Monday, July 28, 2008

Super Size Me

BSG Executive Producer David Eick, talked to Nephele Tempest of Sci-Fi Wire about season 4.5 getting longer:

The second half of the fourth and final season of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica promises fans a number of extra-long, jam-packed episodes as it works toward the climactic finale, executive producer David Eick told fans at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 26.

In a subsequent interview, Eick told SCI FI Wire that producers have been "able to convince the network to let us air ... long episodes--[to] take single episodes and make them double episodes, ... [and to take] double episodes and make them quadruple episodes."

Eick added: "Our episodes are always ... long, and we're constantly getting into the editing room with 10, 15, sometimes 20 minutes of material that you can't get into an episode." With just a half-season remaining, Eick said, "the story has become so critical in order to realize the arc of the series that we can't just cut stuff out and save it for later or push it 'til next year, the stuff we're used to doing. It's all got to be there."


So perhaps Eick means that some regular episodes will run a few minutes longer than usual and be super sized. We already know the original intention was that the Series Finale would be a 2 hour episode, that has since been expanded to run for 3 hours. But, the Final Episode was so epic in production, they have enough material to make it a 4 hour finale. We already know from Maureen Ryan's interview with Ron Moore that the Final Episode will be longer for the DVD version than what will be aired on TV. Unless, Sci-Fi has agreed to have it run for an additional hour.

To recap: Originally season 4.5 was going to be 10 hours. Then by adding a 3rd hour to the Final Episode it grew to 11 hours. So, if the Finale gets a 4th hour to air, we'll be seeing 12 hours of 4.5, hopefully if all this works out with the Sci-Fi Channel.

8 comments:

Rabid Moose said...

I'm going to need new underwear....

Anonymous said...

This is fantastic news! There is nothing worse than forcing writers to fit their story into less and thus make things unnaturally quick paced and not giving story arcs and sub-arcs their proper time on screen.

I just hope that no matter what happens on TV (honestly I dont care too much) all I pray to the Gods for is that every single shot ever produced for BSG, including Visual Effects/CG shots that never made it to the final cut, but included in the DVD Release. There are no limitations whatsoever as far as what can be put on DVD. In fact, the more you put on the DVD which was not aired, the more likely people are to buy the DVD sets, people who would have usually not bothered. 4 hours Finale? Sounds great to me. Double episodes? Quadruple double episodes? Put it all in the DVD, every shot, everything that has ever been captured on camera, whether a real one or a virtual CG camera.

If they do that, then it really doesnt matter much what SciFi lets them air or not. I personally couldnt care less, as long as everything is in the DVD set.

It's good for business too! This is not just to please fans. It's a good business idea to include a lot on DVD Sets. Even have multi-ple sets if you want to cover the costs, whatever, put it all on DVD is all we ask :)

Adalla

Unknown said...

Or maybe more than 12 hours, if they make some of the preceding episodes longer too? That would be amazing! I have to say I'm surprised and pleased by how well Skiffy is treating the show now. And I agree with Adalla; put it all on the DVD. There are always mentions on the podcast or in interviews of scenes we never get to see, and I'm totally enough of a sad fan to shell out for them.

Anonymous said...

Good points! A good example of this would be some of the first things said by the Hybrid on the Razor DVD. I believe his whole opening speech was omitted from the broadcast version, but since it was on the DVD, it didn't matter.

Anonymous said...

"And the fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering."

Not on the broadcast version, I believe, but something that I'm glad they included on the DVD!

Anonymous said...

So basically we're getting a Season 5. While I wish Skiffy had approved that from the beginning (like Ron reportedly wanted), I'm ecstatic about this news.

Thank the Lords of Kobol that Sci-Fi is FINALLY giving BSG the treatment it deserves!

Anonymous said...

If the last ep does indeed get 4 hours, this means we'll be closing with the same amount of air-time as the miniseries opened with.

Nice symmetry. Anyone want to bet the last scene will take place aboard a space station or something?

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