Saturday, April 28, 2007

BSG Season 4 News & A Music Interlude

Mark Verheiden updated his blog teasing some information about what he and the other writers are up to:

Meanwhile, we continue to forge ahead on Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica, which is looking awfully exciting from this biased observer's POV. One of the joys of working on a show like BSG is exploring new territory with our cast of characters, and trust me, we're exploring!
In the second season episode, "Valley of Darkness" the music Starbuck's father played on the recording was Metamorphosis One by Philip Glass...


h/t to Proggrrl.

Friday, April 27, 2007

BSG's Watchtower

SyFy Portal has a new interview with Bear McCreary titled, "McCreary Finds Success At BSG's Watchtower" written by Michael Hinman.

Hinman also reports that David Eick and X-Files producer John Shiban are working on a horror miniseries for Lifetime called "The Gathering"

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Latest BSG News

Marcel Damen of Galactica TV reports on what's new at their site:

- We feature a nice long interview with Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), who talks about his career and part on the show.
- We further have interviewed Ty Olsson (LSO Capt. Kelly) extensively as well. Capt. Kelly was lost after the Mini-Series, but definitely has returned now and isn't a straight laced officer any longer, since he's blowing up lawyers nowadays!
- Jim Stevenson wrote us another interesting article on the Masonic symbolism in the show. You definitely got to read this one, it all MUST be leading somewhere.

We are also proud to announce our GALACTICA.TV Podcast, hosted by Justin Berger (aka hypokritical on the SciFi.com forum). In our first issue he talks you through the Battlestar Galactica saga and his fascination for both the orginal and the new series. In future episodes he'll discuss a variety of Battlestar Galactica related subjects, so do check it out and e-mail in to discuss it.

Justin also is making us introductions for the interviews we taped and we'll be offering those on our website as well. Last year we did a long interview with Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol) which was published in our October 2006 issue. This is now available as audio so check that out to. All others will follow, so check regularly.

Also, BSG.CZ has a new interview with composer Bear McCreary.

And Roadrunner has this highly detailed run down of The BSG Panel at the Grand Slam XV Sunday April 15th.


Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Tricia Helfer

Tricia Helfer talks about Battlestar Galactica and posing in Playboy.



Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Golden Toasters are coming

The Golden Toasters are coming soon.










Golden Toaster trailers posted on YouTube by differentlight

Bear Along the Watchtower

Bear McCreary sent out the mass e-mail below to his readers:

Hi "Battlestar Galactica" fans!

I have to apologize for the late reply, but I hope you appreciate
that I've never seen my INBOX overflow like this! I was on vacation and
returned to find a million emails with the words "All Along the Watchtower" in
the subject heading. I hate "mass emails," but I'm left with no choice.
If I wrote each of you back personally, it would take me all week.

I'm thrilled that so many fans liked the "Watchtower" arrangement
and took the time to write me. Here are the answers to basically every
question I got:

1). The first release of "All Along the Watchtower" will be on the
"Battlestar Galactica Season 3" album in mid-August.

2). There will be no iTunes release, CD single, 45 or bees-wax cylinder
of "All Along the Watchtower" before the soundtrack album in August.

3). No, I cannot send you an mp3 even if you pinky-swear that you'll
never share it with anyone else, or offer "a million dollars," "beer,"
"womens" or "Uber cool hardware" :)

4). The soundtrack album will also include the instrumental version of
the song when Tigh, Tory, Tyrol and Anders are wandering through the
hallways.

5). Yes, the album version of "Watchtower" will include all 3 verses.

6). There are no plans to release a karaoke version of my "Watchtower"
arrangement. (No joke, I got more than one email about this!)

7). The live concert this year will be in Los Angeles, in August, to
coincide with the release of the season 3 soundtrack album. Details
will be posted on my website in the next few months.

8). There are no immediate plans to take the live concert and tour the
rest of the nation or the world. I hope to put together a touring version
of the concert sometime in the future.

9). A 2-disc Season 3 album is unlikely at this point, but rest assured
that the best of the best will make the cut.

10). There are plans in the works to release extra material from each
season that did not make the cut on any album so far. Most likely, these
tracks will be released after season 4.

11). Anything else I didn't cover can probably be answered here (click
on "BLOG"): http://www.bearmccreary.com/

So say we all!

-Bear

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Starbuck on Lifetime

TV Squad reports on Katee Sackhoff's role on an upcoming Lifetime telefilm shot in Canada.

Ron Moore



BSG creator Ronald D. Moore had a chat with the Onion AV Club and talks about the scope of the series, and the general direction of things in season 4.

(That's one of Ron's favorite brands of Scotch from the isle of Jura.)

Aaron Douglas reports that season 4 will start shooting on May 14 with the Pegasus telefilm.

IESB spent Sunday at the Grand Slam Sci-Fi Summit and has video interviews with Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Jamie Bamber (Apollo), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), and Michael Trucco (Anders).

Below are a few brief YouTube clips from trekqueen of the convention Q&A session.



Saturday, April 14, 2007

Richard Hatch

Richard Hatch (Vice President Tom Zarek) is interviewed on the latest episode of GeeksOn. (You can also find GeeksOn on iTunes.)

Friday, April 13, 2007

Spacey Awards

Wired has an interesting article that looks at shows like Battlestar Galactica, and books like The Road, that avoid being termed "science fiction".

Vote for BSG, Katee Sackhoff, and James Callis, in the upcoming Spacey Awards on Canada's Space channel.

Sci Fi Wire talked to Tahmoh Penikett about a new project he is in.

Proggrrl found some interesting parallels on BSG and the old Lorne Greene BSG, as relates to the old show's "Ship of Lights" story line.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Success!



Rosario Dawson is a fan of Star Trek, and the new Battlestar Galactica. However, her brother sounds a bit daft.

Perhaps J.J. Abrams should consider her for Uhura? But, I think Beyoncé would be a good choice too.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

An Update

I'm finally about over my early spring allergy attacks, and am working on putting together a new Galactica Sitrep podcast, and I want to hear from you. Send me any questions or comments you have about Battlestar Galactica, your reaction to season 3's finale, and anything else on your mind, and I'll try to read and answer them on the podcast. Just email me at bsgstirep[AT]yahoo[DOT]com or logan[DOT]gawain[AT]gmail[DOT]Com

I also am putting together plans to keep this site and the podcast interesting and exciting over the long break until BSG returns this fall with the Pegasus telefilm, and season 4 in January 2008.

Now, for other news....

Quentin Tarantino told AICN’s MiraJeff that he is a big fan of BSG, and would jump at the chance to direct an episode. In the interview he talks about the directing work he’s done on other TV shows like ER and CSI, and says, “One, in the case of 'CSI,' that was literally a case of me just doing a show I like and just stepping in. It's kind of cool, it's like if you were a kid and you liked 'Star Trek' and all of a sudden you could direct a 'Star Trek' episode, I get to do that, alright. So if there was gonna be a show that I was gonna do a guest directing spot on now, it would definitely be 'Battlestar Galactica.' I love that show! I got up early this morning before the junket (laughter) to see an episode today!”

So, Quentin Tarantino joins Kevin Smith, and Joss Whedon (among others) as big BSG admirers .

Monday, April 09, 2007

Listen to Jamie Bamber

The Sci-Fi Talk podcast has a talk with Jamie Bamber:

Taped at the Icon 26 Press Conference, Jamie talked about the season three finale before it aired that Sunday night. He also hints about a fifth cylon. He also chatted about his character of Apollo plus working with Edward James Olmos and Richard Hatch. He even discussed his role on Ghost Whisperer. Some good insights but no spoilers.

The podcast is also on iTunes.

Kevin Smith digs B*G

Jamie Bamber was interviewed by IGN just before the end of season 3.

SyFy Portal has a review of Crossroads part 2

Via ProgGrrl on Live Journal, I discovered YouTube video of Kevin Smith moderating a BSG panel with Tricia Helfer and James Callis at the New York City Comic Con. And a pretty cool video that recaps all 3 seasons of BSG in 5 minutes.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

BSG computer game

A free demo for Beyond the Redline, a fan made video game, is now online for Mac, Linux, and even Windows PCs.

Is Felix Gaeta Gay?

Paul Florez in The Advocate wonders if Lt. Felix Gaeta's big secret is being gay, and being in love with Dr. Gaius Baltar?

Actually, we know from Ron Moore that a big secret between Baltar and Gaeta had to do with a massacre of Sagittarions on New Caprica. A story line that was subsequently dropped. However, gay characters seem oddly absent on BSG. Does the Colonial military have Don't Ask Don't Tell or something?

Ron Moore and MTV News

Ron Moore talked to MTV News and answers many questions about the finale, and hints for season 4.

The Sci-Fi Channel plans to run a BSG Marathon over three days in May according to Zap2it.

Sci Fi Channel will present a special encore presentation of the show's entire third season, that's 20 episodes, during a three-day marathon in May.

The marathon kicks off Wednesday, May 16, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and then follows the next two days from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday.


Visions Abyss reviews one of Alan Light's recent podcasts.

ProgGrrl chronicles a few reports of a Jamie Bamber event at the 2007 I-Con at Stony Brook.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Moore/Olmos

TV Squad provides a run-down of the topics covered in Ron Moore's Q&A Podcast at a Frakparty in Berkeley, California.

Michelle of the LiveJournal Battlestarblog found some excellent video on YouTube of a tribute to Edward James Olmos as part of a Life Time Achievement award given to him for his work as an actor and in the cause of social justice.

Where is David Eick?

David Eick's Video Blog joins the Battlestar Galactica cast and Ronald D. Moore as they ponder the whereabouts of their missing executive producer, David Eick.

Los Angeles Times

Kate Arthur in The L.A. Times has a great interview with Katee Sackhoff and David Eick about the elaborate methods they undertook to keep the real fate of Starbuck double super secret.

For Katee, not telling the truth, and keeping the secret from fellow cast and crew, and even from members of her own family, was quite difficult:

The animated Sackhoff found it difficult to lie to her fellow actors about what was going on. (Deceit doesn't seem to be her forte, generally speaking: In the first minute of this interview, Sackhoff admitted that she was hung over, because, she said, "I don't want you to think I'm stupid. I'd rather you think I'm, you know, a drunk.")

Eick soon realized that this part of the plan simply wouldn't work among the close group of friends in the "Battlestar Galactica" cast. "It wasn't fair to her," he said. "She was going to have to lie to literally everybody in the cast: 'Yeah, yeah, I know, it's awfully sad. I'm gonna miss you guys!' It got ridiculous at a certain point. She was a trooper; I think she would have done anything we asked her to. But she's not inhuman!"

So the cast was told that Sackhoff and Starbuck were there to stay, but anyone else deemed a potential leak was kept in the dark. Including Sackhoff's own father. "My dad has a big mouth, and I knew he would get on his e-mail list and tell everyone," she said.
Read the full article at The Los Angeles Times.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Podcast Up! (updated)

Ron Moore's Q&A podcast at a Frakparty in Berkeley the night of the finale, and his commentary podcast for Crossroads part 2 are both now up on the Sci-Fi Site.

There can now be much celebration in the Sci-Fi.Com forums.

Buddy TV reports the webisodes from between season 2 and 3 may get a nice polishing before being put on the season 3 DVD set.

Off to listen to the podcasts....

Update:
Though the Sci-Fi.Com site claims Ron Moore's Crossroads Part 2 commentary podcast is up, as of this moment, it is not. It leads to a file not found page. However, I take it as a good sign that it will be up soon, unless they are having a major technical issue...

Hopes for Season 4: A Memo

The writers of Battlestar Galactica are gathering at their offices at the Universal lot to break the stories they are planning to tell in season 4. I’m sure they receive regular memos from the executives of the Sci-Fi Channel.

So, I decided to write my own open memo to the season 4 writers' room:

Dear Ronald D. Moore, David Eick, Mark Verheiden, Michael Angeli, Michael Taylor, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, Anne Cofell, Jane Espenson, et all. I want to thank you for a very successful season 3.

And thanks for allowing Bear McCreary to create genius scores. His music for the first four hours of the season, as well as for Hero, and the Baseship piano music introduced in Torn, and finally his arrangement of All Along the Watchtower in the finale, added up to a truly great year of BSG music.

(You should consider having Bear create a brand new opening theme for season 4’s opening credits. It might be time for something new, dramatic, innovative, and stunning. Perhaps even borrowing from his version of All Along the Watchtower would work. Of course, it would have to fit in with the drum-roll for the Space 1999/Mission Impossible montage showing what’s in each episode as well.)

But, even with the highlights at the start of the season with the occupation of New Caprica, and the stunning ending of the season, there were a few lull spots worth noting. They should be noted so they can be avoided season 4. Even though the biggest lull was after Rapture and before Maelstrom, even before then there seemed to be drift away from the key relationships in the series. There especially seemed to be a lack of scenes between Adama and Kara, which has always been a source of great drama.

The key relationships in the series is of the family Adama. Papadma, his son Lee, his daughter Kara, and the step mother, Laura Roslin. (We’ll leave out crazy uncles Cottle, and Tigh for now, as well as the cousins Athena and Helo.)

Season 3 started to drift when the stories drifted away from those central characters. (The less said about The Woman King, and A Day in the Life the better, though there were other episodes like Hero, The Passage, and A Measure of Salvation which also had flaws, they were not as bad as the 4 episode lull that came before Maelstrom.)

But, by far the biggest misstep of the season had to be the love-square-soap-opera. That dragged on far, far too long. And it never worked as a square, but actually would have been better as a triangle. Meaning, Lee and Kara make sense. And Kara and Anders made sense. But, Lee and Dee has never made any sense at all. The Lee/Dee relationship is a weak link. It’s no fault of the two fine actors. It’s just a relationship that doesn’t seem likely. End it. Dee took steps to end it at the end of season 3. Let’s hope it stays ended. That whole relationship never seemed to gel.

Looking forward to season 4, lets have less diversions with ancillary stories and characters, and focus once again on The Adama Family. Some of the best scenes in the series have been between Adama and Lee, and Adama and Starbuck. That chemistry is there, and needs to be expanded upon.

Lets have less stand alone episodes, and instead more arc episodes. It should be all arc eps if possible. Especially if the 4th season is shaping up as the last. (Notwithstanding future potential telefilms, new mini series, or direct to DVD films.) I know Sci-Fi wants stand alone eps to get “new viewers”. But, the show is going into it’s 4th season. How many new viewers are there going to be for a show going into it’s 4th year? The answer might be some, and only from people who buy all the DVDs to catch up. And people who catch up want to see arc stories anyway. Not stories about Hotdog and Dee joining forces to solve a crime in Dogsville, or whatever.

Stick to the arc.

The reveal of the 4 of the final 5 Cylons sets up exciting potential for season 4. The last scene of Crossroads 2 sets up all kinds of great possibilities as well.

I also think there should be more stories focused on the military SF aspects of the series, as shown in excellent Bradley and David episodes like Scar, and The Hand of God, as well as the emotional content of Act of Contrition and You Can’t Go Home Again.

So, in summary, avoid soap opera love squares. Avoid secondary side stories and characters. (Except for Romo Lamkin, whom we need to see much more of. Romo fits in quite well with the family. Especially because of his connection to Joseph Adama, and his relationship with Lee.)

To summarize, season 4 was an awesome season. From starting out with the dark and gritty realism of New Caprica, the first five episodes out of the gate were all amazing. The first lull in the season was A Measure of Salvation which didn’t work so well. However, Hero was an above average stand alone episode, as compared to other single story episodes. Unfinished Business filled in many blanks about New Caprica. The Passage was a noble send off for Kat. (Even though it was a stand alone, and side story, Kat was a character deserving of a good send off.) Eye of Jupiter and Rapture worked well, and set up the quest for the final five, and wrapped up Baltar’s interesting journey on the baseship. (And the Baltar piano music was a great score.) Taking A Break... was half good, and half annoying soap opera. The Woman King, and A Day in the Life were excellent cures for insomnia. I think I even dozed off during A Day in the Life. That whole story was incredibly dull, and moved at a crawl. Bascially Woman King and Day in the Life added up to nothing, didn't say anything new or important, didn't reveal anything important, and didn't have any tie to the series arcs at all. Dirty Hands was somewhat uneven, but addressing labor issues was an interesting insight into the fleet. It was probably a necessary excursion. It always nice to venture on to other ships in the fleet and see what’s going on in them, at least a little bit. But, from where we leave Chief off in season 3, it was nice to see Chief in that capacity, as union leader once again.

Maelstrom, The Son Also Rises, Crossroads One and Two, were perhaps among the finest four hours of BSG ever. I’m sure those 4 hours will launch the story into exciting places in season 4.

So, going into season 4, be aware of the pitfalls and what to avoid. But as a whole, keep up the good work.

And that would be my memo to the writers of Battlestar Galactica.