The final five episodes of CAPRICA

[Dave (imported)]

That's almost correct.

In the third season of B5, the owner wanted to can it and the outcry got too much as season three ended with Z'ha'Dum and that was a huge, monsrtous cliffhanger... So the the network heads OK"ed a fourth season and then proceed to sell the rights. Unable to secure the final season, JMS wrote the final episode of season four - "

The Deconstruction of Falling Stars

which closed the story of the Babylon Station so the readers wouldn't be left hanging.

Season five was planned out in the "book" kept by JMS. However, it was not written until after the end season 4.

I was reading JMS's writing online at the time and he always planned the fifth year into his story arc. He wanted to write what happened the year after the big climax of the war between light and dark, when the old races left the universe and the various alien races were free to do what they pleased.

JMS has complained about stories that end with the big battle and then never mention what happened after. So when he did get a season five, All of the plot lines of the previous four years could once again twist and turn around each other to reach some conclusion. AFter all, the battle for earth in season four is much more exciting than the battle at Coriana 6 where the Vorlons and Shadows leave the galaxy.

I like season five in that it shows that after the two big, climactic battles, there are still problems and still troubles hanging around. The victory is not clean and simple. THe peace is messy and filled with strife.

[KewlDawg (imported)]

...

, and we finally see the child who will become William Adama (the Lorne Green, Edward James Olmos character).

I am not as sure that Willie Adama grows up to be Bill Adama. IMHO, more likely a name-sake.

I really enjoyed the re-imaged BSG. I will say that I started out pretty skeptical. What, Starbuck without a dick? But as I watched, I grew impressed with the show's quality and well planned story arcs.

Caprica, though, was a good story line, but was being drawn out way too long. IMHO, it would have worked better as a 4 or 5 episode mini-series.

[jab (imported)]

The best Science Fiction show on TV must be B5, a standard that all other must be judged, so far none have, and Gagula was the worst of the bunch.

Pretty much.

I think that Caprica was setting up for a punch line, but with nothing in the middle of the story. The punch line is this: that the liberation of the souls on Earth, according to the eventual religion of the Cylons, was the genocide of the humans, according to the human point of view. Caprica is the explanation for the first explanation of the story.

B5 had some wooden acting, certainly, but there were episodes that were just good-on-their-own and some that were clearly pieces on the game board that was the "larger five-year story". The mix and writing were good enough that we came along for the ride. The secondary characters were all wonderful.

B5 was not perfect. One would launch into an origin-myth monologue at the drop of a hat: "billions of years ago..." and another would alternate between quoting Tennyson and quoting the fictional dad-figure, Mike Brady. One was a hedonist prick who was corrupt beyond belief - and paid for it mightily - and another was a hot-head who ended up becoming a major pacifist religious figure.

But it was good fun, and when the five-year story fired into full force, B5 was quite something to watch. I still pop in the DVD and watch the captain jumping off a building, out of a fast-moving people-mover, to certain death, only to be saved - again and again - by his mystic friends the First Ones.

[Dave (imported)]

I am not as sure that Willie Adama grows up to be Bill Adama. IMHO, more likely a name-sake.

I really enjoyed the re-imaged BSG. I will say that I started out pretty skeptical. What, Starbuck without a dick? But as I watched, I grew impressed with the show's quality and well planned story arcs.

Caprica, though, was a good story line, but was being drawn out way too long. IMHO, it would have worked better as a 4 or 5 episode mini-series.

You didn't see the last program or you missed the ending montage...

How do I say this without a major spoiler?

There are many things in the closing montage of APOTHEOSIS (the final episode) that link the future to the past. For the public I will say that we see Bill Adama who pilots the Battlestar Galactica through the five year series. I won't say anything else in B&W.

However, Danger, invisible spoiler text follows: It's his third son named in honor of his second son who dies in the assassination attempt. The kid's death prompts the Adama's takeover of the organized crime group, whatever they call it. Damn it Joe and Sam Adama watched their parents die and killed the people who did it out of revenge. They kill the Guatrau who ordered them assassinated and the execution resulted in the death of a child. Could a story get much darker than that? Bill Adama of the spaceship Galactica was the son of the head of the Caprican mafia, murderers from childhood.

If you don't want it spoiled, don't highlight the text you can't read. And if you reset the colors from a light background to a dark one, sorry ... you're shit out of luck.

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Caprica was crap as was Stargate Universe. I am, however, a fan of Battlestar Galatica, Stargate Atlantis and Babylon Five.