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. 
Finally, a world war movie that shows the Canadian point of view. A powerful film about the sacrifice made by Canadian soldiers during World War I. Written by and starring Paul Gross (of Due South fame), who based the story on war stories shared by his grandfather who fought at Passchendaele.
This 5th season of Lost is starting off on the right foot. The 3rd and 4th season sometimes seemed to lack direction but the ship has been steered back on course. Inhabitants of the island are now travelling back and forth through time, having an adverse effect on some of the survivors. Some members of the Oceanic Six realize that they have to find a way back to the island. That their destiny is to be on the island and not back with regular civilisation.
Craig Hartsburgh was fired from the head coach position of the Ottawa Senators earlier this week after a big loss against the Washington Capitals. He was replaced by Cory Clouston, the head coach of the Sens’ farm team in Binghamton. Though I feel the problems are a lot deeper than the coaching, it was obvious that Hartsburgh could not find a way to inspire his players. He was a good coach, just not for this team at this time. His defensive minded system did not gel with the offensively-built Senators. I’m reserving judgement on Clouston until he’s had 5-6 games under his belt, but so far the team is playing with a lot more passion and heart. Lets just hope they keep it up.
A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Blizzard offering me a free 10 day trial of the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. This offer couldn’t have come at a better time. I was already itching to try it, and having given up smoking I wanted to do something to occupy my time. It was great to catch up with people in the game that I had last spoken to over a year ago when I quit playing.
I’m on day 14 of quitting smoking. The cravings still come and go, but less often and with less intensity. Every day I’m breaking more habits where I smoked in certain situations. It hasn’t been easy, but at this point I figure that there’s no point to have suffered for these 2 weeks and take up smoking again.
Last week the OC Transpo strike that’s paralyzed the city since early December finally came to an end. Both the city and the union agreed to go to binding arbitration. Funny how they both agree to that just as the Federal government was ready to introduce a back to work bill and just before Obama’s visit to our capital. By going to arbitration both sides save face and can state that they didn’t give in to their demands. 
Daniel Craig is back in the 22nd installment of the James Bond series, Quantum of Solace. The story is an action packed tale of revenge, resolution and just plain kicking ass.
On Tuesday November 11th 2008, Nine Inch Nails descended upon Ottawa and brought their long awaited Lights In The Sky tour to the nation capital’s masses. For almost 2 and a half hours, Trent Reznor and his touring band laid down a visual and auditory assault on 6000 fans.
The show started very early for a concert. The opening band 
On the 2006 With Teeth tour, Nine Inch Nails fans were introduced to the transparent digital screen. Growing that concept, the Lights in the Sky tour boasts 3 massive transparent screens with motion sensors and an amazing light set that creates the most visually electrifying stage show that I have ever seen. Moving around the stage for various songs, these screens and lights echoed perfectly the style and mood of the songs being played. During Only, the screen was covered in static, with the screen melting away as Reznor stepped close to it, which is very reminiscent of the video for the song. One has to wonder how Reznor will top this stage show on his next tour.