Yoo hoo Battlestar is coming back April 4th!

Patience, “Battlestar Galactica” fans. It’s not too long until the fourth season of the Sci Fi show begins April 4.

And if you’re really dying, ten stars of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica will make an appearance on CBS' Late Show With David Letterman to present the Top 10 List on March 19.

They include Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas and Lucy Lawless. The show airs at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT.

The fourth season of Battlestar Galactica kicks off on March 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back half-hour specials, with the first new episode premiering the following week, April 4, 10 p.m.

I garnered some tidbits about the new season from Ron Moore, the executive producer of “Battlestar Galactica” in an interview last week. I’ll post a full transcript of our hourlong talk in early April, but until then, here are few nuggets of news:

• Moore is directing Episode 12 of the fourth and final season; his first-ever directing gig begins March 25. Because Episode 11 had been filmed before the writers' strike began last fall, Moore’s episode is the first episode that the “Battlestar” staff will shoot when the show resumes production in Vancouver. As it happened, the post-strike shooting schedule “worked out for the best,” Moore said. “I’m up here prepping the episode and no one has anything to do but help me. I’m spending a lot of time with the director of photography walking through the sets and talking about things. If we were in the normal production mode, he wouldn’t have the luxury of spending so much time with me.”
• I asked Moore about the rumor that Joss Whedon had been tentatively lined up to direct one of the final episodes of “Battlestar.” Moore confirmed that “Buffy” creator Whedon, a big fan of “Battlestar,” very much wanted to direct a “Battlestar” episode, but it looks as though he probably will not be able to do so, thanks to his commitment to a new Fox series, “Dollhouse.” “He really wanted to do it, but I’m dubious that it will work out,” Moore said.
• Filmmaker John Dahl, who had been lined up to helm an episode before the strike, is still directing an episode of “Battlestar”: He’ll work on Episode 13.
• Fan favorite Romo Lampkin, a wily lawyer played by Mark Sheppard, will be back for one episode before the first 10 episodes of Season 4 finish airing in June. Lampkin should be back once more before the series wraps up for good, Moore said.
• Moore has no idea when the final 10 episodes of the 20-episode fourth season will be shown. The show’s cast and crew will be shooting episodes until June, and it’ll take until at least fall to finish post-production on the last batch of “Battlestar” outings.
• There is renewed interested from Sci Fi in the proposed spinoff series “Caprica,” but Moore has no idea when or even if that pilot will be greenlit.
• By the way, before the strike, he and fellow “Battlestar” writer Jane Espenson had been working on “Warehouse 13,” a series in development at Sci Fi, but both have exited the project.
• Along with several other film and TV projects, Moore and fellow “Battlestar” writer Michael Taylor have a sci-fi flavored pilot in development at NBC. 

• Finally, Moore, who worked as a writer for many years on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” recently wangled a visit to the Los Angeles set of the new “Star Trek” film, which is being directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Damon Lindelof (both of whom are also executive producers of “Lost”).

(Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan)

Comments

[Erin]

*shakes finger*

Naughty Viv!!

We finally just caught up on Season 3 thanks to the DVDs and are waiting. . .unfortunately we're going to be in Hawaii for an observing run on Friday when the beloved BSG comes on. Boo. I am bad though and am hoping that the dorms get satellite or that it gets posted online on Saturday morning so I can watch whilst still near a fast internet connection.