What do you mean Starbuck was Daniel? I haven't heard that theory, and I don't know who Daniel is. Bible Daniel? Chapterhouse Dune Daniel (which was kinda how I saw Baltar and Caprica - the alternative of them just being angels was completely unsatisfying)? Or some character from BSG I've forgotten about?

Also, I think you're dead wrong about Lost. And your professor is even more wrong. Lost didn't actually grab be until season 2, especially the finale, which made me say "these writers know what they're doing - they've had that planned since episode 1". I've trusted them ever since then, and they have yet to let me down. It could still fall in a heap, I'll admit, because there's a lot going on.

I think what happened with Lost was that the writers conceived of a very strange sci-fi show much like what's on television right now, but were clever enough to slip it onto the market - and into people's viewing schedule - by making the first few seasons much more ordinary.

I was all set with my piece of paper reading "Butcher's Bill" and my pen, eager to record who bit the dust! *disappointed snap*

One of the characters who lived did so in a highly implausible way, medically speaking. He should have at least been maimed for his trouble, and he was fine. No, "they've got more modern medicine" is not a proper excuse!

I think they WANTED to do something that good, but just didn't have the time to develop it.

How did I miss Sawyer calling Richard "your friend with the eyeliner"? That's so awesome! (But then again, I think just about everything Sawyer does is awesome.)

And I agree: I'm finding it so cool that one of my favorite writers watches Lost.

I really do hope they have a killer ending planned. Personally, I doubt it'll end up that they're all really dead. The way the series has been going, I don't see it going that way...but if it does, yeah, I'll be pissed.

This is a highly selective reading of Lord of the Rings. Granted, Gandalf is an agent of the gods, but he acts of his own free will and his ascension is an award for his sacrifice. The Ring drives their quest, not to lead to a happy ending, but to kill them. I can't imagine what other external forces you could be thinking of considering that all the other characters they meet are exactly where they'd be expected to be, and act according to their nature, not contrary to it; but this may be a lack of imagination on my part.

What about the fact that making the "hallucination Six" an angel contradicts practically everything shown and said about and by her from the first season? Then there's the fact that the ending does nothing to explain why "God" would choose to contact the Cylons, achieve domination of their society, and then unleash them to destroy the sinful humans instead of just contacting the colonists and explaining why what they were doing was bad.

Then again, the show didn't explain what the colonists were doing that warranted the deaths of trillions either. One could argue that the enslaving of the Cylons was that sin, but that argument doesn't go too far because by the time of the genocide the Cylons had already won their freedom and the Colonists were maintaining a diplomatic station specifically to show that they meant the Cylons no harm and wished to live in peace with them. The only explanation we are left with is the one which Moore provides through Lee and the "angels" conversation in the coda; that commercialism, advanced technology, and the creation of sentient life is, in some vague and undefined way, wrong (besides, this would make god a hypocrite). Needless to say, that message is somewhat unsatisfying and even insulting to many. And I haven't even gotten into the pro-human chauvinism shown by "god's" nuking of Cavil's colony, or how its willingness to destroy the Cylons doesn't quite mesh with a god willing to kill trillions of humans in revenge for how they treated their creations.

Really, the show had so many plot-holes, and repeated so many of the same lazy writing conventions (issue of the week format; introducing characters that are never seen again; telegraphing the deaths of major characters with heavy foreshadowing) that its fans deride other series for making, that I have difficulty understanding why so many are so convinced it was so great. Compared to the other sci-fi running when it was introduced it was pretty good, but I think in an objective sense, compared to series from the past, it was not great but just good and maybe even slightly mediocre.

Plus, that robot montage was just silly. I laughed. And not the happy kind.

Absolutely. And because it was a comedy and didn't need to explain why strange things happened, choosing to "explain" it was even more hilarious.

I think that's just cos we don't fully understand Japanese storytelling. They have a completely different way of looking at things because their culture is so different from American or European culture.

Also, whether you like their endings or not, it is my firm belief that the Japanese take more risks with their endings than us Westerners do.