Sci-Fi series finales (or final episodes), who had the best?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Thursday, November 5, 2009 22:45
VIEWED: 14077
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"Life on Mars" (UK) was a fairly bold ending (I won't even spoiler it here - suffice to say it was nothing whatsoever like the US remake).
I'd love to visit an alternate universe and see what the ending of Babylon 5 was originally meant to be - but presumably it would have to be "War Without End" minus the desperate retconning to paper over the change of commander.
If JMS had pulled that off - finishing season 5 with that revelation combined with a back-to-the-future story set up in a season 1 episode - then we'd have had an indisputable winner.
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Quote:
Originally posted by lwaves:
Battlestar Galactica (New version)
Ah yes - the hope of a peaceful settlement, dashed by the revelation of a crime of passion, triggering a cataclysmic battle in which everybody dies. A fitting end to the first show since Blake's 7 to recognize that Space Opera doesn't always have to have a happy ending.
Unfortunately, I have this terrible recurring nightmare where the show went on to a cringe-inducing Deus ex Machina resolution in which various characters turned out to be angels and/or the messiah while Bob Dylan was, presumably, God.
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I haven't actually watched too many shows all the way through to the end, but here's my list.
My top pick is probably Voyager, I would've liked to see how a few more things wrapped up, but they did a pretty good job of wrapping up most of it, and the way the got home was pretty cool.
Angel is also up there though that one still had so much left to do, it ended too early.
Buffy was pretty good. the finale wasn't the best episode, but it's hard to top some of those other episodes, they did a pretty good job.
If I count the last movie, Continuum, as the Stargate SG-1 finale, that one definitely ranks up there, I wasn't too thrilled with the actual series finale though. It was a good episode, but I don't think it ended the series very well.
SG-Atlantis was also pretty good, though reserving final judgement till I see the movie(s) as I still consider those to be episodes.
Finally is BSG (new), it was ok. I had trouble buying the ending, I can't see a large group of people agreeing to that, especially since they haven't agreed on much of anything since the start of the series. I also hated the way they ended Kara's story, I was looking for a bit more than that. The action scenes were amazing, how they got to where they got, was also pretty cool, just didn't quite do it for me.
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best part was the president finally freaking died lol, i hated her so much
"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."
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I didn't mention the new BSG to specifically avoid this discussion, and now its happened. Here we go. Besides the random disappearance of Kara where no death at all was harbinged, it was an amazing finale. You can't call it Dues ex Machina when the character that was an angel had been saying so since the first season and kept trying to tell Baltar how everything was happening according to God's plan. With the constant repetition of "all of this has happened before and will happen again" how could it have ended any other way? It was fitting and brought back the original warnings against the misuse and abuse of technology. It wasn't perfect, but no series finale is (I still can't figure out why Data turns into Sherlock Holmes in the future!).
-e
I pray for one last landing,
on the globe that gave me birth.
Let me rest my eyes on the fleecy skies
and the cool, green hills of Earth.
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Quote:
Originally posted by DMI:
You can't call it Dues ex Machina when the character that was an angel had been saying so since the first season
(Warning: Spoilery for both BSG and B5 if you've been living beyond the rim for a while and are waiting for the DVDs to appear in the bargain buckets)
Select to view spoiler:
...but I was expecting a rational explanation that relied on a modest pinch of SciFi fairy dust, rather than full-blown omnipotence. Like: Baltar's mind got jumbled up with Number 6's when they were both nuked on Caprica and 6 uploaded. Baltar was a Cylon candidate until the last few episodes or maybe the upload works partially on humans - its established that the differences between Cylon and human biology were pretty subtle. Likewise with Kara: why have her resurrected by supernatural means when you have already established the existence of a technology-based resurrection.
Thing is - you can have a bit of mystery and philosophy, provided the core plot is defensible within the laws of your SF universe. Once you let a godlike figure exercise omnipotent power (e.g. encoding the coordinates of the Promised Land in the notes of a well-known song that won't be written for a few million years) then anything can happen without reason, and the plot just loses interest. SF requires some "suspension of disbelief", but when it requires too much, it fails.
C.f. Babylon 5, which was full of prophecy, religious allusions and pseudo-science (time travel, telepathy) but made an excellent job of ensuring that these were only used to "grease the wheels", not to resolve key plot points. Most of the prophecies were ignored by their recipients and/or could have been self-fulfilling; When Sheridan first defeated Shadow vessels, it was always by leading them into some kind of trap, never a trek-style "particle of the week" beam. Telepathy was used as a weapon, but was not enough to win the war. The Shadow War was only resolved when Sheridan forced the Vorlons and Shadows to confront each other directly, and exposed their folly to the proxy races that had been fighting for them.
It wasn't perfect - e.g. the character of Lorien was godlike, he and his role in Sheridan's ressurection were quite unnecessary.
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Quote:
Originally posted by DMI:
I pray for one last landing,
on the globe that gave me birth.
Let me rest my eyes on the fleecy skies
and the cool, green hills of Earth.
This is one of my favorite quotes of all time.
So nice to see it. Memories.
My fave scifi finales are:
ST:TNG- perfect ending to a really solid series.
Farscape- I consider Peacekeeper Wars the finale and loved it!
Quantum Leap - It broke my heart.
My all time favorite show finale though would be Six Feet Under. Most awesome ending of a show ever. I'm still blown away when I hear the song associated with it.
Ok... back on subject...sorry... couldn't resist.
http://www.kidsneedtoread.org/
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Battlestar Galactica!!!
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No wait! That was the worst series finale of all time...
I agree on "ST TNG - All Good Things" just about every cast member got to say goodbye and it was a ripping good yarn.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Calhoun:
Battlestar Galactica!!!
No wait! That was the worst series finale of all time...
Before making that judgment, I'm waiting for a UK channel to pick up Life on Mars (US): from the descriptions it sounds like a strong candidate for worst ever (but maybe only if you know and love the UK version ending, which is one of the best - I'm hoping that the inferior follow-up "Ashes to Ashes" doesn't screw it up by explaining too much when it wraps next year).
Meanwhile, several people have mentioned Blake's 7 - if you had a UK-only poll I suspect that would win hands down, as it dates from an era when there were only 3-4 TV channels and shows like B7 were mainstream. Even non-SF fans over a certain age remember it.
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I was going to say M*A*S*H* too, but it's not sci-fi. Funny how things pop into your head.
I must admit I liked Buffy's final ep a lot.
Blinding white Willow, Nathan doing the bad guy thing, some really nice fight sequences, and that wonderful montage.
"Can stand up.. will stand up"
Maybe not the bestest end ever, but a solid one.
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I'm not gonna lie, I think that Objects in Space was a great finale to a great show. It may have been created mid way but Joss did it for a reason. He thought it was powerful enough that he wanted to end the series with it, and I think he was right.
OiS is probably one of the best episodes of any TV show I have ever seen, period.
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I'm a nomadic diplomat of violence. A man temporary suspended in a state of insanity; riding a ship of crazy into the burning sunset of geopolitical failure. I walk tall until I'm trying to bury myself 3 inches deeper into the dirt because someone's gotten it into their heads that they want to put a Kalashnikov bullet in my face. I'm the new face of American progress moonlighting as the new face of American digression. I'm an American Soldier.
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