starbuck

(S04E02) Let me start out by saying that Sci Fi airing these episodes online at noon is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing that we all get to see our favorite show well ahead of time. It's a curse because it's smack in the middle of a workday for some (though at lunchtime) and at the start of a workday for others. There's no pausing or rewinding, so if you get a bad connection or miss something, you still need to tune in that night to keep up. Not that that's such a bad thing, really, but man it's frustrating.

(S04E01) Starbuck is dead. At least the Starbuck as we knew her before the events of 'Maelstrom'.

Now don't go thinking I've revealed some sort of spoiler pre-jump here. What I said is merely an observation of how Starbuck appears in this episode and how others perceive her now. It's also from something Katee Sackhoff was told by Ron Moore (as she mentioned in an interview). And can you really blame all parties involved for behaving quite a bit differently now, since then?

Early this afternoon (at least for me here on the east coast), Katee Sackhoff participated in a conference call with reporters, discussing her part as Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, both in seasons past and the upcoming final season of the series.

A few highlights:

• Katee was asked about the significance of the last supper image promo for season four. She mentions how so many people try to interpret the photo, but she says, at least the way she saw it, the cast would have all had to have been in on it for it to really mean something.

Laura Roslin with a gun! Starbuck freaking out! Everyone's accused of being a Cylon!

The final season of Battlestar Galactica is getting close and there's a new promo to whet your appetite. It looks freakin' awesome and makes me confident that Ron Moore and David Eick won't disappoint us.

Video is after the jump.

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.

Okay, it's not Starbuck, but Katie Sackhoff, who plays/played Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica will star in a TV movie for Lifetime called Be Careful What You Wish For. Sackhoff will play a teenager named Sara Jacob who is sent twenty years into the future after an eclipse where she discovers she's married the boy she's had a crush on since preschool. Later, it's found out the boy is a cylon, so Sackhoff's character blows his head off.

Or something like that. Anyway, the movie will premiere on Lifetime on July 16. It will also star Sage Brocklebank of Psych, Kim Poirier, and Tommy Lioutas. If you're like me and projectile vomit your internal organs if you watch Lifetime for more than ten seconds, you can also catch Sackhoff in a guest role on NBC's upcoming pilot: a re-imaging of The Bionic Woman starring Michelle Ryan.

(S03E17) There are shows that I watch where I can't stand when they rely too much on flashbacks to keep the story moving. Battlestar did this a bit too much in the previous two seasons, though they seem to be getting much smarter about it. This episode was one small example of that.

Now I'll say a bit of something that's spoilery if you haven't caught this episode. I'm a bit disappointed when the goings on outside the show - like casting and contracts - leads to strong hints to the fate of certain members of the cast. Then again, maybe only we nutcase fans of this show knew this information, while others are blissfully ignorant and surprised. Damn you!

In this spoiler-filled article (read at your own risk - seriously!) in the Chicago Tribune, the producers of Battlestar Galactica confirm they are making a 2-hour movie between seasons 3 and 4. The news ends a few weeks of speculation. David Eick and Ron Moore say the movie will go straight to DVD and also air on SciFi. It will be a stand-alone flick that doesn't wrap up what is sure to be a freaking huge-ass cliffhanger at the end of the current season. The producers say the movie will probably be some sort of back story. The Chicago Tribune story is a little dated, though. In it, the producers say they'll only do a movie if they get a fourth season, but that has already happened.

By the way, BSG returns with new episodes on Sunday, January 21st at 10 pm. There's a season 3 marathon on SciFi on January 15th.

(S03E11) You could tell right away from the "previously on" that this was going to be a huge episode. Not that it being the fall finale wasn't enough. Though would you put it past them to end this with a huge cliffhanger? I didn't think so.

Before you get all... angry... that I didn't include your favorite character on this list, know that this is my list of favorite television characters. You can make your list in the comments.

When I look back at the 2006 television landscape, a few key characters come to mind. This year, I discovered some new characters that have my adoration and I've stuck close to the ones I loved from 2005. Here's my list of the Best Characters of 2006:

5. Michael Scott, The Office While it's no secret that I adore a certain member of the supporting cast, the best character on The Office is definitely Michael. He sucks the fun out of any situation by making everybody uncomfortable, but at least you know what his true colors are. He tries, and does a poor job of covering up his non-P.C. thoughts such as, "How queer! (sees camera) Queer Eye for the Straight Guy-- that's a great show!" He just tries so hard to get people to like him and to be a buddy rather than a boss that you can't help but love/pity the guy. And Jim's right, Michael is the most loyal guy at Dunder Mifflin.

A blogger over at Wired thinks that Battlestar Galactica is headed in the same direction as Lost: downhill. He wrote his post after last week's boxing episode where Kara and Lee beat the holy living crap out of each other. In particular, he didn't like the "barfy romantic flashbacks". He thinks BSG is headed in a dangerous direction and lists 10 reasons why, including Cylon threesomes, dangling subplots (Helo & Sharon's baby), and side projects that are keeping BSG creators busy.

Even though I disagree with him, I think the post is well-reasoned. I, too, have been wondering what the hell is going on with the Cylon/human baby that the Cylons managed to capture before they fled New Caprica. But, I adored last week's boxing episode that explains just how messed up Kara and Lee's relationship is. He doesn't like entire episodes being devoted to words like "genocide" and "torture", which I found to be thought-provoking.

I do agree on one point, though. Give Admiral Adama something to do other than just monologues. Edward James Olmos is a great actor and all he's getting are speeches.

(S03E10) I have to ask -- why isn't anyone getting on Apollo for the short rations? It wasn't that long ago that he was a fat tub, and it's not like he was feasting on New Caprican grub. Can you imagine the thrashing he'd be taking if he was still fat? Alright, so it's a nitpicky point to bring up, but I know there are others of you who were a bit bothered that Apollo so easily lost all those stones of weight so quickly.

(By the way, check out writer Jane Espenson's answers to your questions regarding her experience writing this episode. I'll be asking a few more questions myself after tonight.)

(S03E09) Gods that's a classic image to remember, isn't it? Who would've thought that Roslin was a pot head? Anyway, I digress...

This episode was a lot better than the previews made it out to be. A few commenters complained when they saw it was going to be "the boxing episode," but once the smoke cleared it was evident that this was actually a very well crafted part of a love story, along with a well needed bit of talking to the troops by the admiral.

(S03E07) I was about to say that I wondered if this was the first time any humans (besides Baltar, if he is human) have seen the inside of a Base Star, though the previews for next week seem to put that question to rest somewhat.

It seems it didn't take Apollo very long to lose a stone or two, though we really don't know for sure how much time has passed since the goings on on New Caprica, do we? I also noticed there were a few usual characters rather absent from this episode, such as Col. Tigh.