Battlestar Galactica DVDs

[DarthSkeptical]

Just listened to Episode 08, in which you announced the release of Battlestar Galactica 2.0. Calling it "2.0" isn't a case of the producers "being hip", as you suggested, but rather being accurate.

This season--as defined by the number of episodes ordered on a single invoice--is about twice as long as the first season, but it's still a couple of episodes short of what an American broadcast network would call a "season". Instead of playing the network game of interspersing new episodes with repeats to "stretch" the season over the course of 8 months, they're broadcasting 10 in a row, taking a substantial break, then broadcasting the remaining 10. That mid-season break was kind of long--more than 2 months--but still less than what would be called the "off-season". And it's quite clear, listening to Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore's podcaast in his Episode 11 and 12 broadcast that he still believes he's in Season 2.

This is good for fans, because when it's on, it's on without a break. And it's good for SciFi because they can, in effect, market two major cliffhangers out of a single season. Of course, they can also release two separate DVD packages for the single season, calling them "Season 2.0" and "Season 2.5", respectively. When you compare it with the way that, say, Smallville is done, it's really quite compelling--and clever. The network gets two DVD "paydays" out of a season, which keeps the show alive, and we get the entirety of a season by late March instead of mid-May--without having to endure those off-putting "rerun weeks". Most significantly, we get the DVDs within a matter of weeks after the broadcast of the final episode of each half of the season. I'd rather have that, and pay a little more for it, than waiting a whole year to get a whole season. The thing is, too, the commentaries and extras are more plentiful and of a higher quality, as a historical reference, because they're done much sooner after an episode has been finished. Plus, as they're done while the show is still in production, the DVD commentaries are a whole lot more "relevant" than what you get out of most television shows. It feels much more immediate, much more like you're participating in the creative process than most other DVD sets offer.

[Missy]

See, I have no problem with them splitting one season over two sets (especially if it means more extras), and since their show is all about robots, aliens and all that sci-fi stuff, the "2.0" makes sense. But, I don't know, it still seems like they're trying to be "hip" by using computer / Internet jargon. Why is this? Because other shows, such as GI Joe and Transformers, have had to split their seasons over multiple sets, and they simply called them, for example, Season 2, Volume 1.