The Really, Really Frakkin Important Stuff

Generally Frakking Important: Sitrep has collected a ton of info over here to take the discerning BSG TruFan far into the future.

Help Bear Curate the Season 4 CD: Bear McCreary would like all of us to comment here on his blog throughout the final season, and tell him which musical pieces we would most like to see on the Season 4 soundtrack. Pretty cool, eh?

Ron Moore podcast commentaries: Hulu and Scifi are posting full episodes with Moore's commentary track overlaid weekly. You can also download as an audio podcast from iTunes here or from SciFi here.



How to watch BSG season 4.5 on TeeVee:

USA: SciFi

SciFi is broadcasting all 10 webisodes tonight (Thursday night) during the airing of the film PITCH BLACK. On Friday beginning at 8:30am ET/ 7:30 CT, they will air an all-day BSG season 4.0 marathon leading up to the premiere.

Canada: Space

Starting at 10am ET, Space will be running 14 hours of BSG programming this Friday, including all the 4.0 episodes and a “fandom forum” discussion.

UK: Sky One

Sky 2 is running 4.0 eps this week leading up to the 4.5 premiere on Sky One on January 20th.


How to watch BSG season 4.5 on Teh Internets:

SciFi.com (free): last year, SciFi’s own site posted new episodes 1-3 days after their Friday broadcast, along with “enhanced” versions containing Ron Moore’s commentary tracks. They also streamed the full episodes for the first few weeks starting on Fridays at 9am EST – but there has been no indication that is happening this year.


Hulu (free): the final four eps of BSG 4.0 are currently on the site, and here’s a statement from Hulu on new eps…

New episodes of BSG return to Hulu 1/17. The first five episodes will be posted on Hulu the day after their TV broadcast. Subsequent episodes will be posted 8 days after their original broadcast date.

We are able to offer five older episodes from the previous season; they will be available until 5 a.m. PST on 1/31/09.

iTunes: there is already a very nifty BSG home page on the iTunes Store site, which contains pages for each season in both standard and high-def formats. They have posted the entire set of The Face of The Enemy Webisodes (in 720p HD) for free download; this is the first time any BSG webisodes have been available in HD. Also available for free are the catch-up specials. They have bundled a set of “Best Of BSG” eps from past seasons, curated by Ron Moore. In the past, new eps of BSG have appeared on iTunes the morning after first US broadcast.

Xbox Live Marketplace: the entire series is on their site, and we are assuming new eps will be there too. If you know something different, speak up. One element that makes us nervous though: as of this morning, they only have 7 of the 10 webisodes posted. Are they going to be slow to keep up with posting new series eps?

Amazon VOD: you can watch all of season 4.0 now, and we are assuming you can get new ones starting this weekend. There’s a discount for subscribing for a season pass. Their VOD system allows the following compatibilities: Mac and PC online viewing, Windows PC download, TiVo DVRs, Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Link, compatible portable video devices.


Off Topic: I’d like to also put in a plug for another TV show that begins its 3rd season run on NBC Friday night, which is FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. A lot of us FNL fan(atic)s are wondering if this will be the last season for the show because, much like BSG, the ratings have always been kinda low. FNL director/producer Jeffrey Reiner, who directed the CAPRICA pilot, directed several of this season’s best episodes (which just finished running on DirecTV). You can watch the first two seasons online here. For a nice look at some of the reasons you should watch this show, check out Tim Goodman’s piece here about BSG and FNL, and Alan Sepinwall’s piece here.


ONE. MORE. DAY.

The Auction is Here

It’s actually pretty hard to believe, but the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Props & Costumes Auction has finally arrived. Did you buy your auction catalog yet?

Have you checked out the online-only auctions on eBay that are already underway (and will apparently continue throughout season 4.5)? As Pop Candy explains:

A special pre-auction auction has been posted on eBay and includes 200 items from the show. It closes Jan. 19. On Jan. 20, check eBay again for another auction of 200 items.

And wait, there's more! Starting Jan. 23, eBay will hold weekly auctions starting at 9 p.m. ET. They'll include items "relevant to the particular episode that just aired." Awesome.

If you are planning to attend the live auction this weekend in Pasadena, California, all you need to know about it can be found here.

If you are going to bid online, you should go here and read this. Note you must pre-register if you want to bid this way…and you can make proxy bids if you cannot actually watch the live auction.

Meanwhile, in case you guys didn’t know this before:
“A portion of the auction's overall proceeds will benefit United Way. Additionally, several cast members have designated specific items that will be auctioned off to benefit other charities.”

I’m going to be there for sure this weekend, twittering away, taking photos of myself leaning on the blackbird... and hoping against hope to win the Zak/Kara/Lee photo, Tigh’s flask, Baltar’s presidential portrait, the War Room chalk board, or the Unknown Soldier photo. Good hunting everyone.

1 Day Left…Let’s Do a Frak Party Update!

It’s time for a Frak Party update, in case you are considering leaving your house on Friday night. Please feel free to chime in about other public Frak Parties in your area.

LOS ANGELES
The BSGcast Frak Party in Pasadena, California – site of the Official BSG Props and Costumes Auction. These guys are screening the show in HD on site at the auction location, and there will be a party as well. They are also doing other events throughout the auction weekend. To RSVP, go to their Facebook page, or send an email to MattAndNat@YourGeekNews.com. This is just a one-weekend event.

PORTLAND
Radio personalities Cort & Fatboy, longtime fannish supporters of all things BSG (especially Katee Sackhoff), are hosting weekly frak parties at a theater that has a brewpub next door! How fun is that? You can download here a big, printable version of their cool poster for the parties (above), designed by Fatboy himself. Mark Verheiden will be attending the Jan. 30th showing of his final episode “The Oath” to watch and do a post-show Q&A.

AUSTIN
The Alamo Drafthouse will be screening BSG throughout the season. I’m jealous of you Austin folks, I hear the Drafthouse is one awesome hang.

VANCOUVER
The 13th Colony is having weekly gatherings for the entire season. They also made a very cool poster for their parties….


Those are the big ones we know about…if you know of others near you, please share!

And for those of you holding your own more intimate gatherings – can we suggest a few BSG drink recepies? And some drinking games to go with them; but don't get too blitzed -- this season is sure to be complicated...

Has VIRTUALITY just been “Foxed”?

As several of you have emailed us to point out, Fox did their TCA presentation in Los Angeles the other day, and BATTLESTAR fans (as well as those poor Whedon fans) are soaking up a short but ominous statement by Fox exec Kevin Reilly about the 2-hour pilot for Ron Moore and Michael Taylor’s new SciFi show VIRTUALITY:

"It could air as is, and there's a certain segment of the audience that would flip over it, but it is, I think, right now a little bit too dense," Reilly said. "They shot a two-hour pilot, and I think the storytelling probably would have been served as a one-hour, so they're going in, and they're recutting, and we're going to look at it. It's pretty cool."

As we have mentioned before, there are signs on the wall that Fox has lost their appetite for this adventurous and smart pilot, even though they seemed excited about the great script that went into production last summer. Meanwhile, Fox is completely reshooting the pilot for another SciFi show they had been even more excited about publicly, BOLDLY GOING NOWHERE.

Are BSG fans getting their first taste of yet another case of a cool new sci-fi show “getting Foxed”? (Whedon fans: please don’t start crying, I can’t take it anymore. Seriously.)

It will be a darned frakkin shame if this project doesn’t make it to air. The script we got our hands on last year was pretty terrific and definitely something BSG fans will be interested in. Is Fox’s recent recommitment to SFF programming wavering already? Let’s hope not. And if they dump VIRTUALITY? Well…it sure would be great if HBO did a Sci-Fi show…look what they just did with vampires.


Meanwhile, Televisionary has procured an exclusive statement from Michael Taylor responding to this TCA news:

"Ron and I think the show is great as is. A lot of people definitely would dig it, and not just the Battlestar audience; this could have an even wider appeal, and as a network show it should. And we've also already cut it down quite a bit from its original two-hour run time to satisfy network concerns about pace and to prune some storylines.

But at the same time, Reilly's right about it being a little dense. It's dense in the same way Battlestar was/is, in that it introduces a bunch of complex, intriguing characters, along with a compelling sci-fi scenario with several layers to it. In other words, it's dense in the way good science fiction often is. The pilot puts a bunch of balls in the air but I think it does a great job of juggling those balls and setting up the scenario up in a way that makes it easy for the audience to understand without having to be hit over the heads with a lot of heavy-handed exposition. That said, it's definitely challenging material, the kind of story you need and want to pay attention to, especially in the pilot. But to us that's what made it so much fun to create, and what will ultimately pay off in series, by allowing us to tell exciting layered stories in the mold of shows like Lost (and Battlestar, of course)…”

What about you, dear readers? As some of you know, the pilot script was recently made available at SpoilerTV for anyone to see. Have you read it, and what did you think?

3 More Days. Keep Your Head Down.

ETA: It is the next morning...and another commenter posted a response to Adam's comments saying this is a bunch of baloney. Then again, I just read this. So...I say: you could survive for a few more days staying away from the danger zones...just in case. :)


I hope our reader Adam doesn't mind if I repost here something he just wrote in the comments section on an earlier post:

The identity of the Final Cylon has apparently leaked due to the Sci-Fi Channel letting the relevant episode's script be put on eBay. Pictures of the script seem to confirm who the person is.

As a result, if you don't want to be spoiled about the big reveals in this week's episode I would suggest avoiding any spoiler sites at all for the next few days. Duck and cover!

We have no idea if this is true. But be careful out there, spirgins...You may want to stay off the SciFi.com boards, io9.com, SpoilerTV, etc.

Presidential Spectacles

We're very pleased to present an original essay for the Galactica Sitrep by Sam J. Miller, who brings us studious observations on BSG's use of a particular prop we've seen on the faces of Adama, Baltar, and notably on Laura Roslin:

The Eyeglasses of Laura Roslin
by Sam J. Miller

One source of Battlestar Galactica's overwhelming narrative strength is the level of attention paid to very aspect of characterization. Katee Sackhoff is a great actor and Jane Espenson is a great writer, for example, but that's just part of the story. The producers have created an artistic environment where props, background elements, camera angles, and lighting are all skillfully exploited to enrich our experience of these characters, with a success generally only attained by the most skilled novelists and filmmakers. To help me process my grief as we prepare for the end of the series, I would like to take a retrospective stroll through the series, from the miniseries to “Revelations,” with an eye on one specific prop: the eyeglasses of Laura Roslin.

When we first meet Roslin, she is seated in her doctors office—passive, patient, afraid. Without her glasses. A Cylon nuclear strike wipes out twenty billion people, catapulting her into a position of power that the schoolteacher-turned-Secretary-of-Education never wanted. Her whole civilization has been destroyed, and she is surrounded by panicked people desperate for leadership she is not prepared to provide. The moment when we finally meet her glasses is significant. Cylon raiders attack the newly-christened Colonial One, and President Roslin, finally confronted with her foe, strides into the cockpit. Putting on her glasses, she becomes the steely strong leader whose own fear is irrelevant.

This is the drama at the heart of her character. She's the president, and the survival of the entire species depends upon her, but she's also a human being, with all the fear and weakness that come along with that. This internal duality—between being human and being the president—is reinforced by the back-and-forth of Roslin-with-glasses vs. Roslin-without.

As the show progresses, Roslin relies on her glasses more and more in the moments when she's forced to make difficult decisions. Early in season one, in the episode “33,” she's not wearing them as she wrestles with the decision to authorize the destruction of a civilian vessel possibly carrying 1300 passengers. Her face is stricken; she's overwhelmed by the magnitude of what she's doing. By season 2.5's “Resurrection Ship,” when she tells Adama that murdering Admiral Cain is their only option, she's got her glasses on. She's not paralyzed by the moral consequences of the action. When she announces the ban on abortion in “The Captain's Hand,” her voice breaks several times, and she's blinking back tears. No glasses.

Roslin's glasses come to signify power, confidence, and leadership. Baltar's act of bringing Roslin her glasses when she's held in a New Caprica prison is a gesture meant to make her feel less powerless—and it obviously impresses her, because she returns the favor when he is in Galactica's brig in “Taking a Break From All Your Worries.” Romo Lampkin takes Roslin's glasses during Baltar's trial, to make her more vulnerable. Later on, when Apollo's cross-examination becomes antagonistic and threatens to expose the fact that her cancer has returned, she reflexively grabs her glasses and puts them on.

Yet her glasses also represent the constant risk she runs of losing her humanity, of becoming inflexible and mechanical. Her harsh treatment of the mysteriously-returned Starbuck in “He That Believeth In Me” and “Six of One,” and her double-crossing of her renegade Cylon allies in “The Hub” are all carried out with her glasses on. Paradoxically, her glasses do not help her to see. She has to take them off to admit that “for all his crimes,” Baltar is “still one of us” or to finally tell Adama that she loves him.

On New Caprica, Tigh tells Roslin “sometimes I think that you've got ice water in those veins... and other times, I think you're just a naive little school teacher.” The development of her character entails mastering both—reconciling the human and the inhuman. The human and the mechanical. Just as the Cylons are simply and purely evil at the start of the show, and slowly come to exhibit the moral equivocation and free will that signifies humanity, Roslin begins the show as a human being who must master the art of being mechanical. Not only does she need to set aside her own personal feelings, she must go against her whole understanding of right and wrong. In “Lay Down Your Burdens,” Admiral Adama is correct when he says she'd never be able to live with herself if she stole the election. Roslin is prepared to sacrifice her soul, to become the evil she opposes—because the alternative might mean the end of the human race. Her own desires and happiness and even her life are secondary.

Roslin and Admiral Adama, two leaders who obsess over the discrepancy between human instinct and military necessity, both wear glasses. Admiral Cain does not. She has no such internal conflict. For her, holding onto the civilized side of human life was never a priority. Quite the opposite—she was determined to be an unflinching tool of violence, unconcerned with questions of morality or fear. A razor. Brutality is seamlessly integrated into Cain's humanity, and her strategy for saving the human race.

I don't mean to imply that this use of Roslin's glasses is some explicitly-staged narrative device that the producers and writers arranged at the start, and is applied consistently throughout the run of the show. It wouldn't take much digging to turn up a moment where Roslin expresses her humanity through her glasses, or orders a human being airlocked without them. And yet it speaks to the show's incredible storytelling atmosphere that this kind of pattern can evolve organically, as a result of occasional directorial decisions or a simple instinct on the part of an actor (and it's worth noting that the glasses were not provided by the producers or the wardrobe department—they're Mary McDonnell's real glasses).

To be human is to be a big sloppy mess of contradictions, and it isn't just the Cylons who spend the entire series taking the measure of their own humanity. Admiral Cain and Kendra Shaw perish because they are mired too deeply in the mechanical and the inhuman; Apollo and Baltar consistently make terrible decisions because they are too deeply “human” (Baltar because he's selfish and vain, and Apollo because he's self-righteous and unrealistically idealistic). Yet it's worth pointing out that all four of these characters “ring true” and are often quite likable, in spite of—or because of—these flaws. And if Battlestar Galactica has touched its audience in a way that puts it alongside Ulysses and Citizen Kane as the absolute pinnacle of its art form, it's because of the way every piece reinforces the central theme of balancing the contradictory aspects of human reality. Big things like the brilliant soundtrack and the special effects, and little things like the eyeglasses of Laura Roslin.




Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His work has appeared in literary journals such as Fiction International, Strange Horizons, AlterNet, and The Minnesota Review—who nominated him for a Pushcart Prize. Unabashedly obsessed with the re-imagined BSG, he's the author of “Battlestar Galactica vs. Star Trek,” available at mental_floss. Visit him at samjmiller.com, and/or drop him a line at samjmiller79@yahoo.com

4 More Days.

Webisode 10 (Hulu & YouTube) - Open Thread

The final webisode is up.

This is also an open thread to discuss the entire webisode series. Knock yerselves out...but keep our spoiler policy in mind please. I'll be posting my thoughts a bit later today here in the comments.





Plus, Webisode 9 with Writer Commentary:


By the way if you still need to watch all 10 webisodes, follow our tagged posts to see all the links.

UK Promo

BSG promo on Sky:


Promos for the Battlestar Galactica Props & Costume auction.

Off the wireless

[photo: LA Times]

The first season 4.5 videoblog is up…"The Fifth Is Among Us."

The Los Angeles Magazine waxes poetic about BATTLESTAR GALACTICA this week. The Star has 10 Tips for The Battlestarved (great new word!). This blogger penned a thoughtful essay. And this gentleman at The Atlantic twists the knife one last time – yet I couldn’t stop reading his piece. Maybe because he likes to complain about TV shows that “become the culture’s homage to vertigo—to the suspicion that we live in a universe of surfaces, pointlessly arranged, whose invitations to depth or transcendence are all red herrings, shaggy dogs, wild goose chases, and decoy ducks.” ...Does he know something that we don’t?

Time Out and Live@7 interview Katee Sackhoff.

Access Hollywood interviews Tricia Helfer. (Yeah Tricia, I'm gonna be a soppy mess too, when it's over.)

IGN interviews James Callis and Katee Sackhoff.

Comic Book Resources and Cort and Fatboy interview Mark Verheiden.

The New York Times Syndicate and FanCast interview Jamie Bamber.

SyFy Radio interviews Jane Espenson.

The L.A. Times interviews Michael Hogan and Rekha Sharma.

Tahmoh Penikett, with two shows about to go on air, has been interviewed recently by The L.A. Times, TV Guide, and Watch With Kristin.

Fear.net interviews Bear McCreary.

The Space podcast interviews Alessandro Juliana and Nicki Clyne, and in this other show, claims to have director Andrew Stanton revealing a WALL-E/BSG connection.

Slice of SciFi interviews Aaron Douglas.

Darth Mojo has begun blogging again, and has put up a very cool post about VFX radiosity, including a ton of great renders of BSG ships that I’m sure we’ve never seen before. Well, OK – maybe only SOME of you guys are with me on how cool this is. The rest of you, move along.

The UGO TV Blog posts an explanation written by auction CEO Alec Peters of why there are TWO arrows of Apollo on auction.

The Star and Wired’s Geekdad blog mark geek territory as they proclaim the crucial nature of BSG’s final season for geeks everywhere. Duh.

Entertainment Weekly has a Guess Who’s the Final Cylon bracket game up…and has put the BSG 4.0 DVD (and the return of 4.5) on this week’s Must List.

There is apparently a BSG-themed rollercoaster being developed for the Universal theme park in Singapore (see 12/3 & 12/8 entries).

The Hero Complex blog things J.J. Abrams’ STAR TREK owes a massive debt to BSG and STAR WARS for its battle scenes.

You can watch Rekha Sharma guest starring on SANCTUARY here.

If you have a Tivo DVR or a Windows PC, you can watch the film MY NAME IS BRUCE, written by Mark Verheiden, on Amazon VOD.

In this Vancouver Sun piece, Ron Moore discusses how fraktastic the Vancouver BSG crew is and how they helped the show excel. Moore also confirms that BSG Production Designer Richard Hudolin is working on the CAPRICA series. Thank the gods!

The Straight has some updates on CAPRICA casting in Vancouver.

For those of you who enjoyed the “Battlestarbook” this week…the fan who created it is going to do more.

Trying to get your friends hooked on BSG? Show them this fantastic primer written last year by Salon, just before the start of 4.0. Combine it with these vids, for the perfect prep session.


[Thanks to readers Kate and Stu for tips]

6 More Days.

According to this very attentive fan, Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell are going to be on The View this Thursday morning. Several other TV listings have the same info...although the show's official schedule doesn't include their names. Keep your eyes peeled...

[graphic by readers Ally & Patrick]

Know the Truth

All the latest promos via SevorTB.

Speaking of marathons, be sure to read Mo Ryan's detailed and in-depth reflections on season 2 of BSG she recently compiled for her latest rewatch Battlestar Galactica-thon in the Chicago Tribune.

And in Time Magazine James Poniewozik looks at Galactica's life after earth.

7 More Days.

Feeling nostalgic today. Let's revisit some classics...

• Ack_Attack's TOP 43 BSG MOMENTS OF ALL TIME
  

• The fandom masterpiece known as THINGS I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DO ABOARD THE GALACTICA [ page one / page 38 ]

• THREAD BOMBS.

• BEST. RECAPS. EVAR. The BSG 4.0 Recaps of Gawker's Ian Spiegelman [ one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten ] *
  

* Yes, OK...this may be a tossup between Ian's recaps and the James-Joycean-splendor that is Jacob's recaps.

Worth Every Penny

Guys...I know times are tough. I know there's a massive, amazing auction coming in just a week.

But. Remember this lovely item, the wrap yearbook? Now you have a chance to own one. If you act fast.

I want you all to know I have seen one of these. I have held one in hand and read quite a bit of it. It is truly the most special, amazing bit of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA residue that a TruFan could ever, EVER get their hands on.

So what I'm saying is...if you have the money...GO FOR IT.

Thanks to reader Laura for the link.

[PS - I am told this yearbook is not spoilery. In case you're wondering.]

Where Do We Go From Here?

There was an interview conference call this week with Ron Moore and David Eick, and many bloggers have been reporting on it in bits and pieces. Here’s a bunch of nifty highlights from various sources including Cinema Blend’s full transcript of the call...

• The BATTLESTAR GALACTICA season 4 finale will indeed be three hours long. SciFi is still working out how to air those 3 hours on their schedule. There are apparently plans to air the entire three hours all together at least once.

• Other projects Moore is working on right now include CAPRICA, VIRTUALITY, and new drafts of the THING movie*. Moore says he’ll be “bouncing back and forth” between CAPRICA and THE THING. Both Eick and Moore both list CAPRICA as top on their current to-do list.

• BSG: THE PLAN and CAPRICA do not have air dates planned yet, but THE PLAN is shot and is being edited now.

• Moore had this to say about CAPRICA:
  

We start shooting probably in July, we're putting the writing staff together now and the crew, and just staffing up and getting ready to go. We'll start breaking stories probably in February, and maybe as soon as the end of the month depending on when all the pieces go together. We have a game plan of what the general storyline is and some directions so we're not starting completely from scratch.

... We sort of set out deliberately to set up Caprica so that you didn't have to see Battlestar. I think you could literally watch the pilot of Caprica without seeing a single frame of film from Galactica and you would get it. You could invest in that story completely on its own from there. We want it to stand as its own project.

• From Clique Clack:
  

As far as the webisodes go, Moore didn't know that the webisodes were leaked. He didn't seem all that bothered by it but he was surprised. Moore said he does read some reviews online and will look at some commentary as the show's airing, to see what people have to say.

Someone asked Moore if, out of all the theories he's read out there, has anyone been right? He said there are definitely some spot-on theories, but he hasn't seen anyone who's nailed the whole thing down.

* Bloody Disgusting got a tip recently about the outline of Ron Moore’s THING script (spoiler warning)…and if you STILL haven’t seen THE THING 1982, what are you waiting for? It’s awesome, and it’s on Hulu!


[Sources: Cinema Blend, Deadbolt, Zap2It, CliqueClack, TV Guide, GeekSugar]

8 More Days

Still one of my all time favorite fanvids by FreelancerXO02...even though it's only up through end of S3, it's frakkin hot.

Whoopi <3 BSG

Go in to minute 4...



(Thanks to reader Bonney for the above.)


And, for the gazillion friends and readers who sent this link to me in the past 24 hours: check out BATTLESTAR FACEBOOK. Hilarious.  The LA Times tracked down the fan who made this and interviewed her.  "It's Complicated."

Inside The Secrets Of The Behind The Making Of...

Someone has just posted the Bear McCreary "documentary" onto youtube. Not sure how long it'll be there, especially now that I'm posting about it...but you must, MUST, watch part 2, 6 1/2 mins in, right away. LOLOL

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

The Top Ten Things You Need To Know

A preview of the catch-up show that is airing on SciFi this coming Sunday.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Webisode 9 (Hulu & Youtube)

Enhanced version is here.