BSG - which was your favourite season?

[wautd]

Now that the series have ended, which season where you most fond of?

For me, it'll be hands down season two.
It started excellent with Tigh in charge (and screwing everything up in the process), and I can't think of an episode I didn't like after that. At first the Cylons were the enemy, but season 2 showed that the fleet had some scum and villains of their own (terrorists, the black market guys, shady politicians, admiral Cain...). Humanity wasn't a pretty sight.

The Pegasus storyline was probably my favorite storyline of the series. After a year of constantly getting chased by Cylons, I really felt a relief when they found another battlestar. That relief soon turned into horror when admiral Cain quickly became a scarier villain than all the Cylons combined.

The cliffhanger at the end gave a real kick in the balls (but in a good way).

Season 1 had the best spacebattles though.

[Thanas]

Season 2, for all the reasons already mentioned.

[Stofsk]

Season 1 had quality episodes like 33, Hand of God and Kobol's Last Gleaming. But it also had the tiresome Helo on Caprica storyline which, although important, at times felt tedious.

Season 2 had the Pegasus episodes which showed a kind of 'mirror mirror' quality to BSG. Remember in the miniseries Adama originally wanted to fight the Cylons, and Roslin talked him out of it. Imagine if she hadn't been successful: well Admiral Cain is what we get from a crazy vengeance seeking Battlestar commander. I liked how the introduction of the Pegasus held up a metaphorical mirror to Galactica and crew.

Season 3 had some elements which were good, but also elements that were weak and lacking. But it was the first time we saw inside of a Cylon Baseship IIRC.

Season 4 was lame. I didn't enjoy it in comparison to the other three seasons. I found it tedious and confusing, not to mention depressing, and ultimately unsatisfying. A conversation I had with a friend of mine left me wondering what the hell was the point of Gaeta's... actions in the second half of the season. Because we both liked Gaeta, we hated how he ended up. In my friend's words upon seeing the final episode, nobody deserved to become 'Admiral for a day' more than Felix Gaeta.

My conclusion is that season 2 is the series' highpoint, with strong competition from season 1.

[wautd]

Season 4 was lame. I didn't enjoy it in comparison to the other three seasons. I found it tedious and confusing, not to mention depressing, and ultimately unsatisfying. A conversation I had with a friend of mine left me wondering what the hell was the point of Gaeta's... actions in the second half of the season. Because we both liked Gaeta, we hated how he ended up. In my friend's words upon seeing the final episode, nobody deserved to become 'Admiral for a day' more than Felix Gaeta.

My main gripe with Season 4 was how they rushed the revolution storyline. The initial rebellion/mutiny episode was great, but already taken care of in the following episode. They could have stretched that story line over at least a couple of episodes; first with Roslin/Adama hiding in the fleet, slowly regrouping with loyalists and eventually getting their ship back. Hell, you could even make a full episode of the aftermath of the rebellion alone, but we didn't even got to see that. Instead we got some filler episodes in which, lets face it, little happened. Season 4 finale was OK, but by far the weakest of the four.

[Minischoles]

Season 2, basically for the reasons already mentioned.
In particular for me the stand out story was the whole Pegasus arc, I just loved the reactions as they saw Pegasus for the first time, with Cain landing on the flight deck of Galactica, just that sense of relief the actors managed to portray, that finally they weren't all that was left, finally they had some help.

[tim31]

S1 obviously hooked me on the show(33, Hand of God were awesome eps), but I still love S2; I feel(and am expecting incredulous replies) that this season was the best paced; S1 was like a bathroom quickie, S3 was like fucking for so long that she dried up. S4, with the huge gap in the middle, was coitus interruptus, and we didn't get back into things properly after getting out of bed to answer the phone. S2 had a great opening arc with Kobol, the brilliant Blackbird/Pegasus arc, an episode devoted to Pegasus shenanigans which I loved, and at the end of it all, events spiralling out of control, and I was spent.

[Anguirus]

I'm not sure I can vote.

Season 1 is quite good, but to me the characters don't quite feel mature yet. There is a real "episode of the week" feeling until the finale. So I don't think it can be my favorite.

Season 2 has the awesome Pegasus storyline, the awesome cliffhanger, the introduction and fleshing-out of some of my favorite characters, and several GOOD stand-alone episodes. However, it loses points for "Black Market" and "Epiphanies." Even though it wasn't quite as consistent, I feel I enjoy it more than Season 1.

Season 3 has the best storyline of the show (New Caprica) and then degenerates pretty fast. Even the midseason two-parter was only ok by the standards of the show. Fortunately I love Crossroads. Even so, I can't say this is my favorite season, despite the awesomeness of Tigh, Cavil, Tyrol, and many other characters.

Season 4...ok, like the rest of you, I like some science in my fiction, so I was hoping for a better resolution than what we got. But I can't argue with how satisfying the emotional resolution turned out to be for most characters. "Flying around on the Demetrius" got tiring after awhile, but the writers learned how to write a decent "life in the fleet" episode just in time for Lee to become the leader he's always dreamed of being, the deaths of Cally, Dee, and Gaeta were all appropriately heart-wrenching, the mutiny storyline was awesome, Adama and Roslin found peace, Tigh's awesomeness reached asymptotic levels...this one might be my favorite.

But I must say, that's the most recent one I watched. I wouldn't vote on this poll unless I'd watched the series over...and that's not happening anytime real soon.

[JME2]

From my favorite to least favorite in descending order, it goes as follows:

Season 1
Season 2
Season 4
Season 3

Season 1 was superb, Season 2 faltered a little bit, Season 4 was mostly satisfying, and everything after the New Caprica arc in Season 3 sucked.

[Uraniun235]

I voted Season 1, then I scrolled down and Stofsk had to go and remind me about that boring Helo-on-Caprica B-plot. I seriously forgot about that shit.

I'd change my vote to Season 2 if I could.

[JME2]

I voted Season 1, then I scrolled down and Stofsk had to go and remind me about that boring Helo-on-Caprica B-plot.

Better the Helo B-plot (which I admit I kvetched about at the time) than all the Starbuck/Lee/Anders/Dee angst that dragged on for most of Season 3, at least IMHO.

[Skylon]

Season 2 - Kicked off with a bang and really didn't let up ("Black Market" aside).

Season 1 - Nothing really bad here, but it was short. I never had issues with the Helo on Caprica arc.I'm really hard pressed to rate this "second".

Season 4 - Overall, it really didn't drag until the buildup to the finale. In spite of being caught up in mystical mumbo-jumbo, there were some great points this season. Saul Tigh really shined this season. The mutiny arc was one of the best of the series. The Cylon Civil War was entertaining, and there were some really gut-wrenching moments like Cally's death and the mid-season discovery of "Earth".

Season 3 - Just dragged after the Algae Planet arc. The Cylons effectively vanished until the season finale and for what? Episodes like "The Woman King"? Baltar's trial didn't need this kind of buildup. Pepper in the love quadrangle of Lee/Kara/Anders/Dee and you get a mixed bag of a season, after the sheer awesomeness of the New Caprica arc.

[Crazedwraith]

Voted Season 1. When everything was new, interesting and they didn't have time for the self contained filler episodes that pulled down seasons 2 & 3. In season 1, everything seem to either be introducing new stuff or continuing some thing from the previous episodes.

Season 2 was awesome up until about Pegasus but from there I'm not so keen. Ressurection Ship is a very quick end to what have been an interesting new arc from the series and too quickly puts everything back to the status quo. The finale is also rather rushed and ends with a 'one year later' sequence. That jump is something that took me completely out of the finale and I watched the final scenes with a sense of unreality. It retrospect I would have prefered them to go to credits on the nuclear blast, maybe Baltar's reaction and pick up the 'one year later' at the beginning of Season 3.

[TimothyC]

I tend to consider the first seven episodes of season two, as being season one, (mostly because they finish up the plot arcs from season one). Thus, I voted for season one.

[StarshipTitanic]

The finale is also rather rushed and ends with a 'one year later' sequence. That jump is something that took me completely out of the finale and I watched the final scenes with a sense of unreality. It retrospect I would have prefered them to go to credits on the nuclear blast, maybe Baltar's reaction and pick up the 'one year later' at the beginning of Season 3.

I'm not going to debate your opinion, but ending Lay Down Your Burdens with the Cloud 9 explosion completely robs the finale of its impact. Going into the episode the viewer can already see that:

Baltar will probably win the election or the discovery of the planet was a pointless red herring.
Settling on the planet is a bad idea because of what we learned about the planet.
The Cylons are up to something different (which happened very early in the second part).

The writers knew this so they instead asked the question "Why would Roslin and Adama allow this to happen?" and posed to the audience the question "Was it right to let it happen?" Ending with Cloud 9 gives no closure because we already knew it was a stupid idea to give Gina the warhead. We already knew Baltar's presidency would be a disaster because he didn't care about anyone but himself. So the writers gave us the absolute worst result (New Caprica was a failure even before the Cylon invasion) and cut to credits. A powerful cliffhanger and it addresses that missing year without tedious episodes of Baltar's failures.

I vote season 2. It had the Pegasus arc and a lot of character development while the first season was rather static for all its quality.

[Gandalf]

I'll say season two.

I enjoyed the Pegasus arc. It gave the show an infusion of fun new temporary characters with which to play. Michelle Forbes was a strong presence and worked well with Olmos, so I was also happy to see her again in Razor.

It was good to see small aspects of the now nomadic Colonial society. There was the bar, a thriving black market, a presidential campaign and a pacifist movement. This is what should have been in nBSG more often; showing people who weren't in uniform, and dealing with sudden massive changes in circumstances.

I tend to consider the first seven episodes of season two, as being season one, (mostly because they finish up the plot arcs from season one). Thus, I voted for season one.