I don't think this will go anywhere.

To me, the fourth season of BSG was the like the Star Wars prequels for a lot of people - almost ruined the good stuff that came before it.

Was your issue with the fourth season the pacing and lesser action set pieces compared to previous seasons or was it more about possible story loopholes? Or maybe something else? I mentioned the pacing because I've heard that complaint from some BSG fans before.

I have no problem with mystic and supernatural stories, I just felt like it was not the show I got interested in at the start.

In an attempt to avoid fulfilling RawKryptonite's prediction there, I'll keep it brief. It was largely the story loopholes, and the overall change in tone and story focus. Action was a component of that, but not the biggest part, I don't think. I felt it went from kind of a story of survival to a story of the mystic and supernatural.

And just to head off some comments I can see coming, I have no problem with mystic and supernatural stories, I just felt like it was not the show I got interested in at the start. Add that to what I consider to be lazy writing and enormous story loopholes, and it just didn't work for me.

Only kidding

but I think it was obvious that they didn't really have a plan (unlike the Cylons I guess), and didn't know how to tie all that in at the end.

Very broadly speaking, I much preferred the humans-on-the-run-from-a-relentless-enemy BSG from the early seasons to the everything-is-intertwined-in-overly-tangled-quasi-religious-bafflement of the later series.

Sure, some of the season 3-4 stuff was interesting and clever, but I found the former a more compelling narrative.

To date, only one American tv show has had a completely written out and planned multi-year storyarc from the beginning: Babylon 5.

but I found the former a more compelling narrative.

What's interesting is that it may be more compelling but for how long can any writing team stretch that premise out without it getting repetitive? By the end of season 2, Moore and Eick felt that they had pretty much run the course with that premise and thus we got the New Caprica, jump one year ahead concept.

For me, the BSG letdown that stands out the most, only because of how little it finally meant, was "the dying leader shall know the secret of the opera house." In the big picture it meant nothing, but at first it sure SEEMED important and the reveal in the finale was a major disappointment. I'd have preferred that element have never been introduced at all.



The Jedi Master

Series 1-2 had incredibly resourceful Cylons who'd infiltrated humanity and executed a devious plan, were always one step ahead, a grim time for a decreasing number of humans fighting desperate rearguard. The decreasing count of survivors at the start of each episode actually meant something.

DS9 wasn't planned out, but it also wasn't planned to be serialized like BSG was from the start. Same with B5.

DS9 was a story-of-the-week show that morphed to more serialized to differentiate itself more from Voyager I think. It also was partly because with the show being centered on one station near a couple of planets you always had to deal with the same things and new self-contained weekly stories that would wrap in an hour became too rote.

Other than a few multi-show arcs, TNG never did that. Voyager did it slightly, in that new eps would build on stuff that happened before, but rarely did you need to see what came before. When you did, they usually summed up what you needed to know in the obligatory ready room scene copied over from TNG that somehow DS9 largely avoided.

Anyway, I think it fair to say BSG SHOULD have had "a plan" from day one. They knew where they were starting, but their only idea of how it ended was the last 5 minutes and that meant little. Too many things were put in because they seemed "cool" or "interesting" at the time, and the writers were then forced to deal with that later. "Lost" had the same fate, a final year and series finale that let down a lot of the early fans because stuff didn't pay off, it didn't line up, or it just seemed silly.

For me, the BSG letdown that stands out the most, only because of how little it finally meant, was "the dying leader shall know the secret of the opera house." In the big picture it meant nothing, but at first it sure SEEMED important and the reveal in the finale was a major disappointment. I'd have preferred that element have never been introduced at all.



The Jedi Master

If you recall, even Boomer in season 1 had several instances where she was fighting her programming and indoctrination which we later on find out in "The Plan" was done by Cavil to make her a sleeper agent. So even early in the series there were hints about divisions and doubts within the cylons.

True, but that would mean DS9 wasn't planned out, and I think they still managed to wrap it up well as compared to BSG, so like I said, it can be done.

For instance: Starbuck = didn't need an explanation, although it would've been nice had they had a GOOD one
Starbuck's Viper = NEEDED one, but wasn't even bothered with
Opera House = needed one, but what was given wasn't worth the effort
"Head" Six/Baltar = didn't need more than what was given, which was pretty slim
Hera = certainly seemed like there was going to be a payoff, but it wound up pretty banal



The Jedi Master

A disappointment right up there with Twin Peaks' ending that was utterly ridiculous too and put off fans waiting for something good.

That was Maggie Simpson that shot, right?



The Jedi Master

LOL
Maggie shot Mr. Burns, it was a big cliffhanger one season. A LONG time ago!

But then again I never really knew much about Twin Peaks.

May have to go back and find it on youtube, it's been a few years since I saw it. I think TNT or SciFi ran it for a while a few years ago.

Now they're reporting Universal has hired a script writer, so...



The Jedi Master

It's going to be a film, not a show. The odd part is the screenwriter talked about melding the two series together somehow vs simply going just with the original.

"Superman Returns" was by no means a bad movie but the fiasco came mostly from its poor box office performance..

It's going to be a film, not a show. The odd part is the screenwriter talked about melding the two series together somehow ...

It's going to be a film, not a show. The odd part is the screenwriter talked about melding the two series together somehow vs simply going just with the original.



The Jedi Master

and too many people are going to be in theaters comparing it to the Mini-Series/Series.... and it will most likely not live up to it, as BSG was one of the top 10 shows of the decade (2000-2010)

I think it safe to say a LOT of people never saw it.



The Jedi Master