moonraker

I've been waiting for Battlestar Galactica to go on sale.... and it finally has! Amazon has all six individual season box sets (counting the 0.5's as an individual box) for $17.99 each..... comes to $107.94 for the complete series (six box sets).

courteous

Good price. I know season 4 comes with Razor, but do any of these come with the mini series? That would put me over the edge.

Cheato

Season 1 includes the mini-series. Its initial release (maybe a Best Buy exclusive?) didn't, but after that, it did.

moonraker

I wasn't aware that Season 4 includes Razor..... can anyone confirm this?

dex14

It does include Razor. And Season 1 includes the mini-series. The only thing you wouldnt be getting by buying individually is The Plan.

BobO'Link

Razor is disk 1 of S4.0, is the "Unrated Extended Edition", and is identical to the disk that comes in the individual release. The artwork on the DVD has not been changed to reflect that it's part of the set, nor has the disk menu. It's simply been repackaged in a slim-pak case with a "Season 4.0 - Disk One" artwork banner matching the other cases added at the bottom front of the slim-pak outer insert.

The miniseries is disk 1 of S1. It's been repackaged to look like it belongs with the set.

...and this has already been mentioned in the:

Amazon Finally PM's BB and I think Target

thread...

MickM

I've been waiting to buy this set for quite a while - I've never seen a single episode! Dex14 says the only thing missing is The Plan, but the following is my understanding of what the complete BSG comprises (in viewing order):

Caprica (separate movie)
Miniseries (first disc of the Season 1 DVD)
Season 1
Season 2
10 Webisodes: The Resistance
Season 3
Razor (2 hour special episode at beginning of Season 4)
Season 4.0
10 Webisodes: The Face of the Enemy
Season 4.5
The Plan

So for $108 you'd be missing Caprica ($9.50), The Plan ($13) and the 20 webisodes (can these be purchased?). That comes to about $130 (excluding the webisodes). Maybe I'm just too cheap, but this series was essentially 4 episodes (annoyingly subdivided to extract more money) and that just seems to be a lot of money for only that many 'real' seasons...

Artman

Off topic but on New Yr's eve a friend was telling me all about the show...and she was going off on how the machines represented Christians, etc. Being a Christian myself I was pretty offended but I didn't say anything. So, what's the deal? Is the show an indictment against religion or something?

bankey23

The Cylons mostly represent robots although a couple of them represent attractive robots. Also most attacks against religion don't rely on God coming by and saving everyone quite as much as BSG did.

leitmotif

Caprica isn't a movie, it's the two hour pilot to the BSG spin-off series (which begins on January 22) that takes place 58 years before the events of BSG, so there really isn't a reason really bother with it until you've watched all of BSG. Personally, I'm just waiting for the Caprica first season DVD set and not bothering to buy the pilot separately.

It's a good deal though, because you're getting all four seasons (83 hour long episodes) for about $27 each (easily the lowest price so far), the three hour miniseries and an extra 2 hour episode.

Also, you can watch the Webisodes for free at SyFy's website

http://video.syfy.com/promos/webisod...bisodes?page=1

BobO'Link

I didn't get that, but depending on how you tend to look at life you can see religious or anti-religious meanings/interpretations in everything if you try hard enough.

The *primary* "religion" of the colonists is based on Greco-Roman mythology but mostly is pretty open with no "agenda" that I noticed. The Cylons pretty much have the same religion as everyone else but focus on the "one God" aspect more than *most* of the colonists. If that's intended to represent Christians, I guess you could make that connection, but then I'm not one to "read between the lines" much. I always hated those English Lit classes where the teacher told you what the author "really meant". I'd always counter with "so you've talked to them and that's what they said they meant?". It tended to get me in lots of trouble... Anyway, some people are just looking for religious arguments/slants/views in everything because someone's made them believe the entire Christian world is trying to convert everyone *or* the secular world is trying to disparage the Christian viewpoint. While I know that there are "fundamentalist" types who truly want to "save the world" and think everyone is "out to get them" for their beliefs with hidden (or not) anti-Christian rhetoric in most, if not all, media formats and non-Christians who make every attempt to discredit the Christian community at every opportunity and believe there are hidden Christian agendas everywhere, I don't think it's representative of most people whether Christian or not. Even where/when these types of agendas exist (on either side), I have a brain and can decide for myself. That said, there is a definite religious current running through the series, after all the President is the "chosen one" who, based on prophecy, will lead the colonists to safety, plus the "God created Man and Man created the Cylons" religious connection. How you intrepret the whole contextual aspects of Cylon/colonist beliefs is up to you. When it comes right down to it you can pretty much break any program down into a morality play and plug religious overtones into it if you try hard enough.

Overall, I found it to be a excellent program and was very pleased with how everything played out. I felt that it neither discredits or supports Christian beliefs any more than reading "Bullfinches Mythology" would.

joe_b

I was at my local Wal-Mart this morning. There were shelf tags up for several of these sets (at least the first season and a couple 0.5 ones) for 16.xx. Also saw tags for others shows at about the same price (a few of the Gilmore Girls seasons are the only ones I can remember).

Again, nothing on the shelf - but the tags were clearly marked. Usually, I'm the last to spot a deal at WM, so I assumed that this was something already mentioned on these boards. Hopefully, someone else can also confirm this.

BobO'Link

You should also post your find in the "Walmart Bargains" thread, especially if you can verify the price. Others will confirm as found. I'll be making a trip to WM later today for the wife and will take a look-see. It's the smaller store in town and doesn't have the inventory of the other, larger one, but sometimes these things show up.

kenichi tanaka

Actually, Caprica is a Battlestar Galactica movie. It's two hours in length and doubles as the pilot episode for the television series, if it actually gets produced.

If Caprica wasn't a movie, then the regular television season would have debuted soon afterwards. It's not your typical pilot episode. Just in the same way that the Knight Rider movie, that also served as the pilot episode for the regular television series.

Just take a look at the original Battlestar Galactica series. The movie also served as the pilot episode for the television series. The same as Buck Rogers.

You're actually arguing the fact that Caprica cannot be a movie since it's the pilot episode for the television series but it's actually the reverse.

While I did buy every season set of Battlestar Galactica but I was disappointed that the original Battlestar Galactica series has failed yet to drop in price or to go on sale.

Cheato

^ Um, what?

Many "movies" that are made for TV are pilots for TV series. Sometimes they are aired and then picked up. Sometimes they are aired and never picked up. Sometimes they aren't even aired.

I think leitmotif was just trying to point out that Caprica wasn't a movie in the theatrical sense. The TV movie was, however, a pilot, regardless of whether or not it was picked up as a series before or after it aired, and when a potential follow-up series would air. You might as well argue that the 2003 mini-series wasn't a pilot for the series.

As a side-note, Glen A. Larson still owns the rights to theatrical releases of BSG, and the current TV rights owners don't want to allow him to have a say in what gets released. That's why we might see a theatrical movie that's not connected to the current series' canon (last I heard, Bryan Singer currently named as director; I think there's a thread in the Movie Talk forum).

BobO'Link

Went to both local WM today and found only S4.5 at one with none at the other. The one I found was the "normal" price of ~$35. Looks like the lower price at WM is a YMMV.

kenichi tanaka

Cheato, actually, that's quite incorrect. There are far more movies (or telefilms) that are produced for television and they are not intended as pilots for television shows.

Matter of fact, I believe that Lifetime leads that number as they produce a ton of television movies (or telefilms) specifically for broadcast on their network. Sci Fi Channel is not too far behind Lifetime. Then, there are the various studio networks who produce telefilms that are also not intended as test films for potential television shows.

Matter of fact, the Battlestar Galactica mini-series wasn't originally intended to be turned into a television series. It was only after the mini-series aired and the producers and the network saw the ratings that they opted for a television series, thinking they would capitalize on those ratings.

While Caprica was intended as a pilot for a new television series, it's also considered a movie. Matter of fact, the Sci Fi Channel (or SyFy) is constantly advertising Caprica (even the DVD release) as a movie or television event. Even Comcast's On Demand service lists it as a movie (and not as a television show).

Cheato

OT reply here:



And now to add something on-topic, for people not reading the Blu-ray Deals forum, Amazon UK is also having a sale that affects BSG stuff. The DVD prices aren't quite as good as the Amazon US deal, but if you want Region 2 for some reason, now seems like a good time. They have two versions of the DVD Complete Series: one with extras for about $122+shipping, and one with no (or minimal) extras for about $98+shipping. The one with extras is basically like the US one, but with different packaging. In addition, the Blu-ray Complete Series deal from Amazon UK is very good (about $152 shipped to the US); it comes in a tin and is region-free, supposedly.

Zbu

That's not a bad deal. Are there any rumors or plans for a release of the complete series?

Cheato

^ ?
Are you referring to my post about Amazon UK?
If so, I don't understand the question.
The Complete Series has already been released there, and it is the same as it is in the U.S., just in different packaging.
So, it doesn't include The Plan or that one set of webisodes, just like the U.S. set doesn't. The Blu-ray and DVD sets have the same extras that the US sets do, too. In addition, there's a UK version of the DVD complete series that is missing a lot of the extras, but if you just want a basically bare-bones set, it could be attractive. Keep in mind the DVDs are Region 2, and PAL. I can't stand PAL speed-up myself, so I wouldn't be able to watch them, but Blu-ray isn't affected by DVD's NTSC->PAL problems, so the Blu-ray set, if region-free as people say it is, is attractive to me, and I am still sitting here debating ordering it.

kenichi tanaka

Cheato, for one very good reason. The Sci-Fi Channel (and this may come as a shocker to you) is owned by NBC Universal. I would think that if the Sci Fi Channel is advertising the Caprica movie as a movie (as well as their DVD advertisements) I would think that they would know better than anyone what it is. Even Battlestar Galactica: Razor is considered a movie, despite also being double-billed as part of the episodic definition for the television series.

I'm not stuck on this particular idea, you are.

Caprica is a movie. Sure, it's also considered a pilot for the television series, but it is also a movie.

Oh, and hoping that a movie gets picked up for a television series doesn't declassify the movie as a pilot. Battlestar Galactica (1978) is a movie, which is released as a movie and as the television series. The mini series (Battlestar Galactica 2004) was never considered not to be a movie, it was a television event. When it was produced, it was never produced with thoughts that it would be a television series. This was conveyed in various interviews conducted with the cast during pre-production of the mini series. It didn't become knwon that the possibility of a TV series would come forth until after Sci Fi and NNC Universal saw the ratings for the mini series.

Cheato

Sorry to bump the thread. I created a separate thread for OT discussion.

golden_rod

It absolutely was produced with the idea that it would become a series. Just because they were waiting to see the ratings, it doesn't mean that it was never intended as a pilot. The mini was never made with the idea of a one-off in mind, it was always intended to be a series, providing the ratings were up to snuff. Moore even created a SERIES bible to pitch the show to SciFi before the miniseries was even shot. All of the main cast members were even contracted for a possible series when they signed up for the miniseries.

DVD Josh

jfgi

Shannon Nutt

Yep, this is correct.