So far (as far as I can make out) there are only three pieces of merchandise for BSG'03

Battlestar Galactica: The Game for PS2 and XBox

You play a lead Viper pilot called William "Husker" Adama stationed on the Galactica (so it's a prequel right?) but in it the colonies get destroyed and you help lead a rag tag fugitive fleet to safety (confused? Me too.)

Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries

Available in R1 and R2. The R2 has no extras. The R1 has interviews, commentaries, featurettes and deleted scenes but (allegedly) a poorer quality picture.

Battlestar Galactica: Season One DVD Boxset
Available March 28th in R2, unannounced in R1. The R1 version contains 45mins of deleted scenes including at least two from Water and at least one from 1.13: Kobol's Last Gleaming Part Two. The scenes from Water feature a Boomer-Boxy-Bonding-Bonanza and an appearance from the Cylon "Number Five"*.


Anyone who hears of any other merchandise on its way, or has views on the stuff above (like anybody whose, unlike me, has actually played the game) should post it here.



*Note: "Number Five" is a placeholder name until its 'human' name is revealed. Also this shouldn't be taken as an indication that said "Number Five" appears or does not appear at any point later in the series as aired.

Oooh, I've got another one, Nuallain.

You can buy the soundtrack to the miniseries. 26 songs, 1 CD, scary cover (Cylon eyes freak me out). I'm considering buying it off Amazon as I post, because I am full of BSG'03 love right now. Anyone know if it's actually any good?

And damn the Region 2 discmakers. Why do us Europeans deserve less shiny, shiny extras than Americans? We Brits helped fund the show!

It looks like the Official Companion to either the miniseries, season 1, or both will be available this July.

It also looks like all the original BG book tie-ins are being re-released. Using Galactica as a search term at Amazon will get you the results; detailed spoilerific book descriptions, including how they differed from the show, can be found at Sheba's Galaxy.

Damnit. I just bought a new DVD player that isn't region-free, and now I'll be tempted all over again. Grrr.

Stupid good show.

Does anyone else have a desperate desire for some sort of t-shirt featuring the rising phoenix logo?

laurabeth, I own the soundtrack CD, and I really, really like it. It's great mood music or working music. The percussion stuff that's used for a lot of the battle scenes works very well on its own. Like a lot of scores, there are some moments that seem a little slow with nothing on screen to accompany them, but it's a good album.

While I'm posting here, I'll throw in my recommendation on the R1 miniseries DVD. The Sci Fi Lowdown special that's included is pretty much fluff, but there's a very good commentary with Moore, Eick and Rymer that talks about some of the creative choices they made for the mini. The commentary was recorded as production on season 1 was getting underway, so there are a couple of things mentioned that might be kinda spoilerish for that. But it was nothing that threw me for a loop, and I'm pretty spoilerphobic. There are also deleted scenes, and you can understand why most of them were deleted. But the ones that have effects sequences that were never completed use the pre-visualization footage to show you the action, so you get a little glimpse of the making-of process. The picture did seem a little grainy at times, but it was nothing that bugged me too much.

I grabbed both of these within a week or two of seeing the mini for the first time this year, because I have flipped out for this show.

I'll second this. There's a lot of stuff in the speculation thread that if not cleared right up, has some light shed upon it by the commentary track. It really gives some insight into the direction they are going, and there's good clues about some points that people are hurting their brains over in the spec thread.

I could be wrong about this, (faulty memory, and I lent my DVD to someone atm) but I think the series lowdown piece was fairly spoilerific. I haven't downloaded any shows illegally or skipped ahead, and I seem to remember seeing a scene where Number Six seems to show up in the flesh on the BSG and Baltar is freaking out about it. That's not something that I wanted to know ahead of time. So I'd advise skipping that show if you are spolier-averse. The commentary didn't contain any real spoilers, imo - just clues.

Has anybody seen both the R1 and the R2 version of the mini-series? I'd like to know if the transfer on R2 is actually better than R1. Not that I've seen either, it came and went from my local Best Buy so fast you'd think it was never there.

As I understand it, if there's no difference in extras between R1 and R2/R4, it's better to get R2, as PAL is a better picture than NTSC. I hate it when they leave me in a picture-versus-extras quandary, but as I'm desperate to buy I'll probably get the miniseries today (R4, Australia) and then get the R1 one later off amazon or something.

Region encoding sucks. Fortunately all my DVD-playback facilities have been hacked to be region-free as I have DVDs from three regions.

You're right about that, Number6, which is why I stopped watching the series Lowdown halfway through when Sci Fi aired it during series premiere week. But what's included on the DVD is the Lowdown for the miniseries, which gghas no series spoilers. There's some discussion of the reimagining controversy, some interview footage with Richard Hatch where you can tell he's not a happy camper, and a somewhat awkward meeting between Sackhoff and Dirk Benedict at a coffeehouse, and I'll bet you can guess which one.

Poor Richard Hatch. I remember finding the mini-series lowdown hilarious. 'Specially the Apollo bits, as they'd go to Jamie Bamber and he'd be talking about how the re-imagined Apollo is a lot more of a flawed, human individual and less of the ultimate hero archetype. Then they'd go to Hatch rambling about how Apollo was supposed to be this ideal hero. I'm not sure how much is just the editing, but poor Mr. Hatch came across as a bit...*cough*

It's kinda funny in retrospect to compare Hatch's feelings in 2003 with his feelings in 2005. And I don't say that to laugh at him, because it had to be tough to a certain degree to get really wrapped up and identified in something and then watch other people do the thing you wanted to do. If you read his various extended commentaries, diaries and interviews, you can see how his thinking developed on being part of the new Galactica, and that openmindedness is laudable. When you only see a few PR clips from then and now, though, man, it feels like whiplash.

So amazon.co.uk have the first series (R2) up with the cover art here.

I don't like the "Part 1" label, makes it sound like this might just have the first 6 or 7 episodes and then another release will have the final 6 or 7 episodes.

At a RRP of 49.99 pounds it had better well be the entire 13 episodes. That's daylight robbery otherwise, no matter how much Amazon snip off the price. The miniseries was a quarter of that!

After checking Play.com, it looks like it will be the full series - which will be spread out over four discs. Although they don't have any mention on what extras there will be.

I guess they're aiming for the teenage boy market with that cover, then?

Got the mini-series yesterday (despite having to look through about three shops, is it selling well or anything?). Was just intending to make screencaps for LJ icons, but ended up watching the whole thing. Brilliant.

Has anyone found a BG calendar anywhere? I want one, for some reason.

I just got the miniseries and was a little disappointed that the DVDS don't have any artwork on them, they're plain silver. Also there wasn't an insert, I was hoping for pictures or cast bios or something. Seems like they cheaped out on that part. I'm still happy to have it, it's just a little plain.

And Six on the box cover of the series? Bah. I guess a single figure is more striking, but a pic of the whole crew would've gone over better for my taste. Whatever, it's still mine when it comes out in the US. I'm ordering the soundtrack today. This show has gotten me.

Especially if there are plenty of pictures of Apollo.

The mini DVD was originally a single dual-sided disc - in fact, the one I got from Amazon a couple weeks ago was 1 disc - so that's why no artwork was ready for the discs.

Speaking of covers, did anyone notice that the catalog that came with the mini had a different cover layout than the final product?

The image for the R2 disc looks like one of the desktops at scifi.com - they don't have a full crew desktop either. I agree, that'd be nice.

Mnemosyne said:



You too, huh? While rewatching the mini I remembered how much I like the music. I particularly like the piece that plays when during the Boomer/Tyrol Billy/Dualla Apollo/Starbuck reunions.

The "Season One Part One" listing's a mistake. It seems like someone in Play (the first to put it up as 'forthcoming') looked at the 'Eps 1-13' and assumed that was half a season. Then everyone else copied them. Play's corrected it, but some of the others haven't yet.

Does anyone know if the series sets will include scenes cut for time? The US airings have a bit that the UK lacks, and there are those scenes up at Sci-Fi. It'd suck a bit if they weren't on them.

ETA: Oh, heh, how embarrassing. I must have missed that part. Thank you, Nuallain.

Wow...45 minutes!

I put it up in the first post: there's reportedly 45mins of cut scenes on the Season One disc. Apparantly there's quite a bit of Boxey in there.

They're not BSG '03 toys, but there is a new line of detailed plastic spaceships and action figures based on 70s BSG. There's a 7-inch Viper and Raider out and they are even going to make an Athena action figure. What curious timing for this. I hope they're eventually going to make make new-BSG toys, too.

Never heard of this toy company (Joyride Studios), but from the pics, these ships look similar to the Star Wars Action Fleet, down to the mini action figures.http://i16.ebayimg.com/03/i/03/36/dd/d4_1_b.JPG

They are already sold out of the vipers. *sniffle*

Ah, those are the guys who made the Halo toys.



I'll see your *sniffle* and raise you a waaaaaaaah! Frak.

The BBFC is the UK organization that rates movies and videos. Even the extras and commentaries need to be rated. It's required to publish it's findings, so the extras for R2 DVDs can usually be found ahead of time at www.bbfc.org.uk

Anyway, they've just put up the deleted scenes list for the R2 Season One DVD:

00:01:00:04 | INTERNATIONAL MAIN TITLE
00:05:16:01 | EPISODE 801
00:08:16:21 | WATER
00:02:46:18 | ACT OF CONTRITION
00:00:51:07 | YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN
00:05:03:16 | LITMUS
00:01:08:14 | SIX DEGREES OF SEPERATION
00:01:07:02 | FLESH AND BONE
00:03:18:21 | TIGH ME UP
TIGH ME DOWN
00:00:48:05 | HAND OF GOD
00:00:21:16 | COLONIAL DAY
00:12:30:17 | KOBOL'S LAST GLEAMING (PART 1)
00:04:23:04 | KOBOL'S LAST GLEAMING (PART 2)

There's something for every episode except Bastille Day. Kobol's Last Gleaming Part One has an incredible 12 and a half minutes of deleted scenes!

Also noteworthy is that the 'INTERNATIONAL MAIN TITLE' is listed as a deleted scene extra, hinting that the eps themselves will be using the US version instead even on the UK discs.

Bah! I hope not - I much prefer the UK music.

Good that there's deleted scenes though - the ones on skiffy's website are around the size of a postage stamp on my hi-res monitor.

Who am I kidding though - I'm getting these babies no matter what. Already pre-ordered from Amazon.co.uk.

Is that the name of the episode, or is it just in the UK? Because I've seen it listed as "Secrets and Lies".

"Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" was the UK title for the (soon-to-be) US aired "Secrets and Lies." Otherwise, they're the exact same. Well, one assumes, anyway; I doubt there are substantive re-edits.

Yeah, it was made as "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" but changed shortly before it aired to "Secrets and Lies" (even in the UK). Now it appears that they've changed it *back* prior to the DVD release.

God knows what it'll be called in the US, but my head hurts already.

That's funny because there was a foreign film that had some success in the US and its title was "Tie me up! Tie me down!", heh. It had a much younger Antonio Banderas as well.

I finally got the miniseries soundtrack, and it's quite lovely. It lasts 67 minutes and my favorites are the hauntingly gorgeous piece with the sort of wordless singing called "To Kiss or Not to Kiss", and the absolutely lovely bit called "Reunited" for that Starbuck and Apollo scene. So pretty!

It's very good and uniquely BSG if that makes sense. It's lovely and distinctive and interesting, and also kind of freaky and tense for the battle scenes and stuff. Flows very nicely. There's a note from composer Richard Gibbs and director Michael Rymer in the liner. I'm happy with it.

*passes the aspirin* Well, crap. Scifi lists it as "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down". So which is it?

And why did they ever get rid of the title frame like they had for "33" and "Water" when they first broadcast it. Makes things ever so much easier when they have them.

Mnemosyne, I got my soundtrack today too. I ordered it from Amazon in January ("usually ships in 24 hours") and it arrived today. I'm hoping it's because it's so popular... Anyway I liked the same songs you did, plus the "Apollo is gone/Starbuck returns" is good too.

I emailed Bear McCreary, one of the composers doing the series score, and he said that the season 1 album is probably going to be released in the summer, to coincide with the start of season 2.

My guess is that R&D always thought of it as "Tigh Me Up..." but prepared Secrets and Lies as an alternative title in case the networks were skittish about a bondage reference in an ep title. Now that Sci-Fi are so happy with them, they must have decided that they could get away with it and gone back to the original title, hence it's listing on the DVD set.

Makes sense. I just want to make sure if I ever call it "Secrets and Lies" (which I'm sure I will because that's what I saw first, and it stuck in my head), people aren't all "which crack den are you from because there isn't an episode with that name...?"

Dude. They HAVE to come out with a table top set, and models so that everyone at home can have a tactical set up like on the Galactica. I was in nerdvana with all those little models they were pushing around the board. Man that'd make a hell of a table top dice game. Look out Battletech.

Is anyone else having a hard time tracking down the soundtrack? One big electronics chain I checked didn't even have it on file, and another one had to special order it...

Hannibal Khan, I was right there with you in Nerdvana (heh). I was thinking, "Must. Have. NOW." I also must have the BSG boardgame. Whose desk at Milton Bradley or Hasbro do I jump up and down on until they agree to make one?

I got one of those new old-style Vipers (from Joyride Studios) off E-bay. It's just about the size of the tactical models they were using. Joyride seriously needs to get the licence for the new show and come out with flippy ships and raiders. And a cute little Galactica.

FYI: Patchgeeks.com has BSG insignia and Viper patches. The Viper patches are good but the insignia ones aren't quite like the screen ones -- the background is stiched yellow thread rather than the same metallic-ish fabric the flightsuits are made of. Still, probably the best replicas available online at the moment.

Also, someone over at the Dewback Wing boards had a run of replica wings and captain rank pins made. Pre-orders are sold out, but he is selling the rest on Ebay (do a search for "Battlestar Galactica wing pin"). Mine came in yesterday and they are gorgeous.

Raina SaDiablo wrote:


Online might be your best bet... I'm guessing we're a fairly niche market that most of the chains aren't going to cater to. Amazon has it, as do MovieMusic.com and CDUniverse.

And the cool thing about tabletop games, is most of the time, the playing area is arranged in... wait for it.... hexes. I want a BSG tabletop game. Or at least paintable models I can put next to my Madcat II.

They actually had an old hex based game for the original Battlestar Galactica. Boardgamegeek mentioned it.

Best bet would be to grab an old copy of Renegade Legion Interceptor or Silent Death and just convert the rules to use these puppies:

http://www.hlj.com/product/KNM11784

Edit: These guys are planning to sell them too. If you want to pay 48 bucks for a set of 5...

http://www.jbox.com/SEARCH/Galactica/1/

It'd be cool to have a new RPG even. Imagine the rules for playing a Cylon Infiltrator. Or a Cylon Sympathiser. Man, I guess this is when my old Dungeon Master tendencies come out.

There are rumors companies are already working on it.

RPGs aren't huge these days so it all depends on how much the liscense costs and who is going after it.

May want to check out Star-Ranger.com. If there are BSG models out, that site will have them.

IIRC, there were some but they just went out of production, wait, hang on, the Studio Bersgstrom Website is still up:Studio Bergstrom. May want to drop him an e-mail.

A good site for science-fiction modeling (including Battlestar Galactica) is Starship Modeler.

HaloJonesFan is right, Starshipmodeler.com is a great resource too.

Star-Ranger caters to miniature space combat games and the like, while Starship Modeler covers all genre modeling, both excellent sites.

The models on Star Ranger are fairly decent. I'd kill though for one of the miniatures like FASA used to put out for Battletech. I'm looking right now at my lovingly hand painted Atlas.