The Year in Drama at the Emmys

Finally! The "Year in Drama" video montage shown at the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards, featuring a clip from BSG and Bear McCreary's music. Again, mixed emotions here, but welling up with pride and joy nonetheless.

BSG Emmys recap

Well, one win isn't bad I guess. Yay for sound editing! But no nom for Bear McCreary? Not even for his work on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles or Eureka either? So many categories BSG *should* have been nominated for, and some of the winners that beat BSG in it's nominated categories is certainly criminal - but I don't need to tell other fans that.

If anybody watched the Emmys broadcast on TV, they may have noticed the clips from BSG that were included in a video montage of various TV shows in the drama category, as well as Bear McCreary's music in the background. Too bad that's the only peep we got of BSG during the show that was broadcast, but they were only showing the "big" awards on air. Grumble. Anyway, still looking for video online of said video montage, but have had a frak of a time finding it. I have to wonder if the award academy has some sort of hold on things like that being posted online.

The following is a listing of the categories Battlestar Galactica was nominated for at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. Included are the winners of the category. The other nominees can be viewed by following the respective category link.

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series:
Nominated: Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak (Part 2) - Syfy R&D TV in association with Universal Cable Productions - Michael Rymer, Director
Winner: ER - And In The End - NBC Constant c Productions, Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Television - Rod Holcomb, Director

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series:
Nominated: Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak (Part 2) - Syfy R&D TV in association with Universal Cable Productions - Andrew Seklir, A.C.E., Edited By; Julius Ramsay, Edited By; Michael O'Halloran, Edited By
Winner: Breaking Bad - ABQ AMC - High Bridge, Gran Via Productions, Sony Pictures Television - Lynne Willingham, Edited By

Outstanding Special Class - Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Programs:
Nominated: Battlestar Galactica: The Face Of The Enemy - SyFy.com
Universal Cable Productions - Ronald D. Moore, Executive Producer; David Eick, Executive Producer; Jane Espenson, Executive Producer; Harvey Frand, Produced By
Winner: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - drhorrible.com Mutant Enemy, Inc. - Joss Whedon, Producer; Michael Boretz, Producer; David Burns, Producer

Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series:
Winner: Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak (Part 2) - Syfy R&D TV in association with Universal Cable Productions - Daniel Colman, Supervising Sound Editor / Sound Designer; Jack Levy, Supervising Sound Editor; Vince Balunas, Dialogue/ADR Editor; Sam Lewis, Sound Effects Editor; Doug Maddik, Foley Artist; Rick Partlow, Foley Artist; Doug Madick, Foley Artist; Michael Baber, Music Editor

Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour):
Nominated: Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak (Part 2) - Syfy R&D TV in association with Universal Cable Productions - Rick Bal, Production Mixer; Michael Olman, C.A.S., Supervising Re-Recording Mixer; Kenneth Kobett, C.A.S., Supervising Re-Recording Mixer
Winner: House - House Divided - FOX Universal Media Studios in association with Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions and Bad Hat Harry Productions - Von Varga, Production Sound Mixer; Richard Weingart, Re-Recording Mixer; Gerry Lentz, Re-Recording Mixer

Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series:
Nominated: Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak (Part 2) - Syfy R&D TV in association with Universal Cable Productions - Gary Hutzel, Visual Effects Supervisor; Michael Gibson, Visual Effects Producer; Jesse Toves, CGI Artist; Sean Jackson, CGI Artist; Kyle Toucher, CGI Artist; Pierre Drolet, CGI Modeler; Greg Behrens, Visual Effects Coordinator; Heather McAuliff, Visual Effects Compositor; Dave Morton, CGI Artist
Winner: Heroes - The Second Coming/The Butterfly Effect - NBC Universal Media Studios in association with Tailwind Productions - Mark Scott Spatny, Visual Effects Producer; Eric Grenaudier, Visual Effects Supervisor; Gary D'Amico, Special Effects Supervisor; Michael Cook, Lead CG Artist; Daniel Kumiega, Lead CG Animator; Chris Martin, Compositing Supervisor; Meliza Fermin, Lead Visual Effects Compositor; Ryan Wieber, Lead Visual Effects Compositor; Diego Galtieri, Lead Visual Effects Compositor

No EWwy wins for BSG

The competition was tough, especially when Lost is in the mix and there are so few categories to vote in. Out of the three categories BSG was nominated for in the fan-elected Entertainment Weekly awards; The EWwys, it won zero. Here are the category links with notes on how close we came (the one vote miss for Mary McDonnell for Best Lead Actress is a crying shame!):

Tricia Helfer lost to Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama

Mary McDonnell lost to Emily Deschanel of Bones for Best Actress in a Drama

Battlestar Galactica lost to True Blood for Best Drama Series

At least the Tubeys were a little more in our favor! And don't forget, you can vote I believe once a day for the Spike TV 2009 Scream Awards, which will be open until October 27. Follow the easy links below to vote for BSG in the nominated categories:

Battlestar Galactica for Best TV Show

Katee Sackhoff for Best Science Fiction Actress

Battlestar Galactica for Best Ensemble

Fighting Breast Cancer with Teddy Bears!

The Project Teddy Bear 2009 auctions are now live! Several BSG cast members, as well as lots of other celebs have signed bears that are up for auction, and more people are joining on all the time. I'm not sure if there is an official end date for the auction, but it seems that many of them will close by September 24. Check back to the above site to see if new bear sponsors have been signed on, or to click through to the individual auction pages. Right now the BSG tally is James Callis, Aaron Douglas, Richard Hatch, Michael Hogan, Mary McDonnell, Edward James Olmos, Mark Sheppard (a repeat offender!), Erik Stoltz, and Michael Trucco. Yay for fighting breast cancer with bears!

BSG's Tubey triumphs and otherwise

Television Without Pity's 2009 Tubey Awards winners, losers, and runners-up are now in. Fans and staff voted on various categories for television shows, and BSG shows up aplenty! Here's the breakdown:

In the Actors & Actresses category, BSG was less than 10 votes shy of winning Best Cast, but the Galctica itself won for "Best Performance by an Inanimate Object" (it was also the staff pick for this category which seems to have been created specifically for the Galactica).

In the Episodes & Moments category, BSG was the staff pick for Worst Season Finale, but Dualla was the staff pick for Best On-Screen Death Scene. "Starbuck vanishes into thin air in the finale" was the staff pick for Worst "WTF" Moment, and Daybreak Part 2 was also the staff pick for Worst Single Episode - Drama (Getting the feeling that the TWoP staff wasn't keen on the BSG finale). It's pretty surprising to me that there wasn't any mention of BSG for Best or Worst Dream/Hallucination/Fantasy Sequence since there are so many of them, particularly with the head people!

In the Relationships & Storylines category, Bill Adama and Laura Roslin won for Best Romantic Relationship. Aw!! "Cally cheated on Tyrol with Hot Dog, who fathered her child" got the staff pick for Worst Retcon.

That about sums up BSG at the Tubeys. It seems the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles fans were also very outspoken about the show with the Tubeys as well.

BSG Dragon Con panel Friday night

A huge thanks to LJ's hikaruchan for putting up a 7 part video of the full Friday BSG panel at Dragon Con. Posting the first section here, and commence to this page to watch them all.

New BSG Concept Art

Not sure if you have already seen this - click on the title for the images.

DAGGIT!

Forget the Emmys... bring on the EWwys!

Entertainment Weekly has given a second chance for some of the most popular Emmy snubinees by having their very own awards - The EWwy Awards. Fans can vote for BSG in the following drama categories:

Mary McDonnell for Best Lead Actress in a Drama

Tricia Helfer for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama

and for Battlestar Galactica as a whole for Best Drama Series

It's hard to say what kind of prestige the EWwys may gain winners. Street-cred perhaps? Unfortunately, snub awards only lead to more snubs. Where are the nominations for Eddy for Male Lead? James Callis, Jamie Bamber, and Tahmoh Penikett for Supporting Actor?

Vote BSG for Scream 2009

Get all the BSG votes in while you can! Go here to Spike TV's Scream 2009 voting site, and vote for BSG for Best TV Show, Best Ensemble, and you can vote for Katee Sackhoff for Best Science Fiction Actress. Some of the other categories are interesting too, but there's a few in which I wasn't quite sure what the vote was for specifically (Ultimate Scream? Holy S*** Scene of the Year?)

Ode to Zoic and District 9

I recently got a chance to see District 9 and I think it's worthwhile for BSG fans and sci-fi peeps in general to go out and see this. Yes, I was pleasantly and very enthusiastically surprised. I'm not going to get into a review of that, and don't want to give away any spoilers because it's really best to watch with fresh eyes.

It wasn't necessarily the story of District 9 that impressed me as much as the incredible visual style and effects that were employed throughout the film. This movie was filmed entirely in digital high-def with a Red camera (interestingly also in unmatted 16:9 format for theater projection, which will transfer superbly for "home video", i.e. DVD and Blu-Ray, for HDTV viewing) and relies heavily on computer generated imagery to make the movie work. I have to say it's the most impressive CGI melded to live action I have seen yet. It's a testament to the evolution of high-def digital technology that we have today. That of course, is thanks to the outstanding special effects work done largely by three Vancouver based FX houses. Image Engine held the main contract, followed by The Embassy and then the Zoic Studios Vancouver branch which opened in 2006. Peter Jackson's New Zealand company Weta Digital, who are credited for their work on Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, handled the remaining FX (close to a third). Check out this Vancouver Sun article for more details on the VFX production, but not if you don't want spoilers! Battlestar (the recent one) fans will surely recognize the CG work in District 9 to be in the same style and spirit that we see with the all CG Cylon Centurions of the series. It's inspired me to post a little about the history of Zoic with Battlestar Galactica here.

Way back around 2001, Tom DeSanto and Bryan Singer (who coincidentally is a hot news item right now as he has been confirmed to direct the Larson BSG theatrical movie - see previous post for more) had been approached by Studio USA (under the USA Television Production Group) to develop a reboot of the 1970's Battlestar Galactica TV series. Zoic Studios was reportedly indirectly associated with this project through one of it's owners, but largely due to the events of 9/11/01 the series came to a halt before production could get a real start and it's pilot could be aired, which was to be hosted by Fox Television (Phew! Thankfully *that* never happened). The project was awash, and just as the smoke began to clear Studio USA turned to David Eick, who reuptook the project on the premise that he could redesign Battlestar apart from what DeSanto and Singer had begun. For the longer version of this story, check out this article on battlestargalactica.com.

David brought in Ron Moore who was fresh off the Star Trek franchise, which Zoic Studios had done a considerable amount of work for. With that in consideration, Zoic was brought on to do the special effects for the Battlestar Galactica miniseries Eick and Moore were developing. Zoic's Emile Smith, who is a professed fan of the original Battlestar series from the 70's, worked on the pre-visualization of the miniseries, and helped develop the look that was retained throughout the series. Smith worked closely with Zoic's Gary Hutzel, Visual Effects Supervisor for BSG, co-supervising mainly for digital effects and remained involved in the series. Kristen Brenan, Head of Production for the Zoic team that worked on District 9, held the same position for Battlestar in 2004. The Zoic team earned the Visual Effects Society's 2004 award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Television Miniseries, Movie or a Special for their work on the miniseries, along with several other nominations.

Previous to their work on Battlestar, and in addition to Star Trek, Zoic had also gained recognition for their work on two Joss Whedon series; Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Both earned them Emmy nominations for their VFX work, and Firefly also earned them a 2003 VES award for Best VFX in a TV Series as well as a 2003 Emmy for Best VFX in a TV Series. Buffy won them the 2004 VES Best VFX in a TV Series. Battlestar earned Zoic additional nominations for a VES and an Emmy in 2005, and in 2007 they received a Constellation Award for "Best Technical Accomplishment in a 2006 Science Fiction Film or Television Production for VFX in Battlestar Galactica".

Because of Zoic's earlier work on Star Trek and Firefly, a keen eye will spot both the USS Enterprise and a Firefly class ship (or perhaps serenity herself) in the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. To find out where they are, and for more tidbits on Zoic's work on Battlestar, see their entry here at Battlestar Wiki.

Sometime after the new Battlestar Galactica sailed through it's first season, VFX Supervisor Gary Hutzel decided to make the formal departure from Zoic to create an all in-house VFX team for the show, in order to save time and money. Even though Hutzel's (and Smith) team was no longer under the Zoic name, they still retained the style and look consistently throughout the series, and Zoic did step back in to the series at later points to help supplement the in-house team for heavier loads in some of the season premieres and finales as well as doing work on models and miniatures.

Aside from their involvement with District 9, Battlestar, and the other projects mentioned above, some of Zoic's other work includes Joss Whedon's Angel, The Day After Tomorrow, Spiderman 2, Van Helsing, Serenity, Jericho, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Hello Bear McCreary!), Fringe (already nominated for an Emmy for the pilot! - and I think they already took home a VES for this), Eureka ( More Bear! Zoic also nabbed a Leo award for this), Prison Break, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, True Blood, Dollhouse, and Chuck... just to name a few!

Edited 8/17/09

Singer confirmed for Larson's Battlestar movie

Yesterday, HitFix posted about the possibility of Bryan Singer getting signed on by Universal to direct the Battlestar Galactica feature film that producer and original series creator Gary Larson entered talks with the studio for earlier this year. Apparently today Variety confirmed from Universal that Singer is indeed going to direct the feature, and the next stage will be to find a writer.

Lots of questions are certainly going to get re-churned with this news, including what kind of effect if any a new-new take on Battlestar will mean for the recently finished RDM series and it's spawn in Caprica which airs January 2010.

The HitFix post has some great links to some of the original plans for a series reboot from Bryan Singer and Tom DesSanto, who cut the project just before starting it back in 2001. They also go back to Richard Hatch's attempt to do a reboot. All of these treasures can be found in the archives of BattlestarGalactica.com.

Personally, I have mixed feelings. There are rumors of grudges Gary Larson has toward the RDM "reimagined series", and I can't help but wonder if Larson is pushing for this in spite of Moore's version. At the same time, I think Bryan Singer is a good choice to handle the project, as long as they let a little more time go by and Singer is given some creative control. I wish Bryan Singer would rehash his Logan's Run reboot he teased about several years ago before BSG gets put in the blender again.

Also at The Hollywood Reporter

Discussion at io9

Bearapalooza

Thanks to a Nicki Clyne update via Facebook which pointed to this awesome post at Bear McCreary's blog, we now have this spectacular in depth account of the Battlestar Galactica Orchestra concerts that took place during SDCC - a first hand account at that! Bear posts some awesome pictures and two video clips (below), one of which is an interview hijack by Eddie Olmos himself, who took over the mic from an SDNBC reporter and proceeded to interview Bear, Brendan, and Raya himself.

The blog post also touches on Bear's journey at the convention itself, including his participation in Richard Hatch’s Battlestar Retrospective event on the first Thursday of SDCC.

Don't forget to go to Raya's and Brendan's myspace pages to check out and download tracks from BSG episodes!!

Eddie's interview:



Concert excerpt - Tribute to Michael Jackson with "Earth Song":



Bear mentions that a live concert DVD might be on the way! Wee! Keep your eyes on the official Battlestar Galactica Orchestra site for upcoming news on that and exclusive clips and audio. W00t!

"In fact, one of the greatest compliments I heard from a fan all weekend was a girl who told me that she might never again be able to attend a punk concert because it would sound so weak in comparison to the BSG Orchestra."

- Bear McCreary

BSG: Program of the Year!

Fans and sensible critics around the world are gasping a big "Finally!" after Battlestar Galactica brought home the Program of the Year award from the Television Critics Association. Take that Emmys and Golden Globes! LA Times

< Proof in the pudding: Jane Espenson brings home the goods.

The Plan: DVD cover and details

The HD Room now has a glimpse at what the Blu-ray cover of The Plan will look like (virtually the same for standard def), and they also have some of the details for extra content, which should be the same for both formats with the exception of the Blu-ray exclusives of BD-Live content (trivia and live bookmarking). I really, really, really, really hope, however, that there might be some last minute fleeting chance that they will add The Face of the Enemy webisodes to The Plan on DVD/Blu-Ray, since it's practically a crime that TFOTE was not included on the 4.5 box set, nor The Complete Series collection. I'll save that for a later rant though ;)

Poll: How do you like your BSG?

Okay, so it was a pretty slow turnout for the "How Do You Like Your BSG" Poll, especially given that the poll was up for almost a month. In any event, the statistics seem to show that we like our BSG in any which way we can get - some completionists, some opportunists, some high definition enthusiasts, and many a combination of some or all of these.

Will buy Complete Series DVD set	4 (22%)
Will buy Complete Series on Blu-ray	5 (27%)
Even though already own other seasons on DVD	5 (27%)
Waiting for a good deal on CS on DVD	0 (0%)
Waiting for a good deal on CS on Blu-ray	3 (16%)
Own some other seasons on DVD	2 (11%)
Do not own any seasons on DVD	1 (5%)
Own all seasons on DVD (so far)	6 (33%)
Will get individual seasons on Blu-ray in August	0 (0%)
Will slowly acquire individual seasons on Blu-ray	1 (5%)
Will slowly acquire individual seasons on DVD	1 (5%)
Will only be buying 4.5 DVD on July 28th	2 (11%)
Will get 4.5 Blu-ray on July 28th	1 (5%)
Will eventually get 4.5	2 (11%)
Do not plan on buying any BSG DVDs or Blu-rays	1 (5%)

Total Votes: 18

Full BSG/Caprica panel from SDCC!

Thanx Sci Fi Wire!

Eddie on G4 Attack of the Show

Video Game - E3 2009 - Attack of the Show

Don't give up hope for Virtuality

With Comic Con madness and the DVD releases coming up, the buzz about Virtuality has died down a bit, but Ain't it Cool reports that Michael Taylor may get Virtuality to be a collaborative international production, but at this point it looks like Fox is definitely out of the picture, as most could have guessed (and thank the gods!).

New trailer for The Plan

This was shown at Comic Con yesterday, and then on SyFy. Thanks greycoupon!

BSG reports from SDCC

Whew! A lot of the news is starting to pour in from the first two nights of SDCC which both featured BSG panels and events. Some video is starting to roll in too, and I'm hoping in the near future we'll find more complete video from the panel and concert on Thursday, as well as the panel from Friday.

First off, Thursday: July 23rd was considered SDCC's kick-off day, and there was a Battlestar Retrospective panel in the afternoon featuring Richard Hatch (host), producer Michael Taylor, science advisor Kevin Grazier, and composer Bear McCreary. There were surprise appearances by Tom DeSanto, who along with Bryan Singer helped start the process of "reimagining" BSG, and Luciano Carro also showed up. The panel opened with a video that looked back on the series featuring lots o' cast and crew (see the not so great video below), and the panel opened up for questions and comments (which are covered here by Livejournal user Averita - lot's of info on upcoming projects), and followed with signings. Sci-Fi School has a little coverage on the panel too, and they mention Nicki Clyne was there, but I think they confused her with Luciana (judging by the way it's written). Airlock Alpha reports that Taylor also dispelled a rumor about Katee Sackhoff having participated in Caprica (which I was unaware of anyway). Thanks to pedda from Livejournal's Battlestar Blog for supplying some links to info on this panel. Here's the video:



Bear and his orchestra performed at The SD House of Blues that evening, with a "Music of Battlestar Galactica" concert, which was MCed by Eddie Olmos. Luciana and Michael Hogan also showed up for the event, and apparently Katee Sackhoff briefly. Bear talks about it a little here at his blog, but we're hoping for some videos to start rolling in!

Friday July 24th was the big day. The "BSG panel" was actually a combined panel for The Plan and Caprica, and the big news is Eddie Olmos talking about how there are more BSG "telemovies" (a la Razor and The Plan) to come. Note: Comic-Con coverage should be expected to contain at least mild spoilers concerning Caprica and The Plan.

Check out Zap2it's live blog from the Friday panel, which pretty much transcribes most of the important stuff. Also...

Buddy TV sums up the high points

From SciFi Wire: SDCC: Ron Moore on why Caprica moves beyond Battlestar, and SDCC: Espenson on creating worlds in Caprica and The Plan

And it looks like it might well be worthwhile to get The Plan on Blu-ray (E! Online), according to what Eddie says. Hmmm, is it just for the video quality or will there really be more extra features and deleted scenes??

Here's video of Eddie talking at the panel:



And Katee Sackhoff was over at the 24 panel that night! Here's a clip:



... Oh, and we have a confirmed date for the premiere of Caprica on SyFy - January 22, 2010

The Plan coming to DVD in October

Various sources from around the web have been reporting that the DVD (and Blu-ray and digital download) for The Plan will be released on October 27. Surprised? I was, especially since the last thing we heard about the actual airing of The Plan on SyFy (formerly the Sci Fi Channel) was that it would be in November. We still don't know for sure when the actual air date will be, and maybe since David Howe, SyFy prez, said it would air in November "the plan" has changed (pun intended). Or maybe they really will air it after the DVD, kind of like how they put the Caprica pilot out on DVD long before we will see it air? That seems a bit unlikely, since The Plan is by no means a pilot... or is it? Ever hopeful! (The Wall Street Journal describes The Plan in a just as interesting and hopeful way)

High-Def Digest has some details on the Blu-ray version, which we can probably safely assume will have the same bonus features as standard DVD, save for the exclusive Blu-ray features of scene bookmarking and the interactive "Battlestar Trivia"*.

PR Newswire has some additional information on the bonus features, and mentions that the DVD/Blu-ray (and digital download will be a 90 minute uncensored version.

Airlock Alpha mentions that the 90 minute DVD/Blu-ray/digital download version will include material not to be aired in the televised version (which I find odd since 90 minutes perfectly fits a televised movie time slot, so I'm going to go with the hopes that the DVD version will be even longer), and * that the Blu-ray version will contain "some deleted sequences that didn't make even the extended DVD cut", but I'm not sure that this will be true except if perhaps some additional content and scenes are made available through BD-Live after-the-fact. I hope it's not the case since I don't want to have to buy the more expensive Blu-ray version simply for extra deleted scenes, but will feel compelled to if there are scenes that will not be available on standard DVD.

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.

The Plan coming in November, Caprica in January tentatively

Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune's "The Watcher" blog reports that SciFi prez David Howe says The Plan is slated to debut in November, and Caprica is "likely" to debut in January. Hmmm, don't love the use of the word "likely", which could easily mean "probably April".

BTW, that sneak peek for The Plan is now on Hulu:

Tricia Helfer looking forward and back

Crave Online caught a few words from Tricia Helfer who was present for the Caprica screening at Paleyfest this April. Tricia was finally able to give some thoughts on the BSG finale, but what I found intriguing were her comments about the new Caprica series:

"Crave Online: How much would you like to appear on Caprica in any form?

Tricia Helfer: You know, I know nothing about the storyline of Caprica really. I’ve heard little snippets here and there from Ron and so forth but I’m super excited to see it today. This is going to be the first time I’ve seen anything from it, so I’d certainly show up if my character was called upon."

It doesn't seem likely that the character of Caprica Six would appear within the Caprica series timeline, but the notion revived one of those lingering BSG questions for me - How were the likenesses of the different models of Cylon skin-jobs created? Were they modeled after real human individuals, or were they the product of some sort of customization formula? If the former were the case, then perhaps the human predecessor of Six can exist in the timeline of the Caprica prequel. Neato!

But wait, she and Gauis are also some sort of spirit guide, so really they could be anywhere, and everywhere, at any time and in anybody's head - right?

Bonus - Here's a recent 2 part video interview with Tricia by cinetvbuzz.com (I don't recommend clicking that link since it opened up a barrage of pop-up ads for me) during the Festival TV Monte Carlo earlier this month. Mild spoilers for The Plan!:

Part 1


Part 2

Old School Toasters had a Vader/Samurai feel

VFX artist Darth Mojo posted an excellent behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the ancient Cylons that were excavated on "Earth I". FX supervisor Gary Hutzel worked with chief model maker and Cylon builder Pierre Drolet looked back to Samurai battle gear to fashion the ancient Cylons, but found it slightly too similar to the iconic Darth Vader, so they trimmed it back a bit:

Click the link above to read the whole article, and if you haven't already, don't forget to check out Darth Mojo's account of designing and created the original series style Centurions seen in Razor.

Here's The Complete Series Blu-ray box, complete with punctuation error

New images of the Blu-ray release of The Complete Series have made it to the web, and it appears the box set looks similar yet has additional images at the bottom of the box, and... an apostrophe where there shouldn't be one in "One of the best drama's on TV". Hee hee. I hope that's just in the promotional images and they catch it before they mass produce too many more of the whopping $300+ Blu-ray set (actual retail will be in the mid $200s, and hopefully will get price cuts later on).

via TV Shows on DVD

Of all the televisions owned by drama, it really is the best! ;)

Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 28, along with the stand-alone version of season 4.5. Bear McCreary's season 4 soundtrack is due to release a little before then on July 21!

More snippets on The Plan

SciFi.com just put up a sneak peek for the upcoming (the rumors now say September) BSG movie The Plan. Check it out below, and below that check out the original teaser. I'm hoping those outside the US can see this!

New sneak peek:



Original teaser:

Colonial Dispatch 6.13.09

Better late than never! Late spring has been a very busy time, and whenever I go to make a Dispatch update I get more and more overwhelmed. But we will put it off no longer and start to chip away at all the juicy BSG tidbits. Lots o' BSG events recently...

The LA Times Hero Complex blog brings us good chunk of video coverage from the Battlestar Panel at Hollywood & Highland that took place on June 4, which was a sort of follow-up from the BSG UN Panel earlier this spring. There is some talk of The Plan, so if you want to be completely spoiler-free watch out! Apparently attendees screened a new trailer for The Plan, but it's not out for public view just yet. We'll be keeping an eye out for other sources that attended the event.

Here's Sci Fi Wire's report on what Eddie said about The Plan.

On Friday, June 12 a Battlestar-centric Robotics panel took place at the 92nd Street Y in NYC as part of the World Science Festival. Mary and Michael were there along with a host of robotics and science experts, one of them being Dr. Hod Lipson whom Sam J. Miller interviewed for Galactica Sitrep previous to the event. Still waiting on reports from the event, so stay tuned!

Did someone mention robots? The Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh has just opened the Roboworld exhibit, which features many of our favorite famous bots in the Robot Hall of Fame. I've been looking into what Cylon presence there may be there, and I'm hoping that either or both Caprica Six and Scar get inducted!! I just wrote in a nomination for Caprica Six, and if it gets accepted it will be listed here, so check back at some point and see if she shows up, and vote! I may also try to nominate Scar (since he's the only real character representation of either the centurions or the raiders), but I don't know if he's quite famous enough. Hopefully Six doesn't have too much skin to be in the Robot Hall of Fame!

The picture of Six to the right is the June picture for the Battlestar Galactica 2009 calendar hanging above my desk :)

Richard Hatch has had some thoughts on the proposed Battlestar movie which Universal recently had some "quiet talks" with original creator Glen Larson.

Bear McCreary kicks off his summer season tours today with a performance in downtown Los Angeles as part of their Grand Performance Series (which is also kicking off the season with Bear!). The event is free and outdoors, so if you're in the area you MUST go, and take lots of pictures for us more distant fans! Bear will also be performing at San Diego's House of Blues and all three nights at SDCC, which will at the same time be the launch for the season 4 soundtrack! Yeay! Check out Bear's blog for all the dates.

Bear's soundtrack for Caprica comes out on Tuesday, June 16 and Film Music Magazine gives it the top grade!

Also, check out this Sci Fi video clip of Bear and the orchestra recording tracks for season 4.5! (Hulu version below) You may note that the beginning of the video mentions that more behind-the-scenes stuff will be available on the complete series DVD set, which is scheduled to be released on July 28 along with season 4.5 on it's own. I have to wonder if there will be different bonus content in the complete series DVD release than what we have been getting in each season DVD set - ?



Canada East's Times & Transcript reports on Ron Moore's appearance at the Banff World Television Festival. Moore says that webisodes are probably a passing fad and mentions the shooting schedule and progress for Caprica.

Speaking of RDM, not only is he hard at work with Caprica, but Virtuality has also been making a buzz in the news and it's looking more like it will become an actual series, as /Film reports. Wired.com's Underwire blog recently posted a feature about Virtuality also (and don't forget to check out the "see also" links at the bottom of the story!). io9 also has some more details about Virtuality.

Virtuality has also been bumped up to air on June 26th, rather than the dreaded July 4th event it was scheduled for (dreaded because most people would be out watching fireworks instead of watching it!) - via SF Universe

Getting back to Caprica, IGN had a chat with Moore and Eick and reveals some ideas on what to expect from Caprica when the series airs.

- Remember, for all the links that discuss unaired shows or movies it should be assumed that they will contain spoilers!

If you haven't heard the big news already, Katee Sackhoff has been signed on for season 8 of 24. She will be playing CTU data analyst Dana Walsh. Dang. I had given up on 24 way back in season 2 because I missed a whole bunch of episodes. By the time season 5 or 6 rolled around, it seemed hopeless to catch up. I'd like to ask any 24 fans if I really have to watch everything, or can I just jump back in to season 8 and figure it out from there? Starlog

Ooh ooh ooh! Action Figure Insider has gained confirmation that the Battlestar Minimates line will be revived as a Toys R Us exclusive!

Battlestar has been nominated for Program of the Year form the Television Critics Association. It's main contender for the award is probably going to be Lost, but lets hope they give the win to BSG since it won't be able to receive this particular award again! Airlock Alpha

I can't believe I ever missed this SciFi.com video of Aaron Douglas interviewing fans after a BSG season 3 finale screening! I know it's old stuff, but I adore Aaron.

Just for fun - Cylon Detector iPhone/Touch app video ad:



Phew! That should be enough for one Dispatch post for the day!

A little extra snippet about The Plan.

I come here at my peril as I am still only at the beginning of Season 2...

Yep - shoot me now.

Hope the linky in the title works for ya.

Nob X

Colonial Dispatch 5.12.09

IGN cited Hollywood Reporter as the source for news that NBC will decline Katee Sackhoff's latest project Lost and Found.

Michael Trucco chats with Sci Fi Wire about The Plan and mentions other possibilities for Sam Anders - spoilers!

I saw the new Star Trek movie and absolutely loved it. What a treat, especially for us sci-fi nerds who have a huge hole in our hearts since the end of BSG. The one part that left me a little unfulfilled was the lack of female presence. I mean, Uhura was rather awesome in this, but we needed more of her, or at least some new female presence, and there needed to be more female awesomeness. Uhura's main utility in the movie was to create sexual tension and as a love interest, and much less so about her genius equivalent to Spock. Maybe I'm spoiled by BSG, but I was releived to find at least two articles that expressed the same feeling: Melissa Silverstein of the Huffington Post - Star Trek's Gender Problem, and Tara O'Shea at Firefox News - Opinion: Women in the New Star Trek Movie.

Haven't won a BSG Zune yet? Well, Eclipse Magazine is the latest with a contest to win one!

The second (and last?) BSG auction concluded this weekend, and Monsters and Critics has some great photos featuring Grace Park posing with some props during the preview day at the Pasedena Convention Center.

Don't forget to catch James Callis guest-starring on the Numb3rs season finale this Friday at 9pm on NBC (and Leonard Nimoy on Fringe tonight!!). Television Blog


I forget if this was posted in an earlier Colonial Dispatch, but no harm in posting it again! Lucy Lawless is cast in a new Starz series due to air in January 2010 called "Spartacus: Blood and Sand". The series is styled after 300 fame, and will also be supplemented with a companion graphic novel series. Monsters and Critics, MTV

BSG's finale listed in Entertainment Weekly's Top 16 Classic Series Finales.

A couple of other slightly older news items:

The Face of the Enemy BSG webisodes won the 2009 Streamy Award for it's category for Best Dramatic Web Series.

From Jamie Freedman of SF Music Examiner - An interview with Battlestar Galactica's composer Bear McCreary: looking back and life after BSG

Virtuality coming to Fox July 4th

Saturdays at 8:00pm ET&PT / 7:000pm Central, starting on July 4th, is Fox's air date for Ron Moore's new series Virtuality. Sci Fi Wire and Futon Critic

"Co-created by Michael Taylor and Ronald D. Moore ("Battlestar Galactica"), the sci-fi drama revolves around the crew of the Phaeton, Earth's first starship. To endure the 10-year journey, the astronauts use virtual reality modules which allow them to assume avatars and explore self-created scenarios. But just as the mission is about to enter its critical go/no-go phase, a virus begins to infect the system and puts all of their lives on the line."

The not-so-secret life of Katee

It's no secret how she feels about bees, LA traffic, alcohol and rehab :P

From Crackle: Katee Sackhoff & Dante's Inferno

Found at the Katee Sackhoff Myspace fan page

Colonial Dispatch 4.30.09

A chat with Katee Sackhoff at Jonja.net (video)

Buddy TV also has a little feature up about Katee and her upcoming role in NBC's Lost and Found.

3xcusemyfrench has some great video interviews with Mary M and Jamie B. Click here for all

An interesting commentary: Is Lee Adama the New (And Not So Improved) Thomas Jefferson?

Leoben fans can catch Callum Keith Rennie in an upcoming Canadian TV show Shattered, where he plays a schizophrenic ex-cop.

This is an oldie, but BSG gets mention on yet another of EW.com's lists. This time around it's The Big Goodbyes: 16 Classic Series Finales.

Anyone living near the Los Angeles probably already knows all about this, but starting tomorrow Creation Entertainment will be hosting the 17th Annual Grand Slam: Sci-Fi Summit at the Marriot LAX, May 1-3. Nicki Clyne, Michael Trucco, and Michelle Forbes will all be there on Friday only (that's tomorrow!). Nicki Clyne will also be performing in a cabaret that night. (Thanks to pedda on LJ)

Also, Fed Con XVIII will be taking place this wekend in Bonn, Germany. Mike Hogan, Eddie JO, and mark Sheppard will be there (and Adam Baldwin and Summer Gau!). Can't wait to see video posted from all these cons in coming weeks!

Aaron Douglas had to drop out of Fed Con, but he's still scheduled for Michigan's Motor City Comic Con on May 15-17, along with Luciana Carro and Mike Hogan as well!

Speaking of Aaron, the reason he couldn't make it all the way out to Fed Con is because production has officially begun for his new show The Bridge, so hopefully Motor City, which is oodles closer to Toronto, will still be on for him.

and speaking of cons, Airlock Alpha talks about the defamed Jump Con (can we call it a con-con? Please?) and how Eddie Olmos helped bring them down.

Sneak peek at the complete series box set

Movie Web (and other various sites) have some images of the box design/ cover art for the complete series set. Sweet! It has a cool looking pop-up feature giving you a cast-in-the-box. Click the above link for more.