So its at last been confirmed, Battlestar Galactica is coming to an end. What had been leaked by Edward James Olmos was confirmed by the show’s producers Ronald Moore and David Eick.

Executive producers Ronald Moore and David Eick said that it was a creative decision to end the acclaimed series with the upcoming 22-episode season which will star in January 08.

So what can we expect from the fourth season of Battlestar? Well a few questions should be wrapped up, a few relationships and hopefully the fleet will finally reach earth.

At last month’s Saturn Awards, Edward James Olmos said that the upcoming season would be the show’s last, prompting Eick to say at the time that no decision had been made. “I promise you that when Ron and I make a decision about Galactica’s future, we’ll let you know,” he said then.

In November, a special two-hour Battlestar episode, “Razor,” will air. The episode revolves around the Pegasus Battlestar before its destruction at the hands of the cylons.

Reference for posting: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire

It looks like Google’s 2006 acquisition of Neven Vision, a company specializing in facial recognition software, is finally starting to pay off. Google Blogoscoped, a blog dedicated to everything related to Google, got a tip from a Google engineer that Google had secretly added some facial recognition abilities to its image search this week.

The feature remains unofficial and unannounced, but you can add a small query string to the end of your Google Image search URL to see the facial recognition software in action.

For example, do a normal Google image search for “Starbuck Battlestar” and your image results should produce images from the American SciFi TV show Battlestar Galactica. Then try adding “&imgtype=face” to the end of the URL. Your new search results will only contain photos of people and tight shots of their faces. Cool right?

Last August, Google Picasa product manager Adrian Graham had this to say about Google’s acquisition of Neven Vision in the official Google blog:

“Neven Vision comes to Google with deep technology and expertise around automatically extracting information from a photo. It could be as simple as detecting whether or not a photo contains a person, or, one day, as complex as recognizing people, places, and objects.”

BeSocial: flickr | digg story | methodshop

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There was a bit of a surprise when Katee Sackhoff told reporters that her time on the new NBC series “Bionic Woman” went from “one episode” to “recurring.” But all of that can be explained in one simple sentence: Sackhoff simply wowed network executives.

“She absolutely steals the screen in ‘Bionic,’” Angela Bromstad, president of NBC Universal Television Studio, told TV Week’s James Hibberd.

Some of the clips featuring Sackhoff, best known to genre fans as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace in SciFi Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica,” have been released to the Web by NBC Universal as a way to promote the series, which will make its debut this fall. In it, Sackhoff plays the original bionic woman who gets in a rooftop bionic battle with Jamie Sommers, played by series tar Michelle Ryan.

Sackhoff’s character originally was slated to be offed in the pilot, but executives liked her so much that she is now going to be pulling double duty between both shows which are filmed in Vancouver and produced by NBCU.

Sackhoff apparently isn’t the only BSG alum to be making the show either… two more actors familiar to “Battlestar” fans who have some type of role in the pilot.

The Bionic Woman airs Wednesdays this fall at 9/8c on NBC. See NBC.com’s Bionic Woman web page for more info.

[Via syfyportal.com]

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SF author Steven Harper’s latest book in the Battlestar Galatica universe and is set in the period between “Flight of the Phoenix” and before “Pegasus.” The book, titled Battlestar Galatica: Unity looks to explore some of the Colony’s pop culture and involves the discovery of a rock star from Caprica in a colonial rescue pod drifting in space after the Galatica and its crew destroy a Cylon BaseStar.

Add in a Cylon-engineered disease influenced by Mad Cow disease and a religious cult who seize the rock star as their savior and you’ve got a very interesting book which should hopefully tie you over until season 4 when it comes back in January 08.

Reference for posting: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire

Good news for anyone who has ever watched the critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica, its going to be back for a fourth series.

The SCI FI Channel announced that it has renewed the science fiction series about the last several thousand survivors of humanity searching for Earth whilst being pursued by their cylon enemies. Production will resume this summer in Vancouver, Canada, with the series premiering in January 2008.

The series has grown in audience share in the US ever since the show was moved to a 10pm timeslot on Sundays after The Dresden Files. In particular the show has attracted a larger female audience.

The show was won a Peabody and has, for the past two years, been named one of the American Film Institute’s 10 Outstanding Television Programs.

The series is from NBC Universal Television Studio and is executive-produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick.

“While we never had any doubt that SCI FI would get behind a fourth season of Battlestar, it’s thrilling to finally make it official, and for Ron and I to continue using this great genre to investigate the darker corners of society, politics and humanity,” executive producer David Eick said in a statement.

Reference for posting: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire

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Its been rumored for months but it seems that a Battlestar Galactica game has finally been confirmed.

The game is being developed by Australian studio Auran Games and will be distributed by Sierra Games. In the game that will be released for Xbox 360 and PC, players will be able to take part in intense combat and relive key battles from series one and two (here’s hoping for an encounter with Scar).

The game will offer both single and multiplayer modes and you will be able to play as the humans and the cylons.

Hopefully the game will feature some of the voice talent from the TV series but nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

Battlestar Galactica for PC and Xbox 360 is currently scheduled for release in the autumn. The Xbox 360 game will be released over Xbox Live Arcade.

Reference for posting: http://www.pro-g.co.uk

One of the television greatest sci-fi dramas returned to Sky One on January 9th. Battlestar Galactica has been praised for its engrossing story line, dynamic characters and the kind of production associated with big budget sci-fi yarns. Fans of the show also enjoy the mystery and suspense however it does sort out its unanswered questions regularly unlike some TV shows (I’m looking at you, LOST).

Series 3 continues four months after the events of series 2. The last remnants of humanity have settled on New Caprica only to be discovered by the Cylons, a robotic race built by humanity. The Cylons come in two forms, metal robotic looking and human looking members of the elite and they seek to eradicate the unworthy humans unless they worship their “one true God” (as opposed to the dozen or so that humanity worships) .

With the remaining military force of the Humans jetting away at the Cylons arrival, the struggling humans create a resistance movement that draws parallels on modern day conflicts.

The third series promises to provide the same drama and conflict that is associated with the previous series. What is notable is that much of the conflict lies within personal relationships and not in the perfectly constructed space battles that are interwoven through the storyline.

Most of the main characters enjoy a revamping as they become grittier under the strain of the occupation. The once unsure alcoholic Colonel Tigh becomes a badass resistance leader complete with eye patch and delivers many of the series’ most memorable performances.

Battlestar Galactica has won many awards and has been praised by countless publications such as RollingStone and Time which labelled it Best TV Show of 2005 (beating the likes of The Office and Prison Break). It is sure to impress even those with a phobia of the sci-fi genre.

Reference for this posting: http://www.time.com

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Previously unseen trailer for the upcoming season of BattleStar Galactica

Newsarama has been provided with four and a half page preview of Battlestar Galactica #0 which is due to be released on the 31st of May. Newsarama reports that:

“It’s the story of a ragtag starfleet containing the last remnants of the human race who are fleeing their robot Cylon persecutors and seeking a legendary lost human colony known as Earth. Our stories follow Commander William Adama and his crew as their struggle to survive tests their physical, emotional, and moral limits — and forces them to stare deep into the hearts of their robot enemies.”

View the larger images here

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