhat crass and surprisingly artless.

...

Does it ruin the finale for me? No. The series? No. But it is disquieting to see a show so loved for its nuanced complexity end on so pedestrian and simplistic a note.

just re-watched the episode and turned it off as they aproached "Earth" it worked for me a whole lot more than the first time around. :)

I'll just rewatch the miniseries and pretend the last 4 years never happened. The last two years were mostly horrific. So much character development they forgot to do anything cool. I literally was about to tell tivo in season 3 to stop recording every week because after several episodes it was soooo slow and boring. Nothing grandiose about secret cylons. Just dumb, boring, drama filled reveals. This show turned from an incredible sci-fi show to a slow moving behemoth of a drama that crawled on for years because of it's early success. Can I have my 4 years of watching BSG back?

I won't watch Caprica. It looks even more boring than the dragging last 2 years of BSG! The writers and producers and suck it. Go work on Gossip Girl and the day-time soaps and stay away from the good stuff!

I enjoyed it. I like that what Kara was remained a mystery. We don't get all the answers in life, why should tv be different? Is it so hard to believe that there is a form of life that watches what we do and steps in sometimes to "steer" us? I'm not religous but I find Ron Moore's "angels" believable. While I wouldn't want to return to the stone age I haven't lived in a metal can for 4 years while being chased by killer robots paranoid that my neighbor is one of them in disguise. Maybe poopin' in the woods and living in caves would appeall to me. If you believe you can't make peace and live with a former enemy, history says you're wrong! look at our relationship with England and Japan.

To all of you who say it sucked you are welcome to your opinion but please quit whining. You'll miss this shownext year when 5 more stupid reality shows and
Leno at 10 all week is out there to lower your IQ. You get what you deserve.

Someone whined, "I want two hours of my life back, no make that I want every hour I wasted on this over hyped soap opera."

You know, if you didn't like the finale, that's fine. But now you're complaining about the whole show? You're the one who stuck with it. If you didn't like it, you could've moved on. Quit your whining.

The series started with a huge salvo and ended with a pitifull whimper. The writers of BSG took the easy and effortless way out. The finale was a disappointment and a disservice to its fans. Shame on you!

I miss it already!!! WAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!

Each week I hoped and hoped the show would get better. They promised us that there would be answers. I remember reading that there will be a lot of deaths, some to the major characters. Really? Where? Nobody from the main cast died until the finale's extra minutes and it was only one. Star-Angel/Ghost-buck there doesn't count. And POOF- she's gone, not an answer.

All the hoping was in vain. I should have known they'd never give real answers.

I think you're under-representing the "Bad" response.

The whole Deus Ex part was just shite. It did fit with the mythology, but only because of lazy writing decisions early on.

I felt cheated, but in this sort of way:
Person: "I'M GOING TO CHEAT YOU!"
Me: Aww, they don't really mean it.
Person cheats me.
Me: Oh. Well, I guess I was warned, but that was unsatisfying.

The problem is a lot of us hung on hoping for answers to the many, many questions the series brought up. By the finale, it was clear those weren't coming. Our patience was not rewarded.

THAT'S what has ruined the series for me. And why I will never be able to recommend it to someone who hasn't seen any of it yet.

You are all fools. You're so busy looking between the lines for some x files type understory that you don't realize that the simplicity of this show WAS it's genius. All of your pathetic fan boy whining is proof that the mythology of Battlestar is true. You are all doomed to repeat this with your next favorite/hated sci fi show. This has all happened before... you will all still be whining then.

I thought the ending was like a bitter sweet surrender. The survivors of the "Rag Tag Fleet" surrendered their technically advanced ways for a new start and a simple life because technology beat them.
There are many viewers who "just don't get it". Maybe that is what the producers where looking for, a way to break the cycle. The cycle of the Hollywood cookie cutter endings. Maybe it is a complement that they don't get it. I can’t think of any other show that has been as good as this one.

I think the ending is most excellent. One True God getting rid of all the other false gods (Athena, Apollo, etc…); and dismantle all the other belief systems, by 12 models of Cylons (Apostle?). And the best yet, is making Hera (name as queen of the gods) the “Eve” of modern human kind (hybrid of Cylon & Human).

Making Starbuck an Angel of Redemption (that’s what I think what she is) is kind of weird choice, no wonder Katee says her character does not have a proper closure, in one of the interview.

Over all I enjoy the ride, and the ending is fitting. Can’t wait to see what is in the “Planning”.

I loved it tbh, and at least they didnt have flying motorcycles!

People, People, People - Chill-Out. BSG "was" a TV show, it was "entertainment" not some meaning of life type thing. If you did not like the way BSG went down then then you sit down and re-wright it and put it online for all to enjoy.

So says the 'speaker of the dead', a legend in his own mind that knows better than EVERYONE! Notice he's home on a late Friday night. I guess you're not as cool as you think you are. Every wanna be intellectual says that the "ignorant" simply missed the underlying theme when in reality they're trying to cover up their uniformed and empty state of mind. Call a spade a spade, and I call you a JACKASS!

Those shows hook us with our curiosity towards the unexplained. They throw mystery after mystery on us and in the end it boils down to two choices.

Either have technology explain everything, or have supernatural things (magic, god, etc) explain things.

No matter which way they go, 50% of the audience will be disappointed right there, since they would have rather had it the other way around. Even the 50% that generally like it, only love it to a certain degree.

The perfect moment to stop watching Galactica is either the end of Season 4, or when they reach Earth. Everything after that are just answers we are better off not knowing. Retain the dignity of the show by not stripping it bare naked of its mystique.

Best series ever. Best finale ever.

I see some lazy viewers here that wants all dots connected in a silver plate. C'mon! BSG is not a mathematical puzle as Lost can be, it 's human history, with all it's holes, irrational decisions, etc. At the end, BSG is a character drama in a sci-fi envelope, I don't think I need all answers perfectly described.

Do you need an answer to the monolith in 2001? do you need an answer for planet Solaris? do you need an answer to The Force (oh wait, midiclorians! kill who though about that)

I want questions, but I don't want all the answers! I want some of them for mi imagination!

Kara disapearing as some sort of Angel was perfect. Pure art!

With a couple of small changes, the ending could have worked to everyone's satisfaction. It still wouldn't have been great, but it would have been acceptable...

1. The two weren't "angels", they were aliens, whose race has been manipulating humanity for thousands of years through religion.

2. Their goal is to start over, but they don't want to lose the DNA -- they're out to preserve that and not the culture or technology.

3. While everyone is enjoying their first day on Earth, before bringing the ships down, the remaining skeleton crew on each ship gets a bogus message from "Adama" to join the party (the details need work, I think).

4. When everyone is gone, the "angels" instruct Anders to fly the fleet into the sun.

5. Starbuck grabs a Raptor -- there are no Vipers on Earth -- and tries to intercept Galactica. She doesn't know why Anders is doing this, but thinks she can convince him to stop.

6. The "angels" appear in the cockpit to stop Starbuck. It's revealed that she is one of *them*, created to fulfill the Plan. Before they kill her and destroy the Raptor, she accuses them of being Cylons, that this was part of their plan all along. They find this accusation funny. "Do you really think humanity created the Cylons by themselves?"

7. The rest of the finale is pretty much as broadcast, with the elimination of the references at the very end about God.

Side effect: Caprica suddenly gets a *whole* lot more interesting.

Plop plop
Fizz fizz
Oh what a relief it is!

I'm sick of all the whining about the people of the fleet abandoning their ships and walking off into the wilderness like that's some kind of terrible decision. I think that's the greatest decision they could have made. Ron Moore was in the Navy. I was in the Air Force. Trust me, people who spend all their time around high-technology 24/7/365 can easily walk away from it given the opportunity. The people of the fleet were trapped in tin cans fighting a war for 5 years, no days off, no malls to shop at, no cappuccino bars, okay, they had a bar or two, they did have that one nice ship to go to with a garden until that Six nuked it, but you might be starting to get my point, they were basically frakked for recreation. Suddenly the war is over, there's a whole planet they can live on, and their conscripted service is over. You better believe they're off those ships and beatin' feet. Ron Moore knew what he was talking about when he wrote that ending. I got it.

You are one groovy cylon!
Fancy a shag? Yeah, baby!

Most of the bad reviews and dissent came from sites who are probably ran out of someones moms basement, who always griped about starbuck being a chick. The pros got it right: It was good and wrapped up the series perfectly. Sure, theres always nagging questions in fiction, but it was good for what it was: entertainment.

So tell me, when the were on that first "earth", why did the cylons have memories of being there before? Did I miss the show where they reveal that?

After sitting through the finale, I seriously think that Ron Moore was on something. I am not a christian and I find the whole GOD thing really annoying. Why do morons like Moore assume that everyone follows the monotheistic faiths? The whole thing stunk of it. TV shows should be religion neutral. I had to sit down and watch the entire series of the REAL frakkin Battlestar Galactica to get the bad taste out of my mouth. I think I need a picture of Ron Moore and his crew of idiots. Then I can use it as a dartboard.

I absolutely loved the ending. I have no problem with the idea that the people would abandon their ships and technology. It wasn't as if they didn't take provisions with them. I doubt that they just started living in caves. These were smart people, certainly smart enough to figure out how to build small houses and villages. As for the angels, I have no problem with that, either. I think most people (but certainly not all) who have a problem with it either don't understand the ending or just plain don't want to understand. As far as I'm concerned this was the perfect way to end the series I love so much.

Most. Epic. Finale. Ever.

think people are missing the true point here. We are not talking about THE God in this finale. If you listen to the 150.000 years later scene with the 'Angel' Baltar and Caprica they talk about God's plan. Baltar clearly say's that either HE or IT does not like that name. This to me speaks of an alien or other type of being as opposed to just being a religious question.

As someone mentioned above, had the finale ended with the approach to earth and then flashed to the future I'd be fine with it. A better ending to what Starbuck is and a few other things would have been nice but the final 30 minutes really drug on.

"This has all happened before... you will all still be whining then" Brilliant!!! Speaker for the Dead you made me spit coffee on my new keyboard...but thanks for summing all this dissent up so simply!

This was the best finale I'd ever seen in a TV show. What can you compare it to honestly? X-files was loved just as much, but ended terribley. Stargate SG1 and Enterprise were not on the same level. Voyager? Loved it: but BSG destroys Voyager's ending. BSG compares to nothing!

People can say whatever they want. There are negative aspects to BSG character's and plot, which were influenced by this decade's events, so this naturally places it in 2nd place under Star Trek: TNG. However, even with being deeply multifaceted, the good outweighed the bad tremendously. The underlying hope came to the surface in the finale.

If would be reasonable to believe the survivors “ told their offspring the history of their family,” and the story would be told generation after generation to at some point a later generation might go searching to find their heritage and at this point the "LEGEND of BSG" might be revisited in a later setting. Maybe some kind of special trait or ability might manifest in the decedents of the marriages of Cylons and Humans that had children and that did not manifest until a later time. Maybe the health risks that the survivors were exposed too on the planet required the healing that occurred with Laura. I am not a writer but the stories that are just waiting to be told here are too many to ignore,

I found that about 75% of the people that hated the finale didn't understand the finale. Abuot half of those just simply didn't pay attention to things that were explicit in the series in single places or all along. A great deal of what happened in the finale was telegraphed throughout, and most of it has direct roots in the miniseries. The rest of that 75% seem to be split between those that really just don't seem capable of following basic plot and theme, those that are so oblivious of basic science that they couldn't fill in any gaps (particularly in the epilogues), and those people that simply have a bur in their sides about religion or belief in ant type of sci-fi (which is particularly silly since this was embedded in the show from it's very first hour. Anyone that says that the finale can be summarized as "god did it" or uses (incorrrectly, I might add) the phrase 'deux ex machina' had absolutely no idea what the finale was about and what happened therein. None. (and, BTW, the presence of 'higher beings', Starbuck being resurrected and sent back to help the fleet find Earth, and the integral nature of religion in the show was all lifted straight from the original 1970's series.

ok i want eveyone to quit whining...i for one enjoyed every minute of the last four yrs watching this great program. i was on my way to iraq when this came on and missed most of the first season so quit your complaining ok you got nothing to complain about..

now my second thought for you whiners...if you hate it so much try writing it your self and then get it on the air or better yet as a fan movie for youtube if you think you can make it better then go for it

I just don't get it. Why does such a large percentage of the audience have so much of a problem with the "angel" plot device? Don't claim that it has to do with the fact that you're not Christians (or monotheists of any sort) and take issue with the entire concept, because that's definitely not yet. I'm a pretty big agnostic, and I thought the finale was spectacular.

From the start, BSG was a show with major religious undertones (from many different religions, at that). You all didn't take issue with strong and continued implication of supernatural forces, but suddenly can't accept it when the term "angel" is actually used? Seriously, grow up.

speaking as one who began to watch this show only last march and only regularly a few episodes before they found earth, i was satisfied with the finale. I found that there was just enough answers to not make me feel cheated.

I have been reading reviews on numerous sites about the finale and I got to say I don't understand the negativity. Many don't like the angel plot device but i say to you, "would you have liked it better to have had head six and head baltar be paranoid delusions that just happened to be correct?" That would require a huge stretch of the imagination. not to mention 2 gigantic tumors.

and this thing about Starbuck. She died, came back to life, became a savior of sorts, and led the people to their salvation. What savior, christian or non, do you know of that wouldn't be dead at the end of the story? It makes perfect sense to me that she dies for the final time. You don't need to know who or what she was. she came for a purpose and she completed her task. That was all that was required of her.

now to address this whole everyone abandoning technology to, as one reviewer said, "...die of exposure..."

their technology created the cylons, which started a war, which led to genocide, and 4 years of running. It led to heartbreak and suffering and pain and subjugation and humiliation and degradation and betrayal and suspicion and anger and loss of hope, loss of loved ones, loss of sanity, loss of everything that made them, them.

why in the sun-dappled hell would they want to keep that technology in their lives?

just because its easier doesn't mean its better.

and so i applaud the show. there are a few questions i would have liked answered but not enough to overlook the overall conclusion.

It was a good episode. It answered questions while leaving mystery. And that's what a good storyteller does. Leaves you wanting more.

I always enjoyed BSG. I stopped taking it seriously and considering it a "ground breaking, cutting edge" show, when RM came out and said,"Plot isn't important, It's the characters stupid!". That is a Soap Opera, and Soap Opera's are not ground breaking nor cutting edge.

A great series was ruined by RDM's obsession to come up with things that "look cool", while at the same time not paying attention to things like "plot", "consistency", "answering questions that were teased for years".

It could have been so much better if they sacrifized some of the "looks good" moments for more consistency and a more logical finale.

Contrived tripe of a finale. Inplausible outcome and neglect of key story line (Thrace). Shame on you Moore and SFN. I won't be watching Caprica!

My only coment is on the cycle of violence.

Read and ponder

A Cylon may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A cylon must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A cylon must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Well, for all of you who were so completely appalled by the BSG ending, you can console yourselves with the fact that it is, in fact, over at last, and you needn't suffer through it, or watch any prequels or sequels, EVER AGAIN!!

I only hope that all gods forgive poor, misguided Mr. Moore for daring to try to do something different and interesting.

Happy now?

BK that was great bringing up the three laws of robotics...i never thought of them when i watched this show obviously isaac asimov never lived on the 12 colonies lol

glad to see it done and gone!

I just finished watching it and all i can come up with to say about it is "WOW" i didn't feel in anyway cheated or left in the lurch with any aspect of the story. I been wondering how they were going to explain starbuck's return from the dead, the visions in baltars and six's head, the dream the president had. Everything tied up and came together. Starbuck being a ghost was so obvious and simple as were the visions in baltar's and six's heads. I think that the writers knew exactly where they were going with this and did a superb job. Well done to everyone involved and thankyou.

Settle down everyone maybe we will see the coclusion on the big screen or on a DVD movie...

Thanks for a great ending.I've watched the scene where we realize that they are all in the opera house and all dreams are coming to fruition.Great music score made for a really emotional moment for me.It was the perfect ending to the best sci fi series to date.Thank you to all involved,and good luck with your next endeavors!

For heaven's sake, it's ridiculous to descend into ad hominem arguments where those who liked the finale tell those who disliked it they are "incorrect". Everyone has a right to react the way they react. It's hilarious that a show whose lesson was supposed to be "we're all flawed individuals worthy of consideration" ends with fans lining up on either side telling one another they're not worthy. If you loved "God did it" and think it's a brilliant ending that was obvious from the start and beyond compare, then good for you. Glad you liked it. I personally thought it was a jarring change of genres from science fiction to religious fiction. My further thoughts on that aspect are at http://manifestomultilinko.blogspot.com/2009/03/bsg-finale-answer-to-question-we-didnt.html

Aw, the one credited to me was from a reader's comment and not part of my review. :-(

I loved it!

My only real issue with the finale was in the fact that everyone agreed to abandon technology. In any non-reality based story (sci-fi, fantasy, etc) there must be a suspension of disbelief. But I still expect characters to behave consistently (and according to some fairly well established rules of human behavior) unless the author introduced a significant emotion even to change the character’s behavior – like Baltar. I do not feel that being trapped on ships for four years (excepting the time on new Caprica) would provide that kind of change in every single refugee’s basic behavior. Some, probably even a LOT, but not all.

I simply can not accept that all of the refugees agreed en masse to accept the decision of Apollo to not build cities or use any of their technology to assist them with surviving in the wilderness of the new planet. Humans (and as the series showed, Cylons) can not agree on anything with 100% singularity.

At the minimum, I would expect that a small group of non-conformists got together to retain some of the technology and go off to create their own enclave. Something akin to David Weber’s Mutineer’s Moon perhaps. Now that would make for an interesting follow-up story.

Now that I've had more time to think about this, why are so many people assuming it was a choice the people of the fleet all made together to abandon the fleet and send the ships into the sun? It was a military decision, Apollo made it, end of discussion. Good for him.

Never really liked the series. Vastly overrated in my opinion. Bought the original mini-series (thought it had some promise) but the regular series did nto cut it. Characters were not likeable (although people comment that this was the human character - if you want human charater, but also likelable characters that really develop over time see Babylon 5), and plot lines were not that "cutting-edge", (very much lets make it up as we go along, adding occasional "shocks" that we will try to explain later), in fact it was really quite predictable and boring, which also describes the "Gods plan" ending. A very pedestrian ending for a show that has somehow gained a high reputation.

Watched part 2 again last night, this time in HD. STILL think it was a superb ending to a great show. Came back here to say:

This has all happened before, you will all be whining then.

It's a tv show. get over it. take your pasty ass outside and get some sun, someday there may be none to get.

Where's Number 6 at?
Wait a sec while I comb my mustache...
Ok, now cue the music!

I bet some of the cranks here
wanted to see a battle with the Borg.

I was the reader who posted the comment (first in line under BAD) above. Please leave Craig alone...Puntabulous's opinions are different from mine.

I would just like to point out to all of those who commented above--BSG is a SciFi show aired on the SciFi channel. Therefore, if some people have a negative response to the "deus ex machina" ending (and yes, the term is being used correctly here--I don't have a literature degree for nothing), it isn't because we "don't get it," because we are "disgruntled fanboys," or because we are anti-religion. It is because when we watch or read a SCIENCE fiction story, we expect some interesting SCIENTIFIC explanations to the plot points. If I wanted to watch THEIST fiction, I'd rent "Left Behind."

All I'm saying is that it's not altogether unreasonable for science fiction fans be unsatisfied with a "God's Plan" ending, or that we would be frustrated with the (supposedly) science fiction writers who came up with it.

Okay, Tracy, fair enough. I'd have no problem with your explanation for the fanboy angst if the spiritual aspects of the show just made a sudden appearance at the end of the series, as some people seem to think they did. But they didn't; they've been there since the very beginning and those motifs continued throughout the entire story. Remember the Pythian prophesies? The Arrow of Apollo? The Temple of Athena? The oracles? The visions? The claims that "Inner 6" made that she was a messenger from God? The tension between the Human pantheism and Cylon monotheism? Starbuck's painting? Hera's destiny? The Temple of the Five? Like it or not, these elements have been present throughout the series.

I could understand a "hard science fiction" fan being disgruntled with these issues and not watching the series. I could understand such a fan being upset if these elements did just pop up at the end of the series, out of the blue, as it were. But I don't buy it from someone who has watched the entire series, which contained religious and spiritual overtones, and then gets upset about it at the end. Either you weren't paying attention, or you just like to find something to complain about.

And btw, The Science Fiction Channel has always included fantasy and horror. And comparing BSG to "theist fiction" like that "Left Behind" twaddle is vastly overstating the case.

Please don't misunderstand; you're certainly entitled to your opinion, for whatever reason. I just don't buy this particular line of thought.

I watched the last 2 episodes on 28March09 and was truly pleased with the deus ex machina overtones! It truly was worth the time to watch and appreciate. Thanks to the efforts of Richard Hatch for his years and years in getting this started! (How come no one said that?) Also no one in any comments I've seen were "wowed" by the original Battlestar Galactica theme song played during the fleet's transition into the sun. I wonder why, but will never find out. Also, the Cylon's ships were similar to the ones that were seen on Babylon 5 years ago. I am truly pleased with the conclusion to the series. The characters had a right to abandon technology as they saw firsthand where it got them. What I thought was a real hoot was the answer to "mitochondrial eve!" That sloppy science in real life was truly effective here. Even as I write this on the following day I'm still chortling!! I rarely watch any show more than once, but I may take a rewind simply to watch the battle scene once more. KUDOS!! and thanX!!

I see that a couple of folks are addressing the religious aspect of the show. That being written in to the whole was a stroke of genius. "rkf's" comments were right on. But "rkf" left out the most devastating moment! That was when everyone felt that their belief system was destroyed. The ensuing chaos and loss of a sense of reality and terrible depression even affected me and I knew THIS was only a story. Even though I am a committed Christian, I am very much aware of our planet's mythos throughout our varied cultures. I could not have been more pleased to see how the writers were able to carry "the gods" storyline all the way through to the end. This was really a very cool series on any level! Just saying.

I agree with n80, I watched it 3 times. It's a better (great) ending if you turn it off on your first shot of the moon & earth. Great rescue. Great series. Some things disappointed me, even turned me off BUT - it always grabbed me and made me come back. Great series, cudos to the actors - they are the reason I watched. GREAT JOB !! I will miss the series. I think the earth scene should have been done differently but I understand the concept they were trying to state. Still, turn it off on the 1st shot of the moon & earth. Works for me.

What I really don't get are the people who say, "I never liked the show and I never liked the characters anyway" - yet you continued to watch it for 4 years so you could bitch about it at the end? What are you, high? I don't like 95% of what's on TV. You know what? I don't watch it, and I don't complain about it either. To quote from one of my favorite movies, "Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?"

You know those people who are complaining about the God's Plan ending, you obviously haven't been watching the same show I have. There has been so much religious undertone in this series that there is no way it could have ended any differently.

The path to Kobol and then the path to Cylon Earth was all religious...all from the scrolls of pythia. Both human and cylon were following what they believed religious paths. How many of the pilots and characters had names of gods (Athena, Helo, Apollo, Hera). It wasn't all that complicated people.

My only problem with the last 10 ep's was that the leoben/thrace story wasn't finished.

I'm sure if it had people still would have found ways to complain about the ending so all of this is irrelevant. "This has all happened before, and you will all be whinning then"

sparrrownightmare, did you know Glen A. Larson was a mormon also? I had it pointed out to me in another thread about BSG and the original Galactica actually had more references to mormonism than I ever recognized before. (Kobol = Kolob; the council of 12 = the quorum of 12)

The thing that turned me off in the finale is that they were walking away from everthing that came before, it was negateing all the suffering that the characters had endured by letting anything they might have learned be forgotten by regecting the technology that might have preserved what ever wisdom they might have gained.

If they had left records in thier ship and left them in orbit so that when thier desendants reached space again they could examine thier pasts and have a chance to learn from it, the whole back to primitive ignorant savages thing might have worked.

Thanks for the link, but you might have quoted from the actual post as opposed to picking something out of the comments to add to your list of The Bad. You should also make it clearer you are quoting a commenter and not the actual blog post.

I absolutely loved the series. It was the only thing I looked forward to on TV every week, seriously. But I really was let down by the finale.
I thought they should've given a little background into why Dualla shot herself after finding the pocketwatch and childrens jacks back on the nuked 'earth'. The fact that they had that in there and didn't explain just makes it gratuitous, like they were trying to drive up ratings by any way possible. I'm still upset over the Dualla incident! evil At the time it really had me cursing out loud (thank 'the gods' the kids weren't there) and wanting to throw things at the TV. FRAK!
I didn't buy that Cavill, even though he KNEW there was no resurrection available, killed himself when he thought they were being double-crossed. WTF?
I didn't buy that Adama was really going to build a big house on the hill, and live there all by himself. Corny, and unbelievable.
I didn't buy that everyone was going to be any too keen on getting rid of, not just science and tech, but also no civilization, no cities. C'mon.
I didn't buy that everyone agreed to flying all the ships into the Sun. Sheesh how stupid.
I didn't buy that Starbuck suddenly realized she was an angel or something, got all happy after spending the entire series being an upset hellraiser, started glowing and then did the vanishing act. She was SUPPOSED to be 'The Harbinger of Death' remember. Maybe they should've shown her with a transmogrified Anders, with wings and stuff. lol
I didn't buy that the cerebral Baltar and Six were actually angels.
All in all, this episode didn't shock, surprise, make me think, or inspire me in any way. The only way that it was evocative of any emotion was due to it's placement as the tombstone of a great series.

I am, I think, squarely in the "mixed" camp, regarding the end. I've loved this show since it started. Not unconditionally. It has many flaws, and I personally do not like the constant mysticism. And while I loved the concept that these people we've been following for four years were actually our ancestors, I hated the whole concept of angels. And Kara disappearing? That was just stupid. But all in all, a great and fitting finale to four years of great TV. So thanks to the cast and crew for doing a great job.

I'm sick and tired of all you whiny whiners whining about people who didn't like that weak, wimpy, wuss out of a BSG ending. If you don't like our whiny whines why don't you try writing better ones your whimpering whiny-ass selves!

Gordon seemed to summarize it best so I won't reiterate. As for the show's stalwart defenders, you guys are adorable. Personally, my biggest peeves weren't with the characters or their use of religion, (when this thing went Soap Opera two years ago I gave up caring about them). Nah, my issue was with the total lack of any orignal or well thought out military tactics. If I wanted to watch the defenders of humanity slam a carrier into an enemy alien vessel I'd be watching Robotech circa 1984. No use of heavy weapons during the assault or defence or even tactics specific to the environment (seriously, how far you gonna get running around the enemy vessel when he turns off the gravity or the air). And then there's the whole "oooh look, humans evolved on this other planet named Earth too. Just like us. Complete parralel bipedal evolution rising to the top of the food chain and all they can do is shrug? " How Stargate can ya get? Nah, they wanted a good ending? That would have been easy. Simply make Earth the more advanced culture and pull a reversal. "They say that life out there began back here." (ie who's to say Kobol was the human homeworld) Sure, it might have been a little too David Weber to have a Terran Dreadnought fleet parked in orbit waiting for the BSG and the pursuing Cylon Fleet. Would have made for a much better light show and would have handily answered a whole whack o'questions.

I am so sick of people taking RDM's ,"Plot isn't important, It's the characters stupid!" quote out of context. They conveniently leave out the rest of the quote that said the plot of the finale was basically done so that they (the writers) should now focus on the characters.

It really seems that those who have negative feelings about the show and the finale either missed key points or are not capable of understanding.

People should have been forced to take an I.Q. test before watching.

To B.K.

*** Data Stream Update***
Insert code for Cylons assigned to police detail to differentiate between suspects and bystanders...

A Cylon may not injure a [lawful] human being or, through inaction, allow a [lawful] human being to come to harm.
A cylon must obey orders given to it by [lawful]human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A cylon must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

*** End Update ***
Now just substitue "worthy", "religious", "truthful", or "harmless" for "lawful" and see what human qualifies for protection. Did I miss something, or did we lose the art of nit-picking along with resurrection technology?

Re: Abandoning Technology
I also served in the Navy, on the closest thing to a space ship available today, in the most "sciencey" division on board and I'm here to tell you that I'd have NO problem whatsoever with pitching a tent and living off the land if it meant I didn't have to get shot at by an enemy that looks like my best mate, or a walking toaster. Where any whistling sound might be the end of your breathable air, or just an influx of poisonous atmosphere. When the act of touching real air and land requires the proper execution of several technologically unrelated objects, rather than just rolling over and opening your eyes... but I digress.

I've found an interesting dichotomy between the "hard-core" sci-fi fans and the fans of the drama of the series. Amazing how so many people use technology to transport themselves to a "simpler" world (WoW and SCA fans, I'm looking dead at you) but rail against the ending presented here. Simply put, technology is never the final answer to the problem or the story, it's about the decisions of the people who use it, or choose not to.

Case in point: You can't remove all the technology from the planet and NOT run the fleet into the sun. No raptors = (primative) civilization. 1 raptor or ship = Overlord. It's human nature. If Apollo made the decision by fiat, then good. He was the only person in the entire show that didn't fail his principles when in command (or have we forgotten Adama's early coup?) so he deserved to make the call. Not that I didn't have my own reservations... What about the Centurions? Maybe they come back, maybe they have their own civil war. Maybe they become the Borg. They've got 152,000 years to get there. See Trekkers, I've included you. Thank me later.

Now about those other nit-picks:
Adama isn't building a cabin to live in, he's building a cabin to DIE in...
Galactica herself, the fleet, and the skinjob cylons all die. Kara Thrace, mission accomplished...
Dualla's particular reason for offing herself isn't as important as the fact that she represents others in the fleet who lost hope after finding Frakked Earth (Remember the line: "Suicides in the fleet are UP")...
Cavil did what every uber-control freak does when he's lost control. He made a snap decision to quit on his terms. Remember, he's the one who made the other cylons think that the original five were actually the final five, then worked over their memories and ran all sorts of schemes. He just HAD to be the one to announce that the occupation of the colonies was over...
As for you SF military geniuses: I know what happened to Pegasus was a bit whack, but it was WAYYYY cool-looking. And before anyone asks: NO: We didn't sign up to watch "Battlestar Pegasus" and more importantly: You couldn't swap the nameplates and make the Pegasus the "new" Galactica unless the "old" Galactica had already been lost. Anything else is a slap in the face of Naval tradition (I'm looking at you NCC-1701-D).

I'm a 53 year old tabloid publisher in Florida, I have to say that I think BOTH the good critics and the bad critics just don't have it right. Come on everyone... the ending was not only a work of pure genius, it tied together both the story of Galactica AND the current human race. Think about it... BG comes finally to the real EARTH, but it's a 150,000 years ago and they plant their seeds among our past. Even little glicks like the different races of the 12 colonies (IE Asian, White, Black, Etc.) and how about the reference to Galen, he is going to be taken to a small island in the northern hemisphere, Gee - an engineer named GALEN going to a place above what is now England. Dah - Scotland? beam me up Scotty? Don't you get it????? Right up to present day - with the beginnings of our robotic endevors - the cycle will start again.....
I just want to thank everyone that was involved with the ending of BG - A pure CLASS ACT! And..... maybe some of it is really true? isn't that what Sci-Fi is all about?

Okay I predicted this – you can scroll about 10 pages back and find my predictions, which I made before the season finale even aired. I knew there would be a handful of liberal fascists who would hate the finale because it conflicted with their anti-theist leftist secular humanist biases. And these hate reviews proved my point to a tee.

"I HATED it! Hated. It. It just all felt like such lazy writing, as if the writing staff decided to have their wrap-up party after writing the second-to-last episode, and then wrote the finale hung over. Instead of coming up with feasible and interesting explanations to tie up the loose plot points, they just explained it all away as being 'God's Plan.'" puntabulous.com

Prime example – and you can just feel this person’s HATE seeping into every word. How much of a frakkin moron can this critic be? God and their agents have been main characters since Season 1. What did this idiot think when angels appeared to not one character – not two characters but three main characters? That they were all high on drugs – all doing a chamalla trip? All the prophecies and fulfilled dreams which were intrinsic parts of the story arc were just there for fun? Holy frak! And what about Starbuck? Starbuck dies and is resurrected and this person thinks a naturalistic explanation will suffice? This idiotic critic should be fired for dereliction of their duties, lol. And who in the hell has ever heard of this website?

"BSG was the most overrated sci fi series ever. Horrible writing and directing. Way too much internal inconsistency, way too much passing around of the idiot ball to keep major characters alive, way too much passing around of the idiot ball to make the plot happen at all. People just plain didn't behave rationally at least 90 percent of the time." saysuncle.com

Now this moron is so out there that I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve spent time in a white jacket. BSG had the best writing and directing on TV hands down. And no show comes close to portraying its characters in a more rational manner than BSG. The only idiot ball that is being passed around is this person’s head. Once again another unheard of website.

"For a show that constantly patted itself on the back for being risky and cutting edge, it went out on the most conventional of notions, and answered all the mysteries it raised by simply reconfirming a belief that most people, at least in this country, closely hold. It's all a part of God's plan and there are angels to guide us, show us the way." dorknation

See? Another anti-theist fanatic that simply can’t stand the fact that the show made God a central character. But my problem with these critics is not that they dislike that aspect of the show – that’s their right. My problem is the lie they put forward that the series used it as a red herring when RDM merely concluded the series in a manner that reasonably corresponded with all the questions that had been raised for four years now. And this dork is not only a left-wing fanatic but clearly also has a minority complex.

"So the final end of all this, after fighting for their lives for several years across the galaxy, is the colonialists commit mass suicide by wandering off into the wilderness to explore a new and bountiful world until they die alone of exposure and starvation. That is just fracked up stupid." Ace of Spades HQ

Did this moron even watch the series? Four years of misery. Four years of clinging to life after the death of billions while being chased by murderous technologically-created droids who will stop at nothing to ensure the extinction of the human race. All of this is caused by technology and this person thinks it’s stupid that people wouldn’t find it comforting and logical at escaping from the very thing that caused so much pain and suffering?

"I'm pissed that Starbuck was an 'angel.' Yeah, it would have been tough to explain the dying and not dying thing, but having her just disappear is a cop-out on the scale of St. Elsewhere." Liberal Values

Like I said: L LIBERALS. And not only is this lib bringing his unhinged biases into his critique but he is also so stupid that he completely frakked up who or what Starbuck was. Starbuck was not an angel you twerp. Starbuck was, as Baltar clearly stated, the risen Starbuck. She resurrected for a purpose and then was called ‘home’ after her purpose was accomplished. In no way, shape, or form is it a cop out. In fact any naturalistic explanation would have been the real cop out – just as Lucas copped out with his naturalistic explanation for the Force in Star Wars I. RDM was true to form. And what does this idiot mean it would have been tough explaining the dying and not dying thing? Any explanation other than divine resurrection would have been ridiculous. This pervert likely hates all things Christian and just couldn’t stomach the similarities to Christ.

Again – don’t get me wrong – these people have a right to their beliefs. But if they are naturally opposed to such thematic plotlines then they shouldn’t be investing any time watching a show like BSG, which makes it a central aspect of the story arc. And they have no right standing in judgment when it is obvious they are incapable of being impartial. They should have stated their bias for all to see and then recused themselves. That is what moral and honorable people do. And they should clearly not have lied in their attacks on the finale as if it was out of character with the long-developed themes of the show or used their stawman arguments that RDM fell back on deus ex machina – when he clearly did no such thing.

If any of you read my predictions regarding this and are curious how I knew some leftist critics would respond this way it is because I have spent years debating liberals on political and religious bulletin boards and I know how their minds think. Just as I know that a number of liberal fanatics, some of whom even loved the ending, will be drawn to responding to this post by giving solidarity to their left-wing brothers in arms.

No doubt that the finale raised some questions even as it answered others. But doesn't this give Moore more grist for future shows? Doesn't this say he has some confidence in the intelligence of his viewers to ask the right questions? I'd say the guy owns this franchise now. BSG is done, the ship's dead. But where did Starbuck go? Did any of the humanoid Cylons survive? What about the mechanical Cylons and their baseship? Where did that resurrection technology come from? And who is this "God" character, anyway? Stay tuned folks. BSG is done, but I don't think the story is over yet.

I almost forgot why I hated Battlestar Galactica with a white hot passion the first time. The finale brought it all back to me. Just thought it was going to be a bit more original at the end.

I agree completely with the detractors of the series finale. The defenders of this finale, are simply, some of the most absurd moronic humans I've ever heard. Their "all knowing lecture" is not even remotely convincing. Moreover, all those that inject that some are into "hate" because they are critical of the series finale, are equally absurd.

Frankly, you have to be incredibly stupid, if you actually think that the series ended on a high note for the series. You have to be incredibly stupid to think that the manner the loose ends were tied, were consistant with a reasonable ensemble of sober writers.

The series started so well and paid off well time and time again. But in the end, they simply just ran out of reasonable ideas to tie together all that they were promising to the viewers.. "The final five", "they have a plan", "the opera house", "Laura's visions that are the same as the others", "Apollo's less than democratic decision to not build cities and stupidly send the fleet into the sun - nice going Hitler", "chief, with two civilizations at stake - going nuts at a key moment", "No one thinking there should be some anger on Earth at Chief", "Harbinger of death kara thrace (clearly a cheap plot device to get us to continue to watch seeing this did not play out", "Kara's a what - and why was she getting all those signs early on" .

Simple pedestrian, in the end, iIts Zenith was during the 2nd season.