The End is Here....

Well, the journey that started back in 2003, when the Battlestar Galactica re-imagined series first aired its mini-series on the Sci-Fi channel. Six years and four seasons later, the series aired it's final episode tonight. I have been fearing this day for months, worried that all of my questions would not be answered, that they would bump off my favorite characters unjustly and that the fleet would wind up stranded in deep space for all eternity.

I read several interviews with Edward James Olmos over the last few months, and his word was what held me in check. He kept saying in his interviews that the series ended in the only way it could. He was right. It's only been over for about an hour and fifteen minutes, and already I've see a ton of complaint across the net. People who felt like it was a waste of time to even watch, but it really was fantastic.

Most of today's Battlestar Galactica fans have followed the series since day one, others joined later, but no matter when or why you picked up, everyone wanted to see the series end well. I believe that it ended as well as it could, revealing just enough to leave the magic and mystery that drove the series well in tact.

If you missed tonight's episode, it's airing again at Midnight on Sci-Fi, and will air again next Friday, according the IMDb. It was definitely a relief seeing it all wrapped up, but I will miss it so much. It was such a deep and touching series, often crossing lines into our own reality that made it feel incredibly real.

How to Build a Better Cyborg...

Cyborg manual
Originally uploaded by runran

A lot of my writing lately has either been about zombies or cybernetic beings, and the other day while I was writing down an idea I had for a future short story about androids, I started thinking about some of the best stories ever written about cybernetic beings/androids.

The funny thing is they all seem to call into question the same issues. Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," has an elite model of android that blends in perfectly with mankind, but mankind still feels the need to wipe it out, while the androids just want to live a better life.

First and foremost, why on earth would mankind create cybernetic beings that LOOK and ACT just like mankind? Beings that could infiltrate the ranks of humanity undetected, live among us...

Then I thought about the movie AI, one of the most moving films about artificial intelligence that I have ever seen, and I realized that if we created things that were like people, that is probably exactly how we would treat them. We would make them as real as we could, so they were just like human beings, and then we would demoralize them and use them for circus entertainment and target practice.

Which, of course, is probably what prompted the cylons of Battlestar Galactica to retaliate against and attempt to annihilate their inhumane, human masters. So that brought me back to my original thought. Why would we create something like that if we were only planning to be cruel to it all along?

The short story that I will have featured in the upcoming issue of eMuse speculates on the above, basically posing the question, "If mankind could create a pseudo mankind to take his aggression out on without the guilt, would he do it, and would it be guiltless? In abusing a replication of mankind, is he not abusing mankind?"

What do you think? Is the portrayal of mankind in these types of stories a prelude of things to come? Will we one day create beings so real that they are indistinguishable from their creators only to treat them like crap?

Anyway, back to the keyboard. I'm thinking of clever ways to combine zombies and cyborgs... should make for some whacky horror/science fiction.

Once a Great Notion, Indeed

Today was one of those days where I don't feel like my time was wasted, even though many would probably say, "I could never do that. I don't even watch TV." I love a good TV series, and they are rare in this day and age. I spend very little time watching TV, and there are very few things I'll give myself to completely, especially something as trivial as a television series, but Battlestar Galactica, the re-imagined series, is different. Since I first became a fan of the show, I have studied the patterns, the signs, the cylons and I have waited a long time for tonight.

Tonight premiered the first episode of the last half of season four, the countdown to the series finale. Building up to the premiere episode, Sci-Fi played all of season four so far, and as soon as I finished working for the day, I blanketed up on the couch and had myself a marathon.

It was worth it, and the episode premiere was worth the wait. So much was already revealed in just that one episode, it seemed, as though everything we wanted to know as critical fans was revealed. They explained what happened to Earth, shed a little more light onto Starbuck's nature and revealed the fifth cylon of the Final Five. All I have to say is that while I loved learning it all tonight and I can't wait for the rest of the episodes to see what else we can learn, I was very happy with all we were given tonight. It was well worth the wait.

No need to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. If you do want a brief synopsis, check out the guide note on my Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Episode Guide on Mahalo. I added a pretty thorough synopsis of the entire episode just thirty minutes ago. Check it out if you want.

I Am Coming for All of You!

Or at least that's what Laura Roslin says in one of the previews for Season 4.5, the final episodes, of Battlestar Galactica, but what does it mean? I've been keeping up with the webisodes every Monday and Wednesday, (all of which can be viewed after 12PM EST on SciFi.com,) but in all honesty I don't really feel like they've given us any kind of hint at all about what has happened to the fleet since they landed on the destroyed Earth with the Cylons. I really hope that we don't get a "screwy" interlude into the events like we did with Season 3's New Caprica angle. At the end of Season 2, they're living on New Caprica and the Cylons show up, and Season 3 starts after months of Cylon torment and dictatorship. Even the webisodes for that period granted little access to what life was like on New Caprica. The only real look we get at the time spent there was in the boxing episode.

With these being the final episodes of the series (not including the promised made for tv films to come after the airing of the series...) there is a lot of stuff that needs to be wrapped up. I've read Edward James Olmos quotes that it won't be all daisies and happiness, but a satisfying ending nonetheless, and I can only hope he's telling the truth.

I'm so excited as I count down the days to the final episodes of BSG, the first premiering on January 16. In honor, I've been having a bit of a marathon at home, watching the third season in its entirety again, and planning to purchase the first half of season 4 when it's released on the sixth of January.

Anyone else out there a fan of this show? Do you have any thoughts or predictions you'd like to share? What are you looking most forward to about the series wrap-up? I think I'm really looking forward to finding out the final cylon identity the most, coming in second to that is Starbuck's true nature in the grand scheme of things. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please share them.

Battlestar Galactica: Is it January Yet?

You have no idea how itchy I get thinking about January. January is when the final half of season four, the end of Battlestar Galactica, is set to air. Our beloved characters have dropped anchor on a dead Earth and all of their shattered dreams have been hanging in the balance since the middle of June. The series has been phenomenal and I know the upcoming episodes and made for TV films will be well worth the wait, but is it January yet? This is the current Sci Fi Channel promo for season 4.5:




Now, being the obsessive BSG fan that I am, every couple weeks or so I dig through the entertainment news for updates on Caprica, the bridger webisodes for BSG and of course, any new details or hints on what we can expect in Season 4. Today, I found this article on Buddy TV: Battlestar Galactica Outing Two Gay Characters in Upcoming Webisodes.

Apparently this has been a big deal to some viewers, since it has been rumored that one of the male characters is a sexy, female-fan favorite. Now I don't have the inside scoop, but come on, haven't we come a long way both on television and in real life this last couple decades. While many would say that Proposition 8 suggests that we have actually moved backwards, the fact that gay and lesbian couples and those of us who support them are fighting to change the system says otherwise.

The thing is, David Eicke, Ronald D. Moore and the writers at BSG have always worked actual current affairs into the series very well, so that despite the futuristic setting, viewers are able to identify with the characters and the situations they face. I am not saying that the webisodes and the outing of these two gay characters has anything to do with Proposition 8, but I wouldn't put it past the series or its writers.

For those who are disappointed, remember what they always say: "The good ones are always either married or gay!" So he's still a good character, and just unattainable as all the hot married BSG men.


Oh, and the fact that they're imaginary characters... yeah, that kind of puts a damper on any real relationship anyway. ;)

By the way, what is going on with Caprica? Inquiring minds want to know. I want to know.