As for "Watchtower," when I first saw the "sing-along" scene I thought it was kinda weird, but since I'm a huge geek I actually rewatched the episode immediately after the broadcast finished and I found the second go-round to be more fitting. It's just weird to hear Dylan lyrics coming from a world that has little to now "Earth-bound" reference points. -- mac

And that's kind of a summary of my frustration with this season. After re-writing the base-line rules of the show at the conclusion of season two, and actually successfully navigating through all that, the show went nowhere pretty quickly. Many of the episodes in season three felt like filler, and the finale affirmed my belief. No significant Cylon/Colonial confrontations, no real character development, not a whole hell of a lot closer to Earth... Overall, a disappointing season with kinda interesting bookends. Granted, my disappointment is not significant enough to keep me from looking forward to the new season in 2008 (Jeezus!).

Regarding the finale, and the music, and their "location" in space. My astro-brain wants to put the following together: if their proximity to Earth is what triggered the new Cylons' Dylan mind-fuck, then let's allow for the idea that it has something to do with radio waves sourced from Earth. (Perhaps the new Cylons are "tuned" to receive Earth radio signals?) If the source of the radio waves *was* Earth, and the waves travel at the speed of light, then that would put the fleet somewhere around 40 light years from Earth (a quick Google search indicates "All Along the Watchtower" was released around 1967-68). The last scene in the finale appeared to confirm the fleet is definitely in the same galaxy, and reasonably close to Earth as well. (Incidentally, I tried to ID the nebula the fleet had reached at the end of the episode... it looks somewhat like the "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula, but that is approximately 6,500 - 7,000 LY from Earth... seemingly too distant for the radio wave theory to hold up.) I am consistently interested in how much tillium = how much time-space the fleet can traverse, but it appears fairly constrained ( i.e. taking 12 jumps in this episode to reach the nebula). So how much time refining tillium would it take to jump 40 light years? I dunno... my geek-brain just melted.

I *do* like the idea that now exists of a human alliance with a second collection of Cylons. For too long, the odds have been way stacked in favor of the Cylons (you pretty much can't kill 'em) and there are dwindling numbers of humans (Since *when* were there only 38k survivors left over from New Caprica, as was revealed in the trial? Have ANY of the opening sequences confirmed numbers even CLOSE to that low?). "Good Cylons" vs. "Bad Cylons" sounds okay to me... although it starts to get into strange parallels with "Lost"'s collections of multiple "Others", another show that has decided to suck recently...

This interview with R.D.M. gives me some hope. WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07085/770732-352.stm (Kudos to Ron for referencing flying motorcycles when asked what will happen when they reach Earth.) I'm still a (reluctant) loyal fan and I'll still think the months between now and the new season will be about 4 months too long, but I've got enough hope/confidence/wishful thinking to let Ron et. al. do their thing. But they better have an eye on those 22 episodes of season four being the LAST episodes of the show. Ratings have declined, their core audience is becoming restless, and we wanna see flying motorcycles, dammit.

While I'm glad the Sci Fi network has put on this show and allowed it to go and stay on, I still wonder how much better it would be in an HBO format. HBO's series are all shorter: Oz was only about 8 episodes per season (except for 'season 4', which was 14 episodes but still pretty much two seasons as it was written, filmed, and aired in two halves). The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, The Wire: all 12-14 episodes. I think BSG Season 3 would have benefited from being 12-14 episodes; and I think it would have helped the "inside the base star" segments if BSG's budget had been larger. Didn't they say a lot of that was scaled down due to all of the money spent on the New Caprica episodes?

Anyways, here's hoping that the final 22 stay closer to the game plan. I'll wait (grudgingly) until January if it means they spend more time maintaining the tightness of the story arc. No 'Hero' or 'Day in the Life' episodes, please! And if you spend an entire episode making someone like Kat into a hero, don't wait six episodes to even mention their name again!

At least we're not having to suffer any "baseball games on the holodeck" episodes.

I think the distraction theory about the core team being involved in so many other projects is also a good one. While South Park has been generally good in all seasons, season 10 seemed to be particularly intense and biting all throughout. I read somewhere that Matt and Trey were more focused on the show again that season, not off making other movies on the side. Here's hoping Ron and Co finish up or put aside their other projects when they're working on Season 4. If we've indeed entered the third act, then we should be heading towards an exciting conclusion. I'm sure (at least, I hope) they're smart enough to go to a solid conclusion and leave it at that.

Or... I hope they turn Season 4 into Galactica 1980, right at the beginning. Or, I hope that someone builds Hera a robot dog. And then the ship catches fire. And then we get to spend a week on the casino planet.