Review: He That Believeth In Me

Source: TV Blend

Important note about spoilers: There are none in this review. We want you to enjoy the episode fresh and clean, just like we had the opportunity to do. This is a review, not a recap. Recaps will go up, as they always have, AFTER each episode airs.

Battlestar Galactica returns for its fourth, and final, season much the way it left us a year ago. The battle for what seems to be the immortal soul of all mankind is back in play, as are those questions you may have about who is what and why is that happening. Well, those questions get acknowledged, but never answered. Battlestar Galactica, like other great stories on television such as Buffy or early X-Files is not interested in wrapping things up in slick action sequences. The four revealed Cylons from season 3's finale do not appear here as ass kicking humanoid robots that do ninja battle with marines.

The emotional turmoil the show is currently putting its characters, and damnit the audience, through is mind bending. For some it literally is a mind bender. But don’t let that fool you. BSG has a penchant for making you momentarily forget you’re watching an epic space opera with poignant moments like on in which a father figure quetions whether he should believe his heart or his eyes. At the same time set pieces and battle sequences continue to work in their inspired way. This season four premiere in particular has a battle sequence that may go down as one of the best “holy shit” scenes of the entire year. From Cylon raider blood being splattered across Vipers for the first time I can recall, to an end of the fight… which raises far more questions than those of us who are demanding answers may like, BSG returns exactly as promised, and it appears that the problems of mid-season 3 are all but forgotten.

Season 4 begins a moment after last year’s finale. There’s no time jump, no missing piece of the puzzle which we have to go back in aftermath and uncover. Cocksure Viper jock Kara “Starbuck” Thrace has returned from her two-month sojourn. Her disappearance, and an explanation for it, drives the major plot of this episode. But you know, as a good Galactica fan, there's so much more going on. There’s the dealing with a dead daughter’s return by Admiral Adama, while grappling misgivings about the situation. President Rosalyn still bristles over the verdict of Baltar’s trial, and is in no way interested in veering off course for Earth. Lee Adama must move forward with his choice to leave military life, and thus become a far more interesting part of the show. Chief, Tigh, Anders and Tory sit and wonder what their purpose is, and what’s to come now that they’ve been activated.

And let me just say this: Praise be to Gaius Baltar. The man, the myth, the cunning legend has returned. No longer the sniveling prick we’ve come to loathe (while still loving him, of course), Baltar is back in full arrogant form in the season four premiere. But his journey as a man, and an agent of God (or whatever Head Six is a representation of), continues on. If you’ve ever, even for a moment loved this character, his tale in the premiere will be most welcome. It doesn’t hurt that he has a horny collegiate harem of nymphs ready to bow to his messianic prowess.

Battlestar Galactica is truly back, and it’s back on course. This is a journey of people, not of space ships or blaster battles, and “He That Believeth In Me” is just the beginning of its final story. It is the tale that sets up the journey, and it is a wild ride that will bend your mind. The best show on television reconfirms its place in the pages of TV Legends once again with an episode wrought with the conflicts and battles, big and small, that we’ve come to love and expect.

Lawless’ Lips Are Sealed

Source: Slice Of Sci-fi

On “Late Night with David Letterman” last week, Lucy Lawless said her lips are sealed when it comes to revealing SPOILERS for the upcoming season of “Battlestar Galactica.”

“True ‘Battlestar’ fans don’t want spoilers, and I would never tell anyway,” said Lawless, when some of the Letterman writers tried to finagle the identity of the final Cylon from her.

“People love this show,” Lawless told the Huffington Post. “It’s amazing who are fans of the show. All those writers on Letterman? Amazing. You could tell they were genuine fans. It’s the intelligence of the show that draws people in.”

Lawless said she might know who the final Cylon is based on the scripts she’s seen so far, but her lips are sealed. She did say that executive producers Ron Moore and David Eick know the identity of the final Cylon and that she feels they’ve had this particular character in mind since the beginning.

Fans will start to get answers Friday night when “Galactica” returns to SCI FI.

'Battlestar Galactica,' king of the remakes

Source: nj.com

"Battlestar Galactica" is the best drama currently on television. That doesn't sound right, does it? Sure, some of this is by default - "The Wire" just ended and "Mad Men" and "The Shield" won't be back until later this year - but qualifiers or no, how exactly does a remake of a profoundly cheeseball '70s "Star Wars" rip-off wind up as a contender for the title of best anything on television? Why, even as the critically acclaimed new "Galactica" heads into its fourth and final season, does its genius still seem so improbable?

Maybe it's the name. If you're old enough to remember the original "Galactica," it conjures up memories of Dirk Benedict wearing a cape, robotic dogs, and the same three space battles shown over and over again from slightly different angles. If you're not old enough, then the title still sounds too silly to apply to a series that, in its new form, intelligently deals with religion and politics (better than any show this side of early "West Wing") while finding time for fist-pumping action.

But really, the surprise about the sustained brilliance of the new show shouldn't come from it being a remake of "Battlestar Galactica," but from it being a remake of anything.
Remakes are always popular in Hollywood, as they're an easier pitch to both studio execs and audiences than entirely new ideas. Coming out of the strike, the TV business is in heavy remaking mode, with new versions of shows both popular ("Beverly Hills 90210," "Knight Rider") and not ("Cupid," "The Pitts") strong contenders to be on someone's schedule next season.

But an easy pitch isn't necessarily an easy success. Creating something out of whole cloth is hard, but in some ways recreating a previous work can be even harder. There can be audience expectations, positive or negative, that are impossible to compensate for. There's danger in sticking too close to the original and being called derivative, just as there's danger in changing too much. (There's still a small, resolute group of sci-fi fans who refer to the new show as "GINO," or "Galactica in name only.")

From the jump, the new "Galactica" started out with a leg up over most remakes because of the quality (or lack thereof) of the original. The most common remake mistake is to try to duplicate a beloved classic. There's no upside to that; see the Gus Van Sant "Psycho," or the Harrison Ford "Sabrina."

"Galactica" producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick took the opposite approach. Though the original "Galactica" still has a few vocal supporters (see the "GINO" crowd), it's not remembered fondly enough for people to mind major tinkering. More importantly, while it was a bad show, it had a great idea at the core - humanity is nearly annihilated by an alien race, and the handful of survivors band together to go searching for Earth - that the original producers squandered on stock footage, space battles, robot dogs, etc.

Moore, Eick and company decided to take the premise seriously, and used it as an allegory for the War on Terror. The robotic Cylons, anonymous stormtroopers in the original, are now religious zealots convinced their deity wants humanity destroyed. The non-military members of the ragtag fleet, an afterthought at best in the '70s, are now a key element of the series, with civilian president Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) being granted the same level of screen time (and gravitas) as Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos).

Above all else, the new "Galactica" takes itself and its sometimes fanciful concepts seriously. Where the first show had a lot of actors picking up a paycheck, the new ensemble is deep and dedicated, creating a host of indelible characters: McDonnell's iron fist in velvet glove commander in chief, Katee Sackhoff's self-destructive hotshot pilot Starbuck, Michael Hogan's tragic drunk Colonel Tigh, Jamie Bamber's ambivalent Lee Adama, James Callis' charlatan genius Gaius Baltar, etc.

And yet reviving a silly genre show and treating it seriously the second time around doesn't guarantee a great remake, even with some of the same personnel involved. Earlier this year, Eick was one of the men in charge of NBC's "Bionic Woman" remake, which followed the "Galactica" playbook to the letter - a solemn take on what was essentially a kids' show with slick production values and relevance to current events - but turned out to be the biggest failure of the pre-strike TV season. After a big tune-in on night one, the audience plummeted quickly, there was a revolving door approach to hiring producers, and NBC didn't bother with the pretense that it might continue after the strike.

The fatal flaw of the new "Bionic Woman" - other than the fact that the "ordinary woman becomes cybernetic superhero" premise didn't lend itself as well to an extreme makeover - was the casting of Michelle Ryan in the lead role. An actress from England, Ryan struggled to display any screen presence while working in an accent not her own (not coincidentally, her strongest episode was one where she went undercover as a British exchange student) and was constantly being upstaged by Katee Sackhoff, whom Eick had brought over from "Galactica" as an evil bionic woman prototype.

On paper, "Bionic Woman" should have worked. It didn't. Then again, on paper, a "Kolchak the Night Stalker" remake from a veteran producer of "The X-Files" (which was itself inspired by the '70s "Night Stalker") should have worked, and it was one of the dullest shows of the 2005-06 season, also done in by poor casting of the title role. Lots of ideas - be they new or "reimagined" - seem wonderful on paper but don't translate into the finished product. I'm sure when some executive at USA decided to remake "Kojak," with Ving Rhames in the Telly Savalas role, they thought, "Perfect! They're both big bald guys from the movies!" But the only point of the original was to give Savalas a weekly showcase; without him, it was just another N.Y.C. cop show.

Lucy Lawless On "Battlestar Galactica," Goofing With Adam Sandler, And Always Being The Bad Girl

Source:HuffingtonPost


Battlestar Galactica spoiler seekers, take note: "I would lie before I gave something away," says Lucy Lawless, who will be reprising her role as the humanoid cylon (read: robot) D'Anna Biers in the sci-fi series' fourth and final season. "I'd make something really bogus up." Thanks for the heads up! Currently shooting the Adam Sandler comedy Bedtime Stories in Los Angeles, the 40-year-old Kiwi actress and cult star recently chatted with the Huffington Post about always playing the Big Bad, fooling around with Sandler's posse, and falling in line with the genius of Ron D. Moore.

HuffPo: Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Lucy Lawless: I hope it's worth it for you.

HP: Meaning you can't really talk about what happens this season?
LL: No, more like I can't really remember.

HP: So your arc was completely finished before the writers' strike?
LL: Yes. I finished right before the strike, and the rest of the cast and crew are back in production right now. Personally, I'm doing this movie with Adam Sandler. I'm playing the bad girl... again. I don't understand what it is that makes people want me to play bad; I guess I'm just good at it.

HP: Take it as a complement. How's the set?
LL: It's the most lighthearted set I've been on since Xena. These guys have made their workplace into their social life. Their life doesn't only start once they get away from work.

HP: Give us a one-line summary of the plot?
LL: Um....disinherited janitor tries to win back father's hotel and has to battle the wicked powers that be -- and I'm one of the wicked powers. The set-up is that Adam tells bedtime stories to his nephews and they come true during the day in fun and unexpected ways. Like a fantasy, sometimes you're in outer space, sometimes in a hotel.

HP: So it's the anti-Battlestar in tone, basically.
LL: It's a complete 180 from Battlestar. I'm so lucky that I get to do that - to do very naturalistic acting and take on heavy-duty situations on BSG and go and have crab claws on an Adam Sandler movie.

HP: Did you always know your character -- who was "boxed" in season 2 -- was coming back?
LL: No, I didn't know. I would only come and go as needed and as I was available, so I never counted on anything in particular. But I'm really happy and grateful my character was returned so elegantly. That's Ron Moore as a writer for you. Everything has a great elegance to it.

HP: Ron's actually directing his first episode as we speak.
LL: I know, it's so wonderful; I wish I were there, I have to say. It would be fun to be directed by him because he's so very intimately connected to every character. Ron lives and breathes these characters and relationships. He and [co-executive producer] David [Eick] are Battlestar.

HP: So all of the cast knows who the final cylon is, definitively?
LL: I think we know. I can't remember though. I'm guessing, however, that David and Ron have had this in mind from the beginning.

HP: Maybe I'm watching for it, but the series seems to be getting a ton of extra press this time around.
LL: People love this show. It's amazing who are fans of the show. All those writers on Letterman? Amazing. This almost never happens, but all the writers on Letterman came back to our hotel that night. They were so excited to be in the presence of Grace [Park], [Edward James Olmos'] Adama and Tricia Helfer, of course, that they wanted to hang out all night. You could tell they were genuine fans - It's the intelligence of the show that draws people in.

Battlestar Galactica spoiler seekers, take note: "I would lie before I gave something away," says Lucy Lawless, who will be reprising her role as the humanoid cylon (read: robot) D'Anna Biers in the sci-fi series' fourth and final season. "I'd make something really bogus up." Thanks for the heads up! Currently shooting the Adam Sandler comedy Bedtime Stories in Los Angeles, the 40-year-old Kiwi actress and cult star recently chatted with the Huffington Post about always playing the Big Bad, fooling around with Sandler's posse, and falling in line with the genius of Ron D. Moore.

HuffPo: Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Lucy Lawless: I hope it's worth it for you.

HP: Meaning you can't really talk about what happens this season?
LL: No, more like I can't really remember.

HP: So your arc was completely finished before the writers' strike?
LL: Yes. I finished right before the strike, and the rest of the cast and crew are back in production right now. Personally, I'm doing this movie with Adam Sandler. I'm playing the bad girl... again. I don't understand what it is that makes people want me to play bad; I guess I'm just good at it.

HP: Take it as a complement. How's the set?
LL: It's the most lighthearted set I've been on since Xena. These guys have made their workplace into their social life. Their life doesn't only start once they get away from work.

HP: Give us a one-line summary of the plot?
LL: Um....disinherited janitor tries to win back father's hotel and has to battle the wicked powers that be -- and I'm one of the wicked powers. The set-up is that Adam tells bedtime stories to his nephews and they come true during the day in fun and unexpected ways. Like a fantasy, sometimes you're in outer space, sometimes in a hotel.
HP: So it's the anti-Battlestar in tone, basically.

LL: It's a complete 180 from Battlestar. I'm so lucky that I get to do that - to do very naturalistic acting and take on heavy-duty situations on BSG and go and have crab claws on an Adam Sandler movie.

HP: Did you always know your character -- who was "boxed" in season 2 -- was coming back?
LL: No, I didn't know. I would only come and go as needed and as I was available, so I never counted on anything in particular. But I'm really happy and grateful my character was returned so elegantly. That's Ron Moore as a writer for you. Everything has a great elegance to it.

HP: Ron's actually directing his first episode as we speak.
LL: I know, it's so wonderful; I wish I were there, I have to say. It would be fun to be directed by him because he's so very intimately connected to every character. Ron lives and breathes
these characters and relationships. He and [co-executive producer] David [Eick] are Battlestar.

HP: So all of the cast knows who the final cylon is, definitively?
LL: I think we know. I can't remember though. I'm guessing, however, that David and Ron have had this in mind from the beginning.

HP: Maybe I'm watching for it, but the series seems to be getting a ton of extra press this time around.
LL: People love this show. It's amazing who are fans of the show. All those writers on Letterman? Amazing. This almost never happens, but all the writers on Letterman came back to our hotel that night. They were so excited to be in the presence of Grace [Park], [Edward James Olmos'] Adama and Tricia Helfer, of course, that they wanted to hang out all night. You could tell they were genuine fans - It's the intelligence of the show that draws people in.

HP: What did they want to talk about?
LL: They wanted to know who the Final Five were, but they didn't really. True Battlestar fans don't want spoilers and I would never tell anyway.

HP: Since you've been in so many series with cult followings, what do most fans recognize you from?
LL: These days, Xena and Battlestar might be even.

HP: BSG is a political series - are you a politics junkie yourself?
LL: You know, everyone's drawing political parallels, because the show deals with universal themes about humanity, including its more negative aspects, like xenophobia and ethnic cleansing. I'm sure that's intended by Ron Moore, but I'm not smart enough to see it. I'm not really seeing it as a political statement because I'm an outsider, but certainly, the current war is nourishing Ron's storytelling.

HP: What else are you working on?
LL: Well, I'm on Bedtime Stories for four months. It's all encompassing. Actually, today I got there early and they told me they wouldn't need me until after lunch. So I responded, "Oh, you'll see me," and went and put on this crazy wig and these crazy glasses and this ill-fitting outfit and went to play an extra. I had this cigarette in my hand, and everyone was going, "Who is this crazy, drugged-out woman?" Then security came and arrested me and I dissolved into this shrieking crazy woman. It's all for the B-roll, which should be interesting. There's always ways to keep busy on the set.

Battlestar Galactica begins its fourth and final season on the Sci-Fi Network on Friday, April 4.

The return of 'Battlestar Galactica' on Sci Fi

ZAPIT

Although there are hints and spoilers and even an eight-minute summary of the show out there in cyberspace, fans of Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" will have to wait until next Friday to actually see the first episode of the front half of the space opera's fourth and final season.

If all goes as speculated, by the end of that 20-episode season - the dates for the back half have yet to be announced - the space fleet carrying the human survivors of a devastating nuclear attack on their 12 planetary colonies by their vengeful creations, the mechanistic Cylons, should reach Earth, the 13th human colony in their mythology.

Tonight at 10, Sci Fi is airing back-to-back half-hour specials, a retrospective called "Battlestar Galactica: Revisited" and a celebrity tribute called "Battlestar Galactica: The Phenomenon," but that's still a long time to wait.

"Battle"-stars revved up

In the meantime, fans could head to the official Web site of star Tricia Helfer, who plays the sultry Cylon Number Six, at tricia helfer.com and look for photos of her and co-star Katee Sackhoff, who plays pugnacious pilot Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, on a recent motorcycle trip to Solvang, Calif., where the movie "Sideways" was filmed.

"There are pictures on the Web of us on our motorcycles," Sackhoff says, "so that's pretty funny."

Also on the ride were Tricia's husband, Jonathan Marshall; Katee's boyfriend, Scott Niemeyer; and friend and fellow actor Mark Derwin.

"Tricia has a Harley Sportster, which is what I was going to start out on," Sackhoff says, "but I was a little intimidated by the whole 'get on a motorcycle' thing. Shifting ... oh, my God, I never dreamed that shifting could become second nature. It didn't seem easy to me, so I ended up getting a Honda 750.

"I've already outgrown it. I've put 600 miles on it, and I'm already over it. I keep saying to my boyfriend, 'I need to get some big, huge Harley now, because my bike is so small.'"

Turns out her helmet may be a bit undersized as well.

"I have a little half-helmet," she says, "the least amount you could wear with the DOT telling you that you're not breaking the law.

Tricia's got a good, big, full helmet.

"She's smarter than the rest of us, because the last ride we went on, it was so cold. She was like, 'I'm fine,' because her head was so warm, as I'm trying to keep my bandanna around my face, driving at 70 miles per hour. It doesn't work so well."

Life after "Galactica"

Sackhoff and her fellow cast members returned to work in Vancouver, British Columbia, this week after a lengthy production shutdown due to the recently settled Writers Guild of America strike. That meant that the cast got an unexpected preview of life after "Battlestar." Although Sackhoff had already been moonlighting as crazed cyborg Sarah Corvus in NBC's short-lived revival of "Bionic Woman," the separation still came with some surprises.

"Because of 'Bionic,'" she says, "it never really hit me that it was going to be over, and I didn't have time to really contemplate what the end was going to feel like. So I was OK with it, to be honest. I was, 'Yeah, it's over. It'll be fine. We'll all move on. We'll see each other.'

"This three-month break, no one talked. It was crazy, crazy. It just gave us a taste of who would be in your life later, which was interesting." Sackhoff says she did see Helfer "quite a bit," as well as Michael Trucco, who plays Sam Anders, but only had sporadic encounters with other cast members.

"Tricia and Michael and I, we all ride motorcycles, so we do that together," Sackhoff says. "So, I think that when you have other things in common other than the show, that's when you actually keep in touch."

Sackhoff says she has learned many things on "Battlestar" and "Bionic," including "how to take apart an AK-47 and put it back together blindfolded. So it's one of those things you put on your resume along with knife-training skills. I tend to think I could handle a [real] weapon pretty well."

But, given her druthers, Sackhoff would rather do a romantic comedy next. "That would be my next great challenge. Maybe some running, maybe some hiding, but no shooting, no blood, no guts. I've had my fill of blood and guns."

Battlestar Rolls On Tuesday..

Source: Mark Verheidens

Tomorrow's the big day, we start shooting episode #12 of the twenty episodes left for season four and the series. Mr. Ron Moore himself writes and directs this opus, and... that's all I'm going to say about the episode itself. Except it will probably run the usual 42-ish minutes and I can almost guarantee it will be shot in beautiful color.

I never cease to be amazed at what a freight-train it is when you're in the middle of production. Drafts of scripts are coming in, outlines, notes, production issues pop up... it's just one thing after another, but when you're shooting, you also get a batch of dailies from the set and get to go "ahhhh." (Or occasionally "what th--?" or "oops" or "Holy Crap!", but those are pretty rare on BSG.) That's the fun of television. I'm writing the next episode up to bat, and the immediacy from script to stage never ceases to amaze me, especially coming from a feature background, where it can take a week to figure out who will handle the catering.

So tomorrow. Shooting. Think good thoughts..

Battlestar Galactica Panel

UGO

"It's not a space-based action-adventure show. It's based on a planet, it's very character-oriented." Last week's Battlestar Galactica press conference in New York City - featuring series creator and producer Ron Moore, producer David Eick and cast members Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Aaron Douglas, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, Mary McDonnell, Edward James Olmos, Grace Park and Katee Sackhoff - brought with it the announcement that Moore's prequel series Caprica has been picked up for a pilot by Sci-Fi Channel. This news comes at a particularly welcome time for forlorn fans who will soon lament the departure of Battlestar, which begins its final season on April 4.

"Caprica is set 50 years before Battlestar Galactica, so in the mythos of the show it's before the first Cylon War and it's before the Cylons were created," Moore explained. "The series is about the creation of the Cylons. It's about the politics... surrounding this notion of the creation of the first artificial life form."

Continuing, Moore delved a bit deeper into what fans can expect from the pilot and, hopefully, the series. "It's not a space-based action-adventure show. It's based on a planet, it's very character-oriented... it's a whole different corner of the Galactica universe. Caprica's pilot will most likely film this spring/summer for a potential fall airing. If picked up, the series would not begin until at least the middle of 2009.

Questions concerning Battlestar's coming fourth season were met with the usual broad, non-specific responses, but a few bits of new information emerged nonetheless. Olmos, who plays Admiral William Adama on the show, will definitely be directing at least one episode, as will Moore himself. The producers also opened up a bit on their experience with the now-finished writers' strike, which stopped production on the fourth season after the filming of the 11th episode (out of 20).

"The writers had worked out what the arc in the back half [of the fourth season] was already," Moore said. "I think [the strike] actually benefited the show in some ways in that... we started to think about things that we could change, things we could make better. And when the strike was over... we wrote the second half of the season all over again."

Asked about the apparent resurrection of her Starbuck character at the end of the previous season, Sackhoff remains as mystified as the fans. "We're on episode 14 [of season four]," she said, going on to claim that she still has no clue how she came back or why, a statement which brought raised eyebrows from Moore and nothing else.

So what can fans expects from the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica then? It will be presented in two parts, with the second half set to film this summer for a probable fall airing. While the cast themselves remain in the dark as to how the series will close, Moore and Eick insist that the story is served and that the most pressing loose ends are tied up.

Which isn't to say that all will be well for the human race when the end credits roll on episode 20. "It's devastating," said Olmos of the fourth season, "don't watch this program; it's not an easy ride." Easy ride or not, expect fans to ignore Olmos' advice and tune in for the start of Battlestar Galactica's final journey on April 4.

Battlestar's final season

Source: Star.com

Katee Sackhoff and Grace Park strike a back-to-back pose, smiling coquettishly for the cameras – the resulting pictures, when printed, guaranteed to warm the hearts (or something) of every male Galactica geek, and inspire and empower their female counterparts.

Sexy photo spreads in major magazines from Maxim to Entertainment Weekly. Mob scenes at public appearances and science-fiction conventions. A highly touted guest gig earlier this week on David Letterman's Late Show.

At this point, anyone who hasn't heard about the cult-hot rebirth of Battlestar Galactica hasn't been paying attention. But better late than never.
Indeed, it's pretty much now or never – the first half of the sci-fi series' fourth and final season kicks off April 4 on Space.

You will be in good company. The Battlestar phenomenon has somehow been embraced by a sizeable mainstream audience – although, typically, their number, and relative passion and dedication, pale in comparison to the core contingent of fiercely loyal genre junkies.
And Sackhoff and Park have become the pin-ups of that passion, the postergrrls of Battlestar's "rag-tag fleet," their macha, model-perfect mugs glaring down purposefully from basement den and dorm-room walls around the world (and, for all we know, beyond).

"And just wait till the new one on a motorcycle comes out," deadpans a characteristically sardonic Sackhoff, in town with Park recently to talk about the show. "Chaps and bikinis ... it's going to be fantastic."
Not to give the uninitiated the impression these women are sex symbols in the old-school brainless bimbo mould.

The characters they play – Sackhoff a hard-drinking, cigar-chomping fighter pilot and Park an emotionally conflicted android infiltrator – are smart, strong and admirably complex.
And also, when angered, very likely to tear your head off and spit down your neck.
"She's volatile," allows Sackhoff of her breakthrough role, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace. "And sensitive and sarcastic and witty and damaged, and loving and protective and talented ..."
"She's talking about my character," interjects her pal, Park.

"Yeah, right," counters Sackhoff. "But which one?" (Park's Sharon "Boomer" Valerii was revealed early on as a Cylon "toaster," and is thus depicted in infinite incarnations – trust me, it makes sense in the context of the show.)
"I am going to miss her uncontrollable vulnerability," Sackhoff continues. "She is so many things ... she's so much of humanity rolled up into one character. Even when it's all over, I'm probably going to have dreams about her from time to time."

And it is almost all over, with only 20 more astoundingly eventful episodes to go. And that's it. No chance of a last-minute, extended "bonus" season. No theatrical feature (see sidebar, right) – although a prequel TV-movie, Caprica, is about to go into production in Vancouver, with an eye toward launching a spin-off series.

But without any of Battlestar's familiar fan faves. Much as they will miss their characters, and the BSG set's unconventional camaraderie, both actors see the impending end as a light at the end of the Viper launch tunnel.

With nine post-strike episodes still left to shoot, the inevitable separation anxiety has not yet set in. "I don't think it'll kick in until the last episode," Sackhoff says. "I think that once the characters, like, start to have closure, that's when we as actors will feel it coming for us.
"And when people start to die. Because, God knows, this is Battlestar Galactica, and people are going to die."

And therein lies one of the primary reasons for the series' enduring impact and appeal: You never know what will happen next, and absolutely anything can – particularly during this climactic last season.

Not even the cast members are told in advance.

"I don't know how they manage to keep surprising us," says Park, "because you would have thought they would have done all of the angles, every storyline would have either been done, or you can expect it ... and somehow they always manage to do something that you don't expect."
"It all surprises me," Sackhoff agrees. "But it doesn't, you know? (We don't know anything until) the day we get our scripts, really. Occasionally, they'll allude to certain things, but you don't have anything in concrete until it's on that page, and even then things get cut."

Often intentionally. Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick are notorious for scripting and even shooting fake scenes – mostly to throw off Internet interlopers.
"You never know whether or not to believe 'em," laughs Park. "You'll get a script, and then, days later, you get another script, and it's like, `What happened to that ending?' And they're like, `Oh yeah, that was a fake.'"

"Like the one where they brought Dirk Benedict in," recalls Sackhoff of one such bogus episode, ostensibly guesting the original series' Starbuck.

"He was supposedly going to play God, and we were all like, `Excuse me?'"

The inside joke being that, unlike his former co-star, Richard Hatch – who signed on for a recurring role – Benedict has been a vocal and vehement critic of the Battlestar remake.
Initially, at least, his was the majority opinion, given fans' considerable before-the-fact outrage over the recasting of Sackhoff and Park in roles (Benedict's included) played by men in the '70s original.

"What's interesting," offers Sackhoff, who took the brunt of the sexist sentiment, "is if you add it all up – in time, not years – we have both been these characters longer than the originals."
And what a long, strange trip it's been.

"I've been able to experience such a great joy working with whatever the writers have given me," enthuses Park. "Not every episode has been a walk in the park – for me, it has been a huge obstacle course. But I grew so much through it."

Now it's Sackhoff's turn to interrupt – the ease with which these two play off one another is a testament to their working relationship.

"I found it really interesting ... umm, how do I put this? As an outsider looking in to someone else's craft, I firmly believe that Grace in particular has had the most growth as an actor."
"Yeah," pouts Park. "I started really s---ty on purpose."

"No, it's not to say that you were s---ty. It was your first show ..."

"You're right. I was very green."

Sackhoff continues: "And then they realized what she was capable of. It's just phenomenal what she has done with that character."

And she is – they both are – almost done with those characters. The end, as they say, is nigh.
As to what form that end might take ... even if they knew, they'd never tell.
"We're going to have a contest," jokes Park. "So please write in to www.scifi.com/battlestarbabes.";

"I'll tell you how it's going to end," feints Sackhoff. "It'll end with me jumping in my car, with my flight suit, my gun belt and my helmet on ... I'm going to bronze the frakking thing and put it in my bathtub. When you bathe at my house, you will have to bathe around a bronzed flight suit.
"I am going to try and drive across the border with those guns. And then I will get deported and I can never come back."

Caprica Very Different From Battlestar

Source: SciFi Wire

David Eick and Ronald D. Moore, executive producers of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that their upcoming prequel Caprica will be a markedly different series.

Eick compared it to the feature film American Beauty, while Moore referenced the TV soap opera Dallas.

"Caprica is a story that Ron Moore and I concocted with [co-executive producer] Remi Aubuchon, and we're casting as we speak," Moore said in an interview at SCI FI Channel's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on March 18. "I'm very excited about that. If Battlestar Galactica is Black Hawk Down, I would say that Caprica is American Beauty. Caprica is all about the inner lives of the people on a planet and how their personal relationships as well as their professional relationships inform what will become the creation of the Cylons."

Moore, a former Star Trek writer and producer, said that Caprica is not a show along the lines of any Trek spinoff series. "It's a different animal altogether," he said in a separate interview. "Unlike those shows, which are all riffs on the same notion of what Star Trek was, Caprica is really a completely different kind of genre. We're trying to do something different."

Instead of Galactica's action-adventure space-based war show, Caprica will tell a story that takes place before any of the wars happened. "This is really more of a sci-fi Dallas," Moore said. "It's a political story, a family story. It's about the creation of the Cylons, and it's about a company. It's planet-based. It's very character-oriented, very serialized and very much about the characters. It's a whole different genre, and that's what makes it exciting."

Production will begin this spring on a two-hour backdoor pilot. Moore said he will be "very involved" with the pilot, but stressed that it's too soon to say whether he'd remain on board if SCI FI Channel gave the green light for a weekly Caprica show.

"If it goes to series, it kind of depends when that happens and what I'm doing," he said. "We'll just wait and see." --Ian Spelling

Eick: Bionic Is Dead

Eick: Bionic Is Dead

David Eick, co-executive producer of NBC's SF series Bionic Woman, confirmed to SCI FI Wire that the network has indeed canceled the show, though the network has not yet officially said as much.

"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," Eick said in an interview at SCI FI Channel's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on March 18. "The actress [Michelle Ryan] we found was wonderful. Some of the writing was good."

But, he added: "We just didn't ever bring it all together like we did with Battlestar. 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."

Bionic Woman, a reboot of the 1970s series of the same name, debuted to strong ratings last fall, but its numbers dropped precipitously after that, and behind-the-scenes problems persisted. Cancellation was expected after the network failed to order additional episodes once the writers' strike ended. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

Fourth Season: What To Expect

Source: Cinema Blend

So you say you’d like to know what’s going to happen in season four of Battlestar Galactica. Well, after spending an evening with eleven people directly involved in the show have I got news for you. Despite the cast’s insistence that they are constantly in the dark as much as we are, there was a surprisingly generous sharing of information on the upcoming season from everybody. So, here’s what we can expect from BSG’s final season.

The writers strike stopped production at the 11th episode, so the final 9 on order are being worked on currently. Ron Moore said during a Q&A that he would be directing his first episode when the show came back. He seems nervous and excited about taking the reigns stating, “You can applaude after the episode airs.” When that would be neither he nor Sci Fi executive Mark Stern could confirm as of last night. We’ll be sure to keep on top of that so you know when the final season will finally come out. Speaking of directors, Ron Moore once again confirmed that it looks like Joss Whedon won’t be able to make it out to direct one of the final episodes. His work on Doll House with Eliza Dushku presents too many scheduling conflicts. Happily, Edward James Olmos is returning to the director’s chair this season. When asked if he were offered the job of directing the finale would he take it the actor said, “I’d love to.” That job is already taken though, as is often the case for any show.

Of course we tried getting info on the final Cylon. Ron Moore stated as he looked around at the cast on the stage, “Who’s left?” To which Katie Sackhoff sheepishly put up her hand. Is that confirmation? No, it didn’t look anything like it. But it is funny to note that so much of the main cast is now Cylon. Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh) said that from the beginning he’d told everyone, “Boy, I’m glad I’m not a Cylon.” Talking with him at the party later he indicated that he was possibly more surprised to find out than any of the fans were. Edward James Olmos said that in his contract it stated, “No Cylon.”

Katie simply shrugged when asked about Starbuck’s return and what it meant. She then went on to say that it’s something we’ll have to watch in season four, but at 11 episodes filmed she still doesn’t know the full truth. So that looks like a big secret for the later half of the final season. James Callis (Gaius Baltar) had a similar reaction when asked about his character’s future. “I’ve been told all I can say is, ‘Baltar is in a cult,’” the actor said. Great, we had no idea.

During my one-on-one conversation with Ron Moore I did inquire about the nature of Baltar’s connection with the Cylon’s, along with Starbuck’s. “There are similarities, and there are connections, between Starbuck and Baltar that will develop as time goes on,” he said. So let the theories fly on what the connection might be, and what it means for either of these two being the final Cylon. My verdict on that is if one is the final, then so are both. Which makes no mathematical sense.

We’re also still not sure about the fundamental differences between the other models and the final five Cylons. But Ron Moore did tell me that the Cylon’s would be able to recognize the final four (at the least) now that they’re revealed. So, the four who were revealed at the end of season three may not have long to hide before being found out. We’ll have to see how that plays out.

One of the best moments of the night was getting to sit and listen to Edward James Olmos talk. He was quiet most of the Q&A, but when he had something to say it was always good. For instance, he started talking about the show and how harsh it can be. “I tell people not to watch,” he joked. There’s just so much death and sadness on Battlestar according to the actor. And season four is the worst of them all. He confirmed that there are deaths in the final season, and many are dear friends. As Olmos was stating this the rest of the cast laughed, and Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama) quipped, “The publicist is backstage pulling her hair out right now.”

I got a great sense that these people truly love this show. They aren’t just there for a paycheck, and if given the chance they would continue playing their parts for many more seasons. But when I spoke with Michael Hogan at the after party we both agreed it’s better to go out on your own terms, rather than let the damn bureaucrats rip the heart and soul from your craft. I’m sad to see Battlestar Galactica make its final jump, but I’m happy that Ron Moore and his crew are doing it on their terms. As you can tell there is still a ton to be revealed, and from the sounds of it, we wont be disappointed!

Caprica Gets Green Light

Source: Sci-Fi wire

SCI FI Channel has given a green light for production to begin on Caprica, a two-hour backdoor pilot and Battlestar Galactica prequel from executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. Production is slated to begin in Vancouver, Canada, this spring.

Set 50 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families--the Greystones and the Adamas --as they grow, compete and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies. Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe to toe.

"I'm thrilled with the chance to expand on the Galactica world and get deeper into the origins of the story we've been telling," Moore said in a statement. "It's also great to have a chance at doing a completely different kind of science fiction series, one that's even more character-oriented and doesn't rely on pyrotechnics to carry the story."

In his own statement, Eick said: "While Caprica will have its own personality, it will carry on Battlestar's commitment to pushing the boundaries of the genre, and we're thrilled that SCI FI has seen fit to giving us another opportunity to tell character-driven stories in challenging ways."

The fourth season of Battlestar Galactica kicks off on March 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back half-hour specials, with the first new episode premiering the following week, April 4, at 10 p.m.

'Battlestar' blondes on bikes

Source

Although there are hints and spoilers and even an eight-minute summary of the show out there in cyberspace, fans of Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" will have to wait until April 4 to actually see the first episode of the front half of the space opera's fourth and final season.

If all goes as speculated, by the end of that 20-episode season - the dates for the back half have yet to be announced - the space fleet carrying the human survivors of a devastating nuclear attack on their 12 planetary colonies by their vengeful creations, the mechanistic Cylons, should reach Earth, the 13th human colony in their mythology.

March 28 at 10 p.m. ET, Sci Fi is airing back-to-back half-hour specials, a retrospective called "Battlestar Galactica: Revisited" and a celebrity tribute called "Battlestar Galactica: The Phenomenon," but that's still a long time to wait.

In the meantime, fans could head to the official Web site of star Tricia Helfer, who plays the sultry Cylon Number Six, at www.triciahelfer.com and look for photos of her and co-star Katee Sackhoff, who plays pugnacious pilot Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, on a recent motorcycle trip to Solvang, Calif., where the movie "Sideways" was filmed.

"There are pictures on the Web of us on our motorcycles," Sackhoff says, "so that's pretty funny."

Also on the ride were Tricia's husband, Jonathan Marshall; Katee's boyfriend, Scott Niemeyer; and friend and fellow actor Mark Derwin.

"Tricia has a Harley Sportster, which is what I was going to start out on," Sackhoff says, "but I was a little intimidated by the whole get on a motorcycle' thing. Shifting ... oh, my God, I never dreamed that shifting could become second nature. It didn't seem easy to me, so I ended up getting a Honda 750.

"I've already outgrown it. I've put 600 miles on it, and I'm already over it. I keep saying to my boyfriend, I need to get some big, huge Harley now, because my bike is so small.' "

Turns out her helmet may be a bit undersized as well.

"I have a little half-helmet," she says, "the least amount you could wear with the DOT telling you that you're not breaking the law. Tricia's got a good, big, full helmet.

"She's smarter than the rest of us, because the last ride we went on, it was so cold. She was like, I'm fine!', because her head was so warm, as I'm trying to keep my bandanna around my face, driving at 70 miles per hour. It doesn't work so well."

Sackhoff and her fellow cast members are set to return to work in Vancouver, Canada, on March 24 after a lengthy production shutdown due to the recently settled Writers Guild of America strike (the writers came back in mid-February). That meant that the cast got an unexpected preview of life after "Battlestar."

Although Sackhoff had already been moonlighting as crazed cyborg Sarah Corvus in NBC's short-lived revival of "Bionic Woman," the separation still came with some surprises.

"Because of Bionic,' " she says, "it never really hit me that it was going to be over, and I didn't have time to really contemplate what the end was going to feel like. So I was OK with it, to be honest. I was, Yeah, it's over. It'll be fine. We'll all move on. We'll see each other.'

"This three-month break, no one talked. It was crazy, crazy. It just gave us a taste of who would be in your life later, which was interesting."

Sackhoff says she did see Helfer "quite a bit," as well as Michael Trucco, who plays Sam Anders, but only had sporadic encounters with other cast members.

"Tricia and Michael and I, we all ride motorcycles, so we do that together," Sackhoff says. "So, I think that when you have other things in common other than the show, that's when you actually keep in touch."

Sackhoff says she has learned many things on "Battlestar" and "Bionic," including "how to take apart an AK-47 and put it back together blindfolded. So it's one of those things you put on your resume along with knife-training skills. I tend to think I could handle a (real) weapon pretty well."

But, given her druthers, Sackhoff would rather do a romantic comedy next. "That would be my next great challenge. Maybe some running, maybe some hiding, but no shooting, no blood, no guts. I've had my fill of blood and guns."

New Battlestar Galactica interview sheds light on Cylon rights

Source

The reimagined Battlestar Galactica is often described as "gritty" and "grimy". For some Den of Geek contributors, it's too gritty. Our own Martin Anderson criticised the show's depiction of torture in episode 8: Flesh and Bone - his argument being that the scenes of interrogation amounted to an endorsement of violent coercion (When Good Guys Torture). In this episode, we follow Galactica fighter pilot Starbuck as she tortures enemy Cylon agent (and artificial construct) Leoben, in scenes that are sometimes very difficult to look at. The show ends with the captive Cylon being executed; tossed into space to die on the orders of civilian leader President Roslin. So appalled was Martin by the episode, that he stopped watching the series entirely.

I took the stance that BSG is a little more complex than just "good guys versus bad guys" - and that showing a "hero" acting in a manner that isn't heroic doesn't automatically endorse that behaviour in the same way that it might if the scene had been shown in a less morally ambiguous, less intricate series like Star Trek. At the time I commented:

"The narrative dynamic at play in Battlestar Galactica (…) questions the traditional hero/villain dichotomy that is so clearly delineated in less complex sci-fi and horror.

"Galactica doesn't explore "good" and "evil" - but seeks instead to analyse the complex motives and behaviours of two different cultures in the context of war. Battlestar Galactica as a whole does not "tacitly endorse" Starbuck's behaviour - or that of Roslin. In fact, many of the episodes that follow Flesh and Bone refer back to this (interrogation), questioning (its moral validity) in light of further revelations made about Cylon society.

"For example, a Cylon character joins the fleet and is accepted into the fold. Inevitably, a moment arrives where she has a confrontation with Roslin in which she says "What are you going to do, throw me out of the airlock?" Many of the human fleet are forced to reconsider their knee-jerk prejudices about the Cylons - their categorisation of them as "merely machines". Flesh and Bone becomes a reference point for the change in view that occurs".

Now, a new interview with Battlestar creators David Eick and Ron Moore directly addresses some of these issues - and more. It's testimony to the irreducible complexity of BSG that this interview wasn't with a TV magazine or a cult media web site like Den of Geek. It was conducted by Concurring Opinions, a scholarly blog that broadly concerns itself with the role of law in society. The transcript is broken down into sections covering "Legal Systems", "Torture, Necessity and Morality" and "Politics and Economics". So, not exactly "How Much is a Pint of Milk?" then.

On Flesh and Bone, Moore says:

"There was a notion that [torture] was permissible under some circumstances but not others, or at least we should have a public debate about it. And that alone just felt like . . . well, okay then, just by having it in our show we would touch into what's going on in America today. I think that given the circumstances of where they are, it was completely believable that people in different circumstances would choose to use aggressive, physical coercion on their enemies.

"[This is] especially [true] in the circumstance [in the show] where we have the distinction [between humans and cylons.] [In the show,] Kara ["Starbuck" Thrace] and the rest of the Colonial officers did not view the Cylons as legitimate people. They were not accepted as [humans] -- they were not human, and they did not have the rights of humans, and they would not be accepted as anything other than machines. So when we approached the first episode that really dealt with this, "Flesh and Bone," one of the key concepts was: "Well, it's a machine." Is there anything morally wrong about beating a machine? And torturing machines? And making a machine go through all kinds gyrations?

"We were sort of at pains in the story discussion room and at the script phase to not send [any particular] message [about torture]. We were trying not to say, "Hey, guess what, torture's bad!" or to go through the rationalizations of why it should be employed in certain circumstances. We really just wanted to put the audience in the room and make them really uncomfortable. We really wanted them to struggle (we like to do this a lot in the show) -- we wanted them to struggle with [the questions]: "Who am I supposed to be rooting for in this circumstance? Whose side am I on?"

The full interview, in both transcript and audio forms can be found at www.concurringopinions.com . It looks at BSG in a serious context, covering issues of legality, human rights and moral imperative - and is well worth a thorough read. The fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica comes to the US Sci-Fi channel on the 4th of April.

Grace Park Q&A

Wizard Universe

The hottest hottie on Battlestar Galactica drops her flight suit and teases Season 4 secrets.

WIZARD: Our last issue named you one of the top five all-time sexiest women on TV. You must think about how hot you are a lot.
[Laughs] Everyday. It’s on my wallpaper all the time. I e-mail love notes to myself. No, I think more like, “Isn’t it nice that people are doing top hundred lists all the time and I happen to be kicking around at the same time.” I think that if people were doing it 10 years from now, I really don’t think that I would be on those lists.

Come on, Grace, you’re the hottest woman on the hottest show on TV!
The thing is that when I look at the show, if I was Tricia [Helfer] who’s always poured into this hot red dress and strutting around in heels all the time, I would feel much more aware of being a sex symbol type. But I’m always in rubber suits, or for a whole year I was in a pair of dirty drawstring pants and a tank top and bare footed.

I’d love to keep asking about your sex appeal, but some of our readers want to know what’s coming up on “BSG” when the show returns in April.
As soon as we see new script outlines, we’re just as rabid trying to find stuff out [as fans]. It’s gotten so secretive that we’re not even allowed to read them! They now keep them at the office on lockdown. But I can tell you that a lot of people are struggling with Kara’s return. [Sharon] is definitely going to try and distance herself from Kara, but she ends up finding herself involved with Kara’s search for Earth.

With “Battlestar” coming to an end, do you plan on taking any “souvenirs” from the set before you wrap?
People have already started taking things. Hera has this adorable mobile above her crib that is made up of Vipers and Raptors. I asked the prop master and he said, “I was hoping that you took it because someone else took it.” I kept hearing how Katee [Sackhoff] and Jamie [Bamber] were going to take [their flight suits] and I was like, “Ah, why not?” [But] I thought that it’d be really uncomfortable to walk back and be like, “Grace, your flight suit is missing. I hope you brought it with you today.”

Battlestar Galactica Composer to Perfom at the Roxy

Source: Wired


If you love rocking out to the Enigma and tribal beats mashup during Battlestar Galactica, you may want to hit up Ticketmaster. BSG composer Bear McCreary is set to perform live April 13 at Los Angeles' Roxy nightclub. Cast members from the show will act as emcees.

According to Bear's blog:

We'll have a larger band, playing music from all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica, more taikos, more strings and more soloists in the group. We're also producing an all-new video presentation/documentary which will premiere at the concert. And there are some very special guests coming too.

Bear also scores the highly acclaimed Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.