Season Four An Unofficial Go!, 13 Episodes For Now Including TV-Movie! Options

[meh_cd]

Season One was my absolute favorite, so I have no problems with "only" 13 episodes.

[GoobyRastor]

Okay, now this is pie-in-the-sky time. But you know what's on my wish list? A "director's cut" of season 3 of BSG. Have a special release of the DVDs with "extended versions" of the entire run, of varying length. Get that Hera storyline back in. Give us the earlier scene between Kat and Adama. They did it for "Pegasus." Hell, they do it for movies all the time!

Not that it's going to happen, but a boy can dream, yes?

I'm completely in WPB's camp: This is good news. Honestly, so long as the story reaches a satisfying resolution, I'm happy. And this announcement suggests that they'll reach that resolution.

One small suggestion. Fix the time line. Go back to stating how many days its been since the attack on the colonies at the start of every episodes;

Sure. Hell, let's send Helo back to Cylon-Occupied Caprica, and time the series by that again.

[Cowgirl]

I think it's too soon to start worrying about "only" 13 episodes.

[polaris]

Here's my feelings (copied from my post at sciffy)

In my opinion, 13 episodes would be great. Look at season one, solid all the way around, and even weak episodes were carried by the overall arc of the show.

Season two kept on rolling up to "Home part 2" and even though "Final Cut" and "Flight of the Pheonix" were good eps, they didn't touch what came before. After the Resurrection ships, season 2 went downhill. (I still liked these episodes, but I think we can all agree that from "epiphanies" to "scar" were a string of rather weak episodes)

With 13 episodes, they wont have time for the super shippy stuff, or plots that go nowhere (virus). It will have to be wam, bam, thank you ma'am. That should be a good thing.

[Nhoj]

Thirteen new episodes for a season four plus a made for tv movie? More Sharon? More Boomer? More Athena? More naked Sharon doing Tai-chi on the Pianostar? ARRGGHH!! I don't know if I can stand it! LOL He-hee!

Oh and GoobyRastor, my dream is a DVD of all the cut scenes strung togeather in order. What a show that would be!! Heh-heh

More BSG! YAY! More BSG!

[weissman]

They are trying to order more but with actors' contracts needing to be renewed, they ordered this many for now. I've changed the title of this thread to reflect this. kR P.S. The official announcement is coming next week, yeah!

I think what he means is that they got go ahead for 13 episodes while the negotiate a longer run during the next season.

That means there will probably be more episodes

But in the end I will be happy that BSG will get continued

The More Grace (Athena) and Tahmoh (Helo) the better-Hooah!


Bob W
Sharon, Helo and Hera Forever

[bopone]

GoobyRastor--a director's cut set of Season 3 with the full versions of every single episode. All the Hera stuff, all the cut scenes. Yeah, that would be nice. Though we got it in PEGASUS because they actually had the full 60min cut available. Don't know if that is the case with all the cut stuff this time around.

But yeah, sign me up if it was available.

[V]

From the sound of things, I am confident that this is just the usual actor contract wrangling and such, and we'll get a 20 episode season regardless. I don't mind of its open-ended at the moment like this; I am, of course, pinning my hopes on that BSG does well at the Emmys (this year there aren't 3 major longrunning popular shows ending and getting sympathy nominations like West Wing et al), which would mean more support. I'm okay with this.

[GoobyRastor]

I am, of course, pinning my hopes on that BSG does well at the Emmys

I consider myself an optimist, Merovingian, but I'm not holding my breath for a Battlestar Emmy.

Though who knows? With the New Caprica arc and such, maybe it'll hit the Academy members just right!

[WhitePolarBear]

GoobyRastor--a director's cut set of Season 3 with the full versions of every single episode. All the Hera stuff, all the cut scenes. Yeah, that would be nice. Though we got it in PEGASUS because they actually had the full 60min cut available. Don't know if that is the case with all the cut stuff this time around.

But yeah, sign me up if it was available.

Remember, there are so much very good stuff got deleted. I think they need to add at least two DVDs in the set to get all that covered. I'd rather they make the director's cut right away because that's also what I want. I would hate to waste money buying two sets of season three.

[GoobyRastor]

Well in all reality, WPB, Bopone's right. They'll probably just throw the deleted scenes on the DVD as normal, rather than trying to edit them back into the episodes in a sort of director's cut. That sort of thing has really never been done to the extent I'm talking. But if there were to be a first time, BSG S3 would deserve to be it.

[weissman]

As KR said, the 13 episodes and a TV movie represent an initial order, as February continues I believe that will expand to the normal 20 episodes.

Bob
Sharon, Helo and Hera Forever

[WhitePolarBear]

Well in all reality, WPB, Bopone's right. They'll probably just throw the deleted scenes on the DVD as normal, rather than trying to edit them back into the episodes in a sort of director's cut. That sort of thing has really never been done to the extent I'm talking. But if there were to be a first time, BSG S3 would deserve to be it.

I know. My point was they will probably only throw in a few deleted scenes. Otherwise the box set will need a couple extra DVD than a typical 20 episode seasons. A lot of great scenes will never be shown.

[purple_spine]

thank you as always for the intel, KR. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. If it must be 13 instead of 20 eps., let's see quality over quantity.

[Lexx-II]

Any BSG is good BSG! Woo Hoo!

Well except Galactica 1980 anyway!

Awesome news KR! Very, very excited to hear this!

[GoobyRastor]

Well except Galactica 1980 anyway!

Point.

[Asharak]

Thanks for the info KR, its good to know that we are going to get any more seasons at all.

A lot of people have said in other forums that the extra production time will mean that s4 will have better scripts, no stand alone episodes and a much better continuity. I doubt that. They had a lot more time on s3 compared to s2, but the amount of standalone episodes have bean pretty much the same as the other years, and continuity have had their share of problems this year also. Season 3 has bean my favourite BSG season, but it doesn’t feel like more time had much to say about the stories they had this year. There have bean several filler episode this year and according to RDM there are a lot of filler episodes in the coming weeks.

"In my opinion, 13 episodes would be great. Look at season one, solid all the way around, and even weak episodes were carried by the overall arc of the show."

Am I the only person who thinks s1 had the most filler episodes percent vice of all the seasons? IMHO pretty much everything between "Bastille day" and "Hand of God" was pure filler material and of little real consequence in the series. I have a lot of BSG filler episodes among my top 10 favourite episodes of BSG though, so don’t take this the wrong way.

[bopone]

I know. My point was they will probably only throw in a few deleted scenes. Otherwise the box set will need a couple extra DVD than a typical 20 episode seasons. A lot of great scenes will never be shown.

While the time & money to redit the deleted scenes into the aired episodes is probably not going to be available, just plopping the deleted scenes on the DVD costs nothing. Even adding a few DVDs costs almost nothing. I think its possible we'll get most of the shot & unaired scenes--in part because RDM will want people to see them (and it costs them next to nothing in time or money to put them in the package).

And to Asharak--I hadn't thought of S1 as mostly filler, no. In retrospect it may have ended up that way, but I didn't feel that way at the time or rewatching S1 any of the times I've watched it.

[akbar56]

While the time & money to redit the deleted scenes into the aired episodes is probably not going to be available, just plopping the deleted scenes on the DVD costs nothing. Even adding a few DVDs costs almost nothing. I think its possible we'll get most of the shot & unaired scenes--in part because RDM will want people to see them (and it costs them next to nothing in time or money to put them in the package).

And to Asharak--I hadn't thought of S1 as mostly filler, no. In retrospect it may have ended up that way, but I didn't feel that way at the time or rewatching S1 any of the times I've watched it.

I would love for the eventual HD release of the show (universal would be STUPID to not do so) to have the RDM cut of every episode be with all the cut plot lines put in. Or at least, all that can work. I would imagine (say the Gaeta/Saggitaron plot cut out of The Woman King may not have had much more shot on it if it carried over into future episodes once the scenes were cut.

[Razorback]

Just thought I'd mention this. TV Giude's Michael Ausiello just picked up the story as well.

Source: http://tvguide.com

Thank the Gods!

The Sci Fi Channel has ordered a 13-episode fourth season of Battlestar Galactica to debut in Jan. 2008!

No official confirmation from Sci Fi, but the L.A. Times says a formal announcmeent is imminent. The Times also is confirming that before the end of the season.

Raise a toaster in the air and repeat after me: "Frak, yeah!"

This post has been edited by Razorback: Mon 12 Feb 07, 23:28

[WhitePolarBear]

I want to know if there are more news on the TV-movie. Isn't it coming out between S3 and S4? Any idea when the filming will start?

[AresND]

Of course 20 episodes is better than 13, but I have to agree with those who point out that season one was tighter. With fewer episodes there is less of a need for filler episodes. Currently we have no evidence that they won't expand it to 20 anyway.

And I wouldn't worry too much about a long wait between season 3 and season 4. It would be in the order of 8 months, and that's with the movie near the midway point. Fans of "The Shield" have been waiting since March for the new season, which doesn't begin until April...over a year of waiting! And that show had, I believe, 11 episodes last season!

[meh_cd]

And, for me, another AMAZING plot twist that wasn't cheesy (like unmasking a major cast member as a Cylon) was when Boomer unloaded two slugs into Adama. That was an AMAZING scene.

[Werthead]

Over on the official SFC Forum they seem to be saying that the reason for the 13 episodes thing is that the straight-to-DVD movie (which now sounds like it may be on TV as well) will be shot in the same block as the opening few episodes of Season 4. Whilst I doubt this means that the movie will have the budget of seven regular episodes and will take seven times as long to shoot (interesting if it did though), it does mean that logistically Season 4 is going to run into trouble if they turned around and extended the regular season back to twenty episodes. They'd need to get the actors and production team to work for longer (up to an extra seven weeks) this year compared to the last two seasons, which probably opens a whole can of worms regarding overtime, contracts, holiday time etc.

There is one way around this: the direct-to-DVD movie could be the story of the Pegasus prior to its arrival in the show (none of the regular BSG actors would be needed), although I rather doubt it. It would be cool though.

Oh yeah, also on the SFC Forum the guy who spoke to Eick and Moore yesterday at the LA awards show also hinted that they were confident on getting a fifth season as well. If both were 20 episodes, that would take them up to the magical syndication number.

[Razorback]

I want to know if there are more news on the TV-movie. Isn't it coming out between S3 and S4? Any idea when the filming will start?

I think the plan for the DVD movie is to shoot it around March or April and air it in September (not sure when the DVD would come out) Whereas S4 is set to begin shooting in June or July and air starting in January. I know that's an ungodly long hiatus, but considering we weren't even sure if we'd get a fourth season a few days ago, it could be a lot worse.

[bopone]

I think the plan for the DVD movie is to shoot it around March or April and air it in September (not sure when the DVD would come out) Whereas S4 is set to begin shooting in June or July and air starting in January. I know that's an ungodly long hiatus, but considering we weren't even sure if we'd get a fourth season a few days ago, it could be a lot worse.

That would be nice. It would be nice not to have a 9 month gap if possible. Maybe even sliding some little webisodes would be awsomely spiffy. How about some webisodes just doing some life-in-the-fleet and/or GALACTICA? I think you could do a good and dirty cheap arc of 10 webisodes (like the Resistance) that would add to the show but not cost much if at all.

[GreenDalek]

If the number of episodes in increased to twenty episodes, then it'll probably start earlier than next January.

[marcozambi]

I had a bad thought, away from my Cheerful Charlie-ness of my earlier post. RDM & Co are having trouble squeezing the show into the alloted 42 minutes as its is. If they have to go down from 20 to 13 eps, is that going to make S4 even more chock full of deleted and cut scenes?

Well, they'll fit with no problems in the DVD edition of Season 4. :D
It could be a good idea to produce DVD versions of the future episodes in "extended" version....

[Countess Perseph...]

I had this info in my email box this morning...

SyFy Portal BSG News

"It has not been decided whether it will be 13 episodes or 22," Producer David Weddle told SyFy Portal soon after word was released that the series had been renewed. "We should have a decision on that soon."



More BSG... the hiatus may be long, but there will be more BSG. Thank the Gods.

[CAM91]

It could be a good idea to produce DVD versions of the future episodes in "extended" version...

Yeah, and they also did so for season 1 and 2 but in Italy there aren't BSG DVD sets yet