Battlestar Galactica

Check out this charming video from inde darlings and Battlestar Galactica fans the Old 97’s, which features Number Six Tricia Helfer as the unattainable object of geek desire.

“Dance With Me” is a geek fantasy, with the guild-obsessed main character kicking booty throughout a curiously empty yet overstaffed nightclub looking for the real-life version of his favorite cylon.  All while wearing a “Frack Me” tee, of course.  Oh, and the guy has an inhaler.

The best line is at the beginning:  “Dude, I’m telling you, I am the only level 30 alchemist in the entire guild.”  Anybody know what game he is talking about, by the way? 

The song has been described as a “spontaneous tango spread across the floor of a dusty Texas bar” and it is crazy catchy.  Tricia looks amazing, of course, in a yellow chiffon mini dress which swings with her movements.  If you are a Tricia fan, or even if you are not, the clip is worth a gander. 

According to Tricia’s official site, she is friends with the bands lead singer Rhett Miller which is how the combination came about.  And Rhett apparently likes to return the favor and promote BSG as well, even when he isn’t asked about Tricia.  But relax, shippers:  they are both happily married to other people. 

The professional joining has paid off, however, as the video has gotten positive attention and is apparently now in the rotation on VH1.  It was also fairly popular on YouTube for a while, and will hopefully gain more momentum over the summer.

Memorial Day Weekend is the official start of summer, and for the second year in a row we are celebrating with the Battlestar Galactica Swimsuit Edition of WatchingBSG.  Last year’s edition was one of my first posts after I took over this blog, and given the amount of traffic I still get from that picture of Jamie Bamber in the towel it is only appropriate that we do it again in Summer 2008.

There were plenty of images to choose from this year, because scifi stars and skin magazines have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship for decades.  Long before Jane Fonda put on her famous bikini for Barbarella, the women of pop culture’s more geeky fascinations have been willing to bring in new fans by plying old poses.  And by old, I mean the “oldest profession” … but that does not mean we don’t like to look anyway.

As with last year’s swimsuit editions, volume one and volume two, not all of these outfits are technically swimwear … but given the skin and the sex appeal involved I am pretty sure you won’t mind too terribly much.  If you are offended, or if you love it, please do not hesitate to post below.

This year’s edition features Battlestar Galactica Cylons Grace Park, Lucy Lawless, Michael Trucco, and Tricia Helfer … and fleet pilots/Cylon speculation favorites Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, and Tahmoh Penikett.  We also have Gaius Baltar follower and religious cult member Keegan Connor Tracy, in all of her bikini glory.

This weekend Canada celebrates the Leo Awards, the event that celebrates outstanding work in British Columbia film and television.  While Battlestar Galactica is not nominated (anybody know why?  I assume it does not qualify for some reason), two of its stars are up for two awards in the acting categories.

Callum Keith Rennie (Leoban) is nominated for his performance in Normal and Tricia Helfer (Number Six) is nominated for her dominatrix role in Walk All Over Me.  Both films received several nominations, and are supposed to be worth checking out.

Callum and Tricia’s acting categories will be presented tomorrow night at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Keep your fingers crossed they win - or at least show up for the party!   Hopefully both stars will attend, in which case I will post pictures as soon as possible.

Edit: Tricia and Kandyse McClure (Dee) will be presenting, so come back here in a few days for an update.

There is so much news going on right now, I don’t know where to start!

First of all, there will (probably) be two more Battlestar Galactica telemovies, but very few details are available yet.  They will be about events that have happened in the past, like Razor, but what events and who they will focus on is largely still a mystery.  I will definitely have more details in the weeks and months to come, but for now let’s just enjoy the news that more BSG is on the horizon.

Next, Ron Moore has a new interview with Wired magazine that contains this disturbing quote:

Wired: Since then, have you written yourselves into any corners?

Moore: Some of that is happening right now as we wrap up the show. It’s like, OK, what did that mean, exactly? How do we get out of this?

Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary has a long post about “Gaeta’s Lament,” the song that is very important to Friday’s episode.  He also confirms that this song, and many of the other ideas that have worked their way into this season, were ideas that were formed during after hours of drinking.

Katee Sackhoff has been cast as a doctor on a four-episode story arc of the bawdy plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck.  If you have seen that show, you know that Katee’s extensive experience doing sex scenes on Battlestar may come in handy.  Unless, of course, sister guest star Morgan Fairchild beats her to it.

The first United States promo for Life on Mars is out, and you can see a brief glimpse of Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen at the 2:06 minute mark.

Michelle Forbes brought her sexy self to the season finale of Lost, playing a pivotal role in the Oceanic Six story line.

Be sure to look for Callum Keith Rennie (Leoban) in the recently released trailer for X-Files 2: I Want to Believe.

There’s a lot more to cover, but we have time to catch our breaths as there are two weeks before the next episode.  If you are looking for something to help you pass the time, check out this “Faith” recap quiz over at GeekSugar.

Not a Cylon-style dream vision, but a new role that involves viewing things from behind the camera … instead of in front of it, where the two actors usually find themselves when it comes to Battlestar Galactica.

In the next year there will also be ten new BSG mini-webisodes, and they will be directed by Jamie Bamber (Lee “Apollo” Adama) and James Callis (Gaius Baltar).  Each actor will direct five episodes each, and it is not yet clear if they will share the same plot line of if the webisodes will be dealing with separate times and characters.

Jamie talked about the project a wee bit when he was a guest on the ShaunOMac show Friday night, but for the most part details on this are TBD. 

By the way, I was a guest on Shaun’s show last night and we had some interesting discussions with callers about the way the season is developing … and that infamous Last Supper photo.  You can listen to recordings of both shows on BlogTalkRadio.com.

According to TV Guide, Katee Sackhoff was virtually a lock for a steady role on the mega-hit show CSI … until the producers changed their mind at the last minute.  What happened?  The official word was that Katee was just not right for the role, but one has to wonder if Bionic Woman tanked her chances.

Katee won rave reviews for her portrayal of Sarah Corvus, Jaime’s bionic nemesis on Bionic Woman.  But many people felt she overpowered her costars and stole the scenes simply by using her natural charisma. 

It is possible that her potential CSI costars worried she would overpower them on the procedural drama, especially since she has a proven ability to make even the most technical dialogue worth watching on Battlestar Galactica? 

There is a vast difference between Galactica and BW, of course, especially since the cast of BSG includes Academy Award nominees Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell.  Nothing against Will Yun Lee or Michelle Ryan, but EJO and MM are simply in a class of their own.  And nothing against William Peterson and Marg Helgenberger, but Katee’s charisma beats the pants off Jorja Fox any day.

We have no doubt that someone will soon realize the brilliance that is Katee, and cast her in something worthy of her talents.  In the meantime Katee-Sackhoff.org is reporting that she will be back on Jimmy Kimmel at the end of May.  Her last performance was pretty memorable, so if you are in the area and would like to try to get tickets, click here.

ABC gave Life on Mars, Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen, a fabulous time for the fall.  The remake of the critically acclaimed BBC show will air on Thursdays at 9 CST, right after ratings titan Grey’s Anatomy. 

Life on Mars is the network’s only new scripted show for the fall as well, which pretty much guarantees the show (and hopefully Stephanie) will receive great media attention and publicity.

But everything is not golden yet.  As Katee Sackhoff learned with Bionic Woman, even a great pedigree and a great time slot can’t guarantee success.  There are already a few warning signs that the show may have some of Bionic’s problems, as insiders admit the pilot is more serious than they would like (this was a huge criticism of the Bionic pilot). 

Also producers from a character-driven soap have been brought in to take over Life on Mars.  It was announced earlier this week that the producers of October Road are supposed to humanize Life, in the same way Jason Katims from Friday Night Lights was supposed to strengthen the characters on Bionic Woman.

Hopefully the similarities between the show’s fates will end there, as it would be great to see more people discover Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen … and another quality show is always a welcome addition to the world around here.

Stephanie’s new horror movie, currently known as “Untitled Gehennis Project” is now is post production.  The movie stars a huge cast that includes Cuba Gooding Jr. and is directed by Jason Connery.  If all goes as planned the movie will have an official title in the next few months and a release date in 2009.

Tricia Helfer was in New York this past weekend for the NBC Universal Experience, a party held at Rockefeller Center in celebration of the network’s upcoming shows.  The Universal Television family of networks includes the SciFi Channel, home of Battlestar Galactica.

Upfronts parties are not only a celebration of new and returning network shows, they are also an opportunity for large advertisers and influential media buyers to party with the eye candy that stars on the show.  Given that underlying purpose it is no wonder Universal chose Number Six to represent the BSG cast and crew.  Well, that and Tricia is reportedly very nice and charming in person - even among the many stars in attendance, we have no doubt Tricia could hold her own.

Other celebrities in attendance included Brooke Shields of Lipstick Jungle, Ali Larter from Heroes, Tina Fey of 30 Rock, Zachary Levi of Chuck, Alison Sweeney of Days of Our Lives and The Biggest Loser, Jenna Fischer from The Office, Jane Krakowski from 30 Rock, Minka Kelly from Friday Night Lights, Mariska Hargitay from Law & Order: SVU, Kathy Griffin from My Life on the D List, Jimmy Fallon (who will be replacing Conan O’Brien), various Trumps, Sam Waterson from Law & Order, Tim Gunn from Project Runway, and many many others. 

It was definitely a night to see and be seen, so kudos to Tricia for landing an invite to that glitterati party.  In addition to starring in BSG, Tricia will have a significant story arc on USA this summer when she plays a CIA handler on Burn Notice.

It is official!  Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen’s new show, the David E. Kelly remake of the BBC drama Life on Mars, has been picked up by ABC.  While industry experts considered this to be a predictable move, fans of Stephanie’s performance as Kendra Shaw in Razor were still relieved to have ABC confirm the commitment at yesterday’s Upfronts in New York City.

Life on Mars was a huge critical hit on the BBC, and the remake will continue the original’s combination of elements of scifi time-travel theories with classic police procedural plot points.  The premise is that an car accident causes a police detective to go back in time to the 1970s, but audience is never sure if the guy has gone into a coma, gone back in time, or gone to a mental institution. 

The BBC drama ended without the question being answered to everyone’s satisfaction, but the remake is more likely to emphasize the drama of human relationships than the drama of time travel.  David E. Kelly is not known for his scifi/fantasy roots, and the primary executive producers are reportedly from October Road.  While I was one of the few viewers who loved October Road, primarily because the great lighting and fascinating supporting cast made up for the fact that the leads were as charismatic as manufactured sponges, I am not too confident in their ability to manage an intricate scifi serial.

For the sake of Stephanie and all of the scifi fans out there who are already rooting for this to succeed, I hope I am wrong.  Life on Mars has a lot of potential … it would be great of the show lived up to its promise.

A character named Emily was featured prominently in “Faith,” the most recent Battlestar Galactica episode.  If you thought Emily looked familiar, it is because she is played by Nana Visitor, an actress who has a long list of scifi and television credits to her name.

Nana’s fans call themselves “Nanites” and they run a variety of fan pages dedicated to her and her work.  Her official fansite is called Nanavision.com, but sites devoted to Nana can be found all over the web.

Fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will remember her as Kira Nerys.  Ron Moore is not her only connection between DS9 & BSG, as apparently got the role of Kira after Michelle Forbes, who plays Admiral Cain on BSG, turned it down.  Like Cain, Kira had a brutal past.  Unlike Cain, she did not succumb to the madness.  But the two characters did share a fascination with war and a leadership style that would make an essay about the two interesting.

While Kira is probably the role that is most familiar to scifi fans, fans of Dark Angel will also remember Nana as Dr. Elizabeth Renfroe.  Over the years she has also performed countless guest roles on shows that include CSI, L.A. Law, Matlock, McGuyver, Doogie Howser, Frasier, Night Court, Knight Rider, and many others.

Nana currently stars on Wildfire, an ABC Family drama about redemption and horse racing.  She owns the farm that serves as the central hub for the characters of the show, which is currently in its fourth season.  If you are interested in watching more of Nana, you can watch full episodes of Wildfire on the ABC Family site.

Tricia Helfer loves cats.  So it should be no surprise that she appears in the latest campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and pleads with her fans to treat their cats, and all animals, with dignity and respect. 

The new campaign is called Be An Angel for Animals, and it features various beautiful stars with their furry friends.  Tricia’s costar for the shoot is a handsome male named Mr. Nix, who is lucky enough to be Tricia’s costar at home as well.  Tricia has six cats in all, and has appeared in cat lover magazines as well as Playboy and Maxim.  Mr. Nix is a rescue cat, in keeping with PETA’s campaign to encourage people to rescue animals rather than purchase them from pet stores or breeders.

“I really just thought that this campaign ‘Angels for Animals’ is something that I feel is a good message to get out there,” Tricia said.  “That they are part of the family and you should treat them as part of the family.”

The site for the Angels for Animals campaign also includes some new video footage of Tricia taken at the photo shoot, and Tricia’s candid plea for people to treat animals more kindly.  She states that wearing fur is “ridiculous” and expresses her dismay that her home country of Canada still allows the clubbing of baby seals.

“I just don’t think you should ever hurt an animal,” Tricia says.  “You wouldn’t do it to you, so why would you do it them?  They’ve got little souls, and little hearts, and little minds, and they are precious.”

Tricia also offers her opinions about how Number Six would handle animal cruelty:

“She’s physically very strong, so she would probably smash someone’s head into the wall,” laughs Tricia.  “She would probably do to them what they were doing to the animal.” 

This is not a new cause for Tricia, who has been donating the proceeds from TriciaHelfer.com to animal causes for years.  She also auctions off rare finds from the BSG photo archives and donates the proceeds to cat rescues and other animal related charities.

The promotions for the Be An Angel for Animals campaign include giveaways for the first three seasons of Battlestar Galactica on DVD, as well as a DVD of the movie Razor.  If you would like to enter click the link above, which will also tell you more about PETA and how you can get involved if you feel inclined.

Or more accurately, Lucy Lawless wants you to vote for Marissa Jaret Winokur on Dancing With the Stars … watching is optional.  Although if you do watch, be sure to look for Lucy in the audience since she has been attending as many shows as possible to cheer on her friend. 

When Dancing With the Stars airs again on Monday it will feature the Final Four and some tough competition.  Marissa faces some formidable foes in dancing angel Kristy Yamaguchi, sympathetic heartthrob Christian De La Fuente, and the sexy duo of Jason Taylor and the often-underestimated Edyta.  If you are anywhere near a phone or a computer on Monday between 8:00 and 9:30 EST and then vote for Marissa and help make Lucy a happy woman (check the ABC.com site for the number to call or the address to e-mail.  You can send votes via text as well.

Lucy and Marissa have been photographed together on a wide array of red carpets since 2004, and they are close friends when they are not in the public eye.  Lucy has blogged several times about rushing back from a distant appearance in order to be in the audience to make Marissa more comfortable when she dances:

“I have to rush back to Los Angeles to be with Marissa, who is down to the final 5 in DWTS.  She was in the bottom two last week.  See what happens when I leave town?!  Usually I am there making rude gestures across the dance floor, like I’m pulling a noose tight, just to stop her taking it all too seriously.  Still, I want her to get through another week.  Please don’t forget to vote!  L”

Lucy’s devotion to cheering on Marissa is especially admirable since Lucy has been vocal about the fact that she is not fond of the show.  To devote this many hours to making sure your friend succeed on a show you don’t even like?  Now that is friendship!

These are the words Admiral Adama used to explain why he has never finished his favorite book, and they are a beautiful peek into the pain of a man who has had too much loss in his life. 

They are also words that describe many fans’ secret feelings about their favorite pop culture obsessions.  For a long time I thought I was the only freak who could not bring herself to watch the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.  

But I recently discovered there are millions of people out there, just like me and Bill Adama, who just can’t say goodbye to their favorite characters.

When you really love something, it is hard to watch the series finale or read the final installment because you know that after that … there is no more.  It’s like how anticipation is half the fun of a vacation or a holiday, or looking forward to a party is almost as much fun as the party itself.

But because it is an ending, there is a bittersweet element as well.  A sharp pain, like the death of someone who you admired from afar or loved from a distance.  And since life can deliver enough death and pain on its own, it is understandable that some fans do not want to face the natural ending of their favorite characters.

Sometimes it is easier to avoid the end then it is to get creative closure, especially when the characters are ones that you have grown attached to over time.  I understand why Adama would not want to read the end of his favorite book, and admire him for the sacrifice he is making by reading it nonetheless.

This looks more fun than a cabinet meeting … while Lee Adama tends to stick to the more serious side of governmental affairs, Jamie Bamber found himself at the champagne-soaked launch of BritWeek 2008 at the British Consul General’s official residence in Los Angeles.

BritWeek celebrates the numerous connections between the Great Britain and the City of Angels, and features numerous parties, screenings, events and educational opportunities.  This year’s celebrations included a Duran Duran concert, a comedy festival, and a celebrity soccer match hosted by the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.

Other celebrities who joined Jamie at the invitation-only launch included John Cleese, Dame Judi Dench, Eric Idle, Juliet Mills of Passions, Lucy Davis of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and the BBC version of The Office, fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, and Michael Keaton among others.  The photograph above shows Jamie with actor Tony Curran of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and a woman identified as Maingu Yen.

Katee Sackhoff hit the red carpet this weekend for TV Guide’s celebration of the Sexiest Stars of 2008.

These pictures are gorgeous, and they are also very unusual for Katee.  The actress is known for wearing lush solid colors on the red carpet, so the fact that she is wearing a wild print for a big event shows she is trying new things.

The party was held in Hollywood and featured a mix of talent from scripted and reality shows.  Other celebrities in attendance included Jennifer Love Hewett from Ghost Whisperer, Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck, Alex O’Loughlin from Moonlight, Karina Smirnoff and Kym Johnson from Dancing with the Stars, Olivia Wilde from House, M.D., Scott M. Foster from Quarterlife, Rebecca Mader from Lost, and various stars from Heroes among others.

Katee will also be featured in the related magazine issue, which will be on newsstands this week.  This is great buzz for Katee, who gathered up a lot of new fans in the 2007-2008 television season.  Here’s hoping we see much more of her in 2008-2009.

Jamie Bamber is also in the issue, in the “Sexiest Sci Fi Guy” section.  You know we are at a unique moment in pop culture when “Sexiest Sci Fi Guy” and “Sexiest Nerds” are two different categories.  There is also a category for “Sexiest Smart Chicks” which unfortunately neglected to include Mary McDonnell. 

It’s great that TV Guide is recognizing that brains are just as important as beauty when it comes to recognizing sexy - now if we can just get them to expand their age ranges a bit, we could really celebrate!