Battlestar Galactica series finale: That Sought-After Sun

[Menbailee]

Title: Battlestar Galactica: That Sought-After Sun
Faneditor Name: Menbailee
Tagline: All of this has happened before. All of this need not happen again.

Original Movie Title: Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak
Genre: Drama/Sci Fi
Franchise: Battlestar Galactica

Fanedit Type: FanFix

Original Release Date: 2009
Original Running Time: 2h32m
Fanedit Release Date: June 2013
Fanedit Running Time: 2h17m
Time Cut: 19m
Time Added: 4 minutes

Synopsis
That Sought-After Sun seeks satisfying story and character closure for Battlestar Galactica. Crucial plot points from the originally aired finale have been altered to render the entire story more coherent and character driven. God or gods may or may not exist. Starbuck no longer vanishes. Bill Adama is no longer Leaving Forever. The visions in the opera house, and the many sacrifices on the road to Earth, will mean much more than in the only ending fans have had available until now.

Intention:
The original finale, while containing many satisfying closures for characters, devolved into utter incoherence on some pivotal matters of plot. The writers’ strike probably played a hand in rendering the ending of the show less than it could have been. Crucial plot points relied upon either arbitrary chance or the intervention of an equally arbitrary god. Several major story points built over the course of the entire series ultimately amounted to almost no significance or were even contradicted, while several major character decisions in the last half-hour serviced a plot objective rather than deriving from sensible motivations. To add insult to injury, the story relied on intelligent design, two Earthlike worlds that just coincidentally had the same constellations, and an embarrassing array of misportrayed science--which is different from science fiction.

Additional Notes
The synopsis is deliberately vague to minimize spoilers. This finale has received some of its most positive commentary from viewers who have not seen the original. If you have seen the original, try to put aside preconceptions about what is happening, since the implications of the story become significantly different.

Other Sources
ESO/VISTA telescope video of the Helix Nebula
Centurion footage from Season 2, Episode 2 of Battlestar Galactica
Opening scene of Gaius and Six from Season 2, Episode 1 of Battlestar Galactica
Wide shot of the ship from Season 2, Episode 1 of Battlestar Galactica
Recap footage from Season 2 Episode 20 of Battlestar Galactica

Special Thanks
Thanks go to BionicBob for extremely helpful advice on an early workprint, to L8WRTR for technical and editing support, and to everyone on Fanedit.org who commented. Thanks also to all my friends who gathered to screen the first completed workprint, and to my girlfriend who cried during this ending after watching the series for the first time.

Release Information
NTSC DVD-9 - Available
MP4/M4V/MOV - Coming soon!
--The release should be available through the regular channels in a few days; PM me for links before then if desired.

Editing Details
I began with a tremendous respect for the creators of Battlestar Galactica, particularly Ron Moore, and for the many plot and character balls they juggled. I wanted to do justice to what they had established, and that meant respecting and maintaining their intent in many regards. I aimed to keep the look and feel of the show’s editing style, and I went to great lengths to achieve the best video quality possible, but telling a character-driven story was paramount. I thus opted to incorporate a deleted scene that uses lower resolution than the movie’s main source material, because it achieves something very specific that no other footage could.


Change List

Reveal message

Fanedit copyright warning added

Previously on Battlestar Galactica cut

Regular opening titles cut

Alternate opening sequence added:
Opening verse of Apocalypse used as audio (sped up slightly), while a translation of the title song appears on the screen over real deep-space images zooming in on the Helix Nebula
[The translation is my own and follows the original Sanskrit more literally than most translations you will find online. "Dhiyo," a complex term for the purest essence of mind or self, is glossed as "the best part of ourselves" to match Lee's phrasing in the final act.]

Main cast titles added over introductory montage

Baltar's flashback to conversation with Calvin moved to his decision to stay with Galactica, where it replaces his POV shot of Lee. Color correction links the two shots of Baltar between which the scene originally appeared.

Starbuck's argument with Adama over plugging Sam into Galactica removed

Awkward transition between parts 1 & 2 of Daybreak smoothed

We cut away from Skulls and Racetrack as they make the decision to go weapons hot. They are not killed by a random asteroid.

Trimmed, reframed, and reversed version of final flashback with Baltar and Six inserted when they see their “angelic” doubles together

Final shot of dead Boomer removed and used instead for dead Athena

Scenes of Centurion boarders from "Valley of Darkness" replace footage of Roslin as Athena chases after Baltar and Six, so that Roslin does not appear to be reaching the door, but instead that the Centurions are chasing after Athena. Scenes from Valley of Darkness color corrected to match tones of Daybreak. The Centurions open fire on Athena, with a zoomed-in and flipped version of the excised shot of Boomer's bloody face serving to confirm Athena's death.

Deleted scene inserted: Sharon hears about the death of her parents. Her first and last memories are of losing her family. Fade to white into Baltar and Six carrying Hera.

Baltar's speech on god truncated, and Cavil's interest in it removed.

Sharon and Helo cut from long shot of CIC

"Zombie Racetrack" removed. Bits of footage of Racetrack and her ECO assembled [reversed or modified as needed] to convey that she deliberately launches the nukes at the Colony when the Cylon bargain sours

During Starbuck's jump montage, after she asks, "What am I?" Leoben's telling Starbuck that she is an angel is replaced by Sam describing Number 7 as Daniel, followed by a shot of the pianoman hallucination who we have learned is Kara's father.

Shots of fleet arriving at Earth removed. Galactica has traveled in a way the fleet cannot follow. As Adama said, this was a one-way trip.

Title cards added: Earth, 3114 B.C.E. - 10,000 years before the fall of Caprica
(Those who know their history will understand that Galactica arrives just in time for the dawn of urbanism)

Brief dialogue between Bill and Lee concerning humanity already existing on Earth retained, with zoomed clips of tribal society overlapping. Intelligent design and incorrect ideas about human evolution removed.

Apollo's decision to abandon all technology removed. Although he makes reference to sharing "the best part of ourselves" with the native humans, there is no deliberate abandonment of all technology into the sun. Considering that all they have is a broken Battlestar and weapons with no ammunition, no such decision is necessary.

All scenes showing the fleet and characters left with it removed, as the fleet did not make it to Earth.

Stock footage of sweeping across terran landscapes replaces shots of fleet before Adama's plan for colonization

Wide shots showing characters left behind in the fleet replaced with shots of the colonization Adama is narrating

Scene giving closure to Tyrol, Ellen, and Tigh comes before Adama's final launch scene

Adama's final launch scene shortened to remove shots of fleet

Scene showing Helo and Athena as surviving removed. Shots of colonists from the start of this scene are inserted to complete a sense of colonization. Title cards show the number of survivors from Galactica and the unknown disposition of the fleet.

Dialogue between Adama & Roslin of what to call planet removed

Lines concerning Bill Adama "not coming back this time" removed

Dialogue between Starbuck and Apollo rearranged. Now, when Lee stops short on, "I must be craz--" it's because Kara has given him a look that he realizes means she won't be joining him. After the flashback, he thus asks where she'll be going. After her saying she's done, we get Lee's hungover sense of a bird flying away.

Starbuck no longer vanishes. Instead, the scene with her returning to Anders comes after her conversation with Apollo, not before. The scene is edited so that she says, "I love you," but not, "goodbye." Inserted S2E20 recap footage of S2E05's "I'm coming back. I said it. I meant it." We then cut to a wide shot of Galactica alone taken from Season 2, Episode 1.

Opening of Laura’s scene with her student slightly trimmed; shots of Laura’s “baptism” laid over opening and closure of scene

Timing of dialogue and footage of Hera, Baltar, and Six altered in order to remove Sharon and Helo.

Opening scene from S2E01 inserted in lieu of final flashback with Baltar and Six. "She's our child, Gaius. Our little girl." Dialogue in scene changed slightly to move it along more quickly than in the original. Some shots are zoomed to excise that episode's opening credits.

Final shot of Baltar and Six walking away replaced with Opera House footage from several points in the series, including one horizontally flipped and reversed shot to show Six and Baltar walking into the future with Hera.

Closing shot of Hera looking to the sky inserted during the final moment of the series to imply that she embodies hope for the future.

Epilogue with Head Six and Head Baltar in New York removed. An edited version appears in the special features. "Five Millennia Later" and different stock footage of NYC replaces "150,000 years later." "Mitochondrial Eve" is removed (as the writers misunderstood what this means). The "robot revolution" is replaced with footage of various destructive behaviors of humankind.

A second special feature cuts together footage from many episodes to suggest the fate of the fleet...

 

[bionicbob]

Classic BSG is MY Star Wars.

I love the original show with almost blind passion.

So when the Ron Moore reboot was announced by SyFy (or was it still SciFi, back then? lol) I was nervous and skeptical. But the mini-series quickly won me over and I became an avid fan when the series proper launched. For me, seasons one and two are near perfect. Season three was strong though you could sense the wheels on the show were starting to get loose. Season four the show went completely off the rails for me. And the series Finale? It was a very maddening experience for me.

What did I dislike about the Finale? There are soooooo many things....
--- Hated the flashbacks! Feels like filler created so they could give Baltar one last retro-con.
--- Little or no pay off to all the established major subplots like the Opera House Prophecy
--- The fact, after spending four yarhens with these characters, watching them sweat, bleed and sacrifice to survive, once they finally get to Earth they give up all tech and go their separate ways.... uh, really? So the theme of working together meant nothing? I mean, with no tech, alone in small groups, in a hostile planet, you just know all these Colonials will be probably be dead in a few years!
--- The vague Starbuck plot resolution did not bother me too much, but it frustrated me after a season of seemingly trying to be bold and clever, Moore was afraid to make a final statement either way about the existence of God/Gods.
--- Oh yeah, Adama, the symbol of Human Complexity and Endurance, just gives up and leaves his people!
--- And then, were are told they found Earth over a 100,000 years in the past, so we now know the Colonials had absolutely no impact in the creation of our modern civilization.... basically giving the finger to the core theme of them being Ancient Astronauts and the forefathers of Man.
--- And for one last kick in the balls, the New York Epilogue which darkly hints (despite what Caprica Angel says) that Man is doomed and Machines will rise to destroy us again.

So in the end, the entire four seasons of story investment was for fracking NOTHING!!!!

I know this must sound like a rant, but stick with me, it does turn into a rave.... LOL.

So now we have Menbailee's version of the nuBSG Finale.
And I must say, it is a solid and more satisfying experience than the original.

Menbailee's goal seems to be to try to retro-con the Finale to it resolves/pay offs most of the previous seasons set ups. And I think for the most part he succeeds, though some of his solutions open new subjects for debate and speculation.

The Opera House Prophecy is given a BRILLIANT solution. This is my favorite part of the fan edit. I really think the concept Menbailee came up with was so genius and obvious, I can not fathom why Moore and company did not think of it themselves. Great work M!

One of the main plot points Menbailee was obsessed with resolving/proving was the Earth Constellation Conundrum. Menbailee's theory is there is only ONE Earth, thus the Cylon Earth and Second Earth must be one in the same. (personally, I really like the idea of finding a second planet and naming it after your hopes and dreams, but I understand Menbailee's edit objective) His solution to this problem was very interesting and I think executed as well as it could be considering the source material available, though some viewers might find it confusing as there is really only a Title Card that suggests what has happened. It also opens up a whole Timey-Wimey Can of Worms in regards to paradoxs, alternate history or repeating history all over again. Not to mention what happens to the rest of the fleet.... though there is a fun bonus feature connected to this....

The final fates of our heroes end on a slightly more positive note. Adama does not give up. The fleet is not destroyed. There is plan to survive and build. In fact, Menbailee alters the Colonial's Earth Arrival date, clearly establishing that they are our founding fathers. And Starbuck's ending is very different, and during the Jump Scene, Menbailee tries to provide a subtle clue to Kara's origin, though I think it opens a whole new line of unresolved discussion. Menbailee also smartly cuts the New York Epilogue, so the story ends on an uplifting note of Hope.

As I said, a much more satisfying story.

Though Menbailee does retain the Caprica Flashbacks, which I still feel reveal absolutely nothing new or significant about our characters. Though I must admit, I did like how Menbailee recut the final Apollo scene with the bird. Very clever.

There is a lot of story in this movie, and it could be challenging for the viewer who has not seen the show in a while, so I think it would have helped if the edit had retained or created a "Previously..." teaser to bring the audience up to speed.

Technically, for a firstling edit this is very good work. Audio was fine as far as I could discern. The video quality fluctuates because Menbailees incorporates lower quality deleted scenes and/or has cropped/zoomed in other scenes. But these are acceptable as they function wonderfully to tell his new narrative.

The bonus features are fun, though they could have used a little more editorial/technical polish.

So if you are a New Battlestar Galactica fan, and like me was frustrated and disappointed by the original series finale, I highly recommend you check out this fan edit.
:thumb:

 

[juice4z0]

This edit has jumped to the top of my viewing list. I don't want to read Bob's review until after i watched it. But damn it Bob I saw the last line and coming from you that's one hell of an endorsement. You better not have gotten my hopes up for nothing

 

[bionicbob]

This edit has jumped to the top of my viewing list. I don't want to read Bob's review until after i watched it. But damn it Bob I saw the last line and coming from you that's one hell of an endorsement. You better not have gotten my hopes up for nothing

I hope you like it but I guess it really depends what you wanted out of the nuBSG Finale.

This is good firstling edit. It is not perfect and there are things as a storyteller I would have done differently, but in the end I enjoyed it and felt like dignity had been restored to the BSG legacy.

 

[white43]

I'm ploughing through BSG at the moment and am 3 disks from the end of Season 4. This has jumped to the top of my watch list.

Does this replace Daybreak 1, 2 & 3?

 

[juice4z0]

First off I was late getting on the BSG train. My old downstairs neighbor lent me one season at a time untill i finished the series. This was 4+ years ago. I watched it from the second i got off work to the second i would go to sleep. I was hooked. So needless to say like most the last 2 season's were a little weak and let me down. Starbuck's story line was the main one holding me in.

But as Bob said into the review enough ranting.

Video quality Bob said all that needed to be said, Good over all but some ups and downs with some of the deleted scenes. The one that stuck out the most was the flashback one with Boomer. also on this scene. First it's very well placed and does well to draw the intended emotional response. But on a side note, man they must program those sleeper Cylons all super crazy good cause she totally sold that her fake family died.

Moving on Audio. I did find a few audio errors in the edit. but to be fair to the editor I am in the middle of a re-score so every little audio anything pop's out at me. But with that said there are no horrible transitions.

Touching on the one Earth idea Bob mentioned. It works but I did have to pause it to kinda grasp what the change meant before moving on.

Here is where Bob and I differ. I personally loved the sending the fleet into the sun part of the episode. I never got the impression they left 100% of it on the ships. I just got the impression they got rid of all advanced tech I.E Battle Stars/Weapons and anything super advanced. That being said the editor did a good job of removing that scene. However one part that felt off was when Adama takes the last raptor of the ship. It's understood that's that no one is to step foot on the ship again, yet we see Starbuck up there later. Not a huge thing. (But great way to give her a new resolution, she ends up with well i dont want to spoil it)


Lastly addressing the Adama leaving forever part. Even though the lines about him saying goodbye to everyone. It still very much felt like he went to be the same hermit. I think it was the way Starbuck and Lee said goodbye to him that kinda made it still feel like a permanent goodbye. I assume they were supposed to be showing sympothy for him since his love was about to die?

Oh yeah as Bob said best part of the edit was the resolution of the Opera house.

 

[Vultural]

I watched the entire series, as well as Razor, Plan, Caprica (that could use an edit), and Chrome.
Just extracted Sought After, and will definitely watch and leave a review.
The original ending did not bother me, though threads snapped abruptly and all lyricism disappeared.

 

[Zarius]

Thinking of doing my own take on the Galactica finale, and will definitely watch this for inspiration.

 

[Menbailee]

I'm in almost complete agreement with BionicBob on both the strengths and limitations of this edit. I'm glad that my favorite alterations (and the ones that took the most work!) were the ones that reviewers so far liked most also. How to make the Opera House Prophecy meaningful was obvious in concept, but not easy in execution, since I had to fabricate plot points out of bits and pieces of footage from throughout the series.

I also agree with most of the critiques. Many result from footage limitations, but some result from my own learning curve as a firstling editor.

Moving on Audio. I did find a few audio errors in the edit. but to be fair to the editor I am in the middle of a re-score so every little audio anything pop's out at me. But with that said there are no horrible transitions.

Are you able to say where you heard some of these? The dialogue was sometimes difficult to edit, since the music is all over the center channel. I'd hoped for more technical feedback from several reviewers last year, but after waiting a very long time I eventually decided I'd simply need to go without if this thing were ever to get released. If I get such feedback now, though, I have no problem with updating the download with minor audio and video quality fixes.

Since some visitors to the thread are trying to avoid spoilers, I've included further musings beneath the tags.

Reveal message

The edit contains a few Easter eggs for the extremely astute. For example, the date of Galactica's arrival corresponds not only to the dawn of urbanism on Earth, but also to the start date of the Maya Long Count calendar. Those who do the math may realize that the series thus takes place somewhere around the end of the next 13-bak'tun cycle.

The first clue about time travel comes in the first minute of footage, since if an ancient Earth hymn was authored 5,000 years in the future, something timey-wimey must be afoot. I wouldn't expect many viewers to catch this, though, and limited footage options left the time travel plot point extremely understated. (Frustratingly, both Mary McDonnell and Katee Sackhoff have starred in time travel movies, but neither ever exclaimed anything about time travel that I could lift as a voice-over.)

Is Galactica our future, our past, or both? Does the arrival of the Colonials create the world we have today, did it create a different future, or are we truly running in an absurd loop recounted over and over by the gods? The answers are intended to be up to the viewer's interpretation. Galactica was always good at provoking debate, and I wanted the finale to provide story conclusion for our characters but to leave some thematic questions wide open.

I like to believe that we have looped several times, but the Cylon/human truce our characters achieved means this is first time we have Hera as our ancestor. Since part-Cylons keep the abilities of projection and resurrection, it means that when Cylon technology is discovered, this time there will be no difference. Will we still obliterate ourselves? Maybe, but we have a better shot at avoiding it.

I think a lot of viewers joined Bob in finding the flashbacks pointless. I love them, so I think it's worth explaining what I got out of them.

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Roslin: We learn that she could lead so well when the world ended in part because her world had already ended once before. The death of her family stood in her character notes before the first episode ever aired, and its informed who she is in a lot of ways, but we the audience only learn about it now. We then see how she finds that she clearly is not going to create new meaning for herself by dating or other passtimes, so she accepts Mayor Adar's offer to enter politics.

Adama: We learn that he wasn't the retiring commander of an aging battlestar simply because the military put him out to pasture, which we might easily have believed in the miniseries. Instead, he turned down the career options available because of the particular kind of pride he took in his integrity. This integrity and guts is what inspires Saul to follow him--and part of why he's the man who could keep the ragtag remnants of humanity together on the way to Earth. Yet the series reminds us viscerally that Adama is a mortal man with weaknesses. We see him barfing up his dinner behind a strip club, drunkenly grinning as he collapses in a puddle. Frequently, we do not like to picture our heroes this way--and Galactica, unlike most television, reminds us that this is part of what a real hero looks like.

*Kara/Lee: Kara has opposing desires for healthy and unhealthy love. The healthy loves in her life--Zak, Bill Adama, and ultimately Sam--are plain men committed first to the people around them (and none of them capable of holding as much liquor as she can, implying they never drank as heavily). Her unhealthy love, Lee, is ambitious and secretly as cynical as she is, and he's someone for whom she felt passion from the get-go--when she's drunk and making bad decisions, at least. We also learn a little bit from her drunken admissions of what she does and doesn't fear. Lee, on the other hand, has always been chasing a fantasy. Only on Earth, when Kara does not join him on his adventures but instead tends to her husband in his coma, does he finally let go.

*Baltar: Those who call his backstory from this episode a retcon forget that we heard about these origins during the season 3 episode "Dirty Hands." What we see here is so entirely in keeping with who he is, and explains so much, it's brilliant. Baltar's constant yearning for status and sex partners, as well as his thrill at having them, are largely about distancing himself from a past and a childhood that he despises. He loves his father enough to prioritize him when he could just let him rot, but he also hates and resents the guy.

Calvin takes on a more significant role in the edit, despite having equal screen time. Note that Calvin has the same accent as Baltar's father, implying his family also comes from the upwardly mobile poor. Baltar can connect with him and the guise of showing off. His conversation with Baltar is repositioned to suggest that this rare moment of authentic interaction is what Baltar remembers when he decides to abandon his harem and stay with Galactica for Hera.

Six: Ah, Six. Underwritten throughout the series. We learn nothing new about her, other than that she and Gaius maybe loved each other from the start, but failed to express it well. Sucks.

Saul/Ellen: The least informative of the flashbacks, and the only ones I might trim if I returned to the edit.

Tyrol: Also not much new information, but still fun to see.

Boomer: It's rewarding to see the way that Adama bent the rules for his pilots, and also the reason for the loyalty that Boomer shows toward Adama during season 1.

Athena: The deleted scene serving as Athena's memorium is a knockout punch in context. We know from seasons 1 and 2 that Athena and Boomer share memories prior to leaving Helo on Caprica, and now we see how those memories began. The Cylons introduced their sleeper agent not simply with memories of lost parents, but rather with memories of living parents, then made sure that their first real memories would be of losing them. It's devilish: experiencing tragedy makes them all the more relatable, all the more human.

And looking back, we see that Athena's every action, all her suffering throughout her imprisonment and thereafter, has been to prevent this memory from happening again, to prevent herself from losing the family she has chosen. But she fails. Her nightmare comes true. As she dies, her husband lies bleeding to death behind her, and her child unreachably ahead of her in the arms of people she hates. Athena's first and last memories are of losing her entire family.

So, some are insightful and others less so, but for me they add a great deal to the story. It would be much more difficult to create my version of the story with flashbacks excised, since they're more integrated into the main action now than in the original.

 

[Menbailee]

Since the existing links via fanedit.info needed replacing anyway, I've made a new DVD available with improved video quality in a few places. There's also a medium-res MP4 available for anyone who wants a smaller file size. Feel free to PM me for the links if they aren't up on .info yet.

I finally found a way to improve the video quality on that frakkin' deleted scene. For reasons I have never fathomed, my rip of that title, with multiple software suites on a variety of settings, always came out interlaced; de-interlacing sank the quality to a level visibly lower than the surrounding footage. I assumed the source had been interlaced instead of having pulldown flags. Sucks. The newest version of DVDfab, however, ripped that title at 41 fps, no interlacing. What? I don't know, but it looks better. Video quality connoisseurs will still notice the difference against the main movie, but it won't stand out to casual viewers anymore.

Finally having the great stumbling block of this edit resolved, I felt inspired to re-rip all footage from earlier than season 4 (some of which I had panned or cropped) from HD sources, which I didn't have when I started the edit. These clips are on the screen for a very brief period and did not suffer so greatly in quality, but their source resolution now matches the rest of the movie.

The differences are extremely slight, but I'm quite thrilled, since it leaves me truly satisfied with the project at long last. After a short time to feel certain, I do believe I shall have space on my hard drive again.

 

[plurmonger]

Congratulations [MENTION=11329]Menbailee[/MENTION], this is an astounding edit for your first time. And thank you for doing it; it certainly needed to be done. Here is my review, copied and pasted from IFDB.

"Now this is what I was hoping for the first time around! Menbailee has given us the BSG finale we were hoping for, instead of the ragged end full of loose threads we were given the first time around. No longer does the most engaging character with the most complex story simply vanish with no explanation; no longer does the shepherd abandon his flock. And when it ends, your first thought won't be WTF?! The change made to the final destination is major, but if you really think about it, it makes perfect sense. It's actually so appropriate that it makes past events which were never fully explained in the series proper look like clues to this very outcome. Plus, it helps flesh out the "Starbuck mystery." I also really love the flashbacks re-appropriated as final character beats and the more thoroughly realized opera house prophecy.This is a very professional and elegantly realized edit that will now act as my preferred ending whenever I re-watch the series. And if you have never seen the original closing episodes, consider watching this instead. It's much more satisfying, and you can always go back and watch what was aired as a frustrating, inferior "director's cut."


The DVD was nice with some fun extras. The sound and picture were consistently good, except for the scenes which were either re-sized or re-inserted from an unmastered source. These bits are few and far between, though, and they serve the edit, so they are forgivable."

 

[Zarius]

Well, just got finished watching that and it was a real treat.

The stories all made a lot more sense in this edit, characters journies meant a lot more and tied better in with the mythology the writers seemed to loosen their hold on over the course of the series, the flashbacks didnt intrude and the deleted stuff helped some of your creative choices a lot more, and I loved some of the additional clips from earlier in the series too to make the other choices easier to understand and make the whole thing feel like a coherant plan had been thought out. The resolution to Kara was less fairytale and more grounded and appealing to the side of me that likes strong themes such as commitment and belonging. Also glad you went with the ending the general fan consensus prefer too.

Easter eggs were...alrightish, didnt care much for the deleted epilouge or the additional montage, actually it made me prefer the original epilouge, the second easter egg was, however, much more amusing and I would love to see a show based off that concept.

 

[Menbailee]

Thank you both very much, plurmonger and Zarius! It's extremely gratifying for the edit to fill its intent as a replacement finale, especially for those who haven't seen the original.

With the minor updates in video quality to the cropped or deleted scenes, I've been able to consider this project well and truly done. I've deleted the source files from my hard drive. Freedom! The Hobbit edit is also done, so what next, I wonder?

Zarius, I'm glad that Kara's ending made sense and resonated. With available footage, it was difficult to convey the story I was trying to tell, and the themes you're naming are what I'd hoped for. I agree with you about not liking the deleted epilogue, though unlike you I dislike the original even more. The idea with the new montage was to show some real-world analogues for the issues that Galactica tackled rather than the ham-fisted Rise of the Robots in the original--though you can tell when you watch it that I never intended to use it in the movie. Also like you, I would seriously have enjoyed a show based on the second bonus feature, despite my having created it for laughs.

Reveal message

I would also want to know what happens to the crew on Earth and to Kara and Anders floating in the abandoned Galactica. The way I ended the show gives us three sequel spinoffs, in contrast to none in the original. Fanfic writers, start your engines! Also, what plurmonger says about certain unexplained beats throughout the series now seeming like clues is exactly what I had in mind. There's a bit of real astronomy within the DVD menu itself, just for fun.

 

[plurmonger]

I finally got a chance to look at the updated version with higher resolution in some scenes. It was much better; thanks for going through the effort to fix that.

 

[seciors]

Congrats on your first release Menbailee!!

Now a question for you:

I started out as a big fan of BSG reboot -- loved the miniseries that started it all, and enjoyed seasons 1 & 2. Season 3 for me started to falter, though I plowed through it to the end of that season (I recall I really only fond Starbuck's story interesting at this point in the series) -- at which point I felt I had to abandon the series, since I felt completely cheated that all of the sudden, all of these main characters were "secret" cylons (which made absolutely no sense to me based on what we had seen thus far). So, I stopped watching at that point. I did not watch any of season 4, nor did I watch the finale. Basically my biggest issue is the hidden cylons I think, and how nonsensical it felt to me; how it felt like some new plot development that was not carefully crafted from the beginning, and instead stuck in to add shock value and try to take the story in some different direction less grounded in science fiction and and more like a fantasy masquerading as science fiction.

My question is, based on my reaction and experience with this series, would it be worth it for me to watch this edit? If this edit somehow provides a satisfactory ending to the BSG story (that doesn't abandon what was built during the miniseries and seasons 1&2), then I think I might enjoy it. But I need to know (truthfully) whether this would be the case. What do you think, Menbailee? (Or others, if you have insight?)

 

[Menbailee]

I think this edit would be extremely confusing without having seen any of season 4. The finale I've created stays truer to the S1/2 vision of the show than the original did, but it necessarily depends heavily on plot points and character developments that happened in S3/4.

I watched the original broadcast of the Season 3 finale at a party with Ron Moore. Like most audiences, we were dumbfounded, and we began peppering Moore with questions. (The podcast of this party went on the SyFy website back when; I sounded like a dope.) It's true that Moore deliberately refrained from picking who the Final Five would be until the moment came, but the idea had always been that four thoroughly human characters would suddenly wake as Cylons. I disliked the acid-trip feel of the S3 finale at first, but the Final Five plotline proves surprisingly rewarding in Season 4. (Mostly. There is one profoundly stupid plot, but it's nuked from orbit before the finale.)

In the end, I guess you could try skipping Season 4 and seeing what sense you can make of the finale, but I think I'd advise watching the preceding episodes first.

 

[seciors]

Thanks for the honest response Menbailee. i appreciate it.

Truthfully, BSG let me down big time at the end of season 3, and I think that new plot line is just too much for me to handle. So as much as I would like to watch and support your first approved edit, I just think I can't do it. Sorry! But again, congratulations on the release!

 

[havok1977]

My question is, based on my reaction and experience with this series, would it be worth it for me to watch this edit? If this edit somehow provides a satisfactory ending to the BSG story (that doesn't abandon what was built during the miniseries and seasons 1&2), then I think I might enjoy it. But I need to know (truthfully) whether this would be the case. What do you think, Menbailee? (Or others, if you have insight?)

Fair warning - spoiler-ish info about Season 3 & 4 of BSG follows.


I agree that the third season of BSG was indeed the weak link. But the reasons why I feel that way are different than yours; my quips mainly were (It's been a while, so I dont remember exactly what happened when):

- Many characters became really annoying, first Apollo with this 'I don't care anymore' attitude during the time the colonials were stuck on that dirtball with Cylons over their heads, then suddenly doing a 180 and back in active service / leadership from one episode to the next... made me groan.

The less said about Callie the better, Chief Tyrol's arc suffered greatly because of her.

Adama and President Roslin's blooming romance I can take or leave, but I think it got overexposed somewhat.

The only character arc I enjoyed around that time was with Col Tigh, he really stepped up in leading and engineering the escape and showing some brass b@lls when dealing with his wife.

-Once things got better from that situation tho, most of the season was about the fleet flying randomly and directionless in terms of both the objective of finding Earth and character development; delving too much in the mystical elements for my tastes, too much about prophecies and blah blah blah. It became tedious for a time to be honest.

Actually, the slow burn revelation of the hidden Cylons ( and the final 5) was a step back in the right direction from my point of view. And of course the end of season 3 finally brought resolution to a major plot line that I'm sure was neglected intentionally for far too long just to build it up; it was good they delivered or else they would have lost lots of watchers.

Now, I'll try to avoid major spoilers, but season 4 came back with a vengeance dealing mainly with the tension of trying to expose with precisely who was a plant and the search for Earth became relentless again, with a real sense of urgency. And what is learned from that search was mind blowing.

And Starbuck's story was so intriguing during season 4!

Also

Reveal message

The fracturing of the Cylon models into 2 factions and the way those factions now react/deal with the humans.

was quite a twist.

If only the original ending was as great as season 4 was ... and the way I see it there is absolutely no point in watching the ending (original or edited) without watching the last season first... YMMV.

Having said that I still have to watch Menbailee's version (I kinda feel bad cause it has been sitting on my hard drive for a few weeks now); I plan to do it ASAP.

 

[Vultural]

Season 3 was hit n miss for me, as well.
Between watching Season 3 and Season 4, try to watch The Razor.
That's where the BSG creative team recharged their action mojo.