TOOBWORLD LOOKS AT BSG: PART ONE

From the April 28, 2006 edition of "Inner Toob":

It would be nice to fill out that particular dimension a bit, so that it's not so void of TV shows. Therefore, as far as I can see, since 'Firefly' is set in the future, and 'Galactica' hasn't reached Earth yet, for the time being I see no reason why it can't share the same dimension as 'The West Wing', 'Mr. Sterling', and 'Smallville'.

I could always be proven wrong later, but that's the wonderful thing about Toobworld - it's always in flux.

And so here we are, three years later, and the "re-imagined" version of 'Battlestar Galactica' basically rode west into the Sun. Literally.

It's no secret to regular visitors to Toobworld that I wasn't watching 'BSG'. I caught a few episodes, mainly because of the promise revealed in their promos - like the discovery of the burnt cinder of a planet that was their "Earth", a season-ending cliff-hanger to make us wonder if it was ours as well.

And when asked why I wasn't watching what many have hailed as one of the best series ever to grace our screens, I'd say it was because Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld, already had its own 'Battlestar Galactica', the original one. Sure, it wasn't great TV, but it still served as an inspiration to Ron Moore and his co-creators for the new version, right? Besides, the original was too deeply imbedded into Toobworld already, with connections to 'McCloud' and the 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' franchise. My main concern, my particular bailiwick as a Toobworld caretaker, would then have to be for the original series.

But actually, there was another reason I couldn't bring myself to watch the series.

See, I started to; just because it was in some alternate TV dimension wasn't reason enough to keep me from checking it out. There was no way 'The West Wing' could be part of the main Toobworld, but that wasn't going to stop me from making Wednesday night "Must See TV" because of it. ('Lost' has since picked up its mantle.) And currently, I'm enjoying 'Kings', also on NBC, in which there is a Kingdom of Gilboa that basically serves the same purpose as the traditional United States of America. (Although I'm not sure where Gilboa and its neighbor to the north, Gath, are supposed to be located.)

So I started to watch the original 'Battlestar Galactica' mini-series, and I only lasted a short time; looking back now, it was probably only a few minutes.

When that Cylon "Six" reached into the baby carriage and there was that sickening snap.....

Okay, so I'm squeamish; sue me. But something told me that there was no way Six was going to get her come-uppance quickly for such an act. Not when she was such a stunner; it went against all the rules of TV. And I knew from experience that the longer such characters are allowed to remain in a series, the softer their characters are made until they're no longer quite the villain they started out to be. (A good case in point: Luke Spencer of 'General Hospital'.)

And I think that the finale bore this out, as we saw "Head Six" (which is how I think she was referred to?) having the last laugh in Times Square 150,000 years after the events of the series.

Yeah, I watched the 3 hours of the finale, "Daybreak" parts 1 & 2. I thought it would make for a nice experiment to see if it would work for someone who had not invested 80+ hours into the entire project. It's not like I was going in blindly, however. I was quite familiar with where the story had been going all through the series, thanks to weekly episode synopses and excellent reviews in blogs like Alan Sepinwall's. (The link for "What's Alan Watching?" is to the left, Skinjobs.)

And so, now I know that my original quote above does need to be revised, as far as 'BSG' is concerned*. Like I said, the great thing about Toobworld is that it's always changing.

And that will be addressed in Part Two of this essay. (This was just the confessional warm-up.)

So say we all at Toobworld Central....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

* I'll get to the 'Firefly' reference in some future post. Today is for 'Battlestar Galactica'. Besides, its placement in the Toobworld timeline - and in what dimension - could be even more problematic......