Blu-Ray Review: Third Season of ‘Battlestar: Galactica’ Now in HD

CHICAGO – How many “Battlestar Galactica” fans don’t already have the excellent third season in some form? The release pattern of “BSG” on Blu-ray continues to surprise this critic as it feels like the niche market who doesn’t own the complete HD series or hasn’t already bought the standard DVD is very small, meaning that the question for most is going to be whether or not to upgrade.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

With that in mind, let’s focus on what’s new. Of course, the main draw is going to be the remastered video/audio and the episodes look and sound absolutely amazing. These are some of the best HD television sets on the market and it’s not like season three is going to break the pattern by sliding below the bar of the previous releases. If you only saw the show in standard definition, the HD upgrade is worth the price alone.

As for new special features, there are a series of them that take advantage of Universal’s “U-Control” and “BD-Live” functionality. The “U-Control” features are “The Oracle” (an interactive guide including ships and characters) and “Battlestar Blips” (on-screen factoids). “BD-Live” functionality allows for more bonus content — “Battlestar Galactica Trivia Challenge,” and “Battlestar Galactica: Ultimate Battle Card Game,” an interactive feature in which you can challenge your buddies, as Colonials or Cylons, in the ultimate battle of strategy.

Battlestar Galactica: Season Three was released on Blu-ray on July 27th, 2010.
Photo credit: Universal Home Video

I wrote the following last year when the Blu-ray Complete Series was being released - “It’s a little odd that they didn’t upgrade the non-HD seasons except for 4.5, but that’s the only conceivable complaint. What I mean is that if you missed a season in your collection and don’t want to spring for the full Blu-Ray set, you’re going to have to have a mix of standard DVD and Blu-Ray. All of the seasons should be available as stand-alone Blu-Ray releases along with the “Complete Series” set.”

We’re ALMOST there. The only season unavailable on Blu-ray right now is the first half of season four. Of course, that’s almost more ridiculous that there’s still one missing but at least we can see the finish line.

“Battlestar Galactica” is one of the best shows of new millennium and this science fiction fan is worried that the foundation for intellectual genre writing has been supplanted on the SyFy network with silly TV movies and weak original programming. I thought that “BSG” would be one of the more influential shows of the ’00s but it’s starting to look like it was the anomaly, a show too good to copy.

Imported special features include, by disc:

Disc One:
o Deleted Scenes
o Ronald D. Moore’s Podcast Commentaries

Disc Two:
o Deleted Scenes
o “Hero” Audio Commentary with Executive Producer David Eick
o “Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance Webisodes”
o Ronald D. Moore’s Podcast Commentaries
o David Eick’s Video Blogs

Disc Three:
o Deleted Scenes
o “Unfinished Business” Extended Episode Commentary
o Ronald D. Moore’s Podcast Commentaries
o David Eick’s Video Blogs

Disc Four:
o Deleted Scenes
o Ronald D. Moore’s Podcast Commentaries

Disc Five:
o Deleted Scenes
o Colonial Military Assessment Quiz
o Ronald D. Moore’s Podcast Commentaries
o David Eick’s Video Blogs

[16]	By BRIAN TALLERICO [17] Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com [16]