The Face of the Enemy Webisode 7

As usual, thanx to SevorTB/ddt73



With Jane's commentary:



Credits

Sponsor info

The Face of the Enemy webisode 8 airs January 5th

Colonial Dispatch 12.30.08

Tidbits from the BSG 'verse...

Buffy and BSG (and comics) fans will be delighted with the upcoming Dark Horse 5 issue series centered around Seth Green's character Oz from the Buffy series - also written by Jane Espenson! SciFi Wire

There have been several previews of the region 1 season 4.0 DVD release (January 6, 2009) bumping around the web. Check it out at The Digital Bits, Trek Web, and of course the official Battlestar Galactica DVD site.

Last week SciFi Wire posted a spoiler-free piece (general setting description) about the BSG post-series final The Plan.

Ron Moore is listed as USA Today's #10 in it's Top 100 People of 2008:

Battlestar Galactica's executive producer should prepare to break fans' hearts with the final episode, though the first half of his final season offered enough surprises to tide us over. On the bright side, he doesn't plan to stop working after the show ends, so expect much more must-see sci-fi to come.

Ron has been pretty busy lately (Is he ever not?) putting out a little PR for his beloved BSG and other related scifi ventures. Check out his interviews at AMC TV's Scifi Scanner and Kate O'Hare's Hot Cuppa TV blog; Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Both via Trek Web

It's still not too late to audition to host the Auction Network's coverage of the BSG Propworx auction! That is, if you're anywhere near Universal City, Ca today.

Speaking of fan participation, the LA Times promises heavy coverage of Battlestar Galactica as the series comes to an end, and is open to any questions you may want to ask the cast and crew. Also check out this LA Times feature Faces to Watch: Tahmoh Penikett by Denise Martin.

Writer Eric Nylund's comic Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon War is coming in January 2009, and will be a prequel to the TV series. Eric's other writings include novels for the Halo and Gears of War series, and none of those are too far of a stretch away from BSG content.

A bit about Bear McCreary's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles soundtrack (and Bear's work in general) from top-40charts.com.

Get 'em while they're hot! Scripts for the Caprica series have been posted here. Do I even have to warn about spoilers for this? via Galictica Sitrep

Galictica Sitrep also has some very pretty billboard pictures from the LA area promoting "The Final Episodes". What's the deal with chopping the top of everyone's head off?

The Face of the Enemy Webisode 6

via SevorTB/ddt73



With Jane Espenson's commentary:



Credits

Sponsor info

17 days until season 4.5 begins!

One week until season 4.0 region 1 DVD release!

Propworx commercial

Saw this little gem on youtube from the Auction Network, who will be broadcasting (at least in part) from the January 2009 Propworx BSG auction. If you open the youtube page you will see they are also hiring "enthusiastic BSG fans" to host their coverage of the event! Get those auditions in soon!



While we're on the auction subject, BSG Cast will be hosting the (hopefully not) last annual Frak Party at the very location where the auction will be taking place, and will be granted an exclusive preview of the items before the auction kicks off. All are invited! Watch for more info (and/or go to BSGcast.com):

The Face of the Enemy Webisode 5

via SevorTB/ddt73



With commentary:



Credits

Sponsor info

The Face of the Enemy Webisode 4

Same source as usual

The Face of the Enemy Webisode 4



With Jane E's commentary:



Credits

Sponsor info

Katee Sackhoff Q&A Part Deux

The Face of the Enemy Webisode 3

Thanks again ddt73 (aka SevorTB)

The Face of the Enemy webisode 3:



With Jane Espenson's commentary (Warning - this commentary is a slight spoiler to the later webisodes!):



See full credits here, and view the sponsor's trailer for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans here from youtube or here at the official site.

Colonial Dispatch 12.17.08

Miscellaneous news inspired by the Fleet News Service

I recently saw The Day the Earth Stood Still - both the 1951 original (for the first time since elementary school) and the 2008 "remake". One of the things I was looking forward to was seeing Aaron Douglas in an albeit small, even background, part as "Sgt. Winter", but apparently he was completely removed from the roll call (and imdb) as the movie released on December 12, dubbing Frak a liar. But BSG fans won't be disappointed to catch a quick glimpse of Lorena Gale (Elosha) as one of the convening scientists, and Michael Hogan (Tigh) in the credits as "General". If anyone saw Michael on screen, please say where! A good solid flick, and one can't miss the undeniable original inspiration for Cylon Centurians. Another fan shout-out goes to Director of Photography David Tattersall for also being DP for all the Star Wars prequels. *bow of respect*

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Other random bits...

BSG makes all sorts of top lists! Number 2 in EW's list of the top 25 in sci-fi since 1982, and number 8 in Time Magazine's top 10 TV shows in 2008 (and there were barely a dozen BSG episodes in 2008!). That's just this week. Wait until after the season finale, and see how many more top lists we make then. How about all-time lists? Check out what Newsweek has to say (via verheiden.blogspot.com via galacticasitrep.blogspot.com).

Of course BSG made Mo Ryan's Top 10 of 2008, but did you know that BSG has the top rating percentage increase (at 53%) when DVR use is factored in? I'm not exactly sure what that means since statistics aren't a big subject in art school, but Reuters (3rd to last paragraph) makes it sound good.

Luckily we're hearing from Jane Espenson via her commentaries on the new webisodes (and hopefully on the season 4.0 DVDs), because she's announced that she will cease blogging indefinitely due to an exhaustion of things to say. (via LA Observed)

Will we see Ron Moore's Virtuality as a series, a miniseries, or at all? Hard to say at this point, and we may not know much until May 2009. At least we finally know Caprica is a definite, so maybe it's just taking NBCU an equal amount of time to work with Virtuality.

"ScFi Looks for a Future without Battlestar Galactica" at the LA Times - which is actually an expansion of one of last week's Hero Complex future-forward look at the SciFi channel with president David Howe.

Pretty pictures from the set of the season 4.0 finale and others (which I don't believe are spoilers) at MichaelTrucco.com! Hee hee, at least I'm pretty frakking sure the first photo is not a spoiler.

Last but not least, a reminder that the Battlestar Prop Auction is not only online at www.battlestarprops.com, but the complete catalogue is also available to download - a fine piece of free memorabilia if you can't afford any of the actual props.

The Face of the Enemy Webisode 2

Once again, thanks to youtube user SevorTB (who would like to be credited under their Live Journal username "ddt73"), The Face of the Enemy webisode #2, which aired today on scifi.com - for all of you who can not access the SciFi site or Hulu:



With Jane Espenson's commentary:



I'm trying to figure out if when Espenson said at the end of webisode 1's commentary "That was the end of webisode one. Where's the fleet?" she meant that "Where's the Fleet" is the actual title of webisode one. She mentioned nothing of the like in the commentary for webisode 2.

Since SciFi's sponsor for the webisodes has been the next Underworld movie; Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (visit the official site), we're putting the trailer up here for you to watch because it's the sponsors that help pay the writers and production staff so that these webisodes are even possible at all. You can also click the above link to their official site to show your support for their support:

Katee Sackhoff Q&A, season 4.5 poster

Scifi.com has kick started the Q&A sessions again, and part1 with Katee Sackhoff is up for viewing both from the recently slightly rearranged Battlestar site's video section (Note - You now have to navigate to www.scifi.com/battlestar/webisodes to view the webisodes there. It no longer opens from the home page), or you can watch the Hulu embed below. FYI - Here's a direct link to Hulu's Battlestar main page. Sorry folks, but there doesn't seem to be a youtube version out there just yet...



Speaking of Katee, Mo Ryan posted the fantabulous season 4.5 promotional poster below on her Chicago Tribune online blog The Watcher. This is going to be a new countdown widget image me thinks:

The Face of the Enemy Webisode 1

For those of you who can't access the webisodes through scifi.com/battlestar where they are "aired", here's webisode 1 of "The Face of the Enemy", original airdate December 12, 2008 (thanks SevorTB youtube user!):




And an extra special thanx again to SevorTB for posting the webbie with writer Jane Espenson's podcast commentary synced with the webisode. SWEET:



Also check out the interview with Jane Espenson from yesterday on TV Guide.com.

The 10 webisode schedule is as follows: Part 1 - DEC 12, Part 2 - DEC 15, Part 3 - DEC 17, Part 4 - DEC 22, Part 5 - DEC 24, Part 6 - DEC 29, Part 7 - DEC 31, Part 8 - JAN 5, Part 9 - JAN 7, Part 10 - JAN 12. We'll try and keep them coming here at FRAK the following day, as long as people like SevorTB keeps serving them up for us.

You can find the credits here at scifi.com, but we'll just post the summary and full credits (sorry about single spacing, but it's long!) here too:

"The action continues with a gripping 10 part web series of Battlestar Galactica. "The Face Of The Enemy" is filled with astonishing revelations you won't see on the show. Lieutenant Gaeta is sent off in a raptor with a handful of strangers when one of them mysteriously dies. The psychological human vs. Cylon struggle ensues in the restrictive confines of a raptor as everyone is a suspect and paranoia sets in among the group. One by one more passengers die under puzzling circumstances and those remaining must ask themselves if a Cylon is responsible for the deaths, or if it is one of their own — a human."

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
“THE FACE OF THE ENEMY”

Directed by: WAYNE ROSE
Written by: JANE ESPENSON & SEAMUS KEVIN FAHEY
Number Eight: GRACE PARK
Lt. Felix Gaeta: ALESSANDRO JULIANI
Colonel Saul Tigh: MICHAEL HOGAN
Lt. Hoshi: BRAD DRYBOROUGH
Lt. Margaret ‘Racetrack’ Edmondson: LEAH CAIRNS
Finn: WILLIAM C. VAUGHAN
Esrin: JESSICA HARMON
Brooks: MICHAEL ROGERS
Executive Producers: RONALD D. MOORE, DAVID EICK
Executive Producer: JANE ESPENSON
Produced by HARVEY FRAND
Producer: RON E. FRENCH
Co-Producer: MARIL DAVIS
Co-Producer: PAUL M. LEONARD
Associate Producer: ANDREW SEKLIR
Director of Photography: RYAN MCMASTER
Edited by: ANDREW SEKLIR, MICHAEL LIM
Music by: BEAR MCCREARY
Visual Effects Supervisor: GARY HUTZEL
Associate Producer: GREGG TILSON
Visual Effects Producer: MICHAEL D. GIBSON
First Assistant Director: STACY FISH
Production Assistant: MICHAEL BISHOP
Associate Producer: SIAN MCARTHUR
Post Production Supervisor: IAN MADDOX
Script Supervisor: LINDA STRATHDEE
Production Coordinator: MELISSA BARRIE
Camera Operator: KEVIN HALL
Camera First Assistant: RICHARD EGAN
Camera Second Assistant: CHRIS MOONE
Digital Image Technician: JIM BACH
Gaffer: BLAIR McDONALD
Best Boy Electric: JEFF BOUDIER
Lamp Ops: BRYCE DICKSON, NIGEL NIESSEN, DOUG REYNOLDS
Key Grip: JAMES VINBLAD
Best Boy Grip: PETER WEBSTER
Dolly Grip: TRACY NIXON
Grips: TOM EVANS, JESSE OLIVER
Key Makeup/Prosthetics: SHAUNA MAGRATH
First Assistant Makeup: LESLIE GRAHAM
Key Hair: GENE KENDALL
First Assistant Hair: BEV SEWERS
Wardrobe Set Supervisor: KATHERINE WIGZELL
Set Costumer: PAULETTE NELSON
On Set Dresser: MAURICE WOODWORTH
Props: BRENT LANE
Sound Mixer: MATT WILLOUGHBY-PRICE
Boom Operator: TONY WYMAN
Computer Playback: LAWRENCE LAU, SHERYES MITHAWALA
Special Effects Supervisor: ROBERT CARTER
Location Production Assistant: JEFF MEAGHER
First Aid Craft Services: GLENNE MOORE
Post Production Coordinator: BETTINA ZACHARIAH TREVIRANUS
Visual Effects Editor: ERIC LEA
CGI Supervisor: DOUG DREXLER
Senior VFX Coordinator: GREG BEHRENS
Visual Effects by BSG IN-HOUSE VISUAL EFFECTS
Senior Coordinator: DAVID TAKEMURA
CGI Modeler: PIERRE DROLET
Render Coordinator: MANUEL CHOI
Render Assistant: FARRAH WELCH
CGI Artist: ADAM “MOJO” LEBOWITZ
VFX Compositors: DEREK LEDBETTER, RYAN SCHROER, MICHAEL ROSS LANG
Digital Logistics Coordinator: JEREMY LANG
Sound Editorial Services by AnEFX, Inc.
Supervising Sound Editors: JACK LEVY, DANIEL COLMAN, M.P.S.E.
Sound Designer: DANIEL COLMAN, M.P.S.E.
Dialogue Editor: VINCE BALUNAS
Foley Artist: DOUG MADICK
Re-Recording Mixers: MICHAEL OLMAN, C.A.S., KENNETH KOBETT, C.A.S.
Color Timer: RON NICHOLS

LA Times and Battlestar

Today's LA Times features a "Sunday Conversation" with Jamie Bamber, which interestingly took place on a Friday:

"What was it like on, say, the last day of shooting "Battlestar Galactica?" Did you all think, 'What now?' Or -- 'Oh, thank God, my life is back'?

The last day of shooting was a crazy day. We'd gone a week over already. Two units shooting, everyone on call the whole time. There was not time to reflect. It was just getting across the finish line. There was a lot of whiskey drunk in the camera truck at 4 a.m. but I was still going in the second unit scene, or on my own with a bunch of extras firing guns."

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Also featured in today's LA Times is Sciffy prez David Howe, who adamantly acknowledges the success and audience Battlestar has brought to SciFi. Howe hints at a mysterious "Holy Grail" multimedia event by 2010 which will embody the future direction of the network.

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Back on December 4, the LA Times Hero Complex blog gave us a heads up and intro to a Sunday edition article discussing the recent wave of scifi remakes and resurrections. Here it is, and BSG is definitely part of the discussion.

"The "Terminator" and "Robocop" franchises are being revved up now for more mechanical-man mayhem, and classic films such as "Forbidden Planet" and "When Worlds Collide" are in the remake pipeline, while the new take on " The Day the Earth Stood Still," starring Keanu Reeves, opens Dec. 12. Even " Battlestar Galactica," which began as a small-screen "Star Wars" knockoff in the 1970s, has been revived with spectacular results and will break new ground in 2009 with the TV movie "Caprica" on Sci Fi, with a series to follow."

Sneek peeks!

Stargate Atlantis crossover Battlestar fans were treated to an extra spiffy treat Friday night during the airing of the former program - excerpted scenes from the series finale of BSG. View them at The Watcher blog (or not if you're the spoiler-free type).

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Oh yeah, and have we mentioned Caprica is a green-light yet? Well it is, and the announcement came from NBCU on December 2nd.

Chuck Versus the Bulldog!

NBC's Chuck is one of those shows I just started watching and couldn't stop. It seems to be on at just the right time - soon after dinner and right before Heroes on Monday night, and really helps bide the painstaking time between Battlestar seasons. Chuck keeps pulling out the awesomess. First, we now know that we'll see Tricia Helfer guest star as a helping-hand special agent on the show in 2009. Tonight, Chuck and BSG fans are treated to another special guest who plays one of my favorite yet most underappreciated characters on BSG - Senior Lieutenant Daniel "Bulldog" Novacek.

Carl Lumbly was last seen on BSG as Bulldog in episode 8 of season 3, "Hero". Bulldog mysteriously incorporated himself into the Fleet after being presented a Colonial Officer's uniform by Adama. He seemed like such a loaded character that we would have seen at least intermittently in the series, especially since a whole episode was based primarily on him, yet we never saw him again.

In Chuck's episode 9 of season 2, "Chuck Versus the Sensei", Carl Lumbly plays Bennett, the former sensei to Agent John Casey, played by Adam Baldwin (Triple whammy for Chuck, BSG, and Firefly fans, and quadruple if you are also a fan of Alias in which Lumbly co-starred). Lumbly's Sensei Bennett is a stone-cold ass-kicker, and is surprisingly clean-cut these days. If you've seen the documentaries in the season 3 DVDs, you might remember the discussion around Lumbly's (the son of Jamaican immigrants) dreadlocks which the actor did not want to change for the role. It made perfect sense though, since his character was holed up in a Cylon prison cell for a pretty long time.

It's always a thrill to see Carl Lumbly's powerful presence, which is why I always hoped to see him again on BSG since both are pretty intense. If you missed tonight's episode of Chuck, don't despair - it should be available to view online at NBC.com (see Chuck link at top of page) and Hulu as soon as tomorrow!

* While we're on the subject of BSG stars and NBC, don't forget to tune in to NBC on Wednesday December 3rd to see Katee Sackhoff's guest appearance on Law & Order at 10pm/9pm Central.

The Face of the Enemy webisodes begin December 12

We here at FRAK have made a conscious decision to not entertain and/or spread the rumors about the content of the upcoming season 4 webisodes that have been banging around the net for the past week or two. We (or I at least, since I'm about the only poster here lately) will continue to condemn the rumors by only reporting here that SciFi announced the 10 webisode series, titled The Face of the Enemy, will begin on December 12 on scifi.com. It has not been stated how the 10 webisodes, 5 of which are supposedly directed by Jamie Bamber and the other 5 by James Callis, will actually be presented since one per week would not fit into the 6 weeks spanning between December 12 through Jauary 16.

"Sci Fi would not confirm or deny" the webisode rumors.

If you've already read the rumors or just don't care, you can safely follow this source link for this posting at SciFi Wire, which contains a picture as well as some commentary and further links concerning the rumors.

If you would like to know the general story pitch for the webisodes, highlight the text below between the red astericks. This is quoted from the source article at SciFi Wire, but contains no references to the rumors and is only a plot description which can be considered very low on the spoiler scale. If you want nothing to do with any of this, stop reading now and remember to go to scifi.com/battlestar on December 12!

Plot description for The Face of the Enemy webisodes:

* "The 10 webisodes, entitled "The Face of the Enemy," tell a story that takes place between seasons 4.0 and 4.5 of Battlestar and follow Lt. Gaeta when he is sent off in a Raptor with a handful of strangers and one of them mysteriously dies. The psychological human-vs.-Cylon struggle is played out in the restrictive confines of a Raptor as everyone is a suspect, and paranoia sets in among the group. Grace Park and Michael Hogan also star." *

You Will Know the Truth... and other 4.5 promos

On Thanksgiving Day, SciFi.com launched the You Will Know the Truth viral at the Battlestar site, where each day they post a clue or a tidbit (audio and video clips) about what will happen in season 4.5.

The "extended online-only trailer" titled The Epic Journey is also up at scifi.com - click here, or see the youtube copy below:



If you clicked to see the above video at scifi.com then you'll also see that the teaser trailer The Truth is also available to view. Here it is from youtube as well:



The You Will Know the Truth segments with audio clips by individual Battlestar characters can be found from youtube users SevorTB and indysid.

The Epic Journey

That season 4.5 teaser trailer "The Epic Journey" (as seen a couple posts before) has officially "gone live" as per SciFi Wire.



The photo at left was also snagged from scifi.com, with Michael Trucco and Mark Sheppard from the 25th Annual Love Ride this past October. Aw!



53 DAYS!

Helfer on Chuck

There were just way too many ways to go with potential titles for this post, so we'll just go with something straight to the point. If you have any creative suggestions for alternate titles post them in the comments!


Anyway, Nerdom and Geekdom rejoice! Tricia Helfer will be appearing in an episode of NBC's Chuck as Agent Alex Forest aside the also lovely Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin (The man named Jayne), and Zachary Levi.


Tricia will be in episode 18 of season 2, which we won't see until sometime after February 2009. She's only signed on for the one episode, but we're all ever hopeful for more. Certainly something to look forward to, and if you're already a Chuck fan then double bonus! via i09 via EW.com


< Obligatory Tricia glam shot.

Season 4.5 - It's Coming!

i09 has some spiffy new videos concerning season 4.5. First we have some very rudimentary handy-cam footage of a TV airing from the Canadian Space Channel which was a sneak peek at season 4.5. Purists need not click on the following link to i09's article with the video, because even mention of the BSG star who is a guest host/interviewee on the sneak peak could be a potential spoiler! That's just a little of my own speculation, even though I know other reasons why this individual would have made an appearance on this particular venue. Okay then, now that you've been warned, here's the link.

Canadian browsers can watch the clip (in much higher quality) from the Space site here.

Also, as seen on the i09 page, which if you were avoiding the spoilers you can see it here, is a very brief spot for a promise of more sneak peeks of season 4.5 on Thanksgiving day during the James Bond marathon on SciFi. This is mildly spoilery, but so brief I would put it on the lowest level of the spoiler scale. Neither the Space video above or the video below reveal anything resembling plot information.



55 DAYS!

Trail Mix

A mixed bag of goodies for the journey to 1/16. If anything, we have the time now to get creative with blog post themes. I picked out all the raisins for you...

It seems as though the BSG cast might as well start their own biker gang. We know Katee and Tricia enjoy their bikes, and last week Michael Trucco joined with a couple dozen other celebs for the 25th annual Love Ride, which raises money for Southern California charities. This year they won big for Muscular Distrophy. You can see Michael in a few shots by Simon Cherpitel around page 35 and 36.

tvshowsondvd.com gives us a sneak peek at the screen menus for the region 1 DVD release for season 4.0 on January 6. Hey, it's something!

Mary McDonnell's guest appearance on Grey's Anatomy will debut on Thursday, November 13 on ABC. Mary plays Virginia Dixon, a cardiac surgeon (Take that Cottle!). It's still not known how many episodes she'll be in for, as she is also in pre-production for the movie Jimmy Nolan. Spotted on bostonherald.com

Katee Sackhoff should be busy with the pilot for Dick Wolf/NBC's Lost and Found, and in the meantime we're still waiting on the episode of Law & Order where she'll guest star for an episode as a murder suspect. surprisingly, neither of these have shown up on her imdb page yet. A big recent release for Katee is the PS3 exclusive game Resistance 2, which hit stores last week. Katee voices Cassie Aklin who joins Nathan Hale in the resistance movement against the alien Chimera who have been slowly destroying the world. The game has already gotten high ratings, and I plan on picking this sucker up soon, but there are just way too many good new games out lately. Long before the release of the game, there was the Project Abraham viral site in which katee was featured in video clips that gave bits and pieces of the story. If you check the link, they've added new video since the game's release.

What the heck? Just in on the wire is news that Michael Trucco will also be appearing in an episode of Law & Order: SVU as a suspected baddy who slips drugs to the gals! The episode is due to air Dec. 9 (Why do we know this but still don't know when Katee will be on?).

Caprica ready to go

According to a brief mention in this Buddy TV article about McCain and Palin's Cylon identities, production has "wrapped on the pilot for the BSG spin-off Caprica" which is the first I've heard of that. Now that it's ready to go, you can bet that they'll box it (pun intended) until the time is ripe after BSG has seen itself through to the end next spring, but you never know. Here's to hoping.


I just watched the Caprica trailer on SciFi again, and I could swear it's a little different than before, but I haven't seen it in awhile.


Photo from 13th Colony

Aaron!

It's official - CTV has given the green light for 11 episodes of "The Bridge" which stars our very own Aaron Douglas as Frank Leo, an "outspoken union head" (Woah! This remind anyone of the good old days of The Resistance?).

"Based on the insights of veteran insider and outspoken former Toronto police union head Craig Bromell, CTV has ordered 11, one-hour episodes, following the production of a two-hour pilot shot in Toronto last summer. The Bridge provides an unflinching look at the struggle street cops face as they not only battle criminals - but also their own bosses - in order to protect society and, ultimately, themselves." CTV, CNW

Production begins in 2009, so it'll be awhile... especially for US fans, but in the meantime we'll at least get an Aaron fix when The Day the Earth Stood Still comes to theaters on December 12, where he will be playing Sgt. Winter. I have no idea if that character exists in the original movie, but I think I'm going to try and give that a watch soon, before the new one comes out. Good stuff!

Also of intrigue - Blood: A Butcher's Tale, starring Aaron as Sam the vampire butcher is now complete, but no word on any release. It will probably have to hit festival circuits and get picked up (hopefully soon), unless it goes straight or quickly to DVD.



As a final note, here's a little clip of Aaron with Richard Hatch at the From the Land Beyond convention in Sacremento this September. Aaron talks about all the props that "went missing" from BSG and the demolition of the sets.

What the frak is going on with Dollhouse?

It looks like Joss Whedon's long awaited (by many fans that is) "Dollhouse" has been slated to premiere on January 13, which is a Friday and as Maureen "The Watcher" Ryan puts it "Fridays are regarded as the dumping ground of the prime-time schedule, and given that "Dollhouse" has already endured its share of trauma and drama and stop-start production... Well, we Whedon fans believed the "Buffy" creator when he said, way back when he got back into business with Fox, that he thought the "Dollhouse" would not be a replay of the "Firefly" debacle."

*Sighs* I guess all we can do is hope and pray to the gods. Here's an embed of the Dollhouse preview nabbed from the above linked Watcher article (does anyone else find it odd that they list Whedon as the creator of Buffy and Angel, but leave a big gaping hole where Firefly should also have been mentioned?):



Here's another clip (Thanks to Sitrep) of a TV Guide interview with Tahmoh Penikett where he talks about how awesome and perfect the finale of Battlestar will be (with no spoilers) and digs into Dollhouse a little bit:

Webisodes on January 15?

This just seems odd, but The Futon Critic reports: "...keep an eye out for "BSG: Essential Elements," a half-hour special on Sunday, January 11 at 11:00/10:00c. And if that wasn't enough "Galactica," it's understood the latest wave of webisodes for the series will be broadcast during the network's January 15 presentation of "Pitch Black.""

What seems odd is that since the series finale, season 4.5, premieres it's first of 10 episodes the day after - on January 16, and since there are supposedly going to be a total of 10 webisodes... and since they are in fact "webisodes" (which insinuates to me that they will be on the intrawebs), it doesn't quite seem possible that 10 so-called webisodes would air on television and all in one night.

Perhaps the webisodes will run on SciFi's website the weeks prior to January 16, which would be on par with how the Resistance webisodes and the Razor "Flashbacks" were presented, but guess what - we're just about at week 9 before January 16, and there were supposed to be 10 webisodes. Way too mysterious for my already tortured soul.

W00t? Did I just say 9 weeks?

Looking back on season 4

This clip from Hypaspace is a little dated as it's a preview of season 4.0 from back in January '08. Still, it's a nice look back on the first part of season 4 with comments from the cast and it helps tide us over until January '09. TWO MORE MONTHS!



This happy little reminder was spotted on the Battlestar Blog

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While we're flashing back, here's a sweet fan piece-together of "Gaeta's Lament" from 4.0:

Grace Park on "West 32nd"

Grace Park revisited her Vancouver stomping grounds this week, but not to the set of Battlestar Galactica. This time she treads the red carpet in her hometown for a screening of her first feature film West 32nd, at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival.

West 32nd is "a crime drama set on West 32nd, the centre of Manhattan's Korean town. John Cho of Harold and Kumar fame plays a lawyer defending a 14-year-old boy facing a first-degree murder charge. Park plays the boy's sister, Lila Lee."

Check out what Grace had to say to The Vancouver Sun about her experience with her first feature, independent film, and New York gig as well as her thoughts on the ethnic issues surrounding it.

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Grace was also recently featured in the Toronto Star, where she talks about her work on the Canadian show 'The Border" as well as mention of "The Cleaner" and wrapping up Battlestar.

Target Practice or New BFF?

For $8590.00 you would think this life-size "Cylon Centurion Robot" offered at NBCU's Sci Fi store would fall into the latter option in this post's headline. On second thought, given what it is the price isn't so outrageous with US shipping for the 300lb toaster included in the price, and it has stereo audio to boot! The "advanced electronics" feature is a tad worrisome though.

"Officially licensed for Battlestar Galactica and exclusively manufactured by the legendary 'Robot Man' Fred Barton, each Cylon Robot is hand-made, numbered and signed by him.

Standing 7-feet tall, each Cylon is carefully crafted out of sturdy fiberglass right down to the delicately spindled fingers. "

Just to be clear, we're talking about the one on the left in the picture.

____________

If you really want to lay down the big bucks, and want a piece of the real deal, NBCU has booked a weekend at the Pasedena Convention Center to auction off the props used in Battlestar Galactica (the new one if you were wondering) to coincide with the series finale on January 16, 2009. Some auction items will be available on an online outlet, and later will be on ebay. A portion of proceeds will go to United Way. Reuters

See some of the props over at Wired's Underwire blog!

4.0 DVD and 4.5 premiere dates

Everyone who cares about BSG knows this, but it has to be posted here to get the blogging groove started back up...

Season 4 will continue it's second part starting on January 16, 2009 on the SciFi channel (in the USA), and will run for the 10 weeks leading up to the series finale which is set for March 20, 2009. NBCU

At least one of those episodes, presumably the finale, will be at least two hours long.

A mere 10 days before the series continues, we will see season 4.0 on DVD for Region 1/USA (on January 9). If you want to see the cover art click here, but for this post we'll post another awesome pic that looks like it was from the same shoot as the DVD set (stolen from Wired, via the above posted NBCU press release)...

11 Days Later...

Not a lot of updates going on here lately, and I apologize. The Force Unleashed came out, and aside from other daily life, that seems to have distracted me from a lot of other stuff. Read my TFU review here. So, I've been having a romp in the Star Wars universe with Sam. Can you blame me?

BSG updates coming very soon. In the meantime, check out where www.samwitwer.com takes you! That's right, it's Sam's band which goes by the name - Are you ready for it? - "The Crashtones". The music player there doesn't work for me, so if you want to sample, check out The Crashtones on myspace.

Battlestar this Week

Whew! It's been a long week, and there's lots o' catching up to do...

Aside from work, one of the things that has kept me distracted is the release of The Force Unleashed, of which the main character played by Sam Witwer is the perfect tie-in between my two biggest fandoms. IGN posted an interview with Sam today (um, okay - I guess yesterday at this point), the release day for the game. Go read!

Kotaku also caught up with Sam at the launch party Monday night at Best Buy in San Fransisco.

iFMagazine.com posted the second part of their interview with Eric Stoltz (read part 1 here). Some mild Caprica spoilers!

Katee Sackhoff has been picked up to lead in the pilot for NBC's Lost and Found (Yahoo News) which also means she'll have to drop out of her role in Nip/Tuck, where she will be replaced by Rose McGowan (EW.com).

The BSG love is everywhere as confessed by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Diaz at the Mercury News blog.

Battlestar wins a Tubey for Best Drama over at TelevisionWithoutPity.com.

Joss delays and rewrites for Dollhouse again, while the fans yearn for Tahmoh!

If you haven't heard... we got frakkin respect at the Emmys.

Gaeta and Dualla it is?

Closing at 26 votes, the poll shows that Dualla shippers have their work cut out for them. Could Gaeta or Dualla really be the final Cylon? I'd love to hear from Dualla voters as to why they think she's the one.

Otherwise, holding solo at second place is the glorious Romo Lampkin (of whom I think is a great candidate, but I have doubts that he's the one), and we have a 4 way tie for the bronze with Ellen Tigh, Tom Zarek, Zak Adama (w00t?) and Kendra Shaw. An honorable mention goes out to Captain Louanne Katraine (may she RIP) who stands alone at 4th place. Remember people, she did die of RADIATION POISONING! Cally, Racetrack, and Elosha came in next, followed by the trailing pack of Bulldog, Kara's mom Socrata, Husker's wife Carolanne, Crashdown (would be awesome but highly improbable), Boxey (gotta LOL), Billy (*cries*), Seelix, and the one and only Doc Cottle.

What? No Jammer love? What about the halfsie kids; Hera Agathon and Nicky Tyrol?

Before I post the final results for archival purposes, here's a profound LOL Cat I whipped up for my number one FC choice:

Dualla	7 (26%)
Gaeta	7 (26%)
Romo	5 (19%)
Cally	2 (7%)
Hotdog	0 (0%)
Jammer	0 (0%)
Cottle	1 (3%)
Ellen Tigh	4 (15%)
Seelix	1 (3%)
Tom Zarek	4 (15%)
Billy	1 (3%)
Kat	3 (11%)
Boxey	1 (3%)
Crashdown	1 (3%)
Racetrack	2 (7%)
Nicky Tyrol	0 (0%)
Hera	0 (0%)
Admiral Cain	2 (7%)
Zak Adama	4 (15%)
Carolanne Adama	1 (3%)
Jaycie McGavin	0 (0%)
Socrata Thrace	1 (3%)
Kacey	0 (0%)
Kendra Shaw	4 (15%)
Showboat	0 (0%)
Elosha	2 (7%)
First Hybrid	0 (0%)
Hybrid	0 (0%)
Bulldog	1 (3%)

Farewell Salute to the Combat Information Center

*Taps*

The 13th Colony reports that the CIC stage set for Battlestar Galactica was dismantled (I just can't bring myself to use the "demo" word) yesterday at the Vancouver Film Studios. Fortunately, a 13thC Facebook member has been working at the location photographing the sets, so hopefully we'll be able to see tham all some day. I have to wonder if that really does mean we won't have any CIC scenes in "The Plan". Perhaps we'll see a little Pegasus CIC instead?

Super Trucco?

IS MICHAEL TRUCCO BEING CONSIDERED FOR THE NEXT SUPERMAN MOVIE FRANCHISE?? He's certainly got my vote! Cast your vote here at Coventry Telegraph.

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!

Don't Believe the Hype

And bookmark this SCIFI Wire statement that the rumors flying about suggesting that the Battlestar series finale won't begin airing until April of 2009 are unfounded. Sciffy boldly states that it is indeed slated to begin in January of next year:

"12:00 AM, 02-SEPTEMBER-08


Battlestar Rumors Debunked

SCI FI Channel is calling "inaccurate" rumors that the second half of Battlestar Galactica's fourth and final season will be delayed and confirmed again that the original series will return with new episodes in January 2009.

Several Web sites, including io9 and Galactica Sitrep, have posted the rumors, reportedly based on comments made by Battlestar cast member Aaron Douglas at Dragon*Con.

The reports are erroneous, the channel confirmed to SCI FI Wire. "It is still slated to return January 2009," a spokesman for the channel said."

Frakkin Tribute

Although not as tight as the Lebowski cut, it's about time someone started editing these together. Ladies and frakkin gentlemen, The fraks of season 1 (It doesn't seem like much looking at it now!):



Not to be outfrakked, there's some insight to be had on our favorite word over at CNN.

Thanks to Club Jade for these frakking gems!

Maybe some of you have also noticed this - So as to not bother other members of the household when I watch my BSG DVDs late night, I put the subtitles on. I noticed that in the miniseries, and perhaps several episodes into the first season, the spelling was "frack" (as you'll notice from the CNN article, Larson's version was also spelled this way), then it switches over to "frak" permanently by the time you get to season 2 and onward. Pretty frakking interesting ;)

Mark Sheppard Talks!

He walks too, and he keeps a pretty straight face in this video interview talking mostly about BSG


It's Actor Mark Sheppard from Dick Dyszel on Vimeo

The Plan?

The 13th Colony, aka the ultimate BSG Canadian resource, just posted that the BC Film Commission has updated their current productions listing to include the working title for the 2009 Battlestar Galactica 2 hour prequel: The Plan.

Thanks 13C!



Also relevant, (don't click if you're a complete spoiler virgin fundamental extremist, but otherwise, it's really nothing you wouldn't have speculated anyway - plus, it's speculation) io9 has a piece on Aaron Douglas from Fan Expo, with some spoilerific speculation, and they caught this RGBfilter.com video (also very, very, like as in grandma style mild spoilers):

Tell me something I didn't know...

... because I already knew that for better or worse, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is the fictional female character I can relate to the most. But taking the "Which Battlestar Galactica Character Are You?" quiz at Buddy TV is still fun. If you take it, you can work around using your email sign in.

Which Battlestar Galactica Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

New Final Cylon Poll!

It's up! And this time with almost every possible suspect and then some. Unlike the last poll, you can vote for multiple choices in this one. There are 11 whopping days to vote. Hopefully by then you Dualla shippers will have changed your toaster lovin' ways, and hopefully some crazy spoiler doesn't get leaked by then either. Frak.

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!

Spotlight on Tricia Helfer

While surfing around to find video of Tricia at NVIDIA 08 (still unsuccessful), I found lots of other older video interviews with her. Check it out!

Craig Furguson 1:



Craig Furguson 2 (5/08):



The Hour:



mahalo.com from Comic-Con:



Chelsea Lately:



TV Guide (Do any other females out there want to stomp this host's face into the corner of the stage too?):



From Fan Expo 07 part 1:



(Fan Expo 07 with Tricia part 2, part 3, and part 4)

PETA spot:



IGN from NYCC part 1:



IGN from NYCC part 2:



Yahoo Games discussing Command and Conquer:



Tricia hosting Canada's next Top Model (see this user youtube page for pretty much the whole series!):



Clip of Tricia on Vic's Catwalk (no sound):



Finally, this one from TalkingPicturesTV didn't allow embedding, but here's a link to the video.

See next post for one other Tricia video from BSG Con 07!

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*