With all due respect to Essai Morales, the forced ending of BSG by Sci Fi channel, has badly damaged the show. The rushed editing and storytelling, lacking so much of the texture and deep political insight of the first 3 seasons, is obvious. As soon as they decided "it's about finding earth", all these self-conscious themes rushed to the surface, and -- especially with Ron Moore's unwillingness to write and rewrite much at all, combined with David Eick's departure from the editing chair -- has ruined a potentially perfect show by not allowing its drama to breathe in the needed texture of character moments; a lot of the writing feels conventional and uninspired, and the Adama-Roslin romance has become so self-consciously heroic; there's been way too much Starbuck to the point at which I wished she had stayed dead; Baltar and Lee Adama's more fascinating characters have taken a back seat to her ravings and repetitive trauma. Season 4 could have been the best. Instead, except for the mutiny storyline and Ron Moore's few episodes, it is easily the worst. The brilliant trial was the last truly politically insightful moment in the show; every issue since has been sketched out and poorly done. Such a shame.

Hey there buddy...looks like you've got things all wrong. Check your facts:

SyFy is not cutting BSG short or forcing anything to end, in fact their meddling is what kept BSG on this long. Ideally the show was to be on for 3 seasons but SyFy ordered the standalone episodes that many here despise so much, extending the show longer than ever intended.

It's a shame you didn't like season 4 that much...along with season 3 I felt is was as good as anything on TV. If anything, 3 & 4 were much, MUCH better than seasons 1 & 2.0.

But, it's all a matter of opinion really.

I agree with you Will... I thought it has been great this season... totally unexpected so far.

well done guys. u got a great team of writers. I know u won't let us down.

I can't frakkin wait!

And Will5ate6 - no it's not really a matter of opinion - you're just right...

I almost stopped watching the show this season. It has been that bad. I really don't like what they've done with most of the characters. It is very painful to watch the downfall of a show that I used to love so dearly. It used to be that I couldn't wait for scifi Friday for some BSG. Now, I can't wait for the whole thing to be over so I can stop watching (more out of obligation to see it to it's bitter end). This show is now a disaster of it's former self...

I am sad to see it end and NO I don't think the show has gotten bad. I really like what they have done with it and wished it continued on. I am excited to buy Caprica and hope that it will be just as good as BSG.

With all due respect, Alex................

Your frakkin' nuts. Their has been no downfall in quality, acting, story telling or character development in BSG in the slightest sense. It's like we've been watching 2 different shows.

On the other hand, I eagerly await "Caprica"

I only hope they control the number of spin-offs. When Babylon 5 went off the air, I think it was watered down by too many spin-off movies, the subpar Crusade, and the less than stellar direct to DVD movie.

Did anyone else see the trailer for caprica and think the acting was WAY below BSG levels.. I felt like i was watching a cheap Disney TV show. That or a B Scifi movie..

Like LOcke said, Babylon 5 had great acting, Crusade had very poor acting... guess what happened to Crusade...

I noticed to try to keep it so high tech the trailer had a crumpled piece of paper that you can push like buttons!

Also BSG prequel with 0 space ? Trying to save some money are we syfy.. what need the extra dough for more wrestling or reality tv?

At lest the new star gate looks watchable... 1 new show out of 3.

This looks interesting to me. Never watched BSG. It has a stellar cast and Esai Morales is a favorite actor of mine.

http://www.myspace.com/esaimorales

Season 4 was good but not great i still have alot of missing clues and i loved that starbuck had returned because without her i would have stopped with season 3. It would had been a great idea if the movie caprica is the version old caprica that gives us more information about starbuck why was she different and who was her father to know that song. But i still going to check it out it is still bsg so thanks and well done

3.23.9
17:02
.............Hey, you all are right.......because we are all entitled to our own opinion.....i think its safe to say we are all armchair writers.....in the final analysis,whether we exercise that final power we all have and change the channel because in our brains say .....it frackn sucks...( and nothing sucked worse than the spinoff The Raven...from Highlander the series...) and yeah did i ever turn it off....... We will do whats right for us....scifi will adjust......or disappear.

Love the show, best thing on TV, love all 4 seasons equally, always surprising, and wonderfully acted. Maybe slightly rushed in season 4, would love to have seen a 5th season.
As for caprica I worry about the lack of space stuff... we'll see. But if they can deal with complex issues, such as creation of the cylons, Ai, slave races etc.... then they could still have another winner.

I thought that season four was great. The finale was good in a lot of ways, but maybe a bit rushed. Still, BSG was one of the best shows ever to grace the airwaves, er, cable!

I came in late in the BSG series, accidentally caught an episode from season 2 on TV, but caught up thanks to the internet - since then it's been a weekly ritual to watch a new episode, barely making it between seasons. Now that it is over I feel a sense of loss, almost like a member of the family is missing... I am one of those who thinks the last season has been really good, thank the gods they brought starbuck back, even if it was as an angel... If they could have stretched it out for a fifth season, that would have been wonderful, but I'll take a spinoff like Caprica any day too...

This is going to be as much of a train crash as BSG. Don't watch it. Ron Moore knows how to make a good series, but he stinks at finishing a plot. Seriously. DO NOT WATCH THIS SHOW!

what is wrong with you people? Season 4, and especially the end were amazing! How UNGRATEFUL do you want to be. youre just sad it ended and are venting in this spiteful way.

Unless youre capable of writing better, dont criticise what is great writing.

If you genuinely didnt like it, why not just switch it off? why keep watching??

I know everything needs to end eventually and I'm not sad it ended. I"m saying the ending was mentally challenged.

When I say something, I mean it. Stop trying to psycho analyse me, Sandy, and actually pay attention to what I just said.

This show WILL be pathetic.

Sandy, when I say something I mean it. Stop trying to psychoanalyse people and pay attention to what they actually said.

I know all things come to an end. It's not that I'm ungratefule, it's that the moral of BSG was imoral.

I'm not going to switch it off because this show spreads imorality. I'm going to fight it.

AGAIN, THIS SHOW WILL NOT BE GOOD! DO NOT WATCH!

When has anyone on seen better writting on the Sci-Fi Channel who is better than Ronald D. Moore and David Eick? These guys are fantatstic, end of story. Esai Morales is a fine actor and will bring this new series in focus as it will be. So say we all.

When has anyone on seen better scripts on the Sci-Fi Channel (or any other channel)who is better than Ronald D. Moore and David Eick? These guys are fantatstic, end of story. Esai Morales is a fine actor and will bring this new series in focus as it will be. So say we all.

Biggie smalls... I never said that they can't make beter scripts than most. I just simply said that they can't end a story and that they end it with imorality rather than a moral at the end of the story. PERIOD.

Oh and -- so say we all.

(I borrowed some of your wording because I thought it made me sound amazing.)

Not going to bother with this show..
after the BSG finale im never watching anything else that involves Ronald D. Moore

What??? How can anyone say Season 4 was bad?

YES it felt a little rushed and obviously left a lot of exposition on the cutting room floor. YES they could have done more with Baltar. YES Starbuck's conclusion was unsatisfying ....

But seriously, I rocked. I loved it. I brought me deeper into the characters, despite the more elaborate storylines. I don't know how anyone could think the Roslin/Adama romance was blatant. It was subtle, realistic and believable.

BSG rocked.

TheGoodNamesWereGone, RDM introduced the story in a very similar way 9/11 was introduced to the world. Religious fanaticism caused a bunch of "people" to do something terrible.

So he resolves the story by having his most insane and fanatic characters be the prophets of got. Be you religious or not, this doesn't say anything positive about prophets, and this doesn't say anything good about religious people. The moral of his story is more fanaticism the better. THAT will prevent things like 9/11.

lol... yeah right.

That's a story and a moral worth fighting against.

Season 4 was fine. The fanale, however, was pathetic.

The only problem I have with season 4 was that they squandered plenty of episodes to resolve all the loose ends.

RDM, if you're reading this. I will fight against every piece of writing you make here on out! You suck!

Mudfield and Alex.. I couldn't agree more. Season 4 felt more random and irrational, like Lost. Just a series of coincidences and mysteries heaped on top of one another in a way that seemed like it was more fun for the writers than for the audience. The strength of the show has always been on the characters and how they react to crises, but season 4 ignored that in favor of a convoluted story. If I want random, convoluted stories, I'll just watch Lost. They do it a lot better.

Ok, a big fan of BSG here.. All of us had our idea of the 'perfect' ending. The writers had theirs and that is how it panned out. I felt like it was a little rushed but I have come to grips with the ending and want to watch it again. I'd actually like to watch the whole series over to get some things straight storywise.

Vibe, what is there to get straight in the plot? There's more contradictions than there is consistancy. And whatever you didn't get the first way through is answered with this one phrase "God did it" or "use your imagination because the writers couldn't figure it out either".

Hmm...actually I thought the series became so boring and overly dramatic, I could be barely stomach watching it. I found myself not rooting for anyone and not caring if anyone died or survived. I did think the final episode was better and had a nice twist to it. However, I'm to old school for it, I suppose. Very dull with characters of little significance. It seemed like a Dostoevsky novel.

Anybody that didn't get the point from season 4 should have (by rights) *flunked* world history.

The last four episodes basically drove the reason for season 4 home with a jackhammer.

The Cylons (created by humans!) are a true reflection of their creator.

Even more horrifying (for us), they didn't just gain all our strengths, they also gained all our supposed *weaknesses*.

The even bigger horror (for us) is that the Cylon Premise trainwrecks (and utterly flies in the face of) *the* single greatest postulate in all creationism (and religion).

"God Is Perfect."

THAT little warhead has been danced around by every would-be fanciful or serious discussion on the subject of creation (or even the raison d'etre for humanity itself). BSG actually DARES to confront it head-on......and gets whacked for it.

"You can't do that!"

That's basically what I'm hearing with all the criticism of BSG's fourth season.

Here are the shockers that season four brought into the BSG universe:

1. The Thirteenth Tribe is as real as Commander Adama's wrinkles; it just happens to be made up entirely of Cylons.

2. Second-stage Cylons (that is, most Cylons), are not just physiologically indistinguishable from humans, they can actually interbreed with humans. (Quelle scandale! This directly assaults the age-old chestnut about miscegenation, which is *still* a hot-button issue, even today.)

3. Cylons have real emotions. (Didn't anyone get a clue about THAT from watching the interaction between Hera (Number Six) and Gaius on *Caprica* pre-fall?)

4. Cylons have just as difficult a time breaking out of patterns as their creators (humans). (Consider that one Cylon *killed* another Cylon, right on Galactica's bridge, over what two *clones* of themselves did. Cylons killing each other in fits of pique; emotionless my left foot!)

5. This was, in fact, an issue the *original* BSG (the one developed originally as a movie, then turned into a TV series) *wanted* to tackle (so said Glen Larson, creator of the original BSG, John Dykstra, the producer of the original BSG movie/pilot, and Donald Bellisario, who directed most of the episodes of the original BSG), only to be roadblocked by network execs. "Too controversial."

Every "hot-button" conflict (outside niggling and nitpicky economic concerns) floating around the Earth today has a parallel somewhere in the issues that BSG tackled in season four. I mentioned miscegenation; however, also tackled are the issues of race-relations, the meaning of life, bioethics (not just euthanasia, but the mirror of euthanasia; namely, saving lives without regard to cost/expense, and even the utter inevitability of death for humans), etc.

That last one (the inevitability of death for humans) will be revisited again in "Caprica" (the teaser trailer basically gave that away); however, will we have the sense that apparently SOME of the humans and Cylons (but, unfortunately, far from all, even in BSG) to be able to give that an intelligent discussion, even as it relates to Capricans?

We've by and large certainly flunked any such serious discussion of it here on Earth, and we don't even have so much as a true proto-Cylon on the planet.

I thought thought the writers poured a lot of heart into the finale. it was moving. The flashbacks contrasted with the present revealed more depth to all the characters and insight. Example: The Boomer character was the most controlled by programming and the most conflicted.

This is going to be a very good continuation of the "naturalistic science fiction" that Moore and company did with BSG. The change in technology that our society has seen in just twenty years is crossing lines everywhere. Caprica is going to be a very good hyperbole of this and let us look at ourselves.

My take on it is that they are going the Romeo and Juliet route with the Greystones (Montagues) and Capulets (Adamas) as far as a main story arc. However, my guess is that the romance is going to be human vs. cylon instead of a traditional feud romance. They build a very big camvas here, can't wait to see how they paint it.

Cannot wait sometime down the road when the centurions find themselves in a battle with another surviving fleet of humans who are out trying to follow the same path to Earth but have 3 or 4 battlestars to protect themselves with.. An error in 'the plan' and a tactical mistake and 3 or 4 battlestars which were completely off grid weeks before the attack on a secret mission . Upon theyre return they find a bunch of ships left behind with inoperative FTL's and cylons who know they were basically dead ships and not military targets with the planets nuked. The basis for a new version of the centurions vs. humans of old.

I think the last eps was really bad and it just ruin the last three season I would have been happier seen the ship blow up then what they writers wrote. As far as Caprica I'll watch the first eps and make my mind up but I don't think I'll like it.

Wow, that is some pretty cool stufdf dude!

RT
www.anonymity.us.tc

@UncleSpellbinder

We have been watching two different shows, the BSG pre- and post- writers strike.

And it is a shame.

Very info, thank you-!

I was actually disappointed in the finale. The CGI of the robot sequences was horrid, especially those with the nostalgic old series cylons. It also dragged on to tie up loose ends that were poorly set up.

I enjoyed watching the previous seasons but didn't like it when episodes were inserted into the timeline in final season that made no mention of previous stories being told.

While watching this episode and realizing the place of the "angels" and how it ties in to the old BG "angel" episodes, I felt more and more that Moore used a cheap rehash of an old show in order to generate a viable vehicle for his concepts.

It's unfortunate that there seems to be an empty void as far as original ideas on television today; everything is a remake of something that previously existed.