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Battlestar Galactica's End Officially After Season 4
Ant writes "First it was off, and then it was back on. Yahoo is now reporting on a release put out by David Eick and Ronald Moore stating that they will conclude Battlestar Galactica at the end of Season 4. They said it was a creative decision, and that they wanted to end the show on their own terms. The show was always planned with a definite beginning, middle and end, unlike many other sci-fi shows and dramas. Sci Fi Channel has accepted the decision. The news had been foreshadowed this spring through statements from stars Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff. Ronald Moore himself had said that the show was heading into its final act, although he said the final act could be one or two more seasons. Now we know that the final act will last for one season. The special 2-hr. episode 'Razor' starts off the season in November. The first regular episodes of Season 4 will air in early 2008."
It was starting to drag near the middle of last season, I'm glad to see they've identified an endpoint. It'd have been a shame to have to watch that show go into the toilet -- better to burn twice as bright for my viewing amusement.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Interesting. I wonder what the end game is going to be?
My money is on "Earth is the Cylon home world" or something similarly devious.
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Hopefully this is more reliable than the Doctor Who drivel that was posted here yesterday or the day before.
----------------- Oink. Moo. rarr! -----------------
The entire thing has been awesome, with no detectable dragging at all. There has been, on the other hand, plenty of unjustified whining by fans who don't have and shouldn't have creative control over the show.
Unlike some people, I remember when sci-fi on TV was truly awful, for example, 1979.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
FRACK! This leaves a big whole in the Sci-Fi channel line up. I hope they can find a worthy successor.
Sad to see it go, its been fun while it lasted. But its better that they end on their own terms than dragging out several seasons more...
It's always good when shows like this _end_ eventually, rather than being cut once the authors run out of random reasons not to get the the goal. Four seasons is an excellent length for this series, and I hope it ends strongly. Or we could have season 5: The cylon invasion of earth.... followed by season six: the escape from earth to find _new heavenly homeworld_ ... and the cycle continues.
Once they found earth the jig was up. If it was a more primitive earth, the cylons would pound them into the ground and it would all be over, a technologically equal earth and they would likely be outnumbered by the cylons and pounded again (thanks guys for coming and bringing all your enemies along!), a more techologically advanced earth would have pounded the cylons and then assimilated the newcomers onto their society. Trying to drag it out after any of these scenarios would have dragged down the series and alas, it would have sucked.
They have a chance to go out on a high note and I am glad to see they are taking it. Sad, but I was p.o.ed that Deadwood and Rome ended too. There is precious little quality TV out there and the best series are winding down. I will be sad to see the Wire go too. Hopefully all these guys will give us some new quality series.
Then executive producter David Eick directly contradicts Olmos and says that Battlestar is an open-ended adventure and that Season 4 WON'T be the final season, but there is the possibility of having more seasons. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/12/124725 6
Now, David Eick (and Ronald Moore) says, Oh, JK, what I actually meant to say is that we have no idea what we're doing and we finally decided that Battlestar really is going to end after Season 4. I enjoy watching this show and the fact that its confirmed to end will hopefully make it interesting as they now have the freedom to kill off major characters and finally give the viewers the definitive end they've been waiting for, but with this kind of mis-management, who knows what will happen.
Stay tuned for more post-season drama as we discover that nobody at Battlestar Galactica knows what the hell is going on with their own show...
File Deletion is Murder.
I'd rather see the show go out on a high note than to jump the shark. Two of my favorite shows are Seinfeld and The Simpsons. Seinfeld went out at the top, so whenever I catch a rerun of it, I can be sure I'll enjoy it. With The Simpsons, I usually avoid the reruns because at this point there are more bad episodes than good ones. I hope I'll be able to enjoy reruns of Battlestar Galactica for a long time to come.
I think this show jumped the shark in season 3.
Also, when one of your main characters is supposedly a genius, aren't you supposed to write him as such, instead of having him emote, think and act like a slightly retarded teenager? The writers obviously didn't think so, and that has really riled me up.
Fantasy: http://ferrisfantasy.blogspot.com/
They have done this many times before.
Either- inexorably the loop closes and the snake bites its tail again or this is the loop where they break the cycle. Perhaps the merged cyclon/human race is how they break the cycle.
Hopefully it will not have a pathetic ending like Bab5 (Ohhh. we are a big nasty race that's afraid to grow up-- god I felt like that ending invalidated the entire 4 years I watched the series up to there).
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Sure, they may have planned the series to be exactly that long, but I doubt it. After all, these great creative visions tend to go out the window when the money starts rolling in. Any series with a planned timeline will have that timeline stretched with all sorts of filler if the show is popular enough. They start talking up the timeline again when the ratings slip.
The best recent example of this is Lost. That is another show that supposedly had the entire plot (beginning, middle, end) mapped out from the beginning. However, the show became a huge hit, and everything got stretched out to where a large chunk of the episodes are basically filler that doesn't actually move the story forward at all. Now that ratings are declining, they've put an end date on it. However, had the ratings not slipped, I guarantee they would not be talking about end dates now. In my opinion, the show has dragged on at least a season and a half longer than it should have, and it still have 3 more years to go.
It's bad enough that we have to wait until 2008 for the next episode. SciFi has really shot themselves in the foot by letting this series go.
-50 DKP for lame post!
On Earth, Humans and Cylons still live side-by-side and are happy about it.
paintball
Right... were they tired of making money? Or maybe they didn't make any money for the network? That seems more likely. So they creatively decided to stop the series because there were no interest from advertisers.
Sorry, I call shenanigan on the "it was a creative decision" bullshit. It's a business.
Ooh, ooh! Maybe in the last episode, all the cast members could listen to some Jimi Hendrix music and decide that they're ALL CYLONS! And the colonies weren't really destroyed--it was just some kind of CRAZY hallucination, like Starbuck really being dead! Then the series finale could suck as many balls as the season 3 finale!
Because, wrestling and the SF channel; match made in heaven!
Just because it's still better than something else doesn't mean it's better (or as good) as it was. The quality of the writing has certainly wavered--Adama's address to the crew before the rescue mission to New Caprica, for example, was not in character, and was cliche. He's a very strong character normally--but the writers got lazy or they didn't think.
SciFi has really shot themselves in the foot by letting this series go.
Keeping a good series on too long can turn it to crap. I like Galactica, but I'm not as excited about it as I was in seasons 1 and 2. As an example, the long, overdone Starbuck/Apollo melodrama has worn thin for me. With a finite time span, the series will likely tighten up and regain some of the focus I feel it lost in season 3.
Also, hanging on to an idea after it has outlived its usefulness is what makes so many viewers disgusted with the studios in the first place. Instead of churning out more of the same thing ("Hey, the Die Hard movies raked in dough, so let's make another one!"), studios need to keep experimenting. If SciFi takes the HBO approach, and isn't afraid to kill off shows *before* they get crappy, they'll be doing the smart thing, rather than shooting themselves in the foot.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
I haven't had a chance to watch any of them since the pilot. However, I hear it's spectacular. Anyway, I wish more shows would wrap things up and leave a spectacular series. Lost and Heroes come to mind.
I'd be sad when they're over, but happier overall because it was done right.
Yes, I am a smart ass; it's better than the alternative.
Let us be thankful that our great show, that turned to shit, wont hit rock bottom before they decide to end it. I am happy to hear that it will be ending after this season because that means they ahve to actually advance the story instead of making filler episodes that brought the series down the last couple seasons.
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
Definitely seems like a plausible end. It might not be sentimentally satisfying, but it could be done in a very poignant way.
I love BSG but I would have to see a new BSG 1980.
Still we have the whole caprica series to look forwards too.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
(Non-spoiler as it's a wild guess) - We've seen four of the final five Cylons. The remaining unknown Cylon comes in multiple sizes, shapes, and genders. And comprises the remainder of the 'colonial fleet'.
[Insert pithy quote here]
And they're finally going to let the writers in on it!
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STE ended on a whimper. By contrast, Battlestar Galactica ends with a bang.
"Right, you are! That Star Wars I & II sucked, also forget not!" exclaims Yoda.
Set out from the get-go to make the show X seasons (preferably 2-5) and end it, especially if the show involves a quest or mystery. American network TV needs to get out of that "milk it for as much money as possible, then cancel it with no resolution as soon as the ratings drop" mentality and realize that they can make a lot more money in the long run if the quality of their shows remains CONSISTENTLY high.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Old enough to remember watching the original series on TV, I was thrilled with the mini-series, and Season 1 was solid drama with fantastic characterization. Season 2 started strong, but aside from the odd bit of goodness appearing at random, I'd say the show got pretty sketchy after the whole Pegasus thing.
Making it worse, the entire New Caprica plot line which ended the second season went absolutely nowhere, and the spent the rest of the third season hitting a big red reset button which pretty much rewound us to the point right after the mid-season 2 Pegasus arc. Yippe, I love watching a season and a half of TV where the producers produce random plotlines, and Adama and Rosyln, who had previously been inspired characters, were written as "stupid" and thus even the character drama was removed as well.
A real shame in my opinion; however, I'm happy to hear the fourth season will be their last. Perhaps that will inspire them to tell an actual story and we'll end up with a decent finish (and I can just go on ignoring all content between mid-season 2 and the final season =).
--
~AC
I was on the fence to whether I'd tune in again after that disastrous season finale. It all came down to whether next season would be it's last or now. If I heard they were going for five seasons, I wasn't gonna bother with the fourth. But now I'd like to see how they're going to finish things up.
This show had some great moments. Even season 3 had some good ones. Exodus Pt. II was one of the finest hours in TV history. But RDM clearly had no idea of where he wanted to go with this show. Making those people (in the finale) into Cylons, based on a decision made halfway through season 3, just kind invalidated everything that came before to me. And the idea of pulling the lyrics for "All Along the Watchtower" out of the "ethereal mix" that we're all tapped into was just too stupid for me to ever look at this as a good show again (I read that one in an interview). Some people are just blown away by any manufactured twist. I prefer a degree of coherence to my storylines.
Unfortunately, due to a terrible miscalculation of scale, BOTH fleets are eaten by a small dog.
Now the SciFi channel will have room for Stargate Galaxies, and Stargate: The Next Generation, and Stargate Return of the Jedi, and....
There's a Cylon troop transport luring her there.
She's been declared dead and was saved by a Cylon ship before.
One of the Leobens is obsessed with getting Starbuck to fall in love with him.
Her henpit pressure had equalized to the atmospheric level due to the hole in her windshield.
She holds on to the very last second, and only when her ship breaks apart do we see her throw her brace for it.
Due to the documentary-style special effects, the shaking camera put her viper at the top of the screen when it explodes.
It's weird how many people believe what the characters are telling themselves (she's dead, Jim) rather than what the filmmakers are deliberately showing us (stuff the characters don't know, but we were shown requires far more effort in prop making, filming and editing than stuff people say).
You can't take the sky from me...
Spoiler, BSG is nothing more than a Cylon social experiment. The 12 colonies are long dead. The first show led to the death of the humans. All the humans and cylon models are really just computers set up in a situation that happened long ago ( the first show ) to try to see if they can find earth the same way the old humans did if they really believe they are human.
Zap, theres season 5 6 7. Humans fighting future cylons. Thats the only way the series could possibly continue. New cast and all. With cameos of every character to ever be on bsg.
There are two reasons for the pieces of paper/table top battle mock ups etc: 1. The in story version is because the humans had to restrict the amount of computer networking etc etc etc because of cylon infiltration and network destruction that could occur. So the Battlestar was designed to run 'low tech' and not be able to be infiltrated by the cylons that way. (Also if you want the shiny happy future-go watch Star Trek with all of their touch screen goodness). 2. It is a concession to the viewer. Viewers can relate to having to shuffle paper and push models on a table in order to gain perspective. This is used so the viewers can related to the characters a bit more.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
The entire "New Caprica" plot line was pointless if you asked me. Everything in it was predictable with no real insight into the characters and avoiding any real issues. For Example, We never got to see Baltar act as the President on his own. For all the Cylons actions we never really got any insight on WHY they are doing what they are doing. They turned the cylons "with a plan" into simple thugs being brutal just to be brutal.
Frankly for me the show has never lived up to what Season One produced. The show had direction then, to me it lacks it now.
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You can't take the sky from me...
While we all know the Cylons "have a plan" I began to wonder about the writers. People became to dysfunctional for my tastes and the finale where they were singing the same song was just to hokey.
I really liked the show, but this last season wrapped around Kara was too predictable, it more Saturday morning show than anything else.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
"Do you watch Battlestar Galactica?"
"No"
"No? Then you're an idiot."
You can't take the sky from me...
this is flaimbait, please some one mod it down. If it sucked so much you would not have wasted your time writing here. Your just a troll. Personally, I think the show is great. Nothing beats the episode where they liberate New Caprica. Galactica intentionally free falling to launch fighters and jumping out at the last minute, priceless!
I have to agree. IMO Season One was almost perfect. Season Two bounced back and forth some good and some bad and then they hit New Caprica and the whole show collapsed.
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If I were a writer, I'd have the following plotlines going on:
Wild Guess #1
The 4 cylons who were "activated" in the season 3 finale try to kill Hera, while continuing to enable Galactica to locate Earth (ultimately with the goal to obliterate it). The reasoning could be that the 4 were activated to "correct" the pro-human behavior that the cylons have been exhibiting, and keep the cylon goal of human extermination on track. Each of the 4 has risen to a unique position of power that allows them to enable the humans on their quest for Earth, and gives them direct insight into cylon-human relations. The 4 would essentially be considered a planned countermeasure to insure the initial cylon groupthink.
Wild Guess #2 (Warning: Season 3 Spoiler)
Chief Tyrol's child may not actually be his. If it was his child, it would mean that there are two hybrid human-cylons that exist. If it is his child, and the 4 are actually attempting to kill Hera, it's likely that the Chief's child would also meet the same fate. If it actually isn't the Chief's child, it'd make an interesting episode to see how Tyrol reacts to it.
Wild Guess #3
There's still one last cylon model unaccounted for. My guess would be that this cylon is likely the one tasked with destroying Earth, and will likely not reveal him or herself until the final episodes.
Endings
Cool Ending #1:
They get to Earth, they find it's the cylon homeworld, and that they're all actually cylons. The truth is that the cylons successfully exterminated the human race thousands of years ago. The entire 12 colonies and the human-cylon struggle was an experiment (possibly one of many) that the cylons did to attempt to become "more human", and to attempt to understand what the human race went through the when the cylons succeeded the first time. They proceed to design and plan the next version of the experiment, to send out another 12 colonies to repeat the experiment. (It would explain why both humans and cylons both arrived at the temple when the supernova was going to blow, 'cause they were programmed to. It would also explain why baltar sees the cylon and occasionally "knows" things.)
Cool Ending #2:
They arrive at Earth, which is technologically advanced and populated by humans. The Earth humans reveal that the entire Battlestar contingent are actually all cylons (or the Earth humans just refuse to accept that they're human). The Earth humans essentially say, "This isn't the first time you cylons have tried to destroy Earth. Now all of you shoo (or we'll blast you), and stop trying to use our myths of the 12 lost colonies to obliterate our planet." (Alt Twist: The Battlestar crew is believed to be who they say they are, the last cylon activates and obliterates the race.)
Lame Ending:
They arrive at Earth, which is populated by humans, cylons and hybrids (or the remains of such a society is found), which magically causes the tension between the cylons and humans to dissappear and they live happily ever after.
HELLO, Kara's destiny is to find Earth. The Cylons have her AND superior FTL technology. They made it to the musical nebulae before the others and used Kara and whatever clue is to be found there to get to the end of the trail.
You can't take the sky from me...
There's such a big world out there if you just turn off the damn television. You'll live, really.
1) This is good because, as many have mentioned, going out on a high note is far preferable to shrivelling into unadultered guano before calling it quits. Besides, the sooner they kill it the sooner someone else can "reimagine" it a generation later if we honestly find the concept that compelling.
2) The success of BSG has taught the Sci-Fi Channel some good lessons, and we can hope such lessons are applied as they develop new properties, thereby giving them an edge in the race to suck less.
3) I'm arranging to have my own scifi project pitched to the Sci-Fi Channel in the near future. A hole in the schedule means a potential opportunity!
These stories are free but worth money.
So that's where all those old programmers went after Y2K!
Actually, the Cylons and colonials will reach earth in 2009, and the programmer Lords of Cobol will destroy the Cylons with their clock-fu and move to the other planet to restart the cycleYou can't take the sky from me...
I'd like to see the Battlestar Galactica and the rest of the fleet jump in close to Earth and find it completely destroyed by a nuclear war that happened 5 years earlier. No signs of any life and the planet is completely uninhabitable. Then immediately before the credits role, have 10 Cylon Base Stars jump in right behind and show them launching every raider and missle they have towards the fleet.
Now THAT would be a cool ending to a show.
"The show was always planned with a definite beginning, middle and end, unlike many other sci-fi shows and dramas."
Oh, that's complete bullshit. The show's plotting has lurched like a drunken sailor from the pilot setup through various seasons. You can even hear on the DVD commentaries how much they had to change plans as soon as they blew half the season's the budget on the initial prison-ship episode, etc.
Someone must have figured out that this is good marketing mantra when you announce a final season to persuade people it's not just because your story is deflating with a big farty-sound. All of a sudden everyone fantasy series is claiming this: Babylon 5, Lost, Battlestar, etc.
To summarize: Total bullshit.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
What the frack does the term "season" mean anymore nowadays, when a show goes off the air for the better part of a year, and new "seasons" can start pretty much randomly at any time of the year? I'm lost...
I've never posted a slashdot comment until now. You people are so silly, really. If you don't see you good shows like Battlestar Galactica and LOST are compared to... well, EVERY OTHER SHOW, then it must suck to be you. I won't talk about how ridiculously awesome the last half of season 3 of LOST was, I get the feeling most people here gave up on it when the mainstream press told you to, but I will make a comment about BSG. Ron Moore has never claimed to have a "grand plan." He believes that the best TV is made up as you go. Anyone who's listened to his podcasts will know that his plans for the show changes all the time. He knows the story has an end, but reserves the right to change that to something better! Stephen King has also talked about how stupid it is to plan something before you right it. Moore is talking BSG on the course that the story dictates. How are any of you berating him for deciding the story is over? He doesn't want a repeat of ST:TNG's 7th season, where the writers had run out of ideas. You people are probably the same ones who don't like the latest Sopranos, because it doesn't have enough violence or whatever. Wait a minute. This is the same place that liked crap like Stargate and Farscape. This is news for nerds, I guess. Maybe I'm not a nerd. (PS - I could care less if there are any spelling mistakes in this entry.)
Specifically, I hope they milk the series, by releasing a special edition DVD set, remastered removing the shakey cam. I so desperately wanted to watch the new series, but just am unable to, due to the distraction of the overly artsy and pretentious and unnecessary shakeycam use. This is one technique I hope dies, and if there's one positive to be seen in the demise of this series, it's one less use of shakeycam.
It should be the drama and actions in the show that make me turn my head and make my eyes dart around, not the spasmodic camera operator. Sigh... (I'm ready to form an advocacy group for elimination of shakeycam, heavy plastic packaging, and christmas toys packaging involving plastic ties and milliones of twist ties.)
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I have no ideea about the old Battlestar Galactica, I was to little back then and it was only aired on German chanells (Sat1), who like to double the voices so that i can't understand a word. I've been watching modern Battlestar Galactica since the miniseries. I was thrilled. The first season was awsome. It was maybe the only true SF series since Star Trek (please, don't give me headaches about Stargate and Babylon Five, I have much interesting dreams at night that those series). On the second season, my pleasure watching Battlestar Galactica dropped a little and I find the third season worst and painfull to watch. Almost transforming itself into a space-soap-opera (stay tuned for more in Caprica - the series). But I continued watching it, becuase of curiosity.
Finding out that the forth season will be the latest one, it means all the wires will be connected. It should be a nice season. I hope they don't make a loose ending for some spin-off BSG-2 series, in a few years (although Caprica - the series is coming, oh boy...). I would like to know what happens to all the stories and characters. It's nice to know when to stop. BSG producers did. I applaud them and wait for the latest advetures of Adama and friends. Unlike Star Trek, BSG is a huuuge movie, which deserve a defined and clear ending. I'll bet they will have huge ratings on the last episode. It's a little sad to know it ends, but it's the right thing to do.
what about Pegasus then? How did it manage to survive? It was a modern ship and yet seemed to have networked computers. Clearly they managed to secure their networks because they survived encounters with the Cyclons.
Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
...at Star Wars?
The show was always planned with a definite beginning, middle and end, unlike many other sci-fi shows and dramas.
Methinks so!
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Someone here told me that most sci-fi shows reflect reality to some extent when I argued that I didn't like the show from the moment when they introduced "human cylons" that act like sleepers who could attack from within without warning and that I don't enjoy it when my shows have too much "realism". Especially when it feels like propaganda that way.
Well, maybe we're back to propaganda. After all, it's easier to fight an enemy if he's just portrayed as "evil", with no plan or reason to his actions. If the enemy is just evil, he is easier to fight. I mean, nothing's easier and more heroic than fighting plain evil.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If they land on the planet, exhausted from battle and hoping to find a new home, only to get a snarled "The boat's full, we don't want any more aliens to steal our jobs".
Now that would be a way to end it with a bang!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If they do, we'll soon see another crappy spin-off series that uses stock footage to pad the lame down-on-earth plots written around the footage, like we already had to suffer with TOS BSG.
Please, for all that is holy, by the Lords of Kobol, promise me we won't have to endure this again. No human being should be subjected to such horror twice.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
... Maybe 4 seasons is the charm?
Babylon 5 suffered in season 5 quite a bit, the whole psi war was weak IMO. Granted, that's in comparison to seasons 3 and 4, which few scifi shows in history can hope to do. And yeah, maybe stuff was pulled into S4 because of the ever-present fear of cancellation, but still.
overlords, and volunteer for research into human-cyborg relations of an intimate kind.
Hurry, only one season left!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
2- You just called Pythagoras "too stupid for you".
You can't take the sky from me...
Cylons: How are you gentlemen? All your base are belong to us!
[note, I started the process with the No Karma Bonus checkbox]
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
The final cylon is of course, Number Johnny 5.
Number 5 is alive!
Slagborr
Along the same lines as not having the Cylons in disco-chrome shells, it is far cheaper to buy some props at Toys R Us than to hire someone to do CG special effects.
Similar to another poster, yes I was miffed about Rome and Deadwood ending and now BSG.
.mil) and all the problems
Rome ended well, IMO and maybe could have gone on for 1/2 a season...maybe.
Deadwood...big GRRRRR... so much was left hanging and much more to see that 1 or 2 more seasons would
have been a cake walk...well worth the DVD set purchases. Instead !CHOP! that's it, no more soup^W
Swiggen for YUO! (Swiggen...still cracsk me up. anyway)
BSG is somewhere in between, with season 1: fantastic. Season 2: orgasmic. Season3: rag tag fleet part2.
Season 3, IMO had s1 and s2 to live up to, but neither failed nor succeeded completely.
Let me 'splain:
More drama, less cylons. so-so.
Characters had more history and backstory (military -> civilian -> back to
and impediments associated with the transition and back. Difficult, some episodes did it well, some not so much.
The survivors were a 'family' because of surviving. Now families with the family and the motivations,
loyalties and interactions became overly complex. Yeah, that lead to the dreaded love quadrangle, because
it could have been solved in 1/2 and episode's time over a few episodes, but *IT DRAGGED ON for 3 or 4*.
"As the Battlestar turns", indeed. I just kept thinking "Would someone please shoot/stab/fuck someone else
and move the hell on!". Overall, a big "MEH".
Missed, or maybe saved for later, opportunities: The Baltar+Chip-Six interaction with Caprica(Six)+ChipBaltar.
Comedy effing gold right there. When ChipBaltar (the one in Caprica's head/imagination) was introduced I'd
not laughed so hard in a while just because of his demeanor and expressions (priceless).
Never happened. Tigh got decked by CapricaSix, which was worth a "woohoo" and a "daaaammn" and made the
season worth the price for an episode alone, never happened.
(Dr Who, season 2, Daleks vs Cybermen...the trash-talk scene had me in tears. 80 bucks for season2 and I
didn't bat an eye).
Loss of Lucy Lawless/her desecnt into madness, Final Five, the cylon-girl-in-the-tank who steers the ship,
boxed cylons (be interesting if boxed cylons were the one's projecting themselves to Caprica/Baltar, it
would explain a lot). Story arcs that just ended/went nowhere to the disappointment of many.
It comes down to: previous 2 seasons of awesome, boring arcs that got explored at length, exciting arcs that ended
too soon, got ignored or are in the making and a big lack of explosions/cylons/cylon plan in the beginning of
season 3, and eventually some "pulling it out of the fire" writing toward the end.
Mixture of "Holy Shit" and "WTF?" best describes S3.
Season 4?: Won't know until we get there, but if it can make me want to put in the DVDs, starting with the pilot,
then they've made TV on par/above Rome/Deadwood, IMO.
That's saying a lot. I think they can do it when focused, hell s1, s2 and s3.5 proved that.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
the serious will end, but Hollywood will continue to make movies of it, like the "Star Trek" series.
I am guessing that they will have a show on the Adamas before Caprica was invaded by Cylons like one hundred years before or something. Sort of like the Enterprise series being before the original Star Trek. There can still be a series based on BSG, but it might have different characters, and might be a prequel. I think the new BSG series will end and then spin off into a few movies before they decide to call it quits.
I recall FarScape ended and then they did a movie of it, but it ended up on the Sci Fi Channel instead of the theatres. Firefly ended up as the Serenity movie. So why wouldn't the tradiation continue after the BSG series ends in season four?
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
The point of New Caprica is these people CANNOT stop running so long as there is a threat from the cylons. If they found Earth tomorrow, they can't land or they face a repeat of what happened of New Caprica.
Besides, the escape from New Caprica has been one of the highlights of the entire series.
Yes, but B5 never had any money. In fact they barely lived from season to season. Case in point, Season 4 turned into Season 4 & 5, because we may not have a Season 5. ... Oh, we do now. MMM well shame I wrapped things up in Season 4 then.
His point was Money comes in, Plot goes out.
B5 never had money coming in.
At the rate that people are dying, Vipers and fleet ships being lost, fuel and food being consumed, they'll be lucky to make it to season 3.5.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The humans are polytheists, while the Cylons are monotheists. They'll both have an interesting time processing what they find if they arrive at modern Earth.
Of course, the writers could take the easy way out and have 'em show up around the last ice age.
If they went touch screen/laptop/shiny happy ship we would be back to either (take your pick) USS Enterprise-D or the Battlestar Pegasus (or maybe Voyager may be a better comparison). These ships are top of the line, fully crewed with the cream of the fleet, with top notch systems, equipment and fighter craft.
Instead the writers chose to use the Galactica (otherwise known as The Bucket). A ship that was at the end of its life cycle, on antiquated equipment, about to be decommissioned, shut down, and two steps ahead of being used for target practice. The ship is crewed with the misfits, rejects and unwanted of the fleet (including Adama if you read between the lines in a couple of episodes). Things are broken, get fixed and life goes on without a refit.
The writers consciously decided to avoid the 'Star Trek Look'. I think it allows for better story telling.
I understand that any given ship, character, plot ticket or Checkov's gun only lasts as long as the writers want them to last. The writers do understand this: Filling the screen with needless shoot-em-ups will not advance the story. So the writers have to be able to balance many things on the head of a pin: All of the characters and their current moods/direction, the enemies mood/direction, the current status of the equipment everybody has, the goals that the different sides have. Everyone has to have an investment in the outcome, the 'good guys' the 'bad guys' and the audience. Plus the writers have to produce 20 episodes per season. If we're being gentle, that means one episode written every two weeks. That takes a lot of energy.
If you want a good comparison, try Babylon 5. It as written for television, had a five year run (the fifth year was weak, but that was because the fourth season crammed fifth season material in when they were under threat of cancellation). But look at how the show is paced and the battle sequences are used to propel the plot instead of being the excuse for the plot.
If I wanted to watch an hour of mindless violence with no plot, I'd watch Starcraft or Homeworld replays (retouched with BSG ships) stored as movies.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
Wait, after 20 years, "Battlestar Galactica" is back?!
Wait, now it's gone?!
You can't take the sky from me...
Most successful Sci-Fi shows run way too long. Stargate...Star Trek...X-Files...all should have ended years before they actually were.
The cake is a pie
Just crazy theories here.
Baltar is the Cylon God.
The cowardice of the original, human Baltar, motivated him to create the humaniform cylons to achieve immortality. For whatever reasons (loneliness perhaps), Baltar made the additional cylon models. Baltar's ego alone would be enough for him to consider himseelf their god - never mind that he actually created them.
Now Baltar has returned, unaware of his own true nature. Both God (original Baltar) and Son of God (unaware of himself - in the form of his own creations). Baltar certainly has been the whipping boy for the sins of the humans and cylons.
I watched this from the beginning. The mini-series blew me away. The first season raised it up a notch and season 2 kept it their right until the end.
Then they did the flash forward, Apollo in a fat suit, Adama growing a mustache, Starbuck her hair. I have seen less farcical time shifts on southpark. All the characters seemed to forget who they were, and then we got the season 3 attempt to justify the flash forward characters with a pile of bad soap opera. Somewhere they hit the reset button, Apollo became unfat, the others less hairy and the whole New Caprica bit might not have happened.
A number of filler episodes later and we get the season 3 finale that was an improvement over the preceding soap opera, but breaks the essential rules of the games about who couldn't possibly be a Cylon. Now we will get the final season where they attempt to justify the inconsistencies that they introduced by running a series with no real set plan and making it up as they go along. I only had to listen too one podcast to realize they are making it up as the go. No planned arcs here.
After watching then end of season 2 to the end of season 3, I am thinking 22 episodes might be too much of a stretch for them to fill. More than enough to finish off if they have any good ideas left.
Well, the bad news is that the best show on television will be coming to and end, probably sometime in mid to late 2008,... But the good news is, at least we won't see our favorite show degrade into endless time travel plot twists, bringing back fat, old and balding actors just to save their career, and Nazis in Space.
Then again, it would be pretty weird for SciFi to arbitrarily cancel Battlestar when they've already greenlighted a spinoff series. If you want to come up with cynical conspiracy theories, I'd buy the one that says they didn't want to pay what Olmos was asking for another season, but none of these actors are exactly superstars with Hollywood knocking down their doors.
Breakfast served all day!
That is what I call brilliant.
You can't take the sky from me...
I swear, every episode ends with something blowing up.
You can't take the sky from me...
....in a decidedly nonlinear fashion.
WTF - sure it is a monumental task to come up with a great story line. But after Season 3 I would be overjoyed with mediocre.
This, from a huge fan.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Dude, come on... It's a bad cover of a Dylan song... GIVE ME A BREAK. Use a symphony or something artsy... But likely "All Along the Watchtower" fit the budget... A command performance by the London Philharmonic probably would not.
Who did what now?
Too bad you can't like that show anymore because of that choice in music. It's not like they've been playing on the theme that our cultures and their culture are related, or that our future could be their past, or anything like that, huh? Man, that one song sure completely fucked up everything and now it's all crap! Oh noes!
You can't take the sky from me...