Sci-fi Hotties!

I like lists. Entertainment Weekly also likes lists. I really like EW's recent "Sci-fi Hotties" lists, one for males and one for females, both of which are well represented by our BSG cast. Tricia and Katee hit the ladies list (but no Grace??), and James, Tahmoh, and Jamie make the guys list. Give your eyes a treat!

Poll: Caprica

How did we like the Caprica pilot? In general, we liked it, but I think it will be hard pressed to live up to our beloved BSG. A good amount of people were impartial or even disappointed with it, but some or holding off on an opinion until we get a better look at the series when it airs in (January) 2010. Some haven't even seen it yet, and a couple of us were outright repelled by it. Here's the final result of the Caprica poll:

Loved it	16 (27%)
Liked it	13 (22%)
It was just okay	12 (20%)
Didn't care for it	5 (8%)
Detest it	2 (3%)
Haven't seen it yet	4 (6%)
Might get around to seeing it	3 (5%)
Don't plan on seeing it ever	4 (6%)
Awesome FX	9 (15%)
Horrible FX	2 (3%)
Not sci-fi enough	5 (8%)
Just enough sci-fi	7 (12%)
Saving opinion for 2010	7 (12%)
Waiting to watch until series airs	5 (8%)
It sucked me in	6 (10%)
Couldn't make the leap of faith	7 (12%)
Wild with anticipation for more	7 (12%)
Made me uninterested in series	5 (8%)
Generally intrigued	12 (20%)

Total Votes: 58

Look out for the new BSG on DVD poll! (It doubles as a countdown to July 28!)

Colonial Dispatch 6.30.09

Rest in Peace Lorena Gale:

"Lorena Gale passed away on Sunday after a brief but courageous battle with stomach cancer. Her husband John was by her side. A wonderful actress and a lovely person, Lorena's many credits included the Ten Thirteen productions "The X-Files," "Millennium" and "The X-Files: I Want To Believe." In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to Vancouver General Hospital's Palliative Care Unit. She will be greatly missed."

Another lovely write-up about Lorena from The Province

Virtuality roundup:

As most could have guessed from the tumultuous and confusing buildup to the premiere of Virtuality, the ratings for the night it aired seem to most likely the final catalyst to it's demise. It ranked 4th out of the 5 broadcast networks, but the debate goes on about whether it would have done better or worse had it aired the evening of July 4th, especially given the unforeseen events of Farrah and Micheal's deaths which sucked up viewers for that evening with special TV memorials on other networks. How about if Virtuality premiered in place of or before Dollhouse? Would it have had a chance? Does the fact that Ron has two projects involving a strong theme of virtual reality (Caprica and Virtuality), make one have to rule out the other? All tough and probably unanswerab;e questions.

Comic Book Resources interviewed members of the Virtuality cast shortly before it was screened at Universal, and Screen Rant reviews and discusses. The Wired blog Underwire gives has all the resources for the fan campaign to get Virtuality signed as a series. Could there be hope?

In non-Virtuality news:

Eddie had a little more to say about The Plan during the Saturn Awards, and apparently it will be a big surprise as far as what the Cylon plan really is... unless you read the spoiler within (Sci Fi Wire)! If you opt not to follow the link, it also mentions that Grace Park accepted the Saturn for Mary who couldn't make the event, and Grace and Eddie both commended each other for their work on The Plan.

A fascinating and scholarly article from IEET: Exploring transhumanist themes in Battlestar Galactica: Caprica

io9 reviews the short-run comic book series The Final Five, on the eve of it's final issue being released (Wednesday July 1). Looks like a general thumbs up.

Don't forget to put in your BSG votes for the Tubey Awards! It will be the last time to vote for BSG!

Thanks to meshel73 of the Battlestar Galactica LiveJournal community for giving an updated list of all conventions/events with BSG cast and crew.

An evening with James Callis! Be there - September 12, 2009, Ibis Hotel Bonn, Germany. Tickets and info

Virtuality now on Hulu

Thankfully Virtuality is now on Hulu too. That Fox.com on Demand video player just doesn't wanna work for me. What an awesome show. I hope we get something more out of it and it doesn't just fall into the Fox dungeon of doom :\



And if you were wondering about the fate of Virtuality, co-producer and writer Michael Taylor explains to Sci Fi Wire about it's status as a "back door pilot":

"Fox is calling it a movie, but they want a lot of eyeballs on it too," Taylor added. "So we've conceived a whole season; we conceived multiple seasons. We know where this show is going, and it's going some really weird and interesting places. And that first season? Wow. It becomes an exciting thrill ride. It's a thriller, a story still about technology, it's a beautiful, crazy stew, and it's a hell of a ride."

Read more at the link. And read more from Michael Taylor on Virtuality here at Televisionary.com.

Watch Virtuality on Fox.com

Even though I had been long anticipating Virtuality, turns out my work schedule conflicted with actually watching it. Now, the day after it's air date, Virtuality is up to view online at Fox on Demand. I've had problems in the past viewing stuff on Fox.com, but they keep updating the player so maybe it's better now, and depending which browser you use.

Even if you were lucky enough to watch it last night, and if you liked it, give it a watch at the Fox site. They can count the hits there, and maybe it will help supplement the fan drive to have Virtuality picked up as a series (follow link to join the drive to get Virtuality picked up as a series). Join them on Facebook too! - Official Virtuality Facebook page, unofficial Virtuality Facebook fan page. Every little bit helps!

3 Saturns for Battlestar

Not only did Battlestar Galactica win the best in it's class, "Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series" at the 35th Annual Saturn Awards, but Mary McDonnell nabbed the Saturn for "Best Actress on Television", and Eddie Olmos won "Best Actor on Television", both for their work on BSG.

Collider.com was able to catch up with Eddie at the Awards:

New trailer for The Plan

It's actually the extended version of the teaser seen here, and this is what those who attended the Hollywood BSG Panel were shown a couple of weeks ago: (io9, LA Times):

 

Virtuality webisodes/trailers/reality show/clips/?

Apparently the 12 minutes of footage from Virtuality (see previous post) spread around the web more quickly than in the form it was intended as. Sci Fi Wire points out that the Edge of Never: Life on Phaeton fictional reality series (is that confusing?) has been posted as webisode-style clips on this Edge of Never Facebook page. I haven't cross-referenced all of the clips on the Facebook page with the 12 minute clip, but it looks like it's mostly the same stuff, except strung together in the 12 minute clip. I find it unfortunate for FOX to have tried to create a sort of viral sensation tied to Virtuality, but now it just looks a little silly - The 12 minutes have been circling around the web since about the same date as the earliest post on the Facebook page, which only has 108 fans. It's still fun to get a glimpse at what the show will look like.

Colonial Dispatch 6.17.2009

Topping the news today is word that Rick Worthy, aka Simon or Cylon skinjob number 4, has been signed on for a recurring role in season 4 of Heroes as "an experienced and capable Los Angeles cop and someone that Matt can lean on for advice"(Hollywood Reporter via IGN). If Rick will have any "special powers" beyond being a worthy partner for Parkman on the police force, will surely remain to be seen as the season unfolds. And yeah, Ray Parks will be in season 4 too!

And speaking of geek fantasies, and tying in with the cyborg docket at the Word Science Festival, Geekanerd has some handy tips for us: When Robots Attack: Three Robot Apocolypse Scenarios, and How To Avoid Them - In other words, in the case of the inevitable Robot apocalypse, we should be well prepared in "How to avoid being killed by Terminators, Machines, and Cylons".

Sam J. Miller had the privilege of interviewing Mary McDonnell previous to The World Science Festival panel. Awesome stuff. Thanks Sam J. Miller!

Are you ready for Virtuality next week - (June 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX)? Here's a 12 minute preview (found at Den of Geek):



Interview clips from Sci Fi Wire on the red carpet at the Hollywood venue of the BSG UN panel:

BSG Panel at World Science Festival

We now have some coverage of the BSG Panel which took place at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan as part of The World Science Festival. The event was called Battlestar Galactica: Cyborgs on the Horizon (see link for list of participants, which included cast members Mike Hogan and Mary McDonnell), and the discussion revolved around just what the title suggests - What place will cybernetics have in our future? Here's a roundup:

Discover Magazine's online blog Science not Fiction summarizes some of the key points and comments by the panelists.

Sam J. Miller posted an even more in depth account at Galactica Sitrep.

... and here's io9's write up, which includes some ideo clips and a description of a clip from the upcoming movie The Plan which hasn't been aired to the public as of yet!

Image borrowed from The World Science Festival Flickr photostream

Yay for BSG toys!

Action Figure Insider updates with news of some coming additions to the Toys R Us exclusive Minimates line with BSG Mini-Flyers! There will be both a Mark VII Viper and Cylon Raider, and look for the exclusive editions of Starbuck's Viper and Scar at comic book stores near you! Also coming - a Tigh and Gaeta 2 pack. I believe these are part of the 12" figure line, and aren't exclusive to TRU.

Sam Witwer interview from Star Wars Universe

Good old Crashdown. Okay, so maybe he wasn't so good in the end, but I think Sam Witwer did a pretty tremendous job with a relatively smaller role in BSG, and I was really excited to see him in the game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Smallville after that.

Sam was recently interviewed by Star Wars Universe, a French fan site. The Force.net thankfully has supplied us with an English translation. Sam talks a lot about TFU, but gives a big nod to his days on the BSG set.

"Did you wanna be the Final fifth?
I actually did not. I felt that bringing Crashdown back would have cheapened his story and his mark on the series. Here was a guy who demonstrated how difficult these situations truly were. Most of the time you see Lee or Kara handle something. It looks tough, but our steely eyed regulars win the day. It was interesting to me to see the opposite. To tell the story of what happens when you have a good, competent man running the show, but unfortunately he's good and competent at being a Raptor pilot, not a man in command of infantry. I thought that was interesting and it was my intention to make that as real and reasonable as possible. Making him a cylon would have gutted or at the very least invalidated a very important part of that story."

Individual seasons of BSG available on Blu-ray in August

While the big shebang is coming on July 28, where you can purchase The Complete Series collection of BSG on both Blu-ray and standard DVD and season 4.5 on it's own (on both standard DVD and Blu-ray) - if you were looking to just buy one or two individual seasons of BSG on Blu-ray, or perhaps chip away at purchasing the entire series on Blu-ray rather than all in one collection at once, you can on August 4.

Right now it looks like the individual Blu-ray seasons will simply be 1, 2, 3 and 4, which presumably means that season 2.5 will be included in 2, and 4.5 will be included in 4. That's not confirmed yet, but it seems the reasonable assumption to make given the massive amount of space available on a Blu-ray disc as compared to standard DVD. We can also probably safely assume that all available bonus content will be included as well. Also in question is whether Razor will appear on Blu-ray with any of the seasons (season 4?), or separately. Razor, along with the Miniseries both have a link on Amazon for a Blu-ray version, but with no release date (which really doesn't mean much in Amazonia-land). Also, what about The Plan? The original series?? More details on the content when it's available! via The HD Room

Edit - The Amazon preorder links at The HD Room are no longer active, at least when I checked. Hmmm.