Same time, same channel

“I wanted to ask you what you thought of the Season 2 finale” of Battlestar Galactica?

It's been a few months since I've seen it. As I recall, the survivors settled on New Caprica, only to see it turned into a penal colony when the Cylons arrived.

1. This can be evaluated on more than one level. There is a certain dramatic logic to this development. The survivors would be suffering from cabin fever after all these months in space, trying to stay one step ahead of the enemy.

So you can see them giving into the temptation to settle down prematurely.

2. At another level, this is a stock dramatic device which is been around since the days of the silent serials: the cliffhanger ending which leaves an audience on the edge of its seat, waiting for the next installment.

It's a variant on the damsel in distress, tied to the train tracks as the choo-choo approaches. Will Dudley Do-Right be able to rescue her before the train turns her into hamburger?

Another variant is the ticking time-bomb.

3. At still another level, drama is about conflict-resolution, so the screenwriters are creating dramatic tension for the sake of resolving it.

This is why, decade after decade, TV producers resort to the same life-or-death genres, viz. war, espionage, cops & robbers, hospital dramas, courtroom dramas.

The danger is when conflict-resolution becomes an end in itself: the regularly scheduled crisis of the week.

When there's no particular point to the series. It becomes cyclical rather than linear.

"24" is the best example of this formula at present.

4. There's also the subjective question, which varies from one viewer to another, as to whether we care about the characters. Do we care about Starbuck's inner demons? Do we care about Boomer's predicament—a toaster with a conscience? Do we care about who's in love with whom?

Speaking for myself, I could do without the robots-have-feelings-to motif.

5. BTW, our discussions have been limited to the SF genre. When I say that BSG is one of the best TV shows in that genre, this doesn't mean it's one of the best TV shows, period.

There are non-SF TV shows which are dramatically superior.

For example, La Femme Nikita, from a few years ago, was a more intelligent show—albeit pretty grim (reflecting the hopelessness of the secular worldview).