Apollo Wept: "Battlestar Galactica" to End

Something tells me the crew of the Galactica will be getting to Earth a little sooner than expected.

After will-they-or-won't-they rumors about the potential end of Battlestar Galactica swirled for months (Edward James Olmos says this season is the last; the show's producers deny it, etc.), Sci Fi has finally confirmed what most of us had already accepted as fact: the end of BSG is nigh.

Series, which has always struggled in the ratings despite heaps of critical accolades (and a Peabody to boot!), will sign off after the current season, the show's fourth, comes to a close.

"This show was always meant to have a beginning, a middle and, finally, an end," said BSG's executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick in a prepared 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."

Season Four of Battlestar Galactica is scheduled to launch this November with a special two-hour installment that will set the stage for next season as well as answer some lingering questions. Look for the series to then return in January 2008 with a batch of new episodes.

I'm glad that Moore and Eick will get to wrap things up in a way that they see fit and were given the time and go-ahead from Sci Fi to do just that: break this season's stories as the final chapter in the BSG saga. And 22 episodes (including that 2-hour "movie") seems like a perfect way to end this brilliant series with a bang.

I'm just sad to see these characters go; I came to the BSG party a little late in the game (during Season Two) and I can't help but feel that I will miss Starbuck, Lee, Roslin, Adama, and all the rest. Sigh.

In other BSG-related news, Sci Fi still has not made a decision about the fate of it's still-in-development Battlestar prequel Caprica; while a script has been sitting on the shelf over at the cabler, no decision about its future has been made.