Best and Worst of Battlestar Galactica

[Morilore]

Because the series is over, so why not.

Let's get some idea of what people here value in BSG. Try to explain your choices.

The Best:

1) Pegasus. (Duh.) The first and greatest of BSG's straightforward morality plays. Turned the viewer's emotions upside down twice in one episode; otherworldly jubilation turns to disgust and sinking despair, which turns again to righteous anger when Adama takes a stand. It does all of this without feeling in the least bit rushed or contrived, and it adheres to the artistic conventions of the first two seasons. Unlike previous episodes, however, it's larger than life and not afraid of it. The first (only?) time in the series I found myself completely rooting for Baltar. Also of note: some really great new music.

2) Exodus, Part 2. (The other duh.) Another larger-than-life, straightforward episode. More than a single story, really a series of moments showing the price the Colonials are willing to pay for their freedom, after the costs of their decision to lay down their burdens. Tigh kills the woman he loves for the sake of duty; Adama Drops the Bucket, inspiring anyone who looks up and risking the ship's bones; Lee does the Right Thing and joins the hopeless battle at the last second, giving the Pegasus a legendary death; Starbuck stays defiant despite months of psychological abuse and manipulation, reuniting a family even as her peace of mind falls apart; the crowds cheer the Admiral's name as Tigh walks away, old and broken; and Adama shaves off his moustache and returns to work. Oh, and some bullshit about Hera and Baltar, but no one cares about that.

(Urgh, hit submit when I mean to hit preview. Give me a few minutes here.)

[Morilore]

3) Lay Down Your Burdens, both parts. The entire sequence is pretty much designed to fuck with the viewers. The rescue mission to Caprica ends by exposing a Cylon spy, whose human facade was introduced the same episode, making his conversation with Tyrol hilarious in retrospect. Laura Roslin pays the price for her callousness: she ordered the forcible abortion of Hera and then outlawed abortion like the next week, after recieving a life-saving miracle blood transplant from the baby she was going to abort and then stole from her parents. The consequence of all this is that she ends up on the wrong side of history, and nearly breaks down crying when Adama confronts her about stooping to the level of a dictator. After an unprecedented one-year jump forward in time, when everything has changed and it seems like the story we were watching is over, the writers pull one of the greatest, if most obvious, fooled-you stunts in the series. Never had the situation looked more dire, and never had there been such totally new storytelling opportunities. That the writers ended up squandering most of them is not the fault of either this episode or Exodus.

4) Home, both parts. Gee, I like the two-parters, don't I? Zarek's plotting added color to Colonial society that was missing in later seasons. Adama faces his weaknesses and does the right thing, healing painful scars and leading to a truly hopeful note for the first time in the series. Athena takes her first painful steps towards acceptance by Galactica's crew.

5) The Oath/Blood on the Scales. I, along with most others, really liked these episodes, possibly due to Desert Oasis Syndrome. It seemed a welcome return to the themes and conflicts of the early series, and featured a heaping helping of our favorite characters acting in our favorite ways, including Roslin's best-delivered line ever.

The Worst:

1) A Measure of Salvation. Heavy-handed moralizing, people acting like idiots for the sake of plot and padding, episodic wrapped-up-in-45-minutes conflict, navelgazing. Also: recycled DS9 plot, complete with recycled doomsday disease that makes less sense here then it did in Star Trek. Seriously, the virus transmits through the Resurrection machine? And it also ruins the purely mechanical Cylon parts? And the Cylons don't understand quarantine? Fuck. Probably the episode where the show jumped the shark.

2) Daybreak, Part 3. On iTunes, the finale is divided into three parts, and that's probably how it's going to be aired in future. I actually like the finale right until that shot of Galactica over Earth's Moon, and I realized that the writers weren't going to bother explaining anything, preferring navelgazing, preaching, 20 minutes of farewells, dancing robots, and other bullshit. Deserves to be high on this list because of the massive letdown.

3) Crossroads, both parts. The episodes where RDM threw as much bullshit at the screen as possible in order to give himself something to work with next season: Baltar's cult (wtf), the Final Five being all main characters, that stupid Bob Dylan song (which I must admit Bear McCreary made awesome out of in the Season 4 soundtrack), the opera house bullshit, a mysterious power outage, and the Return of Starbuck. Of these things, three of them paid off poorly or just passably, one of them never paid off, one of them was just dropped, and one turned out to be catastrophically stupid. Also: Lee navelgazes and pontificates about Original Sin, as if we give a shit. Baltar is aquitted because the writers don't want to kill him off, and subsequently reverts two seasons to his insufferable original self, as if nothing at all happened to him to make him more humble or thoughtful in the past two years.

4) The Eye of Jupiter. A pitiful shadow of Pegasus, featuring a "tense standoff" which is a complete rip-off of the Pegasus cliffhanger and about 50 times less tense, featuring moron, cliche dialogue. The parallel standoff on the planet between Anders and Apollo almost had me laughing out loud at how little I cared. The Mythical Signs of the Dire Portents of Humanity's Secret Dark Secret is yawn

5) Deadlock. Yawn soap opera.

The things my good episodes had in common seemed to be characters driven by plot, lasting consequences, and breaks from the patterns of episodes before and after. The things my bad episodes had in common were plots designed to hump the characters or writers who didn't care abut plot.

[Thanas]

I don't really disagree with anything you say, but for me it is a bit simpler than that. To me, Galactica had three great seasons, but the Final Five etc. was when it purely descended into mythology.

I think Moore did not really want the show to be so "deep" in the beginning but was kinda forced into it by all that "Yeah, we love the deeeep stuff" coming from the reviewers and critics.

[Crazedwraith]

Best: The Hand of God. The episode has it all really. Good character work for the Adamas, Starbuck and Baltar. Decent space porn and a well laid plan. In fact there's thing I like about this episode that was lost later on is that the initial distraction doesn't work and the raiders come back into plan elsewhere. In subsequent battles (Res Ship, Exodus): Galactica plants a distraction and all the raiders fall for it and are never seen again. The Cylons keep falling for the same trick and it beggars belief.

Worst: Black Market/Hero Both of them, pretty much ignore previous continuity. (Lee's fiancée/Husker commanding Valkyrie) and invent big dark secrets for the character, needlessly.

[Morilore]

I don't really disagree with anything you say, but for me it is a bit simpler than that. To me, Galactica had three great seasons, but the Final Five etc. was when it purely descended into mythology.

I think Moore did not really want the show to be so "deep" in the beginning but was kinda forced into it by all that "Yeah, we love the deeeep stuff" coming from the reviewers and critics.

I disagree with the second sentence. First, the mystical religious stuff and deus ex machina has precedence in DS9. Secondly, the impression I always got was that the "deeeep" stuff came from Moore trying to find ways to give himself ideas, after the reset button was pushed on New Caprica and the writers decided not to draw plot threads from before that.

Best: The Hand of God. The episode has it all really. Good character work for the Adamas, Starbuck and Baltar. Decent space porn and a well laid plan. In fact there's thing I like about this episode that was lost later on is that the initial distraction doesn't work and the raiders come back into plan elsewhere. In subsequent battles (Res Ship, Exodus): Galactica plants a distraction and all the raiders fall for it and are never seen again. The Cylons keep falling for the same trick and it beggars belief.

One of the things I noticed about my top five list is the relative lack of battle porn.

Worst: Black Market/Hero Both of them, pretty much ignore previous continuity. (Lee's fiancée/Husker commanding Valkyrie) and invent big dark secrets for the character, needlessly.

Ah, that's a good one. I forgot about that: the soap opera strategy of "invent painful history" for characters, resulting a ready-made angstipode that never has anything to do with any other episode ever again.

[charlemagne]

that stupid Bob Dylan song (which I must admit Bear McCreary made awesome out of in the Season 4 soundtrack)

I know that you can't debate taste, but that is not a stupid song And for me, the song together with the reveal of who the final four Cylons are worked - although I do agree that making each and every one of them a member of the main cast was kinda stupid, because it raises the question of how the hell those exact people got to live through everything that happened before. It really strains SoD.

[Morilore]

I know that you can't debate taste, but that is not a stupid song And for me, the song together with the reveal of who the final four Cylons are worked - although I do agree that making each and every one of them a member of the main cast was kinda stupid, because it raises the question of how the hell those exact people got to live through everything that happened before. It really strains SoD.

It's a fine song; the way it was used in the show was deeply stupid. But I actually really like the scene in Daybreak where Starbuck jumps the ship even though it's all about that really dumb "mystical notes" bullshit, because I'm a sucker for BGM.

[Dahak]

Well, I rather have the Final Five be members of the cast than some completely unknown schmuck from the down-below say "Oh, we're Cylons now!".
As far as mythical goes, it was always a part of the show, so it never bothered me. It was in the background, while the characters in the front were the thing that interested me...

My favourite one, simply for the "I'm getting my men!" part is "Pegasus".

[DrMckay]

For me, all of First season, really.

Specifically, Hand of God, for the reasons mentioned above, as well as the music in the Adama moment and Celebration.

"I'll bring it back."

"You'd better, or I'll kick your ass. It's a good lighter."

In complete retrospect, the episode "33." The pilot episode of the show.

Everyone is completely tired and worn out, yet determined to protect the fleet as the Cylons attack every 33 minutes.

One of the great parts of this episode is that you never know if the Olympic Carrier was infiltrated/captured, or what really happened.

Did Lee make the right choice to shoot it down?

We never know, BUT the fleet is given a respite.

In my opinion, this is the kind of question that CAN and SHOULD be left unanswered, and it was great development for Lee and Roslin as well, as each tried to take responsibility in their own way.

Another thing that worked was Shelly Godfrey in a later episode. She tried to frame Baltar, nade him look more credible, and left. She was a mystery, BUT she left her glasses behind, meaning that she was really there.

I think she was a Cylon who reestablished Baltar's credibility, walked out an airlock, and resurrected.

I REALLY wanted Head Six to be a chip in Baltar's head.


The funny thing is, if you consider the ending of BSG, Moore used the Golgafrinchan plot from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


bureaucratic city folk with useless skills settling on a prehistoric Earth.

See below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchh ... e_Universe

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_in_ ... gafrincham

being run by trans-dimensional mice in a million-year experimet would be a step up from invisible gods.

[Skylon]

I'm gonna go by season, my three favorites from seasons 1 and 2, and hit up 3 and 4 later:

I'm folding two-parters into one.

Season 1:
Best:
"Kobol's Last Gleaming" - It wasn't just Adama's shooting and the shock there. Everything from season 1 came together perfectly here. Helo now knows the Sharon on Caprica is a Cylon and faces that. Lee, who had yet to "choose a side" between Adama and Roslin, does here. Adama faces the consequences of his lie about Earth, which sends Starbuck running from him, and into a kick-ass fight with a Number Six.
"The Hand of God" - This episode was elation. After a good nine of ten episodes of pure "grim-dark" it was so damn awesome to see the good guys just kick ass. If nothing else, it introduced some great music with "Wander My Friends".
"33" - I loved the episodes of Galactica that were a simple, very dire problem. This was the granddaddy of them for BSG. Taking the simple fact that the crew of Galactica must fight machines, why wouldn't they constantly attack, every chance, if they could? This episode was perfect, and offhand, I cannot think of a better series opener, that set the tone for the show right off the bat.

Worst:
Um..."Litmus" was a bit slow I guess...still, not too bad. There weren't many weak links in season 1.

Season 2
Best:
"Pegasus" - Duh.
"Lay Down Your Burdens" - Somehow topping "Kobol's Last Gleaming" as a season finale. This episode went dark from the get-go, and kept piling it on. The "One Year Later" jump was the most "WTF's?" I've ever experienced during a TV show.
"Resurrection Ship" - Continued on "Pegasus" high very well, throwing in space-ship porn as Galactica and Pegasus kick Basestar ass.

Worst:
"Black Market" - RDM even admits this one sucked.
"Flight of the Phoenix" - BSG makes the Delta Flyer. I'm sorry, that's what I always saw the Blackbird as. I also yelled at the screen when the Colonials blew every single disabled Raider out of the sky, rather than trying to capture as many as possible. I then proceeded to laugh when, during the Blackbird construction someone commented "we don't have enough metal". Well, now you don't...you could have stripped it off those fifty or so Raiders...
"Scar" - I hated this a lot more when I first saw it. Mostly because it was the fourth episode straight that was flashback filled, and I was sick of it. I liked it better on the re-watch, when I got it on DVD. Still, not a favorite though.

[Thanas]

33 is RDMs favorite episode, btw.

[Stark]

Best part about this thread? 'Best/Worst' is a stand-in for soapboxing. It's fascinating that someone could like the nerd culture AROUND a show, but not actually like major themes in the show itself.

[Thanas]

Best part about this thread? 'Best/Worst' is a stand-in for soapboxing. It's fascinating that someone could like the nerd culture AROUND a show, but not actually like major themes in the show itself.

Eh? Please explain yourself, I don't quite get your meaning. Who exactly are you talking to and what about?

[Stark]

Eh? Please explain yourself, I don't quite get your meaning. Who exactly are you talking to and what about?

Ha, not using the quote function always sucks.

After reading people's reactions/recommendations and the noise in the other thread, it amuses me that it seems many nBSG fans don't actually like the story Moore told or the way he focused primarily on characters, with plots that were either contrived or worked in a non-scifi way just to push characters dramatically. After I read some of the interviews you posted, I looked back on the few episodes I'd seen and could agree that they worked dramatically and that I didn't like them due to their (percieved) absurd or contrived nature, so I find this way of looking at the show quite interesting.

Whereas a large slice of the fanbase is simply OMG BUCKET BATTLEPORN. 'Oh and some stuff happened with Baltar but who cares', etc.

[Thanas]

Eh? Please explain yourself, I don't quite get your meaning. Who exactly are you talking to and what about?

Ha, not using the quote function always sucks.

After reading people's reactions/recommendations and the noise in the other thread, it amuses me that it seems many nBSG fans don't actually like the story Moore told or the way he focused primarily on characters, with plots that were either contrived or worked in a non-scifi way just to push characters dramatically. After I read some of the interviews you posted, I looked back on the few episodes I'd seen and could agree that they worked dramatically and that I didn't like them due to their (percieved) absurd or contrived nature, so I find this way of looking at the show quite interesting.

Whereas a large slice of the fanbase is simply OMG BUCKET BATTLEPORN. 'Oh and some stuff happened with Baltar but who cares', etc.

Oh, that I agree with.

I too was one of those that was a bit put off by the contrievances, but when I take the whole show as a character study from the start and see where they end up, the show really gains in quality. It is not about the plot, it is about the characters making choices. Like greek tragedy - contrived plot points, little logic, but great character work for actors. I think this worked best for Baltar and Six as characters, but less so for the main bunch of Adama and Tigh.

Of course, this sucks for all the people that expect a sci-fi show to be primarily about a sci-fi universe.

[Morilore]

Best part about this thread? 'Best/Worst' is a stand-in for soapboxing. It's fascinating that someone could like the nerd culture AROUND a show, but not actually like major themes in the show itself.

The themes of the show are what it means to be human, doing right by your head versus doing right by your heart, how people cope with impossible situations, what kind of violence is justified and when and where, the necessity and the pitfalls of democracy, and the cycle of violence. These I like. The "nerd culture" hyperventilates about the Pegasus and the Valkyrie and old-style Cylons and makes music videos compiling BSG's battle scenes. This is trash.

After reading people's reactions/recommendations and the noise in the other thread, it amuses me that it seems many nBSG fans don't actually like the story Moore told or the way he focused primarily on characters, with plots that were either contrived or worked in a non-scifi way just to push characters dramatically. After I read some of the interviews you posted, I looked back on the few episodes I'd seen and could agree that they worked dramatically and that I didn't like them due to their (percieved) absurd or contrived nature, so I find this way of looking at the show quite interesting.

The thing is, when it seemed like the watchwords were "consistency" and "follow through on consequences," then I really got behind the character dramatics; Athena's journey to acceptance or Baltar struggling with his own flaws or the Adamas' tug-of-war-of-duty. I actually never cared much about battle porn; only one episode in my top five actually contains a space battle. BSG's battles were in most cases disappointing visually; great images, but just a couple seconds at a time, two or three times. Writing and directing and music made the battles interesting. But when the writers elevated character journeys to the point where fiat and magic controlled the plot, the character dramatics stopped being interesting to me, because the cart was pulling the horse. I mean, I went into Daybreak, Part 2 not caring where the characters ended up. That never happened before. It's like character dramas were the best part of the show right until the writers decided that character dramas mattered more than anything else.

Oh, that I agree with.

I too was one of those that was a bit put off by the contrievances, but when I take the whole show as a character study from the start and see where they end up, the show really gains in quality. It is not about the plot, it is about the characters making choices. Like greek tragedy - contrived plot points, little logic, but great character work for actors. I think this worked best for Baltar and Six as characters, but less so for the main bunch of Adama and Tigh.

I think it actually works for most of the characters. Baltar's journey was fine, and obviously Adama was pretty much the same person before the miniseries as he was at the end, if a little more emotional, but Tigh, for example, started a drunken, violent brute and ended up a Man on a Mission who offered the final peace proposal between Cylon and Man. Roslin also went around a couple of bends.

[General Zod]

I'd say Blood on the Scales is easily one of the best episodes in Season 4. The whole series of incidents leading up to the end of the revolt right to where Felix and Baltar were talking about everything just before Felix's execution was arguably some of the best character development the entire season.

[Anguirus]

Unlike many of you, I think the series was pretty consistent in terms of quality, so I'm going to go back and look at the few stinkers IMHO.

"Litmus"- Wasn't this the one where the sergeant of the guards went mad with power? Yeah, it was lame. You can tell the bad eps because they introduce people who ought to be major recurring characters who then vanish.

"Colonial Day"- It's not bad per se, but the Cloud 9 bugged me right from the get-go. It seemed like a really contrived way to shoot outside. Later episodes did not use the Cloud 9 in the same manner, but I still wasn't too sorry when it got blown away.

The sequel to "Acts of Contrition"- I don't even remember the name, I only watch it because "Contrition" ends on a cliffhanger. While it was interesting to learn more about the Raiders, Starbuck's rigging a brain-damaged one to fly strained credulity pretty goddamn far. (How did it even land intact?) The best part is when Roslin shoots down Lee and Adama for acting like idiots. Worse still...it really doesn't continue the themes from "AoC," it's just a lengthy resolution of the predicament.

"Home"- I know that the Caprica and Kobol plotlines NEEDED TO END, but they write themselves into such a tight spot that the resolution still feels rushed. We go from near-unstoppable Centurions to one-shot jokes who are only in the episode to provide a quick action beat and the first of several "do we trust Sharon" moments that eventually felt redundant. The very end is so clumsily done that we only know what in the heck happened thanks to podcasts, etc.

"Epiphanies"- It's significance in the storyline barely excuses its utter failure. Hera's blood saving Roslin might have seemed plausible if we'd had more than a tiny little scene to set it up. The "Demand Peace" guys weren't compelling villains at all, just a bunch of nutters, and Baltar's decision to hand them a nuke is wildly out of character, perhaps the most transparent plot device in the whole series. Nothing else he does in the show, up to and including dooming the human race, is quite so crazily irresponsible.

"Black Market"- No more need be said, except that it's essentially the "Threshold" of BSG...complete canon black hole. The "crime ship"'s name was actually re-used as the ship of "one of the most respected captains in the fleet" which shows that the writers stopped caring about that plot device pretty thoroughly. And Lee's fiancee never shows up in the finale flashbacks, while his hooker also disappears off the map despite this being a show where deckhands would show up in 15+ episodes. See note on "Litmus."

"Hero"- I'll admit to being a Valkyrie fanboy, but this episode is horribly executed in every way. It smacks of David Eick having a bad idea that no one would shoot down. The plot is implausible (a scheme to kill Adama? Really?) and it's really just a bad episode-of-the-week, which teaches us nothing about the characters despite being allegedly character-driven. Say what you will of Season 4, but it has NO episode that does not accomplish something. Also, docked points for a blatant, if relatively minor, continuity fail with the miniseries. (At least Tigh being a Cylon was interesting enough to make up for in his case.)

"The Woman King"- Sucks. A good guest star wasted. The whole plot is actually foreshadowing for a plotline that got aborted late in Season 3 (this is good, it was a terrible idea), and so we are stuck with a giant population of medicine-haters who only matter for one episode. And we're supposed to believe people are racist towards them when there's a Cylon in the armed forces.

"Deadlock"- The only fail of Season 4 IMO. The premise isn't bad but the execution is clumsy, and Tyrol's attitude is pretty much unprecedented in earlier episodes. Also, the rebel Cylons get the worst case of indecision ever for exactly one episode...before and after they happily take orders from Adama and show a genuine desire to join the fleet (they didn't even shoot down Narcho for hitting them with a missile two eps ago). Also, introduces a large gaping plothole into the story of the season...how are the Colonials so easy for Boomer to jump to, and why don't any of them express concern about this?

[Stark]

That just sounds lame. A show is good if it had 'badass' characters (by which you mean crippled, often wrong but very loud and stubborn characters) or due to massive emotional investment making you 'worry' about fictional characters? I've never understood this, and perhaps it's not unusual, but I've never seen it like it is with nBSG, where even by episode four people were already emotionally attached to characters (much as viewers of Neighbours) regardless of the stupid, nonsensical or bland nature of such. Maybe it's a bit much to ask of a fanbase summed up as 'holy frak what a mindbender', but what made the nBSG characters different from the characters of a thousand other soap operas (beyond being in a setting full of nerd-chic things thus making it 'okay')? I find only two characters in the entire show even INTERESTING, and they're the examples of worst/most contrived writing!

[Morilore]

That just sounds lame. A show is good if it had 'badass' characters (by which you mean crippled, often wrong but very loud and stubborn characters) or due to massive emotional investment making you 'worry' about fictional characters?

I personally don't really understand what most people mean when they say "badass character." They seem to mean some combination of "takes big risks" and "talks smack." But isn't that the kind of character that every show ever has? It's more important to have rounded characters, isn't it? And isn't it even more important in a serialized show like BSG to have characters who develop?

You know, it's really funny, because whenever people ask what the best Adama moment in the show was, they'll probably cite the line "I'm getting my men." Classic "badass," right? But what makes that more powerful than all the times in Star Trek or the like that captains stand up for their crew? For one thing, you know from past experience with Adama that he means it, but more importantly, at the time of Pegasus's airing, you know the writers mean it, too. They weren't afraid to break things apart for episodes at a stretch, costing the lives of their stable of recurring characters in the process. I think that's the context that makes Adama's action hugely powerful to fans, whether or not they really understand it. It's a plot context. The type of character he is is no different from that of any other show. Very few of them are. What made them different, at times, was a plot that gave the impression of taking itself seriously.

I've never understood this, and perhaps it's not unusual, but I've never seen it like it is with nBSG, where even by episode four people were already emotionally attached to characters (much as viewers of Neighbours) regardless of the stupid, nonsensical or bland nature of such. Maybe it's a bit much to ask of a fanbase summed up as 'holy frak what a mindbender', but what made the nBSG characters different from the characters of a thousand other soap operas (beyond being in a setting full of nerd-chic things thus making it 'okay')? I find only two characters in the entire show even INTERESTING, and they're the examples of worst/most contrived writing!

I'm guessing you mean Starbuck and Baltar? Those are the two who I think of at the phrase "contrived writing," anyway.

[Thanas]

That just sounds lame. A show is good if it had 'badass' characters (by which you mean crippled, often wrong but very loud and stubborn characters) or due to massive emotional investment making you 'worry' about fictional characters? I've never understood this, and perhaps it's not unusual, but I've never seen it like it is with nBSG, where even by episode four people were already emotionally attached to characters (much as viewers of Neighbours) regardless of the stupid, nonsensical or bland nature of such.

Hmmm. I can only say for myself, but I am more concerned about the actions of the characters in a given situation. Over time, I might form an attachment to characters I agree with (Helo, Athena) or that just plain amuse me (Baltar).

Maybe it's a bit much to ask of a fanbase summed up as 'holy frak what a mindbender', but what made the nBSG characters different from the characters of a thousand other soap operas (beyond being in a setting full of nerd-chic things thus making it 'okay')?

Well, to be honest, the characters in every show have very little basic differences from each other when it comes to Sci-Fi (with the notable exception of Farscape). You cannot find a character that is not some stereotype in one form or another.

What made the characters interesting (not different or maybe not outright different) was the journey and the performances. This show had a very capable cast and that is what made me tune in. Oh, and it just looked good.

I find only two characters in the entire show even INTERESTING, and they're the examples of worst/most contrived writing!

Which one and why are they examples of worst/most contrived writing?

As an aside, how much BSG have you seen, Stark?



*******************

As an aside, I am currently rewatching BSG from the start and I would encourage everyone else to do the same. Especially the headsix/baltar scenes take on a whole different meaning.

Hard to say, but knowing where they ended up actually makes me appreciate their journey even more, as well as the difference in acting the actors employed throughout the seasons. Take Baltar, for example - his body posture is completely different from what we see in the finale.

[JME2]

I'll go by by personal likes and dislikes of each season:

Season 1 Favorites
* 33
* Six Degrees of Separation
* The Hand of God
* Kobol's Last Gleaming - Part 2

Season 1 Least Favorites
* Litmus (Or, BSG's Drumhead)

Season 2 Favorites
* Fragged
* Final Cut
* Pegasus
* Downloaded
* Lay Down Your Burdens -- Part 1 (If for no other reason than it's the first appearance of my favorite Cylon, Cavil).
* Lay Down Your Burdens -- Part 2

Season 2 Least Favorites
* Flight of the Phoenix
* Sacrifice

Season 3 Favorites
* Occupation
* Precipice
* Exodus - Part I
* Exodus - Part II
* Hero
* Maelstrom
* Crossroads - Part II (Lee's Closing statement is my favorite monologue in the series, with Cavil's "I don't want to be human" monologue in a close second).

Season 3 Least Favorites
* Torn
* Unfinished Business
* Taking a Break From All Your Worries
* The Woman King (Probably my least favorite episode in the series)
* Dirty Hands

Season 4 Favorites
* Faith
* Revelations
* Sometimes a Great Notion
* No Exit
* Daybreak - Part 2 (First half with the Battle of the Colony and the conclusion of the Second Cylon War)

Season 4 Least Favorites
* Escape Velociy
* The Road Less Traveled
* Deadlock

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I always found the Adama worship funny. "I'm getting back my men" is sooooo badass? Is there a TV show captain, besides Zapp Branigan, who wouldn't have decided to protect his men? Sure, EJO has quite a bit of talent and charisma, but he needs it to make stock SciFi captain # 11 memorable, let alone interesting. (Although he really wasn't that interesting; certainly, nobody watched the show based on just the strength of his character as opposed to the character plot lines soap opera grimdark, storyline, and "deep themes".) The drama between him and his son is cliched at best and, for me, a negative mark against the show.

In the beginning, the show was interesting for me because it had real tension, what I thought was a rich background waiting to be explored, and some likable characters. The likable characters were the ones played by actors who could rise above the "everyone's got a darkside" emo grimdark crap, or the characters who weren't developed enough to show it. By the end of the first season, I was pretty much only watching the show to see how the background and plot mysteries would play out. At the end of the second season, it was pretty obvious that the writers thought they were writing deep, character-driven episodes, when they were actually just floundering about with a cast of characters too psychologically broken to function. Then came the big reset in season 3, and I knew the writers had no idea what they were doing, where they were going, and that there were no satisfying answers coming. Of course, I still read the spoilers, just in case they rediscovered their strengths, but it sounds like that wasn't the case.

That was the worst of Battlestar Galactica. The best is the hope I have that its success will convince executives to take TV science fiction more seriously for a while.

PS: The intro claims that the Cylons "have a plan". What was it?

[Stark]

Thanas and D13, I can hear where you're coming from regarding style, performance and gravitas - particularly since I'm watching the show from a different perspective now - but I'm speaking of the vast majority of fans who aren't as lucid or articulate. While I can agree that crazy old EJO delivered an EJO-standard performance (little evolved since Miami Vice) that was effective in the role, I just don't see where all the gushing comes from. Now that it's clear RM never cared about the plot details and it's possible to see past the contrivances it's easier for me to appreciate the performances divorced from the often utterly retarded events they're given in, but as I said by episode 4 back in 2004 (or whenever) people had ALREADY emotionally invested to this degree. Nerds do this a lot, but I'm curious why a soap-opera that most of them misunderstood generated these feelings in the first place. People crying about a fictional spaceship is just as bemusing as it is fucking hilarious.

Thanas, I've seen perhaps five full episodes and nothing since Exodus. Every time I've turned to nBSG, it's been something absurd happening (many of which take on a new context now, as we've discussed) and I've just moved on.

[Thanas]

Thanas and D13, I can hear where you're coming from regarding style, performance and gravitas - particularly since I'm watching the show from a different perspective now - but I'm speaking of the vast majority of fans who aren't as lucid or articulate.

To be fair though, the vast majority of fans are neither lucid nor articulate.

While I can agree that crazy old EJO delivered an EJO-standard performance (little evolved since Miami Vice) that was effective in the role, I just don't see where all the gushing comes from. Now that it's clear RM never cared about the plot details and it's possible to see past the contrivances it's easier for me to appreciate the performances divorced from the often utterly retarded events they're given in, but as I said by episode 4 back in 2004 (or whenever) people had ALREADY emotionally invested to this degree. Nerds do this a lot, but I'm curious why a soap-opera that most of them misunderstood generated these feelings in the first place. People crying about a fictional spaceship is just as bemusing as it is fucking hilarious.

*Shrug* Why do people form an attachment to sport teams? Just human nature, methinks. I don't see that BSG generates more of this rabid fan-attachment than...say, Star Trek or B5 (though the latter show gets a pass since it actually had a decent story).

Thanas, I've seen perhaps five full episodes and nothing since Exodus. Every time I've turned to nBSG, it's been something absurd happening (many of which take on a new context now, as we've discussed) and I've just moved on.

Hmm. I think you should do what I am currently doing - start with the miniseries and then watch the whole thing. I am currently enjoying the hell out of the Baltar/Head Six interactions...the way she played him into believing she was a chip first when he wouldn't buy the religious angle, then slowly working from that to his conversion...heh. Oh and there is always the amusing image of an angel giving a mortal a handjob in the miniseries, which Helfer and Callis simply play hilariously.