'Battlestar Galactica' set to say goodbye after Season 4

Sci Fi Channel has confirmed that “Battlestar Galactica’s” fourth season will be the show’s last.

In March, the network announced that there would be a 22-hour fourth season of the show. Speculation has been rampant that the fourth season would be the last one, a theory confirmed by “Battlestar Galactica” actors Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff, who said at a May awards ceremony that the show would end with Season 4. The LA Times got confirmation of the news Thursday.

“This show was always meant to have a beginning, a middle and finally, an end,” executive producers David Eick and Ron Moore said in a statement from Sci Fi on Friday. “Over the course of the last year, the story and the characters have been moving strongly toward that end and we've decided to listen to those internal voices and conclude the show on our own terms.

“On a personal level, it's been a creative privilege and an honor for all of us who work on the show and we know we'll be lucky to ever see its like again.  And while we know our fans will be saddened to know the end is coming, they should brace themselves for a wild ride getting there – we're going out with a bang.”

The fourth season’s 22 hours will include a 2-hour standalone episode, “Razor,” which Sci Fi said will air in November. It was written by Michael Taylor and will center on the Battlestar Pegasus, which viewers first glimpsed in Season 2.

Don’t look for that two-hour movie, which will be released on DVD, to tie up loose ends from the intense season finale, in which the presumed-dead Starbuck was seen alive. “We would not tie [‘Razor’] directly to our season cliffhanger,” Moore told the Tribune in January in an extensive interview.

The rest of Season 4 will debut in early 2008. There will be a conference call with Moore and Eick this afternoon; I plan to ask them if the remaining 20 hours of the show will air in two separate segments, as has been the case with the second and third seasons of the show.

Eick already has another project in the works: His updated “Bionic Woman” has been picked up by NBC for the network’s fall schedule. “Battlestar Galactica’s” Katee Sackhoff will have a prominent, recurring guest role on that show. Click here for clips from "Bionic Woman," including one scene in which Sackhoff's villain character fights the Bionic Woman.

Sci Fi's Friday press release is on the jump.

‘GALACTICA’ ROARS TOWARD STUNNING FINALE

Executive Producers to Conclude the Series With Its Fourth Season

New York, NY – June 1, 2007 – Executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick have decided that season 4 of Battlestar Galactica, SCI FI Channel’s Peabody Award-winning original series, will be its last.   They will use the 22-episode season, currently in production, to draw the saga of humanity’s struggle for survival to a close.

"This show was always meant to have a beginning, a middle and finally, an end.  Over the course of the last year, the story and the characters have been moving strongly toward that end and we've decided to listen to those internal voices and conclude the show on our own terms,” stated Eick and Moore. “On a personal level, it's been a creative privilege and an honor for all of us who work on the show and we know we'll be lucky to ever see its like again.  And while we know our fans will be saddened to know the end is coming, they should brace themselves for a wild ride getting there – we're going out with a bang."

“We respect the producers’ decision to end the series and are proud to have been the home of this groundbreaking show.  We have always known that Ron and David had a plan for ‘Galactica’ and trust that fans can look forward to a truly amazing final season,” stated Mark Stern, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, SCI FI.

Production on the final 22 hours of season 4 is currently underway in Vancouver.  An extended two-hour episode, “Razor,” will premiere in November 2007, setting the stage for the rest of the season to commence in early 2008.

Redefining the space opera with its gritty realism, Galactica’s intensity, issues-driven topicality, and command performances have garnered it unprecedented critical acclaim.  In addition to winning a prestigious Peabody Award, the series has been honored as one of the 10 Outstanding Television Programs of the Year by the American Film Institute (AFI) for two years running and the #2 sci-fi project – television or film – of the past 25 years by Entertainment Weekly. Battlestar is also responsible for introducing the expletive “frak” into the pop culture lexicon.

Battlestar Galactica is from NBC Universal Television Studio and is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick.  Its stellar cast is led by Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. 

Comments

[innamorata]

Duh.

This is not a reaction to your piece but it seemed rather obvious to me that s4 would be the last just based on the episode order no matter how Eick denied Olmos and Sackhoff's statements about s4 being the last.

I can only hope the upcoming season will be as tightly plotted and paced as s1 rather than bogged down half way like s3.

You know I absolutely adore the show but s3 had flaws I can't overlook.

Anyhoo, I'll be patient waiting for the show's final original run. I may go totally spoiler free this year to have my mind blown from the beginning to the thrilling end.

I know: shocking. :P

Is it wrong that I'm already dreaming of a big nice DVD set of the four seasons?

[Will]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Galactica is one of the best shows on TV but sadly it has to end. The best thing to do is end the series at a very high and memorable note. Im sure the producers of the show don't want to expand the show out and lose its creativity with pointless plot developments and over the top ridiculous twists, cough LOST cough

[Tim A.]

Shocking news for all four of us!
The writing was on the wall I suppose, what with writers, actors and producers all drifting towards new projects. Hopefully they can finish it in style and maybe, in a few years, do a Cylon War I prequel...

[Dan]

Frak.
Its sad to see it ending, but at least we have 22 roaring good episodes to go, Ill be watching every one of them. Including the 2 hour special about 'The Beast' (nickname for the Pegasus for those who arent Galactica nerds)
This show took sci fi to another level, a level that hasn't been seen probably since Babylon 5, or Star Trek Deep Space Nine. (little sidenote, I found out that some of the writers for Galactica worked on DS9 back in the day)

[Jen]

Anyone know when Season 3 will be available on DVD?

[Alec]

So glad!
Its so good to see actually responsible producers of TV shows for once! The show is great, and its going to end great. Thats a great thing, who wants another Stargate forever, repeating the exact same story and getting more ridiculous with every episode?

[Melissa Niksic]

I had a feeling this was coming, but I'm still incredibly bummed out. Now the only show I'll have left to watch is "Dancing with the Stars," and although "Dancing" is very entertaining, it's no "BSG." :(

[Laura F]

Season 3 is rumored to be out mid-August. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7084 That's all I know.

[G Gasbo]

SciFi, as we know it, is dying an inglorious death

[Mark S.]

If they make it to earth, I hope they have an episode or two of them interacting with the inhabitants there. Unless they've killed themselves off due to climate change or war.

[Geo]

What's more depressing than the now confirmed brevity of this series is the fact that it has never even approached the ratings of Lost or Heroes. The creators of those series cleverly dressed up genre shows to look like typical network action-thrillers, a strategy that drew in savvy sci-fi and superhero fans as well as many others. BSG, superb as it is, just looks too sci-fi, with its uniforms, technology, space battles, etc. And then there's the title. Given these surface aspects, many people just won't give the show a chance, assuming it's adolescent and vapid. We, the fans, know better, as do all smart TV critics--including, of course, Mo. The question for me is: how do we convince others to catch up with the rest of us and tune in to the last season of the best show on television?

And here's a prediction: I think that the show is actually set somewhere in the past, and that the humans and cylons (and their hybrid babies) will turn out to be our ancestors. This would make us all part cylon! I have no inside info., and this is just total speculation, but I'm sure whatever Moore and Eick come up with at the end will be spectacularly mind-blowing.

Can't wait.

[j sullivan]

Has it ever been definitively answered whether the 12 models of Cylons were created and planted among humanity or whether humans were taken and replaced with Cylons?

[bill]

sad so sad to see it all finally ending
ill miss it

[moncler coats]

I'd be interested in hearing. The TOS seems rather clear that it is not unless expressly approved by Amazon. I guess if the library got it in writing then they would be ok.