Dan's Justice League

So, with Man of Steel on the way, the implication from Warner Brothers is that it will set the stage for a DC shared movie universe.  I have to admit, as much as I am anticipating what I have seen of this film, I don't see WB's movie department really being able to build in that way, particularly with they, their TV associates, and right now in my mind their comics, completely unable to come up with a Wonder Woman that works.  It did get me thinking though, who I would WANT to see in a JL project, and I realized, there really hasn't been a project in a while that really captured me outside of the animated shows I have seen on TV, all of which are being cancelled apparently.  So there's that.

So for no other reason than my wish list, here is what I would want to see in any JL project, by bringing together these particular versions of these characters.  One is going to stand out like a sore thumb, but think about it a bit before you declare it "outrageous" (that's a clue).

Superman:

I have not seen MoS obviously, but for my money, if I need a modern version of Superman I am going to draw from Mark Waid's "Birthright."  To me, it is the definitive origin of Superman from a decade that rewrote the story about five times.  Indeed, it stands out to me as the best telling of it in the character's long history.  I do want to give honorable mention to Grant Morrison's "All-Star Superman" which I love a bit more as a story, but Waid does a better job of giving Superman the god-like abilities, while keeping him human.  Morrison's Superman in All-Star is simply a god.

Batman:

Nothing against the actor, but after the huge misstep that was The Dark Knight Rises, Christian Bale doesn't make even the short list.  There's a lot of takes on Batman out there, and many I love, but if I can have just one it has to be the version Bruce Timm gives us in Batman: The Animated Series.  Full credit of course to Kevin Conroy who will forever be the voice I hear in my head when reading any Batman comic.  That guy, he IS The Batman.


Wonder Woman:

I saw the 2011 pilot for a proposed Wonder Woman tv series, and I think Adrianne Palicki was a great choice for the sheer physicality of Wonder Woman.  The writing however completely missed the heart. I have nothing but fondness for my delightfully...stimulating childhood memories of Lynda Carter.  If I have to choose a Wonder Woman though, I am going to include the goddess/diplomat/warrior from Greg Rucka's two years on the title.  In a four color land of over-sexual bosomy fantasy archetypes, Rucka's Wonder Woman was a wondrous woman, and definitive in my mind as the hero.  It isn't pants that Wonder Woman needs to be taken seriously; it's heart.


Aquaman:

Every few years, someone comes along and says, "but I am going to do Aquaman right."  The result usually entails more brooding, perhaps a hook, and bouncing between more or less hair on either head or face.  Then, a couple years ago, someone really did breathe new life into "the guy who talks to fish."  I give full credit to Batman: The Brave and the Bold.  Many people discounted this throwback series as too kiddy or goofy, but really it was a fine representation of those pre-Silver Age tales that set the stage for all the classics that helped define those characters for us today.  In Aquaman we find someone who is confident, a little arrogant, and absolutely loves the fact he gets to be a superhero.  That really resonates with me as he is the guy responsible for 5/6 of the Earth.   Is it so bad that some of these heroes might actually enjoy what they do, and what a great role in the league for Aquaman to take.  We'll save the brooding for Batman.

The Flash:

Yeah, I know Barry's back.  Hurray Silver Age and all that.  For me though, I am calling on the 90s, and Mark Waid once more along with William Messner-Loebs and Mike Baron, and bringing Wally West to the table as The Flash.  He had a legacy to deal with, his own fears to calm, and a rogue's gallery in the waiting.  Yet, he could crack a joke with the best of them and was truly a hero.  Perhaps I am jaded as I really found The Flash post crisis, and though watching that old TV show, those comics really brought the character home for me.  And, I miss the Kilg%re.



Green Lantern:

GL used to be one of my very favorites.  After the last couple years of rainbows, a movie so bad it made me like the comics less, and the impact of the New 52 being lessened by keeping the GL continuity though it MAKES NO SENSE WITH THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE (see Batman for this problem too), I almost left him off.  Alas, though, Hal Jordan was at the top of my must buy list for a long time, and I do love the hard sci fi elements of the character and the supporting cast.  So, I must harken back to who made me love the character in the first place, and that was Dennis O'Neil.  Hal was a hero who asked questions, and had Green Arrow along like a bearded Jiminy Cricket to point out things Hal wouldn't always want to see.  Added bonus to picking this Hal: we get Ollie as a freebie.


Martian Manhunter:

Yes, I insist on J'onn J'onzz as being on the League.  He links our heroes mentally, and provides nearly as much power as Superman in a fight.  Oh, and he's the last of his race, blasted from another planet alien who doesn't look like he grew up in Kansas.  Sure, many verisons give us a J'onn who can take purely human form, but I prefer the Justice League Unlimited Manhunter who uses his shapeshifting as a weapon while maintaining a distance from humanity.  He's a great foil for Superman reminding him how different people can be, and I want him sitting in the Watchtower.  I dip from the Bruce Timm well again for this one.


So, there's my dream line-up.  Of course I could go on: the "JSA/Kobra: Engines of Destruction" Power Girl.  The Young Justice cartoon Black Canary.  The Jaimie Reyes Blue Beetle post "One Year Later."  As a villains, the Smallville Lex Luthor  and definitely, DEFINITELY Mark Hamill's Joker from B:TAS.  Commence your arguments... NOW!


Oh.  And a pic of Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman, just because.  Somebody get this lady a writer!

Unified Field Theory: Adama squared.

It's been a while since I simply dropped into full geek mode here on Black Owl, but I've had one festering for a while in the back of my head, and I think it's time. This is my unifying theory to unite the classic Glen Larson Battlestar Galactica (henceforth “GL”version), with the modern Ron D. Moore, “greatest-TV-show-ever-made-according-to-Dan” version (RDM version). There will be spoilers for both shows, so if you haven't seen or finished either, but plan to, it may be time to turn away now. You've been warned.







First, I must establish some ground rules here. I am reluctant to include Galactica 1980 in the canon as any more than an interesting thought which met the poorest execution imaginable. Indeed, setting the arrival of the Galactica to Earth in 1980 not only puts a kink in my theory, it also contradicts the Classic Galactica episode “The Hand of God” in which the ship intercepts a transmission from the Earth Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. I freely admit science was very shaky on the original show; it was never really established whether or not the Galactica even had a faster than light drive, though lightspeed travel is mentioned on a few rare occasions. Terms like “solar system” and “galaxy” are used interchangeably. I think we have to accept that there is some form of super-luminal drive however, and further that the Galactica is still pretty far from Earth at the end of season one. G1980 claims thirty years have passed since the Cylons destroyed the colonies, putting that destruction around the Earth year 1950. Unless the first season of classic Galactica is actually twenty years long (and it obviously isn't), they could not have intercepted the Moon landing. Perhaps they are moving at relativistic speeds, thereby suffering time dilation effects, but then Baltar, during his time spent with the Cylons, would have aged at a different rate than the Colonists. Besides, the Apollo transmission itself is only moving at the speed of light, so depending on how many light-years the Galactica is from Earth at intercept, it has to be that many years after the famous Moon landing on Earth. Therefore, if the Galactica is twenty light-years from the signal's origin, it is already 1989 on Earth.

I will however give 1980 credit for introducing the first human looking Cylon, which actually ties into my theory very well. After all, this has all happened before and will all happen again.

I submit that despite the fact the RDM show follows the exploits of a particular group of survivors, there would have been more. We know the Pegasus was finding other civilian ships, and doubt they found all of them. Anders' little band of merry Pyramid players can't be the only people in the mountains on Caprica when the Cylon bombs fell. Eleven other planets had to have some survivors. Yes, many would have been herded up and out when the Cylons claimed Caprica, but humans are remarkably resilient, and it does not seem that far fetched some were waving good-bye when the Cylons left Caprica to go meet up with the escaping Colonial fleet at New Caprica (as seen in “The Plan”).

So, while Kara Thrace and William Adama are off with Gaius Baltar realizing that the Cylon god-entity is in fact...God, there are a number of poor schleps mucking about on the twelve colonies who have no idea that the machines which tried to kill them are all part of an ongoing cycle of evolution throughout the universe. All they know is what our cast knew in season one: Humanity came from Kobol to found the twelve tribes, there's a thirteenth tribe out there somewhere called Earth, and by they way, we are all a bunch of poly-theists. Now of course, they are living in the ashes of holocaust, and there are problems with radiation and the like, but there is also an essential distrust of technology, and a new dark age. While Adama is burying Roslin and choosing to swear off technology, the Capricans are kind of forced into it, but still not too happy with robots.*




We know from RDM that two things happen when the Colonists settle on Earth and scuttle the fleet: one, a surviving group of “toaster” Cylons take a Basestar and go off to find their destiny; two, Humans and Cylons mix ingraining certain things into our racial memory. Their decedents will accept their zodiac, worship their gods, and eventually, with an eerie accuracy, re-discover their technology. There's 150,000 years in which to do so.

So during that 150K, what's happening in the 12 Colonies, and what's happening with our Toaster friends?

On Caprica, and the other colonies, the human race is growing again. It's going to take time; the aforementioned radiation is going to be an issue, as is the diminished population. Humans will survive though, and eventually rebuild a civilization as the Colonies of Kobol, as they were before, but with more flowy chiffon clothing. Eventually there will even be technology, and a new fleet of Battlestars. Indeed, perhaps the cycle plays out a couple of times in this period. GL Galactica may not be the first time the Capricans rise from the ashes. For this theory to work though, we do have to accept that the Colonists have lost track of how long ago humanity left Kobol; in accordance with Genesis and the Book of Mormon (on which many original BSG concepts are based) humanity came to be on Kobol only 6000 years before GL BSG takes place, brought into existence by the Beings of Light. It doesn't seem to difficult to believe those histories will be renewed by any successive generation of Capricans, confusing events in their past, but keeping the basics the same (see our own histories and Noah, Atlantis, Gilgamesh, and the Navajo story of Turtle).

Meanwhile, the surviving Toasters who leave New Earth, return to their old stomping grounds, perhaps in an effort to trace their own origins. They return to space near Kobol and the Colonies. They evolve. They start the cycle again. Perhaps those Toasters decide they still want to become organic, but not human. In GL Galactica we find out their Cylons began as a reptilian race eventually overthrown by machines... what if the origins of those reptiles were in fact the surviving Cylons from RDM Galactica, attempting a different kind of biological evolution, but instead repeating the cycle?

The result is the same. A thousand year (yahren) war between humans on the twelve colonies, and the Cylon Empire. While you and I, human/cylon decedents ourselves, are heading toward the cycle again with little ditties like the industrial revolution, the creation of pocket calculators, and eventually computers, and Bob Dylan's “All Along the Watchtower,” it seems GL Galactica is happening, and repeating the great cycle. Perhaps as racial memory, some of us even suspect such a thing is going on:

There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens.

There are still a few mysteries here: who exactly ARE the Beings of Light and Count Iblis? Perhaps survivors of the original Kobol or original 13th Tribe (Cylon Earth), or “Angels” not unlike Head Six and Head Baltar from RDM? (I'm a little partial to the idea that perhaps somewhere there are other copies of the Final Five, and Count Iblis is a last remaining Cavil who survived the battle at The Colony.) Are the other human worlds the GL Galactica finds (Terra) also descendants from Kobol, or left over survivors from the RDM Cylon apocalypse? Is Dirk Benedict Starbuck the messianic figure Kara Thrace was? Should we count Galactica 1980? It does feature Dr. Zee, a human/Being of Light hybrid, who may be that series' Kara; and as mentioned before, GL Cylons making human versions, starting the great cycle themselves. Then I see flying motorcycles and say 'no.'

So that's the basic idea. The two Galacticas are in the same universe, but the earlier version actually happens after the newer version. Imagine Lorne Greene's rag tag fleet arriving to our world, just as our own Cylons begin to exhibit behavior not quite so subservient... say! I smell a fanfic coming on!





*As an aside, I have heard a number of people tell me they cannot believe the surviving Colonists who make it to New Earth at the end of RDM Galactica would give up technology so easily. I submit you may be off a different opinion when your iPods commit genocide and start a four year chase across the galaxy to do nothing more than kill you. Suddenly, my favorite playlists seem a little less necessary.

A Sarcastic Thank You to the American Media and People

Why am I dipping my thanks in a deep irony sauce seasoned with a fresh grind of hostility? Because you (and by you I must indeed include me, as we are “We the People”) and the media we allow to taint our thoughts have successfully managed to befuddle and obfuscate every issue this election cycle. At times, it's been downright lies, but most often it's half-truths interpreted through our ever more polarized worldviews. I have been labeled, rightfully, in one such discussion as a “Centrist Intellectual.” (Let me wipe off the irony sauce and say thank you to my dear Deborah, who though we may disagree, calls them as she sees them, and this is I hope exactly the political persona I hope to project.)

As such, I now have no one for whom to vote. In order to receive kudos from the vocal of either side and their media masters, any show of intellectualism makes a candidate out to be not of the people. Candidates are CLAIMING IGNORANCE as a positive characteristic. Please think about that for a minute, and honestly assess of you want to support someone who claims to be no smarter than you. I can't balance a checkbook, I certainly hope the people for whom I vote are smarter than me. I want them to be smart... but I am apparently in the minority.

Secondly, there's no benefit in moderation today. Be a little in the middle as a Republican, and you are labeled a RINO and some Tea Partier will come along and kill you in the Primary. Be a little in the middle as a Democrat, and websites like “AlterNet.Org” will decide you are just part of the machine carrying on Bush policy. We have become enslaved to our false left-right political spectrum (where does anarchy fall on that spectrum may I ask?) and have paid corporate giants millions to have their talking heads on both sides stop informing us and start simply confirming what we already think we know. Obama's a Socialist? Beck said so, and that's just what I thought, so it must be true. Reagan's the devil? You bet Keith, tell it like it is! We take it and we feed our confirmation bias, and if we do flip to the other channel, it's just to see how wrong the other guy still is.

And that's if we even bother to go to a “news source.” Usually it's just a forwarded email we won't bother to confirm because it falls in line with what we think. Of course, we must then share this with our like minded friends and perpetuate those half truths ourselves.

So here I am, with no candidate to represent my thoughts except ones already in power whom I would like to replace with someone better, or hear the truth about once in a while. I can't; there's no one better running, and no one who's on the side of truth, on the side of America. If you think your political part represents true America, the simple truth is you are wrong. There is no party representing America, because there are too many of us to break into two easily definable groups, and the fact we keep trying is a detriment to our nation and our future.

I am about to make a confession. I am a Liberal. There, I said it.
Oh, you think I mean PELOSI Liberal? Oh hell no. I am a Liberal like Thomas Jefferson, the classical definition, the idea that LIBERTY should be the first consideration. The rights of the people. I see both slides wrapping themselves in that flag, and neither truly representing it. LIBERTY does not mean the Government doing everything for you. LIBERTY also does not mean a powerless Government. We have a Bill of Rights to protect us from an overzealous Government so that that Government can protect us from overzealous Businesses. Indeed, we seem to be on a path to eliminate the governments ability to do anything, and will instead sentence ourselves to slavery to banks and corporations to whom we will be indebted as long as we shall live. The corporation does NOT represent unfettered capitalism. The government MUST keep them honest, and not be enslaved to them. Simply ask Republican President and Monopoly breaker Theodore Roosevelt:

“Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures. But there is another harm; and it is evident that we should try to do away with that. The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.”
Speech at Providence, Rhode Island (1902-08-23), Presidential Addresses and State Papers (1910), p. 103

For there to be true freedom, we must be independent; independent of Government, of Corporation, of Political Party. There was a time Democrats preached that, as did this other Roosevelt:

“True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.”
Franklin Roosevelt

I have another confession to make; I am a Conservative. There I said it.
Oh, you think I mean a PALIN Conservative? Oh hell no! I mean the one who wants to leave the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as our ruling ideal. We have to understand what that means. If we want to be Constitutionalist, our government doesn't establish a State Religion, we don't keep people from saying what they think, we leave guns in the hands of the people, and we let some bad guys get away in order to secure Liberty and privacy. Yeah, I know privacy doesn't appear in the Constitution. Primarily because the word in the 1700s related specifically to using the toilet. (Look it up- ever hear the term “using the privy”? Surely you can see the etymological evolution of usage here).

See, I think about these things, and you should too. Think, don't feel. Think, learn to cooperate, because it is what we have in common, which is a hell of a lot more than we disagree on, that will protect us from those who are jealous of what we have. Don't underestimate the internal threat though; we are more of a threat to our own Republic, either through over-legislation, or under-regulation; through taking advantage of an already ailing system, or destroying it so it cannot help those with legitimate need. The answer to America's future lies in the middle, and in thinking so we can differentiate real problems from banner issues meant to get our party elected. We indeed must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately.

Now, I would like to think I haven't promoted a specific side's agenda here, particularly since I am pretty put out with both. Their posturing as left an impression of doom. Despite the S&P500 showing great progress since January, despite two years of tax cuts from withholding (which leaves money in your paycheck which you spend rather than sending you a check you put in the bank which only helps... the bank), and a severe slowdown on job loss. Also, no one came to take my guns, no one forced me to house soldiers in my home (except of course the one who pays the rent) and I am not a headless body left in the Arizona desert...yet. Also, I have not been locked in prison for my repeated use of the term “aham' d'Allah” or my possession and occasional use of Islamic prayer beads (usually while reciting the Shema and singing hymns or sitting in a lotus position). We are not as bad off as either side says, and neither side is really as bad as their detractors tell you.

But don't take my word for it. Put aside your feelings, read a lot, and THINK about it all. If you change your mind on nothing, you haven't done it right. We all are wrong about something. Go find out what YOU are wrong about. Stop letting the parties tell you it's all the other guy, because you know who's fault it is?

Ours.

And that's why I am mad at us (and me too).

This makes no sense.

Pictured here is the coolest nonsensical toy I have seen in years. It's a Hot Wheels sized 57 Chevy, taxi cab, with homemade armor and a Gatling gun on its hood. In a toy aisle filled with licensed ads for television shows or movies, here's this random line of cars with heavy machine guns attached. No stories, no background, just cool cars with big guns.

It was love at first sight.

Some random stuff...

Well, time grows short here in the Great and Free Northwest States of Greatness and Freedom, and soon I will be heading to warmer, dryer climates. I've had a few Blog ideas bouncing around in my head, but nothing too definite, so I figured I'd throw out a few little ones.

Though with less fanfare than her High School graduate brother, The Daughter has also reached one of life's milestones; finishing the 8th Grade. Her school did nothing for it, so she wasn't particularly excited, but my youngest is now a High School student as well, and will be attending the school from which I matriculated many years ago. At last we will have revenge.



The Lovely Jennifer started it, but now everyone I know is calling me "Sheldon." If you haven't watched CBS' The Big Bang Theory you may not get the reference. It is a very funny show, however tired of being compared to the main geek in the show, I was going to do a blog entry pointing out five reasons I was NOT Sheldon. I could only come up with three.

In related news, the 3 3/4" Star Trek figures at Wal-Mart have been marked down to five bucks. I have been buying Scottys and putting GI Joe heads on them to make expendable Red Shirts. I see a Landing Party gone horribly wrong in their future...


Related to that- I got my JJprise keychain. It makes me happy to sing the music from the film loudly and fly the ship around. More joy than any keychain should bring any man. BTW- I am campaigning for Jolene Blalock to play T'Pring in the next film. Likely? No, but Star Trek is about hope, isn't it?





Kind of a no-brainer I think...







That's all for now- on the road soon, and I will likely next broadcast from a state with a setting sun on it's flag. Hope I can find sushi...

This is the way the world ends (3).

So, as I was watching the local news tonight I came across this story. That's right, PETA is concerned people are throwing dead fish.

Dead fish.

I am a big animal guy. I've had dogs, cats, chickens, goats, pigs, rats, guinea pigs, cockatiels, finches, doves, beetles, spiders, slugs, and of course, fish which I would consider pets. I am fully aware I anthropomorphize animals, but I really think our behaviors are evolutionary leftovers rather than us really projecting human emotion on animals. I don't think we should abuse any animals, even the ones we eat.

The fish in Pike Place are dead. They are not being abused. Why? Because they are dead. PETA- there are legitimate animal abuses you have pointed out and put the kibosh on; why would you pull something asinine like this and make yourselves look stupid?



Much better.

...and it will all happen again.

So sue me- I am a big geek, and I am not done talking about Battlestar Galactica. I decided I couldn't just ignore the series finale, so if you have not seen it:

THIS ENTIRE BLOG ENTRY HAS SPOILERS FROM THE LAST EPISODE OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!!!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Turn back now...



You are warned....



Jump...


I had initially wanted to go back and give my five favorite moments from the finale- get it? The Final Five! However, I couldn't. I was able to winnow it down to seven, but the simple fact is I could give you at least four more. I am down to seven though, and I think they give the flavor of this fantastic finale, and hit on some of the controversies as well.





1)Saul has a great idea: In order to attack the Cylon colony hanging in the accretion disc of a black hole, they Galactica has wired Sam Anders, 2000 year old Cylon, into the ship. This means Cylon tech all over the CiC. Adama looks at his XO, of course one of those old Cylons himself, in exasperation. Tigh reminds Adama, “You know it's not to late to put them all out the airlock...”



2)Flank Speed: Having jumped right into the field of the Cylon colonies guns, the Galactica uses Anders to shut the defenses down. So without the guns blazing, how do you get your troops onto the colony to find Hera? Well ram into them at full speed and wiggle your ship like a tick working its head in, of course! The old girl shows she still has some fight in her, and Lee Adama leads in troops by just jumping out the front window. Yikes.



3)”You see them too?” After years of a lovely version of Six dancing in Gaius Baltar's head, and a suave Baltar in Caprica Six's head, the flesh and blood versions of these characters admit their true love for one another. Then they start seeing each others' hallucinations, and we begin to realize this is not just in their heads.



4)Baltar explains it all: Having lived through seeing his fantasy made flesh, and then reliving his vision of the Opera House, we realize there can only be one Opera House, and that's the CIC of the Galactica herself. Gaius and Six walk in as the Five look down like the Lords of Kobol themselves on the carnage below. Then, when a Number One desperately tries to escape...Baltar gets it. Baltar saves humanity with a simple revelation: revelations aren't all that simple.



5)Starbuck finds peace: Yeah, I know. This is almost the most controversial moment in the whole series. Kara finally realizes she has saved humanity, and the Cylons, and found them their home. She is done- the destiny she died to fulfill is done. She finally can put it all aside- the men, the drinking, the struggles with her fate, her faith, and herself. And while Lee's back is turned, she goes home. What more do you need, but to know she is happy? Goodbye Kara...



6)Baltar becomes a farmer: Humanity and the surviving Cylons are spreading across the planet they will now dub “Earth,” and Baltar and Six will go off together. I smiled when Starbuck left, but when I watched Gaius realize that his true destiny was that he fought so hard to avoid, that he would in fact return to the life he grew up with... well, when he cried, so did I. “I do know something about farming,” he says as he breaks down in realization, and perhaps more than a little release. “I know you do,” Caprica gently tells him. Wow.



7)Adama and Roslin build their cabin: As if I wasn't weepy enough from Baltar becoming a farmer, Adama takes Laura away as she succumbs to the cancer she's fought since the first episode. He finally finds the perfect spot for their cabin, but just too late. And yet as it fades, you know he will love her forever, and die at her side. May we all be that sure in our love.




So- there it is, what should be my last BSG blog and review. Yeah, I could still pick out some show moments, like Dualla's final decision, or Ellen Tigh's first appearance, or even Starbuck and the Eye of Jupiter, or familiar angels in Times Square listening to Hendrix. Time to let it rest though, because I have a feeling after they air the TV movie “The Plan” later this year I am going to have to watch it all again. After all, it has all happened before... and I am really looking forward to watching it all happen again.

I was posting this when something occurred to me: Several of these moments are Baltar. He's been the villain, the weasel, the nut job, the traitor, the collaborator; yet, in the end he saves humanity, and discovers the truth. Now THAT'S what I call character development.


End of line.

This has all happened before...

One week has basically passed since I watched the last episode of Battlestar Galactica. I initially intended to write a complete review of all four seasons, including all the emotional investment I had in this show. After page six I realized I was really on an incoherent rant of adoration, so I have decided to regroup and try again, and maybe, just maybe I will let the long version out one day. Likely not though...

Battlestar Galactica is simply the finest piece of drama ever aired on television. From plot to character development, to Special Effects; simply fantastic, and surpasses my former favorite, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Rather than go on for paragraphs without end about how I discovered and grew with this show, I am going to list my ten favorite moments. If you have not seen season 4.5, stay away from 8, 9, and 10.


1) Lee Adama blows up a civilian transport. I was intrigued by the miniseries, but it was the first regular episode, “33,” which sealed the deal for me. For five days, the Cylons have ambushed Galactica and the fleet every 33 minutes. Finally, it seems the civilian vessel “The Olympic Carrier” might in fact be under the control of Cylon agents. There's no time to investigate, there's no time to evacuate. Adama orders Apollo to blow it up. That's when I knew this wasn't just any show.

2) Boomer lets everyone know she's a Cylon. We find out Boomer is really a Cylon at the end of the miniseries. Everyone else on Galactica finds out when she walks into the CiC and puts two rounds into Commander Adama's chest. Now that's a cliffhanger!

3) Pegasus returns. We find out Galactica was not the only surviving Battlestar, but Admiral Cain of the Pegasus is a lot more Darwinian then Adama. She's all about human survival; at least the ones who follow her orders.

4) Baltar wakes up one year later. The Colonists elect Baltar president, find a place to settle down, and form New Caprica. He's napping on his desk one day when he wakes up to the Cylon fleet flying over. So begins the occupation.


5) Saul gives Ellen a drink. During the Cylon occupation, Saul Tigh, Galen Tyrol, and Sam Anders run a resistance. In order to save Saul, his wife Ellen gives information to the Cylon occupiers. Saul poisons her. Here's a character I hated for this entire run, and in the moment she looks at the cup and says, “I'm thirsty,” you want it not to happen. Yet it does. And she dies.

6) Crossroads Part II. In ten minutes time, four characters we've been watching for years are revealed as Cylons, those Cylons are drawn together by the song “All Along the Watchtower,” and Starbuck comes back from the dead to lead them all to Earth. Everything you thought you knew about the show was torn away in ten minutes. Holy Frak.


7) The fleet finds Earth. All the signs and portents of the past three years bring them to a blue planet. They fly down to the surface; it's a ruined radioactive cinder. Earth, a world of Cylons, destroyed itself 2000 years earlier.




SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN 4.5 DO NOT READ 8, 9, OR 10!!!




8) Gaeta's stump stops itching. Having lost his leg to Starbuck's quest for Earth, and then watching the fleet ally itself with Cylons, and THEN finding out Earth was a joke, Gaeta teams up with Tom Zarek to overthrow Adama. The whole episode, his stump itches and bothers him. When finally arrested and awaiting execution, he looks down at his stump in amazement. “It stopped,” he says, as the rifles fire.

9) Roslin is coming for all of you. During Gaeta and Zarek's coup, Roslin escapes to the allied Basestar. Zarek tells her over the radio Adama is dead. Roslin becomes death incarnate. The Cylons she's hanging out with? Scared Shitless. Roslin delivers the most chilling threat in literary history when asked to surrender:

No. Not now. Not ever. Do you hear me? I will use every cannon, every bomb, every bullet, every weapon I have down to my own eyeteeth to end you. I swear it! I'm coming for all of you!

In that moment, while the murderous, genocidal machines look on in horror, Laura Roslin becomes one of the five hottest women in Science Fiction history. She was always an attractive older woman. Right there though? Smokin' hot.

10) Starbuck learns Dylan. A mysterious piano player shows up, and reminds Starbuck of her father. He manages to remind her of a song her father used to play on piano...little ditty called “All Along the Watchtower.” The look on Saul Tigh's face when she plays it is absolutely priceless.

And that brings us to the finale- perfect. Completely perfect, I don't care what anyone may say about Starbuck's fate, the identity of the Cylon God (who doesn't like being called that) or Mitochondrial Eve. The show winds up exactly where it must, yet not in any way I could have predicted. Marvelous. I won't, but I could double the length of this list with moments only from that final episode.






END OF SPOILERS!!!!!



So now it is gone, and I am going to miss it. I will tell you this. This is classic storytelling- the type of storytelling which will mean something different at different stages in your life, like a Shakespearian classic, or something by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Yet, the show was full of spaceships and robots. If you are a fan of truly great human drama, watch Battlestar. It happens to be sci fi, but I don't think you'll find anything in any genre more compelling. Thank you Ron Moore. I can't wait to watch it all again.