Battlestar Galactica

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.

Tonight is a new episode of Battlestar Galactica … if you watch the preview above and can’t wait for it to come on the air, then there will be plenty of chances to watch the episode today on the SciFi Channel web site.  I don’t know about you, but I definitely plan on checking Nicki Clyne’s blog this weekend because it looks like she has a major role in this episode.

Hulu has a new clip of various Battlestar cast and crew members talking about the end of the series, which is available below, but I would not watch it if you are actively avoiding spoilers.

There are still a few more hours to leave your questions for Michael Trucco (Anders) and Rekha Sharma (Tory) over on the scifi.com forums.  The chosen questions will be answered via video blog, in a continuation of the series of video blogs that the SciFi Channel has been releasing for Season Four of Battlestar Galactica.

If you did not get to attend the amazing concerts this weekend featuring Bear McCreary’s Battlestar music, there are plenty of recaps to be found around the Internet.  The Hollywood Reporter had high praise for the show, and anointed Bear McCreary’s blog “one of the best in the business.”

The Boston Herald has a new interview with Tricia Helfer, where she talks a bit about the final Cylon and how Head Six was her least favorite version of Six to play in Season Four.

Check out this enjoyable list from Lisa Paitz Spindler of thirteen enjoyable things about Battlestar Galactica.  Meanwhile Gaius Baltar makes this list of Top Ten Screen Traitors, and rightly so. 

And speaking of lists, Mary McDonnell and Michelle Forbes are rightfully included on Maureen Ryan’s list of amazing actresses who look their age and still look beautiful.  There have been several articles written this week about how the Hollywood obsession with plastic surgery is harming the audience’s ability to connect with certain characters and shows.  While it is not easy to make fun of someone’s efforts to improve their appearance, I am glad critics are finally speaking up about the fact that too much plastic surgery can actually harm the audience’s ability to care about a main character … it is hard to worry too much about plastic, after all.

Michelle Forbes’ Admiral Helena Cain may be dead, but a bit of Helena’s vicious spirit can still be seen in Michelle’s portrayal of an adulterous wife on HBO’s In Treatment. 

Michelle plays Kate, the wife of the show’s main character.  Her husband is played by Gabriel Byrne, whose character is a shrink who struggles this revelation even as he becomes increasingly impatient with the patients he treats in his practice.

“Paul’s wife, Kate, resents competing with his patients for attention, and though she pitches in to help with daily snags in his practice, she feels purposefully shut out of his professional life. The secrecy necessary to protect patient confidentiality feels excessive to her, but she also keeps some secrets of her own.”

Paul has his own therapist, Gina, played by Dianne Wiest.  Gina is helping Paul delve into his sadness over the affair, and perhaps with the consequences of his professional life and the toll it has taken on his family.

The best parts of In Treatment are the interplay between the characters, and the interaction between Paul and Gina is top notch.  The veteran actors embrace the complexities of their characters, and circle one another in a conversation that is at times a duel and at times a series of sympathetic revelations between old friends.  Gina is acutely aware of the self-delusions of Paul, who sees the self-delusions of his patients equally clearly but his blind to the deceptions of his own mind.

In the fifth week of their sessions Michelle’s character Kate joins in for couples therapy with her husband, and things get very interesting.  Kate’s insightful observations about Paul and his aforementioned self-delusions about his own life are some of the most interesting moments in the show.

Full episodes of In Treatment can be viewed on the HBO web site and on YouTube.  The show also airs on Fridays at 9:30 on HBO.

We knew Razor would be tough to watch, but watching this clip from the movie it seems possible that the Battlestar Galactica telemovie may be the darkest entry in the BSG cannon.

Fans who have seen the episodes Pegasus and Resurrection Ship Parts I & II know that Michelle Forbes’ Helena Cain is as harsh in her leadership style as Admiral Adama is pragmatic in his. She was relentless in her hunting of the Cylons after the attack on the Colonies, to the point that she killed members of her crew and authorized torture techniques that would make even the Justice Department uncomfortable.

So it’s not likely there will be many lighthearted moments in a movie determined to spend two hours in the belly of Admiral Cain’s beast, the Pegasus. For spoilers that shed some light on this darkness, click the “more” button below.

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