This is it.

It's almost over.

"Daybreak Part 1", the first part of the series finale, airs tonight at 10:00 PM on Sci-Fi. The two-hour "Daybreak Part 2", the absolute finale, will air next Friday, March 20, at 9:00 PM. And then it'll all be over.

I honestly have no idea what to expect for an ending to this show. I want it to be relatively happy - "happy endings" don't really exist in the BSG universe - but I also realize that even if there's an uplifting resolution to the story, we are going to have to suffer through the loss of a few characters on the way to it. I've grown so attached to all of them that at this point, the loss of even one is going to really frakkin' suck.

Anyway, I actually have the jitters! I think I'm going to re-watch "Islanded in a Stream of Stars" (last week's) before I watch "Daybreak". I may even have a glass of wine.

I haven't finished my list of favorite episodes yet, so here's something else I wanted to share with you. This is a short essay that Ron Moore, the creator of the show, wrote for this week's TV Guide. That last paragraph gives me some small measore of hope!

"I was always convinced Battlestar Galactica would be good, but I was also prepared for the possibility that I would be a cult of one. My greatest memory of the show goes back to the day in 2003 when we got the ratings for the second night of the mini-series. BSG's future depended on the viewer drop-off for part 2 - and there's always a drop-off. To my surprise, the ratings did not go down. They weren't flat. They actually went up!

It was a sign we'd really hit on something with the audience and successfully upended those television "rules" - you know, the ones the networks and studios convince themselves are real. There are a lot of terrific programs on TV, but there's also a lot of crap, and that's because people in the echo chamber of Hollywood tell each other, "Don't try to challenge the audience! Don't try to make them think! Don't give them something too dark - they're scared of the dark!" Well, I reject that.

People still talk about that very first scene of the miniseries and the sight of Tricia Helfer with the Marilyn Monroe hair. With that one image, we wanted to make the statement that our show was going to be very different from the original Battlestar Galactica and very different from any sci-fi piece you've ever seen.

It would not be escapist, wacky or tongue-in-cheek. The subject matter would be heavy, the violence would be serious, the sexuality would be adult. I'm proud to say we went on to deliver a show that has been challenging, thought-provoking and, yes, dark and scary. And the audience has enthusiastically supported and embraced it. For that, I will always be grateful.

My incentive to wrap things up after four seasons came, in large part, from my experience on Star Trek: The Next Generation. By our last season, we were creatively exhausted and pulling cockamamie story ideas out of thin air - "Hey, how about Worf's forgotten brother?" - and we wound up ending a great series in a dispiriting way. I didn't want that to happen to Battlestar.

But how to end it? As we draw to the close, Galactica itself is falling apart, and viewers are finding that shocking and sad. I liked the idea for all those reasons. It's an opportunity for the characters to start dealing with The End right along with the audience.

This is not going to be the ending you're anticipating. I've searched around on the various BSG sites and message boards and haven't seen anyone correctly guess how we are going to conclude our show. I'm so pleased about that. I think our fans will be very surprised - and I hope satisfied - to see the mood and the spirit with which we end our journey."

If you're watching tonight, enjoy.