An observation of science fiction fans...

[keoni]

I've noticed something from reading reviews of the BSG finale, both in the MSM and on blogs. The casual sf fan, or even the non-sf fan that just likes the show for the story and not for the technological flash, seems to have enjoyed it. A lot of the harder-core sf fans have hated it. I think it boils down to the following

Comments

[karithay]

The amusing thing about all that is that the original series had the same thing. There we got to see it manifest as the infamous "ship of lights". The difference is that in the original we had the curtain drawn back for us so that we didn't necessarily think of it as God or anything particularly spiritual. It was also done in a much more in your face manner. Regulating it to the unknown or unquantifiable is an act that inherently doesn't sit well with most people. They want to know the answer.

Ultimately though, we don't know what "it" was. As stated, its hates being called God. It could simply be a vastly more evolved being with technology at its disposal far beyond our comprehension.

In some respects I was reminded of Babylon 5. There's a great scene where a woman is asking G'Kar what the Old One she saw was. He explains it in metaphor of ants trying to describe us.

[keoni]

I agree that it could be anything in the reimagined series, and that I'm choosing the spiritual explanation by virtue of my personal preference rather than the uber-advanced entity or other possibilities, but that's the thing. I'm choosing a set of explanations that makes the ending enjoyable for me. I get irritated at people who just throw their hands up when the choice of explanations that they make pisses them off. "God?!?! They had God do all this shit?!?!?! Raaaargh!! Kill the writers!!"