So... where next?

[Candlelight]

Blood and Chrome is finished. Most fans I'm talking to or reading comments from indicate it wasn't as good as it could've been / got weaker as the installments went on and SyFy's passing on the decision for a series was ultimately justified.

So what next? I imagine the obvious answer for the franchise is 'dead', but is there anywhere else we could go?

Unless we get a different backer I don't think SyFy cares enough for another show. The problem with the BSG universe is it's a very closed landscape; the main show begins with Caprica and ends with BSG's Daybreak. There aren't too many side stories you can visit as the path to the end of the road is already written. I personally think the only stuff we can see working well without worrying about reaching the next known plot point (which was a problem with B&C; the whole 'lets end the war' angle is futile as the audience knows it's two years away and we've already seen how it ends, so tension is already lost) is the first Cylon war. You have the tension, you have the conflict, just go with it and don't worry about what happens next. Like a series set in 1942; you don't know when the war ends, you just show the war.

Another option I had would be to show something in the intervening years, like a West Wing sort of story which follows the President and deals with the twelve colonies. Unfortunately everyone would be craving Cylons and as we all know the Cylons aren't around at that time.

Another TV movie perhaps? Maybe, though again it depends on when you want to put it in the whole scheme of things. During the BSG series? Between Caprica the series and Cylon War One?

Anyone got any other suggestions...? ...another reboot like the Singer project...?

[Robert Maxwell]

The problem isn't Syfy caring, it's them being willing to pony up a lot of money for what's a proven money-loser. By the end of the series, BSG was no longer pulling in enough viewers to justify its expense. Caprica was even more expensive yet always got worse ratings than BSG did. B&C was an expensive experiment that the Syfy suits were apparently unwilling to gamble further on.

At least on TV, this franchise is dead.

I liked Caprica and would've wanted to see more of that. More B&C, not so much. As you said, the universe is pretty open-and-shut at this point.

[Trajet]

How about a series detailing the development and later destruction of the humanoid Cylons from Kobol on the original Earth, or would that be too much like Caprica? Or a series detailing the build up to humanity's exodus from Kobol? Or something Cylon-free, set during the period when the Colonies were developing advanced spacefaring technology and fighting with each other?

[Kegg]

Isn't Bryan Singer's Battlestar Galactica film going to be a thing? Not the reboot he proposed before Ron Moore got to develop the franchise, I mean his more recent stab with the film rights (which Syfy never had).

Not something that will fit into the canon of Ron D. Moore's show (well, Singer is ambiguous about this, but I think we can at least assume it's a reboot with a new Adama and a new Galactica), but last I heard it was still going ahead. That, if anything, is the future of BSG.

In general I think the nuBSG franchise is over, barring some more Blood & Chrome. I'd already gone through the post-mortems after Caprica, which - for all its flaws - was the best chance of a contiuation it ever had.

[Kaijima]

Actually, a TV continuation could deal with Earth's future after the end of NuBSG - the story implied that despite the warning signs, Earth (or rather, Earth 2) may have the potential for a different outcome to the experiment. The fate of the freed Centurions is also in question, as they sailed away and now 150,000 years have passed. What did they evolve into?

In a certain creepy way, it would line up with the Glen Larson BSG if a group of human colony worlds got into a war with what appears to be a purely machine empire. That could be what the Centurions became, their origins as human creations long forgotten.

On the other hand, if Earth 2 in some way breaks the cycle of time, perhaps it is in that it creates artificial life but rather than abusing that life, it makes the correct choice and grants it human status. One possible conflict this could set up might be Earth 2 as a human/machine symbiotic civilization finding itself in the middle of a galactic conflict between other groups of humans and other groups of machines, still at one another's throats. Earth 2 would seem anathema to both sides, representing the embrace of what either side distrusted.

[Candlelight]

Trajet wrote:

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How about a series detailing the development and later destruction of the humanoid Cylons from Kobol on the original Earth, or would that be too much like Caprica? Or a series detailing the build up to humanity's exodus from Kobol? Or something Cylon-free, set during the period when the Colonies were developing advanced spacefaring technology and fighting with each other?

I think anything Kobol related would be too far rooted in it's own history to be interesting (unless it were done in a good way, naturally).

It would be like Star Trek doing the story of the Zephram Cochrane inventing the warp drive... oh no wait...

[Harvey]

I always thought they had a chance to tell an interesting tale with a Tom Zarek movie. They even have the perfect framing device -- Tom Zarek's last meal with Lee Adama before his execution in "Blood on the Scales."

It seems as if NBC/Universal isn't interseted in further DTV installments of the franchise, though, and the series is dead on television. It's over.

I just wish that Caprica would get a stateside Blu-Ray release.

[Ethros]

Anyone remember Eddie Olmos saying a while back he wanted to write a graphic novel about Adama and co post-Daybreak?

...I haven't just made that up have I? I'm sure I remember that

[The Wormhole]

Ethros wrote:

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Anyone remember Eddie Olmos saying a while back he wanted to write a graphic novel about Adama and co post-Daybreak?

...I haven't just made that up have I? I'm sure I remember that

Here we are.

[Harvey]

Olmos also said that NBC/Universal would produce more DTV movies if The Plan hit certain sales benchmarks. Following this thread at the SyFy board, it seems like it hit them, but no sequel emerged. He's very passionate about the series, which is great, but it seems like it leads him to exaggerate certain things -- like the likelihood of his graphic novel concept making it.

[Frontman]

And don't forget Star Wars because SW always had to do the first step and even now the moment it was announced that Lucas is selling it to Disney the "Blood And Chrome" was all of a sudden released. So when SW hits the big screen there might be happening something to BSG as well.

[Harvey]

Although the original Battlestar Galactica was obviously produced to cash in on the success of Star Wars (1977), I don't think the Disney announcement and the release of the long-gestating webisodes was anything more than a coincidence.

Having said that, if the new trilogy is successful (and who am I kidding -- this is as close to a sure thing as exists in Hollywood), I wouldn't be surprised if Singer's movie project suddenly gets kicked into high-gear.

[DarKush]

Kegg wrote:

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Isn't Bryan Singer's Battlestar Galactica film going to be a thing? Not the reboot he proposed before Ron Moore got to develop the franchise, I mean his more recent stab with the film rights (which Syfy never had).

Not something that will fit into the canon of Ron D. Moore's show (well, Singer is ambiguous about this, but I think we can at least assume it's a reboot with a new Adama and a new Galactica), but last I heard it was still going ahead. That, if anything, is the future of BSG.

In general I think the nuBSG franchise is over, barring some more Blood & Chrome. I'd already gone through the post-mortems after Caprica, which - for all its flaws - was the best chance of a contiuation it ever had.

I agree with a lot of what you've said here. I think the next step would be the Singer reboot-if that gets off the ground.

We might get more B&C-I'm hoping but doubtful. I don't think there is much space left for the Ron Moore BSG. It told a pretty complete story and with Caprica's failure and B&C up in the air, it's not looking good. Plus I don't think there's enough general interest to explore the nooks and crannies of the Moore-BSG universe on TV or in films. Not sure about comics or novels. It seems like BSG-old or new-have a spotty record in the comics.

I liked the new show a lot, but I always will have a fond spot for the old show. So if Singer can revive that, I'm cool with leaving Moore's BSG behind.

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Re: Singer, my comments from another thread:
He [Singer] seems to go in fits and starts with his BSG project. Every so once in a while he seems to be in between projects, looking for something new to do and the BSG thing comes up again. He makes several announcements and drops hints at interviews and then --poof!-- Something else comes along to catch his attention and BSG goes back on the shelf for another handful of years until the next time he gets bored. Wasn't it the Munsters reboot before (that later got axed?) Really? The Munsters?? Ugh...

I'm not really holding my breath with him anymore, although it would likely have been awesome. If it does eventually happen, I hope DeSanto gets involved again. I get the impression he was a balancing element for Singer in their original 2000 attempt and kept him relatively grounded and dedicated to the project.

[arch101]

I'd love more B&C, but realistically, I think it's over. Nobody's spending money on space-based scripted drama anymore. Not enough viewers.