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Battlestar Galactica DVD Movie In the Works? 202

Posted by CowboyNeal from the those-other-starbucks dept.
Philias writes "Although Battlestar Galactica has been going down in ratings and has yet to get picked up for another season, the sales of its DVDs has got Universal thinking of a Direct-To-Video Movie. GeekMonthly.com is reporting that plans are afoot for a film that will bridge the gap between Galactica and the new spinoff 'Caprica.' The film would be shot in March during the usual hiatus between seasons. The big difference between this and the mini-series and other seasons would be that this would be sold on DVD before being aired on the SciFi channel."
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Battlestar Galactica DVD Movie In the Works? More

Battlestar Galactica DVD Movie In the Works?

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  • Interesting (Score:4, Funny)

    by agent dero ( 680753 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @10:27AM (#17408518) Homepage
    "plans are afoot for a film that will bridge the gap between Galactica and the new spinoff 'Caprica.' The film would be shot in March during the usual hiatus between seasons."

    "Unfortunately, nobody will be paid for any part of it." [slashdot.org]

  • No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by guidryp ( 702488 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @10:30AM (#17408542)
    I am a huge fan of BSG, and have watched every episode since the mini series, but I am not surprised the ratings are in decline. This season has lost it's way. Baltar was great when he was among the humans with the cylon in his head frakking with his brain. Now among the cylons he is quite uninteresting.

    Other than that they really seem to be pushing the preachy morality play of the week. I think the listened too much to the critics who liked them touching "real issues" and now they have gone overboard on the "real issues" and the story and characters seem to be suffering, so much so that I have a hard time buying their actions. It is just not as good this season. I hope they get back to form soon.

    They shouldn't try to drag this on endlessly, when the story is over they should stop and not inject filler seasons that increasingly make it unrealistic. I would rather have 3 or 4 good season ended properly rather than dragged out mediocre 5 or 6 seasons.

    I expect modding down from fans who will claim it is better than ever.

    • Re:No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @10:34AM (#17408562) Journal

      Baltar was great when he was among the humans with the cylon in his head frakking with his brain. Now among the cylons he is quite uninteresting
      I find with season 3 that the episodes which spend more time on the Cylon base ship are more interesting. It seems that without Baltar, the human survivors are just much less interesting than the Cylons...

      • Re:No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Altima(BoB) ( 602987 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @11:13AM (#17408764)

        I find with season 3 that the episodes which spend more time on the Cylon base ship are more interesting. It seems that without Baltar, the human survivors are just much less interesting than the Cylons...
        I dunno, I feel the opposite way on this. The cylons were most imposing and effective as antagonists around the begining of the series, when they were mostly faceless (Just the imposing base stars and fighters seen) and were making small, insidious encroachments on organic humanity, like Sharon. "33" was especially effective because even their tactics seemed like brute force mechanical thinking with infinite patience.

        Now they seem too human, too emotionally vulnerable and the base star's interior just seems like a space that's too large and relaxing. And seeing base stars filled with Xena's and Tricia Helfer's is somewhat detracting. Though the cylons I really really like are the Dean Stockwell ones and the Grace Park ones. Whereas Lucy Lawless' and Tricia Helfer's cylon characters have grown somewhat flat to me, the other two mentioned represent a lot more of the sadistic cylon determination (Stockwell) and the schitzophrenic identity crisis that organic cylons are bound to have (All those Sharons)

        I listen to the podcast commentaries a lot and Ronald D Moore, the producer, openly acknowledges a lot of these issues, that whatever cylon sets they built wouldnt never live up to peoples' imaginations and that revealing more and more about the cylons was always simply too tempting for them as authors. I can appreciate that, but I still think they were perhaps incorrect choices.

        What I think they should do with this current arc they are doing is to give Baltar back to the Galactica. The only problem with that is considering how enthusiastically they've ejected people out of airlocks for less, keeping him alive on Galactica would be difficult to do believably. Maybe strand him on the algea planet with someone like the Chief... Also, while another election episode would be rather dull, Laura has stayed in powr through so many unlikely twists that to remove her from power within the fleet would put her character in an interesting position.

        For the record, I still think it's the best drama on television, and easily soars above the 99% of TV that's just utter cultural garbage.

        • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

          by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @12:11PM (#17409122)
          Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • Yeah, those are good points. If the writers were really daring, and they've been daring in the past, spend a few episodes where that reversal is far more explicit, and the humans really are the bad guys for a while. Make the humans commit acts of genocide against the cylons while the cylons become terrified. They came close to that with the bio-weapon story arc, and seemed to come to their senses/humanity when they decided not to, but it didn't really feel like the reversal of roles was being fleshed out.

            (J

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by JWW ( 79176 )
            Yeah, Adama's actions seem cold (you do know however that he WILL back down anyway), but ask youself this. If the series were actually real and a very powerful force we about to find Earth, what action would you want? You'd want to see the nukes fly, and for Earth to be safe.

            You see, so much of this depends (as some other sci-fi show once said) on you point of view....

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by TheRealFixer ( 552803 )
          Some spoilers within.

          I agree with you. The more we see of the Cylons, the more uninteresting they become. They joke, they display sarcasm, they fall in love, they have faith, they get angry, jealous, etc. They've taken all the mystery out of them, along with all the menace. They're just annoying zealots who look and act EXACTLY like humans, except they can't be "killed" while they're near a resurrection ship.

          The numerous interpersonal conflict-driven stories lately were getting pretty tiresome, and real

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Altima(BoB) ( 602987 )
            The show has been slow pretty frequently, but that's why I think it suits the DVD format more than a weekly TV format. I watched the first season just from the DVDs, and they were great, and it makes it tough to watch them on a week-by-week basis. Though the first 3 (or 4, depending on how you number them) episodes of season 3 were really rich and well paced.

            I personally think that the current Adama / Starbuck / Anders storyline is the weakest one they've done. It's predictable, and it's just not satisfying

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by Blakey Rat ( 99501 )
            The hybrid-thing that controls the base ship is such an obvious and blatant rip-off of the psychics in Minority Report, I simply can't stand seeing it on screen. Ron Moore's a good creative guy, he doesn't need to rely on stealing to produce a good show... I mean, what's going on here?
            • What the hell? How is my post a "troll?" The moderation here is WAY out of control.

              Is there a SINGLE person who's seen both recent BSG and Minority Report and didn't make the obvious connection between the two?
            • I would say that Minority Report then is ablatant rip off of the Guild Captains, or whatever they were in Dune, that guild that had the pilots floating in the big vats of water, spice laced so they could use the psychic powers it provided to guide the ships through space, and they orginally men but evolved into something else.

              to quote wikipedia"The Spacing Guild has a monopoly on imperial banking and interstellar travel: with the use of melange, Guild Navigators are the only beings capable of piloting the m

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by iCEBaLM ( 34905 )
            Although, the whole Baltar is-he-or-isn't-he thing is getting dragged on too far long, and I can't see a way for that to be answered that ISN'T disappointing.

            It's already been answered. If he was a cylon he would have been infected when he went on the infected base star. He wasn't. If that wasn't enough confirmation for you then how about this: why would the cylons let him go to the infected base star knowing he would return if he could be infected?

            • If he was a cylon he would have been infected when he went on the infected base star

              He was in an isolation suit on the infected base star, so he wouldn't have been infected either way. Other Cylons could not have been infected, but they were unwilling to go because they had no idea what it was that was causing the problems.

              why would the cylons let him go to the infected base star knowing he would return if he could be infected?

              The other Cylons would not be aware if he was a member of the final five. They have already stated that they don't know what the final five look like.

              However, he developed a Cylon detector; don't you think he would have put himself through it? Also, Cylon's spines

          • They're just annoying zealots who look and act EXACTLY like humans

            I liked them better when they were not like humans. It gave a good bit of separation... the 'Us and Them' bit. As well, it was good to keep us off balance a bit since we didn't/couldn't understand them or know what motivated them, and therefore we didn't know what they would do next. To keep us on edge. When it gets predictable, it gets boring.

        • The problem I have is both sides seem less interesting now. The Baltar dynamic has been removed from the humans and replaced with melodrama; who will Starbuck Frak next? Yippee: Days of our Battlestar lives.

          A lot of the sense of mystery has been removed from the cylons with Baltar wandering among them.

          As far as it being the best Drama on TV, "Deadwood", and "The Wire" were/are much better dramas which much more believable characters. I am sure other people can list more. As a drama it would not be high on m
        • I call Bullshit with the "BSG ratings are falling" crowd

          From http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/search/article_display .jsp?vnu_content_id=1003223846 :
          -Respectable Start for Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica:
          The two-hour, third-season premiere of Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica was the top-rated cable series on Friday, Oct. 6, with a 1.8 household rating and 2.2 million viewers. Comparatively, however, that was still down by 900,000 viewers from the season two opener in July 2005 (3.1 million).

          So, they lost almo

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by rtrifts ( 61627 )
            BSG is on broadcast TV?

            I'm in Canada. Every one of my friends watches BSG religiously. Every single week.

            But not a single one of them watches it on Space. BSG is the reason for bittorrent. What's the adjusted ratings for bittorent users? :)

            As for the ratings discussion...they are not that bad nor at any sort of critical stage. Leave it to the Slashdot crowd to ignore the Direct To Video movie discussion and seize on the ratings speculation one-liner.

            As for the Iraq war parallels. They were strong, solid scr
            • I torrent some of them, and use media center to record the others.

              Here in Canada, Season 2 was aired several weeks later than in the US, so we pretty much HAD to download if we didn't want some asshole at work to spoil it for us! Things are a little better now, but they still aren't getting any advertising into me thanks to media center :)

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by gilroy ( 155262 )
              Blockquoth the poster:

              What's the adjusted ratings for bittorent users? :)


              Sci Fi doesn't care. Unless you're putting eyeballs on advertisements, you're irrelevant in their calculus. That's the way TV works.

              • Sci Fi doesn't care. Unless you're putting eyeballs on advertisements, you're irrelevant in their calculus. That's the way TV works.

                Sci Fi doesn't, but Universal should. The torrent factor is probably one of the reasons why the DVDs sell so well - I get BSG off of BitTorrent because I hate the fixed schedules and advertising of traditional television. But I also buy the DVD sets as soon as they're released, because I want to support the series and get them in a nicer format that feels more permanent.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by murdocj ( 543661 )
          Caveat: I haven't seen the latest episode.

          I agree, the Cylons were at their best when they were mysterious. We didn't know what they looked like, what their powers were, or even whether they had a hotline to God. They spoke with one voice, and as the teaser for each episode reminded us, "they have a plan".

          Now they are a bunch of confused humanoids who don't know the meaning of life or what they want to do when they grow up. They argue amongst themselves. They order the mechanical cylons around like a bu

          • I haven't listened to the RDM podcasts, partially for fear of spoilers, but perhaps I should. Thanks for bringing up this interesting info.

            Do the human colony worlds circle a single sun, or are they scattered in space? The writers tossed these out, and no one, including RDM, had an answer. (actually, the last question RDM said that he thought that although it was astronomically unlikely, the human worlds did orbit a single sun... but he wasn't real definite on that).

            In "Home, Part 2" (s2e07), didn't th

          • I've noticed that too, and for the most part I hoped, and still hope that those sorts of unknowns are limited to things that really don't affect the plot much (Like the specific situ of the colony worlds or whether the cylons have a planet to themselves). A lot of those unknows are typical of how those shows develop and come about and it's interesting that Ronald D Moore makes that stuff public knowledge, sort of revealing the lack any whiz bang secrets for the most part. And when that formula crumbles, wel

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Mspangler ( 770054 )
        This whole plot always was limited. The Humans are pushed off into deep space. They have no supply, no refit for the ships, and nowhere they can stop. Galactica needs 6 months in the space dock at least. It's falling apart. They are running out of fighters, Raptors, and everything else. It's not sustainable for a long series.

        The only options the humans have is slow death by attrition, quick death by Cylon, or jump as far and fast as possible away from the cylons and try to resettle, hoping that by the time

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by i_ate_god ( 899684 )
      story line is fine, it will probably end in a fourth season.

      The ratings are falling because who the hell watches TV on a friday night? Wait till the show is moved to 10pm sunday, then we'll see ratings go up.
    • Yea but with SciFI in charge your going to get 8 seasons with the last four poorly done, and the last season with a cliff hanger, like farscape did because it was forced to end to early.

      though I do like this season more so than the last. I do hope tough that they end it sooner rather than later. I also hope Caprica deals with the creation of the cylons it's a good way to continue the story without repeating the same old story lines.

    • Naw, you're right. The season started off strongly and the last episode was ok, but the eps in between were crap. It was like "Black Market" from season 2. Total crap. Anything showing the cylons inside their basestars shows too much, they did indeed kill Baltar's character, the ep that was a 1 hour excuse to kill off Kat was pathetic, the Apollo/Starbuck romance? Please. Oh, and then there was ep with the old pilot or something. Zzzz. Boxing? Fucking boxing? Apparently RDM is off working on the s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by anagama ( 611277 )
        I agree with you -- the boxing episode was barely watchable and I was sorely tempted to use the FF button (I watched the iTunes version). Lately, it seems more and more like a soap opera set in space. Now, the whiny BS might be appropriate background material (it is reasonable to think that conflict would result over relationships) and it probably deserves some play (you know, they need to throw in some chick stuff), but it shouldn't be the front matter in sci-fi. The last thing I want to see is somethin

      • After the first two or three episodes this season I can't watch it any more (though I try occasionally). The litany of issues I have with it are numerous. What started killing it was my inability to suspend disbelief any more...

        • Things like the pilots, Starbuck in particular, can do any job: pilot, infanteer, reconnaissance, special agent, etc... bullshit! They are all specialities and take experience and training. That is why a pilot flies a plane and doesn't lead soldiers in the field.
        • What the fuck

    • Re:No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @11:43AM (#17408918)
      That's one opinion, and it's not a horrible one, but there is another way to look at things.

      Every episode the writers add new canon. They reveal new aspects of characters, back-story, colonial religion, Cylon goals, and secrets about Earth. The problem is that this show started off with a huge bang, and due to its uniqueness and high quality, a lot of viewers "fell in love" with various aspects of the characters or plot or even style of presentation. Today, it's virtually inevitable that every episode will introduce some element to "taint" the adoration and respect viewers have. Starbuck's recent behaviour? Helo's? Discovering the Cylons want Earth as well?

      I guarantee that when the "Final Five" have their faces revealed, for every fan who says "that's neat!", there'll be some disgruntled soon-to-be-ex-fan who throws his hands up in the air and says "that's not what I would have done".

      The show continues to be a very high-quality, well-written and well-acted one. I expect the ratings problem is due much more to unrealistic expectations of many, many fans that BSG will contain nothing but plot elements THEY adore.

      Try caring more about what BSG IS instead of what it ISN'T, each episode. What it certainly is, is the best show on television.
      • While you are right, the biggest problem I have with BSG is that it's a Drama that used to be Sci-Fi.

        Shitdrummer.
      • I just hate episodes that...

        * Use elections for the whole episode, make it a minor event taking 10% of air time.
        * Court room type episodes are also boring, make it fast, like StarShip troopers.
        * Fake Reality TV , come-on, its a fad, dont use it to add 'realism' and something to relate to.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lumpy ( 12016 )
        Ratings problems explained....

        1 - ratings for ALL shows have been tanking. OVerall the show is still doing good compared to the other shows.

        2 - tv viewers are geting sick of the have a show or two and then reruns for a month crap they pull lately.

        3 - Filler episodes... the frequency of unrelated filler shows is increasing in BSG... Nobody cares that during a silly boxing fight they cover some love crap or other useless filler to satisfy the viewers while shooting an episode quickly and cheaply and using
      • Oh God. Now I'm really dreading the revelation of the final five. I have a sick feeling it's going to really screw with people's heads ("HOW THE FRACK COULD THAT GUY HAVE BEEN A CYLON...HE/SHE's LIKE THE MAIN HUMAN CHARACTER"). Absolutely dreading it. :(

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jim Hall ( 2985 )

      At the end of last season, I downloaded the BSG podcast for the first time. Big mistake in this case. The podcast was about 90 minutes of the writers room, and in those 90 minutes it became increasingly clear to me that the BSG writers have no frakking clue as to where they are taking the show. They didn't have an overall arc to the show; they mapped out only the next "pod" (that's "mini-season" to the rest of us) and were clear that they'd end it on a note where you could take the next "pod" in any numb

    • Worked for Voyager, right? Oh wait.....
    • I just want them to explain the Cylon belief system, which apparently is perfectly ok with genocide of an entire *species*, but not execution of a prisoner. WTF!?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by solios ( 53048 )
      My bitchlist is similar.

      1. Baltar on the basestar is incredibly boring. I think a lot of this has to do with the writers dropping the interesting disease/genocide angle in favor of several episodes of the 'hybrid' mumbling. Combined with the cheapass set design and the "inside the Cylons" aspect of season three isn't just a boring letdown, it's a cheap boring letdown. The Cylons were better off as faceless killbot "less is more" things - this attempt to plumb their psyche feels like a set-dressed coffee
    • As much as it might suck for us hardcore Sci-Fi fans, BSG has a large female following. Larger than any previous show of this kind. RDM and the other writers are aware of same, and much of what we see that makes us go "huh" are directly for that audience. All one need do is go to the BSG forum at Television without Pity and you will see wild declarations of love for Helo, requests for more views of Apollo with his shirt off, etc.....

      Some of the drama stuff might turn our stomachs, but I think RDM will take

    • Season 1 was heart stopping from first to last. The battles and pressures were relentless. The show matched the beat of its percussive sound track. Recently, that has not been the case.

  • How to be stupid (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @10:32AM (#17408548)
    I stopped watching BSG this season after the first episode. Not because the story sucks - in fact I really liked that first episode, it was brilliant - but because the picture sucks.

    I learned last year that UniversalHD runs the BSG reruns after 6 months or so, in high def. So, now I am just going to wait it out until the show is available in HD.

    I think Universal is just frackin stupid to run the premier episodes in crap-def on the sci-fi channel. If there is a single demographic most likely to own HDTVs and actively seek out HD shows, it is the one that watches BSG. They need to get their shit together and simulcast the show in HD, not make us wait 6+ months for it.
    • I am glad I am not the only one thinking that too. It infuriates me that they don't air it on UHD at the same time as SciFi. I am growing very weary of watching low def year after year after year for no reason. Low def on a hidef TV is horrible. And it is even worse when it is 16x9 lowdef- it is like watching a crappy postage stamp on a 60" screen.
      • In reality, this is what they should do. I myself do not have a HDTV yet and I have to watch on regular TV.
        • Eeew- sorry to hear that.

          I have had hidef for about 3 years now (Samsung DLP), plus HD-TiVo. Once you get into hidef, you quickly get frustrated by lowdef- which looks much worse on a hidef TV than on a lowdef one. Lowdef DVD is not bad, though (Netflix, of course).

          I suppose it will work in your favor if you can wait another year- real HD content choice should explode on the scene by then. Meanwhile, we have to settle for the few stations available on cable or Sat + locals (plus the few sports, premium m

  • What did they expect? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @10:32AM (#17408552) Homepage Journal

    I'm not sure what Sci-Fi expects ratings to do when they run what amounts to half a season of episodes, call it a season, and run them the better part of a year apart. TV audiences of the TiVo generation have shown that they're not content to just watch reruns for long periods of time. With decreasing new episode counts, the problem of ratings getting harder and harder to come by shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

    If Sci-Fi wants a show to succeed, they should try a novel approach: go back to a 30+ episode season. These silly little 10- and 13-episode runs are barely long enough to start getting into the action, then bam: 3 month hiatus....

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 )
      Season 1 had 13 episodes.
      Season 2 had 22 episodes, with a long hiatus.
      Season 3 has 22 episodes, with a four-week hiatus.

      A "normal" season for a television show is 26 episodes.

      Don't get me wrong... I'd love to see year-round new episodes, 52 times a year, but it doesn't work that way in TV. Further, what SciFi has done with BSG is increasingly more like "normal" shows, so there's no trending towards "worse", I'm afraid.

      Another element to the downward ratings movement may very well be that SciFi started Seas
      • You're right about season one, although the small number is due to it being introduced late in the season. Seasons 2 and 3, however, each contain only 20 episodes. That seems to be SciFi Channel's preferred number. Stargate SG-1 went from 22 eps per season on Showtime to 20 on SciFi. I can remember when a full season of Star Trek was 26 episodes. Those were the days.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ubrgeek ( 679399 )
      Not sure about the validity of the numbers you're citing, but frankly, that seems to be a growing trend among the "alt-cable" channels like SCI-FI, FX, etc. FX is the worst, IMO. I got tired of waiting forever between seasons of NipTuck, The Shield, etc. (Not to mention canceling "Over There" *grin*). My wife and I just stopped caring about the characters with such huge gaps between seasons. I've never really watched The Sopranos, but I understand the same thing was something its fans complained about. Add

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      There are more shows out there now than ever before. In the long ago, when a few networks controlled the airwaves, and we had to watch the shows when we were told to, it was kind of important for the a particular series to produce many hours of programming. This resulted in many negative effects, due to the fact that the budget and staffing was not sufficient for the amount of content. This meant we got clip shows, elevator episodes, and other sub par content whose sole purpose was to fill time. Also, r
    • I'd rather have an excellent four-hour episode (like the pilot) once a year than a new hour of crappy filler every week. Of course it's a lot harder to sell soap on the once-a-year schedule, and that's the bottom line.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        I think you hit a key point there and should have been modded insightful for it. BSG is basically a soap style. Each episode leads into the next one in a flow. Gaps in that flow are distracting and push the audience away. Non-episodic shows do not hold up well in reruns at all, and the big networks know this. That's why soap operas run one hour episodes five days a week, with reruns only on New Year's Day, Christmas Day, and Thanksgiving Day. Maybe one or two others.

        That's the style of show BSG is

  • no wonder ratings are declining! (Score:3, Informative)

    by CheechBG ( 247105 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @10:33AM (#17408560) Homepage
    I just hit the scifi.com main page, and there is not ONE mention of BSG anywhere on the page. If you stop advertising the show, only the die-hards will watch and it will descend into cult status.

    • Farscape (Score:2, Informative)

      by pkbarbiedoll ( 851110 )
      Farscape suffered a similar untimely fate. The show was wonderous and innovative to most who saw it, yet in the middle of season four Sciffy announced that the second half of season four was actually season five, and killed the show with a final movie (after much hellraising from Farscape fans).
  • I love RDM's Battlestar Galactica. It's excellent science fiction. The very best we have, I'd say. With that established however, I must make the point that I can see the series dying a horrible death due to inundation. Sure, the show is great and awesome. It's a beacon in the science fiction TV realm, but apparently it's ratings are slipping. Which sucks because its such a darn good show and i'd hate to see it go. Despite the ratings drop they've announced a spinoff series before BSG even really got its ge

  • Well I'd Watch It... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nbannerman ( 974715 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @11:10AM (#17408744)
    I'll be honest; the ratings in the UK would be a lot higher if we didn't have such a huge wait. Whilst you in the US are enjoying Series 3, we haven't even started yet.

    I watch the US versions, a day after they air. You can work out the rest for yourself. But there is no point viewing on Sci-Fi UK when I've already seen it. If we had parity with the US, or at least something more sensible like a week, the viewing figures would be much higher!
    • Ha ha.....BSG is on hiatus until Jan 21 and even then it's moving....to SUNDAY! Ick.

      • The move the Sunday is great, for me. See, even some of us geeks have something called a social life meaning that we're generally not home to catch the show on Friday nights at 9:00PM. Sunday night, on the other hand, means that I'll actually get to catch the show since nothing happens on Sundays anyway.
    • We get it in HD from the start, and for other shows (for example SG-1, where we start the second half of this season on 9th Jan) we even get them before the US.

      btw. They're on Sky One here not SciFi (SciFi UK is mostly a horror film channel, with the occasional repeats of V and Logans Run).
      • Yeah, I realised afterwards about the channel issue. Oops, my bad. Shows you how up to date I am with what is actually shown on what. That Arquette (sp?) lass has Medium on Sci-Fi UK which can be a bit of a laugh.

        Still, is HD enough for me to re-watch BSG? I'll be honest, probably not. By the time the HD versions hit our screens, I'll be back to watching the second half of the series from the US....

      • (SciFi UK is mostly a horror film channel, with the occasional repeats of V and Logans Run).
        Don't forget "The Erotic Misadventures of the Invisible Man" Obviously it was H G Wells' original intent.
    • I'll trade you getting Battlestar Galactica at the same time as the USA for getting Doctor Who at the same time as the UK.

      • I'll trade you getting Battlestar Galactica at the same time as the USA for getting Doctor Who at the same time as the UK.

        I'll up that wager, I'll trade you getting Battlestar Galactica at the same time as the USA for getting Doctor Who AND Torchwood at the same time as the UK.

        Unfortunately, the reason Torchwood would never come to the US is because the censors in the US would throw a fit about the content of the show. Way to much swearing and sex. The show would have to pull a sex and the city, and b

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nvrrobx ( 71970 )
      Now you know how those of us in the United States feel about Doctor Who.

      I just spent two weeks in Europe, and BBC started an episode of Doctor Who, but I had to turn it off because it was a season ahead of where we are in the US. I didn't WANT to know that Rose was dead yet, damnit!
    • Do yourself a favor and DO NOT WATCH the boxing episode.

  • and.. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by BRUTICUS ( 325520 )
    Here's how I see it.

    The cylon bayships are showing WAY TOO MUCH. Its like going into Darth Vaders bathroom and watching him take off his mask and slap on some aftershave. Cylons were more interesting when it was a mystery what is going on inside there. When we knew just as much of the cylons as the humans did. Now we are watching the cylons run around in their underwear, and the bayships seem like a pretty cush place no?The scariest thing going on there is the digital lights that are unnecessarily being fla
  • "The X Files" series ended shortly after the movie. The box office failure of "Serenity" insured that the "Firefly" series would not be brought back. I suspect "The Simpsons" movie may prove to be a swan song also.
    • I'm surprised Serenity failed at the box office.. its storyline was a bit generic, but what isn't these days?

      Simpsons jumped the shark years ago and should have been killed a long time ago.. the recent episodes are getting painful to watch, they're so bad.

      Didn't know x files died after the movie.. the movie was nearly the first thing I saw - watched x files for a long time afterwards (seems like they did thousands of them because it took ages before they started repeating).

  • Loss of stargate as a lead-in (Score:4, Funny)

    by Joe The Dragon ( 967727 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @12:11PM (#17409124)
    Loss of stargate as a lead-in is pulling the ratings down.

  • Sadly... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by doit3d ( 936293 )
    ...changing the time slot like they did is a death sentence for the show, IMHO. Very sad, for it is one of the best sci-fi shows currently aired that is done well. We all know that studio executives have always lacked intelligence anyway, so it was expected.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dschuetz ( 10924 )
      ...changing the time slot like they did is a death sentence for the show, IMHO

      What? They moved it, what, AN HOUR!? Gimme a break.

      I think other posters have hit on one of the real reasons that ratings might have slipped: They decided to go against all the broadcast shows, during broadcast season. A bold move, but perhaps a bad idea -- especially with all the sci-fi / fantasy shows (lost, heroes, jericho, etc.) that are competing for viewer's eyeballs.

      (btw, I think they're moving it back to 10:00 in Januar

  • This Feels Too Familiar (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Atomm ( 945911 )
    Enterprise decided to follow the same storyline. They started bringing in moral elements of what is happening in the world around us. After 9/11, Enterprise had a whole season that mirrored everything that was happening because of 9/11.

    The new season of BSG did the exact same thing. They started focusing on the morality of the world around us. They had terriosts and suicide bombers.

    I'm sorry, but I watch SciFi because I want to escape from the problems we face in the world today. Didn't Universal learn anyt
  • This sucks. Except for Doctor Who, there's nothing else on television that I enjoy. I own all the BSG DVDs and will get the latest when it's issued. Anyhoo, there are a few problems I see the writers/producers having:

    1) The episodes are less balanced. I.e., they are more standalone episodes than before. IMHO, getting new viewers is very difficult if there's a lot of backstory needed to understand new episodes. For example, when X-Files was good it relied on some backstory. Regular viewers could be very inte
  • "bridge the gap between Galactica and the new spinoff 'Caprica'"

    There's one problem right there. Why is there a gap? Why is there a spinoff? Did the events on Caprica really warrant a spinoff? Could the Caprica story, in no way, remain integrated with the main storyline in some way? And if it couldn't, and it didn't really warrant a spinoff, why not just let it be and move on?

    Too many spinoffs these days - in the end, it merely divides focus (and money!) on the end of producers, actors, and audience al
    • "Caprica" is set 50 years before BSG, presumably right before the first Cylon War. My question is, how do you 'bridge a gap' going backwards? Have a movie set 20 years in the past first? I think this rumor is complete nonsense for that one simple fact alone.
      • "Caprica" is set 50 years before BSG, presumably right before the first Cylon War. My question is, how do you 'bridge a gap' going backwards? Have a movie set 20 years in the past first?


        With bad cliches and weak devices: time travel, flashbacks, or some events from the past that haven't mattered until now suddenly becoming pivotal points of the existing story (making the writers free to expand upon those past events).
  • I've borrowed the DVDs of the series from friends, but I have to say that I think they are way overpriced. I find is especially dorky that they release each half season for essentially the full price of other shows. I can buy a whole season of Stargate SG-1, an excellent show that has been on for 10 years, and it costs less than half of a season of BSG.

    I won't do it. It's a great show, and I'm glad to borrow it from people willing to fork out the dough. But it isn't worth it to me. And I think it's pro
  • I've heard Ronald D. Moore (the show's executive producer) say that his team does not own the film rights to Battlestar Galactica. The guys who owned the rights to the crappy 70s show sold off the TV rights but held on to the film rights for some reason. As a result RDM has publicly ruled out the possibility of making a BSG film in the past. I don't know if this applies to Direct to Video films, but if it does it makes this story unlikely.
  • Three things have made me kinda less enthused about BSG.

    This entire character driven story arch lately. Especially the shit between Starbuck and Apollo. Don't get me wrong I wanted to see them together since the Mini Series, but my god...that one boxing episode it was like one giant emo trip. All Apollo needed was a myspace to record his feelings on and the plot line would have been complete. They didn't need to dedicate an entire episode to boxing. Run it in the background along some other story arcs th

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by solios ( 53048 )
      Personally, I think Cost - in the sense of the show's budget - is the major issue with the series at the moment. Three or four AWESOME effects-heavy episodes followed by a bunch of tepid drama so irritating (sick of Starbuck And Apollo, really amazingly disappointed with the Cylon 'hybrid' and the Basestar as a whole) that I've gone back to watching Farscape.

      If you think the DVDs are a ripoff, you've obviously never bought anime. typically 20-30$ for four 22-24 minute episodes*, with shows typically being
    • One of the things that has made me cooler towards BSG, is that it lacks, ironically, one of the things I've hated about the original BSG: Humor.

      First season: Kewl! Seriousness! No disco music in space, no comedy relief robot antics, none of the (then)cornball jokes!
      Second season: Kewl. More seriousness, nice parallel with current events in the real world.
      Third season: Kewl? More seriousness, moving now into more oooh spooky booga booga mysticism.

      I mean, come on, put something in to lighten the mood! Yeah ye
  • How is anyone less than an addict going to remember to tune back in?

    Bill

  • Lose the shakeycam (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PhotoGuy ( 189467 ) on Saturday December 30, 2006 @06:28PM (#17411976) Homepage
    I loved the original series, but can't watch the new stuff because of the excess use of shakey cam. We *get* it, yes, it seems more "real" with shakey cam. But it's also very annoying and overused. If I want to turn my head in a jerky fashion, I will, do it by making something else on the screen interesting; don't make the camera do it for me. I find it very patronizing, pretentious, and faddish and I wish producers would stop using it. Let the material show its strength, unobscured by a shaky camera.

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