WARNING – SPOILERS!

The ship had to find Earth; you really couldn’t have a satisfying ending without that. It could be Earth in the past, the present, or the future. Present is out; that’s [shudder] Galactica 1980. So a future Earth? With people who spoke English? Nah.

Back around 100,000 to 150,000 years ago, modern humans suddenly appeared on the scene, displaying Cro-Magnon man (I think it was Cro-Mag) and quickly taking over the world. We’ve got clues to this “great leap forward,” and we’re certainly related to Cro-Mags, but it was a sudden change.

In fact, James P. Hogan’s book “Inherit the Stars” has the same ending, sort of. A 50,000-year old man is found on the moon, wearing a spacesuit. Turns out — many pages later — that his people came to Earth after their homeworld (between Mars and Jupiter) was destroyed. They didn’t have a lot of supplies, but they were quickly able to spread and take over the planet from the indigenous cavemen, eventually becoming us.

In “Inherit the Stars,” Cro-Mags had been taken from Earth by residents of the 5th planet, where they had evolved into modern humans. Those humans were the ones to return to Earth and eventually take it over. That’s how Hogan solved the issue of parallel evolution; there wasn’t any.

Galactica copped out in that sense, throwing in the idea of God (or whatever — “It doesn’t like being called that”).

I had figured that “The Gods” had taken primitive humans from *our* Earth to Kobol 150,000 years ago, those humans had eventually left Kobol for the Colonies, yada yada yada, and Galactica would return them to Earth to repopulate it 50,000 years in our past. Full circle.

Not quite, but the general idea was there, and I like how it fit in with real history.

(At the end of “Inherit the Stars,” an archaeologist digs up a 50,000-year-old wristwatch, but tosses it away because it’s *obviously* not an artifact. I had thought that Roslin’s glasses were going to serve the same purpose. [shrug])

Bottom line, I don’t think it was rushed. I think that ending — or something similar — was planned all along.

WARNING – SPOILERS!

The ship had to find Earth; you really couldn’t have a satisfying ending without that. It could be Earth in the past, the present, or the future. Present is out; that’s [shudder] Galactica 1980. So a future Earth? With people who spoke English? Nah.

Back around 100,000 to 150,000 years ago, modern humans suddenly appeared on the scene, displaying Cro-Magnon man (I think it was Cro-Mag) and quickly taking over the world. We’ve got clues to this “great leap forward,” and we’re certainly related to Cro-Mags, but it was a sudden change.

In fact, James P. Hogan’s book “Inherit the Stars” has the same ending, sort of. A 50,000-year old man is found on the moon, wearing a spacesuit. Turns out — many pages later — that his people came to Earth after their homeworld (between Mars and Jupiter) was destroyed. They didn’t have a lot of supplies, but they were quickly able to spread and take over the planet from the indigenous cavemen, eventually becoming us.

In “Inherit the Stars,” Cro-Mags had been taken from Earth by residents of the 5th planet, where they had evolved into modern humans. Those humans were the ones to return to Earth and eventually take it over. That’s how Hogan solved the issue of parallel evolution; there wasn’t any.

Galactica copped out in that sense, throwing in the idea of God (or whatever — “It doesn’t like being called that”).

I had figured that “The Gods” had taken primitive humans from *our* Earth to Kobol 150,000 years ago, those humans had eventually left Kobol for the Colonies, yada yada yada, and Galactica would return them to Earth to repopulate it 50,000 years in our past. Full circle.

Not quite, but the general idea was there, and I like how it fit in with real history.

(At the end of “Inherit the Stars,” an archaeologist digs up a 50,000-year-old wristwatch, but tosses it away because it’s *obviously* not an artifact. I had thought that Roslin’s glasses were going to serve the same purpose. [shrug])

Bottom line, I don’t think it was rushed. I think that ending — or something similar — was planned all along.