Final Season of Battlestar Galactica Confirmed

Ant writes "Via Dark Horizons, IESB reported from the 10th annual Saturn awards yesterday, and spoke with Battlestar Galactica stars Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff. Olmos confirmed that, as far as the show that's been running so far, the fourth season will be the last one. It's currently slated to start airing in January of 2008. 'Olmos says "This will probably be the most extraordinary season of 'Battlestar'. It's the final season, so it's definitely going to be the most vicious. As far as we know, in respects of the way we have this show constructed, this is the final season." Sackhoff says "I think part of the problem is that it's an expensive show. It is [a great show], but we don't have the viewership that a great show should get."'"

Re:Good

Huh? Did you SEE the season 3 finale?? Oh well.

There's too much confusion...

On one hand, I love the show, and hate to see it end. On the other hand, you can only drag out the story so long before it gets out of hand, so this may be the best way to end it.

Besides, isn't there a spinoff show planned?

Parent is not Flamebait...

Why was this modded flamebait? I'm a massive BSG fan, it's one of my favourite shows on TV, but it has taken a dive in quality since the beginning of the third season.

Since the escape from new Caprica in the Exodus two-parter, the show seems to have just drifted into the realm of the weird and pointless at times. Filler episodes have increased (such as the boxing episode - Unfinished Business, and the rogue doctor killing Saggitarans in The Woman King), and the main story has been tangled up in a load of tired existential and spiritual nonsense that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. The finale of Season 3 even has Starbuck coming back from the dead, apparently as a figment of Lee's imagination. Oh great, another character inexplicably living in someone's head.

Of course, it's all down to opinion in these matters, but for me I'd like to see the show's main story to get back to the heights of Season 1 and 2 (and the start of Season 3). The desperate and down-trodden survivors of the human race fighting to stay alive and stay ahead of the Cylon fleet hunting them at every jump. Brilliant and touching filler / side-story episodes like Season 2's Rise of the Phoenix and Scar, and more all-or-nothing dogfights with the genocidal toasters.

I'll be watching season 4 whatever happens, it's still a good show. But I do think it has been missing its potential lately - hopefully it will improve next season.

Expensive show, but what about DVD?

I would be amazed if this miniseries didn't make a nice chunk of change from DVD sales/rentals though, especially if they made a movie spinoff later (though like Serenity, making it appeal to people who haven't seen the series might be tough).

Shame no one watches it

I wonder if they would have gotten more viewers if the show were on a "major" network as opposed to the SciFi Channel. I guess the problem with a major network is that the show could not be as edgy as it is. I guess its best asset is that it flies under the radar. Unfortunately, it's also its downfall.

Re:Shame no one watches it

I wonder if they would have gotten more viewers if the show were on a "major" network as opposed to the SciFi Channel.

Actually, they had a lot more viewers. Right up until the SciFi channel broke up their powerful friday night lineup [savestargatesg1.com] (BSG->SG1->Atlantis) and tried to launch BSG up against the Big 3 fall lineups. (Urk!) Sorry, SciFi. You're not that big.

The SciFi channel has some of the greatest shows ever made. Yet time and time again they shoot themselves in the foot. Twice. Just to make sure they get both feet. Then they get some prosthetics so they can shoot themselves in the foot again. Twice. Just to be sure.

Re:Sci-Fi not that dumb

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." --Hanlon's razor [wikipedia.org]

Television executives have never needed a reason to can shows before. If they don't like it, *poof* it's gone. Even if there is a massive fan outrage, it won't necessarily change the executive decisions. (Witness: Global Frequency, Firefly, Space: Above and Beyond, Sliders)

The official (and very believable) reason for the change in schedule was that SciFi wanted to stagger the shows so that they'd get massive revenues throughout the year rather than only when the Friday Night lineup was running. BSG was their strongest show, so that's the one they put up against the networks.

Seems less like maliciousness to me, and more of a case of killing the Golden Goose.

you can always count on the Sci-Fi channel...

...to be brave enough to bring us cutting edge TV shows that we can't help but love.

And then kill them.

Re:you can always count on the Sci-Fi channel...

How quickly everyone forgets FOX - Firefly, Family Guy, Futurama.......Married with Children

Re:you can always count on the Sci-Fi channel...

Married with Children ran for 10 years. Pretty good for a half-hour comedy. If that's considered killing something off early, then what they did with Firefly is like a first trimester abortion.

Re:you can always count on the Sci-Fi channel...

Married With Children? Bad example. They ran it for ten years. And it did run out of steam at the end.

Re:you can always count on the Sci-Fi channel...

...to be brave enough to bring us cutting edge TV shows that we can't help but love.

I'd rather them kill a show when it's due, than drag it on just because. I can't think of a single science fiction or fantasy show that lasted more than 4 years, that had 4 years of actual good, worthwhile content. Not any of the treks, not Stargate, not Buffy... Heck, as much as I love the show I could have passed on season 5 of Babylon 5. Maybe a 4 year plan is a good thing?

That's what you get

Over the last season and a half, the show has been sucking pretty badly. It feel a long way from the absolute best show on TV ever, to yet another middling sci-fi show where everything gets wrapped up neatly at the end of each episode, no prominent cast members ever die, and they beat you over the head with whatever moral/political point they are trying to make at the time.

I hope they go out with a bang. I hope they are, as Olmos said, vicious. BSG started out as a gritty, dark and hard story about the shit hitting the fan over and over again. Let's hope the writers remember that before it's too late.

And I'd rather the show end nicely than fade into irrelevance by over-staying its welcome (as per Star Gate).

Re:That's what you get

I really hope the fourth season is great. The miniseries and the first season were amazing. There was a great deal of suspense in the parallel plots on Galactica and on the planet Caprica, and the Cylons were sinister and mysterious. In season 3 the Cylons are some kind of angsty teenagers. And I don't think that a good cliffhanger consists of morons whistling Hendrix in the bathroom. WTF?

Re:That's what you get

morons whistling Hendrix in the bathroom

morons whistling Dylan in the bathroom

Hendrix is the just the most famous cover.

Re:That's what you get

I believe dylan gave the song to hendrix. I know he said he prefered it to his version and played the hendrix version exclusively after his death.

Good News

I love the new BSG, but I want to see them end strong. The second half of season 3 had too much filler. I want to see them focus on their main story arch and go out on a high note.

By contrast, one of my other favorite shows used to be The Sopranos, a show that has floundered for the past two years. They seem to be ending with their weekest run of shows to date. It will be hard for me to remember that show as fondly as I would like.

Rome was a great show that didn't run long enough, but there was no filler. A damn good series from start to end.

Sometimes less is more. (Star Trek, I'm looking at you)

deja vu

Part of the problem is that is expensive...that is the same thing that resulted in the cancellation of the original series.

About the first series... "It was the most expensive television production of its time: $7 million (U.S.). Each weekly episode cost a purported $1 million (U.S.). "

I've been here before for the first series, and am seeing it now. In another 30 years when the third version is made I'll bet it won't last for the same reason.

So how are they tracking viewers?

"but we don't have the viewership that a great show should get"

Are they including iTunes downloads and DVD sales? If not, why not? These days, anyone between the ages of 15 and 30 spends more time watching downloads and DVDs than they do tuning into TV broadcasts.

The era of everyone tuning into a scheduled TV broadcast is *over*. Does Nielsen still think it's 1960?

The Cylons Have A Plan

I just hope they've finally decided to share it with the writers.

Re:The Cylons Have A Plan

They have. In the finale, we'll find out that:

- RDM is the final Cylon, and this whole "plan" has been to show everyone what Voyager could have been with decent writing and a little continuity of shuttlecraft, battle damage, etc.
- William Shatner is the ship's cook.
- Scott Bakula will finally get to leap out of Brother Cavell when they find Earth.
- Fry and Leela will be married.
- Q will appear and say that humanity has once again proved itself worthy of existing for at least more study, but that we'll never actually see him again so the storyline is left open but dead.
- The Baltar is a Prophet.
- Adama tells Starbuck he's her father, then cuts off her hand. Due to budget constraints, in the very next scene, she'll get a new hand, and that'll be the end of that.
- A centurion is left on a mid-industrial civilized planet, and they begin to shake their heads around as they walk so their entire lives will be lived in shakey-cam mode.
- FEMA was behind the whole "nuke the colonies" thing so they could take over the government, but when the plot is exposed, everyone just laughs at how stupid it is to think that FEMA could have come up with such an elaborate plan.
- The Fifth Element is Tricia Helfer.
- The Cylons are really the "humans" as we know them, and the humans are really the "Cylons," and they've all been living in an 18th century village with a major highway just beyond those trees over there that noone but some blind chick has been able to find.
- The centurions almost overthrow the human-looking Cylon models, but are majorly nerfed in 2.1 and can't take all those pots at once any more.
- Lee keeps hearing "Save Starbuck. Save the world" but realizes his world has already been nuked a couple times so screw it.

Good

This used to be my favourite show, but there's just been too many bad episodes in the last couple of years. I don't really care if I even see it anymore, though I usually catch a repeat at some point. I'd rather see one more good season, where they are forced to wrap up the story, than several more seasons of the half-ass crap they've been coasting along with lately.

And they'd better have a really, REALLY good reason to explain why Tigh and the Chief are Cylons, or the first episode of the last season just might be the last one I ever watch. Talk about jumping the shark.

In a way, it makes sense...

Think about it. If their goal is to "find Earth", the missing colony, how much story is there left to tell after that point?

This happens in a lot of shows, where the big point plot that always seems like a distant thing finally arrives. And once it does, there isn't much left to talk about. It becomes an entirely different show, with a different focus, and viewship will decline.

Look at some fine examples from TV's past.

Twin Peaks was a brilliant and weird show, that had a whole bunch of people talking. I still remember going to "Twin Peaks viewing parties" at friends houses, where we would all watch the episode together, and then start to dissect it over coffee and pie. (Those of you that remember the show will remember the line "damn fine pie".) But, once we knew who the killer was, there was nothing left to tell. They tried a second season, and it was a colossal flop. We all got what we wanted.

Moonlighting was another example. Once "Dave" and "Mattie" became romantically involved, instead of dancing around the subject, nobody really cared anymore. The show went into the toilet, ratings wise.

If BSG closes up shop after they find Earth and get things settled in, there is a good chance that most viewers will never say "Damn, BSG jumped the shark".

It is the reason 24 keeps on working. Every year, it reaches its ending, and the next year's season is a totally new (sorta) scenario for Jack Bauer to fix.

Personally, I like the TV show "Heroes", but I worry that it is headed for a Twin Peaks type ending. Once they save New York City, where will they go that will keep our attention? If we all end up feeling satisfied with that ending, then nobody will want to watch season 2.

Re:In a way, it makes sense...

It is the reason 24 keeps on working. Every year, it reaches its ending, and the next year's season is a totally new (sorta) scenario for Jack Bauer to fix.

Personally I think they missed a golden opportunity with the second season of 24 when they went back to Jack Bauer. By sticking with Bauer they tied themselves down, and each series has had to be progressively "more of the same", resulting in a steady downward spiral. With the basic idea that what mattered was a 24 hour day, told in realtime, they could have gone many directions for a second season, and introduced a new character in an entirely different situation, living out his or her own personal "longest day of their life". No longer do you have to keep coming up with increasingly absurd terrorist plots and an easily infiltrated US government. They could have made, for example, season 2 a medical drama, somewhat akin to House, trying to analyse a bizarre condition that seems to be spreading; or about a rescue worker after some tragic event; or... And each new season they can jump to somethign else and start fresh. A missed opportunity if ever there was one.

Good Job

I must say, good job to whoever made this decision. I love the show, and the last half season definitely helped make up for the Baltar vacationing with the Cylons crap. But.. shows have to end, and its much better to end it on the writers terms than having to quickly wrap it up when the show gets canned.

Take ST:TNG as an example, it ended at the height of its popularity, and the last season is the most amazing one in my opinion. So rather beat it into the ground (which they did with new series instead) they took it out in grand fashion, with the crazy two-parter with Q and a possible future, and bringing back Yar and all that.

So heres hoping they do it right and its not a show where you can't help but think 'What the hell happened?' years later.

Olmos quote...

When asked about the end of the show, Olmos said, "Too bad it won't live but then again what does." He then proceeded to leave oragami unicorns all over the set.

Re:You could see this coming

As much as I take issue with the SciFi channel canceling amazing shows (see: Farscape), this is not one of those times. The 4th season is, I'm almost positive, a 22 episode season. Well, Ron Moore is on record saying that he'd do 2 more 13 episode seasons, or a single 22-23 episode season, and in that time he felt like he could bring the story to the conclusion that he'd been working towards. Now, I suppose part of that might be ending early to make sure they GET an ending, but this is not just SciFi killing a great show. They've had a definite climax planned for the story, and if they can reach it in one season, and not have as much filler as in season 2.5 and 3.5, I'm all for it.

Re:You could see this coming

"They've had a definite climax planned for the story, and if they can reach it in one season, and not have as much filler as in season 2.5 and 3.5, I'm all for it

I agree. I grew up in the UK with shows that ran for only a season or a few seasons (one season a year and no repeats) - from what I understand that's changed(ing). It allowed the writers to present a good tight story in a concluding arc. Even if the show sucked there was a sense of closure and anticipation to what type of show would replace it. While I hated Enterprise, they had the sense to allow for a written conclusion rather than cliff-hanger ending, which made it a little more tolerable (what can I say, I have a need to watch most SciFi even if I hate it - I even watched Blade: The series *shudder*). The whole nature of Babylon 5 was good. You go back and watch the series again from the beginning and it just comes together so nicely (in the fourth series of course). X-files was a disaster. It started so well, but then they gave up too much plot while intending to push the show further along and ended up with a show that was a joke (the native american season was when it fell apart for me). So when I started watching BSG (and Heroes btw) I really hoped that they would conclude the series after 3 or 4 seasons. Let them find Earth, let them figure out that there are a second unknown set/race/breed of cylons (my personal theory), let it end with dignity and less filler.

Right on.

The only thing worse than ending a series is dragging it on past its natural conclusion.

Tell the story. When the story is over, it's over. Trying to tack on extra seasons is just going to make it suck.

Re:Why is it that. all good things come to an end.

Because reality TV is really really cheap to produce since it doesn't use high profile actors and needs little in terms of props and what not. Also, people love to watch other people's stupid drama. Reality shows purposely choose people who can't get along.

Also, most of the American TV viewing public is stupid and couldn't possibly understand or enjoy a show like Battlestar or Firefly for long. I think they should seriously think about either producing these shows direct to dvd. There can be a strong business case given how well the firefly and serenity dvd's sell.

Either that or release them in theaters on a regular basis ala old-school serials.

Re:Why is it that. all good things come to an end.

If I could venture a theory, I would say that heavily serialized shows just aren't everyone's cup of tea, because they require committment.

Watching a SF show like BSG, Firefly, Babylon 5, the new hit Heroes, or even the reviled Deep Space 9 requires a good understanding of a large backstory in order to truly appreciate it. Episodic shows like Star Trek (original or NG) is fine for dipping in and out of the make-believe, and so are easier for casual watching.

The more complex the plot arc, the more work required to make meaning as a viewer.

That's exactly why I like those shows: an audacious plot. The hook is the Big Picture. The rewards are a huge amount of nuance inside each episode.

Re:Why is it that. all good things come to an end.

Also, most of the American TV viewing public is stupid and couldn't possibly understand or enjoy a show like Battlestar or Firefly for long

Don't mean to crap on your birthday cake here, and believe me I enjoy Battlestar and Firefly as much as the next slashdotter, but its not as if these shows are pixelated genius. I'm fairly confident that if my 8-year old cousin can hold a lengthy discussion with me about BSG that we're not really straining people's brains here.

And then just as an aside, its interesting when you imply that Reality shows are thusly "stupid." I mean we're definitely talking apples and oranges (reality tv and dramas), but I think anyone who's interested in Game Theory and sociology would definitely find some intriguing aspects in Survivor.

...then make it... ROCK!

> I hate to say it, but this REALLY.....REALLY sucks. SciFi must care more about wrestling then anything else.

And what's wrong with wrestling? Open the event with the battle of the MILFs -- President Laura "The Amazon" Roslin vs. D'Anna "I'm Not Xena" Biers. Have Boomer walk the ring in a tight bikini, holding up the round cards. End the series with the grand finale: Starbuck vs. Six, and hold it the landing bay of a Cylon base star's worth of jello!

> there's STILL time!

After sitting through an entire season of budget-constrained character development... "there sure is, buddy, there sure is."

Re: flashback

Gaak. You can do a hell of a lot better than that. Tricia Helfer [livejournal.com]

Re:Why is it that. all good things come to an end.

Because a lot of people love comfort food.

A lot of people don't want to be challenged by their entertainment. They saw a TV show that they liked yesterday, and what they want more than anything in the world is to watch that same TV show again. You need to change it just enough that they're not bored by an exact repetition, but core should be as close to identical as humanly possible.

Sci-fi fans aren't entirely immune to it, either. They brought Zombie Star Trek out for years after it should have been given a dignified burial. James Bond film scripts have been (until the most recent one) essentially mad-libs. And they'll even watch the same old movies (e.g. The Empire Strikes Back) until they can quote the dialogue and can spot changes on a frame-by-frame basis (and accuse those of doing so of raping their childhoods).

Poor Battlestar is just too expensive to continue. It must cost nearly as much as Lost, a show which probably has 10 times the viewership. Better to let it die than to compromise their vision.

Re:Why is it that. all good things come to an end.

Funny that you mention Lost because the four big US networks are now complaining that they have lost 2.5 million viewers since last Spring. It's not just Battlestar Galactica.

Mike Elgen over at Computerworld has a few ideas on where those viewers have gone. I don't know why so many have left so quickly but I'm sure it has something to do with the poor shows available. "Survivor", "American Idol". These are the shows with the highest ratings?

If you think things are bad on TV now, wait until June when the Writer's Guild of America West and East combine for the first time in a long while to get better contracts from the production studios. The Director's Guild and another couple of Guilds are lined up right after that. TV will be pretty poor for a long while I guess.

Won't bother me though. I watch very little besides BG and the canceled "Daybreak". And why should I when I have access to HD television and excellent shows such as "Planet Earth" on Discovery HD.

No, it doesn't

This is the way the show should end, on a high note. As pointed out somewhere else further down, the show is starting to degrade. There was a time when you never really knew what was going to happen next. A time when, unlike other shows, they weren't afraid to kill off major characters or have the plot twist 180 degrees in another direction.

Now, though, it's gotten where you know that all the majors will be with us next week, that in the end, everything will work out okay. It's just gotten kind of ho-hum.

If they make this the last season, it gives them incredible freedom to do some really great things dramatically. All characters are fair game. All plots are on the board for major twists. And they can always come back and do movies or mini-series if there's a demand for it.

Here's my prediction, though. They get to Earth, but as it turns out, it's not exactly the thirteenth colony they expected. Think about it. It's all happened before, right? The Cylons and the thirteenth colony have encountered each other just as our ragtag colonial crew and the Cylons are encountering each other now. They intermingled (Eve, anyone?), and the result is that we here on earth are actually the progeny of both colonial humans and Cylons. We even adopted both religions. People here are killing each other over the same ideological differences as the Cylons and the colonials are.

I could be wrong, but I think that's ultimately the ending plot twist. When all is said and done, it turns out that WE are Cylons, too, a fact that has been lost to antiquity.

Re:This really....sucks.

From a writing standpoint, I think it's great. BSG and Lost both have the same problem... they have a very definite end-point... for BSG, it's finding and populating Earth. For Lost, it's getting off the damn Island. These are the driving forces behind the shows, and on one level or another the action and drama come out of these arcs. However, if you keep stringing them along for two long, they start to suck... there's only so many ways you can delay the end-point before the audience gets tired, and you jump the shark.

These shows will ultimately be more successful with end-points written- the writers will have a clear goal of what to write to and how to make it interesting to get there, instead of just coming up with more ways to string viewers along.

While it sucks that it's going off the air, it'll make for better TV along the way.

or even WORSE!!!

be prison break, where it's a fantastic show, with a VERY clear end point... right in the title!

and then... break out.. loosing all end game, and drag it out to suckdom forever.

Re:This really....sucks.

I have to disagree.

Look, I think BSG is the best show on television right now (as much as it's on at all right now, rasm frasm nine month hiatus). But despite the fact that the show has occasionally floundered a bit, I've generally had the feeling that the show is actually going somewhere, that Ron Moore et. al. are actually interested in telling a story. One that has... what's it called? Oh right! An end.

Contrast this with Lost, which I started off watching avidly, but now... well, the four phases of Lost watching:

1. This show is great! I wonder what they'll do next?!?
2. Huh? That didn't make sense.
3. You guys are making it up as you go along, aren't you?
4. God, I hope you guys are making it up, because God help you if you planned it this way.

And Lost just got extended another three seasons.

Re:This really....sucks.

Lost brainstorming session - 2/25/2004
Damon note: We have gathered hippies and provided them with Absinthe and pot. They have been prompted to talk.

Hippie 1: Hey, lets have polar bears on an island!!
Hippie 2: Evil companies are bad. DOWN WITH THE MAN!!!
Hippie 3: SO MANY SCARY NUMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hippie 4: (munch munch munch)
Hippie 2: Wars are killing the goodness in the Earth.
Hippie 3: Dude, don't you guys see that man in that chair over there.
Hippie 1&2: No man. There's nothing there.
Hippie 3: I'm serious dudes.
Hippie 4: Anyone want to go to Whitecastle? Might as well get fat as hell, it's awesome.
Hippie 2: What if everyone was interconnected to EVERYONE!
Hippie 1: Man if I crashed on an island, I'd have like no pot.
Hippie 2&3: OH NOES!!!!
Hippie 4: (passed out)

Carlton note: Well Damon, I think we have some good ideas.
Damon note: Yep, let's get started.

Re:This really....sucks.

Ron Moore already said it would be at most 5 seasons in the podcasts. They know what they want to accomplish so it's not going to be a half-assed ending. Are you saying that you would prefer BSG to run as long as say Stargate?

I have no interest in BSG running 10 seasons. You will likely be unable to keep the entire cast together and let's face it, this cast is solid. You will run out of plot ideas to look at and have to make up the next enemy (Gaould, replicators, Orai) and it just gets silly to me. I used to love Stargate but I lost interest simply because I didn't have time to keep track of everything going on (new development x or superevil badguy y and spinoff z) and some of it just got ridiculous to me.

This is the story that they want to tell and thus far, I have yet to be disappointed. Some episodes aren't as interesting. Some twists were ridiculous. But the story is still there and I believe it will end well.

Re:This really....sucks.

No, it doesn't. BSG has a story to tell, and it should tell that story and then leave.

Re:This really....sucks.

SciFi must care more about wrestling then anything else.

A&E, ostensibly for "Arts and Entertainment", has become a "lowest common denominator" entertainment channel. It is now targeted to "Cleetus the Slackjawed Yokel". O.k., I'll say it, it is now "A&E for White Trash".

SciFi has done the same thing.

Back in the 70's, "Sci-Fi" was the schlock stuff that hacks turned out. "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and such. "SF" was what Asimov, Heinlein, Dick wrote.

When the Sci Fi channel debutted, a lot of SF fans were horrified with the moniker, but decided they could live with it as long as it was a home for SF. But, it has started to live up to the old definition of "Sci Fi" rather than the higher ideals of SF. We have lost the battle.

Oh, and when did wrestling ever get connected with either Sci Fi or SF? Besides some B grade movies being star vehicles for aging wrestlers.