Hi,
<just realised this is for Season 1 so my post may contain spoilers for those who have not seen beyond S1>
Please take this reply as just my opinion - people are entitled to have their own opinion and I am not trying to convert any
BSG naysayers. I think you (The OP) have a strong sense of what you want from a series; this is clear from your problems with
BSG,
Caprica and
Twin Peaks - three of my favourite ever shows.
I can't comment on Moore's needing an advisor or if he took critics' suggestions to heart as I think that is conjecture (will we ever know?). And comparisons regarding the precogs in
Minority Report and
BSG are specious; aesthetic similarities are not the same as functional ones, and the hybrids have nothing in common with precogs other than the look. I'm not sure I get the comparison to
Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks was another superb piece of TV - flawed definitely, but thoroughly enjoyable and consistent.
I can't disagree with you more on your points of
BSG and
Caprica. Both series seemed to have polarised sci fi fans with some people saying 'come on, more space battles' and the other half loving the existential element that became the main thrust (although it is quite clear to me from the pilot and early episodes that this is where the series would head). I for one was delighted to see a new sci fi show that did more than rehash old ground; it had a massively beneficial impact on sci fi as a genre, turning lots of 'regular TV' fans and those wary of sci fi/fantasy on to the genre (and let's not forget the whole United Nations invitation...).
The philosophy teacher in the college that I teach in uses it heavily in his classes (and
Caprica). He and I have had some great discussions along with the media department who also use it, and I have had my students work on a narrative dance piece. It truly has infiltrated areas least expected, and with a gravity that
Star Wars (for example) never achieved.
As someone who invested 10 or so years in the
X-Files, only to be rewarded with the most confused and sloppy final seasons, I was so pleased with
BSG's resolution. I thought the season 5 finale was spectacular and incredibly tidy in terms of loose ends. The genius of revealing the Final 5, the CIC replicating the Opera House, Mitochondrial Eve and philosophical 'extinction' of pure human and pure cylon, kept the integrity and vision that had started to become apparent at the end of Season 2 when the Cylons were persuaded by 6 and 8 to try and make a (albeit enforced) concord with the humans. It was a wonderfully realised way of showing synthetic beings evolving, and that became further expanded as they fractured after the Cylon Civil War; learning and evolution are painful processes. Aren't these the kind of themes that sci fi addresses so well?
The characters are some of the most richly drawn that I have seen in anything, and I would also have anticipated the same for
Caprica had it not been criminally axed (although I understand why it was). I get so fatigued with two dimensional characters whose goals and conflicts are so obvious, but this series played with that so deftly:
Baltar begins as a cardboard cutout, a self-serving and ignorant traitor, but look how wonderful his personal journey becomes. He begins consumed with ambition and can be compared to Shakespeare's Macbeth; his King Duncan is the realm of Caprica which he betrays for money/power, and then begins to lose his mind when Head 6 appears as a Lady Macbeth character. Then when he comes to a certain acceptance of what he's set in place, he has to juggle the fact that he may be a cylon, and the implications that has on his soul; is he a hero or a traitor? However, in the process of existing with his dark secret, he experiences massive epiphanies about his place in the universe, his need to repair, and the final realisation that his life has come about full circle had me in tears along with him when, in the final episode he remarks to Caprica 6 on Earth; 'I used to be a farmer you know' (I'm paraphrasing possibly) and then winces with sorrow and realisation; everything he had, everything he once thought was important has been upended: His false accent to hide his Aerilon heritage and aspirational Caprican accent become pointless; his betrayals and subterfuge at every turn to gain power become pointless. At the end, he is returned to his most essential form; a poor Aerilon farmer. It is symphonic. How could we get this emotional appeal with 5 series-worth of space and ground battles?
The way the Cylons approach their emerging humanity is equally as deep - most notably with Caprica 6 who has to endure all sorts as a skin job who relates to both sides.
The Final Five have fought against the cylons since they can remember - some of them with the fiercest loyalty (Tigh) only to find out they are cylons themselves. This kind of drama doesn't come across in shows which are just battle-oriented.
Starbuck's journey is another wonderful and horribly messed up one. I appreciate the problem fans had with her simply disappearing but you (one) can't argue that her disappearance is inconsistent with what has been happening up till then since she returned from the Eye of Jupiter Storm.
Look at Galen Tirol/chief's experience throughout the whole thing. He's a salt-of-the-earth type who falls in love with a girl who turns out to be a cylon. He becomes embittered and enters an unsatisfactory relationship with a girl (Cally) who kills his true love and of whom he later says smells of 'boiled cabbage' because '...the one you really love is dead, dying...' He discovers that he himself is a cylon and shortly thereafter his wife is killed. When his boss tries to comfort him on his loss there is a remarkable dialogue about 'being in the same club'. He now only has his son to care for but he later learns that it is not his son after all, and that Cally was killed by fellow Final 5er, Tori, thus alienating him from his true family of 5. Essentially he loses absolutely everything he ever gains.
And when they finally find Earth he decides to live alone in -what seems to be - Scotland. It is such a desperately bleak storyline.
Oh...not to mention the music ... the music became an additional cast member for me..!
I think the problem most people who disliked the new BSG had to do with feeling they were miss-sold something. The pilot and early episodes are very typical in terms of space battling and have some great ideas which may have given this impression. But you can't take your characters on a journey if they are doing different flavours of the same thing each week.
As writers/readers, who do we invest more in? The damaged and complex characters or the simple 2d ones? I'd rather think about the complexity of a 'good guy' such as Roslin or Tigh condoning the use of suicide bombers than them saying 'no, it's bad, we mustn't.' Especially bearing in mind the collective experience we have been suffering with terrorism since before the Irish peace progress, and latter terrorism from the fundamental groups like Al Qaeda.
I've rattled on too long so I'll tie this up here. I was going to go on about why Caprica was such a great series but I think I will give folks a case of the TL;DRs if I do that.
I'm disappointed everytime I hear people who hate the new BSG. I get that everything ain't for everyone, but I was so impressed with this ever-evolving and concept-challenging show that I get a little frustrated when I hear it reduced to 'where were the space battles?'. This show is like a thesis on what makes us human.
pH
