Rewrites for final Battlestar Galactica season

I just read at PulpSecret! that the final season of Battlestar Galactica may not match what the production team originally envisioned last year.

Apparently the second half of the final season has been completely rewritten in the wake of the writer’s strike. What can this mean for the last year of what has become the best TV Sci-Fi series? It could mean a lot of things.

Personally, I’m hoping for less of someone’s brother-in-law’s band playing ‘All Along the Watchtower’- the most jaw-droppingly lame and painfully crass way to end an episode I’ve seen in a long long time… and I watch Doctor Who.

The final season will see many revelations and while last year we were asked to sit through painful filler episodes featuring characters few viewers care about or storylines that are quickly dropped, this rewrite could mean a sharper and cleaner season. It has a lot of expectations riding on it and after the somewhat lackluster season 3, season 4 had better step up to the plate and make viewers remember why they sacrificed Friday nights for the Gods of Cobol.

In any case, the program has become a giant of the TV airwaves. With a spinoff prequel series ‘Caprica’ in the works, the sky is the limit for the little remake that could.

The new season premieres this Friday at 10 ET on the Sci-Fi Channel in the US.

Battlestar Galactica Season Four drawn out?

Over on the AMC Sci-Fi Scanner, the word is that the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica will be drawn out over the next two years with 10 episodes shown in both 2008 and 2009.

The feeling is that Sci-Fi Channel knows that they are losing BSG and in order to retain viewers, they are lengthening out the finale. Not a big surprise as viewers have seen the channel make some very unwise decisions, but this really is a ’salt in the wounds’ situation. To begin with, the next season is starting late (after the Razor film in November) and now it may take twice as long to see?

What did the Farscape fans do back in the day?

Maybe the Sci-Fi Channel needs a reminder.

Feel free to leave feedback here.

Battlestar Galactica not over?

The folks over at SyFyPortal report that hair-iffic (I’m jealous) Ron Moore, creator of the amazing Battlestar Galactica remake on The Sci-Fi Channel has won over the executives at NBC Universal.

He’s apparently been signed to create programming for NBC through 2009 including the final season of Battlestar Galactica which has enjoyed a growing (and well-earned) popularity over it’s three year run. Variety reports that it’s a seven figure deal.

Well… frak.

Of course, this opens the possibility of a prequel, fifth season or an extended finale for the program, though Moore has expressed an interest in moving on to other genres such as comedy.

The original Dirk Benedict/Richard Hatch space cowboy buddy series only ran one year unless you count Battlestar 1980 and we don’t count that, do we?

For fans of the new Battlestar Galactica series, this could be welcome news and no surprise as yet another great science fiction TV series slips from the Sci-Fi Channel’s roster.

Suggested viewing:

Battlestar Galactica - Season One
Battlestar Galactica - Season 2.0 (Episodes 1-10)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5 (Episodes 10-20)

Katee Sackhoff on Bionic Woman and Battlestar Galactica

Starbuck actress Katee Sackhoff recently announced that she will be splitting up her coming year between the newly revived Bionic Woman series and the fourth and final Battlestar Galactica season on the Sci Fi Channel. 

The original series was a 1970’s spinoff from the Six Million Dollar Man starring Lindsay Wagner as Jamie Somers, the Bionic Woman. A general success, the series cemented slow-mo images of people jumping over fences, running quickly/slowly and performing feats of superhuman strength to the eerie sound of bionic motors embedded in the Bionic Woman’s body. Later revived for a special film in the 90’s, the revival comes at a critical time when science fiction, super heroes and fantasy are making a major comeback with the American viewing public.

In NBC’s new Bionic Woman series, Sackhoff will play an ‘evil’ version of the series star Michele Ryan. Jumpsuits will fly for sure. The series premiers on NBC in September.

Her role in the upcoming Battlestar Galactica series is less clear. Last year she was forced by the program’s producers to keep a secret so important that her co-stars were in the dark. It ended up hurting her relationship with the rest of the crew and potentially damaging her career. As a result, she is completely in the dark on what the deal is with Starbuck’s return this year. Is she a ghost, a Cylon, a hallucination?

“Obviously when she comes back, the first thought is she is a Cylon,” Sackhoff said. “What do they do with Cylons? They welcome them with open arms. So it’s my character that goes through a lot. She learns who really cares about her and who doesn’t, and then by Episode 8, she will have some allies that are extremely unlikely.”

Only time will tell when the series returns in 2008.

Battlestar Galactica Razor News

Ramping up to the November premiere of the 2-Hour Battlestar Galactica film ‘Razor,’ the Sci Fi Channel will be screening 2-3 minute webisodes (similar to those made for Season 3) which will be uploaded for eight consecutive weeks.

The webisodes consist of material that made the film far too long for Sci Fi, but rather than lose the material completely, fans will now have the opportunity to see the build-up to the events in the 2-Hour movie.

‘Razor’ will offer fans a chance to witness the original Cylon War, and a look at the brash young pilot William Adama (played by Nico Cortez-pictured below) as he discovers a dangerous Cylon weapon.

Mark Stern, executive vice president of original programming for Sci Fi said “‘Razor’ tells the story of Lee Adama’s first mission as commander of the Battlestar Pegasus and will reveal the story of how Admiral Cain (played by Michelle Forbes of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame) served her ship during the original Cylon attack on the colonies.”

This is a vital part of the Battlestar Galactica story and I’m glad that they are telling it. I’m also glad that Forbes will get a chance to reprise her role of Admiral Cain, a battle-hardened character that shook up the program when she arrived.

November can’t come quickly enough!

Battlestar Galactica (classic series)

A TV sci-fi series from another era, Battlestar Galactica took over after the hard work of programs like Star Trek and even Space:1999 had softened up the TV viewing public for a feathered hair and soft leather goods vision with state of the arts special effects (for its time).

Originally envision by creator Glen Larson as a kind of Noah’s Ark in space featuring the survivors of a future cataclysm, the show morphed and changed until it followed the rag-tag group of alien refugees searching for their lost colony, Earth.

Of course hot on their trail were the chrome-plated Cylons with their wig-wam red light eyewear later made popular by Knight Rider. Assisting the Cylons was the traitorous Baltar brilliantly played in over-the-top style by John Colicos. Heroes included the cigar chomping Dirk Benedict as Starbuck and Richard Hatch as the straight-laced Apollo. There was also an annoying kid and his robot dog. The series’ unique look was created with the assistance of George Lucas’ special effects crew (later called Industrial Light & Magic), including artist Ralph McQuarrie. Lucas provided the crew on loan with the understanding that they were careful to not copy anything done on Star Wars.

Larson’s creation is not without controversy and 20th Century Fox sued Galactica’s production studio Universal Studios for copyright infringement in ripping off 34 separate ideas from its creations Star Wars. Universal counter-sued that Star Wars ripped off Buck Rogers and the cult film ‘Silent Running.’ The legal fiasco was dumped in 1980, but the damage it had done was severe to Galactica’s reputation.

Premiering with a strong feature film later shown on TV as the pilot, story lines involved alien slaver camps, western worlds and the exact same space battles re-run episode after episode. Nevertheless, the series commanded a dedicated following throughout its 24 episodes and so bad it never happened sequel ‘Galactica 1980.’ Like any science fiction series on TV, Battlestar Galactica suffered from budget restraints, scripting problems and poor viewing figures.

In 1979 at the 6th Annual People’s Choice Awards, the series won for Best New TV Drama Series, but even so, ratings were the death knell of the program. After three failed attempts at a revival including one in 1998 fueled entirely by former Apollo star Richard Hatch.

An intriguing project, Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming was a proposal for a continuation of the Galactica series using ideas from Hatch’s novels. Several talented filmmakers, actors and special effects wizards assisted Hatch (without pay) in completing a 4 minute trailer that the actor took with him on a circuit of sci-fi conventions to drum up support. The entire project was done out of pure devotion to the series.

The story followed the adventures of an older Apollo now commanding the Galactica and featured redesigned CGI Cylons (design below), it was done without Universal Studios‘ consent and therefore did not result in a new series.

Another revival helmed by Bryan Singer was dropped so that the director could work on X2: X-Men United… (Fox TV decided to work on Joss Whedon’s Firefly instead)

All in all, it was looking like the series was done for.

Around this time the Sci-Fi Channel in America ran this documentary:

Documentary #1

Documentary#2

The documentary, which paints the classic series in a bit of a madcap ‘what were they thinking’ light, aired on the exact same channel that would later lead to one of the most successful science fiction revivals as in 2003, Battlestar Galactica returned to the screens.

Far and away a very different creation in comparison with the classic series, this Battlestar Galactica series was an incredibly dynamic and sophisticated re-envisioning of the 1978 series, but its superficial deviations from the source material including humanoid Cylons and a female Starbuck and Boomer, caused many fans to call the series a blasphemy.

But many of those fans soon returned in time to see the stunning scripting, eye-popping special effects and superb acting that has made the program the most watched Sci-Fi series next to the original Star Trek.

But that’s another story.

To close, here are some classic series bloopers

Suggested viewing:

Battlestar Galactica - The Feature Film (Widescreen Edition)
Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Epic Series
Silent Running

Battlestar Spoilerotica

Production on the last season of the Sci-Fi Channel’s Peabody Award winning series, Battlestar Galactica, is currently underway in Vancouver. The 2-hour season premiere entitled Razor is set to air in November with the remainder of the season beginning in 2008.

Since this is the end of the most ambitious science fiction TV series to date, expect heavy concepts, plot twists… and lots of bloodshed. At a recent press conference, actor Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol) let it slip that the much talked about final 5 Cylons are actually immortal Cylon Gods… and probably not big Bob Dylan fans who jump to attention when they hear ‘All Along the Watchtower.’

The second portion of the press conference was staged on a ‘Cylon set’ where Centurions waged war against their human-looking masters… interesting goings on, eh?

Thematically, the fourth and final series is said to be cyclical in nature, paving the hinted at road that all of this has happened before and will happen again… whatever that means.

More as it comes in!

Suggested viewing/reading, etc:

Battlestar Galactica, Wall Photograph, 8×10
Battlestar Galactica - Season One
Battlestar Galactica - Season 2.0 (Episodes 1-10)
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5 (Episodes 10-20)
Battlestar Galactica Frack Me T-Shirt
Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion