Sci-Fi musings
I really need to update more. I don't know why I haven't been.
I think the statute of limitations for BSG spoilers is long since gone by now, so I won't worry about that. In a way, the finale was kind of cheesy in a "well, that cleaned up rather nicely" kind of way. It's the kind of thing I'd almost expect from Star Trek. (And, in fact, ST:Voyager did go with "and they lived happily ever after.") BSG seemed a bit.. "grim and gritty", more like B5 than ST.
That said, I did like some of the vagaries and implications left behind as a lingering question. What, exactly, was Kara Thrace? And was she always that? Or did it really only occur after she "died" and went to earth? (Or went to earth and died?) What eventually happened to the centurions? What happened to Cavil's Cylons? The obvious implication is that the "earth" the humans settled on is actually "our" earth, but given that we've already seen two earths already, can we really say that for sure? The hint that this is a repeating cycle is basically forced upon us at the end (more on this shortly), so exactly how many earths down the line are WE? I like that it ended (more or less) where it did.
What I do NOT like, is the last minute or so of conversation between the two 'angels' in the flash-forward to the 'present'. This last segment alone came pretty close to completely ruining the entire series. BSG did pretty well at not being overly direct, not coming out and just announcing plot points to the world, but this bit did just that. They may as well have just broken the fourth wall and described the entire plot, in mind-bogglingly-obvious detail directly to the audience.
The only real saving grace of it is that the conversation doesn't come out and say "it does happen again" or "it doesn't", it just raises the question, makes some observations, and moves on. I just wish they could have gotten to that point without basically drawing a big diagram that says "HI AUDIENCE. WE FIGURE YOU'RE A BUNCH OF STUPID MOUTH BREATHERS, SO IN CASE YOU COULDN'T FIGURE IT OUT OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS, THIS ENTIRE SERIES HAS BEEN ABOUT YOU, K THX BAI!"
I finished watching Star Trek: Voyager a while back. At first, when I started watching it, I thought to myself "this series isn't -so- bad, it doesn't seem to deserve all the crap it got." But as I watched the series further on, that opinion changed. And now I've started watching ST:DS9, and it's completely changed.
Voyager actually started out not bad. It had a reasonably compelling hook, and some of the storylines in the first couple seasons weren't really bad. The problem comes when you realize the show's original premise is a recipe for disaster. The show basically has to feature the crew attempting to make it back home. If they backed away from that, you'd basically be asking "Okay, well so what, what's the point of this now?"
But, with a ship that's constantly on the move, you simply cannot have running story lines that involve things external to the ship. As eventually the ship just "moves past" that plot point. This, of course, was "solved" by the almost literally ever present Borg, and Seven of Nine. Except Seven was an 'internal' plot point most of the time, so she doesn't count.
This whole thing only gets worse as the show goes on and the crew makes larger "leaps" towards home. Even -with- the recurring Borg, it becomes increasingly "monster of the week that we'll never see again." And once they get in reasonably decent communication with Starfleet, it also becomes "Lets give jobs to the washed up TNG actors who have nothing better to do."
By the way, while TNG had it's share of "monster of the week", I really feel it achieved a decent balance between making you feel like the universe had plenty of new things to explore and experience, while also still maintaining a connection with known and familiar elements.
Voyagers main redeeming quality, really, was the strength of its cast. All in all, the characters weren't bad. Certainly better than TNG, aka "The Picard and Data Show" (because let's face it, those were the only two particularly interesting characters). I'm not really sure TNG could have pulled off some of the character development that Voyager had.
Finally, as I've started watching DS9, I begin to reaffirm my belief that DS9 really was the jewel of the ST franchise. It puts Voyager to shame on every level, and I'd say it's absolutely better than TNG. Of course, given that the show is basically just a rip off of B5, I can't say I'm surprised.
I've actually got a bit more to say about DS9, but as I've gone on long enough here, I'll save that for later.
I think the statute of limitations for BSG spoilers is long since gone by now, so I won't worry about that. In a way, the finale was kind of cheesy in a "well, that cleaned up rather nicely" kind of way. It's the kind of thing I'd almost expect from Star Trek. (And, in fact, ST:Voyager did go with "and they lived happily ever after.") BSG seemed a bit.. "grim and gritty", more like B5 than ST.
That said, I did like some of the vagaries and implications left behind as a lingering question. What, exactly, was Kara Thrace? And was she always that? Or did it really only occur after she "died" and went to earth? (Or went to earth and died?) What eventually happened to the centurions? What happened to Cavil's Cylons? The obvious implication is that the "earth" the humans settled on is actually "our" earth, but given that we've already seen two earths already, can we really say that for sure? The hint that this is a repeating cycle is basically forced upon us at the end (more on this shortly), so exactly how many earths down the line are WE? I like that it ended (more or less) where it did.
What I do NOT like, is the last minute or so of conversation between the two 'angels' in the flash-forward to the 'present'. This last segment alone came pretty close to completely ruining the entire series. BSG did pretty well at not being overly direct, not coming out and just announcing plot points to the world, but this bit did just that. They may as well have just broken the fourth wall and described the entire plot, in mind-bogglingly-obvious detail directly to the audience.
The only real saving grace of it is that the conversation doesn't come out and say "it does happen again" or "it doesn't", it just raises the question, makes some observations, and moves on. I just wish they could have gotten to that point without basically drawing a big diagram that says "HI AUDIENCE. WE FIGURE YOU'RE A BUNCH OF STUPID MOUTH BREATHERS, SO IN CASE YOU COULDN'T FIGURE IT OUT OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS, THIS ENTIRE SERIES HAS BEEN ABOUT YOU, K THX BAI!"
I finished watching Star Trek: Voyager a while back. At first, when I started watching it, I thought to myself "this series isn't -so- bad, it doesn't seem to deserve all the crap it got." But as I watched the series further on, that opinion changed. And now I've started watching ST:DS9, and it's completely changed.
Voyager actually started out not bad. It had a reasonably compelling hook, and some of the storylines in the first couple seasons weren't really bad. The problem comes when you realize the show's original premise is a recipe for disaster. The show basically has to feature the crew attempting to make it back home. If they backed away from that, you'd basically be asking "Okay, well so what, what's the point of this now?"
But, with a ship that's constantly on the move, you simply cannot have running story lines that involve things external to the ship. As eventually the ship just "moves past" that plot point. This, of course, was "solved" by the almost literally ever present Borg, and Seven of Nine. Except Seven was an 'internal' plot point most of the time, so she doesn't count.
This whole thing only gets worse as the show goes on and the crew makes larger "leaps" towards home. Even -with- the recurring Borg, it becomes increasingly "monster of the week that we'll never see again." And once they get in reasonably decent communication with Starfleet, it also becomes "Lets give jobs to the washed up TNG actors who have nothing better to do."
By the way, while TNG had it's share of "monster of the week", I really feel it achieved a decent balance between making you feel like the universe had plenty of new things to explore and experience, while also still maintaining a connection with known and familiar elements.
Voyagers main redeeming quality, really, was the strength of its cast. All in all, the characters weren't bad. Certainly better than TNG, aka "The Picard and Data Show" (because let's face it, those were the only two particularly interesting characters). I'm not really sure TNG could have pulled off some of the character development that Voyager had.
Finally, as I've started watching DS9, I begin to reaffirm my belief that DS9 really was the jewel of the ST franchise. It puts Voyager to shame on every level, and I'd say it's absolutely better than TNG. Of course, given that the show is basically just a rip off of B5, I can't say I'm surprised.
I've actually got a bit more to say about DS9, but as I've gone on long enough here, I'll save that for later.