BSG Preview: “Escape Velocity”

Tonight’s episode of Battlestar has Baltar buying his own BS and stirring up the fleet. In this weeks BSG column, we got video previews, a new video Q&A with Adama himself, NY Comic Con panel video, BSG girls in bikinis! Plus a Star Trek reference from last week’s episode, in case you missed it.


Airing tonight, April 25th at 10 PM (9 Central)

“Escape Velocity” [Season 4 Ep. 3]
Synopsis: Gaius Baltar sets off a debate on religious freedom when he promotes his belief in a single God.

Preview TV Spot


(YouTube)

Sneak Peek


(YouTube)

Episodes available online
SciFi.com are streaming the entire episode “Escape Velocity” at Noon ET (9 AM Pacific). While the episode is streaming live, you will not be able to pause it, rewind it, or fast-forward through it. CLICK TO WATCH

Also recent episodes of BSG are available online (ad supported) at SciFi.com and Hulu.com

Battlestar news of the week:

New videoblog: Q&A With Olmos

NYCC Panel
Video of Battlestar panel at last week’s Comic Con (in 6 parts!) taken by our friends at at Galactica Sitrep

BSG Babes + Bikinis + Motorcyles = Awesome
This months Interview magazine has an interesting layout of the Battlestar Babes, clicky image to see more!

Battlestar Galaxy Class
Lastly, did you catch the Trek reference in last week’s episode? Here is a clue…

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sorry i stoped watcing a few eps into the first season

1701D, baby!

and BSG babes! love :::cough::: grace ::cough:: park

what could be better?

:)

Yeah, I noticed that, and knew something was going to ‘crash’ or ‘end’ when I saw it. What a heartbreaker (no spoilers!) :(

I did see this pic to Weapons Locker 1701D. My Inital feeling I’ll admit was errie, thinking like OMG what is this… But then, I started thining that it was way cool of them to have done the numbers and node to Trek.

A nice nod to Star Trek,,

maybe Star Trek may do the same

:0 )

“We’re sorry. Currently our video library can only be streamed within the United States.” … Okay … I really wonder why it’s called the _inter_net then … :-/ Such “services” throw the internet back in the stoneage.

I thought the 1701D thing distracted from the (very important!) scene, though I recognise that most viewers wouldn’t even notice it. Blink and you miss it references are good, but this was on screen for quite a while so it took me out of the drama. It just reminded me I was watching TV, which was a pity.

the finest series on telly. its not really a sci-fi, other than the events just happening to be set among a space faring race of people with more advanced technology…

its a human situation storytelling platform, and an excellent one, but as far as scientific fiction goes… its not there, which is just fine with me (surprisingly)

star trek, at least the series incarnations, uses stories where scientific discoveries play a large part in the ramifications of the human experience, which is mostly why i love it so…

star wars is pure fantasy, nothing scientific about it, its wizards, princesses and knights… only in space, whats not to love?

i cant wait for the bsg spinoff series! more space opera, please!

Baltar, ushering in the belief of monotheism. The Christian conversion of Rome comes to mind. Should be interesting. I agree the show so far (only 3 episodes in; don’t want to be harsh) needs a little more space opera stuff. But, I’ll not get greedy, because when BSG delivers, it really DELIVERS! Besides, it gives a lot of dramatic meat to chew on in the meantime. And the ‘girls of Battlestar’ spread in Interview magazine is a hoot. And I agree with some of the posts on that link; Katee Sackhoff is FAR more charming in person than her angst-ridden character, Starbuck. Met her twice, and even after long hours at a con (greeting hundreds of fans) she was gracious and sweet. Hate to see the show go off the air after this season, but at least it’s going out on its own terms. A rare thing for TV these days. Many shows stay on the shelf LONG past their expiration date. X-Files, Buffy and others come to mind. I think this show will be appreciated more upon rediscovery (like the Prisoner was in the early ’90s when it was re-ran in syndication and on video). Too bad it hasn’t been as appreciated in THIS time! When folks can watch the DVDs (or whatever media will be in 10-20 yrs) end to end, without interruptions, they will see the story as a unified whole, rather than the widely spread-out, disjointed airings we have now (no offense, Sci-Fi channel; it’s the way the business goes).

best show on TV….. Period

I know what you mean #6 Sputnik, and as I don’t have a satellite or cable subscription I’ll hve to wait until September this year to get the DVD of Season 4. I love the show, and I’ll be sad when it ends. If you can’t be a starship captain in Trek, be a Viper pilot! :¬D

As good a show as Galatica is, I think after it broadcasts its final new episode the show will very quickly disappear. It might play in reruns on a station like the scif channel for a while, but even there it will fade off the air. Of course there is always dvds Look at what happened to Babylon 5, after it finished it 5th season on TNT, it too faded away, but not before it ran in rerun mode on the scif if channel for about a year. These types of shows don’t seem to hang around long in reruns after they cease production.

There are many copies.

I WANT ONE!

#12:”As good a show as Galatica is, I think after it broadcasts its final new episode the show will very quickly disappear”

Probably so.

Baltar is the most interesting and unpredictable character on the show, really – in that moment the other week when one would have expected him to plead for his life, for example, and instead he indicated that he’d meant what he said about God taking him instead of the child.

Looking forward to seeing him stir things up tonight.

BSG is frakkin’great!!!
But cannot replace my beloved Star Trek.

Agree that the 1701D sight gag got too much face time. It was fun, but it came at a moment so dark as to look… well, dark, even for BSG. That being said, I wonder at the sheer number of Earth-y cultural references in BSG. Patton, The Incredible Hulk, Star Trek, others? Wonder if that’s supposed to be setting us up for something, or if it’s just to keep us bleary-headed about where Earth ends and BSG begins.

If the SciFi channel weren’t run by chimps, BSG and B5 would get frequent play, instead of Snakehead Terror III making Saturdays craptastic.

As for Baltar the False Prophet, that one one is going to spell trouble for alot of people. He’s been though hell and beyond and despite his supposed guilty conscience. I don’t think has fully accepted his own share of the responsibility for the destruction of the colonies, or ever will for that matter. He does reflect on whats going on around him but he has no self reflection and that is always a bad thing if your charge and I think he is again about to repeat history by again trying to become a leader. He did not learn anything at all from the unmitigated disaster that was his Presidency. It was his decision to settle New Caprica regardless of the warning from men Like Adama. Of course the vast majority of the Coloniels were will be lead like sheep. I think that Baltar will again convince enough stupid people to follow him again and that to will end in disaster.

#11

Have u ever heard about torrents?

That Door with 1701 D what a wonderful slap on the face to star trek

#1 – Same here. I wasn’t impressed with the quality (or lack thereof) of the show, so I just stopped wasting my time and didn’t watch any more of it.

I think BSG gets better and better! The 1701D reference was great, and a nice nod. I think this show has so much more potential, and it’s a shame that we won’t find out the real “end” until 2009.

I hope Caprica turns out to be just as good, because I would hate to see it become a sort of “Dynasty” set in space.

By the way, there was another 1701 reference in BSG. In the miniseries there was a ship callsign 1701 Heavy, that needed assistance from Colonial One. Just thought i’d throw that in just in case anyone out there didn’t remember or see it.

19………What the Frak man? It was a nice nod from a man who ACTUALLY WORKED on Trek……..he has way more right to do it than any of you internet fanboys. The more I read the comments here the more I start to believe all the “myths” about Trek fans are TRUE. And I have been one since 1971.

Hi Gavorkin

The thing is, though, that Baltar might be a man on some sort of Road to Damascus experience.

I disagree that he learnt nothing from his time as president. Baltar isn’t evil and many of his worst failings come from hubris and the fact that his brilliant mind fails to see people as people: failings that many of our leaders have had down the years!

And yet, especially in the scenes while he was imprisoned and on trial, he was shown to suffer greatly at the hands of mob justice. The likes of Laura Roslin and Bill Adama wanted a show trial and to execute him, as Lee Adama pointed out!

Laura Roslin, the unelected (by the general population) de-facto president, is also demonstrating the sort of megalomania that got her voted out in the first place. And what about Starbuck, the flaky, alcoholic prophet or false prophet. How will the great Laura Roslin cope if she can point out a different path to Earth? And what about the Ancient Hybrid’s prophecy?

If the One True God (presumably Jehovah) is the one to follow, perhaps the human race has to follow Baltar and turn its back on the ancient pantheon of Gods and the prophecies of the Pythia? But where does that leave Starbuck, the so-called bringer of death to the human race?

As for the Watchtower Cylons, even after the events of episode three, can they be seen to be bad guys or simply doing what is necessary as they figure out what is going on?

I love these shades of grey in Galactica. For me, it’s the best science fiction series since the original Star Trek.

Oh, and I didn’t notice the 1701D reference. I wasn’t wearing my glasses and read it as 17010. Quite honestly, I was too wrapped up in the event to notice that detail!!

I thought the 1701D homage was a nice thought but the director was mistaken in framing the sign so squarely and clearly and *more*than*once* – it was enormously distracting in the middle of a tense and emotional scene and drained the scene of focus and impact.

This kind of thing should be done more subtlely if at all.

I think the 1701D reference was distracting to us, the more minutae-obsessed fans, but the general public wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

I didn’t even notice it, (the 1701D) It was an amazing episode last week! To be honest the scene involved was too tense for me to focus on anything other than the actors…
And to the people who are posting comments saying the show is not worthy of their attention, Why post a comment on a thread about the show? It is rather sad…
It is one of the finest pieces of drama to be shown on TV in decades IMHO.

Like Dwight said in The Office “Do you watch Battlestar Galactica?” “No” “Then you are an idiot”

That 1701D reference was pretty cool, there was another reference in the first season for Trek, but I can’t remember what it is.

#23 and #24. Dom, I agree with you that although the messenger is flawed, Baltar does seem to have changed a bit lately; his prayer for the sick boy in the first episode was heartfelt (or Jame Callis REALLY sold it). And I too, love the show for its shades of gray; humanity doesn’t always live in great accomplishment or great failure. It more often exists in the nooks and crannies between those extremes. Most of us lead rather uneventful lives (in the greater scheme of things), but we each have our own daily dramas and crises that never make the news, nor would we want them to. Right and wrong in this world are not always clear to us (most disapprove of US president Bush; yet 20-odd % support him). One nation’s hero is another’s killer. BSG recognizes this, and shows that even the best among us have serious flaws and issues. Look at all the scandals of politicians, celebrities and athletes. We put them on pedestals (unjustly in many cases) only to cut them down at the first signs of weakness. Simply to make ourselves feel better about being “average.” ALL of us humans have weaknesses, flaws and vices. NONE of us are perfect. Even when we do wonderful things. What makes the BSG’s crew so relevant to me, is that they DON’T always do the “right” things. They sometimes frak up! Yet, we as an audience are compelled to ask, would we do any better in their place? I’m glad TV is waking up and getting away from the “Cowboys and Indians” school of ‘good and bad’ stereotypes; and making characters that reflect true humanity; warts and all!

I don’t care what happens on BSG; it simply isn’t that good a show.

I love those women!!!

ok.. I said it… now I feel better.

#22 & # 27

I couldn’t agree more.

Gesus, Katee Sackhoff is so f***ing beautiful. Absolutely delicious. She gotta quit smoking though.

Mostest fantasticest show on TV. Last weeks ep was great and I did notice the reference, as did my wife, and we both got a chuckle out of it. I didn’t personally get distracted by it as Battlestar generally has me thinking all the time about where it’s going to twist and turn, much as a great mystery would.

I think that some of the BSG dislike stems from jealousy of a sort. I remember when Space:1999 first came out, there seemed to be an unreasonable backlash from the Trek faithful, like somehow a different show was going to be better than their beloved show. Ther’s room for all of ’em as far as I’m concerned.

And in regards to the bikini shots of the ladies above, I certainly send my condolences to their significant others. Too bad they are stuck with such horribly disfigured women.

I wuz gunna post in dis thread aboot BSG bein’ a soap opera drama rather than sci-fi and hence successful cuz it’s more appealin’ ta tha’
masses than ray-gun boys and spaceship shielas…

I was going to sermonize the notion that science-fiction is confined almost exclusively to print since experiencing vast foreign imaginations is both A.) cost prohibitive and B.) generally (and contradictorily) believed to be either childishly sophomoric or far too intellectualized to be entertaining on a large scale (indeed, the latter as books mainly are- There Will Be Blood should be a case-study on skillfully spartan source adaptation.)
I was hence forth to postulate such things…

But OH ME FREAKIN” honey hell o’ a blootey bebangin’ shite! Me Lord, lads!
Then me see that one called Sackhoff !!!!

Now, I can usually take or leave blondes but…
Blow me down!!!! Arrrrr… them other two look like a wind barely able to stir me sails would knock ’em ta’ Cuba, but that Katie be a cutie…

Oh, a’frakkie doo wuld be bourne amightily sploot! A-ga-ga-ga-ga!

OK mates… no worries… I’m fine now… maybe I’ll post in tha’ JJ thread instead…

Wait… what’s tha’ expression that has itself a rythmic similarity to Katie’s last name?
Crikeee… That’s not right fur ta’ be sayin’ at all… think Pre-Raphealite and seein’ the bonny goo juzt fur bonny’s sake… in yon pickenoo!
Hey- wait… if her pose be intentional then the purpose of titalation be clear… (they make us go thru these screw’d up sensitivity courses an’ it takes a trip ta’ Thailand to fix us all back on track)
Time fur shore leave…

sorry mates!

I’m leavin’ now as it seems my postings are showin’ up twice today!
Like I tell everyone else- Clean me mess up for me!

arrrrrrr!

#23 Dom On Laura Roslyn i couldn’t agree with you more she is sliding down the darkside. You do make some interesting point about Baltar and I agree he is not evil, If not Culpable in the destructions among other things, some of his actions or inactions maybe at least fit under the category Sin Of Omission. He had suspicions about 6 could maybe have gone to authorities and maybe prevent the destruction of the colonies. perhaps. He was working with 6 on the design of the defense systems for colonies ,He’s a computer genius and he couldn’t see what 6 putting in to the computer codes that he designing? Then again the Pilot Katt before the destruction of the colonies had helped smuggle cylon agents into the colonies,had her suspicions, choose not to act on them. There are probably other sins of omissions committed by other characters throughout the series. Of coure in Baltars case when the Cylons gave him execution orders he could have chosen not sign them at all, of course he would gotten shot. Dying would have been the noble thing, but Baltar is not a noble person, actual damned few of of us are. When given the choice most would not choose martyrdom for the greater good.

It has been suggested and allude to By James Olmos that its possible that everyone will end up dying on the series. This could either be another Red Herring or it could be true.

1701D on the ammunition storage room is not what I would call a loving
Homage to Star Trek, if anything its way of poking fun at trek’s bright shiny unrealistic view that life is fair everything is going to work out scheme of things. It is also a shot at the characters of trek who,compared to those on BSG, a re a bunch of stiff dress up manequins, who never really grow . Life is inherently unfair and the good guys if you can figure out who they are in BSG, don’t always carry the day and more often then not end up looking the worse for things as well. BSG is dark nasty and pessimistic and quite honestly as Boomer said to Adama in so many words that maybe humanity doesn’t deserve to survive and maybe they wont at the end of this torturous journey. This illustrates the point that there may in fact be no greater meaning or purpose to mans suffering or anything else in the scheme of things. That maybe the central truth to what Galactica is trying to convey to us Now that would be an interesting ending to a science fiction series. That in the end there is no such thing as final justice, then again I could be wrong, who knows.

you know thousands of people visit this site every day and just lurk…which is fine. We have dozens of stories every week. We do one story a week on BSG, because it is run by trek vets, it is the only space based show on TV and 2/3s of trekmovie.com readers say they watch it. If you aren’t one of them, fine…but do you really need to go out of your way to tell people how you dont like a show they like…every week?

Hey, at least it’s a show that’s still on the air. Folks go out of their way to tell people they don’t like “Enterprise” every day – and it’s been gone for three years. LOL

Anthony I don’t hate trek, not at all. I tend to be over critical perhaps, but there is no malice intended. I tend to deconstruct everything not just trek.

Anthony–hear, hear. You don’t see me going to message boards devoted to the original BSG to lecture the posters there on just how awful it was. Live and let live, and let folks enjoy what they enjoy.

‘Tis true.
BSG is a worthy show ta’ watch and I’m glad so many folks find it so compelling and so human. I mean, what- it’s closest current tv competition be something like six rungs lower in quality than it, right?

Carry on!
arrrr…

I think what i like most about the BSG is it that it is a very uncomfortable show to watch. The shows gives a lot to the viewer and expects a lot in return.You have to pay attention to every single detail,you can’t casually watch this show. it requires you to know things about characters and story lines from past episodes,so therefore you will have had following it from the start.

Garo,

Anthony is talking about the people who just come here and only say “Not interested in this show.” And then offer nothing to further the conversation or to strengthen their reasoning as to why they don’t like it. You do make valid contributions and actually stimulate the conversation. I don’t get upset that BSG might not be someone’s cup of tea, but to just say the show is bad for no apparent reason just sounds ignorant. I’m just sorry that they are missing out on a very fine show. To complain about the quality seems rather snarky as well. BSG’s visuals are head and shoulders above anything that has been on TV, and at the very least, equal anything that has been put on the big screen to date. I watch the show every week in HD on a 57″ flat screen. Stunning. The writing is well thought out, and has an arc. We’re not just watching “Attack of the Sentient Carrots”.

The complainers don’t bug me. Some of them are trolls, though

This episode was quite good. The Star Trek link “1701D” was quite overt, but quite appreciated. It was not the first nod to 1701 and hopefully not the last. I wonder if the cast got a good chuckle out of it. I am not sure but it sounds like something David Eick would do. He’s quite the witty one and Ron was more than happy to play along.

To be honest, I am looking forward to less new questions and narrowing down some answers in future eps. Not a complaint but I fear that everything is going to get wrapped up at the last minute like a bad Enterprise or Voyager episode. Nonetheless, the eps are getting better, IMHO

Looking at the BSG ladies in the above picture – definitely nothing to complain about there, except for the fact that the whole bikini should be shown…

#45 THX- 1138 thanks

This may put a bit of crimp in my comment 38. But what if there are larger forces at work? Through out the series the Cylons could have finished off the coloniels at any time, but they didn’t. When they had them on New Caprica all they had to do was bomb the place into oblivion, yet instead they were prevailed upon to show mercy, which I might add is a very human trait, now there were other practical reason probably us humans as breeding stock for the next generation of Human Cylon models. Then there is the whole issue of Boomer who fell in love with Helo.The Cylons have become more human then they would be willing to admit, they find conscensus harder to achieve as they have evolved, and thus you have one of the many seeds of the Cylon civil war. Its got to be more then a coincidence that the final 5 ended up in the Coloniel fleet, this is what has prevented the Cylons from attacking and finishing off the Coloniel another seed for the Cylon civil war.

The 4 models on the Galactica have an agenda that they seem to be unaware of and I think I know what element might give them that answer. The 5th and final Cylon will prably cause them all to know what their purpose is. The 5th Cylon is probably literally the the key that will unlock their program. This I think is Important. I only thought about this possibility as i was typing. If at all possible i would some thoughts on this one.

BSG = The best show on tv.

THX:

Any more info on that “Attack of the Sentient Carrots?”

I’d like to start watching this, but I’ m busy, and I just finished LOST season 2, and trying to start 3.

From what it seems (Garo said it), one must be invested in the series to get into it.

There are no “key” stand-alone episodes to get me psyched? Nothing I can download from i tunes tonight and watch get a flavor? Advice, please?