What The Frak?

IMDB has posted a wonderful Battlestar Galactica Show Recap video, that covers the entire series from Mini to end of Season 3, and it's snarky good fun. Plus it gets kudos from this fan, for so carefully tracking my two favorite 'ships: Starbuck/Apollo, and Roslin/Airlock. Heh heh.

All in all, a fun way to convince someone they need to catch up by April 4th.

Check it out here.

ETA: Fandom, being the obsessed lovefest that it is, has put the recap on youtube - and has realized that the narrator is the same person who voiced the 8-minute LOST Recap du snark video released before S4. You can also see the BSG Recap on SciFi Pulse.

All Seasons in HD Reruns?

Tipsters Mike and Glenn have both alerted us that the Universal HD channel has been doing promotions for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA reruns from Season 1 all the way to the end of Season 3 in High Definition. You can see two promo videos here on the UHD site.

However nothing shows up on the UHD schedule grid.

Mike says his DVR has already tagged the HD showing of the first ep of S1, "33," for tonight at 8PM.

Stay vigilant. This show kicks serious frakkin' ass in High Def!

OT: UHD is also listing runs for FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS*, FIREFLY, and SIX FEET UNDER in High Def.



*Dreaming of an HD Tim Riggins.
::drifts away on a cloud::

Cylons in America

The book Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica has been released in the US. The UK version and the hardcover are both coming in January 2008. A list of chapters and contributors can be found at the end of this post.

One of the essays in the book is by Dr. Tama Leaver who also has written about BSG in the past.

Those Frakking Toasters

I just recently discovered this great BSG comic, Frakking Toasters.

Geek comic artist Joel Watson imagines BSG by Kevin Smith.

The Lucy Lawless Fan Club handed Lucy and her daughter Daisy a video camera to bring to Comicon. This is the result: quicktime / windows media. LOL.


Tom the Dog compares BSG to the short-lived 1990s TV series SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND.

Livejournalist and supreme linkmistress meshel73 has found the Jedi Chef photos from this year’s Wolf Galactica con. *giggle*

Micahville lists the 7 life lessons she has learned from BSG.

In typical (admirable) fandom fashion, the livejournalists at the battlestar blog are discussing the Season 3 region 1 DVD cover art options, and looking back at previous region 1, 2 and 4 designs for reference. I still like C best.

Watching BSG ponders the question: is Starbuck Col. Tigh’s daughter?...and, OT: they found this hilarious Geek Hierarchy chart.

Live long and prosper

Fans on the SciFi.com BSG Forum are creating a scrapbook for the cast & crew, to be delivered to set this winter. For details of how to add something, go here.

A Myspace page, complete with countdown clock, is set up for the UK DVD release of S3.

Amazon is taking price-locked pre-orders for the DVD of RAZOR and the HD DVDs of Season 1.

Livejournalist shasplim has made a nice list of 10 reasons why BSG trumps STAR TREK.

Tricia Helfer has posted some (mildly spoilery) photos shot by her sister, during shooting of S4x08 scenes with her and Michael Trucco, directed by Michael Nankin. Oooh, Cap 6 and Sam? Heh.

Brown student J.L. Russo takes a closer look at the SciFi.com Videomaker Toolkit as part of her thesis study of fandom.

Mark Tuit, director of BLOOD: A BUTCHER’S TALE, discusses the film and Aaron Douglas’ part in it on the film’s official site. [Tip o’ the hat to The Chief’s Deck]

Buddy TV lays odds on who might be the final cylon model. Personally I’m starting to hope for one of those BUFFYesque “we are all Slayers” sort of endings. *wink*

Stylin Online has some great BSG tee shirts for sale.

Livejournalist languor has posted an immense (and incredibly spoilery) picspam of the entire series, as a tribute to how much she misses her BSG right now. Part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4. I just watched Crossroads Parts 1 & 2 last night - and yeah, I am so hiatus-beaten today. More FARSCAPE may help...I'm just starting season 3.

Season 3 Recap

A montage that encapsulates much of season 3 by YouTube user bflyart

Whedon

Joss Whedon is a fan of Battlestar Galactica:

I'm just sneaking in to say I've been continuing to watch BSG, the wife and I are about halfway through season one and gushing isn't gonna cover this one. You guys have heard me gush, so it won't have any real meaning. You have to imagine Pauline Kael bursting into song, Lionel Barrymoore In "Wonderful Life" jumping up and jitterbugging with George Bailey, the Grinch's heart growing three sizes... you gotta start down there to explain what it feels like up here. I'll put it simply. The show is humbling. Not since the Matrix (the first one) have I had such a strong desire to go to writing school. I think it's so passionate, textured, complex, subversive and challenging that it dwarfs everything on TV. Or in theaters. Or boho perfomances spaces. Stuff hanging in the Tate? Not as cool. I'm not gonna go on, because I have to get back to work and because if I really start, this post will crash the internet from sheer length. Only downsides are a) I was already having a crisis of confidence, thank you very much and b) I can't go near any Sci-Fi mags for fear of spoilers. Apart from that, life is to be loved. The Gods are to be praised. Back to the job. -j.

joss | June 12, 21:18 CET

Scar

Entertainment Weekly has a great review of Battlestar Galactica.

Ron Moore's podcast for Scar is now online, with additional commentary by writers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson.

More Black Market

I just watched Black Market for the second time, and boy it just gets worse the more you watch it. Terrible, terrible, dreadful and depressing episode.

But, anyway, I'm sure they do better for the rest of the season.

One cool thing that JMS, the creator of Babylon 5, did when he produced the B5 spinoff Crusade, was that he had JPL on board as consultants who provided a lot of science background to the show. I think Ron Moore and David Eick should also hire JPL for science vetting. But, there is a major think tank in Santa Monica called RAND Corporation. (RAND stands for Research and Development. They work with the Pentagon and the US Government on many projects.) RAND is very good at thinking through problems. So, I'd go to RAND and lay out the premise of BSG, the fleet, the supplies, and I'm sure RAND would come up with a realistic work up of how that kind of economy would work in a post apocalyptic world. Their ideas might be interesting.

I'd think the economies of the Confederacy at the end of the Civil War, and in Germany at the end of WWII might also provide a lot of history of what does happen when a society, government, and economy collapse.

It could be an interesting thing to explore. But, then I'm not sure devalued currency, and massive inflation can translate into tv drama for a Sci-Fi Channel show Friday's at 10 p.m.

Timeline gaps

There is an interesting discussion going on at the Battlestar Wiki about Epiphanies, and the BSG series timeline. It seems there is now a missing 2 month period in the timeline.

Maybe the gap can be explained by the dynamics of FTL travel? Or why not speculate that there is a missing two months so that at some point the producers can film episodes, or a movie filling in the missing 2 months, and call them the lost episodes? That might be a fun way out of it.

Or they could go the Star Trek route, and say that for two months they were trapped in some kind of spacial anomaly or proto-black-hole type of thing that froze the Galactica fleet for two months, or they ended in up a Groundhog Day quantum event that caused them to become unstuck, or stuck, in time, as the case may be, for 2 months?

Makes sense to me.

There are also excellent overviews of Epiphanies here and here.

Some show notes and news

The Great Link reports on an article on TV Guide online with heaps of praise for the upcoming episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

The Great Link also reports on more critical acclaim for the upcoming new episodes of Galactica. Note worthy is this review, in Eclipse Magazine with a few hints and (in my view) minor spoilers.

Pegasus

Television Without Pitty has a great synopsis of episode 10, Pegasus here. It's well written, and is a fun way to take a look at the episode.