Battlestar Galactica

[lamaros]

The problem with both Lost and BSG, and any other fiction of the sort, is that an individuals response to suggestion and mystery through their own imagination is always going to be more interesting than any reveal, no matter how well executed.

The problem of both shows is caving to demands to explain, rather than let the world just be mysterious.

Then again, I like a healthy dose of the unexplained. I know others don't feel the same, and will complain if it's either left unexplained, or explained to less than their satisfaction. It's a lose-lose situation to me.

[MahrinSkel]

There are some things I am okay with them never properly explaining (the Smoke Monster, or where the hell the prophecies came from). There are others that are pretty much mandatory that they be resolved (who was in the other boat, WTF made Baltar so damned special he got his own personal angel from God).

--Dave

[Furiously]

There are some things I am okay with them never properly explaining (the Smoke Monster, or where the hell the prophecies came from). There are others that are pretty much mandatory that they be resolved (who was in the other boat, WTF made Baltar so damned special he got his own personal angel from God).

--Dave

It all happened before and it will happen again.

[NowhereMan]

WTF made Baltar so damned special he got his own personal angel from God).

--Dave

Eh, they could leave it with the same explanation for why Cassandra got visions in ancient mythology. A god did it in order to better serve their purpose. BSG was meant to be a kind of Sci-Fi religious story, the Bible never says why Elijah was granted the word of God (usually) but the fact that God communicates with them lets them perform some role in the plan. In this case they're straight up taking miracles like a Sci-Fi retelling of Old Testament tales.

Actually I kind of like that idea, never really seemed to communicate that was what they were doing very well though. It does get messy with injecting tropes from one genre into a setting from another. It's actually weird how unsatisfying that can be in terms of questions I would never think to ask in something like LotR I am definitely thinking of in BSG.

[Venkman]

The way TV handles series means that basically all of TV is making shit up going along. Many showrunners don't know if they get renewed or not right until production has to start for the new season and most showrunners don't even know the final episode orders for a season until Episode 12 or so.

This. Hence Game of Thrones HBO series now leading the books. Forget all hope ye who enter. The big $$ is rolling in now drive by the machinery of work-until-funding-runs-out. Maybe it'll work out this one time.

And NCIS has gone on forever and has remained mostly consistent. But some shit's getting really long in the tooth according to my wife. I ran out of shits to give seasons ago.

[Evildrider]

The way TV handles series means that basically all of TV is making shit up going along. Many showrunners don't know if they get renewed or not right until production has to start for the new season and most showrunners don't even know the final episode orders for a season until Episode 12 or so.

This. Hence Game of Thrones HBO series now leading the books. Forget all hope ye who enter. The big $$ is rolling in now drive by the machinery of work-until-funding-runs-out. Maybe it'll work out this one time.

And NCIS has gone on forever and has remained mostly consistent. But some shit's getting really long in the tooth according to my wife. I ran out of shits to give seasons ago.

NCIS just got picked up for 2 more seasons as well, although Micheal Weatherly is leaving.

[Shannow]

For all they talk about record ratings for The Walking Dead and GoT, NCIS shits on all of them. It's ratings are bonkers. Only problem is no one under the age of 40 watches the show.

[lamaros]

That's because it's not very interesting TV.

[Sir T]

Ok I just watched the pilot of BSG Pilot and a handful of random episodes, but I always had the idea that Sexylon downloaded herself into his brain somehow dowing the big booms and that was why she was always with him in VR. That at least would ahve been a "sci-fi" method of explaining her hanging around rather than "Almost an angel"

But yeah the Whole mormon thing was always a big part of B5, even in the old series. I actually have a "best of" boxed set of the old series and those episodes still hold up pretty well. Which isnt to say that 2/3 of the old series wasnt complete crap of course.

The problem with the Cylon 5 hing that pretty much had my uninterested in the series is that the whole idea was complete crap and utterly predictable. Why? becasue it was playing into the huge amount of american parinoia that was in vouge at the time. "OMG YOU DON'T KNOW WHO THE ENEMY IS!!!" was a big thing at the time, as well as "Our leaders are lying to us!!!" Somehow it felt like Americans are just not comfertable without a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads and simple trust is something that cannot be allowed to develop between characters. Trust cannot be developed if you have a huge fed flag jammed in there from the start. Frankly the very fact that they were testing people for Cylonness would have had the fleet tearing itself apart within a week in reality. Giving people who are already amped up another reason to be parinoid leads to riots and purity witchhunts. But to certain Americans living in a state of mistrust sems to be a comfort zone (which again leads back to mormonism)