There are few things left to say that have not been said, here and elsewhere, about "Battlestar Galactica". Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick (who also were responsible for the sadly cut short "Carnivàle"), have transcended the source material and the genre they are working within in their brilliant remake of the 70s cheese fest featuring tin cans and robotic dogs.

In the last decade and a half, as the Hollywood formula has turned ever more predictable and pandering, television shows have come into their own. True, most of what flickers past the screen is, as it always shall be, throw-away entertainments with about as much depth as a Paris Hilton essay on the meaning of life. But now and then viewers today are treated to works on an artistic level miles above what passed for high quality television back in the 80s.

One "innovation", taken to an early extreme, never since matched, by the sci-fi series "Babylon 5", was the story arc, where each episode was no longer simply a free standing story, in a universe where time did not progress, with no bearing on the next, but a chapter in a longer novel like structure with a continuous story line. While this approach can yield an added punch, when done right, it can also go spectacularly wrong, when plot lines go astray and mysteries are thrown out there with little thought to their resolution (case in point "X-Files", and "Lost", for which we had such high hopes, but which seems to be fulfilling all our initial fears).

Another, related, feature was that as the story progressed, no character was safe or sacred, and even central characters could be killed off if the story demanded, and not simply because the actor went on the mother of all benders, bit the producer in the bum in a drunken rage, and got shipped off to rehab.

While the remade "Battlestar Galactica" is probably less pre-planned than "Babylon 5", its producers have demonstrated that no actor should feel safe buying a house close to the set. Yes, spoiler rumours are that viewers are in for another central character biting the dust...

According to an interview with Moore in the Chicago Tribune by Maureen Ryan, another one is about to bite the dust in the season three finale.

BSG Season 3 promo picture
(Click for larger image)

The Galactica and her rag-tag fleet find a planet that has a sacred relic, the Eye of Jupiter, that could tell the remnants of humanity how to find Earth. The catch is, there’s a good chance the Cylons might locate the artifact first. The thought of the Cylons finding Earth is more than Adama can stand, and he considers nuking the planet - despite what, or who, is at stake.

“Several of [Galactica’s] people are down on the ground in `Eye of Jupiter’ - [Adama’s son] Apollo, Starbuck, Dualla and Anders - who all happen to have very conflicted relationships these days,” executive producer Ron Moore said in a recent interview. “A lot of the drama down on the surface has to do with [the fact that], as they are forced to work and fight side by side, the Cylons try to make a play for the artifact.”

Adama is determined that the Cylons should not “get the key to Earth,” Moore said. “When faced with the idea that not only might he lose this battle but the Cylons might actually get to Earth… he’s willing to sacrifice people as well,” Moore says.

Friday’s episode is the first half of a two-parter that concludes Jan. 21, when “Battlestar Galactica” returns and moves to Sundays. And speaking of sacrifice, Moore warns that when the show comes back in January, “there are more losses still to come.”

“There’s a pretty big loss coming midway through the second half of the season,” Moore said. “You’ll be pretty shocked about what happens to somebody.”

That somebody, he hinted, would be a lead character. But wouldn’t the death of a major character alter the nature of the show?

“It would,” Moore replied. “And I’m not really saying that we’re doing that. I’m just saying that there’s a fairly significant loss that will happen” before the third season ends.

The next batch of episodes also “has a couple more stand-alone episodes that delve more into the civilian aspects of the fleet more than we’ve done in awhile,” Moore adds. We’ll find out about the five human-looking Cylon models that we haven’t seen yet, the half-human, half-Cylon child Hera will come into play, and the wily Gaius Baltar will find a way to survive yet again. We’ll even get a glimpse of Adama’s ex-wife.

Michael Hinman, of SyFy Portal, reveals a couple of details on this hitherto unknown member of the dysfunctional Adama family:

"We meet Adama's (Edward James Olmos) wife (Lucinda Jenney) for the first time, in an unusual way, and see who is ex-wife is and the roots of why they were divorced and the problems Lee (Jamie Bamber) had growing up," series executive producer Ronald D. Moore recently told E! Online. "There are some big standalong episodes including one for Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) and one for Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), and there's a really pivotal episode with Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff), sort of a fighter-plane episode about her. Beyond that, it starts to wrap up into our finale, and there is a three-part episode that gets us to the end of the season. By then, we will have major revelations and some major plot turns."

From the same interview with Moore in the Chicago Tribune as above, we learn that:

Both sides have arrived at the same planet, as it turns out, [and it emerges that] it’s for different reasons. Galactica ends up there because they were looking for foodstuffs in Episode 9, and unbeknownst to them, the Cylons are heading to the same planet.

“And the Cylons actually know that there’s an artifact on the planet that helps point the way to Earth. They get there and assume that Galactica has already taken it, and that sparks the standoff. Galactica and company realize, ‘Gee, there’s something on this planet. We better find it in case the Cylons want it.’ And then there’s a standoff.

“Galactica is in a position to destroy [the Eye] if they’ve got it, the Cylons don’t want it destroyed. The terms of the standoff sort of bridge the two episodes. ['Eye of Jupiter' is Part 1 of a two-parter.]

“Several of our people are down on the ground in ‘Eye of Jupiter,’ Apollo, Starbuck, Dualla and Anders, who all happen to have very conflicted relationships these days. A lot of the drama down on the surface has to do with [the fact that], as they are forced to work and fight side by side, the Cylons try to make a play for the artifact.

“The second part of that episode [which airs Jan. 21] essentially resolves those plotlines, and also with the added benefit of ending the Cylon base ship story that we’ve been following for quite a while, and moving closer to a revelation of the final five Cylons models [that viewers have not seen] are. And Baltar ends up back on Galactica by the end of ‘Rapture,’ which is the second part [of the two-parter, which airs Jan. 21].”
[...]
Q: Are we meant to understand that the Temple of Five has something to do with the five Cylon models we have not seen?

A: “Essentially the Temple of the Five is directly connected to the five Cylons we have not seen.”

Just as an aside, for those who might take an interest in the news, which I'd estimate would be about 95% of the male viewer demgraphics of the show, and 45% of the female, the gossip mongers at Egotastic reports that the eminently lickable Cylon model #6, played by Tricia Helfer, will be appearing in her birthday suit in Playboy magazine next month. The bad news is that if there's anyone on this earth you could trust to be able to render a naked Tricia Helfer boring, it's the soft-focus magicians and air-brushing magi of Playboy magazine. Oh well, there's a certain consistency to it. She plays a robot. And now she'll be turned into a plastic replica of herself.