Battlestar Galactica: Your Next Boxed Set!

Battlestar Galactica has it all: depth, darkness, beauty, brains, nuance, romance, planet-sized plot twists – and robots who look exactly like underwear models. If you think you hate sci-fi, now is the time to get over it. Suck up the spaceships; they are integral to the plot. Just give it four or five episodes, same rule as for any other box set.

The place to start is the 2003 TV miniseries. If you skip that, or indeed if you skip about at all over the course of the five series that follow, then (as the great Charlie Brooker once put it) BSG will make as much sense as a wool piano. Early on there are a few duff, missable episodes, but mostly you need to pay close attention. The plot is devilishly complex. At times it flirts with incomprehensibility. But in a good way.

The basic premise is that robots called Cylons – originally created by humans, now very much their own people – turn up after 40 years in the wilderness to nuke humanity. Only a few humans are left to flee, aboard the good ship Battlestar Galactica. Then they realise that Cylons have evolved from the shiny metal things they once were: they look human now. And some of these Cylons are living, unidentified, among them. After that, trying to guess which of our flawed heroes is a Cylon becomes a big part of the fun.

On top of that, there's a whole myth-arc about destiny and history; there are some very big space battles; and the humans have to piece together a political system that makes sense when you're on the brink of extinction. In fact, BSG is pointedly political throughout. The fighter-pilot lead character Starbuck (who was a man in the original 1970s series that started it all ) is a woman, and the whole show is stacked with powerful female characters. Series three is one big metaphor for the war in Iraq.

Oh, just buy the lot and watch them. These people deserve your money

'Battlestar Galactica' producer dies

Harvey Frand, Emmy-winning producer of "Battlestar Galactica," died in Los Angeles after a brief hospitalization for respiratory problems. He was 68.

Frand began his TV producing career in 1985 with "The Devlin Connection," Rock Hudson's final series. He went on to produce the 1985-87 version of "The Twilight Zone" as well as "Beauty and the Beast," "The Young Riders," "Lazarus Man" with Robert Urich, "Pretender" and "Strange World." For his work on "Battlestar Galactica," he won an AFI Award, the 2005 Peabody Award and a 2008 Emmy and is currently nominated for a second Emmy Award.

Mary McDonnell, star of the series, said in a statement, "Harvey had a remarkable gift as a producer. He always made the person who was voicing needs and concerns know that he was truly listening despite the fact that you knew he was juggling hundreds of others simultaneously."

Writer/producer Bradley Thompson said, "He would constantly challenge us find creative ways to make the piece work within the constraints of physical and financial reality. And if he felt we needed that something extra... say a nuclear explosion or two... to make the story play, he'd go to the mat to make it happen."

Born in Philadelphia, he studied political science at the U. of Pittsburgh. After working with Students for Kennedy in college, he started out at NBC news. As an executive for Warner Brothers he oversaw production on the 1973 David Janssen series, "Harry O."

In addition to his work in series television, he produced more than 20 pilots and movies of the week. He also produced the 1974-75 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" starring Christopher Walken and Irene Worth.

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'Battlestar Galactica: The Plan' is Finished !

Source: Airlock Alpha

It can take a long time to put together a "Battlestar Galactica" movie, especially one which writer Jane Espenson said took both her and director Edward James Olmos to go line by line through the script to make sure every aspect lined up with the backstory of the critically acclaimed SciFi Channel series.

Although work on the film began soon after the final season of "Battlestar Galactica" wrapped last year, Olmos told attendees at a Battlestar Galactica Orchestra concert Thursday night in San Diego and the next day at a San Diego Comic-Con panel that he just wrapped "Battlestar Galactica: The Plan" last week as the network gets ready for an October premiere.

"It took seven months to edit the picture," Olmos said. "It was 10 to 12 hours a day, and the hardest job I ever done. But I will say that you guys are going to love it. You will freak out, and will keep you busy for another three years."

Doing a backstory piece based on asides from characters is tough, especially with "The Plan" that covers the entire length of the series, as well as before the events first featured in the 2003 pilot.

"When we started to nail it and try to figure out what was the story, we knew they had a plan, they did this and did this, but didn't want it to feel like a clip show," Olmos said. "It felt really difficult."

Espenson, who previously did work on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dollhouse," and is the new showrunner for the "Battlestar" spinoff series "Caprica," said she was quite knowledgeable about "Battlestar Galactica," especially through some of her past writing stints on the show, but still needed some help to make sure every piece of history fit perfectly into the already established canon.

"There was a lot of watching episodes and of reading of old scripts," Espenson said. "You can read the scripts faster than watching the film, but then you have to wonder if the scene actually got shown, so I would have to go find it on film."

Another thing it allowed Espenson to do was look at different scenes already existing in the series, and take a look at what she could create on in scenes that were originally out of sight.

"We would look to see if we could continue a scene, like what happened on the other side of the door when [someone] walks into the room," Espenson said. "It's different from most writing where you let yourself go and relax so that you can hear these people talking into your ear. But for this, you can't let yourself go at all. You have to be analyzing."

"Battlestar Galactica: The Plan" debuts on DVD Oct. 27, and is expected to air on Syfy sometime in November.