Okay, this completely sucks. Apparently, due to rising production costs at NBC/Universal, the suits decided to cut the budget to some of their cable programming -- Battlestar Galactica has, unfortunatly, taken a big hit of that budget slashing, to the point where the producers are trying to figure out whether they should "reimagine" doing a live-action show, or stick with a really-tiny six episode live-action season. That's not even a "mini-season", that's a "why bother?" season.
(Oh, and if you're wondering, this apparently means "Caprica", the spin-off series, is likely dead as well, although apparently there's a possibility of it being a sci-fi "Movie of the Week" which dooms is to craptacularness).
I don't get this, at all. Battlestar Galactica, I read somewhere, is the number one show on the sci-fi channel, and is far and away the best hour-long series on that channel and, frankly, is a lot better than anything on NBC these days -- Medium? Las Vegas? Please. I can't fathom why NBC would cut money to the one hour long drama that's being done well for them, but apparently the bottom line is that with television episodes often available for download the day after they first air, the advertising income from selling commercial space is begining to dry up, which is the lifeblood of the network. So NBC has decided to strangle some of their cable operations to keep the network alive -- a big fuckin' mistake, in my very humble opinion.
In any case, Ron Moore is quoted as saying that they're trying to find a new network to buy the show from NBC/Universal. I'll be honest, I'm not sure if NBC owns Universal, or if NBC just buys BSG from Universal, which produces the show. Ron Moore says he'd like to keep the show on cable, and is hoping for a spot on either the Fox owned FX channel (a channel with a reputation for quality original programming), or the Spike Network.
Apparently NBC is possibly very reticent about letting the show go, so if the "take it to another network" doesn't materialize as a realistic option, they're considering doing the series animated from the start of season four (which would've begun airing in October '07, but if they're doing it animated, will be delayed six months to a year). Apparently they can get a lot of the cast to sign on for voice-only work for cheaper, plus they'll save money on the various production issues with renting the stages the sets are on and the lighting crews, etcetra etcetra. One thing I'm really worried about is that apparently Universal is in discussions with a certain FOX animation house to produce the show if they go this route (I'll say this much, at least they're running full steam ASAP to figure out what's going to happen). To that end, some of the concept art for Battlestar Galactica: The Animated Series has been posted online.
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)