When will new Battlestar Galactica episodes resume?

October 1, 2005 7:02 PM

When will new Battlestar Galactica episodes resume? Season 2, episode 10, "Pegasus" was billed as the "summer finale," but I think there's more to come before Season 2 is done. Sci-Fi's website is pretty uninformative about this - though it looks like they'll be airing repeats for the next few weeks at least.
posted by scarabic to media & arts (18 comments total)

January. I don't know why I know this or where I learned it. But January.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:13 PM on October 1, 2005

Jan 11 2006
posted by Rhomboid at 7:18 PM on October 1, 2005

Ouch! 3 months. Okay... breathe...

Is this a normal seasonal pattern? I've almost never followed a show as it aired for the first time so I am not familiar with how TV "seasons" are organized. Is one season usually split in two parts?
posted by scarabic at 7:34 PM on October 1, 2005

I am still pretty peeved that this season was only 10 episodes, I feel cheated out of 3 hours of BSG. Everything, every character, feels unresolved and undeveloped. Like we're cut off in the middle of an arc.

I was talking about "normal" tv seasons earlier today. Generally network shows are 24 episodes, and while cable stations used to follow this structure, they can do whatever they want. More shows have been following the HBO model of a 13 episode season, but however that is decided feels arbitrary.
posted by scazza at 8:03 PM on October 1, 2005

FWIW, the standard network season has long been 22 episodes, not 24, although orders for initial seasons are often 13.
posted by dersins at 8:14 PM on October 1, 2005

SCIFi likes to split seasons of their original series in half so they can counter-program while other shows are in reruns. The second season of BSG is going to be at least 20 episodes in full, I seem to remember hearing a full 22, but at least 20 to be sure.
posted by JMB1138 at 8:49 PM on October 1, 2005

scazza, I don't know if you've listened to any of the commentary for the episodes, but the producer, Ron Moore, did discuss why this seems like an "unfinished" story arc. They're really treating these first season 2 episodes as a finish for season 1, which is thus completed. So, Season 2A is really the completion of Season 1, which they considered incomplete, and Season 2B is more like Season 3.

Eh. This is why I hate watching shows "live." I'd much rather rent the entire DVD set and watch the whole thing straight through. That's what I'm doing with Six Feet Under at the moment.
posted by odinsdream at 9:06 PM on October 1, 2005

commentary, corrected link.
posted by odinsdream at 9:06 PM on October 1, 2005

I am still pretty peeved that this season was only 10 episodes

This season wasn't ten episodes. The season isn't finished, and will continue in early January, as was previously mentioned. Ten episodes of the season have aired, and the remainder will air at a later date. This is standard operatin procedure.

Generally network shows are 24 episodes

This isn't really true, either. See this previous discussion on AskMe.
posted by jdroth at 11:05 PM on October 1, 2005

Yeah I did read something posted by someone associated with the show that there would be another 10 episodes aired as part of Season 2. The whole concept of splitting up the season seems weird to me. But I guess it means less waiting between seasons 2 and 3. I hope, anyway!
posted by scarabic at 2:23 AM on October 2, 2005

So where does this put a DVD release of the second season? For some of us that's the only way to get it.
posted by edd at 2:54 AM on October 2, 2005

DVD of the (first 10 eps of the) second season will be out in December in the US. I think 12/20; it was on thedigitalbits.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:22 AM on October 2, 2005

The whole concept of splitting up the season seems weird to me.

Well, I don't like it any more than you do, but Sci-Fi's been following that game plan for a few years now, and I've started to understand it.

Partially, it's the advertising thing, like JMB said.

I think the logistics of producing a sci-fi show come into play too, though. All those composite shots and matte paintings and rotoscoping take time. By dividing up the year into alternating quarters where the show is either airing fresh or in re-runs, they've worked in breaks in production. This lets the actors get a rest--doing 22 episodes in a row would be grueling. It gives the crew a break. It gives Zoic more of a chance to make those pretty pretty space graphics. It lets the writers step back for a while and reevaluate how the series is going. For example, I've noticed that Stargate episodes are always better after the mid-season break than before it.

Plus, Sci-Fi doesn't operate like most networks. Its big 3 franchises do not, at the moment, have to worry about cancellation. I don't think Ron Moore's afraid there won't be a Season 3 of BSG. This lets them get into a factory mentality. Month after month, season after season, they are hammering out episodes. Everyone involved has some job security. So it isn't necessary for them to bunch episodes up into 22-hour bundles, because they know they can wait three months and come back with the same team.

There's also the money issue. Sci-Fi channel shows don't have the world's most ginormous budgets. With one-quarter-on, one-quarter-off, they can balance out those costs a bit better. Of course, it seems they only balance things out so they can afford to make crappy Saturday night B-movies like Mansquito....

It's also because Sci-Fi, one imagines, tells its television shows to shy away from serial story arcs. Shows with carefully laid-out, seasons-long plots gets highly inconvenienced when an episode isn't shown week-after-week. But with episodic action like Sci-Fi turns out, those concerns are negligible. Viewers don't have to juggle many plot threads or characters, and can come back in three months without feeling lost. Stories that span more than an episode tend to become cliffhangers at the beginning or end of a half-season, where that lack of resolution can draw fans back. Obviously, this is a strategy Sci-Fi's execs decided upon long before BSG got greenlit, and even longer before they discovered how serialized it would be. But it's popular now, so they're stuck with it. But they've also already got their airing and shooting schedules for the Stargate franchises, so they're stuck with "summer" and "winter/spring" seasons.
posted by jbrjake at 8:41 AM on October 2, 2005

It kind of blows my mind that the show has a "small" budget. I guess I assume that anything which is so acclaimed and popular will just get whatever it needs to keep going. Bad assumption.
posted by scarabic at 9:56 AM on October 2, 2005

Scarabic,

Most of the cost of sets, initial effect design, 3d models were all created for the pilot. In a way, the same method Glen Larson shows used - the constant reuse of expensive shots (vipers leaving, flipping a shot of a ship) rather than creating new FX shots saves thousands and millions of dollars.

THere is a decent blend of show arcing and season arcing in the show. This is a key ingredient to the popularity of a show - the new viewer can get into it...and the devout follower sees a higher story in the show. That's why, often in the first 5-10 mins. of a show, there'll be a throwaway line or two, reminding you of people's names/relationships for that new viewer.

In some ways, this is the future of TV. Shows that's key feature is to not lose money, knowing that millions will be made in DVD sales and syndication (magic number is 100 episodes).
posted by filmgeek at 1:17 PM on October 2, 2005

I agree that the current setup for Sci-Fi's shows is frustrating, but I'm actually coming to terms with it, maybe even appreciating it. As is, when the regular tv shows are turning to re-runs, I've got a source of fresh shows.

The pathetic thing about their series of B movies they air on Saturday nights, they're actually profiting off of them. Someone, I don't know who, is watching them and have enough friends that make it worthwhile.
posted by Atreides at 2:29 PM on October 2, 2005

It is a shame that the series on SciFi are so incredible and their movies just BLOW. It drives me nuts when I turn on that channel on the weekend and it's just one "bug-hunt" movie after another.
posted by Ber at 8:20 PM on October 2, 2005

A little historical footnote: BSG also airs on Sky TV in the UK. They haven't gotten any of the second season yet, and they were going to air it starting now and then running the whole second season. Which meant they would get the January episodes before the US. This gave me hope that the eps would be accessible on P2P early.

Regrettably, Sky has changed their plans and is now going to start showing season two in January.
posted by smackfu at 11:59 AM on October 3, 2005