Battlestar Galactica: Final Thoughts
Last night a special era of television came to an end. The last episode of the groundbreaking series Battlestar Galactica hit the airwaves, with many anxious fans waiting to find out the answers to many questions that have been asked during its 4 season run. There was little disappointment, as many answers were given, many loose threads were completed, all while leaving some of these answers up to personal interpretation.
Battlestar Galactica was more than just a sci-fi TV show. It often used sci-fi as a vehicle to talk about issues that affect us, events that we see on the front pages of newspapers. War on terrorism, suicide bombers, revolutions, rape, genocide, religious fundamentalism, and many other themes were tackled throughout the series’ existence, never shying away from controversy. Not since the original Star Trek series in the 60s has a sci-fi show tackled taboo subjects, and I’m sad to think that we won’t see such another show for many years to come.
Spoiler alert! If you haven’t seen the last episode, don’t keep on reading unless you don’t mind finding out story details from a blog.
I’ll first admit that I’m a big fan of the show, so I’m probably a little biased of my thoughts of the series finale. I thought it was a pretty strong finale, with a lot of loose ends being tied up, multiple storylines ended and many answers given, all while asking some new ones. The first 90 minutes or so was purely amazing. The fight scenes between the humans and the cylons was the best fighting scenes we’ve seen on TV since the Federation-Dominion space battle. We finally were shown what the Opera house was all about. We were given a lot of information as to what the Caprica Six vision that Baltar kept on seeing was all about (I personally think it meant that they were angels, and that also meant some Cylons had souls). The fleet finally found Earth, the human civilization will continue to thrive, and all was good.
My only beef with the episode was how they handled the whole “what is Starbuck” storyline. They pretty much made her out to be an angel as well. What I don’t understand, however, is throughout the entire series, when Baltar saw the Caprica Six angel, no one else saw her. Same in a couple of episodes where it was shown that the real Caprica Six saw a Baltar angel. Now all of a sudden, we’re expected to believe that Starbuck was an angel? An angel that everyone saw, that everyone interacted with, one that was made of flesh and bone, was seen bleeding after fights, was often drunk and other corporeal things that shown her to be just human? I think that this particular ending for that character was just a copout. I was also disappointed that there wasn’t a big goodbye scene between Admiral Adama and Tigh. Their friendship was one of the backbones of the show, and yet they didn’t even get a scene for their goodbye.
Regardless on my little beefs with the final episode, I thought it was great. BSG easily scores in my top 3 favorite TV shows of all time. We haven’t seen the last of BSG however. This fall we’ll be treated to a 2 hour TV movie called Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. Directed by Bill Adama himself, this 2 hour movie, which takes place just before, during and just after the attack on the colonies, will show events we are familiar with, but from the viewpoint of the Cylons. In 2010, a prequel show entitled Caprica will hit the airwaves. That show will take place roughly 50 years before BSG, and will touch on the creation of the Cylons and the first Cylon war. As interesting as that show sounds, I don’t think that it will equal or surpass the series that its based on. Now I’m just hoping that they release a series DVD boxset so that I can enjoy this show again and again.
Luc "Sandman" G. 
The Ottawa Senators were first out of the gate today, the last day of trading for the 2008-2009 NHL season. Our hometown Sens sent the much beloved Vermette to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for goaltender Pascal Leclaire and a 2nd round draft pick.
2001 draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has been a very good goaltender for that team but unfortunately got hurt earlier this year and is out for the rest of this season. In almost 7000 minutes of play, Leclaire has a very respectable .907 save percentage and 2.82 goals against average. Assuming he comes back 100% from his ankle surgery, Leclaire could end up being the best goaltender we Ottawa fans have seen between our pipes (Hasek notwithstanding). With him comes a 2nd round pick in what experts are calling the best draft in many years. All in all, I think that Murray did a very good trade and that Ottawa came out the winner. Unfortunately we don’t get to see until next season if it is truly so.
That wasn’t the only change to the Sens lineup. Even though he has been playing down in Binghamton for the farm team, Gerber was finally picked up off waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Their #1 goaltender, Toskola, requires hip and groin surgery and will be out of the lineup for the rest of the season. The Leafs, not wanting to put the pressure on the again Curtis Joseph, picked up Gerber for the remainder of the season. Since he was picked up on waivers, the Leafs will only have to pay 1/2 of his remaining 800k salary. Not a bad deal for a team that absolutely required a goaltender. Gerber is a class act and I’m glad that he gets the chance to play in the NHL again, even if it is for the greatly hated Leafs.