We're a rag-tag fleet of mostly Star Wars junkies turned frakkers. Commenting is always open to anyone here, but if you'd also like to report Cylon sleeper agents, mutinous crew members, or contribute articles, click contact blogger on this page and send a frakking request.
"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."
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.
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.
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:
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.
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 :)
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.
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
- 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 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
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)
"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
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?
The Colonies are now gone, but a distant signal still echoes through the stars... Hoo boy. It's been a long weekend and there's a lot to keep up with in Battlestar world.
How about starting with something that is looking future forward? io9 has posted a collection of 7 clips from Caprica giving us some insight on the series and the pilot DVD coming in a few weeks! - That's April 21 to be exact.
According to Sci Fi/NBCU (still refusing to use the new name), the Battlestar finale topped the charts when it aired, although I had heard otherwise - I guess that's why I'm not a statistician. See the numbers at Futon Critic
If you don't like imagination killers, the don't read yet another commentary/interview (from Monday's press screening) with Ron Moore about what he was thinking with the finale at Sci Fi Wire. Okay, how can you really not read that? Ron also talks about what kind of "extended cut" material we'll get on the DVD, so perhaps those who feel unfulfilled by the finale will find satisfaction when 4.5 comes out on DVD.
Mary McDonnell has a job lined up with The Closer which stars Kyra Sedgwick. Mary will be playing a police captain who "butts heads with Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson" (played by Sedgwick), and is likely to debut in the upcoming 5th season of the show. via TheStar.com
CNet Asia has a nice little walk down memory lane with The Technology of Battlestar Galactica, comparing it to real life tech we have today. I like to think of it as a "greatest hits" of sorts.
If you're fascinated with the subject of robotics and technology, and the way it worked out in Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, and other sci-fi, you might find the book Wired for War by P.W. Singer well worth the read:
"Wired for War takes the reader on a journey to meet all the various players in this strange new world of war: odd-ball roboticists working in latter-day “skunk works” in the midst of suburbia; military pilots flying combat mission from their office cubicles outside Las Vegas; the Iraqi insurgents who are their targets; journalists trying to figure out just how to cover robots at war; and human rights activists wrestling with what is right and wrong in a world where our wars are increasingly being handed over to machines."
The 4 part comic book series Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War continues with part 3 tomorrow, March 25. Check out a preview at comicbookresources.com. That review I promised might as well wait until after the 4th book comes out next month, since I've procrastinated this long.
This picture must be posted! Jamie's semi-buff anti-fur print ad for PETA via TV Guide (I think Bear McCreary needs to do one of these too).
Speaking of Bear, don't forget to catch up on his blog! "Someone to Watch Over Me" was obviously a very music intensive episode, and McCreary is already up to 3 extensive blog entries on the subject. Also, congrats to bear on his engagement to the beautiful Raya Yarbrough. AND, the following video of Bear giving a sneak peek of the Caprica series theme has been bumping around the web recently:
The above video was spotted by Grant Gould over at the Battlestar Blog, from youtuber lexspartan, and now has made another video available of Bear and finacee Raya performing "lords of Kobol":
Episode 1 of the web series Angel of Death, which co-stars Lucy Lawless, ran it's first episode as of yesterday. Check it out here at Cackle - *anti-spoiler* Lucy hasn't shown up as of yet *end anti-spoiler*
Very interesting discussion at Discover Magazine online concerning real life self-repairing materials, directly inspired by the Cylon substance being used to repair Galactica in the series.
This year's Paley Fest is coming up on April 10 at LA's ArcLight Cinerama Dome, and according to laist.com: "Battlestar Galactica executive producers David Eick and Ronald D. Moore are already scheduled to appear on the BSG panel, titled "Battlestar Galactica/Caprica: A Look Back and a Look Ahead," and fans of the show will undoubtedly be treated to scoop about the upcoming prequel. Although no other names appear on the list of panelists, a note on the event page says, "We're expecting stars from both BSG and Caprica, and will post their names as soon as they become available." "
Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle) receives a Sam Payne Lifetime Achievement Award. Canada.com
And interesting genre mash-up will be in a future CSI episode, where Ron Moore and Kate Vernon will appear as themselves at a sci-fi convention, where some sort of crime scene that needs investigation will take place. Production of the episode also includes some Battlestar vets; director Michael Nankin, and writers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson. via The Watcher
Tricia will also be voicing the character Boodikka in the upcoming Green Lantern DVD series. animationmagazine.net
Still waiting for some coverage to roll in on MegaCon 09, which was attended by original BSG series stars Herbert Jefferson Jr., Anne Lockhart and Dirk Benedict, as well as James Callis, Jennifer Halley and Luciana Carro. The oldies and noobs got together for a BSG discussion panel (here's a small clip thanks to youtuber leatherneck4398), and I'm kind of astonished that Dirk Benedict agreed to associate himself with the new series. Hopefully there will be video of the entire panel soon! Tricia Helfer was scheduled to appear, but I don't believe she participated in the panel. BSG Cast was there, so we hope to see something from them.
Less than a month of Battlestar remains... Jane Espenson talks to The Watcher about Deadlock. I will hold off on reading this until after March 20, so spoilers are unknown and read at your own risk, but I did hear some interesting notes about this interview and a plot line that had to be abandoned involving Baltar. Guess that's not a spoiler if it didn't happen, right?
Issue #2 of the 4 part comic series Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War came out last Wednesday, I have it, read it, loved it, and expect a review of issues 1 and 2 here soon. Promise. But what I was really getting at was an excuse to segue into news about the upcoming Battlestar Manga series by Tokyo Pop due out this April. Here's a preview of the first edition of "Echoes of New Caprica":
Even though The Oscars have eclipsed a lot of other awards news, Battlestar is still a winner FYI! At the Visual Effects Society Awards BSG won for best VFX in a broadcast series (Variety), and the show won a Golden Reel for best music short form and foley in a television series (THR.com). Go team!
We've got some details on the schedule for the grand finale, thanks to SyFy Portal: The finale will indeed be a total of 3 hours, of which the first hour will air on March 13 at 10pm on SciFi (as usual). The final 2 hours will air on March 30, but will start at 9pm to allow for the extra hour. SciFi is also expected to repeat the first hour of the finale at 8pm on March 30 which will allow viewers to watch the entire finale all together.
Battlestar was this weekend's #1 download on iTunes, according to TV by the Numbers. An interesting addendum to the stats is that the Dollhouse pilot ranked at #19 this weekend on iTunes, but has now climbed to #1 (Guess everyone needed their BSG fix first). Whether or not this will help Dollhouse after their much more dismal than expected broadcast ratings remains to be seen, but it could use any help it can get!
Issue #2 of the four part comic book series Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon War comes out this Wednesday, February 18. I still haven't posted an appropriate review of issue #1 here yet, but let me take the opportunity now to mention why I'm generally positive about it. Essentially I'm most enthusiastic about the potential the expanded backstory allows the Battlestar world. As the TV series comes to an end, and as long as they don't explain the frak out of everything else like they did in "No Exit", there's some pretty endless opportunities for creative expansion, as is the example in the Star Wars expanded universe. Secondarily, this comic series covers an interesting topic (to me at least), which is that it goes into more detail about everyday life in the colonies, shortly before the first Cylon War, and looks at the lives of other characters than the crew we know and love from the series. The art and writing is good and solid too, although some reviewers may disagree with that opinion. Comic Book Resources announces issue #2
Come to think of it, Lee Adama's hair does seem to be growing up to Conan O'Brien proportions. I didn't notice though, since I was too busy trying to absorb the deluge of information in "No Exit". One thing is for sure, Jamie certainly got a lot of flight hours in, in the "moral puzzle" category during his years on BSG, which should have prepared him well for his current work on Law and Order UK. Jamie has some comments on L&OUK for The Press Association.
In our mild spoiler corner today, we have some more awesomeness from The Watcher, with writers Jane Espenson and Ryan Mottesheard answering questions posed by fans in the comment section from Mo Ryan's "No Exit" post. I call it a mild spoiler because I didn't even finish reading it after the first few lines started to explain elements of the show which I would personally rather see play themselves out (or not) in the last handful of episodes. If you want it explained now, then read You asked, they answered: 'Battlestar Galactica' writers take on your 'No Exit' questions
This video has nothing whatsoever to do with Battlestar:
Let's start with Dollhouse news. It's Tahmoh madness! Just a reminder, a lot of this stuff is relatively Dollhouse spoilery:
The Boston Herald has a nice little feature up about Tahmoh and his work in Dollhouse (Dang! He was in Boston yesterday and I didn't know!): ’Battlestar Galactica’ hunk channels big-time
io9 has previewed the first three episodes of Dollhouse, and they offer a "spoiler-free" look (no actual events are given away, but it describes the overall theme of the show): We've Seen 3 Episodes Of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse!
Here's the official site for Dollhouse on Fox, which we're hoping will air full episodes. If so, make sure to click there to support the show if you miss it on air. Fox failed to stream episodes for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles until very recently (Fox's official TTSCC site), but they did air them on Hulu (and hopefully will continue to do so). Speaking of, now is a great time to catch up on last season's finale for TTSCC, either at Fox or the Hulu TTSCC page. Hulu has a pretty hefty page built up for Dollhouse, but has not posted as to whether or not they will be featuring the full episodes. I'm guessing... yes?
Hulu will be posting Nip/Tuck episodes 8 days after they air, so if my math is right, we will be able to see Katee Sackhoff in the episode "Manny Skerritt" by this Wednesday there. Here's a place marker for Hulu's Nip/Tuck page
Hulu also has the last few episodes of Burn Notice up, two of which feature Tricia Helfer ("Do No Harm" and "Hot Spot"). They are also available to view at IMDB, which may be more accessible for international audiences. And when the frak are we going to see Tricia on Chuck? It's still not known, and the scheduling for Chuck got a little frakked up since the presidential address aired exactly during Chuck's time slot this past Monday (but thankfully the episode of Heroes aired, which was written by Mark Verheiden - awesome episode I thought!). Perhaps the following video from ET Canada will help tide us over (spotted at Galactica Sitrep and posted to youtube by dudupcc):
Tricia is also scheduled as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live tomorrow night (as if we didn't have enough to watch tomorrow!), according to NewsOK.com and the Jimmy Kimmel site. I get a little confused however, since the show airs at 12:05am EST - so does that mean the Feb. 13 episode is tonight (since it will technically be Feb. 13 at 12am), or does it mean it will be 24 hours from then? Edit - it's confirmed that Tricia will be on the Kimmel show after BSG tomorrow night. Luckily, they do post the episodes to Jimmy's site.
Still on the subject of Tricia, she was elected the official Valentine of 2009 at Esquire.com's blog The Daily Endorsement.
Some interesting discussions going on over at The Watcher, which came from the comment section of Maureen's most recent post for the episode "Blood on the Scales". Richard Hatch himself showed up in the comments to react to other reader's comments on his character, and writer Michael Angeli, of whom was featured and interviewed in the original post, also had a comment. Read all about it here, and note what Maureen mentions about getting extra content on the season 4.5 DVD.
I was just reviewing "Blood on the Scales" over at Hulu, and it seems they may have found a genius symbiosis in advertising. Even though I'm pretty sure the Air Force ads are being shown when you watch anything on Hulu, the fact that they show it with Battlestar couldn't be more perfect. I was never really the type to join the military, at least not until now that it's kind of a little late in the game, especially to start pilot training - but oh man! How frakking cool would it be to fly those jets like they were frakking Vipers?!?
The enhanced version of "Blood on the Scales" isn't on Hulu right now, and I haven't checked SciFi.com because I've decided not to listen to the commentaries until the series has played out.
I also noticed that they had the web exclusive "The Hatch" up at Hulu and Sci Fi Wire. We'll post the Sci Fi Wire version here:
io9 caught up with Aaron Douglas at NYCC Friday, and shook him down with a Q&A about Emissary and BSG (okay, mostly BSG). It's spoilery as in it's suggestive of how you might feel by the end of the series, and it also tells us what will be explained in more depth as the series draws to a close. Okay, warning finished. Now read or watch the video and adore the awesome Office meets BSG t-shirt Aaron is sporting.
Billy lives! In our hearts at least, but Paul Campbell is reported to have taken part in a very interesting tree-planting ceremony in the Yucatan. Read all about it at PR-USA
SciFi Wire has an interview with author Eric Nylund about the new 4 issue comic series Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War. Issue number one is currently in stores, and I promise a review one of these days soon. In short - a big double thumbs up! I think I'll refrain from posting the generally negative review over at IGN, so if you wanna read it you'll have to dig it up yourself :D. Comic Book Resources has the rundown from the Dynamite Comics panel at NYCC, which discusses some of the BSG projects.
Katee Sackhoff talks to Dose.ca as she gets buff for her role in Lost and Found. Don't forget to watch Katee in Nip/Tuck this Tuesday at 10pm on FX.
So, I'm really bummed that the Cylon Detector app available from iTunes really is only for the iPhone and not the Touch. I have the latter which lacks a camera with which to utilize said app, even though they say you can use it on the Touch using a stored photo. What the frak fun is that? If you do have an iPhone though, here's the iTunes store link. I'll just have to live vicariously for you.
Something many a BSG fan may have pondered is the impact of all the nuclear arsenal and the resulting consequences of their use in the Battlestar 'verse. Being a fan of apocalyptic themes myself (not that I want them to happen!) and more recently an addict to the game Fallout 3, I've been learning up a little more on the subject of a nuclear holocaust, kind of inadvertently. Some have asked why the Cylon-human alliance didn't even try to make a go of it on Earth, since the radiation was "slight" and 2,000 years old. We saw vegetation there, did we not? Will McCarthy posted a rather brilliant post over at Sci Fi Wire discussing what the possibilities might have been with some real-world science. Check out How we'll survive Battlestar Galactica's radioactive future, and when you're done with that, stop over at the Next Big Future blog to check out Brian Wang's research and analysis on the subject in the post The Science of Nuclear War Effects and Battlestar Galactica. After that, I recommend you rent The Day After Tomorrow and get that survival sled packed! Include lots of chocolate ;)
On to the less heavy stuff...
As you may notice, there's a new "poll" up (in parenthesis because the polls here are a little less than normal, and are mostly a fun way to interact). Most of the polls here are left to multiple choice... just an FYI. Here are the results of the last poll, recorded down in history:
We're 3/10 of the way through season 4.5 now with "The Oath" this past Friday. Full episodes and commentaries are available for all 3 on SciFi.com and Hulu (actually, Hulu does not have commentary for 'Notion' presently). A little note about the episode commentaries, or "enhanced" versions - if you are a complete spoiler virgin, it isn't recommended that you watch/listen to these since Ron makes a good amount of allusions to what may (or may not) happen in future episodes, amongst other generally mild spoilers. I can't help watching them myself, but sometimes I wish I hadn't because I start to know what to expect.
Looking for an interesting recap and analysis of the epsiodes? Check out Ben Scarlato's thoughts from the perspective of ethical technology from The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Deep thoughts.
Kandyse McClure talks to MediaBlvd Magazine On Dee's Departure From 'Battlestar Galactica', and she's currently filming her new series Persons Unknown in Mexico City. *winks to location*
Michael Trucco recently visited his hometown and students who actually have Battlestar Galactica on the curriculum. Lucky kids. San Mateo Daily Journal
Get the Stealth Cylon Centurion figures while they're hot at NY Comin Con! A limited quantity will also be available online, as reported by Action Figure Insider Mag, who also mentions the "2009: Year of the Minimate" panel at NYCC! You mean BSG Minimates might be easier to find this year??
LOL at io9's commentary on "How the BSG Writer's Room Works". I knew I couldn't have been the only one thinking that when I listened to Ron's commentary of 'Disquiet'. Spoiler - retconning might ruin your imaginations natural ability to take a leap of faith for the show!
Buddy TV has an interesting look/speculation at where the rest of the show can move onto in the remaining (8) episodes. I know some of you must also be wondering "Where do we go from here?" as well - ?
BrickCon 2008 is getting a little recent boost in recognition for the Battlestar Viper hangar complete with 35 models and variations of Vipers composed of LEGO bricks. See the pics at Gizmodo and DVICE.
Also at DVICE - A steampunk Cylon contest! The winner will be announced by the March 20 season finale, which leaves you plenty of time to submit your Cylon! Details
A couple of not so recent videos from Access Hollywood's Dish of Salt blog: Tahmoh Penikett talking about the end of BSG, and Tricia Helfer on the end of the show.
Wow. Did I just say wow? Out loud (in writing)? Oh, excuse me. You may be almost as taken back with this post from Dirk Benedict (I hope I don't have to explain to anybody who that is) at the Breitbart Big Hollywood blog as you were after watching "Sometimes a Great Notion", but in a rather different way. I think Dirk actually makes some very valid and interesting points, but unfortunately it does seem to come across more as a jealous rant, with more than a pinch of self-contradiction. You know what though? I still love and respect the guy, and honor his perspective. Spotted via LA Times
Here's a special treat for Toronto area BSG fans; The Bad Dog Theater has started running a new improv spoof show called "Battleawesome: Awesomestar", about - you guessed it - Batlestar! Shows run on Saturdays up until the 31st, and it only costs 10 cubits to get in. Check out the story with a video clip at blogTO.
Some post-Propworx auction reports: - The Auction Network has a lot of blogging activity leading up to and from during the Propworx auction. If you start from this blog post, and continue to toggle to the next post, you will be able to follow the event. Lots of great photos and it basically takes you through the whole event! - Galactica Sitrep's ProgGrrl was lucky enough to visit the auction. Check out their blogs about it with lots of links, pictures, and video!
Just another spoiler reminder - We will talk freely about any episode that has aired (USA schedule), so if you haven't seen the most recent episode, read on at your own risk. Spoiler warnings will continue to be posted where appropriate when any unaired material is involved.
Episode 4.11 (also known as episode 13 if you include Razor as episodes 1 and 2) is available to view at scifi.com and HULU. The full episode with Ron's commentary is also at sciffy and HULU, and you can easily navigate to previews of episode 4.12 on both sites as well.
Tried to find video of Eddie Olmos on a local talk show from Sunday to no avail, but while searching youtube the following video was found (from community coalition) of a little "up close and personal" with Eddie. Love what he has to say about race:
The following interview with Mary and Eddie from TV Guide is kind of moderately spoilery. If you advance the video to 1:04 you will miss what Mary hushes Eddie about, and you might also want to stop the video at about 4:35 to skip a very mildly spoilery (only for the true virgins) remark about how a certain actor performs:
Entertainment Weekly and Access Hollywood's "Dish of Salt" give us the following video (mild spoiler warning - this seems to vaguely hint at possible future content... I think!): 'Battlestar Galactica': The fifth Cylon speaks
Want to thank the cast and crew of BSG collectively? Grant Gould (awesome Star Wars and BSG artist!) is putting together a "Thank you from the fans" for everyone to sign. The deadline is January 25th for your submission. Click here for more info and instructions.
Let's start with Eddie and Mary on ABC's The View from this morning (thanks to lester94111):
JUMP!
On to the headlines and articles...
The Propworx auction is almost on! Good luck getting onto the Propworx site though (the page has been trying to load for me for ages). The Auction Network site seems to be loading okay though.
The only other "spoilery" thing is at The New York Times online. They are also just a little too chatty about what they saw and presumed to have not seen in the advanced screening of episode 11. Maybe wait until Saturday to read The Things You Can't Know About 'Galactica'.
Variety.com has a frakking awesome series of posts about real people relating to BSG. It would be too hard to link to all of them separately here, but if you click on The U.S. Marine: Byron R. Harder:'Battlestar' captures essence of military life to start, then continue reading the "More Articles". They are all similar real life takes on BSG. Also don't miss 'Caprica' aims for broader demo, which may have more links to the series not found in the previous link.
All circuits are burning. Almost exactly 3 days (72 hours) to go at the time of this posting. Let's see if we can sift through the madness of the moment...
As usual, spoiler-free unless otherwise noted (there were a few postings that were spoilery enough that we won't even link to them here).
That being said, we'll just get the most spoilery link out of the way first. Over at the LA Times, they've been covering the frak out of Battlestar in this final stretch, and the latest post in their Hero Complex blog starts off by giving us the name of the episode that will air this Friday (not a big deal for some, but for total spoiler virgins it is), and although they mention that they viewed an advance copy of the episode, they promised no spoilers and they came through, except the behind the scenes photos from the filming of the episode which they posted courtesy of director Michael Nankin. So now you know what to expect. The photos are really not very telling, but again, if you're a purist do not click this link to 'Battlestar' behind the scenes.
DVR ALERT (or other pending plans)!! This Friday's episode, and the premiere of season 4.5, will run 3 and 1/2 minutes longer. Okay, I really say "DVR alert" because everyone else says that, but don't most DVRs automatically detect the beginning and end of the program? Eh, what do I know - just don't jump up to pee at the turn of the hour thinking you're scott-free (Sci Fi Wire). But then again, as they say in Nerdvana; "No DVR can contain the return of Battlestar Galactica".
As far as I can tell, there are slight variations in the transcriptions of the teleconference last week with David and Ron, by various members of the media. Here's the Eclipse Magazine version.
Here's a note from HULU about their Battlestar offering (because if you can access HULU and SciFi.com video, you know the former kicks the frak out of the latter):
"New episodes of BSG return to Hulu 1/17. The first five episodes will be posted on Hulu the day after their TV broadcast. Subsequent episodes will be posted 8 days after their original broadcast date....We are able to offer five older episodes from the previous season; they will be available until 5 a.m. PST on 1/31/09."
Speaking of the latter, SciFi.com has recently posted the latest installment of David's video blog, which is a TOTAL MIND FRAK. Speculation warning (not quite a spoiler): The beginning of the video may be indicative of which episode the final Cylon is revealed. At least that's something I read into it. Otherwise, the video blog titled "The 5th is Among Us" is just as unrevealing and goofy as all the other video blogs, and you can watch it here at sciffy (sometimes HULU posts these things too, but not this time).
Ooh! I don't think I've ever watched an actual episode of The View on ABC, and I'm a little scared to start, but apparently both Mary and Eddie will be guests on this Thursday's show (January 15, 11:00am EST), so that might be my first. We'll try to get the video for that up here if possible! Via The Watcher via Sitrep
Thanks to io9 for the reminder that the first of the four part comic book series Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War is due out tomorrow (January 14)! I don't indulge in comics as much these days, but 'Cylon War' will be telling a part of the Battlestar story we haven't been able to see before (aside from the Razor "flashbacks"), and if there's any chance to encourge a Battlestar "expanded universe" then I'll take it! If you can't make it down to a comic store, TFAW is my trusted online source.
Lastly, the random BSG mention of the day: At The Boston Herald's blog The Edge, Mark Perigard refers Barack Obama to the experiences of some famous TV presidents, including Laura Roslin. If you don't feel like following the link:
"Laura Roslin, “Battlestar Galactica” (Mary McDonnell, 2003- present, known for trying to shepherd the last remaining humans to a promised land and for being tricked by the crafty Cylons in her midst): Don’t try to rig an election, no matter how badly you think the nation might need you for another term. You’ll be horrified by the karmic payback. Anyone who seems to be too good to be true is probably a robot."
Ron and David's conference call now fully transcribed at Media Blvd Magazine and Cinema Blend - I haven't cross reference these yet to check for differences
Last but not least - Also via Cinema Blend is a 3 part video series with Ron and David explaining the "Top Ten Things You Need to Know about Battlestar Galactica". It's really cool hearing Ron and David recap everything from the series leading to the end of season 4.0, even if you've seen it all:
Quote o' the week/month/season:
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