I have the DVD for BSG: Razor in right now. I’ve seen it before, wasn’t paying much attention, but I flipped on the “Favorite Episode” DVD extra and just learned something I would’ve never guessed. The actor that plays Lee Adama, Jamie Bamber, is English. I heard his voice and looked up from my laptop — who the hell has that English accent. His character’s voice is also very different than his normal speaking voice. Literally stopped my coding in it’s tracks.

That has to be one of the best American accents I’ve heard in a while. Most of the time, English or Australian actors will slip on the edges of words here and there. I haven’t caught anything with him, and I’m usually pretty good with that stuff. I’m impressed.

This is a minor spoiler, so if you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan and haven’t seen the season finale for Season 3, stop reading this now. I got turned onto Battlestar Gallactica after friends kept saying it was a good show. I’ve been hooked after seeing season 1 and have been keeping up with the latest season.

Last night’s episode featured a tight, awesome cover of Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower which had a cool Indian/Middle Eastern feel. I can’t find the recording online right now, but I have the episode on iTunes and keep skipping to the end so I can listen to it.

In an effort to track down who covered it, I hit Google and found out that the cover was written specifically for Battlestar. It will be on the Season 3 soundtrack according to the artist who arranged this version. If you read his blog post, he goes through how he went about building the arrangement. It makes for great reading.

I’m looking forward to getting a copy of this track when it’s available.

Here’s a clip from YouTube that shows the end. The music plays over most of the clip, though it skips the best parts with the electric sitar. Be warned! The clip contains spoilers, in fact it pretty much gives away the climax of Season 3. Do not watch if you haven’t see the whole episode!

That’s pretty sweet, and amazing that it was written for a show. BTW, I really want that guys studio setup…

I’m watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica after a number of recommendations. The show is pretty good, but I have several complaints. The biggest thing is that I find the whole Dr. Gaius Baltar subplot to be absolutely annoying. The fact that he’s so transparently incompetent is obnoxious. The entire story is not advancing because of that subplot. I’m up to The Hand of God and we’ve got 3 major characters accused of being Cylons (or we already know they’re Cylons). Just resolve the damn plot already… And don’t get me started on his imaginary friend.

If anyone hasn’t noticed, I’m a fan of the new Galactica series on Scifi. I love the ability to download the episodes from iTunes. As I said once before, this may be the new method of distribution for lesser known programs that won’t make it to DVD.

That being said, between seasons, The Scifi Channel had a series of “Webisodes;” ten 3-4 minute web only episodes which explained some of the goings on which occurred between the season two finale and the season three premiere. In addition to fleshing out the story, the webisodes gave fans a bit to chew on in the interim and helped build hype for the premiere.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Between Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, The Cartoon Network had a series of short cartoons about the Clone Wars.

It seems that Galactica’s webisodes have created a civil war of its own. It seems that NBC/Universal declared the webisodes “promotional” and thus the writers were not eligible for residuals or credit. Needless to say, the writers were not too thrilled with that. A battle broke out and it seems that, at least marginally, NBC/Universal won. Of course, after the first 10, no new webisodes were made.

Needless to say, these are the obstacles that are going to be faced as the internet starts taking over more of our entertainment content delivery. Parallel content seems like a natural extension to me but I can see why it might be considered “promotional,” even if the work going into the content is the same as for the actual show. It is likely non-revenue generating and may not be economically viable if subjected to the standard practices of the Writer’s Guild. Then again, why not get the same pay for the same work. I suspect that this is going to become a huge fight. And, as usual, we, the consumers, are the ones who are going to lose, as there will be less content available.

Since I’ve had a few days off, instead of being productive, I decided to catch up on Scifi’s Battlestar Galactica. By catch up, I mean watch the miniseries and first season. I’m hoping to catch the the first half of the second season next thursday before they launch the second half.

So, in order to catch up, I either had to buy the DVD or try iTunes video. Being lazy, I went for iTunes. So, my first thought: Sure is cheaper on iTunes. Amazon sells Season 1.0 for $39 with free super saver shipping and iTunes sells it for $26 + tax and I get it now. So far, I’m liking this iTunes thing. The con is that a season sucks up 2 gb, which is 5% of my laptop’s hard disk. So a bit of a minus there. Plus, when you realize that I just purchased a 6 MP digital camera, I’m suddenly seeing visions of a full hard drive.

But all that is really secondary. The question is how does it look? Not bad but not fantastic. There are some clear pixelations at points, especially during the credits. To be fair, I’ve seen some of the same issues with DVDs so it may be more of a TV resolution on a computer screen issue, rather than a weakness in iTunes video format. The sound, coming out of computer speakers, was fine. I’d love to get the DVD, just to compare, but even if the video isn’t quite as good, the price and convenience certainly make it viable.

The real question is still unanswered though: How does iTunes compare to Tivo? That is harder to say. I can’t compare picture quality, but I would assume they are similar. If I had Tivo, I certainly wouldn’t need to buy episodes of Battlestar Galactica…Tivo would take care of them for me. Of course, if I miss the episode, Tivo can’t help, but right now iTunes selection is so limited, that much of the time it can’t help me either. On one hand, I can buy 75 TV shows for the yearly subscription price of Tivo. But on the other hand, with Tivo, I can burn DVDs of shows I record. Frankly, I don’t think there are 75 shows a year that I want so badly I’d pay for them, but I can see a lot that I might record and burn if I had Tivo.

Frankly, for those with a DVR, I can’t imagine them using iTunes video all that often, except maybe to get very old programs that aren’t broadcast any longer. For those without, it is a nifty service, but I’d still be tempted to break out the VCR if I know I am going to miss an episode of a current show. Digital cable with “On Demand” style services throw another monkey wrench into the whole thing. I’d like to think that eventually people will use a combination of all these services, however I suspect that with DVRs and On Demand available, iTunes video is going to be relegated to service for finding older video with low demand or as an independant type distribution house. While it is cool that iTunes is slowly moving to becoming a complete multimedia distribution system, I am pessimistic as to its future success. Music worked as means of driving iPod sales. I just don’t think that video is going to translate.

All that being said, second season Battlestar Galactica repeats on Thursday Jan 5 starting at 8 am until 5pm. The second half of season two starts at 10pm on Friday the 6th. I just hope that I am home in time for the 1 am repeat…but you can bet the VCR will programmed to record it.