206 replies to this topic

[Peter T Chattaway]

Quick question: The last disc in the Season 4.5 set includes three episodes: Daybreak Part I, Daybreak Parts II & III (which are lumped together as a single episode, and which come with their own collection of deleted scenes), and something merely called Daybreak (which is apparently an "extended episode"). Is it safe to assume that the part-less Daybreak, being about 2.5 hours long, is basically a stringing together of Parts I, II and III, along with the deleted scenes? I don't want to have to watch any of these episodes twice before returning the disc to the store if I don't have to.

(Someday I'll get around to asking why some episodes throughout the series have "deleted scenes" while other episodes are available in both shorter broadcast versions and longer extended versions. Why are the deleted scenes segregated from some episodes but integrated into other episodes? Are some deleted scenes "canon", and others not? It's all so CONFUSING. And the Daybreak situation is even weirder, because it seems that the deleted scenes from Parts II & III may be segregated if you watch that episode on its own, but integrated when you watch that episode in conjunction with Part I. It's MADNESS, I say!)

Whoa, I just realized something. Weren't there some webisodes based on the Felix Gaeta character, somewhere during Season 4? I don't think I've seen them anywhere in this DVD set. Did I miss them, either here or with one of the earlier sets (Season 4.0, perhaps?)?

[opus]

Whoa, I just realized something. Weren't there some webisodes based on the Felix Gaeta character, somewhere during Season 4? I don't think I've seen them anywhere in this DVD set. Did I miss them, either here or with one of the earlier sets (Season 4.0, perhaps?)?

That would be Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy. AFAIK, it has not been released on DVD.

[Jason Panella]

That would be Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy. AFAIK, it has not been released on DVD.

You can, however, watch them on Hulu. (Maybe not in Canada, though? I'm not sure.) They're very good webisodes, FWIW. I feel like it explains (or at least feeds into) some of the tension with Hoshi and Gaeta's descent fairly well.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Jason Panella wrote:
: You can, however, watch them on Hulu. (Maybe not in Canada, though? I'm not sure.)

Bingo. The website interrupts you even as you're just SEARCHING for the videos. I used to think at least SOME Hulu content was available outside the U.S., at the content provider's discretion, but apparently not.

Oh, but wait. Maybe there's a Canadian site ... and a quick bit of Googling turns up this. Yay! I'll have to get back to this when I have a moment.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Spoilers, natch.

[Tyler]

James Callis (Dr. Baltar) showed up at the end of Thursday's episode of Flashforward on ABC. He was almost unrecognizable, with a scruffy beard, glasses, and an American accent. Judging by the previews, he's going to be a fairly important recurring character on the show.

[techne]

finally saw battlestar galactica: the plan...

very disappointing.

(sigh)

[opus]

Ron Moore "explains" what happened to Starbuck... and it's pretty lame.

Edited by opus, 24 July 2010 - 11:57 AM.

[Jason Panella]

Yeah, it does seem like a cop out (or, more accurately, IS a cop out), but ultimately it doesn't bother me. Ambiguity in storytelling can be used for good or evil, and I felt like it wasn't too bad with BSG (I think I'm among the minority that didn't loathe it...then again, I was one of the people that liked Lost's finale too).

[Jason Panella]

I agree with you, but I have to say...

Spoiler

I thought Starbuck staring at her skeletal remains in horror was one of the creepiest things I've seen on screen, so kudos to them for that.

[Peter T Chattaway]

opus wrote:
: Ron Moore "explains" what happened to Starbuck... and it's pretty lame.

I believe the expression Moore is looking for is "deus ex machina".

[Greg Wolfe]

"Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason" (Keats)

[opus]

Syfy has announced Blood and Chrome, a new online series that explores a young Adama's exploits during the Cylon Wars.

Quote

"Blood & Chrome" is "about a young man's initiation into war: both the realities of war as fought by soldiers on the ground (and in Battlestars and Vipers), and the somewhat less real version portrayed in the media," according to Taylor.

"Blood & Chrome" would consist of nine or 10 episodes of nine or 10 minutes each, and it would make use of cutting-edge digital technology and special effects to depict the Cylon War. If it is greenlit to production, it will be filmed using green screens and virtual sets, not unlike Syfy's "Sanctuary" or James Cameron's "Avatar." Before "Battlestar Galactica" ended, high-tech scans were made of all the show's sets, so that the special-effects team will be able to re-create them (possibly even in 3D).

"I've seen the virtual, 3D version of CIC ['Battlestar's' Combat Information Center] and it's pretty damn cool," Taylor said. "And yet the movie isn't confined to Galactica. Far from it. It's a story that will take us to new corners of the 'Battlestar' world (or worlds), and yet it aims to be a very contemporary war movie in a lot of ways. I would say I'm thinking as much of Afghanistan and Iraq--the reality of 'Hurt Locker,' Sebastian Junger's 'Restrepo,' and similar movies--as I am about about the largely implied past of 'Battlestar.'"

Edited by opus, 27 July 2010 - 06:13 PM.

[CrimsonLine]

My wife and I just finished Season 4 of BSG - and we loved the conclusion. Excellent, satisfying, everything the finale to LOST should have been. )

Then we watched "The Plan." Ugh. In case someone wanders into this thread and hasn't seen "The Plan" - don't. Just, don't. It's not worth it, it's horrible, and you'll regret it. "The Plan" plays like a poorly-constructed clip show, recycling old footage, interspersed with new footage (though not including the entire main cast - there's nothing new with Starbuck, Helo, or Baltar) that is supposed to connect the dots on the Cylons' motivations. Let me make it easy for you - you ALREADY understand the Cylons' motivations better now than you will after watching this movie. The one thing the movie does well is expand on the destruction of the Colonies. But after the first 20 minutes, everything worth watching - everything - is done. AND, the movie includes shot after shot of gratuitous full-on nudity and sex throughout. Sigh. It's just a horrible, horrible waste of time.

"Razor" was awesome, the whole series was great, but "The Plan" is anti-good. )

[Peter T Chattaway]

I didn't think The Plan was supposed to "connect the dots" so much as it was supposed to "fill the gaps" left in the continuity by all the haphazard writing and ongoing retconning. It's not really an episode for the person who wonders "What was the Cylons' plan?" so much as it is an episode for the person who wonders "Knowing what we do now, how are we to make sense of the loose threads left by this episode, and that episode, and the other episode... and what was the person who turned out to be the Big Villain Of The Show doing for the first year or two before this character had even been invented?"

Edited by Peter T Chattaway, 10 September 2010 - 11:49 AM.

[Nathan Douglas]

Months and months ago, I got almost half-way through The Plan and then had to stop and run an errand or something. I've never been back to it. By about 30 minutes in it seemed to be nothing more than a vehicle for Cavil to be his smarmy self in big doses. Which actually isn't as fun as it sounds on paper. And whatever it was doing with the mythology didn't seem compelling enough to go back to it.

The Cylon side of the attack was kind of cool though. Unnecessary, but cool.

[CrimsonLine]

I haven't seen any of Caprica, no.

[Jason Panella]

CrimsonLine, on 10 September 2010 - 05:39 PM, said:

I haven't seen any of Caprica, no.

Personally, I think it's a fantastic show. And while it's very different from the re-imagined BSG in many ways, it still manages to keep some of the same themes.

For what it's worth, I noticed that Hulu posted the first three episodes again too, just in time for the second half of season 1 (which, thankfully, got moved up to this fall).

[Tyler]

Io9 has a detailed map of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. The story include an interview with Jane Espenson (producer/showrunner) about the map.

[techne]

i hope that at some point all the webisodes will be available on DVD -- anyone know anything about that possibility?