Wow.

Big day for Battlestar Galactica. Out of respect for those who missed the Season 3 Finale, “Crossroads, Part 2”, I delayed this post until now. Please be careful reading ahead if you are averse to spoilers.

First off, the interest in the Battlestar Galactica finale was pretty amazing, if my blog is any indication. Here is a snapshot that shows my blog as one of the 50 or so that were big enough to be sampled on the homepage of WordPress.com:

This was reflected in the record-setting blog stats for the day. On Monday, this blog saw a record 4,593 page views, almost all of which went to the top posts on my blog for Battlestar Galactica topics. The post on the Final Five was a big winner:

The source of this amazing traffic is simple, and to me, kind of surprising. When you do a search for “Final Five Cylons” on Google, or even Google Blog Search, you get terrible results. In fact, it seems like my posts are one of the few out there on this topic that actually discuss any theories. You can see the search terms that led to my blog on Monday:

One last source of traffic which is a new one for my blog is my favorite information site, Wikipedia. Surprisingly, my blog is now a reference (number 1) in the online encyclopedia, as an example of how fans now think that Starbuck may be a Cylon.

The link to my blog is literally a superscript (1) in the middle of a multi-page post on the topic “Kara Thrace”. Still, that little linked number was the source of over 100 page views to my blog, in just one day, beating out the sampling from the WordPress.com homepage:

I am a huge fan of Wikipedia, and I believe that if the natural search engines aren’t careful, they may be disrupted by wiki-based content aggregators like Wikipedia for the “peak” informational queries on the web. This might be just a single data point, but this tells me that that Wikipedia as a traffic source for information should not be underestimated.

In any case, the long wait is now setting in for Battlestar Galactica fans, as Season 4, which is now 22 episodes, will not kick off until January 2008. The wait for ’08 is on.

Here are a few pieces of information, however, to navigate the gap.

First, this article explains that there will be a 2-hour television movie in the fall, based on the Pegasus and the timeframe between the Cylon attack and the rendezvous with the Galactica. It’s before the timeline of Season 3, but Ronald Moore states that it will be relevant to the arc of Season 4.

Second, this interview with Ronald Moore in TVWeek covers a set of questions about the story, the return of Starbuck, and the softening ratings for the series this season.

Third, this interview with Ronald Moore in the Pittsburgh Gazette answers some questions about Season 4 (including some spoilers!) He actually answers the question on whether or not the 4 crewmembers in the Season 3 Finale are Cylons or not (they are). He also strongly implies that Season 4 may be the end. He has stated on many occassions that he wants to have the creative freedom to wrap up the series properly, and not get cancelled leaving things unresolved. Odds are, the 22 episodes of Season 4 will end the series.

Lastly, this three-page interview with Ronald Moore in Salon covers almost everything.  Some duplicate data here, but I’ve saved the best for last.

OK. I think that’s enough Battlestar Galactica posts for now. You know, this blog was going to be more about personal finance this year. So, back to the real stuff, but boy, what a ride.