JMS & Co developed a series with a definite beginning, middle and end to be played over 5 years/seasons. They didn't think they'd get a 5th season, so they rushed the 4th to get the bulk of the story in - which buggered up the pace of the show, but in the end the story was told. They knew what they were doing.

With BSG wanting 5 seasons, their story too can have an end in sight. If they pack the last couple seasons worth of stories into season 4, it'll be like B5 all over again - hopefully they don't want this to happen because it'll just serve to bring an inconsistency in the pacing and story-telling that would detract from the previous three seasons. It'd be like watching BSG divided by 2, not squared.

But so far the writers have shown a depth in story-telling that I've not seen in a multi-season series since B5. They've got my trust because I enjoy what they've done and are doing with the characters, and they've given us answers while also raising more questions to drive the show from week to week.

There may be many things people don't like about BSG, just as there were with B5 - but I guess in the end you either enjoy it for what it is or not. The BSG writers seem to know what they're doing, so let them take you along for the ride - it only costs your time.

BTW, no probs MetalWater.

And we love it because RDM has a gift for writing stories in a familiar genre with a completely differnt and unique slant. Your standard spacebattle idea is nothing new. Your not fit to wipe Rons arse lol.

With DVD sales pretty high, I think the problem is so many people are down loading the show instead of watching it. I know I am. I am not prepared to wait months to watch it in the UK. Its time for the networks to realise that a new business model is required in the Broadband age. So mant people are now watchingg TV on their computers that a new way of business is required. I would pay to watch the show streaming, as long as it is the same time as the show. You could even put adverts in (shudder). I bought the season 1 dvd to show solidarity and I will buy 2; but times they are a changing and the networks need to keep up. Otherwise they will end up cancelling all shows.

Leave us alone Metalwater. In a time of war you would be shot as a discenter.

RD Moore and his writing team consistently knocked it out of the park in Season 1 and based on the Amazon data it still shows.

Seriously, are you on a constant caffeine & White Cross high while you type from the basement of the science building?! GODSDAMN.

While I'm hopeful for a full 5 year arc, I found my confidence a little shaken by the somewhat worrisome demeanor Sackhoff displayed in the radio interview from the last TB. (Anybody else remember that?) And it doesn't make sense to me that NBC isn't doing more to generate interest/ratings in this show. Where are all the replays?! It seems like I can't turn on the TV without one of the damn Stargate shows being on. Why can't this happen for BSG?

That said, I have NO faith in Bonnie Hammer and the Sci Fi Channel crew who generally have taste for picking projects out the ass. Seriously, even as we speak I'm sure the marketing geniuses there are planning MANSQUITO: THE SERIES thinking THAT will be the latest salvation of the channel. Followed of course by ALIEN APOCALYPSE 2 since all the world is clamoring for that as well! (insert Rodney Dangerfield eye roll here...)

I agree with you about the "Caprica" series--not much news or hype about it yet, not holding my breath. I guess is S4 is greenlit, then it could be true that the direct to dvd thing is for some linkage to the spinoff. But you nailed it: Why not just broadcast it anyway before releasing to dvd? Surely SciFi could afford to give up a Saturday evening slot from one of the hundreds of atrocious "originals", or one night of wrestling [What the FRAK is wrestling doing on a scifi channel, anyway?]. So, I concur that this direct-to-dvd concept is troubling, since it makes no sense. An extra 2 hour feature is fine, but why they would not even be considering an airing on the channel first is beyond me.

This move looks like a marketing ploy to expand the show's reach to new viewers before Season 4. Direct- to-DVD movies are typically marketed to an entirely broader audience, exceeding the number of viewers who watch the show (e.g. Netflix, Amazon and the like). Studios like Paramount have launched their own DVD Premiere Groups to cash in on the market. We're just looking at a new paradigm IMHO. Also, Wikipedia reports that"...DVD Premieres have become a substantial source of revenue for movie studios, as DVDP's have collectively grossed over $3 billion the last few years." http://tinyurl.com/y9t2l6

Add to that the fact that Dr. Who sucks nuts, and you have a situation where the audience shrinks.

Yes, the quality of the show has declined a bit (like Ron Moore's fixation on metaphors over actual plot) but its still one of the best on TV. I think the new Sunday timeslot will help quite a bit.

"they need to turn her baby into Dr. Zee from Galactica 1980... a truly intriguing character"

{snip}

"And if we get rid of Apollo and bring back Zack, maybe we'll have a chance at getting a lead hero who's truly macho!!!"

-MetalWater

Wow MetalWater, you're a visionary like no other... I already read the scripts for season 3.5, and you're right on target. After Adama nukes the temple, the fleet moves on and comes across a casino planet operated by a race of Daggits. The colonials stop there for some much needed R and R, but things get complicated when they discover that the Daggits actually run a secret underground mining operation using human slaves. Both Zack and Starbuck's father (played by Dirk Benedict) have been in the mine for years, but they lead an uprising, overpowering the Daggits (with the help of a one of them, who ends up joining the fleet and becoming best friends with Boxey, who returns to take a leading role in episode 3.14).

Starbuck meets Zarek (who's decided he's sick of politics) and they both become viper pilots. They honor Apollo and Starbuck (who were killed in the temple back in 3.12) by taking on their call signs. Meanwhile, through a rift in the space-time continuum, Sharon's baby grows up in 12 months and becomes Zee! Zack and Boxey hook up with him and together they invent a time machine and go back and try to warn the colonies of the Cyclons' surprise attack from years before.

Also, for season 3.5, Moore and company get rid of the complex characters, storylines, and dialogue, and return to simpler themes where there aren't so many shades of gray. No more deception, alcoholism, or other confusing topics. The bad guys will always be bad and the good guys will always be good.

Yes! It'll be Galactica 1980 all over again!

But I agree with you about the characters... I mean, if Billy and Sharon#1 had lasted from the mini-series into Season 2 or if Kat and Ellen Tigh had lasted from Season 1 into Season 3, maybe I'd feel differently. But since those characters only "lasted 5 to 8 episodes", and never had and significance whatsoever, they were truly disposable.

And it was so obvious what would happen to them. We knew that Billy was gonna bite it weeks in advance. I figured the moment they introduced Ellen Tigh that she'd eventually collaborate with her husband to save her husband only to be executed by him for it. And Kat... it was clear in season 1 that she'd eventually sacrifice herself and succumb to a radiation overdose. We all knew it was coming weeks in advance!

It's also obvious that had original Galactica lasted, they woulda killed off Starbuck and Apollo in season 2. It's a shame Moore doesn't have the guts to kill off characters that have been in more than a few episodes.

P.S. Don't even pretend to understand the magnitude of what happened when Wildstar rammed my ship near the end of Space Cruiser Yamato season 1. You had to be there.

Regarding that Sackhoff interview, there really wasn't a whole lot to it. The two jocks are big BSG fans and were obviously lavishing adoration on Katie. (Which is easy to do!)

The most interesting segment for me was when they began to discuss the future of her character and the show. I think it's fairly well known now that Starbuck will be disappearing sometime towards the end of this season. Where this places Starbuck and Katie's job on the show is unknown = apparently she's bound by a confidentiality agreement. When asked on how the show was doing, she seemed to get a little bummed out. She said that Ron Moore definitely wants a 5 year arc. That was the plan. But you could tell there was some worry in her voice regarding the 4th season. Considering all the critical praise, the word-of-mouth, the downloads, and the Peabody(!) - I was a little shocked.

Unfortunately for me, Katie Sackhoff has a sexy as hell mad-cackle laugh that reminds me of an ex-girlfriend. ;)

CRITICAL PRAISE. This means free advertising and marketing to potential viewers who are not currently watching the show. It does not guarantee ratings, but it does help the marketing budget. The question of consideration is will it be enough to help "at this juncture." Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

And, I agree about her laugh! Comcast just recently added Universal HD to the lineup here, so I am getting to see some back episodes in HiDef! In one of them was a scene with Starbuck in a swarming Viper/Raider dogfight, she flames one and then they have a camera angle from outside the ship, back and above her left shoulder. She looks back to her left at the flaming Raider, and lets that laugh fly! It was such a natural moment, and such a sexy laugh, that I watched that few seconds a couple more times!

And, as this is likely to be the last BSG TB until near the end of January: Cheers to Mr. Nice Gaius, chrth, NoHubris, Red Ned Lynch, Wonkabar, President Baltar, BillyEveryTeen (I am bad with names, so sorry if I did not get you in this list!) for the interesting conversations this year, and look forward to more--hopefully 5 full seasons' worth!

Happy New Year to All.

Congrats on your HiDef. Happy viewing in the '07 as long as it includes plenty of BSG!

Cheers!

Then season 3 began, some wingnuts complain about the parallels being made to Iraq. Cry me a river you over-sensitive whiners.

Here's the truth: The ratings decline has been fairly constant and steady; it's not due to any of the above events or because fans don't like the imperfect characters (personally, I don't especially care for the new Starbuck and Apollo love story, but I don't think it's ruining the show).

The show was dark and risky from the beginning and it's maintained its quality (even though a few episodes aren't as strong as others). But ultimately it's a show that can't sustain its audience by its very nature for two basic reasons:

Firstly, much of the audience tuned in because BSG handled TV scifi in such a different direction: quasi-realistic space-physics, believable characters and situations, long story-arcs filled with complex stories in a dark, gritty world of endless shades of gray. No other TV scifi show has ever done what BSG has done (no offense Babylon5 fans, but it's much simpler and sillier than BSG, despite its long story-arc).

And, many of the people who tuned in to BSG aren't the kinds of people who care enough about sci-fi to watch it every week to keep up with a huge story-arc. Most of the people I know who watched the mini-series and most of season1 aren't scifi fans, and they simply couldn't maintain their interest in any scifi show, no matter how good it was (while a show like Lost is more mainstream because people can relate more to the characters and situations).

Secondly, BSG has a very narrow premise that's restricted further by the writers keeping it (mostly) realistic. Imagine how many Star Trek episodes there would've been with no alien races and no space/time rifts. This prevents BSG from going more than 5 or 6 seasons before it gets stale, no matter how good the writing is.

In any case, the show isn't getting cancelled. Ron Moore's wife has set the record straight many times over at scifi's BSG board. I have no doubt that we'll get at least 4 seasons, and probably 5.

-Going with the same, proven writers from that year.

-As Fluffyunbound said so well, characters acting in a way that made us care about them in the beginning

-Characters that are are consistently involved in the kind of interesting things that kept us caring about what they were doing.

I'm still a big fan, but I have to admit Fluffyunbound pointed out a few sensible ways to bring the departed Season One crowd (and others) back into the fold.

knows

< p >

Like as not, there is a lot of data gathered and evaluated for all OnDemand viewings, too--potentially a lot of semi-personal and demographic data on you, over and above what they get from Nielson folks. So I am sure when the sales person at SciFi is talking to a sponsor, they are saying things like we have X number of viewers for first airings, y number for the repeat later in the evening, Z for Monday repeats, and oh boy, we even have N viewers who request an ondemand viewing each week, and they are the market share that is normally out on Friday nights!

Probably helps overall, rather than hurts, I am guessing. (or hoping!)

Somebody with way more time than me could probably research all the shows that had critical acclaim and/or a dedicated fan following, but still got canceled because they were not pulling in mainstream viewers--and how many of those were on Friday nights.

My only problem with the Sunday night slot is that I wish it was an hour or two earlier. I have to make a very early start on Mondays, so I will be relegated to dvr viewing on Monday evenings, now.

Must Resist InvisoText until post-Monday viewings!

Must!

Should.

Will.

Probably....

To read the full article, copy the title of the article into the Google search window - without the quotes - and it should come up

Not sure how big the followings were, but based on a quick Google search, beloved cancelled Friday night TV shows include THRESHOLD, JACK AND BOBBY, and MEDICAL INVESTIGATION.

Also, I used to watch FOREVER KNIGHT back in the day and that got canceled once they moved it to a new night.

SciFi Sunday

has a ring to it, I think...

Now that you mention it, SciFi Sunday does have a nice ring to it.