From a variety of sources, I’ve learned that the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica is probably going to be the last and that the beleaguered humans will find Earth. Here it is, right from Admiral Adama himself:
iF MAGAZINE: What’s coming up for season four?
EDWARD JAMES OLMOS: It’s fantastic. I think they’re going to discover some very important issues about what the fan base really, really wants to see and what’s to understand about this show. We’re heading into the final season. This is the final season as we speak. All of us are very saddened by that, but we always knew there was going to be a conclusion and we would find Earth, so we will be finding Earth this season. I wish it would [keep going]. I could do 10 years like this season. I think that this is some of finest usages of television that I have been a part of in my life. Bar none. I’ve been doing this for 42 years. I’ve done some really good work in television and motion pictures but there really is nothing like this show. I can honestly tell you that this is one of the finest dramatic pieces work on humanity I’ve ever seen in my life.
[…]
iF: So anything special we can expect for the new season?
OLMOS: You can expect lots of energy. The closer we get to the discovery and the understanding of what this show is really about, the more intense it’s going to get and the more difficult it is to watch.
You can also see video interviews with Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff here.
Last season was probably the weakest of the three thus far. It started out with a bang, with an intriguing premise, namely much of the colonial fleet’s personnel occupied by the Cylons on New Caprica. Oddly enough, that would have been a premise worth exploring for several episodes, but the producers seemed in a rush to get everyone back in space and so wrapped up the occupation storyline in only four episodes. After that, the episodes were variable in quality, and in general not up to the level of previous seasons, and the writers seem to have painted themselves into a corner with several plotlines, such as the capture and trial of Baltar (what do you do now with Baltar’s character?), the “death” of Starbuck and her mysterious reappearance, the return of President Rosalyn’s cancer, and the revelation of who four of the Final Five Cylons were. It’s probably good news for us Battlestar fans that this is likely to be the last season, because the writers can stop treading water and start wrapping up major storylines.
After all, we don’t want Battlestar Galactica to turn into another Lost or The X-Files, where the overall plot never seems to get resolved and the show is stretched out too far, do we? To me, Battlestar seemed to be threatening to do that last season.
