TVSquad

I'm not really sure what I thought of this episode. But I do like that it will set up a fresh storyline for next season.

Oh yeah, loved Adama's 'stache.

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I'm not 100% sold on it all but I have to say I'm impressed that they had the guts to do it and it seems like they are setting themselves up for some good stuff come Fall.

Glad they got 90 minutes tonight, I don't think they could have crammed all the goodness into 60.

I'm more amused with the Tigh hat than the 'tashe, and fat-Lee is worth a smile.

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The last season finale i couldn't wait to see what happened. this one left me feeling so deflated that i barely even care to see what happens next. apollo was fat, adama lost his edge, people were prego and married, chief completely different, everything gone to pot, all the dynamics that i hung on were completely shot to hell... i was hoping it was a dream sequence or something because the characters and the story that i grew to care about changed so drastically. it's almost like oh well, they might as well end it now... i'm not interested in seeing the cylons rule and the humans muster resistence for 20 episodes. i want to believe in the human cause, and that they can find redemption and strength in suffering. obviously they have set the stage for that to happen, but again, it's like my rooting for the characters is over. they were always on the brink of disaster, now they're there. there's a fine line between meaningful drama and just plain depressing stories... we'll see if they can keep season 3 from dipping into the latter, or maybe i should say move back into the former.

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What became of Sharon? Did she end up out an airlock? Did I miss her on New Caprica?

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Since I knew this was the last episode I chose to record last weeks and see them both together. Surprisingly I loved last week's. It's what I call a filler with purpose, it moves the series forward.

Then there are all the surprises of this episode, one after the other. At first I was pleasantly surprised until it got to the point where I felt that they would have made three or four episodes getting here as there where at least three or four surprises, let's see - I thought Balthar was going to win! They rigged it!, The writers have done it again! Balthar didn't win!, The rigging is discovered immediatedly! The conspirators give up easily! Balthar's president! Completely amazing. There're a couple more but I'm just too lazy to remember them right now.

This is just another example of poor planning by the writers/producers. If the story where outlined so they knew what would happen the terrible fillers, of which there where, what, four or so?, could have been gotten rid altogether and all the excitement of this episode could have been presented in four great episodes rather than the muck we had to go through.

One more thing. The sex scene between traumatized 6 and Balthar: did you think "the last time these two where seen having sex a nuclear bomb whent off and killed a bunch of people . . .", I did. And what happened to the red LEDs in 6's back. I supposse she didn't enjoy it this time, did she?

Kara married and livin in a hut? With long hair! What! What! Fine, Sharon is a good actress!

Come on, a nuclear bomb going off in space is a tiny, tiny thing. We have nuclear bombs going off all the time, it's called the sun and it only takes about eight minutes to reach us - didn't the cylon say they where a light-year away? A tiny nuclear bomb going off that far away would be nothing next to any star. Nuclear radiation is indistinguishable from solar radiation!; lazy writers!

What now, the fleet is undermanned, in disrepair, and partially used as buildings for the colonists. I can't see anything positive coming out of this. But I'll watch when it comes back - it better be ok. At least we should be able to see more cylons!

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Dean Stockwell rocks! Let's bring in Scott Bakula to fix this mess!

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My mind is completely blown. To change the show's premise so dramatically... wow. It's like if the suddenly next season on The O.C. we find that everyone has movied to Nebraska.

What a brave choice. There are so many ways this can be amazingly good, and so many ways it can spiral out of control.

That said, I thought it was an amazing episode.

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Awesome last half hour.. the first hour.... eh.. I've seen better but what a way to go out and really keep us wondering what happens later this year for season 3.

Will the fleet come back beat off the Cylons rescue everyone and then resume their course to Earth?

Will Baltar allow that or will he demand that they stay and fight the Cylons to reclaim their new home?

What role will the old number Six play since she clearly has still has deep feelings for Baltar.. will their close proximity to each other force their "little voices" into retirement?

So many questions... oh yes.. I can't wait for the new season!

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Wow... I finally let myself read some spoilers this afternoon, and I'm glad I did. Just as Matt said... I feel deflated. Yes its a brave choice to change the premise so greatly, but what I don't get, is why did you need to?

I'm really going to have to rewatch and digest. Hopefully I'll ram through the PodCast in the morning.

I just don't know...

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great stuff, loved the episode. Its another one of those "they're sooo screwed" episodes again. Its a pity we'll have to wait till october for the new season :(

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Just something I was thinking about after Baltars election. Remember the prophecy that the leader of the 12 colonies would lead them to Earth but would not survive to see it.. or along those lines... everyone thought that it was Rosyln.. but what if it isn't her but the current President? Doing this would allow them to kill off Baltar without making his death seem contrived or predictable.. after all it is prophecy and they seem to have a nasty way of coming to pass...

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So in the beginning of the series we learn that the Cylons have been gone for over 40 years right? But there is still a fully functioning fleet ready, fully manned Battlestars on patrol. Now after 1 year of settling on New Caprica, the 2 remaining Battlestars have a skeleton crew, and most of the familiar crew has settled on the seemingly miserable planet? Huh?

I spent the last 30 minuets totally slackjawed at what was happening on the screen. I can't even imagine what season 3 has in store for us.

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OCTOBER???!?!?! They're going to make us wait until OCTOBER?!?!?! Seven months? Even the lousy crap on ABC and the WB comes back after four!

And wow, Batlar is corrupt. Who would have thought...

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The cylons weren't completely gone at series beginning. They had a truce but no official declaration of peace. A cylon representative would meet with a human one once a year I believe, where the Cylon would do nothing and just leave. It made sense for them to keep a full fleet active. Not to mention having one for internal problems like the possibility of colonies seceding.

As for now, after almost a year, people got sick of living on ships and wanted to build lives for themselves on the planet which explains the skeleton crews.

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All I say is great episode but I hope its a dream sequence and the last half hour didn't happen. It just left me with that deflated feeling. I don't see how Adama can rule marshall law and arrest the president but he can't steal an election. It doesnt make sense with stakes of the whole thing. Its going to be a long wait till October!!!!

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I first thought this better not be a dream sequence, that would be fraking bogus.

My second thought was this better be a dream sequence, cause what I'm watching is fraking bogus.

You can't just jump a year ahead in a story and totally change everything. I mean, you can, you're the writer, but it's a load of crap for the viewers.

As stupid as it may sound, we have things invested in these characters, and it's a fundamental sell out to viewers if you actually do something like this.

This isn't Buffy going to college-yea that changed Buffy, but you knew it was coming.

This is more than some characters doing stupid things-the whole fraking show went psycho.

Yea, I'm pissed. Up till now, the writers have done a few stupid things, happens in all shows. But they just took everything and threw it out the window.

Not right, dudes. You have till October to figure out how to make this a dream sequence. I'll take one serving of lame ass dream sequence over this heap-O-crap anytime.

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So the writers decided to take a chance and throw the show in a new direction. Alias did the same thing few times, some for good (take down SD-6 permanently), and some questionable (two year memory-erase jump). This opens up entirely new story lines and room for character development. Brave choices, but it all comes down to good writing to see if this will pan out ...in the fall.

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Like just about everyone, I have mixed feelings about the episode and the future of Battlestar. First off, the news that the delay of a new episode is not until October when productions start in April reeks of Farscape programming. As a fan of Farscape, I lost interest in the fourth season for the long gap between episodes and now Battlestar is following this trend. And this trend is even more extended since season 2 was split with a couple of months and now, several more for season 3. I understand that it drives up more interest and gives it more media play but the fans are the ones who suffer in the end. Don't get me started about NBC jumping into the mix with the possibility of this show jumping to this network. After Star Trek, why should this network get another shot to destroy a fantastic series? Okay 'nuff ranting about the future, it's out of our hands - for now.
Someone remarked about how there could have been multiple episodes and I couldn’t agree more. I think a big mistake is that while the episodes are grand in concept they could easily be extended. For example, Admiral Cain storyline vs. Adama in which each were planning to kill could have been stretch over the season and could have been Season 2 cliffhanger. There could have been other major character development over several episodes rather than just bottled into just 1 episode.
On the positive side, there were some great gems like Dean Stockwell who last week said to Chief that he didn't seem him at the Cylon party was a nice spin when Dean turned out to be an actual Cylon. Starbuck had a great moment when she came back to Galactica and acted like a daughter to Adama who just came home with her boyfriend from college and that nervous energy of seeking approval from dad/Adama. Cally and Chief had also a great moment in which she forgave and confessed her feelings for him despite the broken jaw.
Having said all this, I was not overly happy about the 1 year later jump but as a writer I understand why this was done. However, this goes back to the stretching out the episodes to show the struggles everyone has gone through but instead in the last 30 minutes we see Starbuck with long hair, Chief and Cally with child, Roslyn teaching, Baltar continuing to be a horndog. I would have loved to seen Gaetta being chosen being the President's aide or have seen the loss of Cloud Nine impact specific people like Lee. These are not grandiose scenes but gives insight to these characters.
Overall, I'm worried about the future of Battlestar since the cast is getting to be enormous. They have enough storyline for everyone but not all stories can get to be told and I think everyone on the show needs to shine.

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I dont mind the jump ahead at all, and while there are new character dynamics, some are still the same:
The sexual tension between Lee and Kara
Kara and Bill Adama
Kara and Anders
The dynamic between Caprica Six and Baltar
Roslyn and Adama, to name a few.
These have been some of my favorites and they seem to still be there. The most interesting change was between Tigh and Kara, and I am very interested to see what happened to see how they reconciled. Also, Gaeda has something new to do which is great because he was wasting away on the bridge of Galactica.

Also, the premise of the show is that Cylons destroyed man and man is now on the run to find Earth. I don't see how this has changed. The fleet jumped away and will fight to free the New Capricans, but there's no doubt that the goal of finding earth after they are freed will still be the ultimate goal. I don't see the show just remaining this way forever. True the Cylons want to care of the humans, but the humans will resist the fleet will find a way to save some new capricans, and they all get the frack out and start searching for earth. In the meantime, we'll get some awesome Cylon eps, we'll be able to root for the resistance, and who knows what the fleet will find while they are on the run.

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amb34 good reference about Buffy since this was the growth of the character and the setting had to change since the high school was pretty much blown up during graduation.
Unlike Star Trek in which there is time travel to undo the past, Battlestar does not have that option or a reset button which is great. However, there is the dream sequence option in which none of this happened which kind of reminds me of Galactica 1980.
We see the Cylons raiders attack Los Angeles but turned out to be a what if scenario and why Galactica had to remain hidden and secretly build up Earth's defenses to take on the Cylons.

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