BSG 411 Teaser

Here's a a cruel glimpse at episode 11 of season 4:

Webisodes, 11+ hours, and TV Movies?

First of all, I have to say that the midseason finale "Revelations" was perhaps the best episode of RDM's Battlestar Galactica yet. I had always favored "Scar" and "You Can't Go Home Agaian", and perhaps it's because of the newness of it all... but I hadn't seen any other season 4 episode even start to live up to he bar set by BSG from the very beginning until very recently. The midseason final certainly made up for anything the earlier season 4 episodes had lacked, and then some. That's not to say the last few S04 episodes weren't exceptional.

Anyhew...

This is old news mixed with newer news, but it's all pretty solid now... for the most part:

We can confidently expect another set of 10 webisodes in the long season 4 hiatus we've only just begun. *takes deep breath*

Speaking of the hiatus, that is also pretty much confirmed to be significantly long. The "first quarter" of 2009 references are backed by the following from E! Online's report from the midseason finale panel and prescreening (linked in next post):

"I talked to Dave Howe, Sci Fi Channel president, and you guys are definitely going to have to wait half a year for the final 10 episodes of Battlestar Galactica. He told me that, "[It will premiere] first quarter next year—we haven't fixed a final date, but we don't want to keep the fans waiting too long.""

- Pfft. We don't like it, but we're certainly used to it at this point.

At least we'll not only be getting webisodes, but also a (slightly) longer end to season 4 as well as one if not possibly three Battlestar TV movies, as Mo Ryan "The Watcher" recently reports.

Apparently RDM talked NBCU into at least 11 hours to be able to get everything he needs out of the script for the season finale. That's "at least 11 hours" and perhaps more, but I can imagine that they would give us too much more. If anything I can see them mincing the supposed TV movie(s?) as extra season 4 episodes like they tried to do with Razor as episodes 401 and 402.

Check out Mo's link above and definitely check out the fellow Blogger blogger (couldn't help that one), Alan Sepinwall, she linked to at The Watcher. His "Revelations" revelations (someone stop me now) are a joy to read.

Now what to do until the webisodes are even rumored to come out? I'll be downloading all the podcasts with RDM's commentary for S04 so far (410 should be out soon) and rewatching. At least once. Maybe twice. Perhaps Thrace :D

News from the front lines

By "front lines" I mean the midseason finale prescreening held in Los Angeles this past Wednesday. Not much we didn't already know, save for a few words from Katee Sackhoff and Mary McDonnell about their characters as E! Online reports. Of note is mention of the Caprica series, of which I have to wonder if they are considering it's pilot "movie" as one of the three rumored TV movies (see post above) to come aside the final 10 episodes of the series.

"Twelve Colonies, to Be Continued: The proposed Battlestar Galactica spinoff Caprica (starring Esai Morales, Paula Malcolmson and Eric Stotlz) is officially still just a two-hour movie, but based strictly on the enthusiasm of Howe and NBC Universal chief of cable programming Bonnie Hammer, I'd say that Caprica is getting picked up. Howe wasn't making any promises yet, but he said, "Based on the casting and the writing and talent involved, I think it's going to be spectacular." Hammer agrees that it's good stuff: "The dailies look amazing." "

Woah!

Not exactly sure where this video/commercial came from or who made it, but it's pretty frakking sweet. It raises a lot of questions in my mind, that's for sure. Thanks again to Darth Vader.

Alessandro Juliani featured at IGN

Gaeta has my vote for the 5th... or perhaps the new prez, as long as he can stop singing his song. Where was he in episode 408 anyway? Ah well, at least we can get a little fix with an interview with Alessandro over at IGN.

Read "The Man Behind Gaeta"

Bear talk at Variety

The fabulous Bear McCreary, composer to the new Battlestar Galactica series, is highlighted over at Variety.com. Click here to read.

"This show needed to set itself apart from all other science-fiction operas, especially the old version of the show," he says. "So traditional orchestral writing was out. The other idea was that there are all these hints that our histories are somehow connected, that we are related. So I wanted to use very ancient, earthly sounds."

Rekha Sharma interview at Buddy TV

Check out the nice little chat with Rekha Sharma over at Buddy TV. Don't worry - there are no spoilers (unless you haven't been watching up to the current 4th season).

Excerpt:

Are there any hints that you can give us about what's coming up on the show as we move into the midseason hiatus?

Any hints, well . . .

Who the fifth Cylon is, maybe?

[Laughs] Oh yes sir, no problem! You've got to be kidding me [laughs]. I like my job and I want to keep it, even though I only have a little bit left. To give any hints would just ruin it for you, really. It's so exciting. I can tell you this much, I can tell you that it's intense, that there's going to be lots of surprises. It's going to be everything that it has been so far: intense, dark, wonderful, exciting.

________________________________

Also, the second part of Rekha's Q&A is now available

BSG LOL cats!

Thanks to Darth Vader (ironically) for the heads up on the fraktastic BSG LOL cats brought to us by the fraktabulous Puntabulous:

Battlestar Galactica LOL Cats

Battlestar Galactica LOL Cats Redux

Battlestar Galactica LOL Cats Three For All

And this one is speshul for you DV ;) ...

Rekha Sharma and Michael Trucco Q&As

Scifi.com now has more Q&As up with Tory and Anders. Also up is Part 2 with James Callis (Baltar - did I really have to point that out?). If you haven't checked these out before, the official Battlestar site at scifi.com has opened up to members of the message boards there and hosting periodic Q&A sessions with the cast. Click here to view them all at SciFi Pulse.

Sorry to all you international types who can't view Hulu either. If I find an IP free host with these videos anywhere, I'll certainly put them up.







Also...

Digi-press mini-doc


Sneak peek for next week (hey! That rhymes!): Faith

Caprica casting begins!

This from scifi.com:
"
Caprica, Warehouse 13 Are Cast

Paula Malcomson (Deadwood) has been cast as the female lead in Caprica, SCI FI Channel's prequel to Battlestar Galactica,

...

Malcomson will play Amanda, a surgeon who works as a double agent, in Caprica, which is set 50 years before the events in Battlestar. Caprica follows the evolution of the Cylon race and the fight between two families.
...
"

Finally! The Frak blog Caprica series roundup

Better late than never I s'pose ;)

Here's what we know so far about the upcoming Caprica series from various sources:

The Wired blog summarizes it pretty well, thanks to TVAddict as a source

Caprica is set 51 years before the planet goes nuclear.

The show will portray the inhabitants of Caprica as a seedy bunch, "reading like an episode of HBO’s The Wire."

The pilot is filled with political intrigue, racial prejudice, religious zealots, "and a seriously cool take on Second Life courtesy of (the fictional company) Graystone Industries million dollar idea, the HoloBand."

Father and billionaire scientist Daniel Graystone is busy worrying that, "his company is on the verge of losing the government contract for the Robot Super-soldier and Meta-Cognitive Processor after wasting five years and half a billion cubits."

His wife, Amanda, is cheating on him with his chief rival Tomas Vergis (a Tauron).

His daughter Zoey joins an organization called, 'Soldiers of One' -- "a monotheistic religious group that advocates the worship of a single, all-knowing, all powerful God whose mission is to, 'drive out the many Gods.'"

Act one ends with a violent act of terrorism that kills Ben and Zoey as well as innocent bystanders Shannon and Tamara, wife and daughter of Joseph Adams. Cue world beats opening credits.

Graystone and Adams befriend each other in grief and decide to use the technology at Graystone Industries to download both daughters' consciences into the cybernetic life-form nodes (or Cylons) that are currently in R&D at the company.

By the end of the pilot, Adams and Graystone are enemies, torn apart by ethical differences.

TVAddict source article

Another TVAddict article on Caprica casting. It could be you!

A TV Squad commentary on the casting news

Earlier reportings on Caprica from Cinemablend

'Exclusive' Caprica Pilot Preview from E! Online

Because we care...

Some odds and ends on Battlestar Galactica from around the web:

Because we care what The New York Times has to say, here's their April 4th prelude to season 4 -

Space Opera Returns: One Last Step for Mankind

Also, a BuddyTV write up on the Virtuality series that I didn't previously post. Be sure to link to the Hollywood Reporter article in there as well.

The rumor that wins the scariest yet potentially most fun award goes out to this proposed film trilogy:

Looking to develop its own homegrown franchises, Tom Cruise's United Artists banner is embarking on a space odyssey with Ronald D. Moore, the man behind Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica."

- from Yahoo news

Not much else going on at Ron Moore's blog except a podcast server issue roller coaster ride. As of April 24th, the podcasts are up (again) at scifi.com.

Last but not least, some clips from a documentary screened at the recent Bear McCreary concert "Music of BSG" in LA:



What concert you ask? Let James Callis tell you


... and he'll sing for you too. "Spooky"


Very cool BSG sounds with Raya. "Lords of Kobol"

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