All along the Galactica - Stairway to Earth
So, BSG final episodes last night.

I can certainly see why they've been saving money doing plodding talky episodes for the past few weeks. That was a *lot* of special effects.

Everything below the cut, including the comments, can be considered major spoilers.

I thought the end was handled very well, if somewhat predictably. It gave the fans everything they'd been wanting, and it was a joy to have a sci-fi series finish properly, rather than get cancelled half-way through a plot arc.

For those who thought it was a little too predictable, a bit too resolved, you could well be right, but there were at least some surprises and threads left hanging. Abandoning all tech and flying the fleet into the sun on autopilot was a surprise, even if both were nicked from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; I was almost expecting a comment about telephone sanitisation or counting the number of escape capsules. And then there's the small matter of Galactica being commanded, at the end, from someone taking a very long bath.

The exact nature of Head Six, Head Baltar and Undead Kara were also left unanswered. I think I sneezed when they explained why New Earth had inhabitants which were DNA compatible. And I never really got the meaning of the Opera House; I know it was an analogy to the child-chase through Galactica's corridors, but why specifically an Opera house?

But it's good that a few things were left hanging, given that the story essentially wrapped up about 15 minutes into the final episode, and we were treated to a good solid half-hour or so of "and this is how they lived happily ever after".

A thoroughly satisfying conclusion. We even got a few bars of the original theme fanfare.