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.
Psychohistory 
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Gee I watched this movie sometime ago.. nice intro and some effects.. but while i was watching on my 15″PC monitor made me feel sick :O..
the camera can’t keep still and it’s like a boat rocking the whole movie @@”
ShowMeSciFi.wordpress.com shows up in most of those google searches that you mention (ie. search google with : starbuck is a cylon)- and the blog did end up with some massive traffic this past weekend extending into this week as well.
so you’re not the only one…look at technorati this week overall BSG showed up in the top 10 a few times, which almost never happens. The season finale for BSG was a big thing for all of us in the blogosphere that blog on BSG.
Ok, that article depresses me. If those four really are cylons, my respect for the writers is called into question. The other three I can deal with, but how is it possible for Ty to be a cylon if he fought in the first cylon war, before they had evolved into human form?
Everything hinges on the definition of “Cylon” … what if all descendents of the 13th colony are Cylons? Some of these are “human” descendents, some are creations of humans through mechanical means …
Anyway, its going to be a long wait.
My two cents is that the mechanical cylons could have captured humans during the first cylon war, and attempted to modify them or augment them with Cylon technology (a la Borg). RDM did state that they are ‘fundamentally different’ than the other cylon models. How else could they be ‘fundamentally different’ unless they were actually originally human to begin with.
I agree with Elliot..I think we are in for a radical shift in thinking as to what, exactly a Cylon is. I’m anxious to see what RDM and the writers have cooked up for us.
I love this show, and enjoy its twists and turns. I really think there is a A LOT more to the revelation of these 4 as cylons than what we might take a face-value.
I think that these ‘new’ cylons will actually be diametrically opposed to the others…maybe they opposed the war plans against the humans, and implanted the 4 of them in fleet before the others could ‘silence/box’ them. It could also be that they are cylons that the Lords of Kobol created to assist the remnants of the 13th tribe find Earth (afterall, this all had happened before..right?) … Who knows! It’s probably none of the above.
The only thing I really know is that it’s going to suck to wait until it gets resolved!