So what's going on with Battlestar Galactica's Season 3 release? Well.... :(

[The Clown Prince]

Everyone who cares about Battlestar Galactica has been waiting for word on when Season 3 will be out on DVD. With the announcement for the Razor December 4th date coming in early September, surely word on Season 3 would have come soon after. Well, still no word on a definite date for Season 3 and The Digital Bits and TVShowsOnDVD get this question asked a lot, especially with Season 4 set to start airing in January.

Well, here's what The Digital Bits had to say about Season 3 earlier this week, and it's not good DEPENDING on how you look at it....

"When's Battlestar Galactica: Season Three coming out? When is Universal going to announce the third season of Battlestar?" You know, aside from "When is this format war going to be over?" I don't think we get asked anything more often.

Well, folks... it just so happens that we're Battlestar fans around here at The Bits too. So we asked our friends over at Universal. The long answer is (of course) that what follows is unofficial, as the title hasn't actually been announced yet and production is still underway on the special features. However... their short answer is that it's tentatively penciled into their release schedule for next Spring, specifically April 2008.

Yeah, I know that's a fracking long time. Don't kill the messenger. I'm just telling you what they told me. There's no specific word on why they're taking so long to get it done, other than presumably they're just trying to get all the extras finished. Perhaps they want to give Battlestar Galactica: Razor plenty of time by itself on the DVD shelves, so that all you fans will make sure to buy it. Maybe they want to have another DVD product to sell during Season Four's mid-season break. Maybe they're working on an HD-DVD version as well (that's not official or anything, but it seems a likely possibility). Anyway, as of now, April 2008 it is.

Then a day later, they had this to say...

Okay, we've got a little bit of follow up for you today. First, we've had a number of readers e-mailing us about our Battlestar Galactica: Season Three post in The Rumor Mill from yesterday. The gist of that post was that Universal currently has the DVD release set for April 2008 here in the States. This has many fans puzzled, however, because the title is already out in parts of Europe and it comes out on 11/21 in Australia. Why it's coming out so much later here is a mystery to us. The problem is that a lot of fans use the DVDs to catch up on what's happened before the start of the new season. However, with an April 2008 street date, many fans will obviously not be able to do that prior to the start of Season Four's debut on Sci-Fi in January. We think the delay is unfortunate, but as of now, that's when Universal is telling us to expect it.

Then another day later and they had this to say...

Elsewhere around the Net today, Genre Online's Mark Rivera has posted a review of the forthcoming Battlestar Galactica: Razor, which debuts on the Sci-Fi Channel here in the U.S. on 11/24 (and arrives on DVD as an extended version from Universal on 12/4). By the way, on a related note, Bits reader Boris S. e-mailed last night to say that the version of Battlestar Galactica: Season Three that's now available in Europe is almost completely extras free. He particularly noted that the Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance "webisodes" were missing from the set (they're missing from all international versions apparently)... which could actually be one of the reasons for the delay in releasing the DVDs here in the States. You might recall that there was some controversy with the Writer's Guild over the webisodes when they were first available online. The Hollywood studios generally feel that Internet content (like webisodes) should be considered strictly promotional material, and are thus reluctant to pay writers for it, much to the WGA's chagrin. As you might also know, there's a major writer's strike looming in Hollywood, so it COULD be that Universal wants to wait and see how the situation resolves itself, in the hopes of including the webisodes on the eventual R1 DVD release. There have been rumors that the studio wants to splice all the webisodes together with extended footage to effectively create a near-full "3x00" episode of the season for the DVD release. We'll see...

So all of this long wait MAY be because of the webisodes that led directly into Season 3. While not crucially important, they did tie into the beginning of the season. And the April 2008 target date is probably a best guess so that hopefully this writers strike would sort out the grey area that's keeping Universal Home Video from releasing it on the season set.

Personally I really want these webisodes included with the set and have no real big problem with the delay, but honestly I had always thought anyways that Universal would be relasing them with the set. But it looks like it may be a big hold up for the release. Here's hoping the wait pays off with them being included.

It's really too bad it won't make it out to video by the time Season 4 starts as it would have been a great refresher to watch those before the start of the final season. But, we still don't know if Sci-Fi is gonna "F" with the fans and break Season 4 up, pushing it back into the beginning of 2009. Sci-Fi said they would announce their decision on that in January.

The Clown Prince

[DBZALLSTAR]

If they do push it back, it will give me more time to catch up. I still need to pick up season one so that I may watch my season two sets. After going to the panel at Comic Con, I've become a fan, but I haven't had ample opportunity to actually watch the show. I will be picking up Razor, however, when it releases. The trailer made it look simply amazing. I would like to see season three released as soon as possible, though, so I can get caught up for season four. I may have to record some episodes before I can actually watch them. Fraggin' delays!

[The Clown Prince]

Uh oh on two fronts! Again, courtesy of The Digital Bits posting for today...

Okay... it seems that we now officially know why Universal isn't releasing Battlestar Galactica: Season Three on DVD until next year (as reported in The Rumor Mill last week). According to the L.A. Times, as it turns out, Season Four of the series isn't debuting on Sci-Fi Channel until early April 2008. So we'd guess the DVDs will hit stores a few weeks before that, as has been the case with previous seasons. Thanks to Bits reader Edward G. for sending the link.

Season 4 not coming until April???!!! Hasn't Sci-Fi been advertising Season 4 as starting in January? Maybe if they're holding off that long to debut Season 4, then maybe Sci-Fi has decided to air all 20 episodes together rather than breaking them up as has been talked about by the network. Of course after reading the L.A. Times article, Sci-Fi still doesn't know.

Anyways, as for the Season 3 DVD, that's what studios do, they release the previous season to help promote the new season, so if that's how it has to be, so be it. But something tells me the Webisodes are a part it as well. Universal is just biding they're time to see the results of the Writers Guild strike.

The Clown Prince