BSG Season 4 Extended to 22 Episodes--and Cancelled?

On March 21, 2007, SyFy Portal reported that SciFi Channel extended its order for BattleStar Galactica's (BSG) 4th season from 13 to 22 episodes.

Normally, this would be a good thing--except a "source" close to SciFi says the extra episodes are for letting Ron Moore and his brain trust wrap up the series.

Can't say I'm surprised. Ratings have been low during BSG's third season even though the show is critically acclaimed and won the Peabody award for an awesome second season.

This season, the main storyline of finding Earth has been sidelined, especially during the second half.

Several weeks have been devoted to filler episodes on secondary characters with Earth still as far away as ever and no contacts with the Cylons.

IMHO, this is due in part to the limited number of story arcs available within the Colonial fleet without outside elements brought in, like the Battlestar Pegasus in the second season (some of the best TV ever produced).

The producers/writers are hampered in part by the fact that they can't bring in bumpy-headed aliens without actor James Olmos (Admiral Adama) leaving the show.

To sidestep this, I feel that the Colonial Fleet can come across settlements of humans left behind by the 13th tribe on its trek to Earth. This is a device used with great success by Glenn Larson on the original series. These humans can possess markers which help point the way to Earth for the Colonials--after putting them through hell, of course.

I for one would like to see what'd happen if the fleet comes across a Class-M world populated by a technologically advanced society, which can hold off the Cylons, only it's not our Earth.

Or what would happen if the democratic Colonials ran into a sector of space controlled by a space-faring totalitarian human society that wanted to enslave them?

It also didn't help that the show became a soap opera rather than a drama when the producers decided to start up a romantic triangle between the characters Apollo, Starbuck, and Dualla. The triangle became increasingly unpopular among fans as Season 3 went on. And Starbuck was taken on a character journey that made her increasingly dysfunctional with no rhyme or reason.

If BSG ends in the fourth season, Moore and company have themselves to blame for running out of ideas and feeding their audience lackluster filler episodes and unsatisfying character developments.

I kinda half-wish I'd asked about intern spots when I attended a writers meeting where BSG writer/producers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson talked about their show. It was fun spitballing with 'em about BSG and DS9.

But I made the decision to focus on fiction and film, and I'm content. Really. I am. :-)