Battlestar Galactica: Season Four

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Solver
I hate midseason breaks. I don't mind the long wait between seasons, if needed, but I want to enjoy seasons as a whole, I can see a 2 or 3 week break, but any longer is just spoiling the experience.

My understanding is that they only had enough story line material to finish out season 3 but they didn't have a new hit series to replace BSG with. Thus they split season 3 in half, turned the second half into season 4, and thereby found a way to keep their ratings up and advertising revenue flowing until they can produce a new series to replace BSG.

[Dr Strangelove]

Just think of this "Lost" is even worse, it's not returning until late 2008, if then. I don't see how the WGA strike could affect them, surely they had plenty of time to finish the scripts between April and November?

I wonder if TV writers have been engaging in a sort of work slow down?

[Dr Strangelove]

My bad, it returns Feb. 2008. See that's the problem- without decent information in advance rumors proliferate.

[MOBIUS]

BSG4 will be a big steaming pile of piss, if the current trajectory of this once awesome show continues at its present rate...

[-Jrabbit]

A stemaing pile of liquid? Neat trick, that.

[Gatekeeper]

Sci-Fi's golden age, IMO, was when it aired Stargate, Atlantis and nBSG one right after another all on Friday nights. Three hours of solid programming ... oh, how I miss those days, when I find the time to actually think about them.

Gatekeeper

[MOBIUS]

Atlantis was a bit naff though...

[Gatekeeper]

Heh. It seems being a bit "naff" is a Stargate hallmark, regardless if it's Atlantis or the original. I think Atlantis has improved a bit, though; and, FWIW, it's been guaranteed a fifth season (2008-09), so TPTB can actually focus on some (hopefully) good storylines.

Gatekeeper

[Dinner]

Two new season 4 previews have been released.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNPJID5ztyw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB48n9rBQ04

[DrSpike]

Apparently they are wrapping everything up in season 4, so it should be pretty interesting!

[Stuie]

I'm glad Starbuck is back - need more Starbuck and less crap about the Chief. Who gives a frak about the chief?!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Great write up in the NY Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/arts/television/04gala.html

April 4, 2008

TV Review

Space Opera Returns: One Last Step for Mankind

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

Earth, not space, is the final frontier of “Battlestar Galactica.”

The galaxy-wandering survivors of an apocalyptic attack begin the fourth and last season of this Sci Fi Channel wunderseries where they left off: with the faint but improbable hope that one of them has found the lost, mythical home planet.

Whether anyone should believe Kara Thrace, a k a Starbuck, the swashbuckling fighter pilot who was thought to be dead for two months and cannot account for her lost time or prove her claim, is only one of many mysteries confounding the crew of the Galactica. Another is her latest sleeping arrangements: Kara (played by Katee Sackhoff) has a husband and a lover (two, if one counts the amorous Cylon who held her captive on the robot-occupied settlement New Caprica).

“Battlestar Galactica,” which begins on Friday, is a space opera, a high-minded space odyssey with more than a touch of the daytime soaps. It is critically acclaimed and widely respected, but the science-fiction show’s fiercely dedicated cult following has become something of a mass-culture joke: the two lonely mathematicians on the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” decline lunch with a pretty girl so they can view the commentary on the DVD of Season 2.

And that is a disservice because “Battlestar Galactica” is one of the more beguiling series on television, an action-adventure drama that travels through time and space to explore morality, politics and metaphysics. Science fiction often serves as a modesty curtain that permits authors to think big thoughts at a safe remove — special effects and laser make-believe palliate abstract musings and pompous parables that might otherwise bore or offend viewers. (Without phasers and Vulcan death grips, the moralizing streak in the original “Star Trek” would have been insufferable.)

This series’s central premise — war between humans and rebel robots — is founded on moral ambiguity. The enemy Cylons are a mechanical race created by humans to serve as slaves and soldiers; the Cylons evolved into sentient beings and rebelled, developing their own civilization and a monotheistic theology — one that commands them to destroy the sinful pagan human race, which was once spread across the “12 colonies of man.” A Cylon nuclear attack wiped out billions of people. The fewer than 50,000 survivors roam space in a fleet led by the Galactica’s commanding officer, William Adama (Edward James Olmos), and the civilian president, Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell). The two occasionally clash — shifting debates that make the case for and against military dictatorship, for and against democracy. But they are close and their shared quest is to evade the Cylons hunting them and find the “13th colony,” which according to ancient scriptures is Earth.

Sci Fi plans a prequel called “Caprica,” which will describe the halcyon time before robots could think for themselves. This version, which began as a 2003 mini-series, is a “reimagined” adaptation of the original 1978 series starring Lorne Greene.

It takes the religious undertones to the forefront, adding more shades of ambiguity to the mix. The humans are polytheists (an odd mixture of classical mythology and scriptural fundamentalism). The robots are monotheists leading a crusade, or jihad, against the infidel humans — even though they know that the humans gave them life. Some Cylons think they are human, and some of the humans fear they may be Cylons. And almost everybody has a guilty conscience.

The third-season finale ended with the shocking revelation that four of the most prominent and dedicated crew members were actually Cylons, members of a special breed of sleeper robots who were “awakened” to their true nature by faint strains of music (a version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”). They believe they are humans first and foremost, but worry that they may be programmed to betray their friends and lovers by remote control. And a fifth Cylon lurks somewhere among them, still unidentified, but possibly even more dangerous than all the rest.

Last season served up an extended examination of war, insurrection, torture and suicide bombing. Many interpretations saw the humans’ insurrection against the Cylon occupation of their settlement as an allegory for Iraq and even the Palestine-Israel conflict, but the signals are scrambled. The jihadist Cylons could be seen as stands-ins for Muslim fundamentalists, but it is the humans who strap explosives onto their chests and blow up collaborators. Mostly, the final episodes burrowed deep into the confounding choices faced by the individuals involved: collaboration, however distasteful, can save innocent lives; resistance, obviously noble, condemns innocent people to death.

Faith and identity are interwoven themes in the fourth season. Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis), the skirt-chasing scientist who was forced by invading Cylons to lead a puppet government on New Caprica, becomes an unlikely spiritual leader. After being judged not guilty last season by a human tribunal, he becomes a pariah with a cult following. Somehow, his prison writings inspired a dissident group whose members believe he has healing powers and worship at his feet. Baltar, played hammily as a selfish, cowardly survivor, is to “Battlestar Galactica” what Erica Kane is to “All My Children” — an amusingly villainous central character who brings a little campy comic relief to all that earnest, jaw-clenched melodrama.

The multitude of exegeses and theories devoted to major plot twists and minor details attest to the series’s enduring egghead appeal. But “Battlestar Galactica” also provides plenty of spicy sex and Space Age violence. It’s science fiction for viewers who don’t particularly care about science and prefer their fiction veined with allusions to fact.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

Sci Fi, Friday night at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and writer; David Eick, executive producer; Toni Graphia, co-executive producer; Harvey Frand, producer. A Universal Media Studios production.

WITH: Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama, a k a Apollo), James Callis (Gaius Baltar), Aaron Douglas (Gaelin Tyrol), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Tricia Helfer (Number Six, Caprica Six), Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Adama), Grace Park (Sharon Valeri, a k a Boomer), Katee Sackhoff (Kara Thrace, a k a Starbuck).

[Dinner]

It's tonight. BSG season opener and the Torchwood season finale. Tomorrow is the Dr Who opener.

[Stuie]

By the way, if you haven't watched the 8 minute "catch up" video, you should. It's pretty funny.

http://www.scifi.com/index.php?clip=frak

[Verto]

Originally posted by Oerdin
It's tonight. BSG season opener and the Torchwood season finale. Tomorrow is the Dr Who opener.

Thank god for DVR