Thanks for the Guardian link, Fiona. I think you & I are the only Life on Mars watchers right now.

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The finale reinforced a feeling I've had, and it's one I'm glad to see onscreen. Ronald Moore's brief experience with Star Trek Voyager had me thinking.

Voyager was utterly unbelievable. Why? Because the characters responded to their situation... the same way one might respond if one is having trouble purchasing butter at the corner market. A number of people from the Federation are cast adrift, far from home with no certain return, and their mood is that of people sitting in a cafe, musing over the insufficient proportion of cinnamon atop their lattes. Merde.

Society is, I've always believed, a shared web of illusions that help people feel comfortable in chaos. Civilization can be easily stripped away. You take their certainties, their foundation, their jobs, their feeling of being a part of something... and humans can revert to, well, anything. In a situation like the one we're supposed to accept on Star Trek Voyager — and on Galactica — I expect to see only tattered shreds of whatever civilization they once had, that has been stripped from them. I expect to see a society milling on the edge of mob violence, and sometimes teetering over. I expect to see people clinging to many things that drift past, exchanging one belief for another, anything that will give them comfort for one day. Struggling to assert some sense of order upon a universe all too willing to laugh at the theater of human control. Star Trek Voyager failed. But for me, Battlestar Galactica often succeeds.

(more…)

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That trial was never, from the beginning, a trial. It was a show trial, an attempt to assert some sense of order over their lives. It was also, I agree with Lee, an attempt to purge their collective shame, to purge everything that had happened to them, and everything they had done, in one swift airlocky moment of cartharsis, charcoaled over in a child's drawing of orderly justice, dispensed as societies do. As the persons in that society agree "Now we are in control, now everything is all right because Justice is here and Those In Charge will help us feel safer."

A show trial, agreed upon because they all felt they needed it.

Of course, Baltar isn't like the rest of them. He truly is an individual nearly bereft of conscience, and every situation is seen in relation to him, and him alone. "Even now," said Six in the miniseries (and I paraphrase from memory), "with your world about to be destroyed, all you can think about is how it affects you. How do you do that?" It's who he is, it's the hollowness that is his soul. Some 40,000 humans losing their balance, falling off the cliff of civilization with no idea what to believe anymore, only nearly becoming what Baltar already is. Like them, he has painted over his hollowness with a civilized fresco, and yet his mask is only in reference to itself. Unlike the rest, he clings to no one. How could he? He barely sees them as people.

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This is what I want to see in season four: How do they find their footing? I can't imagine Baltar ever finding his soul, though that might be an interesting thing to see, if done right. But as for the rest... BadgerLawyer believes that the legal system is up and running, and civilization as he sees it has a place for him. But these people have a long journey, a need to find a shared belief and a shared hope that will sustain what is a shattered, traumatized mob in need of healing. Moore has allowed my willing suspension of disbelief quite a long way, and brought them all to the abyss, but it's time to see how they walk across together. The fourth season is said to be about what it means to be cylons, which could be interesting (mostly it seems to mean lots of bickering). But I'm far more interested in seeing what the fourth season says about all of these people finding out what it means to be alive... again.

All that said, the execution of the last act was beautiful. Loved the effect of the music against the nebula, the four going about their lives... and Kara, her face free of the trauma and despair that wracks the others, smiling and beckoning the way home at last.

I don't know what happens next, if it gets all hand-wavy, or worse, the even-more-questions-syndrome of Lost Peaks. But I did enjoy this finale on an emotional level. For just a while, I really don't care what it all means.

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Thanks for the Guardian link, Fiona. I think you & I are the only Life on Mars watchers right now.

I'm getting there, man. Give a girl a break!

I kid. I do have to acquire the S2 eps so far, though. I keep forgetting.

I'm still a huge fan of BSG even though I end up scratching my head a lot sometimes. It hasn't even begun to approach Lost levels of WTF for me. I gave up on Lost after the first season (I think), though, so...

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3 candidates for who left that note in Adama's cabin: Anders was still on Caprica.

And an interview with RDM. . . I just started reading it so have NO idea how spoilery it is.

It does talk about the fall movie project.

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I think you & I are the only Life on Mars watchers right now.

I'm downloading, but I'm several episodes behind on watching.

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Ash, excellent analysis.

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3 candidates for who left that note in Adama's cabin: Anders was still on Caprica.

sumi, what note is this. I must have skimmed over something.

Unrelatedly, I'm thinking about how Strega has come to love the ideas and arc -- now that she can see it as a whole. I wonder if I'm so happy with BSG because I just found it this season and watched all three seasons in the span of one season. Maybe I haven't yet had enough time to analyze, because I'm still gathering data. I think maybe I'm seeing all three seasons as a whole, because I was surprised to see (not just here, but in LJ, too) the name of Lost invoked in any way, in posts about BSG.

But lots of people were betrayers. Lawyering aside, I think Lee's point stands. We're looking for someone to blame, might as well be the guy we didn't like anyway.

I read Narrator's point as specific to the lawyering. That is, maybe Baltar would have been acquitted anyhow, but the prosecutor still didn't do a good (enough) job.

That trial was never, from the beginning, a trial. It was a show trial, an attempt to assert some sense of order over their lives.

Yes. After the verdict had been read, during all the chaos, Baltar said, verdict aside, the trial was all a pantomime. A bit like Spike -- he's sometimes the one that's going to get a bit of truth on you. He's duplicitous, but he's sometimes he is right, incidentally/despite his duplicitous nature.

It was also, I agree with Lee, an attempt to purge their collective shame, to purge everything that had happened to them, and everything they had done, in one swift airlocky moment of cartharsis, charcoaled over in a child's drawing of orderly justice, dispensed as societies do. As the persons in that society agree "Now we are in control, now everything is all right because Justice is here and Those In Charge will help us feel safer."

Oh, yeah. That was a beautiful moment. I started this arc thinking Baltar should be convicted, but I do think Lee was right about that.

Some 40,000 humans losing their balance, falling off the cliff of civilization with no idea what to believe anymore, only nearly becoming what Baltar already is. Like them, he has painted over his hollowness with a civilized fresco, and yet his mask is only in reference to itself. Unlike the rest, he clings to no one. How could he? He barely sees them as people.

This is a great way of putting it, Ash.

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In the mini or very early in season 1, Adama discovers a note that says that there are 12 models of Cylons.

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