The series finale for Battlestar Galactica was broken up into three parts, and aired on two consecutive Friday nights.
Daybreak: Part 1 first aired on 13 March, 2009 and it all concluded the following week, on 20 March, with the last two episodes aired back to back. It was written by show runner Ronald D. Moore.
This is it, after four seasons the story ends here. Sure, there’s a follow-up movie from the Cylon side, and a couple of spin off attempts, but the main story ends here.
The preferred version is the extended cut, combining all three episodes, and adding in fifteen additional minutes, giving the final a runtime of two and a half hours.
Will our ragtag fleet find a home? As things develop, the Galactica is almost finished, continuing to come apart, as she is slowly dismantled to be shared with the rest of the fleet. Choices will have to be made, as we also get flashbacks throughout the characters lives from before the fall of Caprica.
Even into the last episode of the series we are getting insights into characters that allow us to see them differently. We get glimpses into the lives of Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff), Lee (Jamie Bamber), Roslin (Mary McDonnell), Anders (Michael Trucco), Tigh (Michael Hogan), Boomer (Grace Park), Adama (Edward James Olmos) and Baltar (James Callis), and they inform the characters in new ways.
Adama and the rest of the crew are preparing to relocate to the Cylon baseship, but is there something on the horizon? Projection Six (Tricia Helfer) warns Baltar that this is humanity’s last chapter.
Before things end for the Galactica, however, Adama gears up to find Cavil’s (Dean Stockwell) base and rescue Hera (Iliana Gomez-Martinez). It’s volunteer mission only, as it is located in the accretion disc of a black hole.
An assault is planned and it’s going to be a no-holds barred slug fest, but will they be able to pull off the mission? Once again we are confronted with the horrific brutality of war and its cost.
The dialogue and characters remain powerful and amazingly written and I love every scene that has Adama, and I love whenever he shares screentime with Starbuck.
The injured Anders in his bio-bath is hooked into CIC to help facilitate quicker maneuvers and control over the Galactica (not to mention contacting the hybdrids), and it’s the final break for Adama, he’s given away the last of his ship to the Cylons.
Romo (Mark Sheppard) finds himself the new president as the Galactica leaves the fleet for what may be the final time. Roslin has chosen to stay with Galactica, and Cottle (Donnelly Rhodes) works hard to give her 48 more hours.
And surprise, Baltar stays on the Galactica as well.
It’s brutal, heartbreaking and we are all in! I love how the opera house visions tie in directly with the chase for Hera through Galactica during the confrontation with the Cylons.
We, through Baltar’s realization and speech, reminds us about faith, and things bigger than ourselves.
To bring the confrontation to a conclusion, Tigh promises Cavil resurrection if he leaves Hera and the human race, once and for all. Butt as they download it, Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) learns a truth, and it shatters everything. The villainous Cylons are destroyed, and the Galactica makes a blind leap at Starbuck’s hands, and a little influence by a song.
And it takes the Galactica on her last jump, breaking the ship, but they are at Earth! Not the Earth they first discovered that was ruined, but actual Earth. The fleet is reassembled in orbit, and landings are made.
It’s long before humanity has arisen, we as a species are just developing… which makes Galactica ancient astronauts as they join this developing world, spread around the globe. Characters are going their separate ways, cycle are broken, and the potential for something new begins.
Damn what a show. It’s been forever since I watched the finale, and this works like gangbusters! Just fantastic television. What a ride!
