Well, I lied a bit about Battlestar Galactica. I ended up
staying up until 2AM watching the last few episodes of the series.
And then I laid in bed until at least 3AM trying to process it all.
Having watched all 75 episodes in eight days, it is kind of hard to
believe it is over. It is like reading a really good book and
getting entirely sucked into that world, and then having to come back
to the real world when you finish the last chapter. Granted, I just
finished the series last night, I am still trying to come to grips
with it all.
Overall, I would have to say I liked how the series wrapped up. So
now I'm going to get into spoilers. The finally found Earth. Or New
Earth. Technically they already discovered Earth, which is where
their ancestors were from, but it had been devastated by a nuclear
strike from the Cylons, just like they did on Caprica. They
mentioned throughout the series how they cycle just kept repeating
itself, the Cylons rising up against their human creators and
obliterating them with nuclear weapons.
So in the final episodes they find New Earth, which is actually our
Earth but 150,000 years ago, and they come across our ancestors. In
the episode they watch them from afar but they are still tribesman
without a written language and they never show any direct
interaction. After settling on New Earth, they use Sam (one of the
first five Cylons who has become a hybrid) to fly the entire fleet of
ships into the Sun. That seemed a bit excessive. They still had
some small Raptors (at least one) on the planet but no other means to
go back into space. I can't imagine going from a space traveling
civilization to an earthbound one. I would have at least left the
ships in orbit. We know it works out in the end because the human
race goes on to thrive but still. Also, rather than establishing a
large city with the 30,000 survivors (like they have every other
time), they decide to break the cycle and split people into smaller
groups and spread them across the planet. I guess this makes for an
easy explanation for how and why there are people all over the world
now. My favorite part of the last episodes was when they flashed
back to the characters on Caprica before its destruction. They had
done a little of that previously but this was the first time we got a
better look at who some of the main characters were before everything
changed. The very end of the episode, where they go to the invisible
versions of Baltar and Caprica 6 in present-day Earth, felt a bit
tacked on (and the post-production voiceover for them because they
didn't pick up their voices during filming was pretty bad). They
showed a National Geographic where a skeleton had been found that
seemed to be the Eve to the current human race, and I think it is
supposed to be Hera. So we are to believe that the Twelve Colonies
landed here 150,000 years ago, and the only evidence of their
existence is a skeleton bridging the gap between Homo sapiens and
previous versions. None of their technology.
As for the characters, I think my favorite supporting character was
the grumpy old doctor who smoked and acted like he didn't care when
he actually did. My second favorite was probably the lawyer who
eventually became the president, at least for a bit. I think Edward
James Olmos was a perfect casting choice for Adama. I think that he
was most similar to the original character than any other actor in
the new series. Adama did things every now and then that I didn't
agree with but overall he was a badass, even if he did cry a lot in
the last season.
The President grew on me but that was helped by the fact that she was
dying. Like I mentioned in a previous entry, I liked her better when
she was dying. I would have preferred another miracle with Cylon
blood to get rid of her cancer but apparently that only works once.
The saddest part about her dying was the fact that it left Adama
alone. He had given his whole life to the military and then the
protection of the last remnants of the human race, and then when he
finally got the chance to settle down, and found someone he loved and
could settle down with, she dies. In the last episode Adama and the
President are lying together, looking at herds of animals, when the
President starts to have trouble breathing and Adama asks her if she
wants to take a closer look. So he puts her in the Raptor and when
Lee and Kara come over it becomes apparent that this is a one-way
trip because they start saying their tearful goodbyes. When they
take off they fly around for awhile and the president dies and I
figured Adama would crash the Raptor with both of them still in it.
Instead he lands it in a place perfect for the cabin they talked
about building. Later they show him sitting next to her grave
telling her that he had laid out the floorplan for the cabin. I
guess we are to assume that he plans on leading the life of a hermit,
talking to the dead President.
Going back to Lee and Kara, the star-crossed lovers of the series,
Lee asks her what she is going to do now. She says that her destiny
is complete and she didn't have anything left to do. When she asks
Lee what he wants to do he starts telling her how he wants to go out
and explore, climb mountains and cross oceans. When he turns around,
Kara has disappeared. Earlier in the series, Kara's Viper explodes
in front of Lee and months later she appears again, in a brand new
Viper, thinking that she had only been gone for a few hours and that
she had found Earth. When the fleet eventually finds Earth, thanks
to a tracking beacon and the new Viper, Kara discovers that the
tracking beacon is from her old Viper, that was crashed into Earth,
with her dead body still inside. She spends the rest of the series
trying to figure out who or what she really is. I want to look up
theories online but I am assuming she was some sort of angel. She
obviously physically returned after her Viper exploded because she
had interactions with people (unlike the piano player) but she wasn't
necessarily human, because she just blinked away after finally
leading the fleet to New Earth. Leaving Lee all alone, just like his
father. I also think Kara could possibly related to Daniel in some
way, the Cylon who was artistic and permanently boxed. Maybe her dad
was actually Daniel (ignoring that Cylons being able to procreate is
rare). Kara had been painting the way to Earth since she was a kid
and the song she figured out that got them to New Earth was the same
song that unlocked the final five. I think it is easier to go with
her being an Angel but that makes it harder to explain all the
childhood stuff. Unless her destiny was set from the beginning.
I liked that Saul and Ellen ended up together, and that Athena, Helo,
and Hera remained a complete family. And that Caprica 6 and Baltar
ended up together. That made more sense than Caprica 6 and Saul
because Saul tended to see Caprica 6 as Ellen. Which makes sense
when we find out that Saul and Ellen were originally married
thousands of years ago, when they both knew they were Cylons, and
that they ended up together when they believed they were humans and
weren't aware of their previous life. And the downfall of Caprica
and the flight across the universe began because Baltar was seduced
and fell for Caprica 6. And they were each others invisible
friend/conscience/angel/whatever.
As for Baltar, he was probably the character that infuriated me and
entertained me the most. He could be such a pansy and a pushover and
the only thing he ever really cared about was his own self-interest
and well-being. Every time you thought he was doing something good,
he messed it up. Until the end, sort of, when he decided to go on
the rescue mission for Hera. I think he was sick of the harem but I
also think he saw it as a chance to come back a hero if he survived.
Luckily it didn't turn out like that and he went off to live happily
ever after with Caprica 6.
The characters I felt sorriest for were Tyrol and Gaeta. Tyrol fell
in love with Boomer, a Cylon, before he (or she) knew that she wasn't
human. Then she went active and shot Adama and Tyrol's reality was
destroyed. But he still loved her and he was torn apart once again
when Cally shot and killed Boomer. Then he beats the hell out of
Cally in his sleep but eventually marries her and has a kid with her
(or so he thought because it ended up being Hot Dog's). And even
though he decides later that he settled for Cally and still loved
Boomer, he is destroyed when Cally dies. Then Boomer comes back into
the picture, and now that he is a Cylon, makes him believe that they
can have a life together. But she is just manipulating him so she
can steal Hera. And although Boomer kind of does the right thing at
the end by returning Hera to Athena, she will always be flawed and
Athena kills her. So Tyrol is left with no one. And then discovers
when the final five are about to give the formula for resurrection to
the "bad" Cylons, that the former presidential aide (who I
never liked because she immediately embraced being a machine and a
bastard when she discovered she was one of the final five) killed
Cally. This caused Tyrol to break the data flow with the
resurrection formula and kill the presidential aide. Good riddance.
And it was probably even better because that caused the "bad"
Cylons to believe the resurrection formula was a trick which lead to
all of them being killed and the Cylon colony destroyed. In the
episode I watched on Netflix, we last see Tyrol sitting in the CIC,
staring off into the distance. In the regular episode it is
explained that he goes off to live on his own, on an island. And
apparently the show creator later made it canon that Tyrol settled in
Scotland and became a king. Which makes sense because he was the
union leader and good at organizing people.
Gaeta was an idealist and a good man, helping out the rebels on New
Caprica, but I don't think he ever recovered from actually being on
the bad side with Baltar, and it all went downhill when his leg was
amputated. And the tipping point was when Dee committed suicide. He
decides to stand up for what he believes is right but it is misguided
and then he collaborates with Zarek (played by the actor who played
Apollo in the original series) who is worse than Baltar when it comes
to wanting power and doing anything to get it. It was sad because
Gaeta was so intelligent and had so much potential but then it all
crumbled away.
And going back for a second, the most surprising and unexpected death
in the entire series had to be Dee's suicide. She came back from
having a nice evening out with Lee (her estranged husband), talked to
Gaeta, was incredibly happy, and then she put a gun to her head and
pulled the trigger. Going out on top I guess. She was sweet and
innocent and married Lee because she loved him even though she knew
he loved Kara more. Then her hopes were dashed when they reached
Earth and it was a nuclear wasteland and I think it all became too
much for her to handle.
I think that is all that has been floating around in my head since
last night about the show. I did get tired of all the drama and just
wanted to shake people and tell them to stop, but the show kept me
engaged and I got completely wrapped up in that world. It is kind of
disappointing coming out of it to a world without realistic human
machines or Faster Than Light space travel. It is a series I need to
look into buying or hope that I can rent it and copy it, without
running into scratched discs. I can easily see myself watching the
series again. It will be different knowing who all the Cylons are
and how certain characters will progress but I think it will still be
interesting.
Keeping with the theme of TV shows, Doctor Who. I finished up
with Donna Noble yesterday and it was sad because she is my favorite.
When I first watched her series I found it incredibly depressing
that she had gone on all these wonderful adventures and done great
things across time and the universe, but was doomed never to remember
any of it because if she did, she would burn up. Now, however, I
think she was kind of lucky. All the other companions remember and
it is brought up by the Dalek dude that the Doctor's true nature is
represented by his friends and companions because they have all taken
up arms and are fighters. Rose fell in love with the Doctor and
lived a dangerous life trying to get back to him. Martha pined over
the Doctor (annoyingly) and ended up defending the Earth by working
for the military and almost blowing the Earth up to keep the Daleks
from winning. Mickey became a fighter. Rose's mom fought. Captain
Jack joined Torchwood. Harriet Jones shot first and asked questions
later, and was eventually killed by Daleks. Sara Jane spent her life
tracking down suspicious things. And Donna would have turned out the
same way but I don't think that would have been for the best. She
did the investigative thing in the beginning to meet the Doctor again
but she really just wanted to travel, not get involved with saving
the Earth or tracking down aliens. She wanted to travel with the
Doctor for the rest of her life and she couldn't do that, so in a way
it was more humane to wipe the memories completely, allowing her to
go on and lead a productive life, not caught up in what could have
been.
Moving on, at work today I typed up everything that precedes this
sentence. I was in the mood to ramble and empty my head. I also
continued work on my cross stitch and made it to the final two David
Tennant episodes of Doctor Who,
not counting the episode I am missing (Planet Of The Dead,
I think). I could have finished the fourth series but I got
sidetracked by actual work at work. Same goes for my cross stitch.
I only managed to finish the last border and get a tiny start on the
first letter. My job-related work involved adding new trailers and
ads to all the movies and transferring movies for tomorrow. There
was a new tech there today fixing the sound problem in one of the
auditoriums and I liked him better than the usual guy. He seems like
he used to be a teacher because he explained everything he was doing
so I actually learned some stuff today. He managed to come up with a
temporary solution for the sound issue but then another theater went
down. This, I learned, was caused by a bad ignitor, indicated by the
fact that the bulb wasn't making the usual clicking sound (the
ignitor sparking) that it usually makes when the bulb strikes. So
one theater was fixed and another went down, leaving us par for the
day.
After work I ate the second half of
my Chipotle burrito and then much more successfully gave one of the
cats her pill. Yesterday my mom put butter on the pill like the vet
told her to make the pill go down easier. This is great in theory
but every time I had the opportunity to drop the pill in Ella's mouth
the pill would stick to my finger. Today, no butter, and I probably
got the pill in her mouth in less than a couple minutes. The nice
thing is that Ella starts to constantly meow, opening her mouth long
enough for me to get my fingers in and hold her mouth open and drop
the pill in. It is easier than giving a cat liquid medicine through
a syringe and a million times easier than trying to feed a rat liquid
food through a syringe.
I
went and got gas before seeing the new volunteer kid and that delay
allowed me to see an amazing display of justice or karma or whatever
else. Near the edge of town a truck went by me going well over
40mph, then cut in front of me and slowed down to 30mph as we went by
a cop who had someone pulled over. Then he sped up again. Just
outside of town, going up over a hill and then back down to get to
the highway, I would say he was going close to 70mph in a 50mph zone.
And then a cop pulled him. It was great. And weird, because I had
just been thinking about him needing to be pulled over.
The
visit went well itself with the new volunteer kid went well. We
started by dropping off a couple job applications. The first to KFC,
which lead us on a bit of an adventure just trying to find it. I'm
not sure how he got the job application because he didn't know where
the restaurant was, but we eventually found it. Thankfully the
second job application was for Sonic. After he turned it in we sat
there and talked about credit cards and credit scores and debt and
all that for awhile before actually ordering drinks and continuing
our conversation. He ended up getting the raspberry cherry limeade I
got last week and I got a blackberry cherry limeade. They either
made two drinks with raspberry or blackberry tastes pretty much the
same, because it tasted what I remember last week. Not a bad thing
because the raspberry cherry limeade is now my favorite, but
interesting.
The
sky was really dark in town before I left for the visit and it caught
up to me on the way back. Before I could get off the interstate I
joined a 15mph caravan with all our hazard lights flashing. I found
that the flashing lights were much easier to tell distance by than
regular taillights. As soon as I made it to the off ramp for the
highway I pulled over to the shoulder with several other cars and
parked for several minutes because I could barely make out the hood
of my car. There were a lot of cars driving by and I feel safe to
say they were all idiots. The rain eventually cleared up enough to
start again and I made it onto the highway before it picked up again.
Not quite as bad as it was before, and the sky was lighter, but for
awhile I slowed down to 30mph and put my hazard lights back on. It
took me quite a bit longer to get home but I made it home safely and
I didn't have to pee so I wasn't in any hurry.
I
spent the rest of my night catching up on YouTube videos and looking
at random things on the internet. I was tempted to watch something
on Netflix but I want to hold off on that until this cable billing
cycle is over because of hitting the bandwidth limit. YouTube videos
take up a lot less bandwidth and I fell a bit behind with the massive
Battlestar
Galactica marathon.
Speaking of, once again, I want to go see if I can start renting the
series tomorrow so I can listen to the DVD commentaries. I am still
thinking about that show a lot.
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