Battlestar Galactica

If you don’t have time to rewatch the entire Battlestar Galactica series to refresh yourself before Friday’s premiere, you can watch Battlestar Galactica Revealed and get up to speed fairly quickly.

Revealed is essentially a series of clips from the show interspersed with commentary on the characters and circumstances of the series by Executive Producers Ron Moore and David Eick.  While not nearly as entertaining as its sister program, Battlestar Galactica: Phenomenon, it is arguably more useful for fans who want to get back in the BSG groove before season four.

The best moment of Revealed is when David Eick describes Giaus Baltar as being “equal parts Stephen Hawking, Jim Morrison, and the back room side of Bill Clinton.”  Although most people would argue that the final figure in that trinity was much more interested in politics and public policy than President Baltar, who seemed mostly interested in drugs and hookers while he was in office, it is an interesting comparison. 

Moore also implies that the Six in Baltar’s head is the result of a nervous breakdown and nothing more, but he does not fully commit to the idea and David Eick implies that Six’s presence will continue until Baltar finally “learns his lesson.”

Friday night’s season four premiere will start just where season three ended, right after Kara “Starbuck” Thrace’s seeming return from the dead and right after the four final Cylons have learned who - and what - they are.  The reaction to those event reverberate through both sides of the war, and through the season to come.

Entertainment Weekly has an four-page feature on blonde action heroine and former bionic babe Katee Sackhoff in this week’s issue, where the star talks about her roles on Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman as well as her plans for the future.

‘If I could trade everything and be a character actor for the rest of my life, that’s what I’d do,” says Sackhoff. ”It’s just more fun. And when your skin sags and your boobs drop down to your waist, you’ll still have a job.”

The magazine interview featured some gorgeous pictures of Katee looking fiercely lovely with flowing blonde extensions.  There are also videos of Katee from the shoot on the magazine’s web site which are posted in three parts, with the third coming tomorrow (Monday).

The article also contained high praise for Katee from Bionic and Battlestar executive producer David Eick:  “You’ll see I tend to cast Katee in everything I possibly can … She’s a very special find.  Those actors who can combine the qualities of strength and vulnerability - they usually call those people movie stars.”

The article also talks about Katee’s early days of acting, and how a role as an extra on Mr. Holland’s Opus left her so bored she left after half a day on set.  It was a bold move and one that did not prevent her from landing a role as Holland star Richard Dreyfuss’ daughter on the 2001 CBS pilot The Education of Max Bickford.  The article explains how that was a year of firsts for Katee, seen at a party that fall in the photo to the right, and one that taught her quite a bit about life, love, fashion, and show business.

But in the present Katee is simply looking for something new to challenge her after Battlestar ends and Kara “Starbuck” Thrace has committed her last self-destructive act.  Perhaps a film … “something with a corset.”

BSG Executive Producer David Eick broke ranks with NBC Universal last week, telling the press that Bionic Woman really is over even as the network has stood by its claim that no official decision has been made about the future of the series.

“I just felt that the process was so frustrating, and the conditions under which we were making that show never really came to fruition in such a way that I felt like we could make the show well. The actress [Michelle Ryan] we found was wonderful. Some of the writing was good.

“We just didn’t ever bring it all together like we did with Battlestar,” he continued. “At a certain point, when it becomes that frustrating, I think you’re better off to say, ‘Let’s try again another time,’ and let it go.”

SciFi Wire got the scoop at last week’s SciFi Channel upfronts, where Eick was promoting Battlestar Galactica and the upcoming prequel series Caprica. 

The Toronto Star had some additional commentary from show star Katee Sackhoff, who plays Starbuck on BSG and also kicked butt as Jaime Sommers’ frenemy Sarah Corvus on Bionic Woman:

“It’s no one’s fault,” Sackhoff told the paper. “The hype was so big before the show came out, and they were so scared that it would fail, that everyone had an opinion. There were too many cooks in the kitchen, and they didn’t know what they were cooking.

“I mean, I know what went wrong. Had they given me the show, I could have figured it out. I could have told them exactly what to do. But then everyone would have put their hands in, and the same thing would have happened. You can’t blame anyone. That’s just how it goes.”

It’s sad news for Eick but especially sad news for Katee, who was poised to break out into the big time last summer when it looked like Bionic Woman was going to take off.  While the actress benefited from the attention and is still very much in demand, it would have been better for everyone involved with Bionic Woman if this show had lived up to its potential.

We have had several weeks of fans cheering actors and producers who are supporting the writers’ strike, but it was only a matter of time before fans started to look around and notice who is not on the picket lines in support of their favorite shows.

Thus this video from YouTube, which pokes fun at BSG producer David Eick for his absence and seeming lack of support for the writers during the strike. 

The young fellow in the shower captures the baby-faced slickness of Eick while also building on the popularity of the darling Bamber Bunnies clip that took YouTube by a storm a few weeks ago.

BSG head writer Ron Moore has been on the forefront of the strike efforts and helped forge a bridge between fans and writers through his blog, by helping raise the profile of fans4writers.com, and working on the famous pencil campaign.

His partner and producer Eick, however, has been noticeably silent, and it’s not much of a stretch to see him cheering the AMPTP.  As the strike drags on we will probably see more of these videos about various silent show runners, as frustrations mount and the strike drags on longer than anyone had hoped.  As always, for strike coverage with a BSG focus be sure to check out GalacticaSitRep.com.

Origin of a Joke

Scifi fans are funny folks, thriving on a digital culture that has a lust for new information.  As they anxiously await the conclusion of the writers’ strike and the start of season four, it’s easy for the Battlestar Galactica fans on various forums and blogs to develop layers of jokes even more quickly than usual.  Jokes and references develop layers that seem hysterical to the fans but whiz over the heads of the average viewer.   

Take this t-shirt for example, which is a parody of a t-shirt that was inspired by a web comic that was inspired by a prequel to a scifi movie.

There is an old saying that if you have to explain a joke it is not funny, but that saying never met a blogger … or a scifi fan.  For us, explaining the origin of a joke is part of the fun.  It’s not enough to get it, we want to know the details.  So if anyone has the specific blog or forum thread that inspired the YouTube clip above, please contact me because I would love to know!

Collider.com has an interesting video interview with Ron Moore where he talks more about Season Four. Moore admits that he has a good idea what time period will be happening on Earth when the BSG characters arrive, but he yet to work out the conclusions of the story arcs involving the individual characters. Oh, and yes, Caprica the series is still a possibility, no, J.J. Abrams has not called him for his thoughts on the new Star Trek project, and yes, they are hoarding money for the final episode to make sure they “go out with a bang.”

Variety, God bless them, mentions Katee Sackhoff as a serious dark horse candidate for an Emmy nomination for her roller coaster year as Starbuck.

Michael at SyFyPortal has an interesting interview with Bodie Olmos, Edward James Olmos’ son, who plays the recurring character of “Hot Dog” on the show.

Ron Moore’s next job is writing a sequel to “I Robot” … unfortunately he has already finished a draft, which means he is working on the movie script while he is also writing Season Four. Distracted writers often mean diluted writing, so I view this as a bad omen.

Click here for more information on the plot and powers of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the hot new video game in development that stars BSG’s Crashdown, aka Sam Witwer. Witwer plays Darth Vader’s apprentice searching for the remaining Jedi during the dark time period between Episodes Three and Episode Four. The video clip has interviews and previews, and confirms the rumors that the game will have an MMO component.

TV Squad explains why you shouldn’t hold your breath for a BSG movie.

BSG Producer David Eick’s Them series, starring Number Six/Tricia Helfer, is still alive at Fox TV and may be a possible midseason replacement for the network. Good news on the surface, but can the producer give his attention and love to Battlestar Galactica, Bionic Woman, and this alien series all at the same once? Only time will tell.

Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, The Force Unleashed, Sam Witwer, David Eick, Tricia Helfer, Them, Bionic Woman, Jedi, Darth Vadar, I Robot, Ron Moore, Katee Sackhoff, Emmy, J.J. Abrams, Star Trek, Bodie Olmos, Edward James Olmos

If you Google News Battlestar Galactica these days you are more likely to get a story on NBC’s Bionic Woman pilot than an article about BSG itself. BW is one of THE hot stories to come out of the Upfronts, and press coverage has been rabid. So if you are interested in becoming a BW fan, then no worries about getting information … you have plenty of blogs and news stories to devour already, and the news just keeps on coming.

But if your TiVo is already full and/or you just want the highlights, here you go:

The show is produced by BSG’s Executive Producer David Eick, who has been taking full advantage of his resources in producing BW. He has used cast members, crew members, and of course his experience bringing a 70’s classic into modern culture with a new and darker theme.MediaBlvd Magazine explains that Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol), Michael Hogan (Col Tigh), and Dominic Zamprogna (Jammer) are all scheduled to appear in the Bionic Woman pilot. MediaBlvd also links to the radio interview where Aaron talks about his casting and being a Cylon, although I have not had time to listen to that yet myself.

The real draw for BSG fans is that Katee Sackhoff, aka Starbuck, will have a regular part in the series. Check out this post over on says Galactica Station where Katee says her character will be a femme fatale that reminds her of Number Six. The role will not keep her from appearing on BSG in Season Four, however, as she will definitely be back for some more visions in 2008.

A couple preview videos for the show are below. I found the first one last week and was not all that impressed; it had too much screaming and not enough story in my humble opinion. The second one, however, is definitely intriguing and the closing fight with Katee makes it worth a view. Who knows what the actual show will be like, but the pedigree is good and the conflict between the promise and purgatory of technology offers a variety of opportunities for plot lines and character development.

The final clip is an interview with Eick about the show and he definitely sounds … hopeful, to say the least. One thing is for sure, the man does not sound humble. It is hard to find someone who writes contemporary females in conflict with their potential better than Joss Whedon, and it will be interesting to see if these guys rise to the challenge.

The show has gotten so much press that I wonder if it will be able to maintain this momentum going into the fall. Especially for SciFi fans, always a finicky bunch, the potential for backlash seems to be looming already. For Eick’s sake I hope not … but as the folks over at Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip can tell you, it is a long long road from being anointed as NBC’s chosen one at the Upfronts to finding ratings glory in the fall.

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