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Television Media Sci-Fi

Final Season of Battlestar Galactica Confirmed 500

Ant writes "Via Dark Horizons, IESB reported from the 10th annual Saturn awards yesterday, and spoke with Battlestar Galactica stars Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff. Olmos confirmed that, as far as the show that's been running so far, the fourth season will be the last one. It's currently slated to start airing in January of 2008. 'Olmos says "This will probably be the most extraordinary season of 'Battlestar'. It's the final season, so it's definitely going to be the most vicious. As far as we know, in respects of the way we have this show constructed, this is the final season." Sackhoff says "I think part of the problem is that it's an expensive show. It is [a great show], but we don't have the viewership that a great show should get."'"
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Final Season of Battlestar Galactica Confirmed

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  • Good (Score:2, Insightful)

    Because that show has taken a real dive in quality.
    • Huh? Did you SEE the season 3 finale?? Oh well.
      • Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)

        by C0rinthian ( 770164 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:17AM (#19084751)

        Huh? Did you SEE the season 3 finale?? Oh well.
        There's too much confusion...

        On one hand, I love the show, and hate to see it end. On the other hand, you can only drag out the story so long before it gets out of hand, so this may be the best way to end it.

        Besides, isn't there a spinoff show planned?
        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by Lumpy ( 12016 )
          Yes.

          Battlestar Galactica 2010 where the crew hides the ship in orbit and go down to earth and try to blend in with the low tech people that live there. It will be gritty and cutting edge!

          I just realized that I made almost all BSG fans that remember the old show spit all over the screen and scream "OH GOD NO!"

    • by colonslashslash ( 762464 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:28AM (#19084983) Homepage
      Why was this modded flamebait? I'm a massive BSG fan, it's one of my favourite shows on TV, but it has taken a dive in quality since the beginning of the third season.

      Since the escape from new Caprica in the Exodus two-parter, the show seems to have just drifted into the realm of the weird and pointless at times. Filler episodes have increased (such as the boxing episode - Unfinished Business, and the rogue doctor killing Saggitarans in The Woman King), and the main story has been tangled up in a load of tired existential and spiritual nonsense that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. The finale of Season 3 even has Starbuck coming back from the dead, apparently as a figment of Lee's imagination. Oh great, another character inexplicably living in someone's head.

      Of course, it's all down to opinion in these matters, but for me I'd like to see the show's main story to get back to the heights of Season 1 and 2 (and the start of Season 3). The desperate and down-trodden survivors of the human race fighting to stay alive and stay ahead of the Cylon fleet hunting them at every jump. Brilliant and touching filler / side-story episodes like Season 2's Rise of the Phoenix and Scar, and more all-or-nothing dogfights with the genocidal toasters.

      I'll be watching season 4 whatever happens, it's still a good show. But I do think it has been missing its potential lately - hopefully it will improve next season.
      • Flight of the Phoenix - not Rise of the Phoenix.*

        Damn Terminator 3 trailer in the background messing with my booze-addled brain.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by cbc1920 ( 730236 )
        If you listen to the podcasts, you will find that there are so many fillers in season 3 because they blew their budget on the occupation episodes to start the season. Does anyone remember how crazy those were? It is really difficult to build that many amazing sets for a series that is on a cable network. Keep telling all your friends to watch, because the more money they get, the better the series will be.

        Like other posters, I think it would be awesome if they ended with season 4 and then put the finale out
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          Oh don't get me wrong man, I understand they committed a hell of a lot during the first few episodes of season 3 (and in particular the Exodus two parter - the second of which is one of the best episodes of any TV show I've ever seen) and that the budget was tight, but the thing is even the filler material in season 3 is that it just hasn't been up to scratch with what we saw in season 2, and to a lesser extent season 1.

          Take the two examples I used in my previous post - Scar was a really good side-story,
      • "... the main story has been tangled up in a load of tired existential and spiritual nonsense that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. The finale of Season 3 even has Starbuck coming back from the dead, apparently as a figment of Lee's imagination."

        If you'd been paying attention to the existential and spiritual nonsense, you'd realize that it may well be the driving force behind what you call the "main plot". Also, that Starbuck probably isn't back from the dead because she never died. I think that in the BS
  • by nizo ( 81281 ) * on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:07AM (#19084529) Homepage Journal
    I would be amazed if this miniseries didn't make a nice chunk of change from DVD sales/rentals though, especially if they made a movie spinoff later (though like Serenity, making it appeal to people who haven't seen the series might be tough).
    • I don't think Firefly jumped the shark to the breaching out of the water level BSG achieved though.

      They have gone into so many dead in corners, only to be saved by a "Dues ex Machina" that I'm expecting to see a pile of cheese and people with labcoats in the final episode. /Seen the whole thing so far //Wants several hours of his life back
    • I actually quit watching season 3 just after four episodes, not because I didn't want to see it, but because I wanted to enjoy it so much that I decided to wait and get it pristine on DVD, rather than have it "spoilered" by watching it on TV. Commercials, kids, and the wife, who for some bizarre reason doesn't understand that Battlestar Galactica time is no interruptions time make it hard to give it the attention that it deserves.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    "It's the final season, so it's definitely going to be the most vicious."

    So even more shakiness used for shakey-cam? *sigh*
  • by ArcherB ( 796902 ) * on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:08AM (#19084547) Journal
    I wonder if they would have gotten more viewers if the show were on a "major" network as opposed to the SciFi Channel. I guess the problem with a major network is that the show could not be as edgy as it is. I guess its best asset is that it flies under the radar. Unfortunately, it's also its downfall.
    • Yep....it flew right under DRADIS and did not get noticed enough.....

    • by xRelisH ( 647464 )
      I wonder if they would have gotten more viewers if the show were on a "major" network as opposed to the SciFi Channel. I guess the problem with a major network is that the show could not be as edgy as it is. I guess its best asset is that it flies under the radar. Unfortunately, it's also its downfall.

      I don't think the show being on a major network would have made any significant difference. The problem is that a lot of people who don't watch BSG will refuse to watch it on the grounds thinking that it is
    • I wonder if they would have gotten more viewers if the show were on a "major" network as opposed to the SciFi Channel.

      Actually, they had a lot more viewers. Right up until the SciFi channel broke up their powerful friday night lineup [savestargatesg1.com] (BSG->SG1->Atlantis) and tried to launch BSG up against the Big 3 fall lineups. (Urk!) Sorry, SciFi. You're not that big.

      The SciFi channel has some of the greatest shows ever made. Yet time and time again they shoot themselves in the foot. Twice. Just to make sure they get both feet. Then they get some prosthetics so they can shoot themselves in the foot again. Twice. Just to be sure.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        I must admit that this is one of the main reasons I stopped watching the show. Before, we'd have parties on Fridays where I'd go to watch BSG et al with someone who had cable. Now... Sunday at 10? No freakin way. It's just too much of a pain in the ass to watch. It was that, coupled with Season 3's gigantic filler fuckfest.

    • by mblase ( 200735 )
      I wonder if they would have gotten more viewers if the show were on a "major" network as opposed to the SciFi Channel.

      Doubtful. Being on HBO certainly hasn't hurt the popularity of "The Sopranos".

      I tried watching BG early on, but just couldn't get into it. The show was too serialized (episodes were chapters of a larger story, not stories in themselves), too dark, and too confusing to newcomers. There wasn't any hope that things would get better or come to a positive end for any of the characters. Why would
    • Sci-Fi channel has spent years pimping their friday night lineup. Then Friday night gradually became "Stargate Night" and they spread the rest of their shows around the week. When you take a show out of its stronghold timeslot and move it, especially to Sunday night when the big networks rule the ratings, you're going to lose viewers.

      The story arcs got so complex, too, that it became increasingly hard to join the show as a new viewer. How do you just jump in midway into season 3 and feel a connection to
  • Puzzled (Score:2, Funny)

    by Stanistani ( 808333 )
    I don't understand the buzz about a space opera starring Lorne Green with a bunch of villainous robots in tin suits with a single shiny red eye...
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by dtolman ( 688781 )
      Hey buddy - there's THREE networks out there- just because you only spend your nights watching Gil Gerard as Buck Rogers over on NBC, doesn't mean we can't turn the dial over to ABC and enjoy the realistic special effects.

      My only question is when CBS is going to get the message and launch there own series? I mean c'mon, The Incredible Hulk is just too campy for my tastes.
  • by Yonder Way ( 603108 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:09AM (#19084567)
    ...to be brave enough to bring us cutting edge TV shows that we can't help but love.

    And then kill them.
  • by GeneralTao ( 21677 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:10AM (#19084605) Homepage

    Over the last season and a half, the show has been sucking pretty badly. It feel a long way from the absolute best show on TV ever, to yet another middling sci-fi show where everything gets wrapped up neatly at the end of each episode, no prominent cast members ever die, and they beat you over the head with whatever moral/political point they are trying to make at the time.

    I hope they go out with a bang. I hope they are, as Olmos said, vicious. BSG started out as a gritty, dark and hard story about the shit hitting the fan over and over again. Let's hope the writers remember that before it's too late.

    And I'd rather the show end nicely than fade into irrelevance by over-staying its welcome (as per Star Gate).
  • Good News (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Picass0 ( 147474 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:12AM (#19084621) Homepage Journal
    I love the new BSG, but I want to see them end strong. The second half of season 3 had too much filler. I want to see them focus on their main story arch and go out on a high note.

    By contrast, one of my other favorite shows used to be The Sopranos, a show that has floundered for the past two years. They seem to be ending with their weekest run of shows to date. It will be hard for me to remember that show as fondly as I would like.

    Rome was a great show that didn't run long enough, but there was no filler. A damn good series from start to end.

    Sometimes less is more. (Star Trek, I'm looking at you)
  • deja vu (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WebHostingGuy ( 825421 ) * on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:13AM (#19084655) Homepage Journal
    Part of the problem is that is expensive...that is the same thing that resulted in the cancellation of the original series.

    About the first series... "It was the most expensive television production of its time: $7 million (U.S.). Each weekly episode cost a purported $1 million (U.S.). "

    I've been here before for the first series, and am seeing it now. In another 30 years when the third version is made I'll bet it won't last for the same reason.
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Don't worry, I expect that they will replace all the major characters soon, find earth, and then sneak around in flying motorcycles reporting to their leader, who we find out later is the omniscient child of Starbuck.
  • I haven't watched BSG, but by all accounts it's an excellent show. I'm sure I will get around to watching it one of these days. That said, I'm in the very small camp of people that believes that good shows should end their run early. Yeah, it sucks that the show is over, but at least it'll end while the writing was still good and well before it jumped the shark. One thing that I can't stand seeing is a show that just keeps on going and going until it simply can't gasp for breath anymore. Good shows should d
  • I like to see shows end in a timely manner. 'Galactica' as a series needs to have an end point, that is intrinsic to its main story. With an ending in sight, the writers can deliver a quality final season and satisfactorily resolve story arcs. Plus, it is in danger of running past the point of being good(Lost), and nobody wants that.
    • After watching the Season 3 finale, I can't be sure if they did a great show, or jumped the shark. I need to see where they go with things before making a decision, but I really hope no sharks were involved.
  • by TheWoozle ( 984500 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:20AM (#19084805)
    "but we don't have the viewership that a great show should get"

    Are they including iTunes downloads and DVD sales? If not, why not? These days, anyone between the ages of 15 and 30 spends more time watching downloads and DVDs than they do tuning into TV broadcasts.

    The era of everyone tuning into a scheduled TV broadcast is *over*. Does Nielsen still think it's 1960?
    • Good point. I know alot of people who do buy it on iTunes or download it on that thing called a torrent! ;D

      Nielsen AND NBC/Universal.....get with the friggin times.
    • How much advertising revenue is generated by those iTunes purchases? That is what Sci-Fi is primarily concerned with. Online viewers don't watch ads.
    • by MobyDisk ( 75490 )
      I can attest to that. I don't have cable TV, I have NetFlix. It's cheaper and I see more of what I want on the schedule I want. BattleStar Galactica happens to be the series of DVD's I'm receiving.
    • That may be but I teach at a college in the US midwest and this semester I brought up Battlestar as an example of something we were talking about and the majority of them had never even HEARD of the show, let alone seen it. I have a feeling that most of my students are doing what I was doing as an undergrad: drinking and hanging out with friends and not watching much tv except for ESPN. (OK, so I didn't watch ESPN but most of my male friends did.)
  • by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:21AM (#19084845) Journal
    I just hope they've finally decided to share it with the writers.
    • by richdun ( 672214 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:44AM (#19085315)
      They have. In the finale, we'll find out that:

      - RDM is the final Cylon, and this whole "plan" has been to show everyone what Voyager could have been with decent writing and a little continuity of shuttlecraft, battle damage, etc.
      - William Shatner is the ship's cook.
      - Scott Bakula will finally get to leap out of Brother Cavell when they find Earth.
      - Fry and Leela will be married.
      - Q will appear and say that humanity has once again proved itself worthy of existing for at least more study, but that we'll never actually see him again so the storyline is left open but dead.
      - The Baltar is a Prophet.
      - Adama tells Starbuck he's her father, then cuts off her hand. Due to budget constraints, in the very next scene, she'll get a new hand, and that'll be the end of that.
      - A centurion is left on a mid-industrial civilized planet, and they begin to shake their heads around as they walk so their entire lives will be lived in shakey-cam mode.
      - FEMA was behind the whole "nuke the colonies" thing so they could take over the government, but when the plot is exposed, everyone just laughs at how stupid it is to think that FEMA could have come up with such an elaborate plan.
      - The Fifth Element is Tricia Helfer.
      - The Cylons are really the "humans" as we know them, and the humans are really the "Cylons," and they've all been living in an 18th century village with a major highway just beyond those trees over there that noone but some blind chick has been able to find.
      - The centurions almost overthrow the human-looking Cylon models, but are majorly nerfed in 2.1 and can't take all those pots at once any more.
      - Lee keeps hearing "Save Starbuck. Save the world" but realizes his world has already been nuked a couple times so screw it.

  • Good (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Von Rex ( 114907 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:24AM (#19084913)
    This used to be my favourite show, but there's just been too many bad episodes in the last couple of years. I don't really care if I even see it anymore, though I usually catch a repeat at some point. I'd rather see one more good season, where they are forced to wrap up the story, than several more seasons of the half-ass crap they've been coasting along with lately.

    And they'd better have a really, REALLY good reason to explain why Tigh and the Chief are Cylons, or the first episode of the last season just might be the last one I ever watch. Talk about jumping the shark.
  • I don't know anybody that is remotely a geek who doesn't watch it and love it. BUT they put so much time between seasons it is easy to wander off. It is frustrating as hell. I would rather have the entire show done straight out than have to wait most of a year for the next season. A year is a really long time today.
  • Personally, I prefer having shows end with a well thought out conclusion that ties up as many plot threads as possible instead of what happens to most TV shows where they just start to suck for a season or two and are abruptly canceled with little chance to actually finish up the story. It's hard to argue against the fact that the last season had a lot of filler in it, and it's probably about time for the writers to start wrapping it up. They need to have more episodes like the last one of the season and
  • by garylian ( 870843 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:29AM (#19085009)
    Think about it. If their goal is to "find Earth", the missing colony, how much story is there left to tell after that point?

    This happens in a lot of shows, where the big point plot that always seems like a distant thing finally arrives. And once it does, there isn't much left to talk about. It becomes an entirely different show, with a different focus, and viewship will decline.

    Look at some fine examples from TV's past.

    Twin Peaks was a brilliant and weird show, that had a whole bunch of people talking. I still remember going to "Twin Peaks viewing parties" at friends houses, where we would all watch the episode together, and then start to dissect it over coffee and pie. (Those of you that remember the show will remember the line "damn fine pie".) But, once we knew who the killer was, there was nothing left to tell. They tried a second season, and it was a colossal flop. We all got what we wanted.

    Moonlighting was another example. Once "Dave" and "Mattie" became romantically involved, instead of dancing around the subject, nobody really cared anymore. The show went into the toilet, ratings wise.

    If BSG closes up shop after they find Earth and get things settled in, there is a good chance that most viewers will never say "Damn, BSG jumped the shark".

    It is the reason 24 keeps on working. Every year, it reaches its ending, and the next year's season is a totally new (sorta) scenario for Jack Bauer to fix.

    Personally, I like the TV show "Heroes", but I worry that it is headed for a Twin Peaks type ending. Once they save New York City, where will they go that will keep our attention? If we all end up feeling satisfied with that ending, then nobody will want to watch season 2.
    • by Coryoth ( 254751 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @02:06PM (#19088229) Homepage Journal

      It is the reason 24 keeps on working. Every year, it reaches its ending, and the next year's season is a totally new (sorta) scenario for Jack Bauer to fix.
      Personally I think they missed a golden opportunity with the second season of 24 when they went back to Jack Bauer. By sticking with Bauer they tied themselves down, and each series has had to be progressively "more of the same", resulting in a steady downward spiral. With the basic idea that what mattered was a 24 hour day, told in realtime, they could have gone many directions for a second season, and introduced a new character in an entirely different situation, living out his or her own personal "longest day of their life". No longer do you have to keep coming up with increasingly absurd terrorist plots and an easily infiltrated US government. They could have made, for example, season 2 a medical drama, somewhat akin to House, trying to analyse a bizarre condition that seems to be spreading; or about a rescue worker after some tragic event; or... And each new season they can jump to somethign else and start fresh. A missed opportunity if ever there was one.
  • Having followed the show for the entire run, I can agree with all of these sentiments: that the show is one of the best on television, that the show hit a weak stretch in season 3, and that it may be best to keep the entire show strong to end it before it gets too long. The problem, however, in this case, is that Ronald D. Moore still has "two chapters" he wants to tell ( http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07085/770732-352.s tm [post-gazette.com]). Passage of time has been crucial to the show (especially the season 2 finale) and w
  • after SG-1 putters out this year, BSG is the only show you have on SciFi. maybe if you used SciFi as more than a vehicle for advertising Heroes you could make some money on it.
  • Good Job (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Nyeerrmm ( 940927 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @11:34AM (#19085107)
    I must say, good job to whoever made this decision. I love the show, and the last half season definitely helped make up for the Baltar vacationing with the Cylons crap. But.. shows have to end, and its much better to end it on the writers terms than having to quickly wrap it up when the show gets canned.

    Take ST:TNG as an example, it ended at the height of its popularity, and the last season is the most amazing one in my opinion. So rather beat it into the ground (which they did with new series instead) they took it out in grand fashion, with the crazy two-parter with Q and a possible future, and bringing back Yar and all that.

    So heres hoping they do it right and its not a show where you can't help but think 'What the hell happened?' years later.
  • Season 3 was sorely lacking in the fast-paced action that got me hooked on BSG in the first place.

    Let's see more armies of Centurians with machine gun hands battling it out with scrappy, loveable humans on some weird alien planet, instead of a bunch of "I'm so fracked up because my mom was abusive."

    In all seriousness, though, the drama-oriented episodes were great, but c'mon, let's have some balance.

    Just my $0.02.
  • by hal2814 ( 725639 ) on Friday May 11, 2007 @12:03PM (#19085791)
    When asked about the end of the show, Olmos said, "Too bad it won't live but then again what does." He then proceeded to leave oragami unicorns all over the set.

Whatever is not nailed down is mine. Whatever I can pry up is not nailed down. -- Collis P. Huntingdon, railroad tycoon

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