In what way was the fan reaction to the final episode, satisfaction? I believe the word I would use is Outraged. Or Underwhelmed. Or bitterly disappointed.

Speak for yourself. Plenty of fans loved the finale.

His satisfaction comes from knowing that people will argue about the quality of the finale. For those like me who get what he was saying, it was an amazing conclusion to an overall incredible series. For others who don't get it, it was outrageous, underwhelming, or bitterly disappointing. The point of it was for people to be able to talk about it, and when people can discuss literature, that's ultimately satisfying for the creator.

I was satisfied with the finale to the series, though it took me awhile to get to that place, as it often does when shows I love end. I look forward to the extended cuts on DVD, though I wish the webisodes were included. Also looking forward to Caprica; I loved the pilot! And I wish they would have asked him for more info on 'The Plan', as I'm dying to see that. ;-0)

Yeah the finale felt like a copout to me. I get it. I just don't care for it and I think he took the easy way out.
I listened to the BSG podcasts that Ron Moore does and during the podcast for the finale he talks about what the finale half of season 4 was originally going to be. Then the writers strike happened and with his free time he, IMO, over analyzed the remainder of season 4 and changed it to what we all saw. I believe his originally vision for the final season was much better than what we got.

I also was satisfied with the finale, but I have quibbles and I understand how others do as well. Parts I thought were brilliant, others I had to manually suspend my disbelief. I think Moore's overall impression, however, is correct. By and large people were "satisfied" -- not universally praising it as the perfect ending nor universally reviling it as jumping the shark. -- archer75, you've made me curious now about the podcast, tho. I'll have to check it out!

Ron, what the F was Kara, anyway?

Love it or hate it....one thing the finale did really well was actually provide an ending. It wasn't a cliffhanger....there were alot of answers and I think it lent it self beautifully to the universe they created. IE, god makes man, man makes machine, machine turns on man....

One thing I loved about the Caprica movie premeire is that it puts the "Ghost" in the machine (in the cylons) right from the start and better explains to the audience why they would have rebelled in the first place.

i agree with keith mostly. its not a cliffhanger. i would have liked a better ending, but this was my second choice of how it ended, and its so much better then my 3rd, which is they die.

Caprica's pilot was a massive disappointment to be honest. I suppose the best way to describe it; a combination of Beverly Hills 91210 and Eureka. There doesn't really seems to be a link to BSG, even the special effects was mediocre.

BSG's finale I have to say was unexpected, not really an ending we were predicting, but definitely a good one. I'm really excited to see what other surprises the movie will deliver.

I agree with Keith on the "god makes man, man makes machine, machine turns on man...." successful theme, and at the end more answers were raised, keeping me hooked.

Kara was a ghost.

Yup, it was exactly that simple and dumb.

All that wonderful chemistry, acting, feelings, dialog between Amiral Adama and Kara and then shes just a ghost. How dissapointing :/

She wasn't a ghost -- she was an angel, he's said as much. She was physically there.

Worked for me in the long run. Sure, I would have liked a little more definitively shown, but I'm cool with it.

Great finale to a great show. Actually surpassed B5 for me in the long run, which is no small feat.

One person nailed it on the head. Kara was a Valkyrie.

Good ending to a good show.

I'll keep track of Moore's shows from now on.

finale was wack, and patronising

finale deeply disappointing, it played like something written by at least 2 people with very different ideas of where to go with it. First have was hopeful, looked like some kind of reconciliation between the 2 "peoples" was going to happen, then it goes off in this completely different direction. The idea that greater spirituality always equates with some kind of primitivism has always struck me as very simplistic and just outright stupid.

Finale was excellent - barring the last five minutes. I found the epilogue felt superfluous, heavy handed and a little patronizing - not really what I expected from the non-preachy BSG universe. Nevertheless, it was a great finale to a great show.

ok im lost where wrre the podcasts for the finale? I was unaware that there was an entirely different direction the finale was supposed to go. I was really disappointed that kara was not fleshed out at the end and it seemed rushed to an ending. Otherwise it was a friggin blast of a finale.

The ending was fine. It was totally expected and after suffering through a few yawner episodes toward the end it seemed the easy way to bow out. It had nice heartfelt moments that made it worthwhile but overall it was a bit of a yup-exactly-what-I-figured. Would have been nice to see something unexpected like a super advanced Earth.

The first half of the last episode was beautiful - but the second half was a crime against good taste. As far as I'm concerned, after Galactica jumps away from the Cylon Black Hole Base, the show ends. Who's with me?

Well I know to expect to good writing from Ron Moore in whatever his projects will be, at least as was the case in BSG. However I found the ending to be too stretched in focus and trying to accomplish too much in a short time. Like others I liked the first half better than the second b/c it had that tense feel of the way the series started, while the second got redundant in trying to tie up loose ends. Now I'm going to look up Valkyrie in a dictionary! :P

Deeply disappointing finale to BSG; too many loose ends or just plain stupid decisions (Galen goes off to the Highlands all by himself?? Technology gets sent into the sun? And *everyone* in the fleet buys this baloney? Not realistic in my book.)

NOTHING compares with B5, much less surpasses it!

Linnemir, I loved B5, too, and wont argue about whether BSG is or isnt superior, but to complain about the BSG finale and praise B5 in the same post is.... bizarre. B5's finale was just plain terrible. Wishy-washy, disappointing, poorly written and unsatisfying. (yes, I know it wasnt how the story was originally supposed to end.)

BSG's ending was good for the first 90 minutes, but the loose threads left me screaming!

mc2714: Life's filled with loose threads. We never the real story of everything, even our story. Screaming is good, therapeutic: but it's what life is: the constant search for trying to answer the Uknowns, and yet knowing they'll never be fully answered.

"As far as I'm concerned, after Galactica jumps away from the Cylon Black Hole Base, the show ends. Who's with me?"

I'm not. That would've been Godawful. Are you telling me that after spending SIX YEARS waiting for them to find a new home... you don't actually want to see them THERE? That's like the Voyager finale, which was Godawful. I HATED that! I did not suffer through seven years of crap tv just to see them on Earth in an alternate future which got wiped away, only to see them arrive at Earth in the last two seconds of the series. Are you kidding me?!?

If you're going to base an entire plotline around people getting from Point A to Point B, then you HAVE to show us Point B. You have to see what all their struggles, and conflicts, and battles were for. Otherwise the story is incomplete.

"B5's finale was just plain terrible. Wishy-washy, disappointing, poorly written and unsatisfying."

What? Maybe we didn't see the same B5 finale? At the end, we have satisfying character directions for all the living characters, we know what happened to the station, we know that Sheridan has joined the Light ...

Frankly, I always cry at the end of the B5 finale. But after watching the BSG finale multiple times, my reaction is uniformly, "Thank god it's over. That sucked."

What did you find unsatisfying in the B5 ending?

BSG's ending was the best finale in scifi TV history!! It totally made up for Voyager and then some, even though its not the same show.

Also, how can people accept the Baltar & Headsix visions all this time, but complain about Kara who died, disappeared? Its funny these specific people kept watching and now complain after an entire 2 seasons of weird stuff. If this show wasn't awesome on all levels, they wouldn't have stuck around, so they are lying that they didn't like it.

I also hope Virtuality is cool, and will check it out.

Personally i'm not a BSG fan, but I thought the finale did as well as it could have given the giant nest of plotlines the writers had to revolve although they could stand to have shortened the three hour finale by, oh, say about two hours. The Starbuck storyline however was very disappointing.

Loved the final. Looking foward to Caprica.

The door is still open to a followup series 100,000 years later, where, late in the 21st century, explorers in the Kuiper Belt find a drifting ship - which turns out to be Colonial One (Anders at the last minute decides not to pitch it into the sun). They explore, they're stunned at what they find...and of course, it's "haunted"...by guess who??

So kara was a ghost huh? Then explain this einstien,If she was a ghost ,the soul of a dead person come back

The b-star finale was brilliant

great .cut off my comment in the first sentence scifi.To continue.....her viper came back also ..it had no soul nonliving aircraft have no soul .how did it come back as a ghost? what was it ? You can't get around that little fact.he took the easy way out in ending the show .Ans what or who were six and baltar? "real skittish tombs,real skittish"

I like Thomas' idea.. about finding a piece of the fleet stranded in the Kuiper Belt.... and the cycle begins anew... what has happened before will happen again....

HeadBaltar and HeadSix were "angels" and Kara was physically resurrected by "God" along with a facsimile of her viper. "God" did this because "it" was helping lead the fleet to our Earth.

A decent question to ask is why didn't "God" just send them straight to Earth and the answer I come up with is that the humans had to earn the right to go there (with a little divine help from HeadBaltar, HeadSix and Kara).

Overall, however, it's pretty simple and, honestly, I think pretty much all the major questions were answered in the finale. Granted, they weren't served up in exposition, but that would have been pretty condescending on Moore's part and he knew his audience was too sophisticated for that.

if kara was the Harbinger of death and will bring death to all, they did not show it. not sure what everyone is refering to "B5" but overall the bsg series was good but there was way too many filler eps. we needed more space battles and less complaining about miners needing a day off........they should of been happy to be alive. saw caprica and it is not bad as a drama, but not really all that good for Scfi...

She was the harbinger of death in the sense that she led the Colonial humans to Earth which ultimately led to the "death" of pureblood Colonial humans since, over time, they interbred with the decendants of the locals and of Hera, a Cylon/Colonial human hybrid, and eventually created "us", a mix of human and Cylon DNA.

The interesting thing about BSG was that all of the prophecies and the actions of "God" seem to point towards a grander plan that focuses on whole species as opposed to individuals. "God" is willing to let billions of Colonials die but desperately seems to want the species to live on and evolve into something better. If this life is not the end of individual existence, then it would make sense since the quest for perfection (as Anders alluded to at the end) would trump individual mercy since no one really "dies" in spirit (as evidenced by Kara coming back).

Have to disagree with you ClutchKnight. "Dirty Hands" was a great standalone episode and really helped fill in details about civilian life and how this space-faring society was beginning to devolve. The whole fleet eventually has to take a step back, examine their lives and then change them for the better. Sounds like something the good ole US of A should be trying right about now...

The BSG finale was POETIC and BEAUTIFUL!!...

Thank the gods he doesn't have anything to do with a remake of The Thing anymore, and if there's any justice the whole idea will be dropped completely. Both versions we have of that story already are/were perfect for their time. There's no need for another.

Had tooth ache the night i watched final which got me thinking. You ended BSG one sequence or episode too soon. Where you should have left it was a quick scan to a day / year after they had actually surrended all tech, when problems of not having tech would have started reoccurring that only having tech fixs? eg dental problems. Leaves you better open on question if abandoning all tech is really good or bad.

That picture of Ron holding his hands in an "L" shape is hysterical! It's like something someone dressed up as a silent movie director would do. He should have worn flaired pants and held a riding crop! Great stuff!

"I think by and large the reaction I got was tremendous satisfaction and people feeling like we did justice to the show by the end."

I don't know what rebooted alternate universe Moore is living in, but over here in THIS one I'd say the reaction was the polar opposite.

RDM has no business writing or directing. The guy killed a good show LONG before it's time, and he is just trying to suck the blood from a dead horse. Also, the man is a bloody hack, and his hide should be banned from writing and directing.

You do, of course, realize that there would not have even been a show if not for his writing and directing and that, if he truly were a hack, the show would not have been good?

'Poetic' and 'beautiful' aren't nearly enough. Like one science-fiction writer said, the finale worked for the heart, but not for the head.

The BSG finale was deeply disappointing. I will always be suspicious of any Ron Moore project from now on. I don't expect Caprica to be any more successful than "Kings".

I did not like the finale, because it turned a SciFi show into Religious Fiction. I guess if you are a bit more into god than I am, the ending must seem ok.

For the most part of the series, people talking about gods or god as the driving force behind the events were always the delusional ones. This added to the tragedy of people doing horrible things to each other based on arbitrary decisions they made earlier to justify their hatred. Which was also the great thing about the final five, who became the Cylons people simply could not hate for just being Cylons like all the others.

All of that got a shot in the head, when the finale basically says: sry guys, it was god's plan, you are all just pawns.

The BSG finale -- and indeed, the entire final season-- was just too 'God-centric' for a sci-fi series. All that Theological muddling, leading to a blatant 'God`s Will' ending was just a sci-fi cop-out to me. It made no sense....

So this technologically advanced race lands on a planet ...( after being led there by an "Angel' who did not know she was an Angel until she arrived on that planet??? )....Then the people of this technologically advanced race just chuck all their technology and stroll off into the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on their backs to live happily ever after ??? ... OH, PLEASE !

Tell you what...Any BSG fan who thinks that it`s that simple to survive in the wild should shut down their pc right now and go try it. I`ll believe that happening like I believe Gaius Baltar being a successful FARMER after living a life where he has never once had to grow his own food, or do anything non-techno-oriented....Just like the rest of Galactica`s crew.

The BSG finale was just one big waste of time, with just too much Disbelief for me to Suspend.

As I criticized the BSG ending, I really should have addressed the one ending that would have made perfect sense; They start a Colony. A City. A place where they can stay together to survive.They would have their technology and created a legend that woukd endure through time.
This would have explained what happened to Galactica`s crew and all of those survivors of a technologically advanced race...This ending would have told you their fate in ONE WORD :

A T L A N T I S !

They should all simply have died in that black hole. The Chief kills his Cylon ex-wife, after that, they all go down in flames. Starbuck manages to open a way out for Gaius, Six and Hera, who are the only ones to maroon on our Earth. The rest is lost in the opera house forever.

Moore would still have gotten his fanfic history of Earth, nobody needs to "sacrifice" their technology and a mere 150.000 years later, a woman looking like Six is talking to man looking like Gaius on the topic of the robot revolution. Happened before, happened again. Religious predeterminations remains an undertone an element of uncertainty, just like every real religion.

No need for a Caprica prequel that only tells us what we already know. The plot can go straight into a sequel on Earth taking the cool cyber being aspects of Caprica and dropping the religious overtones. If Caprica played on Earth the fans would be far more like "don't do that", instead of "doh, told you so, Robots will kill you all".

Linnemar, I found the B5 ending to be saccharine, simplistic and cutesy. How do you end such a big arching story with such a sappy coda? Blowing up the long irrelevant station was akin to ending the show with a 120 year old Ivanova dying in a rest home between episodes of her favorite soap.

Compare the level of production and storytelling of the B5 ending with, say, 'Six Feet Under'- which is the most thematicallly similar ending I can think of. 6FU was compelling and poignant. B5's gave me a headache.

I thought that the finale was okay right up until the '150,000 years later' jump to the modern day. Unnecessary and very lowbrow.

If it had finished on the shot of Adama at Roslin's grave, pull back, fade to black, it would have been perfect.

Right .her viper was a fascimile.give me a break.were did you ge t this drek form?face it .more was rushed to end it so he took a sloppy bad idea and tried to make it work,it didnt.god creating all this just to send a message? not a god i would want to believe in.sounds like an egotisicle jerk to me.Why not heve the ships(gal) dradis system "recieve " mysterious signal like here fighter did.it would be looked at with the same suspition as her claims were but wouldfinaly be used.

Stop complaining about the ending. At least they didn't show up in the early 1980's riding invisible motorcycles. All things considered it ended well and I am happy that they got to end it. Most series never even get a final episode leaving us hanging....... Now if they could just bring back Space Above And Beyond.

Ho hum, after all this time and most of still don't grasp the concept of just how wretched the last episode, indeed the last season was. But I won't argue, indeed if Moore appreciates the conversation then this is me not giving it to him. All I WILL say is that Moore has great ideas, but that if i see he has control over a new series I will never watch it, because his follow thru is beyond insipid.

I was originally blown away by the finale. But after the initial emotional surge wore off, I started asking questions and then it fell apart for me.
MY biggest gripes:
1. They said they would never have aliens in the series and would keep it as realistic as possible. Starbuck was an angel? Come on!
2. They give up all their technology? They would have had a rebellion of epic proportions! The show ends with our characters going off to what was likely a very short lifespan as a sacrifice for the greater good of humanity! Wow! They really accomplished something didn't they? They fixed humanity all right........
3. It should have ended with the establishment of the city envisioned by Lampkin. The rest should have been left for the audience to debate.
4. Adama leaves his son to live by himself with his dead lover? Talk about morbid........

I'm ready for a new version of BSG! This one had its moments but in the end was a disappointment.

My God some of you people are too stupid for words.

1. Kara was NOT an angel. And an Angel is not an alien.

Kara was a human being who died and who was resurrected by God and then who ascended to God's realm. Much like has happenned to people from our own planet, according to recorded history.

There were angels in the show (Head Baltar and Head Caprica etc) but Kara wasn't one of them. And she also wasn't a ghost.

2. They did not give up ALL of their technology. RDM has made that point a number of times now.

I despise the second half of the finale. The url links to a reviewer with a similar outlook.

The Colonials and the Cylons struggle for decades to a place where they are finally starting to work together, and then suicides with a kumbaya stroll into a beautiful savanna sunset.

My guess is the Colonials would die of exposure, disease, cavebears, fires, etc, quickly, because relevant cultural achievements like agriculture do not show up again until many tens of millenia have passed.

Meanwhile, the only real enduring contribution of thousands of years of history on no less than 14 worlds (the 13 colonies and Kobol) is a tiny smattering of genetic data mixed into the modern human mix that does not seem to have improved us one bit above the humans of Caprica. A purely symbolic victory of cooperation for the scorekeeper god.

And finally, once the blended humanity rises again into space (after perhaps a round of terminator wars) we'll find space full of the progeny of the machine Cylons who've been running around the galactic neighborhood for over 100k years.

Very uplifting.

All this is fine and dandy but how lame is the acronym CYLON for CYbernetic LifefOrm Node. That's just horrible beyond belief.

I was hoping Kara's dad would be the never seen 12th Cylon whose entire line was supposedly killed off by the Cylon John Cavil (Would have explained Kara's resurrection.), Who turned out to be this "god" all along manipulating both the Cylons and Humans to reach a peaceful co-existence on Earth.

I grew up on the original Battlestar and loved that show.

I also loved the re envisioned Battlestar

But I too was very disappointed with the final half of the ending.

Lets hope "The Plan" will answer the loose ends.

SO SAY WE ALL!!!!

I wish RDM would man up and admit that by not planning ahead, he painted the show into a corner and needed big, crummy deus ex machina to tie up the loose ends.

I thought BSG was one of the best sf shows ever produced, and recommended it highly to everyone I knew... until I saw the finale.

... took the DVD sets right off my wish-list, because now I know that the writers didn't care to respect the intelligence of the audience, or the characters they developed, or most of all, the intriguing mysteries they had built over 4 seasons and several years... all just thrown aside for a truly silly ending.

There are plenty of defenders, but IMO, they are defending the SHOW they invested so much time in, not that ridiculous ending. Things began to get very rocky all thru season 4, and I had a horrible feeling during those shows that the writers had failed to plot their own show... and I was right.

The excuse that BSG is "about character" is utter garbage. Character and plot go hand in hand. Wish you'd spend more time thinking about the "Plan" you'd touted from the very beginning and less "character development" on yet another time-wasting scene of Adama rolling around drunk.

Sorry, but this was a major fail, and I can't bring myself to rewatch the series knowing that it was all one big shaggy-dog series, not unlike X-files. You didn't respect your audience, or your creation.

Hope you do better with Caprica, because you are hugely talented, but I'm very much doubting it, since you appointed the very worst of your writers -- Jane Espenson -- as your head writer. She should be writing soap operas.

The bitterness of this comment (sorry! flame on!) is proportional to the excellence of the first 2 seasons (and maybe the 3rd, but a bit wobbly there). I wouldn't care so much if you hadn't hooked me with such brilliant early seasons....