Battlestar Galactica DVD Movie In the Works?

Philias writes "Although Battlestar Galactica has been going down in ratings and has yet to get picked up for another season, the sales of its DVDs has got Universal thinking of a Direct-To-Video Movie. GeekMonthly.com is reporting that plans are afoot for a film that will bridge the gap between Galactica and the new spinoff 'Caprica.' The film would be shot in March during the usual hiatus between seasons. The big difference between this and the mini-series and other seasons would be that this would be sold on DVD before being aired on the SciFi channel."

Comments

Interesting

[agent dero]

"plans are afoot for a film that will bridge the gap between Galactica and the new spinoff 'Caprica.' The film would be shot in March during the usual hiatus between seasons."

"Unfortunately, nobody will be paid for any part of it."

No surprise ratings are falling.

[guidryp]

I am a huge fan of BSG, and have watched every episode since the mini series, but I am not surprised the ratings are in decline. This season has lost it's way. Baltar was great when he was among the humans with the cylon in his head frakking with his brain. Now among the cylons he is quite uninteresting.

Other than that they really seem to be pushing the preachy morality play of the week. I think the listened too much to the critics who liked them touching "real issues" and now they have gone overboard on the "real issues" and the story and characters seem to be suffering, so much so that I have a hard time buying their actions. It is just not as good this season. I hope they get back to form soon.

They shouldn't try to drag this on endlessly, when the story is over they should stop and not inject filler seasons that increasingly make it unrealistic. I would rather have 3 or 4 good season ended properly rather than dragged out mediocre 5 or 6 seasons.

I expect modding down from fans who will claim it is better than ever.

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[TheRaven64]

Baltar was great when he was among the humans with the cylon in his head frakking with his brain. Now among the cylons he is quite uninteresting I find with season 3 that the episodes which spend more time on the Cylon base ship are more interesting. It seems that without Baltar, the human survivors are just much less interesting than the Cylons...

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[i_ate_god]

story line is fine, it will probably end in a fourth season.

The ratings are falling because who the hell watches TV on a friday night? Wait till the show is moved to 10pm sunday, then we'll see ratings go up.

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[Altima(BoB)]

I find with season 3 that the episodes which spend more time on the Cylon base ship are more interesting. It seems that without Baltar, the human survivors are just much less interesting than the Cylons... I dunno, I feel the opposite way on this. The cylons were most imposing and effective as antagonists around the begining of the series, when they were mostly faceless (Just the imposing base stars and fighters seen) and were making small, insidious encroachments on organic humanity, like Sharon. "33" was especially effective because even their tactics seemed like brute force mechanical thinking with infinite patience.

Now they seem too human, too emotionally vulnerable and the base star's interior just seems like a space that's too large and relaxing. And seeing base stars filled with Xena's and Tricia Helfer's is somewhat detracting. Though the cylons I really really like are the Dean Stockwell ones and the Grace Park ones. Whereas Lucy Lawless' and Tricia Helfer's cylon characters have grown somewhat flat to me, the other two mentioned represent a lot more of the sadistic cylon determination (Stockwell) and the schitzophrenic identity crisis that organic cylons are bound to have (All those Sharons)

I listen to the podcast commentaries a lot and Ronald D Moore, the producer, openly acknowledges a lot of these issues, that whatever cylon sets they built wouldnt never live up to peoples' imaginations and that revealing more and more about the cylons was always simply too tempting for them as authors. I can appreciate that, but I still think they were perhaps incorrect choices.

What I think they should do with this current arc they are doing is to give Baltar back to the Galactica. The only problem with that is considering how enthusiastically they've ejected people out of airlocks for less, keeping him alive on Galactica would be difficult to do believably. Maybe strand him on the algea planet with someone like the Chief... Also, while another election episode would be rather dull, Laura has stayed in powr through so many unlikely twists that to remove her from power within the fleet would put her character in an interesting position.

For the record, I still think it's the best drama on television, and easily soars above the 99% of TV that's just utter cultural garbage.

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[PsychoSlashDot]

That's one opinion, and it's not a horrible one, but there is another way to look at things.

Every episode the writers add new canon. They reveal new aspects of characters, back-story, colonial religion, Cylon goals, and secrets about Earth. The problem is that this show started off with a huge bang, and due to its uniqueness and high quality, a lot of viewers "fell in love" with various aspects of the characters or plot or even style of presentation. Today, it's virtually inevitable that every episode will introduce some element to "taint" the adoration and respect viewers have. Starbuck's recent behaviour? Helo's? Discovering the Cylons want Earth as well?

I guarantee that when the "Final Five" have their faces revealed, for every fan who says "that's neat!", there'll be some disgruntled soon-to-be-ex-fan who throws his hands up in the air and says "that's not what I would have done".

The show continues to be a very high-quality, well-written and well-acted one. I expect the ratings problem is due much more to unrealistic expectations of many, many fans that BSG will contain nothing but plot elements THEY adore.

Try caring more about what BSG IS instead of what it ISN'T, each episode. What it certainly is, is the best show on television.

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[JFMulder]

Actually, I love the fact that the Cylons are getting more human. It's so great because as the series evolve you realise that the humans are being colder and colder and acting more like.... machines.

It's a great reversal of the roles and I'm sure it will even out at some point because

*** SPOILER ALERT DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN LAST EPISODE BEFORE HIATUS ***
William Adama is pretty much willing to nuke the whole fracking planet at this point. It's pretty much a cold decision, considering Earth is in the balance. Maybe now will be a time for the humans to realize what they are turning into and shift their course. The executions "if were not with us on New Caprica you are against us" mentality also was pretty cold. Reminds me of a certain... nah... I won't go into that. :)
**** END SPOILER ***

It's interesting that the heart of the Galactica crew right now is pretty much Shannon (a machine) and her husband. It's also interesting that there is also one Cylon who distinctively thinks like a cold-hearted machine, the preacher, who coldly said last episode "Let's kill them, rid the universe of the human pestilence. We are machines, it doesn't matter if it takes us a 1000 years to find Earth", which, you got to admit, he had a really good point. The only thing preventing this is the other Cylons who are slowly evolving with more human feelings.

I just love how the show plays this, consciously or not. (but I bet the writers knew it all along)

The one thing I miss tough is the deliciously crazy Baltar being tormented by Number Six while he is going around on Galactica and having people look at him funny. And the shocker was realizing the Number Six on her own also had her own suggestive-manipulative-Baltar in her head. That was a great revelation. Too bad they didn't get to play more with this since Baltar is now on the base ship.

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[Altima(BoB)]

...and started being a bit more imposing and even began leading the cylons? Yeah I really like that idea. Rather than the puppet leader he was on New Caprica, they could have him as a dominating cult-of-personality type leader, giant posters of his face, etc. aybe even have him discover that he isn't one of the 'Final Five' but have him and his regime claim he is anyway, a Cylon Messiah. Then he can graduate to being a full fledged villain, but his rational side would still fnd conflict with his situation. Plus the Cylons always seemed prone to hysterical zealotry, they now seem far too rational in comparison to the genocide they wreaked at the begining of the series.

Yeah, I like that idea.

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[TheRealFixer]

Some spoilers within.

I agree with you. The more we see of the Cylons, the more uninteresting they become. They joke, they display sarcasm, they fall in love, they have faith, they get angry, jealous, etc. They've taken all the mystery out of them, along with all the menace. They're just annoying zealots who look and act EXACTLY like humans, except they can't be "killed" while they're near a resurrection ship.

The numerous interpersonal conflict-driven stories lately were getting pretty tiresome, and really were slowing things down for the wrong reasons. Although, to be fair, the show has really always been a tad slow. I remember watching a few earlier episodes and realizing that an entire hour of show seemed to cover about 15 minutes of time in the story.

There is some hope left. I was pretty intrigued by the hybrid-thing that controls the Base Stars. And this whole "5 unknown models" thing has some promise. That, at least, adds some mystery back into it. Although, the whole Baltar is-he-or-isn't-he thing is getting dragged on too far long, and I can't see a way for that to be answered that ISN'T disappointing. If he is, then it seems too obvious. If he isn't, then it seems a bit too contrived.

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[Altima(BoB)]

The show has been slow pretty frequently, but that's why I think it suits the DVD format more than a weekly TV format. I watched the first season just from the DVDs, and they were great, and it makes it tough to watch them on a week-by-week basis. Though the first 3 (or 4, depending on how you number them) episodes of season 3 were really rich and well paced.

I personally think that the current Adama / Starbuck / Anders storyline is the weakest one they've done. It's predictable, and it's just not satisfying. Plus, in an episode where large forces are clashing and nuclear armageddon is at play again, it just seems petty and unimportant to go back to "Hey! Stay away from my already-promiscuous wife!" (Though Anders is another Colonel Tigh in the making from all this...)

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[JFMulder]

I think Baltar's Number Six and the reborn Number Six is not the same character at all. The Number Six inside Baltar's head is far more manipulative and dangerous than the flesh and bolts one. To me, the reborn Number Six takes her decisions based on her feelings towars Baltar and the human race, while Baltar's (whose is trying to please Baltar, I mean, it's still his fantasy after all) is there to provoke him and has less emotions than the flesh and bolts one.

As for Batlar being a Cylon himself, while an interesting idea (Baltar is even pondering the notion now), it would be anti-climatic, because it's such an interesting burden (for the viewer) to be responsible for the genocide of your race. It's a great burden to carry. It was great to have a delusional Baltar and it would have been for nothing if he is indeed a Cylon. One interresting plot twist tough would be if he turned to believe he is one and commited suicide to prove his point and we then realize he wasn't. That would be the perfect ending for this character I think. Or if the show ends with the destruction of the Cylons and he last ressurection ship, you end up with a lone Baltar without any ressurection ship to revive him if he is indeed one and you have him on the fringe of death and he will never know if was a Cylon indeed. Cue credits. :)

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[Mspangler]

This whole plot always was limited. The Humans are pushed off into deep space. They have no supply, no refit for the ships, and nowhere they can stop. Galactica needs 6 months in the space dock at least. It's falling apart. They are running out of fighters, Raptors, and everything else. It's not sustainable for a long series.

The only options the humans have is slow death by attrition, quick death by Cylon, or jump as far and fast as possible away from the cylons and try to resettle, hoping that by the time the Cylons find them again either they have calmed down, or that the human decendants are strong enough to hold them off. Or, if the fleet does find earth, then earth will be technologically undeveloped, and wiped out by the Cylons, or earth will have starfleet, and blow away the cylons, or earth will have been taken over by their own Cylon equivalents. Long term plot options are limited.

My analysis may be colored by my time in the Navy, when I found out just how much repair time and infrastructure it took to keep one warship operational, even if it was nuclear powered (to remove the fuel problem). One increasingly battered battlestar and a ragtag fleet is not sustainable. The story arc (as in the character's subjective time) must be short.

Now one thing the writers could do is modify that cylon-killing virus so it only works on the "source material" on the Resurrection ships, and infect the Cylons. Then since D'anna is close to discovering that the resurrection routine is functioning as a "soul trap" to keep the Cylons from truly knowing God, the resulting stress could turn into a Cylon civil war, and that would give a way to wrap up the show without either finding earth, or watching the last human die.

But now it's just "Angst and Depression in Space."

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[Blakey Rat]

The hybrid-thing that controls the base ship is such an obvious and blatant rip-off of the psychics in Minority Report, I simply can't stand seeing it on screen. Ron Moore's a good creative guy, he doesn't need to rely on stealing to produce a good show... I mean, what's going on here?

Re:No surprise ratings are falling.

[Captain Splendid]

(Just a side not, does it irk anyone else that the Galactica has either gotten twice as powerful, or its crew twice as competant since the start of the show?

Well, when they lost the Pegasus, they kept the crew and the Vipers and Raptors IIRC. So yes, twice as competent sounds about right ;)

How to be stupid

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

I stopped watching BSG this season after the first episode. Not because the story sucks - in fact I really liked that first episode, it was brilliant - but because the picture sucks.

I learned last year that UniversalHD runs the BSG reruns after 6 months or so, in high def. So, now I am just going to wait it out until the show is available in HD.

I think Universal is just frackin stupid to run the premier episodes in crap-def on the sci-fi channel. If there is a single demographic most likely to own HDTVs and actively seek out HD shows, it is the one that watches BSG. They need to get their shit together and simulcast the show in HD, not make us wait 6+ months for it.

What did they expect?

[dgatwood]

I'm not sure what Sci-Fi expects ratings to do when they run what amounts to half a season of episodes, call it a season, and run them the better part of a year apart. TV audiences of the TiVo generation have shown that they're not content to just watch reruns for long periods of time. With decreasing new episode counts, the problem of ratings getting harder and harder to come by shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

If Sci-Fi wants a show to succeed, they should try a novel approach: go back to a 30+ episode season. These silly little 10- and 13-episode runs are barely long enough to start getting into the action, then bam: 3 month hiatus....

Re:What did they expect?

[PsychoSlashDot]

Season 1 had 13 episodes.
Season 2 had 22 episodes, with a long hiatus.
Season 3 has 22 episodes, with a four-week hiatus.

A "normal" season for a television show is 26 episodes.

Don't get me wrong... I'd love to see year-round new episodes, 52 times a year, but it doesn't work that way in TV. Further, what SciFi has done with BSG is increasingly more like "normal" shows, so there's no trending towards "worse", I'm afraid.

Another element to the downward ratings movement may very well be that SciFi started Season 3's broadcast at the same time as the major networks began their new seasons, and a number of hit shows have "stolen" viewer interest. Shows like Heroes, for instance. There's only so much viewer-interest, regardless of how many good/great shows are broadcast. Couch-potatoes will, eventually, hit a TV saturation point.

Re:What did they expect?

[ubrgeek]

Not sure about the validity of the numbers you're citing, but frankly, that seems to be a growing trend among the "alt-cable" channels like SCI-FI, FX, etc. FX is the worst, IMO. I got tired of waiting forever between seasons of NipTuck, The Shield, etc. (Not to mention canceling "Over There" *grin*). My wife and I just stopped caring about the characters with such huge gaps between seasons. I've never really watched The Sopranos, but I understand the same thing was something its fans complained about. Add that to decreased show times and increased commercial interruptions and it just points more and more toward viewers being pushed to find alternatives to what - and how - they watch TV.

no wonder ratings are declining!

[CheechBG]

I just hit the scifi.com main page, and there is not ONE mention of BSG anywhere on the page. If you stop advertising the show, only the die-hards will watch and it will descend into cult status.

Death by Multiplication?

[Rapter09]

I love RDM's Battlestar Galactica. It's excellent science fiction. The very best we have, I'd say. With that established however, I must make the point that I can see the series dying a horrible death due to inundation. Sure, the show is great and awesome. It's a beacon in the science fiction TV realm, but apparently it's ratings are slipping. Which sucks because its such a darn good show and i'd hate to see it go. Despite the ratings drop they've announced a spinoff series before BSG even really got its gears in motion - 'Caprica' - which is 0% science fiction and 100% drama. They've announced an MMO (or a game of some sort, at any rate) and I believe a pen-and-paper RPG? (the RPG I could be wrong on...), plus this movie.

Now granted, it's a great show, and a direct-to-DVD movie isn't really uncommon, but doesn't anybody think it's a little TOO much? Almost like SciFi, RDM and Eick are riding the marketing a little too hard? Babylon 5 was probably the most famous for direct-to-DVD movies. Most of them were not really on par with the overall quality of the show (except for In The Beginning... which was just... unbelievable.) even though they were nice little departures.

Maybe it wouldn't kill the show per-se, but it seems like they're jumping the gun a little early on this one.

Farscape

[pkbarbiedoll]

Farscape suffered a similar untimely fate. The show was wonderous and innovative to most who saw it, yet in the middle of season four Sciffy announced that the second half of season four was actually season five, and killed the show with a final movie (after much hellraising from Farscape fans).

Well I'd Watch It...

[nbannerman]

I'll be honest; the ratings in the UK would be a lot higher if we didn't have such a huge wait. Whilst you in the US are enjoying Series 3, we haven't even started yet.

I watch the US versions, a day after they air. You can work out the rest for yourself. But there is no point viewing on Sci-Fi UK when I've already seen it. If we had parity with the US, or at least something more sensible like a week, the viewing figures would be much higher!

and..

[BRUTICUS]

Here's how I see it.

The cylon bayships are showing WAY TOO MUCH. Its like going into Darth Vaders bathroom and watching him take off his mask and slap on some aftershave. Cylons were more interesting when it was a mystery what is going on inside there. When we knew just as much of the cylons as the humans did. Now we are watching the cylons run around in their underwear, and the bayships seem like a pretty cush place no?The scariest thing going on there is the digital lights that are unnecessarily being flashed in the cylon faces to make it look FUTURISTIC, OOOOOH.

Why does Baltar still have Caprica(cylon) in his head? Shes right there!!!! What's the point? Hurry up and get done with the whole cylon/human hybrid baby, Sharon wants her baby storyline. Its really lame and unnecessary. First of all its just Madam President making another mistake cause really WHY tell the mother the kid died? So the cylons wont know she exists and take her and do experiments on her? Sorry but thats ridiculous. They would blow up gallactica before hoping onboard and kidnapping a baby.

Loss of stargate as a lead-in

[Joe The Dragon]

Loss of stargate as a lead-in is pulling the ratings down.

Sadly...

[doit3d]

...changing the time slot like they did is a death sentence for the show, IMHO. Very sad, for it is one of the best sci-fi shows currently aired that is done well. We all know that studio executives have always lacked intelligence anyway, so it was expected.

BSG is top-rated cable series on Friday

[ubuwalker31]

I call Bullshit with the "BSG ratings are falling" crowd

From http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/search/article_display .jsp?vnu_content_id=1003223846 :
-Respectable Start for Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica:
The two-hour, third-season premiere of Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica was the top-rated cable series on Friday, Oct. 6, with a 1.8 household rating and 2.2 million viewers. Comparatively, however, that was still down by 900,000 viewers from the season two opener in July 2005 (3.1 million).

So, they lost almost a million viewers...and they are still on top. I think that they are gambling that a move to Sunday night might help. I think that the long gaps between seasons helped to kill ratings...not the day of the week.

This Feels Too Familiar

[Atomm]

Enterprise decided to follow the same storyline. They started bringing in moral elements of what is happening in the world around us. After 9/11, Enterprise had a whole season that mirrored everything that was happening because of 9/11.

The new season of BSG did the exact same thing. They started focusing on the morality of the world around us. They had terriosts and suicide bombers.

I'm sorry, but I watch SciFi because I want to escape from the problems we face in the world today. Didn't Universal learn anything from the ratings dive Enterprise took when they did this?

Then again, this is the same channel that is cancelling Stargate SG1, even though it's one of their highest rated shows.

Re:BSG is top-rated cable series on Friday

[rtrifts]

BSG is on broadcast TV?

I'm in Canada. Every one of my friends watches BSG religiously. Every single week.

But not a single one of them watches it on Space. BSG is the reason for bittorrent. What's the adjusted ratings for bittorent users? :)

As for the ratings discussion...they are not that bad nor at any sort of critical stage. Leave it to the Slashdot crowd to ignore the Direct To Video movie discussion and seize on the ratings speculation one-liner.

As for the Iraq war parallels. They were strong, solid scripts. The ranting about those issues regarding the show come from American viewers - not those from other countries. Methinks your flag is getting in the way of your enjoyment of the best show on TV.

BSG for Doctor Who AND Torchwood

[sadler121]

I'll trade you getting Battlestar Galactica at the same time as the USA for getting Doctor Who at the same time as the UK.

I'll up that wager, I'll trade you getting Battlestar Galactica at the same time as the USA for getting Doctor Who AND Torchwood at the same time as the UK.

Unfortunately, the reason Torchwood would never come to the US is because the censors in the US would throw a fit about the content of the show. Way to much swearing and sex. The show would have to pull a sex and the city, and be picked up by HBO, not very likely for a sci fi show...

Lose the shakeycam

[PhotoGuy]

I loved the original series, but can't watch the new stuff because of the excess use of shakey cam. We *get* it, yes, it seems more "real" with shakey cam. But it's also very annoying and overused. If I want to turn my head in a jerky fashion, I will, do it by making something else on the screen interesting; don't make the camera do it for me. I find it very patronizing, pretentious, and faddish and I wish producers would stop using it. Let the material show its strength, unobscured by a shaky camera.