Galactica Reboot review

SPOILER ALERT Here I write about the ending of the series.

I don't hate the ending of Galactica as much as many sci-fi geeks do. In fact, I like the idea a lot. But it doesn't work for a few reasons I'll discuss here.

I love that they found Earth and it was all bombed out and useless (although while they were exploring it they seemed pretty unconcerned about the radiation levels which made the planet unlivable). And I love that they finally found the planet you and I know as Earth and named it after their Earth. They are our ancestors. Cool concept. A twist on the ancient astronauts thing. I even really dug the idea that Hera is Mitochondrial Eve. Made me giggle.

I even like the idea that we are a new species that is a mix of human and cylon.

One problem is that after all the wonderful development of stories about human conflict, politics, rebellion, social movements, civil unrest etc. that all took place aboard the fleet, everyone was pretty easily persuaded to accept the "clean slate," land on the planet and fly all of their creature comforts into the sun.

The bigger problem, however, is that they ignored some things that violate our actual history. There were people already living here when the fleet landed, a primitive people for the humans to mate with and repopulate. Historically this should mean a huge jump in the development of language at the time of Mitochondrial Eve. This is not something we see in paleo-anthropology. (Yep, just made that word up.)

Also, they planted little seedlings of society in various spots all over the world. This doesn't work with our out-of-Africa understanding of human history.

The biggest problem, though, is the technology the humans brought with them. They landed a shit load of space craft on the planet. Where is all that stuff rotting all over the globe? And there was a whole lot of technological know how stored up in he brains of the humans from the fleet, know how they would have used in their new life on Earth. This would change the course of history as we know it. For example, weapons. Even if they didn't use the guns they brought with them, the ability to make them would surely quickly manifest. And agriculture. In an emotional moment Baltar even states outright that he "knows something about farming," (and he's probably not the only one) a bit of knowledge that would push the agricultural revolution ahead 140,000 years or so.

The writers seemed to be pressed to wrap things up quickly, and a la LOST, did so sloppily. Most of the problems could have been rectified with some less hasty writing. Suppose they plotted out several new planets on which to drop people. And the one Hera is left on is the one we know as earth. The people here decide to leave all technology behind. The fleet leaves them, taking all of the physical evidence of technology with them. We would still be left with some clunky cramming together of their fictional history and ours, but much less so. I'm not claiming to be a better writer than any of Galactica's, or a writer at all for that matter. I'm simply pointing out an easy fix.

And another thing. I hated imaginary Six and Baltar's final exchange about God and Baltar's line, "You know he doesn't like to be called that." All this talk of God, whether the monotheists or polytheists are right, the idea that the beings we created had their own concept of the one true god, and suddenly "He" doesn't like to be called that. They've just introduced a new mystery at the very end of the story. A little "ooh," a tease that the writers don't have to justify. Cheap shot. Just let the mystery of theology be and leave us with the idea that all this has happened before and will happen again. We, as in real life, can make up our own minds.