Because it only seems reasonable that along the way to Earth they're going to find an inhabitable planet or two, and you need to deal with the question of "why not here? At least we actually know it's here."
They could have done that with a single episode, though. Find the planet, people demand to settle, maybe there's a rogue captain who lands his ship, and then the Cylons show up. *boom* Land isn't safe - point made, they travel on.
I admit I wasn't impressed by the time jump forward in the finale, but I thought it was going to lead to something interesting thanks to this new setup. I agree that I didn't want the adventures of the Resistance in Vichy France, but having gone there, having made that creative decision, it strikes me as very odd that it's all swept aside so quickly to get them back in space. I didn't want a season on the ground, but two or three episodes before Occupation, telling the story of how the resistance formed, how Sharon and Adama became best buds, how Kara reacted to Leoben's captivity, how Roslin resumed her leadership role under the occupation - I'd have a lot fewer problems now if they'd taken the time to establish these character shifts rather than presenting them as faits accompli.
Even the webisodes didn't tell the real story of the resistance - it picked out a few moments focused on Duck and Jammer but said little about the larger context. And from the things Ron Moore said at the end of last season (I went searching out spoilers to make sure it wasn't all a dream! I never read spoilers for this show!), I thought the New Caprica storyline would last longer than four episodes. Four episodes isn't even an arc. It's a transition, and if they wanted a transition, they could have done it in space.
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They could have done that with a single episode, though. Find the planet, people demand to settle, maybe there's a rogue captain who lands his ship, and then the Cylons show up. *boom* Land isn't safe - point made, they travel on.
I admit I wasn't impressed by the time jump forward in the finale, but I thought it was going to lead to something interesting thanks to this new setup. I agree that I didn't want the adventures of the Resistance in Vichy France, but having gone there, having made that creative decision, it strikes me as very odd that it's all swept aside so quickly to get them back in space. I didn't want a season on the ground, but two or three episodes before Occupation, telling the story of how the resistance formed, how Sharon and Adama became best buds, how Kara reacted to Leoben's captivity, how Roslin resumed her leadership role under the occupation - I'd have a lot fewer problems now if they'd taken the time to establish these character shifts rather than presenting them as faits accompli.
Even the webisodes didn't tell the real story of the resistance - it picked out a few moments focused on Duck and Jammer but said little about the larger context. And from the things Ron Moore said at the end of last season (I went searching out spoilers to make sure it wasn't all a dream! I never read spoilers for this show!), I thought the New Caprica storyline would last longer than four episodes. Four episodes isn't even an arc. It's a transition, and if they wanted a transition, they could have done it in space.