BSG Redux

CWs: massive Battlestar Galactica (Re-Imagined Series) spoilers within, caveat legens (if you haven’t watched the series, watch it!!)

You know, sometimes I wonder what home is. Is it an actual place, or is it an absence we carry inside of us? Some kind of longing for something, some kind of connection?

• Laura Roslin, Battlestar Galactica S04E18, “Islanded in a Stream of Stars” (2009)

We just finished Battlestar Galactica (TRS, or “The Re-Imagined Series”). We ended up watching E18 and then the three-part finale (“Daybreak”), 2.5hrs with the extended version, right after that. And it was fantastic. I watched BSG for the first time in 2016 or so, right after we moved to Colorado. I don’t know what inspired me to watch it; I was telling my spouse that I couldn’t remember why, but I saw it available on Hulu and just went for it. (Now that I think of it, that was back when Comcast/NBC Universal had a large stake in Hulu, so it’s not surprising that it was on there; now it’s on Peacock, IIRC). A few years ago, I bought the Blu-Ray set when I found it on sale, and I was really excited to watch it with my spouse. One night, jokingly, while hanging out with friends, I said I’d watch The Bear upon their recommendation if they would watch BSG with me. They agreed, fortunately enough, and we set about starting the series, with the miniseries of course. I can’t even remember when we started it; it must have been late last year, or very early this year. It’s been months, but we took a little hiatus for a couple of months there.

My spouse said after it was all done that they enjoyed it, but didn’t think it meant as much to them as it does to me. I would probably agree. For whatever reason, the show really resonated with me. Bill Adama & Saul Tigh’s close friendship. Kara & Lee’s relationship, messy as it could be at times. Helo is great! I thought he would be a one-off, but nope, they kept him around! Tricia Helfer is a hell of an actor! So is James Callis. Like, what an excellent cast. The writing wasn’t always perfect, but the actors absolutely nailed it, especially Mary McDonnell (as Laura Roslin), and often made it even better with their performances.

After watching the series for the first time, I remember having Lots of Thoughts, particularly about homecoming and the idea of “home.” The whole series is about the human race escaping annihilation and finding a home, at whatever cost. But even the idea of “home” mutates and morphs over time. Our favorite heroes make it off of Caprica (well, many do, not all!), in search of a new home. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace ends up going back to Caprica, a nostos to a ruined world that is no longer a viable home. Failed nostos. Yet she eventually meets up with Helo there, then meets Sam Anders, goes back to Galactica, her new “home.” Eventually there is another nostos to Caprica to save Sam Anders, and Starbuck also brings back Sharon Valerii, soon to be renamed “Athena.” They return to Galactica, their new “home,” but still searching for a permanent home, a world to call their own.

The doomed trip to Kobol is another failed nostos. It is not a dead or irradiated world, but it is not the “home” they are looking for. All that awaits them there are plenty of Cylons and death for many, and ruins. Yet there is a map pointing the way to the fabled lost world of “Earth.” The goal becomes “Earth” from there on out. Then the fleet finds a world they call “New Caprica.” This is another failed nostos, as almost immediately after they land, the Cylons find them and occupy the planet. This lasts for years, at which point there is another exodus, and the fleet is on the run again. One creepy aspect of this is the months Starbuck spends in captivity with the Cylon Leoben, in an apartment they have set up to look exactly like her apartment on Caprica. A home that is not a home, homecoming to anything but home, just a creepy, crawly facsimile. At one point the Pegasus battlestar meets up with Galactica and they have an uneasy alliance, which does not last long. Another potential home is denied to them.

From there, Starbuck works on finding “Earth.” Eventually revelations are had, true natures are revealed, and the way to Earth is opened. Humans and Cylons both agree to find Earth together. What they find is another ruined, irradiated, dead world. All their hopes are dashed. Another failed nostos. Where do we go from here? The fleet sets about finding any sort of habitable planet they can, preferring anything to nothing.

In the finale, Starbuck converts musical notes she has been working with for a long while into astral coordinates. She punches them in for a jump, and Galactica performs her last jump ever, suffering massive damage in the process. This, of course, is after the final battle with the Cylons to find Hera, the human/Cylon hybrid daughter of Helo and Athena. They arrive at a seemingly-habitable planet, which Adama and Roslin immediately think of as the “Earth” they should have had before. So it goes. This is the one nostos in which they succeed. It’s not quite “homecoming,” but it’s “homegoing” and the foundation of a new home. All other homes have been destroyed or denied to them, but this one sticks. What a hell of a journey, both literally and metaphorically. We see the characters grow so much over the course of the series, some more than others, but still, the audience gets to know and love them. And that’s why it’s so sad when we get to the end, everything is tied up as if with a bow, pretty neatly. Home at last!

Personally, I really love the end of the series. Adama & Roslin get a lovely sendoff, and so do Kara & Lee. Even Helo and his family have a nice epilogue. I honestly don’t know how controversial this was at the time, or now, but I can see how the 150,000 year time-jump would be a trip. I am perfectly OK with the whole series being “ancient astronauts” and being set in the past of our world. It blew my mind when I first watched it, and I really loved it. Even the ridiculous Ronald D. Moore (the creator) cameo in one of the final scenes. Fine, dude, you deserve a little cameo, you and everyone else made an amazing series! I really thought I’d have more to say about the “homecoming” aspects of the show, but I think this went just fine. There is a lot of cool stuff going on all throughout the series, and I really enjoyed listening to the podcast Beers, Beats, Battlestar Galactica along with my watch-through (it came a year or so after my initial run of the series). I haven’t finished it quite yet, and we still need to watch the movie The Plan as well as Blood and Chrome, so there’s a little more to watch, but the main series is over!

One other thing I wanted to mention is the music! Bear McCreary did an absolutely fantastic score for the whole series, and the soundtracks are excellent if you get a chance to check them out. The “Adama” themes are liable to make me bawl, such as “Wander My Friends” (with its Gaelic lyrics and Celtic vibes), “Reuniting the Fleet,” “Admiral and Commander,” “Grand Old Lady,” and others. This “Adama Suite” is a nice arrangement of a lot of the “Adama” themes. And this live version of “Wander My Friends” gives (good) chills! Bonus, this live version of “All Along the Watchtower” with a special appearance by the lovely Katee Sackhoff is also amazing! If those samples don’t make you want to check out the soundtrack, I don’t know what will! Seriously, though, McCreary composed the perfect music for the series and you can hear and appreciate it everywhere. It comes up on shuffle for me all the time and I’m never disappointed to hear a BSG track!

OK, that’s enough nerding out from me for today! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the show, whether you love or hate it, and if you haven’t watched it, didn’t you read the CW? I do not want to have spoiled the show for you!! Thanks for reading <3