On March 20, 2009, with Part 2 of Daybreak, BSG ended its amazing run. It’s hard to believe that the show, from David Eick Productions, maintained its high quality from beginning to end, but it did. Sure, there were a few episodes that were not to my taste, mainly those with thinly disguised political overtones, but for the most part, BSG didn’t stray from the story of a doomed world seeking salvation.

Incredible

What’s even harder to believe is that this outside-the-box saga, this darling of the critics, failed to garner any major television award. How can it be that such a unique show with such high production values didn’t get a single acting award nomination when, in fact, it deserved them all? How could the performances of the cast be ignored?

Battlestar Galactica has won a few Emmy Awards for visual effects and for writing (yay!) and direction along with acclaim by the SyFy Genre Awards and the Saturn Awards, but recognition in the form of major TV award nominations has been lacking. Before I go any farther, please allow me a moment to applaud these extraordinary actors.

The Cast

Edward James Olmos as the stalwart Admiral Adama who leads the surviving humans

Mary McDonnell as the dying President Laura Roslin who finds a soul mate in Adama

Jamie Bamber as the conflicted Lee (Apollo) Adama who steps from his father’s shadow and becomes his own man

James Callis as the reprehensible Dr. Gaius Baltar whom I loathed so much I could hardly bear to watch him onscreen. Yet, he moved me to tears with his final scene when he tries to tell Caprica Six that he knows about farming.

Tricia Helfer as the Six in all her incarnations from the devious architect of the humans destruction to the mother grieving for her stillborn child.

Grace Park as the deceitful Boomer and also as the courageous Athena who proved to possess the human characteristics of honor and loyalty more than most of the humans.

Katee Sackhoff as the gutsy fighter pilot Starbuck who only learns the importance of life after she’s dead.

Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh, the XO who murders his own wife only to learn that he’s the enemy too. Yet he perseveres in doing what is right, what is human.

Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh, a woman of alleged loose morals, who is poisoned by her husband and later resurrected and revealed as a Cylon.

Aaron Douglas as Chief Galen Tyrol who loved unwisely and paid the price.

Tahmoh Penikett as Helo, Athena’s husband and a man brave enough to stand by the woman he loved despite everything.

Alessandro Juliani as the ill-fated Lt. Felix Gaeta whose personal loss changed him forever.

Donnelly Rhodes as the curmudgeonly but brave Dr. Cottle.

Nicki Clyne as the grasping Crewman Specialist Cally Henderson who would do anything to get her man.

Kandyse McClure as the deeply depressed Officer Anastasia Dualla who could no longer take it.

Michael Trucco as Samuel Anders who only got the woman he loved after death.

Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster who had more in common with Cally than anyone knew.

Final Episode

It took me a while to think about the final two-part episode, to let it soak in, and to assimilate it in all its action and symbolism. I decided that it was fitting and more profound than a surface viewing might indicate. It wrapped up all the story lines and created a fitting farewell for the characters we visited every Friday night. Here’s why.

The humans and their Cylon allies were distributed across the planet to make a home in this new world. To prove they learned the lessons taught by their bigotry, betrayal, and hardships, they send their advanced technology into the sun, leaving themselves with only enough supplies to get them going until they can sustain their new existence.

I like this because it was a technological emulation of the explorers who burned their ships once they’d reached the New World, committing themselves to making it or dying because there was no going back.

Wise Man & Wise Woman Archetypes

We see how the major characters end up with Tigh and his wife Ellen, both revealed as Cylons, walking away from the others, but they’re together. Symbolically, these are the older adults who can no longer procreate, even if they weren’t Cylons. They are separate from the others as older citizens usually are.

Future Of The World

Helo, Athena, and Hera, the young family of a human man, Cylon woman, and child of both, walk together. Helo, recovering from battle-sustained injuries, leans on a walking stick with Athena keeping pace with him. They joke together as young couples often do. Daughter Hera runs ahead, as children do, eager to explore this new world. They, and all the other young men and women, are the procreators who will populate and tame this new world.

Redemption

The venal Baltar, who only recently discovered what it was like to put someone else before his own pleasure or safety, and Caprica Six watch. Their alter egos who it turns out are angels (who knew!) tell the earthly Baltar and Six that God’s plan is never complete, but they assure the two that their lives will be less eventful from now on. Somehow, BSG became profound and spiritual and yet remained believable.

One of the most surprisingly poignant moments came after a flashback to Baltar and Six on Caprica. Then Baltar brokenly tries to tell Six that he can farm, but he begins weeping. She comforts him. They kiss, sweetly. Symbolically this is representative of the relationship of a man and a woman that begins with chemical attraction or lust, moves to sexual fulfillment, and then to a committed relationship. Baltar and Six have come full circle and found something richer than the lust and betrayal with which they began.

Farewell

Starbuck has a farewell scene with Apollo who we all thought was the great love of her life, and he may have been. Yet, she takes that opportunity to prod him to accept his own future as his own man. He can do anything. Surprisingly, he wants to be free and explore. As he describes what he wants to do, he realizes Starbuck has vanished. After all, she was dead long ago. We assume she has gone to meet Sam on the other side. As it turns out, she loved Apollo and Sam both, but Sam was her destiny.

Loss And Release

At last, we come to Adama. I’m moved to tears as I describe the scene where he sits on a ridge. He’s talking as he looks at the sweeping view of the world. We know he’s talking to his beloved Laura even though we also know she’s probably died. He talks about the cabin he’s wanted to build. When the camera pulls back, you see the rock cairn where Laura lies, finally succumbed to the cancer that has racked her body.

As you wipe away the tears, the scene fades to black.

Parting Shots

They don’t leave you in tears though. The final scene is proclaimed to be 150,000 years later. Of course, the city shown is New York. The Angels Baltar and Six are on the street reading over the shoulder of a man at a magazine kiosk about the discovery of fossilized bones of an ancient ancestor, “Mitochondrial Eve,” found in Tanzania. She is the common ancestor of all human beings, and she is the child Hera. Nice tie-in that makes you smile.

Then the rather weird angels discuss whether this all has to happen again. Optimistically, Six says it does not because the law of averages dictates that eventually change will come about. Profoundly, she says that’s in God’s plan too. Odd, isn’t it, yet it leaves you with the hope that this rather odd angel is spot on with her opinion.

The scene concludes with some visual and audio elbow pokes like the flat panel TV in the store window that’s showing an image of advances in robotics and the homeless man on the street with a radio playing “All Along The Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix.

The angels walk away arm in arm. The picture fades to black. The music ends. I guess one could say thus ends the cautionary tale of what happens to a civilization when it plays God.

Takeaway Truth

However you want to view BSG, one thing is certain, it was television at its best. So say we all.