Recently, two series came to an end – one planned, one not.
First off, Knight Rider. Based on how rarely they dropped any actual info, they had long term plans for this series. Michael couldn’t remember everything about his past, who was the SCC, etc… then there is the news that the series was being “redesigned” and plans were made to change the series back into what it was in the 80’s – a series of unconnected “mission of the week” episodes. Apparently the crowd the show attracted suffered from ADD and couldn’t follow a plot that ran more than two shows. So suddenly, within two episodes, half the cast is killed or incapacitated to leave just the core four, and the entire KARR subplot is wrapped up in the last 10 minutes of a two-parter. WTF? KARR deserved more than that. Okay sure, it was awesome that they brought back Peter Cullen for the voice, and I was close in my prediction some time back – it wasn’t KITT they made into a Transformer, it was KARR – but to turn KARR loose and then destroy it in the same episode? They could have easily stretched that out over a few more episodes. Chasing it down, then a final showdown… but no. It’s all done, and now they can go on to meaningless “solve the case of the day” type fluff.
Except the series seems to have abruptly ended. Every time I check the recording, there’s an episode of Biggest Loser or some cooking competition.
Then, last night Battlestar Galactica came to its two-hour close. Well, technically three hour, since last night’s 2 hour episode was part two from the previous week, but whatever. Point is, it’s over. After a four (almost five due to the writers’ strike) year run, it’s all done. There will be a new series, “Caprica,” which I guess tells how the Cylon war happened (or it’s just a pointless character drama that would go nowhere unless it had something to do with BSG) and at least one made-for-TV movie “BSG: The Plan” which tells the Cylon’s side of the story. It’s entirely possible that they’ll do more filler movies like”Razor” to keep it alive, but based on the ending, they can’t go the “Stargate” route and continue the plot in movies. It’s done; they left no possibility for continuation.
I won’t spoil it here, but it left me feeling rather empty and unsatisfied. I was correct in some of my predictions (mostly the “All of this has happened before, all of it will happen again”) but as with many long-running series (think Harry Potter) it left more questions than it answered. One article laughed it all off as “God was behind all of it!” Well, they did say for the entire run that there was a plan… but come on, in this day of technology, do people really believe in any divine influence that controls all? Maybe back in the 70’s it might have worked, but not now. Ron Moore wrote of the entire thing saying “Meh, no one had any control over anything, it was all planned out.” Yeah, considering they had no idea where the series was even going back in season three, I find it funny to say that it was all planned out.
While I have a few suspicions, I imagine it’s going to be left up to web-forum debates between all the fanboys and nerds who claim to know everything about everything.