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.

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

Full BSG/Caprica panel from SDCC!

Thanx Sci Fi Wire!

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

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

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.

Aaron on 'Emissary'

Anyone lucky enough to attend New York Comic Con this Friday (February 6) might also be lucky enough to catch the Emissary panel, which is a new series Aaron Douglas is co-starring in. From Comic Book Resources:

"The panel takes place Friday, February 6th at 6pm and will include the first look at Emissary’s teaser footage and a Q&A with the stars... The Emissary cast includes Philip Morris (Smallville), Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica), Brian Thompson (X-File, Star Trek: Enterprise) and Emmy nominee Thaao Penghlis with additional cast members Yuri Lowenthal and J LaRose in attendance at the NYCC panel."

Also in Aaron news - Here's some video of last Friday's "Geek Out With Wil Wheaton, Yuri Lowenthal, and Aaron Douglas" session at Phoenix Comic Con. I'll post video 1 of 4 here, and you can watch the remaining 3 either at the youtube user's page who posted them, Autolooper, or over at The Chief's Deck.



Aaron will also be attending The Dallas All-Con (March 13, 14, and 15) as a guest of The 501st Star Garrison, the Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas region branch of the 501st Legion. Aaron is not scheduled for any particular event at this con, but will probably be doing autographs as he pals around with the 501 SG. Will Aaron be in trooper gear? Also via The Chief's Deck and All-Con on Myspace

More BSG cast in "The Plan", and other shiny stuffs

The Battlestar sequel movie begins filming this Monday, and according to The Watcher, more of the cast from BSG proper will make an appearance, including (but hopefully not limited to) our Cylon friends Tricia Helfer, Rick Worthy, Matthew Bennett, and Callum Keith Rennie. Michael Hogan and Rekha Sharma will also be making minor appearances unfortunately. But you never know until you see the final cut!

Ooh ooh! Maureen also notes that BSG writer Mark Verheiden will be writing for the second story arc in season 3 of Heroes! Additionally, no new word on whether or not Caprica will get picked up as a full series yet.

io9 posted some more info in their Morning Spoilers on Tuesday on some minor characters from the series who will get big parts in the prequel movie, as well as the general fate of the humans. Read more on this info gathered from Dragon Con at DoorQ.com (mild spoilers - not purist friendly! I know of some of you out there who won't be reading this!).

Also check out this entry at io9 for some very minor spoilers about what Olmos said about "the feel" of his character as the series draws to an end, as well as what SciFi EVP Mark Stern said about the final Cylon (from Huffington Post).

Other updates:


If you're an old school BSG fan and enjoy cruises, Galcticruise pushes off next week! I'm wondering what the future may bring us for RDM BSG fans. Space Shuttle tours perhaps?

Old school fans mourn the loss of Jeff MacKay who played Corporal Komma on the original BSG. MacKay died on August 22nd in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

NBCU reports that SCIFI has seen it's best summer ratings ever, and the scifi.com website hasn't been too shabby either with the Battlestar site hitting number 1:

"SCI FI ’s Website www.scifi.com had record traffic for the summer with double-digit increases among all key metrics year-to-year. SCI FI Rewind averaged 2.6 Million streams (+565% vs. last summer) and Battlestar Galactica was the #1 ranked section on the site with an average of 4 million page views (+141% vs. last summer). Battlestar Galactica also ranked first in video with an average of 1.2 Million streams (+343% year-to-year). "

Speaking of NBCU, Prez Bonie Hammer's hottest moment was giving Battlestar Galactica the greenlight at SciFi. (Conde Nast Portfolio)

AskMen.com is holding their own 2008 elections for the top 49 in several categories. You can vote for Ron Moore in the Cultural Icons section by clicking here.

Tricia Helfer adds to her resume of video game voice acting with the upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive Spider-man: Web of Shadows, in which she voices Black Cat (she also voiced the same character in one episode of Stan Lee's TV toon The Spectacular Spider-man). Tricia also voiced in Command & Conquer 3 (Kane's Wrath and Tiberium Wars).

If you don't mind being spammed by the Think Geek newsletter (doesn't sound too awful), when you sign up for the newsletter you can enter to win a sweeet limited edition Cylon Raider model (the base is signed by Katee!). Click here, and while you're at it check out some of their other frakking awesome BSG merchandise like this "What the Frak" tee (hoodie also available), or the ever popular "How to Spot a Cylon" poster. The drawing ends September 30th,

Check out BSGCast's Part 2 of their video coverage (with always excellent commentary) of Eddy and Aaron at Toronto's Fan Expo '08. They have promises of part 3 (the final part) for next week!

There are all sorts of videos up of the Battlestar panel at Dragon Con 08. I haven't watched any yet, or read reviews from the event, so I can't testify for the spoiler content, but one would assume that they are keeping a very tight seal on what they do and do not say about the series finale. I've at least read around enough to be pretty sure there aren't any major spoilers leaked from the con, but there are certainly mild spoilers as to the general feel and content of the series end. I was about to dig in to nnaylime's youtube page for expansive video coverage of all things BSG (and related) from D*C.

Edit - Also found some D*C 08 BSG footage from this post by Livejournalist wisteria.

The after party hosted by The Colonial Fleet seems to have been a smash hit, with an appearance and speech by EJO. James Callis, Michael Hogan, Tahmoh Penikett, ad Aaron Douglas also showed up! Here's some video from said frak-down. Look for Part 2 in related video, and be prepared to have a strange desire to chug ambrose!

Whew! Enough for one post already!

Remembering BSG Con '07

Unfortunately I never got to go to BSG Con, and even more unfortunatley, BSG Con was canceled this year. Will we ever have a BSG Con again? That remains to be seen. Luckily, there is plenty of video of BSG Con '07, so maybe this is the next best thing?

Carried over from the previous post about Tricia, here she is at the '07 Con:



Katee:



Jamie:



Interesting to hear what they said a year ago, isn't it? It's probably obvious that we're on a video rampage here at FRAK lately. Stay tuned for more spotlights with cast and crew!

Galactica News o' the Week

Interesting little write-up from The Associated Press about how Battlestar Galactica remains strong while official ratings don't, and some comments on Caprica.

This is a semi-spoilerific (but only in the most extreme sense) recap of Eddy Olmos' and Aaron Douglas' appearance at Toronto's FanExpo 2008 by TVaddict.com's Melissa Grimonte.

Speaking of the above-mentioned (spoilerish!) FanExpo appearance, there are loads of recaps pouring in on the net. BSGcast.com has 3 part video coverage of the event. Love the Baltar tees guys! Below is part one, and stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 either from their above website, the BSG Cast youtube channel, or their Veoh.com page (like the vid quality on Veoh better):


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Eddy and Aaron weren't the only ones to make a recent public appearance lately. Tricia Helfer appeared at NVISION 08 and "talked about the challenges of acting with virtual characters and took the crowd through the steps of blocking and filming some of the scenes from the hit Sci-Fi Channel series." (Nvidia blog). Still searching for more coverage and video of Tricia from this event, but she wasn't the only trace of Battlestar there - FX consultant Kelly Meyers showed off some of the tech used for rendering CG on the show. (edn.com) I'd love to see a video of that too. Maybe soon?

If you haven't checked out the official site for Battlestar Galactica props and costumes, it's a must! Battlestarprops.com is preparing inventory for an auction in 2009. They're often adding new stuff, and have lots of tips for the collector in you!

If you're a BSG collector and a guitar player, then check out this Strat signed by most of the major cast members, which is now up for auction on ebay from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation for an inordinate amount. (Battlestar Blog)

Disney toy designer Steve Thompson shows off his BSG tattoo over at Wired magazine!

Den of Geek's funny little speculation for season 4.5.

Zap2Zit has some comments about recent episodes of The Middleman, and Mark Sheppard's character. I gotta watch that show!

io9 talked to Sam Witwer at Comic Con, and posted some video and comments from him just yesterday! Why you gotta hold out on us io9? *winks*

BSG Con cancelled :(

The Battlestar Con scheduled for late November in Burbank, Ca has apparently been canceled. WTFrak? Not that I was going to go, but that's just kind of sad. I haven't heard any explaination as to why, but I'm guessing most of the cast will be so tied up with other projects, that maybe not a lot of them could commit? Maybe Gate Con will share again? Maybe there will be a future BSG reunion convention?

The Good News:

- Aaron Douglas is a last minute add-on to the Fan Expo in Toronto this weekend. Way to support the fans Aaron!

- Eddie Olmos will have his own panel at Dragon Con on Monday at 10am (September 1). Thanks to Battlestar Blog, and Cassie Gordon from DC PR for posting a Google spreadsheet to tide everyone over until a PDF of the DC schedule can get put up.

BSG at Dragon Con

Dragon Con is coming to Atlanta, Georgia from August 29 through September 1. The Battlestar guests are starting to slim down though. Jamie Bamber and Leah Cairns canceled as of several days ago, and the most recent drop-out seems to be Katee Sackhoff, who had reportedly said that this would be her last convention.

Fret not, since you can still expect to see Aaron Douglas, Tahmoh Penikett, James Callis, Richard Hatch, as well as NASA scientist and BSG science advisor Kevin R. Grazier.

Those of us stuck at home will be anxiously awaiting news from DC attendees!

For the sake of blogging...

This is where I throw everything together in one entry, for lack of a better way to do it. Included is an obligatory fangirl photo of Michael Trucco just for the heck of it. No, I don't have any new news on Michael (except that supposedly his sleeper-agentness will be dealt with in the upcoming prequel movie)...

Still finding some SDCC interviews out there that I hadnt caught before. Here's one with Jamie Bamber and Comic Mix.

If you weren't sure that it was officially official that we would be getting extended episodes in season 4.5, well here's the proof from TV Guide as confirmed by Sci Fi. It's still unknown as to how exactly it will be extended, and by how much.

I guess what's also official is that we will be getting two seperate DVD sets for season 4. One for season 4.0, and another sometime after the series ends for season 4.5. As much as I don't love buying more DVD sets, I don't mind if it means we get extended cuts and more bonus features. It will also make the DVD sets for season 2.0 and 2.5 not look so strange on the shelf between the chubbier complete seasons 1 and 3 DVD sets. Season 4.0 is set to be released on DVD this December. Thanks again TV Guide.

Ron Moore, along with several other industry professionals, will be having a panel discussion at The University of Southern California on September 10th. The discussion, titled In the Name of God: Terror, Torture, and Television is part of Live From L.A.: Good/God and Evil, "a series exploring the religious and ethical ramifications of 9/11 in broadcast television". See the USC announcement here. Admission is free. A plane ticket from the east coast and a hotel room unfortunately are not. Thanks for the heads-up Sitrep.

Last but not least, and certainly the most oddly interesting is that Tricia Helfer will be speaking at NVISION 08 on August 25th in San Jose. Tricia will discuss "how visual computing has affected the TV and film industries" (Neoseeker). How cool is it to hear that Tricia is doing this? Very, especially for this female blogger. We ain't no booth babes!

Comic Con Battlestar Panel at SciFi.com

Linky! Those of you outside the USA may not be able to view this, and this is uncensored, so beware of Kevin Smith inspired language :p

Comic-Con 08: Battlestar Galactica Panel

Judging by the coverage, it seems as though the BSG panel at SDCC yesterday was probably the highlight of the entire Con (okay, maybe I'm a little bias). It was certainly momentous if not at least because this will be the last SDCC that takes place while BSG is still a running series. There's plenty of great coverage around the web. Now all we have to do is wait for the videos to start rolling in.

There were no real plot spoilers dropped, especially not the final Cylon (did you think?), but a few clues as to the general feel of the end of the series: explosive (?), as well as what kind of character the final Cylon isn't, so don't worry when you see titles mentioning the final fifth unless are the 999% spoiler-free type...


Over at i09 catch some highlights from the panel discussion (cool retro posters too!), and a confirmation that we won't be seeing Billy ever again :(

Here's /FILM's description of the season 4.5 trailer.

IGN report

EW report

Zap2it report

Maureen "The Watcher" Ryan report

LA Times

Sitrep has a good collection of coverage, and also pictures and video clips.

Also of interest: The Dollhouse panel sounds like it was a blast, and Tahmoh Penikett had a few words about BSG there. I just had to post the TV Squad coverage of the Dollhouse panel because of the awesome picture featuring a few Jayne hats.

Comic-Con: BSG 30th Anniversary Panel

Yesterday, the Con featured a 30th anniversary Battlestar Galactica panel featuring actor Richard Hatch, composer Bear McCreary, producer Tom DeSanto (who developed the new BSG way back when with Bryan Singer), and NASA science consultant Dr. Kevin Grazier.

Check out the following links for coverage of the event at: TV Squad, Wired, and Discover.

Also, here's a day 1 report from the Con from Sitrep.

Bear will also be doing a concert on Sunday night with The Singers of Battlestar Galactica. Can't wait to hear about that! Bear's blog with announcement. Otherwise, we're all waiting for coverage on the Big Kahuna panel on Saturday with Ron, David, James, Tricia, Katee, and Michael!

BSG at Comic-Con: First Reports

io9 reports on viewing the original test animations for Bryan Singer's 2001 concept for the new Battlestar Galactica series, and how Singer opted out due to both the events of 9/11 and the opportunities for X-Men 2 and Superman Returns. Check out the article here, with sweet concept art images. Some of the ideas and designs stayed pretty close to Singer's, but I think we're all pretty glad the Cylons were redesigned.

Also, check out the killer Sciffy swag bag (aka "big frakkin' bag") as shown-off by TV Squad. Those tattoos are mine! (via Sitrep)

NYCC 08 Galactica panel roundup

I've been trying to harvest some online coverage of NYCC 08 and the Galactica panel, but frankly it's a little scant. Must be because not a whole lotta breakthrough information came out of it.

It was a full Cylon panel (even though we wouldn't have said that before April 4th), and they spoke about their characters a bit. Here's a few accounts of the event from:

comicbookresources.com NYCC 08 BSG

ign.com NYCC 08 BSG

Here's a 6 part youtube posting of the panel (thanks ProgGRl)

I


II


III


IV


V


VI

Razor Flashback Previews

It's October, and that means one thing... well, aside from my most favoritest holiday EVAR (nooo, not talking about Columbus Day either :P)- Razor Flashbacks! The previews and trailers have been airing in recent months (just saw one a few minutes ago, which inspired me to do this entry). So for your previewing pleasure, here are the lot of 'em: trailers, previews, teasers etc. for Razor and Razor Flashbacks. Flashbacks are airing starting this Friday, all the way up to the late Novemeber air date for Razor.



Actual Razor previews/trailers:



Exclusive clip #1


Exclusive clip #2


Sneak peek of a sneak peek








Bonus vids (don't really have to do with Razor):

From Comic Cons "Ladies of BSG"


BSGcast interview with Katee Sackhoff


See other BSGcast stuff here on youtube

Season 4 sit-rep

Some news is starting to trickle in from the Battlestar Galactica panel at Dragon-Con, and some really ominous rumours to boot. Word has it that Jamie Bamber and Aaron Douglas had a little roast at the expense of Sci Fi Channel politics, and supposedly "joked" that season 4 was to be split into two stints of ten episodes each, the first half being aired in February 2008, and the second the following February. I've checked around some of the forums and it seems that this truly is a false alarm by attendees of the panel who accepted Bamber and Douglas's gesture as a joke. Many others are skeptical. It's not like we haven't heard "slips" from the actors before that were later confirmed as truth. Nor is it so far fetched to believe the Sci Fi channel would do this, since the second season of BSG was similarly split along with other scheduling catastrophes for other programs.

First report from Ain't it Cool

Rumor catches on at Buddy TV

The fan-world goes nuts, and is undecided as to the validity

Frown not fans. Here's a wonderful thing that came from Dragoncon: An interview with Jamie Bamber. Some great words in there!

Other recent S4 stuffs:

In the span of a week, we thought Kevin Smith was going to guest-direct an episode of BSG in season 4, but it looks like that's a no-go. I stated my feelings on this previously, and I really have respect for Kevin Smith in his own right. He actually, and very humbly, describes in his own blog what happened, and the reasons why he was hesitant himself are exactly the reasons I was hesitant to be enthusiastic about the prospect of a Smith directed BSG episode.


In the meantime, I'm sitting on my hands until an official statement is made concerning the season 4 split.

Here's some news for fans of Ye Olde Tyme BSG... BSG 1980 on DVD rumors!