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Battlestar Galactica To Continue After All
turboflux writes "According to executive producer David Eick, Battlestar Galactica is still an open-ended adventure and it will not be ending after the 4th season as previously reported. Evidently Edward James Olmos jumped the gun on confirming the show would be ending while attending the Saturn Awards this month. Eick goes on to say that the fourth season would actually be 22 episodes (2 more than prior seasons) rather than the reported 13 episode order."
Look, I loved Babylon 5. I even liked season 5, and consider the hate it gets to be typical mobthink (notice how other fans always append "except season five" like a mantra). I also know that this is all a matter of personal taste, but your review here is filled with hyperbole. Porn? A handful of sexually charged scenes is not porn. What are you, an evangelical? The camera work lends a nice feel to the space shots. I dunno, man, it's called artistry and creativity. Should BG be a static 3 camera set piece like a sitcom? And "better scripting on daytime soaps" is where you completely lose it. Seriously, something else has to be at the core of your hate here. Are you a big fan of the original series? Are you a Cylon? What?
I got Showtime free with my internet. Ended up being pretty dope. Weeds is just off the wall, unbelievably subversive. 12 yo kid gets taken to an asian massage parlor by cool uncle, cries for handjob. That's Aristocrats level humor there. Penn and Teller's Bullshit has fallen off, but you can't argue with their mission to include gratuitious nudity where possible. The Tudors in HD no less, is "plot plot plot gratuitious soft core porn plot." This American Life, Dexter, all decent. To say nothing of how I miss Dead Like Me.
David Eick didn't say that the series would not be ending with the fourth season; all he said was that nothing had been officially announced. Also, it has been known that the season will have 22 episodes for quite some time now, and that the 2 of them will actually be the Pegasus "movie."
Yes, they've openly acknowledged that Battlestar Galactica is much more resonant post 9/11. "Science Fiction" isn't about good science ("The Singularity is about to explode! Weapons to maximum!"), and it really only uses fiction as an allegory for present day, very nonfiction concepts and events.
For the second story in a row, Slashdot gets it wrong. David Eick said merely that he and Ronald D. Moore "had not decided yet" about the future of the show past season 4, not that there was certainly going to be a season 5.
I guess no body listens to the podcasts. The producer/writer, Ronald D. Moore, mentioned this a month ago on a podcast. The network made him sweat it out with that "12 episodes" thing but finally said ok to a twenty-something deal. He also said the show has TWO seasons left. He hasn't signed two seasons, he just thinks the story arc has two seasons left. I highly recommend the podcasts by the way...
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
... by the end of the 4th season. The current story is pretty dead end at this point, and they need to finish it soon, otherwise they're going to be left with nothing but filler episodes. If they want make season 5, fast forward 5 years or so, make a second battlestar, and start a new adventure. (The humans finally go after the Cylons, maybe?) If Earth is just an inhabitable wasteland, I'm going to be severely pissed off...
During the first season commentary, the producers explain that the entire bit on Caprica was basically done because it was cool. The producer who came up with it (I can't remember which one) had no idea where it was going or why Sharon showed up again on Caprica, he just "thought it would be cool." As the story progressed, they eventually hit on the idea of Cylons trying to procreate, which has never really been well explained.
So, yes, I expect you're completely correct - the writers are doing this by the seat of their pants and have no idea where it's going either. The Cylons may have a plan, I just wish they'd share it with the writers...
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
I actually quite like the "science" in BSG. It's very minimal, and it avoids driving the plot. ST: VOY drove me insane with all the shit science they just made up. Obviously, science fiction is supposed to be fictional science, but good in good Sci-Fi like BSG, it seems like the science has internally-consistent rules, while in a lot of bad Sci-Fi (unfortunately most modern Star Trek shows, save for DS9), the writers pay no attention to consistency, and just make up new pseudo-scientific things to work themselves out of complicated plots.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Battlestar started off very well. It was fascinating. It was science fiction, emphasis on the science. Then apparently some network dickhead told the writers that they needed to, I don't know, attract more girls, or go more mainstream, or "be more like that Scrubs program". All of a sudden whole segments of the show turned from space opera to soap opera.
After that, I stopped watching. Call me too much of a male geek, but I don't watch SF for stories about relationships that take place in a futuristic setting.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.