Battlestar Galactica: That Sought-After Sun

The edit works well as an alternative episode for some of those who don't like some of the narrative decisions for the finale. However, as with the original episode not all of the narrative choices in this worked for me. Mainly the missing fleet, Galactica surviving, and the replacement of the 'zombie Raptor' for a rushed anti-climatic attack by the Raptor. There is also a weird '10,000 years before the Fall of Caprica' caption which makes no sense. On the plus side, Starbuck's ending was handled really well. Overall, a good, but not perfect, edit for those who were dissatisfied with the original finale.

Being a huge BSG remake fan (and at first hating it when it came out because I couldn't get over all the changes in terms of characters from the original), I was looking forward to this fan edit, especially after reading all these positive reviews here. Now, I'm one of the apparently few who had no problems with the finale. There were only 4 real options:

1) earth is not found
2) earth is found in present day
3) earth is found in our ancient past
4) everyone dies.

I found 3 to be the most likely and satisfying proposition and that's what the show creators went with.

In any case, I found a LOT of problems with this edit. I even went through the trouble of comparing the two side by side (DVD and this edit).

First the positive:

most edits are seamless and I watched the 2GB mkv video version of this, not in surround sound.

Also didn't notice anything jumping out audio-wise. I liked the beginning with the translations. Well done.

Also, I think there were a few deleted scenes added to the fanedit which I appreciated (or I don't remember those scenes anymore).

Now the not-exhaustive list of the negatives, in no specific order:

1) Athena is killed? WTF? And Helo dies too? So Hera is raised by Baltar and Six (or whatever that 'real' cylon is named)? Why? Did not work for me at all.

2) "Disposition of fleet: unknown". Very unsatisfying for a viewer, I would think. That just raises more questions. This is under the category of "fan fix." After watching this, I felt like the original edit gets so much more right and the editor isn't fixing anything but mudding it up more.

3) the raptor "accidentally" shooting off nukes vs now in the fanedit it is by human intention. This seems like choosing to turn a metaphysical event into straightforward human action-taking. The meteoroid hitting the "zombie raptor" comes across as divine providence, given what is going on in the story and not "deus ex machine", in the sense that it is completely random and a cop-out. So that change didn't work for me either. And that raptor gets left behind the fan edit. More open endings instead of less.

4) The colonists land on earth and the title reads "10,000 years before the Fall of Caprica." I read through the changes the editor made. Am I missing something here? How can the colonists land on earth BEFORE the Fall of Caprica?? Caprica falls and THEN the colonists leave their 12 colonies in search of Earth. What you could maybe write is "present day earth: 10,000 years AFTER the Fall of Caprica."

5) It seems the editor tried to fix issues with the story that weren't there: in the fan edit, it seems ONLY the Galactica makes it to Earth, the rest of the fleet is bye-bye, never saw the Galactica again once it jumped into battle. Apparently the editor does not understand that after Galactica jumped to earth, she couldn't jump anymore but Adama sent a jump-capable raptor to the fleet and that raptor then guided the fleet to earth. I read the editor's change list and he apparently did not understand this point and thought there was a plot-hole where in fact there is not.

I'm sorry to be so negative. I know how much work goes into something like this. I just think this edit made things worse than better. I am definitely sticking to my original episodes.

Starbuck doesn't disappear. But the alternative is not more satisfying to me. Crying at Sam's bathtub.

Sorry.

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.