Commenter "Blackie" asks the other million-dollar question:
How does Dirk Benedict fit into all this?
Well, as we all know, Starbuck's final episode of the season-- or of the series-- is #17, "Maelstrom," which has already been shown in the US and has caused some fan outcry (see here before it's too late; one fan wrote a blog post titled, "BSG kills all the bad girls"). Dirk was Starbuck in the original BSG; perhaps he'll sign on as the replacement Starbuck, appearing out of nowhere, running girlishly up to Samuel Anders and smothering him with kisses, then making moon eyes at Apollo from over Anders's shoulder. Dirk Benedict: going where no man has gone before.
That, or Dirk will be one of the Final Five Cylons. Why else would Lucy Lawless's character have that look of awe and reverence on her face just before she died? "My God-- an Eighties star!"
Actually, I think William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy should be two of the Final Five.
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I think Ron Moore once floated an idea to the other writers when they were working on "Home Part 2" of season 2 that when the gang enters the Tomb of Athena on Kobol the show would end by Dirk stepping out of the darkness and saying "Hi, I'm God." Thankfully the rest of the writers shot that idea down.
ReplyDeleteAs to what happened to Starbuck last night I wouldn't be so quick to write her off... remember that the re-imagined BSG likes to occasionally pay homage to its predecessor by borrowing elements of the original (see: the return of the Pegasus). Then remember that Galactica 1980, the horrid sequel series that lasted for all of 8 episodes, featured an actually passable ep. that had Starbuck crash-landing on a planet with a cylon that he rebuilt to be his friend..a sort of "Enemy Mine" with feathered hair.
Starbuck's "hallucination" of a (cloaked?) heavy cylon raider in "Maelstrom" immediately caught my attention, as that's really the only small ship in the Cylon fleet that meant to...(dramatic pause)... carry passengers. This could possibly provide an "out" that the writers could use to bring Kara Thrace back next season, possibly as a way to advance that whole "Cylon/Human" storyline.
As to your other post about finding Earth...I'm praying that the last shot of the series will be the rag-tag fleet just entering Earth orbit circa 3000-something AD with the original BSG theme booming in the background. Yeah, it's a happy ending but again, I point to Galactica 1980 and its incredibly stupid premise of "Colonials find Earth, initiate contact, find that Earth's gravity gives them super powers and start a little league baseball team". Why risk repeating all of that again? Just end it on a hopeful note and let the licensed novelizations take care of the rest.
I also don't think Moore will settle for the complete destruction of the Cylon in the end...he's invested too much of the narrative humanizing the Cylon to wipe them out, deus ex machina-style.