BSG Preview: “Deadlock” [UPDATE: New Larson BSG movie?]

Last week’s episode of Battlestar was a lot to take in, finally coming clean on a lot of mythology and backstory. This week in "Deadlock" they now have to deal with the fallout. We have the latest previews for "Deadlock", plus lots of links to follow-ups on last week’s episode, including interviews and  Q&A with the writers. So what the frak are you waiting for? [UPDATE: New BSG film in the works?]

 

“Deadlock” [Season 4 Ep. 16]
US: Airing February 20th on SciFi at 10 PM (9 Central)
Canada: Airing February 20th on Space at 10 PM (7 Pacific)
UK: Airing February 24th on Sky1 at 9 PM
 

Synopsis: Ellen escapes from Cavil only to face a momentous choice regarding the 13th Tribe and the Final Five Cylons.


Six gets physical

Preview (SciFi – USA)

Preview (Space – Canada)

Sneak Peek 1

Sneak Peek 2

Last Week’s Episode ("no Exit") Roundup

Episode streaming online links:

Recap:

Writer’s Question time
"No Exit" writers Jane Espenson and Ryan Mottesheard answered fan questions about the episode at Chicago Tribune. Here is just a tiny sample of the kind of answers you can get:

Mo: What was it like working with John Hodgman? Was Dr. Gerard written to be a bit of comic relief or was that what John naturally brought to the role?

Jane: Dr. Gerard was a role we wrote specifically for John Hodgman. He was intended to be a slightly heightened and amusing character, and his pitch-perfect performance helped us get the right tone.

Mo: Was there a lot that had to be cut from this episode?

Jane: There was certainly material that was cut. I recall that Ellen said more to Boomer in that exchange in which she ate the apple. And there was a much longer and more elaborate escape sequence that got gradually whittled down all during pre-production, and then during production, and which ended up going away entirely by the end of it all.

[Many readers asked various versions of this question] How did Saul Tigh know Adama for such a long time?

Jane: They didn’t meet until after the war. Saul was given false memories and introduced into life among humans at that point.

Ratings analysis (by Russ)
After two weeks of viewership declines, the last two weeks of season 4.5 has seen a stabilization of sorts. Episode 15, "No Exit", drew 1.77 million viewers — an increase of 13.5% from the week prior — and last week’s episode, "Deadlock", remained steady, drawing 1.74 million viewers. Through five episodes of season 4.5 the show is averaging 1.79 million viewers (that’s still a decline of 15% since the premiere, but better than the 26% decline from week 1 to week 3).

History of the Twelve Colonies
Last week’s episode filled in a lot of gaps in the history of the human race and the Cylons in the BSG Universe. The Battlestar Wiki has done their best to put this history all together, starting back in ‘ancient history’ all the way up to the ‘present day’. Check out their newly updated BSG Timeline.
 


New BSG Interviews

Tricia Helfer on Jimmy Kimmel.

David Eick Videoblog on the nature of Cylons

more interviews

BSG to go out with three hour finale
Battlestar Galactica will come to an end on March 20th. After this weekend there are two more stand alone episodes (on Feb. 27 & March 6), followed by part 1 of the finale "Daybreak" on March 13th and then the two-hour conclusion to the finale ("Daybreak" parts 2 & 3) on March 20th, more details at GalacticaSitrep.


UPDATE: New BSG Movie? Based on Original 70s BSG?
IGN has a whopper of a new rumor. The site is saying that they have learned Universal is planning a feature film version of Battlestar Galactica, based on a script from Glen Larson, creator of the 1978 show. IGN notes that Universal has denied the story, but they stand by it.

One thing that is confirmed is that Universal is currently producing another TV movie based on the Ron Moore BSG series. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, directed by Edward James Olmos, will focus on the events of the mini-series and after from the Cylon point of view. It will air this summer. And Universal is also developing Caprica, a prequel TV series for Ron Moore’s BSG set before the first Cylon war.

UPDATE on the UPDATE: THR also reporting Larson movie

The Hollywood Reporter is now backing up the IGN story, but Universal is still denying it.

 

Even more BSG
If that isn’t enough for you, keep track of all your Frakin needs at our favorite BSG site, Battlestar Sitrep.

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Can’t wait for tonight!

Gods, great job on the timeline.
I wonder if Ron Moore plotted this out from the very beginning…

I am so looking forward to this finale. Last weeks episode was really interesting and confusing, but I think I get most of it..lol. I have a feeling it’s going to be a very interesting few weeks

Line of the week:
“How many dead chicks are out there?”
Hot Dog.

Defrakking . . .

Can’t wait till tomorrow to see it on Hulu! Love me some BSG. }:-D>

Refrakking.

Re: Commodore Lurker – February 20, 2009

You won’t see it on Hulu tomorrow. From Hulu:

Episodes 13-17 will be posted on Hulu the day after their TV broadcast. Subsequent episodes will be posted 8 days after their original broadcast date.

Deadlock is episode 18. I’m hoping it will be on iTunes tomorrow. Or up at SciFi.com to stream.

Best Program Ever Made!!!

um…why exactly are there BSG threads on TrekMovie.com?

Because BSG is treks natural successor. At least in terms of story quality and maturity.

Hey last week was fantastic and we now know a lot of the story. Im sure there are things still left to learn. But. i have an Idea. What if they find Earth and they find that we have already gone to war and are still fighting robots. But these robots are not just cylons but we call them Termanators.

How is this for a fight. A Cylon vs a Termanator

#8

Better question:

Why are you commenting on it? AP has covered this issue. Time to move on.

Last weeks episode blew the top off of my head. It was great to start to see the fog lifted around the BSG mythos. I’m having fun.

BSG=Best Show Going.

@12…

and I smell a final epic battle coming…
with out girl in structural trouble, who knows
how fast that cylon stuff grows some stability back into her…

Wtg Anthony. You tell em.

Anthony im sure you will keep us up to date. I would Love to see a feature film on BSG

#14

So is that stuff like glucosamine chondroitin for battlestars? I could use some of that stuff for my Caprice.

A Larson BSG movie? Trying to do a remake of an original
TV series for the big screen seems like a novel concept.

2nd that…. As much as I love the current incarnation of BSG… I’d be plunking down my dollars at the theater, or on dvd (or both) to see the original again!

Doug L.

and Anthony, btw… Thanks for putting bsg updates here!

This show has surpassed my expectations of what good solid scifi is , on so many levels it isn’t funny………It will be missed ;(

I doubt a Classic BSG movie will ever be made due to rights issues.

You guys also forgot that you can buy Caprica on DVD a YEAR before you’ll see it on Sci Fi.

THR actually broke this story first. So we have two independent sources confirming this one.

If a movie is on the way, I’ll definitely see it on the big screen!

And man, I can’t wait for tonight. The season is getting better, and one can only hope that the finale will not only be exciting, but mind-blowing!

God bless!

After two weeks of viewership declines, the last two weeks of season 4.5 has seen a stabilization of sorts. Episode 15, “No Exit”, drew 1.77 million viewers — an increase of 13.5% from the week prior — and last week’s episode, “Deadlock”, remained steady, drawing 1.74 million viewers.

Are you posting from one week into the future? How can you know viewership for an episode that hasn’t aired?

I doubt a classic BSG movie would do well considering it would mean a THIRD cast of the same characters. Its too soon. This isn’t like the new Star Trek movie, they never replaced any of the original characters just for a movie, they replaced them once already.

Okay let’s see what I got right:

Ellen & Tygh get it on, check!

Ellen magicks Anders back to life, check! (Liam dies, Ander’s back)

Boomer & Tyrol get it on, Check! (next week’s preview)

Baltar betrays someone for a ham sammich, CHECK!

granted, he betrayed Adama for guns and his temple prostitutes for soylent green, so that’s a double check!

What say ye, Sean?

All that’s left is to return to Kobol, find the lab, and everyone lives happily ever after

Speaking as someone who fell out of love with BSG awhile ago, I really did enjoy a lot of last week’s episode and thus have cautious hopes for this week’s :) Here’s hopin’

I never thought I’d be so disapointed to have Ellen return. With all her memory back, she went from being a wise woman when she was with the Cylon fleet, to being the common fool when she returned to Galactica. I am so disapointed. Then on top of that, she trys to talk the others into leaving. Ellen should have just stayed away. She even made Caprica Six lose her baby…how sad. Next week looks promising.

I think that might have been the worst BSG episode evar. No, I don’t think so, it was. Tedious, repetitive, inconsequential and, the Baltar thing, just ridiculous, and the re-wreckage of the character of the apparently somewhat admirable reborn Ellen… pah.

I loved last week’s episode… then this. Terrible beyond belief.

Ron Moore apparently had some great revelation that “it’s the characters not the plot, stupid” and wrote it on his whiteboard. Wrong, Ron. Turns out it was the plot all along.

One thing I can say about this incarnation of BSG is that you just never know what is going to happen next, and it constantly keeps me glued to my seat in awe and wonder! It’s been a fun season so far! I’m still trying to make sense out of all the answes that were poured out last week. Frankly I’m still trying to get over the whole coup attempt, and the outcomes of Gaeta and Zarek! It was crazy that even Romo had to kill somebody!

They mentioned that a lot of scenes had to be cut. I feel like that has happened a lot lately, as things seem to jump around quite a bit. I certainly hope that they are added back in whenever the dvd comes out!

Can’t wait to see “BSG: The Plan”! Sounds awesome! But a film version of the 70’s BSG? While I have no doubt that I’d go see and enjoy it, it seems like it would add even more confusion the entire franchise.

As for Ellen’s weirdness? I’d say apparently she enjoys all of the human interactions and emotions, and it intoxicates her, along with a little booze thrown in, as well! Perhaps after Liam’s death she will have learned her lesson. We’ll see.

This is the best frakkin’ show on television.

Would someone please write a flow chart on the 8’s. I’m sooooo confused. Callie Jack Ruby’d Boomer after she tried to Oswald Adama… and Helo married Athena… So, Boomer JC’d on the base ship? But, Athena took a bullet to get on a different base ship, and then came back to Helo. Oh and then there are the naked 8’s prancing around all over space. Somewhere along the line, skin jobs posted dead Boomers on Galactica’s wall of fame, although some of those may have JC’d.

Oh look, I’ve gone all cross-eyed…

Season 4.5 has been top notch until last night. That ep. sucked. Ellen Tigh was a loser character from the start, in my book bringing her back was a mistake.

Frankly the choices on the final 5 are all fairly baffling… it has a “who cares” stigma to it. I mean really. Who cares that Ellen Tigh is one of the final 5.

Largely the show has been great, but they’ve frakked and twisted the mythology beyond believablility so that it’s lost any real impact. What a waste of a last episode. Lots of loose ends to tie up, and we have Baltar spawning another revolution? Did 6 really need to be pregnant, throw away story there. Does anyone really care about Tori…

So question, am I to understand that the entire 13th tribe that went to earth were ALL cylons?

Doug L.

# 13
Thank you for clearing that issue up…YOU are the one true God!!!

Frakkin TOASTER!!!!!!

annnd back to the soap opera.
very disappointing episode.
This show is heading to the end soon, the story writters need to ratchet it up and up and up and not drop the pace.

whats going on with the fleet? there was a mutiny, earth is toast and the quorum is dead, ISNT this a time for much needed stability, get teh quorum replaced and reintroduce some governmental structure again instead of wandering aimless.
and wtf is the point of Baltar and his groupie club story-line, totally pointless.

on a positive note tho,

BSG is still way better than Heroes
please god cancel that show, its a total mess

#34 – “So question, am I to understand that the entire 13th tribe that went to earth were ALL cylons?”

Wasn’t this utterly established already? That, yes, the 13th were ALL Cylons? This was pretty clear in the episode where they found the all-Cylon remains on Earth.

And, yeah, nobody cares about Tory. She’s a godawful character (and a waste of a lovely, talented actress) who adds absolutely nothing to the show. Then again, that seems to be true about about 1/3 of BSG: random, awful stuff that adds nothing to anything.

I still dig the show more than any post-TOS Trek, Stargate, or Babylon 5. At this point, I’m just hanging in to get closure. I cannot imagine ever going back to rewatch 99% of this show. Aside from the miniseries and “Exodus,” I simply have no interest in revisiting these people. It’s just not enjoyable; it’s grueling. It’s just a space opera with extra goop and more flashing lights.

Olly, I agree. The series should be building toward an epic finale, but instead we get a small, petty story about two of the final five sniping each other, and a jilted wife making major poilcy decisions out of pure spite. (BTW, shouldn’t she be just a TAD more out of sorts that Saul KILLED her?) And the previews mention Boomer being charged with treason? More in-fighting? And by all means, can we have MORE shots of Adama staring up at the reconstruction efforts? Like, how about a whole episode of just that?

I mean, yawn.

So, like Paul B., I too am just finishing it out for the sake of it. At the start of the season, I was really looking forward to a big, powerful ending to the series, filled with destiny and world-shaking ideas. Now I expect to be disappointed and frustrated by the closing episodes. I really hope I’m wrong….

To quote : [Frankly the choices on the final 5 are all fairly baffling… it has a “who cares” stigma to it. I mean really. Who cares that Ellen Tigh is one of the final 5.]

and : [Ron Moore apparently had some great revelation that “it’s the characters not the plot, stupid” and wrote it on his whiteboard. Wrong, Ron. Turns out it was the plot all along.]

I said this several BSG posts ago…

If the creators, cast & writers dont care about the show, why should we?

What happened to the Cylon attack being a metaphor for 911? The monotheist Cylons wiping out the secular, polytheistic humans?

R & D are laughing at us all the way to the bank

Well I called it a couple episodes back…

Caprica Six lost her baby. Can’t have ANYTHING positive on this show now, can we?

I’m telling ya, the producers want us morbidly depressed. As if worrying about real life events isn’t enough.

41. Simon – February 21, 2009
Well I called it a couple episodes back…
Caprica Six lost her baby. Can’t have ANYTHING positive on this show now, can we?
I’m telling ya, the producers want us morbidly depressed. As if worrying about real life events isn’t enough.
——
I’m predicting Hera will die next week, probably accidentally. I think they’re taking out all hope and all options so the Cylons and humans will have no choice but to blend into a new form of humanity.

Then again, maybe RDM just hates us all and wants us to be miserable…hehe….

#40,
Couldn’t agree more, Leonard’s bile-sac…
I watched the mini-series and ’33’, and ‘Deadlock’ doesn’t even closely resemble those great entries!
I will follow through though…BUT i appreciated this show when it was about humanity on the run against its powerful oppressors, with finite resources and real human emotions…instead of this crap…first there were ’12 cylon models’…now there’s 13? Woah…RETCON R&D!!!

The relationship I enjoyed most was Tigh and Bill’s, but NOW its tainted!

Whoever said this show jumped the shark when Saul was revealed at the end of season 3 was spot on! The 4th season couldn’t hold a candle to the superior season 3!!!

Defrakking . . .

If the Larson BSG movie is outside the Ron Moore universe or a continuation of that 70’s show — that’s just stupid at this point.

Refrakking.

I would love to see a movie based on the original series, much like the novel series by Richard Hatch or the 90’s comic series by a couple of different publishers.

To quote Kirk in Wrath, “I’m laughing at the superior intellect.”

A new BSG movie based on the orgional 70s series. Are you kidding me? Will we get to see Richard Hatch return as Apalo or maybe his dad or great greand father? LOL Damn fool is just like a Cylon, can’t stop him from returning it this revamp 70s BSG makes cut.

I don’t like Ellen.
Never did.
and about the other FF I don’t like,
isn’t it time for Galen Tyrol to find out who killed his wife?

If they want to make movies, why not make it take place during CYLON WAR 1 and CYLON WAR 2? You can have a brand new cast on board a “newly commissioned” Battlestar Galactica that way, but have it set in the same universe. Young Adama. Young Tigh. An introduction to the Final Five. It would certainly be a great movie series, that would serve as a prequel to the current series. I think that is a much better idea than Battle Star in yet another universe. Just too soon for that to happen.

I like the idea of a BSG series set in the first Cylon war, but since we know what happens to Tygh and the like, it will be like watching Enterprise and knowing that TOS happens and how they jump through hoops to make everything match up when its always changing and like yah gag me with a spoon

totally hella not