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."

Comments

Re:Fascinating

[Bugs42]

Better that than:
Cylons: We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive.
Humans: GB2 /b/!

Re:That's fine

[lucabrasi999]

I'd rather see the show go out on a high note than to jump the shark.

That happened when they turned Starbuck into a woman.

Re:future tech

[jollyreaper]

Or I could just mock your spelling but that might be a bit dickish. Not to mention about as clever as your original post. No idea who pissed in your Cheerios but I hope they dry out. Have a pleasant day.

Re:MOD PARENT UP.

[Belgand]

Personally, I didn't like the Boxing episode. It felt tacked-on and weak.

The greater problem with many of these character episodes (and Lost's third season had much the same problem, but even worse, even including dragging the cast off to a secondary location for most of the first half of the season) is that they don't actually do a good job of developing characters.

In my mind a character is best developed naturally by letting us see how the character acts and reacts to events that move the plot forward. Don't drag things down by setting aside time for a special episode to show how a past event made the character into the person they are today. Show us a present event that informs us of their past, show us a present event that obviously changes the character and will affect them into the future.

I watch a show for the plot. The characters need to be interesting and well-developed, but not at the expense of moving the plot foward. A show that increasingly becomes just about characters and developing them is like a role-playing game where you just create characters and devise elaborate backstories for them without ever having them actually go on adventures. A pointless form of dramatic masturbation.

The first season seemed to get this better than the third season did. For an off-the-top-of-my-head example take "33". When Adama has to give the order to destroy the civilian ship it reveals a lot about his character. It gives us a chance to have a brief interlude into events that occurred in the past as well. At the same time though it's also a tense, dramatic event that deals with the plot and establishes and embellishes the tone and setting of the show. A show composed largely of flashbacks to Adama having to make a similar decision in the past while he agonizes over what to do in the present wouldn't have had the same impact and would have taken us out of the plot.

I have the feeling that the latter has become increasingly common as the way to deal with these character developments. Hopefully we can move back to the former.