edward james olmos

One of the best parts of this job is the advance copies we get of television DVD sets. In short: Holy frak! The final set of Battlestar Galactica episodes is awesome.

Minor spoilers follow...

There are those who liked the ending and those that didn't. I didn't like the lack of explanation of Kara's return from the dead and found the finale generally anti-climactic. But the series set a high standard and, overall, it's a minor complaint. In most ways, the series is perfect and far better than most of us deserve.

I'll give them this: the people who make the show know their audience ... that audience being nerds. Nerds like information. Hence, the DVD set is full of extras and special features. These include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and extended versions of episodes, including the three-part finale, "Daybreak." And every episode (let me repeat that:: every episode) has podcast commentary by Ronald Moore.

Every year I foolishly get excited that maybe this year the Emmys will reach out and nominate something different. But then it's the same old nominees from the previous year. Even if a show has an off year, Emmy just goes ahead and nominates it again.

Of last year's six nominees for Drama Series, only one didn't make the cut this year. Lead Actor kept five of their six nominees as well, and Lead Actress kept all five nominees from last year. That's fifteen of 17 repeat contenders from last year in three categories. If Emmy hadn't added a slot each to Series and Actress it might have been a virtual rerun.

With all those repeats, there's no room to honor the final season of Battlestar Galactica. Maybe Emmy voters look at the shows they picked last year and say "That's still on, right? Let's go with that." And they're done picking their nominees in less than ten minutes.

"Let's get this genocide started!"

That Cavil is one evil bucket of bolts.

Sci Fi's new trailer for Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is making the rounds and drumming up anticipation for the TV movie, which premieres this fall. The Plan will portray the events of the Cylon attack on the twelve colonies through the perspective of the Cylons. It's directed by Admiral Adama himself, Edward James Olmos, and written by BSG and Warehouse 13 scribe Jane Espenson, who also helped craft the BSG Web series the Face of the Enemy.

For those us Battlestar Galactica nerdz, we're still feeling frakked up, teary-eyed and sniveling following the series' recent exit stage right. Ron Moore laid the show to rest with dignity and deserved pride, which is why our posting the following video might appear silly, childish, and self-indulgent to some.

But still, if you haven't yet seen it, the combination of Muppet and Cylon is a marriage made in LOLheaven, and we can't let Adama and co. get away without witnessing a giant Animal enacting a nuclear holocaust across the twelve colonies. While there are plenty of mash-ups floating around YouTube, this one has most definitely stood the test of time (less than two years, that is), considering that it combines Bear McCreary and Jim Henson (which is essentially something we've been waiting for since the very moment Six blew up the planets and stuff in the BSG miniseries).

Match made in heaven? So say we all.

Battlestar Galactica ended with its highest ratings in three years, drawing 2.4 million viewers for its finale. Granted, these are early ratings for the live viewing and don't take into account things like delayed viewings or iTunes purchases. Still, where were all these people during the run of the series?

Something about series finales tend to draw out people with even a modicum of interest in a show. I guess if they weren't there in the beginning, they still want to be there at the end. Mind you, the ratings of Dollhouse still beat BSG with 4.13 million viewers, but there is a world of difference between network and cable. Personally, I used the DVR and caught both.

Of course, this isn't the end of the franchise. Between "The Plan" and the spin-off Caprica, something has to keep people tuned in and the ratings up while the Sci Fi Channel does something stupid like changing its name.

(S04E20) "Frakkity, frak. Don't talk back." (Apologies to Lieber and Stoller)

After four years of some of the best and most adult sci-fi in the history of television, Battlestar Galactica draws to a close with a bang and then a whimper, with an overall satisfying ending that was as morally complex as any episode in the series.

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. A panel discussion is being held on March 17th at the United Nations in New York about Battlestar Galactica and the themes the show covers, including "human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism, human rights and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faith". Among the panelists are Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Ron Moore and Dick Eick.

This concept does seem a little trivial given the magnitude of the problems in the world today. However, government representatives in the U.N. are still people and if either they're BSG fans or feel a discussion of the issues would be relevant to their work today, more power to them. Mind you, they could have just attended Comic Con and gone to similar panels. I'm still not sure how to react to this.

Wait a minute. The moderator of the panel is Whoopi Goldberg. I've decided to laugh.

(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.

(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?"

Good news everyone. It seems that this whole movie thing is working out quite nicely for the folks over at Sci Fi. Executive VP of original programming for Sci Fi, Mark Stern, now also counts himself as co-head of the newly formed Universal Cable Productions. Why should we care? Because at the end of the day that means a little more Battlestar Galactica.

The success of Razor is a big part of this. Stern describes it as doing "phenomenally well in the international and DVD market." It's led to a whole new way of financing and creating entertainment for the network. The new Battlestar project will air after the series completes its run next year. Edward James Olmos is on board to direct, and he'll have a script by Jane Espenson to work with. Both nice choices. Casting is still up in the air at the moment. So far, Michael Trucco (Anders), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), and Dean Stockwell (Cavil) are confirmed.

The story is prequel-esque. It goes back to just after the Cylon destruction of human home worlds. We'll follow the Cylons as they deal with human survivors, aboard ships as well as on planets. There is also a hint that the movie will focus specifically on two of the Cylon agents.