It’s as we suspected – and frankly, kind of hoped – there are only 22 episodes of Battlestar Galactica left. The show, which barely got renewed for a fourth season as it is, will make that hard-fought year its last, and the producers promise to ‘go out with a bang.’
"This show was always meant to have a beginning, a middle and, finally, an end," producers Ronald D Moore and David Eick said in a joint statement. "Over the course of the last year, the story and the characters have been moving strongly toward that end, and we’ve decided to listen to those internal voices and conclude the show on our own terms."
Battlestar’s fourth season will begin in November and then there will be a break at some point and the last bit of the final 22 will play out in 2008.
I applaud this decision on a lot of levels – first of all, the show will be best served, like Lost, by having an end point. While I doubt that the final 22 will be free of ‘filler’ episodes, as the fanboys call every episode that doesn’t dramatically advance the show’s central story, they’ll certainly be more focused and be able to be paced perfectly. And the decision just makes sense from a realist point of view – it was tough getting season four out of the Sci Fi Channel, and banking on a season 5 doesn’t seem wise. It’s better for Moore and Eick to finish their story when they know they’ll have a chance to finish it. Many other shows have never had that luxury.