The Future of Battlestar Galactica
A Spin-Off Pilot and Series Finale in 2009 Await the Sci-Fi Epic
Fans have been waiting eons for Battlestar Galactica's series finale and as the last episode airs on June 13 before a hiatus until 2009, word of a new pilot surfaces.
If you've been waiting for the highly-touted series finale of Battlestar Galactica's four-year run on The SCI FI Channel, you're going to have to wait a bit longer. To the chagrin of fans all over the world, the second half of the series' fourth season will not air for about another seven or eight months.
According to BuddyTV.com, the final 10 episodes of the series will air in late 2008 or (most likely) early 2009. The last episode until then - entitled "Revelations" and set to air on June 13 at 10/9C - will see a band of rebel cylons hold President Laura Roslin hostage in order to lure the final five 'cylons-in-denial' out of hiding. And there's no doubt you can expect a major cliffhanger just to torture us as much as possible during the hiatus.
Why the Wait?
It's unclear why exactly The SCI FI Channel would choose to draw out the remainder of the show's final season, especially when the episodes are almost finished shooting anyway. Possible explanations are that the channel doesn't want to air the episodes during the summer when most viewers are MIA, and airing it in the fall would be a mistake because it would be competing with the premieres of other shows on bigger networks. Then again, it might be because the channel isn't used to putting out high-quality material and doesn't know what to do with a hit, which Jamie Bamber (who plays Lee Adama on the show) said during a Q&A session at DragonCon 2007, according to Ain't It Cool News.
Whatever the reason, there is little dispute among fans that the hiatus is unwelcome and runs the risk of stalling momentum on the plot of an already lagging final season.
In the Meantime...
Just as we're all losing faith that anyone but the fans care about Battlestar Galactica, The SCI FI Channel has approved a two-hour pilot for a spin-off prequel called Caprica. The series would take place 50 years before the events of the series and is going to be headed by executive producers David Eick and Ronald D. Moore, who also writes for the show.
According to the Wired Blog Network, the series will begin production this spring and will hit the air in the fall.
Final Words of Strength
Although The SCI FI Channel seems to be sending mixed signals about the fate of Battlestar Galactica and where the show sits in its list of priorities, fans should find solace in the fact that the rest of season four will air at all, and that the new project Caprica will (if it's treated right) keep us entertained for eons to come.
