The date has been set.

From Jan. 16-18, in Pasadena, a series of auctions will be held to sell off pieces of television history.

OK, that may be a bit overwrought, but the Sci Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica series is one of the finest ever to grace the small screen.

It’s coming to an end with its final ever 10 episodes starting in January, when to coincide with it, props, set pieces and costumes are being auctioned off.

Among the items to be auctioned off:

A life-size Viper
A Cylon raider
Admiral Adama’s duty blue uniform
Apollo’s Viper flight suit
Caprica Six’s red dress (hold yourself back, boys!)
Consoles from the CIC
The Arrow of Apollo
Admiral Adama’s painting of the first Cylon war
Colonel Saul Tigh’s eye patch and liquor bottle
President Laura Roslin’s desk
Original production sketches
Set plans and drawings

• Preview Day – Friday, January 16, 2009 – Pasadena Convention Center (Doors open at 10:00 a.m. and close at 6:00 p.m) (Panel schedule to be announced at another date).
• Live Auction Day – Saturday, January 17, 2009 (Doors open at 8:00 a.m. Auction begins at 9:00 a.m.).
• Live Auction Day – Sunday, January 18, 2009 (Doors open at 9:00 a.m. Auction begins at 10:00 a.m.).
• Online Auction of 200 Items – Tuesday, January 20 (Auction goes live at 9:00 a.m. (ET) and will conclude Friday, January 23, starting at 9:00 p.m. (ET).
• First of Several Weekly Online Auctions – Beginning on Friday, January 23, weekly online auctions on eBay begin at 9:00 p.m. (ET).

Sigh. I want the viper. And the raider. And, in the old days, Six’s red dress, but these days that would just be scary on me.

Maybe I’ll settle for the eyepatch and booze bottle.

Photos courtesy of NBC Universal.

There are just 10 episodes left for Season 4.5, and NBC Universal, which owns the Sci Fi Channel, has announced its return, 10 p.m. Jan. 16 (a Friday).

Picking up from last June’s jarring cliffhanger – the Colonial fleet and their new Cylon allies led by Admiral Adama and the Galactica crew discover Earth to find it a barren nuclear wasteland – the finale season promises to be rife with drama, action and revelation.

Honestly, I can’t frakkin’ wait.

And “So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival” also will return in January, on the 20th.

Yeah, so NBC and iTunes patched things up, and you can buy The Office (and 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica and a bunch of other Peacock shows) for your iPod again.

I’m not going to go crazy cheearleading this move. It was dumb to split like they did a year ago. Now they’re back together. Big whoop. I can’t tell you how much money I saved since then. It was such an anti-customer feud that I’m loath to even give the reunion much free publicity.

But then there is a bright side: freebies. Go to iTunes now and you can download free episodes of several shows in both standard and HiDef versions, which are now available for $2.99 – a complete rip-off if you ask me.

I grabbed every one that interested me, and I didn’t spend a penny on anything else while I was there.

Here’s the first link from a reputable outlet that I came across, if you’re curious about the details. Don’t look for any apologies there, though.

The rumors were wrong.

The SciFi Channel has said rumors to the contrary, that BSG wouldn’t be back until April with the final episodes of Season 4, were “inaccurate.”

The reports are erroneous, the channel confirmed to SCI FI Wire. “It is still slated to return January 2009,” a spokesman for the channel said.

They’re wrapped, in the can, all other euphemisms for “We’ve finished filming and you can air these episodes at any time!!!!”

Yet the Sci Fi network has decided to torture both the cast of BSG and its fans by first dividing its fourth and final season in half and then by not even scheduling the second frakkin’ half of the season!!!!!

As Apollo and Starbuck might have said in the series’ first incarnation: Felgercarb!

At Dragon-Con ‘08 this weekend, Aaron Douglas (Gaelin “I’m a Cylon? No way!” Tyrol), got big applause when he opined “and the Sci Fi Network sucks,” in talking about how the networks seems to have totally blown off its biggest (and most critically acclaimed) hit.

Douglas said no one’s been told when the final 12 episodes of the season might air, though it might be as late as April.

Michael (Col. Saul Tigh) Hogan, Richard (Tom Zarek this time around, Apollo in the 1970s) Hatch and James (Gaius Baltar) Callis seemed to feel similarly to their castmate, and even Edward James (Adm. Adama) Olmos needled the network.

Here’s the only info I’ve heard about the finale, and if anyone says I needed a spoiler alert for this, they’re insane:

The series finale is said to be a tear-jerker, according to science adviser/consultant, Kevin Grazier.

“I don’t know anyone who hasn’t cried after reading the final episode script,” Grazier said.

Fan-frakkin’-tastic news: It has been confirmed on the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog that there will indeed be at least one BSG telemovie after the series comes to its end. And it’s Cylon-centric!

Directed by Edward James “Adm. Adama” Olmos and written by Jane Espenson (a sometime BSG writer and one of the brains behind Buffy), it will be a two-hour special on Sci Fi that’ll air sometime in 2009.

Doesn’t have a name yet, but three cast members have been confirmed: Michael Trucco, the onetime human freedom fighter now confirmed Cylon Sam Anders; Aaron Douglas, the now-former crew chief and stunned into baldness hidden Cylon Gaelyn Tyrol; and Dean Stockwell, the pretend-priest Cavil Cylon model No. 1. Some of the female regulars on the series also are being cast, it’s promised.

According to the LATimes:

The stand-alone will document the Cylons’ attempts—those of two agents in particular—to grapple with human survivors, both those aboard ships and those left alive on planets, shortly after the Cylons’ destruction of human home worlds.

Olmos has directed four episodes of BSG: Season 1 episode Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down, Season 3’s “Taking a Break from All Your Worries” and Season 4’s “Escape Velocity.” His fourth is Episode 20 of Season 4, the name of which has yet to be released.

Espenson’s written four episodes: Season 3’s “The Passage” and “Dirty Hands” and Season 4’s “Escape Velocity” (bodes well for the telemovie, no?) and absolutely stunningly excellent “The Hub.”

Excited yet?

Photo courtesy of NBC Universal – and, yes, it’s from “Escape Velocity.” Couldn’t help myself. 

It’s summer time and the TV viewing is sparse.

Me, I’m rewatching 30 Rock Season One and the new season of Weeds now that Battlestar Galactica has gone incognito for 2008. The Office webisodes premiere July 10, but that’s only three minutes a week, roughly. It’ll take some planning and creativity to fill in the many blanks in my viewing schedule.

One way I’ll do that will be to gear up for the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles by rewatching the short first season. And I can do that easily  by tuning in to the Terminator marathon Fox has planned.

Starting Aug. 10, the network will replay the nine-episode season in order. If you caught it the first time, this will be a great chance to brush up. If you missed the first go-round, here’s your chance to jump on the bandwagon of a fun and tense show.

The funky schedule, according to TVGuide.com, goes like this:

Sunday, Aug. 10: “Pilot”
Monday, Aug. 11: “Gnothi Seauton”
Tuesday, Aug. 12: “The Turk”
Wednesday, Aug. 13: “Heavy Metal”
Sunday, Aug. 17: “Queen’s Gambit”
Monday, Aug. 18: “Dungeons and Dragons”
Tuesday, Aug. 19: “The Demon Hand”
Wednesday, Aug. 20: “Vick’s Chip”
Sunday, Aug. 24: “What He Beheld”

That takes care of the second and third weeks of August, but I’ve got to keep scrambling until then.

By the way, this made me laugh. Click the pic then just lean back and soak up the weird. Hard to believe that guy kills terminators today.

I can’t believe it’s going to be another six months — at least — before we get to see the final half of the final season of one of the best shows ever to hit the small screen.

So, sadly, this is the final So Say We All blog carnival of 2008. Sigh. This half-season went waaaay too fast, but at least it had an incredible ending.

I have more to ponder about last week’s amazing mid-season finale, but I’m not quite sure what I want to say about it yet, so I’ll just get right to this week’s submissions.

Read more of this entry »

Holy frakkin’ frakkity frak frak.

Mind. Blown.

We have to wait another six months, minimum, for the rest of this story?

Who saw them reaching Earth now?

A nuclear wasteland.

All this has happened before and all this will happen again.

Obvious now: Cylons and humans, once, long ago, slaughtered each other in a nuclear confrontation on Earth.

Some Cylons, and some humans, made it across the galaxy, only for it all to play out again. Or the humans already were across the galaxy, and the Cylons sought them out, to forge a new alliance that would reconcile the two peoples?

Yes, we know that in the Caprica prequel, Cylons are created by the humans.

But what if that happened totally independently?

All this has happened before and all this will happen again.

And what if the new skinjob Cylons were created by the ancient Cylons? Thus the raiders and centurions being aware of the Final Four, while the skinjobs could only sense them and were programmed not to be aware of them?

And they were programmed by the ancient skinjobs. Who somehow were programmed not to know themselves, or programmed themselves not to know themselves, or the Final One programmed them not to know themselves?

This is why the Cylons believe in the one God; the Earth, when it was destroyed, was primarily monotheistic.

Kara is the harbinger of death because she was the one (why?) who led them to a dead world.

I have more to ponder. But this was utterly amazing, astounding and compelling.

And Moore and Eick are brilliant. Just a couple hours ago, I was obsessing over who the Final Cylon is.

That’s almost besides the point now. They did probably the only thing they could do that could make me not freak out about having to wait six months to find out the identity of the Final One.

There was a special Battlestar Galactica “event” yesterday in Los Angeles (hey! what about New York City — what are we, chopped liver?), and it included a special screening of tomorrow night’s episode.

I refuse to read any articles about the screening, because if this is the last BSG I’m going to have for a while, I want it to be fresh. The clip I posted earlier today is the most spoiling I’ll allow myself.

But I had to read and post on this: show co-creator Ronald D. Moore told TVGuide.com at this event that the rest of Season 4 won’t air until after “the first of the year.” At best.

… even though they are currently filming the series’ final scenes, the “practical realities” of post-production — coupled with the formidable end-of-year competition presented by new fall series, baseball and football — places the onset of the final episodes at the start of 2009, at the earliest. “Realistically, there’s no way to get back on the air faster,” he apologetically added.

Photo courtesy of NBC Universal. 

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, tomorrow is the mid-season finale for the final season of Battlestar Galactica. Fortunately, the good folks at SciFi have shared a compelling clip to whet our appetite.

Here’s the preview of “Revelations” that’ll make you wish it already was tomorrow night:

Download:

And here’s some tidbits I gathered throughout the week:

• On TVGuide.com, Jane Espenson answers some questions from fans. Here’s a couple of tidbits:

What happened to Boomer after D’Anna killed Cavil? Did she escape?
Espenson: She certainly would’ve had time to. Heck, there was even time for Cavil to download, I suppose. Huh. How ‘bout that.

What is the “Goo-Bath” made of?
Espenson: Oh, I asked that too, and now I forget. It comes in big buckets and they heat it up and you can’t get it in your eyes. That’s all I remember. It’s also, mercifully, odorless.

Welcome to the weekly So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival.

An excellent penultimate episode of the first half of the last season. Wow. That was a mouthful.

Yes, I am extremely sad to say, this Friday’s episode, Revelations, is the mid-season finale. No word yet on when the second half will be aired, but conventional wisdom has it at next spring. I might have an aneurysm before then.

I don’t even know if we’ll find out the Final Cylon before the break. I don’t believe we will.

OK, I’ll stop blabbing now and share with you the carnival entries:

Tonight’s episode ended on an oddly optimistic note.

Waiting for days in his raptor, just floating out in space and determined not to give up on his lady love, Bill Adama not only is proved right but also is told he is loved.

How very un-Battlestar Galactica-y.

The entire rest of the episode, however, was vintage BSG.

First off, Baltar.

How amazingly, hilariously brilliant was Baltar’s explanation of God and slavery to the Centurion? And the Centurion actually seemed to be listening and absorbing. Interested. Curious.

I suspect we’ll see the Centurions taking some sort of role in … I’m not sure what. But I don’t think the Centurions are going to remain giant brainless robots for all of what’s left of the season.

And our Baltar confesses, finally, to his role in the destruction of humanity. But his belief in the One True God has released him of all guilt. He is perfect, he says. Just a tool of God. God wanted another flood to be unleashed on an imperfect humanity to wipe it clean. Just this time, it was a flood of fire rather than water. Baltar was a mere tool of God.

Oh, really?

Baltar’s ability to rationalize away all his guilt is typical and also disgusting.

Now, don’t get me wrong.

I’ve never really blamed Baltar for what happened. Even though he was the instrument the Cylons used to wipe out humanity, they would have found someone else to do it if he hadn’t been so susceptible to sexy blondes.

And he shouldn’t be immobilized by guilt for the rest of his days for what he’s done, either.

But to absolve himself because “That’s what God wanted” is disgraceful. And utterly, completely and totally Baltar, so it’s also brilliant.

As is his hitting on Roslin.

So, you were able (just barely) to wait two weeks between BSG episodes “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner” and “Sine Qua Non.” But why wait until tomorrow to get a sneak peek at “The Hub”?

I watched it, and it’s not spoilery in the meaning that it answers any questions whatsoever. It’s pretty short and gives a taste of what’s to come, but is driving me batty!

Take a look and tell me what you think:

Download:

So, despite the fact that I have absolutely no free time anymore, I’ve managed to find the time to ponder and come up with a totally out there Final Five theory that is probably totally wrong and is based on a guess Aaron Douglas has that he mentioned in this interview.

After my insane ramblings, stay tuned for the weekly So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival.

We’ve wondered for a while now where the whole idea of “All this has happened before and will happen again” comes from. What does it mean?

What if the Final Five are actually the Original Five?

What if the Final Five have not merely been to Earth but are from Earth?

What if the Final Five were created by Earthlings in the Diaspora and set out across the Universe to find the other 12 Colonies after a huge war between the Humans and the Earth Cylons?

They’re different, and yet the same.

My view is thoroughly bleak, but it’s perfectly in keeping with the series, which has been as bleak as it’s been brilliant.

Once upon a time, Cylons were created by man. They evolved. They rebelled.

And at the end of a devastating war, the ragged remnants of humanity fled across the universe to escape the Cylons, who pursued them.

They settled on a planet called Kobol, then eventually settled in the 12 Colonies. In time, the story somehow got turned around; Earth was the lost colony and became a beacon of hope to a newly defeated humanity.

The Cylons who had pursued them somehow programmed themselves or were programmed (OK, this is where it sort of breaks down a bit) by someone to go dormant, basically become human, until such time as they needed to be reawakened.

Which is now.

So, whaddya think? Am I completely insane? Would a good, long vacation on the Mediterranean do wonders for my mental state?

With that, I bring you So Say We All, after the break.

An odd episode.

Sine Qua Non (Latin, a “dead” language): Without which, not.

Adama is nothing without Roslin.

The fleet is nothing without a president; it also is nothing without forward motion, heading inexorably toward its ultimate destination.

Romo Lampkin is nothing without his cat, his lone connection to his dead family.

Lee is nothing without a purpose.

Athena is nothing without her daughter.

Is humanity truly doomed?

It would seem, in the end, that Romo accepted Lee’s assertion that people need to make a conscious decision to live, to perpetuate the human race. So long as there is faith in humanity, so long as the human race believes in its future, there is a future and it is deserved.

But what if he was right and Lee was wrong? What if the human race is doomed? What if the human race doesn’t deserve to go on? What if the future of humans and Cylons as a hybrid race is the true future and the only way that either race can continue?

The fleet is now headed by Lee Adama, a virtual Boy Scout, and a Saul Tigh, a Cylon who is only just coming to grips with what he is. The two races already are co-existing; they just don’t know it yet.

I have more to ponder and at least one more viewing before I can properly consider what I’ve just seen, but I do have a few other quick points:

• Great fight between Adama and Tigh. Tigh’s the only man in the entire fleet who could have punched Adama (who, frankly, needed it) and not ended up in the brig.

• Even so, Adama was totally right in blasting Saul about his relationship with Caprica Six, and Tigh needed those punches as a wake-up call just as much as Bill.

• Speaking of, if Caprica Six is pregnant, what does that mean? Is Saul actually the father? If he is, does that mean Cylons can procreate with one another just like humans do? Do they not need hybrid breeding? Or is it the difference between the Final Five and the Known Seven that makes the pregnancy possible?

• Will Adama finish reading Searider Falcon before he finds Roslin? I mean, c’mon, you know he’s going to. There are few things certain on this show, but there’s no way Adama is going to stay floating out in the middle of nowhere, especially considering we know that Roslin’s still alive. Not that we have proof of that, either, but, I mean, c’mon.

Photos courtesy of NBC Universal. 

It’s been a long two weeks (not as long as the next, what, seven months without Lost will be, but that’s another story for another day), but Battlestar’s return is not a moment too soon.

We were left with the jaw-dropper of the hybrid being plugged back in and immediately jumping the base star away (to where?) with Roslin, Baltar and others on board.

Here’s a “What the Frak” video recap of “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner”:

Download:

Tonight’s offering, “Sine Qua Non” will look at the deepening divide between Lee and his father, and Athena having to answer for her actions in shooting Natalie. A preview, after the break:

Read more of this entry »

This week’s So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival has posted at Athens Exchange.

To whet your whistle, I figured I’d toss together all these bits of news and vids and the like that I’ve been gathering over the past week.

This YouTube video is amazing, splicing together Gaeta’s Lament, the song he sang in snatches throughout the episode.

Which brings us to Bear McCreary’s Battlestar blog entry about “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner.” He has the whole story about how the song was developed, from writer Michael Angeli’s wife, Karen, having written the melody as a gift to him, to Alessandro Juliani (Felix Gaeta) and McCreary (BSG’s composer) involvement in the story sessions for the episode.

Who knew that Juliani had such a gorgeous voice (he studied opera at McGill University in Montreal!)? I liked how they even commented on that in the episode.

McCreary’s blog also contains the entire lyrics for the song and even the sheet music for it:

Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
With my three wishes clutched in her hand
The first that she be spared the pain
That comes from a dark and laughing rain
When she finds love may it always stay true
This I beg for the second wish I made too
But wish no more
My life you can take
To have her please just one day wake

Wowwowwowwow.

Of course, Baltar knows all about Roslin’s dreams that she shares because he’s in them, too. He has them; remember back on Kobol? He was the first to have the opera house dream, shared with a Six. Before Hera was born; long before; and Hera was in it, too.

Hera is a key to something, but to what I can’t figure.

OK, I’m jumping all over the place, so let me do one thing at a time:

Roslin

I wondered when she’d either learn that Tori was shtupping Baltar or admit to knowing it. I mean, Tori hasn’t been extremely discreet. She may have started out that way, but she visits Baltar a bit too much. They’re on a spaceship, not in a wide-open city. You can’t keep those secrets forever.

Roslin’s a real badass, too. She knows how to play hardball. She knows what she needs to know and makes sure she knows EVERYTHING she needs to know.

Wondered why it took so long for her to realize Baltar knew about the visions because he had them, too (at least, that’s what I believe to be true). That’s why she took him to visit the hybrid. There already are Sixes and Eights on the wounded base star, so she didn’t need to bring them.

She, however, is the one who’s going to figure out what the opera house means. So says the hybrid.

Sixes and Eights —  and Hera

We already know there’s bad blood between the Sixes and Eights on the base star. The Eights were ready to revolt against the Sixes when Sharon and Starbuck showed up. And Sharon is so determined to be human that she can’t stand any Cylons. And now, in the visions, she believes the Six wants to take Hera away and like any mom, she won’t —  can’t —  let that happen.

The Six named Natalie, though, is a fascinating creature.

She is ready to lay all the cards on the table. She wants to tell all the truth to the Colonials, antithetical to everything a Cylon is. The Eights, of course, are wholly against it. Leoben, as usual, can see the middle way and will make sure the Centurions don’t attack the humans.

Back on Kobol, Head Six told Baltar that this hybrid was their child —  hers and Baltar’s. She’s told him that many times since. How and why is this true? Will this cause the ultimate schism among the Cylons?

The hidden Cylons

Why is it that only the Raiders have recognized the Hidden Four? Is the programming of the first seven models so intense (and why is it so?) that they can only just vaguely sense their presence but can’t recognize them when they’re standing in front of them?

Do the Centurions recognize the Hidden Four? Can they?

Why is there no model Seven among the original Seven? (I’m going to ask this EVERY week until I find the answer.)

Is Felix Gaeta’s constant singing a red herring? Is he truly the final Cylon or are Moore & Eick trying to throw us off the scent? I don’t suppose we’ll know for sure until they decide to tell us.

How did Tigh tell that the injured base star wasn’t a danger? Did it somehow communicate with him? Did he just sense it? Does Adama buy his explanation that it was just luck? Now that they know the Final Five are in the fleet, will Adama start to suspect his XO?

The hybrid

Did the Leoben and Sharon know the hybrid would jump the ship as soon as she was connected?

What caused her to order the jump? Was it Roslin’s presence? Baltar’s presence? The reconnection, and thus sensing danger? All of the above, and more?

Do we really have to wait two weeks for the next episode? Sigh.

Be sure to come back Tuesday for So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival.

Been a bit remiss about blogging BSG lately, other than my musings on Starbuck (during which I completely forgot that we’re dealing with a 40-year time period that’s passed, so it’s unlikely – though not impossible – that Starbuck was that young blonde girl in “Razor”) and the blog carnival.

But we learned that Eric Stoltz has joined the Caprica prequel cast to play the yin to Esai Morales’ yang.

Stoltz plays Daniel Graystone, the patriarch of the other major family at the heart of this prequel movie/back-door pilot. Alessandra Toressani plays his daughter, Zoe. Morales plays Joseph Adama, daddy to William. (Everything you need to know about Caprica is in these posts.)

Then, we have this really fabulous interview the Boston Globe did with Edward James Olmos. He shares a lot about the feelings on the set without spoiling anything at all.

Take this comment:

It is bleak. And it is getting darker. This last season has gotten to the point where we end up crying a lot. Emotional breakdowns. It’s human drama. And when you perform in it, you’re inside of it. A lot of people are dead. I’m not going to say who, because why ruin it for people, but a lot of us die.

Here’s a peek ahead at tonight’s episode, “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner”:

Download:

Then, we have the What the Frak recap of “Faith”:

Download:

Come back tonight about 11:30 p.m. or so for my insta-recap/analysis of “Guess Who.”

Photo courtesy of NBC Universal.