You know why they showed Laura’s family getting killed?
Because she (and us) will see them again soon.
I’ve read the last few pages and m fairly surprised that it did get prety heated; this place is generally so level-headed and friendly.
At this point I’m going to reserve judgment on 4.5 until it’s over and I’ve had a chance to re-watch the whole thing, and when I say “whole thing”, I mean integrating the webisodes, Razor and The Plot into one long, cohesive narrative.
Do I feel like the creative minds behind BSG played a little fast and loose when a little more careful planning would have made a better show? Sure. When RDM said someone just shouted out “Tigh is pregnant!” and they just went with it it made my heart sink a bit because a good story is either all planned out, in my mind, or done so well (and so secretly) on the fly that you couldn’t possibly care less. The baby wasn’t doomed for any fantastically thought-out reason. The baby died because the writers didn’t have room for it in the finale and decided it would be better to be openly ambiguous with that total felgercarb answer of “What do YOU think happened?”
I liked this last ep because I dig backstory, and while I do feel like this half-season has been putzing around waiting for the ending (with only “Blood on the Scales” acting as some type of counterpoint before “Someone to Watch Over Me”), I really haven’t HATED any of it; I just wish it was presented as more of a direct succession of events instead of a list of bullet points. I’ve maintained for a long time that BSG would have been an impossibly tight and well-done 3-season show, and I still feel that if the whole thing had been planned as such from the beginning it could have been a peerless tale. As it is it’s still a great show, but even this last half-season sometimes feel stretched-out and meandering.
I do think it’s somewhat ironic that RDM chastises a show like Voyager for not being faithful to its premise (a lost starship with no stardock or Starfleet repair facilities that stays in excellent condition forever) when some of the nuts and bolts of BSG are difficult to swallow, but at the end of the day it’s not about all that to me; it’s about the characters I’ve come to know and love. And if I’m going to take them to task over anything, it’s the population of freaks and Cylons that overwhelm everyone else on the ship (only Lee and Bill Adama seem like mostly regular people without important visions or Cylon goo-blood running through the veins - well, except all the DEAD PEOPLE that have been carefully killed this last season, like Cally, who was a great character that the creators ran out of good ideas for and kind of stepped on before shoving her out the airlock).
I don’t try to compare BSG to Lost, as a carefully scripted show with a very strict set of universe guidelines. I think of it as a metaphor for our own struggles as humans, it happens to be set in space, and sometimes, like us, it’s imperfect. But it’s still a great show in a time where television is incredibly awful, and that’s something I can be happy with.
Get out of my head 'Talos. I was composing a post in my head after reading over this thread and, well, you nailed it. That fact that people feel passion about this show, positive or negative, is a testimony to the power of this show.
My first reaction to this episode was, “What the frak?” After thinking about it a little bit I realized not only was it beautiful for what it was, it was a component of a greater whole. Can you really judge 1/3 of the Mona Lisa?
As for general trolling or perceived nastiness…I have a thick skin from years of hanging out over at Scifi.com. So far everything I have seen in this thread is simply passionate and thankfully not devolved to name-calling.
To our new members: Welcome. In the words of Bill and Ted, “Be excellent to each other. Party on dudes” 
I am behind on my reading, but this post was great – for my marriage! During the whole 4.5 my husband has been moaning and groaning about it being boooorrrriiinnng. He’s either throwing himself back into the coach rolling his head back and forth, playing his air violin at the tender moments, or flapping the fingers of his hand together in the universal “chirping bird” gesture during exposition. I finally lost it and told him to STOP with the silent editorializing, after which he FELL ASLEEP! Three episodes of snoring! Geesh.
This Friday I told him that he had to stay awake! He tried reading his book, which I kiboshed so he went back to eye rolling, violin playing and “chirp, chirp chirping”. His verdict on Daybreak? “Same boring crap as the last time. And staying awake was no improvement.”
So, I was just a bit ticked off at the man till I read this post. Seems like his sentiment is widely held by a certain segment of the audience. I’ve given him full marks for sitting through it, though he seems more than a little happy that there are only two more hours.
I’m still holding out for the big finish. Nice to see Adama is back on stride.
I don’t think this place has “de-volved” into trolling and name-calling. I’ve had the best online experience (we’re talkin’ 20 years of online experience) here than anywhere else. Even as many of us expect to be disappointed we are venting that feeling and not jumping down the throats of others. Hell, you all put up with my capricious, facetious self.
Now I see why I disagree with samanthawadams about BSG… Babylon 5 sucked (one of the most gawd-awful shows in TV history, only DS9 was worse) and the Star Wars Prequels rocked.
Not everyone was following the Lords of Kobol’s guidance! Adama, Billy, until recently Baltar and possibly Lee and others are avowed atheists on the show.
those characters may not believe, but they’ve been following that path anyway, the entire fleet has because thats where Roslin and Adama have been taking them. its the reason Kara went back to Caprica, its the reason we’ve wondered all along who the dying leader is. its not a minor question.
Everyone once in a while even the best of people say stupid things. This thread hardly qualifies as a fight. It is just an issue people have strong feelings about.
WOW. It really is disheartening to see how little faith some people have in the creators of this show after they’ve given us so much good to enjoy, …and discus here on the forum.
-I was amazed at the opening shot from above. Cudos to the CG guys.
-I thought the flashbacks were artfully done. They tended to round out and humanize characters who lately have been sounding relatively one-note because of the singularity of their situations. And I think they will only add weight and a real feeling of closure upon seeing the final fates of these characters.
-And I thought some of the acting we saw in this episode was outstanding, especially in the flashbacks, though Rosalin on the flightdeck should itself garner en Emmy.
We have 2 hours left (probably more on the DVD). If movie producers can include everything a story needs (characters with backstory, plot build-up, conflict, resolution and satisfactory meaningful endings, etc.) in 2 hrs, then our guys should have no problem wrapping up the series main questions given the same amount of time.
This is your last test Gaius. What could it hurt to show a little faith?
To my mind at least, they’ve earned it.
Is that why Laura burned the scrolls of Pythia in “Sometimes a Great Notion”? Is that why Starbuck seems so disappointed with the whole thing or why Bill is afraid of taking a bullet in his own ship?
It’s a minor question.
Is not…
LOL
[SPOILER] it would have been funny if you had smitten them as well! [/SPOILER]
Funnily enough, this was the first episode that I’ve completely, unequivocally enjoyed since Blood On the Scales. After the info dump and the Ellen saga and the Final Five stuff, I was glad to get a story just about the characters. Who they were, who they’ve become. The story didn’t seem out of place to me at all. It felt like a return to form for the characters before the final plunge. Lee’s back in uniform, this time for the right reasons; Kara’s back to “thinking outside the box” and getting shit done; Adama’s acting a little more like an admiral you’d put in charge of billions of cubits worth of equipment; Laura’s once again putting aside her pain to stand by her people; Baltar is …still Baltar. Caprica is again fighting a war, this time for the other side.
I may be alone on this one, but the thing that’s keeping me from really loving 4.5 is All Along the Watchtower’s continued importance. That song is, in my opinion, the most awkward plot device ever, and I just cringe every time someone quotes a line from it. RDM said, I think in a podcast, that he’s been trying to work “Watchtower” into a show since Roswell, and it’s inclusion in BSG always felt artificial to me; a little too close to “breaking the fourth wall” for my taste. I like the idea of using a song as a “switch” but why did it have to be that song? Ok, they say Anders wrote it, but I know he didn’t and it just takes me completely out of the action. Bear McCreary is a fantastic musician! I’m sure he could have come up with something original and just as haunting (and I do, for the record, love his arrangement of AATW). So the reason I’m disappointed in season 4.5 is that so much of it—the FF, the way to the colony, Hera, Starbuck’s mysterious nature—is tied up with this frakking song.
(BTW, I absolutely adored the song’s inclusion in [spoiler]Watchmen[/spoiler] Chills, I tell you! Chills!)
Anyway, now that I’m done ranting, I’ll say that I still fully expect the finale to blow me away.
He did…
I suggest checking levels. Your “suspension of disbelief” reservoir might be a little low. For a parallel civilization to have Hum-Vees like us and so many similarities, I don’t see it as breaking a fourth wall to say that perhaps a song can transcend time and space as much as the love between two people. If anything, THAT helps establish that Ellen and Saul possessed a love over two thousand years and that things could transcend time and space. Maybe Dylan and Anders were tapping into the same cosmic vibration?
Quite a bit of the consternation comes out of internal conflict between being a viewer and wanting to be a fan-shareholder. I understand it. My only suggestion is to just enjoy it as this is the calm before the storm, so to say.
I don’t know why the song is the one thing that bugs me, but it just does. It’s a gut reaction that I don’t get from seeing cars, or coffee, or dogs. I get the “timeless song that transcends” idea; I just wish that the particular song that transcended time and space was completely original to the series, and not one that I instantly recognized.
My only suggestion is to just enjoy it as this is the calm before the storm, so to say.
And I am. Like I said, I loved this episode, and much of what has happened this season. It’s just that song that bugs.
Is too. 
Seriously, though, it seems that Maureen Ryan anticipated his heated discussion (apologies if this is a repost. I’m taking a break from doing my taxes and haven’t had a chance to read through the entire thread):
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/03/battlestar-galactica-daybreak.html
I don’t know why the song is the one thing that bugs me, but it just does. It’s a gut reaction that I don’t get from seeing cars, or coffee, or dogs. I get the “timeless song that transcends” idea; I just wish that the particular song that transcended time and space was completely original to the series, and not one that I instantly recognized.
While I’ve grown to like the use of “All Along the Watchtower,” particularly since most of what we hear on the show these days is the little c# mixolydian (music geek!) sitar lick that Bear McCreary wrote for his arrangement, I have to say that I largely agree that i should’ve been an original song. Quotations and allusions have to be handled very carefully, in my opinion, particulalrly when it comes to music as there are many meanings possible. That said, I think once the song was introduced in season 3 the staff of BSG have handled it relatively well.
Please, OT. Don’t start acting your age now. 
I think you’re right about all of the above, by the way. I think the Baltar flashback was a way to comment on his character one last time and a bit of retcon concerning Caprica Six’s.