4.30.2009

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.

4.27.2009

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.


4.23.2009

Colonial Dispatch 4.23.09

A little bit of catching up to do here...

Don't forget to sign the Battlestar Memorial Wall over at scifi.com!

"CSI: A Space Oddity", which features Ron Moore, Grace Park, and Kate Vernon in a faux sci-fi genre themed episode, is now available to view at CBS.com. Click here or watch below:



The network of Aaron Douglas fans (The Chief's Deck rules!) bring us this sweet clip of the upcoming show "The Bridge" which premieres July 9 at 10pm on CBS in the USA (I thought this was only in Canada! w00t!) and on CTV in Canada:



If you followed The Chief's Deck link above, you may have noticed the post about recent updates on Nicki Clyne's blog featuring pics of her and Aaron from the sets of BSG.

Another big video chunk below, which I failed to post here when it came out at the end of March (you can bet they'll have this on the 4.5 DVD) - The final read through with the cast and crew of BSG:



And if you're not tired of watching video clips yet (if you are, take a break!), and you haven't had the chance to see the UN Battlestar Retrospective, it's all up on SciFi.com in 6 parts. Here's the link to Part 1, and you can navigate the remainder from the menu at the right of the page.

James Callis will appear in the season finale of NBC's Numb3rs. Geeky math and science worlds unite! James seems to be a bit typecast as he's playing a sort of "charismatic sociopath" - SF Universe


Eddie Olmos has signed on to co-star in the movie "Hollywood Players" which begins filming this July - Moviehole

Here's a nice overview of the BSG panel/honors at Paley Fest which included a screener of the Caprica pilot, at TV Week.

If anyone was wondering what happened with the Caprica video blogs on Sci Fi Wire, they seem to have stopped posting them. Those who bought the Caprica DVD (in the USA at least) will find the same 2 video blogs Sci Fi Wire has posted so far, plus a third video blog in the extra features, and that's about it aside from the commentary, deleted scenes (which actually seemed pretty relevant), and a Ghost Hunters episode.

Edit - Did anyone catch 30 Rock tonight and see the cool "What the Frak?!" t-shirt Salma Hayek's character wore?

Battlestar on DVD

Mark this date, and start putting aside some extra cash now - On July 28 (2009), not only will season 4.5 be released on DVD in North America, but the entire series will be available in one humongous box set on both standard DVD as well as Blu-ray. Amazon is taking pre-orders for all of them now (check here at HD Room for direct links for Blu-ray on Amazon).

The Blu-ray version of the complete series will contain 20 discs, and the standard DVD version will be 25 (you'd figure they could slim down the amount of Blue-ray discs considerably?), and the MSRP is $349.98 (244.99 on Amazon) and $279.98 (181.99 on Amazon) respectively.

There aren't a ton of details for the complete series release, nor is it set as to what extras will be in the 4.5 set, but Buddy TV has some speculative information. I'm wondering if we'll get "The Plan" in 4.5, like the way "Razor" was included in 4.0, but that doesn't seem likely since the release date for "The Plan" has been set back to well after July 2009.

Here's a place marker for battlestargalacticadvd.com, which is currently still only set up for season 4.0. They should probably be updating it at some point between now and July ;)

Also useful - Amazon.com's Battlestar site

Poll: The Finale

And what a finale it was. Some loved it, some hated it, some felt both ways about it, but what's for certain is that everyone who watched it has many different feelings and opinions on how BSG was tied up. The overwhelming majority of votes were in favor of it being an epic ending to an epic series. Most of the positive choice in the poll got the most votes, but some of the most negative registered as well, and no choice was not voted for. That says something for (at least a drop in the bucket) the range of feelings and opinions about the series. Here it is for the record:

Epic
62 (42%)
Epic fail
9 (6%)
Bittersweet
39 (26%)
Deus ex machina
12 (8%)
Satisfying enough
13 (8%)
It had moments
16 (10%)
Unsatisfying
10 (6%)
Total let down
4 (2%)
Both great and awful
17 (11%)
Perfection
33 (22%)
More than expected
31 (21%)
Less than expected
12 (8%)
Completely unexpected
14 (9%)
Predictable
2 (1%)
Both predictable and unexpected
17 (11%)
Unrealistic
4 (2%)
Poetic
34 (23%)
I'm even more confused
5 (3%)
My imagination figured it out
14 (9%)
Everything was explained
8 (5%)
Made the series more memorable
35 (23%)
Contradicted the series
2 (1%)
Unsettling
9 (6%)
Still undecided
5 (3%)


Votes: 146

Look for a Caprica vote up next!

4.16.2009

Caprica Video Blogs!

Sci Fi has posted the first of their Caprica video blog series, and yay! they've enabled embedding. For now, the video blogs will give exclusive previews leading up to the DVD release on April 21st, but my guess is that they will continue video blogging in the future for the series a la Eick Video Blogs.

4.11.2009

Riverworld looks like alternate BSG 'verse

Well, almost... The first degree of separation is Tahmoh Penikett being cast in a lead role for this 2 night, 4 hour movie event from SciFi, that if successful may lead to a new series. Frankly, I don't see this happening for Tahmoh simply because it would be a bit regressive compared to his accomplishments with BSG and now Dollhouse. I only say that by looking at other material SciFi (soon to be rebranded, and I refuse to use the new name until then) has presented in the same manner. Just browse at SciFi.com's main page at some of the TV movies they are airing currently, and you'll probably se what I mean.

But the second degree of separation is what is most striking. The story of Riverworld comes from a book series by author Phillip Jose Farmer, which I sadly know little about. The premise revolves around humans from Earth who have died being resurrected on a terraformed planet. With that basic synopsis, I can't help but associate all sorts of things with BSG, like the concepts of resurrection and humanity's cycle within and without of Earth. It sounds really cool, but I have my doubts as to SciFi's ability to commit to a concept like this enough to make it successful on anywhere near the scale of BSG. via zap2it and TVGuide

The third degree of separation is where it ends. Riverworld is another remake of an earlier failed attempt. In fact, it was the same attempt that SciFi took back in 2003 according to imdb - a pilot for a potential series of the same exact name, and the same concept (and based on the same book series). Do they think they have the star power this time around, the budgeting, the sci-fi fan base (which they are in fact diminishing with the rebranding), or some strange combination of all of these?


We can always hope for the best (quality that is). Riverworld is expected for sometime in 2010. Read more about it and check out some concept art here at SciFi Wire.

The Last Frakkin' Special

If you didn't catch "The Last Frakkin' Special" on TV during the two weeks of the finale, you can now watch the behind the scenes special online, both at here SciFi.com as well as Hulu (below). The remainder of the Eick Video Blogs are also on Hulu now!

BSG Auction Part 2

Propworx will again be hosting a Battlestar Galactica auction on May 8-10, this time at The Pasadena Convention Center. If you missed out the first time, there's still a chance to get your piece of television history.
"We were incredibly happy with the first 'Battlestar Galactica' auction in January and we know the fans will be just as thrilled with this final auction as well," Kurt Ford, senior vice president of production services at Universal Media Studios, said in a statement. "We saved key items, which were pivotal to the series, and we are pulling out all the stops to create a truly unique event that will do justice to the series."


via UPI.com


Propworx is also taking orders for the second auction catalog, which in of itself is a collector's item. Visit the site to order and keep track of upcoming auction news.

4.01.2009

The President takes pause...

I mean the REAL President, not Roslin:

""I'm a little concerned," first lady Michelle Obama was overheard saying at a fundraising event Tuesday. "When Firefly was canceled, he walked around like a zombie for a week, and Serenity was the only thing that snapped him out of it. Last night he said he felt like he had just discovered David Axelrod was one of the Final Five, whatever that means.""

...

""When we spoke last month, he said season three was his least favorite because some of the episodes with Helo and the Sagittarons—and pretty much anything that involved Cally—were boring and didn't advance the plot," Afghan president Hamid Karzai said. "But I told him that when you watch it all on DVD, and you don't have to wait a whole week for a new show, those peripheral episodes actually add new color to the already established world.""

Read the entire article here: Obama Depressed, Distant Since 'Battlestar Galactica' Series Finale

In other news - Remember that possible Battlestar movie Glen A. Larson is in talks with at Universal? Well, some casting rumors have started to trickle out.

... and happy April 1 ;)