Category: Battlestar Galactica (Page 10 of 14)

This morning the Sci-Fi Channel announced that the upcoming fourth season of “Battlestar Galactica” would be the show’s swan song. But it was not the decision of the network. Executive Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick just feel like the time is right:

“This show was always meant to have a beginning, a middle and, finally, an end,” Eick and Moore said in a statement on May 31. “Over the course of the last year, the story and the characters have been moving strongly toward that end, and we’ve decided to listen to those internal voices and conclude the show on our own terms. And while we know our fans will be saddened to know the end is coming, they should brace themselves for a wild ride getting there: We’re going out with a bang.”

Season four will consist of 20 episodes that will begin in early 2008, but to tide fans over, there is a two-part set to air in November, “Battlestar Galactica: Razor,” that will tell some of the backstory of the Pegasus before it joined the refugee fleet.

I was able to sit in on a conference call this afternoon, and while most of the questions asked were about the decision to end the show, the duo didn’t deviate much from the statement above. I did get a chance to pose one question before the call ended.

JP: I’d like to ask you about your decision to use a contemporary song, “All Along the Watchtower,” in the season three finale and is there any plan to explain how the song popped up in deep space in season four?

RDM: We will touch on it again probably later on in the fourth season, to explain it within the context of the show. It was something I thought about doing in an earlier season –

DE: Before that we talked about it being in the mini-series.

RDM: Oh, yeah.

DE: We were going to open up with Simon and Garfunkel’s…was it “America?”

RDM: It was “America.”

DE: Yeah, and we talked ourselves out of it because we felt that we were making such a re-invention as it was that it might be a little bananas on bananas. Then, we were talking about playing around – I think it was in episode five of season one – when Helo and Sharon end up in a diner, that maybe there’s a jukebox and maybe it still works and maybe Helo’s screwing around with it and maybe suddenly he hears the song “Yesterday.” And maybe we just don’t explain it. We just kind of go on and, you know, it just felt like one of these ideas that was good enough and big enough to require its own story point and it just took us until now to figure out how to do it really well.

I have to applaud the duo for finishing the show on their terms. So many shows either stay around too long or get cutoff midstream with no opportunity for appropriate closure that, while sad, it’s refreshing for a series to identify and properly plan for an end date. Fans know that this is how the story was meant to go, and that’s vitally important. Also, it frees up Moore and Eick to work on other projects (the show’s spinoff, “Caprica” is still alive, buf for some reason isn’t a done deal) without having to spread themselves too thin. “Alias” really suffered when J.J. Abrams was trying to launch “Lost” and there are those (myself included) that would argue that “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” suffered when Joss Whedon was putting the first season of “Firefly” together. It’s sad when great shows go out with a dud (“Alias” was pretty brutal the last few seasons, but Whedon did a nice job with “Buffy” and “Angel”) so this news is exciting from the standpoint that Moore and Eick will be putting a lot of their creative effort into making season four a great one.

**WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**

In the week leading up to the season finale, Sci-Fi was promoting the fact that we’d learn the identities of the final five Cylons. Prior to hearing that, I thought the show would sprinkle in the reveals to add some punch throughout next season, but they did indeed reveal four of the Cylons, and four out of five ain’t bad.

So it’s Tigh, Tyrol, Sam (Starbuck’s husband) and Tori (Roslin’s assistant). Considering that Tigh, Sam and Tori were hearing the music during last week’s episode, it’s fairly unsurprising (but powerful) that they are indeed Cylons. I don’t remember Tyrol dealing with the music last week, so his reveal was a bit more surprising, though when he started humming the music this week, it became pretty clear that he was a skinjob as well.

Two observations about the music:

1) The music was from a contemporary song, Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” I didn’t recognize it until the second line: There must be some kind of way out of here / said the Joker to the Thief / there’s too much confusion here / I can’t get no relief. My first reaction – WTF? Why are these four singing a Dylan song? I hope that the writers have some sort of explanation prepared for this and that they don’t just forget about it. Could the song be part of the 13th colony’s map to Earth?

2) Initially, the music was unrecognizable because it had a Middle Eastern feel to it. Given the current state of the world, is this supposed to have some sort of hidden meaning? I think we Americans have been taught over the last several years to fear all things from that part of the world, so are the creators playing on this fear, this xenophobia?

When the four met in the room, and Tigh asked them to close the doors, I kept waiting for the fifth Cylon to knock. (That would have been a very interesting cliffhanger.) There are theories flying around that Starbuck or Roslin is the fifth. Starbuck supposedly died, but there she is in the nebula, flying a nice-looking Viper.

I’ve been to Earth. I know where it is and I’m going to take us there.

Big words. So is she a Cylon? Maybe, but it’s not as clear as some fans think it is. If she were a Cylon, it would explain how she “survived” the explosion. But it seems kind of obvious to me.

Roslin is another possibility. She reacted after the jump to the nebula, but before the power went out. Coincidence? Doubtful. She definitely has ties to the Cylons (opera house dreams) so that could be why she reacted. Supposedly, she is the dying leader that guides the humans to Earth, but even that’s not for certain.

With Tyrol being a Cylon, his baby is a hybrid. They didn’t address it at all in the episode, so I just wanted to throw that out there. Hopefully, that becomes a storyline next season. Also, Tyrol had a great line when his wife asked him where the hell he was.

I’ll tell you later.

Now that conversation is going to go over like a lead balloon.

One other random observation. They made a point of developing a budding relationship between Sam and Seelix (the short-haired brunette) by having them hugging on each other in the bar last week, and it’s no coincidence that it was Seelix who discovered Sam and Tori in the (locked) barracks this week. Expect this to play out somehow next season.

Regarding Baltar’s trial, my sister pointed out something that I missed. The segment with Lee’s diatribe about how Baltar was the one we all wanted to blame, to throw out of the airlock, coupled with the doctor’s long hair and beard – that segment had some Christian overtones. Throw in the Cylons’ insistence of One God (while the humans believe in gods – plural – just like the ancient Romans did), and the references grow even stronger. Is Baltar the Messiah? The way his new “followers” whisked him off the ship would indicate that at least a few people believe he is.

I have to mention Romo’s hilarious line after Baltar goes on and on about how he knew that he’d be found innocent:

Your boundless confidence provided us with great solace throughout the proceedings.

Did anyone else notice that Romo let Lee off the hook about Bill’s prejudice of Baltar’s trial? As soon as Lee finished his speech, Romo rested his defense. Also, Romo wore sunglasses for the entire first episode, save for a scene where he had to convince Number Six not to betray Baltar. He didn’t wear them for the entire trial, but then put them back on as he said goodbye to Lee. Plus, his limp was gone. When he’s wearing the shades, he’s himself, but when he’s not wearing them, he’s playing a role. Kudos on the great acting job, Mark A. Sheppard!

But back to Starbuck’s reappearance. I think it was fairly obvious that she’d return, though not necessarily in this manner. As Lee was flying through the nebula, did anyone else see a giant ship/structure just before Starbuck’s appearance? Did Starbuck bring help?

I liked the zoom out to see the Milky Way, and then the zoom back in to see Earth. Now we know approximately where the fleet is.

Starting with the reveal of the four Cylons, I thought the ending to the episode was fantastic. They did a terrific job of incorporating some very cool guitar (with an “All Along the Watchtower” feel) to ramp up the anticipation of the Starbuck reveal. The only downer is that we have to wait until 2008 for some answers.

2008?!? That’s practically a year away!