I have to disagree. I liked the ending. The BSG universe is a deistic one, so it would make sense that its supernatural entity would get involved. It’s just not a being that interferes so directly in day to day affairs, rather it leaves clues at times, but generally doesn’t shield people (or cylons) from the consequences of their actions.
Even though Kara died and came back as an angel of some sort, the god wasn’t going to make things easy, with her as some sort of winged creature in a white flowing robe, trumpeting the way to the new Eden. And even dead, Kara still has to learn to live with herself.
AS for giving up technology, I think the point was that humans had tried to play god by creating the cylons, and the cylons in turn tried to play god by creating other cylons, but they both made a mess of it, because they weren’t mature enough as a species. Thus the giving up of technology until humanity took another 145,000 years to mature.
And while Babylon 5 was the better series overall, this one ended much better.
Yeah, I am still feeling the nerd rage. It was the Scooby Doo ending: “We thought it was some shadowy conspiracy coherently woven into the many interesting plotlines of the show, but it was God all along!”
(rolls eyes) And how many genuine alternate universes can you cite, rbj? Calling it “reasonable” in this context just means you like the idea.
Not to mention the idea that the human race could mature after literally reverting to Stone age technology is fatuous; are you that unfamiliar with human evolution?
Humanity stopped physically evolving as a species exactly when it developed civilization. Cities, crops, domestic animals allowed the species to alter their environment to fit, as opposed to evolving to fit their environment.
I’m sorry? They’ll evolve now, since they’ve reverted? Perhaps, but only just until they’ve re-created the minimal conditions I cited above. After that, physical evolution stops. Not to mention 150,000 years is a pathetically short time for any significant evolutionary change.
How humanity has changed over time, since they developed civilization, is culturally and technologically. We are the only known species who can retain and transmit experience beyond simple day-to-day events. Writing has become our “race memory.” Humans are born knowing literally nothing, and even have to learn how to walk and use the bathroom. This happens because the species uses external methods (culture and knowledge) to progress.
Despite the nihilists, civilization has consistently advanced -both relatively and objectively- since its creation. This has not resulted in a constantly upward-sloping line, but rather more like a stock market with variations, but the trend has always been upward.
In other words, the Colonials choice was exactly opposite to their needs. There can be no racial evolution for “maturity” except via culture, which they deliberately destroyed along with their technology. As many others have pointed out, you can’t support an advanced culture with primitive technology.
One result would be the regressed role of women in society. Without machines to do the scut-work, or medicine to keep childbirth safe and infant mortality down, females would return to baby-maker status.
It was an idiotic idea, and is exemplary of the horrible writing in the series; not all the writing was bad, but it became progressively worse as the series went on.
As for “genuine alternate universes” or “reasonable” (neither of which I used), BSG is a work of fiction. The writers created a fictional universe which has a deity of some sort. If you can’t accept that premise then no, the story doesn’t work for you. I also accept magic for the purposes of Lord of the Rings. More telling even than Kara’s angelic nature was the “fact” that the BSG humans could interbreed with the stone age humans. Something that is so remotely possible that a deity would be a more likely explanation.
Oh, and I did not use the word “evolve.” It is different from the word “mature.” Would there be a downside to giving up technology? Absolutely, and perhaps that got glossed over, but what I took from the end was that the humans had made such a clusterfuck with technology, nearly making themselves extinct, that perhaps a fresh start was in order.
I have to disagree. I liked the ending. The BSG universe is a deistic one, so it would make sense that its supernatural entity would get involved. It’s just not a being that interferes so directly in day to day affairs, rather it leaves clues at times, but generally doesn’t shield people (or cylons) from the consequences of their actions.
Even though Kara died and came back as an angel of some sort, the god wasn’t going to make things easy, with her as some sort of winged creature in a white flowing robe, trumpeting the way to the new Eden. And even dead, Kara still has to learn to live with herself.
AS for giving up technology, I think the point was that humans had tried to play god by creating the cylons, and the cylons in turn tried to play god by creating other cylons, but they both made a mess of it, because they weren’t mature enough as a species. Thus the giving up of technology until humanity took another 145,000 years to mature.
And while Babylon 5 was the better series overall, this one ended much better.
Yeah, I am still feeling the nerd rage. It was the Scooby Doo ending: “We thought it was some shadowy conspiracy coherently woven into the many interesting plotlines of the show, but it was God all along!”
(rolls eyes) And how many genuine alternate universes can you cite, rbj? Calling it “reasonable” in this context just means you like the idea.
Not to mention the idea that the human race could mature after literally reverting to Stone age technology is fatuous; are you that unfamiliar with human evolution?
Humanity stopped physically evolving as a species exactly when it developed civilization. Cities, crops, domestic animals allowed the species to alter their environment to fit, as opposed to evolving to fit their environment.
I’m sorry? They’ll evolve now, since they’ve reverted? Perhaps, but only just until they’ve re-created the minimal conditions I cited above. After that, physical evolution stops. Not to mention 150,000 years is a pathetically short time for any significant evolutionary change.
How humanity has changed over time, since they developed civilization, is culturally and technologically. We are the only known species who can retain and transmit experience beyond simple day-to-day events. Writing has become our “race memory.” Humans are born knowing literally nothing, and even have to learn how to walk and use the bathroom. This happens because the species uses external methods (culture and knowledge) to progress.
Despite the nihilists, civilization has consistently advanced -both relatively and objectively- since its creation. This has not resulted in a constantly upward-sloping line, but rather more like a stock market with variations, but the trend has always been upward.
In other words, the Colonials choice was exactly opposite to their needs. There can be no racial evolution for “maturity” except via culture, which they deliberately destroyed along with their technology. As many others have pointed out, you can’t support an advanced culture with primitive technology.
One result would be the regressed role of women in society. Without machines to do the scut-work, or medicine to keep childbirth safe and infant mortality down, females would return to baby-maker status.
It was an idiotic idea, and is exemplary of the horrible writing in the series; not all the writing was bad, but it became progressively worse as the series went on.
Wow, sounds like I touched a nerve there, Casey.
As for “genuine alternate universes” or “reasonable” (neither of which I used), BSG is a work of fiction. The writers created a fictional universe which has a deity of some sort. If you can’t accept that premise then no, the story doesn’t work for you. I also accept magic for the purposes of Lord of the Rings. More telling even than Kara’s angelic nature was the “fact” that the BSG humans could interbreed with the stone age humans. Something that is so remotely possible that a deity would be a more likely explanation.
Oh, and I did not use the word “evolve.” It is different from the word “mature.” Would there be a downside to giving up technology? Absolutely, and perhaps that got glossed over, but what I took from the end was that the humans had made such a clusterfuck with technology, nearly making themselves extinct, that perhaps a fresh start was in order.
I agree with the review. Ultimately they spoiled the series. I still generally enjoyed watching it, but I am not sorry to see it go.
The giving up the fleet thing really irritated me, becase as Will said, no sane individual would *ever* choose that.