I skiped taghira and went straight to todelmar. Now the ape things won't do the last symbol you get when you align the planets. Somebody please help me.

The Bahro can be very finicky, I often have to draw that symbol 4 or 5 times before it is recognized. Please note that you see the symbol under an angle in the telescope viewer; you must take that into account when drawing it.
Also, make sure that you draw back far enough from the slate after dropping it - the Bahro are shy.

You should be able to play age in any order, this problem is unrelated to the order of the ages but rather to what Vogelaar said. Make sure you draw it as exact as you can but dont draw random symbols because it could get you to end of the age without doing anything.