Those stupid dancing robots…

Television, Movies Games and Books BSG-2003
#1

I have been pretty good about avoiding spoilers, and I waited until I had all three part downloaded off itunes to watch the entire episode. Watching it as a whole, the episode is very good, and, I think, a wonderful conclusion to the story. It hit all the right points with me. . . HOWEVER!

RDM, what hell were you thinking with those dancing robots!!??

Does anyone else just hate, hate that part? It completely took me out the moment. They should have just let Head Baltar get in the last word, and have jimi playing in the background as the camera pulls back out of the city.

I Have now watched Daybreak four times. Every single time, I am blown away by the episode, but those damn robots ruin it for me at the end every single time.

#2

I really REALLY didn’t like the whole message feel the ending with the dancing robots had. I felt it has been done just way too many times…no robot takeover yet, no robots with any kind of brain power actually doing anything yet…Deep Blue won in chess and the world didn’t automatically start the armegedon process…

#3

i didnt mind the idea that there’s all these robotic advancements in our world…

as much as the fact that one of them was dancing to the song. from that incredible pullback shot of adama with roslin with that incredible music, to a robot dancing to hendrix… that didnt work for me. i didnt mind the other parts of the 150,000 years later tho, and i think the hera as mitochondrial eve is really cool and i love the tie in to our earth, but to me adama on the cliff would have been a better ending than six in times square. (which… they never actually did show her in times square. i mean all the shots of her were in vancouver,)

the way i see it the 150000 years later is an epilogue, and if you dont like it, just tell yourself that the show ends with adama on the cliff, and all will be ok.

#4

I was a bit taken out of the moment too… but it’s not that bad for me.

But if they could have cut that part and show us the colony sucked into the blackhole after the nukes launched by racetrack’s body, i wouldn’t miss it one bit.

#5

I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it. Especially after watching the episode again. It felt a little bit like a platitude, but it also reminds me, in affect if not in actual content, of course, of Puck’s speech at the very end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I’m an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call:
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

#6

I strongly suspect that RDM did it to jerk us around. Can’t you “hear” him thinking - the diehards are going to HATE this?

#7

I think I’m with you on that. He was simply repeating himself there.

#8

I thought it was funny. RDM was just toying with us in saying that the cycle may not be broken seeing as how we are starting to explore the idea of A.I… More than anything I doubt it was for the fans and more of an homage to Asimov and any other scifi that’s toyed with the idea of us playing god and creating sentient life that turns to bite us on the ass.

#9

I agree totally - the Times Square stuff is completely optional, depending on your reaction to the overall story.

Here’s the way I see it. In a way, I view this part as a deliberate breaking of the fourth wall. When we see Ron Moore there reading the magazine, that’s ACTUALLY Ron Moore, creator of a TV show called Battlestar Galactica, which you just watched the end of. The Baltar and Six are the manifested imaginations of that Ron Moore (or, if you prefer, “head characters”). When we see the robot montage, those are Ron Moore’s thoughts, triggered by hearing Watchtower. Fade to black.

My .02.

#10

it just made me think that this show, that has always had underlying themes completely relevant to the real world (terrorism, freedom vs security, the importance of democracy, love, heroism and individuality) has finished on a note that is just unimportant.

Robots taking over the world, or evolving to the point were its a problem just isnt a strong enough topic. By setting the last scene in our time and our world i felt we were directly asked to make a paralel between the goings on of the 4 seasons to what is happening here and now in reality. And fair enough it was an amusing series of shots. It was like ironic that “ooh the cute robots are going to be our downfall”…but for a show so much deeper than that it was a dissapointment.

#11

And I, for one, welcome our new dancing robot overlords.

#12

I would have enjoyed seeing a robot in an ad in the backround, but that part really tuined the epilouge for me. I enjoyed all of it but that partt, because the video was clearly different, it just looked bad.

#13

I didn’t actually mind it, but I also didn’t see it as a warning (like so many others in fiction) so much as an “it’s interesting how close we might be to starting the cycle again” moment. Made me wonder if a “seemingly Gods allowed, if not controlled” fated cycle could actually be broken. I mean, if “The Gods” let it happen the last time(s), and controlled events that lead to where we are now, why should we think we even have the power to stop it from happening again? And mightn’t all the God’s meddling have been course corrections to put the next cycle into motion again.
See, not good or bad. Just is.
Maybe in this fiction/life this ongoing struggle between the rational and emotional, between love and justice, this messy hacking of a pathway through our jungle of contradictions is exactly what defines us and peace and perfection can never come.

…and being brought out of the story (and beck into our reality) seems to me to be the most honest way to naratively relate the whole of the series to our current reality. My problem with it, if I have one, is that it’ll seem dated far sooner than any other part of the series.

#14

I get the point of the robots and it was a good one. However it was too much, one robot would of done the trick. With Watchtower playing in the background, as the camera moved from the homeless person to the TV showing a robot… that would of been enough to convey the message. In this case, less would of been more.

#15

I didn’t really mind the dancing robots - it was Head Six and Head Baltar’s last conversation that bothered me - it was too obvious. I know they did it to get out the “Hera as Mitochondrial Eve stuff” - but I would have liked it better if it had gone from Hera - then to a silent Head Six/Baltar reading about Mitochondrial Eve , then silently walking down the street as Jimmy Hendrix played and the TV with the Robot on it was in the background - I think they didn’t do that because that would have clearly signaled that it was all cylcling again and it would have been too much of a downer - but I thought it would be better than this stuff Head Six and Baltar said to each other about God - it doesn’t like it, maybe, maybe not.

That being said - I still really enjoyed it.

#16

Having rewatched Daybreak pt. 1 and 2 altogether again, which made me love the finale (even the few parts I wasn’t completely happy with, I’m at peace with most of it) all the more, it has only solidified my hate for the entire end sequence, including those darn robots (especially with that MSNBC logo thing on the TV. Which in a mere few years, might be obselete.)

I really, really, really, dislike that whole bit. Because, it was just so darn unnecessary, on top of undercutting all the drama and resolution that happened right before it. And, it was such a jarring image compared to the episode (or even, to the series, as a whole). I think most people understood what they were trying to say prior to that scene, so why make this really cheesy bit with the head Baltar and Six yapping about it? I like to think that the writers think that the audience could have connected the dots themselves instead of having it blatantly shown in that cheesy cliched just so darn annoying and outdated end scene, but obviously, they didn’t, and I’m more than a little disappointed in that. Come on! Even on a cinematic level, seeing the TV reporting on robots and robots dancing, then Head Six and Head Baltar walk in the crowd while that one guy checks her out? NOT a great looking scene, and again makes people think of other sci fi references that are not needed. The epilogue of everyone leaving and starting their lives on Earth? Now that’s cinematic and great looking. Much better as an end scene.

Especially on my rewatch, where I had more time to really ‘feel’ the end of the show, and the end of these characters that I’ve watched for all these years. It got real dusty, I had tissues, then BAM! I see those stupid robots dancing. WTF? Yeah, that’s when I start throwing my tissues at the TV.

So, to me, this ending was a definite huge sore spot in an otherwise pretty darn satisfying finale.

Sorry to be so negative about this, but I really hated it (the end scene, not the finale) Sorry about that!

Anyway. For me, the end scene of the series is Adama sitting on that hill top next to Laura’s grave, and I’m sticking to that. Much better. I refuse to accept that this whole robot end scene exist. lalalalalalalalalalalala I am in denial. :smiley:

#17

I’m compelled to agree with you. And the reason is this: You’ve got an awesome Dylan quote in your sig.:slight_smile:

#18

I kind of liked it.

#19

the last bit wasn’t my favorite. we know it became earth, and we don’t need yet another reminder that robots could eventually ruin us all; science fiction writers have been telling us this for decades and decades.

the second half of the episode was so beautiful that it was more than a bit jarring to see times square and regular dialogue. i’m surprised that the show didn’t pull back from bill adama back into the galaxy, kind of a reverse season 3 ender. the contemplative and langorous ending was thrown off a bit by the ending that followed. just runnign the credits over hendrix’ “watchtower” would have been good enough. we know it’s on earth and that therefore mankind is capable of repeating the cycle of our ancestors.

at least we made paper with proper corners this time.

#20

I liked the robots. It showed that here on our current earth how we went from simple robots to amuse us and play with (make our lives better?) to a robot that looks human…aka a real life skinjob.