Meanwhile Heroes, long a very good show is coming on strong as one of the best shows on TV.
Battlestar Galactica continued to be one of the best shows on TV, though with the recent developments on Lost and Heroes, it might not be #1 anymore. It however won’t return until 2008. I am not sure who’s idea that was, but it looks like it will be the last season for it, which is why the order for episodes went to a full season instead of the half(ish) season that was originally ordered. 2008 is too long a break IMHO.

I have mixed feeling on the big break, big run nature of TV seasons of late. It is nice that we don’t have to have a ton of repeats during the whole season, but a long break from October or something to February makes for a long time to wait. However, it does break the season into two or three nice chunks which works out nice as well. I think it is probably better for the networks, since during the break of one show, they can show something else, allowing for a bigger show rotation schedule. Perhaps have one show start at the “normal” season time, break and return in February and again in May (or run from late February to mid May), then have another show air during the break each season. Some shows are already mid-season starters every year, mid-season is no longer the domain of just new shows to replace failed shows, but the time to return some shows. 24′s schedule is nice in that you get all the episodes week after week without a break, but I don’t think the networks are ready to make that big a move yet for every show, however, the changing nature of the way people watch TV might make it worthwhile for them. TiVo and the other DVRs, and online viewing have changed the traditional rating model, it is just a matter of the networks moving to that rating model from the old watch it live type ratings… even Nelson Ratings have made moves to account for time shifting of shows.
The way I want to do the shows I have in my head? Each episode would be 2 hours long and you get 12 episodes a year, so you still get a full season, but each episode then is sort of a movie and is made to pace accordingly. The read trick would be having stuff to fill the time slot during the other weeks. One solution could be to have four such shows in rotation, week one of the month show A is show, then week 2 show B and so on. During any extra days, some kind of filler stuff, behind the scenes or something. Actually my plan on a couple of them was to release at theaters first, and to get the theaters to go along, I give them a far bigger cut than they normally get from a theatrical movie. This theatrical cut would be longer than the TV cut, and obviously not have commercials. A couple or few weeks later, it goes to TV, at the end of the season the DVD comes out with a longer cut than the theater had on some episodes. Hopefully the theaters could charge their “bargain” price at all showings, even those during their more expensive times, to really help pull people in. Since they get a huge cut of the ticket (for most new movies, they may only get 10% of the ticket, with the rest going to the studio, a couple weeks later they may get 20% then 25% and so on, so the longer a movie lasts the better chance they have of making something off the ticket) they may be willing to price it at bargain prices for all showings. Perhaps cut them 90% of the ticket first week, and 100% the next. Perhaps, to make the theater experience worth while it can be done in Real D, Cameron’s Fusion 3D or one of the other major digital 3D formats. (The premium to see a movie in Digital 3D has to go if the theaters really want to make Digital 3D work.)

However, rather then track the survivor counts myself, it looks like the Battlestar Wiki is doing a good job of it already (they don’t have the Season 3 premier count in yet, but otherwise a good count). Their Survivor Count page also includes dates and mortality rate information.

Here is when it can be caught:

Sunday, August 13 at 10PM NBC West Coast (following Football)
Monday, August 28 Free On Demand via SCI FI’s cable affiliates
Friday, September 15 at 12AM USA
Sunday, September 17 at 7PM Universal HD
Monday, September 18 at 9AM USA
Friday, September 22 at 8PM Universal HD
Friday, September 22 at 6PM Sleuth
Friday, September 29 at 7PM BRAVO
Saturday, September 30 at 11AM BRAVO
Saturday, September 30 at 4PM Universal HD
September SCIFI.COM’s Pulse
Friday, October 6 at 7PM SCI FI

It will also be available on iTunes and for a first, XBox Live (the online component of the XBox and XBox 360). More airings on Sci-Fi to be announced.
Galactica returns itself 9 October. Still no word on when the new prequel show, Caprica comes out. All we know for sure it seems is that it isn’t an action show.

Following the lives of two families, the Graystones and the Adamas (the family of William Adama, who will one day become the commander of the Battlestar Galactica), Caprica will weave together corporate intrigue, techno-action and sexual politics into television’s first science fiction family saga, the channel announced.

Sounds like it should be good. I don’t know if it is “television’s first science fiction family saga” though, as I would think that would fit Lost in Space fairly well…

In unrelated sci-fi world news: J.J. Abrams, (co-?)creator of Alias and co-creator of Lost, is writing and directing a new Star Trek movie with one of Lost’s best writers. That should be interesting at the very least. It will be about Kirk in his academy days.

Edit: It has been noted that this is announcement of lots of long-term projects, so Caprica may or may not actually manifest. Let us hope it does. So say we all.