So why do I only have half a Viper pictured? That’s because Battlestar Galactica is having its final season split into two.
You have got to be frakkin’ kidding me! (Read that with the angry, gravel-sounding voice of Col. Tigh in your head because it’s the only way to interpret that line.)
As I noted here back in April, I think one of the biggest mistakes in recent history of Sci Fi television is the Sci-Fi Channel splitting up the final 20 episodes of the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica into two, separate, 10-episode runs with tonight’s (Friday, June 13th) episode being the “mid-season” break.
Oh but wait, that was the good news. Not only is this episode the breaking point for the show, but we’re going to have to wait until the beginning of next year, that’s right, 2009, before the show starts up again.
The Sci-Fi Channel didn’t want to tell anyone themselves, so they gave Ronald D. Moore the dour job of breaking the news to the media last Wednesday night at a screening.
The reasoning given for the show not starting back up until next year is “end of the year competition” such as new fall television series’, baseball and football.
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I can sort of understand new shows competing even if The Sci-Fi Channel doesn’t have a ton of competition Friday nights at 10 pm, but come on, baseball and football? Am I that dense or more to the point, how can daytime sports impact a Friday-night-at-10PM sci-fi show? Someone goofed when making up that excuse. (Yes, I said excuse and I explain a little later why)
Moore was quoted as being apologetic when he announced this, and I’m sure he not only feels bad, but is anxious to see his vision of the series realized for the fans and for the actors.
When NBC Universal exec Bonnie Hammer was asked when, exactly, Battlestar Galactica will be back on, she replied: “We don’t have a locked in schedule yet,” but added “We just know that it’s always better to leave the fans just titillated a little bit, but it will definitely be back.”
Titillated my… sorry.
So why don’t I believe anything Bonnie Hammer says and why am I going to use her name repeatedly?
The first reason: Even though the Sci-Fi Channel has trumpeted this as being the show’s FINAL season, they’ve gone and split it up, making this the next-to-last final season, and 2009 will be the final-final season. Ten episode seasons suck Sci-Fi! Do you hear the words that are coming out of my mouth?
The other reason I don’t believe Bonnie Hammer:
In September of 2007, (Hmm, that far back? Sounds more like a plan than a response to present-day market pressure) in Atlanta at Dragon Con, it was reported that the show would be split into two 10-episode segments, with the second set of episodes airing in February of 2009.
Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama) gave up the ghost on this one and he’s quoted as saying something I loved reading:
“the channel is not used to producing high quality material and now that it has a hit, it doesn’t know what to do with it.”
Bamber went a bit further and said that is how Sci-Fi essentially gets two final seasons for the cost of one. No wonder we don’t see him in other NBC projects these days! (Side note: He’s in two new projects. One from Distant Horizons and another from Marathon Productions.)
I suppose we’re going to have to really wait to see who the final Cylon is, won’t we?
At this point, I don’t care what they say. Do You?
Sources: TVGuide, AintItCool
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41 Comments
This is a ridiculous trend - first “Lost” with almost a full year between seasons and now this, which is even dumber.
Maybe in a couple of years we can have “micro-seasons” lasting 5 episodes and we can watch a story line evolve from the time our children enter kindergarten until the day they graduate college.
Vic
This is a prime example of why I do not like the Sci Fi channel. I didn’t watch BSG’s first 3 seasons while on tv, but waited instead for the DVDs. But I succumbed like an idiot to watching season 4 on tv, now I wish I didn’t but this show is too good and I couldn’t help myself. Bamber is totally correct about them, they finally have a great quality show and do not know how to deal with it.
This is pretty stupid. I hate studio execs, especially the ones that BS for a job.
What’s even worse is that this is going to turn into another DVD scam, where we have to buy a season 4.0 and a 4.5 for twice the amount of $$$$.
Its just like season 2, the BSG fans will have to plunk out $49 frackin bucks for season 4.0, but then we will be asked to plunk out another frackin $49 bucks for season 4.5, just like they did with season 2.0 and 2.5, this means more money for the studios. I really hope RDM has alot of extras for the set.
On a brighter note, we could get up to 3 or 4 BSG movies to watch before 2009, hopefully. Wouldn’t it be great to see a movie about the first Cylon war.
Vic or anyone else let me know why deleted scenes can’t be viewed as part of the episode, kind of like a directors cut. The deleted scenes are great, but they would be even better if they were part of the episode.
Whyyyyyyyyyyy can’t or don’t they do this on not just BSG, but all the other DVD that come out.
One example, when Aliens was released on DVD there was the movie version, but then they released the special edition, one of the deleted scenes that was added to the movie was the automatic machine guns that were set up to splatter the Aliens. (it was a great addition to the movie not on the original released version) whyyyyyy
As Rob said they’re gonna milk us with the DVDs - 4.0 and 4.5. I would actually prefer getting an episode every month starting next month than wait all the way to 2009 to get this underway.
Thank you, believe it or not, i was looking to find out when BSG would restart, and this was the only place I could find out… not on Sci-fi… not on Space (my local equivalent)… I didn’t even know there was a “mid-season” break until this afternoon… now i’m pissed
why would they even call it a mid-season??? just call it season 5… if they said 4 months ago, season 4 will be 10 episodes, season 5, 10 episodes, start in 2009, i wouldn’t care, but i hear 4th and final season, i think, great, i’m getting my fix in the next 20 weeks… jerks…
Pathetic,
But not unexpected .
sad ,
but not unexpected.
I am very disappointed with SciFi. At the end of the show they said go to scifi.com for more details. No details on scifi.com. I found what was going on with the show on this website (via a goodl search).
Anyhow, I think us many BSG fans should write SciFi and complain about waiting until Feb. 2009 to see the last 10 episodes.
I used to love the old FTL newsfeed and the great interstitials on SciFi, but ever since the changed the logo to that garish text instead of the sweet Saturn icon, they have doubled up on the commercial breaks, NEW “B” movies and commercial breaks. Now, some good programs slip thru and they fr**king pull this marketing tease crap, like we are going to buy “extenz” so we can
masturbeta for 7 months…
NEWSFLASH for you, marketing geniuses!
DVRS and iTunes will be putting your jobs on hiatus real soon.
I spoke with Richard Hatch a few months ago at a con. He and his modern twin, Jamie Bamber, share more than a character name when it comes to the SiFi channel. He lamented it was time a real SiFi network was established because the folks running this one just don’t know what they are doing.
I just wish our local cable provider (Charter) cared enough about the quality of their product to deliver me with good video. When the hi-def complete series comes out I plan to take a few weeks off and watch it in the form it should have been broadcast all along.
Up until BSG, I believed Babylon 5 was the best TV I had seen…now it is a close #2.
This season break is the WORST idea I have ever heard. How many people are going to die with out ever seeing the final episodes? (Hopefully not me)
Fire the person who made this stupid decision.
Write to Scifi and complain.
Frack.
This is a disgrace….. all this just for stupid ratings.. TV is getting too greedy for money and lost their way from entertaining to money hounds
It’s all just entertainment. What I like is that BSG is GOOD entertainment. Season 4 is cut into two bits? That’s cool. Happy to wait. I just love that the show got even darker … I did not expect a post-nuclear Earth. I was expecting more an Earth long ago, like Mayan or Ur societies (who would have seen the likes of Apollo coming out of the sky and birthing our ancient gods Apollo and ilk). Anwyay, good fun!
“The likes of Apollo coming out of the sky and birthing our ancient gods”
Did we maybe see that just happen when those first few stood on what we THINK is Earth at the end of the mid-season finale?
Maybe people are on the planet, underground, and saw these folks come from the sky, and start a legend for all time!
I’m probably way off mark, but it just hit me like that sparked sporadic thought I had about the human race itself.
If it was a 30 episode season I would not have minded so much that it got split in two. But 10 episodes is too short a season for my attention span.
The 10th episode wasn’t even that great and could have played a couple of more episodes….someone dropped the ball.
Did the momentum get destroyed? Yes
On the bright side maybe we will get a couple of “Razor” episodes. A COUPLE…not just one @$%@#$%!! episode in November.
I agree that a couple mid-season movies like Razor would be great and keep the momentum going. what did I say? Oh yeah, MOMENTUM! as in don’t lose it (I’m talking to you SciFi Channel)
what am I saying, I love this show no matter what
Ugh!
LOL! “Ugh!” pretty much encapsulates my initial reaction to the split-season news. It is not ideal, no doubt about that. I have very little idea of the machination at work forcing the split … but I would not be terribly surprised if lawyers had something to do with it. Will there come a day when shows with calibre comparable to BSG can be produced and delivered directly to the consumer (that is to say, us), and maybe even financed by us from the outset? Pipe-dream, I expect. But how nice to lose the networks, their schedules, their advertising (… and their lawyers).
Well they have an history about doing STUPID stuff like this before. The SciFi channel seems to think of their fans as a bunch of mindless dweebs. We stand or rather sit and wait for their leavings. They have managed (how I have trouble figuring out how to start production of some really great programing. Then those in charge, shortly after getting their fans “hooked” on real entertainment decide to mess with the fan base and either completely delete or shift the good stuff around so that it has to fail.
This seems to be the SciFi channel’s modus operandi. There to too little good programing that is not just a rehash of an existing program that might have been pretty good in the begining but is coppied to death. You might ahve heard there is probably a new Law and Order series in the works (Parking Enforcement) about the trials and tribulations of the “meter readers” and those the ticket, is expected to expand to Traffic Court as a mid season fill in.
I for one really enjoyed BSG and looked forward to season four. I for technical reasons lost the first two shows before I had a chance to view them and was going to wait and get the DVD, now I expect that I’ll just wait and keep reading blogs to find out who the last Cylon is and forgo watching any more and certainly NOT spend any $$ for the series DVDs.
I have had a lot of dis-appointment from this bunch and I think I’ll just go back to books and forget the SciFi channel.
That is in the end the only way to get to that bunch of dopes the do the programing and scheduling.
Just my $0.02 worth.
Bruce
I’ve never watched it, but then again, it is fantasy / almost Sci-Fi, isn’t it?
Folks, after watching the last episode for the “season” last night I’m even more angry at the so-called Sci Fi channel. I propose to all angry fans out there: Boycott all advertisers on their channel. The best way to hit these jerks is to hit them where it counts: $$$$$$. I’m composing a letter and asking all the folks in my TGIF club to sign it before I mail it into the Sci Fi channel. If you feel the same way, go for it! Frack them! So Say WE ALL!!!!!!
SciFi is running the very real risk that their viewers will be so put off by this pointless abuse of their affections, that when they do deign to let the fans see the final 10 eps, they won’t bother to tune in.
As proof, look at the numbers from “Lost”, which was the top show until it took a year sabbatical and now is a mere average show on prime time. I know that I didn’t bother to pick up watching it when it finally came back. SemiFi (because they certainly arent scientific) is ticking off their fans - notoriously fickle - for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Sybil,
Let’s not forget that it’s a fraking TV show
Shockwave,
You can’t really compare Lost with BSG becuase this is BSG’s final season. People will still tune in to see the final 10 eps, unlike Lost which expected viewers to stay interested in their endless plot loops that go nowhere. BSG has a light at the end of the tunnel
Hey Bruce,
Only 2 more years now, and it was 2 seasons split into 3 (16 eps each rather than 24) so there’s only 32 episodes left, not that many.
You gotta get this show on DVD, its really awesome, and of the 1000 questions raised, 950 of them have been answered so far
But Rob, what is the black, killer smoke monster and the invisible dinosaur??
Believe it or not, that’s what’s driving me absolutely nuts. If they would answer those two questions, I’d be happy about the other 48 left unsaid!! … I think.
It is rather distracting to me. Everything else does seem to come together though, as you point out!
What more can you really add to what has been said.?
Yes SciFi you got me, I will be back in Feb 2009 for the final ten episodes, after that I will not bother investing the time into anthing SciFi comes up with.
By the way, How many BSG fans are really going to skip the show to catch a baseball/football game. It is not like BSG never had a fall season.
I’m one who doesn’t have Sci Fi on cable, so I’ve had to watch it on SciFi Channel’s site. They are such idiots. They inserted commercials for Wanted like 10 seconds prior to where the commercial break really was. So Adama would be halfway into a word and the Wanted ad played, then it would come in and conclude the scene immediately.
Oh and Sci Fi started this clever thing with delaying their web viewing for a whole week, so I perpetually had to stay away from spoilers.
Season 4 Episode 10, “Revelations” sure seemed to be a series concluder. Is it possible Sci Fi has a contingency plan to just not renew BSG for “the final 10″? There was no hook there to make me want to come back. Nothing unresolved except the final cylon, who at this point holds little fascination for me since they’ve arrived at earth.
I agree with JC. Why bother with the final episodes except to find out the identity of the final cylon? There’s no new tale to tell unless they invent a new destination for the human race (yawn). Sure, I’ll watch next season but much of the suspense has been lifted.
SciFi and the BSG investors may have made a late decision about adding 10 more eps, hence the option to split the season. If so it was a bad decision. It seems better business to make 15 episodes in a row than split up 20.
I still love(d) the show. I just hope they have 10 episodes worth of real material.
If you’ve given up on the Sci-Fi Channel, don’t worry. Stay tuned here ’cause you know we’ll keep you up to date with the story of the rag tag fleet!
Most of you are very passionate about BSG so it must be great..Again another show I haven’t seen yet…
Yes I was living under a rock….before anyone asks…
I just pray they don’t just ‘fade to black’ after this darned wait!
Remember Journeyman? It ended too soon, but it ended with class and style and no one ever used the phrase “jump the shark” in relation to it. On the other hand, Jericho was brought up from the grave and never was the same. I was shouting “Kill it, put it out of its misery!” before CBS ran it’s 2nd mini season out. Then we have Smallville whose heart someone needs to drive a stake through.
I’ve seen series end with closure but not finality…there are always questions. Third Watch is an example. I’m FINE with exactly where BSG has left us. I think Planet of the Apes was great with a final question rather than a bunch of sequels.
What do we need to know? Unless “the final cylon” was self-aware the whole time, and somehow manipulated events–who really cares? What difference does it make? OK one question, what is the nature of the final 4 (Saul is older than the other cylons)? And I didn’t mention the Opera House because I really don’t get the big mystery. It’s like asking “how does the dream end?” It’s a frakkin dream, what does it matter?
S4 Ep 10 SPOILER
Was a bit taken aback how the humans and cylons went from hostage-killing and airlock-threatening to just “zap” get along; Kara & Anders standing next to each other. How they reconciled identities was done poorly. And none of the Final Four besides Saul seemed to emphasize that they were not self aware until recently, AND have no programming that has kicked in–they are otherwise the same people they have always been. But Kara standing next to Anders with no problem seemed a little hokey.
Bruce, do you mean that they have the “final 10″ in the can at this time? Weren’t they affected by the writer’s strike?
You speak the truth.
Yep, Season 4 ended. Season 5 will pick up, something in 2009.
So one can easily get even with Sci-Fi for this:
Don’t watch the final 10 episodes on TV, and download them off the internet when they’re all finished.
They wanna play hardball, so can we. =)
I guess that BSG will last until all the enemies of the human race (in bsg
are gone.And that could take a while…
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