cylon

(S04E19) You can tell that this show is approaching the end. Tonight's episode had the credits and chanting immediately after the "previously" montage and didn't even show scenes from tonight's episode during the final part of the opening. Plus, it was written by the same guy who wrote the original mini-series way back when. That's a telling sign.

Caprica City looks like a high-tech New York City. That was probably intentional.

(S04E18) I know it's a little late in the game to make this sort of observation, what with the show having only two episodes left, but if I were to compare characters in this show to characters in Gilligan's Island, I would say that Six is Ginger, Eight is Mary Ann and President Roslin is Mrs. Howell. Adama would naturally be the Skipper and Tigh would be Gilligan. I'm still working on Mr. Howell and the Professor.

In the beginning of the episode, either in someone's fantasy or projection or reality, Hera is moving the Galactica in a position next to the enemy Cylon fleet. Foreshadowing?

(S04E17) Before I go all spoilery on tonight's episode, what was the tattoo on Starbuck's back? It looked like a temple of some sort. Was it the Temple of Five?

Tonight's episode had its share of "what the frak" moments. It had some revelations, but it created more mystery than it solved. I was a little annoyed at the tease of learning the secret behind Starbuck's resurrection that ultimately didn't happen.

Before you get excited about the title, I should add that Universal is not talking to Ron Moore or David Eick or anybody behind the current incarnation of the series (or its prequel, Caprica). Instead, the studio is quietly approaching original creator Glen A. Larson about a complete, modern revamp of the series for the movie screens.

I'm left scratching my head on this one. Do we need another series revamp so soon after this series? Wouldn't that confuse casual viewers, particularly those that may start watching Caprica? Also, while I appreciate involving the creator in the concept, Larson hasn't been a big influence in television since the 80's.

I'm wondering if the studio went to Moore and company for a big-screen adaption and they said "no", so they went to Larson. The original pilot of Battlestar Galactica was first released as a movie. That could have been a factor in that choice.

Of course, this is all just rumor for now.

(S04E16) We've reached "The Final Five" on a few levels. Ellen Tigh is back, and it's good to know that despite being part of a species with a potentially infinite lifespan, she still gets jealous when her husband has a baby with someone else.

The minute Ellen came back, I knew the baby would miscarry. I believe it was Tigh, as one of the Cylon progenitors, that was keeping the unborn Liam alive (if the Cylons do in fact need love to survive). Once Ellen came back, it caused conflicting feelings and the baby was done for. I wonder if Caprica Six will try to exact revenge as a result and we'll see a Cylon catfight.

(S04E05) Like so many TV shows before it (such as 24), Battlestar Galactica is built on those "what the frak" moments in which the revelations continue to astound us. Between those WTF moments, there has to be some sort of explanation as to why the moment happened and the events leading to those moments. They're not as much fun, and rabid fanboys have a tendency to nitpick the frak out of them, but they're necessary to the narrative. Tonight's episode was heavy on exposition and light on WTF.

Obviously, we learned that Ellen Tigh resurrected (no surprise there) and she was apparently in charge of the project from 2000 years ago which created the human-style Cylon race. I didn't even catch all of the explanation. The following is what I did understand:

(S04E14) It is impossible to have a bad episode of Battlestar Galactica. Even a bad episode is better than most of the other crap on TV. Fortunately, this was the opposite of a bad episode.

Obviously, there was no question about how this entire coup was going to end. Our heroes have way too much spunk to let little worms like Gaeta and Zarek control their ship for long. This is actually a rare case on the show of a neat wrap-up of a plot-line (and since we only have six episodes left, we'll probably see more wrap-ups, some of which might be neat).

(S04E13) Galactica, Frak yeah!
Coming again to save the mother-frakkin' day, yeah!
Galactica, Frak yeah!
Frakkin' is 'bout all we say, yeah!*

*With apologies to Trey Parker and Matt Stone

This was an excellent episode. While the whole "coup d'état" storyline has been done before (if memory serves, the last one was lead by Bill Adama himself), this was done in with more grace and subtlety. The experience was very much like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The audience knew exactly what was happening while the characters didn't. I was practically yelling at the screen "Gaeta is committing treason! Why haven't you figured it out?"

(S04E11) Note: technically the Razor television movie counts as the first two episodes of the season, so this is actually episode 13. And what an episode it was! It answered the biggest question from the viewers and in the process created a few more.

FYI, the episode title is taken from the folk song "Goodnight, Irene", which pretty much fits the theme of the episode.

I really liked Mary McDonnell's acting in this episode. I felt heartbroken at her breakdown upon discovering the remains of Earth and her inability to share the information with the fleet. Whenever things get bad, at least we're not on the run from homicidal machines with our last great hope for sanctuary a radioactive wasteland.

On to the spoilery bits!

The official trailer for the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica has been out for a few weeks now. If you haven't seen it yet, it gives a fairly vague outline of what the show will be about. In the trailer you will see snippets of Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), a radical bomber on a subway, an early version of a Cylon, and some near full-frontal nudity.

So far, the reviews have been mixed on the content of the trailer. While there have many calls of "I can't wait" and "looking forward to it," others think that it will fall far behind the quality of the current BSG. For example, one commenter over at iFilm said the show should stand par with standard network or cable dramas but it could fail in the science fiction area. Another commenter stated that the trailer didn't look high tech enough. A third asked, "No dogfight?" Many others are upset because BSG hasn't even finished yet.

I mean seriously, what the frak? Why the frak do we have to wait until frakking 2009 for the final frakking season of Battlestar frakking Galactica. Those motherfrakking skinjobs, and I know they're Cylons or they wouldn't do this to us, really like to frakking torture us diehard frakking fans, don't they. Frakkers! Wow, that does make it incredibly frakking easy to drop frakking curse words all the frakking time without really frakking cussing. How frakking liberating is that!

But back to business. Executive producer Ronald D. Moore spoke at a Wednesday night screening of this Friday's summer finale and broke the news that the remainder of this fourth and final season of BSG probably wouldn't air until early 2009. The show just doesn't want to have to face off against the new fall slates on the networks or football and baseball, which I guess I can understand. Why not wait until January so all you have to deal with is those crappy shows nobody watches like American Idol and 24? And nobody will be interested in the build-ups to the season finales of shows like Lost and Heroes. It's a frakking no-brainer!

Last night, SciFi aired the first promo for the upcoming Battlestar Galactica movie and today it's up on YouTube. We all know Battlestar Galactica: Razor is about the Pegasus and what happened to it between the time the Cylons started a war and it met up with the Galactica.

Our favorite characters (Starbuck, Admiral Adama, Apollo) are also in the movie so it appears to start as the war with the Cylons begins and then the Pegasus somehow gets separated from the rest of the group. Of course, the promo doesn't reveal much, but it was enough to wet whet my appetite for some new BSG. I'm particularly anxious to see another side of Admiral Cain, who was pretty rotten once she appeared on BSG. Also... notice all the female soldiers on the Pegasus.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor airs on Sci Fi in November.

Video is after the jump:

Okay, we're back with the second half of Wednesday night's Battlestar extravaganza, and I think I've recovered most of my memories, got the feeling back in my writing hand, and decided I wasn't Cylon. For now.

After Lucy Lawless was done loosely emceeing the event, they opened up the floor to questions from the audience. Now, keep in mind that this event was really for the fans, so I expected a lot of "Um ... in Episode 9 from last season, Starbuck clearly had her pilot's wings on upside down ... does that have special meaning?" type questions, but thankfully all of the questions were stuff we thought we'd be asking ourselves, and only one person got up and asked for a job.

If you have not seen Sunday night's kickass season finale, STOP READING NOW. (But come back after you see it, because you will have questions)

*MAJOR SPOILERS*

Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ron Moore answered a few questions from a reporter at Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette that clear up some of the confusion from last night. For instance? Yes, they are Cylons. Chief, Saul, Sam and Tori heard the music when they reached a certain point in space, signaling their awareness of who they are. Moore says, "These are four of the final five, which puts them in a separate category from everybody else." Who is Cylon #5? Moore doesn't say. But he does promise that, next season, we'll get to discover the backstory for the new Cylons as they try to figure out how this could happen.

In what seems like a no-brainer idea, NBC Universal is partnering with Sierra Online on a high-def, space combat, Battlestar Galactica game. Who doesn't want to fly a Viper or a Raider? Players will be able to choose which side they fight for while taking part in both single-player, and multi-player, versions of the game.

The big news of the announcement is that the game will be available in the Xbox Live Marketplace. This is the first original Hollywood-licensed property for the still growing service. To kick off the promotion, fans can now get Battlestar gamer pics and theme packs from the Marketplace. Thankfully, for those of you that haven't jumped on the 360 bandwagon yet, the game will also be available for the PC and downloadable from SciFi.com, NBC.com, and Sierra.com. It is slated for a fall release.

Sierra will be adding sound from the series and was able to visit the set to get the look and details right. They also have secured likeness rights to talent from the show, and mention the possibility of the actors providing radio chatter for the in game play. The article also talks about the possibility of adding episodes of the show to the Xbox service.