SciFi’s Top Ten Reasons for Delaying Season 4 Until 2009
10. By 2009, an entire new generation of sci-fi fans will have been born, and we can use the last half of SeasonFour to squeeze profits from them.
9. The ass-beating the network will receive from Battlestar’s rabid fanbase will be less bloody than if we waited ’till 2010, like we originally wanted to.
8. Brilliant writing, acting, music, effects, and production have all come together on SciFi original series before. And it will all happen again.
7. SciFi network viewers are still stunned and confused from recent kickass programming with BSG. We must embrace our traditional mediocrity to comfort them.
6. In 2009, no one will be left alive who has seen the 1978 or 1980 Galactica series,eliminating pesky OG criticism.
5. Wouldn’t that be sweet if Battlestar Galactica ran for five years? FIVE YEARS!!
4. By 2009, inflation rates will have risen to the point where iTunes can charge what NBC wants for the shows.
3. The gap will help to explain why Chief Tyrol is already showing little Nicky how to shave.
2. When we finally view the end of Season Four, Adama and Tigh will be old enough to have been part of the original exodus to the twelve colonies, thus ending the debate about sailing ships once and for all.
1. Three words about the women in BSG: Sexier with age.
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
“4. By 2009, inflation rates will have risen to the point where iTunes can charge what NBC wants for the shows.”
By then iTunes might have finally suffered a collapse to where it does not sell TV show episodes let alone anything else anymore. All that will be left will be the Watercooler. And then Dr. Audra would preside over a fan fic empire airing on a spin-off show called A Desert Galactica Companion…
“8. Brilliant writing, acting, music, effects, and production have all come together on SciFi original series before. And it will all happen again.”
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*gasp*
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
*faints*
(All the cooler, because it’s number 8)
Just a bit off topic, but in the UK, they have just released BSG Season 3. Unfortunately the bonus disc did not contain the Webisodes. Is this the same for the USA?
9. When “sexier with age” is applied to Roslin in 2009: One Giant Wrinkle.
They have a plan…
Grand Puba: It hasn’t been released (nor do we have a release date!) here in the US. That’s too bad about the webisodes not being bonus material. 🙁
11. Cylons e working at SciFi and want to keep the location of earth and Starbuck etc – a secret,,,
bah – even the cylonz arent that jacked up..
By the way the only Bonus the Season 3 box set had was an updated version of “The Story So Far…” to include Season 3 Happenings.
…And it cost me 39.95 pound sterling (equivalent to $80.55)
…Just hope the US version has the webisodes.
OT: Browncoats: http://xkcd.com/311/
Bonus materials are different between regions, alas.
Who knows? Maybe all this time is being spent re-encoding the first three seasons to HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, or what have you so that a canon collection could be released once the final season concludes?
pffff hehehehhahahahaha
thats aweosme
i like the last one
Pike- lmao That would be a great movie! And we’d get a BDS. From what I understand, the CE DVD has sold fairly well during the first week at around a half million copies. I’m guessing you found that comic at Whedonesque.
13, actually I’m a regular reader of XKCD. It’s a requirement if you want to maintain a Platinum Geek Card.
Oh… well I guess I’ll have to settle for the gold card.
I wonder if SciFi is going to call it Season 4 and Season 5. That way, RDM could get the 5 seasons that he planned from the start. lol And at that rate, we’ll get the DVDs by the year 2012.
Will the format known as “DVD” still exist by 2012? Will HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray still be around by then? Taking all that together with the analog television “drop dead date” which is fixed by law in the US to happen in 2009…oooooooooooh wait, that may be why! Once analog televisions don’t have any further signals and analog broadcasting goes away transmission modalities change.
Ya know, that would make sense. If the shift from analog TV to HDTV does not happen all that nicely there could be a real mess. Considering the proposed split discussed above…holding off until that craaaaaaaaaaaaap settles might not necessarily be a bad thing.
Alpaca, the switch to HD/digital signal in the U.S. affects only through-air transmissions requiring an antenna. Cable and satellite are not affected by this requirement (since the delivery methods are different, I guess). I found this out while shopping for tv’s that would meet the standard, and while I was disappointed to not be able to get a TV, I was glad that I don’t really have to switch or buy the expensive conversion kit but can ride it out, as long as I keep cable.
As to HD-DVD, DVD or Blue Ray, the now defunct DVDjournal.com has a great article, its farewell posting, addressing the history of DVD and the future. Indeed, I think it’s best to sit back and wait till the dust settles on the so-called format war.
3. The gap will help to explain why Chief Tyrol is already showing little Nicky how to shave.
“Son, when shaving you must be extremely careful. Especially when using the Cylon force. If you’re not careful you could take an ear off. And I won’t let you have a new body until you’ve learned how to be a proper force shaving Cylon so don’t even ask.”
I love this one if you couldn’t tell.
I meant I love the #3 on the list and not that I love my own mirthless rantings. Hindsight always seems to be 20/20 doesn’t it . . .
KKKKHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!
Why would they do this to me!! I can’t till 2009 for the end of the frakking serries. I’m loing it NOW just waiting for it to come back on air.
Hey does #1 (Three words about the women in BSG: Sexier with age.) apply to ALL the women of BSG, cause a few of them are already up there in age. Don’t think they can get sexier with age. Maybe a little more wrinklier.
capt. James T. Kirk said: “Don’t think they can get sexier with age. Maybe a little more wrinklier.”
Kirk, you should know that ALL women get sexier with age. ALL of them. (Don’t agree? Try asking your mom what she thinks.) 😉
Armando: One of the problems with the drop dead date is that while it supposedly only impacts OTA television reception much the same equipment and signals go in to cable and satellite redistribution. How long do you really think it would last if people had HD signals downgraded with letterboxing to fit an analog screen? I’ve already seen what DISH’s HD signal downlink looks like and digitizing analog signals for downlink takes a lot of work that after 2009 just is not needed. I will say, though, that the DISH HD signal carried over composite to an analog TV may well look like craaaaap based upon observations when I was helping re-wire somebody’s home entertainment system a couple weeks ago.
In the end that whole switchover looks more like the plan of the Cylons as of season 3 than anything else…
LOL @ Pike.
Please tell me that the 2009 thing is nothing but a nasty rumor. Don’t make me go up to Vancouver and pull out a can of One-Eyed Tigh (TM) on somebody.
Oh, I got one:
Reason #0) The writers have to figure out a plan for the Cylons.
OMGods!
They have a plan alright. Make Watercooler stay on the job so we can keep enjoying these guys (and the cooooolest gal) month after month. They are the benchmark for no-original-material-to-comment-on yet still rock the podcast ‘verse nonetheless!
If S4.0 ends in April 08 and no more until Feb 09, that would be be like 36 extra weeks of between season commentary! That which shall not be named shall be renamed episode 4.10!
Poor Chuck! He may just do an all-fan opening to the cast out of sheer desperation. I like the fan intros!
4.5 in 09? Three words: more meet-ups!
Timbuck
No, it’s all a contractual problem. They are having trouble with Dirk Benedict’s (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dad”) lawyers. Series Four basically hangs around the revelation of the Fifth and Final Cylon. So ipso facto quid pro quo ergo hoctor proc e pluribus unum a character to be played by Dirk Benedict (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dad”) will be the Final Cylon. My guess Dirk (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dad”) will be introduced as Starbuck’s long lost father. The legal problem seems to be that Dirk (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dad”) has signed up for a long series of personal appearances at Wizard World, along with the original Under-dog and the original Boxie. (“The Originals”). So the BSG production team and the Sci-Fi Channel will just have to wait their turn.
More Dirk Trivia: “He gave himself the last name Benedict after eating a plate of Eggs Benedict”. And for the sake of intergalactic peace, the feministically inclined should not read this ever.
I have it on good authority that this is how Series 4 will pan out. Don’t tell anyone!!!
The Fleet will stumble across another planet previously inhabited by humans on their way to Earth. The planet known as “Fortran”. Starbuck will be sent back to Caprica by President Billy (he has been revived thanks to a Hylon blood transfusion) to retrieve the “Zipper of Zeus” which opens the “Fly of Flora” and thus the way to Earth. Admiral Kaylee and President Billy will split the fleet and civil war will erupt for the fourth time. Adama and Rosslyn have long since retired and are living together in a zero gravity love shack made out of cardboard boxes taped to the deck of the Virgon Express. Apollo and Tom Zareck now have their own Law Firm and live by raising nuisance law suits against on behalf of blinded customers of the “Tigh One On” Alcoholic Beverages Company. Baltar is still around and is now the fleet’s most famous movie producer. But just at the critical moment, when Apollo’s big Law Suit is about to send Tigh to the cleaners, in an episode tentatively entitled “Eraser”, a new BattleStar, actually a really really old one, will appear. It’s the Battlestar Monotonous, long thought lost forever during the First Cylon War. At the helm will be Starbuck’s dad (pictured here in uniform), Lord High Admiral Abel. The discovery of Abel and the Monotonous will set off all kinds of uncomfortableness in the fleet when it’s discovered that they’ve survived all these years by working with the Cylons, rubbing off all those unsightly finger marks from the toasters’ Chrome. By demonstrating that humans and Cylons can work together, and now armed with the Zipper of Zeus, the new combined fleet of Colonials and Cylons will now be psychically fit enough to reach Earth. They finally arrive and discover it’s ruled by intelligent monkeys with English accents who ride horses and answer to the name of Roddy McDowell. Stay tuned for “Planet of The Apes” (The Reimagined Series)…
Pike: I do not read this XKCD to which you refer but no one is taking my Platinum Geek Card away. I don’t leave home without it.
Altair IV- Roddy McDowell! lmao But they already re-imagined that and left us totally confused when Marky Mark ran into Ape Lincoln.
Timbuck- I think we’re all hoping that GWC outlives BSG. Ya know, there’s a few Star Wars shows on the way…
Number 13–Oy. I just get a paper proposal accepted to inquire into GWC as an example of new directions in fan culture…and you suggest that this excellent podcast show should continue. Who knows? Perhaps this could be the nucleus of a FanCon for RDM’s BSG akin to how such inheres for Trek.
Well, I would certainly like this community to continue, even if the gang resorts to putting out podcasts only sporadically. It’s one of the most intelligent and civil forums I’ve ever encountered on the web (perhaps the most civil, period) and beats the frak out of the discourse in some other sites. Could this turn into Sci-Fi watercooler or something like that?
Let’s hold off on those Star Wars shows till they show up. They could totally suck (though I’ve heard Lucas is courting some of BSG’s writing staff as they wrap up their run, which would make for a very interesting take on Star Wars).
How about “Galactic Watercooler?”
Armando & Pike: Eventually I must interview you both. For now, though, I have other things to handle first. I am sure you both would have insights for the paper concerned.
After finally encountering TWiT.tv’s vodcast known as MacBreak I would say that having a “Galactic Watercooler” would nicely complement some of the other offerings online. Of course, perhaps GWC could wind up on this station perhaps: http://www.kyouradio.com/
That reminds me. (Thanks, Alpaca.) The satellite radio stations are always looking for new content. I’m wondering if a weekly hour-long scifi/pop culture show wouldn’t be a good fit for the GWC3.
Pike- “Galactic” it is. I think we all agreed upon this several months ago. That’s the easy part, lol. Hopefully the CSA (Chuck, Sean, Audra) will want to keep doing this. I know it’s a huge commitment to do an hour and a half show every week. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like without BSG, but to not have GWC would be a crime!
Armando- I’m totally counting my chickens before they hatch when it comes to the SW tv shows. And hopefully they’ll hire a good mix of writers, including ones from BSG. They’re planning to start hiring writers this winter. I’m curious to see who is the show runner. George has an incredible imagination and I think when they take that and a handful of solid writers, we’ll have a fun show.
Oh, yes, in response to the last podcast and Chewie dying… LIES, all lies! And the Yuuzahn Vong bit is absolutely ridiculous (no Force?!). I wish they could wipe the slate clean from the EU. As the SNL line goes, “Don’t get me started, don’t even get me started!”
Just as long as they don’t have the same writers they had for the prequels. I’m still mad about Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.
Alpaca: Any time. Just drop me a line (ask chuck for a cyber-intro).
13: Yeah, me too. Though I am an apologist for the prequels, I do think that Lucas is a better producer than he is a writer/director. He should let others play in his universe more often (I think an interesting way to do a SW tv show would be to do it as different, limited story arcs in different formats each half-season or so. Maybe have a six week arc related to secondary characters told from a gritty perspective, then another, perhaps shorter arc that’s funny, then maybe a couple of one-shots all told in different syles like animation, realistic, gritty, surreal, etc. Kind of like a televised version of the Star Wars Tales comic book. But then, I’m not a TV producer…).
I may have said this somewhere else, but in Star Wars Insider, they talk to Rick McCallum about the plans for the show. He implies that the series will be shorter seasons at around 13 episodes and then some of the main characters will get spin off shows of their own and in a few years, there will be several series going on at once. I’m very excited because it’s (a) Star Wars and (b) going to be something totally different that what’s been done before.
No, the delay is all due to a contractual problem.
They are having trouble with Dirk Benedict’s (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dadâ€) lawyers. Series Four basically hangs around the revelation of who is the Fifth and Final Cylon.
So ipso facto quid pro quo ergo hoctor proc e pluribus unum hocus pocus a character to be played by Dirk Benedict (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dadâ€) will most likely be the Final Cylon.
My guess Dirk (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dadâ€) will be introduced as Starbuck’s long lost father.
The legal problem is probably that Dirk (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dadâ€) has signed up for a long series of personal appearances at Wizard World, along with (or so it is rumored) the original Under-dog and the original Boxie. (â€The New Originalsâ€).
So the BSG production team and the Sci-Fi Channel will just have to wait their turn. Personally I just can’t wait for them to bring back the Dirk.
More Dirk Trivia, thanks to his website: “He gave himself the last name Benedict after eating a plate of Eggs Benedictâ€. Thank the gods he didn’t order ham and eggs that morning…
“So ipso facto quid pro quo ergo hoctor proc e pluribus unum hocus pocus a character to be played by Dirk Benedict (“Actor, Author, Director, Woodchopper, Dadâ€) will most likely be the Final Cylon.”
You laugh.
Chuck, you still got that audio I sent you way back when?
Hey, I remember Dirk had a website I saw a few months back for fans of both series to frolic and chat, but mainly frolic. I’ve seen pictures of him at these cons recently and he really needs to work on the hair. He doesn’t need a Lee Adama duck butt/ ice cream hair, but as a former celebrity, we should all hold him to higher standards.
We need a bring back Dirk campaign.
Maybe as Starbuck’s dad or maybe as one of Tom Zarrick’s chief lieutenants who turns against Tommy Z.
In the old series Starbuck found his dad in the fleet. I think he was a gambler who abandoned Starbuck as a child but who managed to survive the attack and young Starbuck (Dirk) found dear old Dad whilst gambling in the fleet. Wikipedia has a synopsis of the episode called “The Man With Nine Lives” (here). The role was played by Fred Astaire. According to wiki, whether Fred Astaire (a.k.a. ‘The Chameleon’) was actually Pop Starbuck wasn’t ever really decided.
The whole ‘who was Starbuck’s dad’ thing seems a thread ready for exploration in Series 4. I used to think Tigh would be a good surprise dad for Starbuck. After all it’s not that far fetched to imagine a young Ellen Tigh giving up their baby for adoption whilst Tigh was away fighting the first Cylon War. Perhaps completely unaware of Ellen’s pregnancy. Ellen may even have thought someone other than Tigh was the father. This would seem a plausible approach. It would make Starbuck the first, and perhaps most important, Hylon, and the rest of the Cylon collective wouldn’t know about it as Tigh didn’t. At the same time Starbuck’s adopted mother may have been part-psychic part-seer and this ‘chose’ bubba Starbuck. And then there are the personality similarities between Ellen and Starbuck. It would also be a great way to bring Ellen back into the series even if only in historical flashbacks etc.
Yes, we need more Ellen! She was one of my favorite characters. My favorite was in “Tigh Me Up…” when Ellen and Saul were on that catwalk thing and she screams like a crazy woman. I think that pretty much sums up her character well.
Altair, nice Spinal Tap reference! (But who was the drummer for “The New Originals?” Actually, I don’t really know, but I’ve always assumed it was Peter “James” Bond. Gotta go watch that movie again…)
There was talk during season one, according to the podcast/commentary on one of the “Kobol’s Last Gleaming” episodes that as Baltar enters the opera house on Kobol he comes through a dark tunner guided by a strange voice. When the lights come on, it is because someone has lit a cigar revealing Dirk Benedict who says, “Hello Gaius. I’m God.”
I’m so glad they didn’t go THAT direction!
After I read “Starbuck: Lost in Castration,” I figured Dirk pretty well torched any bridges remaining between him and the reimagined series. It’s a pretty badly written essay, in my opinion, and I obviously don’t agree with the author, but it’s kind of a fun read in terms of its ridiculousness. I even ended up using it in an essay I wrote about depictions of gender in contemporary American television. If anyone is interested:
http://www.dirkbenedictcentral.com/home/articles-readarticle.php?nid=5
I qualify my previous statement: technically, it’s a badly written essay (The end turns in to a rant, and if you’re going to get something published, in my opinion, you should at least put some effort into writing in complete sentences. Even if you want to emphasize certain things. And do that by not writing in complete sentences. That after awhile don’t emphasize anything anymore. Since you used an otherwise powerful technique too much. Which sapped it of its strength.) However, I give him credit for making some entertaining word choices and descriptions.
Kappa, remember that Richard Hatch was originally outspoken against the new series as well.
Oh yes! I read that essay whenever I need a good laugh. “Stardoe”! I guess people like him don’t realize that we don’t need cheesy 70’s TV in ’07.
Well why not some cheesy ’90s TV for ’08: How about “The New A-Team” with Beyonce as B.A. Baracus, …and Pink as “Ms T”
oops, that was ’80s TV!
Well, there’s already something of a retread of Maguiver, with a bit of Magnum P.I. (Entertainment Weekly’s analogy, not mine) thrown in in that new show “Burn Notice” on U.S.A. (not a bad little show either).
How about a remake of “Alf” where the alien is actually terrorizing the family and the entire first season is a race for them to get out of the house while avoiding being picked off, one by one?
Or a remake of L.A. Law where the lawyers are all wacky nutjobs and William Shatner is one of the partners…(oh, wait)
Ha ha! The Shat! What a crazy man. I think all those beaming must have got a few wires crossed up there, if you know what I mean. He has the Christopher Walken syndrome of randomly. Placing periods in the middle. Of sentences.
How about “the Shat” as the Fifth and fina Cylon? Now that would help establish the ultimate inter-series crossover.
He could even still be Captain James Tiberius Kirk. After being sucked into the Nexus in “Star Trek Generations” multiple versions of theKirk were materialised in various parts of the universe, minus their memory. The Kirkoids would include one who emerged a couple of hundred years previously in another quadrant of the Galaxy, to land in a barrel of cylo-goo to be hailed by the welcoming committee as Cylonicus Rex. Simultaneously another variant found himself in a Law office in Boston with his memory gone, a symptom assumed to be Alzheimers’ by his peers. So BSG Series IV can reunite these diverse threads, …and Lee Adama can get a season or two on “Boston Legal”. All this would have to be in a parallel (or is that a paralegal?) universe of course, and the Star Trek Next Gen crew would need to rescue all the dispersed Kirks. Perhaps with Data working out a “just be nice to each other” deal between the Cylons and the Colonials.
I will take my pills now.
Altair, if the Shat turns to the Imperious Leader and says, “Denny Crane!” I will be one happy camper.
lol! Shatner in BSG would be the greatest thing ever. Maybe he’ll be greeting the Colonials when they make it to Earth.
If you haven’t seen the video of him on Conan making the “wooo” noises in the racecar, you have to watch it. There’s no one video of it on YouTube, but if you watch a few of them, you’ll get the idea. Probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on late night TV.
Oh yeah, the reason I came here was to say that we don’t know how long the break is going to be and neither do the producers of the show. It could be one month or 10 months. And we also know that the writers have recently decided the fate of the characters.
http://www.syfyportal.com/news424122.html
Here’s some more bad news. NBC is threatening not to release episodes of their shows, including BSG, via iTunes. See here.